"Annyeong" from South Korea

This week we "travelled" to South Korea in our Expedition Earth  studies.  First stop was adding the Korean flag sticker to their passports and putting down the arrival date.

The girls would find S. Korea on the map each day and review what continent it is on as well as if it's found in the North of South Hemisphere.

They practiced writing their names in Korean.

Made their animal mini books and hung the animals up on the classification chart.

They colored the Korean Flag.

Added the South Korea label on their continents poster!

And made jeweled crowns (The Koreans were known for creating these elaborately decorated metal crowns for their royalty’s attire. Each crown contained countless jewels and precious stones!)

We also read about missionary Hudson Taylor (who actually was in China) and drew a picture of a group of people working as a team because that is exactly how the China Inland Mission came to be...teamwork!

And the girls rocked it on their chores this week!

Kamsahamnida (thank-you) for reading this blog post!  Next week we travel to Japan!

"Ni Hao" from China!

So this week in our Expedition Earth studies we "travelled" to China and learned some amazing things along the way!  First things first, the girls had to stamp their passports!  I printed all the flags on White full sheet labels so that we could cut them out and stick them in the passports. 

The girls each got to practice writing their names in Mandarin Chinese.  We went to Google Translate to get the characters.  They also did numbers 0-10 in Chinese!

We had fun making the Great Wall of China!  I got creative and used a long piece of cardboard.  I cut it to look like a wall and then the girls painted it...even added a nice touch of grass and flowers at the bottom.

They did a map & flag activity.  We discovered that Mt. Everest is the tallest mountain in the world!

We also added our China emblem to our continents wall poster under Asia!

China emblem in upper left corner!

They did their Animal mini-books and added 6 Animal's to the classification chart!
Giant Panda, Red Panda, Stork, Pangolin, Golden Monkey, & Snow Leapord.

Made Chinese Paper Lanterns!

Also a Chinese fan!

They loved listening to the Chinese song from the Wee Sing Around the World and hearing other real life stories from the Kids of Courage download!

We also located China on the map and prayed for the people of China everyday! 

And they did a craft to add to their Missionary Keepsake boxes.  This week they had to draw a picture of people in China before Gladys Alward came and shared Jesus and what they were like afterwards!

And to end our week we went out for Chinese food

(which is challenging when you do Gluten Free)

It's been a very fun week (I have to say I have learned alot myself).  Next up South Korea!

A New School Year Underway!

Last Monday was our first day back to school and for us the start of our 3rd year with homeschooling.  I am so excited about all that we are doing this year!!  I'm finding myself still making adjustments to our schedule, so if things are not running smoothly for you either, just step back and evaluate your day.  Are you trying to cram too much into your day?  Is there a better time you could be working on certain subjects? 

The "Type A" side of me wants to complete and check everything off my list for each day but my desire is for this year to be 1) FUN and 2) LOW-KEY!  So this means I have to work extra hard on allowing myself to 1) RELAX and 2) NOT STRESS about getting everything done on time.

This year I have divided up our school day into 2 parts: morning and afternoon.  In the morning we are doing Table Talk devotions at breakfast followed by our Expedition Earth world geography.  The afternoons is when we are doing math/language arts (while my toddler naps).  I am using Math Lessons for a Living Education: book 1 with my Kindergartener and Math Lessons for a Living Education: book 2 with my 2nd grader (to learn more about this math curriculum go here). 

XTB Devotional!

Expedition Earth is a one-year world geography curriculum.  Each week we will be learning about a different country, with 31 countries in all!  This past week was our "Intro to Geography" week and one of the highlights of the week was making a paper mache earth!   I cheated a little and purchased a Paper Mache Kit from Michaels called "Celluclay".  You just add water and then mix!

After they dried (which took several days) they painted them blue!

Then they dried again overnight.

Then painted on the Continents!

We will also be learning about 6 animals from each country and adding them to our "Wall Classification Chart"

No Animals have been added yet.


And what is a world geography curriculum without a huge wall map?  This was purchased at Costco!

"Expedition Earth" has so many fun activities including:

• 7 Wonders of the World
• World Lap Book
• Geographical Locations
• Mapping Skills
• Science: Ecosystems Study
• Geography Vocabulary
• People of the Region
• How to Pray for the Regions
• Christmas around the world
• Children like me
• Science: Animals mini-books for each country
• Science: Animal Classification Study
• Food and recipes
• Craft activities
• Country Songs
• Fun activities and games

Click here to download a sample of the Brazil Week

We are also incorporating learning about missionaries into this year.  We will be reading from Heroes for Young Readers.  This week we start with, Gladys Alward!

The girls are having so much FUN so far and that makes me happy!!  Now off to China we go!

I plan to share more with you this year as we travel the globe!