Hydrangeas and Harmony: School Summary - Queen Victoria, Crimean War, Livingstone, Italy's Resurrection, and the Taiping Rebellion

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A Summary of August 31- September 11

After a decent two week start, we had a fuller week and then the week of insanity! I scheduled a four-day week so we could have off on Labor Day. Then plans changed. I was going out of town and the youngling and padawan were going to my folks' to stay. I knew that schoolwork probably wouldn't happen there so I asked them to work ahead. Throw in a 2+ hour orthodontist appointment and all of a sudden our week was plain ol' crazy. They got quite a bit done but there was lots of weeping and gnashing of teeth. It made for an extremely stressful week so I'm glad it's done.

Here's what we did:

Things that were scheduled:

Math

Language Arts (Grammar with Writing and Reading for both; Spelling for Soprano)
Tenor did a Coat of Arms project to coincide with his lit book.

Electives:

Greek and Computer Science (Tenor), American Sign Language, Photography, and Sewing (Soprano)
Tenor started his first computer science course from Alpha Omega's Switched on Schoolhouse. Depending on how difficult the work is, I might need to schedule the assignments to have more time but so far he's making progress.

My Father's World 1850 to Modern Times

Our first two weeks of MFW were focused on state geography. Now we've started back into the history cycle. We talked about Queen Victoria and the huge reach of the English empire during her time, the Sepoy rebellion, the Crimean War, David Livingstone in Africa, the Italian Resurrection (I had no idea Italy wasn't a country until so recently.), and the Taiping Rebellion.

Bible: This year we will be learning (reviewing) basic Christian beliefs and memorizing key Bible passages. We learned John 13:15 and 1 John 3:16.

History and Geography:

While I know we won't do all of the hands-on activities from the Story of the World Activity Book, I'm trying to do as many as possible. We made the Crystal Palace:

Loaded Enfield rifles:

(My tip for this activity is to make the cartridges inside but do all of the 'loading' outside.)

Kept medical records (the kids just kept records on each other); Demonstrated the effect of Africa's geography on trade:

We did the Members of Little Italy lit project and ate pizza instead of making it and made the Taiping Tien Kuo coins:

You probably want to sift your powdered sugar before sprinkling it and maybe even lightly wet the stencil to help it stick to the cake before you add the sugar. As you can see. :)

We also enjoyed a Victorian tea with lemon poppyseed muffins and root beer floats.