Classical Charlotte

Our last lesson for Ping was to learn about ducks.  We read over this site and enjoyed looking at the various duck photos.

We then headed to PF Chang’s for some Chinese food (they have a gluten-free menu for Mama).  Doo love the noodle and rice dishes.  The lemon chicken was too lemony for her but she did eat a few bites.

The picture quality is poor – I used my camera phone.

Her “fortune” was “Do not dwell on differences with a loved on – try to compromise”.  It seems like fortune cookies rarely give actual fortunes these days.

We worked on another art lesson today which focused on drawing water.  Throughout our reading, we pointed out how the illustrator drew ripples in the water (and their different sizes) plus the reflections of the boats and Ping.

Doo then drew her own picture with water.  The picture shows the “wise-eyed boat” and Ping’s family.  You can see the purple boat’s reflection in water and, if you look really hard, ripples as well.

We then watched this cute video just for fun.

It is pouring here in Los Angeles.  As Doo watched the rain from our living room window we discussed how drawing rain is another way to draw water.

Just two more lessons scheduled for The Story About Ping and then onto another book.

Today was an art day and we discussed the various ways the illustrator drew Ping throughout the book.  On each page the Doo was eager to point out the viewpoint of Ping.

We then looked at some art online that showed different perspectives, such as this one of a room from up above.

Doo has been playing with a magnetic fairy set a lot lately.  She likes to add toys to it as well and leave her creation displayed.  She had set one up before our lesson so we decided to take photos of different views of her masterpiece.

Voila:

Friday

Friday’s lesson was a quickie.  After reading Ping, we discussed water safety and the Doo played a cute tic-tac-toe game (her marker was a life jacket).

Saturday

Saturday was busy.  In the morning we discussed Chinese culture, including their alphabet, calligraphy and Chinese architecture.  After looking at the calligraphy page and pointing out a character, Doo was quick to figure out that the peace/balance Chinese character was Mommy’s tattoo.  We also listened to the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon soundtrack during the lesson.

In the late morning we headed to the Huntington Library which has a beautiful Chinese garden.  We stopped and had a rice cake snack (just like Ping!) and walked around looking at the calligraphy and architecture (Doo made a few nearby people smile and laugh when she yelled out “Look, Mommy, more architecture!!”).

We had planned to eat lunch out at a Chinese restaurant but unfortunately Doo was being a bit of a handful.  So we headed home instead.  We’ll have to do it sometime this week.

Sunday

Before starting today’s planned lesson, we checked out some links that Scientist Papa sent about the Gobi Desert.  Doo loved looking at the photos and wants to visit a desert soon (I tried explaining that Los Angeles was a city built on a desert but I don’t think she was impressed).  We also looked at various photos of fossils found in the Gobi Desert.  The primitive little horse was very cool.

We also read about three Chinese goddesses in a book I own called The Book of Goddesses by Kris Waldherr.  We read about Chang O (moon goddess), Hsi Wang Mu (goddess of immortality) and Kuan Yin (goddess of compassion).  Doo felt that Kuan Yin’s story (which involved, when she was a mortal, Kuan Yin having to do excessive chores and hard labor but eventually getting help from animals) was a lot like Cinderella’s.

Today’s science lesson topic was buoyancy.  We talked about the boats and the barrel on the boy’s back and how they can float.  Then we tried our very first science experiment.  After reviewing what an experiment is, Doo made her predictions about what would happen to a variety of items place in a tub full of water (popsicle stick, scissors, pencil, can of food, etc…).  She did fairly well although kept saying if something was round it would float.  So she definitely learned from this experiment since some of her assumptions turned out incorrect.  She had a lot of fun placing the items in the tub.

Yesterday we went on a mini-field trip to Balboa Park which has a man-made lake and lots of ducks (and LOTS of coots plus some great egrets or herons – I’m not positive which).  Doo fed the ducks some bird food and we read The Story About Ping and completed a math activity.  She is doing very well with counting but still needs help transitioning from the 20s to the 30s and so on.

White Crested Ducks

Doo made lots of friends.

Before reading The Story About Ping we discussed what fiction meant.  Doo had no idea at first but simply explaining that it was a story made up by an author’s imagination was enough for her.  She was able to name several fiction stories that she owns (several Disney plus stories like Pippi Longstocking).

After Ping, I first created a story to give Doo an example.  Then she dictated her own story to me as I typed it down.

Moose and the Wolf Get Bit

Once upon a time, there was a big forest that had a big, wide moose. And there was a class next to the moose’s place. And soon a big, wide, mean wolf came, too.

So the moose couldn’t escape. He was in trouble! And he bit the wolf, back and forth. Hitting him in the eye. Kicking his knee.

The wolf fell to death.

And so this moose ran across the woods. He soon came to a little, tiny cottage. He bonked his head on the door by accident because he doesn’t have any arms like humans do.

The cottage was next to a river. And soon he felt he was on the wide, wide part of the river. The river kept going on and he did not know what to do. And then what the moose did was clutch on to the door and it opened right before he put down his paw.

He suddenly heard a “Wooooohoooooooo! Woooooohoooooo!”. The “woooohoooo” kept going on. It was coming from a BIG monster! The moose ran across the woods. Twice he jumped over two leaves.

He dug under the ground.

The End.

The monster, the moose and the wolf.

Today we started rowing The Story About Ping.  This is a story about a little duck that decides to hide from his family instead of getting a spanking.  Because he wanders off from his family he almost becomes someone’s dinner but is luckily saved by a thoughtful little boy.

We’re not a spanking family so the idea of a spanking was surprising to Doo (never mind the fact that the reason for the spanking was merely because Ping would have been the last duck on the boat – the man spanked the last duck every night with a switch for whatever reason, who knows).  We chatted about that a bit and how we both agreed that there was no reason for the man to hurt the ducks just for being last (or as a punishment in the first place).

After the story we talked a lot about China.  Doo named at least two character she knew from China (Mulan and Kai-Lan).  We reviewed some basic facts about China and then spoke at greater length about the Yangtze River, the Great Wall of China and a little bit about the Chinese zodiac animals/Chinese New Year.  We learned that it is currently the year of the ox and that Doo was born during the year of the rooster.  She laughed hysterically when she found that last part out.  We also looked at the Great Wall from the earth’s orbit.

Doo found China on her wall map with a few hints and we talked about how far it was from us (California, USA).  She then colored two Chinese flags, a basic Chinese map, the Chinese Zodiac and created a book of Chinese animals.  Doo also told me she loved homeschooling.

Our cat, Nelson decided to help out by being a fat, fuzzy, cute distraction.  Doo thought this was pretty funny.