The Story About Ping, FIAR and China

(2/20 – 2/24)  We rowed The Story About Ping and along the way studied China.  It was a fun week.  The boys really enjoyed Ping.  Here is what they commented on/we discussed throughout the week as we read:

• how many family members Ping had—Joe thought it was fun to add them all up.
• Repetition as used as a literary device in the story.  (We recalled repetition used in Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening too.)
• how some things look good upon first glance, but can actually be dangerous or a trap such as…the rice cake Ping thought was a yummy treat in the water, but was actually bait so the boat boy could capture him.  In our lives…strangers offering treats, drugs/cigarettes and so forth and the ways they are advertised but the harmful effects they have; media, etc.
• what a classic story is
• the fact that even though Ping did not want to get a spanking, in the end a spanking was far better than the feelings he experienced of loneliness, fear and being without his family.

We studied China and Joe completed the following notebooking pages:

Flag of China, report on a child from China from Children Like Me book.

I printed a couple pages from Enchanted Learning—one on the Chinese calendar and a map.  Joe loved seeing what ‘year of’ all of our immediate and extended family members were born in. 

He did a great job on this mapping page.  I didn’t have him label everything that was on it.  I thought it was too much for his grade level.  I had him do the basics and what I felt was most important.  He was able to do it without any help and actually enjoyed it.  I think I will do these as often as I can for him.  We studied giant pandas since that’s the national animal of China.  We read some neat panda books and learned a lot about them.  I knew very little about pandas and found them to be interesting.

Since tangrams play an important part in Chinese history I printed out a template, laminated and cut it apart for Joe.  We read a wonderful book called Grandfather Tang’s Story.  It made for lots of tangram making.  

While Joe made tangrams from Grandfather Tang, Jack and Jesse had fun with pattern blocks.  Jack actually used the cards and made the patterns just as they were pictured!  I was SO excited.  He usually shows no interest and just randomly places them on the card for a couple minutes and then throws them around the room—not fun.  This time he made card after card and asked to do them again later in the week.  This time it was Jesse’s turn to be uninterested after a couple minutes.  Here’s what he tried to do with the blocks.  I stopped him quickly when the tongue came out. But, Jesse did spend a lot of time and had real fun with the Animal Train Sort and Match.  This is one he’s asked for several times since.  Jack still enjoys it too. I finally bought a membership to More Starfall.  Jack has been playing the games in their free area for quite some time and I figured he’d enjoy it—he loves it!  It was definitely worth paying for.We had a Chinese dinner one night—homemade egg rolls, stir fry and fortune cookies.  Everyone enjoyed it—well, except Jesse, but he gave it a good try.  It was my first time making egg rolls.  They were so good!  I can’t wait to make them again.  The kids thought the fortune cookies were fun.Lastly, we watched a documentary on Netflix streaming about the Great Wall of China—Modern Marvels, The Great Wall of China.  I learned so much from this movie.  Hanna, Joe and I enjoyed it—even my history buff (Hanna) learned lots :-).

This was a fun week of homeschool.  We are currently in Maine and having fun this week too.  I am enjoying studying countries and states while we row books.  So far it seems to be working out very well.  Let’s hope I can say that a few months from now!

Ideas, inspiration and printables for China can be found at:

• Enchanted Learning – map of China and Zodiac signs of the Chinese calendar
• tangram printable
• Expedition Earth

A Pair of Red Clogs, FIAR, Japan (WK 2)

(2/13 – 2/17)  Our second week of studying Japan was spent rowing A Pair of Red Clogs by Masako Matsuno.  Once again, I thoroughly enjoyed this Five in a Row selection.  The FIAR selections for the most part are books I would have never discovered if I hadn’t been using the curriculum.  To me, most have been thought provoking and touching and the lessons from the manual are wonderful extensions of each book.  I am learning to look at books as I read them in a different way than before our FIAR journey and I hope my boys are too.  All three of the boys liked this book, but my Jack seemed to enjoy it the most.  He was zoned out each day while I read it.  Listening intently to each word.  He talked about the book all week and asked lots of questions about things here and there.

We continued to study about Japan’s culture, the different types of land found throughout Japan and touched on World War 2. 

Our main focus during this row was weather.  In the book, Mako, cracks her beautiful red clogs while playing the weather telling game.  She is very upset that her new, red clogs are now cracked and she purposefully dirties them to try and get another new pair.  She tells a lie in the process and feels very displeased and ashamed of herself immediately.  This book provided a week long discussion on telling the truth, being honest, taking care of what we have—lots of opportunities for conversation from this book.

We read the following books as go-alongs for our study about weather:

• Little Cloud
• It Looked Like Spilt Milk
• Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
• The Cloud Book
• Down Comes the Rain (Let’s Read and Find Out Science)

With the little boys I made Jack’s favorite puff paint and let them make clouds of their own after we read Little Cloud and Spilt Milk together.  They had a blast with it, both of them.  Even though it’s messy, this paint is so worth it just to see all the fun they have and the huge smiles on their faces.

With Joe, after reading several weather books together (mentioned above), we conducted two simple experiments about clouds, rain and evaporation.

In the first we simulated a body of water on a hot, sunny day—evaporation.

Next, we made a cloud by placing a pan full of ice over our pot of boiling water.

Finally, it rained.  Ours was more like a heavy drizzle, but it was enough for Joe to say, ‘it’s raining, it worked!’, and that was ok with me! 

We did one more experiment from our Usborne Science Activities book (Volume 1) on evaporation.  Joe wet two washcloths.  He placed one on a plate and the other in a ziploc bag.  I asked him what did he think they would feel like the next day?  He told me the one on the plate would be dry, but the one in the bag would still be wet.  Yay, Joe, you are exactly right!!  I asked him why again and he answered because the water in the cloth on the plate would go into the air, but the water from the cloth in the bag wouldn’t be able to get out and it would keep it wet.  He was also able to tell me this process was called evaporation when I asked him :-). 

We talked and read about typhoons, earthquakes and tsunamis.  These are all mentioned in Count Your Way Through Japan.  I thought it would be neat to learn about these natural weather/nature forces and Joe was interested.  

In A Pair of Red Clogs colored pencils are used throughout in all of the illustrations.  A technique is used with them called crosshatching.  I introduced this technique to Joe, talked about it a bit while looking at the pictures in the book and had him try it out on a Japanese scene I printed.  Joe’s favorite art medium is colored pencils so he enjoyed this a lot.  He wanted to add a circle sticker to the top left hand corner for the sun since (as he told me) Japan is the land of the rising sun.

I bought a little treat ‘from Japan’ at World Market for the kids called Pocky.  They are like little pretzel/biscotti type sticks dipped in different flavors.  I got milk chocolate.  They were cute little treats and tasted good too. I really enjoyed our time studying Japan and rowing our last two books!  It was relaxed and so much fun.  Next, we are moving along to China.

*Ideas, inspiration and printables for this row can be found at:

• Five in a Row Manual
• Homeschool Creations Japan Study (Japanese scene printable)
• Puff Paint recipe at No Time for Flash Cards
• Weather unit from Teachers Pay Teachers
• Expedition Earth from Confessions of a Homeschooler

Grandfather’s Journey, FIAR and Japan (WK 1)

(2/6 – 2/10)  This week we rowed Grandfather’s Journey by Allen Say.  I loved this book.  It was very touching.  It is a story spanning generations and told by a grandson as the title suggests.  Joe picked up on so many things in this book that I never thought he would by looking at the illustrations as I read.  I was surprised and pleased by his perceptions.

We studied Japan while we rowed this book.  Joe located it on the map each day, we talked about it’s culture and some of the customs.  From illustrations in the book you are able to see the dress and the way some Japanese homes are constructed.  Joe completed a couple pages including fun facts from Japan, the Japanese flag and a notebooking page using the book Children Like Me.  We both like reading from this book.

We enjoyed reading books about Japan.  One in particular, Count Your Way Through Japan, was very informative.  From this book Hanna helped Joe use a brush and ink to write numbers 1-10 in Japanese. 

Hanna’s:

Joe’s:

We studied about Mt. Fuji.  I thought this would be a fun time to finally make a volcano from salt dough.  I’ve wanted to do this since we began homeschool, but we just never have.  It was so much easier than I’d envisioned.  We were not able to erupt it Saturday like planned because it rained.  Planning to this coming Saturday.  I will post a video when we do.  Hanna helped Joe make it and then, Joe painted it himself later in the week.  He was so excited while making and painting it.  Both he and Hanna can hardly wait to erupt it.

I taped an empty Ragu jar to the middle of a cut down cardboard box.

I mixed up two batches of salt dough.  Hanna and Joe shaped the volcano around the jar.

It took a few days to dry.  When it was dry Joe painted it.  It turned out great! 

We learned what origami is and tried our hand at several simple ones.  I could not find Joe’s origami creations by the time I got around to taking pictures.  He couldn’t either.  I think one of our little ‘helpers’ got a hold of them.  Here are the three I made.  It was fun!  I could have made lots more.  I am not usually patient enough to make things like this with my hands, but I enjoyed this.

We learned about the Itsukushima Shrine and Joe made it’s red entrance gate (the Torii gate) from Play Doh.

While Joe made his Torii gate, Jack and Jesse had some fun with Play Doh too.  This was the week that I tried to get them to do some letter of the week fun and they both protested.  Jack told me it was boring :-).  Maybe I’ll try it later on down the road with them and maybe not.  I have no idea.  For now, I know without a doubt all three boys love Five in a Row and look forward to it far more than I’d realized, so I am thankful they enjoy it and enjoy time with me while we row our books.

Here are a few pictures of Jack making his Play Doh letter Aa’s on ‘Aa’ mat.  He did SO good!  He actually liked this part of our letter Aa fun.

He did a lot better with his grip too using some triangular crayons.  But…he did not enjoy tracing letters.  He’s not ready for this ‘heavy’ stuff yet.  I will wait on him and I am happy to have peace of mind about this.

It was a very fun week.  I enjoyed learning about Japan a whole lot.  So much that I decided we’d stay in Japan for another week and finish off our studies while rowing A Pair of Red Clogs.  Stay tuned for that very soon!

Inspiration, ideas and materials I used for Grandfather’s Journey:

• Homeschool Creations Japan studies
• Expedition Earth
• Homeschool Creations Play Doh mats
• Origami
• Volcano recipe (original idea from Homeschool Creations Japan studies)