Fall in Focus

Little by little we are moving forward with history. Ancient Chinese history is particularly interesting because China and India's riches were the motivating power for the rise of imperialistic Europe. We start with fictional stories which contain sufficient real information to tie to more serious readings I weave in as the month progresses. Thus we started with "Adventures in Ancient China". The story is silly, but the important thing is that the characters are familiar and the format is fabulous. The characters are reading a book which takes them to experience the life during the time of the Hans dynasty. The travel guide reads like a textbook, but the kids are seeing with their own eyes, what archaeologists work hard to deduce. It's fabulous. Since the story referred to the Great Wall of China, I opened up the "The Great Wall of China" by Fisher book which I find quite well written and appropriate for my audience. Last week we visited the Field's museum and walked through an exhibit about China. Funny enough, we tied things we saw at the Ancient Egypt and the Vikings exhibits, to things we read about Ancient China. Example is the fact that when the smaller kingdoms were united they were quite different-used different money, different measures, etc-and this made the governance of the united entity difficult. We saw examples of different measures and money in the other exhibits and the kids understood that.

 We also briefly went back to picture books. Since we saw a Mammoths and Mastodons exhibit at the Fields museum last week, I figured it will be appropriate to read something, somewhat related. This is the silliness that I found in the library catalog. Nothing memorable, really, not by any stretch of the imagination even good, but otherwise, super easy, free flowing, and light in spirit, that I really did not mind reading these pair aloud one bit.


Here are the jams of the month. The adorable bear, a real bear. A real bear, a real boy, a real veterinarian. And then a real gorilla, mistreated by men, and then loved by men. The kids were saddened by both, but also left hopeful with the knowledge that something good happened. A war ended and a book for many was written. A resilient gorilla survived beyond anyone's wild expectations and taught people about the wild.  We will read the story "The one and only Ivan" after we acquaint ourselves with Leakey and Jane Goodall.

We are moving well along.

Soccer season is almost over and we are taken a two week break from sports activities before gymnastics begins! I am excited about gymnastics. It will carry us through the end of January.