Thank Goodness for Wikipedia

Matthew started not feeling great again this afternoon but thankfully we were able to curl up on the couch and do our last bit of schoolwork today with the help of Wikipedia. We read our chapter in Little House in the big woods and then did research on oats, wasps, herbal remedies for fevers, and anaphylactic shock. We studied the scientific naming conventions of the oats and wasps. We learned where oats are grown and how they are processed. We learned how wasps live and what happens when you get stung and how that can lead to anaphylactic shock and what exactly that means. We talked about the different herbal remedies for fevers that people used to use (and many that are still in use) and what we use today.

Nicholas was cute today. His new thing is wanting to sit with me and read his stories to me. It's so interesting to hear his take on them.

I've been reading Christopher's art history book and I'm just beyond thrilled with it. I am learning so much from it that really adds to my understanding and appreciation of ancient art. Today I read about ancient Indian cultures and then went delving into ancient Egyptian and Greek art. I learned why the Egyptians drew people and animals the way they did. It was that they believed in order to preserve someone in the afterlife, you had to show everything of their body that you possibly could. That is why their bodies are in seemingly unnatural positions and why their head is in profile but you see the eye on the head from the position as it it were facing forward. It was all an effort to preserve the soul in the afterlife. The Greeks learned much from the Egyptians but whereas the Egyptians were using their art for a specific purpose with religious tones so their rules were rigid and unchanging, by around 450BC the Greeks were learning that there was so much more they could do and they didn't need to be bound by those rules and they let loose with a will. I had also never realized that so many of the "Greek" statues we see in marble are actually Roman reproductions of Greek pieces and were done cheaply. Many of the originals were done in bronze and used many different materials to color them and bring them from beautiful into something that was worthy of the gods.

Can't wait to continue reading this book and continue learning from it. I think it's a great course and I'm so glad Christopher is taking it.