Vietnam and an Index Card Timeline

Student (special needs) map of Southeast Asia

We have been studying Vietnam this week. We have learned a lot about the terrain and the animal life there from reading Quang Nhuong Huynh's Water Buffalo Days. We actually liked his book, The Land I Lost, much better but the local library only had Water Buffalo Days available and our copy of The Land I Lost is packed. They both give a good picture of what Vietnam was like prior to America's involvement. Like most living books, it not only tells what it is like to live in Vietnam during that period, it also talks about the flora and fauna of the area, the terrain, how the people have adapted to the terrain and how it has affected their lifestyle and values.

source

 I am finding that we are including much more history in our geography studies than we did when we last did world geography (five years ago). We reviewed the Medieval Southeast Asian kingdoms (500-1500) and Quentin colored in the kingdoms that would later make up Vietnam; the Champa and parts of the Angkor kingdom and China.

We are beginning a file box-index card timeline for our history studies...

so, we made up a card for the Southeast Asian kingdoms. The cards are color-coded according to continent. Asia's cards are orange.

 We learned about Phan Bio Chau's Vietnamese Restoration Society (1896) and Alex colored the countries that made up Indochina; Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Because of this, we read some stories about Laos as well.

France controlled Indochina -the lands that are now called Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia The French divided Vietnam into the territories Torkin, Annam and Cachin China. Phan Bio Chau formed the Restoration Society to fight the French.

He also wrote a paragraph on it.

We included a card on it in our timeline box.

source

We ate Banh mi bowls for lunch. Banh mi is the Vietnamese word for bread, and so, therefore, they are  traditionally sandwiches.The baguette, which Banh mi is usually made on were introduced by the French during its colonial period. These are in a bowl of rice instead, which is also quite good. You could put it on a baguette instead for a wonderful Vietnamese sandwich.

 James colored in a map to illustrate the Vietnam war. He also included North and South Korea, since they their was also a communist struggle in this area and we had recently studied Korea. As we study each Asian country, I try to help them place it in context to the other countries we have recently studied. We also located China and Japan.

 Here is the card we added to our timeline box...

and since the Vietnam War was also part of America's history, we filled out a nearly identical card for our America's timeline section (white cards.)

books:

• The Land I Lost: Adventures of a Boy in Vietnam, (2nd grade/age 7 and up) or Water Buffalo Days: Growing Up in Vietnam, both by Quang Nhuong Huynh (3rd-5th/age 7-10)
• Nine-In-One Grr! Grr!, Told by Blia Xiong; a trickster tale told by the Hmong people of Laos. Illustrations modeled on the appliqued story cloths from the Hmong.
• Piecing Earth and Sky Together, A Creation Story from the Mien Tribe of Laosn, Nancy Raines Day. Beautifully illustrated and features the embroidery style of the Mien Tribe in Laos.

inspiration:

• Li-Anh's Vietnamese Chicken at Peanut Butter, Passports and Epinephrine
• Vietnamese Clay Pot Pork (Thit Kho To) at She Cooks, He Cleans
• Vietnamese Pickled Vegetables at Use Real Butter
• Vietnamese Summer Rolls with Mango and Sweet Chili Dipping Sauce at Veggie Belly
• A Little History of Vietnam at Buntglas
• Junior Ranger booklet for The National Mall has two pages on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
• About Vietnam