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Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Sacagawea....History Coming Alive.

This is a review.  I have been told that I need to inform you right away that this is going to be a review.  So, there you have it.  This is a review.  This is not a test.  This is a review.

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Have you seen Night at the Museum - Part II?  The one set in the Smithsonian.  We love both of the Night at the Museum movies, and took "lines" to quote at each other from both of them.  The "lines" we took away from Part II was the  joke the fact that Colonel Custer couldn't pronounce Sacagawea's name.  So, whenever we hear her name or someone says it....we go to that spiel. 

It really doesn't matter if you know how to pronounce her name or not.  The important part is that you realize what a profoundly brave and inspiring person she is in the history of the United States....and that I am glad I wasn't her.

We got a chance to read an e-book by Knowledge Quest all about Sacagawea....that tells more than the night at the museum version of events.....or even the little paragraph or two that is in most history books.

You may remember I reviewed Knowledge Quests Map Trek product last year which we fell in love with (but them my computer sort of crashed and for some reason, the Geek Squad decided not to retrieve the information from my downloads folder.....and they are lost to me  :(  )



The Sacagawea book, written by Karla Akins, is part of their Brave Explorers You Should Know series.

The book has 4 parts, starting with Stolen, then Passage, then Survival and concludes with Equal. I just read it as a book, the way it was written, they flow easily into each other. Tthe whole thing is only a little over 100 pages....so, it is quick reading.

This book will easily fold into our American History study next year and I will use it for A-girl.  Partly because that is what she will study next year and partly because I feel the content of the book is more suitable to her age (early teenager).

I read the book myself first and was planning to have one of the kids read it after me(it is recommended for ages 10 and up), but just the first 30 pages or so had topics and things that happened to Sacagawea that I wasn't ready for my kids to ask questions about....if you know what I mean.

I mean things like she and her sister being kidnapped when they were young (13ish), being slaves, and eventually being bought together as wives.  A few too many TLC shows tied up in that, don't you think?.  Yes, I know it is history.  Yes, I know it happened.  But, I like my kids to stay as safely naive as they can, for as long as they can.

I found this book really interesting and it is a quick read.  Your child will not have a chance to get bored or complain about having to read this for history.

There are interactive links to click in order to gain a deeper understanding of the life and times of one Sacagawea, but also just the content of the book has so much interesting history.  From little things like the way the Shosone tribe lived, versus the tribe that kidnapped them.  Or, the heirarchy of their sleeping positions, or the way wives were treated versus the way slaves were treated (I will tell you....it was not a huge difference).  Lots of little stuff that your kids probably won't even realize that they are learning.  You know that is one of my favorite ways for my kids to learn, right?

This book can easily be fit into various courses of study, geography, history, explorers, brave women, but really it can also just stand alone as a book to read.  Period.  There are lots of activities that you can have your child do (timelines, map work).  But, they can also just.....wait for it....read it.


You can order the e-book off of Amazon for $4.97

The TOS Review Crew also got a chance to try out the timeline builder app in additional to the Sacagawea book.  Go take a look and see what they thought.



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