Around the World: Italy

 

 For our final trip around the world this year, we traveled to Italy and Ancient Rome with the Five in a Row book Angelo by David Macaulay. This is the story of an elderly plasterer who discovers an injured pigeon while he is restoring the stucco on a church in Rome. He nurses the pigeon, Sylvia, back to health and they become good friends. As he grows older, he worries that Sylvia will not have a home, so he comes up with an inventive way to provide one for her. 

We began learning about Italy by watching an episode of Travel with Kids, where the family visits Rome. They see many of the ancient ruins including the colosseum where they train to be gladiators. They also visit many of the beautiful churches in Rome. We read more about Roman history in The Story of the World and and learned about Roman dress, houses, and food in our Evan Moor History Pocket for Ancient Rome. Then we discovered an amazing video made by David Macaulay called City. In it he takes the viewers through the ancient Roman City of Pompeii. The videos also included animated interludes with a story about the Romans conquering the Gauls and attempting to turn the French town into a Roman city. The older girls liked it so much that we watched another video in the series called Castle.

We decided to make an Italian meal and dress up like Romans (well, and one dragon.)

We had a yummy meal of spaghetti and garlic bread.

 

We learned more about the author David Macaulay by watching an author interview at Read Aloud Revival. It was fun to hear that his favorite book is Angelo, and to see how he injects humor in all of his very detailed architectural drawings. We had to pull out our copy of The Way Things Work and find all the wooly mammoths. We read through, and noticed all the funny details Macaulay had added to the story with his illustrations.Of course, this inspired us to draw. So we spent some time with art, learning how to draw 3-D shapes like cubes, spheres, pyramids, and cylinders. We turned those shapes into houses. Mabel found a neat way of drawing little cube rooms and filling them with tiny furniture.

For science, we found a Mystery Science lesson about food chains called Why would a Hawk move to the City? The lesson went perfectly with the book because the story even involved pigeons. The activity was a food chain card game called Eat or Be Eaten. The kids had so much fun playing this that they played it all afternoon and even had to play with Dad when he got home from work.

Then, there are some times when it seems like God just smiles down on your homeschool efforts and makes things work out just right. We are in the middle of selling our house, so we have to be out of our house a lot. I knew we would need to be out for a few hours, so I looked at the local museums for something to do. The Smith College Art Museum was having a special exhibit of Roman artifacts. The exhibit featured the archeological artifacts from a villa in a small village near Pompeii. They had recreated paintings and had models and videos of what the rooms would look like. It was so cool to see the ancient statues, jars, pottery, and even coins and jewelry that had been so well-preserved. While we were there we found out they were having a community day on Saturday with Roman activities. It was a bit crowded, but the kids were really excited to share the exhibit with their dad. They got to make jewelry, see some volcanic rocks, and visit the greenhouses as well.

Around the World: Poland

In March, we traveled to Poland with our Five in a Row studies with the book Mrs. Katz and Tush by Patricia Polacco. This is one of my favorite Five in a Row books. It's such a touching story about a young boy named Larnell, who befriends his elderly, Jewish neighbor. She shares stories with him about immigrating from Poland, vacationing in the Catskills, and the Jewish festival of Passover. He, in turns, gives her a kitten with no tail, which she names Tush. Over many years of friendship, she becomes like family to Larnell. Such a person!

This is our second time through this book. We first studied it when my oldest was in first grade. We found large family tree we had made that year,  with photos of several generations of our ancestors. It was fun to look over the pictures and talk about our ancestors in Poland, Latvia, Russia, Kentucky, West Virginia (and way back in England and Ireland). We also found a gap in our tree and put in a call to Grandma to send pictures of her grandparents who immigrated from Poland. She found some nice pictures for us.

We also got our our world map and found all the countries in our ancestry. We talked about why people would want to move from one country to another and how it would feel when you get there, not knowing the language or ways. When we first rowed this book, we were able to go and record interviews with the kids' great-grandmother and great-great-aunt who were Latvian refugees during World War II. These recordings are such treasures to us now that both of these beloved women passed away in the last year. We talked about some of their experiences as immigrants.

Since Mrs. Katz was from Poland, and the kids are a quarter Polish, we enjoyed reading several books about Poland. Ella and Mabel also tried their hand (with some help) at the traditional Polish Wycinanki folk art, made by cutting paper into fancy designs. We had a yummy Polish supper of kielbasa and pierogies.

 

Patricia Polacco, the author of Mrs. Katz and Tush, is the author of many other favorite books like Rechenka's Eggs, The Keeping Quilt, The Bee Tree, Thunder Cake, When Lightning Comes in a Jar, Chicken Sunday, and Just Plain Fancy. We tried to read as many of our books as we could. We also got to know Ms. Polacco a little more by watching an Author interview with her at the Read Aloud Revival Membership. It was really interesting to hear about her struggles growing up with learning disabilities, how she makes her art, and about all the animals she has collected on her farm. 

 

We also watched a really neat episode of Reading Rainbow on Rechenka's Eggs, which featured Ms. Polacco decorating Pysanka Easter Eggs. Since Rechenka's Eggs is Ella's all-time favorite, we also designed some paper pysanka eggs. Later my husband helped the kids blow out eggs and paint them with watercolors.

For science, we learned about yeast, and did an experiment to see what makes yeast grow most quickly. We made four bags with different combinations of yeast, water (warm and cold), sugar and salt.We discovered that yeast, warm water, and sugar made the yeast grow most quickly.

 

  Since we didn't want to waste all that yeast, we decided to make one of our favorite Jewish breads: Challah. We made the dough, let it rise, and kneaded it.

 

Then we braided it, put on an egg wash, and baked it.

 

In addition to learning about our own ancestry, we also learned a lot about Mrs. Katz's Jewish heritage including the story of the Jewish exodus from Egypt, the symbolism of the Passover meal, and why Jews eat matzo during Passover.  We also learned some Yiddish words. For dinner, we had matzo brei (scrambled eggs with crumbled matzo), applesauce, sour cream, and Challah. The kids thought it was one of the yummiest meals we've had.

Around the World: France

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For our next trip around the world, we visited Egypt and France with the Five in a Row book: The Giraffe That Walked to Paris by Nancy Milton. This is a true story about a giraffe given as a gift by the Egyptians to the French King in the 1800s.

These are the only pictures I managed to take of our weeks studying the book, a quick French breakfast with croissants, sausages, and tea before church one Sunday.

We found Egypt and France on the map and traced the route La Giraffe would have taken to her new home in Paris. We also read several non-fiction books about Egypt and learned about the Pyramids and Ancient Egyptian life. For science we learned about giraffes and their habitat. We also learned about climates around the world.

In the book, a scientist tries to draw a picture of a giraffe without ever seeing one. So, we decided to draw our own funny animals. Ella remembered a game where you take a sheet of paper and fold it into quarters lengthwise. The first person draws a head and then folds down the paper and the next person draws a torso, folds it down, and draws legs, and then the fourth person draws feet. The drawings came out super funny. Then we used the drawings to do a close observation exercise (inspired by Brave Writer). One person had to choose a drawing at random, and try to describe to another person how to draw the crazy creature. The drawer would do their best to recreate the picture just from the description and then we compared the two drawings. We had lots of fun with this activity.

We also learned more about the 19th century by attending Home School Day at Old Sturbridge Village. The girls took a class in baking on the hearth (which Ella will describe in my next post). We also got to see them boiling maple sap, and attend a fun presentation on old and new ways of preserving foods.

Around the World: Mexico and Southwestern U.S.

 Do you know the best way to improve your homeschool without spending any money on new curriculum or special lessons or classes? Make friends. Do things together. Ask them for help when you need it. Enjoy the benefits. 

 

This month alone, we've celebrated Valentine's day with two different families, had a tour of the local natural history museum, participated in our co-op science class, and taken part in a STEM activity organized by a university research scientist/ homeschool dad. I'm so grateful for my friends.

 

When I was planning our row of The Gullywasher by Joyce Rossi, which is set in the southwestern United States or Mexico, I remembered that my friend Laura's grandparents were of Mexican heritage. So I asked her if she would share with us about Mexico and the Mexican-American community in Texas.

She and her family threw us a regular fiesta starting with Mexican hot chocolate and Empanadas de Camote. Laura remembered eating these empanadas with a sweet pumpkin filling every time she visited her grandparents in Texas. There was one bakery that made the best empanadas around. They were so yummy!

 Then for dinner, her twelve-year-old daughter made us homemade tortillas and her husband Ben made us fajitas. We brought the chips, salsa, and gaucamole for a yummy feast! Laura shared some more stories about her grandparents' life as migrant farm workers and immigrants.

 

Two days later, the whole family contracted some cold virus that left us feverish and coughing for the rest of the week. But we did soldier on with the help of videos, audiobooks, art, and a lot of siestas.

This was the first time we had studied the history of the Southwestern United States, which used to be part of Mexico. We learned about the Mexican War, the Alamo, the Sante Fe Trail, and  Mexican culture. On Presidents' Day, we decided to learn a bit about the president during the Mexican War:  President James Polk. We also read/ listened to Meet Josephina and read a book about Josephina's world. We also watched videos from Travel with Kids featuring different parts of Mexico, and a Reading Rainbow episode called Meanwhile Back At the Ranch. We also learned about Tall Tales and read the story of Paul Bunyan.

We got up just enough energy to take out our watercolors and make desert paintings.

 

For science, we learned about clouds and storms. We did the Mystery Science lessons Have You Ever Watched a Storm? and How can We Predict when it's Going to Storm? For the experiments, we made a gas trap/ cloud in a jar, and a mini Storm Spotter booklet with various clouds. We've studied clouds several times in science, but this time it really seemed to click. The older girls have been noticing clouds and predicting whether it's going to rain. The weather was beautiful the week we were sick, so we did get outside some to enjoy the sun and watch the clouds.

Around the World: China

In February, our travels with Five in a Row took us to China with The Story about Ping by Marjorie Flack.

 

Our studies coincided with Chinese New Year, so we learned a bit about the holiday by reading in DK Children Just Like Me: Celebrations and reading a folktale from the library about the lanterns. We also made a neat dragon book about Chinese New Year and some lanterns with Chinese numbers from History Pockets: Ancient Civilizations. Ella also happened to be learning about Chinese folktales in her writing curriculum, so it dovetailed nicely.

We learned about the Yangtze river and watched an episode of Travel with Kids where the family takes a cruise on the  Yangtze. In art, we drew pictures of water with colored pencil and practiced some of the techniques the illustrator used to make reflections of the water. They turned out beautifully, but I didn't get pictures. We also watched Mulan and Mulan II just for fun.

We had our biweekly co-op science class on Ocean creatures, and I was teaching this week about Mollusks. We learned about resonance and why it seems like you can hear the ocean in a seashell. So I followed it up with a lesson from Mystery Science on Why are Some Sounds High and Some Sounds Low? We made sound waves with jump ropes to demonstrate the frequency of different sounds.

 

Our tea party was pretty simple this time. I bought some rice cakes, which have a prominent place in The Story about Ping, and mandarin oranges, a traditional food to eat at Chinese New Year. We drank green tea in our Chinese tea pot and pulled out our lucky cricket candleholders.

  We also made red paper lanterns and fans to decorate.

 Last year, my friend Jenny gave me some traditional Chinese clothes that her girls had outgrown. They would wear these at Chinese New Year every year. We really enjoyed trying on the silk outfits for our tea party (well, the girls did at least.) Ella was pretending to be a Chinese grandpa. Thanks, Jenny!

Around the World: Japan

We are going around the world with our Five in a Row studies this winter. Our next stop after Canada was Japan. We studied the book Grass Sandals:The Travels of Basho by Dawnine Spivak from Volume 4 of Five in a Row. This book tells the story of Basho, one of the first and greatest Haiku poets in Japan. We also used the book Kaleidoscope Kids Japan: 40 Activities to Learn about Japan.

The Volume 4 Manual of Five in a Row is geared toward older kids and is just jam-packed with activities. We spent two weeks with this book. We tried our hand at Japanese caligraphy and learned the meanings of the Kanji words on the back of the book.

We made hats like Basho's out of poster board and wrote on our hats just like he did. My five-year-old managed to fit every word from the book and more.

 

Videos have been a great supplement to these Around the World units because the kids get to see the country and people. We watched Little Travelers: Japan, which is about two little girls traveling in Japan with their parents. The kids liked this so much, that we also checked out Little Travelers: Iran, Germany, and Bali from the library.

Basho's name means Banana so we cut up some bananas and other fruit to make a fruit salad. We learned about how citrus juice can keep bananas from turning brown so quickly. Over tea time, we read haikus, as well as some of our other favorite Japanese books including A Pair of Red Clogs by Masako Matsuno, Tea with Milk by Allen Say, and Yoko and the Paper Cranes by Rosemary Wells.

Of course, we learned all about haikus, which happened to coincide with Ella's Write Shop lesson on haikus this week. We took a walk in nature to get inspired.

 

Ella wrote this poem:

Warm winter morning

Mud squelches under my feet

Quiet winds blow the trees 

and Mabel wrote:

In Spring, leaves are green

In cold winter, leaves are gone.

In Fall, leaves are red.

and I wrote this one:

Nature walks with kids

Muddy knees, armfuls of sticks

Poop, he stepped in it!

We made little origami pockets to keep the poems in, which was an idea from Write Shop Jr. Once the kids got started making origami, they couldn't stop. They decided to set up little shops and trade origami with each other.

 

We also collected a fallen branch and made a cherry blossom branch. We were out of pink tissue so we painted coffee filters pink, tore them up,  and glued them on. This is always a fun winter craft and helps brighten up the house.

 For science, we spent almost a week learning about volcanoes. We did two activities from Mystery Science: Can a volcano pop up in your backyard? and Why do volcanoes explode? The first had a volcano mapping activity and the second had an experiment with blowing bubbles into thick and thin lava. The kids loved the lava experiment so we also made our own volcano. We put modeling clay around an old relish jar. We even figured out how to make two types of lava. The thin lava made from baking soda and vinegar, bubbled up really fast and spread out over the pan just like a cone volcano.

 

The thick lava made from yeast and peroxide bubbled up more slowly, with bigger bubbles, and didn't spread out as much, like a shield volcano.

 

We capped off our studies with a Japanese feast. We took a field trip to a local Asian supermarket and picked up seaweed wrappers, rice, and vegetables. Then Daddy taught us how to make sushi.

 We pulled out our $2 thrift store kimonos from our last Japanese tea party two years ago, and realized just how much the kids had grown. So we added some extra material and made obi belts from old silk ties, and wore the hats we had made. Check out Gilead's ninja moves.

 Then we set up a low folding table and cushions for our meal. In addition to the sushi, we made miso soup and added ramen noodles. We also bought chocolate and green tea pocky and green tea mochi. We drank green tea in our Asian tea cups.

 

One thing I love about Five in a Row is how it has encouraged my kids to try new foods by learning about other cultures. Most of the kids didn't end up liking sushi that much, but they all tried it because they had helped make it. Several of them really loved the pickled ginger. And, it's always fun to use chopsticks!