Right before Halloween, our local Middle School had a "dress up" day. Whoever wished to could wear costumes to school that day. The majority of the boys, chose to opt out, the girls, well they chose to dress as Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, and Pamela Anderson. Only fitting since these seem to be the "heroes" of the times for young girls.
My heroes? Well of course, Meg, Jo, Amy and Beth! When I was a young girl, I couldn't read "Little Women" without being drawn into their lives. I wanted their story to continue forever, while I waited nearby watching their every move.
Lesson plans for "Little Women" are vast, I am going to attempt here to point you to a few of the good ones. First of all, owning the book is a plus. Every book store and library in the country carries "Little Women". If for some reason though, you cannot get the book, it is published online, chapter by chapter:
Background and Key facts before reading:
Online Field Trip to the Alcott Home
My daughter struggled a bit with the vocabulary, here are a few of the vocabulary words you may want to conquer before beginning:
Acquiesce
Adorn
Amicable
Anoint
Ardent
Bequeath
Beseech
Blight
Blithe
Bounden
Candor
Capricious
Cherub
Copious
Demeanor
Cultivate
Emaciate
Expatiate
Frolic
Gallant
Obscure
Pettish
Propitiate
Reverie
Remonstrate
Peremptorily
Irascible
Peruse
Obstinate
Exult
My daughter was a little ticked off at Louise Alcott for her strange use of words. I told her, "Wait until you get a load of Shakespeare!"
Online quizzes and lesson plans:
This site has excellent ideas for lesson plans, but it is geared towards the classroom. Some of them could easily be adapted into a home-school lesson plan:
Cheerful Hearts and Willing Feet
Sharing this book with your daughter will bring on its own lessons, and create in her wonderful memories of her own. I have to admit, that once the fear of the vocabulary was diminished, this was one of the best home-school lessons we have had.
Enjoy!
Posted by: Heather of http://gracedbychrist.com on Saturday, December 8, 2007
Ugh. The first bit is just creepy. Anyweay, Little Women is an old favorite in our house. We found that listening to the books like this on audio book or read aloud first helped with vocabulary. Of course we use half these words already so the kids are kind of used to running into extended vocabulary.