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Dear Families,
Welcome back to class, I hope your fall break was well spent! Mine was filled with a little R and R.
Today in class we covered the Missionaries of New France. We discussed Blessed Bishop Laval. Being the first Bishop of Quebec, he humbly shared our faith with the Indians traveling by foot and canoes. He fostered many devotions among his people; a devotion to the Immaculate Conception, St. Anne, the Holy Angels and the Holy Family.
We then read about St. Marie of New France, an Ursuline Sister. She arrived in 1639 and organized a school for both Indian and French girls. Bringing her talents to New France, she cared for the sick and created many resources to share the faith in multiple Indian languages.
Today we added to our timeline and made sure we all had updated note cards of our Key players.
In geography, we discussed key aspects of Indian culture, the impact of the Fur Trade, and the Great Lakes. We ended class with a debate style conversation on why Indians would be interested in trading their resources for a European gun. We spoke about the advantages and disadvantages of this trade.
Homework:
Read: The Missionaries of New France (pg33-35)
Color: Page 26 in Life in Colonial America
Prepare Project - Handed out in class
God Bless,
Olivia Crum
Dear Families,
Today's class was focused on French Explorers in the New World. The image for the French was explorers in a canoe. We compared this to the Spanish image of the soldier on the horse and noted that the French were peacemakers, while the Spanish were warriors in the New World. The motives of the King of France, however, were not as noble as those of the Spanish Kings and Queens. The French King, at first anyway, was solely interested in material gain, he did not care about the spreading of the Catholic Faith and the souls of the Indians. Luckily the first explorers who came to "New France" were godly men who loved their faith.
The first explorer sent by the King of France was Verrazzano, an Italian. The king wished for him to find a Northwest passage to the Indies. Verrazzano sailed from North Carolina to Newfoundland along the coast and then had to turn back for the winter. He made lots of helpful maps that would be useful to further explorers, but otherwise nothing much came of those voyages as the king had been taken captive in war during his absence.
A few years later, however, as the king was making a pilgrimage to Mont St. Micheal, in gratitude for his release, he ran into a man named Jacques Cartier. Cartier begged that the king would send him to the New World to explore and continue looking for a Northwest passage. The abbot of the monastery highly recommended Cartier to the king and so he agreed. Cartier made three voyages and his explorations allowed France to lay claim to Canada. During his 1st voyage he discovered a large gulf on the feast of St. Lawrence, he accordingly named it after the saint. On his next voyage he sailed up the broad river that emptied into the Gulf if St. Lawrence, the St. Lawrence river. While sailing up the river he passed a cliff which would become the citadel of Quebec and further up he passed a large hill, which he called "Mount Royal," now Montreal. On his third voyage Cartier tried to establish a settlement, but over half of those who came along (convicts given the choice between settlement or death) died during the harsh winter and the survivors refused to stay the following spring. Cartier was unsuccessful in finding a passage and establishing a settlement, but he had paved the way for Samuel Champlain who would start the first permanent settlement at Quebec 75 years later. Cartier also modeled a peaceful and loving way of dealing with the Indians that those after him would follow. He was very friendly with the majority of the Indian tribes, who actually asked him to pray over their sick.
Champlain, who is known as the Father of New France made 22 voyages in his lifetime back and forth between the New World and France. He first set sail in 1603. The King had named him the "royal geographer" and he traveled up and down the St. Lawrence river and many others establishing trade with the Indians, looking for good places to establish settlements, writing descriptions of the country and its inhabitants and drawing maps to send back to France and the king. Champlain was the 1st man to explore and map the great lakes! As mentioned Champlain also help found the first permanent settlements in New France, the chiefest of which was Quebec. Champlain like Cartier was very friendly with the Indians and treated them with great respect. The only tribes he had trouble with were the Iroquois, who would become mortal enemies to the French.
During our geography portion of class we reviewed some terms we had discussed in past weeks and learned new definitions for River, Stream, and Gulf. We also talked about the importance of rivers and lakes in the voyages of the French explorers. This was followed by a great discussion regarding the pros and cons of using canoes for reliable transportation. We ended class making paper origami canoes and of course decorating them.
Homework:
Finish reading Samuel Champlain for week 6 (10-21)
Geography Worksheet
Enjoy your time off during fall break!
God Bless,
Olivia Crum
Dear Families,
Today we covered Saints of South America tracing the geography of the land as we went along. St. Jose de Anchieta is known as “the apostle of Brazil.” He was a Jesuit priest who was sent to Brazil after an accident caused his back to dislocate and become an “s” as the doctors thought the climate would be good for his health. Despite this terrible injury St. Jose spent 44 years teaching the Indians, establishing peace, founding communities (he was involved with the founding of both Sao Paulo and Rio de Janero), writing plays and literature, walking everywhere and working tirelessly to bring all to Christ. He wrote so extensively that he is known as the father of Brazilian literature.
In Peru there were 4 great saints who combated the seeds of evil and distrust that had been sown by Pizarro’s greed. St. Rose of Lima and St. Martin de Porres offered their lives in sacrifice to bring unity to the peoples living together in Lima. Thanks to their prayers and penances the relations between the Indians, Spaniards, and Africans (who were brought as slaves) were eased. St. Turibius the bishop of Lima also worked tirelessly to bring peace and the love of Christ to all within his diocese of Peru. His diocese was over 170.000 square miles and he is said to have traversed it three times caring for his flock! It is also estimated that he baptized half a million people—an average of 55 a day!
St. Francis Solano also was a missionary in Peru, but he wished to convert the most barbaric of the Indian tribes. They were so fierce that no European had made it out of their territory alive.
We also covered St Peter Claver’s work in Colombia.
During the 17th and 18th century the Jesuits started “Reductions” in Brazil and Paraguay (which included at this time Uruguay and Argentina). These were communities that were similar to the Franciscan Missions. They tended, however, to be just for the Indians. One of the goals was to separate the Indians from the Europeans to shield them from the bad morals they had fallen into without civilization and to protect the Indians from being enslaved. The Indians were taught the faith and special skills at the Reductions just as at the Missions.
Students were also given a map on which they should identify and then memorize the countries in South America we covered today (Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina. Bonus: Chile) The students also need to start reading through the Champlain book as after break we will be moving on to the French settlement of North America.
Homework:
Read: Missionary Heroes in New Spain; Start reading the book on Champlain
Complete Worksheet
Geography: practice S.A. map
Thank you for all you do to prepare your students for class.
God Bless,
Olivia Crum
Dear Families,
Another great class under our belts. Your children continue to impress me with their previous knowledge on the content we are covering. I love hearing tidbits of relatable history, specifics of important historical players or even just their original thoughts on what we are discussing. We have such an amazing class!
Today, we covered the conquest of Faith in the New World. Last week we had discussed Cortes and Pizarro conquering the Aztec and Inca Empires. In today's class we covered Our Lady's role as "La Conquistadora" of the Catholic Faith. While Cortes was intensely concerned with bringing the Faith to the Aztecs and sent for Franciscan missionaries as soon as he conquered Mexico City, the success of the Franciscans was only moderate. Because not all of the Spanish treated the Aztecs well, but some instead took advantage of them, many of the Aztecs were distrustful of the Spanish religion and thought they were unloved by the "God" of the Spaniards. That all changed with the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 1531. After Our Lady appeared as an Aztec Princess, 9 million Aztecs entered the church in 8 years!
Having gone through the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe and her influence, we learned about a couple prominent Franciscan missionaries and the Missions that the Franciscans established in the Southwest. Fr. Juan de Padilla was the first Franciscan martyr. He traveled with Coronado through the southwest of the US. When Coronado returned he stayed behind to minister to the Indians with whom he had success. After a while he decided to travel into Kansas to convert the Indians there and was killed by these Indians who were unfriendly to the tribes Fr. Juan had been working with.
Fr. Junipero Serra was, of course, another great Franciscan missionary. He walked all over California starting missions despite the fact that he had a painful infection in his leg. He personally started 9 of the California missions. Another 12 were set up after his death. The missions were important for the integration and well being of the Indians. The mission was a community with a church, school, blacksmith's quarters etc. The Indians, Franciscans, and Spanish all lived close together. At the mission the Indians were ensured fair treatment and taught new skills, how to farm, and the faith.
To end class we reviewed our narrative rough draft and each student was given feedback and ways to improve upon their writings. To further add detail to their narratives, I have copied a little list of questions that were used in previous years teaching this course. I asked the students to try and use both linking verbs and action verbs as they compose their final draft. As well as looking for strong verbs to use in the place of more common verbs.
With our few remaining minutes we played the very intense "name game". The students quickly adjusted to the rules and enjoyed getting some of their extra energy out.
Possible Questions for Narrative:
Who are you?
What do you think of your general?
Why are you on this expedition?
What happens to you and your fellow soldiers?
Where did you land?
Where do you go to?
Homework:
Read: Soldiers and Saints
Color: Pages 6-7, 16-17, 18 in Exploration of North America and Page 4,40 in Life in Colonial America
Writing: Final Copy of Writing Assignment
Challenge work: read pages 49-67 in From Sea to Shining Sea.
God Bless,
Olivia Crum
Dear Families,
It was great seeing the whole school together for pictures, everyone looked great!
We accomplished so much today, including the preparation of our timelines and notecards for the semester.
The focus of today's class was Spanish expansion in New Spain with particular emphasis on Cortes and the conquest of the Aztec Empire. The Aztecs and "American Indians" were briefly contrasted and the Aztec society and its bloodthirsty gods were discussed before we moved into an account of Cortes campaign. Cortes' great faith was discussed and compared with Columbus'. Both men had a great devotion to Mary (Cortes' banner was an image of Mary) and a desire to spread the faith. Cortes' task was more difficult in a sense though as he had to overcome the religion of the demon gods of the Aztecs before he was able to spread the faith.
Francisco Pizarro and his conquest of the Inca empire was also covered. We noted that Pizarro was unfortunately a greedy man whose sole motive was material gain. This resulted in bad treatment of the Incas and consequently a bad relationship for at least a time between the Incas and the Spanish. It was noted that throughout New Spain that there was a mixture of good men such as Cortes and Columbus who truly cared about the faith and the natives and men who were only out for personal gain or glory who tended to see the natives as useful only as a means of gain.
The explorations of Ponce de Leon, Ferdinand de Soto, and Francisco Coronado were also briefly touched upon. After going through these we sketched an approximation of these advances on a blank map in order to see just how much of North and South America the Spanish controlled at one time. Around this time period they controlled almost all of South America, Central America, and about half of what is now the United States!
Homework for next Tuesday is to write a rough draft of a narrative from the perspective of one of Cortes' soldiers. The narrative could describe the shock of the soldier at the differences between the Aztecs and the Spanish. Or it could focus more on the battle for Mexico city etc. It should be a paragraph long (3-5).
Homework:
Read pages 15-23 in AS Supplement (Our Lady of Guadalupe and Carlo’s Stories)
Start Narrative draft - Template provided if useful
Feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns!
God Bless,
Olivia Crum
Dear Families,
It was wonderful to be back in the classroom, welcomed by warm smiles and new faces. I am looking forward to being with your child in class this year.
Today, each student was given their syllabus, and grammar pacing guide.
We started class by identifying what we generally think of as American History and then talked about how there are actually three nations who play a pivotal role in the history of America. From there we dove straight into the first nation, Spain, and how she became involved through Christopher Columbus and his quest for an easier route to the Indies. We discussed Columbus' faith and great devotion to Mary and his motivations for trying to find another way to the Indies.
For the last 45 minutes of class we learned about the navigational advances of the time that made Columbus' voyage possible, the excitement and drive of the age to sail further away making new discoveries, and the different reasons that inspired these navigators. We discussed in particular Portugal's efforts to sail around Africa to get to the Indies. Towards the end we traced the routes we discussed and reviewed our seven continents and five oceans.
Homework:
Complete provided worksheet
Read page 13 and 27 in AS Supplement (Ships from Spain and I am the Atlantic Ocean)
Continue reading Samuel Champlain (final discussion week 6)
Items needed for next weeks class:
AS Supplement Book
Notecards and safe place to keep
God Bless,
Olivia Crum
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