Northwest Passage

This morning we started on The Moral Compass: Stories for Life's Journey by William Bennett. This book has been so highly recommended by friends as a way of teaching children morals and virtues through stories. I am so delighted to have acquired it, a book of 824 pages for only $0.74 (at Valley Thrift store on Monday, their 25% off day). We read: Hush, Little Baby Cradle Song Sweet and Low What Bradley Owed Nails in the Post Northwest Passage The Hill Here's an excerpt from Northwest Passage by Robert Louis Stevenson: 1. Good Night When the bright lamp is carried in, The sunless hours again begin; O'er all without, in field and lane, the haunted night returns again. Now we behold the embers flee About the fire lit hearth; and see Our faces painted as we pass, Like pictures, on the window glass. Must we go to bed indeed? Well then, Let us arise and go like men, And face the undaunted tread The long black passage up to bed. Farewell, O brother, sister, sire! O pleasant party round the fire! The songs you sing, the tales you tell, Till far tomorrow, fare ye well! I can see why people can fall in love with poetry, and why it has been critical in homeschooling. Poetry develops one's creativity. Poetry extracts beauty from the mundane. Poetry ignites one's passion and love affair with metaphors. 9/17/2013

Sargon

This evening Breeanna and reviewed Cheop's pyramid, the Great Pyramid and went over the Great Sphinx. We moved to the Mesopotamia region of Sumer and I told Breeanna about Sargon. Like Moses, he was found floating in a basket down the river. The king of the city of Josh found Sargon and raised him. Sargon became the king's cup bearer because the king trusted Sargon not to poison his drink. Sargon, though caused the king's army to rise against him so that he could be king. Sargon fought to unite many city states in the Mesopotamia region. He fought in over fifty wars and his people were known as the Akkadians. His form of government is a military dictatorship. When the conquered cities refused to obey his laws, he left behind soldiers to enforce compliance. Breeanna's history study this evening was a struggle as she prefers fairy tales and lots of colorful picture to accompany the books that she listens to. The argument that history is the story of people that lived a long time ago on this Earth just like her, falls upon deaf ears. The threat that she'll fall behind in her understanding of the world compared to her brother, Bryan doesn't fall within her realm of interest. Finally I threatened her with various consequence that my imagination could conceive of at 8pm. Then, and only then did she concede to allow me to read on the tedious subject of history. Her brother was sooooo much easier to deal with. Sigh. 9/16/2013

Vulnerability

This morning I had Bryan watching The Power of Vulnerability on TED. TED is a good forum for exploring the realm of psychology. Brene Brown discussed fear, shame, vulnerability, self worth and compassion. She broaches the subject in a far more humorous manner than I could. I might presented it in an academic or preachy manner which would dull the subject and rob it of relevance or interest. I love that Bryan can watch how adults present themselves, how they garner laughter from an audience, how they distill a thought in their mind, and how they understand their world and the language that they bring forth in expressing their experience. After we watched it I asked Bryan "Tell me what she said.", "What did you learn?", "Finish this sentence: It is good to... It is bad to..." I told Bryan that oftentimes we look for the approval of others when really it may be best to seek our own self approval. That is if we progress at a task and achieve greater mastery day by day. http://m.youtube.com/#/home 9/16/2013

From Mom

My dearest sweetest most precious Breeanna, When I think of you my heart simply overflows. You are so sweet and crazy in your own way. You make my life so adventurous and joyful with all the things that you do. Mom

Yellow River

Yesterday I taught Chinese History at the Dayton Christian Chinese Church. I had a group of about eight kindergarten students through second grade. This is our fourth week. We reviewed what we had learned previously about the Yellow River and how rivers can be a source of sustenance for people in providing fresh drinking water and irrigating farm lands. We talked about how water originated from snow fall on mountain tops which melted in the spring and collected into rivers which eventually flowed to the ocean. Some rivers collected into lakes and water from rivers can sink into the ground so that if you dig a well then you can get water. We examined the crops grown in China and the types of farm animals there. We did a hands on bartering exchange and pretended to row our goods up and down river to trade. We talked about China's greatest secret that lead to enormous wealth, silk. One student was chosen to be a moth egg that grew and grew into a caterpillar. Then when it ate and grew to sufficient size then it built a cocoon around it to metamorphisize into a moth. I played the hungry bird that was hungry and tried to eat cocoon the caterpillar had built around it but, choked from all the stringy silk that caterpillar had weaved within the cocoon. I simply spit that silk all of a cocoon right back out. I learned my lesson not to try and eat any more silkworm cocoons. A Chinese empress first discovered the silk threads within the silkworm cocoon and unraveled it to make clothing for her friends and family. Soon the technology spread in China but was a secret to the rest of the world and garnered China wealth for hundreds of years. We later talked about how people along the Yellow River used to hunt animals and gathered fruits until a person discovered that they can make plants grow from seed. People started to farm. We used our hands and arms to show how a seed sprouted into a plant, how the plant grew bigger and bigger. If there was rain then the plant grew more and more but when there was no rain, our plant wilted and we had to get water from the river to water our plant. With water our plant thrived and eventually began to bear fruit. The children plucked the pretend fruits off their pretend plant and had a lovely delicious nutritious pretend snack. People along the Yellow River had differences and disagreements so they had to come up with rules to regulate their community. When they couldn't agree on a rule, they chose an arbiter or a leader to decide for them. Concerns and complaints were brought to the leader, like wolves attacking their chickens and pigs. Our class leader decided to build a tall wall around the community to protect farms from wild animals. Later, some strangers from the north, the Mongols from Mongolia came and wanted to take what they had, their storage of crops and all their animals. Our class leader had to see which person in the community wanted to be a spy and collect information about the enemy. The leader had to see which persons would train in warfare and become soldiers. Then the leader decided how to negotiate peace with their enemies instead of fighting. 9/14/2013

Paper Doll

For some odd reason, Bryan showed me how fast he could talk this morning as he recited the lyrics of a song in lightning speed. It was truly impressive. I told him he might look into becoming an auctioneer instead of the typical jobs that kids get into. Breeanna played with her paper doll book that I gave her last night as we were getting ready for bed. It so sweet for me to see her play with it. I told her that I had a very long airplane trip when I was little (12 hours from Singapore to Hawaii). The flight attendant gave me a paper doll book. It was the only thing I had to do. Her generosity just melts my heart still when I think back on it. I wish I knew her name. What she did meant the world to me. For morning homeschooling we discussed literal and figurative language, tragedy and comedy in literature, imagery, and simile and metaphor. Bryan was very amused that the Latin for "simile" is "simili"...essentially the same. From our many years of exploring Latin derivations, this never happens. The Latin root is usually always something entirely unrecognizable from its English counterpart. Breeanna and I, during our study of imagery had a fun imagining the sky as a blue hill and the clouds as white sheep on the hill. When the wind stops the sheep stands still. 9/13/2013

Cyclops

We concluded the Trojan War with the death of Hector by a spear through the most vulnerable spot, not protected by strong armor. Achilles found it where the neck meets the collarbone. Thus the death of Patroclus was avenged. Paris, no match with Achilles in hand to hand combat, was a skilled archer. He shot Achilles in the one place he could be hurt, the heel. Thus ended the Iliad. We went on to read of The Odyssey, Odysseus's voyage home to Ithaca and his run in with the Cyclops, Polyphemos. Odysseus, with twelve of his bravest men thought to make off with some of the cyclop's goats, sheep and cheese but became imprisoned in the cyclop's cave. Odysseus drew his sharp sword and rushed to the giant's side, preparing to stab him in the heart while the giant was sleeping, when he stopped: "If I killed him," he thought, "then I condemn myself and my men as well, for we could never move that great boulder from the doorway.". Odysseus gave the giant wine and when the giant drank himself into a stupor, Odysseus and and his men thrust a stake into the giant's single eye. As Odysseus made his escape he continued to taunt the blind giant who broke off a hilltop and hurled it in their direction. "So my fate has come," groaned Polyphemos, "Long ago, a wizard on this island predicted that I would lose my eye at the hands of Odysseus. But I always thought Odysseus would be some giant, powerful and armed--not a puny, scrawny thing." Here I cautioned the children never to underestimate their opponent. People are very resourceful. After Odysseus made his escape, he was overcome with anger and a desire for revenge thus causing the giant to strike out endangering Odysseus, his ship and his crew. I told Bryan and Breeanna when they make decisions out of anger or a desire for revenge, those decisions may not the best decisions. 9/10/2013