Awesome Geography: Indonesia, Plus Australia and New Zealand

I am way falling behind on my geography posting, so this post will cover two weeks of classes.

My interest in geography actually stems from the fact that my dad traveled the world constantly when I was little.

Actually, he only stopped traveling after Mxyl was born, but when I was little, he brought me things from each of the countries he went to.  Often it was dolls, and I still have my collection, somewhat worse for the fact that I loved playing with all the dolls.

Well, most of the dolls.  The dolls from Indonesia were these terrifying puppets. 

But, hey, that means they survived intact and my kids get to have nightmares about them too!


For both active and art activities, the kids created a puppet show.  Most of the puppets were made of paper on popsicle sticks.  For our "snack" we had sate chicken for lunch.

For Australia and New Zealand, we did Maori designs on wood, inspired
by this fence.

This was just sharpies on the big tongue depressor style popsicle sticks.  We may be detecting a theme.

And our active activity was throwing boomerangs.

We actually happen to have real boomerangs, thanks to having friends and family (Bill and Grammy and Pop) travel to Australia when the World Science Fiction convention was held there.


A word of advice if you try this: look up online how to actually throw one, it doesn't work the way you think.  Also, have a large empty space.  Also, plan to throw it at least ten times before you get it to curve back to you.

Welcome to November

 We went directly from highs in the low 70s in October to our first frost and a high of 55 on the first of November!

But it was a lovely All Saints.  We went to Mass together, and ate lots of candy while listening to fun stories about random saints.

 All Souls Day was crowded! 

We made it to Mass again, then Choclo and Oob helped the younger Scouts go door to door Scouting for Food.

Then it was off to the cemetery to decorate graves, pray for our dear ones and tell stories about those who have gone before us.

Then Leena and I set up the flowers and candles for our parish's Rite of Remembrance.

This is a lovely Mass for all the people who have been buried from Holy Redeemer in the past year.

The families come and each light a candle and receive a flower.  There's an extra candle for those we lost who were buried elsewhere.

The arrangement stays up over the weekend to remind everyone to pray for our departed, then the families get to keep the candle with their loved one's name.

I HAVE RETURNED!

 From the Sublime to the Ridiculous...

We took down all of the Halloween decorations and brought up

THE GLORIOUS TURKEY!!

Poem of the Week: November Night

November Night

By Adelaide Crapsey

 

Listen. .

With faint dry sound,

Like steps of passing ghosts,

The leaves, frost-crisp'd, break from the trees

And fall.

HT: Poetry Foundation

Halloween Costumes

 Oob is the last one of true trick or treating age, and this is his last year (let us pause as I sob into my bowl of kitkats).

He went as St. Luke (known to St. Paul as the Beloved Physician).  Leena accompanied him as his guardian angel.

Meanwhile, Choclo handed out candy dressed as The Shark King, much to the delight of every child that came to our door.







He would announce,"I am The Shark King! I am here to give you the greatest treasure of the sea...CANDY!"




My favorite time was when a dad yelled during the dramatic pause: TUNA FISH!?  His four year old was appalled, but Choclo reassured the lad with his Shark King voice, that the true treasure was CANDY.

Although now I think it would be hilarious to give out tuna fish. 

Saturday night was Scary Movie Night with the Scouts.  Zorg, who is becoming a Cub adult leader, went long dressed as this.

Choclo and Oob went dressed in hazmat suits (their patrol is the Biohazards). And I forgot to get a picture...

And I need to stop eating Kitkats now.

Hope you had a happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

 We made haunted houses (where you open windows and doors for a scary surprise).

 Choclo did a haunted mountain.

Oob did a haunted castle.

Leena did a coral, haunted by a squid!

 And, of course, we carved pumpkins!

Costume pictures tomorrow!

Mostly Wordless Wednesday: Zoo

I'm Oob's favorite!

Me: What animals do you want to see at the zoo?
Oob: Roseate Spoonbills!

Poem of the Week: Theme in Yellow

Theme in Yellow

By Carl Sandburg

I spot the hills

With yellow balls in autumn.

I light the prairie cornfields

Orange and tawny gold clusters

And I am called pumpkins.

On the last of October

When dusk is fallen

Children join hands

And circle round me

Singing ghost songs

And love to the harvest moon;

I am a jack-o'-lantern

With terrible teeth

And the children know

I am fooling.

HT: Poetry Foundation

Wordless Wednesday: Leaf Walk

Awesome Geography: Japan

We do a lot of things involving Japan, not least because Mxyl speaks Japanese, has been to Japan, and does "fan subbing" for Japanese TV shows.

We decided to do origami as our art project and a Sakura Box (box of random treats from Japan) as our snack.

All I can say is that this was both hilarious and amazing!

Not only were some snacks difficult to translate, there were some snacks (Texas Corn!) that were delicious but completely strange (not really corny and nothing to do with Texas - kinda like cheese balls without cheese).
But super fun!  Of course we did Geography Now's Japan episode, and we also watched some Japanese shorts on The Kid Should See This.

American History

 Was it last week that we went to the American History Museum?  We've been a bit bogged down with doctor visits and I'm losing track!  Fortunately those multiple doctor visits should be slowing down within the next few weeks.

At any rate, we've been wading through Land of Hope.  I can't say I fully endorse it, not that it isn't full of good stuff, but it's more appropriate for college level work, IMHO. Or it would be great for a kid who was fascinated by American history.








Lots of thoughtful pages completely covered with text with scarcely any pictures.  I've ended up skimming chapters and discussing the interesting points they bring up, and that's been surprisingly fruitful.

They have also been rewatching some of Liberty's Kids while I've been off doing doctory stuff.


 Our visits to Fort McHenry and now the American History museum have tied in very well and helped put some visual interest into the concepts.



I do think that the military history exhibit on the top floor is probably the best designed museum exhibit I've ever experienced, both in terms of telling a continuous narrative and telling a complex nuanced story.






In the book we are still in the early years of the country, but we are seeing the set up of many of the conflicts that continue to the present day, and this exhibit was a great way to tie everything together in an interesting discussion.