Chapter 2 deals with the re-opening of Japan for the West, as well as the Crimean War. It was fun to learn about Florence Nightingale and fill out the forms about patients’ basic health information.
I became our daughter’s patient and my husband became our son’s patient. They will probably not go back to that form to fill it out every day as suggested, but at least they got started and understood the concept of medical records.
I taught them how to feel the pulse and count. It was hard for them to find the pulse, but after a few tries they got it. So I took pictures of them taking each other’s pulse, too.
A word about the map work in this volume: there is actually an answer key for the map exercises. Frankly, these are tricky even for me, so I am glad we have an answer key. I was a bit disappointed that countries and cities were not clearly labeled, but I suppose the thinking is that a fourth grader should be able to write and do his/her own labeling.
The maps become messier because they have to write in the names and they do not always take the time to gauge if they have enough room for longer names etc. But who cares? It does not need to be perfect. What matters is that they are learning geography and history.
I have three bookmarks in the activity book: one in the first section where all the instructions are, with the reading comprehension questions, crafts, etc; a second one in the map work answer key; and a third one in the back section with reproducible maps and poems etc.