Pappa

You might recall that I write about my Pappa in this space sometimes. Since my kiddos were born, one of my favorite activities of going home to Arkansas has always been watching the relationship between Pappa and these great-granddaughters of his grow. 

Pappa died yesterday, peacefully and at home, just as he'd wanted. 

Although I was his grandchild, he raised me as a daughter, so that I didn't have to know what it was like to not have a father in my life. He renovated the entire house so that I could have my own bedroom. He made me a fried egg sandwich for breakfast every morning, and when I was to be gone overnight, he'd make one for me to take with me. He drove me to school every day, but stayed home when I competed in the county spelling bee, because watching me in person made him too nervous. He taught me how to bake biscuits, how to change the oil in my car, how to drive, and how to fish, and when my own daughters came along, even though he was even older and even more tired by then, he baked them biscuits and taught them how to fish, too. When I was a kid, he didn't like me to ask him questions about the war that he'd fought in, but just this summer he let Will and Syd interview him about it, on camera, just to indulge the lot of us.

Pappa was 96, and we all knew that this moment was coming. Nevertheless, I have recently discovered that I still need him desperately, and I can't quite imagine how my life is meant to look without him now.

Cool Math Games: Winter Edition

You might remember that I like to supplement the children's math curriculum weekly with cool math games or projects or activities. Some work well at any time of the year, of course (Syd and I still play Multiplication Touch regularly--even after you've got the facts memorized, it's still fun!), but there are some that are especially fun when done seasonally. Here are some good winter math games!

3D paper evergreen. This is a geometry, STEM, and fine-motor skills project that makes magic out of a single sheet of paper. The tutorial includes a printable that makes the cutting easy, but you could turn it into more of a challenge by simply giving verbal instructions. When I was a kid, a project very similar to this was given to me with the instructions merely to "make a hole in a single piece of paper large enough to fit your entire body through."

Want to know how to do that one? Get your scissors and figure it out!

bean mosaic. Since it's winter, I'm imagining that you've got loads of dried beans on hand. Kids can play with pattern-making and symmetry while they make their own mosaics using the wonderful variety of sizes and colors of dried beans out there, and then you can cook them up for dinner and they can taste all those varieties, too.

build-your-own calendar. The time before New Year is a great time to get kids thinking about how months and years work, and therefore a great time to have them build their own calendar for next year!

Christmas-themed printable mazes. These aren't super challenging, but they give kids who can't stop thinking about Christmas something engaging to do on a car ride or before the big feast.

Christmas-themed online games. These aren't hands-on, of course, but if you had a Christmas like mine, and you and your kids spent a lot of time visiting relatives in hospital rooms or nursing homes, then some easy and festive online games are handy to have in your toolbox.

circular perpetual calendar. This is a different kind of calendar to make that focuses less on the mathematical progression of days and months, and more on the circular progression of the months and the seasons.

DIY dominoes. Plaster of Paris isn't so messy that you can't do it indoors, and yet it's still a good, gloopy sensory experience for the kid who loves to make a mess. You can make these plaster of Paris dominoes look traditional, but kids would also love to create dominoes with other symbols or patterns or imaginative beasts--and then they can create their own games, too!

embroidered Christmas cards: The kids and I embroidered Christmas cards this year, but I was actually the only one who made these mathematical ones, mostly because I wanted to test that they worked before asking the kids to try them.

Verdict: They work!!! They are super fun, pretty simple, good practice measuring, and the patterns that they make are magical. They're a little fiddly, though, with the embroidery floss and needle, etc., so I'm considering setting the same activity up on a pegboard, or with nails, to let the kids try it out on a larger scale.

Fibonacci art project. Here's another really cool number concept for kids to explore through process-based play.

homemade Hex. I love that you can make every single component of this game, from the game board (Sharpie on cardboard) to the pieces (paint and clay).

m&m wreath. The kids made this one year when Syd was a preschooler, and it was super cute. If you've got a little one, it's great for one-to-one correspondence and fine-motor skills. If you want to discourage excessive munching, have the kids use white glue to glue the m&ms to the wreath.

number Scrabble. This game is a fun DIY version of Scrabble. Grab an old Scrabble game from a thrift store, and rig it up for this.

prime numbers game. Kids who have just discovered prime numbers will enjoy exploring them in more depth with this game.

printable hexi cards. Ugh, the weather today! We might go bowling later, or to the indoor pool at the Y, but we're certainly not playing outside! These hexi cards or other similar pattern-making cards make something new and different to pull out for the kids on a miserable winter day.

printable mazes. I LOVE these sets of printable mazes. I've been using them with the kids since they were wee, and because there are several levels of difficulty, we're still using them!

rounding practice snowball fight. Use up the backsides of previously used paper for this game, which I think could also be easily adapted to practice different concepts.

Tenzi. Scrounge up the necessary dice from your other board games for this fast-paced game.

toilet paper tube snowflakes. You can't find a better demonstration of rotational symmetry than in snowflake crafting! These toilet paper tube snowflakes are a cheap craft, since the material comes from your recycling bin, AND you can leave them up all winter, since snowflakes are festive even after Christmas. Add more to the project by painting the snowflakes, adding glitter, hanging them with fishing line from the ceiling, or even making them into a mobile.

Or, if your kids are as obsessed with Perler beads as mine currently are, make your snowflakes out of Perler beads, instead!

window stars. Winter is when I always want to make window stars! They require instruction following, pattern-making, and fine-motor skills, and the finished product always displays something beautiful and geometrically fascinating

There are basic window stars, and plenty to play with as far as size and color with just that one template, but for the adventurous crafter, there are tons of more sophisticated window star patterns out there.

winter-themed pattern block templates. Pattern blocks are always fun to play with! My kids use them for pattern-making and problem-solving, but it's also fun to follow patterns using templates like these. To make the activity more challenging, trace out only the overall outline of each shape, and have the kid try to figure out how to make each one, as well.

woven snowflakes or stars. This craft is especially on point for any kid learning or practicing skip counting, since that's what you need to make these stars, and in fact this circular skip counting method is used to teach multiplication in the Waldorf method--Waldorf loves its pretty patterns! Regardless, the patterns that you make are so interesting that anybody will love this project, and you can easily add more intricacy to it, change up the craftsmanship by using more colors, etc.

Anything strike your fancy as a fun winter project? I'm a mean mom making my kids continue their regular math curriculum this week (AND spelling, AND Book of the Day, AND their newspaper project), but we'll also be setting aside plenty of time for sneaky math, too.

Window stars? Definitely Perler bead snowflakes!

The Kid is Too Cool for Santa

It's not like I didn't have my suspicions that this could happen.

That's why, on the eve of our trip to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis to visit Santa there, I told the kid, "Listen. If you don't want to visit Santa, then just tell me now, and you can go to the library instead of the museum with us tomorrow. But if you do come to the museum with us, then I want you to promise me that you'll visit Santa and let me take your picture. It is VERY important to me."

"I promise," said the kid.

"I mean it," I said. "You really have to do it if you promise."

"Ugh, Mom, I PROMISE!" said the kid.

And so off we all went to the Children's Museum the next morning, the kid throwing me attitude the whole way--"WHY do I have to brush my hair?!? Ugh, what if I WANT to wear shorts--so what?!? I can't believe you want me to load the entire dishwasher right now!!!!". Insert all the sighs and eye-rolls, as well. The boneless flopping of a body simply too exhausted to do as you wish. The inability to find shoes. The refusal to eat breakfast. A hundred more acts of tweeny attitude--just insert them all right here.

At the museum, itself, it was still nothing but tween 'tude the whole time. Just one year ago, this ten-year-old kid was happily ice-fishing in the Jolly Days exhibit; this year, she wouldn't even wear her elf ears! I took my requisite Kid Wearing Elf Ears photo with Syd alone:

My requisite Person Imitating Giant Statuary photo? Again, just this kid:

But none of that, none of it, could compare to literal pain that I felt in my heart when, as we stood in line to visit Santa, that kid said, "Ugh, do I really have to do this?"

No, I told her. No, of course you don't have to:

I kind of wish I'd made her. I kind of wish that I'd gambled on the possibility that she'd get her game face on and do it anyway if I just reminded her of her promise. But this kid is never one to gamble on with that--sure, she might get her game face on and I'd get my cute picture and she'd get another year of Santa memories, but it's at least as likely that she'd throw a huge sulk, refuse to sit down with Santa, glare icy daggers at me, and ruin Syd's time, as well. 

So I picked the plan that, although it wasn't satisfactory, at least kept the peace and kept Syd's fun intact. I played in the museum with Syd all day and ignored the bad attitude of the visibly disgruntled tween too-cool-for-schooling it at her side. 

And, while Syd drew dinosaur teeth fossils and Will sulked, I told all my troubles to my secret boyfriend, Dracorex Hogwartsis:

 

Isn't he handsome?

Fortunately, this other kid of mine had a wonderful enough time for the both of them:

The other kid boarded the carousel under her own power, but certainly wouldn't go so far as to grace it with a smile.

Ha! Caught her having fun when she didn't realize that I could see her!

And fortunately, it turned out that there is one Children's Museum holiday tradition that even a tween can't resist.

Indoor snowball fight!!!

The big kid acted like she wasn't going to participate, hanging back as Syd and the other kids eagerly listened to the referee and got their instructions, but as soon as the first round began, in she dove, pulled in like a magnet to the fun:

In the middle of this video, something happened that I really enjoyed watching. Both kids are happily engaged in their snowball fight, when over comes another random kid who takes issue with the legality of Will's participation, as she is neither "Argh"ing nor roaring as she throws snowballs, even though this round is Pirates vs. Dinosaurs and you're supposed to "Argh" or roar. Will listens to him, a little sheepish, suddenly recalled by his protest to the ridiculous frivolity of what she's doing. But before she can come to herself completely and abandon the game, bop!--Syd hits the kid with a snowball, Will laughs, and together they turn away from the still-protesting kid and continue to pitch snowballs.

This is life with kids. They grow up. One year you celebrate the fact that they still love to play and pretend and tell their desires to Santa, and the next year, the very next year, you watch them, heart aching, as they look with disdain at those very same things. 

So this year, this very year, I am fully embracing every single thing that every single kid really likes to do. Later this afternoon, we're all baking cookies together, and making gingerbread houses, and when that big kid got excited about the possibility of putting gummy sharks and centipedes on her gingerbread house, I said, "Of course you can. Put it on the shopping list." Tomorrow, we're having a Christmas movie marathon, and when that big kid, asked for movie requests, responded with "something low-budget and obscure," I said, "Sounds great. We'll add the Star Wars Holiday Special to the list."

Because next year, perhaps I'll have two kids who no longer want to see Santa. Perhaps I'll have a big kid who is now too cool for gingerbread houses. Perhaps I'll have a little kid who is no longer obsessed with playing Christmas records, or one or two kids who no longer think that decorating the Christmas tree is super fun. 

This year, especially, I am cherishing these kids, and all the Christmas magic that they're still willing to bequeath to me.

I Got Bullied in My Homeschool Group

NOTE: This essay is the very definition of tl;dr. If you do not have, like, half an hour to muddle through the ridiculous drama that I, the person who loathes drama more than any other person ever, have been dealing with, then I suggest that you read the first three paragraphs below, then scroll down to the completely made of drama picture waaaaaay down the page.

You might remember that a few months ago, I wrote that I had left my old homeschool group, and become more active in a different one. You might have noticed (or not! Totally okay either way!) that I wrote about how much happier I was with the change, how comfortable and welcomed I felt.

What I was leaving out of that was the reality that in my old homeschool group, I had been bullied for years.

I mean, why would I talk about that? How embarrassing, right? As a grown woman, why would I let myself be bullied, and simply put up with it for years? How can I be a good role model for my own children if I can't even model for them how to not be a victim in my own, self-chosen social situations?

For most of my time in that group, I thought that I was doing it for my children. Most of their friends were members of that homeschool group, and they played with them at weekly Park Days and parties. We participated in academic fairs through that homeschool group, and went on field trips with them. I felt that my kids would be missing out if I left the group simply because *I* was being excluded, and made to feel uncomfortable, and being gossiped about.

Also, I did have friends in that group. I did enjoy the academic fairs, and I enjoyed sharing resources and organizing field trips. I told myself that I was really only being bullied by one parent in the group, and even if she was able to get others to exclude me, or spread rumors about me that caused other parents to dislike me, or sometimes publicly embarrassed me, then that was still just one clique, and I had other friends who made being a member of the group worthwhile.

Matt didn't really buy my reasoning, but of course he's willing to support me in whatever crazy mess that I get myself into. He decided that change comes from within, and if we wanted our homeschool group to be truly welcoming, then we needed to be more active and more vocal in making it so. He became an active participant in the group's regular parents' planning meetings. He wasn't super successful, as the parent who was bullying me was the person in charge at those meetings, with her friends in most of the other volunteer positions, but keeping the conversation going is important. Showing that we care about the group as a whole is important. And speaking out at the meetings to say things like he doesn't think it's fair for one parent to offer the group's volunteer positions to her friends rather than open up the position to volunteers from the group? Well, that's important, too. That's the kind of hard conversation that a group needs to have in order to be better.

Except... things didn't really get better. By this time, I was used to sitting alone at Park Days and parties. Matt was used to my bully opposing everything that he said at parents' planning meetings. People often sit alone, and struggle to work in a committee even when they're not being bullied. Such is life. My policy was to pretend that I wasn't being bullied, to continue to share resources with the group as a whole, to continue to attend group events, even if I often sat alone, and to continue to organize interesting events and activities for the group's homeschooled children. Sometimes people from the group would tell me that they were sorry that I was being mistreated, and sometimes people would stick up for me, and often people would share with me stories of others who had been bullied by the same parent, but nothing ever happened that changed my situation, or gave my bully less power to mistreat me.

And then things got worse. For a few weeks, I had been active on the homeschool group's Yahoo forum, planning to provide some new academic fair options for the group. We'd been doing the same three academic fairs ever since I'd joined, and I thought that perhaps some members would like some additional options. So I posted a poll that families participated in, selecting academic fairs that they would be interested in. One of the top selections was a History Fair, something that I was already interested in doing this year, and so I volunteered to organize it. And then one of my bully's friends posted a message to the entire homeschool group, stating that I wasn't allowed to organize an academic fair. It was, apparently, a rule of the group.

It's pretty definitely not a rule of the group, at least not one that's ever been mentioned in the 5+ years that my family had been a member of the group, nor ever at any of the parents' planning meetings that either of us had ever attended, nor was it written down anywhere. In fact, other families had organized other academic fairs since we've been members, most notably a Creative Arts Fair that one family had organized for the group less than a year ago. Nobody mentioned any rule against this when she was doing so. Nevertheless, I apologized to the group, embarrassed at being publicly chastised.

Fortunately, there was actually a parents' planning meeting scheduled in the near future, so Matt decided that he would just figure out what was going on then. He attended the meeting, and so did my bully, her husband, and her friends. He debated with her, because he's brave, but she wouldn't change her mind, and nobody else there challenged her made-up rule. I'm sure the entire dialogue was extremely confusing to the newcomers to the meeting.

The next day, I posted a link to a homeschooling resource to the group board, only to discover that I was no longer allowed to post to the group unless a moderator, my bully, approved it. I posted to ask why I was being blocked but it never went through, and nobody ever responded. Matt tried to post a comment to the parents' planning meeting notes that had been posted, and discovered with that, his first ever post on the group board, that he, too, was being blocked. Nobody ever answered his emails about it, either.

At that point, I resigned from the group--and that post, conveniently, was sent through--because after that rude post to me about the History Fair, my friends stepped in for me and encouraged me to instead transfer my energy. A bunch of us have a casual weekly playgroup, and we decided that it wouldn't take much more work to transition it to a more active homeschooling group, one that would welcome everyone and encourage everyone's participation. I was thrilled to be able to leave my toxic situation for this. Matt, however, still didn't think that it was right to leave an entire group just because of the behavior of a few. He sent in our membership check, anyway--because yes, all of these years I'd been paying for this treatment--and tried to open a dialogue about what had been going on and why it had been happening.

But do you know who's uninterested in dialogue? My bully. Look what we were sent by certified mail, under the name of our homeschooling group:

This group's Park Days take place in a public park. They're banning me from a public park, y'all!

I have no idea what unacceptable behavior the letter is referring to, except that perhaps it was unacceptable for Matt to disagree with my bully at parents' planning meetings, or unacceptable for me to show up at weekly Park Days for years after my bully had been made clear to me that my presence was unwelcome.  I've asked around, however, and I haven't yet found anybody from that homeschool group who knows anything about this letter; it's apparently something that someone anyonymously wrote and sent under the name of the group.

In case you've never experienced anything like this before, that's how adults bully each other. Other than the legalese and the committees and the spare cash to spend four bucks on a certified letter, this looks a lot like the way kids bully each other, doesn't it? Kids probably send mean texts instead of certified letters, but they definitely exclude other kids, tell them that they can't belong, embarrass them publicly, won't let them talk or play or do fun things, gossip about them to their friends.

But the thing that, to me, is the most disturbing, is this: I tried to ignore being bullied, and it didn't get better. Matt tried to stand up to my bully, and it only got worse. I don't know what to extrapolate from this to young people who are dealing with bullying, but the only thing, the ONLY thing that made this situation better, was when I simply... left. I left, and I didn't go back, I threw all of my energy into a different group, and I relished their welcome. I put myself out there again with all new people, and these people were really, really nice to me. In my new homeschool group, when someone walks away to go to the bathroom, nobody starts to gossip about that person. In my new homeschool group, when somebody wants to plan something, everyone says, "Great idea! Let me know if you need help!" In my new homeschool group, I can actually talk to people, and it feels really great, and I never would have had that if I hadn't left my old homeschool group. And sure, my bully is apparently doing her darndest to follow me home, now that I'm not there to be abused, but a letter, at least, is something that I can share with my friends, and be comforted about. And if another letter comes, well, I don't even have to open it!

Can you imagine what it would be like if you were a kid, and you simply couldn't leave the situation in which you were being bullied?

Work Plans for the Week of December 14: 2015: Christmas and the News

Christmas is coming a little too fast this year, or maybe I just need to settle down and focus on it. We haven't yet done most of our Christmas traditions--no hot apple cider and hot chocolate and popcorn while watching Christmas movies (Nightmare before Christmas 100% counts as a Christmas movie!), no cinnamon dough decoration making, no driving around to look at Christmas lights. Hell, the kids haven't even visited with Santa yet!

To that end, I am officially declaring that Christmas traditions begin NOW. I swear to god, my family WILL spend quality time together celebrating the festivities of the season!!! So you'll notice, then, that schoolwork is a little light this week. The kids' newspaper is taking a lot more time than I'd estimated, so I did carve away plenty of work time for them to hopefully finish it this week, but I've also carved away plenty of secret time for "spontaneous" Christmas activities. I've got a couple of the more academic pursuits on our work plans--there's no way that Will would write a letter to Santa just for "fun"--but I've also got all the ingredients for cinnamon applesauce dough at hand, and tomorrow my etsy shop closes for the season and we can focus on gift-making for family and friends, and Wednesday night, after we've spent the day at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis (conveniently visiting with Santa while we're there!) would be the perfect Family Movie Night, and Thursday might just turn out to be a great day to bake some Christmas treats, and... you get the idea.

Daily memory work for the week is also on the light side, consisting of just a page of cursive daily (I am thrilled to report that both children's handwriting is improving massively!), spelling, and our traditional review of "'Twas the Night before Christmas." I doubt that there is anything in this world cuter than four-year-old Syd's recitation of "'Twas the Night before Christmas"--

--but I'm eager to convince her that I should also videotape her nine-year-old version. Many mommy sniffles ahead!

Books of the Week are still very World War 2 heavy, although there are also a couple of picture books about Martin Luther King, Jr., in there, one random book on the ecosystem of the Himalayas, and Syd, who was asking last week about why people can't just purify seawater to have clean water, has A Thirst for Home. This isn't the first time that Syd has asked about clean water, or the first time that we've explored the issue, so I may try to research out a couple of hands-on projects for the kids about it. Maybe for a Girl Scout service project?

And here's the rest of our week!

MONDAY: Considering that right now Will is outside and Syd is sitting on the couch playing with a Christmas sticker book (festive!), today's plans remain just plans, but at some point we'll kick it into gear and get going!

For math, the kids each have one more day of drill with worksheets from this site to cement the concepts that they both worked SO hard to master last week. I mentioned to you that I was making my own math lessons for them? Well, it took forever and I had to learn how to use an entirely new graphic design program to do it, but it was 100% successful:


Y'all, I actually made the concept of multiplying a fraction by a fraction CLEAR! I made MODELS for it! I am now officially a genius and a hero.

Over the weekend, Syd expressed some anxiety that she hadn't yet gotten around to writing a letter to Santa this year, so we'll be relieving her stress and getting in some lovely handwriting and composition practice with that. Because you know that Santa likes to see a child's best handwriting when they write to him!

Last night, Matt sat down with the kids and showed them how to use the graphic design program that he thought would work best for their newspaper, so I'm hoping that they can buckle down and get the project completed this week. Although I am requiring that they write an article on their interview of the newspaper reporter who came to interview us last week (a little meta, I know, but just go with it), I'm sorry to say that most of the rest of the newspaper is turning into rather a lampoon edition. I tried to convince the kids that it would be fun to write REAL stories about events like the great Rainbow Tag game that got played at play group last week or all the eggs that were donated to the food pantry where we volunteer, and real reviews of some of their Books of the Day, and maybe a real editorial, but they're mostly interested in locking each other in the closet and then writing stories entitled "Sister Locked in Closet!" Ah, well... Plenty of time for hard-hitting exposes when they're older.

Later today, we also have our two-hour volunteer gig with the food pantry. Will there be more egg donations? Stay tuned to find out!

TUESDAY: Our homeschool group is going bowling on this day. Syd is super excited about it, but Will is not, and I am not going to deal with her attitude in yet another bowling alley, so I'm foisting Syd off with another family. She can bowl, and Will can get her math done.

The kids are both back in Math Mammoth on this day. Now that they've gotten the basic concepts in their units down, hopefully the other lessons, which are mostly extensions of those concepts, will be self-explanatory. If not, however, I now know how to make both fraction models AND full-scale Cuisenaire rod models in Adobe InDesign!

We finished our last culminating activity of World War 2 last week, with a giant chalk paint world map on the driveway--

--as the stage for a complete retelling of World War 2, but I mentioned before, I think, that we still have a few random activities to finish up, including cooking this World War 2 recipe that Will chose from a cookbook at the Clabber Girl Museum. I'm hoping that we can successfully substitute cooked ground beef for the "finely chopped cold meat" that the recipe calls for. Otherwise--barf, right?

WEDNESDAY: Field trip to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis! We'll visit Santa, of course, but otherwise I think the children will enjoy an entire day at the museum with no further obligations of volunteering the Paleo Prep Lab or taking a class, for a change. Our membership runs out at the end of this month, as well, and I *might* take that opportunity to switch it out with an Indianapolis Zoo membership for next year, so I want to get in at least one more full day at the museum just in case.

THURSDAY: The Christmas card exercise is really just an excuse for us to play with these geometrical Christmas cards. Seriously, how cool are those, right?!? If they turn out to be impossibly frustrating for the kids, I can just invite them to punch out other lovely designs to then stitch while I sit and obsessively make many of these cards by myself.

FRIDAY: Will loves the series of girls-only podcasting workshops that the library has been hosting this semester. I'm hoping that after this newspaper project is complete, the children might want to try making their own podcast next--I think Will now has all the skills to do it!

Okay, she says she doesn't. Fortunately, she has more workshops that she can attend!

On this day, however, I'm most excited about going to see a local theater production of Mary Poppins with our homeschool group. They brought in a flying rig, and apparently Bert is really going to dance on the ceiling. Super excited.

SATURDAY/SUNDAY: Our only commitment is Will's last ice skating class of the semester, and then we're on Christmas break! 

Well, maaaaaybe we're on Christmas break. My workaholic husband is still debating his willingness to accede to my request that he simply take off next Monday, the ONE day that he's scheduled to work next week. Don't you think that would give us so much more family vacation bang for his family vacation buck? Anyway, if he takes that day off, then we'll definitely be living in Family Vacation Time, but if he insists on going in, then I'll probably make the rest of us do a day's schoolwork, too, just so we can complain to him about it and tell him that it's his fault.

As for me, this week I am living in Homemade Gift Land. I don't tend to give homemade gifts to Matt and the kids, since I make handmade stuff for them so often that store-bought gifts are actually the novelty, but I really like giving homemade gifts to everyone else. I also have several writing assignments to complete, the kids' wardrobe to go through yet again (Will will NOT stop growing! Last month none of her pants fit, and now all of her T-shirts are too short!!! ARGH!), and, most importantly of all, many Christmas festivities to force upon my unsuspecting family.

It's going to be a wonderful week!

Our Hawaii Unit Study: A Round-up and Resources

This is an overall roundup of two different unit studies that the kids and I have worked through on the topic of Hawaii over the years. The first time we studied Hawaii was in preparation for our first visit there in 2015, when the kids were around the ages of nine and eleven.

The second time we studied Hawaii was in preparation for and after our second family visit to Hawaii, and specifically for the purpose of earning the Girl Scouts of Hawai'i Aloha fun patch. Earning the fun patch is really... well, fun!... but if your kids are older or have studied Hawaii before, then the requirements to earn it may not seem rigorous enough. I adjusted the requirements to be more rigorous and challenging while still fitting the eight themes that the patch program covers, which I'll tell you about below. You still want to follow along in the official patch program guide, because it contains valuable information written by the Girl Scouts of Hawaii to other Girl Scouts around the world, but you can substitute the actual activities.

Here we go, then!

1. Geography and Geology of Hawaii

A good beginning goal for a unit study is to memorize the location of Hawaii on a world map, to memorize the state symbols associated with Hawaii, and to understand the geology that has shaped it--and is continuing to shape it!

One of the larger geography activities in this section meets the Kaua'i requirement for the Aloha fun patch.

A. map of Hawaii

I printed out a giant map of Hawaii from Megamaps, and taped it together for the kids. They then painted the ocean and labeled the eight major islands:

I put their map on the wall and we used it for daily memory work to help the kids memorize the islands. 

When the kids did this project again in 2019 (because yes, giant mapmaking is still fun for thirteen- and fourteen-year-olds!), they were able to complete it entirely independently, and with this list of instructions giving them further locations to map to research, identify, and label:

1.       Label each island.

4.       Label the ocean.

5.       Label the following landmarks:

a.       Volcanoes National Park

b.       Hawaii’s state capital

c.       Pearl Harbor

d.       Pipeline

e.       Mauna Kea

f.        Mauna Loa

g.       Princeville (our resort!)

h.       Waimea Canyon

i.         Ka Lae

j.         Wailua River

k.       Napali Coast

In both studies, when we read about any interesting geographical feature of Hawaii, or made plans to visit some place such as Ka Lae, the southernmost point of the United States, I had the kids mark and label that site on the map. I think it helped orient them somewhat during our visits.

In preparation for each visit to Hawaii, I had the children look through several guidebooks to see what they wanted to visit. They actually enjoyed this activity more, however, when we were in Hawaii--how fun to look through a guidebook, point to something, say, "I want to go there!", and have the magic tree house rental van take you there right then!

If you want to focus on the ocean around Hawaii, the Blue Planet episodes "Coral Reefs" and "Coral Seas" are fantastic. Here's an interesting and simple demonstration of salt water vs. fresh water. 

B. Hawaii state symbols

I had the children memorize Hawaii's capital, and I printed this Hawaii state symbols coloring page for them to complete, although I had them research images of each of the symbols to get the colors correct, not just rely on the printed legend. And yes, we had to look up the pronunciation for many of the Hawaiian things that we studied! Here's how to pronounce the name of Hawaii's state bird.

In the process of this research, Will became very interested in the Hawaii state capitol building. We'd have gone to visit if it had been in session, because Will really wanted to see the representatives wearing Hawaiian shirts! The state capitol building's web site does have some activity books for children, although we didn't use them.

C. Volcanoes

The goal for this unit was to give the children a good working knowledge of the science and geology of volcanoes. 

One of these volcanoes activities meets the Hawai'i requirement for the Aloha fun patch.

The kids watched BrainPop videos on volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunami, taking the quizzes and completing the accompanying worksheets. Will and I used my DIY bendy yarn to mark the location of the Ring of Fire on our big world wall map, even though Hawaii's volcanoes are actually not due to the Ring of Fire.

Our underwater volcano demonstration works particularly well, as this is how the Hawaiian islands were formed. You can also make a gelatin volcano to model how eruptions work. And if you've never made a baking soda and vinegar volcano before, now is the time!

To see real volcanic activity really in Hawaii, check out these volcano webcams.

To connect Hawaii's history of volcanoes to its particular geography, make a corrugated cardboard topographic map of the Big Island. Those mountains are volcanoes!

If kids are very interested in the process of Hawaii's formation, here's a much more detailed and sophisticated lesson. 

We used these geography and geology resources:



2. Hawaiian culture

I knew that the kids were going to see some really inauthentic, touristy versions of Hawaiian culture on our trip, and that's fine, because those are iconic parts of a Hawaiian vacation, but I wanted the kids to also have an understanding of real Hawaiian culture and its value to the Hawaiian people.

If your kids are younger or like paper dolls, there's a Hawaii set in this cute collection. Might as well print all the dolls and explore all their cultures!

Here's a good place to start exploring Hawaii's myths and legends. Do more research on the specific ones that interest you.

A. Hawaiian language

It's important to understand that Hawaii has its own native language and native speakers of that language, especially because at one time native Hawaiians were actively dissuaded from participating in their own culture.

One language activity meets the Ni'ihau requirement for the Aloha fun patch.

I wanted the kids to understand that Hawaii has its own native language, one that is still very much alive on the islands, and I also wanted the kids to have a go at learning some words and phrases. To that end, they both spent several weeks working daily through the first lessons in Mango Languages: Hawaiian. I won't go so far as to claim that they're in any way conversational, but it was an excellent way to get them to immerse themselves in Hawaiian writing and pronunciation. Here they are practicing!

There's a terrific YouTube channel dedicated to teaching the Hawaiian language. We watched all of their videos several times, including this one, our favorite:

B. Hawaiian music

It's fun to listen to traditional Hawaiian music, but don't forget the musical artists who are Hawaiian, no matter the genre they perform in. Music is also a good segue into studying other aspects of Hawaii's history and culture.

One music activity meets the Kaho'olawe requirement of the Aloha fun patch.

I have a free account on Spotify, and I used it to let the kids listen to loads of Hawaiian music. Here's my Hawaii playlist with our favorite Hawaii-themed songs. This song, in particular, is the telling of the Hawaiian creation myth that we saw in the Bishop Museum.

If you want to make your own music, here's a great lesson on the 'ili'ile and how to use them. The ukulele is also an accessible and fairly affordable instrument. Syd was interested in learning, so I bought her this ukulele and this tuner, and off she went!

C. Hawaiian dance

To begin a study on hula, we found this intro video to be helpful. We then spent most of one morning watching YouTube videos from the Merrie Monarch festival, the world's premier hula dancing competition. Make sure that you watch performances by both women's groups and men's groups! We also did these hula tutorial videos together, and although Syd, surprisingly, did NOT enjoy them and in fact left the room in a strop, Will, surprisingly, LOVED them and happily danced along with me. This was actually really great, because there was a hula tutorial at our luau in Hawaii, and Will happily jumped right in, with the background knowledge that she likes doing the hula! If you're not planning to visit Hawaii, an excellent enrichment activity would be having the kids help plan an at-home luau, complete with roasted pork and hula dancing.

D. traditional foods of Hawaii

Hawaii has a fascinating food culture, not just of traditional dishes but also of dishes influenced by its immigrant cultures, by the crops grown by colonizing forces, and by foods eaten during wartime scarcity.

One traditional foods activity meets the Lana'i requirement for the Aloha fun patch.

Whether or not you get to actually go to Hawaii and eat the real deal--sushi! Spam! shave ice!--making at-home versions is really fun. You could make sushi, play with recipes that include Spam, learn about macaroni salad, or make your own shave ice. Do NOT forget the snow cap!

Kona Coffee is a huge deal on the Big Island. We toured Greenwell Farms during our trip, and I highly recommend it, but their website also has some great educational videos on coffee farming. Good enrichment activities for that would be teaching the kids how to grind coffee beans and make you a delicious cup of coffee, or baking a coffee cake or another treat that includes coffee as an ingredient.

The Aloha fun patch guide has instructions for hosting a luau, including recipes for what to serve. We did this for a family dinner one night and had a delicious time eating crock pot Kalua pork, haupia, and coconut cake.

E. sports and games

Surfing is an important part of Hawaii's history and culture, but there are other games historically played in Hawaii that are also fun to experience.

One sports and games activity meets the O'ahu requirement for the Aloha fun patch.

Syd, in particular, got really into watching big wave surfing videos on YouTube. 

We learned how to play two traditional games of Hawaii, konane and lu-lu. If your kids love math, you can use lu-lu to practice creating probability trees!

We used these additional resources to study Hawaii's culture:




2. Hawaiian history

The goals for this unit were to understand that Hawaii has a vast pre-colonial history, to understand that it was colonized and its sovereign government overthrown by the United States, and to understand its iconic role in World War 2. 

There's a terrific timeline of Hawaiian history in the Aloha fun patch book. The kids used it for a research project in which they picked one event to learn more about and teach to the rest of us.

A. Polynesians

Here's how we carved our own petroglyphs the easy way!

This tiki mask project isn't super authentic, but the results are fairly similar to the kinds of statues that you see at heiau, in particular. This tapa cloth is also made from paper and not bark, but it's still a fun activity.

The second time we studied Hawaii, we found ourselves interested in Captain Cook, here's a little more about him, and here's a Crash Course video about him:

B. Hawaiian monarchy

Unfortunately, this subject was difficult to find ample resources for outside of Hawaii, although once we were there we really did find ourselves immersed in the history of Hawaii's monarchy and were able to explore some wonderful places important to the monarchy and see some beautiful treasures.

I printed out this large infographic of Hawaii's monarchs and had the children put it on the wall under our map for easy reference. I also tried to get the kids to watch this American Experience episode on Hawaii's last queen, but it was super dry and didn't hold their interest. Matt and I later watched it by ourselves, and it hardly held my interest, either, but I wanted the information so I muscled through.

We used these resources on the Hawaiian monarchy:



C. Pearl Harbor

We actually incorporated this lesson into our larger study of World War 2, so you'll want to add in your own pre- and post-Pearl Harbor context to this lesson.

I wanted the kids to understand the logistics of the attack, of course, but I also wanted them to be able to visualize it, because that's how they'll remember. Much of our study took place at the actual Valor in the Pacific National Park, where the kids earned Junior Ranger badges and we took at ferry out to the USS Arizona Memorial. Will, especially, also really loved the Pacific Aviation Museum, and I appreciated being able to see some of the actual aircraft models used at Pearl Harbor and Midway. Both of these places have excellent online presences, as well. The kids didn't enjoy Tora! Tora! Tora! enough to watch the entire thing, but they did watch the Pearl Harbor attack, and it's a really, really accurate version.

We used these further resources to study Hawaii's history. In particular, all three of us adored Under the Blood-Red Sun--we listened to it on audiobook in the car, and the entire family was riveted.



4. Biology, botany, and ecology of Hawaii

For many kids, exploring the special plants and animals found in and around Hawaii is the most exciting part of this study. That exploration should go hand-in-hand with learning the importance of conservation.

One biology activity meets the Maui requirement for the Aloha fun patch.

A. ecology of Hawaii

The ecology of Hawaii is extremely important, extremely delicate and, in many places, extremely in danger. 

One ecology activity meets the Moloka'i requirement for the Aloha fun patch.

To help the kids understand the importance and fragility of Hawaii's ecology, I used some of the curriculum materials from the Moanalua Gardens Foundations. It's geared to an elementary audience, but since it covers topics that are more familiar to that elementary audience than they would be to children outside of Hawaii, much of it still works even for older learners. In particular, we played Ecosystem Encounters--the kids loved it, and we learned SO much about feral pigs and happy-face spiders!

If you don't have time for an entire lesson plan or even a board game about feral pigs and happy-face spiders, this Ted-Ed video about invasive species is very informative:

I had each of the kids spend a few school lessons looking up native Hawaiian plant or animal species and creating infographics about them using Piktochart. If kids are very interested in the subject, here's an entire lesson on Hawaii's endemic species, or a pdf board game about Hawaii's watershed.

B. seals

I also had Will read this biography of the monk seal KP2. I thought that it might be too dry for her, but she actually loved it, and when we looked up KP2's home, the Waikiki Aquarium, we saw that there's a webcam of him! We still watch KP2 sometimes!

C. whales

Whales are always fun and fascinating to study. To make the kids' fact-finding projects about whales more interesting, we measured their lengths out and drew them in chalk:

D. sharks

One summer, the kids and I fell down a rabbit hole and spent three months studying sharks. It was AMAZING!

Fun stuff

Here are some fun, non-educational resources that have Hawaii themes:

My favorite thing about a Hawaii study is that the subject is so rich that it adapts itself to all levels of learners and a wide variety of interests. Kids who love animals have so much to study in Hawaii! Kids who love volcanoes, too! And kids who love history, who love music and dance, who love storytelling... a study of Hawaii is a great way to engage any learner.

P.S. Want to know more about our adventures in learning, and the resources that we use to accomplish them? Check out my Craft Knife Facebook page!