Three steps forward ...
Just in case, I start thinking I'm the best homeschool teacher in the whole world (NOT, but here's where we are) ... here's some humble pie, and a laugh.
This year we're studying Early American history. Our style is using a timeline as our guidepost - the kids color it at some point in each unit - Leif Erikson (vikings), Christopher Columbus, Pocahontas, and on it has gone. I grab from a ton of resources available on the internet, library and, of course, great literature. We stalled a bit with the pilgrims and have been enjoying colonial life for a while before rushing headlong into the war. But it's time to move on to the Boston Massacre, Boston Tea Party and Paul Revere. Yesterday we read about Crispus Attucks.
To review today, I asked Lydia who was "the first to defy, first to die" in the Revolutionary War.
She did not know.
I prompted her a little ... Cris....
Christopher Columbus, she replied eagerly.
Oh great. I really am a failure. This clearly is not working.
So we did a quick review of the explorer. She couldn't remember anything. Not Queen Isabella or King Ferdinand. Not Spain. Not even "in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue."
But saving grace, finally, she uttered ... "the Santa Maria?"
YES. YES. Anything else?
The .... ni ... na. And the pin ... ta????
Wew.
(picture is from our boat race in the back yard last Columbus Day)
Posted in: on Thursday, March 01, 2007 at at 5:30 PM
