Music:
Rimsky-Korsakov—Scheherazade

Mission Study:
1. Window on the World: Afghanistan
2. WotW: Hazara
3. WotW: Iraq
4. WotW: Kyrgyz
5. WotW: Yemen

Poems:
Still As a Star—Lee Bennett Hopkins

Science:
Astronomy: Our Solar System

Nonfiction Read Alouds:
Arabs in the Golden Age–Moktefi

Fiction Read Alouds:
King of the Wind—Henry The little girls (ages 7 and 5) and I read a few chapters of this book, but it never captured any of us. We gave up. Maybe we’re just not horsey people.
Seven Daughters and Seven Sons—Cohen I read this book to Brown Bear Daughter and Karate Kid. They were intrigued by the romantic story and the whole idea of a girl who had to dress up as a boy in order to escape her society’s restrictions and help her family. The plot reminded me a bit of Shakespeare with all his girls dressed up as boys, and there was one uncomfortable scene where the prince is afraid he is falling in love with his (male, but not really) best friend. Great story.

Picture Books:
The Golden Sandal—Hickox A Middle Eastern Cinderella story.
The Librarian of Basra—Winter
The Persian Cinderella—ClimoI’ve been trying to help Betsy, age 7, to see the differences and similarities between the various Cinderella tales. It’s a good exercise in comparison and contrast.
Legend of the Persian Carpet–dePaola

Elementary Readers:
Shadow Spinner—Fletcher Brown Bear Daughter is still planning to read this one, since Scheherazade is mentioned in Seven Daughters and Seven Sons, but she’s working on the Cybils Middle Grade Fiction finalists.
House of Wisdom—Heide I got this one from the library and read it to the younger girls, but I wasn’t too impressed. The illustrations are beautiful.
Camel Bells—Carlsson. I got this book from the library and read it myself, but I didn’t share it with the urchins. It’s translated from the Swedish and loses something in the translation.
The Breadwinner—Ellis
A 16th Century Mosque—Macdonald Karate Kid read this one, and now he knows what a mosque is.
The Beduins’ Gazelle–Temple

Previous posts in our Around the World 2006-2007 homeschool unit study.