Proof that we do other things than just playing

I realize the amount of time that has lapsed between curriculum posts. If you were getting worried that the kiddos were wasting away their days with vacations, parties, and playing outdoors, I must admit that I was getting worried as well. Schooling away the day when the weather is SO GORGEOUS has been hard. However, looking through our material to post, I felt a little more assured that the kiddos are working hard. I guess it's true that merriment lightens the load!

History: When we last left off, our studies were taking us out of Europe and over to the East. We briefly touched on what was happening in India (Muhammed Akbar was ruling and dabbling in many different religions trying to find the one religion that would combine the best in all of them), then over to Japan (where Will Adams was the first Englishman to visit Japan--Europeans (the Portugese--had been there since 1540) where we learned about the importance of the Shogun verses the Emperor. Lastly, we "sailed" to China to learn of a Jesuit priest, Father Matteo Ricci, who brought intriguing gifts to the emperor. A map of the earth, a new chart of the heavens, a mysterious "time machine with wheels marking and sounding the hours", were Ricci's gateway to the Forbidden City. Father Matteo was a mathmatician at heart and begin explaining eclipses and Euclid's geometry. By amazing the emperor, he was given permission to stay at Peking and preach the Christian message.

I gave Bubbles the choice of researching one of these three countries. She chose Japan. After researching for two weeks, she wrote her paper and learned how to make footnotes. I then decided to have her type it into a powerpoint. Unfortunately, I do not know how to make that available to you to read, but she did a fabulous job. I loved that she learned another kind of writing, and another tool of technology, but also that she had to practice her typing. (hee hee)

Below is a picture of a traditional Japanese snack--sushi. This of course is not made from fish. We borrowed this idea from familyfun.go.com and made twinkie sushi with pieces of dried fruit in it.
Below is a book about Saint Francis, who lived his life as a missionary and had the awesome opportunity to live in Japan and spread God's message there. We happened upon it just as we were studying the East.
After leaving the East, we headed to Denmark and learned of Tycho Brahe, one of the greatest astronomers of all time! In honor of him and his great observatory, hubby pulled out the telescope (thanks, Uncle Steve) and we spent some time gazing at the stars. I found what looks to be an awesome, free, online astronomy course for kids that I am hoping to dive into this summer. Anyway, Brahe handed his research off to his good friend, Johann Kepler, who used the information to discover that planets move in ellipses, not in circles. We also touched some on Galileo and his famous pendulum, pulsi-logia, and Leaning Tower of Pisa ball drop. We used a week to read every children's book in the library about him as well as replicate two of his experiments. I didn't do a good job of documenting most of our work this time around, but it was great to see the kiddos faces when I dropped from the top of the playset a brick and a tube of chapstick and they both landed at the same time! Priceless! The funniest part was when they went clamoring for the next ten minutes to find the most opposite items to drop for each other and see the result.
Shown above is a paper model of Shakespeare Globe Theatre. I found it on this website and I love the attention to detail as well as the opportunity for the kids to work on spatial concepts. We studied this because this particular theatre was one built by a company of actors known as the King's Men--of which Shakespeare was a member. Queen Elizabeth is now dead and the son of Mary, Queen of Scots (killed per order of the Queen), who was ruling Scotland, is now promoted to rule England. He loved the theatre. A planned fieldtrip would have been perfect, but truly, where would we have found the time? I do have it on my list, however, for sometime in the future.

Without much more detail, I'll just say that we learned of Sir Francis Bacon and his scientific method, the history and intent behind the King James Bible, the attempt by Guy Fawkes on the life of Parliament, and the new colonies in the New World by France and Spain.

In the last week, we have discovered the hustle and bustle of the Virginia Company of London to make a permanent settlement in America. This settlement, with Captain John Smith so prominent, was to be known as Jamestown (named for King James, of course). Above is Bubble's paper model of Jamestown. I found it in a small little activity book of the 13 colonies. We have simultaneously been learning of Quebec, the French colony that was taking root around the same time. So, it's been fun to learn about different Indian tribes. After her recent research and model making, she was not interested in doing a project on the Indians and I don't blame her. So, we have been content to read stacks of library books instead.
Lastly for History, here is a picture of Prez's Jamestown. I thought he did a great job for such little fingers and short patience!

In Art, I only have one thing to show you....for now. Our other projects will be posted later next week, when they are finished. Below is an example of art from a Japenese artist. Nature is a HUGE subject to paint for them. We used the art as an example of drawing with a foreground and a background. This piece is in color, but Bubbles decided to practice her sketching. Hers is after the original.

We were both super pleased with the results. You might notice the two creases in the paper. This is a great way to teach the concept of depth. Just in case you were inspired to go draw something! :)

As for Geography, we continued our map and flag studies. By the end of the year (which for us will not be in May--due to the new baby and our interrupted school year), she should be able to match flags to countries and correctly label blank maps of each area. We are working on memorizing this information by turning the maps into puzzles. With everything else going on, I'll admit that there are two areas we did give much attention to: memorization and music. We'll do better next time.

Below are varied pictures of the some of the Science things we'd worked on. It's pretty random because I'm pretty tired, but you get the idea.
Different densities: maple syrup, dyed water, and oil (I think I remember that correctly)
Different objects that sunk through the different densities or didn't. A penny went all the way down, a mint stopped in the middle, and a piece of popsicle stick floated on tip top.
Some liquids naturally have different densities, but some liquids can have their density altered. So now, if you are designing something that you want to float, you have to factor in the density of the liquid used and how it can help you or hurt you. Here is a raw egg in a cup of water. It sinks.
Here is the same raw egg in a cup of salt water. The water is so dense that the egg is less dense and doesn't sink.

Here is a diorama of a stage that is utilizing different simple machines. There are inclined planes, wheel and axle, lever, and a pulley. Can you find them all?

In this experiment, Prez is challenged to lift Bubbles with just one finger!

It takes all five fingers, but he's so proud that he can lift her with just one hand! Of course, the lever helped some! :)

Here they discover that if your fulcrum is misplaced or you are on the wrong end of your lever, your work load can be impossible. Prez doesn't even move her a smidge and that's with his entire weight.

The above picture was teaching Bubbles about screws verses nails. A screw is just an inclined plane wrapped around a "nail". The different inclines of the plane will change the tread of the screw and require more or less turning to get it in. They also discovered how much easier it was to remove the nail verses the screw and we brainstormed times when we would rather use a nail and times when we would rather use a screw.

The picture below is what happened when we left the experiment on the table and allowed Prez to "try something." I get such a kick out of this kid.

These last two pictures, show Bubbles as she experiments with wheels, axles, and belts. We discovered that if you changed the configuration of the belt (aka. rubber band) then you could change the direction of your movement. It was also a good frustrating lesson on friction. Thank goodness for oil.

Well, that was probably more than you wanted to know. If you made it to the end, CONGRATULATIONS! I need to issue you an honorary student award just for putting in the effort.

Hopefully by the end of this week, I'll post some more curriculum on Jamestown and what we are continuing to learn. Tune in. :)