Kitten in the Storm is now available in an English-Spanish bilingual edition, El Gatito en la Tormenta. Please note this is an affiliate link.
On May 29, 2015, this Kindle book will be FREE to download. After that date, it will cost $1.99. Paperback copies will be available later this summer.
Please note that some Kindles (like the Paperwhite) cannot download picture books like this one.
Chapter 31 or The Mauryan Empire of India introduced us to the Jakata Tales and Rabbit Ear Productions. Apparently, PBS showed a series of books read by famous actors between 1984-1995, put together by Rabbit Ear Productions. The Tiger and the Brahmin with Ben Kingsley is one of them. I did not want to look it up through my library, especially because I found something similar online. The kids loved it.
For this chapter’s activity, we made white rice. Three things I want to say about this. First of all, I don’t usually eat white rice because it is not as healthy as brown rice.
But I happened to have some white rice in the house and we gave the recipe a try. Continue reading
The Aryans of India or Chapter 30 helped us understand the roots of Buddhism and Hinduism. The kids colored The Buddha and the map while I read the stories.
For our craft, we made rakhi bracelets. First, we made one for sister to put on brother. She liked it so much, she wanted a bracelet for herself, too, so we made her one as well. I have not handled a hot glue gun in a while and I got burned, several times. Ouch! So be careful if you are doing this, too.
One new thing I am doing, by the way, is I walk on my stepper while I read to them. This has nothing to do with history. But I thought I should mention it because it doubles up my time and my blog means to provide tips for a thriving homeschool. I did not think I could do both at the same time, but I tried it and it was fine. I get 10-15 minutes of exercise while reading to them, depending on how long the lesson is. We live such sedentary lifestyles, as 21st century Americans. Every little bit of movement helps. Continue reading
Twice a year, our son has music recitals: December and May. He takes piano and violin lessons. He enjoys both and it is hard to know right now if or when he will drop one and focus more on the one that he keeps. Recently, he even played a piano piece in church – his first special music.
With my son and daughter after his violin recital, May 2015
Here is his violin recital – Hunters’ Chorus by Carl Maria von Weber. His piano piece in church was Chant Arabe, an anonymous song from the first Suzuki piano book.
We are coming up in the world, my husband and I. We used to be the ones with the noisy babies, who could not even sit in church. Now, one of our babies is blessing our church family with music.
Several people came up to my son before and after his performance, to encourage him or to thank him for it. Continue reading
(This is a guest blog post by Corinne Jacob, just in time for the summer vacation.)
Photo by frankieleon is licensed under CC BY 2.0
When your kids are being homeschooled, there’s no pressure to follow a yearly schedule. This also means that there’s no scheduled summer vacation. With no ‘summer slide’ and the freedom to take vacations whenever they please, many homeschooling families favor year-long learning. However, it may sometimes feel unfair that your kids have to sit down with their books when all the other kids in the neighborhood are soaking up the sun. You can strike a balance between the two options by dedicating a portion of the summer months to playing fun games that will keep the learning going.
Here are five indoor and outdoor summer learning games for kids.
Nature scavenger hunt
Prepare for this game by making a list of things your kids must find during the scavenger hunt. Keep in mind the kids’ ages, their interests and the kind of flora and fauna found in your neighbourhood. You can either have all of the kids work together on a single list, or create customized lists for each child. You can create the lists around a single theme, such as ‘creepy crawlies’, ‘leaves’, ‘birds’, ‘flowers’, etc. Then gather the brood, hand them their lists and take them for a walk around the neighbourhood to find their items.
Sidewalk chalk reading game
Using sidewalk chalk, write five consonants one below the other on the sidewalk. Next to it, write the five vowels. Make a third column with five more consonants. You should have the letters in a 5×3 rectangle. Have your children make three letter words by hopping on one letter from the first column, one from the second column and one from the third column. See who can find the most words. Continue reading
Rome’s War with Carthage introduced the children to Hannibal and his elephants. Also, to drinking poison as a form of suicide. I briefly told them that suicide is the ultimate form of self-destruction and it hurts God very much, not to mention the family you leave behind. I said they should never, ever take life for granted because it is a gift from God. We moved on.
Hanibal’s elephant ears were delicious
They liked the maze with Hannibal crossing the Alps and the elephant story. So we made donuts shaped as big elephant ears. Continue reading
The Roman Empire was fascinating for the children. I liked it, too, as I have always liked any stories about ancient Rome. Can we all agree that the Roman soldiers should be worthy of our admiration? They and their bracelets and their bracelet inscription, SPQR, which stands for Senatus Populus que Romanus, which translates to “The Senate and the Roman People.”
The famous Roman soldier cuff bracelet
The crafts (aqueducts, sand dough, Roman road model) were a 10 on a scale from 1 to 10, where 10 is the most difficult level. I decided to stay clear of glue and sand and little pebbles in a shoe box lid. We made the cuff bracelets from the next chapter instead. We cut up a cereal box, measured it around the kids’ wrists, stapled them, and then covered them in aluminium foil.
I stapled the cardboard bracelets first.
I did not show them the gladiator coloring page. Too raw for my taste, I suppose. It’s enough for them to hear that some gladiators preferred to commit suicide than to kill others for sport.
The Rise of Rome, or Chapter 27, finally brought us to my favorite ancient kingdom. I have always loved Rome, its culture, language, art, and influence on the modern world.
Fasces
I brought them into the school room with the words, “Let’s do history! We finally get to learn about the babies on the cover of this book!”
My kids are interested in babies right now. They want stories of their baby years and they zoom in on anything about babies. So I took advantage and used it as an entering wedge into our history lesson today. Continue reading
Chapter 26 finally introduced us to the ancient civilizations of the Americas. I showed them on a world map how we moved from the Fertile Crescent and the Mediterranean Sea across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas. My daughter misunderstood. She thought we were done with Ancient History and we were going to now study more recent events. She was excited!
First off, I had no idea she had any feelings or opinions about what kind of historical period we were learning. I love these moments in our homeschool when I discover how my children feel about what we do.
Rabbit Shoots the Moon comic strip
I don’t necessarily change our routine or curriculum based on their likes or dislikes, but it’s good to keep my ear to the ground and be in touch with their true selves, their inner lives.
Coloring page by my son
That is a major reason to homeschool. So many parents who send their children to school have no idea who their children really are, by virtue of the schedule which keeps them apart for most of the day.
My husband and I are celebrating our 10th anniversary this month. It is not something we celebrate in one single event or through one romantic dinner or gift exchange. Two people reach a 10th anniversary over time, through many events and several happenings. Why should celebrating it be any different? So we took an overnight trip to Hot Springs, NC as one part of our celebration. A few weeks ago, we went to the Biltmore House, where we got engaged. And so on.
Gotta love a library marquee
Hot Springs is a small mountain town on the Appalachian Trail, famous for its hot mineral spring water. They have only four hotels and as many restaurants. The Resort and Spa we stayed in delivers the hot spring mineral water directly into your suite’s hot tub. It’s a quiet town with nothing going on – unless you count the young man we saw walking around in a plastic sack as a skirt or the No Fracking Way bumper sticker we saw on a car.
They have a romantic caboose in the middle of the town, parked there for good, and a stone Presbyterian church, stained glass windows and all. It’s a quiet place when you need quiet. Peace. Quiet. Silence.
I started homeschooling because I could not separate myself from my children for seven hours a day, five days a week. So you can understand that it is hard for me to separate from them overnight. Two years ago, we took a similar trip to Hot Springs, just before we started homeschooling. I felt really anxious to know what they were up to. I missed the kids and they missed me. Continue reading