Johann Sebastian Bach

How to do Composer Study the Charlotte Mason way: Here.

Free music for Johann Sebastian bach at Classical Cat: Here.

Classics for Kids Biography and Radio Shows about Bach.

Mr. Bach Comes to Call - the amazing Classical Kids ficitonal audio cd's about famous compsers. This one wasn't as engaging for my kids as the one for Vivaldi, but after listening to it a few times they became more interested in it.

The Story of Bach - the Music Masters cd series which includes biography and music selections.

Library Books:

Bach (Famous Children series) by Ann Rachlin

Johann Sebastian Bach by Mike Venezia

Sebastian: A Book about Bach by Jeannette Winter

Bach's Goldberg Variations by Anna Harwell Celenza ***Kids' favorite*** Comes with music cd with all the variations.

Bach's Big Adventure by Sallie Ketchum ***Kids' Favorite***

We did the map activity from Homeschool Share's Bach's Big Adventure Unit Study.

And I read through Harmony Art Mom's Bach Compser Study.

Foregin Country: China

I am behind on my posting!! but I am going to make an effort to catch up this week.

As part of our history, geography we spend time learning about foreign countries. This summer we have been learning about China. The kids have long been interested in China, starting when they were 2 and 3, and Kurt was traveling there frequently. I think Hong Kong was the first city they were able to point out on a map.

Here are some of the resources we used to learn about this GIANT country!

CHINA

Wild China - BBC documentary series with 6 one-hour long episodes. These were wonderful, very similar to Planet Earth in format. Austin and Nyah both enjoyed watching all of these.

Library Books:

Once Upon a Full Moon by Elizabeth Quan

China: the Culture by Bobbie Kalman

Welcome to China by Caryn Jenner

Chinese Children's Favorite Stories by Mingmei Yip

We're Riding on a Caravan: An Adventure on the Silk Road by Laurie Krebs

Cooking the Chinese Way by Ling Yu

(I lost the list of books we read, so these are the ones that I remember)

Activities:

Cooking!!! You can't study China and not try to cook chinese. We used the above cookbook to make dumplings using won ton wraps. They were . . . edible, but not great. I was thinking the dumplings would be more noodle-y, but the won ton wraps mostly just fell apart. We filled ours with chicken and a variety of veggies- carrots, peas, corn, green beans, etc. My kids also love to eat with chopsticks, which is torturous to watch because they get such a little amount of food with each bite (especially with rice), but they keep doing it. And after dinner they use their chopsticks for wands or swords or whatever.

We have used the Sunbird seasoning mixes for a long time, and (amazingly) everyone eats dinner when I make it, which make me wonder why I don't make it more often. Lately I haven't been able to find the Beef & Broccoli mix, which is my favorite, but the Stir Fry mix works with any kind of meat and veggie combination you want to use. I rarely make the Fried Rice because most of my kids don't like fried rice.

My kids have also long been fascinated with the Chinese Lunar Years and Chinese New Year. We did check out a couple library books about these subjects, but I don't remember their titles. We sort of celebrated the Chinese New Year in February by going out to eat, my post about it is here.

Here are our Chinese Lunar Years:

Austin - Year of the Snake

Nyah - Year of the Horse

Olivia - Year of the Dog

Jolie - Year of the Rat

Kurt - Year of the Snake

Kelsey - Year of the Monkey

A couple years ago when my dad was in Taiwan (I think?), he brough Austin, Nyah, and I little charms of our Chinese years. Austin and Nyah's are currently missing in action because they like to play with them (and then lose them until I find them and put them away again). But here's a picture of mine:

That is pretty much all we did for our China study. We all had a good time.

More nature from our week

My camera is cool- pictures under water I love the view at our pool
Fighting over the hose

Helping me water

Spider making its home in a bucket in our sand box

Our garden

The only thing we have been able to harvest so far is lettuce, lettuce, lettuce, and 3 pea pods Olivia ate. We are on the verge of harvesting a couple tomatos, which Olivia will also probably eat.

Velvet ant, which is really a wingless wasp, that Nyah caught in our sand box.

Butterfly having a snack

Video of same butterfly

Moth "puddling" at the beach

Nature is all around us!!

Outdoor Hour Challenge: Crop Plants #2 Green Beans

Green beans, green beans-- these are certainly a dinner favorite with all 4 of my kids so we eat them many nights. We did plants some in our garden, but a bad hail storm chopped all the seedlings to bits (peas, cucumber, zuccini, canteloupe, and pumpkins included- oy, mother nature!). We replanted, but I'm not sure these plants will have a chance to get very big before the end of the season. The green beans in this picture are smaller than a quarter.

We also decided to do the Zoom Experiment- after about 5 days our first bag of beans turned to mold and mush, and ended up in the trash. We are trying again with an extra paper towel and less water.

And when a neighbor didn't promptly mow their lawn we discovered a small patch of clover to examine for last week's challenge. Other nature study activities from this week:

A neighbor boy brought out his pet turtle. Grasshopper catching continues

Today is a holiday in our state (Pioneer Day-Utah), so we went to our local beach- a small reservoir in our neighborhood. Imagine our surprise when my oldest daughter exclaimed she had found a seashell, and it really was!! These are ones we collected- they are all smaller than a pencil eraser.

Looking for shells-

Western Tiger Swallowtail- I watched this one "puddling"

(scroll down to "Habitat/Behavior" section after pictures)

My husband found this creature hanging around his feet while sitting in the water-

We've identified it as a Water Boatmen

Outdoor Hour Challenge: Crop Plants #1 Clover

This picture illustrates the closest we have been able to get to Clover this week, and certainly not from a lack of trying. We've checked all the yards around us, the church, elementary school and a couple parks, and they must all be very well taken care of or so new clover hasn't found its way into them. (And yes, that is my toddler dancing on the counter in the background!)

I think my neighbors are starting to wonder what we are up to walking through lawns with our heads bent in concentration. I didn't think clover would be this hard to track down, but we will keep looking for it in the coming weeks. It puts our plans to pick and dry some for our nature journals on hold for now. The kids decided to draw four-leafed clovers instead. I wonder if a few of the farm fields around us are growing red clover or alfalfa-- I guess we will have to stop and check soon.

In the meantime the kids continue to explore the world around them-- watching and catching grasshoppers and other bugs, playing in the mini "river" we have running through our backyard by building dams and making boats to race, and helping in the yard and garden.

The river is the result of our yard being the lowest on our street, and our next door neighbors over-watering their lawn (I think it goes through the watering cycle 4 times a day!!).

Outdoor Hour Challenge #3

Outdoor Hour Challenge #3

This challenge is about drawing and creating a nature journal, with the subject of what to draw open for our choosing. I wasn't sure what we were going to learn about when my kids had a fascinating experience with a Daddy Longlegs. They caught one and put it into a bug terrarium. Then they caught some small moths in the yard and put them in as well. What a surprise when the Daddy Longlegs began munching on one!! So we learned more about these backyard favorites. I read to them a few parts from Handbook of Nature Study (pg. 432), and there were a couple times they exclaimed "we saw ours do that!" Nature study is really much more exciting when you can be up close to your subject.

Our Daddy Longlegs eating a moth

I have seen a daddy longlegs hold food to his jaws with his palpi and
he seemed also to use them for stuffing it into his mouth. (HNS pg.433)

Nyah's journal page

The most entertaining thing which a "daddy" in captivity is likely to do is to clean his legs; he is very particular about his legs, and he will grasp one close to the basal joint in his jaws and slowly pull it though, meanwhile he industriously nibbles it clean for the whole length to the very toe. (HNS pg. 433)

Austin's journal page

We also looked this insect up on the internet and learned it is not a spider,
but belongs to the Opiliones order, is known as a Harvestman, is not poisonous
and does not spin webs.

UPDATE: For more info on the diferent spiders/insects called Daddy Longlegs check out Barb's linnk in the comments for this post.

Outdoor Hour Challenge #2

Bull Thistle- HUGE plant- 4 ft. high, 4 ft. wide

Because Barb at Handbook of Nature Study is taking a summer break, we have decided to start at the beginning of the Outdoor Hour Challenges. These early ones have given me a lot of great information and we are having a good time doing challenges again. We used our backyard visitor, the Least Chipmunk for Challenge #1.

Outdoor Hour Challenge #2

We went for a walk (or bike ride for the kids) around our neighborhood this morning. Before we left, the kids and I reviewed the 5 senses and talked a little about what we might see, hear, smell, feel, or taste.

I have been searching for and taking pictures of wildflowers or native plants to identify, and the kids are always trying to help me with this. We found 3 new ones today.

Teasel- Will have tiny pink blossoms coming out from between all the spikes

What made today's walk a memorable adventure wasn't because of nature, but was when Austin was speeding down a hill on his bike, across an intersection without stopping or looking for traffic, and a dump truck was also approaching the intersection on the street he crossed. I knew the dump truck wasn't close enough to be a real danger, and the truck also had a stop sign, but it was just scary enough for him to be a good learning experience and be the highlight of their journal entries.

Prickly Poppy- And it was very prickly!!

Once we were home we did the following exercise in their journals: One word to describe something they heard, two words to describe something they saw, and three words to describe something they felt. I also asked if there was anything else connected with their senses they wanted to share, and then they had the option to draw a picture about our walk if they wanted.

Austin

Truck

Driving By

My Bike Handle

Nyah

Dog

A Bush

I felt flowers

Nyah's Picture: