Weekly Wrap-up: Ireland Unit Study

Since my kids are half-Irish, and St. Patrick's Day was last week, it seemed a great time to learn a bit about their Irish heritage.  To be honest, we have done a lot more on the Chinese side than the Irish side, in terms of teaching our kids about the cultures of their ancestry.

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)

Ireland Unit Study

With St. Patrick's Day coming up this week, we are going to do a week on Ireland this week. I'm excited for the kids to explore their Irish heritage (they are half-Irish)!

These are our plans:

Geography:

• Map of Ireland - label major cities and landmarks, and also family origins of paternal grandparents

History & Culture:

• Watch videos at: http://www.history.com/topics/st-patricks-day

• A Day in the Life of an Irish boy: http://www.timeforkids.com/destination/ireland/day-in-life
• Read "Brigid’s Cloak" - Legend about St. Brigid
• Read "St. Patrick's Day
• Potato Famine - Interactive website for kids about conditions during the potato famine
• Read "Feed the Children First- Irish Memories of the Great Hunger"

Cooking: 

• Try out recipes - including Irish soda bread

Creative Project:

• Lapbook - We will use some of this free lapbook

Reading

• Selections from this Book list for kids, including traditional Irish folk tales and historical fiction.

Language Arts:

• Copywork of Irish Blessings: http://www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/Blessings/Bless.html

Art:

• Bell Pepper Shamrock: http://www.allkidsnetwork.com/crafts/st-patricks-day/bell-pepper-shamrock-craft.asp 

Additional Resources:

Irish Culture and Customs Website  

 Pictures of Giant’s Causeway

I'll post our actual reading selections and the final lapbook on our Weekly Wrap-up at the end of the week!