Week 25 School Work....

We continued our same routine as last week for Bible, math, geography, languages, and extra activities.  My son took a prize in his health class this week for highest number of points earned on a human body quiz, and he was excited about that. 

In Language Arts, we began working through adjectives in Easy Grammar.  He did some copywork and a couple of short state reports to finish up his geography workbook.  He had a short paper due for his outside class, as well as answers to questions about the last half of the book they were reading (A Year Down Yonder).  He reworked his paper from last week, as well.  For next week, they're starting on The Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.  I know that he's read this before and it's a simple book, but they're using it to do some art history related research and papers about the Met and its collections, so I'm okay with that....

He started his chemistry lab!  It's three hours, once per week. and they're using an AP high school chemistry lab book.  I'm excited for him.  At home he did a chapter on metals in Tiner and finished up his Atom workbook by completing the pages pertaining to metals. 

In history this week, we spent the first part of the week looking at the Qing Dynasty of China during the late 1700's - early 1800's, including the Opium Wars.  We didn't focus too much this time around on the Taiping Rebellion.  During the latter part of the week, we began looking at Napoleon and his reign.

Here are some of the books we've used, in part, this week in addition to our anchor books:

China from Manchu to Mao, John Roberson; Nations of the World China, Catherine Field; People's Republic of China, Kim Dramer; Calliope: Qing Dynasty.


   
http://www.cobblestonepub.com/issue/CAL0412.html?x=6.74104118347170825767001141416431

Some Kings and Queens, R. J. Unstead; The Battle of Waterloo, David Pietrusza (used for background info chapters as we will be studying the end of Napoleon later); Cobblestone 30 Greatest American Events (re: The Louisiana Purchase).

                http://www.cobblestonepub.com/book/COB1005.html

We also read another little book about the Louisiana Purchase that purported to be part of a "primary source series".  I think that's becoming a by-word for schools now.  It was written so abysmally poorly (think Dick and Jane) that I won't even mention it.  I had to edit and reword as I read because it was so bad.....  I've never had this happen before!  I'm afraid that as my library continues to clear out all books written before 1980, there will no longer be any choices other than books like this one....

My son read some simple little books:

Lady White Snake, a Tale from Chinese Opera, Aaron Shepard (w/ notes on Chinese opera and the story); The Legend of the Panda, Linda Granfield (w/ info on the Panda); My Napoleon, Catherine Brighton.



Both of the Chinese related books are illustrated by Song Nan Zhang.  We had read his book entitled The Children of China and liked his illustrations a lot, which is why we checked these out.

My Napoleon is the true story of a little girl who befriended Napoleon while he was exiled on St. Helena....

He read two chapters in SOTW and outlined one section.  We got caught up on some mapwork for the past few topics.

I started another read aloud:

An Innocent Soldier, Josef Holub, about a young boy drafted into Napoleon's Grand Armee.



Today we had a homeschool lab at Frazier International History Museum.  They always do a good job with those.  This one was about Lincoln and while we're not going to study the Civil War era until next year, I didn't want to miss out on it (gas prices may be too high next year for us to take field trips, LOL).  We got to see a short play prepared by the re-enactors there for the Lincoln celebrations a couple of years ago.  It was excellent!  They based it completely on primary source documents regarding Booth's life.  They also always prepare a scavenger hunt of the galleries for items that pertain to our subject for the day.  This time, they also had an interactive guide prepared for the international gallery.  We also got to see a re-enactment of a Buffalo Soldier who served in Cuba before we left for the day.

http://www.fraziermuseum.org/exhibitions/american-history/

http://www.fraziermuseum.org/exhibitions/royal-armouries/

Next month, they are going to go behind the scenes to explore all the different types of museum careers that are available.  I really wanted to see that one - but Cincy convention is going on at the same time and I need.to.buy.books....  So I guess my husband is going to take him, unless I change my mind....

Regena