Unit 34: Preparing

This is us on our way to school...not really, more like a day at the park while everyone else is in school. Actually we only had 3 days of school at home this week with a new baby (cousin) being born in the family, appointments and some really nice days that we spent out enjoying the weather. Here is one of our backyard nature discoveries from this week, a great big toad.

We still managed to complete the whole unit in 3 days though. We only have one week left now of Preparing Hearts and then we will be finished with 4th grade!!!This week we covered WWI and WWII.

History: We quickly covered WWI in one day. I have to say that after after reading the details I still am confused as to why this war even happened. It seems so senseless, when you consider the loss of life. I hate war! Sis researched a German Zepplin, which was an airship used in WWI and where we get blimps from today. We decided to skip the project which was making one.

The last two days we covered WWII.
The first day I cried. I can't read about the Holocaust without tearing up. The second day Sis cried when we talked about the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima and the first atomic bomb. The loss of innocent life in times of war esp children is so sad.
  
Reading:
We started reading a book about a family who lived  in Holland when German soliders invaded during WWII. It's called "The Little Riders." Sis is reading this one aloud to me. I thought it would be best to read this books together so that we can discuss it and I can answer any questions.

I also just discovered that this story was made into a movie. We haven't watched it yet, but we are enjoying the book so we probably will when we finish. The dvd can be found on Amazon HERE for under $5. Here is this free version also that is on Youtube, but the sound is pretty poor quality.

I also read "A Picture Book of Anne Frank," aloud to Sis. I have the complete diary of Anne Frank and when Sis is studying WWII in older grades I plan to have her read it. For now, I just wanted to introduce her to Anne and give her a gentle age appropriate glimpse into the horrors of the Holocaust.

 We are finished with spelling and math now, so we have been doubling up on lessons in our Language book "First Language Lessons book 4" trying to complete that. It's definitely end of the year cram time around here. For science Sis has been doing her lessons independently this week. All year I have read the lesson to her and we do the experiments together. Right now we're just trying to get through the last chapters, so Sis has been reading from her science book on her own and then journaling about what she learned so that I can make sure she's actually understanding what she's reading.

 1st Grade

Boo has been working hard to finish up her My Father's World 1st grade material. We can proudly say that she has finished the Old Testament in her Bible reader! The New Testament part is a lot harder and is not scheduled in the manual. Instead they just suggest we read through those for extra practice when she is ready. Next week she will officially finish her phonics workbook! So there will be a lot of finishing things next week and then we are going on a much anticipated weekend getaway.