We began our week accomplishing all of our bookwork in a timely manner, which was encouraging as we were fresh from our 3 week Christmas break. Our afternoon school is our History/Church History/Literature curriculum called Tapestry of Grace. We are beginning our 3rd unit of the 1800's era. The topic of this week is Japan and China's progress and changes.
Unbeknownst to me months ago when I created our school schedule, our local 4-H club's officers had recently decided to make our Awards Banquet theme, Beijing, China. We attended this award banquet on Tuesday evening,where we ate Chinese fortune cookies, crab ragoon, chicken stir fry, rice and sweet and sour chicken and I didn't even have to cook. The Fairest of the Fair of W. County Fair spoke to our club and shared her personal experience about her visit to Hong Kong and China.
The next day we were able to study and write our names in Chinese, thanks to the guys in Shanghai who Dad visited last January for business.  
Since the boys were using permanent black paint, K took off his nice sweatshirt to keep it safe. He should have been really cold as it was only 16 degrees outside, but he wasn't. 
We studied Chinese numbers, the flags of China, Hong Kong and N. and South Korea. We colored and studied a Chinese map which showed us that it is surrounded by 14 other countries.
As we studied the Chinese calendar, we learned that D and S are in the Year of the Snake-ugk! J was born in the Year of the Horse, B came to us in the Year of the Pig and K was born at the beginning of the Year of the Dragon. This current year is the Year of the Rat, which will change in February.
This week, we also studied Japan's map, famous artists, origami, and the unique animals from that chain of islands. The four main islands and over 3000 small islands are really the summits of the Pacific Ocean's underwater mountains. I am sure I knew this before, but still find it amazing to think of the buildings and population that reside in the summit and valley of those mts. Ben is reading a book about a fishing boy who was shipwreaked, rescued by an American whaling ship. The ship eventually took him to Farihaven, Massachusetts, where he learned about American way of life and actually participated in the Gold Rush in CA. The Japanese law prohibited him from ever coming home again under penalty of death in order to maintain the country's isolation. Commodore Perry changed all that with his treaty with the Shoguns of Japan in 1854. We really enjoyed reading about Commodore Perry and the traditions & customs of the Japanese culture. B is working on a writing assignment about samaria warriors.
K and I are working thru our science book, studying the animals of the 5th day of creation. This week we are exploring sea lions, walruses, true seals, eared seals and manatees. Last January, we visited the Mote Aquarium in Sarasota, FL and it really stirred up his curiousity about aquatic animals so that prompted our current focus.
J is still on her college break. She has a sweet friend.Lauren, visiting us for the week before they return to their college studies. It is like wonderful having females in the house again- I am enjoying having two daughters this week.
D returned back to work after a restful first week and a very productive second week. He is on-call this week so it is a tough way to come from vacation.
Til next week- Sarah
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Ben listened to the 10+ hours of audiobook "Swiss Family Robinson" over the last few weeks, so Sunday night we watched the Disney version of the movie. After the movie, he and I worked out a compare/contrast worksheet between the movie and the unabridged book. He liked the book much better and we will work on his draft of this paper over the next week or so.