Story of the World, Vol. 1, Chapter 33

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Chapter 33 deals with Confucius, tangrams and tea. We drank tea. Not green tea, because we stay away from caffeine, nor mint tea, as suggested in the activity book, because we did not have any on hand. I started a tea pot and placed three Bigelow Orange and Spice tea bags (affiliate link) in our respective tea cups.

Tea Cups

Our tea bags steeping in the cups

They remembered how we used to drink tea with cake or cookies or scones in the winter and at our recent afternoon tea at Buckhorn Inn, so they decided they wanted some pumpkin pie with their tea. (We made pumpkin pie yesterday so they knew we had some in the fridge.) It was a lot of fun and we talked about how tea originated in China, but it is now the national drink in the United Kingdom, India and many other countries.  Continue reading »


Story of the World, Vol. 1, Chapter 32

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Chapter 32 deals with China: the First Emperor, the Great Wall of China, pictograms, calligraphy, and the burial chamber filled with clay warriors and horses. My son had a lot of fun listening to the stories. I thought it was a long chapter, but he was not bored at all. I mentioned there is yet one more story in the chapter and he said, “Keep going! Read it!”

Boy building a dirt mold for a backyard Great Wall of China

Filling the dirt mold

After map work and coloring, we built the Great Wall of China: first on the table, then in our backyard. Here is a clip showing him fill up the dirt cast. Here is the next step – removing the cast.

To make the cast, we used super glue and craft sticks, as directed in the activity book.

We had lots of fun, although I did get some super glue on my fingers. Two days later, I am still dealing with it. The duct tape left some residue, too. I just could not figure out how to use super glue to connect the four sides. So I opted for duct tape instead.  Continue reading »


Story of the World, Vol. 1, Chapter 10

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We studied Ancient China, chapter 10 of The Story of the World Volume 1 mostly in the car. I knew the Story of the World CDs would come in handy. The kids enjoyed the story of the silk worms. They had no idea about how silk is made. I feel so privileged – all over again – to be the one introducing them to such facts about the world.

They did their mapwork. My daughter colored the page with Chin and his dad, but my son put it off. Again, I do not insist on coloring if he does not want to.

We read some of the books recommended. My local library did not carry these particular titles, but they got them for us in about a week through the inter-library loan program. Meanwhile, the children’s librarian brought us similar books which they did have. One of them actually had the same title as the one recommended by Susan Wise Bauer, i.e. “Ancient China,” and it made it confusing later on as I was returning both titles.  Continue reading »