"'Education is the Science of Relations'; that is, that a child has natural relations with a vast number of things and thoughts: so we train him upon physical exercises, nature lore, handicrafts, science and art, and upon many living books, for we know that our business is not to teach him all about anything, but to help him to make valid as many as may be of––
'Those first-born affinities,
That fit our new existence to existing things.'"

Charlotte Mason, A Philosophy of Education
with a quote from The Prelude by William Wordsworth

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Westward Expansion: Corps of Discovery


The first topic in Westward Expansion is the Lewis and Clark Expedition, or the Corps of Discovery. Here are the books I have found for the boys to read, and a few comments about them.





Of Courage Undaunted by James Daugherty is a classic. The Captain's Dog by Roland Smith is an interesting selection I have not read, told through the eyes of Clark's dog, Seaman. Seaman's Journal by Patti Eubank has the same premise only it is a short picture book. How We Crossed the West by Rosalyn Schanzer is done in the style of a D'Aulaire or a Holling, so I chose it for a read aloud. I have several books in the In Their Own Words series, which intersperses primary source journal entries in with the rest of the non-fiction text.



















Below I put three "spines" that I found very helpful. Lewis and Clark for Kids is one in a series of books that chronicles topics and has a dozen or more activities to enrich them. The other two books are both what I call "timeline books," meaning the table of contents gives a timeline of events and each short chapter details those event. These and others in the two series will be very helpful this year.





Addendum...I forgot to list some of the web resources I found!
Online gamesWe also have The Lewis and Clark Adventure Game that has lots of information on the board, as well as the National Geographic movie.

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