I've gone off on a wild-goose chase, homeschooling rabbit trail... again!
This time, I've "persuaded" 5 other families to join me in my "adventure". We have started an American Girl Club - we'll be reading the American Girl books in chronological order, doing crafts and cooking projects, and sneaking in a good bit of American History all the while!
A total of 6 families with an amazing - 12 girls (ages 6-11), 9 boys (ages 9-14 - they are calling themselves the "MCA - Masculine Club of Awesomeness" - what else?!), and 9 "littles" (the under 5 crowd) are all meeting twice a month for this wild adventure.
For our first meeting, we started with Kaya - the Nez Perce Indian girl from 1754. I led our discussion (with 2 mom helpers), another Mom helped the MCA organize their book discussion (we made a deal - 1 hour of mom-directed activity, 1 hour of contact sports and wild boy activity), and 2 other moms dove into the world of play-doh and diapers... Can I just say, creating a schedule/syllabus for this adventure used every bit of my mathematical ability (sorry kids, you'll have to do your math on your own!)
Anyway, we created "Talking Sticks" and "Listening Feathers" - and had a lively discussion of the symbolism of each item used - i.e. bear claws = strength, feathers=peace, truth, colors to represent each character trait desired. The talking sticks are also a way to show respect - as in only the person holding the talking stick may talk! Listening feathers are a companion to the talking stick, and the owner can use them to show the person that they want to respond to questions with. The girls loved it, and it was a great way to set the tone...
Next, I talked about Indian names and how they are given, what they mean, etc. And I presented each girl with a new Indian Name written on a feather. They each made an Indian necklace that included their new name. I got this idea here
Our last topic was - of course, Horses! We discussed how indian girls/women would decorate their horses and the symbols they used. We ran out of time, but each girl went home with a horse cutout to decorate for next time (I got those from Oriental Trading).
All in all, it was a success! My girls haven't stopped asking when the next meeting will be!
Here's some pictures of the projects:
That's IT! I'm moving back to Conway! Can't believe we are missing out on this. You are way too cool, Renita!
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