Miss A's First Essay...

The language arts curriculum ( Good and Beautiful ) we're using is big on writing.  Which I love, and Miss A HATES!  With a passion.  So when this essay came up, we took it very slowly.  We read one page of the article one day, then the next, then did part of the worksheet that helps outline how you can write the essay by listing your two most important ideas from the article.  Anyway, it took us about a week to work up to it, and then yesterday we stalemated on the second paragraph.  She was freaking out because it was impossibly hard.  I was being very calm, I hope, but still thinking, "What is the big deal?  Just write!"  We talked about the scripture that says great things come from doing little steps.  I wrote an example essay, having her read me the instructions from the curriculum while I did it.

I told her all she had to do was write the second paragraph.  (She wrote the intro a few days ago.)  Finally she gritted her teeth, grabbed her clip board, and disappeared.  She surprised me by appearing later with the entire essay completed.

I told B about it last night, and he totally empathizes, because he also hates to write and always has.  But, as I told him, with her, we have a chance to head that hatred off at an early age, and I think that's worth attempting.

Quote From Ken Burns...

"The history we know, the stories we tell ourselves...allow us to live beyond our fleeting lifespans, and permit us to value and love and distinguish what is important."

Sandinavia Unit: Poetry...

This one is going to be a bit more challenging.  When I did my basic google search, after much wading, I came up with this, from The Song of the Valkyries, by Darra Tharlioth:

Is this web woven and wound of entrails,
and heavy weighted with heads of slain;
are blood-bespattered spears the treadles,
iron-bound the beams, the battens,7 arrows:
let us weave with our swords this web of victory!

I don't think I want my small children memorizing this?

But then I found THE Finnish epic poem, the Kalevala.  It's long.  I skimmed through and found some lines that I really like.  Here they are:

Well will you get there, prettily you'll tread:
Over moon, under sun, and through the stars of hope.
One day's flight a-winging, to the brows of the moon.
Thence a second a-swimming, to the shoulders of the Great Bear,
The third even higher a-rising, to the back of the seven stars;
From there it's only a short trip, the tiniest tidbit,
To reach the holy God, to the dwellings of the blessed.

Isn't that pretty?  Go Finland.

Here is Miss A's:

And here is Miss M's.

Poppies and Patriotism...

Someone sought out my husband after church the day before memorial day to start an argument about the evils of patriotism.  I was so hurt and offended by this encounter that I really wanted to do something to start the girls knowing the cost of our freedoms.  Since it was Memorial Day, I thought we would do a poppy project.  My dad, himself an Army veteran who suffered a lifelong injury while serving in Germany, always bought the little red poppies from the veterans who sold them on Veterans' Day.  I thought this would be a good Sunday activity to connect with his memory and talk about these things.
We used this project, which I found on pinterest of course.
http://happyhooligans.ca/painted-coffee-filter-poppy-craft/
It was easy and fun.
First I reviewed on our timeline when the three wars we usually talk about; the Revolution, the Civil War, and WW2, happened (I've never liked WW1 very much- I think it's extra depressing....  And, to be fair, we have lived in a WW2 battlefield, Guam, and now live in Virginia, which was a Revolution and Civil War battlefield, so WW1 has always seemed more remote.).  So I briefly went over the nature of the war, showed them some pictures from wikipedia about trench warfare, then we read the poem, also from wikipedia, In Flanders Fields.  We read the end of this article from the Museum of American History, and we listened to some music from the Library of Congress, which is a wonderful resource!  I will definitely be using it more.  My Sweetheart is Somewhere in France. We looked at some pictures of corn poppies, and I told them about my dad always buying them to remember the soldiers who had died.  Then we made our poppies.

They turned out very prettily, and they look great standing in a jar on our counter.  And a couple weeks later when we went to Williamsburg, the girls recognized the poppies growing there and remembered our lesson!