It's not quite what you think: exploring Native American life

The boys squat in a woven wigwam.  senk 2013

I looked at the paper-and-stapler-based strategy More Than Moccasins: A Kid's Activity Guide To Traditional North American Indian Life by Laurie Carlson (1994:13-14) suggested for a wigwam and frowned. "Surely we can do a little better than that," I thought. So, we donned boots and sleeved-shirts and headed to the harvested corn rows in our garden. Then, together, we bent, tied, and wove corn stalks, Johnson grass, small okra stalks, large gourd leaves, and clumps of grasses to fabricate a wigwam, which the boys could play in rather than just hold.

Bugs swarmed, dust stuck to our sweaty arms, and our hands, hair, and faces were browned from dirt and crumbled fronds. It was mid-morning and the sun was just about the get hot. If Joey had been in a public school, the teacher would likely have chosen the simpler paper-and-stapler-based craft, which would have been constructed at his table and in air-conditioning while surrounded by tons of other friendly and happy Kindergarteners. But, in our homeschool setting, we mucked outside and created something life-sized that two brothers could enjoy for days. And, we needed a shower.

The Virginia History SOLs for Kindergarten includes knowledge of Indians - more specifically, Powhatan and Pocahontas. But, our family lives in the Shenandoah Valley, not along the coast, where colonists would have met Powhatan Native Americans. Here, Souian-speaking Native Americans inhabited. I want Joey to learn about Native Americans, but I want him to learn about those that lived where we are - or at least as close to where we are as we can get - in addition to other tribes that inhabited the areas coinciding to the United States of America. But, how do we do that when there was so little written about them?

I've pieced together a curriculum from what I can find. It's non-traditional and pulls from myriad resources: books to a living village to Internet sources. I try to pull together activities and learning that are as closely connected to what might have been going on in this area as possible. Of course, the Shenandoah Valley was prized foremost for its rich hunting grounds, which even yielded elk at one time. But, in the surrounding areas what would life have been like in a small village? Although my list of resources is by no means complete, it gives a springboard that may be helpful to other families looking for resources on Native Americans (beyond those encountered by the early settlers).

"Journey to 10,000 B.C." - Paleo-Indians were the first place to start after we briefly covered the history of the Earth (which will be revisited over and over). Russell actually found some fascinating videos on the history of the earth (one a time-lapse video; another an addictive music video). While there is so much more for Joey to learn about the Clovis culture, we have just started exploring information that will be helpful in his understanding of this culture. We're fortunate to live near the Thunderbird Archaeological Site in Warren County, which is a wealth of information - but, now to figure out how to tap into it.

A majority of our focus, though, has been on Native American groups more contemporary with the first European settlers. There are a variety of books I'm consulting. Some provide a broad conceptual idea of Native Americans in Northern America, such as Villages of the Algonquian, Siouan, and Caddoan Tribes West of the Mississippi by David Bushnell (1922:43-44), The Siouan Tribes of the East by James Mooney (1894), and a plethora of Archaeology books. Indian America: A Geography of North American Indians by Marian Ney (1977:4-5, 48-49) provides a a geographic distribution of North American Indians and, to my joy, of the Indian confederations of Virginia (including Manahoac, which was likely nearest the Shenandoah Valley). Other resources have provided activity ideas, such as More Than Moccasins, which I mentioned earlier, and History Pockets: Native Americans (which correlates to state and common core state standards). Yet other books have given a voice to Native Americans for our family: a huge handful of children's books surrounding legends, American Indian Myths and Legends edited by Richard Erdoes & Alfonso Ortiz, and Great Speeches by Native Americans edited by Bob Blaisdell.

Monacan Village at Natural Bridge.  senk 2013

Other useful resources have been on-line or in-person. That is, we visited the Monacan Village living museum at Natural Bridge in Rockbridge County, VA. The Monacan Indian Nation provides a good resource for historical and contemporary information on the Monacans, who constituted a second of the three confederations of Virginia (yes, you've probably guessed the third already: Powhatan). Virginia Tribes from Manahoac to Tutelo is an on-line resource with basic information on Virginian tribes.

With all that I pulled together, Joey and Ezra have been able to engage their senses as we explore the culture and history of Native Americans. They've worn clothing indicative of cultural attire. They've snacked on corn popped and drizzled with maple syrup, sun-dried raisins, and roasted sunflower seeds. We fabricated a wigwam in our yard. We've listened to stories and music indicative of Native American life. We've toured a Monacan village and made Native American games from shells, pottery, and sticks. And we continue to explore these fascinating lifestyles. Throughout the entire process, we've all learned that authenticity (or as close as we can make it) enhances learning.

There is so much to learn and so much richness in exploring Amerindian cultures. So, instead of just talking about Powhatan and Pocahontas, dare to explore more of what Indian America was (and is) like. Please feel free to add a comment about other resources you have found to be useful in studying Native American culture, history, and life.

Try, try again...

From Noah to Descartes to Newton, rainbows have fascinated people for years. And no less do they fascinate Joey and Ezra. During our prior-to-school's-start brainstorming sessions, when the boys revealed some of the topics they wanted to cover during their school exploration times (like volcanoes and bugs), the rainbow was second on the list. But, how do you cover such a complex topic of physics with such young children?

Recently, a line from Walter Lewin's For the Love of Physics has been resonating in my mind. He says, "What counts, I found, is not what you cover, but what you uncover" (2011:2). He continues, "Uncovering the laws of physics and making them see through the equations,... demonstrates the process of discovery, with all its newness and excitement..." His observations apply to any subject at hand. It's the passion, the discovery, and the applicable meaning that we harbor in our hearts during learning. And for young children, that means hands-on and up-close.

Obviously, I employ manipulatives in my teaching. The more experiments and activities (beyond worksheets and the ordinary), the better. But, any scientist-at-heart will tell you that experiments and trial-and-error go hand-in-hand. So, in order to cover rainbows, I turned to some great books* with experiments on light, prisms, and refraction. Some of these were major failures (yes, homeschoolers have those), but that's where the best parts of learning come in: perseverance and creativity. We worked together to brainstorm ways to make our experiments work and tried again, and even again. That's where the successes occurred (yes, homeschoolers have those, too).

Joey w/ his snap circuit color wheel.  senk 2013

We began our exploration on how rainbows are made with bending light. I wanted Joey to see how light bends, because that's how it happens inside a raindrop. So, we followed Science Lab: The Ultimate Science Pack and completed "Laboratory 6: Which Way Does Light Go?" This experiment worked really well and Joey had a splendid time using multiple mirrors and using his imagination to explore bending light. The next obvious step was to experiment with a prism and allow sunlight to create a spectrum on the floor, on the wall, on our hands. The boys were delighted to look for spectrums and Joey wanted to draw one. So, I introduced him to Roy G Biv, that scintillating character many of us learned about in Art Class. We combined paints so Joey could see how secondary colors were created from primary colors (here, I'm referring to the pigment-based primaries: red, blue, and yellow; and yes, we also explored the primary colors of light - red, blue, and green - too); and, we talked about Newton and explored Newton's color wheel. It took three attempts before we finally got the colors to vanish into the all-inclusive white, indicative of sunlight.

A closer view of his set-up.  senk 2013

With "Laboratory 5: Vanishing Colors" of Science Lab, we focused on the concept of white light being a combination of many different colors. But, this experiment was based on creating a top that would spin to blur the spectrum into white. While it's good in theory, in actuality, we could not spin the top fast enough for white to result. So, I spearheaded another experiment from The Optics Book: Fun Experiments with Light, Vision & Color by Levine & Johnstone (1998). The idea was to create a Rainbow Wheel that twisted on string between your fingers. Another good idea in theory, but we just couldn't twist the wheel fast enough to see white from the spectrum. So, what could we do? Then, the Eureka moment came: Joey's snap circuit set! Using the red rotating wheel, Joey set up a circuit that would allow the rotator to turn really fast. I taped our color wheel to the rotator; Joey placed it just right; then, he flipped the switch. The rotating wheel was spinning so quickly we easily saw a spectrum of color zip into white light. How dazzling!

Of course, Joey was thrilled and so excited. And, while I was thrilled the experiment finally worked, I was more excited that Joey saw how (even over the course of a few days) it pays to persevere. I know there are going to be moments of frustration, exhaustion, and confusion in homeschooling; however, I also know that we never have those feelings without their opposites. So, let's toss a little courage into the mix and see what happens.

* Examples of books we read or used for these lessons (nota bene: this is just a sample; there are other competent resources - this is by no means an exhaustive list):

Arvetis, Chris & Carole Palmer, "What Is a Rainbow?" A Just Ask Book. 1983.

Barton, Chris. The Day-Glo Brothers: The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer's Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors. Watertown: Charlesbridge, 2009.

Burnie, David, "Light." Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Books. 1992, pp. 28-33.

Carle, Eric. Hello, Red Fox. 2001.

Levine, Shar & Leslie Johnstone. The Optics Book: Fun Experiments with Light, Vision & Color. New York: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc, 1998.

Lewin, Walter. For the Love of Physics: From the End of the Rainbow to the Edge of Time - A Journey Through the Wonders of Physics. New York: Free Press, 2011.

Science Universe Series, 1984."Sight, Light and Color," pp. 18-19, 26-27, 34-35, 47.

Stewart, Melissa. Why Do We See Rainbows? New York: Marshall Cavendish, 2009.