History is Alive :: Sumo Wrestling and Wind Poems

Since my planning for more history projects we've actually been able to accomplish the more hands-on learning that the boys LOVE into our days. In our lesson time we learned about the Warlords of Japan. Once Japan had a Tokugawa Shogunate, the leader wanted to find a way for the samurai to fight and compete without killing each other and continuing to start wars. So he introduced Sumo.

The activity book gave great descriptions of the symbols and traditions of sumo wrestling and we turn our living room into a dojo to have our own tournament.

   

We also wrote wind poems, though the boys just couldn't come up with actual poems to write...note to work on poetry later. We wrote wishes on our streamers and hung them out in the wind.

History is Alive :: Eye of Newt Soup

After my post last week I implemented my new plan and I think it's going to work. The boys were all so happy when we had not one but TWO projects to go with our lessons last week. Now that I'm actually doing history "projects", I guess calling them hands-on learning would be better, I feel the need to catch up and actually blog about the projects we did do towards the beginning of the year.

Eye of Newt Soup

I LOVED this idea when I came upon it in the activity book. The ingredients went along with a reading from MacBeth. The boys talked about it for weeks.

This whole MacBeth reading and Eye of Newt Soup came from our lesson on Shakespeare and his contribution to history in his poetry and plays. It was a fun lesson with a few extras from the library, there are so many retellings of Shakespeare's plays written for children. I was really excited to find so many that brought the poetry down to the boys' level.

We also made up baggies of all the ingredients and took them to #1 and her friends when we picked them up from school. I read the girls the same selection from the activty book and the boys shared how each part fit in the story. It was a lot of fun!

History is Alive :: Elizabethan Buildings

Catching up here with a history lesson we did at the beginning of the year...look how beautiful and sunny it is outside! Though it must have been October since that's when #2 covered nearly every surface with drawings of super heros and Halloween costume ideas.

Anyway...

We covered Queen Elizabeth in our history lessons and talked about how much her people loved her. One way they showed their love of their queen was to design buildings in the shape of an E. The boys each drew their own E building. They didn't turn out the way I had envisioned but the boys got into it for a little bit and enjoyed their own hand at building design.

History is Alive :: Well, I want it to be...maybe in 2013

#4 demonstrating that possibly my first history project wasn't as well thought out as it should have been.

If you think blogging has taken a hit this year, ask #3 what he thinks of history. Every time I bring everyone together telling them we are going to have a history lesson #3 asks if it is a project history lesson.

Oh, I've disappointed him in this area over and over this year so far.

The other years I had a much better handle on activities to go with our history lessons. I'd say I was hitting about once a week with a recipe or small project and even some big projects that gave us a tangible aspect to the book reading, map coloring and narrations we do.

I've been trying to figure out what the difference was/is... What made me pull out the glue or the clay or the strange ingredients?

Fried plantains from our African feast dinner.

The baby? I thought of that...but #5 was this age when we started homeschooling in the first place and with two naps a day and a pretty easy going attitude right now, I don't think she's to blame.

The two-year-old? That's a good guess...and probably closer to the answer. He's so busy. He's so distructive. He's so demanding of all the attention and difficult to distract. But he also takes a nap everyday and timing history for nap time is easy, so I don't think that's it exactly.

Planning...ding, ding, ding!

History planning and knitting...always a good pair.

The past years I've gone through the book prior to school starting and make an overview plan including projects I want to do and supplies I will need to get.

I didn't do that planning this year. I will admit that the planning process is fun and I've liked that part. Then school starts and we start to get behind in my "plans" and I'm trying to re-figure what we're going to do. So this year I thought I'd skip the planning part and would just "go with the flow". Apparently I don't "go with the flow" very well.

But I think I can come up with a compromise. I'm thinking I should just do a broad, overview plan for just a couple of months. That way I'm not behind before I start. But I've got to get a plan in place and figure out some fun activities or history won't be alive in the school of Wiedz...I'll be having a 6 year old who refuses any history lessons!

**This year we are using The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, Volume 3: Early Modern Times and the accompanying activity book. I have really enjoyed the Story of the World series and even though I'd love to move to a more unit study approach to history I want #2 and #3 to have a complete round of narrations and pictures and maps and experiences from this method. Next year we will complete the four-year round and after that I'll move to a unit study approach for #2's second round through the four-year cycle.

This year we are going to spend the month of February going a little more in depth to the revolutionary war. We get to it in the SOTW3 but I want to take a little while to really enjoy it. I've got big plans to make this a fun as I can...I'll try to keep you posted!

History is Alive :: Aztec Hot Chocolate

In our history travels we made it to the early America Kingdoms. We covered the Mayans of Central America, the Aztecs and their city of Tenochtitlan, and the Incas. There were a lot of activities I wanted to cover in this chapter, but I just couldn't do it all! #2 and I did some Mayan mathematics, using Mayan numbers. He's my math guy so he thought this was pretty cool. 

But as a group we made Aztec hot chocolate. The Aztecs often put spices in their cocoa mixture so that's what the recipe from the activity book called for. I served ours with a scoop of whipped topping to help boost the sweetness. It didn't really work, the mugs looked quite similar to the bottom picture when we were done, just with melted whipped topping...no one really enjoyed their Aztec hot chocolate. It was interesting though and fun to try something new.

History is Alive :: Battle Flags

I'm was thinking July may have to be the month I catch up...but it looks like it'll take me all summer since I don't even write up my catch-up posts as often as I intended! I looked over my list of things I wanted to write about, share here, document and remember. I'm behind. I always say {at least to myself} that I will be more consistent. Perhaps it just is what it is and I won't worry about it but with no journal and no scrapbook, this space is where I keep track of most of our goings-on...so I'll catch up.

We are in the heat of summer, which I really don't like, last year we started school by now just so we could be inside instead of out in the heat. I'm trying to get ready for the school year still, haven't bought books yet. Haven't gotten the room ready. I'm making lists but at this point I think they are just making me overwhelmed instead of helping anything. But school will start whether I've gotten everything on my list done or not, whether the pinterest (go ahead and follow me - I find some cool things) ideas stay on my board or make it into my actual school and whether I feel ready or not.

Now, here's a post about our battle flags all the way from April...

We talked about France and England at war in our history lesson. This included Joan of Arc. During the wars the soldiers fought under a battle flag so we drew our own battle flags. The activity booksuggested picking a symbol that represents you. We just drew ours on water color paper that I cut up into smaller pieces, I wanted them to be substantial and compact so they would be purposeful about what they drew.

#2 couldn't decide on one element so he decorated both sides and they both fit him *so* well! A scene from Mario Bros and a baseball diamond. I love how they both turned out and the time and effort he put into them.

#4's. I have no idea what it is anymore. He might have told me...hopefully I wrote it down somewhere so when I put them into the scrapbook I can write it down. It is cute though...just like him.

#3's I can't remember anymore either. Though it looks like his sketch has a bit more detail. Drawing isn't really his thing but he tried hard and I love it.

Mine, tee hee, a book, my kids and knitting. The things I enjoy.

Byzantine Crosses

I'm thinking July may have to be the month I catch up. I looked over my list of things I wanted to write about, share here, document and remember. I'm behind. I always say {at least to myself} that I will be more consistent. Perhaps it just is what it is and I won't worry about it but with no journal and no scrapbook, this space is where I keep track of most of our goings-on...so I'll catch up.


We are in the thrills of summer with absolutely no routine, which I think can only last a couple more weeks before I go crazy, and school work in few and far between moments. But I bring you a project from all the way back in March (!).


Byzantine Crosses









We learned that Byzantine artists used egg yokes to bind the pigments of their paints. We tried our own painting with egg yoke based paint by painting on sugar cookie dough. And enjoyed an afternoon treat of beautiful and delicious snacks!

History is Alive :: The Silk Road

The boys and I explored the mysterious East in our history lessons a few weeks ago (well, it might be a couple of months ago now).

We started at the Taklamakan Desert with our heads covered to protect our heads from the extreme heat and sun.

A stop at an oasis in the Gobi Desert for water.

A float down the Yellow River using a yard stick for a boat oar.

We traveled the silk road just like explorers from Europe might have to find gold (chocolate coins), spices, ivory (old frosting containers), and exotic animals (an assortment of our own stuffed animals).

History is Alive :: Chinese Lanterns

We went back east in our history study and talked more about the mongols and the khans. We made another set of Chinese lanterns for this part of our study. We added them to our classroom celing. I love these lanterns and how colorful it makes our room look.

History is Alive :: Pilgrim's Badges

I was really looking forward to getting to the Crusades in our history book. I, of course, knew about the Crusades a little bit. But I also knew it wasn't the best time in history and I wondered how the book would cover it. I thought they did a great job. Just right for the ages I've got and we read some read-along books which provided some additonal "sides" of the story and gave us some things to discuss. Our craft that went along with our chapter was pilgrim badges. We have read a little bit of The Canterbury Tales so we had a vauge idea of "going on a pilgrimage". We read a bit more from our book, decided which badge we'd like from the Activity Book, colored it and wore them. Even #5 needed a badge on his shirt. They were so cute. My friend came over later that day and when #2 started telling her about his badge and why people wore them she decided he knew more history than her. *smile*

History is Alive :: Viking Bread

I love when there is a recipe to tie in with our lessons. I almost always chose cooking something with the kids and learning about cultures or times or areas through the food. So of course we made Viking bread. Ours was quite a bit different than the Vikings would have done though. My little market (read connivence store) didn't have whole wheat flour so we had to use all white but we did have oatmeal so that was inside and outside our bread. We also couldn't cook it in a wood burning oven like they would have but it made a great addition to our dinner. The boys noticed the crustier outside, everyone thought it was good bread and kneading bread is always fun! Yay, Vikings!

History is Alive :: Viking Longboats

I was right. History is now in England, with Viking invasions and castles and kings and all that fun stuff. We started with learning about Vikings and how they did things differently. How they went exporing and how their boats could come right up to land. The activity book had templates for making our own Viking longboats, who could resist?