BIBLE:

I pulled out I Heard Good News Today from my daughter’s Sonlight Core A curriculum (10 years ago…the days are long, the years are short). It had SO MANY GREAT STORIES from Japan.

We wove them into our Bible time; reading short stories here and there, really enhanced our study of Japan.

Memory Verse:

I created Bible memory tracers for I John 1:9 and Proverbs 31:30.

You can download your FREEbies at our TPT Store here and here.

On Monday, Parker traced his verse.

On Tuesday, Parker glued his verse in his notebook. He memorized it and recited it a day early, on Wednesday!

SOCIAL STUDIES:

Japan:

We continued reading through Journey to the Eastern Hemisphere and All About Japan.

I brought out some Japanese cultural activities that Jordan used when he studied A Pair of Red Clogs.

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes:

The true story of Sadako deeply touched my heart the first time I read it. Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes is a wonderful telling of her story, but it is not for the faint of heart. It’s heavy and sad, because war affects innocent ones.

Honestly, we tend to think of WWII ending with heavy losses, and justice served to those guilty of heinous crimes. We tend to forget the casualties that occurred, long after the war ended. Sadako is one of the many, affected by the bombing of Hiroshima. We must remember or we are doomed to repeat history.

Parks found a crane tutorial online. He attempted a folding an origami crane like Sadako, but it was rather difficult. He folded a bunch of origami frogs instead.

Choose Your Adventure:

We were playing catch up this week on our “choose your own adventure” activities.

Rangoons:

Parker chose to make crab rangoons as his adventure in China. This was a lesson on “if at first you don’t succeed; try, try again.”

We attempted crab rangoons with spring rolls wraps. They were made of rice and basically melted into oblivion. LOL…lesson learned!

We scrapped the first attempt, bought won ton wrappers, and successfully made cream cheese rangoons. Everyone LOVED them! Adventure one, done!

Ramen:

Next, we read that Ramen originated in China, but it was perfected in Japan. Jordan planned to make our big pot of steaming ramen, but he came down with a bad cold ☹️.

Bub’s little brother stepped in to assist. I’ve made traditional stews or pasta-based recipes, but this soup was different. We were in uncharted territory. It was fun to make. The recipe was simple; it resulted in a SUPER delicious bowl! Everyone asked that it be added to our dinner recipe rotation.

Japanese Fluffy Cheesecake:

Last, but not least was our Japanese baking challenge. After seeing a video for jiggly, fluffy Japanese cheesecake, it was on my baking bucket list!

Parks and I cracked and separated the eggs. The yolks would be added to a custard-like batter and the whites would become whipped to firm peaks. This was a serious culinary quest!

The recipe was a bit daunting, but it was equally exciting to make. Parks helped stir the butter, cream cheese, and sugar over the stove. Once melted, we removed it from the heat and Parker mixed in the yolks.

The hardest part was folding in the egg whites (not pictured). It took a long time, because I didn’t want to squelch the air bubbles. After it was all incorporated, we poured it into our pan, lined with parchment paper.

We baked it in a Bain Marie and waited to see if it would rise (fingers crossed). After the initial 25 minutes, it barely rose. I panicked and reviewed the writer’s notes.

I realized we made two mistakes: our pan was too big and our parchment was too high. There wasn’t much I could do at this point, except raise the temperature ten degrees and pray it would taste good.

It looked great, but I still needed to make sure the bottom was cooked properly. Most “failed” reviews stated a jelly-egg-like bottom that tasted like scrambled eggs (my daughter would gag at the thought…LOL).

As I peeled the parchment, I saw the bottom baked beautifully and I wanted to squeal with delight. Parks was super excited too! It was heavenly, like a cloud!

LANGUAGE ARTS:

Reading:

We read a bunch of fun books that discussed Japanese cuisine and cultural festivals. Our favorites were the story of Hachiko and Lotus & Feather.

MATH:

Calendar:

We read our November poem in A Child’s Calendar.

Parker helped me change the calendar to November. It was sad seeing my pumpkins go, but the turkey were so cute!

Afterwards, I handed him a November calendar worksheet. He filled in the dates, holidays and birthdays.

JUST FOR FUN:

Apple Tasting Tree:

We continued to taste, color and add apples on our tasting tree.