Our mini unit study of China and Japan

Last week in our homeschool we did a short study of China and Japan.

We started out the week by focusing a little on China. We read this book and...

We also tried writing some chinese characters by making little number books.

C1 and C2 also learned about the Opium Wars and the affects of that on China. They were both very disturbed.

Then we moved on to Japan and we made orgami...this is a canoe

this is a samurai hat!

Historically, we studied the time period where Millard Fillmore was president and Japan had closed itself off from trading with other countries. Commodore Matthew Perry was influencial during that time in strengthening trade relations with the Japanese as we learned in this book:

L read this cute book which got us excited to.....

celebrate the unit by going out to a Japanese meal!

The boys have eaten Chinese many times, but never Japanese, so we took them to lunch at Kanki. Wow, was it a great time! They LOVED it and can't wait to go back.

We had a great chef, he did all kinds of tricks for the kids!

C2 was amazed!

When the chef did this....

L ran and hid behind my chair for the remainder of the cooking portion!

When he finally came out, he dug right in!

J's favorite part is always dessert!

On the way out we passed the Lego Store, had to go in!

It was a wonderful study!

Happy New Year!

We brought in 2010 with a bang! We didn't stay up til midnight and we didn't go anywhere, with anyone, but we still had a great time!

Our evening started with our traditional Chinese meal. I made broccoli with garlic sauce and rice. We toasted with sparkling grape juice.

Then we had some coconut cake and whipped cream! YUM!

Big C felt compelled to show the boys what he did to me when we were cutting our wedding cake, so C2 got a little whip cream on the nose!

After dinner we played UNO and did some wrestling!

And dancing...

We hope you had a great New Year!

Found some more pictures!

I am so EXCITED...I found more pictures!

J with his new tool set!

L working on something new with his new tool set!


L trying out his new scooter!

L bought C2 UNO for Christmas and here they are playing!

J fresh out of the tub with his new feetie pj's!

C1 on the Wii playing Super Mario!

LEGO's!!

Yeah! I feel better, since mom wasn't able to be here, I was bummed about not having any pictures to share!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas! God has blessed our family in ways you cannot imagine. We are so thankful!

Unfortunately, our camera erased all of our Christmas pictures. We are very disappointed to say the least. Here are a few that we took after we discovered the mishap.

Big C and J playing with the Handy Mandy tool bench. Santa scored with that gift!

All the boys sporting their new Patriot's gear from Nana! They were very excited!!


C2 bought me this Snuggie. I couldn't be happier. I am always cold. This was the perfect gift for me!!

The boys with their Mimi!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

International Fair

Our homeschool group hosted an International Fair. Each of the boys chose a country and did a display board, made a food from that country and shared a small report in front of the group. It was a lot of fun and they did a great job!

L did Puerto Rico!

C2 chose Spain.

C1 chose Poland.

(I would put more pictures, but I am having trouble with blogger!)

Camp Flintlock

We went on a field trip to Camp Flintlock. It was a place that was set up like a Colonial Camp. The boys got to participate in different stations such as: Colonial Dress, Colonial Games, Quilling, Tomahawk Throwing, and Indian necklace making.

Unfortunately, my camera wasn't working well and the pictures are a bit fuzzy, but it was such a fun time that I wanted to post them anyway.