February Books

The themes his month are two: 1) Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, 2) accomplished African Americans, and 3) Charles Darwin and Evolution

                                                                                                                           

We already started on this journey with a real journey. Our New Year's trip to Arkansas was the igniting factor. Since then we read the two Magic Tree House books about Abraham Lincoln and Abe Lincoln's hat. We are currently reading the Magic Tree House Civil War on Sunday. I have not read to the kids the Gettysburg address but I have told them why and when it was delivered and that it is the most famous speech delivered by Lincoln. We love Lincoln. We just need to visit his memorial in Washington DC.

We are also reading about George Washington Carver. This was again inspired by our trip in the south. I am very pleased because I am learning so much as well. I am fascinated by this man who has accomplished so much by sheer perseverance,  hard work, desire, and curiosity. We will also read about Elija McCoy, an African-American inventor whose inventions will be dear to sunlight boy's heart and soul.




We will talk about the essence of slavery and the underground railroad. It will be an interesting journey and I will be posting the pictures of the books along with comments as we encounter them.

The My First Biography book about Harriet Tubman ballet girl read on her own. It is a very easy read. She read it the day after we read together the Picture Book of Harriet Tubman. The picture book contains richer information and pictures, and can be the lead to good, thoughtful discussions. To me what was interesting was that this woman activist did not settle with freedom from slavery, she kept going long after the civil war had ended and entered the battle for equality for women. I was impressed. I have never heard of this woman. We are going to read next Sweet Clara's quilt about the ingenuity of a slave in making a lasting, reliable map for many to follow the path to freedom along the underground railroad.

Before we read about Harriet Tubman, we read about Henry. I didn't spend much time on 'what happened to his family' because what I wanted to emphasize is that he wanted to get out, not let go and give in and give up. To him, his escape was a rebirth. This is what it means to be free. I am sure this is how many of the hostages we hear about in the news these days feel once on home ground. If we read the book about Henry again, which I plan to do, just to reinforce the ideas, we are going to 'wonder' what happened to his family. It will allow us to flow into the next book I have planned-Now, let me fly. This particular book I think condenses many aspects of the slavery trade within a short and simple text-I want to see how my kids react, what their feelings are, what their questions are. A question that they have asked is 'why was slavery needed in the first place' and I think that I will be able to address this question from geographical(South America, Africa), historical(Portuguese explorers) and biological(climate, immunity, agriculture) and economics points of view. A question that I do want to address is why slavery eventually ended-why did the white folks from the north decide it's not such a good idea after all.

I wanted to emphasize that among the blacks there were progressive folks, even among runaway slaves. The story of Elijah McCoy is a great example. The Other Side is a great illustration of the absurdity of segregation. I did not use the word, I used the word separation, but I emphasized that the fence is a physical boundary to be feared, but there were other forms such as the bathrooms and the drinking fountains, and the trains, etc. What is weird is that I said: this is like the water and oil, they don't mix, there is a boundary of separation, similar to this one. Just as there is emulsifiers there are ways to integrate blacks and whites together. This is very abstract but we had just visited the science of emulsifiers that evening so I went on with the analogy.

We are going to read about Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King as well.

We are starting our journey in Evolution and Charles Darwin's trip by re-reading an old favorite about the Galapagos islands-One Cool Friend and others.

This book is great. It is not only the story of the Galapagos islands but also the story of the Hawaiian islands and any other volcanic islands. I absolutely love this picture book because most elements relevant to evolution are clearly depicted in the pictures and described within the text. Fabulous book!

We are going to read another book about the Galapagos islands which has a lot of illustrations and then we will move on to Charles Darwin and his journey, his observations and his conclusions. Then we will read the one book about evolution that I have wanted to read for quite a while to them which illustrates all the phases of extinction.



Related to his topic is geology. We are taking the fiction route to geology this time around. We started with the Magic Tree House Vacation under a volcano.

I do not like the Magic Tree House books. The text is very shallow and elementary even if they do contain some historically accurate information. However, my children find these books quite wonderful and accessible. I am pleased to read them but I will try to space them a little more in the future.

All About Spelling review: I thought out loud on my feed tonight whether it is best to learn one word at a time or through rules. I think rules are better for already English speakers because they have an arsenal of words to which they can apply the rules which are being taught. On the other hand, one word at a time makes complete sense for people who are growing a vocabulary one word at a time. By the time these foreign speakers have acquired large enough vocabulary they would have seen the patterns which are otherwise deliberately taught in schools. I was satisfied with my answer.