Underground Railroad and Progress Videos

This week Philip has been studying the events leading to the Civil War.  We have done lessons on slavery, abolitionism, Frederick Douglass, Missouri Compromise, The Compromise of 1850, and Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad.  We are following the Complete Book of United States History, Grades 3-5, by McGraw Hill Children's Publishing.

I ask Philip a lot of factual questions about the material, but what is really interesting is now being able to ask Philip's opinion on various matters.  Two days ago, I asked him what he thought of slavery.  His answer:  IT IS WRONG.  IT CARRIED TO EXTREMES A LOT OF (human) NATURE TO ALLOW MISTREATMENT OF PEOPLE.

I have not been much of a video maker, but I have gotten many comments, suggestions, and encouragement to take some videos of me working with Philip.  I was even more motivated after I dug up a video I made last May (click here) which I had forgotten about.  Watching it back and seeing the progress we have made is a great feeling.  I won't make videos a lot, but I'll try to do them once a month or so.

Click here to see Philip answering some questions after a lesson on the Underground Railroad.  

Afterwards, Philip created a story based on the picture below of a slave family being hidden in a snow fort by children of abolitionists pretending to play.  In the distance are two men on horseback searching for the family to capture and return to the slaveholders.  Click here to see him spell his story on the letterboard and transpose it onto a computer by typing. 

  

I am a slave. I am running away. A escape seems to be impossible.  A little child is helping me satisfy my desire for freedom.  She is covering me with snow.  I want to play but I cannot risk being seen so I manage to ask Harriet Tubman how to escape from the south.  She smooths the way to the north.  I am frantic to leave.  I am a slave soon to be free.     

*  A special Thank You to my daughter Lia, age 8, for always being my enthusiastic helper, my videographer, and Philip's greatest cheerleader.