Columbus Day and Chimichangas

With all of the chaos involved in planning our move while spending much of our time commuting to Lexington for our homeschooling co-op and other activities, I didn't really plan anything school-wise for Columbus Day. A surprise visit yesterday from Kelly's parents on what is also Canada's Thanksgiving Day called for a meal out at the local Mexican joint, since Bonnie made a pretty reasonable argument that we needed to eat tacos to celebrate her Canadian heritage. Turns out that my idea of a reasonable argument is pretty much, "Hey, Mom, can we have Mexican food for supper?" But I digress...

So as I said, I didn't have much planned for Columbus Day, but being me, I still made time for Bonnie to read the chapter on Columbus's "discovery" of the Americas in Howard Zinn's A Young People's History of the United States.

In addition, I got my hands on a copy of Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years, which contains many resources for teaching about the impact of Columbus's arrival in the Americas. As the editors state, "Our goal is not to idealize native people, demonize Europeans, or present a depressing litany of victimization. We hope to encourage a deeper understanding of the European invasion's consequences, to honor the rich legacy of resistance to the injustices it created, to convey some appreciation for the diverse indigenous cultures of the hemisphere, and to reflect on what this all means for us today." I'm going to use the book for a lengthy history unit.

Has everyone heard of the Zinn Education Project? It's a comprehensive, free resource for locating materials to teach the people's history in a worldwide context. There are free lesson plans and lists of resources. In short, it's awesome! I first learned about the Rethinking Columbus book there, and also found several appropriate books for Latino Heritage Month.