Vietnam to Thailand
As a ?teacher? / Mom I was afraid that we might let the school work slip, either by getting lazy or being overwhelmed by the teaching process or travel pace. I am incredibly proud that after 10 weeks of travel we have not missed one day of school (7 days a week). On a rare occasion we have not gotten all the assignments done but we have been incredibly diligent and focused. The quantity of work completed astounds me. The thing we have not focused on is typing skills and a foreign language, either Latin or Spanish. If anyone has a recommendation on a great Latin vocabulary program, please let me know. It is something Gibson has expressed a repeated interest in but I have not found the right workbooks yet.
Newspapers
Newspapers are a luxury. When we do get them I love to read and cut out articles on places we have been, are going to, or are in the process of mapping. Yesterday we mapped Yemen and then I told them that the coordinator of the bombing of the US Naval ship had been let out of prison and then put back in prison after a protest from the US. There was another story about new automobile horns being sold in Hanoi that sound like animals (i.e. roaring lion, neighing horse etc). In a city of constant horn honking, this new product was not a surprise and we could understand how it would be a hit there. However, the article said people are getting frightened from the sounds and are sometimes having traffic accidents. The government is talking about outlawing them.
Mapping
We have continues our ?mapping the world? project. ?Baseball geography? has been a fun way to learn the locations. They get a single, double or triple depending on how hard a location they map correctly.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary has been a big focus. Gibson has a fantastic book, Vocabulary Building, in which each lesson focuses on a different subject area ranging from business to space to World War 2 etc. Sterling?s book does both phonetics and vocabulary. The non-fiction books we had on China, Vietnam and Cambodia had glossaries in the back and we turned them into flash cards. Our final resource for words is the little pad I keep in my purse. Whenever someone asks what a word mean,s I jot it down. The most recent words include some that would never be in a traditional vocabulary book. They were also brought up in some unusual locations including Hoa Lo Prison in Vietnam and the Opium Museum in Thailand. Here are some examples: mortar, pestle, initiate, obese, interrogation, addictive, diabolical, guillotine, propaganda, buttress, sedentary, produce, smuggle, heroin, opium, cocaine, provocative, riot, anomaly, congregate, conjugate, meteorologist, diversity, a la mode. You can see that a lot of heavy topics and issues are being discussed, but we do end up with learning about ice cream!
Writing
The kids are doing lots of writing assignments. Many of them can be seen on their blogs so I will not go into much detail. They love doing fiction stories set in locations we have visited. A highlight for them was writing the shadow puppet play and then acting it out. They have also written some funny stories trying to utilize as many current vocabulary words as possible.
Reading / Animal Husbandry
Their favorite Vietnam books were a series by Quang Nhuong Huynh and Jean & Mou-sien Tseng about Tank, a water buffalo, and his master, a small boy, during the Vietnam War. In Thailand, Sterling liked Silk Umbrellas by Carolyn Marsden. It is about a girl who learns from her Grandmother how to paint umbrellas. Her sister, who is not as talented as she is, ends up going to work in a radio parts factory. Boom the Street Walking Elephant was Gibson?s favorite fiction book (based on a true story and the fate of many elephants). It is about an elephant that is abused and has to earn money for his owner by working in a dump during the day and doing tricks outside bars and nightclubs all night.
By far Gibson?s favorite books would be the technical guide books we have gotten on shells, reptiles and animals in Asia. He pours over them trying to identify the last skink or shell we saw. He is writing reports on animals and trying to compose his own guide book because he is not happy with the ones we have. He loves to read and research animals as well as look for them on any walk we take, whether it is just around the hotel, or in a forest. Gibson is our research / photography hound and Sterling is our mighty hunter. She can catch anything. Together they are a ferocious combination for the poor tadpoles, hermit crabs, millipedes, frogs, lizards, and snails that they catch on a daily basis. They do nightly walks hunting for wildlife. Reptiles seem to be the most interesting species for the moment. We have a friend in the United States that is getting his PhD in Herpetology who is kindly consulting via e-mail and sharing his stories of traveling and collecting snakes.
Educational Experiences:
Aids Center in Ho Chi Minh City
Cu Chi tunnels from the Vietnam War
War Remnants Museum
Lacquer Factory
Marble Factory
China / pottery making village
Orphanage with Agent Orange children
Lake Tonle Sap ? saw boat people who may never go on land and who live in extreme poverty with terrible sanitation
River Kwai Museum and Cemetery dedicated to all POW?s and ?slaves? who built the railway
Received a blessing from a Buddhist monk
Learned how to train & bathe elephants