Istanbul Not Constantinople

We read about how the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople and how it is considered the end of the middle ages. Mehmed, the sultan, renamed Constantinople Istanbul and turned the Christian cathedral the Hagia Sophia into a Muslim mosque. In honor of learning about this, we took to YouTube and found the song by They Might Be Giants and watched a TinyToons movie. Totally fun.

Then I saw a link for The Four Lads and found out that the song was NOT by They Might Be Giants (I guess I should have know that) and we listened to the original version. You can hear it here.

Anyway, I learned a lot of the REAL history and it was fun to share some of my random music knowledge with my kids. They love watching silly music stuff on YouTube and we don't do it nearly enough.

Next week we learn about the sun for science and you can bet that we will be getting my They Might Be Giants cd out again.

Melynn's First Talk

I took this video of Melynn practicing her talk for primary. Last year she had the chance to talk about her ancestors in a family history moment, when she talked about her great-grandma Cami, her namesake, but she never got to give a regular talk. So, today was the day and she did a great job. She spoke very clearly and you could hear her (probably better than you can on the video). I was very proud of her to get up all by herself and give her talk. She read it from the back of the pictures. She was so excited to tell everybody about it. She really is growing up.

Field Trip: Noodles Asian Bistro

On Saturday, Melynn had a birthday party that was around dinner time. Emmett was feeling pretty down that he didn't get to go to a party so we did the next best thing and took him and Tucker out to dinner. Chinese! We had learned during the week about the Mongol invasion of Genghis Khan and how his grandson Kublai Khan expanded the Mongol Empire to include most of Asia. We also learned about Marco Polo and his travels to China. It was a great way to cap off our learning. He even tried using chopsticks.

Noodles is a relatively new Asian restaurant in Bartlett. It is literally down the road from our house and opened around my birthday last year. Ever since I have wanted to try it. On the menu they had what I consider Chinese food (Moo goo gai pan, brocolli chicken, General Tso's chicken, etc.), a small selection of SE Asian dishes, like Singapore noodles and the Thai coconut curry (which is what I ordered). They also had Japanese hibachi style food and sushi. So, they kind of cover all the different styles in one place. I liked that a lot actually. Josh ordered the $7 dollar special: Sesame Chicken with broccoli. They offer two different daily specials and they include fried rice, a spring roll and a ginger salad along with the main course. He got a lot of food for $7. We all had enough leftover for another whole meal. I ordered the Thai curry, because I love it and haven't yet learned how to cook it at home. It was good, but the veggies were a little on the crunchy side for me. My dish came with my choice of brown or white rice and was $8.50. It was part of the family favorites section. The hibachi grill and sushi menus were more expensive, but I didn't feel they were unreasonable. Emmett was so brave and ordered something he had never tried: Chicken Lo Mein. And he liked it so I was super happy. Tucker got to eat some of all of our dishes and liked it all. He's not too picky. Oh, the kid's meal was $5.50 and was as big as an adult portion. Melynn tried some of the leftovers but didn't like any of it. She is our picky new-food eater, so don't take her opinion as a reflection on the food. If that was the case, then I am a very bad cook.

Random Stuff of the Kids

I don't really have a great theme going here. Just some pictures that we took that are of the everyday part of life. I have some of Tucker to show how much this boy eats and how big his mouth can get when he wants food. I have a picture of the prizes the kids picked at the dentist's office. And I have Melynn posing by our art supplies that I purchased for the art class I'm teaching in our homeschool co-op this semester. I think it is funny that I'm teaching an art class because I never took art. Other than crafty things I had to complete for school, I never learned anything about art until college. Then I took two humanities courses that were a blend of art history, music history/appreciation and literature (I think). My professor was from Australia and looked a lot like George Clooney. Don't remember much of the content. :)

The Spelling Bee

Emmett participated in the Memphis-wide homeschool spelling bee on Friday and got 2nd place in the 1st grade category. He did really well. We got some funny videos of him and the boy that ended up winning 1st place. They both were talking a little trash and had some spunk. All over a spelling bee! At one point, Emmett said, "Bring it on!" to the other little boy as he walked back to his seat and the other parents just laughed and laughed. I was slightly mortified that my son would do that! He got out on the word WHITE by forgetting the H. It was a tricky one. But he did really well. At the end the three judges said that these two boys were the best 1st grade spellers they have had in a really long time. They went back and forth for a really long time. It was really fun to watch.

The first picture is Emmett posing by the microphone for me. He had some photobombers.

The second picture is with his friends Parker (2nd grade) and Mya (kindergarten) from our co-op.

And now, for some awesome bee footage. Enjoy: