Tall Tales and Legends

Our first week of homeschooling we decided we had better get ourselves familiar with our local library.  There is a small branch just down the street from us.  Fortunately the Hennepin County Library has 41 branches and I can sit at my computer to order anything I want to be delivered to my local branch. I love how technology has innovated library services.

One of the first things I discovered at our local library was a series of videos produced by Schlessinger Media.  The videos I noticed were all Tall Tales and Legends.  I have since discovered there are a ton of different subjects covered by this company.  I snatched up all the Tall Tales videos I could spot and when I got home I ordered up the rest of the Tall Tales series as well as books about the same stories.  The last two weeks we have been discussing Tall Tales and Legends.  We have used them to discover geographical places and historical time periods that we have goggled.  We have compared and contrasted them.  We have mapped them.  JD has been using them for a writing and art project. 

I knew this was a topic we could expand as much or as little as we wanted.  I did not think at first about how well it would tie into our study of Pioneers.  We have studied 10 historical and fictional characters so far.  Tomorrow we finish up with Annie Oakley.   Some characters we have had only books for.   Most of them we have had a video for and also read at least one book or found their story on line. As I look at different resources about Tall Tales and Legends, I am finding that we could go on forever.  We have only done American Folklore after all and haven't even covered all of that.  I am ready to find something new to get excited about though so we are finishing up. Next week we will watch the final video of the series, "Creating a Tall Tale" and both boys will be writing their own story.

Some of the characters I had not heard about but they all gave us glimpses into American History and Geography.  Many of the characters had issues with progress in the form of the steam engine.  Schlessinger Media also had a video about steam power so that is going to be a science topic for us to look into.

I am grateful for library resources and grateful for google.  I don't know how anyone can homeschool without these fabulous tools.

Our Map Key.  JR learned what one is.

We have followed rivers and train lines with some characters.

JD is making a book with the characters in it. He made the cover with a picture of people telling stories around the campfire since most stories have been passed down orally.  I thought it was quite clever.

This is his favorite page so far.  He documents the characters, extraordinary happenings and his favorite part of the story, then he draws the picture.  I think his pictures are turning out pretty good.

Characters we have covered:

John Henry

Pecos Bill

Paul Bunyan

Mike Fink

Davy Crockett

Calamity Jane

Old Stormalong

Casey Jones

Mose Humphreys

Johnny Appleseed

Annie Oakley