Kenya

We left Germany this week and flew across the Mediterranean to the continent of Africa (one thing I've stressed a million times this week, is continents-countries-towns, etc. and I think it is finally starting to be remembered) to the country of Kenya. A few of the neat things we have learned so far:

1. The equator runs right through it.
2. Kenya is almost the size of Texas, almost.
3. Most of the country is desert.
4. Lake Victoria is the 2nd largest freshwater lake in the world.
5. Farming and Ranching are the main occupations.
6. Corn is the most grown crop and a main part of Kenyan diets.
7. The life expectancy is only 44 years of age (and being almost 41 I can't tell you how sad that is).
8. Wildlife-zebras, warthogs, rhino's giraffe's help fuel their tourism industry.

We ended our Africa study today with Count Your Way Through Africa in Swahili.

Riffi Berbers

There are many religions in the world and I do not claim to know every single one of them, but, sometimes you come across one that is like, WOW REALLY? I had that experience this week in our Window on the World lesson.

Berbers of the Rif Mountain Range North of Morocco. 1.500,000 live there. (est)

They are mainly farmers.

We looked at a holiday they celebrate.....the feast of Eid-el-Kabir. Muslims sacrifice a sheep to celebrate Abraham's willingness to sacrifice "Ishmael" - not Isaac as Christians know it. Genesis 22.

There were Berber Christians in the years following Jesus' death. Some even died for their faith. The church grew smaller . AD1100 there were no Berber Christians. Thankfully they are starting to follow Jesus more.

More information covered in Germany

Neuschwanstein Castle- this is the castle Disney is based off of. Located in the Bavarian Alps and built by "Mad King" Ludwig who cared more for the arts than anything else.

Autobahn- traveling in speed over 120 mph is not uncommon on this road. The average speed is 80mph which is well over the speeds on US highways.

Germany's most important business_ the Daimler-Benz Company producer of the Mercedes-Benz car.

Jacob & Wilheim Grimm the writers of many fairy tales including Snow White, Cinderella, and Little Red Riding Hood. For many years these stories were not written by passed down by word of mouth.

Black Forest or Schwarzwald. Like any other forest the trees are green not black. It is called the black forest because the trees are so dense barely any light can reach the forest floor.

Rhine River- The water in the Rhine is blue. It is the busiest water system in the world and runs 800 miles through Germany. The river runs South to North through Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, France, Germany and the Netherlands then empties into the North Sea.

Germany

We left the country of England and landed in Germany last week There's so much to learn of Germany. There are so many cultures to learn in this curriculum. I am thankful that I am also teaching a World Maps class at co-op and we are making a binder of many maps from around the corner that are age appropriate. Evan Moore has wonderful geography programs for elementary students (and probably for older as well, I'm just not there yet).

The Berlin wall, we watched some great You Tube videos, but, explaining to a 8 year old how things were under Hitler was very hard. I am a World War II history buff and I read everything on the 101st Airborne in WWII and can basically recite their entire tour( ok, enough detail on my little obsession) but, those facts are for middle school. For now, we talk basics. I was surprised that she loved learning about why the wall was built and very thankful that "not very nice people who hurt other people for no reason" at times was good enough. Man is brutal with man, but, at 8 she really doesn't need to dive into those details just yet.

Here are the links to a few of the videos we watched......


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnCPdLlUgvo&feature=related
Peter Jennings on ABC News

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oanmD3HHv4M&feature=channel
ABC News