Ancient India and China

     We traveled back to Ancient India and Ancient China this week to get a perspective on a few World Religions.  In India, we discussed the migration of Aryan people into India and the development of the Sanskrit language and the writing of the Vedas.  The Vedas are the holy stories of Hinduism.  We read Ramayana, the story of Rama and Sita.  We even got to watch a few minute of Sita Sings the Blues, which is a really neat animated version of the Ramayana.  I will warn you though that it is told from a modern woman's perspective with scenes from her life interspliced in the story which includes some insinuated "romance."
     We also made a fold-able with Asian religions on it.  So far we filled in info about Hinduism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism.  We will get to Buddhism next time.  We spent most of our time on Hinduism, because the stories are so vivid and that is a religion that is the most foreign to most of us raised in the West.  We did talk briefly about the Hindu holiday of Diwali, and some of the ways people celebrate that like making intricate designs and pictures in flour on their floors.  We ended by trying to carve our own "ivory" statues that had something to do one of the stories we learned about.  I think that carving takes a lot of patience and the challenge was for the kids to scrape away small slices instead of trying to hack or cut off big pieces.  :)
Celee will do the health lesson at our next meeting.

Hindu Children's Stories

Sita Sings the Blues  

Hinduism Site 

Mickey and Friends: Mumbai Madness  

Interactive Ancient China Map