Native America

This week we've celebrated Native Americans.  We read a number of non-fiction books about Mayans, Aztecs, Incas, Nez Perce, Ojibwa, Iroquois, and others.  One of the best was We Are the Many which profiled many prominent Native Americans from many different tribes and wasn't too difficult for Genevieve to tolerate the length of the stories.  Brother Eagle, Sister Sky places beautiful imagery behind the words of Chief Seattle.  We also read a number of legends.  The Tale of the Rabbit and Coyote is reminiscent of Briar Rabbit tales.  Sootface is an Ojibwa take on the Cinderella story.  The Legend of the Bluebonnet and the Legend of the Indian Paintbrush are both origin stories for flowers.  Arrow to the Sun is a brightly colored Pueblo tale.  Tasunka is a Lakota story of how they first discovered horses.  The Boy Who Lived with the Bears is a collection of Iroquois stories.  Magical Tales from Many Lands includes Feather Woman and Morning Star and Giants, Ghosts and Goblins includes the Cheyenne tale of the ghost with two faces.

We visited some farm animals and talked about how they are raised.  In the spirit of The Legend of the Bluebonnet, Genevieve collected some of her toys and clothes that she doesn't use anymore to donate to charity.  We also made some pottery, practicing coiling, and painted our finished products.  We also talked about some native foods like tomatoes and chocolate, and how cocao was used as money.  We had a dance and music party, playing all our instruments and most especially the drum.  We also enjoyed Sacagawea by Deedle Deedle Dees.


In other news, Genevieve is improving at dribbling the soccer ball.  She's taken to the Pout Pout Fish and The Surprise Party.  Tobias is standing on his own for longer periods of time.