Part Thirty-four--A Magic Carpet Ride to Lands of Enchantment 2005-2006 part 1
IDEA
For several years I thought about using Scheherazade's and the Thousand and One Nights story of Aladdin's magic carpet as an umbrella idea to learn about the world. We would fly on the magic carpet to visit and learn about various countries.
After our American Girl school year I talked with our school group ladies about this idea, and they were excited about it. I met together with some of the ladies to put together the year and write the school year song. I shared some impressive words from Will Durrant's Story of Civilization, Book One: Our Oriental Heritage about why we should study Persia, India, China and Japan. (I originally hadn't planned to study Japan until I read his words).
The year has four components. We begin with Scheherazade and her Middle Eastern tales. Then begin with Persia and fly east.
- Persia is called The Land of the Nobles in some sources I read.
- India is The Land of Bengal Spice, from the Celestial Seasoning's herbal tea. Bengal Tigers and spice -- that sounded like India to me.
- China is known as The Middle Kingdom.
- Japan is known as The Land of the Rising Sun.
Karen Kindrick Cox drew our year mind map while visiting our writing day. I loved it!
I always like writing and using a curriculum that has a structure similar to this, where the topics are the same in each component. This makes it orderly and facilitates learning. Each component is divided into these same four topics:
- Geography
- Culture
- Contributions
- History
YEAR OUTLINE WITH KID-GRABBER TITLES
A Magic Carpet Ride to Lands of Enchantment
(Persia) Land of Arabian Nights
(Geography) Desert Oasis
(Culture) Open Sesame
(Contributions) Camel Caravans
(History) Wise Men from the East
(India) Land of Bengal Spice
(Geography) Kowabunga Kanchenjunga
(Culture) Yogurt to Yoga
(Contributions) Come One, Come All to the Taj Mahal
(History) Super-Calloused, Fragile-Mystic, Hexed by Halitosis
(China) Land of the Middle Kingdom
(Geography) The Silk Route
(Culture) Yin Yang
(Contributions) Dynamite Dragons
(History) Dynasties by the Dozen
(Japan) Land of the Rising Sun
(Geography) Many Roads to the Top of Mount Fuji
(Culture) Moshi, Moshi
(Contributions) Wax On, Wax Off
(History) No Gun Shoguns
SCHOOL YEAR RATIONALE
We will travel on a magic carpet, like the one Aladdin used, to see and learn of oriental countries of the world. We’ll begin in the land of the Arabian Nights—Persia and Arabia, then travel to India, China, and Japan. We will learn their geography, history, culture and contributions.
EXPANDED RATIONALE (why should my children study this?):
To see how blessed they are to live in the land of promise. For one year they have learned about America, and now they are ready to learn about people outside their country, or at least their culture.
To understand that even though they are part of blessed Israel and of the chosen generation, the Lord knows and loves all His children, who are our spirit brothers and sisters. “Know ye not that there are more nations than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea...and I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth?” (2 Ne. 29:7, also see Acts 10:34-35)
To understand that the Lord gives truth to all nations: “...I remember one nation like unto another. Wherefore, I speak the same words unto one nation like unto another…For I command all men, both in the east and in the west, and in the north, and in the south, and in the islands of the sea, that they shall write the words which I speak unto them; for out of the books which shall be written I will judge the world, every man according to their works, according to the that which is written. ...I shall also speak unto all nations of the earth and they shall write it. ” (2 Ne. 29:8,11,12)
To understand the obligation, under the Abrahamic Covenant, to share the gospel with all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, and that we must understand them if we are to share with them. “Teach ye diligently...of things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms—that ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again…” (D&C 88:78-80) “...it is my will that you should...obtain a knowledge of history, and of countries, and of kingdoms, of the laws of God and man, and all this for the salvation of Zion. Amen.” (D&C 93:53)
To see how blessed we are to understand the concepts of freedom and inalienable rights. We will have the opportunity to discuss the differences between our culture and others because of the many of the stories and traditions that are completely foreign. Instead of condemning the customs of others or dismissing them as foolish, we can compare and contrast them to our own, and strive to understand the Eastern or Oriental Mind.
One major thing I changed this year was all the secrecy surrounding the school year theme. During other school years, Karen and I kept the school year theme a secret so that we could do a big reveal on opening day. But my girls helped choose the American Girl year, and we still had a fabulous opening day they loved, and they were very surprised about most of it.
I wanted to work on this curriculum in the open and still have a fabulous opening day. So I decided to do a soft reveal of the theme in June. Several families met together where I shared the idea of the year. I burned incense, put a scarf around my head, and played some Persian, Indian, Chinese and Japanese music while I showed the students a large map of the world and told them about what we would be learning. This took about 10 minutes. Then I made Indian mango lassi drinks for everyone. It was a hit! My kids were excited!
Lastly, we went on a little field trip to a lady's home. Someone in our group met this Indian lady at a fabric store. I don't know how this came about, but she invited us to her home to learn about Indian saris, and how to wear them. She showed us about 20 beautiful saris, all folded and kept pristine in special plastic bags. Then she pulled them all out and explained some of the patterns and how they are worn. She dressed up one girl in the traditional manner, and let everyone else try on her saris. She was so generous to us.
Autumn Heather and Giselle were so inspired by our opening day that they went home and dressed up as Disney's Mulan. Autumn put the outfit together, and after her photo shoot she helped dress up Giselle. Fortunately I had lots of material and other costumes for them to use.
We have our opening day at home before meeting with the group. I usually give the children binders and tabs and paper, journals of discovery and art supplies. This day I burned incense, played some exotic music and revealed the mind map. Usually I have it already painted or colored, but this day I colored the big map while they colored the smaller ones for their binders.
Along with Journals of Discovery we each received a scripture journal—The Journal of Discovery of the Only True and Living God. I realized that while my girls learned about exotic religions, I wanted them to be grounded in the gospel of Jesus Christ, the only True and Living God. I put this cover on the front of a little notebook from the dollar store. Inside was a reduced size of The Living Christ, a note to them about Jesus Christ, and some ideas about how to gain greater faith in Christ through reading His word in scripture. These were our scripture journals for the year.
The girls love putting their Journals of Discovery together.
Here are a few of Autumn Heather's journal.
It's fun to put a mini version of the theme mind map in our journals.
We learned and sang our school song. Even today, I cry every time I hear or sing this song which we adapted from Disney's A Whole New World:
Let's discover the world
Shing, shimmering, splendid
Persia, India, China To the islands of Japan
We will open our eyes Traveling wonder by wonder
Over, sideways and under on a magic carpet ride
A whole new world A new fantastic point of view
With all new friends to meet and foods to eat
To give us understanding
A whole new world A dazzling place we never knew
But when we're way up here it's crystal clear
That Heavenly Father loves these children too
Unbelievable sights Indescribable feeling
Soaring tumbling, freewheeling
Through an endless diamond sky
A whole new world A hundred thousand things to see
We're like a shooting star We've come so far
We can't go back to where we used to be
A whole new world with new horizons to pursue
We'll chase them everywhere No time to spare
We'll see this whole wide world anew
A whole new world That's where we'll be
A thrilling chase A wondrous place
For you and me
I always like to have things graphically thematic. It adds to the fun and impact.
Karen drew this frame. Each girl received a copy of the song, and a copy of their school blessings which were in this frame also.
Our group opening day was an opening afternoon/evening. During our morning school time I brought out scarves and skirts, and gave the girls some gold coin ribbon I found at the fabric store. We dressed up in Thousand and One Nights-type outfits for a Middle Eastern feast.
When we arrived at the event the girls went off to learn belly dancing,
and later that evening performed a dance for us.
We ate under tents like this. The moms put everything together and it was fabulous!
The headdress under my scarf was borrowed from our friends who traveled to Turkey. They always seemed to travel to and bring back things from the countries we studied in school.
Scherazade showed up during dessert to share her story. The children were entranced. When she finished telling the tale of her thousand and one nights, we got group photos.
and then she gave the students their journals of discovery,
and signed them for them.
Three men in headdresses came at the end of the night and shared some info with us.
It was truly a magnificent, memorable, and magical night!
Autumn's journal of discovery:
PERSIA
The day after our opening day we started learning about Middle Eastern geography. I handed my 10 and 12 year-old daughters outline maps of the Middle East and they excitedly filled in the names of the cities and countries.
I could have told them, “Kids, this year for school we’re going to learn about the
geography, culture, contributions and history of Persia, India, China and Japan." But instead
I invited them to the adventure with incense, costumes, belly dancing, and eating on rugs under canopy tents. This was a powerful, sensory-rich experience so enticing that the next day when the maps came out, they were ready to learn more.
Two days later our family took a little field trip to Ala' al Deen's Middle Eastern restaurant. The restaurant’s name is the proper Arabic phonetic spelling of Aladdin. It was fun to have Jasmyn and Chase with us. We ate falafel, baba ganoush, hummus, shish kebabs and baklava.
Our first group field trip was to Folk Music Center in Claremont, California. The students learned about the science of music, and the docents played several oriental musical instruments.
Autumn's journal of discovery:
Symbria and others set up some great field trips for us, including the Holy Land Exhibit.
Autumn's journal of discovery:
One evening during Ramadan we attended a mosque! Someone contacted this mosque and asked if we could come. The Muslims invited us to attend a service and stay for their big meal at the end. When we got there the women and men split up. The women could only watch the services from closed circuit television. When all the prayers were over we put our shoes back on and the women got the buffet dinner ready. It was all so exotic, and the food was good, and the people were so friendly. They wanted us to return.
INDIA
This was our first field trip to Little India in Artesia, but it was far from our last. India became the Bradley girls' absolute favorite country to study this year and beyond! Through the years we have been to Little India many times since then.
Autumn's journal of discovery:
Our family visited this Krishna temple in Spanish Fork, Utah. It was pretty new when we visited, but this is what the grounds look like today:
The girls wore their saris and posed at various places on and around the temple.
What is this doing in a little Utah town? It felt like we were in what we imagined India to be like.
We went inside the temple and ate a vegetarian lunch at the little café. Then the proprietor gave us a tour. I see why they feed people--at the temple they have to make food all day long to feed the gods anyway, so they might as well make enough food to sell to others.
We had never seen anything like this before--all the dolls dressed up like gods with plates of food set before them. And a life-size Dali Lama mannequin. It was crazy amazing!
Later our school group visited at another style of Hindu temple in Malibu, California.
We attended a short presentation by a Hindu monk.
I don't remember how we fell in love with so many Bollywood movies, but we did! Bollywood, or Hindi cinema are long, fun movies with lavish costumes and really cool Hindi music! During our trips to Little India we bought a few that we liked. These are my two absolute favorite Bollywood films:
In Bollywood movies the girls dress in costumes that show their midriffs,but there is never a swear word or even as much as a kiss on screen.
After this school year we watched several Bollywood movies. They're still a favorite!
A few years later Autumn Heather chose India when she was a youth leader in our stake A Whole New World girls camp. I was a stake leader that year and used most of Karen's mind map for our camp theme. It was fun to see Autumn Heather use some of the things she learned with her girls, including Giselle who was in her cabin.
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