Friday, November 15, 2013

Who is Who?

atheist parenting homeschool skeptical freethinking humanist parenting how to homeschool
QUICK! 
What do Attila the Hun, Jane Goodall, Voltaire, Mahatma Gandhi, and Andy Warhol have in common?

Australian pop stars? 
NO!
Do you give up?

For the past several weeks we have added a really fun piece to our homeschooling lesson days.  Each lesson day I choose three people in history for us to learn about.  A person of ancient times, a middle times person, and a contemporary person.  Each of the people on the list are people we have learned about!

The kids are both loving this process of learning about people in history.  It is astonishing how often it happens that a person comes up in conversation, on TV, in life after you have learned about them. Just after learning about Andy Warhol, he was mentioned in a conversation with another person.  The kids looked at each other in astonishment and started laughing!  They became the Andy Warhol authorities on the day.

My choices come from my own research, reading or conversations that the kids have had, the news, and just through living life.  Each kid has their own notebook in which they write their own "summary" of each person.  They include the name, dates, and a brief summary and key words.  Elizabeth announced the other day, Mom!  I know that this is just another lesson in note taking!  

Of course not! That is just another bonus.
Both Elizabeth and John have enjoyed the biographies tremendously and I enjoy learning right along with them.  And Elizabeth, my writer and author, has decided to use the Egyptian heiroglyph for scribe as her own personal symbol...with her own added spark, of course!

Hieroglyph for SCRIBE
Added to the content, we are also learning the process of vetting sources, determining what is important about a particular person, famous or infamous, and what quotes or phrases are important to have a good understanding of that person, their world, and how they have meaning in today's world. 

We are enjoying learning about mainstream people as well as people who are less-well-known.  If you have some suggestions for biographies for us, let me know!

In the meantime, don't be surprised when my kids just happens to dominate the conversation on Hypatia of Alexandria with their knowledge and, even better, with their enthusiasm!



Welcome to all Filipino readers!
My sincerest hope is that your home is in peace and tranquility.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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4 comments:

  1. I read a biography of Marie Curie with my son, and it was interesting for both of us. She did some amazing things.

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  2. This is a wonderful idea. I always loved doing things like this when homeschooling my kids. :)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Karen.
      The BONUS is that the kids are loving it so much as well. I never get tired of learning about interesting and infamous people!

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