And now...presenting...our Year 3 Unit 4 Celebration!  Here are all the books we read and videos we watched over the course of our unit 4 studies: 1876-1900.  We studied many historical themes: the European Imperialism in Africa and its affects, causes and effects of immigration to America, industrial giants who became millionaires, labor unions,  Theodore Roosevelt, and American Imperialism in the Spanish American War and Hawaii.  We also studied all the presidents of the era as well as missionaries around the world. In addition, we studied the events of Europe at the turn of the century that set the stage for World War I.   Furthermore we studied and made Impressionist Art.

      All year my son wanted to portray a Texan cowboy. Cowboys are officially studied in TOG during Unit 3 (1851-1875).  Actually cattle drives reached their peak and demise after 1875, so we saved it for unit 4.  My daughter was Anne of Green Gables. I played a dual role this time: one as a French dancer who had stepped out of one of Renoir's paintings and two, as Hawaii's last reigning monarch, Queen Liliuokalani.

    When we lived in San Antonio several months ago, I had planned on finishing this year with a special treat, by taking the kids to The Old San Francisco Steakhouse.  Because it's pricey, my husband and I haven't been there in years.  But the food is excellent and the atmosphere is historically unique. Since we now live in Northern Virginia and we couldn't go to the steakhouse, we brought the steakhouse to us!  This is the Old Northern Virginia Steakhouse, serving grilled sirloin steak, baked potatoes, salad with ranch dressing and sourdough bread. 

       Immediately, my son got into character as the cowboy.  I plunged in, suggesting the delicious steak we were eating was one of the cattle he had driven in.  He said that the meat had been shipped from a meat packing plant in Chicago.  We played it up and my husband tagged along. We usually have to work to keep our guests on topic historically but this is never a problem with my husband. Although he tries to get the actors in Colonial Williamsburg to reveal their 21st century side, he does the opposite with us.  He is intensely curious with who we are.  So he asked my son lots of questions about being a cowboy. I asked which ranch in Texas he was from.  Hmmmm, he wasn't sure. I asked which city he was from and he said Brownsville.  Wow, all the way down there?  He must be from the King Ranch. "What's that?" he asked.  I told him it was one of the largest ranches in Texas, and is the largest ranch today. It occupies practically the entire southern part of Texas, between Corpus Christi and Brownsville.  Whenever we drove to South Padre Island, we had to drive through the ranch, which takes an hour or two.  Yep, he decided that's who he worked for, the King Ranch.  Then my husband asked about Anne of Green Gables.  My daughter enjoyed portraying her at the same age as Anne when she started giving the recitations. I thought she looked like she had stepped out of the movie.  

   Finally my husband could restrain himself no longer.  Who was I?  I told him it all depended on the moment, as sometimes I am a French dancer who stepped out of a painting and other times I am a Hawaiian queen.  We had the most fun with my French character and I wish I could remember everything.  My family was asking lots of questions, trying to figure out which painting I had stepped out of. I kept everything lighthearted and fun, staying in character.  The looks on their faces were absolutely priceless as they were in amazed disbelief the entire time. I do remember my son asking me what I thought of Pointilism and my character had no idea what that was.  That helped my son date me better.  My daughter was the first to figure out which painting I had stepped out of. My husband didn't seem that interested in the Hawaiian queen. He was more interested in the French lady!  He asked me what I do. "I dance!  I love to dance.  Do you dance, monsieur?"  He replied that it depends.  He liked to square dance.  "Square dance?" I asked, as I wrinkled my nose. "Oh, that's that country dancing they do in America, is it not?"  Yes!  "Oh we have much more refined dancing in Paris."  (They were all looking at me with incredulous smiles on their faces!)  

     After a delicious dinner, we went to the piano to sing cowboy music. Since Queen Liliuokalani was musical, I played the piano for us to sing "Home on the Range."  Then we watched his power point presentation, which he had designed completely by himself. Throughout his presentation, we gathered around the piano to sing various cowboy songs like "Strawberry Roan,"  and in honor of our new home state of Virginia, we also sang "Shenandoah." 

     Then my son did his first person interpretation as a cowboy Rough Rider who fought in the Spanish American War withTeddy Roosevelt. He had fun incorporating some of our hometown of San Antonio. Roosevelt recruited some of the Rough Riders there. San Antonio is also where they trained before going to Cuba. After this we gathered around the piano to sing goodbye to cattle drives with "I'm Going to Leave Old Texas" and "Red River Valley."

     Then my son played a famous march from the era on his fife, "Stars and Stripes Forever."

     Then the cowboy played "Git Along Little Dogie" on the piano.

      My daughter's turn was next as Anne of Green Gables. Here is her recitation of "The Lady of Shallot" Part I...

"The Lady of Shallot" Part II...

     Then she played "Take My Life and Let it Be" on the piano...

      Now it was time for my part as the French lady.  I acted very surprised to see them, since I had just stepped out of a painting! Perhaps they have seen me before, since the painting is quite famous! I showed them the painting of The Ball at the Moulin de la Galette painted by Pierre Auguste Renoir.   My husband took the book to look for me.  "You must be right here!" he gleefully said.  "On no Monsieur, I have stepped out of the painting!" They started laughing. "Don't we all look joyful? That is how Renoir likes to paint. There is too much sadness in the world. He prefers to showcase the joyous and pretty.  Renoir was born in Limoges, France and grew up in Paris, developing his skills at drawing. Eventually he was hired to paint the beautiful ceramics of Limoges, France." I held a Limoge out for them to see in my hand. 

These ceramics take their name from the town and these are authentic pieces.  This Limoge, shaped like a purse, opens up.  (They were eating out of my hand. This was fun!)  

     After I told them how Renoir made the ceramic painting fun, breaking the rules, I explained how he met Monet and developed his new technique...a huge departure from the socially accepted Realism.  The paintings had a certain, hmmm, a certain...Je ne sais quoi ... so much so that one reporter rudely dubbed the art Impressionist, because it only seemed an impression of the real thing. The official name of the new artistic movement was aptly created.  Another aspect of Impressionism is to make the painting look lifelike, despite the blurred edges, with the use of sunlight. If you look at The Ball at the Moulin de la Galette, you will see the dappled sunlight come through the leaves of the trees.  Look at the people.  Some of them are looking at you.  This is another Impressionist trick to allow the blurred edges of the painting seem real.  Don't you think it looks as though one of the people might step out of the painting to talk to you, like I did?  Don't you feel as though you could even step into the painting, yourself?  That is what makes Renoir so wonderful! Alas, the critics do not agree.  C'est la vie!  Renoir keeps painting and painting despite the critics.  Lucky you! In your time you get to enjoy his beautiful works of art.  Before I pop back into the painting, lets go to the museum to enjoy other Impressionist works of art "(my kids' art projects). While I prepared to leave, the kids' were incredulously shocked.  "Mom, where did you learn all that French?"  I just laughed and went to the museum.  Come join me.

     Here are my kids' art where they learned to use short, choppy, unblended strokes of color, like Monet.  (I will post a close-up slide show later.  We are not done with all the projects yet.)

 Here they learned to paint a shimmering sky, like Monet.

 Here they painted reflections like Monet.

That's all the art my daughter had time to do. This is my son's study of a haystack in the snow as influenced by the sun, replicating another Monet piece.

 Everyone knows of Monet's water lillies. Here is my son's 3D interpretation of them. I set them against leftover blue fabric from my Queen Liliuokalani costume.

      Renoir taught him how to proportionally draw a face.

 Cezanne taught him how to do still life. My son also learned how to use color, instead of size, to show perspective, a post-impressionist techniqe.

 Now it was time for me to make costume additions, so that I could become Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii. I based my entire costume around her famous portrait.  I quickly pulled it up on the internet, since I knew my husband would want to know how I decided  on this particular dress.  My husband took the web page I had pulled up, from Iolani Palace and put it on the television.

      While reading Queen Liliuokalani's autobiography last week, I discovered some common bonds to portray.  Interestingly, she wrote about some of the very things I have written about on my blog!  When she traveled to Washington DC, she stayed in a hotel in Alexandria.  One morning she and other dignitaries went to the dock on the Potomac River to board a boat.  While traveling that beautiful spring morning in May, the beautifully aromatic flowers bloomed in abundance. "...as the edifices which mark the sacred spot came in sight, the American flag was lowered, the steamer's bell tolled, the gentlemen removed their hats, and the air of the Star Spangled Banner  was rendered by impressive effect."  She goes on to describe how she was emotionally moved by this event and the tour of the mansion, Mount Vernon where "the rooms occupied by General Washington, General Lafayette, and Martha Washington were opened to us; and we were permitted to enter, and further, to pause in the lady's bedroom to listen to the story of her constancy to the memory of her husband, whose grave she watched, as she sat daily at her window, from the day of his internment to that of her own death.  This story, with the scene of its happening around me as I listened, was most touching to my heart..." As I put this into my own words, emphasizing with varying emotions at the appropriate places, my family smiled and shook their heads that I was able to work in Washington and Lafayette into this interpretation! 

     Queen Liliuokalani came from a highly musical family.  Beautiful music came down through generations, but she was the one to put most of Hawaii's music to paper.  She wrote the famous Aloha Oe after a horseback ride on one of the islands and seeing some lovers bidding adieu.

     Does anyone know how Hawaii became an American possession? For years Americans set up businesses and missionary societies on the islands, becoming one with the people socially. There was much intermarriage, in fact the queen married one of these American businessmen.  Over time, some of the Americans forced the king to write a new constitution giving them power and making the king their puppet. Eventually the kings died out and Queen Liliuokalani assumed the monarchy. Two years later, in 1893, she tried to write a new constitution giving more power to the monarch and returning the franchise (right to vote) to the Hawaiians.  The American businessmen overthrew her kingdom, with the help of American marines. President Cleveland did not support this, but was outvoted by the Congress. Hawaii became a US territory. Later there was an attempt to restore her monarchy by the people.  The American businessmen put her under house arrest in the Iolani Palace and forced her to go through a trial and sign abdication papers. Queen Liliokalani was the last reigning monach of Hawaii, replaced by Sanford Dole who was president of the new republic.

     "Aloha Oe" is now considered symbolic of the farewell to the old Hawaii.  As I played "Aloha Oe" on the piano, the family sang it with me.

      Then I invited the family to a luau. First the kids and I would change into more comfortable clothing. I looked at my husband and said he appeared to be quite comfortable!  (He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt, swim shorts and sneakers.)  The kids and I changed then we came down so that I could present my husband with a lei and welcome him to Hawaii. Then we got the Hawaiian food ready.

     My husband tried to get our tiki torches to work. They came with the house and we were never interested in them.  Recently I realized they'd be perfect for a luau!  However my husband could not get them to work.  Despite giving them fresh fuel the previous homeowner had left for us, the wick was wet from recent rains. Another time.  

My kids and I set the table.

     Everyone helped themselves buffet style in the kitchen, and brought the plates to the table. We had pina coladas (non-alcoholic), crab dip, zucchini boats filled with crab and shrimp filling, shrimp cocktail, Hawaiian banana bread, and fruit salad.  Most everything was made with combinations of Hawaiian ingredients like coconut, banana, pineapple, papaya, macadamia nut, hmmmmm, what else? I can't remember. But it was good!  

     During dinner we talked about favorite/interesting things learned in history during Year 3. They said art!  I repeated..."Historical!" My son said he most enjoyed learning about the Alamo, because that's his history. My daughter said she found Napoleon interesting, in that he appeared every week in one of her government or literature or history readings. My son said he didn't appear in his Dialectic literature selections, but we said he certainly did in the Rhetoric literature. My daughter gave several examples of Napoleon and even Lafayette found in Classical literature.  

     We were going to play limbo but never got around to that.  Instead we settled down to a Hawaiian movie with chocolate macadamia nut coffee from Hawaii and coconut layer cake.  We had a lot of fun and my husband thanked me for inviting him to Hawaii.