The Lightning Thief

I just finished The Lightning Thief, and loved it so much!!!!!!!!! I even had to add it to my list of all time fav books! The updated best books according to Ruby are:
                                             


                                                Because of Winn Dixie
                                                      Fable Haven 1
                                                    Devil's Arithmetic
                                                   Number The Stars
                                                   The Lightning Thief
                                                    Out of My Mind
                                                 When You Reach Me

I think everyone should read all of these books.
My favorite character was Annabeth, because she was the daughter of Athena and was super smart. I enjoyed the whole entire book and it was a quick read. My mom is just finishing it and I can't wait to read the second one! 

Qin Shinhuang

Mao Zedog

Qin Shinhaung

I have recently read a few books about Qin Shinhuang, who I think compared to Mao was a little bit the same, but smarter. Both of the them were afraid they wouldn't be the smartest and so both of them destroyed all the books. Qin destroyed all the books except the ones on farming and medicine.  I think that Shin was a lot smarter to not destroy everything, including information that people need. they were in different time periods and in Mao's place it mattered a lot more to the people than it did to the people of Qin, because of the time. It makes me wonder why they didn't just try to gain more knowledge, and help their people with that knowledge. That is what I would of done. If I were in charge, I'd be happy to have intelligent people to help lead and educate everyone, so that we could become a strong kingdom together as a whole.

HALF SPOON OF RICE

HALF SPOON OF RICE WAS A VERY SHORT PICTURE BOOK ABOUT THE CAMBODIAN GENOCIDE. EVEN THOUGH IT WAS SHORT, I THINK WE HAVE THIS CAMBODIAN GENOCIDE THING COVERED. IF YOU KNOW SOME STORIES OF THIS SUBJECT, I BET YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN. IT WAS SUPER SAD TO READ, AND THINKING ABOUT IT WAS HORRIBLE! IT HAS A GOOD ENDING AND IS A GOOD STORY, BUT I'M KIND OF GETTING BUMMED OUT WITH ALL IF THESE TRAGIC TIMES FOR ALL THE DIFFERENT PLACES IN THE WORLD. IN THIS WORLD WE ALL LIVE IN TODAY, AND WHERE WE ARE LIVING, WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IS IS TO BE HUNGRY. WE CANT GO FOR MORE THAN 4-5 HOURS WITHOUT HAVING TO EAT. SNACKING IS AN EVERYDAY THING AND IS CONSTANT THING WITH BOTH KIDS AND ADULTS. I DON'T THINK I COULD LAST VERY LONG NOT EATING BARELY ANYTHING!! I DON'T THINK ANYONE IN THIS DAY IN AGE COULD DO IT, BECAUSE THERE IS ALWAYS ENOUGH TO GO AROUND. WHEN XANTHE WAS IN THE ORPHANAGE SHE ATE EVERYTHING THROUGH A BOTTLE AND DID IT IN ABOUT TWO SECONDS. SHE STILL WORRIES THAT SHE WON'T GET AS MUCH AS SHE NEEDS, AND AS I GOT THINKING, I WAS RAN THROUGH MY PREVIOUS THOUGHTS AND REALIZED HOW WEIRD THAT IS TO ME TO WORRY ABOUT NOT HAVING ENOUGH FOOD EVER. MISSING A MEAL IN ONE DAY IS NOT HUNGER. THE THING THAT IS SO DIFFERENT FROM MY LIFE AND THE BOOK, IS PROBABLY UNDERSTANDING, AND THOUGHTS THAT COME WITH DIFFERENT CHALLENGES AND THIS BOOK MAKES MY LIFE SO EASY, BUT ALSO THERE ARE LOTS OF OTHER THINGS NOW TO BE WORRIED ABOUT THAT THEY DIDN'T HAVE THEN, AND DIFFERENT STRUGGLES WILL STILL CHANGE THROUGHOUT TIME. I THINK I LIKE MY LIFE!!!:)

Cultural Revolution

Ruby is learning about the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward.  She took a test today on it, and mostly finished Red Scarf Girl.  I'm hoping she will read China's Son, which is a kids' adaptation of one of my favorite books, Colors of the Mountain by Da Chen.  Then we have to move on! 

For Asian arts, we read a couple of books on Bonsai, but haven't trimmed our bonsai tree yet.  Next we;ll go to either Cambodia or ancient China.  There is so much to cover!

Ruby is still doing creative writing, a science page a day, grammar, vocabulary, spelling, math at school and lots of guitar.  She is doing a great job of being self-motivated.

Brief Update

We didn't get much done today because of Ruby's migraine.  She did half her practicing, went to math and taught Nancy her violin lesson, then slept for the rest of the day until guitar at 5:30.  This week, we have studied the Cultural Revolution.  Ruby is reading Red Scarf Girl and I'm reading China's Son by Da Chen.  Every morning, Ruby has her current events quiz, which is a reading comprehension thing, a science page and grammar practice, in addition to spelling and geography.  It's a lot of fun.  I hope we're covering everything!  We wrapped up WWII with a test my dad gave Ruby about D-Day.  I'll have to take a picture of the test.  It was fun to discuss it with Dad.

Feb. 10

Ruby did most of her morning practicing before school started at 9:00.  She took tests on spelling lists 3 and 4, and we combined the words she missed into one list to study.  Some of them are tough.  She finished a science page started studying Asia for geography, looking at a map and listing all the countries that border China.  I think there are 14.  It's big!  :)

Ruby also did grammar at freerice before Coco came over for creative writing.  Then math.  After lunch, Ruby did her afternoon practicing, 30 minutes, and then we went through the Nisei Regiment book and a brief book on Pearl Harbor, finishing that segment of the WWII discussion.  Right now, she is reading another short book on Dunkirk, which I think is one of the most inspirational stories of WWII.  We HAVE to finish this unit and move on to the next one, and I'm trying to wrap it up tomorrow with D Day.

Now it's a short break for blogging for Ruby, then ballet, the rest of her guitar, and modern tonight.  Fun, fun!

Feb. 8

This week, Ruby started doing two pages a day in a science workbook I got for her.  Each page layout is a short essay, vocabulary words and a page of questions.  Yesterday's topic was dinosaurs.  All day long, the whole family pondered the question, "If dinosaurs were colorblind, would they evolve camouflage capabilities?"  Scientists don't know if dinosaurs were colorblind or whether they used camouflage.  Something to think about!

Ruby finished the Diary of Ben Uchida.  I'm halfway through and it's a great book.  Ruby is reading Weedflower.  It's the same subject matter, but her cousin Alexis recommended it, so we thought now would be a good time to read it.

This morning, Ruby did her practicing, science pages and then grammar on freerice.com.  Coco came for creative writing while I was at piano.  They worked on "stream of consciousness" writing.  Then math.  Ruby still has another half-hour of practicing to do after she reads, and while I teach violin.  Before ballet, we will try to discuss her science assignment and go into the end of WWII while we make tomato basil soup.  Good smells always help me learn!  :)  We have to end that unit this week and get started on Asia.  We'll start with a novel set in Japan, so it will be a good transition from the Japanese internment camp novels.  all in all, Ruby is a great student.  We're having fun.