Mapping Italy for WWII Studies

Prior to our last visit in Germany, 3Gs labeled each German "state" (lands).  So, in preparation for our World War Two study, I asked the to map the states in Italy. I hope that while they read about where battles took place there will be some comprehension of the terrain and location.  This map was completed with some identification of physical land forms as well. It was done by G3, and I'm so glad that he wrote clearly about the one place he thoroughly enjoyed visiting. It was after our 2009 visit to Rome that he accepted a general interest in learning Italian.  I do hope he continues to learn more about it (and not hate the Latin study either).

Grateful today for...

Water from the tap to brush my teeth with.

Sunrises during early morning jet lag coffee time.

Dear friends' birthdays because they are in my life and they continue to be the bling while I am the fabric.

Extended Holiday Blogging Break

SO, we've been to visit friends working near Paris, got back to do more school and reading preparing for SOTW4 chapters about World War One, celebrated a 14th birthday, built gingerbread houses which will be decorated today - maybe, tween/teen-agers sewed their own pajama bottoms and celebrated their first white elephant gift party. We've also done a 3 Hobbit-movie-spree over the past week when our subjects were complete for the month. It's been a little busy, but there were pictures that just haven't been collaged quite yet in order to place here on the world wide web.

There was an art project done after a nature hike in a warm valley somewhere in France.

 There are lots of books available from fiction, nonfiction, juvenile or adult stacks about The Great War.  Let me know here what books you recommend about WWI.  Otherwise, we'll catch up with y'all asap.  HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

PrIorItIes

Recently, I read from a post of Paige at Elemental Science about things she didn't predict as she conducted her work-at-home-mom life.  Number three on her countdown of things she wished she'd known was about remembering priorities. Well, around here, we all have differing priorities, but a few things unite us.  Music is very important here.  Reading is essential here, whether you listen on the text-to-voice kindle or read word-for-word from the screen/page.  Outside time with the lawn mower or gardening is a wonderful escape and exercise.  Lego time is, dare I say, "Holy" here.  There's a room dedicated to it, or mostly because the guest couch and sewing machine also live there.

The Mommy on the other hand continues to aim at doing the best she can with what she has. So many lessons I learned about life from My Grams who was born in 1914.  That was a tough time to be a little kid, especially one in rural Iowa amongst 8 brothers and sisters.  Their parents were first generation in the United States and the Old Folks still spoke lots of harsh Swedish over their heads. The Great War and the Depression were R-E-A-L to them and she shared so much of that with me as I was the only one of my siblings to go to get my bachelor's degree back then (since then my sister who came 20 years later has done the same as me).  I lived with My Grams in order to go to teacher's college.  And so much of that time is very evident in how I teach, guide, cook, clean, organize, drive, all of it. Waste not, want not, so don't even think you are going to get away with dawdling.

But mostly, TRAVEL IS ESSENTIAL AND NECESSARY.  It's how we think about all of our studies and church events and purchases and chores (frugal living-stewardship affords us to plan our errands to save fuel).  Band participation, science lessons each week (this can fall thru the cracks if spelling seems more important) and Bible study are those hills I'm willing to die on here at Paisley Classical Academy.  What would my kids say is the priority in their lives? Why is that what they classify as a priority? Take a minute to visit with them or a nature walk to discuss it.

Unexpected Field Trips to Review a Rain-forest Habitat

Kudos to all you teachers out there who are constantly carrying out a unit study.  But when you don't know if the Daddy will authorize an attempt at empty seats on a plane (because he works at the airline) it's hard to plan ahead for the unit study opportunity. Most often, our field trips don't relate specifically to what we are studying in history or science.  With exception, our trip last month to Gettysburg National Park came just as we finished our studies and reading about the United States Civil War, but the trip to San Jose, Costa Rice this month was an unscheduled review of HABITATS (as well as a visit to our church's international workers here).

I seem to recall from my professors in teacher's college that we, as teachers, must repeat something three times before a student will process it (even to the smallest degree) - or maybe that was in church from one of our pastor educators.  Either way, we've completed physical geography lessons from Hands of a Child regarding the (cloud) Rain-forest Habitat and visited the big island of Hawaii once to see the Hilo side where everything is lush and forested in like manner.  But we never expected to take a day trip to the La Paz Waterfall site north of San Jose on a perfect October morning with the guide extraordinaire.

We saw brilliant foliage, indigenous animals and waterfalls. This trip made an impression on my kids so that if given the choice again, they would go to the mountains before trekking to the beaches on either side of the isthmus between the Americas.  And maybe they will visit more sites in the future to make reference to their habitat studies, but that only reinforces how important it was to be intentional and make the effort to teach them nature study no matter what habitat they found themselves (irregardless of our unit study status).

Troops Investigate the Civil War

Our attempt at a unit study with mapping, book study and field trip is a success, and we've done the best with a wedding trip to the Harrisburg, PA area that is possible thanks to Dad (for going to work at the airline), Papa and Gramma for our investigation at the National Park.  Also thanks to the other Grandma for building Mom's LHOP dress that G2 got to wear.

Summer Field Trips and Camps Change Lives

Half-way Through Summer

June is almost over. G3 was in Utah for grandparent's camp. All kids and the Mom survived church VBS.  G2 is off to Bible camp.  G1 heads to Tennessee next week for a service opportunity with our church group.  G3MOM is packed and ready for a trip to Teach Them Diligently via an entry paid by 2:1 Conference.  I then continue on to serve in an English camp in Montevideo, Uruguay.

At some point in early July and before the end of the World Cup on Sunday, July 13, I need to fly stand-by on the Other airline back to the Chicagoland area.  I will then have 2 weeks to complete the first quarter planning before our school year begins.  That'd be year 8 here on the homefront.

Below are the subjects we aim to pursue.  We'll continue notebooking through Physics from our Elemental Science work four years ago with the Noeo Logos teaching plans.  We add quizes, timelines, literature studies and hands-on activities to our SOTW4: Modern Age (1850-present day) binder.  We get to add grammar in the form of Editor in Chief program.  G2 and G3 will begin Student Writing Intensive level B and G1 will perfect this writing program with in depth research along the Excellence in Writing format.  Each student will continue in their Saxon math challenges.  Our 3Gs really enjoyed the soft pastel art lessons from Nana at HodgePodge Art and will continue those until January.  We've decided to start the third pass through each of the world's nation flags with the same continent and the same questions to answer.   G1 will continue his French studies with French in Action for the first 13 lessons this school year as a goal using the website, text and workbook.  G2 and G3 will review their First Start French materials from Memoria Press and aim to finish the entire book for the school year.  G2 is determined to continue studying German (still working on the materials for this goal), and will tackle the Greek materials from Memoria Press as well. Finally, each has their own Latin goal. G1 will continue with Logic study in The Thinking Toolbox,  and G2/G3 will work through The Fallacy Detective. 

Bible & Health

G2 Math EIC IEW

G3 Math EIC IEW

G1 Math EIC IEW

SOTW4

Art Music Appre

Flags- Geography

noeo science-Physics 3

Band

G1 French ForLang, Latin, Logic

G2 Greek German French Latin Logic

G3 French Latin Logic

All three will continue studying music with band.  There are plans for G1's participation in an elementary Turkish class, but nothing is finalized yet. His goal is to be able to communicate for survival in an summer student exchange next year.  The Turkish may help him as well as his French.  Our Bible studies will follow a Community Bible Study format through the "Return to Jerusalem" syllabus.

Logic Stage Chemistry Final Book Study

After using the DK Chemistry book (2 pages at a time each week), Mr. Fabre's Wonder Book of Chemistry, Mr. Tiner's Exploring the World of Chemistry, Hands of a Child "Introduction to Chemistry" and "Metals" Notebooking pages, websites http://www.middleschoolchemistry.com/multimedia/ and 

https://www.khanacademy.org/science/chemistry with a little CK12 Webtextbook on physical science included, this source about the periodic table with Christian faith-based topics interwoven was just the right end to our "mostly Charlotte Mason" middle school chemistry year.  We enjoyed a fabulous grammar stage course about chemistry from Elemental Science 4 years ago, and simply added to those materials in our science binder.  This course of study was not heavy on experiments unless you count the kitchen chemistry that we enjoyed eating.  The soil chemistry project commences now that we can loosen dirt from our flowerbeds in spring.  But, we've not exhausted the huge field of chemistry for these 3Gs so the rhetoric stage can delve-deep dive into extensive study in 2017 (if you can believe that).  

So, after exploring Eva Varga's post here about the Bunsen burner and reading the Elements book about Rubidium, we wrote in our notebooks about our trip last year to Germany and the University where Herr Bunsen worked was a great fit.  

SOTW3 CH29 AND 33 ALL THINGS NAPOLEON

SOTW3CH29, begins on page 275

THE RISE OF BONAPARTE

Napoleon Comes to Power

Synge Struggle for Sea Power:  Napoleon Bonaparte, Horatio Nelson
Haaren - Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon & the Napoleonic Wars by Albert Marrin
(Hillyer) Children’s History of the World:  Ch73
Guerber Story of the Great Republic:  Ch. X  The United States Buys Land (1803)
Synge, Great Englishmen, Horatio Nelson
Henty. At Aboukir and Acre I read this and decided to pass for kids reading b/c it didn't focus on the French as much as it did a British kid and native Egyptians.

Jakob Walter, The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier. [TRYING OUT THE TAPESTRY OF GRACE DIALECTIC TRACK]

Eugenie Foa.  The Boy Life of Napoleon / Afterwards

 

http://www.heritage-history.com/www/heritage.php?Dir=pseudochar&Person=napoleon&FileName=napoleon

The Emperor Napoleon

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/history/1600s-1800s/french-revolution-tutorial/v/french-revolution--part-4----the-rise-of-napoleon-bonaparte
Haaren - Horatio Nelson
https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/crash-course1/crash-course-world-history/you-aint-the-boss-of-me/v/crash-course-world-history-29
Usborne pages:  Pgs. 334-335; The Empire of Napoleon
KHE pages:  Pgs. 320-321; The Napoleonic War 1797-1815

SOTW3CH33, begins on page 309

The End of Napoleon

Napoleon's Wars (And 1812, Too)

Synge Struggle for Sea Power:  The Beginning of the Struggle British Admiral Duncan defeated the Dutch in their own port. The Battle of the Nile, Copenhagen, Napoleon, Emperor of the French, The Battle of Trafalgar, The Death of Nelson, A Second Charlemagne, The Rise of Wellington

Guerber Story of the Great Republic: Ch. XV  The War of 1812, 1812

http://www.heritage-history.com/www/heritage.php?Dir=pseudochar&Person=napoleon&FileName=napoleon

Waterloo!

In Belgium a year ago this month.

Synge Struggle for Sea Power:
The Defense of Saragoza, Sir John Moore at Coruna, The Victory of Talavera, The Peasant Hero of Tyrol, The Empire at its Height, Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow, Wellington's Victories in Spain, Spain for the Spaniards, The Fall of the Empire, The Congress

One Of The 28th - a Tale of Waterloo. http://librivox.org/one-of-the-28th-a-tale-of-waterloo-by-g-a-henty/

Guerber Story of the Great Republic: Ch. XVI  “Don’t Give Up the Ship”  1815, Ch. XVII  The Star-Spangled Banner, Ch. XVIII  Clinton’s “Big Ditch” (1825)

SOTW3Ch25 French Revolution and Admiral Nelson Stuff

SOTW3 CH25, begins on page 239

Revolution Gone Sour

The Storming of the Bastille

Synge Struggle for Sea Power:  [Note: We've not traveled to Paris yet...]

Bachman, Great Inventors and Their Inventions Watts

Hillyer, Children’s History of the World:  Ch72

Guerber Story of the Great Republic [We continue to plug through US History with Mrs. Schott and memorize the order in which states were admitted along with vital president information. She is presenting facts about each president in order to help us remember why they were special and thus, in which order they served.]

The Reign of Terror

It took a while, but we sat thru all of the Kahn Academy presentations about the French Revolution.
KHE pages:  Pgs. 318-319; The French Revolution 1789-1799
Bachman, Great Inventors and Their Inventions Fulton

Finish reading: Janet Benge, Geoff Benge.  Benjamin Franklin: Live Wire  YWAM Publishing, 2005

We really enjoyed reading The Story of Nelson by Sellar.  The name Horatio will always mean something to us. (This reading source and Nelson image came from our Heritage History British Empire cd.)

You really should READ about travel to London with Kids. We did and wrote about it here.

Geography of Germany: Maps & Research

G#2 labeled the states and rivers of Germany
before doing on-site research in Heidelberg, Germany
and Strasbourg, France

Thanksgiving Field Trips Rock!

No, we didn't fall off the face of the earth. Yes, we did school including SOTW3 Chapters 14 & 17 as well as Logic Stage Chemistry about Halogens prior to leaving for the trip.  But, better than that we experienced and discussed Louis XIV and the Prussians along with "states" of Germany, and who the Fredericks of Prussia and Brandenburg were.  We visited the castle in Heidelberg where Frederick brought his new wife, Elizabeth Stuart (greatgreatgreat something grandmother of the George III who dealt poorly with American colonists during Revolutionary War), the daughter of James I (King James Bible guy).  We walked where the 30 Years War took place in the 1600s.  We relished the unique environment of Christmas Markets while exploring how cormorants dive forever in the frigid, eddying waters of the Rhine River branch that surrounds the Grand 'Ile of Strasbourg.

So, now we recover from jet lag and ignore the evening hours b/c we're temporarily ALL morning people around here. We put together a gingerbread house for the first time, and fill the new Advent calendar before Advent ends. We find the Christmas tree and let kids decorate b/c it's their turn again. We put away all the clean laundry from the trip and plan our Christmas shopping and recipes for treat plates to share.  Thanksgiving trips are a blessing and we wouldn't miss this opportunity for family trips to worlds where we'd never dreamed were possible to reach before the changes of 2006 & 2007.  We look forward to time with other family and friends during a time of the year when all are blessed by a 2000 year Blessing.

Goodbye July Already?

Highlights:
We watched fireworks in early July from our roof.
We shared our first smores from the firepit :-)
The Gramma and Cousin came to visit.
G3 traveled to Utah (Tetons and Yellowstone!)
G1 camped in Wisconsin.
Then, G1 traveled to Utah (Nevada? stop)
G3 camped in Michigan.
G2 enjoyed a social life of her dreams and lots of mommy/girl time including duct tape crafts, reading time, watering the garden, pool time and other craft classes.

We enjoyed cool weather here and lots of school planning time.  The school room was re-organized, cleaned and painted by the Mommy and G2. Such a good thing.

Summer Week of Camp for All 3Gs

This bloomed just for my birthday :-)

 

 

Gs1and3 are off to AWANA Honor Camp for the week. They promised to try the horse trail rides.
G2 gets to practice her culinary skills with young, old friends in Kansas.

All five of us survived Daycamp, Marching Band and one for babysitter training last week.

 

BRU: Daytrip to Bruge

Monday began with instant coffee and water.  We got dressed and tromped down to the train station for breakfast of croissants and a bacon and cheese Panini.  We didn’t choose to eat the hotel breakfast because my tweens don’t eat what other people assume is simple, efficient breakfasts.  I refuse to pay 7 Euro for something that doesn’t give them something they will enjoy.  We are on a field trip afterall.

We took the train to Bruges.  The weekend trips were half price, but this was full price for three of us and free for the other two on a Monday.  It was a smooth easy ride to the Bruges train station.  We walked into the info office to collect a map of the town.  We found the boat trip first and were pleasantly given an orientation to the city by water.  There was a rain shower during the tour, but the boat ride included umbrellas for everyone.  We found the Markt and Belfry tower right away. We walked through the information center there and sent a postcard at the postal center.  We ate frites and chicken nuggets at a self-serve place on the corner.  Then we moved on to the VisitBrugges app tour.  It took us winding from churches to bridges to Spook houses.  We made one wrong turn and mistakenly found a super market at just the right time to buy 2L of water and 3 Kinder chocolate eggs with toys inside that we didn’t find on the November trip to Vienna and Budapest.  Our tour ended at the Burg where we found chocolate to eat and expresso to keep the caffeine headaches abated. 

On the walk to the Markt again, we found a heavy, liege waffle booth for a snack and a street performer who pretended to be a statue-top-hat-suited man.  While lounging in the Markt square under clear blue skies, my oldest tween asked the information center representative for the pronunciation of Beguinage.  On the walk to that site we found a lace shop where we bought a handkerchief with our daughter’s initial on it and pieces of art which showed the places we visited in spring colors.  Before reaching the Beguinage, we found the De Halve Maan (Straffe Hendrik) Brewery which we knew about from TripAdvisor.  The space inside the pub area was comfortable for us and our kids, so we adults tried 2 of their beers without doing the tour.  The chemistry of the brewery would be fun to use in a field trip, but this was just the right thing to do for our trip at this time.  After finishing our beers, we found the Beguinage and walked thru the daffodil strewn garden peacefully.  We walked through the Minnewater park on our way back to the train station. 

Found tourist map (free) at station and quite worth it, b/c it had all streets and sites plus we used the Bruges app for scavenger hunt walk 3.5 miles after the boat ride in the rain.  Boat 3.4 € twins each & 7.6 € adults 30" ride in 3 languages with umbrellas.  It was good to recognize some places afterward on foot. Highlights of boat were touching underside of bridges & less crowded boats early in the day. If on foot during rain we would have got soaked.  The houses over the water and other architecture were better seen from water.  Walked to Markt & found wc at info center. Then frites & everything fried across to the next corner for lunch.  Then we started app tour, but only went wrong way during tour to and found grocery for water & cultural experience (we visit international groceries often just to examine where stuff is made).  We ended at Burg and found chocolate to eat w/ coffee. Drank & ate in the Markt.

BRU: Adventures in Brussels

Sunday in Brussels started with chocolate croissants from a nearby bakery that the daddy collected after an early morning shower.  Instant coffee was made in the room with the hotpot near the stove.  We walked to the Grand Place and found the flower market.  Along the walk to Mannekin Pis, we found a light crunchy waffle.  After visiting the land mark we walked past the TinTin mural through the Les Galeries Saint Hubert.  The shops weren’t open, but we walked by St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral and heard church bells chime 11:30.  We found the Belgian Centre of Comic Strip Art.  The space was wonderful art deco glass and light infiltrated everywhere.  The tweens loved the visit b/c they are already fans of TinTin for over three years.  We found a restaurant that served pizza, soup and lasagna for our lunch at Pizzeria Sole d'Italia.  We walked back towards our hotel and past through the Parc du Jardin and the steps of Le Botanique.  The building was wonderful and the blooming trees and flowers were brilliant.  I actually got color on my face during the day to encourage my freckles.  I’d worn a fleece and rain jacket, but ended up with only the fleece during the afternoon walk.  The Konigsstraat was a major street that connected to our Rue de Palais hotel street.  The siesta was a welcome break.  Yes, we got a siesta.

Now, two weeks later, G1 has specific memories of the Comic book museum which surprises me because he is usually the one all about the food, but he adores Tintin.

Later, we took the tram along this same trek to find heavier waffles with full service.  And a walk to the lights of the Grand-Place and to do some “I Spy” hunts around the guild buildings’ facades.  The tram ride back was simple and easy, but we weren’t able to find a ticket office so had to pay more on the tram.  I did a Google search for travel info for Bruges and found the VisitBruges app to download to my phone.  The wi-fi services on most of the adventures were non-existent and I had to do most of my work at the hotel after-the-fact.  I was able to identify an Aldi super market grocery store nearby, but decided to abort the walk as the need for groceries was not so great.  The second night was done.

Walk downhill most of the way to grand place to waffle stop on our way to Mannekin Pis.  We found lace stores too.  Spring in Brussels was beautiful.  Along our adventures we found a WC in a fashion clothes mall a block away from the Grand Place. 

 

Comic book museum had a who's who of Tintin.

Trees were trained to grow in boxes or in a complete strait line (espalier).

Parc de Brussels largest park in country was where we found the tram to/from Grand Place.

BRU: In Search of Napoleon

Friday flight to Brussels from Chicago was brilliant. We arrived Saturday before noon and traveled by train to Brux Noord train station where we exited the east door of the station to Allard Str.  We walked with our bags one block to Brabant Str and turned LEFT to Rogier Str.  This path led us through the Morrocan neighborhood and away from the street adjacent to the train station where women stood scantily clad advertising human degradation.  The Rogier Str was a steep climb to Rue de Palais where the tram lines run.  Then we turned left for a downhill path to the Wellness Apart Hotel.  The hotel had plenty of space for 2 adults and 3 tweens.  Adults were on the bedroom on the backside of the building. The tweens were on pull-out beds in the living room.  The couch and chair in the living room were difficult to use at this point, but we were able to use the dinette table and 2 kitchen chairs. The galley kitchen had a frig and stove.  We put our power strip here for charging phones.  The wi-fi was best at this spot in the kitchen.  The shower, water temperature and water pressure was fine.

 Quote for the day came from the Daddy,

“I didn't think it would be this many hills.”

I was able to see from the plane a castle with a moat and rectangular mirror pond, and then a village with an old church in the center. There were many Turkish, Arabic, Dutch, and French signs. The weather is same as Chicago.  Butte lion with 1st action packed narrated movie at the historic Waterloo Battlefield site. 

We left the room right away for the train station again to Brain A’llued for a taxi ride to the Battlefield of Waterloo.  The tweens enjoyed the scavenger hunt activity and the climb to Butte du Lion.  They enjoyed the panoramic indoor replica of the battlefield circa 1815.  We toured quickly through the “wax museum” and the lessons there were interesting from authentic uniforms, and various archeological evidence collected over the years on this site.  We walked back to the bus stop near a gas station and waited successfully for the city bus which took us back to the train station.  There was a short wait for the return train trip back to Brux Noord.  The walk up the hotel was good for keeping us awake and the Turkish attendants at the hotel directed us just another short walk to several choices of Turkish restaurants.  This is the first time I've ever ordered my Turkish meal in French.  The first night was done.

 

BRU: Staying Healthy when Traveling with Kids

 

 

     When traveling with our kids, nausea is always a problem so we carry an airplane sickness bag even when not in airplane.  We don't sleep well on the plane, so we have ear plugs, socks, eye cover & usually a comfy sweatshirt to wear.  We always try to sleep on the plane going East to Europe, because generally the plane arrives in the destination city in the morning and there are places to go and people to see.  There is no time for jet lag, we just push through it until we drop.  

     This past trip to Brussels, there was a strategic siesta & we sleep well, but not until the second day.  The first day, we found our apart-hotel (most European rooms don't accommodate 5 people so we use apartment type places as hotels), dropped our bags and headed back to the train station for Brain a'llued, which was near the Battle of Waterloo site where Napoleon met his defeat.  More about the field trip later, but this travel on a sunny day with light sweat shirts and hats kept us moving and in fresh air for the remainder of the first day (the one where we just got off the plane).  The second day was planned for an exploration of Brussels which allowed for easier access to the hotel room, a nap (siesta) and an evening of Grand Place Brussels with the proper lighting.  The third day was a short trip to Brugge and walking/fresh air, so it meant everyone slept hard that night.  We then left on the next morning and stayed up on the plane to watch movies (we don't have cable tv) and take short naps on the West-bound plane.

     When traveling like this, we try to take advantage of every minute to see things we may not ever see again. This is not a vacation.  We do take time to wash hands often & drink plenty of water, then check with each child daily if their urine was yellow, indicating a need to drink more water.  I am a true mom and always asked to know if there were daily visits to keep their system regular or if they need a laxative soon.  It's ok to get anti-nausea meds in another language, and the same goes for diarrhea meds.  Also, we keep track of what we eat in order to protect ourselves -we don't want to get to a once in a lifetime place or site & spend the majority of our trip with food poisoning.  Staying healthy on the trip means we will be healthy when we return to home also.
     And finally, we walked for miles and saw so much, used public transport sparingly--and only then when we really needed to avoid using expensive taxis or injury.  We meet amazing people on trains, trams, buses and boats.  That's what our trips are about, getting out to see the country and meet people, not just relaxing by the pool or in front of the ski lodge fireplace.