Part Fifty-one--HEROES: A RENDEZVOUS WITH DESTINY, part 5

SCISSORS BEAT PAPER

End of the War & Celebration

I found this during my study of World War II. Perfect!

Near the end of this school year Karen asked Autumn to share some insights about her homeschool experience at a California homeschool convention. Karen was teaching a class and asked Autumn some impromptu questions. Here are her responses which Karen organized: 

THE CONCEPTUAL IDEA

We studied World War Two, and the conceptual idea was that strategically placed people, like Patton and Winston Churchill and others in the HERO GENERATION were ready when the crisis came. If I prepare I will be ready for my crisis.

DRAWN INTO THE ADVENTURE

Even though I’m not a kid anymore, the kid-grabbing title is really important—HEROES: A RENDEZVOUS WITH DESTINY

--you can’t say anything is a little kid thing--IN EVERY SUBJECT IN LIFE YOU CAN GO DEEP

“ROSIE THE RIVETER” visited our school. That sparked my imagination. I saw her dressed up—I’ll never forget her. She gave us the surface facts in a memorable way—then after experiencing all that emotion around her I went on and studied the contribution of women in WWII in the Homefront.

You don’t start an adventure with a book! You start an adventure with an experience. This is real life and not somebody that is dead on a page. Now when I see a book on Winston Churchill, I pick it up. It’s exciting because I had an experience with it.

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 CLOSING DAY

The girls dressed in their forties attire with red lipstick for our closing day. 

I brought our soldier for part of the decoration.

We watched a video of the year that Carol Palmer made, and sang our school song.

All the mothers and students shared what we enjoyed best about the year. The mothers said that studying the heroes was the best part--it was life-changing. Each family presented mementos to every family to remember the year by. Some families shared poems, quotes, and flags for veterans’ graves for Memorial day the next week.  I gave a copy of my An Unsung Hero poem to each mother. Autumn and Giselle and I also gave each family a different WWII book we had bought used at the library.  

Alicia, My Story was my favorite book this year, and I bought one to give away.

Our special guest was Joe Culotta, Karen's father. He was the last WWII veteran we spoke with. We loved hearing his stories about flying with the navy. 

Joe Culotta

Who would have thought that we would find a WWII year so momentous and magical? This was a lovely closing day to a significant year of study.

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AFTER CLOSING DAY and MORE

FRENCH

I thought this year would be perfect for learning more French. Several years ago my kids put French words all over our home, identifying things like light switches, etc. I don't know where they put this word, but Autumn and Giselle labeled more things in French this year.

We also read Le Livre de Mormon as a family. Our usual family devotional schedule was to read through a book of scriptures at one chapter a day--Old Testament, New Testament, Doctrine and Covenants, or The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. But during the years we didn't read the Book of Mormon, then we read at least one column from The Book of Mormon in addition to our one chapter. We did this because our prophets asked us to read from it every day, and also because The Book of Mormon speaks more of Christ and testifies of Him more than any other book of scripture.

I had read Le Livre de Mormon a few times, and I had taught my children some French so that they had some pretty good accents. I had every expectation that we could read this together.

I don't remember exactly when we started reading Le Livre de Mormon. My recollection is that we started in August 2008, just before the year began. We told the girls what we planned to do and they were good sports about it. Our plan was to read one column a day. Each person--four of us--would read one verse aloud in the French and then translate it, and I would generally read any extra verses. I helped everyone translate their verse. I was really asking a lot of them, but I didn't think that at the time. We skipped all the Isaiah chapters because I couldn't understand them completely.

At first it was a little difficult for the girls, but after awhile it was just like learning to read English--they remembered some of the more common words, and they got things from context. A few months into our reading they could comprehend and translate about 80-90 percent of a verse. That was remarkable to me!

JOURNALS

Halfway through the year I knew I would need another journal of discovery. Teri Helms gave me one with a title page she had already written inside an extra book. What a treasure!

These are some of the trinkets added to our journals. The Ally and Axis flags from a school family, our dog tags, and lots of pennies pressed in machines at WWII museums. We drilled holes in them, and they were perfect to help us remember our field trips. 

A FAREWELL TO ARMS

Goodbye to another school year

General George S. Patton Fr. 1 Jan 1945 to the officers and men of the 3rd Army:

I can find no fitter expression for my feelings than to apply to you the immortal words spoken by General Scott at Chapultepec... 'You have been baptized in fire and blood and have come out steel. 

Part of my journal entry Tuesday, June 9, 2009:

It's time to say goodbye to another school year. I always feel melancholy at this time of year because we will never experience this year again. I never thought I would enjoy studying war so much. I think it's because I was studying courage and perseverance. It has been a great experience for me, my children, and our school group.  

Today we will go through all the things that we’ve had on the walls for school, and the girls will choose which things they want to keep for their binders, like timeline pieces.

Our timeline in 4 parallel rows: Europe, Pacific, Home Front, and Parallels to our day. 

Other decorations on our school room/dining room wall--The insignia of the four branches of the military, (material found at a fabric store), and a map that the girls filled in.

I took down our life-size soldier who has been an ever-present sentinel guarding our dining room for the past nine months. It’s going to feel bare around here. 

Today I’m saying a farewell to arms--farewell to WWII and the hero generation. I’ll finish typing up, filing, throwing away, and then putting another curriculum binder on my growing shelf of school year binders. The girls will put theirs on their growing shelf of school year binders. Sometime in the future they will pull out their Hero Generation binder and talk about how they enjoyed learning about something. They’ll stop and read a paper they wrote. They’ll read an article they collected or a map they drew. They’ll remark about an especially important field trip or inquiry. As they turn the pages I mostly hope they’ll remember the courage and what it takes to be a true hero.

HEROES: A RENDEZVOUS WITH DESTINY

“There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations, much is given, of other generations, much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.”  FDR 1936