Michael's Main Lesson Block: Folk Tales

Michael just wrapped up a main lesson block on American folk tales. While folk tales are often covered in the Waldorf curriculum in fifth grade, I decided to use a non-Waldorf resource for teaching this block. I'd heard a lot about Moving Beyond the Page, and decided to try it out. Because we're also hitting American geography pretty hard, I decided to go with American Tall Tales and Legends.

Billed as "a homeschooling curriculum for creative, hands-on, and gifted learners," Moving Beyond the Page has been the talk of the message boards this past year. In my opinion, it doesn't live up to the hype. The books' organization is confusing, with information needing to be pieced together from two or three different places. There was a good bit of creative writing involved, but "hands on" seemed to be a bit of an overstatement, with a lot of cutting and pasting and worksheets involved. As far as the claim that it's great for gifted kids, it did not present much of a challenge for my fifth grader.

The best thing this curriculum had going for it was the recommended books: Cut from the Same Cloth and American Tall Tales.

Cut from the Same Cloth: American Women of Myth, Legend, and Tall Tale fills in an empty gap in folk tale canon-- stories of strong, courageous women. Bess Call, Annie Christmas, Old Sally Cato, Sister Fox, and Otoonah are just a few of the tales told. The stories represent America's rich multicultural heritage as well, featuring women from Native American, African American, Mexican American, and Canadian backgrounds.

American Tall Tales by Adrien Stoutenberg tells the tale of eight American folk heroes: Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, Stormalong, Mike Fink, Davy Crockett, Johnny Appleseed, John Henry, and Joe Magarac. These were a quick, no-nonsense read... other than the nonsense of the tall tale of course! Last of all, we used some Stephen Kellogg's picture books to fill in the gaps.