Over the weekend I’d been wracking my brains and Google trying to find some fun information or activities for our ancient history this week… Mongolia. Didn’t find much so I prepared to make do with the library books I found:
- Genghis Khan (World Leaders Past and Present)
a dry read so we looked at the pictures and captions. I used a quote from him as today’s copywork assignment too. - Mongolia (Vanishing Cultures)
Sam read this one to us today. - Mongolia
by Rebecca Stefoff
This was Sam’s required reading for the day. He almost finisted it and he narrated long and well. - The Last Wild Horse: Return of the Takhi to Mongolia
American Museum of Natural History website
Things started out today as ancient history (the khans and the size of the mongolian empire) but ended up as more of a geography and social studies lesson. That’s okay… right?
Then, of course, I found some great resources while the kids were reading and having quiet time. It always happens this way. So I spent the rest of the day trying to organize the new information on the run.
iTunes… I alternately curse and praise it for the same reason. It has been such a great resource! Here’s what I found there today:
- Silk Road Storytelling podcast
FREE! Great stories told by people with ties to the culture the story came from. - Asia and the Pacific Music Resources
FREE! movies and pdf lesson plans from Smithsonian Global Sound iTunes U (link takes you to there shop in the iTunes store. If you just want their website, go here. - The Silk Road: A Musical Caravan
Download through iTunes unless you want to buy a physical CD, then order from SGS. If you buy through iTunes, be sure to go to the link above to download the liner notes for free. It has great information about each song and where it is from.
Some really amazing stuff. And that “throat singing.” (YouTube video) Whoa! Human’s just shouldn’t be able to make those sounds.
I’d really like to get all the Silk Road songs but given the budget I may just have to make do with the songs from Mongolia right now since that is what we’re studying this week.
Forgot to ask Sam what he thought of today’s history lesson. He described our previous history lessons as “just work.” Gak! Hopefully this week will be more than that history wise. Jessie was mildly interested while we worked with the globe and maps (still a great improvement there). She happily colored a flag and coloring sheet.
Fingers crossed that this alternating weeks of science and history will make history feel less like “just work.” Maybe things won’t feel so rushed and we can take time to get more into (and out of) the subjects.
