India, Mountains, & Volcanoes

For the past 2 weeks, as part of our studies about Asia, we mostly concentrated on the country of India.

The kids colored the flag, and learned what the different colors represent:

Orange = Courage & Sacrifice
White = Purity & Truth
Green = Faith & Fertility
The wheel = Ancient symbol called Dharma Chakra (Wheel of Law)

We learned about the Taj Mahal, one of the world's most magnificent buildings, and did a crossword puzzle containing different facts about India. 

We also tried a popular unleavened bread recipe that is eaten in India, called Chapattis. I mixed 4 cups of flour with 2 TB of canola oil and 1 tsp. of salt. Then, gradually mixed in 1-2 cups of water to make a thick dough. Then, the dough was divided into 12 equal balls and flattened with a rolling pin into a 5-inch circle.

The bread was then fried on a hot griddle and served warm with butter and honey. It was edible, but not our favorite. Too bland, and too heavy. Maybe it would be better with a little sugar mixed in and/or some cornmeal instead of all flour.

For Science, we learned about mountains and volcanoes. The kids made models of a mountain by, first, taping a plastic cup to a paper plate with masking tape.

Then, covering the cup with newspaper and taping it down onto the plate.

Then, painting it brown....

After it dried, they added cotton for the snow, green tissue paper for the trees and bushes, and dried beans for rocks.

And, here was the final product....

A few days later, we used a Volcanoes Kid Kit (from Usborne) to learn more about volcanoes and watch one “erupt” on our kitchen table. I believe this kit is currently out of stock with Usborne but, if you do an online search for it, similar items will pop up for purchase elsewhere. Or, you can follow the instructions in the My Father's World manual for ECC and make a volcano out of clay. (We would have done that if we didn't already own the volcano kit.)

First, we gathered all of the ingredients we needed: dish soap, baking soda, vinegar, tissue, empty bottle, and our volcano model. We added a food coloring tablet to ½ cup vinegar and let it dissolve.

Then, Coyote poured it into an empty BBQ sauce bottle (hidden under the volcano), and Road Runner added a squirt of dish soap.

After that, I added baking soda rolled up in a piece of tissue. Then, we waited a couple of minutes for the reaction to occur. It was a neat site to watch as the “lava” flowed from the top of the volcano.

On Friday, we heard about the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan, so spent some time learning about tsunamis, as well as praying for the people who have been affected by it.

We also had a Dr. Seuss day at the library on Friday, with several other homeschoolers, and shared what some of our favorite books are. From what I could tell, we don't even own a Dr. Seuss book anymore because I think we gave them away before we moved a couple years ago. But, the kids do enjoy watching "Horton Hears a Who" on DVD, which we still have.

So, that's it for now.... Next week, we start learning about China!
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