Resisting the urge in feeling “behind” and so desiring to say, ”we’re done!”, we’ve stayed with Russia for a few extra days. I don’t want to miss out on the books we haven’t gotten to yet.

My Father’s World “book basket” has really been the highlight for us this year and is truly the “literature rich” aspect to the unit study. The books’ explanations written in the Teacher’s Manual don’t do justice to the wonderful selections we read for each country. The picture books have so much meaning and connect with the scripture or the heart of the missionary we are studying. Some of them relate directly to a craft or project that is scheduled. Or the folk tales, Fairy Tales or legends somehow connect with something else we are learning about the country's culture, and the fiction brings out the most wonderful conversations.

SO while in Russia we read The Littlest Matryoshka while painting a set of our own.

We found a set of unfinished wood dolls on Ebay...

We read Rechenkas Eggs and looked at the difference between the Ukranian Pysanky and Russia’s Faberge eggs. We read about the first Faberge egg and painted and jeweled our own.

We read the story of Tchaikovski and listened to his music. We listened to Peter and the Wolf. We read the story of Marc Chagall and DD drew pictures of her dreams. She also drew a lovely picture of St Basil’s Cathedral. I caught her today building St. Petersburg with J’s blocks when she was supposed to be doing her math. DD has been reading the biography of Anastasia: the last tsar’s youngest daughter, and has enjoyed looking at real photos of her and dressing up like her. She also read The Endless Steppe and Letters from Rifka. We loved the story Babushka Baba Yaga, “Those who judge one another on what they see, and not on what they know of them in their hearts, are fools indeed!” And then after reading Luba and the Wren we prayed that God would help us to be Humble, gentle, content, and more like Him.

Hmmm…and I thought we hadn’t really gotten to much in Russia.