Geography - Spain

I've decided to take Crumpet on a tour of the Spanish speaking countries of the world. I want him to see how widespread the language is, and to get an idea of how useful it would be to speak Spanish. First, I printed a world map and colored all of the Spanish speaking countries red. Then, we started our travels with Spain.
We looked through the overview book Spain: Enchantment of the World by Lura Rogers. We also wandered through the Spain section of the great website:KidsKonnect.com. There is a huge amount of information here. I showed Crumpet videos on YouTube that I thought would entertain him: one of flamenco dancing and some of La Tomatina, which is a crazy tomato festival in Bunol, Spain which ends up as a huge tomato fight and streets flooded with tomato sauce.
We read The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf again. Then we made our own little bull from a template at DLTK here:
We read a really great book about the Great Mosque of Cordoba. The Most Magnificent Mosque by Ann Jungman is a wonderful story about people of Christian, Jewish, and Islamic faiths working together to save the mosque from destruction.
We made tortilla de patatas for dinner. This was one of my favorite meals in Spain, but it was vetoed by everyone in my house except me. But I'll eat anything... Then we had churros con chocolate for dessert. This was a big hit with my chocoholic child. And me, but I'll eat anything, especially chocolate.
We talked about 2 Spanish artists. Gaudi has been one of my absolute favorite artists since a visit to Barcelona years ago. His work is all over the city, and it covers a huge range of styles. I love this lizard in the Parc Guell:
We jumped from here to talking about mosaics, and I thought we could make our own mosaic art. I found these great sealife squares for making mosaics and I've been so excited to use them. What child doesn't like to cover himself in glue and just make a big hodge podge of colors?? Mine, it seems. He thought this was terrible cruelty and no art was created...
We also talked about Salvador Dali, because we found this great book: Dali and the Path of Dreams by Anna Obiols. This is a really neat book about dreams Dali had as a child which led to his crazy paintings in later life. Really fun, and the artwork in the book is great.

Lastly, we talked about Christopher Columbus and his journey to America from Spain. I did not plan for this to coincide with Columbus Day, but it was nice that it did! We read the book Columbus Day by Christina Mia Gardeski, which was written at the perfect level for Crumpet. It covers lots of details in an easy to understand manner.
Overall, this was a fun, quick introduction to Spain. It did not magically spark Crumpet's interest in speaking Spanish, and I think I'm going to put away the language program for a little while. He is flat out refusing to participate. We will continue our travels to Spanish speaking countries though. Next up, Mexico!
For more geography and history posts, visit Children Grow, Children Explore, Children Learn.

Preschool Week of 10/8

It has been a busy, busy week here. I'm doing what I can to keep us occupied so that we don't miss Daddy too much. So far, so good. Here's a quick summary of our week:
Saturday, we went to a trial karate class, which Crumpet decided he does not want to join. In the afternoon, we went to a birthday party for one of the girls in his preschool class.
Sunday, we went to the zoo with several friends, and then had dinner with other friends. One of those friends spent the night at our house. It looks like she'll be moving into our house for a week or two because her husband is away for training and she's not used to being alone. That is a theme that will be repeated here frequently over the next few months- it looks like we are about to become Hotel Crumpet for young newlyweds not accustomed to the Navy life. We are happy to have the company and to help people adjust - this is not an easy life. Crumpet is excited to have new people to play Star Wars with... Poor, poor visitors don't know what they are getting into!!
Monday, Crumpet woke up vomiting. Again. Sigh, school is good for the social education that Crumpet so desperately needs, but I'm really tired of the repeated illnesses...
Thursday, we went to the beach, AND we saw the Black Pearl from the Pirates of the Caribbean, which they are filming here. Very cool! My pictures are awful because the light was wrong but here are a few:


As for school at home, that went well this week, too.
Reading: We've started the new Progressive Phonics section, which introduces blends. Yay, words with more than 3 letters at last! McRuffy has started introducing a lot of reading comprehension, and we started spelling this week. I was worried about Crumpet's reaction to spelling, but he whizzed through it.
Math:McRuffy introduced addition story problems. I was really excited to see these. I always loved them, but know so many people who panicked at the mere mention of 'word problem'. I'm glad to see them introduced so early so the horror can hopefully be avoided, and they will just be a fact of life for Crumpet.
History: We are reading Happy Little Family by Rebecca Caudill. This is sort of a shorter Little House on the Prairie, and it's a good introduction to what things were like in America long ago.
Geography: I have been planning to start doing units on the Spanish speaking countries of the world. I'm hoping Crumpet will see how many people speak Spanish and how useful this language could be for him. I've gathered materials and made plans for weeks, but never had the time to start. This week, we finally started with Spain. I'll do a post about it soon. Really. I hope.
Science: We finally got around to doing a couple of fun experiments I've seen around the blog world. We cleaned a penny with coke, and we made raisins dance in Sprite. The raisins were really fun. (I'm trying to get rid of the soda my husband left in the house!!)
Life Skills: We have started a chore routine similar to Jolanthe's at Homeschool Creations. It is working incredibly well so far. Crumpet knows which things he must do every day no matter what, and we've had no trouble getting the toys cleaned up, the teeth brushed, or the bed made in weeks. Most days, he does additional chores to earn money, and he has managed to save enough to buy himself several small toys. He's very proud, and I'm hoping that he will realize money isn't easy to come by. He definitely has stopped begging for everything he sees when we are in the store...
Have a great week! For more preschool posts, visit Homeschool Creations!