2.22, 2.24, 2.26, 2.28, & 2.29
Through compelling reminiscences of his grandfather's life in American and Japan, Allen Say delivers a poignant account of his family's unique cross-cultural experience. He warmly conveys his love for his two countries and describes the strong and constant desire to be in both places at once: When in one country, he invariably misses the other. His grandfather, he tells us, would understand. ~Grandfather's Journey
Social Studies: Family Relationships ~ Grandparents; Races and Cultures; Geography ~ Review Continents, Regions and Landforms; Where is California?
Grandfather's Journey spans four generations and ties them together in a unique way. From the lesson in the manual, we tied together four generations by discovering something each have in common. Malachi pointed out that their names all have "Pop" in them - Malachi calls his dad Pop, his grandfather Poppy, and his great-grandfather Papa, who Malachi did get to meet, but may not remember. I love manual's point that we know someone better when we discover that we share a common experience, so we talked about their lives to find one.
Races and Cultures
"Grandfather met many people along the way. He shook hands with black men and white men, with yellow men and red men." p. 12
Malachi mentioned this in his narration before we covered this topic, so I was pleased to see that this stood out to him.
Geography
"The more he traveled, the more he longed to see new places, and never though of returning home." p. 13
Grandfather traveled across the ocean to the New World. We reviewed continents and oceans - a good review of our time with Beginning Geography.
Regions and Landforms
Grandfather marveled at the towering mountains and rivers, the endless farm fields, enormous rock sculptures and rocky coastlines, so we reviewed land forms. (This is a science lesson in the manual, but it seems to me to fit more with Geography).
California
Malachi colored a map of California. Grandfather told his grandson many stories about California and I told Malachi some of my own stories of when I lived in California (first 7 years of my life). I was Malachi's age when we moved to Montana.
Language Arts: Imagery, Poetic Prose, Narration
Imagery and Poetic Prose
The story is poetic and the writer paints a picture with his words - I had Malachi listen and try to catch the more poetic parts.
Narration
Science: Birds, Bird Identification, Bird Mapping, What Makes a Bird a Bird?
We read Zoology 1: Flying Creatures, Lesson 2: "What Makes a Bird a Bird?"
Bird Mapping:
We also made homemade suet - an activity from the lesson.
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| No-Bake Peanut Butter Bars |
But, instead of cornmeal and birdseed, our bars had oats. :)
Watercolor: Sun's reflection in the water, p. 6:
Malachi used watercolor pencils to draw his sunset and then I showed him how to use water to blend the colors.
I ♥ how it came out!
Origami:
I made the bird to show Malachi the Japanese art of paper folding.
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| Origami Flapping Bird |
Math: Days in a Week, Weeks in a Month
"For three weeks he did not see land." p. 6There are 7 days in a week, so how many days in three weeks? I was going to make 3 groups of 7 to help him find the answer, but he wanted to do the math in his head. We also did 2 and 4 weeks.
FI♥AR Recipe: "Grandfather's California Sourdough Grilled Cheese"
Project FI♥AR:
Wherein our FIAR lapjournal meets Project Life . . .
I am using Turquoise Edition. I used Design A, and Design B pages with a Design G insert. (I really hope to streamline these to have just one 2-page layout spread in the future.)
Next time, I want to make a "library card" that we can stamp and slide into the 3x4 journaling slot.
It has been my plan to add our FIAR photos to a Project Life album since I discovered PL, but I didn't think about working on a current album until I started working current in our family album. And I didn't think I would combine my FIAR lapjournal with PL and right now, I am thinking less lapbooking. . . (or just incorporate samples like I did in this row).
Grandfather's Journey is a Five in a Row selection from Volume 1.
Delightful Links:
Grandfather's Journey Resources @ HSS (I used the Japanese Culture Minit Books and Where is CA?)