Bird's-Eye View of the Week: School on Wheels

  Time for the Weekly-Wrap-up!   Now that Spring has sprung in the frozen tundra of North Central PA, we are spending more weekends going to our lake house and getting it ready for another fun-filled summer of swimming, sailing, and sunning. (In order of preferences by Mei Wei, Father R, and Mother R.) With a four-hour drive required, we usually leave on a Thursday and return on a Sunday, so to keep up with school, we take it on the road!

History
The early 1700's. Do you know how the Union Jack got its name and look. ? A combo of the English and Scottish flags made up its design and gave the United Kingdom its ensign by an edict of Queen Anne in 1703. The name comes partly from the "union" of these countries under the new British Parliament (Ireland being added later) and the spelling of Anne's Francophile father, James II, who preferred to be called Jacques. Get it? 
   There are other times in reading An Island Story when you really  just have to skip bits that may mean something to little British students but leave Yankee kids clueless. The following, from the story of Bonnie Prince Charlie's battle against Sir John Cope, is an example:
                      

"Now Johnnie, troth ye were na blate,

To come wi' the news o' your ain defeat,

And leave your men in sic a strait

So early in the morning."

Huh?
Justification for skipping made.

Geography

On we march with Marco Polo and all things Ancient China. This week: the Terra Cotta Soldiers of the first emperor, Qin Shihuang. We happened upon a PBS.org viewing that really helped flesh out our understanding and greatly enhance our awe of this monumental task. It was part of a series, called "Secrets of the Dead."  Mei added this subject to her lapbook about Ancient China 
Here is the whole episode! (Don't mind the commercial: it's benign.:-)  )

Watch the full episode. See more Secrets of the Dead.

Math
Math-U-See Delta now has Mei learning formulas! For a fourth-grader it sounds so High School, doesn't it? Here's one:                                                                     
                                               lh = area of a triangle
                                    2


I'm sure I didn't remember that!

Science
The Story of Inventions covered Alexander Graham Bell. Mei's narration of the Centennial Exposition of 1876 in Philadelphia went like this:
"The judges were going to quit judging early and start the next day but Alexander Graham Bell could only stay that day. :-( Then the Emperor Dom Pedro of Brazil, who was a judge and knew him from Boston, saw his exhibit and said "We need to judge this one right now!" His exhibit was saved! :-D"
    While reading Bell's prior invention of the "phonautograph", which recorded soundwaves of speech in visual form to help the mute learn to talk, Mother R realized we had an example of one right in her smartphone: the text-to-speech feature. Mei dictated a message into the speaker and watched as her words turned into waves. "Imagine," said Mother, "doing it the other way around and having to imitate those waves to re-create sounds!" Talk about determination.


So we're back in the mountains on a Saturday finishing our week as I type while Father R plays golf in the rain and fog. I think I'd rather be doing anything, including school on Saturday, than that.

All homeschoolers educate in vehicles sometimes. What about you? Got tips?