Brazil and Bolivia etc.

Brazil & Bolivia

Bolivia is a country that is very much like Peru. It’s land was taken over by the Incas, then later the Spanish. The land is mountainous on one side and rainforest jungle on the other. The Indians that live in the mountains of Bolivia weave their own fabric. Since it takes so much work to make the fabric they don’t waste any of it. They make pictures and designs with left over scraps. The Indian women in Bolivia wear big full skirts and bowler hats. They have a god called Ekeko. On one day of the year they buy small clay models of what they wish for and put it by their little statue of Ekeko—hoping that he will grant them the real version in the coming year. Trucks are important in Bolivia because they are used as traveling stores or buses.

We haven't made our clay sculptures yet. I'm a bit behind this week, but I'll picture them next week. I'm interested to see what the kids will wish for.

Brazil is the largest country in South America. The Amazon River and its surrounding plain is a rainforest jungle. It is home to more animals than any place on the planet. Indian tribes still live in the jungle, side by side with all of the interesting animals and insects that live there. We learned about tapirs, jaguar, tree frogs, whatzins, gibbons, capybaras and the levels of the rainforest.

Tapir

Jaguar (Damian's definition!)

Okay, Jaguar Gibbon

Capybara

Brazil’s national language is Portuguese. This is because during the time when Spain was conquering the New World, Portugal wanted to have some new lands too. A line was drawn and the Portuguese got to keep the land on the right of the line, the Spanish the land on the left. In 1807 when Napoleon was warring with Spain and Portugal, the royalty escaped to Brazil. After the war in 1821 the king returned to rule Portugal. His son, Prince Pedro, stayed behind to rule Brazil. The next year Pedro declared Brazil independent from Portugal.

The Samba was invented in Brazil. It is danced during Carnival by people wearing brilliant dresses.

We've got a samba doll dress that I haven't taken a picture of yet either. I'll show it next time.

Brazil nuts come from Brazil, as does the cacao plant (chocolate is made from the beans), and rubber trees. Brazil is famous for its barbeques. Grandpa Mark served his mission there.

At our house Samba dancing quickly turns to Sumo Wrestling!

We went to a nifty homeschool day at Incredible Pizza. They had different activities to learn about earth and space. Here is Faith-6 showing the phases of the moon in a yummy way.

This man taught us about comets. they are made of ice and dirt, so they made one with dry ice, a bit of water, and a bit of dirt. He's displaying it to the group.
Jared's moon phases.

For science we learned about the layers of the earth, and we made one to eat for Family Home Evening. The inner core was no-bake cookie, the outer core was marshmallow creme, the mantle was different colors of neapolatin ice cream, the crust was crushed up chocolate chip cookies. The idea was to be able to cut through it and see a lovely cross-section of the earth, but it mostly just mushed down--I won't show you that picture! But it tasted really good! If one day you here a new age theory about the center of the earth being a gigantic cookie, you'll know where it came from!

We went to the Port of Catoosa. Who knew that Oklahoma has an inland port! Water traffic comes north up the Mississippi River then makes a left at the Arkansas River. The port here has a series of locks that I was dying to see in action. At the museum there was this banana tree! Can you see the little green banana bunch to the left? It fit right into our rainforest study and our poem that we memoried by Elizabeth Coatsworth:

Counters

To think I once saw grocery shops with but a casual eye,

And fingered figs and apricots as one who came to buy.

To think I never dreamed of how bananas sway in rain,

And often looked at oranges and never thought of Spain.

And in those wasted days I saw no sails above the tea,

For gracery shops were grocery shops,

Not hemispheres to me!

I love that poem because the exotic is never far from us. Pick up some bananas and they're probably from Costa Rica, or Honduras, or buy prescription drugs most of which are derived from tropical rain forest plants! We all live an abundant and exotic life even if we never get to travel.

Anyway, long explanation, but we were thrilled to see the bananas swaying in the tree!

This a a boat that they use to push freight barges up and down the river.

this is the kids looking at a model of how the locks work--sort of a water elevator for boats.

We drove even further away to see one of the actual locks, but it wasn't operating while we were there. Can you see the different water levels on each side of the "gate"?

Okay, so one last thing to document. We went to the Sand Springs first annual soap box derby! they raced homemade cars that worked with only gravity. Some were hugely creative, and we got to vote for our favs. this cub scout "knife" was the one I voted for.

this State building got Faith's vote (She said it was the temple--I couldn't convince her otherwise)

This fire engine got Jared's vote. It had a siren and a hose folded up in the back. Way cool.

Here's a little sample of the race.