Weekly Report: Mysteries and Manet

"It was a dark and windy night as the town of Mohenjo-Daro slept. Little did anyone know that this was their last night....."
How can a whole city disappear? What can have pressed families to abandon their farms, their businesses, their homes? The few that did not leave were found thousands of years later as archaeologist unearthed the remains of the ancient streets of Mohenjo-Daro in India. We were highly intrigued by this mystery during school this week. Sam and Elise came up with their own interesting explanations:


Pretty violent, eh? I was a little startled myself. But one thing we've learned is that history has a violent past. It's interesting because right now in the scriptures we are reading about how one group of people wants to rule another. In the past few chapters of SOTW we've read about the people in ancient Egypt, Sumaria and India that have all had this problem too. "Why do people want to go to war, mom?" How do I answer this question? Here's another tough one that came up, "Mom, our country's at war right now. Why?" At first the answer seemed manageable. Try to think about it minute, though. You are answering an eight year old--who, by the way, reads the paper every morning. To him the idea of killing people is abhorrent. He does not witness this war or it's effects directly. Only indirectly, from other people's point of view. "Why can't they just talk about it? Can't they just work it out? Do they HAVE to kill each other? Why do they hate each other?" I am at a loss for words...There are 5000 page dissertations dedicated to these questions. The only answer I can muster is: "There are a lot of sad, confused people in this world." It is truly a mystery to me. One that is as old and sad as time. Why do people hate?

On a lighter note, we also studied Manet in art this week. We melted old crayons and dabbed out our own impressionistic pieces of art:




Sam practiced piano really well this week. I told him I'd give him a penny each time he practiced a song (thinking that I'd be out, maybe 25 cents). He earned $1.00! Jeremy is not happy with this approach and we may need to come up with a different system. Any ideas?

Check out Sam's blog for a brief reading from his new favorite book: The Trumpet of the Swan.
Check out Elise's blog for some new fun pictures!

Here's what our week looked like:

Scripture Study: Alma 55-58. We felt the spirit so strongly as we read Helaman's epistle to Moroni. Helaman tells Moroni of the valor, faith and subsequent divine protection of his 2000 sons. What would it have been like to be one of the other Nephite soldiers, witnessing the faith of these Ammonite young men? Would I have said, "Listen, it's good to have faith but you need to realize that in war there are casualties. You can't hope for too much." At the end of the battle as Heleman assesses his losses and desperately searches for his 2000 sons among the many fallen in the field. He finds, to his great joy and astonishment, one after the other--alive! All had received "many wounds" but all were preserved. What did those Nephite soldiers think? "And now, their preservation was astonishing to our whole army, yea, that they should be spared while there was a thousand of our brethren who were slain. And we do justly ascribe it to the miraculous power of God, because of their exceeding faith in that which they had been taught to believe--that there was a just God, and whosoever did not doubt, that they should be preserved by his marvelous power. Now this was the faith of these of whom, I have spoken; they are young, and their minds are firm, and they do put their trust in God continually. (Alma 57:26-27)

Samuel:

• Saxon 5/4 lessons 26-29
  
• Language Arts: "The Trumpet of the Swan" Every day words lesson 12, similes
  
• Spelling: heard, Louis, misunderstand, opinion, intelligent, pearl, yearn, learn
  
• Memorization: Alma 57: 27
  
• Reading: "The Trumpet of the Swan" many library books this week
  
• Journal writing
• Science:
  
• Piano: "Soaring Eagle" "Li'l Liza Jane"
  
• Art: Edouard Manet
  
• Composer:
  
• SOTW: Chapter 9: The First Cities in India
  
• Cub Scouts: Worked on Achievement 10, 11

Elise:

• Saxon 2 lessons 24-28 Assessment 5
  
• Language Arts: similes
• Spelling:
  
• Reading: "Junie B. Jones-First Grader: Boo and I Mean It!"
  
• Journal writing
• Science:
  
• SOTW: see above
• Piano: "Hey, Mr. Half-note Dot" Yikes! Need to practice
  
• Composer:
  
• 50 States Book: California
  

Claire: Letter H activities. Claire has been practicing hand stands and flips! She's getting pretty good. She is amazing at the bridge.

Anna: New words: PEA (please), ank ooh (thank you), wah wah (water), ish (fish),