Weekly Wrap-Up: Japan And China

This is really a two week wrap-up since I cannot seem to get my act together to write a post every week. I always am surprised at how much I can write about our weekly work since it seems so relaxed around here..not at all like it appears when I type it all out. I know many of you read my blog and think that we are pretty hard-core schoolers but if you came and sat in my house on a weekday you would realize that my boys would be whistling and working and just generally getting business done. We have our moments...but moments they are and just like other kinds of moments, they pass. There are always days that things don't go exactly as planned but after thirteen+ years of homeschooling, I have learned that it all evens out.

For instance, we took time this morning out of our regular schedule to talk about and pray a little for the people of Haiti and the rescue workers as well. Since my husband works for the Office of Emergency Services here in California we know what is like to be on the rescue end of a disaster. We also then turned our thoughts to our own family's disaster preparedness since we live in earthquake country. It spurred my husband to make a list of items we need and he is now off to gather the items from around town to store in a place we can get to them if needed.

Homeschooling is a way of life in our home and it happens 24/7.

Now to the last two weeks....



We have made a renewed effort to keep up with our endeavors to try a dish or a meal from the country we are focusing on each week. This last week we were studying Japan and I made broccoli beef and rice. Yummy....way better than I thought it was going to be. We will probably keep this on our monthly menu list since everyone enjoyed the meal. I added water chestnuts to the dish when I was stir frying it up which were a big hit with all the boys.


We also had received some Japanese candy and gifts from a new friend that we tested out as well. Chopsticks were attempted by most of us...some more successfully than others. :) My boys shared some of their insights this week after reading their Material World pages and the Hungry Planet book.

This week we are focusing on China and we will be going out to eat at our favorite Chinese food restaurant. We are determined to try something new as well as our old favorites.


Renoir, Doges Palace Venice. Wikimedia Commons.

The boys started there next six-week term for artist and composer study. Mr. B is going to study Renoir and Ralph Vaughn Williams. Mr. A is going to focus on Caspar David Friedrich and Tchaikovsky. I love this year's artist and composer plans because I get to see them excited about picking their own ways to study and the order in which they study the list. (Plans are available free HERE.) The painting above is what Mr. B put on my computer's desktop for us both to enjoy this week. Lovely.



Physics this week involved ping pong balls....need I say more?

Algebra 2 is making my head hurt for the very first time this year. Logarithms and antilogarithms must not be something that I learned to any great extent because the well seems to be dry on this concept. I probably learned it for the class and exam and then promptly forgot it.

Snowboarding this week was canceled because of the weather but we hope to go next week to make up for it. We did take two hikes when the weather was decent and it felt good to get out and see the beauty of winter. You can read about our nature study HERE and HERE.

We are reading Uncle Tom's Cabin over the next six weeks (I doubled the TOG time allotment of three weeks) and we got started focusing on writing about each character as they came up in the story. This is a very loose plan and a way for the boys to narrate using a simple chart with the character's name in one column and their thoughts about each character and their connections in another column. They sometimes will write quotes from the book as part of their character study as well. We discuss their notes on Fridays at our weekly meeting.

I am finding that my boys will casually narrate after each reading of this heavy book. They need to talk about the issues of slavery and abolition. They want to reconcile how one human can treat another human so terribly. Our discussion last week centered around modern day slavery that still exists in other cultures and countries. High school can be sort of touchy when we get into more adult topics. These are really important things that I am so glad that I am able to discuss and reason on with my children. If they were in public school, we would not have as many opportunities to share our thoughts, emotions, and beliefs. I love having insight into their hearts as well.

We decided that as part of our practice in writing a research report, we would stick to the overall topic of the Civil War. Since we are opting out of a full-blown study of the Civil War this year in favor of our World Geography study, we are going to learn about the Civil War through the back door. I gave them the flexibility to pick their own Civil War topic to research over the next few weeks. They will research and then write using IEW's unit six.
Mr. A is going to focus on the Ironclads and Mr. B is researching the role of the railroads in the Civil War. They are required to use three sources of information for their reports, make an outline, write their first draft with specific areas for me to look for using the writing rubric in IEW, and then to edit and polish the final project. Last week they did some preliminary research and then started listing possible topics. This week they are narrowing their topics and picking three areas to focus on for their report. They will read their sources both during our school day and on their own time. We are making a trip to the public library this week to pick up books they have requested as part of their research.


Why can't he just keep flying this kind of plane for a little while longer?

Mr. A started ground school this week. He is learning to fly an airplane. I am very excited for him but nervous at the same time. How can he be learning to drive a car and an airplane at the same time? It is a little overwhelming to me but a dream coming true for him. Sigh. It is going to be a lot of really hard work to get through this class....three hours of class each week and then lots of homework. He is determined and grateful for the opportunity that opened up to him to take the class for free. I will keep you posted on his progress.

I will wrap up this Weekly Wrap-Up at this point. Sorry it is so long again but it really is helpful to keep a record of their work. It helps me to keep motivated as well when I see all the things we have accomplished. Sidenote: Someone asked me in a comment not long ago how long our school day is. Basically, we start at 7:45 AM and end around 2:00 PM. The boys are free to take breaks as needed and they usually take a short break around 10:30 and then again at 12:30 for lunch. After their scheduled school day they are free to explore projects and activities that usually relate to their interests.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom