School update – part 1

Every time I get ready to blog about what we’ve been doing in school, it always amazes me how learning seems to happen – even when I don’t think we did much formal “school”.  I guess in the day-to-day and week-to-week busyness I tend to focus more on what I had planned to do and didn’t do rather than on what we actually have accomplished – even if it wasn’t planned.

While enduring the last miserable months of pregnancy and adjusting to a new baby (including two hospital stays and various other illnesses), the kids have stayed busy with various learning activities.

Geography & History & Social Studies

We have learned a little bit about China.  We read a couple of  books from the library to learn basic facts about the country and a couple of biographies about Marco Polo (one a graphic novel and one a chapter book).  Travis and Heather took turns with me reading out loud.  We also skimmed through a book about animals that Marco Polo might have seen on his j0urney.

  

 

We also read about the building of the great wall of China and a fun book about ancient China.

 

 

Then we read two biographies of Hudson Taylor.  Actually, we’re still slowly making our way through the longer one. I also read his autobiography.  It is fascinating and convicting to read how he totally trusted God to provide for his needs.

  

 

After we finish with Hudson Taylor, we will read about Gladys Aylward, another missionary to China.

  

 

Along the way, we have looked at maps of China, indentifying its many neighbors and tracing the routes Marco Polo and Hudson Taylor took to get to China.  We also colored maps of China and its neighbors, colored China flags, and learned a little bit about Chinese New Year.

I keep meaning to put up a timeline to show when each of these people lived.  We have talked a little about who came first, but I think we need a visual picture on a timeline.  But that seems to be something I just never get around to.  Or at least I haven’t yet.

And just for fun, we read the fictional tales of  Little Pear, The Story About Ping, and A Grain of Rice.

  

We also watched some videos on YouTube about how to use chopsticks and practiced at home a little bit with cotton balls and other toys.  We went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant and were hoping to try out chopsticks there, but they only gave us forks!

 

On one of the home school blogs that I read, I came across a recommendation for an app called “Stack the Countries”.  It is a really fun game that helps you learn the names, shapes, flags, neighbors, landmarks, etc. of all the countries in the world.  The kids have had a blast with it and have learned a lot from it while having fun.  Highly recommended!!  (And it was created by a man whose last name is Russell, so what’s not to like. :-)  He also has a “Stack the States” app that I plan to get when we start studying the United States.

 

Here they are playing on our two tablet computers…

Looking up countries and flags on the map and in the atlas…

 

Before we started on China, we did a little bit about Canada.  I checked out WAY too many books.  I read most of them myself, but we only did a few together.  We didn’t do nearly as much as I had hoped in learning about Canada, especially since I lived there when I was a child and I loved it. 

Two things we did do (that I remember):

 

We read/listened to one of my favorite novels when I was a child   The Incredible Journey. 

The ending always brings tears to my eyes as the animals finally make it home to their beloved family.  I was glad that I wasn’t reading when we got to that part – we were listening to an audio recording while we were driving.

 

We also read a book called Count Your Way Through Canada.  Each page tells how to pronounce the numbers 1 – 10 in French and has a short paragraph about things that are characteristic of or unique to Canada.  Shortly after we read this, I took the kids out to eat.  On their own, the kids started talking to the waitress and telling her that they knew how to count to 10 in French.  They then proceeded to demonstrate.  It turned out that she actually knew French!  Now that was back in October.  Fast forward to March – and keep in mind that we haven’t reviewed this, in fact I even forgot about it – last Sunday Jeffrey volunteered to someone that he could count in French and gave a demonstration.  There was a lady standing nearby who is a native French speaker and she said his accent was very good.  I was amazed!

 

Well, that’s about all I can remember on this subject.  I’ll report on other  subjects later…