It has been like Christmas around here with books coming in for 5th grade. I have a number of books that are for History extensions, like Build a Tee-Pee village and Build a Pueblo Village, 3D movable maps, and other things that she can either build and display (egad, am I nuts! The child will never get rid of anything and where am I going to put a paperboard pueblo!!) or that we can adapt to notebooking pages. They look fun! I am still working on pulling together the genealogy stuff I want to tie in to her history course. I wish Ancestry had a way to sort by military page, but even after I suggested it and told them why, they haven't done it. Even to be able to sort by year would help! At least the famous ones will be easy, I can pull their info by name, but it is the not so famous ones that I think are more important. These people from your family lived here at this time, what do you think their life was like? How do you think they survived when they were captured and marched off to Canada in an Indian raid? (That one will include a field trip--the town is not that far away) Why do you think they became Mormon and left their families behind to travel west? Your (insert relation) died in the battle of the Crater at Petersburg, he had 3 cousins in the same army but not in that battle, how do you think they handled his death? How long do you think it was before they found out? I have learned that the more personal, and the more hands on I make things for her, the better she learns and remembers.
Her first two Life of Fred books came in today! Fractions has 32 lessons, Decimals and Percentages has 33. There is no reason she can't finish the two of them before Christmas, and then we can start Pre-Algebra with Biology in January. I think the style of these books is really going to appeal to her. Everything is tied into real uses in Fred's life. It is silly in the way she is silly with lots of wild and weird descriptions, tie ins to things that a normal person would never think about--I certainly didn't think of Shakespeare and Euripides being quoted in an elementary math book, let alone tied into fractions!
I have been printing and laminating and setting up notebooks and generally going anal in getting organized, but after jumping into the deep end last January with no prep, I am hoping that being prepared will ease things a bit. It is going to be a roller-coaster of a year!
A paperboard pueblo would be a great conversation starter if you used it for your Thanksgiving centerpiece. Just sayin'. :)
ReplyDeleteI have ancestors who survived an Indian raid in Greenfield, MA and I think my husband has ones who were held captive (he's the genealogist in our house). We both have branches of the family here in New England all the way back to the Mayflower. We're starting American history this year--thanks for the idea to work in some family history!
My husbands family was in MA as early as 1630, and the indian raid that some of them survived was in Deerfield, MA. That is in the line connected to the Mathers. My scots-irish western PA farmer roots get intimidated by all his famous people :)
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