Sunday, June 26, 2011

Just an Update

Kirk is almost ready to move onto grade 2 maths but I'll just revise all the concepts & wait for his literacy to catch up before we buy the next text. While he has an excellent oral ability, his reading level is still restricted to the basic building blocks & phonic words. His handwriting still requires a lot of work as well and I think these things are restricted by his maturity and he will simply develop them in time. Also I'm finding he has an excellent memory and will repeat facts and passages wth fair accuracy months after he has learned them. 

Wednesday, June 01, 2011

North American Indians

A report dictated by Kirk with a few suggestions from me to help it make sense.

Indians used bows and arrows and spears for hunting. They liked to hunt wild turkeys - they go, "Gobble, gobble gobble!" [turkey calls on YouTube].  They hunted buffalow by scaring them over cliffs. They then would fall and break their bones. The Indians hunted moose with moose callers. We made a moose caller last week out of paperbark and tied it with strong grass. It sounds like "mwaaaaaja".  Here is a page full of moose calls. [ed: Kirk thinks these are hilarious.]


They caught fish with nets and lines with hooks with bait. Their bait was made out of other fish. Their first idea was insects and then other fish.  They also made fish traps.  Indians planted types of corn, squash (pumpkins) and beans. They also gathered blueberries, seeds, nuts and herbs. 

They made canoes fom wood and bark.

They lived in tepees, wigwams, longhouses and mud brick houses.
The plains Indians followed the buffalow with tepees. The tepees were made out of skin and how they put them up was with stiff sticks.They were nomads.The east coast Indians lived in longhouses made from bark and wood. They did not move often. Others built wigwams and moved occassionally. Some of the mudbrick houses (adobe) were built under a cave so they did not have roofs.

During this month we have made a costume & feather headress. We are now making a tepee and my first tepee is nearly half built. Mum is making leather moccasins, a quiver and tomorrow we'll make a leather bag with seed and shell decorations.

We have been doing lots of archery and I'm hitting the targets more often. Sometimes I hit them in the neck.