Comments (7)

By bethany (dreadlock girl), January 26, 2010 22:49

We are going through the book of History for Little Pilgrims by Christian Liberty Press. It started with Adam and Eve and follows through history. Currently we are at the segment about the First Americans- or what we know as Native Americans. The people that were here before the European explorers came. I did like the information in the book, but I really wanted to expand on this section since I knew we could have some fun with it and when I plan out activities that really helps them understand it all.

First Americans or Native Americans used story telling as a form of passing on their history and their culture from generation to generation. Today in our history part of homeschooling we focused on the art of story telling. We read a story, called Falling Star about the Cheyenne People to get the idea of storytelling down, and then we wrote our own story about the boys letting them choose nature names. Jackson wanted his native name to be ‘Moose Tamer’ and Oliver chose ‘Buffalo Slayer’ (after I told him he couldn’t be called Astronaut). Then they worked together on this tale, a tale of two boys who are very different but work together for the greater good of their people.

The Story of Buffalo Slayer and Moose Tamer

Moose tamer found a moose and tried to get it. But he missed. He threw his spear at it and it missed and the moose got away. Then he ran back home saying that he didn’t find any meat. Then he grabbed his little brother Buffalo Slayer and went for a hunt, because their people were very hungry. They were gone for many days and were getting weaker from hunger. Then Buffalo Slayer slayed a buffalo to eat it with his people. And when they gained strength from the smoked buffalo meat and warm fire they set off again. This time Moose Tamer wanted to make a catch. But he was a lover and  not a killer. He wanted to bring a moose to be his pet.

So they were gone for like 40 minutes and they found a moose, it was small and it was content. Buffalo slayer was about to shoot it with  an arrow, but Moose Tamer stopped his brother and said. “No, we already have meat at the camp, we should capture and tame this Moose as a pet”. Buffalo Slayer agreed. Then they had to think of a way to catch it. They fashioned a cadge out of wood and sticks that they carved with their knives. In it they placed food that the moose liked. They snuck away into the trees and they slept. In the morning they ate their dried buffalo and drank milk for breakfast. When they looked up, still being as quiet as a star in the moonlight. They spotted the moose which was in the cage nibbling on an apple they had left for it. Quickly they raced over and closed the cage and Moose Tamer and Buffalo Slayer carried it home on their shoulders for many miles. For many moons they would work together to tame the moose-while Buffalo Slayer made sure everyone of their people was well fed with fresh buffalo meat that he killed.

-by Jackson and Oliver Canfield (2010)

Tonight we are going to act it out, they will dress up and play their parts as I read the words. The boys love learning about different cultures and history- I love doing all these fun things together!

Summary of our lesson of History and Art about the First Americans:

*Read History for Little Pilgrims pages 66 and 67 for a background information.

*Point out the locations mentioned on a globe (North and South America especially important).

*Explain that these peoples passed on their culture, memories and history with Storytelling.

*Read an age appropriate Native American Folk Story or legend. I just did a google search.

*Help children write their own story, help them come up with their own Native names and work with them on making the story somewhat logical- but don’t hinder their creativity too much!

*If your children like to draw, have them make a picture of their favourite part of their story that you wrote together. Encourage them to spend time on it. If they would rather make a sign for their play that would be great too.

*Have them dress up and act it out for their friends or family while you (or an older sibling) play the roll of Storyteller.

Outtakes

(these are the faces I got the first time I tried to take their picture, I was not a popular person!)

Can you think of other fun things to do in this lesson?? Let me know below what you think!

Comments (4)

By bethany (dreadlock girl), November 23, 2009 22:39

The boys (and I ) are studying the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Native Americans and how they both lived. First we did a study of how the settlers came, from England to the Americas.

There is so much to learn about these people from our past, this is a great adventure journey for the boys! But I wanted to find accurate portrayals of these people groups. The pendulum has strayed both back and forth on this topic but I wanted to give the boys an image that is as in the center of the truth as possible.

Did you know that really historians have no idea if turkey was even served at the First Thanksgiving, and they are certain that popcorn and cranberries and mashed potatoes were not even invented yet!? Yeah, how does that change things for you? The meat most likely served was duck and venison (or deer). Bust out your deer jerky (oh, that stuff is so good)! I wish I had some venison in my fridge that I could cook up to celebrate this Thanksgiving in real style. Oh well.

I have found some really neat sites that I want to share:

You Be The Historian- this is my favourite site filled with good info, activities and many read-out-loud clickable buttons so even the littlest ones can enjoy hearing the story read to them.

The First Thanksgiving- This one is great for checking out the different topics so you can focus on one aspect a day. It has three main topics with tons of subtopics in each) of The Voyage of the Mayflower, Daily Life, The Thanksgiving Feast. Enjoy!

Plymouth Plantation, study topics: The ‘Pilgrims’ as People, Understanding the Colony this provides the information about he Colonists, their reasons for leaving, religious beliefs, cultural beliefs, all in all click there and you’ll get to know the pilgrims! Much of this stuff is way too much for kindergartners, but it is great for you as a parent teacher to read through and then give your kids a kindergarten level lesson of what you have learned.  Here are some other great topics on the Plymouth Plantation website: Plymouth Colony Timeline, The Mayflower Compact, Building a Wampanoag Home in the 17th Century,

Seriously now, there was No Popcorn at Thanksgiving!? Yeah.

Example of how to teach little ones about the Wampanoag and the Settlers:

Our Weeks Worth of Lessons on How the First Thanksgiving Took Place:

For Each of the following lessons, go to the above recommended sites and learn all you can on the topics before teaching your children. There is so much to learn, but you probably want to start out slow and just let them soak it will all be really new to them. ENJOY!

Reasons the Pilgrims Left England and The Mayflower’s Journey : Show the kids pictures of the ship, do some interacting on sites with the Mayflower. Have kids write or name a list of things they would bring if they had to leave their home behind. How many people were on the ship? How many made it? Have kids draw or colour a picture of the Mayflower.

The First Year and Learning to be Prepared: What did they learn? Talk about the seasons. What if they would have arrived in the early spring? Have kids list things they would plant for survival. Show kids what their houses looked like. Have children draw their garden and the house they would build. Remind them to stick with the time period, and that everything was done by hand. Build a house with blocks or Lincoln logs.

Wampanoag Culture: Who are they? Tell the children the story of the Wampanoag helping the Settlers. Look online at crafts made by the Wampanoag. Have them draw their favourite, or colour a picture of it. The Wampanoag made many clay pots, alow each child to make his own clay pot from some craft store clay or homemade play dough. Use a sharpened pencil to carve small designes in the outside of it. Include Hunting and Fishing, Weapons/Hunting Utensils if you want a longer lesson.

Wetu Homes of the Wampanoag Inside and Out. Show the children pictures of how these were built. Look at many different pictures of Wetus and then have your children draw their own. Spend the rest of the time building a fort out of things that are in your house or if you are hardcore in your backyard, explain to the children that out of the items the Wampanoag had their homes were completely practical for what they needed.

Reasons to Celebrate: Why the First Thanksgiving Took Place. What food was there for sure? Ask the kids to list what they would have at a feast if they could pick their favorite foods? Explain how when you are trying to survive you can only eat what you have. Go to the library and check out some Thanksgiving books to read. Talk about how the sharing of what each culture had made this feast what it was. With your kids make a banner, a string with pieces of paper folded over that hang on it (see below) either write out the word ‘thankful’  with a letter on each paper or you could as your kids to write what they are thankful for on each sheet, or draw a picture.

Do you have suggestions? Questions? Advice? Please share.

Comments (11)

By bethany (dreadlock girl), November 11, 2009 00:04

We made the decision to homeschool a couple of years back, but then we tried preschool with Jackson and knew for sure we wanted to do it. Right before this school year though I wavered a bit, not really knowing (or not wanting to know) what we were supposed to do. At the last minute I thought how cool it would be to send Jackson off to school for several hours every day, but then I prayed and God gave us the same answer He had all along. Homeschool.

We have started and now I wouldn’t want to do anything else.  Jackson is 5 years old and is in kindergarten and Oliver (3 years old) is preschool age. They both are happy learners, they love to be read to even if there are no pictures at all and enjoy chapter books. Jackson has gone through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons , a book which we loved for learning to read and I will most certainly use it with Oliver as well.

Now Jackson is on to stage one reading, he can read short books and stay focused really well. He can write his letters and is working on his numbers now. We decided to not buy curriculum for this year, but wanted to concentrate on the basics of reading and writing and then next year we will see what we’ll do. I really like the SonLight curriculum, and am leaning towards that for sure. Oliver can’t wait to join in and he is starting to write his letters now too (wants to be just like big brother!) There are some books that we love that I want to highlight over the next couple weeks so stay tuned. And most certainly YES, learning can be is fun.

Look at that smile!

Today I want to highlight some chapter books filled with  good old fashioned values and tons of adventure to keep little boy’s minds fascinated, we love all of them, but the first two are by far the boys’ favourites. Since it is hard to read some of the titles, I have the titles listed below books from left to right and top to bottom.

The Sword in the Tree
My Side of the Mountain
Little House in the Big Woods
Little House on the Prairie
Milly-Molly-Mandy Storybook
My Father’s Dragon
Daniel’s Duck
Stuart Little
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass

I hope you find some here that will be your favourites too. Do you have a favourite to share? Any ideas on good homeschooling curriculum? Do tell!

I am a Powell’s affiliate and I do receive a percentage of the sales of any book you buy using my links. Thank you!

Comments (5)

By bethany dreadlock girl, March 24, 2009 23:36

My little Jackson dude, is getting older! We started last year because he said he wanted to learn to read, but it really was stressful and he was soooo bored (and I was about to strangle something). I was having a hard time not being patient and so reluctantly (for me NOT for him) we put it on hold for, well about 4 months I guess. Now he is blazing through it easily. It was so worth it for the sanity of both of us to wait.

Since we are going to homeschool I had just decided that I would wait for a while to bust out the reading book again later on- that it didn’t matter if he was 5 or 6, but just that he learned to read while enjoying it. Today he asked me to teach him to read again, and I decided to give it another try. It was a piece of cake! I debated between starting over in the book and picking up just where we left off, I ended up just starting where we left off knowing that at any point if it was too hard, or he didn’t remember I’d just go back. There was no need. He remembered.

I want to recommend this book if you are going to homeschool, or would rather teach your kiddo to read than have a school do it. It is called Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons, it was highly recommended by several families (team Sabo with 12 kids included). It not only covers learning to read phonetically, but also learning to write at the same time. We are pretty lax on the writing, since jackson has always loved to “draw” his letters, that is what is good about all this….we do it when the individual child is ready! No worries though, I promise that if a love of math never develops…it is just something that we must all do our time with!

I have to say there were several moments of tears filling my eyes. First, when he remembered so much from before, and second when he read all by himself: “See. Me. Read.(pause) SEE ME READ!!!!” and then he just beamed. I loved being able to be there for that!