It is terribly sad, but Daisy is graduating from our homeschool and going to college in the Fall! I feel it more keenly than with the older boys, because by this age the boys had mostly disengaged already, either going to public school or doing outside classes and hardly ever joining our family school. But Daisy has valiantly participated to the very end, doing the activities with us and even sitting through our read-aloud books whenever she is able. It is wonderful to have her with us. She brings the kind of enthusiasm that makes me a better teacher. So, I will be VERY SAD to have her go (and she says she will still join us when she can—but I know it won't be often now), and in her honor I let her choose anything she wanted to study for our last unit with her.
She chose, wonderfully, to study The Regency Era. What a great unit! I was very excited about it. For our purposes we chose to study the longer time period (many people classify the whole period from 1795-1837 as Regency-era, even though the Prince Regent was only officially in power in England from 1811-1820). It encompasses so much great stuff. The French Revolution! The early American Republic! Beethoven and Napoleon! And of course, Jane Austen.
For Public Relations purposes, I called this unit "The French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars" when talking to the little boys. And "The Regency Era" when talking to the girls. Thus, everyone was happy.
We learned about lots of people and events as part of this unit, and then we also took as our inspiration some of the expected accomplishments of a well-bred young lady of the era. One day we made quill pens and learned how to write with pen and ink. The older kids also practiced some types of penmanship of the time period, notably "copperplate" (roundhand) and Italian hand. I got each of the girls an inexpensive fountain pen to use. I love fountain pens!
Here are some relevant links:
https://herreputationforaccomplishment.wordpress.com/2015/05/06/anatomy-of-a-regency-letter/ Writing a letter, how to fold a letter
https://herreputationforaccomplishment.wordpress.com/2015/02/11/minums-for-handwriting-practice/ handwriting
https://books.google.com/books?id=GAVQAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false handwriting practice and samples
We already had sealing wax (from our American Revolution unit, maybe?) and were happy to have an excuse to get it out again. Malachi uses sealing wax as a matter of course on all his correspondance, actually, so it was readily at hand.
(Clementine had been going around doing all her sisters' hair throughout this activity, and eventually we took a picture of them all coiffed by her handiwork):
Daisy's writing
Junie's writing
Goldie's lovely (left-handed!) writing
Clementine drew some gnomes and a Caw with the fountain pen. Not bad!
This was Ziggy writing in some other language, I believe
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