Here's the synopsis of our Mexico week:
Mexico is south of the USA but still in North America. The land goes from cactus filled dessert in the north to jungle in the south. Many volcanoes are in Mexico. Chia pets come from there!
We love Mexican food! We tried Mexican beef chip casserole, tacos, fajitas, enchiladas, burritos, fried ice cream and chile rellenos.
We love the music from Mexico. We listened to Mariachi music, including songs like La cucaracha, and we learned the Mexican hat dance which originated as a courtship dance danced by a couple around a large sombrero. The Mexican people love bright colors and they decorate everything with designs and flowers. Guitars are popular in Mexico and our piano teacher played for us.
We made a piñata for our fiesta where we played “los listones” (the ribbons), danced the Mexican hat dance, made homemade tortillas and made them into quesadillas, and had a funny time trying out Mexican candy. They put chili power in everything! A mango lollipop came with a sugar, salt, chili powder combo to dip it in!
The first peoples of Mexico were the Olmecs. They left huge stone head sculptures. The Maya built ziggurats (step pyramids) and were masters of astronomy. They thought slanted heads and crossed eyes were beautiful, so they put a board on babies’ heads to flatten them, and hung a bead in front of the baby so that it would focus on it and become cross-eyed! The Aztecs thought it was their duty to keep the sun alive by giving it human blood. They captured people from neighboring cities to sacrifice to the sun. They loved chocolate—used it for money and a bitter herb (we ate unsweetened chocolate, it is bitter!). They built the beautiful city of Tenochtilan on an island where they saw the sign of an eagle on a cactus eating a snake. This is the symbol on the Mexican flag today. Spanish conquered the Aztec in 1519. Mexico was called New Spain by the Spanish. The Spanish assimilated some aspects of the Aztec culture while destroying others. They brought Christianity to the land and ruled until the 19th century. The Mexicans revolted against Spain in September 1810, led by priest Miguel Hidalgo.
Spanish remains the language of Mexico. “Spanish is fun so give it a try! Hola is hello, adios is goodbye. A dog is un perro, a cat is a gato. You drink from a vaso, and eat from a plato. A son is an hijo, a mother is madre, a daughter is hija, a father is padre. Your eyes are your ojos, your hands are you manos. Both ojos and manos help play el piano. A blouse is a blusa, a shirts is camisa. Kisses are besos, and smiles are sonrisas.”
These are "ojos de Dios", remember making these? Aparently in some areas of Mexico they add a new color for each year of life of a new baby until he is 5 years old.
Ziggurat, or step pyramid of the Maya.
Olmec heads that we sculpted! 
Last time it was baking ice cream--this time I deep fried it! Terrifying, but tasty!
Finished fried ice cream, Yum.
Pinata in the works.
Ready for Fiesta!
Jacob Pepple (another homeschool friend) and Jared. We learned the Mexican Hat Dance.
At our fiesta we made our own tortillas and turned them into quesadillas. They actually turned out well.
Lola Pepple. We found a mexican market and found all kinds of neat stuff to try. This is a fruit roll up sort of thing attatched to a sucker stick. It is amazing how many things they put chili powder in.
Pinata!
"Codex" (accordian style book) this is how the Aztec kept their records.
Jared's codex features Calvin and Hobbs.
Central America & the Caribbean
The Caribbean contains all of the islands in the Caribbean Sea. We focused on Jamaica, Cuba, and Haiti. Cuba is full of sloths, monkeys, scorpions and tarantulas. Columbus landed there during his voyage of 1492. The Spanish conquered the Indian tribes there and worked them like slaves hunting for gold, then when the gold was exhausted, the Spanish introduced sugar cane and the Indian slaves worked on the sugar cane plantations. Many of them died however, so the Spanish brought in African slaves. Today the culture of Cuba is very interesting because it is a blend of Spanish and African. Together these cultures made their own music and dance forms. The Salsa, the Cha-cha, the mambo, the conga, the Rumba, and the Bolero, were all invented in Cuba. Jamaica first belonged to the Spanish then was taken by the English. The Indians here didn’t survive, so African slave were brought in to raise coffee, sugar, and bananas (the Banana Boat song comes from here). Jamaica is a blend of African and English heritage. They have their own music called reggae. Haiti is similar in that it was first Spanish, then French blended with African to create its own “Creole” culture.
Guatemala is a country in Central America. When the Spaniards invaded there, the Indians didn’t mix with their culture. The ones who did were not welcome in their tribes. Even today Guatemala is a split country. The Indians maintain their own culture and languages, and the Spanish keep their language. It is a country still struggling to form a successful government. The women weave beautiful fabrics. They make the fabric into huge skirts and they wear big shirts that are big rectangles with a square neck hole cut out and slits cut for the sleeves. The women are very strong and carry things on their head. Every day they eat tortillas and beans. Guatemala has active volcanoes, mountains and jungles.
All of these countries have many types of fruit that we tried: mango, papaya, pineapple, bananas, and kiwi. In Honduras they love bananas dipped in chocolate, and we tried fried plaintains.
We learned about Sloths and tried climbing aroun like them.
We made Chia pets (from mexico) and I thought it was appropriate because sloths move so slowly that moss grows in their fur! Faith's is a cool looking cube cat--very modern, and Jared's is a very accurate sloth from a picture. We're still waiting for the "fur" to grow.
We've been listening to Cuban, Jamaican, Haitian, and Guatemalan music all week. We've been watching my favorite TV show "Dancing with the Stars" and noticing all the dances from Cuba. It's been a good week!
We went to our first Holland Hall foot ball game. Damian actually went and enjoyed it! I had to document this momentous occassion.
This is "Bob". Eric caught him at his first camp out. We won't be keeping him long.
Mexican doll costume.
