China Kit Arrives!

The kids got their China Kit today and just had to open it (I really thought we would wait until we were studying China, but the package was SO inticing!) So here are all the neat things we got.

Money, a China flag, a paper lantern, bookmark, postcards, a coin, a knot, a red scarf, a red envelope, and some stamps. She also sent a pamphlet telling us all about all the goodies and some of their traditions.

Another thing we got in the mail last week was a Highlights Club "Top Secret Adventures" kit. It's a "secret-agent themed book club." Our first kit was Australia, and Greece is on the way. The kit is really cute. You get a little Passport (for your country stamps) plus the stamps, a GREAT wall world map, a puzzle, a "Case File" with lots of games and a 30-page softcover book about Australia.

Each kit will come with the same items (minus the map and Passport, I guess, since we only need one of those). The first kit was free (shipping costs $3.45) and other kits are $13.95+$3.45 shipping. If you prepay you can choose the countries, otherwise, they are randomly sent every 6 weeks.

BOTANY

Bailey is working on Exploring Creation with Botany (an elementary Apologia curriculum) and she LOVES it! Last week we made a light hut to help grow and germinate some seeds. I let her pick the seeds we would be planting and she picked turnips, peas and SQUASH! We will see how big they get I guess before they overtake the light hut. It will be the middle of winter when they reach maturity...hmmm.

GEOGRAPHY DOWNLOADS

We have been working on identifying continents and oceans mainly this week in Geography. One site that my kids really seem to like is Seterra. You download a small FREE program and then play "Choose the Correct Country" type games. So far, we have only used the European Countries. But they also have flags, cities, capitals, etc. It's quite fun and competitive!

Another download (much bigger, but still FREE) is Google Earth. So far we have just used it to explore our house (you can enter addresses) and some of the famous landmarks around the world (you should see the Eiffel Tower...pretty fascinating!)

One more website is Sheppards Software. We haven't gotten to play with it much yet, but we will definitely be using it more, later...it has geography games for different countries, landmark puzzles, animal quizzes, and much more...