American Girl Series

Well she figured out that Hogwarts wasn't real and asked to learn about American Girls instead. For those unaware, American Girls is a series of books, (and dolls, furniture, clothes, craft sets, paper dolls, activity books, etc), focusing on a girl in each of nine time periods in American history. I had heard glowing reviews about the series, with the only complaints being the cost of the dolls and their accessories, (Dolls are $90, clothing is $20 and up, furniture is $32-200, accessories are $15+), and the sheer amount of stuff available for each girl. The books are at about 3rd to 4th grade level, with short chapters and vivid pictures. There is even a few pages at the end of each book explaining further about the time period, customs or typical daily life of a young girl at the time. There are whole books for each girl on what it was like to live in that time. There are craft, party and cook books for each girl. So I was thrilled there was so much ready curriculum available after having to design so much for her Hogwarts, Disney Fairies, CSI, Magic Tree House, and other curriculums. There are nine girls and nine months of school, so that worked out well. Each girl has 6-7 basic books, some have up to 5 more, that I can let her choose from, so roughly 2 books per week. I even found brownie try its that tie in with each girl so she can keep up with that, (which is a whole other issue I will do at some later point).

The Girls are:
Kaya- Native American from the Nez Pierce tribe in North Western US in 1764

Felicity- Daughter of a patriot store keeper in 1774

Josephina- New Mexican girl from in 1824

Kristen- Sweedish immigrant pioneer to the Minnesota territory in 1854

Addy- Escaped slave from North Carolina to Philadelphia in 1864

Samantha- Orphan living with her Grandmother, (and later her uncle), in New York in 1904.

Kit- Depression era kid entrepreneur in Cincinnati OH in 1934

Molly- 1944, "girl on the home front", in Springfield Illinois

Julie- Flower child in 1974 San Francisco, CA

We finished four weeks with Kaya. I found a workbook on Native American activities and history. I found other printables from the internet. And I found a set of American Girl quiz books at the library book sale. I copied out the quizzes and of of all that I gave her a page or so per day to work on. She made a paper teepee, finger puppets, a medicine bag and a dream catcher from kits from Michael's. We watched Dreamcatcher from Netflix. She made a Native American paper doll from a dover book. And she spent loads of time on the American Girl website.

We are four days into Felicity. She has begun her paper sampler, coloring squares on graph paper to make a picture like a sampler, she will be making a sampler for her lapbook with yarn and plastic canvas and a actual cross stitch for a quilt, from the same pattern. She copied the inscription from the Liberty Bell.