We were most interested in trying to answer the age-old question: Are zebras white with black stripes or black with white stripes? Turns out, it just depends on how you look at it! Their fur would tend to make you say they're white with black stripes because the black stripes end near their bellies, which are all white. However, the skin underneath their fur is black. See the dilemma? The bottom line is that it doesn't really matter what color the stripes are; what matters is simply that they have these invaluable stripes, which break up their shape and help hide them from predators such as lions and hyenas. We also learned that a zebra's stripes are kind of like fingerprints; no two zebras have the same pattern.
Zebras love to eat grass, and we were shocked to read that their teeth get so worn down from all the chewing they do that they actually keep growing for the zebra's entire life! And one final zebra tidbit we found interesting is that zebras can run when they are only one hour old! (I found this particularly amazing because I am 34 years old, and I still can't do it!)
Hannah made an Africa collage this week by cutting out an outline of the continent, then gluing pictures of native animals onto it.
Another project she did was to paint a scene of the savannah, then glue a zebra onto it. (The zebra was a white silhouette that she painted stripes on.)
We also played a little game to review all of the continents and animals we have studied so far. I gave Hannah a paper that had questions about where certain animals lived, and she had to find the continent on the globe and show it to me. (I added "llamas" and "you" to the list to make sure we covered South America and North America, but I couldn't for the life of me think of an animal that is from Europe. An English bulldog? A Scottish terrier? Someone leave a comment if you know of one!)
Our special words this week were, "I can't hide anything from God."
We discussed how God is different from people in a lot of ways, one of which is that He knows everything. I asked Hannah if she had ever done anything she wasn't supposed to do and kept it a secret from Mommy and Daddy, and she said she had. I asked her if she thought God knew about that wrong thing she had done, and she said yes. We looked at two wonderful verses her curriculum brought out, which were Hebrews 4:13 ("Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.") and Psalm 33:13 (From heaven the LORD looks down and sees all mankind."). We also talked about God's grace and the fact that he's not waiting to punish us every time He sees us mess up; however, His Spirit is grieved by it, and if we continue to do it again and again and again, He could find a way to discipline us.
We've enjoyed traveling the world for the past month. It has been fun to learn about the different animals, but it has also been good for Hannah to see that the world is a lot bigger than the small corner of it she calls home.
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