Smart Play Home School Group

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18

HISTORY - learned about Asoka, a ruler in India who conquered many smaller city-states and was cruel and greedy, but who had a change of heart and became a Buddhist and brought peace to India. He had pillars built in towns with 4 lions facing the 4 directions and inscriptions of Asoka's thoughts for the people - be kind to people and animals, be peaceful. He allowed freedom of religion but encouraged people to be Buddhist.

Reviewed the continents. They asked a lot of questions about China and democracy. The conversation evolved and I told them about Tiannemen Square and how the people wanted democracy and to vote and the government sent the army in to stop the protests. The whole world saw that event and put pressure on China to change and today some change has happened and the people have a little more freedom but it's still not a free country. They were very concerned about people not being allowed to leave whenever they want to - so we talked about the right to travel that we have in the U.S. They were very happy to be Americans by the end of the discussion!

Reviewed the calendar. They had no idea what year it was :) We talked about how old they'd be in different years and how we'd write the date in, say, 2015. They got a kick out of it.

SCIENCE - ocean's are saltwater and lakes and rivers are freshwater. waves are created by wind on the surface of the water and currents are rivers or streams of water that flow beneath the surface. they were fascinated with currents and asked a lot of good questions. did an experiment with saltwater and freshwater to see and taste the difference.

they took both assessments on line.