Week 24

This week was a get-back-on-track week!   Only three more weeks until spring break! So I put together a list of lessons that have to get done before then, and we’ve been moving through it.  
In history we moved into our study of the Age of Exploration.  



In The Almanac of World History, we read about the Spanish Conquest of the New World.  I-E and E-R took notes which next week will be organized into an outline, so a report can be written. 



Both girls read and summarized chapters 1-3 of Around the World in a Hundred Years.



In The Usborne Book of Explorers we read about Ibn Battuta and created a map chronicling his journeys through Africa and the Middle East. 



The girls were able to draw their maps from memory—thanks to Mapping the World by Art!  I love it when what was learned comes in handy!

History Portfolios had a map to complete that covered the Major Trade Routes C 1000-1400.



Mapping the World by Art has conveniently prepared us for our studies of The Age of Explorations by introducing John Cabot, Vasco da Gama, and Amerigo Vespucci.   This week though we moved to China and learned about Zheng He.   If you aren’t up on what kind of naval power the Chinese had between 1300 and 1500, you may want to check out this video: 

which compares one of Columbus’ ships with China's ships during the Mongol’s  reign.  Pretty amazing stuff!   I-E and E-R worked on drawing Southeast Asia which was explored by Zheng He. 

English this week brought further study of pronouns.   We continued with personal pronouns and added demonstrative pronouns.  Rod and Staff’s writing this week covered organizing your notes.  I didn’t think we really needed this lesson, but turns out we did!    So something else added to our list of writing skills.  Next week we will study this skill with our history notes.
  
We started two read aloud books (at booksshouldbefree.com )—Our Island Story and The Three Musketeers
. 
Math brought our Pi Day Celebration.   And our Singapore math lined up perfectly as we studied Area of a Circle.
  
We had a full and busy week—just what we needed!