Pioneer Days : Discover the Past with Fun Projects, Games, Activities, and Recipes (American Kids in History Series)

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Summary: Be careful with Native American activities
Review: Apologies--I haven't read this book yet, but I had to say something about this point. While Wiley & Son's activity & craft books are generally outstanding, there is a potentially serious problem with this one. The Hopi and Navajo activities included here should be handled with extreme care.

Hopi kachina dolls and Navajo sand paintings are both sacred items in their cultural context. While they are commonly promoted as tourist items and (wrongly) as appropriate "multi-cultural" activities for children, a settler in the southwest in 1843 would most likely *not* have encountered them unless they were actively involved with the Hopi or Navajo to the extent of becoming tribal members active in the Hopi or Navajo religions.

Kachinas are deities for the Hopi, interceding between humans and higher powers along the same lines as Catholic saints. Kachina dolls are representations of the kachinas, given to children to teach them about the different spirits, what they wear and how they act. The kachina spirits spend half of each year living among the Hopi villagers in the form of costumed dancers, in a cycle of often playful but still sacred festivals.

Navajo sand paintings are sacred components of healing ceremonies, which can last several nights (the length depending on which ceremony it is). The painting is made near the beginning of the ceremony, as a map for the spiritual journey the person will undergo, and is erased at the end.

White settlers in the Southwest might have seen Hopi kachina dolls held by children, and might have witnessed Hopi kachina dances (probably from a distance); but Navajo sand paintings they would *not* have seen unless they were part of a healing ceremony.

If you use the Native American sections of this book, please do so only with the understanding of the sacred nature of these activities, with proper respect for their meaning. Do a little more research, and make sure both you and the children grasp the nature of the belief systems that Hopi kachinas and Navajo sand paintings represent. To do these activities with your kids is a little like playing at making Catholic communion bread and having a mock Eucharist ceremony.

Thanks for reading!

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Summary: This book brings the Pioneer life into *our* lives.
Review: PIONEER DAYS is a wonderful hands-on approach to teaching our children the pioneer lifestyle. The book follows a ficticious family thru the year 1843 and allows you to learn with your children what life on the homestead was like, including crafts, recipes, games and more. I would recommend it to homeschoolers especially as a good source for pioneer study. It has a good bibliography in the back for additional readings on the time period, including the LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE series. If you are hooked with this style of learning, there are other titles in this series (AMERICAN KIDS IN HISTORY) with which you may continue your study of American History.