Around the World in 80 Days: Week 2 – India Part One

I haven’t so much to write this week because all our time was spent learning about India.  Phileas Fogg traveled from Bombay to Calcutta, first by steam train, then by elephant.  This week we only read the chapters pertaining to India.  We have covered India before in our home school and I fortunately had posted about it, so the guys could look back over the work they did a few years ago (click the picture for more information):

Back then we were learning about the Ancient Indus civilisation.  This time round we would be learning about India during the nineteenth century.  We used the following resources:

 

 

 

 

British Rule in India

We also had a My Story book which was not only set in India but also set during the approximate time period we were studying:

This book was about the First War of Independence.  After this the East India Company disbanded and India became under the direct rule of Britain.  In 1876 Queen Victoria was proclaimed the Empress of India.

Biomes and Wildlife in India

image credit

There was lots of independent study as the children chose a biome in India and researched the wildlife found there.  Thomas covered wildlife in the mountains:

Lillie covered wildlife on the plains:

whilst Charlotte covered wildlife in the forests:

Religions of India

Each day we read out loud a few pages from The Bold Believers of India.  It was interesting (and sad) for us to hear about the radical Hindus over in India who do much to stop the spread of any other religion.  Whilst reading Around the World we had learnt a little about the Zoroastrians and Hindus, so I thought it might be useful to delve a bit deeper.

The girls focused a couple of days researching about these two religions whilst Thomas was learning how a steam engine worked.  They made up their own scrap page, detailing what they had learnt as well as giving a presentation on it:

I also thought it might be a good idea to use up some of the Bold Believers in India print outs to make a scrap page to remind us of working our way through that particular curriculum.  I will be sharing those pages tomorrow.

Steam Engines

Thomas spent a day researching steam engines and made his scrap-book page (minus any writing…):

He included the first ever primitive steam engine, invented in 1st Century AD by Hero of Alexandria (who knew?):

He included models of the very first steam trains, as well as a cross-section:

And some information about how the steam is created in the first place and how this steam powers the engines:

I shall be continuing with this post tomorrow…