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.

JOURNAL ENTRY:)

I AM READING A BOOK ABOUT PEARL HARBOR, AND ONE OF MY ASSIGNMENTS WAS TO DO A JOURNAL ENTRY IN THE PLACE OF A JAPANESE AMERICAN. A LOT OF THE STUFF THAT I WROTE ABOUT WAS FROM THE BOOK, BUT ANYWAY!! IT'S DOWN THERE.

April 19, 1942

I DON'T KNOW WHY THESE PEOPLE HAVE ALL TURNED AGAINST MY FAMILY, ME AND EVERYONE ELSE THAT LOOKS LIKE US. SURE MY PARENTS WERE BORN IN JAPAN, AND SPEAK JAPANESE,  BUT THEY ARE AMERICAN NOW. SO AM I. IT'S OUTRAGEOUS. I WAS SITTING ON THE BUS ONE DAY, AND ALL OF THE SUDDEN SOME GUY ASKED ME IF I WAS CHINESE, OR JAPANESE. I WAS STUNNED. I TOLD HIM I WAS AMERICAN, AND HE SPAT AT ME AND TOLD ME TO  GO BACK TO WHERE I BELONG. WHERE I BELONG? I BELONG IN THE EXACT SAME PLACE AS HIM! AMERICA. I'VE NEVER REALLY GIVEN MUCH THOUGHT TO HOW MY EYES ARE SHAPED, BUT NOW I AM FORCED TO. THE WAY I LOOK IS MY WHOLE LIFE RIGHT NOW. THAT IS MOST CERTAINLY NOT HOW IT SHOULD BE. NOW I AM SITTING IN AN INTERNMENT CAMP, AND ALL I WANT IS TO GO HOME. THAT'S ALL ANYONE WANTS. MY NUMBER IS 135576 AND I WILL NEVER LOOK AT ANY OF THOSE NUMBERS THE SAME WAY. WELL IF I EVER GET OUT OF HERE. PEARL HARBOR WAS DEFINITELY NOT MY FAULT, OR ANY OF THESE OTHER PEOPLE. I DON'T EVEN REALLY KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT JAPAN, LET ALONE WHERE IT IS ON THE MAP, BUT COMMUNICATING WITH THEM AND SETTING OFF A BOMB OR SOMETHING? YEAH RIGHT!! I JUST HOPE IT WILL ALL END SOON.

SEE YA LATER,
RUBY

DEVILS ARITHMATIC

DEVILS ARITHMETIC WAS AN AMAZING BOOK. I LOVED THE STORY, BECAUSE IT MADE ME WONDER WHAT THAT WOULD BE LIKE TO BE IN HANNA'S PLACE. I WOULD RECOMMEND IT TO AN OLDER GROUP, BECAUSE OF THE REALISTIC VIOLENCE, BUT THAT'S JUST PART OF WORLD WAR II. I THINK IT'S FUN TO READ ALL OF THE WWII BOOKS FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES. NUMBER THE STARS WAS FANTASTIC! ALSO IT WAS DIFFERENT TO READ AN ACTUAL JOURNAL. ANNE FRANK'S OF COARSE! BUT THIS ONE WAS ACTUALLY IN THE CONCENTRATION CAMP. COMING FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A GIRL MY  AGE, AND MANY OTHER POINTS OF VIEWS. WITH EACH BOOK ON THIS SUBJECT, THERE HAS BEEN A LITTLE BIT OF DIFFERENT SITUATIONS THAT HAVE HAPPENED IN WORLD WAR II. THE PEOPLE WERE SO CLEVER AND FAITHFUL THAT THEY SEEMED TO BE STANDING RIGHT NEXT TO ME IN PERSON REAL LIVE PEOPLE AS I WAS READING IT. THE END WAS THE BEST, AND SADDEST PART. I DON'T WANT TO GIVE ANYTHING AWAY, BUT I DID LIKE THE END. THE WHOLE THING WAS HEARTBREAKING, BUT INTRIGUING AND IT WAS A GOOD STORY. LIKE I SAID IT IS A LITTLE BIT GORY, BUT STILL IF YOU ARE OLDER THAT 10 OR SO READ THIS BOOK!! IT TAUGHT ME A LOT ABOUT THE CAMPS, AND WHAT EVERYONE HAD TO GO THROUGH. WHEN I DID "THE SOUND OF MUSIC", WE DID A SCENE WHERE THE NAZIS WERE LOOKING FOR US, AND I BARLEY KNEW ANYTHING ABOUT IT. NOW THAT I'VE READ SOME BOOKS AND DONE SOME RESEARCH I KNOW A LOT MORE ABOUT IT. NOW I CAN RELATE MORE TO THAT SCENE WE DID AND IT'S A LOT MORE INTERESTING. READ THIS BOOK!!!!

Winston Churchill

We are in our third week of WWII.  Ruby interviewed Bill last night about Pearl Harbor and put together a power point about the subject this morning.  I think she learned a lot.  She is finishing up The Devil's Arithmetic today so we can start on a book about Pearl Harbor and the Japanese internment camps.

Today during lunch, I lectured Ruby about some of Winston Churchill's most famous speeches, and the historical events that were the backdrop for the speeches.  I get all choked up when I think about the Miracle of Dunkirk, and how all of England's fishing boats, yachts, pleasure boats and rowboats went across the English Channel and rescued over 300,000 British and French troops who were surrounded by German armies.  Another speech we talked about was the "finest hour" speech, given when England alone stood unconquered by Hitler.  We listened to some of Churchill's speeches on YouTube, and he was quite the orator, but his speeches are even more powerful in written form, knowing the events that were taking place at the time.  I am trying to keep on top of all the history by reading ahead, but it is a lot of work.  I have a stack of books about Churchill and Roosevelt and Churchill and Hitler, but I won't get to touch a fraction of the information that is available.  I'm hoping to just focus on a few important points.

Ruby is doing well in math at school and creative writing with Coco.  She is a great writer, and I'm glad she's getting such good instruction on that.  She is also doing Spelling List 3 and memorizing the European capitals.  She finished memorizing the map of Europe, which was pretty tough.  There are so many Balkan nations now!  And so many former Soviet Republics!  :)

We have been using a fabulous website called freerice.com to do grammar, science, geography and vocabulary quizzes.  It is incredibly useful. 

Also, Ruby finished her powerpoint presentation on Pablo Picasso yesterday.  I think she learned a lot.  We're planning ot have some friends over to try out our Cubism skills soon.  In correlation with the WWII unit, we focused on the painting "Guernica," Picasso's masterpiece depicting the Nazi bombing of Guernica, Spain.  When the Nazis saw the painting in Picasso's apartment in Paris, they asked him, "Did you do this?"  Picasso replied, "No, you did."  He used his artisic voice as a weapon of war.

I think we're covering everything we should be, with the exception of science.  We might have to have a week here and there completely devoted to science.  It's hard to do all the subjects in one day, with an hour of practicing and all the reading I'm trying to have Ruby do.  Although, it's going to be pretty easy to cover the science that is outlined in the school district curriculum.  It's not much.

TODAY IN CREATIVE WRITING:)

MY COCO AND I ARE DOING THE SENSES. TODAY WE DID SMELL. HERE IS ONE OF THE THINGS I WROTE.



                  Grass that has just regained color after a long snow covered winter, it gives off a swirling sense of sweet crisp smells. Flowers are starting to bloom and smell terrifically sugar like. The next day rain pours down making the air clean and thick as if you could eat the cleansed air. I can almost smell the color around me.