Maps

I was going to do a whole sub-unit on explorers during the Africa segment of the Babies Unit. First we read about the explorer Mary Kingsley. Then, we read through (skipping when it became too much info) Exploring the World: Da Gama, Vasco da Gama Sails Around the Cape of Good Hope by Robin S. Doak.

It is a really good book. The maps are very useful and the pictures are interesting. It is designed for middle readers so there were a few places where we bogged down. Certainly not the fault of the book--just the ages of my children. Then I pulled out an outline map that included Europe and Africa and had the kids add a line for da Gama's trip, with dots at all the places in Africa that he stopped.

It is the first time we've done a map to demonstrate something besides the location of places. It was fun, we enjoyed it, and I forgot to take pictures.

So that was all pre-Harriet. After Harriet, I thought I would jump back into things to help my kids stay happy and not bored.

Ha.

I didn't jump back into anything except exhaustion. Baby wakes up at 11:00 pm, 2:00 am, and 5:30 am (or 6:00 am--sometimes even a little later than that), so I cannot complain about her sleeping habits. She's an angel for a two-week old.

However, I'm still exhausted.

So rather than read Exploration Through the Ages: The Travels of Livingstone by Richard Humble to all my children and do a similar map of his travels, I just had Miriam read the book to herself and we chatted about it. I read the book (as did my hubby--we both enjoyed it) first so I could guide the discussion to exploration and what was cool about it and what would be hard about it and what the Africans probably thought about these white foreigners telling them to change their lives and become Christian. This leads into a discussion of our missionaries and why we tell people they should change their lives. Good stuff.

I definitely recommend this book for any studies on Africa, missionary work, exploration, or colonialism. It is a great read.

Dr. Livingstone, I presume.

Last Day Spent on Babies

Not much has been done by way of school around here. However, a baby in the house is a daily lesson. Since baby was here, I decided to read the last two baby books I'd checked out of the library and give a short lecture about being careful with the baby.

Hello Benny! by Robie H. Harris was a huge hit with all four of my older children. It discussed in pretty good detail what a baby needs and what it is like to be a baby. For example, one of our favorite pages discusses what a baby can see and then has two images of Benny's dad--one close-up and clear and one farther away and blurry. Great way to drive the point home. In short, I was impressed with this book.

Welcome, Baby: Baby Rhymes for Baby Times by Stephanie Calmenson was a hit with Miriam and Emeline. The rest of us lost interest pretty quick.

There you have it. Two more baby book ideas if you are interested in teaching your kids about babies.

Africa/Namibia: Day Three

Day Three was about African culture. Not its now culture so much as its more ancient culture that still exists in various forms today.

We started by reading a book called Talking Drums of Africa by Christine Price. The book was so boring I was secretly hoping Miriam would complain and give me an excuse to stop reading it. She didn't. None of them did. So we read the whole boring thing. I don't recommend it, except that it did have some really interesting information about African drums. For example, in the pic below is a "talking drum." The drummer pulls on the strings to tighten and loosen the drumhead to raise and lower the pitch of the drum so it sounds like African languages that are based on pitch. Cool! So, it might be a good idea to scan this book as drums go with Africa like baseball goes with the USA.

Besides, after reading the book, you get to watch youtube videos of African drummers and dancers--and that is awesome!

As a sidenote, this past summer our library put on a series of free activities. One of those activities was an African dancer and drummer. Neither of the people were actually from Africa but both had lived and studied there and both were awesome!!! The dancer, Deja Mitchall, had everyone get up and try it and I did and I loved it. Loved it. Loved it enough that I made learning African dance one of my life goals. I kept her card to remind myself of this life goal. She teaches African dancing at the Eccles Art Center in Ogden, Utah. When my children are a wee bit older, I plan on taking a few of her classes.

If you are studying Africa and live along the Wasatch Front and want to know where you can see some actual African dancing and hear live African drumming, she'd be a good go-to person. Remember, I'm in the lazy end-of-pregnancy mode, or I'd have contacted her and set up a field trip myself.

Here's her info according to her business card. Deja Mitchell: Dancer/Choreographer/Teacher African and Modern Dance. Weekly classes, workshops, Performances. 801-458-6335, tribalovedancer@hotmail.com.

If you look her up on google you'll find her website, which has some great pics of her trips to Africa and the dancing she did there. Also, she puts on a few workshops every summer at the Egyptian Theater for kids wanting to learn African dance. I fully intend to put Miriam in one when she's nine or ten--hopefully Deja will still be around then.
After watching youtube for a long time, we returned to the couch and flipped through the DK Eyewitness Book: Africa by Yvonne Ayo. Great pics. We focused on the various art work more than anything else. My son, of course, wanted to focus on the weapons so we spent some time with those as well.

I made sure I pointed out pictures of carved gourds like the one in the pic below. They are cool.

After we looked through the book, I pulled out some clay and some skewers and had the kids practice carving. Granted, clay carving with skewers is not as cool as cleaning out a gourd, drying it somehow, then carving it and dying it--but my kids still seemed to like it!

I carved for awhile, then worked on supper. My kids spent the rest of the afternoon carving and creating with the clay. The DK book proved inspirational for my kids in ways I hadn't anticipated (they copied statues and weapons and houses, etc.). In the end, I wished I had given them play-dough for the activity as the clay stuck on my rolling pin and cookie cutters much worse than play-dough. Grr.

Good times, though.

As a side-note: in my previous post I mentioned that reading plants ideas in children's brains that they later use to make connections. I have an example. (Yes, I am sort of bragging about how smart my son is, but mostly I'm reiterating the fact that READING IS CRITICAL to expose your children to lots of ideas that they can use to connect other information. I'm an English teacher--I can't help myself.)

While we were looking at the DK book, we turned to a page that had a Zulu shield like the one pictured below.

Without saying anything, my son (5 yrs old) leaped off the couch and went racing downstairs. Miriam and I looked at each other with our eyebrows raised then went back to looking at the pictures.

A few minutes later Cowen came back upstairs with an old Childcraft book with a collection of stories in it about battles. One of the battles, you guessed it, involved the Zulu people and the British. Cowen has never read the story because he doesn't read that well yet, but he has studied that book over and over because it is all about fighting and has lots of pics of weapons. He recognized the shield and knew that the battle must be about an African tribe--so he ran off to find it to have me read it to him.

Amazing connection. Amazing memory.

Thanks again, Mom, for giving me the Childcraft books when all your children wanted them. To all my readers: if you ever see any Childcraft books (you know the ones--they look like encyclopedia's almost, each hardbound book about a different subject) buy them. Just do it. They are awesome and keep my children fascinated for hours at a time.

Africa/Namibia: Day Two

Day Two was actually a night and the next morning. I wanted to prep my kids for their field trip, so we read a book called Namibia by DE Gould. It was way too long and detailed to read in its entirety to my children, but it was the only book the library had specifically about Namibia. It worked well enough for my purposes. We looked through all the pictures and talked about them. We saw pictures of members of the Himba tribe (the tribe featured in the Babies documentary). We found Namibia on a map and discussed it being a country that borders the ocean and also contains a lot of desert. Although not perfect, it worked.

Then we read Uncommon Traveler: Mary Kingsley in Africa by Don Brown. We've read this book before and I jumped at the chance to check it out again. We love it. She's one tough cookie. And brave. And awesome. And female. Fantastic. I would even go so far as to call this a GOLD STAR BOOK.

The book didn't have anything to do with our field trip, but I like it and wanted to read it. So I did. My children would have me read it every day, so they didn't complain.

And now the field trip.

On Friday, I drove the kids to Provo for a field trip. First stop was Aunt Kami's house to drop off the two youngest. Then Miriam, Cowen, and I went to BYU's anthropology department where we met up with another homeschool family (the mom of that family graduated with an anthropology degree from BYU and set this whole thing up--thanks Sarah!!) and a certain Dr. Crandall. Dr. Crandall has lived in Namibia and goes there on field studies often. We went to hear what he had to say about it.

Let's just say that I was a little puffed up with pride by the end. Dr. Crandall asked if anyone had questions and Cowen had a great question (do the people carry spears as they travel around?--answer is yes, they carry spears to protect themselves from lion attack). Then Dr. Crandall said his wife had a baby while they lived there and I asked about birthing facilities. He said that the cities are very modern and Miriam said: "Is that because of when the Germans took over?" She remembered that from the Namibia book. I didn't even remember that from the Namibia book. See, reading really does plant things in their brains that they can later use to make connections.

Then Cowen asked about killing elephants and protecting crops and he and Miriam both explained to Dr. Crandall that they knew all about migrating animals in Africa (thank you James Earl Jones). Basically, we had only spent two days on Africa but my kids made connections that surprised me and were able to sound intelligent while talking about it. Love it.

Now if only I could get Miriam to stop the dramatic sighing when she's bored, my kids' behavior would have been perfect. :)

PS--Do you know how strange it is to go to campus now that so many buildings look different??? Besides the fact that returning to campus with children in tow is weird. It is almost like I dreamed the whole four years up--or it was an Alice in Wonderland type of adventure. Sometimes, I feel old. :)

Namibia: Day One

I'm afraid there isn't much about Namibia in the library. Africa in general, and African animals in particular, have resources galore. But Namibia--not so much. So, instead of focusing entirely on one country in Africa, I decided to make this section of our Babies Unit a little broader in scope. Continental, in scope, you could say.

Day one was about building interest. As I have come to find out, my children love animals in a deep, passionate way. So, I started with animals. Always build on their interests when possible. But, you pros already knew that.

To start off the day we read a book called: Who Comes to the Water Hole? by Colleen Stanley Bare. I couldn't find a cover image, but do not let that deter you. It was a great book. The pics were not National Geographic quality, but they were plentiful and in color and varied. The book talks about the wet and dry seasons, which was helpful later on that day when that concept came up again.

Then we read Face to Face With Cheetahs by Chris Johns with Elizabeth Carney. GOLD STAR BOOK. I'm pretty sure this is one of the best animal books we have ever read. It is published by National Geographic and Chris Johns is a National Geographic photographer so the pictures were beyond amazing. But the text was excellent as well. It was just enough information. Perfect children's book.

To end the day, we watched the movie Africa: The Serengeti. My daughter realized it was narrated by Simba's dad before I did. Smarty pants. James Earl Jones's voice really added to the overall coolness of the movie. How could it not? This is an IMAX movie, so only 40 minutes long (perfect for small children) and has a few strange cinematography moments probably due to it being a 3D movie. Despite that, the movie was excellent. It showed herds of wildebeests migrating and lions and crocodiles attacking them. Other African animals also make cameo appearances. The kids really caught on to the wet season/dry season concept, but I didn't realize that until later. Overall, this was a very enjoyable movie to watch with the kids and it made Africa really exciting to them.

Later that night, I had my hubs read A Story A Story by Gail E. Haley to the children. I don't usually use nightly story time for school purposes, but there were a few Africa books that didn't tie in very well to the activities I planned, and this is one of them.

It is an awesome book. Especially if you or your hubby do voices. My hubby does. My children were riveted. Highly recommend this one. It won the Caldecott and it deserved to win. Enough said.

So--day one went very well.

San Fran: The Golden Gate Bridge

If it weren't for the great book pictured below, I would pretend that I didn't spend a "day" talking about the Golden Gate Bridge. I know you are expecting some great bridge making activity with toothpicks and marshmallows (how do you know how to make a flying buttress, Becky????) or popsicle sticks, or something.

But no. I planned on giving my kids glue and popsicle sticks and seeing what they came up with, but in the end, even that seemed like too much hassle. I'm due in three weeks. Everything seems like too much hassle. (I did get all the baby's clothes/blankets/burp cloths washed and rinsed twice and folded and put away. My kids have very, very sensitive skin. So see--I'm accomplishing things, just not gung-ho homeschool things.)

However, Pop's Bridge was a great book for anyone studying bridges or San Fran and I wanted to make sure you were aware of it--in case any of you do this unit.

Pop's Bridge by Eve Bunting.

To sort of make up for my bridgeless bridge lesson, I give you another San Fran idea. As we all know, Ghirardelli chocolate is made in San Fran. Chocolate interests me. It interests me a great deal. So I thought--we should make something out of San Fran chocolate.

So we did.

I decided to have the kids make a chocolate pudding recipe that I quite like. It is called Silken Chocolate Pudding and I found the recipe in the Moosewood Restaurant Recipe Book (not exact title). It is a vegetarian restaurant. No, I'm not a vegetarian, but I've found that vegetarian cookbooks often have some killer pasta and salad recipes. Not to mention the yummy soups. It is a great cookbook, and I have made the pudding before and thought it was yummy. Also, it is very simple to make--perfect for cooking with kids.

Unfortunately, the local grocery store didn't have silken tofu. Since I'm only really familiar with extra firm tofu (use it in hot and sour soup), I wasn't sure how different silken tofu was from firm tofu. Not wanting to drive to a different store, I bought the firm tofu and hoped for the best.

Big mistake.

The great thing about this pudding is the texture. My family makes a chocolate pudding that is tasty, but is so prone to lumps. Grr. But this chocolate pudding has a perfectly silky texture without all the stirring and work and worry.

That is--a perfectly silky texture when you use silken tofu. Not so much when you use firm tofu.

Basically, it turned out gross.

Sigh.

What a waste of chocolate.

Here's the recipe, though, for those of you who are interested. I really like this pudding because it is easy and because it is fairly bitter (if you don't like dark chocolate--this recipe is not for you). I sweeten it up with whipped cream. You could also decrease the cocoa for a less bitter flavor.

1 cake of silken tofu (about 16 oz)
3 tbls powdered sugar (I tend to add a little extra)
8 oz semisweet chocolate
6 tbls water
3 tbls cocoa
1 tsp vanilla

1. blend tofu and sugar until well blended (a blender is easiest but I used a hand mixer this time to give the kids more to do)

2. warm chocolate, water, cocoa, vanilla until chocolate melts. Stir until mixed. Pour into tofu mix and beat until smooth and silky.

I chill mine--but it isn't bad warm. You could top with vanilla bean ice cream or whipped cream to offset the bitter chocolate flavor. Or, you could add extra dark chocolate instead of semi-sweet to up the bitter factor. It is yummy that way!

PS I put icing sugar first and then realized most of my readers are American and might not know that icing sugar=powdered sugar. So I changed it. But now you know--icing sugar is what Canadians call powdered sugar. And knowing is half the battle.

San Fran: Ocean Sports

It occurred to me one day, as I was pondering San Fran and how to make it interesting for my kids, that my little darlings have never seen the ocean. Logically, they don't know much about sports that take place on or in the ocean. That realization led to a day studying surfing.

And kiteboarding--which I had never heard of before.

We did not read the following books. The following books were boring. At least to me. But the pictures were helpful.

All Action: Wind and Surf by Phil Holden.

Kiteboarding by Joanne Mattern.

Gilbert, the Surfer Dude by Diane deGroat. Okay, this book we read and it was all of our favorites. Gilbert chooses swim trunks that say "surfer dude" on them, even though they were too big. Of course, he loses them in the ocean. Even though it was predictable, it was still funny. I usually don't love early reader books, but this one was good. We'll be finding more Gilbert books when Cowen is ready to move into early readers.

Olivia Learns to Surf adapted by someone from a screenplay written by someone else. Yeah, we read this Olivia book but it wasn't that great. I mean, I usually love Olivia books--she's hilarious and the colors are awesome. But this one was a simplified board book so the story line was weak.

The best part of the day wasn't the books. It was when we put the books away and watched surfing and kiteboarding and windsurfing videos on youtube. Wowsers. People do some crazy/amazing things on a surfboard. We were all fascinated.

Thank you youtube, for helping turn our school day around.

PS We were going to watch Surf's Up, but my neighbor who has every animated movie ever made didn't have it. So I couldn't borrow it. So, we didn't watch it. Still, it isn't a bad idea for a supplement to a surfing lesson. Also, my hubby has a snowboard. If we had snow, I would have pulled that out and let the kids try to balance on it down a little hill. It would have been a little like balancing on a surfboard. Maybe?? I should ask my hubby about that.

San Fran: Earthquakes

The next few posts will be a little weak in the content area. I'm sorry. My brain sort of fried when it came to cool activities for San Francisco. So instead of fun activities, we mostly read books.

When talking about San Fran, some obvious topics arise. Like earthquakes. The following are the books we read on the subject. (I was, quite frankly, disappointed by what I found at the library. I should have gone in person and chatted with a librarian rather than just looked online because really, they have to have better earthquake books than what I found.)

If You Lived at the Time of the Great San Francisco Earthquake by Ellen Levine. This was a good read. I should warn you though--the first few pages are a tad slow. Even I was bored. But the middle of the book really picks up and is way more interesting. So skim the first few pages--maybe summarize for your kids--but read the rest.

Natural Disasters: Earthquakes by Luke Thompson. Not a terrible book but didn't explain what an earthquake is as well as I would have liked. I spent some time looking up youtube videos about earthquakes and I didn't find any great explanations there. Maybe plate tectonics is just really hard to explain in a simple way.

Shock Waves Through Los Angeles: The Northridge Earthquake by Carole G. Vogel. I should have stopped with the first two books. This book has a few pictures of people bleeding and one pic of a boy and his mom at a funeral (the dad and brother in the family both died). My kids were . . . overwhelmed, I think. It was too much. I started to get really concerned faces and they wanted me to assure them that we didn't live where an earthquake would happen (which, of course, we do live in earthquake country), and I could tell it was too much.

So we closed the book and ended the discussion and I did my best to distract them with other, more pleasant, things.

Little lesson learned by me.

PS: There are other things you can do with earthquakes, like make a family earthquake plan and practice it a few times. Or you can call the fire department and find out about earthquake field trips. Around here there is a van you can go in and it starts shaking and gets hot and basically fakes an earthquake so the kids can practice climbing under the counter. Or you can put together some hygiene kits to send to earthquake survivors. I'm positive you could make a model of plate tectonics out of clay, if you really wanted to.

Just because I'm pregnant and lazy doesn't mean you have to be!

San Francisco: Day One

For day one of San Fran, I wanted a good intro book. I thought I couldn't find one. Both the books from the library were longer than I would have preferred, but without another option, I brought them home.

We only ended up reading one, and it held my children's attention far longer than I expected. In fact, I read a lot more of it than I expected.

Bravo, Deborah Kent, author of Cities of the World: San Francisco.

My favorite part of the morning is when we would read about something in Kent's book--for example, Fisherman's Wharf, and Miriam would say, "Oh, I learned all about that in [such and such book]."

I picked out several books for Miriam to read about San Fran and she liked them all.

In The Boxcar Children: The Mystery in San Francisco by Gertrude Chandler Warner, Miriam learned "all about" Fisherman's Wharf and cable cars.

In Good Luck, Ivy by Lisa Yee, Miriam learned "all about" Chinatown.

From Into the Firestorm: A Novel of San Francisco, 1906 by Deborah Hopkinson, Miriam learned all about the 1906 earthquake. This is the only one of the three that I read, and I quite enjoyed it. Good historical fiction for the younger crowd.

There is also a Magic Tree House book about San Fran: Earthquake in the Early Morning. Miriam really likes that one as well.

After reading the Kent book, we colored a map of the United States, paying special attention to California. The following is Miriam's map. I thought it turned out super nice. Yes, I wrote in the state names for her but she had to find the states in the atlas and then point them out to me before I would write it in.

I use this website for map outlines. That wasn't the greatest link as it goes straight to USA map outlines. Here's the link to outline maps for the whole world. If you don't like this site, many options come up when you google "outline maps."

After looking at all the pics of Fisherman's Wharf--I really wish I was eating seafood right now!! San Fran has definite travel appeal--and that is saying something for me. Usually I only want to go places with no people. But the seafood. And a chocolate factory. Oh, my.

Japan Wrap-Up

We concluded our unit on Japan today. I'm putting everything about Japan that I haven't blogged about yet in this post. Sorry if it is confusing, but I want to move on to San Francisco without feeling behind. (Without feeling behind in blogging. My "must do before baby is born" list is getting longer by the minute. Panic sets in several times a day. I really hate the "nesting" phase.)

One of our Japan days was dedicated to maps. My children had never labeled and colored a map before and Miriam was annoyed with me that I didn't have an example of what the end result should look like, so she wrote too big at the beginning. Oops. Poor teaching. Always, always model when possible.

Still isn't the pic below heartwarming? I love how intently Miriam is studying the atlas. I love mapping. Love, love, love mapping and maps in general. Miriam's friend, Rachel, is beside her. I didn't post a pic of Rachel because I haven't had a chance to ask her mother for permission. Still, I was impressed with Rachel's neatness. I think mapping really appeals to us type-A personalities. Everything so neat and orderly.

Miriam and her map.

Cowen's map. Like I said--this was my kids' first time mapping. Cowen was a little disappointed with his map when he saw mine and Miriam's. He's a pretty neat kid by nature, so he knew his map wasn't quite right. I convinced him that it was fine for a first attempt BUT his next map would be loads better. I was also able to help him understand that the colors on maps help a person easily see where things are, so the colors have to be chosen carefully and kept in the right location.

Emeline's map.

My map.

After we finished our maps and hung them up on the wall, we practiced finding Japan on the globe. Good times.

Here are a few more books that we used that I liked.

First, An Illustrated History of Japan by Shigeo Nishimura. My kids thought the book was really boring until we hit WWII. However, I found it very useful because it was such a condensed version of Japanese history. I don't know much about Japanese history before WWII, so this book was great. My kids sat through it, but don't expect riveting. Just expect helpful.

Boys are gruesome little devils. The following two books really played to the gruesome factor and my son (and husband) loved them both. We didn't do any samurai activities to go along with the books, but there are plenty of samurai helmet crafts available online.

Real Samurai: Over 20 True Stories About the Knights of Old Japan! by Stephen Turnbull.

Samurai by Caroline Leavitt.

The following is a list of all the websites I used for the Japan unit:

http://japanesetranslator.co.uk/your-name-in-japanese/ (translates English names into Japanese characters)

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/flower_origami_for_kids.htm (I didn't do any origami with all the kids, but Miriam and her dad made a few flowers, a dog, and a Japanese girl in an kimono)

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/sadako_sasaki.htm I didn't end up doing anything with this story, but I loved it, and if I was more on top of things--I would have planned something special to go along with this girl's story.

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/japan_for_kids.htm If you scroll down the page far enough you find a youtube music video that helps you learn to count from 1-20 in Japanese. My kids and I stunk at it, but we watched it several times and had a lot of fun trying. I highly recommend.

http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/hh/goplaces/main/0,20344,555016,00.html This website has a ton of info about Japan in a child friendly format. It is a little tough to get all the kids situated so they can see the computer screen, but it was still fun and worth it. My kids especially liked listening to the Japanese words and taking the quiz.

http://homepages.sover.net/~johnd/schools.html This website has a bunch of pictures of kids at a school in Japan. I thought this was great because in Japan the kids help maintain their school buildings. Awesome. Also, we learned about a pianica--an instrument that is a mix of a harmonica and a piano. My children and I were fascinated by this new-to-us instrument so we spent 20 minutes watching youtube videos of people playing pianicas in bands and on street corners. My children also insisted we find out how much one would cost and if you can buy them in the States. You can. Amazon.com has several varieties.

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/japan_for_kids.htm And here is the website where I got most of my coloring type activities. It has a ton of ideas--way more than I used.

Also at the library (currently unavailable at Netflix) is a movie called Big Bird in Japan. I can't remember if I mentioned it before. It was a good movie because it was shot in Japan so my kids could get a sense of the countryside. If you have access to the Davis County Library System--you should check this movie out.

There you go--the rest of the Japan stuff.

Sayonara!

Japanese Writing

We did a lot with Japanese writing for this unit.

Not good Japanese writing, but our best efforts nonetheless.

Our first lesson in Japanese writing was taught by a new friend of mine--Sarah. She served a mission in Japan and was willing to show us how to write a few words.

Then, I found this website that translates English/American names into Japanese characters. Since I don't speak/write any Japanese, I cannot verify how accurate this translator is--but, it was sure fun to type in names and see what happened.

You can find the website for the translations here.

After we'd played with the translator for awhile, we printed off all the names in our family so we could practice writing them. (Cowen was unavailable--so we chose Kenny from the list of closest names since that is Cowen's grandfather's name.)

Small note--to print, I dragged the name itself to my desktop. You can't cut and paste into Word because Word won't recognize the letters and if you print the whole webpage you waste a ton of ink. There is a little help box to help you figure out how to print on the website.


Here's what my name looks like.

Here are my efforts to write my name.

After writing our names in Japanese for awhile, I sat the children on the couch and read them two books. The first is called The Art of Japan by Shirley Glubok. I don't really think that highly of this book. The pics are all black and white and the whole presentation is a little weak. However, I couldn't find much at the library so I was working with what I had. To my surprise, my children really liked the book. We didn't read it all, but we talked about the ways the Japanese artists brought in nature themes and tried to create a peaceful feeling. We also talked about Buddhism as a lot of the art is religious in nature. In short, although the book isn't great, it is still worth getting if you can't find something better.

In the art book, the author mentions calligraphy and includes several pictures of paintings that incorporate calligraphy.

Obviously, we had to try some of our own. Since I anticipated that, I also had another library book on hand called 1-2-3 Calligraphy! Letters and Projects for Beginners and Beyond by Eleanor Winters.

I didn't think the layout of the calligraphy book was that great either. However, it had the alphabet in several calligraphy styles and that is all we needed.

I can barely write legibly, let alone write beautifully. Here's my sad attempt.

It doesn't really matter, though, that my attempts were pitiful. It made the children feel better about their own attempts. Calligraphy is tough for little ones who are just learning to master basic penmanship. Despite the less than stellar results of our efforts, we certainly enjoyed making the effort!

Japan: Folk Tales

I took some time off blogging to celebrate my birthday weekend in style. On Saturday, we took the kids to the aquarium in Sandy to finish off our fish unit. I know--a little late. But, Christmas got crazy so better late than never.

Sunday was my birthday and Monday was a holiday.

Not much schooling got done.

However, we have been reading up a storm. You might like what I did with all these Japanese folk tales, or you might not. Whatever. Even if you don't use the books in the same way I did, some of them are DEFINITELY must-read books whether you are studying Japan or not.

The Boy of the Three-Year Nap by Dianne Snyder. Such a great book! I would say worth the inter-library loan fee. We loved it. (Clever, hard working.)

The Beckoning Cat: Based on a Japanese Folktale by Koko Nishizuka. This book wasn't profoundly great in a literary sense. However, it does explain why Chinese restaurants have all those waving cats everywhere. I've often wondered. My children loved this story and immediately wanted to draw/make beckoning cats of their own. Definitely worth the read. (Kind, generous, humble, polite, loyal to parents.)

The Crane Wife by Odds Bodkin. This was my least favorite of the stories we read. However, it is a good moral tale in that the protagonist does the wrong things and it ends up badly for him. A good read, but don't pay an interlibrary loan fee for it. (Selfless, keeps promises, loyal.)

GOLD STAR BOOK!!!!!!!!! Bokuden and the Bully by Stephen Krensky is by far the best of the books we read. My children loved it, I loved it, my hubby loved it. Read it!! (Humble, polite, clever.)

The Warrior and the Wise Man by David Wisniewski. This is a good story in that it has two main characters--one that makes good choices and one that does not. I like moral tales that compare the results of both choices. Besides, it was perfect for what we did with these stories. (Polite, humble, generous, clever.)

GOLD STAR BOOK!!! My children adored the book The Two Bullies by Junko Morimoto. Both of the characters were anti-heroes, and my kids giggled through the whole thing. Great "don't be like this" book. Very, very fun. (Courage, humility.)

The Samurai's Daughter by Robert D. San Souci. If you have a daughter, you definitely need to add this one to your mix. It is a Mulan type of tale--where the daughter acts with courage and grace and loyalty and all ends well. My daughter loved it. (Courageous, loyal, selfless.)

Okay--so what is up with all the words in ( )? While we read these books, we made a master list of the traits we felt Japanese people admire based on what happened to the characters in the books. We figured, if a character is brave and loyal and good things happen to that character in the end, then Japanese culture must approve of/respect those character traits. And the opposite for the anti-heroes in the books.

My children picked up on this very quickly. We read the first book and then talked about the main character. What did the main character do? Would you describe his/her actions as brave? What about humble? (We had to go over what humble means several times before my kids got it.) I introduced a lot of the descriptive words in the beginning to get the kids' juices flowing.

Then, with the second and third books we did the same thing. I wanted a nice little list before I did anything else.

With the fourth and subsequent books, I stopped after every few pages and asked the kids if they thought good or bad things were going to happen to the characters based on their behavior/character traits/choices. The kids were 100% accurate in their predictions. We also discussed which character traits the characters were demonstrating. As my children liked adding new character traits to the list, they paid a lot of attention to the stories and the characters' actions.

By the time we read The Two Bullies and The Samurai's Daughter (the last two we read and perfect sum-up books), the kids were quick to point out the a the two bullies were the opposite of good Japanese people and that the Samurai's daughter was a pretty much perfect example of a good Japanese person.

I recognize that you can do this with any books, but these Japanese folk tale books lend themselves perfectly to this activity.

Our completed list.