SOTW V2 Ch 8-12

On to China where we tried to eat with chopsticks... needs more practice for sure. And then to Japan where Mac helped me make fried rice (always a favorite in our house) and Osumashi (not so much a favorite except for the fact that we drank it from bowls).

Through Australia and France and back to the Muslims- this time in Spain. We had a Moorish feast (next time we will have to go all out feasting on pillows on the floor) but the Arroz con Pollo was good.

SOTW V2 Ch 7

Interesting to study Islam becoming an empire with how much of an impact it has made on history. We of course had to make the Ali Baba "Open Sesame" biscuits and read the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves to go along with it. They were pretty good I might add.

Mac also made a snake, known in the desert regions we studied.

October

Ellie has been great this year. Loving preschool and the October sensory bin is always popular.

Maleena is taking a Geography course at our co-op and had to do a presentation on Brazil. It was a perfect time since the Olympics are coming up this summer. She made even made a torch.

SOTW V2 Ch3-6

I think this will be a year of posts with food through history of the medieval ages. And one my kids ask for it over and over again. So this is a Monk's meal. We had lentil soup like the Romans and added in Split Pea soup- not a hit. We also had crusty bread, sliced cheeses, sliced apples and pears and apple cider to drink.

Then the history book bounces between different parts of the world history- Byzantine empire, what's going on in India and the start of Islam. So we made an edible oasis.

SOTW V2 Ch1-2

Story of the World Middle Ages.

Started out with Rome, which was right where we left off last year. And since Roman food was one of our favorites we started out with a cooking bang! First, we did sugar cookies shaped like columns.

Then we did one of our new favorites. A Roman citizen meal. We have lentil soup, cheese, bread, olives, grapes and salami (not sure if they had these but sounded good.)

And this year we added a new meal per the curriculum. The Roman soldier meal. Of course in true Washington fashion, as soon as we get ready to cook our meal over fire outside it starts pouring. And we are talking the kind of pouring that soaks to the bone. Plus our gutters all decided to not work at the same time, so daddy was out in the pouring down rain cleaning them out super fast. So, here we are inside cooking over a fire. Our Roman meal consisted of hot dogs (maybe not exactly true to form), roasted potatoes, carrots and biscuits. 

August 2015

I can't believe I'm starting year three of homeschooling. Mac is in second grade and this year I will be doing more preschool type work with Ellie since she is three. Wanted to get a jump on things since we are taking the second week of September for a last minute ocean trip.

Curriculum-wise here is what Maleena's work looks like:
Bible- Answers for Kids (3x)
Math- continuing with Horizons and extras from Blacklines (5x)
Handwriting- continuing and finishing Draw Write Now books (2x)
Art- Atelier 2 over the course of the year
Geography- continuing Evan Moor since co-op will have a geography class first semester
History- Story of the World 2 (2x)
Science- starting Apologia Astronomy (2x)
Spelling- continuing Reason for Spelling B (4x)
Language Arts- continuing with Language Smarts C (4x)
Writing- month into planning to do Here to Help Learning online (2x)
Critical Thinking- adding Building Thinking Skills (pages here and there)
Also adding cooking/puzzle/game time off and on.
And then GLE and Co-op classes plus starting volleyball in a month here.

Ellie's will be a lot from http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.net/. I will alternate the letter of the week for preschool plus a theme pack. Using the tray method, Ellie did great with the letter A. This week she dot painted, cut, put the puzzle together, painted, traced, among other things. The sensory items were fruit and all the little red animals from her animal bucket.

Here are some pictures from our first week.

 First day of second grade

First day of preschool

SOTW V1 Ch 26-42

Ch. 26 was a fun "hint" of what's coming up in the next few history books- The People of the Americas. For now we did a seep map and a Nazca line drawing along with a snack of tapioca (not too liked by the fam). Next time might do fry bread tacos- sounds so yummy! Waiting for a longer period of time studying this subject.

 Ch. 27-29 started the Roman Empire and we started with a Roman meal- my girls loved it! Lentil soup, bread, cheese, olives and grapes.

Ch. 30-31 India- did our nails and play tiger hunt, chutes and ladders, and indian battle.

Ch 33 Confucius- had mint tea, wasn't liked

Ch. 34 Rise of Julius Caesar- game in activity book

Ch. 35 Caesar the Hero- measure activity, introduced Roman numerals

Ch. 38 Jewish- dreidel game, potato pancakes

Ch. 40 Rome Weakens- Celtic feast (we just had one at the Medieval dinner on our Disneyland trip), online game with blog

Ch. 42 End of Rome- another Roman party/feast, online game from blog

SOTW V1 Ch 19-25

We made shields with cousin and Ellie in Chapter 19 about the Early Greeks. Mac decorated the Greek vase with tissue paper.

Definitely a two week lesson! Chapter 20- Greece Getting Civilized Again. From a suggestion from the blog, we made columns like the architecture of Greece with regular printing paper and to our surprise, it held 99 books! She also wrote her name in the Greek alphabet. Chose not to do the Olympic crafts since we did that the year before in school when the Olympics were on, but would do those for next time for sure! 

Made the Persian Ruler's silver plate which Mac decorated in Chapter 21 about the Medes and Persians. Also read through Esther for our devotion time.

Chapter 22 about Sparta and Athens, we wrote on the Athenian Wax Tablet (or shortening) and got tattooed. 

Chapter 23 about Greek Gods watched the Storyteller movie. Chapter 24 nothing extra for Wars of the Greeks. 

Chapter 25 Alexander the Great. Daddy explained the difference between the Bowline and Sheet Bend knots and how the Gordian know would have been so hard to untie that Alexander cut it. 

And of course during the course of this time we had our Greek dish of chicken souvlaki, pitas and Greek orzo salad. 

March

We marched on in March with Ellie playing doctor and of course our St. Patrick's Day rainbow meal with the fruit rainbow and corned beef and cabbage that our family loves. We also took an early field trip to the Tulip fields in Mt. Vernon since the weather has been so nice. Wasn't Ellie's favorite day...