Chapter 21 or The Mongols Devastate the East happened fast, too, over lunch. I read, they ate. Then we did the map and I asked them to color the portrait of Genghis Khan. My son, 8, is sooo over coloring. Some days I make him do it. This was not one of those days.
A craft I found easy to do was putting history back in order. The strips of paper retelling the story had to be cut out, arranged in order, and glued onto construction paper. Now that we can do, I thought, especially because it has to do with words and reading comprehension.
I was celebrating within myself that we have reached the middle of the book. But, really, I feel quite embarrassed that we neglected history so much this past school year. Now that we have a new schedule and I am not conflicted over the different math curricula, I should be able to better incorporate history into our routine.
Again, I learned new things in this chapter. If I ever knew some of the details on the lives of Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan, I had completely forgotten them. I just remembered their names and that they were Mongols and violent, but that’s about it.
I like it when I can learn new things. It makes me feel like I am growing and it keeps me in a humble state. As we deal with our own children’s learning process, it is very easy to forget what it was like for us to deal with new information every day. But because I am learning alongside them in some cases, it keeps me fresh and humble and very connected to their own mindset.
