ASIMO Robot & Egypt

Have you all met ASIMO? http://asimo.honda.com/ Mane and I were reading more about Japan - about how they eat a lot of fish and rice, and they're know for being the world leaders in robot technology. We discovered ASIMO, which is a humanoid robot made buy Honda, and we happily spent about an hour reading and watching youtube videos of ASIMO. This led to long conversations of whether robots can really "think" and how difficult it is to program things like walking.



We also read chapter 2 of Story of the World about early Egypt, the red crown, the white crown, and the double crown. We found Egypt, the Nile river, and the Nile delta on the world map, too. Today we'll read some supplementary books about Egypt and add some things to the history binder about Egypt.

Next week Mane will be staying with her grandparents while we go to Mexico. So, Peregrin House will be kind of quiet. I think they'll do some math & reading together and probably check out some of the library books from the library book bag in our living room about Egypt & Valentine's Day.

Swiff Mopping, Math, Japan, and a Bible Verse

Yesterday Mane practiced "mental math" while I "swiff mopped" the kitchen, bathroom & entry. Mental math means I told her math problems, and she worked them out in her head. She's finished lesson 20 in MUS, but we're reviewing this week to solidify concepts. So, she was answering things like, "What's 8 minus 6?" or "What's 3+2+5+4?" We're working on keeping more numbers in her head at a time. It's good brain exercise!

Now, "swiff mopping" just means mopping with the swiffer mop. Yes, I know how wasteful swiffers are, and I just can't bring myself to care right now. I discovered the swiffer when we moved into this house, and I can't tell you how enormously it helps with cleaning. Mango can tell you that I hate cleaning floors more than anything else. I'd rather wash dishes, do laundry, clean the bathroom sink, shine windows...anything but clean floors and vacuum. The swiffer has helped me with that, and now I clean floors a little less begrudgingly. In any case, Mane LOVES the swiffer and has been begging to "swiff mop" everything. So, after the mental math exercise, I let her swiff mop her own room. She dutifully piled all her stuff in the entryway and cleaned her floors. It was a precious sight to see. ;) And she did a great job.

After swiff mopping, we looked up that fabulous kid's website on Japan again, and we read about Japanese houses. Mane drew a Japanese house in her school notebook, and she played a game placing all the special items in their rightful place in a Japanese house. She also took a little online quiz about Japanese culture to be sure she'd been listening to all that reading. We're really enjoying Japan!

Finally, Mane has been having some significant trouble sleeping at night. I think it's related to the anxiety in our house right now (read my other blog, The Midnight Cafe, if you want to know about that). So, I decided to get her started memorizing some Bible verses to comfort her at night. Yesterday she started with Psalm 23:1, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want." We talked about what that verse means, looked at some pictures of shepherds caring for sheep, and wrote the verse out on an index card. Last night she took the index card to bed with her. She said, "Well, I can't really read it in the dark, but I know what it says," and she slept like a dream.

Grandfather's Journey & The Inauguration

Last week we started rowing Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say. The story is set partly in Japan. So, we put a marker on the world map in Mane's room on the country of Japan, and Mane drew a Japanese flag in her school notebook.

Today we found this incredible website for kids about Japan: Kids Web Japan. Mane played around with the virtual kimono game after we read all about kimonos, and she is currently drawing a kimono in her school notebook. She learned that very long sleeves mean that a woman isn't married, and that certain types of kimonos are worn for certain types of occasions.

Yesterday Mane made a "cave drawing" on a paper bag using a charcoal pencil after we looked around at cave drawings and paintings by prehistoric people on the internet. Of special interest was this website: The Cave of Lascaux. The website has a virtual tour if the cave of Lascaux in France.

Last, but certainly not least, we watched the presidential inauguration this morning.



We talked about how Obama made his oath or "promise" on the Bible that Lincoln used and how that was significant because Lincoln was president during the Civil War when the black people were freed from slavery. We talked about all the things the Obamas would be doing today, including Barack Obama beginning his work as president right now today, even though he just became president today. Mane asked some questions about the White House and where the White House and Capital are located.

Aside from all the big thematic stuff, we continue to do reading & math, as usual. :)

Magnet Board!!

Today we played around a bunch more with the magnet board. We've essentially gone through lesson 73 in the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. Mane was already familiar with silent "e" and most of the two-letter words. She read the first Bob Book from set C, also, which begins working with silent "e" words and a few more sight words.

It seems that the magnet board is really the way to go. Mane has always been a kinesthetic learner. So, it's no surprise that manipulating letters on a board is both more fun for her and helps her to learn better. She can stick with a lesson a lot longer, too.



Here she is working on a food pyramid:


And our timeline:


The trouble is that now we need the timeline to go way, WAY back, and we only went back to A.D.!

In keeping with our studies of nomads & ancient culture we read the book One Small Blue Bead by Byrd Baylor today:


It's the story/poem of a boy who volunteers to take over the work of an older man in his tribe while the man goes off to look for other tribes of people. The boy's tribe doesn't believe other people exist, but the boy dreams of there being other people out there. There's quite a bit of historical information in the story about hunting and nomadic life. It was a fitting read for our current studies.

Ancient People, Ancient Food

On Tuesday, as I mentioned we would, we took a look at the food pyramid after talking about what the first people on earth probably ate. I printed blank food pyramids for Mane, and she's been keeping track of what she eats.

Then, over the last few days we've done some reading from these books:
Food by Piero Ventura


What We Eat: A First Look at Food by Sara Lynn & Diane James


It's Disgusting and We Ate It by James Solheim


We especially recommend It's Disgusting and We Ate It. This book takes a look at what people have eaten over time, and what people still eat in various places throughout the world. Mane says, "It was a really funny book." We learned that a pound of roasted spiders has many times more protein than a pound of beef!

Today, I read Mane the first two chapter of Ancient Agriculture: From Foraging to Farming by Michael Woods and Mary B. Woods.



This has been a fascinating read so far. Mane just finished telling Vespera how people used to store meat under water before there was electricity for freezers, and some modern scientists did an experiment to see how well this method kept meat compared to freezers. They found that the meat kept just fine in autumn, winter, and spring. In the summer it got a little funky, but it was still safe to eat.

In the world of reading & math...

Mane & I have been using the magnetic letters on her portable magnet board to work on phonics concepts from The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. This works better for her than working directly from the book. We're somewhere around lesson 65 (not going to go look right now). I anticipate moving through these a little more quickly now, as she understands many of the upcoming phonics rules already. She continues to read early readers from the library for practice. Yesterday she read Spots by Marcia Leonard, which is an early reader by "Real Kids Readers."

Today was the beginning of math lesson 20. I think she's going to need to sleep on this one, but she's still moving along well.

I'm still reading The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe aloud to Mane, as she requested in December. And we continue to "have a meeting the the calendar" most days to talk about days, weeks, months, and ordinal numbers.

Math, Reading & Nomads

The title about covers it! Mane watched the DVD for math lesson 19 yesterday, did one practice page, and took the test today. She's amazing. Then she read me a book called Bears, Bears Everywhere by Rookie Readers and played with her bears for a loooooooong time.

Later in the day we started reading Story of the World. We finished chapter 1, which we had already read when we first bought the book last year. I was amazed at how much Mane remembered from the first reading. I guess she found it interesting! I asked her the review questions out of the activity book to be sure she understood the story. Then she colored a map of the fertile crescent. We defined the words "fertile" and "nomad."

Not much else to say. Today we'll be covering more about what the nomads and early people ate and then talking about the food pyramid.

New Year

I'm sitting here tonight in my big green chair next to the fireplace making plans for the new year. We're somewhere around halfway through first grade...whatever that means...and there are some new things we're getting ready to start. Mane's grandparents very graciously gave us the activity guide that accompanies Story of the World for Christmas, and, so, we're going to slowly begin walking our way through history...chronologically. Until now we've hit on a variety of historical facts and persons - presidents, the first airplanes, Laura Ingalls Wilder, 4th of July, various saints (Valentine & Patrick, for example), the pilgrims & the Mayflower, Jamestown, slavery & the civil war. Now we're getting ready to begin at the beginning. We'll still be rowing books and talking through the historical events surrounding the books. Story of the World will just be a new addition to the weekly studies.

Alongside those things, we're planning to spend more time in Bible stories, Spanish, and poetry. Fridays have been deemed "hot chocolate day" at our house. I think we'll begin reading poetry, doing some artwork, and listening to classical music along with our hot chocolate! I'm excited for that. Yum. Nourish the body, nourish the soul.

Today I also procured tickets to a Sweet Honey in the Rock concert for us! Someone from ECHO organized a "field trip" to the concert for Minneapolis homeschoolers. We've been listening to Sweet Honey in the Rock since Mane was little, and she's also seen a DVD of one of their performances. They are incredible performers, and they encourage lots of audience participation in their concerts. The concert isn't until March. So, we'll be listening to lots of their music and preparing to go later on this winter. Come to think of it, we'll be right in the middle of following the Iditarod just then. What a crazy juxtaposition of studies we'll be having. Yikes. It's a wild ride.

Also, later this month we'll be going to the MN Orchestra concert "The Bernstein Beat." We have enjoyed MN Orchestra concerts so thoroughly that we tell everyone about them now. So, please, if you're interested, go check out: Young People's Concerts with the MN Orchestra. There are still shows with tickets available. You don't need a group to go. Homeschoolers are totally welcome!

Finally, we'll be preparing Mane this month to spend a week with her grandparents in February, as we'll be traveling to Mexico with Vespera for him immigration interview at the consulate. Yes, I consider this part of her education. We'll be talking lots about grandparents & what special people they are, how many days we'll be gone and how to read the calendar, and how we can pass the time apart from each other.