Unit Study: Dickens and Weeks 2 and 3

Last week we read the second Christmas novel penned by Dickens:  The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New One In.  This is a beautiful ghost story, with echoes of his A Christmas Carol, with the themes of love and family and charity.  It's a particularly interesting read for those of us who don't see government programs for the poor as the solution -- Dickens would definitely be in our camp.  This is really a good read and the enjoyed it and understood the point!  Dickens' writing is so fun to read aloud.

We also learned more about the history of Christmas, with a particular emphasis on the Victorian/Dickensian celebrations.  We watched Christmas Unwrapped: The History of Christmas , which is an interesting DVD that describes the history of Christmas since pre-Christian days through to today.  This video includes descriptions of the major influences on current practices (especially important for our study:  Prince Albert's bringing the tree from Germany, Christmas Cards in Britain and Dickens' influence on "traditional" celebrations.) Note: this is a very secular look with only a nodding reference to Christ!

Another resource we used was the book, The Man Who Invented Christmas, by Les Standiford. I read the book for background information but then read-aloud the end of Chapter 14 and all of Chapter 15 which describes Dickens' influence on Victorian Christmas from food to decorations and activities.  The book quickly points out that Dickens was anti-organized religion so his books and writings don't include any reference to the theological side of Christmas but rather the spirit of the holidays -- charity and love for all.

The 28th chapter of Dickens' Pickwick Papers gives a wonderful description of the reveling of a wealthy folks over a Christmas weekend.  Pickwick and his friends jump right into the revelries with dancing and eating and drinking Christmas wishes at midnight!

This week we read the third Charles Dickens Christmas novel: The Cricket on the Hearth: A Fairy Tale of Home.  The Dickens version is NOT to be confused with "the original TV classic" done in 1967 and using the voices of Danny Thomas, Marlo Thomas and Roddy McDowall.  The video (which we borrowed from the library and wasted an hour watching) is also called "Cricket on the Hearth" but has very little to do with the original story.  If you can, get the book!

One thing we've been doing while I read these books to the children is having them working on Christmas crafts:  individual nativity sets (started on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, with our baby Jesus figures blessed at Mass on the 3rd Sunday of Advent -- I'll post pictures of the finished sets), ornaments and Christmas gifts for family and friends.  The crafting element has been a wonderfully fulfilling time for the kids this year -- I think  they're just the right ages to really enjoy the hand-work and their items are beautiful.

Next week we'll be reading The Battle of Life: A Love Story and finish Dickens' Christmas novels during Christmas week by reading The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain: A Fancy for Christmas Time.

Enjoy your last week of Advent!  We sure are having a wonderfully creative and active Advent ...

 

Unit Study: Dickensian Christmas!

So, we've started our Dickensian Christmas unit on the 1st Monday of Advent (11/27/10).  We started out by reading A Christmas Carol ... a classic that would help the kids get used to Dickens' sentence structure and language -- a stave a day meant that we finished the book (novella) in this first week.  Each day, we had copywork from that day's chapter and the kids also drew a picture to accompany the copywork.  I chose the copywork by how each one summarized the chapter:

• I have always thought of Christmas time … as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time … -- Stave I
• Mr. Scrooge it was … His partner lies upon the point of death, I hear; and there he sat alone. Quite alone in the world, I do believe. -- Stave II
• “They are Man’s,” said the Spirit, looking down upon them. “This boy is ignorance. This girl is want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy…” -- Stave III
• “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.  I will live in the Past, the Present and the Future.  The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me.  I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.” -- Stave IV
• He was at home in five minutes.  Nothing could be heartier.  His niece looked just the same… Wonderful party, wonderful games, wonderful unanimity, won-der-ful happiness! -- Stave V
We also watched an excellent A&E Biography on Charles Dickens.  This was a very well-done biography, covering his early life all the way through his "first break" and on to success and then despair and a sad old age.  We watched the dvd on Monday before we even started reading, making sure we would get the era and man set in our minds before beginning the reading.
 
To finish off the week, we watched the latest Disney version of A Christmas Carol -- this is animated (computer graphics) and is the closest I've seen to the actual Dickens' text.  It is quite scary in some of it's elements ... particularly the Ghost of Christmas Future -- but because it's computer graphics (rather than live action), the makers of the film could be much closer to the text.  For instance, this is the first film version that shows the Ghost of Christmas Past as a candle flame that extinguishes itself as it finishes its mission.  Excellent but definitely not for the under 8 set!
 
Next week, we will read the Christmas Party chapter in Pickwick Papers, read The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New One In.  We'll also discuss the aspects of a Victorian-era Christmas (a bit of history there) and why Dickens is considered the "father" of Victorian Christmas celebrations -- a case of being in the right place at the right time! We'll also start making some Victorian-style decorations and possibly a dish or two. 
 
Blessings and hope your first week of Advent ... whatever you're studying ... was as successful and enjoyable as ours!
  

Unit Study: Explorers and Exploring

I have been quite remiss in mentioning the unit on which we've been working. 

About six weeks ago, we were browsing a book store and I came across this awesome book:  How to be an Explorer: An Adventurer's Guide .  This is one of those really fun books that has pop-ups and letters and diary-entries and games all rolled into a book that is meant to be "an adventurer's guide" written by "Sir Henry Hardcastle" to teach kids how to explore.  "Written" in 1931, the book is a guide to explorations of the Thirties -- archaeological digs, Polar treks, jungle safaris and animal discoveries. 

My kids were so enthralled with this book ... I decided to do an explorer's unit with them.  A great way to tie together history, geography, map-reading, orienteering, nature study, survival skills and just plain fun all into one. 

So off we started ...

The how-to book breaks exploring into perfect unit sections:

1. tool kit -- which we'll make after Christmas using the wonderful haversack directions given in Alice Cantrell's Tin Cups and Tinder: A Catholic Boy's Little Book of Fire, Food and Fun.  We'll fill each haversack with binoculars (they'll each get a pair for Christmas ... shhh!), journal, sewing kit (also made from Cantrell's book), first aid kit, magnifying lens and other critical items (incl snacks of course!).
2. ideas for exploring and training -- we'll be armchair training by reading about explorers as well as watching great videos like:  Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Around the World in 80 Days, as well as watching the documentaries that Michael Palin has done:  Around the World in 80 Days, Pole to Pole, the New Europe, and others (for Netflix subcribers, the Palin vids are on instant queue!).  We're also reading Voyage of the Dawn Treader (getting ready for the release of the film in Dec) making maps of the islands as we go from C.S. Lewis' amazing descriptions!  This is what we've been studying for the last month or so ... reading and watching videos!
3. individual areas of exploring (we'll take about a two weeks on each of these):
1. sailing the seven seas -- KonTiki
2. beneath the sea (a great op for reading 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea )
3. jungle and rainforest
4. lost civilizations and archaeology (we've started on this a bit in history while reading All Ye Lands)
5. polar quest -- antarctic and artic (we'll watch the first and last segments of Palin's Pole to Pole again, watch Shackleton, and re-read Mr. Popper's Penguins )
6. desert adventures -- Lawrence of Arabia
7. mountains -- Heidi
8. finish with an overview of some famous explorers -- Lewis & Clark, Magellan, Captain Cook, and others

This breaks into such a wonderful long-term lesson plan for us.  We'll take a break for our Advent study (on Dickens and Victorian Christmas -- that will be the next post!) and be able to pick up right after the first of the year with exploring this amazing world God gave us!   As the weather improves in the Spring and Summer, we'll be explorers in our own part of the world .... adventuring into the mountains, down into the caverns (a field trip to Luray in April), out west in the Summer for a niece's wedding (a rode trip that is thru some amazing parts of God's ocuntry!),  and other wonderful areas around and about the Old Dominion.

Come along for the journey ... ok?
 

American History: Martha Dandridge Custis Washington

Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (1731-1802), lovingly nicknamed "Lady Washington" by George's troops, was a major force during the American Revolution.  This petite (only five-foot-even), Virginia-born lady brought cheer to her husband's troops FOUR(!) times during the Revolutionary War:

• Winter of 1775 -- Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Spring of 1776 -- New York
• Spring of 1777 -- Morristown, New Jersey (where she spent the time nursing George Washington back to health)
• Winter of 1778 -- Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

She would travel days (up to two weeks) to winter-camp with the American Army ... spending the 3-6 months darning socks, knitting new ones, mending clothes, and bringing light and joy to the dispirited boys.  Because of her presence, other officers' wives came to camp ... and she had them knitting and mending and darning right alongside her.

Martha Washington had her share of grief and sadness -- her first husband died when she was just 26; all of her children predeceased her as well as some of her grandchildren; George Washington, sacrificing for our fledgling country, was gone from Mount Vernon seven years with the Army and then just as he was home to retire, they asked him to become President.  Martha went right along with him.

String Bean did a presentation for her co-op class on Martha's role in the American Revolution.  In her research for this project, she found this quote (which String Bean made into bookmarks for her class):

String Bean also found a cookbook, Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery and Booke of Sweetmeats (edited by Karen Hess), and made Martha's Sugar Cakes (a shortbread-like cookie that is really delicious):

Sugar Cakes –
Take 2 pound of flower, & one pound of sugar, & ye youlks of 2 eggs, & a spoonfull of sack, & a spoonfull of rosewater, & make it up into a paste with melted butter. & roule it out pritty thin, & cut them with a beer glass, & put them on plates & set them in an oueun meanly hot ye stone downe.

Our translation (for half a batch of cookies):
2 cups unbleached flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 tbls vanilla or other flavoring, 3/4 cup melted butter, 1 egg, 1 tbsp milk. Mix together, chill for about an hour, then roll out thin; cut into circles (using a glass or biscuit cutter). Place on cookie sheet and place in a 375 oven till golden brown (about 10-15 minutes).

String Bean had such fun with this project, dressing like Martha chatting with the troops (her class) and knitting away on a pair of "socks for the boys".

Here are some of the books she used for researching this project:

• Martha Washington: First Lady of Liberty by Helen Bryan
• Martha Washington (On My Own Biography) by Candice F. Ransom
• First Ladies: A Profile of America's First Ladies from Michelle Obama to Martha Washington by Stacie VanderPol
• Martha Washington: An American Life by Patricia Brady (I read this one for background and since I'd gotten interested especially with the references toMartha knitting for the troops.  It is an EXCELLENT adult biography of our First Lady)

 

Unit Study: 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games

We'll be starting our unit on the Winter Olympics/Paralympics starting tomorrow with the Opening Ceremony in Vancouver.  Since the Olympics go from February 12-February 28, and the Paralympic Games go from March 12-March 21 ... we'll be quite busy immersing ourselves in the games: geography (where is each medalist's country or state, etc), math (charting the medals, graphing the times, estimating, etc), science of the Arctic region, snow  and climatology and meteorology of Vancouver area, history and culture of the Inuit, the Games, the medalists', story-writing and crafting, art studies and other things.

Here are a few of the resources we've compiled for our unit ... please feel free to comment if you have any others you've found ...

Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games' Unit Study Resources

Activities:

• "bobsled and luge runs" out in the yard (with time trials)
• choosing a county to root for during the Games -- incl a report at the end about the country and athletes with charts of the medals, results, etc.
• making our own igloo
• making our own Inuksuk using the book, The Inuksuk Book, but using cornstarch "clay" instead of rocks
• making our own soapstone (using bar soap) carvings using the book, The Art of the Far North, for ideas and examples.
• Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (Wii)
• this VERY cool project that pulls in art AND the olympics (HT: MaryM) from That Artist Woman

Books -- Winter Olympics:

• The Complete Book of the Winter Olympics: 2010 Edition by David Wallechinsky
• Freeze Frame: A Photographic History of the Winter Olympics by Sue Macy
• Frozen in Time: The Greatest Moments at the Winter Olympics by Bud Greenspan
• The Winter Olympics: An Insider's Guide to the Legends, the Lore and the Games by Ron C. Judd

Books -- Paralympics:

• Athlete First: A History of the Paralympic Movement by Steve Bailey
• Fighting for Gold: The Story of Canada's Sledge Hockey Paralympic Gold by Lorna Schultz Nicholson
• Paralympic Sports Events (Winter Olympic Sports) by Robin Johnson

Books -- Vancouver and Canadian Inuit Culture:

• Art of the Far North: Inuit Sculpture, Drawing and Printmaking by Carol Finley
• Let's Go to the Arctic: A Story and Activities about Arctic People and Animals by Charlotte Ford Mateer
• The Inuksuk Book by Mary Wallace
• The Inuit (True Books : American Indians)by Andrew Santella
• The Inuit of Canada by Danielle Corriveau

Internet Sites:

• A2Z Homeschool -- Winter Olympics Unit Study
• Amanda Bennett's Unit Study
• Canadian Olympic School -- Teacher's Resources
• Homeschool Share's FREE lapbook helps for Amanda Bennett's unit study
• Inuit Culture and Customs
• Inuit Ornaments -- detailed directions for making Inuit-based ornaments
• The Inuit Way: A Guide to the Inuit Culture (pdf booklet)
• Kaboose -- kids' craft, games and activities for the Winter Olympics
• KidsTurnCentral -- online resource listing
• Legends of the Inuit Peoples
• NBC Coverage of the Olympic Games
• Team USA: Olympic Facts and Figures
• Vancouver 2010 site
• Vancouver 2010 site: schedule and results
• Vancouver 2010 site: teacher resources
• Winter and Kids: Vancouver
• Winter Olympic 2010 Printables and Activities
• Winter Olympics for Kids (UK site)

Television:

• Modern Marvels: Winter Tech -- Thursday, Feb 11 2000(EST) History Channel
• Opening Ceremony -- Friday, Feb 12 1930(EST) NBC

Videos/DVDs:

• Arctic Tales
• Cool Runnings
• Eyewitness: Arctic and Antarctic
• Ice Worlds (Planet Earth)
• Miracle

We'll round out our school days with Lenten activities including as-often-as-possible-daily Mass and readings on Lent from the Saints.