01.29.09

Benjamen, who is all about Japan ever since starting karate, learned about World War II today.

He has a Japanese language tutorial on his Nintendo DS, loves going to the Japanese Steakhouse and trying all sorts of different dishes there, and checks out Japanese cooking books (and Japanese folklore, Japanese language, Japanese fact books, etc). Today he was listening to a CD of Japanese stories and came across the story of Sadako and the Paper Cranes. When he was finished listening (with his brothers, but they weren't as interested as he was) he had an avalanche of questions about leukemia, the atom bomb, World War II, etc., so we sat down with the laptop and googled to our hearts' content.

We found photos of Sadako and memorial statues erected in her honor. We found photos of what leukemia does to the blood and photos of children ravaged by the disease. We found photos of the mushroom clouds over Nagasaki and Hiroshima. We found photos of the Enola Gay and I reminded him of the trip we took a few years ago to the Air & Space Museum where we saw it up close and personal (he didn't remember, so we're planning another trip back).

He wanted to know which president was in charge when the bombs were dropped (he's memorized all the presidents in the order that they took office, so I guess that piqued his interest). We looked up several bios on Harry Truman to get a good overview of the whats, hows and wherefores of the decision. We read about how many civilian men, women and children were killed and how many more suffered for decades from the radiation exposure. He asked, at that point, "Didn't they even care about all those little kids?" Broke my heart. His questions eventually led us to pages describing Hitler and the holocaust, at which point, he said, "No more photos."

All told, we spent a good hour and half reading, talking, and searching out the information he asked for. He's been processing it all ever since and has sought me out every half hour or so to ask more questions, most of them philosophical rather than factual. He just came in to ask, while I was typing this, "Why did they have to kill all of those people just because their leaders refused to surrender?" I didn't have an answer for him, of course. I asked him in return, "It seems like it doesn't make sense, doesn't it?"

We've were studying ancient history at the beginning of fall until everyone seemed to lose interest in the materials I had on hand. I've let it drop and we've been studying history as it affects us in our daily lives through holidays, the news, and spontaneous questions that the boys have posed themselves. I think that Benjamen learned more in a few hours today than he's learned all year, and in a way that was meaningful and important to him. I would bet any earthly possesion I have that this lesson will stick with him for the rest of his life, and that he'll still be talking to me and asking questions about it a month or a year from now.

01.23.09

Lovely week. We kept up with our maths, did some kitchen chemistry (yeast!), have been reviewing lots of book on Japanese culture, language, history, and folklore (because Benjamen is so very into karate), and are gearing up for Chinese New Year on Sunday/Monday. We had a library day and spent a morning at the playground, despite the cold. Jonathan and I hit yoga on Wednesday evening and that always makes for a nice time. And of course, Tuesday and Thursday nights are karate nights, and Thursday night karate was followed by a night at the local Japanese steak house. They're getting to know us by name up there!

Jonathan has been doing some more writing this week, as well, and I thought I'd include a sample of his cursive penmanship.



It's a history of his Bionicle (LEGO) guys and reads:

The Great Spirit Mata Nui created an island named after him. He also created inhabitants for the island called Matoran. However, his brother Makuta was jealous of Mata Nui, and cast a spell over him making him fall asleep. However, the Turaga, the elders of Mata Nui, used six Toa Stones to summon six Toa, heroes that control one of six elements: Tahu, Toa of Fire, Kopaka, Toa of Ice, Pohatu, Toa of Stone, Lewa, Toa of Air, Onua, Toa of Earth, and Gali, Toa of Water. They must collect six Kanohi masks in order to defeat Makuta. But Makuta, in the last few seconds before he was defeated, awakened the Bohrok swarms. The Toa defeated them and changed into Toa Nuva, the Bohrak Kal came, To Be Continued.

(The lines on top are where I was showing him that his lower case letters needed to be smaller --half as tall--as his upper case letters.)


And a book review! I bought him the book last night after karate, and he had finished it this morning when I woke up. He wrote up the book review this afternoon:

I bought the book for Jonathan last night and he read it for a few hours before falling asleep. He finished it this morning and wrote the review this afternoon.

Dragon Rider

I really enjoyed the book Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke. It's about a dragon named Firedrake, a brownie named Sorrel, and a boy named Ben. They travel all over the world looking for the Rim of Heaven, a place where dragons can live and not be afraid that humans (apart from Ben) will find them. One of the adventures that they had along the way was getting a map from a rat map maker. The map looked like an atlas, only on each page there was a ribbon, and if you pulled it, a new section of the map popped out. They are searching for the Rim of Heaven because humans are planning to flood the valley that they live in. I liked this book because it had a good ending, because it had sandmen, and, of course, it had dragons! I recommend this book to just about anyone who likes dragons. It had a whole lot of details, interesting characters, and a djinn with a thousand eyes! I would give it a rating of 9/10. I hope that you like this book as much as I do.

01.19.09

We had such a lovely weekend. We took the boys to the children's museum on Saturday and they just caught a showing of The Princess and the Pea as we walked in the door. They got to interact with all sorts of scientific displays, dress-up exhibits, construction stations, etc. The animal room was a big hit with Benjamen and Nicholas, while Jonathan most enjoyed the play and the pulley exhibit.

Afterward we went out for Indian food at a new place that just recently opened in town and the boys all tried lots of foods that they'd never had before. They drank enough lassis to drain their college funds, but I was really happy to see them being good sports about trying new things and enjoying the majority of them. I think there was just one shrimp dish that didn't go over. I was happy, too, that Dan, who's recently gone vegan, was able to have a wide variety of dishes from which to choose.

Sunday we just ran errands and grabbed some pizza, but it was a fun day, too. The boys each spent some of their allowance and brought home toys to play with for the rest of the evening. Benjamen and Nicholas came up with a plan to combine their money and go in on a toy together. I was pessimistic and thinking that there would be conflict, but so far, they've been taking turns or playing together with it, drama-free, a pleasant surprise that reminded me to give them more credit and to stop expecting the worst.

Today we've done our day's maths (actually Nicholas took a break, so I need to finish his in a moment), watched Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech on YouTube, and wrote a little bit about it afterward. I had Benjamen write a sentence for me and then we corrected his mistakes (grammar mistakes, not letter formation), and Jonathan is finishing up his essay right now:

An Essay on Martin Luter King, Jr.
By Jonathan Peter Baltzell

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a man who spoke up for all colored people in America. He was a Baptist minister. He made a speech called the "I Have a Dream" speech. In his speech, he said that Mississippi was the state that racism was most common in. The point of the speech was to give colored people equal rights to white people. He wanted them to be able to drink from the same water fountains, sit wherever they want on the bus and in restaurants, etc. We celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to remember that without him, colored people might still be treated badly. We also remember him because he protested against racism peacefully and because he urged others to protest peacefully. Also, if it were not for Martin Luther King, Jr., Barack Obama would probably not be president right now. Basically, Martin Luther King, Jr. changed the United States forever.