To begin our Language Arts studies for the year, I chose to concentrate on Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. I have a soft spot for the Transcendentalists, having grown up in the Boston area, swimming in Walden Pond in the summer, and being one of 4 daughters myself. (My placement in my family would make me "Beth" but I have much more of Jo's temper than Beth's meekness and timidity.) I hoped Gabby would enjoy this story of 4 playful, imaginative girls and thought it very likely she would identify with Jo, as I did. (Who doesn't?)
I found a workbook to go along with our reading. It is meant for a fifth grade class using an abridged version of the book. Gabby is in 7th grade and I wanted her to read the real thing. (Why does anyone ever bother with abridgements anyway?) We used the workbook as a jumping off point. I liked the character guide where the student keeps track of descriptive words for the main characters and sketches pictures of them. We also used the writing prompts and some of the discussion questions.
To go along with some of those discussion questions, I found some complimentary activities in Gabby's church workbook. For one, she was supposed to write in her journal about modesty, dating, and the media. I thought this went well with the chapter Meg Goes to Vanity Fair, where Meg is tempted to turn from her values. I encouraged Gabby to write about Meg's experiences and what she thinks of them and apply them to herself in a modern context. See Personal Progress Choice and Accountability 6. I also used an activity where Gabby had to learn about a gospel principle. I thought exploring sacrifice would help her appreciate Jo's sacrifice of cutting her hair. (Gabby also has very long her that she refuses to cut!) Gabby wrote an essay to share with the family. She used the scriptures and online church resources and, of course, the account from Little Women. See Personal Progress Knowledge 4.
I've already shared about our field trips to Orchard House and Fruitlands Museum in an earlier post. They made the story come alive and helped us to get to know the author.
I found this great website for learning about the clothing women wore in the 1860s. It has an interactive version where you can add and remove each layer of clothes (except for the chemise!) It is astounding how many layers women wore!!! We used this as a basis for Gabby's major project: sewing a dress similar to what Louisa May Alcott might have worn. First we chose a pattern. Most period patterns are geared toward adult women so we had to choose a girls costume pattern, since Gabby is still small. Thus, her dress has some differences from a traditional 1860s gown: her bodice is sewn into the skirt, her lacing is purely decorative, and we used a zipper rather than buttons. It is also a bit short (Gabby is thin, but tall!) Next, we chose fabric. Somewhere we had read that the Alcotts preferred linen over cotton -- to avoid passive participation in slavery -- so we purchased all linen fabrics for the dress. That made it a bit pricey and reduced our color selection, but Gabby was happy with what she bought. We chose not to worry about our threads, ribbons or lace being cotton or cotton/poly. Here are some pictures of the sewing process:
cutting it out
