Part Forty-seven--HEROES: A RENDEZVOUS WITH DESTINY, part 1

HEROES: A RENDEZVOUS WITH DESTINY

At Europe’s moment of greatest peril a generation of young men and women faced a daunting challenge—the fate of the world lay in their hands. (Ken Burns, World War II)

This is a picture layout of the year.

Our year consisted of 1 small component--

AN ARMY OF ONE   Hero Generation         

3 major components -- European Theater, Pacific Theater, and Home Front:

THEIR FINEST HOUR  European Theater          

• NEVER GIVE IN  History/setting           
• NUMBER THE STARS  Government/Rights   
• SOLDIERS WITHOUT GUNS    Power of the Word    

UNCOMMON VALOR  Pacific Theater          

• DAY OF INFAMY  History/setting            
• BANZAI!    Government/Rights     
• CODE TALKERS    Power of the Word    

ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY  Home Front         

• WAR MACHINE: CIVVIES TO KHAKIS   History/setting               
• A NECESSARY WAR     Government/Rights       
• WE INTERRUPT THIS BROADCAST   Power of the Word   

and a little component at the end

SCISSORS BEATS PAPER Celebration 

Karen drew this mind map for us. The 'z' was left off 'rendezvous', but everything else was so beautiful, no one caught it until much later. 

OUR YEAR RATIONAL:  

HEROES: A RENDEZVOUS WITH DESTINY EPIC ADVENTURE is designed to draw students into the times of the World War II conflict in the European & Pacific theaters of war and the Home Front; show them their place in the cycles of history as the current Hero Generation and why their role is vital to weathering the challenges of the Fourth Turning Crisis. They will come face to face with real heroes and be inspired to valiantly, courageously, and victoriously meet their rendezvous with destiny.

OPENING DAY AT HOME

Each student was sent a World War II era draft notice. The internet is amazing for helping me find things and tweak them!

The prospective cadets were to report to the local draft board to determine their ability to serve. This would be our opening night. 

We did all the usual things: colored the year mind map; put together binders; and bask in the excitement of the day while I read some thematic literature. They didn't receive a few things, like journals of discovery, as those were handed out at our opening night. 

Our thematic frame, patterned after the U.S. Army design, was ubiquitous this year. 

While the girls colored mind maps and put their binders together I read several chapters of Rumors of War from the Children of the Promise series by Dean Hughes. I read the entire series to them this year. It was a great way to introduce many of the major events of World War II through the eyes of a family, including majors events in Europe, the Pacific, and at home.

The girls wore their dad's Air Force shirts and hats. I hung this flag up to celebrate our opening day.

I also made this life-size soldier who stood sentinel in our dining room the entire year.

The girls each received one of these and a set of shiny star stickers. Every time they did an inquiry they could add a star to topic to move up in rank all the way to General of the Army!

OPENING NIGHT

Hal was with us, but he was filming the entire time. I was the MC.

Eleven families started out the year with us. The students/cadets were divided into platoons and did some team building activities first since there were so many new families. Then they rotated through these stations:

STATIONS:

1  --  Given rank and serial number, picture taken for ID card.

2  --  Fingerprinted

3  --  Given physical—take height, weight, blood pressure

4  --  Rations provisioned

5  --  Issue dog tags

6  --   Issue ID cards

7  --  Issue Regulation uniform --  HERO insignia tee shirts (and time to change)

8  --  Issue Journals of Discovery 

9  --  Issue Hero Handbooks  

Cadets getting their journals stamped.

Giselle reads her Hero Handbook

They also received this handbook compiled by another mother. It contained information about military organization, rank insignia, key points about military time, customs, mottos, standards of conduct, basic skills, etc. We used it off and on during the year.

I don't remember the name of this card with fingerprints and vital information.

The mothers created our own tee shirts for uniforms this year. I drew this insignia, patterned after other military branches, and another mother had all the tee shirts made. This is a great benefit to working with a large group of dedicated moms--a division of labor, and so many amazing things contributed to bless everyone. Our values: Duty, Honor, Virtue. Our motto: In Deo Speramus (In God is our hope).

One mother made all the journals--7"x7" square paper cut and spiral bound with camouflage material jackets sewn and added to the covers, with the year and date added. Whew!

Later at home I gave the girls some of Hal's Air Force patches. This is the inside cover of Autumn's journal. The blue pin is the insignia of her great uncle who was killed during WWII. It was a great treasure that I happened to find in my grandmother's jewelry box this year. 

At one of the stations the cadets received a stamp in their journals:

Hero Generation: A Rendezvous with Destiny

Everyone received two dog tags--one to wear and one for their journal of discovery. 

Again, another mother ordered all these personalized tags. Amazing!

Autumn was so glad to have more teenagers join in our year.

The cadets were given ration boxes with great key points inside. 

When the cadets completed their rotations they were all sworn in as a group by repeating 

The American's Creed. 

I believe in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, for the people; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed, a democracy in a republic, a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes.

I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it, to support its Constitution, to obey its laws, to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies.

–Written 1917, accepted by the United States House of Representatives on April 3, 1918.

Afterwards six women performed our school song, complete with an army stomp routine. Later at home Autumn and Giselle learned the stomp routine, and Autumn kept saying that this was the most awesome school song ever!

Our annotated song with scriptures and quotes.

HEROES OF WAR by David Robidoux

Our school year song music was a Monday Night NFL theme. It was perfect!

Our visitor that night was Deena's WWII veteran father. He shared a wonderful introduction to the war. At the end he handed out small momentos: photos of him before and after his boot camp. What a difference!

Moms left to right-- 

Kathy Morris, Teri Helms, Bridey Church, Karen Kindrick, Debbie Record, Julie Sears, Autumn Hatch, Carol Palmer, Jeanne Bradley, Deena Ortiz, Cherylynn Klemens, Suzanne Manutai.

This was a super opening evening unlike anything we had ever done before. The girls were really excited for the year!

Part Forty-six--Etiwanda Jones and the Quest for Quetzalcoatl, part 6

BOOK OF MORMON MARATHON AND CLOSING DAYS

We did this marathon before school was finished, but I want to put it at the end here.

Several years before, Karen drew this Book of Mormon reading chart for me.

I made a poster-size black and white one for us to fill in together.

We did this for girls camp one year--every cabin reading a section and filling it in, in a week.

Our children were excited to do this. Hal wanted to join us if he could bring a date, 

and Chase wanted to join us too.

This was a big undertaking, especially for younger kids. I had done two marathons like this for Young Womens, but never for school. We read The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ in just 22 hours. After the first hour our schedule was: 

read for 70 minutes with a 5 minute break in between.

We went around the room with each person reading a chapter, making sure the younger, slower readers could read the shorter chapters.

The moms brought lots of snack, and we let the kids fill plates and eat while we read. We had real meals too. We had pizza brought to us and donuts early in the morning. 

Giselle and the younger children liked coloring the big poster chart, and coloring in a reading square in every time we finished a chapter.

Most everyone colored their own charts too. It kept us alert.

The older kids usually stayed in their places.

There was a lot of sketching and taking notes. 

Some of my journal of discovery pages. 

I tallied all the chapters I read aloud. I just saw that I read Jacob 5!

I began writing some of the significant phrases that spoke to me.

My drawing...

copied from Minerva Teichert, my third cousin.

In the wee early morning hours, all of us had a hard time staying awake, but the group kept reading.

The morning light helped us wake up again. (You can see that our room was covered in Book of Mormon paintings, the reading schedule, and the Book of Mormon timeline.

When we finished we all knew we had done something significant. Some mentioned that they were glad to see the entire, sweeping story of the Book of Mormon all at once. Yes!

CLOSING DAY

Early in 2008, Carol, who was in charge of closing day, asked me what I was hoping for that day. I told her I wanted a Mayan or Aztec pyramid, and she did it! She got 78 dryer boxes and painted them. 

 I came over early in the morning and helped put the pyramid together. The fiercest winds were blowing day. It was so crazy. The pyramid is a little wonky because we had to tie everything down. The first thing we did was take photos with our visitor, Etiwanda Jones, before the pyramid blew over. It never did.

Then we went inside where everyone shared some of their favorite parts of the year. We also passed out little farewell gifts for each person. We sang our school song together one last time. It was so fun to see everyone singing it from memory. I always get choked up when we sing our school song for the last time of the year.

Before this day our children had received a last telegram from EJ giving them a clue to the last treasure they would excavate this year. In the shadow of the pyramid they dug it up.

They found the most important treasure---the gold plates, the liahona, two seer stones, and the sword of Laban. We talked about the truths inside the gold plates, testifying of Christ, being the most important treasure.

 I made these plates. I wanted them to be super heavy, since the plates were supposed to be around 40 lbs or so. I asked Joan Hulihan what she thought I should put in the sealed portion. She said pennies are heavy. She gave me about $20 in pennies to put inside.

We ended closing day by having one last Latin American feast, and we watched a slide show of the year by Carol. This was a fun and exciting day.
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POST CLOSING DAYS

A new Indiana Jones movie just happened to come out at the end of our school year. How does that happen? I'm not sure, but something like this always happens. It was a disappointment but it was thematic!

Then we went to eat at the Mayan Adventure restaurant. This restaurant is no longer extant. 

It was like a mini Mayan Disneyland. 

The entire restaurant was like going into the Mayan world.

There were fire dancers...

cliff divers going into a river with a waterfall... 

and an animatronic talking toucan.

It was a fun way to end our time in ancient Latin America.

At the end of our trip we went to the Temple Square Visitors Center where we saw Mormon abridging the records.

This was a wonderful year where we excavated three great civilizations, and the reality of Jesus in the pages in  the Book of Mormon. I couldn't ask for a better year.