Normally I think it’s best to study something and then take the field trip. But when a chance to tour a museum presents itself, I certainly wouldn’t turn it down because we hadn’t reached that part in our curriculum. Actually, for the Civil Rights topic, I think that having our visit to the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN was better before our book study.
Books We Used (mainly the first three)
- If You Lived at the Time of Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Don’t Know Much About American History
- Lift the Flap Timelines — American History (notice the yellow timeline below)
- Childhood of Famous Americans series — Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Amazing African American History
- Children’s Encyclopedia of American History
Sprite remembered the main gist of many of the exhibits. So as we read our living books, she already had some understanding of the events. Then she used the postcards I bought at the museum as the meat of her notebooking pages.
Of course, we had to watch the inspiring “I Have a Dream” speech by MLK, Jr. during the 1964 March on Washington. Then I gave her both the printed text and a notetaking guide to analyze the speech a bit.
For more language arts tie ins, I assigned Sprite The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963 (downloaded to her new Kindle 2, but my DX is pictured here) and this proofreading page with a MKL, Jr. theme.
Other notable links:
- Montgomery Bus Boycott Graphic
- MLK, Jr. Full Color Poster
- MLK, Jr. notebooking pages
- Free MLK, Jr. lapbook
You might not suspect it, but Sprite was able to relate in some ways to the prejudice described during the times of segregation. Living as minorities in a racially homogeneous nation does present some unique challenges. We can never blend in no matter how fluent we are in language or culture. We are forever the “foreigners.” But she was quick to point out that we rarely face overtly negative treatment. Our worst treatment is merely unfair prices or rude gawking and name calling. But the whole concept of being treated differently because of your race is something she really understands (and dislikes intensely).
I love Sprite’s notebook pages ~ her minibooks and notes look so diverse and interesting!
As South Africans, we too carry the shame, pain and guilt of our history of segregation.
We’ll move on to American history next and I’m grateful for your links and resources.
Hi Jimmie! Looks like a great study on Martin Luther King Jr!! I have always been a little partial to him in history since I was actually born on his birthday! Unfortunately they made it a national holiday and a day off of school the year AFTER I graduated high school – bummer! – Deedee
Oh! and congrats on getting the kindles!! Dh got me one for Christmas and I just love it! It is so great to carry so many books with me when we go out and not have so much weight to lug around. Only problem is that alot of my ebooks are very small print so they are a little challenging to read on it sometimes. – Deedee
Wonderful! Sprite always does the greatest notebook pages. I am glad you all had such a great time in the states.
Blessings,
What an awesome notebook–she did a great job on it! We are looking forward to reading The Watson Go to Birmingham this year, too.
Thanks for all the great ideas and links!
Love Sprite’s minibooks. Thanks for sharing about never blending in as foreigners…in the future, there is a good chance that we will be overseas and won’t blend in well, either…
We are just going to venture into doing some more advanced work this year, as Big Bro is 6…just love your blog, as it gives me so many awesome ideas of what is possible for our future.
Have an award for you at my blog:
http://sunriselearninglab.blogspot.com/2010/07/cool-awards-for-some-cool-bloggers.html
Thanks for all that you do to give inspiration to still fairly new homeschool families!
🙂 Colleen