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BIBLE We started to memorize the New Testament Books. However, since the kids are very familiar with it, I decided to give them a challenge: to memorize in Chinese. Lil Sis did well in her Prov 3:5 memorization. HISTORY We learnt about Cicero (among others) were being killed by the 2nd Triumvirate (Octavius, Antony and Lepidus). We also learnt about the battle of Philippi, how Antony and Octavius divided their land (picture below), and Antony's liaison with Cleopatra Source from here We learnt about the Roman gardens and mosaics and made some ourselves. We got the paint samples from Home Depot, cut them into different shapes (we didn't do squares) and use them for the mosaic projects These are in the book basket this week. The Bronze Bow is ready for next. LANGUAGE The older kids continued on Rod and Staff English. Big Bro finished chapter 1 and did a test on it. Lil Sis went onto short vowels this week and did some readin...

Big Brother finished almost the entire Series of Unfortunate Events. He is presently reading one of the books to me. I am so pleasantly surprised to find this series absolutely entertaining, full of humor, and very enlightening! There is no foul language nor bad manners (except from the villains, of course) portrayed in the children, which I find so refreshing in modern day literature. Lemony Snickett (pen name for Daniel Handler ) has used a very humorous backhanded way to write this series and though it is filled with despair, tragedies, and possibly things you will not like to hear about (as he would have penned), it is also filled with creativity and so much laughter! I think children, especially boys of age 9/10 and up will really enjoy this series. We listened to them on audiobooks too and found them delightful.

BIBLE We learnt about the Old and New Testament overview and how bible were written then. Lil Sis started her first copywork. I decided to start her slow, since she is not as good at writing yet. HISTORY We learnt about Julius Caesar. For Big Bro, I asked him to read this book then write his summary. For Big Sis, she wrote the summary from our reading from the Streams of Civilization. We read Augustus Caesar's World, on Cicero, Mark Antony, Why is July, and the starting of the civil war. I cut out the characters from the coloring pages in the book and made them into "puppets". It is helpful to use these props as I read, especially helpful for the chapter beginning pg 45 I got the book Famous Men of Rome from here (public domain) and read to the kids the chapter on Cicero. We played the odd and even game We also learnt about the Roman homes (Mark Antony's chapter was an interesting read on the homes), the city, ...

Larger Families have our issues. One we faced was we never get to go bike-riding as a family. Well....this changed today. Our friends gave me a bike, lent hubby one +rooftop bike racks and we bought baby carrier online. Therefore, we went family cycling at Flushing Meadows Park. We love to do things early. We left home at 8:30am and the park was nice and not crowded at all. It was a really fun experience. On our way back, our children got a nice surprise! NYC provided free school-style lunch for everyone under 18 years old all summer long.  Then we popped by to the nearby Hall of Science. Thanks to ID NYC, we have a free year of membership. I have to remind myself to put this in the calendar more when the other children go back to school. The exhibit, " Connected Worlds ", is very cool and interactive!

Yahoo! A new year! BIBLE We learnt about the how the books of the bible can be grouped and that the Bible was written by many different people through a long period of time. We read from How the Bible Comes to Us. An important question that Big Bro asked that we will keep searching for a good answer is that "How do you know the Bible was REALLY written by THOSE people over THAT many years?" (and not someone made it up) This is interesting because for it coincide perfectly with 1st Grade. HISTORY We read this book and learnt about the Roman numerals This book has good information about how the Romans do school. We learnt about the founding of Rome, how Rome became a republic and the punic wars. This map is very helpful to understand the places in this period, so I printed it and put it on the table. The kids drew Roman Lands today, and also Hannibal's Route . We started Augustus Caesar's World and I f...