Expedition Earth Week 2: China

Well, it seems I am definitely not one to do things by the book... no matter what book I am supposed to be following.  ;)  We mostly followed the plan this week, though.  We mixed it up a lot when we got to the crafts options. 
We started out by stamping our passport and boarding our imaginary plan to China with Caden as our pilot.  Sorry.... no pics.  I tend to live in the moment and with a baby in my arms and one hanging on my leg I just don't worry too much with juggling a camera.  Anyway, we located China on the map and completed a mapping and information worksheet from EE.  We read some some informational facts about China and listened to your China song.  We decided not to learn the Chinese portion of the song (too hard for us), but we sing the English portion.  My kids are already a bit familiar with some BASIC Chinese facts as we have a "China lover" in the house.  They already know how to say "hello", but enjoyed reviewing it, as well as, saying their names in Chinese and writing it.  They got a chuckle out of hearing their names!  Very interesting!  Throughout the week we learned more about their writings and did a little simple math with the writing the Chinese numbers (1 + 2 = 3, etc.).  The kids really like the Children Just Like Me book because it highlights one child from that country and tells some details of their lifestyle.  In Windows of the World we learned about their religious beliefs or lack there of.  We learned that their country really tries to control the people and there was an attempt to have one religion (non-Christian) about 60 years ago.  And I don't know details of how they "limit" family size, but you have to realize that it would be by sterilization, birth control, or abortion.  I know there is an over population issue there, but we found this very heartbreaking.  Children are a gift from God.  When we filled out our weekly prayer card my kids wanted to pray that "China would stop killing babies".  And that was a touchy subject to address.  We did re-word our prayer card to pray that "they will want babies".  Our little ones heard talk of killing babies a couple of times and I had to tell my older ones to stop talking about that in front of the little ones that do not understand.

The fact is we really are not that much different as a whole here in America.  Let's face it... most people here think that everyone should have two children and then, use birth control methods of some sort.  I am guilty of using it for most of my twenties and that is one of my biggest regrets.  I am not trying to step on toes here.... just MY thoughts.  And as far as that goes I may not be having other children in the future, so I am certainly not trying to force my convictions on others.

Back to the topic.... We made a mini-book for the "Animals of China" and started using our "Animal Classification" wall (or window in our case... sometime in the future I will try to post a pic.)  This is one of the Science portions that is incorporated into this curriculum.  We also began making a lapbook for the countries we study throughout the year.  Each week we will add a country.  We looked up some information about China via internet (National Geographic Kids, etc.) and I like that that is incorporated into the curriculum as technology is such a part of the world we live in. 

The Story of Ping is a suggested read aloud for one day.  We extended that to two days and discussed it more.  There are a lot of aspects of this book that make it great for learning and further study. 

We were waiting on the Usborne Encyclopedia of World Geography book to arrive, so I just talked about some of the information with the kids.  It did arrive and we used it by the end of the week.  This book is much thicker than I realized.  It is a large oversized book and is about 1 inch thick.  I am really impressed with this book and could easily see this book being used for our entire homeschooling life... all age levels!!!  My local library oredered it and I was so happy because I was hesitant to spend more money on books that I am not certain we will like.  I am sure I will be ordering my own copy in the future.  I am so thankful that I got a chance to preview it without it costing me!!

So, on to the crafts.... We did NOT spend $20+ on building that really cool Great Wall of China.  We were going to do a paper version that we printed from Papertoys.com, but some little sister scribbled on it and we were busy enough already.  ;)  Actually, we ended up having another unforeseen doctors appointment for Savannah's foot, so the Chinese fan got skipped, also.  Never fear though!  Instead we (joined by our little ones) made Chinese lanterns, Chinese stick puppet dragons, and Chinese masks.  We turned on our little Chinese song and set it to repeat and had a little Chinese parade with all our goods.  We wrapped up the week and our day with dinner out to the Grand China Buffet in Lumberton, Texas.  I rarely post locations for security reasons, but I have to do it here because Chinese restaurants have always scared me a little, but this one was really good... awesome really.  I was amazed and the kids really loved it and being that is was a buffet we were able to see what we were getting BEFORE we were stuck with it on our plates.  And we even got fortune cookies.

Here you can see us heading out to eat with each of the kids showing off their laterns, dragons, and masks... By the way Sienna was very frightened by these masks.  Poor baby girl screamed her little head off and only wanted Momma.

This pic shows the details of the dragon a little better.  One point I would like to make is that I try to use things we have without setting out on a special shopping trip for craft items.  When I found this dreagon pattern online I knew it would require two sticks for each one.  Dowel rods would work wonderfully, but sticks from the yard that are carefully selected work just as well.  ;)d

And pay no attention to the clothing.  We were not trying to make a fashion statement.  For those of you that have seen us all matchy-matchy this is what gets worn most of the time.  Also, I am not a Hollister fan.... I do not approve of their advertising.  The shirt was free.

These are our fortune cookies... and no, we do not believe in such things AT ALL.  It can be fun to read them, though.. just to see what they say.

 And the backs:

Apple Pie!

Well, we made the Apple Pie that we were supposed to make Friday for Expedition Earth to go with the book "How To Make An Apple Pie And See The World".  Actually, we made Pear Pie, since someone shared some local pears with us.  I really turned out yummy.  Unfortunately, my kids don't like Apple/Pear Pie and I knew this, but I was hoping it might be different with the whole book and helping make it thing.  Nope!  Caden ate a little, but not much.  They did enjoy the ice cream.....

Technically, I had scheduled this whole week off, so I am trying to decide still just how much school we will actually do.  I am thinking not too much.  It is early in the year to be taking breaks, but this week Cody was off for Labor Day, we have a short appointment on Wednesday, I really want to do the Spelling since it is a "Review Week", but I am thinking that special projects might be the way we go! 

A COMPLETE Week! Started Expedition Earth: PART 2 (Completion): Week 1

I did this in two parts because I wanted to blog seperately about our actual experience with Expedition Earth rather than all my life catastrophes.  ;)    I am not going to go into a lot of detail but rather will hit the highlights for us of what we did.  And I am not certain how much I will blog about our experiences, so do not take this as a commitment to do weekly blog posts.  I know my limits and when things get crazy blogging takes a back burner.  With that being said I will proceed.  {wink wink}

We had already started with some of these books with ECC, so this week was light for us (and I needed that {wink wink} ).  A couple of the books we had already read like Maps and Globes, but it was a great review of the information.  In fact I think this is a much better way to learn.  I think I might just read that book to the girls a few more times throughout the year even if it is not scheduled in (and I need to check this).  For a kid book it is a little heavy on facts and the repitition is good, since they really do not like it when it is read word for word.  They prefer it being summarized as I did this week and "brought it to life" as I walked around the room referring to the map and globe and drawing some details on the dry erase board.  I even had them find the points on the world map as I explained the pages about longitude and latitude.  We used a scrap of paper and a page out of an Atlas to understand the pages that describe "scale and distance". 

We will be learning about other countries and their religions, so we will be using Windows on the World.  Again, this is book we had already started with and we just reviewed the information.  For music we listened to and sang The Children of the World song and we all have this down after singing it for the last five weeks.  Even my husband can be caught singing it from time to time.  ;)  We used the Geography from A-Z book to learn seven new words and this week they were all pretty understandable for the kids.  I won't list all the words due to EE copyright, but I will say that one word was "polar", so that is easy for the kids to relate that polar bears live in the cold and that would be near the "poles"...polar.  I am not saying the seven words were easy words because they were not, but they were just enough to kind of stretch the mind without being too much.  And we did not do a worksheet or draw on index cards are write the words "x" number of times or anything like that.  We simply talked about them and discussed them and I could tell they understood and had them explain the words.  That is good for me.  I like some things to just be simple.  Another book that is the same is Living World Encyclopedia and it is and Usborne book.  And I am just going to say this.... I know that I am the only person that feels this way on the planet, but I just do not care for a lot of Usborne books.  I have felt this way with the ones that My Father's World suggests for K, 1st, Adventures, and ECC.  I have used them, but they are just too all over the page busy for me.  My kids like them and the information is good, but I would like things a little more storybook like.  Put that same info that is on a two page spread onto six pages and I would love it.  The action of flipping a page gives my mind a little break and I like that better.  BUT it works and as it is I will just read and summarize to make it more enjoyable to use.  We are still awaiting the arrival of the Usborne Encyclopedia of World Geography that is used for EE.  Our local library offered to purchase some of the books and I am so grateful as I will not have to buy this book to see if I like it.  Woo hoo!  If it turns out that I do like it, then I will probably buy my own copy. 

For EE we were given a couple of project ideas, so made the world... out of paper mache.  Above is the finished project.  We opted not to label our countries because ours are more of random blobs and not necessarily even the correct amount of "continents".  We just had a little fun.  The pic below is while our "oceans" were drying (ironic, huh?  Oceans drying.)  Anyway, you can see how we used paperclips to stick through the balloon tie and hung them from the chandeliers.  We made it a three day project instead of two day.

Day 1 = blow up balloon and add paper mache

Day 2 = paint it all blue (we waited on the other colors to avoid mixing paint)

Day 3 = paint the continents green and added a little white at the north and south poles

In the upper pic you can also do a project we had already made with ECC that was our "children of the world".  My brilliant seven year old, Sierra, to form them in a circle and balance them on our blow up globe.  I love this! 

This is a little snapshot of something I did for my tot and pre-ker.  They are learning to recognize their names, so I decided to simply write their names on their notebooks (used for storing past work and for them to show off to Daddy).  Then, I had the idea to make a little set of game cards for them to do each day to start recognizing their own name.  If you notice in the first pic way up high (of our worlds), you will see their super large names on the wall that we used to help them recognize their names.  For those I printed them the night before and taped them together like a banner.  The next day they used bingo markters to trace their names... then they used regular markers, or crayons, etc...

Anyway, back to EE... We skipped doing the Continent Hop Scotch game that is suggested, but I fully intend to do this later.  I just have this vision of another concussion and want to find a safer way to do this game.  It is printed continent sheets that are laminated and although she suggests using something to make it slipproof I decided to think on it a little longer.  Maybe I am being paranoid, but I just can not see how they can hop on it and it not slip and them fall.  I have a few ideas that I will try out to make this work for us.  {It is very important to avoid a second head trauma after a concussion... I am normally not this paranoid... just sayin'.}

And lastly, we read How To Bake An Apple Pie and See The World.  I pointed out the locations on the world map to make them realize how silly the book is.  They truly enjoyed this book and are excited about making pie.  And so, we were supposed to make pie last night, but we ran out of stream.  And so, we are supposed to make it today... sometime.... really.... I will... maybe I will go do that right now.  Only thing is we are having pear pie because someone so graciously shared some pears with us!  Yeah!  And I think I will read that book to them, again! 

Oh yeah!  They got their passports and we studied some Bible verses and stuff.  We are doing some things in our "own way".  One of which is using Draw To Learn (Jesus) in which we read a passage of scripture and draw according to suggestions in the book.  I am also going to use key verses that come up with EE in this same manner.  And this week we prayed for the "lost souls all over the world".  The verse this week was:

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."  Matthew 28: 18-20

I made a copywork page for them with a portion of the verse on it and they were given instructions to illustrate it.



As you can see with both of the girls I choose a portion of the verse for them to focus on.  Being that Sierra is in second grade I underlined key words to bring it down even more for her copywork.  For her I used a highlighter to write the words and then, have her trace them.  She is being a bit sloppy with her handwriting and I think this may help.  If she is tracing the letters she will learn to form them correctly is this way.  These two pages show how we are using the same work and tailoring to meet each age.  I hope to be able to find time to share our future weeks with you, also.  We are headed to China next week.  {wink wink}

A COMPLETE Week! Started Expedition Earth: PART 1 (The Concussion)

Well, it is with great relief that I can say that we finished a complete week of our new curriculum, Expedition Earth.  I was all set to start this curriculum the previous week and had stayed up into some crazy, obscene, long hours of the night the weekend before to get everything ready.  On that Monday we jumped in... or rather, I did.... but the kids did not... they had already experienced the boredom of the three weeks prior with our other curriculum and let's just say they were resistant and cranky... I did not go well.  We got enough ready to move on to day two and had gotten up that morning and gotten off to a good start.  Most of our core subjects were done and I think the two older girls only had math to do.  I was feeling like it was going to be a better day and then, we went out to feed the animals since it had not been done at the correct time.  Caden was inside watching TV and the rest of us went out.  Sahara and Sierra tired of our animal duties and went back inside.  Shortly after, Sierra opened the back door and said that Sahara was hurt and had fallen.  I honestly did not take it serious until I got to the door and saw Sahara trying to stand and walk and stumbling around.  I took her in my arms and tried to calm her, but she was just crying and groaning.  I tried the usual tricks to see if she would "forget".  It was just not happening, but she was not screaming hysterically.  That was odd in itself.  Cody called and I told him I was dealing with a head trauma, but even then I did not take it too seriously.  I thought she would cry a little and be okay.  She was starting to fall asleep and I tried to keep her awake, but she drifted out.  I lay her in my bed and then, nurse the baby who also fell asleep.  I put her in the bed away from Sahara and checked on Sahara, again.  She was fine.. or seemed so.  A few minutes later I her rousing and crying and I went to her quickly.  I got her up carried her to the living room couch to keep from waking Sienna.  She began throwing up.  That's when I knew this was not just a little bump on the head.  Called the pediatrician.  They said to take her in.  Called Cody.  He came.  Long story short... it got scary... She was disoriented, dozing in and out, slurred speech, hard to understand, made little sense, was abnormally quiet.  Five hours later and CT scan later she was clear of major injuries and it was determined that she had a concussion and could go home. 

For this reason we only did core subjects the rest of the week and stopped with Expedition Earth, so my focus could be more on watching Sahara closely.  I am happy to say that she is doing well and we managed to complete a full school week this week.  Yeah!