TOS Crew: Bertie’s War

I love supplementing our history studies with carefully written historical fiction, and so I was excited to receive a copy of Bertie’s War from Kregel Publications, set during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. As a bonus, the Columbus Day Storm is covered–something we’ve heard mentioned on occasion, here in the Northwest, but for the first time really got an understanding of what the storm was like. (Actually, the girls could really relate to this part of the story, after last June’s weird windstorm that–thankfully–turned out to be much less than we’d thought it would be. There was that element of word-of-mouth warnings, the sky turning a weird color, the strange feeling in the air… but thankfully almost no damage, at least where we lived.)

Bertie is 12, and everything has been going wrong for her. It doesn’t help that the world around her seems to be going crazy. There are the big fears–that the Cold War is going to explode, literally, in nuclear devastation. There are smaller fears–her dad’s a logger, a dangerous job. Then there are the everyday fears, like making a fool of herself in front of her schoolmates. In short, Bertie’s shy and afraid of just about everything, and the problem just gets worse as the story goes along. She’s a bright, imaginative child who finds refuge in fantasy and make-believe… and unfortunately, such a refuge is really no refuge at all, solving no problems and even creating problems for Bertie.

The family is nominally Christian–they go to Sunday School and church, and her parents pray, separately and together, though their prayers are silent, so that Bertie never hears examples of someone talking personally to God. Her idea of prayer is the Lord’s prayer, which is fine for rote repetition but, with Bertie’s limited understanding, makes more distance between herself and God, not less.

I’ve heard that the father figures in your life have a lot to do with how you see God. Bertie’s father is cold and critical–though he loves his children, he is not effusive in showing his love. Her grandfather is gruff and demanding, even somewhat abusive. God is not really a part of Bertie’s life, though as the story progresses she begins to grope towards an understanding of His love and care.

Bertie doesn’t have anyone she feels she can trust… not even herself. (She keeps messing up. She’s a kid, finite and fallible, and all the magical thinking in the world is not going to make everything come out right.) The story captures the helpless, hopeless feeling of the children who grew up in the 60’s, listening to increasingly grim news reports, watching people build and stock bomb shelters, participating in “duck and cover” drills in school.

Barbara Blakey, the author, does a good job of painting the everyday details of life, while infusing the story with the constant background tension of the Cold War. In addition, she has provided discussion questions for further study at this link. (Barbara Blakey is the author of the Total Language Plus language arts program.)

Cautions

Bertie’s War is aimed at a reading audience aged 10-14. I deemed the story too frightening for our sensitive 11yo. In addition, there’s a stomach-turning, upsetting scene involving disposal of a nest of baby mice. If you read this aloud, you might want to do some judicious editing.

There was one anachronism that caught my attention. The parents in the story perform CPR on a dying grandparent. That didn’t sound right to me, so I looked up the history of CPR on the web. While mouth-to-mouth resuscitation was invented in 1956 and external chest compressions had been reported as early as 1903, according to the timeline I looked at, in 1962 only doctors would have been trained in CPR, and general public training didn’t take place until the early 1970s.

Supplementation

While reading Bertie’s War we also looked at this ThinkQuest web page for background information and a better idea of the big picture of world events in 1962.

Purchasing information and more reviews

Bertie’s War is available from Kregel Publications for $7.99 (paperback). Check out the publisher’s website for more titles.

More TOS Homeschool Crew reviews can be found here.

Disclaimer: TOS Crew reviewers received a free copy of Bertie’s War for review. Opinions expressed here are those of this reviewer. TOS Crew reviewers receive no monetary compensation for product reviews.

Fundraiser reminder

No, I didn’t post on this earlier, but you may have seen the announcement of this sale earlier and then forgotten about it, like I did.

We’ve been praying for a precious little boy, Noah, for a little over two years now. He has medical issues you can read about at Kate’s blog. Kate’s his mom, by the way.

There’s a special sale to benefit the Estes family. Lots of neat stuff (several hundred dollars’ worth of e-books and MP3 files) for $39, and a drawing for several prize packages.

Here’s Kate’s reminder about the sale:

Less than 14 hours to go . . .

Just a quick reminder that our amazing sale ends at midnight tonight, so if you haven’t taken advantage of this great offer, you’ll need to hurry! While we’re excited at how God is working on OUR behalf through this event, we are equally thrilled at how God is going to bless each of YOU – this package of resources is really, truly fantastic for homeschoolers and non-homeschoolers alike . . . and the chance to get over $350 worth of items for only $39 is a great deal. We have to wait a few days more to allow time for mail-in orders, but I just can’t wait to call up the winners of the prize packages and tell them they won. Some mommies are going to be VERY happy – have you seen those prizes???

In case you haven’t been yet, the site for the sale is http://www.funfoodadventures.com/estes.htm.

Check it out!

The Old Schoolhouse $8 subscription!

Hey, the Old Schoolhouse Magazine is offering a five-year subscription for $39, which works out to less than $8 a year!

Here’s the link: click here

The offer expires in about 3 days, so if you were planning to subscribe, don’t delay.

Study aids…

History lessons certainly go so much better with chocolate.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chocolate.jpg

What are your favorite study aids?

Kitten!

We have had this new kitten 2 weeks! He’s hypoallergenic, so I can breathe, hoorah.

We were really blessed… on the day we picked him up, they were still waiting for the test results and didn’t know quite how low in allergens he might be. One of his littermates had tested pretty high and had to go to a family without cat allergies.

So, I was worried. Here we’d driven 90 minutes to go pick him up, and there was a prospect one or more of us would be allergic to him and have to give him back and wait for another kitten.

The test results came back a few days ago, and he’s the lowest in his litter, allergen-wise!

(Good thing, too. He’s a winsome little thing. We all think he’s cute, except the dog.)

Got any suggestions on how to get the Giant Schnauzer to accept him and stop trying to chase him?

*sigh*

Will post a pic of him later if I can figure out how to get it on the computer.

Here’s the Giant Schnoz, not in chasing mode. (Snuggling, actually. Perhaps she’s part cat.) To give you an idea of how big she is, she’s sitting on the floor with her head on me and paws on the couch, begging to get up on the couch and really stretch out and snuggle.

Lego League Robotics!

The girls’ team went to the state competition for FIRST Lego League on Saturday. Their hard work paid off–they were one of three teams to win an overall third place. I’m told that’s amazing for a rookie team!

Congratulations, Team Zip!

Teacher Appreciation at B&N

I don’t know if it’s all Barnes and Noble stores, or just the one at Clackamas Town Center, but starting Saturday is a Teacher Appreciation week (I think it’s a week, anyhow. Should have written down the dates) where teachers can get 25% off their purchases, personal books and items as well as those used in teaching.

Home Educators can get a teacher’s card with proof that they’re homeschooling.

Speaking of bookstores, we spent an hour or two at Borders last night, after our history co-op let out. I gathered an armful of books and sat in the coffee area, reading, while the girls browsed for books or kits to spend their Christmas gift cards on. It was a relaxing time, and I admit I needed the downtime.

Gift cards to a bookstore, what a wonderful and thoughtful Christmas present from my sister! (Thanks, Sis.)

TGIF

It’s a gray and rainy day, after yesterday’s peeks of sun.

I have a to-do list as long as my arm, and growing…

Why is it that when I get busy about something, all work on the part of the girls seems to stop? Surely they can work independently without me hovering to make sure they’re diligent?

I guess some more character training is in order. *sigh*

Tomorrow is the FIRST Lego League Robotics state competition. I have to admit I’ll miss the fellowship with the other moms of our daughters’ teammates, but I won’t miss the chunks torn out of my schedule.

It’s going to be a very busy weekend. Good thing I’ve got the washing and shopping already done.

Next week’s calendar looks so open and inviting, I hardly know what I’m going to do with myself. (Hah. Lots of running to catch up, I bet.)

1840s Cookery!

Spent the first part of Wednesday at Fort Vancouver, dressed in 1840s costume and acting as a kitchen worker in the Fort kitchen, chopping wood, hauling water, cutting up vegetables, carving the roasted chicken, beating up baked squash with sugar and cinnamon, getting different foods into serving dishes and handing them to another worker who was setting the table.

It was interesting, and yummy, too! (As volunteers, we get to eat the food we cook…)

I wish I’d brought the camera to document some of the work. I’ll try to remember for next time.

TOS Crew: Educaching

I remember, when I was a kid, we’d make up treasure hunts. We’d put some sort of treasure in a jar and bury it in the backyard, or hide it somewhere in the house, make up clues leading to the treasure, and then hide all the clues except for the starter.

Geocaching is sort of like those treasure hunts of my childhood, only better, involving use of a GPS device — what could be better than pushing buttons? With nearly a million geocache locations around the world, there’s a lot of treasure out there to find! (Use an internet search engine to find out more about geocaching, and locations in your area, if this is the first you’ve heard of it and you want to know more.)

Educaching takes the concept a step further. Jason Hubbard and the staff at SDG Creations, Ltd., have worked out a GPS based curriculum for teachers, aimed at grades 4-8, but suitable for multi-level learning and whole families working together. You need to have a GPS device that meets certain minimum requirements (a rocker keypad or joystick, waypoint averaging, decent battery life, and durable waterproof), bought separately.

We learned to use a GPS device when our homeschool science class studied wilderness survival. We used the gadget for the class exercises, and for the three-day camp that followed the course, where we put our new-learned skills to use, collecting water, building a fire with one match, making debris hut shelters, and more.

We used the GPS for some months longer, tracking our progress on Volkswalks (see www.ava.org for more information on their organized walking events) but eventually the GPS took up residence in our “techno” drawer and was sort of forgotten. (I mean, we knew it was there, felt a little guilty at having spent so much money–even though it was a class expense, and we certainly used it during the class and exercises–but really not finding a reason to take it out of the drawer and use it.)

The arrival of the Educaching e-book for review by the TOS Crew changed things. All of a sudden the GPS device was needed! Liberated from its cubbyhole, its face shone with promise and adventure… only the batteries were dead from long inactivity.

One new set of batteries later, the adventure began.

Well, not quite.

I held my breath after reading the introductory section of the e-book, detailing the required GPS features–our device was several years old. Would it measure up?

(Side note: I doubly bless our science teacher. She made a group purchase, for the class, after doing a lot of research on GPS units. She got a good price–though it seemed spendy to us at the time–and as a result even our older model had the features we needed for educaching.)

To summarize the experience, educaching is sort of like any of the science experiments you might find in a textbook. Sometimes it works better than at other times. It’s a good idea to really know how to work with your GPS device before you try to do a lesson. I strongly urge you (unless you’re already very familiar with the workings of your GPS) to go through the preliminary exercises in the teacher training, and make up additional exercises if you have to, before actually hiding boxes and hoping your students can find them (for one example).

The Educaching manual is well organized and easy to use. It begins by defining terms and explaining GPS features, as well as laying the foundation for using educaching with students. (Homeschoolers don’t necessarily need to get a principal’s permission to hide “treasures” on a school campus, but if you’re working outside your own yard you’ll need to get permission from anyone who owns the land where you’re hiding your caches.)

In the teacher training section, you’ll find information on promoting teamwork, as well as a step-by-step plan for introducing GPS use to your students.

A series of 20 lesson plans follows, divided by ability (beginner, intermediate, advanced, depending on your familiarity with using a GPS device as well as the time required, start to finish, to complete the lesson). Learning to use a GPS is a sort of by-product of these lessons. I mean, you use the GPS device to set up (if you’re the teacher) and find (if you’re the student) stations where the students do educational activities: observe, measure, calculate, record, etc. The lessons are math- and science-based, and align with national standards. The GPS is not the focus of the lesson, it’s merely a tool that adds interest and excitement.

For example, learning about the different sorts of triangles can be sort of ho-hum. You (if you’re the student) draw them on the board. You click on them in a computer program. You color them on a worksheet. (Are we done yet?)

Or… you lay out a giant triangle (right, equilateral, isoceles, or scalene) in a field. You have to figure out how to achieve the prescribed angles, how to make sure the sides are the right lengths. When your triangle is perfect, you use your GPS to record the waypoints where the vertices lie. Then go inside and accurately record the location of your triangle on a map! It’s a little more time consuming, perhaps, but it is definitely hands-on learning.

Reproducible field sheets are provided for each lesson plan, for your students to record their findings and calculations.

Most of the lessons require a fair amount of teacher prep time, for you’re laying out a course, after all, filling containers with materials or clues or problems to solve and recording coordinates for your students to follow.

The book concludes by addressing practical questions, such as how many GPS devices might be needed for a class (for our family, that means one, shared by everyone, in part because that’s what we have), and how to write a grant request to purchase GPS devices for a school. (Hmm, I wonder if our homeschool co-op might want to look into that idea?) “Beyond the Basics” is the final section, going beyond the lessons with ideas for expanding an educaching program, including forming a club. The authors say from the start that the Educaching book is intended as a jumping-off place; the included lessons are just the beginning of the adventure.

For example, we’re starting to plan summer activities. On a group campout, how about a treasure hunt leading up to a meal? Hide various canned goods and have students add each can to the pot as it’s found, a sort of variation on Stone Soup? The girls think it’s got possibilities…

Go to the Educaching website for more information. Here you’ll find an informational video, answers to frequently asked questions, and ordering information.

The 116-page Educaching Teacher Manual is available at the website for $32 plus shipping and handling. It includes a CD of reproducible student forms. You can also download samples at the website to get an idea of a lesson.

To see more TOS Homeschool Crew reviews of Educaching, click here.

Disclaimer: The publisher provided a free PDF download copy of Educaching to TOS Crew reviewers who already owned or were willing to purchase a GPS device to use with the book. TOS Crew reviewers receive no monetary compensation for using products and writing their impressions.