School Summary - Ancient China and Japan

Tenor's Japanese Samurai notebooking page

A Summary of February 3 - 14

We are in the part of the school year that seems to start dragging along. We finished the 3rd quarter; we didn't have to take time off for snow days like the local school districts who have been slammed with closings and delays; we are getting work done with good attitudes... I think we could just use a little more sunshine and outside time. It's getting done though.

Here's what we did for the past two weeks:

Things that were scheduled:

Math

Language Arts (Grammar, Spelling, Penmanship, Reading, and Writing)

Electives:

Typing, Spanish, Geography, and PA History for both.

Tenor continued with Greek while Soprano had her Home Ec lessons - washing dishes and making a bed.

My Father's World Rome to the Reformation

These two weeks focused on the history of the far East. It was interesting to read how Asian cultures were developing in such a different way during the same time as the Middle Ages in Europe.

Bible: We are still reading through Luke and studying the life of Jesus. We continued learning our passage in Philippians. (Chapter 2:3-11). We read about Peter Waldo and the intense persecutions the Waldensians suffered in Trial and Triumph.

Science: We completed several lessons and a quiz from AIG's Our Universe. We talked about the earth's movements, telescopes, an overview of our galaxy, and stars, and we read about Galileo. I don't have any pictures but we did demonstrations to show how the earth's rotation creates day and night, reflection/refraction, and light pollution interfering with telescopes and experiments with a Foucault Pendulum.

History: 

We backed up chronologically to get more of an overview of the beginnings of Ancient China and then continued through Chinese history to the Middle Ages. Then we jumped over to Ancient Japan which was very intertwined with Chinese history. It was cool to read how the Samurai had a Code of Honor similar to the European knights' Code of Chivalry.

Soprano's Japanese Samurai notebooking page

The younglings also wrote some Haiku. Tenor's reads: 

Rock

Dull, gray, black silent

A mystery, yet not so

Thrown down a river

Soprano's says:

Apples are juicy

Straight from the green apple tree

Now they sit in bowl

This year, I'm also incorporating Story of the World Volume 1 as well as Mystery of History Volume 1 and 2. 

For week 22, we didn't have any substitutions.

For week 23, we only read the intro of Streams of Civilization on Day 2 and added MOH 2 p156-158 and p282-285. I also cut Streams on Day 4, using MOH 2 p356-358 instead.

Other MFW: 

Music: We listened to a few more Mozart pieces and kept up with listening at lunch some days. We've kind of been slacking on that again.

Art: They created a Triptych one week and painted a Diptych about Daniel the next.

Tenor's painting

Extras:

Web:
I have about 7-8 videos this week. You can see them all in my Youtube playlist for MFW weeks 19-34.

Videos:
Ancient Civilizations for Children: Ancient China by Schlessinger Media
All About Stars by Schlessinger Media
Galileo: On the Shoulders of Giants by Devine Entertainment
The Adventures of Robin Hood by Warner Brothers
The Magic School Bus: Super Star Power by Scholastic

The book "basket" is overflowing all over the school room. There are so many great books for this era of history.

Favorite Books: 

Adventures in Ancient China by Linda Bailey
Marguerite Makes a Book by Bruce Robertson
You Wouldn't Want to Live in a Medieval Castle! by Jacqueline Morley
The Sword in the Tree by Clyde Robert Bulla