Biographies

One of the things that Joy and I have been up to in the past couple of months is reading biographies. There are tons of well-written youth biographies in our public library, and we are checking them out three or four at a time. I decided to do this when someone mentioned Abraham Lincoln, and Joy said, "Who's that?"

I have tried to choose biographies from different eras, fields of accomplishment, and types of people. We have read about Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Ben Franklin. We've also read about Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr, and Rosa Parks. I've read to Joy about Handel, Rembrandt, and Alexander Graham Bell.

After reading three or four biographies, I realized that we needed to put the people in historical perspective, so I created a GIANT time line.

I started by putting Joy's lifetime, my own, and Joy's dad's lifetime on the time line. I hoped this would give her a little perspective as we added others. She noted that the time line was a lot like our number line, and I pointed out that the numbers on our time line were 10 years apart (just like the red TENS on our number line).

As we added Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Joy exclaimed, "He didn't live very long!" This was proof to me that she truly understood what the time line represents. She was also impressed that both Mom and Dad were alive when Dr. King was alive.

I highlighted a section of the time line for the Civil War because so many of our biographies dealt with people who lived during it. As Abraham Lincoln was one of our first biographies, his lifeline isn't marked on our time line (yet). Joy is starting to understand that many of those living during the Civil War were greatly affected by it.

Joy is very interested in art and music, so we've included several people in each category. I started playing music or showing her pictures by the artists as we learned about them. She has since decided that she loves classical music! I catch her playing classical music on the iPad as often as her favorite Barbie movie soundtrack! A benefit of the biographies project.

This project has been so successful in introducing Joy to many people and eras that I think we'll continue it for the foreseeable future, even if she attends a public school. It's even been interesting to me to see the lifetimes of these people on the same time line! I have all kinds of questions that I'd never thought of before, like, "What did Mozart think about the American Revolution?"

I love learning, and I love the spark of interest I'm seeing in Joy as we learn about these people and their lives. I would recommend this project for any family!