For each "main lesson" block that we have throughout the year, we make a special book, the main lesson book, detailing what we've learned. Here is most of Dallin's main lesson book for our recent block on shelters.
Our block idea came from Marsha Johnson's files at Waldorf Home Educators. We started off by talking about the weather and climate here in Utah and what types of plants grow in our area. We illustrated the four seasons in Utah and did a little write-up on it. (I didn't include thoseo pages here.)
Dallin made a page showing some of the plants in our valley: sagebrush, willow, juniper, pine, grasses, etc.
We took a field trip around our neighborhood and discussed what kinds of natural materials the houses around use were made of: rock and stone, stucco, etc. Too bad most of the houses in our neighborhood are made of vinyl! We looked at the outside of our house and also took a look at the basement and the attic to see what kinds of materials were used. Dallin drew an illustration of our house and then listed all the materials used to make it.
Next, we talked about the First Peoples who lived in our area, the Goshute Indians. I thoroughly enjoyed all the research I did on this topic. I told a legend, the Legend of Pia Toya, which explains how a certain mountain came to have the appearance it does, from the claws of Mother Hawk, who is angry that Coyote has stolen her breakfast. Dallin illustrated the story and wrote a short summary.
We also learned about the kinds of shelters that the Goshutes built, wickiups, using natural materials easily available to them. We learned about how their nomadic lifestyle also impacted the type of home they built.
Then we branched out to climates and shelters in other parts of the world. We talked about hot, dry climates. We discussed the southwestern pueblos, but I also wanted to stir his imagination a bit (since I grew up in Arizona, the pueblo-style of architecture is a bit old hat), so we figuratively traveled to Africa and talked about the brightly painted mud huts of the Xhosa people of South Africa. For each people that I introduced, I also told a legend of story from that culture.
A painting of a Xhosa hut, followed by the written summary.
Then came a hot, wet climate--New Guinea--with the stilt house. Interestingly, I actually found a legend from New Guinea of how a house of grass and sticks would survive a storm better than a house of mud. It was a perfect fit!
And we ended--almost--with cold, icy climates: the igloo.
The capstone of this block was a two-fold project. Dallin got to pick his favorite kind of house and write a report about it--and then build a model of it. Dallin chose the log cabin. He says that his dream is to someday grow up and live in the mountains in a log cabin. He titled his report, "A Lot of Wood". I thought that was creative!
Dallin absolutely loved this project! We've had a bit of a challenging year, and this project provided a lot of healing. That is honestly the best word to describe it. We worked on it for about a week and half together. He enjoyed doing it together with me, and there was little pressure, it was just fun. He commented often how much cooler this was than his Noah's ark (which he also loved making) and how the best part about it was that we got all the building materials from our very own yard. (Which kind of proved the whole point of this block, which was that people can make shelters from whatever is around them.)
He also really enjoyed writing the report, which was interesting to me because getting him to write a 3-sentence summary is often a battle.
Our block idea came from Marsha Johnson's files at Waldorf Home Educators. We started off by talking about the weather and climate here in Utah and what types of plants grow in our area. We illustrated the four seasons in Utah and did a little write-up on it. (I didn't include thoseo pages here.)
We took a field trip around our neighborhood and discussed what kinds of natural materials the houses around use were made of: rock and stone, stucco, etc. Too bad most of the houses in our neighborhood are made of vinyl! We looked at the outside of our house and also took a look at the basement and the attic to see what kinds of materials were used. Dallin drew an illustration of our house and then listed all the materials used to make it.
Next, we talked about the First Peoples who lived in our area, the Goshute Indians. I thoroughly enjoyed all the research I did on this topic. I told a legend, the Legend of Pia Toya, which explains how a certain mountain came to have the appearance it does, from the claws of Mother Hawk, who is angry that Coyote has stolen her breakfast. Dallin illustrated the story and wrote a short summary.
We also learned about the kinds of shelters that the Goshutes built, wickiups, using natural materials easily available to them. We learned about how their nomadic lifestyle also impacted the type of home they built.
Then we branched out to climates and shelters in other parts of the world. We talked about hot, dry climates. We discussed the southwestern pueblos, but I also wanted to stir his imagination a bit (since I grew up in Arizona, the pueblo-style of architecture is a bit old hat), so we figuratively traveled to Africa and talked about the brightly painted mud huts of the Xhosa people of South Africa. For each people that I introduced, I also told a legend of story from that culture.
Then came a hot, wet climate--New Guinea--with the stilt house. Interestingly, I actually found a legend from New Guinea of how a house of grass and sticks would survive a storm better than a house of mud. It was a perfect fit!
And we ended--almost--with cold, icy climates: the igloo.
The capstone of this block was a two-fold project. Dallin got to pick his favorite kind of house and write a report about it--and then build a model of it. Dallin chose the log cabin. He says that his dream is to someday grow up and live in the mountains in a log cabin. He titled his report, "A Lot of Wood". I thought that was creative!
We had a lot of fun collaborating on his log cabin. I got some pruning done in order to provide the logs for the project. The roof and door are made from dried grasses, also courtesy of our yard. The chimney is from our very own gravel. It is not just an outside chimney, it actually opens up to a fireplace inside the cabin. We went to a nearby canyon and collected moss for the landscaping, but before we could add it to the project, all the moss dried up and was not suitable for use. So this moss came from the local craft store. But everything else was collected in nature.
Dallin absolutely loved this project! We've had a bit of a challenging year, and this project provided a lot of healing. That is honestly the best word to describe it. We worked on it for about a week and half together. He enjoyed doing it together with me, and there was little pressure, it was just fun. He commented often how much cooler this was than his Noah's ark (which he also loved making) and how the best part about it was that we got all the building materials from our very own yard. (Which kind of proved the whole point of this block, which was that people can make shelters from whatever is around them.)
He also really enjoyed writing the report, which was interesting to me because getting him to write a 3-sentence summary is often a battle.
Comments