Hola----our Adventure to Chile

So this month for World Travelers Club the country is Chile.  We feel a special connection to this country since my grandmother served as a missionary there in the late 1940s.  I went through my parents attic and came up with a couple really cool treasures and Lydia enjoyed seeing items that belonged to her great-grandma Lydia!  We even found their wedding album.

Our adjusted Chile notebook pages.  I list facts and pictures of the country and where it is located.



Printed flag from Enchanted Learning.



Things we learned about Chile:

• Capital:  Santiago
• Population:  17,094,270
• Language:  Spanish
• Total Square Miles:  292,183 sq mi
• If you live in Chile, you would be known as a Chilean.
• Currency:  PESO
• Government  Unitary presidential republic
• Climate:  Chile within its borders hosts at least seven major climatic subtypes, ranging from desert in the north, to alpine tundra and glaciers in the east and south east, humid subtropical in Easter Island, Oceanic in the south and Mediterranean climate in central Chile. There are four seasons in most of the country: summer (December to February), autumn (March to May), winter (June to August), and spring (September to November).
• Chile is divided into 15 regions, each headed by an intendant appointed by the president. The regions are further divided into provinces, with provincial governors also appointed by the president. Finally each province is divided into communes[64] which are administered by municipalities, each with its own mayor and council elected for four year terms. Each region is designated by a name and a Roman numeral, assigned from north to south. The only exception is the Santiago Metropolitan Region which is designated RM (Región Metropolitana). Two new regions were created in 2006 and became operative in October 2007; Los Ríos in the south (Region XIV), and Arica y Parinacota in the north (Region XV). The numbering scheme skipped Region XIII.

Animals of Chile

Pink Chilean Flamingo  ---- It can be differentiated from these species by its greyish legs with pink "knees", and also by the larger amount of black on the bill (more than half). Young chicks may have no sign of pink coloring whatsoever, but instead remain grey.

Alpacas ---- Alpaca fiber is used for making knitted and woven items, much as wool is. These items include blankets, sweaters, hats, gloves, scarves, a wide variety of textiles and ponchos in South America, and sweaters, socks, coats and bedding in other parts of the world. 

Llaca  ----  This mammal has dense and silky fur, of a light brown in its tummy area and grey on its back. It has a long tail, sharp snout and sharp teeth, and it looks like a small rat. It has big ears and you can recognize it because they have a dark spot around their eyes.

Pudu ----  The world’s smallest deer.   They are 13-17 inches tall and 33 inches long.  The Pudu is a timid animal, of nocturnal habits, it feeds on herbs. Females give birth to a single young, which is of a reddish color with white stripes down its thighs and the back. The stripes disappear after three months.

Coati ----Carnivorous mammal that also feeds on eggs and fruits. It has a long snout and a well developed sense of smell. It is highly sociable, especially in its youth. The adult male drifts off from the rest of the animals and goes back to the group in mating season.


Viscacha ---- They live in colonies of 10 to over 100 just like meerkats

We made the National Dish of Chile......Cazuela.

Even Brayden went and got a bowl.  It was basically a big chicken soup, but the chicken is left on the bone.  Not my favorite way of eating chicken soup, but it was still really yummy!!!!

A souvenier from Great-grandma Lydia.  Brayden will be talking about Huasos (wasos).



We quickly made a costume for his presentation.



Lydia and Joey had more hands on projects.  Joey wanted to talk about Easter Island.  So he made monolithic statues like the ones found on the island.



Lydia is making a model of an earth oven from mud we dug up under the snow in the backyard.

The book end brought back from Chile featuring an earth oven and Lydia's model she created:



Joey's finished statues.



Next week we will be returning to Europe and studying Greece. 

Bula!!! Welcome to FIJI.

The kids requested FIJI this week.  I think it has something to do with a show they have been watching on Cartoon Network, so we took a break from Erica's Expedition Earth and I used her curriculum to put together some information on Fiji.  Now this is becoming increasing more difficult as the boys are having difficulty with actual writing of facts.  So I need to fully prepare all their information sheets (at least for the next couple months) while we begin new therapy.  Here's some of the sheets I made.  I also included pictures and facts of animals.  Because we still need to keep working on animal classification.

Here's some things we learned:

• COUNTRY:  Fiji
• CAPITAL:  Suva
• WEATHER:  Tropical, weather threat of cyclones from November to January
• GEOGRAPHY:  Mainly mountainous.  Made up of over 332 islands and over 110 are inhabited.
• POPULATION:  850,000
• CURRENCY:  Fijian dollar
• LANGUAGE:  English, Bau Fijian
• GOVERNMENT:  Parliamentary Republic
• NATURAL RESOURCES:  timber (wood), fish, gold, copper, hydropower, offshore oil

Animals of FIJI

 

Blue – tailed Skink ---- When they become frightened they have the ability to pop their tail off and it will continue to wiggle and distract their predator while they run away.

 

Fiji Flying Fox ---- is the smallest of the fruit bats that live in Fiji.  They have large orange eyes since the fruit bat does not have echo and relies on vision and sense of smell to eat.

Pink Billed Parrotfinch ---- It’s a small bird that has a distinct pink bill and legs.  It looks like a small parrot.

Fiji banded iguana ---- These are considered national treasures and are featured on stamps, currency and phone books.  They hunt for food during the day and sleep high in the trees at night.

Fiji Tree Frog -----  It lives in the low tree areas of the rainforest.  It is the only true frog to undergo direct development in the egg, without a larval stage.

 

Fiji Land Snail ----- There are over 200 species of Land Snails in Fiji.

We also learned that Fiji exports large amounts of dry coconut, so we decided to try fresh coconut (plus that helps with our Eating the Alphabet wall).  Joey wanted to make coconut bras too...SCARY!!!

Did you know there is actually a website called:  http://www.howtoopenacoconut.com/ ?!?!?!  I thought that was so cool...and well we needed the help!

The kids thought using the hammer was cool.  I was scared someone was going to take out my fingers as I was holding the nail.  The fresh coconut was not a huge hit!  But they thought the process was neat.

I also printed a flag coloring sheet from Enchanted Learning.

 

Next we are studying Chile.  And then we will be returning to Europe for a few weeks.  We are expanding Europe.  I thought it would be fun to expand out just a little from Expedition Earth.  So watch for our post on Sunday.  I have finished our first Montessori Continent Box to cover Europe. 

Visiting Great Britain

We did a brief visit to Great Britain this week.

We learned what smaller countries make up this area and located it on the globe and hallway map.

Eating fish and chips....(wrapped in newspaper, they thought that was cool!)

We watch a Documentary on Stonehenge and created our own model out of clay.

Been a rough week with Grandma being sick and just talked about the animals of the area also. 

The kids have enjoyed studying the countries of the world, so we are going to finish our Expedition Earth curriculum and then continue to talk about a country every week after that.  Next week we will be steering away from the curriculum and talking about Fiji.  This was a request from the kids.  Since we only have school 2 days next week, I didn't really care.  So off to FIJI...I just wish our weather matched theirs!!!

Expedition Earth - Thailand--Sawatdee Kaa

Our meal for the week was Pad Thai (this is mine without the peanuts because I couldn't verify they were gluten free).  It had shrimp and tofu in it....very tasty.  Didn't reheat as well as I wanted (we had lots of leftovers because the boys and Caty would not try it).  Lydia loved it though.

 We read a Folktale about appreciating what we have.  Then we had a discussion about the difference between our wants and needs. 

 For our art project this week, I dyed rice.  Thailand exports the world's largest amount of rice.  So I thought why not color some and glue it down to show the beautiful colors of the Thailand's floating market.

 So while we were watching Youtube tourist videos of the Floating market they worked on their pictures.

Next week we will be learning about France.  Looking forward to the yummy meal we have planned!!!  We are going to be in a hotel, so we won't be making the homemade soap.  Maybe next Saturday we can do that after we return home.

Lazy week wrap-up

We had such a busy week.  On Monday there were doctor appointments and LEGO club in the afternoon.  Plus Lydia had ice skating practice and the boys had a basketball game (at the same time!!!).  So Monday we were barely home.  They mainly did silent reading.  I also tested Lydia and Brayden's speech for their therapy.  We will start that the 1st week of February and I needed to see where they both stand with sounds.  Tuesday was another busy day.  Our medical insurance requires annual blood tests for adults, they give us a little extra flex spending money so at the cost of the boy's medications....we'll take it.  So we had that at Joe's office and then he needed to work out of the office that day.  The boys had Agility Dog therapy in Toledo in the evening, so I thought why make two trips to Toledo (an hour one way).  Especially since Joe was having a gout attack in his right knee and really shouldn't have been driving.  We made a day of it in Toledo.  We went to Sylvania Playland and played an hour.  Had lunch with a friend.  Then visited the Girl Scout shop for fun patches.  We picked up our worms (from the zoo class we missed) to start our compost bin in the kitchen.  Betsy was nice enough to pick up our supplies and hold them for us to get started.  We played at their house an hour!  Great visit!!  Then we ran to the Science museum and played until I had to force them to leave.  I now know Tuesday afternoons are the best time to go to Imagination Station!!!  I promised we would go back.  Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday remained crazy, but I was able to keep up on a couple things school wise including our Expedition Earth study of Thailand.  Such a beautiful country!!!

The boys are enjoying their new handwriting curriculum.

 Brayden and Caty at Sylvania Playland

Imagination Station

 They had two huge tables full of K'nex to build with.  It was actually overwhelming!

You build and turn on the earthquake machine to see if you creation can withstand a small earthquake.
Ours didn't:(

 Caty loved playing with this experiment.

You had to use the blocks to build a bridge...Lydia didn't do a bad job.

Waiting for the boys at Agility Angels therapy.

The new t-shirts. Gotta get the boys new ones now.

Joey with Leland.

 Brayden with his dog.

The research behind this therapy is that it increases the verbal confidence of those with autism or on the autism spectrum.  It also increases their social skills.   This program is all run by volunteers 4 evenings a week. 

Here Joey was had struck up a bet with his agility coach (Mr. Fred is in the middle of the picture) that if he finished his agility course work (Joey was in a bad mood) Mr. Fred would sniff Leland's butt.  I don't know if Leland enjoyed it.  I think Mr. Fred will be careful in the future about his bets with Joey.

Next week we are visiting an indoor waterpark in Sandusky...Kalahari!!!  They are hosting a Homeschool Winter Break special.  We are so excited!!!!!  I can finally stop hearing, when are we going to Kalahari?  We are still going to do some minor school work during the week.  Our whole family will be joining us in a huge Suite.  My niece and nephew will have schoolwork to do as well.  We will be concentrating on Math facts for all the kids.  Lydia is starting basic addition and the boys will be working on mulitplication facts.  The boys will be finishing with compound words, they have Science Jim on Wednesday and handwriting.  Just enough daily to not completely forget what we were doing at home.  Lydia will be continuing with letter sounds and 100 EZ Lesson to Learn to Read.  She is also going to be doing computer work on Phonics with Funnix.  We will also continue Expedition Earth by visiting France throughout the week.  We even have our meal planned.

Another week survived!!!!