We started the first day after a long afternoon of fun in the sun so I was a bit worried that it would be hard to keep the scouts’ attention. How wrong I was!
We lay out our stack of books from the library and the fabulous children’s world map by Eeboo that I ordered last week. It’s laminated and whimsical — kid-friendly all around. That said, the scouts weren’t particularly interested in it at first, but as soon as we started talking about the explorers and their journeys from Europe to what is now North America, the girls perked up. They were quick to trace the course that the ships may have taken and were interested in the ways that the English, Spanish and French had influenced the parts they explored and settled in.
We used the book Exploration Into North America as our guide, and I thought it was a great source because it focused quite a bit on the Native Americans and not just the European Settlers. The girls took notes in their journey books and will post some of their favorite facts tomorrow 🙂
The Native American story was particularly interesting to us because we live in a small town on the coast of New England and many neighborhoods, roads, and landmarks have Native American names–including our school! My oldest daughter had recently read a biography of Sacagawea and was happy to share her story. We looked through the book North American Indian and it was neet to see the many ways that early american life was actually quite similar to ours today. The Native Americans even had a sport much like lacrosse! One big surprise was the portrait of Pocahontas. The scouts were quick to note that she looks nothing like the Disney princess!
Globe Scouts 