Archive for July, 2010
Sneak Peak: Pirates Unit Study
Blackbeard – a reading comprehension activity
One of the most famous pirates to ever sail the seas was Edward Teach who is better known for his nickname, Blackbeard.
Teach began his pirate career as a teenager on board a ship captained by Benjamin Hornigold, a British privateer. Teach remained part of Hornigold’s crew throughout the War of the Spanish Succession (Queen Anne’s War). By the end of the war Teach had become an experienced sea robber. After the war he joined a group of fierce Caribbean pirates. Soon, he became captain of his own ship.
Teach, who then became known as Blackbeard gained a reputation as the most frightening pirate. His appearance was also fearsome. He was over six feet tall and always well armed. Across his chest he wore a sling that held three pairs of pistols. A cutlass and a few knives completed his attire. His long black beard was braided and often, before a fight, he would put smoking fuses in his hat to make him look menacing. Even his own crew thought him to be the devil himself.
Blackbeard’s ship was a French frigate called Concorde. When it was captured it held twenty-six guns (cannons). Blackbeard upgraded the ship to forty guns and renamed it “Queen Anne’s Revenge.” Blackbeard and his crew terrorized sailors in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea from 1716 to 1718.
He would pull aside a merchant ship and raise his flag demanding surrender. Blackbeard’s flag was not the traditional skull and crossbones. His flag contained a skeleton with horns and hooves which symbolized that he was in league with the devil. The skeleton held an hour glass in one hand and a spear in the other. The spear was aimed at a red heart which dripped blood. These were to symbolize that time had run out and surrender or blood would be spilled. The sight of Blackbeard’s flag added to his fearsome reputation usually led to immediate surrender. In fact, there is not record of Blackbeard ever killing anyone.
In 1718, Blackbeard established a base in the British colonies at what is now North Carolina. From this base he pirated ships along the North American coast. He would steal their goods and sell them to the local townspeople. After Blackbeard decided to settle down, the governor granted him a pardon in June of 1718. But when Blackbeard began pirating again Lt. Robert Maynard of the Royal Navy was sent to stop Blackbeard once and for all. On November 22, 1718, Blackbeard and Maynard fought in hand-to-hand combard on board Maynard’s ship The Adventure. Blackbeard suffered twenty sword wounds and five gun shot wounds until he was finally killed by a slash to the throat.
Maynard hung Blackbeard’s severed head from the bow of his ship as a warning to other pirates. It was the end of Blackbeard’s reign of terror.
For the complete unit study go to www.homeeducationresourceemporium.com/unit-studies
Helping your child succeed!
There are many definitions for success. My focus, is to have the child do well, enjoy the challenge and want to keep learning and improving -to me, that is homeschooling success.
Helping your child achieve this success can be a combination of words, thoughts and motivations. Encouraging words can go a long way to help anyone succeed. Point out improvements, creativity and proper behaviour. Keep your comments and words positive rather than negative. If you are marking a test or projects, use only checkmarks – if things are wrong they can be discussed afterward but without writing X’s on the page. Discussion about the tests, the project or any other work or behaviour can lead to positive reinforcement and an understanding of what would have been a better answer or action.
It is important to think before addressing a child’s behaviour or poor work. Think about what influences may have led to the problem, what behaviours they may be copying or what challenges they have faced recently that may be affecting them. We can recognize that everyone has bad days, bad moments and bad judgements. A child that is learning must also be taught appropriate behaviours, reactions etc in order for them to interact appropriately.
Understanding a child’s learning style is also an important step to their success. Recognizing how they learn best and then helping them learn using that style will not only help them learn but give them confidence to continue to do well. Understanding that children learn differently and at different paces will help you provide proper encouragement and lessons for each child. Motivating them to work hard, challenging them to stretch their abilities and encouraging them to keep trying are all great influences to provide them.
Of course, the world is not as encouraging as we are and at times children will run into negative people and influences. It is important to teach them how to deal with these challenges as well. Face negativity with confidence so that it doesn’t have a devastating affect. Remove yourself from situations that are degrading and negatively charged. And discuss any issues or problems they have faced that has troubled them.
Positive thoughts, words and motivations are the key steps to homeschooling success!
The Quotable Homeschooler
He
re are some great, meaningful quotes to help inspire, encourage and support homeschoolers!
“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. ”
– William Butler Yeats
” What is most important and valuable about the home as a base for children’s growth into the world is not that it is a better school than the schools, but that it isn’t a school at all.”
–John Holt
” The idea is to educate, not follow anyone’s schedule about when something should be studied. ”
–Ray Drouillard
“Educating a child is a natural process. Home schooling is nothing more than an extension of parenting.” ~Sue Maakestad
He is educated who knows how to find out what he doesn’t know. – George Simmel, German Philosopher
Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion has no hold on the mind. Therefore do not use compulsion, but let early education be rather a sort of amusement; this will better enable you to find out the natural bent of the child. – Plato
“The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.” Flora Whittemore
There is no school equal to a decent home and no teacher equal to a virtuous parent.
-Ghandi
The secret of teaching is to appear to have known all your life what you learned this afternoon.
– Anonymous
Homeschooling Sick Kids
Homeschooling is a choice parents make for many different reasons. But sometimes that choice is influenced greatly by a sick child. A child that struggles with an illness, a disability or a disorder may also struggle in school. Missed days cause them to fall behind in lessons. Issues during class may cause them to have to leave the room (which again results in a missed lesson). And comments from the other kids could cause emotional problems.
So, homeschooling is sometimes a better option for children that have a ‘special need.’ It can allow them to learn at their own pace, on the days when they feel good. It can allow creative lessons to help those learn that struggle with sitting still. It can create a more relaxed atmosphere for the child to learn in (sometimes added stress inflames the problem).
But it can also add more expense to an already expensive issue. Homeschoolers need to keep one parent home to teach, making it a one income family. Add to that the cost of medications and treatments, gas to doctors and specialists and the necessary books and resources needed for home lessons. Of course, parents feel it is worth it to help their child, and it is just one more choice they make on behalf of that child.
Do you know there are children being turned away for treatment because they can’t afford the cost of medications!
You can help by donating to this specific cause, or check with a Sick Kids hospital near you to find a family to help.
www.robbiesrainbow.ca