Goin' Up a Yonder

We continued to learn about Slavery this week.  We talked about how the only way slaves were able to survive was through Faith in God and music.  We made our own slave jug band.  We made most of it out of trash...literally.  We got our jug (an old glass salad dressing jar) our harmonica (a broken comb with wax paper on it) and our percussion (two spoons and a drum from an oatmeal container) and made beautiful music.  Maxwell actually had trouble with the jug and comb, but he loved decorating his drum.  I taught them an old african american gospel song called "Goin' up a Yonder" about how now matter how hard you have it in life, you'll be with God and have peace when you die.  I imagine the slaves must have sung songs like that.

We also decorated for easter as an activity.  Maxwell got frustrated since ummm I decorated and kind of pretended he was helping.  I usually try to give a general gist of what the project is and then try to let Maxwell (and Hyrum if he's interested) go to it.  I try to hard not to get too controlling or interfere too much, but well, I didn't do that with the decorations this time..oops.

For our field trip we went to the Church history museum (again.)  They seemed to have just as much fun and Maxwell was determined to dance this time since last time he was too shy.

I kind of had a low key week.  I need to get into gear again.

By the way, a really good picture book about slaves is a book called "Henry's Freedom Box" by Ellen Lavine.  It's about a man who mailed himself to the North in a wooden box after his family got sold away from him.  It's a true story and beautifully done.  I think it helped Maxwell really learn about slavery on his level.