How sad is this? My last blog post was 3 months ago. Pa-the-tic! (This will be the introduction of all my posts, because I will always be behind and late ;-)
We have been very busy with Arizona Virtual Academy.
Busier than I would like. Busy on things like Art, Science, and Music (subjects we did not work on last year) We do not have the time to do what we lived, breathed, & ate last year, which was plenty of time in God's Word, memorizing scripture & hymns, and learning about History with an emphasis on the moral ramifications of each event, and an in depth study of personal choices with historical figures.
(YAY SONLIGHT!)
Last year, was the year of Sonlight Curriculum. This year is the year of AZVA curriculum-Where I have to pre-read a lot of it, so I don't accidentally say out loud 'Scientists believe that amphibians were the precursors to mammals, and possibly developed from some slimy algae' ---uh-no, we are learning about evolution-but not as fact from our Science book! I have been using Ken Ham's Answers in Genesis to help me teach about Evolution, alongside the biblical view of Creation.
I was disappointed that not much reading occurs in AZVA. (After reading over 100 books in 2nd grade last year for Sonlight)
So, I downloaded Sonlight's 3rd grade reading list and ordered as many as I could from the library and Amazon.
Our first book to arrive was Pocahontas and the Strangers by Clyde Robert Bulla. It was such a great read! -I love all of Mr Bulla's works and this was no different.
The book starts with Pocahontas, in a forest, hunting with her brother, watching a soaring bird, and ends with her dying, whilst remembering that soaring bird, and the camaraderie of hunting with her brother.
Most all of us know this story of a young girl, running through the forests of Virginia-carefree, happy, ignorant.
She meets a group of Colonists and learns English, she really does save John Smith from certain death on a few occasions.
Towards the end of the book, a sad twist occurs. John Smith leaves, Pocahontas is kidnapped and kept in Henricus until her father meets the demands that the Governor has given.
There in Henricus, Pocahontas learns about the Lord, becomes a Christian, and is baptized.-Turning away from the Native Americans Pantheistic ways.
She then marries John Rolf and goes to England. She is happy in England, but longs to return to her home in Virginia with her baby son and husband. She never makes it. She dies, on a boat, in an English harbor.-This is a really quick summary-but you get the idea!
At the end of the book, Jessica and I discuss how the book made us feel, what we liked about the story what we didn't like.
I went first. I told Jessica that I felt ' Pocahontas was better off before the Colonists ever came.
They brought disease, stole things from the tribe, took land, kidnapped Pocahontas, (sexually abused her while in Henricus) Dressed her in English clothes, changed her name, and then took her to a foreign country where she died as a very young woman still. (Her life ahead of her)
I liked the idea of Pocahontas never meeting the settlers, never hurting, or sad.
Just enjoying the unadulterated forest of Virginia for her entire life. Marrying a fellow Indian prince and living to a ripe old age in a warm Wigwam somewhere. I felt like she had been cheated by the English, and it wasn't fair!'
Jessica looked at me and simply said. 'I know what you mean, mom, but if the settlers had never come, and never took her to Henricus, she never would've learned to read the Bible, or became a Christian-and then when she died, she wouldn't have gone to heaven'
EXCUSE ME WHILE I PICK MY JAW OFF THE FLOOR-WHAT?!?!? Did my little 8 year old child just tell me a basic biblical truth that I hadn't even CONSIDERED, regarding the eternal life of Pocahontas? Yes, yes she did. I am quite proud of Jessica for realizing something that is more important than fairness, or happiness of an individual-The significance of knowing the Creator of the Universe has forgiven you, is all that matters.
