Unschool Rules

It seems that for the past two years, we’ve had our heads in the stars… studying space. Even our family Netflixing is centered around Star Trek!

So it’s probably no surprise that as the iHomeschool Network celebrates some noted historical figures born in August, I’d choose to commemorate one of our favorite space personalities – Neil Armstrong!

Neil Armstrong unit study guide for homeschoolers and unschoolers

All about Neil Armstrong

Neil Armstrong was born Aug. 5, 1930, in Ohio. (Yes, I’m celebrating two Ohioans this month – Annie Oakley being the other!)

Disclosure: This post has some affiliate links. I only link to things we legitimately use and recommend, so if you see such a link, it's because we really do believe in the book or item!

Armstrong is best known for being the first person to walk on the moon (as part of the Apollo 11 mission with Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins), but his original career choice was not in spaceflight.

His goal, actually, had been to be a test pilot, and he was a great one, reaching records in both speed and height for the time and, over the course of his career, flying more than 200 different types of aircraft.

He also served as a Navy pilot during the Korean War, flying 78 missions over Korea. In 1962, he was invited by Deke Slayton to join NASA as part of the “New Nine,” or second set of astronauts.

While his Apollo 11 moon-landing mission was probably the most commonly remembered, Neil Armstrong went into space earlier as part of the Gemini 8 crew; that mission went up in 1966 and involved docking two spaceships together while in orbit. A critical systems failure required the mission to be aborted after only a few hours, but Neil (and the rest of the crew) thought quickly and all survived.

We’ve watched footage of the landing many times, and heard and read many stories that say that Neil Armstrong intended to say “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind,” but recordings have always seemed to indicate that he dropped the “a,” which kind of messes with the meaning a little. Just in the past few months, however, research by linguistics experts seems to think it might have been there after all!

When Armstrong passed away on Aug. 25, 2012, America lost one of its greatest pioneers. Always a humble and private man (perhaps even MORE so after the famous landing), it was fitting that his burial at sea was relatively private, but the photos I saw from it touched me deeply.

Much more about space exploration

Space exploration is a topic that we spent a LOT of time reading, watching and otherwise learning about in recent years.

If you’re interested in digging deeper into this topic, please check out To the moon and back: Best resources for solar-system study.

That learning guide post that wraps up so many of the great books, movies and trips we found valuable!

Ideas for discussion

I admit it – we’ve talked SO MUCH about space that it’s almost hard for me to boil down our questions to a few interesting bullet points you might want to discuss. That said, here are a few of the many!

Being first. Was it right that Neil Armstrong, not Buzz Aldrin, walked on the moon first? Was it right that Armstrong got so much more attention for what he did? And what about Mike Collins, who had the unenviable job of staying up in space, circling the moon, while Buzz and Neil were in the LEM (landing module)?
The future of our space program. I admit that in our family, we’re not happy with the turn away from space exploration following the Apollo missions. That said, we’re incredibly interested in things like the the recent decision to start working on the Human Spaceflight initiative to promote deeper-space human travel, as well as private space exploration like SpaceX. What are your thoughts on space exploration? What are the benefits vs. the risks?
Rights and responsibilities. Who “owns” space? What are our responsibilities when exploring – and, in the future, possibly colonizing – moons and planets? When I took my astrobiology course via Coursera, we talked about these issues in some detail, and surprisingly, they came up again in my recent archaeology course!

Join the birthday party

If you’re interested, there are many more cool “August birthday” lessons from my fellow iHomeschool Network bloggers. Click the image below to check them out!

And thanks for stopping by to help me wish Neil Armstrong a happy birthday!

You can check out more posts in our Learning Party series here!

Perhaps you’ve never heard of Phoebe Ann Mosey, born in Ohio on Aug. 13, 1860.

Or rather, you probably have, but not by that name. You might remember her as woman who would go on to become a noted sharpshooter in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, more commonly known as Annie Oakley, a woman whose story is so fascinating even 153 years later that I was thrilled to include her in an iHomeschool Network celebration of noted August birthdays!

Annie Oakley unit study guide for homeschoolers and unschoolers

All about Annie Oakley

Phoebe Ann “Annie” Mosey (who last name was also sometimes noted in records as Mozee, Moses, Mosee and Mauzy) was born Aug. 13, 1860, in Ohio.

Disclosure: This post has some affiliate links. I only link to things we legitimately use and recommend, so if you see such a link, it's because we really do believe in the book or item!

After Annie’s father passed away when she was 6 years old, she started helping the family in any way she could – including hunting for game, which is where she developed her shooting talent. She sold extra game that she trapped and shot, and by the time she was 15, her income helped pay off her mother’s mortgage.

The same year, a touring marksman brought his “shooting show” to a local hotel. That marksman, Frank Butler, often promoted his show by doing a marksmanship contest against a local shooter. Well, I bet he was surprised when the hotel’s proprietor put him up against a 15-year-old girl named Annie – and Annie won!

The two sharpshooters were quite a pair. They eventually married, toured together (at times with Frank getting “top” billing and at times with Annie taking the lead and Frank as her manager) and grew older together. When Annie died on Nov. 3, 1926, Frank stopped eating in his grief, and he died just a few weeks later on Nov. 21.

Among the many things Annie Oakley was famous for included touring with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, along with Sioux chief Sitting Bull. Sitting Bull was a friend of Annie’s, and he gave her the nickname Little Sure Shot.

Annie also knew another celebrity of the time, as it were: Thomas Edison. In 1894, he made one of the first “movies” by filming Annie shooting; you can see that here!

There have been a variety of books and movies about Annie’s life, some much more realistic portrayals than others. The most famous, the Broadway musical Annie Get Your Gun, is also probably the most loose adaptation, but certainly still interesting!

Ideas for discussion

We spent a lot of time last year talking about “cowboy and Indian” times. Along with that, we touched on issues ranging from the current state of Native American reservations to the role of women in the West to the discovery of gold in California and beyond!

Here are a few ideas based around what we learned of Annie Oakley to help your family dig deeper!

Reality vs. tall tales. Annie Oakley’s accomplishments sometimes were portrayed as almost larger-than-life. Yes, she was an amazing shot, but even the most amazing of her feats, like shooting the ashes off a cigarette, have been exaggerated in retellings. Her family members started the Annie Oakley Foundation to help prevent the spread of misinformation. What are some “tall tales” you’ve heard about someone famous, and what’s the true story?
Women in the West. (And, really, women’s history in general!) This is a fascinating topic, and Annie Oakley is definitely an example of a woman who was allowed many freedoms that weren’t common in her time! Even so, she was denied some opportunities because of her gender; in fact, during both the Spanish-American War and World War I, she’d offered to lead a regiment of female volunteer soldiers, and also offered to train the (male) soldiers to shoot, but she was turned down. That’s a topic worth discussing: How has that changed in the past hundred-some years, and what issues still remain?
Being “rich.” Touring with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and performing in other ways left Annie Oakley a wealthy woman. In the end, it was discovered that she spent all of her earnings on her family and on a significant variety of charities and causes. What would you do if you were really wealthy? What causes would you support?

Join the birthday party

If you’re interested, there are many more cool “August birthday” lessons from my fellow iHomeschool Network bloggers. Click the image below to check them out!

And thanks for stopping by to help me wish Annie Oakley a happy birthday!

You can check out more posts in our Learning Party series here!