Expedition Earth- China

This year we're using the Expedition Earth curriculum from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  This is actually our 2nd week.  The first week was just an intro to geography- learning the continents and oceans.  This week the real journey began!

*we stamped our passports with a China flag
*learned basic China facts- religions, currency, population, etc
*Read about an average Chinese kid- food they eat, clothes they wear, school
*China map worksheet
*Flag of China worksheet
*Watched videos about Chinese Acrobats


We made our own China paper dolls.

We studied Pandas and made panda masks.  We also watched the IMAX movie China- The Panda Adventure.  Good movie!

We learned about the ancient Chinese puzzle Tangrams and made a swan.

For each country we will make a pin to represent that country.  I made a "suitcase" to place all of our pins on.  The suitcase is just a piece of felt with a cloth handle that we hung up on the wall.  China's pin is a mini version of the Tangram swan we made.

We learned how to say and write our names and numbers 1-10 in Chinese.  We learned Hello, goodbye, please and thank you as well.

To end our trip to China we went out to eat at a China buffet!  It was delicious!  Although they didn't have Chinese music playing, just some good ol' American rock and roll!  Oh well the food was really good! :)

This week we travel to South Korea!

Our Curriculum this year

I've changed our entire curriculum this year so it's more fun and more structured.  I don't like the "all-in-one" curriculum out there.  I think that some companies are better at certain subjects than others.  So I mix and match with what I think will work best for us.  I have 2 kids with 2 different learning styles and I also have a different learning style than each of them, (which is reflected in my teaching style.)  So, I have to use things that will work for all of us!  One kid is an audio, with a secondary visual, type learner, the other is a kinesthetic, with a secondary visual, type learner. 

Here is our curriculum for this year:
Click on the links to learn more about each one!

Science-  Project Wild ( a nature based curriculum)
Math-  BJU press Math K5 (hands on math)
Bible-  Character Studies from Confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com
            Book of Proverbs unit study
Writing-  Handwriting without Tears
Health- Healthy Steps for Healthy Lives program from Nestle
P.E.-  Family Time Fitness
Artist Study- World's greatest artists Vol. 1 from Confessions of a homeschooler
Drawing-  Mark Kistler's online drawing academy
Geography- Expedition Earth from Confessions of a homeschooler  (Obviously I love her stuff!)
History-  History Hideaways  (class at our local library)
Music-  The Story of the Orchestra and The  Story of the Incredible Orchestra
Grammar-  Multiple online resources

It's going to be a full year but I think it will be lots of fun!