Mt. Pleasant Classical Academy

“If we head out west next summer can we go through the Badlands again?” asked MilitaryKid.

“Sure. You really liked the Badlands?”

“Yea, It was a neat place. Did you know that Teddy Roosevelt really liked the Badlands?

Of course that was before he was President.”

Actually it was while he was Mayor of NYC”

Now where did he come up with that information?   But it soon came out.  

Last year I placed 30 or 40 paperback books for MK to read on his desk bookshelf and told him to read these books as his required reading books. He never did. About a month ago I rearranged books and moved a few boxes of books to our schoolroom bookshelves, and cleaned out a few boxes of books too. The books on MK bookshelf were moved to a low-lying milk crate. I didn’t make any mention of these books to MK but one day he asked me:

“Mom, is this book on my required book list?” He was holding up Escape from Warsaw, a sad story about the occupation of Poland in WW2 by the Germans and the struggles of a few children trying to survive and hold their family and hopes together.

“Sure. If you’d like to read it, go right ahead.”

Ok, so we aren’t studying Modern Age but the Ancients this year, but since the child is showing interest in reading, I’ll let him read. Screw the history schedule, he wants to read and so he will absorb some of this part of history too, even if it doesn’t fit into one of our present school subjects. Maybe it will stick a bit more now than if he waits until we do Modern again. It turns out that MK has been working his way through that milk carton of Modern history non-fiction and historical fiction books Sneaky isn’t it. That’s how he discovered that Teddy Roosevelt liked the Badlands and was a Mayor of NYC before he became President.