Feb. 9, 2010 - Ethiopia History Month: Week 2

We've started Week 2 of our study of Ethiopia.  I've had to adjust my expectations a little.  I found that we needed more time learning the letters, so we are carrying over the ones we started learning last week, about 10.

Since this week has a focus on history and culture, I did a bit of research and found out that Ethiopian history is rather longer than American history.  Of course, I already knew that but I didn't realize what a huge task it is to teach thousands of years worth of history.  So the kids are getting a seriously condensed version.  Ethiopia is mentioned many times in the Bible (sometimes referred to as Cush).  Historically Ethiopia's borders varied, at times actually extending into most of Egypt, and possibly even across the Red Sea into Yemen.  There were several notable Ethiopian Pharaohs, one of whom was allied for a time with the Biblical King Hezekiah.  Then there is the whole King Solomon + Queen of Sheba (Makeda)=Menelik I, Emperor of Ethiopia.  That one's hard to explain appropriately to kids, so I skimmed over it a little.  We touched on various other emperors, but ancient Ethiopian history is much like that of other nations: fluid borders, many states fighting over prime acerage, and intrige amongst the noble class.  Throughout this time common Ethiopians lived pretty much the same way through the ages, scratching out a living from the soil, going to market days, marrying, having children, starving or being pillaged every few years, building new huts, and marking the years with occasional holiday celebrations.  Only in the last half-century have the farmers and peasants of Ethiopia seen any dramatic changes in their lifestyle, as literacy, health education, and infrastructure have made their way into the countryside.  The Emperor Haile Selassie made many contributions to the modernization of the country, in between fighting off the Italian invasion, squashing coups, and his times in exile.  But famine struck, and he fell out of favor and was deposed.  And then there was the 2-decade civil war ('74-'91), which took up all of Josiah's youth and which contributed some very sad things to his personal history and did a good job of devastating the lives of the Ethiopian people all over again. 

Tomorrow we start studying the arts and Ethiopian culture, which is much easier to teach.  We have some great hands-on stuff to use as well, that my parents and Josiah and I brought back from Ethiopia at various times.  We even have real Ethiopian coffee (thanks to Trader Joe's).

Day 1:
Letter of the day
Early Ethiopian History

Materials: letter pages, history books, coloring pages

Day 2:
Letter of the day
Later Ethiopian History

Materials: letter pages, history books,coloring pages

Day 3:
Letter of the day
Review Ethiopian History
Ethiopian culture: The arts.  Music, Christian music, religious art, modern art

Materials: letter pages, coloring pages, videos

Day 4:
Letter of the day
Ethiopian culture: Home craft.  Coffee ceremony, food, cultural clothing, weaving,  home arts

Materials: cultural clothing, woven baskets, coffee pot?, coloring pages

Day 5:
Letter of the day
Ethiopian culture: Families, home, children

Materials: history books, paper for drawing picture of family, storytelling?

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Feb. 8, 2010 - Love and War: Blog Tour and Review

 

This book provided for review by WaterBrook Multnomah  

  From the publisher:

With refreshing openness that will grab readers from the first page, the Eldredges candidly discuss their own marriage and the insights they’ve gained from the challenges they faced. Each talks independently to the reader about what they’ve learned, giving their guidance personal immediacy and a balance between the male and female perspectives that has been absent from all previous books on this topic.   They begin Love & War  with an obvious but necessary acknowledgement:  Marriage is fabulously hard.  They advise that the sooner we get the shame and confusion off our backs, the sooner we'll find our way through.  

 Love & War  shows couples how to fight for their love and happiness, calling men and women to step into the great adventure God has waiting for them together. Walking alongside John and Stasi Eldredge, every couple can discover how their individual journeys are growing into a story of meaning much greater than anything they could do or be on their own.

  For myself, I was quite stunned by the Eldredge’s honesty from the very beginning of the book.  It’s the kind of book I would not have appreciated at all before I married (Argue? Fight? Hurt each other’s feelings? Ha!  We were different!) but wish I would have had after I’d been married a year or so (Argue? Check. Fight? Check. Hurt each other’s feelings? Check.).

 If only we’d known then, how many hidden expectations we had of each other, and how imperfect we each were.  Reading this book was an amazing retrospective of my own marriage.  We’ve grown a lot, but sometimes that growing was so painful.  I don’t know that we would have believed it had anyone told us before we married.  But now…wow.  Once again, I wish I’d known.  I would have done things so differently.

I don't know how well this book would go over as a wedding gift, but I'm happy to be able to put it into circulation in my own family.  I hope it  will help others avoid some of the mistakes and hurts that my husband and I have had to spend precious time healing from.

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Feb. 6, 2010 -

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Feb. 6, 2010 - More snow

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Feb. 6, 2010 - The big, BIG snow!

We thought we had the year's "Big Snow" last month.  Not so!  This morning my sister and I shoveled two feet of snow off the sidewalks and driveway.  Check out my sidebar for a little video showing how Gebre coped with the deep drifts (Quick, go look!  It will make you giggle!).  Even the mailman was stymied today.

And people were skiing in the street, like so:

The boys dug a tunnel:

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Feb. 3, 2010 - Amharic

Josiah has always insisted that Amharic is a perfectly logical, easy-to-learn language.  The boys and I are making our first foray into learning the language this month, and I am trying hard to believe that.  He's probably right.  English is notoriously difficult for non-native speakers because of it's many exceptions to it's many rules, it's mish-mash of borrowed words and spelling and grammar.

Amharic seems downright logical in comparison.  It is a Semitic language, related to Hebrew and Arabic.  Although the alphabet is humongous, it is phonetic and fairly rational.  Most of the letters are a consonant-vowel combination, which cuts down the number of letters in a sentence by half, if compared to English.  You can see (and hear) some Amharic words HERE.  Notice how the phonetic spelling of Amharic words using our English letters is nearly double the letters used from the Amharic alphabet in most cases.  The wikipedia article requires a font download in order to see the letters, but you can visit this site to see the Amharic alphabet, as it's been put up on the site as a "picture" rather than a font.

I have totally not figured this out yet, but we are pressing on.  We have been working on the first 7 letters (letter series, really), and I was pleasantly surprised that I could remember them when I looked at them without the English pronunciation help.  We've been filling the house with "hu, hoo, hee, ha, hay, hi, ho...lu, loo, lee, la, lay, li, lo...."  Amharic Kids has a page with the entire alphabet and a native Amharic speaker pronouncing each letter, and that is our guide since Josiah is away.  It's actually kind of fun!

"Abat"--Father.  If you sounded the word out phonetically, it would be more like "Ah-bah-tih", thus the three letters.  But you say the word "Abat".  One of the difficulties for me is knowing when to ignore the vowel sound, and which particular letter to use for which word, since there are multiple letters for the "h" sound, with no difference in pronunciation as far as my untrained ear can tell!

If you want to hear what Amharic sounds like when freely spoken and not in a teaching context, you can listen to a little bit of the Deutsche Welle Amharic news podcast, which is Josiah's news source for Ethiopia when he's here in the States.  (If all you see is little boxes, that's because you don't have the Amharic "fidel" font, just click on the audio symbols in order to listen)   I'll save the music for when we get to the cultural part of our curriculum. 

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Feb. 1, 2010 - Book Winners!!

Firstly, Misty! *waving*  You won Tea With Hezbollah!  I emailed you but haven't heard back!  Please check your inbox!

The winner of The Choice is Sandy!  I'll be in touch.

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Feb. 1, 2010 - Blog Tour and Giveaway: Angels

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Jan. 31, 2010 - Ethiopia History Month: Week 1

Here's my tentative itinerary for the first week, starting tomorrow.  Barebones, so far...

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Jan. 31, 2010 - Ethiopia History Month

February begins Black History Month.  But our children have a very specific, very recent African heritage, so I thought I would take this month to begin their education in all things Ethiopian.  I haven't found out if this can be part of their official school year, but Asrat only has a few more lessons in his official curriculum, so this works very well.

I've been doing some research but didn't start writing my Ethiopia curriculum until, uh, 30 minutes ago.  This is what I'm envisioning for the month, by week:

Week 1:
    Intro to Language (Letter of the day)
    Ethiopian Geography and Wildlife (Days 1-3)
    Ethiopia in the Bible (Days 3-5)
    Quiz (Day 5)

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Jan. 30, 2010 - New from TOS: Download N Go unit study lessons

****I reviewed the George Washington DNG last week, and now it's available at The Old Schoolhouse Store!!  If you're interested, follow the link!****

I’m looking at a galley copy of a brand new resource from The Old Schoolhouse Magazine!  Download ‘N’ Go E-Books are created by Amanda Bennett with TOS, and are a bit of a combination between unit studies and lapbooks.  Each e-book has a 5-day lesson plan which includes the actual lesson plus an optional book list and supplemental links.  Each e-book also comes with a simple printable lapbook, and they are re-useable year after year.  When I was a kid, our church school did something akin to lapbooks, long before lapbooking became popular in the homeschooling community.  So having rediscovered the concept, I’ve enjoyed introducing it into our schooling.

 

The copy TOS gave me to review is a study of George Washington: Who he was, what he did, and some of his character traits.  The five day lesson plan includes these titles: Who Was George Washington?, People and Places in George Washington’s Life, The Accomplishments of George Washington, Lessons to Learn from George Washington, and Remembering George Washington.  Just looking at that tells me this “DNG” is way more extensive than what Asrat’s official first and second grade  Social Studies gave us on that great man.  Reading through the lesson I found it very thorough, full of all the information one would need to make a good study of Washington.

 

The book list for the lessons is divided up by day at the beginning of the e-book, so that you can see at a glance what you need to get at the library and for which day.  Following the book list are the daily lessons, with readings, links, and discussion questions.  There are vocabulary words (to be put into the lapbook), crafts and activities, and a daily quote.  The lapbook for this one is very simple, but nice.  One of the reasons I like these so much is that they are a great way to review information and cement it into a child’s mind and this DNG lapbook accomplishes that purpose.

 

I’m really looking forward to working through this lesson with Asrat and Gebre as a supplement to their Social Studies.  TOS always does a great job with their resources and this is no exception.

 

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Jan. 29, 2010 - Review: Knockout Entrepreneur by George Foreman

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Jan. 29, 2010 - Basketball

Last day of basketball!

Picture quality is terrible, I know.  My camera has issues.

I know this looks like a photoshop job, but it wasn't.  My camera is weird.

Asrat on the floor.  Pretty typical.

Gebre: bored.  What? You don't let your kids prostrate themselves on dirty gym floors?

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Jan. 29, 2010 - Art Class

Gebre was asked to create a "torn paper" picture.  Here's my example:

(We didn't have any brown construction paper for that tree-trunk)

Here's his final product:

To you, it may look like random placement of paper strips. 

To him, it's a broken switch-track, with a big "Don't drive here" sign warning trains not to use it. 

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Jan. 29, 2010 - The Choice: Blog Tour and Giveaway!

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Jan. 28, 2010 - Tea With Hezbollah Winner!

We've got one!  And it is.....Misty.

The rest of you don't go away because tomorrow another giveaway review comes up, and on Monday yet another.

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Jan. 28, 2010 - Praying With Lior

I've really come to enjoy a good documentary, and I'm thankful to Barbara Curtis (Mommy Life) for suggesting Praying With Lior. 

This documentary follows a Jewish boy who has Down's Syndrome as he prepares for his Bar Mitzvah.  Both the Jewish and the Down's Syndrome aspect of the story are very interesting, and the combination even more so.  There were many questions that had to be addressed by the parents and their Jewish community.  What does it mean for a boy with Down's Syndrome to "enter manhood".  (Lior kept saying with a naughty smile that it meant he could drink beer!)  Should the requirements be less because of his disability?  Is he really a "little rebbe" (spiritual savant) because of his love for davening (praying) and his enthusiasm for communicating with and about God?  Observing ritual and religious tradition is well and good, but what about the realities of life as a grown man with Down's Syndrome?

I loved watching as the family worked through all these things.  Lior's mother died of cancer when he was young, and the pain of her loss was very obvious in both him and his father.  Lior has a step-mother who enthusiastically took up where his mother left off, and he has three siblings who have varying opinions on life with him.  It was especially sweet to see the deep love between Lior and his older brother.  I kept thinking how lucky his is to have an older brother who cares so much for him, even when it's difficult.

Watching the actual Bar Mitzvah was so moving.  It was clear that Lior has a tremendously supportive community and that he is loved, and loves them in return. 

I only had a few questions (like, where in the world are all the male rabbis??? Every rabbi shown was a woman), but overall watching Praying With Lior was a fabulous way to spend the evening.

 

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Jan. 25, 2010 - Tea With Hezbollah: Blog Tour and Giveaway!

You know how our President has talked up diplomacy, and his opponents snorted at the idea of “having tea” with our enemies?  Well, from a secular governmental position, I can understand their viewpoint.  It is somewhat disconcerting to think that simply chatting with a cranky president or dictator who hates our guts and regularly says so is going to do much in the way of protecting our nation.

 

However, from a personal point of view, it actually seems right in line with the Christian calling to love our enemies.  To love, to listen, to have compassion and concern…the truth is none of us have a comprehensive grasp on the world’s problems (other than the root cause, which is the sinfulness of humanity).  Particularly in the Middle East, the reality is so complex that no one group can claim full “rightness” in the conflicts.  Christians, Muslims, and Jews all bear responsibility for acts of aggression, persecution, and bloodshed over the course of history, in spite of sharing many commonalities.  Christians, Jews, and Muslims have also during some periods of history managed to live quite peacefully as neighbors.

 

In Tea With Hezbollah, Ted Dekker and Carl Medearis decided to take the concept of radical love seriously.  They wanted to see what would happen when they chose to love “Samaritans” rather than hate them.  They interviewed many of those we would consider our enemies, asking questions that reveal the humanity of those men, as well as the false assumptions all sides tend to make about each other.  And yes, they really did sit down and talk with a representative of Hezbollah.

 

Interspersed with their interviews and adventures is a modern day “Good Samaritan” tale which illustrates and mirrors Dekker and Medearis’ trek through “enemy territory” beautifully.  No matter what our political views, there are some things Christians should be unified on, and one of them is love.  Not just the easy kind of love, but loving our enemies, loving even the unloveable, the ugly, the hateful.  And loving enough to go beyond stereotypes and rhetoric to the person behind them, because not all whom we would consider “enemies” desire to be so.

 

A reader may not agree with the author’s conclusions about politics and policies, but will still find in this book a challenging and inspiring message.  Love.

 

I’m happy to report that I do have a copy to give away.  Please post a comment (**With email address**) and I’ll pick a winner.  This book was provided for review and the give-away by the Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing Group.

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Jan. 24, 2010 - Asrat's Awesome Eye

Let the kid loose with a camera and the results are sometimes pretty amazing!  These are all from our visit to an ice festival held in a neighboring town. 

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Jan. 22, 2010 - Giveaway's Coming Up!

If anyone is still actually reading my blog...

This seems to be the month for reviews.  Had a bunch already and a bunch more coming up. 

I have three book give-away's coming up.  One on Christianity and the Middle East, one Amish novel, and one theologically-geared book.  Starting Monday, don't forget to check in and leave a comment for a chance to win.

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