Because we are fairly relaxed homeschoolers, many times people ask us how we know the kids are learning, because we don't follow a rigid curriculum. So, I thought I'd give an example of our family learns, even when we don't have everything planned out ahead of time.

A couple of weeks ago, while planning one of our many marathon trips to the library, I asked the girls to each pick out someone from history they wanted to learn more about. Sage (7) chose the Pharaoh Rameses, Anya (10) chose Albert Einstein, and Maya just refused to choose. She said she didn't want to choose ANYONE. I said that it could be anyone from anywhere in time, who did anything at all, surely there was someone she would find interesting to read about? She replied calmly, "All through time, even from the beginning, there's no one! They're all boring! The only person I want to hear anything about is ELVIS!"

You have to understand that Maya is my child most gifted with drama, but even so her request was a bit shocking. Not in the delivery, but in the fact that I wasn't sure where she'd heard about Elvis, we don't own any of his music or watch his movies or anything. I realize you can hardly breathe in our culture without some reference to him, but what I didn't realize was that she'd been paying attention.

Well, they have books on Elvis. And CDs, and movies. So, off we went, and even I, after doing this "relaxed homeschool" thing for a few years now, was shocked at how much we've gained from studying this iconic figure.

First, you have to understand that this has all been culled from a series of involved discussions we've had while we've been poring through the media we picked up at the library. Some came from questions I asked them, some came from questions they asked me. So, I didn't write this all down ahead of time and "cover" it, I kept track of it as was followed the rabbit trails through the material. The facts came from the literature, the insights are ours.

Social Studies:
1950s-1970s America-We talked about what America was like then, so that they could properly understand events in their context. We talked about how rapidly the social and political landscape changed during this time.

Racial Relations-We discussed how some early animosity developed towards Elvis because he "sounded black" and had audiences from all backgrounds at his concerts. This took a lot of explaining because, while I don't believe we've achieved a perfect society in any way, any prejudices do seem to be far less overt now.

Mob Mentality/Stalker Mentality-We talked about how people behaved towards him, and how over time he was less and less free to go out in public. It took a while to explain to my kids how people who liked someone could hurt him, so I used the example from earlier that week of their friend Joseph coming over to play. I reminded them that when Joseph came in, they all ran up and hugged him, because they were glad to see him. So many people were glad to Elvis that they could physically hurt him and each other. Plus, he had people waiting outside of his house, etc.

Obsession-I don't know how else to describe the idea that people think he's still alive.

Science:
Infant Mortality-Elvis was a surviving twin, so we talked a lot about what the special risks in pregnancy are for multiples, including nutrition, cord and placenta issues, and birth accidents. Also we talked about how pregnancies are not equally risky throughout the world now, and even here in America how our twins (Maya and Sage) had a much better chance than Elvis and his brother in the 1930's.

Changes in Recording Technology Over Time-While listening to some of his early music, it is possible to hear differences in sound quality and depth of the recordings. Even just over the course of his life, huge changes were made in the number of tracks that could be processed into on recording, as well as the quality of sound systems for both capturing the music and replaying it. Too bad my friend Mark of Wilberforce isn't here, after putting his own album together he could have probably explained this to them in much better detail!

Fine Arts:
Bridging the Gap between Blues and Rock and Roll-We'd just attended a co-op class covering the history of Blues music, so we could move right on to how Elvis helped change the sound to what we now call Rock and Roll, and how many artists since then consider him to be an inspiration.

Use of imitation and parody-We looked at pictures of the 140 bazillion Elvis impersonators, and discussed why there were so many and who else has a following like that (ie Marilyn Monroe, etc.) We also touched on the progression from sincere imitation to parody, as the impersonators follow the entire continuum. A little Mojo Nixon never hurts, either. (I'm saving Bubba Ho-Tep until they're older, though, have to draw a line somewhere...)

Language Arts:
Grammar-We went through some of his songs and discussed what would have been a more grammatically correct way to express his sentiments, ie "You are nothing but a hound dog," etc. We talked about the need for proper grammar, but also when it is OK to break the rules. Obviously it worked for Elvis!

Character Studies:
Duty-Elvis is one of the last (if not THE last, I can't find data on this) huge stars to get called in the draft and go.

Generosity-Because Elvis couldn't go to the movies or do other regular things without risking complete chaos, he would wait until establishments closed and hire them out. He'd rent out a movie theater or amusement park in the middle of the night, and invite all of his friends and everyone he came across to go with him. We talked about how being generous is a good thing, we should all share what we can. We also talked about how generosity can bring out the worst in other people, though. Wouldn't it be great if this world were more simple?

Behavior of Friends-We discussed how, by the end, Elvis was a complete wreck because of the prescription medications he was taking. More than one source indicated that everyone around him at the time was afraid to rock the boat with him and confront this problem. We talked about how sometimes friends have to take a stand when someone is in danger, even if it will hurt someone's feelings.


There is more every day, and it is all interspersed with the theory of relativity and Einstein's take on war, as well as Rameses' place in Egyptian history. It's a good thing we maintain a timeline!

Labels: homeschooling