Moving from Slavery (HERE) which was an eye opener for the kids on how cruel the history we come from really is, to Declaration of Independence and the idea of ALL men created equal not actually making it to ALL and completely ignoring women, and then to Abraham Lincoln and his push to begin the abolishing of slavery (HERE), the children actually made a good choice in their next two topics…
Martin Luther King Jr. and his movement to end segregation was the twins’ pick. We had briefly read about him on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Which spurred the wish to know more. Meanwhile Trinity and Emanuel had come across a book that on the back also advertised Rosa Parks in the same series. Her courageous move to NOT move out of her place on the bus and her continuing of standing up for equality and an end to segregation at the same time was just amazing. Two very timely and appropriate topics we began in February.
Our lapbook of choice for MLK was a free one (I like to avoid the pay for ones, even though they are so complete, just to save on money.) from Homeschool Helper Online HERE. I find that the lapbook booklets make the topics easier to face, and more enjoyable then a plain written report. For worksheets you can check out my collection on Education.com HERE, EnchantedLearning.com has some good resources (pay site) HERE and Activity Village has their page for Martin Luther King Day HERE.
Books:
- Martin Luther King, Jr. by Amy Pastan HERE
- Martin Luther King, Jr. by Marion Dane Bauer HERE (My First Biography)
- I am Martin Luther King, Jr. by Brad Meltzer HERE
- Martin Luther King, Jr. by Wil Mara HERE
- Martin Luther King, Jr. by Josh Gregory HERE (A True Book)
- Martin Luther King, Jr. A Family Tribute HERE
- Love Will See You Through by Angela Farris Watkins, PhD HERE
- Martin Luther King, Jr by Lucia Raatma HERE
- Martin Luther King, Jr. Day by Meredith Dash HERE
DVD:
- Martin’s Big Words (Scholastic) HERE
I spent a grand total of a dollar on Rosa Parks. We used the Knowledge Box Central Interactive Foldable Booklet. Now I do want to warn that when we purchased it there was a minor spelling error (Education was spelled wrong on one of the pages). I was able to correct it with whiteout and pen, but be warned. You can purchase that HERE.
Rosa Parks is a huge inspiration for Trinity and Echo. They think her choice to sit on the bus was amazingly courageous. They could not get enough of hearing how she was able to not only start a bus boycott, but continued on to work as a Civil Rights Leader and make changes not only in the US, but in other countries around the world. Some called her the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.
One of the questions we asked ourselves was – What would you say to Rosa Parks? Then Emanuel and Trinity wrote her a letter. 
For our craft activity we filled our buses with all sorts of people. You can find our print out HERE thanks to Danielle’s Place. My Education.com collection is HERE. EnchantedLearning had some good pages HERE as well.
We definitely got ourselves a lovely stack of books to read together and use for research.
- Rosa Parks by Wil Mara HERE
- Who Was Rosa Parks? by Yona Zeldis McDonough HERE
- Rosa Parks by Kitson Jazynka HERE
- I am Rosa Parks by Brad Meltzer HERE
- I am Rosa Parks by Rosa Parks and Jim Haskins HERE
- Rosa Parks by Barbara M. Linde HERE
- Rosa Parks by Cynthia Klingel and Robert B. Noyed HERE
- Rosa Parks by Rosa Park and Jim Haskins HERE
Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks are true inspirations. I think we all agreed that doing what is right isn’t easy but it is rewarding!
