So, our plan was to do our planned Ireland Unit Study in one week, but we didn't get to it all, so we finished up this week. We all enjoyed learning about some Irish culture and history!
The Great Hunger (1845-1850) - a.k.a .Irish Potato Famine
- http://www.irishpotatofamine.org/flash.html - This kid-friendly, interactive website was great for learning about the causes of the famine and the conditions the people endured.
- Read Feed the Children First. We skipped over some of the more disturbing recollections of awful conditions and deaths, but they did get enough to learn about the how terrible it was.
Irish cooking
We tried out some Irish cuisine, which included potatoes for 4 out of 5 meals during the week. This is what we tried, in order of how much we liked it:
- Potato & Leek Soup
- Corned Beef and Cabbage - Which is not actually Irish. It's roots are Irish-American.
- Irish Soda Bread - I used this recipe as a base, but added 1/2 cup sugar and raisins
- Beef & Mushroom Pie
- Colcannon
- Boxty (Potato Pancakes)
Folk Tales and Legends
We Read a variety of folk tales and traditional stories from these books:
St. Patrick & St. Brigid
We learned about St. Patrick (book pictured above) and also St. Brigid.
Lapbook
We covered mapwork, flag, time difference, and copywork in our lapbooks (Both Monkey and Bunny made one, even though Bunny wasn't officially homeschooled yet. I wanted to try things out with her and see what she thought about lapbooks) :
Fiction Reading
Magic Tree House - Leprechauns in Late Winter - Jack and Annie go visit Ireland in the 19th century to help Lady Gregory be inspired to bring back Irish legends and culture. (Monkey read this one)
Lara and the Gray Mare - Story of the 9-year-old daughter of the clan leader in 14th century Ireland who gets captured by a rival clan. (Bunny read this one)
