CALIFORNIA CAMPFIRES 1991-1992
The things we let the kids do during this school year remind me of a conversation Captain Von Trapp has with his governess in The Sound of Music:
Captain: Do you mean to tell me that my children have been roaming about Salzburg dressed up in nothing but some old drapes?!
Maria: (affirming) Umm, hmm, and having a marvelous time.
Captain: They have uniforms.
Maria: Straitjackets, if you'll forgive me...Children cannot do all the things they're supposed to do if they have to worry about spoiling their precious clothes.
Maria: (affirming) Umm, hmm, and having a marvelous time.
Captain: They have uniforms.
Maria: Straitjackets, if you'll forgive me...Children cannot do all the things they're supposed to do if they have to worry about spoiling their precious clothes.
My sentiments exactly!
This year the kids ran around like wild Indians and had a marvelous time.
We schooled again with Katie and her kids. Since Indian children ran around in the buff, Katie came up with the inquiry to run outside naked for a few seconds. She told her kids that they could do it just to see what it felt like. Their family lived pretty much in the middle of nowhere, so a few of her kids tried that inquiry! I don't remember if any of ours did, except Hal wore just a loin cloth around the house at times!
When we began this school year Amber was 9, Jasmyn was 7, Hal was 4 ½ , and Chase was 1 ½.
Theme
Katie and I chose to do a year on California history because our two oldest girls were at the age when public schools normally teach state history, and we thought it would be a good continuation of history from the colonial year.
The year was centered on three peoples/eras of California history: the Indians, the Spanish, and the American pioneers. The idea was to gather at a campfire at the beginning of each component. We began with a brain week introduction, and completed just the first two components.
California Campfires components:
- Tomahawks and Totem Poles
- Ten Little Indian
- Prickly Cactus
- Teepee Talk
- Painted Faces
Hacienda Haven
- Conquistadores Calientes
- Sand Castles
- Viva la Vida
- Parador del Padres
California or Bust
- Trappers and Traders
- Poppies and Pinecones
- Claim to Fame
- Boom Town
- California, Here I Come!
- Grizzly Government
Karen drew the campfire for us and I drew the rest.
I sewed Indian costumes for Amber, Jasmyn, Hal, Chase and myself. These were so easy because the material didn’t need hemmed or finished in any way—we just sewed seams and cut fringe. Amber and Jasmyn and I also put some beads and decoration on our dresses.
Karen's home--a visitor shared her expertise of Indian musical instruments:
Indians meet the Renaissance--at Karen's home:
Over the years I've done some crazy things to help my children learn and grow. There are not many things that would have induced me to run after a snake and catch it barehanded, but I was passionate about my children’s education.
We lived in Hesperia at the time, and one early morning as I was driving home after dropping Hal off at work, I saw a snake slither across the road. I quickly pulled the truck over, and ran after the snake, following it up the dirt embankment. Just before the snake disappeared out of sight down a hole, I reached in, grabbed the snake by the tail, yanked it out and held it gingerly. I was shaking all over, but I had caught a snake for my kids to study! It was a little snake, and it didn't have rattles, so I figured it was okay.
I called a young man in our ward, (the one who had impersonated the quiet Thomas Jefferson a few months before), and came over to teach us about snakes. He said we should buy crickets to feed the snake, and he brought an aquarium which became our snake’s home for the next month or so before we let him go.
Year Story and Song
Though we didn't have a formal rationale, we did have an overarching year theme story. Lokai, an Indian maiden, lived in a star and kept watch over a righteous people who were led to a beautiful land. Lokai watched over the people who came to California, which was also a blessed land. (Katie got this legend from the Lokai LDS girls’ camp in Southern California.)
Opening Night
Our wonderful opening night began at the Sinclair's home. The children, all dressed as Indians, were introduced to our visitor. Lokai came down from her star and told us her story. She told us that she would be watching us all year long. She also taught us our school song. It is short and sung a cappella, and was perfect for our year.
Lokai, Lokai. I see Lokai
As she sails through the sky in her star.
Lokai
Indian Princess, Lokai (me), with Chase and Hal
Lokai visited our school and gave each child a Lokai star bead, which they could wear around their necks. Afterwards we went outside in the dark to a campfire. We all roasted our food over the fire using sticks. We marinated meat strips, bread dough wrapped around the stick, and apples. We shoved entire apples on the end of the sticks and when they were roasted we rolled them in cinnamon sugar.
It was a simple, magical night. It was worlds apart from our proper teas with colonial visitors, and a fabulous change. This is something I loved about our successive school years--each was distinctly different from the one before.
Lokai visited us two more times that year--at the end of the Indian component, and at the end of the year. The kids didn’t want her to leave.
Key Points
In those days, we wrote curriculum by hand and made copies for each other. There's something extra simple about writing key points by hand--you don't get an overload of information this way--
Key Points
In those days, we wrote curriculum by hand and made copies for each other. There's something extra simple about writing key points by hand--you don't get an overload of information this way--
When Katie’s family was in charge of key points, we would gather at her house and vice versa. Each week our children decided whether to wear costumes.
Visitors
Most of our visitors were the children who came dressed up and shared the key points each week to our little group. They were the best visitors!
Amber taught us about Indian musical instruments:
We made Indian musical shakers out of yucca plants:
Anna, Amber, Hal, Jasmyn, and Jonathan with sand paintings
Little Bear Hal taught us about Indian games
Indian games usually taught important life skills:
The Spanish in California
We introduced the our second component by sharing the Spanish legend of the supposed island of California. I was Queen Calafia, the fictional queen of that island. I wrapped a sheet around myself and threw on a few shell necklaces, and carried an ocean shell. I told the children my story and let them listen to the ocean also. I really didn’t do much of anything, but the kids were captivated.
Then Katie was Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza, and led the children on a hunt for gold in our backyard, where we also did inquiries.
Holding up their inquiries and treasure:
Later, Jasmyn reenacted our treasure hunt--"I claim this land for Spain!"
The explorer/conquistador, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, visitor, is my repurposed Halloween scarecrow. I dressed him up and held him up, and told his story for him. The kids were entranced! They even shook his hand. This just shows that anyone or anything could be a visitor!
Our Cabrillo key point mind map:
Hal came as Sir Francis Drake and sang I Am The Monarch of The Sea, from Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore
Two year old Chase wanted to be like his big brother, of course!
Inquiries, etc.
We walked in the desert and learned about the native plants and animals.
Amber eating cactus:
We caught lizards and a toad. We made tortillas and ate Mexican food. We made adobe bricks, and a model of a mission. I learned that the big, brown horse-dropping-looking things under our Joshua tree were erally seed pods!
Making adobe by stomping mud and straw together:
School is the Game of Life
After school, our children played school. They loved the adventure of the year and continued to live it throughout the day.
Rock Day
One day I put together impromptu key points and inquiries all about rocks. It was perfect for our Indian component.
One day I put together impromptu key points and inquiries all about rocks. It was perfect for our Indian component.
We sang, O Thou Rock of Our Salvation, and talked about how our Savior is the Rock we should build our lives upon.
We read the book, Everybody Needs a Rock, and then searched for our own perfect rock to carry in our pockets. I taught the children the three kinds of rock—metamorphic, sedimentary, and igneous--with the hand motions to remember each one.
After reading the book, Rock Soup, we found the perfect metamorphic rock to make our own Rock Soup for lunch.
One of the great things about having a year-long theme is having a framework to place our learning. Learning about rocks was not in our curriculum, but it was spontaneous and fit, and was a memorable day for us.
Field Trips
We only went on two group field trips. The brain function, exposure, is important, but when children are so young, the exposure doesn’t have to be far-away, big, or expensive. Katie and I didn’t have internet or travel books. But looking back at all this, it was much less stress to just create the magic at our homes with the ‘wooden sword and the feathered cap’ so to speak. An ‘inkling of that and they’re yours,’ is especially true when children are young.
We traveled to Karen's home where a visitor shared Indian musical instruments:
California Campfire Indians meet Raiders of the Renaissance Minds:
We went to the Mojave River Valley Museum, in Barstow as a group. To me, Barstow was so very far away. I wasn’t used to driving all over Southern California and it did seem a long distance away, even though it was only 30 minutes away.
While visiting Uncle Bret we went to Sutter’s Fort. This visit wasn’t that memorable to my children because we hadn’t studied the pioneer aspect of California. It would have been much more exciting if we had. This just shows that ‘covering material’ as Susan Kovalik points out, is practically a waste of time. Just visiting Sutter’s Fort, without key points before or afterward was not as productive. But we went there with Uncle Bret’s family on the spur of the moment, and that was a good enough reason to go.
A year later, after the San Diego temple open house, I took the kids to the Cabrillo monument. It meant so much to more to have learned about him before our visit.
At the end of our school year our family took a day trip to the Santa Barbara Mission. I had grown up in California but had never visited a mission, so this was new for me as well. Before our trip Amber and Jasmyn made the proverbial model of a mission.
Jasmyn helps create the model of the Santa Barbara Mission:
Amber and Jasmyn made everything from scratch, even the roof tiles were made the same way the Indians made mission tiles, by putting strips of rolled out clay onto logs. For our model we used dowels instead of logs:
Santa Barbara Mission:
In the mission chapel, Jasmyn pulled down the little kneeling bench and pretended to pray. She probably really did pray, but never had done so in such an auspicious way. This began a lifelong Bradley obsession with Catholic chapels and cathedrals.
After visiting the mission we went to Summerland Beach, and then ate dinner at the Big Yellow House. This visit began the Summerland Beach and Big Yellow House Bradley tradition as well, though we never did visit Santa Barbara mission again.
Closing Day
Our closing day was a Mexican fiesta, including a piñata. Lokai also returned to help us say goodbye to a wonderful school year. 
Sadly, this was our last year schooling with the Sinclair family. But the two years working with Katie and her family formed a wonderful foundation for our homeschool. I had unlearned what I thought school/learning looked like. I understood how my children really learned, and I wanted to continue learning and growing with my children. We were excited to continue!
No comments:
Post a Comment