You may have heard the story of the five missionaries who were killed by the Waodani Indians in Ecuador in 1956. The movie, The End of the Spear, released in 2005, was my first introduction to the story of these missionaries and their families. However, since then the we have enjoyed learning more about these families through other documentaries and books. Recently, we had the opportunity to learn more about the Waodani people in the newest Unit Study, Walking with the Waodani from the Home School Adventure Co.
This unit study was written by Stacy Farrell after meeting a young man named Russell Winter upon his return from exploring Ecuador for seven weeks. There are four lessons in this study which explore: Shell Mera (Then), Shell Mera (Now), Ecuador, and Quito. Her intention is that each of these lessons would be completed over a week, two weeks or even a month (however it works best for your family). This unit study is suitable for a wide variety of ages, in our house we are using it with ages 6-13. That being said, I have skipped some of the longer writing activities with the younger kids.
Each lesson contains the following components: Lesson Introduction, People & Places, Meals & Markets, Animals & Agriculture and Worlds & Worldview.
At the completion of each lesson there is a Travel Journal Component. It is in this section that the kids have been able to log what they are learning in the Travel Journal Notebook Pages. They answer questions that were covered within the text of the unit study or from the short videos found on the Home School Adventure Co. blog. The kids enjoyed the short video clips from the interview with Russell Winter especially the second one about the lost spear!
There is a mapping section, entitled Mark Your Map (or Ministry) and a Rate the Recipe section. The first food the kids were introduced to was the Palmetto Weevil Grub which is considered a special treat in Ecuador. It was quite evident that none of the ways of preparing the grub sounded the least bit appetizing to the kids (or me!) I don’t care how creamy the raw grubs are or how crunchy and similar to bacon or pork rinds they are, I have no interest in trying them! On the other hand, we enjoy fish so having a meal made of Piranha sounds much more appetizing.
Walking with the Waodani is still a work in progress, because of this we only recently got the third lesson in the study. We have not been able to complete it yet but looking ahead I am quite sure we are going to enjoy the Locro De Papa recipe. It is a thick potato stew.
Each lesson also features facts and information about the Amazing Animals & Agriculture that are unique to Ecuador. This section has beautiful pictures of these plants and animals in addition to telling about their importance to Ecuador.
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I encourage you to read other Walking with the Waodani reviews from the Homeschool Review Crew. Also, other members of the crew reviewed other products from Home School Adventure Co. including:
- Creative Freewriting Adventure which will also include the Creative Freewriting Adventure Coloring Book Edition
- I’d Rather Be Your Mommy, which includes I’d Rather Be Your Mommy Coloring Book Edition and the I’d Rather Be Your Mommy Print Set
- Celebrating Manhood: a rite of passage guide
Jennifer
