So What?

So, I helped them.  So what?

So what if I typed every other sentence for Ezra because he was going along at about a word a minute and I had a lunch date?  So what if I went back with Zach and corrected all of the sentences that he didn’t start with a capital letter – which would be ALL of them?  So what if I corrected all of the spelling mistakes and put in all of the paragraph breaks — even though I haven’t taught the boys about paragraphs –because I can’t stand the way a paper looks without them?

So what.  My babies wrote their first reports today.  They took outlines they had written a couple of months ago, the same outlines they each used to do an oral report, and today turned them into their very first written reports.  And as they read them aloud, they beamed.  Like, really, really big beams.  And the listening brother oohed and aahed with genuine admiration.  So did I.

A very good morning.  So what if we didn’t do anything else so that I could have lunch with friends?

Without further ado, here are their reports…

How to Make Bronze, by Ezra

The Chinese were trying to make medicine to cure people who were very sick.  But instead they made gunpowder.  They were trying to make gold when they made bronze instead.  They used the bronze for weapons. Here is how you make bronze.

The first thing you do is prospecting which is finding the right ore.  The next thing is mining.  Mining is digging a mine to get the ore.  Smelting is next.  Smelting is putting the ore in a hot, hot furnace to get the metal out.

Galena is an ore that has lead.  Azurite and malachite have copper.  Cassiterite has tin.  You smelt them in a furnace to get the metals for bronze.

Next you collect the metal and mix it into a bronze alloy.  Then you pour it into a mold and cool it off.  Then you are done.

Warring States Period, by Zach

There were seven kingdoms fighting to be in control.  Where was this happening?  It happened in China from 481BC to 221BC.

There were four types of fighting groups.  There were chariots, cavalry, infantry, and crossbowmen.  In the chariots there were halberdiers, charioteers, and crossbowmen.  The weapons in the infantry were halberds, swords, axes, and daggers.

Shi Huang Di won and became the first Emperor of China. There was fighting and he won.  That was in 221BC.  The warring states period was over, and the Qin dynasty had won. Dahn, dahn, dahn!