January 20, 2014
11:48 PM
Happy Martin Luther King Day! Enjoying your day off?
Err...no. This is not a day off, but I'm enjoying it just as well!! Unfortunately, that's what many Americans consider this holiday to be-just another day off. Stephan and I had already planned to make today all about the great Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We even cancelled our math and phonics and reading lessons to focus on the holiday, the man, and the civil rights movement. What a great time we had! Jay was really into our discussion. We incorporated some new vocabulary, did an egg demonstration, and listened to all seventeen minutes of his iconic "I Have A Dream" speech. How awesome was it to be able to listen to that speech with my children 50 years later? He was very engaged and paid attention to the speech! Believe it, or not, that was the first time I have ever listen to that speech in its entirety! Years and years of public school, projects about him, reports, and the like, and not one of my teachers have ever played that speech for any class I was in. I tell you, you don't get a full appreciation of MLK until you hear the power of his words and the intensity in which he spoke them!
Demonstration of differences and similarities using my buddies Mr. R. Ed and Mr. B. Lue.
Even though that look different on the outside, they are exactly the same! And, might I add, equally delicious. They gave their lives so we could have a hearty breakfast this morning. Jay was distraught, at first, but got over it quickly as he devoured each tasty, eggy morsel.
After we listened to the speech, we discussed some of the key points Dr. King touched on and what Jay learned from them. He colored a picture of Dr. King I had printed out (Thank you, Google Images!), and wrote a letter to his grandmother about what he learned on the back of said picture. We listened to a lot of music from the civil rights era and music with uplifting lyrics during the assignment. He did such a great job on everything. He asked lots of questions and he even made the connections between Dr. King's speech and our friendship with a white family, who lived next door to us. The whole lesson made me very proud. Just as I began to think that Jay didn't notice the differences regarding skin color, he made it very clear that he understood there are, indeed, those differences and that those differences were viewed in a negative light. But, in Jay's words, God loves everybody. That was the most rewarding portion of the whole lesson. Jay was able to identify the negatives of segregation about how it was dishonoring to the Lord. What a blessing that was!
We resumed our regular spelling and vocabulary and penmanship lessons. If there's time, we'll pick up the other two assignments. Each year during these special holidays, Stephan and I want to really explore every facet of the person or occasion. As he gets older, he'll be required to do extensive research and write detailed reports. Next month for black history month, Jay will be learning about four different black historical; one for each week. Stephan will be having science lessons with him focusing on the creations of black scientists. I am really looking forward to it! Maybe we can even take a field trip to Austin. Not sure what we can learn there that's black history-related, but I'm sure it'll be exciting nonetheless!
Music from today's lesson:
This is a song I sang years ago when I was apart of Washington Performing Arts Society Children of the Gospel.
Mr. Hathaway
Mr. Cooke
Yes. Common. Had to throw in some good hip-hop that uplifts and unifies!
And Nas.
thats cute
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