Day 162--Waterfalls and What Else?

I have an old Natural Wonders of the World book and decided to include it as part of our World Geography credit this year. We'll just look up things that are located on the continent we're studying as we go. We looked at waterfalls today. One was Iguassu Falls at the border of Brazil and Argentina. It was just huge. We read about it and then looked at it on google maps. It let us see it on street view, and they have this pier thing you walk out on and get right above the falls. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't do that, although it would make the trip worth taking.

The other one was Angel Falls in Venezuela. We looked at that one because Sam remembered there was one that was 3000 feet high, he had read about in the encyclopedia. Mr. Statistics! It was crazy tall (the tallest in the world), but it didn't fall down into the usual kind of river. It was so narrow that it  seemed to dissipate into mist and ran down a strip of rocks into a stream that was lower down a hill. Then it joined a river a ways away.

I decided we wouldn't use the computer until after school today. It was so nice. I think we'll do that more often. The girls thought it was kind of funny not to even look up things we wanted to find out about until after school, like the waterfalls; but I needed to have a day off. I know I said just yesterday that I love being able to look up things when we want. So I'm fickle! Anyway, it was good.

I tried taking some pictures for the writing project book I'm working on. I'd love for each project to show samples of what we did for it. I think it would make the book more interesting. I was hoping to just take pictures of our stuff, but they looked awful. I think I'll have to try scanning them and inserting them into the file. I hope it works. I want to finish it this year. That way, in January, when everyone is feeling like they need something more for their homeschools; it'll be ready. Isn't January always like that?

We did some copywork today. I know how good it is for them; and even though they're teenagers, it's still so valuable. But I just never have them do it. I think I need to be more intentional about the passages, or teach more about them. Probably before would be better than after for the teaching. Then when they do it, they see what they're supposed to get out of it. Maybe I've just been doing it backward and haven't seen the benefits. I'll have to turn it around.

See you next time!