Allen Say is one of my favorite illustrators that I’ve discovered since homeschooling. I love the detail and the sentiment he puts in his drawings. This book was a lovely case study in Home and Homesickness. I was able to share my own experience of living in Japan and how homesickness made me want home and how now I want Japan too now that I’m home.
Social Studies
This book was quite a surprise, but also contains the weighty history of war – so read only if you feel it is appropriate for your child. I didn’t know that the Japanese were able to bomb mainland US during WWII. It goes to show you that you are never too old to learn new things and it’s one part of homeschooling that I love so much! I think this book does a great job explaining atonement as asking for forgiveness – something for which I think we all need a good example.
Art
These Sesame Street Science books have been an excellent resource during our time with Five in a Row. Depending on your child’s dexterity, origami is a fun way to make shapes and designs – it also teaches self-control and following instructions. Drawing from Memory is going to be an older read, a biographical graphic novel set during WWII.
Science
Japan and California share some interesting geographic features – mountainous highlands, densely-populated ocean coasts, and temperamental location on the Pacific Ring of Fire. Finding similarities and differences through pictures is a great study for little ones.
Japan also has an amazing recycling program set up – when I lived there, each type of waste (glass, plastic, food or burnables, paper, etc) had their own colored bag, and each had a specific day to be picked up. Each day! In the city, there were also large rope nets that were laid over-top the bags to prevent blowing away or crows from getting into them.
Other books
I had to reel us in on extra books this week – we just didn’t have enough time to look through all of them and there were some great ones! I kept the books on hand for another couple weeks for the kids to look through at their curiosity. Japanese artists, WWII, birds, life in Japan – so many great options!
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Complete Booklist:
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- “Grandfather’s Journey” by Allen Say
- “Thirty Minutes Over Oregon” by Marc Tyler Nobleman
- “Color: A Sesame Street Science Book” by Susan B Katz
- “Drawing From Memory” by Allen Say
- “Easy Origami” by Mary Meinking
- “Japan” by A. M. Buckley
- “California: The Golden State” by Emily Schnobrich
- “Save the Planet” by Lorenzo Liberto
- “Curious About Birds” by Jill Sherman
- “Yukie’s Island” by Yukie Kimura
- “Silent Days, Silent Dreams” by Allen Say
- “A Life Made by Hand: The Story of Ruth Asawa” by Andrea D’Aquino
- “It Began with a Page: How Gyo Fujikawa Drew the Way” by Kyo Maclear
- “Ramen for Everyone” by Patricia Tanumihardja
- “Zero Waste” by Allan Drummond
- “The Big Book of Birds” by Yuval Zommer
Xapa to the World 