About 3 picture book biographies are scheduled for us year with Ambleside Online Year 3. But I love biographies and especially in our first term this year we read several extra.
For history we were again, reading about Pocahantas when Mockingbird (who wasn't supposed to be listening) piped up "What! John Smith didn't marry Pocahantas--it was some other guy!"
This was after she'd read a picture book bio on her and seen an accurate cartoon depiction of her life--I know it. But not till eavesdropping on her sister's school did the truth trump the Disney impression of a one-time viewing of the movie and mass marketing. It blew her mind, but perhaps the real shocker was the realization that her Disney dolls aren't really married now...
I have an aunt whose daughter is Native American and was never allowed to watch the Disney version. (I think there may have even been spitting involved when the idea was suggested.) My own children have a great-grandfather is full-blooded Mohawk.
We were reading in Our Country of Ours about Pocahontas and found this dated history book to be as politically incorrect and offensive as I did when we read something like "and even though she was a savage and a heathen she was very beautiful". A publishing house was even named "La Belle Sauvage" that existed long after--if not still.
Kingfisher,"That's so funny! cuz they call them savages--and we're indian so we're savages! ha aha ha!"
"Hmmm, A--since this book is calling Native Americans savages--and telling us that they are not as good as the colonists--do you think we should keep reading it for history?"
Bowery Bird gave a quick nod, "Yeah, because everyone can have their own opinion," and a great conversation ensued, and will continue. Maybe about bias in history, maybe just about Pocahantas and her wedding plans...
After this we talked about Pocahantas and her life as a princess in two worlds and what that must have been like, and if they could think of anyone else in history whose life ended up in a completely different world than it began.
Much thought, then G said "Annie Oakley! She was very poor and then she met the Queen!..." then "Me! I am from here, but I went to Missouri--and that's like another world!" no argument there. But then it got a little fuzzy as she shouted out "Cinderella!"--and every Disney princess she could think of...
Other Biographies we've read this year for fun:
Davy Crockett
Daniel Boone
Jane Goodall
George Washington Carver
Mozart
Bach
Sitting Bull
Geronimo
Annie Oakley
Sacagewea
Silent Witness (Civil War)
John Henry's Box
Hans Christian Anderson
Fannie Farmer
Houdini
Leonardo da Vinci
Michelangelo
Florence Nightingale
Charlie Parker (stagecoach driver story we requested for purchase at our library, after learning about her from a tour of a Wells Fargo Station in the Silver Reef ghost town in Southern Utah)
Tony Sarg (Balloons Over Broadway)
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