Subjects: American History

I LOVE American History ... but hate how I was taught the subject in school. Memorizing dates, names and places held no interest for me. I loved reading primary sources (although I probably didn't use that term) about what life was like ... how scary the voyage was for Columbus ... what kind of jobs people did to make a living ... how families existed ... how the Church helped out through the centuries.

I loved learning about American History ... I hated being taught American History.

With my own kids, I want them to love the learning.

I don't want them to have to memorize anything in a vaccuum. I want to link themes, ideas, events so that they can see the big picture. Yes, they know that it was Christopher Columbus who led the voyage to the new world ... but I want them to "live" the journey through historical fiction like Pedro's Journal or the DVD, The Magnificent Voyage of Christopher Columbus. I want them to see the Missions in California and understand the distance between Catholic Spain and the New World that was bridged by brave, intrepid explorers.

I want them to be able to see, hear, touch, taste and smell the experience of American history.

So throughout this school year, we'll be taking advantage of our proximity to Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia -- as well as further afield if we can. We'll spend days in D.C. -- exploring museums and walking the way of the presidents and politicians. We'll use period cookbooks and taste what they ate (we've already made jerky and dried fruit like the sailors on the Nina, the Pinta and Santa Maria). We'll build replicas of forts, ships, homes -- and populate them with period-dress figures. We'll have a blast!

At least, that's the idea for now.

We're off to a good start already, with trips to the Smithsonian and Marine Museum, Gettysburg and Baltimore. This past week, we spent two full days in Washington, D.C. with relatives ... Aunt and Uncle came up from South Carolina for a visit and a chance to show Auntie the Nation's Capitol. Sunday we spent the day in the District, walking around on a gorgeous fall day and taking in

Jefferson Memorial,

the Mall and it's monuments .

The next day, just the littles and I met up with Auntie and did the museums along the Mall -- particularly the new Ocean Hall (which is fabulous if a bit iffy on their science facts vs theories) in the Natural History Museum (we love checking out the elephant in the rotunda and finding all the dung beetles, etc housed below!), the Art Museum (saw Cassats, Monets, Renoirs, Rembrandts, Della Robbias, and others ... wow!), and ended up at the Air and Space.

When we do outings like this it is so fun to learn right alongside the kiddoes ... to discover old interests or kindle new ... to try new hands-on exhibits. The whole time we're walking around, we're talking about who, what, where, when, how and especially discuss theories of WHY! This is real learning at it's best.

We have more visitors coming ... and thus, even more reasons to explore our new area and to learn outside the vaccuum!

Catholic History Fair

We spent all morning at the 2nd Annual Catholic History Fair, planned by good friends at Our Domestic Church. My 3 little amigos had such fun planning their projects -- I gave them a free hand and told them the only "rule" was that the project could only use things we had around the house (we're moving and I really couldn't see buying anything more when we're in the midst of getting rid of stuff!).

Bam-bam (5) did a display all about St. George and the Dragon. We read (ad nauseum) the fantastic story book by Margaret Hodges, painted a plaque, colored pictures (he only brought one of the sets we colored) and played with his Knight and Dragon puppets to re-enact (or "narrate" as Charlotte Mason enthusiasts would say) the story.

String Bean (8) decided to keep a scrapbook of Pope Benedict's first visit to the United States April 15-20, 2008. Each day, she watched and listened as the Pope blessed, advised, complimented and reached out to all in the United States. We found quizzes online and some great coloring pictures. She used the popsicle-stick "Chair of Peter" we'd made a month ago, painted it and placed a picture of Pope Benedict sitting on the Chair!

Lego Maniac wanted to do something with his soldiers so we found some great information about Catholics who fought in WW2 (which led to a month-long study that he's still involved with, finding out all about WW2, America's involvement in the conflict and generally soaking up everything about the War). He decided to do a diorama of the 101st Airborne's holding-out against the Germans in Bastogne, Belgium where the Catholic general McAuliffe said "nuts" when asked to surrender. We also learned about the five fight Sullivans, five brothers all serving aboard the Juneau that went down in the Solomon Islands. Other famous Catholics in the War included Wild Bill Donovan (spymaster and head of the OSS), and Fr. Cummings who gave the Easter Sunday sermon at Bataan that kept all spirits up.

Dh and I were talking about how the kids got so "into" their projects -- they decided what they wanted to do, how they would do it and what they would say when adults asked questions at the Fair. We're so proud of their work and the growth in their knowledge of their Faith and its place in history.

This is a prime example of why home-learning is so great -- all can participate, can excel at something, learn and "own" knowledge in a great setting with enthusiastic support!

THANKS to MaryM for organizing and ensuring the tradition of a Catholic History Fair continues in the Front Range!

Feast Day: Conversion of St. Paul

Today is another feast day (don't you just love living the Liturgical Year?). Today is the feast that celebrates Saul's conversion. This is the time described in Acts 9, where God knocks Saul off his horse, he goes blind, spends the next three days fasting and praying and then Ananias comes and helps him to see -- both literally and figuratively. From then on, Paul evangelizes to the Gentiles and fulfills the Lord's words to Ananias -- that Paul is destined to preach Jesus' name "before Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel."

So this is a big deal feast!

Even more so here as Bam-Bam has St. Paul as one of his patron saints. And, boy have we been having fun today. First, we worked out a skit that we'll perform tonight for Granmere, Dad and Kotch with Bam-Bam playing St. Paul and the other two having multiple roles (and I get to be narrator). In the photo to the left, String Bean is dressed as a law-breaking Jew, Bam-Bam is a smiling, Christian persecuting Saul, and Lego Maniac is getting ready to help Saul find Damascus after his meeting with God.

Then we built a tent in the living room (Paul made his living as a tent-maker) so that we could learn in there today -- we did reading and geography and science all in the comfort of our jerry-rigged tent.

To finish the celebration, we made two different kind of Jewish cookies to have with a movie tonight. The cookies, Mandel Brot (biscotti-like cookie with chopped up almonds) and another one that is like a 3-layer bar (a cocoa cake-like bottom, coconut and sweetened condensed milk middle, and bittersweet chocolate "frosting"), will go really well with our movie feature. Tonight in honor of JP2, we watched The Jeweller's Shop. This is a great movie -- I must confess I haven't yet read the original -- but the movie is fabulous with Ben Cross, Olivia Hussey and Burt Lancaster as some of the main stars. It really is a good view of how marriage is and that you never give up. I had to get my copy through ILL -- all the way from Fort Smith, Arkansas!

St. Paul the Apostle, pray for us!