Ancient India Block

Wow, we had a really busy second semester, and I just didn’t have the time to blog about it!  Before we get back into it in September, I wanted to record a bit of what we did.  Our two main blocks for the semester were Ancient India and Ancient Greece.  First up, our Ancient India Block.  Lots of stories, myths, and art in this one!  The Peeps really enjoyed submerging themselves in the culture of India.  The Mahabharata for Children and Bhagavad-Gita.  They memorized the Gayatri Mantra, and learned to write their names in Sanskrit.  We learned about Hinduism and Hindu gods and goddesses, as well as the religion of Buddhism and the life of Siddhartha.  We also studied discoveries in math and science from this time and place in history.  It was a rich and satisfying study!

Some chalkboard drawings for copywork…

Chalkboard Mandala

Karma Spiral (apologies for the poor quality!)

And some excerpts from their Main Lesson Books:

Here are a few of links we found useful:

Science, Medicine & Technology in Ancient India

India & Astronomy

India’s Great Civilization- Gr. 6

More Astronomy in Ancient India

Sanskrit Alphabet

The Bhagavad Gita for Kids

The Gayatri Mantra

Ancient India Plan of Study Gr. 6

 

Next up, Ancient Greece!  I hope to get to that this weekend. Stay tuned.

Catching Up

Well, we’ve been on a bit of a hiatus!  Though we officially started back with schoolwork this week, I haven’t quite put everything together to do a weekly report.  Instead I wanted to check in and post a few pictures from our 2010 Yule celebration.  This year we made cranberry, popcorn, and peanut garlands to hang on the bird feeders in addition to preparing a solstice cave and enjoying our delicious Midwinter Bread.  Here are some highlights:

Bounty for the Birds

Midwinter Bread

New Additions for Our Winter Nature Table

Solstice Cave

I love the simplicity of litte brown paper parcels, wrapped with pretty yarn

Festive Back Porch

Courtyard Entrance in Back of House, Decked Out for Yule!

Bringing Home the Yule Tree

 

Hard to believe we had absolutely NO snow on the ground on the solstice!  This was our solstice cave last year:

But we’ve more than made up for it since; there is at least a foot on the ground at the moment.  Anyway, that’s it for now; I’ve also updated the Needles page with current projects and pictures of some of my Yule gifts.  Hope everyone’s Holidays were merry and bright!

Weekly Report 12.10.10

This review is either reeeeeeaaally early or reeeeeeeaaaally late, depending on how you look at it.   Anyway, we are finishing up this week and preparing for Winter Break.  The Peeps have really enjoyed this Native American block.  They wanted to continue right through to break, so that’s what we did.  Tomorrow is our last “official” day of the semester, but we’re planning on finishing up some things –not doing anything new.  So it’s safe to say were done and show some examples of the last part of the block:

We learned about Native American moons and created our own calendars.  Each month we marked the full moons with their names, and drew a picture to illustrate:

March- The Full Sap Moon

January- The Full Wolf Moon

We learned about the Iroqouis tribe as we spent the last couple of weeks reading and illustrating tales from The Boy Who Lived With Bears and Other Iroquois tales.

"The Boy Who Lived With Bears" (and copywork page)

Two Native American Poems (copywork)

 

"How Birds Got Their Feathers"

Peep #2

Peep #1

A book report from Peep #2 on the novel Birchbark House, and one from Peep #1 on the book Black Elk’s Vision.  Also some Eastern Woodland tribal designs that they copied from my chalkboard drawing.  We used these symbols to make a Pequot game called “Hub-bub”:

MLB snapshot

 

My Chalkboard Drawing (sorry for the poor quality!)

Sawing the chips for Hub-bub

Peep #1's Turn

The Finished Game!

This game is actually fun– the Peeps have played it several times since we made it.  I think it will get a lot of use!

We read a story about corn– “How Corn Came to Be” (Earthschooling) and had a corresponding form drawing lesson:

We also tried our hands at making simple tools like the ones we’d seen at the museum:

Simple Tools

And finally, we ended our block with making basic dream catchers!

Dream Catchers

Peep #2 was learning about square roots in her Math lesson this week, and I came up with this idea to help her remember.  It worked!

Square "Roots"

This would have been a great tie-in to the Botany Block!

More math for Peep #2 (Peep #1 continued with his Saxon):

Tanagrams- she created the design with her pieces and copied.

Geometry Lesson

And finally– since we’re spending so much time on verb tenses for grammar and it can be a little dry, I had them create “verb tense suns” to help them practice the infinitive form and various tenses.  Here’s an example:

Verb "Suns"

That’s about it!  Since we are off until January, I won’t be posting weekly reports, but I do plan to post now and then on the different crafty things we’re working on for the holidays.  Hope everyone is enjoying this wonderful time of year!

Wordless Wednesday 12.1.10- Bell, Book, & Candle

Ready for School!

Two Week Review, 11.19.10

Busy couple of weeks!  Our little cat Luna came home with a broken leg a couple of weeks ago and that has been taking up a lot of our time.  We’re also nursing a sick hen… when it rains, it pours!  But here’s a little taste of what we’ve been up to in our Native American block:

Still reading lots of stories and making illustrations:

Thirteen Moons on Turtle's Back

Should be, "The First StrawberrIES"!

The turtle activity didn’t come out as I’d hoped.  The crumpled paper is supposed to give the illusion of water.  To me it just looks like, well… crumpled paper!

We also read about Sitting Bull:

Sitting Bull

And explored the world of Navajo blankets in conjunction with their weaving projects.  Peep #1 sketched out a design he’d like to try.  A bit advanced at the moment, but he’ll get there!

Navajo Blanket Design

We’ve been reading/listening to Native American poetry:

From Thirteen Moons on Turtle's Back

More Poems...

 

And for copywork writing about different culture areas:

Native Americans in the Northwest

Learned more about sage and its healing properties:

Sacred Sage

The Peeps also made wrapped feathers for smudging.  Plenty of chicken feathers in the hen house to choose from!  The ends were wrapped in leather cord:

Wrapped Feathers

We discovered the meaning of many of our local landmarks (streets, rivers, towns, etc) and learned a few words in the Pequot language.

Peep #2's Sun and Moon

Pumpkins and other squash were vital to Native American culture in our area (along with beans and corn), so Peep  #2 used pastels to draw a whimsical pumpkin patch in her art class this week:

Pumpkin Patch

On Thursday we went on a field trip to our local Native American Museum.  This is one of the best museums we’ve been to!  They have an entire Pequot village exhibit you can walk through and see every aspect of daily life while you listen to the audio guide (hand held) describe and explain each scene.  Unfortunately no photos were allowed inside the museum.  But we took a couple outside and from the observation tower.

Pequot Museum

On Friday we rose early to see the morning star, then read an Iroquois tale called “So Son Do Wah and the Morning Star”.  We discussed Venus as the morning and evening star,

Peep #1's Morning Star Illustration

We’ve also been listening to Native American music (drumming chants and flute primarily) whenever we’re in the car or doing quiet work and especially when they’re weaving.

Finally fished up our fall banner, too.  I really love the way this came out!  We’re going to do one for Yule as well.



Autumn Banner



This coming week is a short one for school, so I will probably combine it with next week’s report.   Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate!

Not Entirely Wordless Wednesday 11.10.10

After-school tea time.  We try to make time for this every day; it’s a nice way to end our school time.  Homemade banana bread, home-grown peppermint tea, and our own raw honey are on today’s menu.