I recently wrote a post about homeschooling/unschooling and an example of how to go about it. I’ve been asked to share some additional examples and knew the perfect topic, based on a current favourite book of ours. “Alma and How She Got Her Name“, by Juana Martinez-Neal, was one of the books we gifted the girls this past Christmas, after reading it at the library. We came across it because, like Alma, they too have crazy long names. Each of the girls is named after a historical female figure who accomplished great things during their time. They are also named after their two grandmothers, four great-grandmothers, and a great-great-grandmother. Like I said, crazy long, but meaningful names, haha.
To summarize, Alma doesn’t like her long name. So her father explains each name and how it was an honour, as most of them were family members.
If your child is named after a family member, this is the perfect introduction to studying your family genealogy. Creating your own family tree would make a fantastic craft. And what a great way to keep the memory of family members alive! When telling the girls about their great-great-grandmother, I tell them how she survived through the Great Depression. How she enjoyed a soup I would make her which she would promptly water down to make it last longer. One of the many tricks she did to survive those hard times. In a few years, this will lead to studying the Great Depression and even the Dust Bowl (which would lead to agriculture, geographic characteristics, FSRC…). We’ll also study self-sufficient living, something we try to practice already, but would learn about more in-deepth.
Was your child named after a historical figure? What a great start to studying that person, the history during that time, other figures, and so on.
What about creating a timeline of memorable points in history, starting with the namesake and ending with current events. You may find a historical event that is so intriguing you end up spending a great deal of time on it to later come back to your timeline project.
Is your child not named after someone, but is rather the first of their name? No worries. Maybe your child already has a favourite historical figure or family member who received their name from someone. My husband thought he was named after a random uncle. Find out, that wasn’t true at all! He was actually named after his great-grandfather, who we learned was an absolutely amazing person. This book has encouraged us to tell the girls so much about their family, that we are learning about family members we never thought about before.
There are countless learning opportunities! Are you homeschooling/unschooling?
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