This is the second part of our LOST homeschool curriculum – an ongoing discussion about character development and arc (PART I – THEMES is here.) We’re keeping notes (a very large chart) on the main characters and how they develop and how our feelings change about them as we watch the series.

NOTE: If you watch the series, this will all make sense to you. If you don’t watch the series, I highly recommend it, but you have to watch it from the beginning – we purchased the first 4 seasons on DVD. You can’t just watch a couple episodes and have any understanding at all. My series here includes only the simplest of the discussion points. For in depth LOST analysis, please visit the message boards or Lostpedia.

We’re charting the development on these major characters. If you’ve watched the show, you know we’ll continue to add a LOT as we continue through the series. Currently we’re watching season 2.

Jack – Hero, determined, leader, doctor, believer in free-will and science.
He’s one of the more apparently honest characters, although you never know in LOST. We will learn about his personal demons as we go through the series. With the best of intentions, he often makes promises he can’t keep. Possible character arc throughout the series — a move toward faith.

John Locke — Weak/strong, blind-faith/abandoned-faith, confident/frustrated, Yoda/whiner, “special”/not “special”
Conflicted character who seems to be given a new lease on life on the island. The opposite of Jack, Locke believes everything is predestined, and he’s carrying out his purpose. Locke’s character is apparently confident and in-charge one minute, and whiny and desperate the next. His manic flip-flopping makes one wonder if he’s actually two people. Character arc — a move from his pathetic off-island self to the powerful, purposeful Locke we see on the island. But there’s much more to Locke than we even understand by season five.

Kate — Fugitive, murderer, liar, impulsive – acts without considering consequences.
Kate is misguided – acting sometimes with the best intentions, but with disastrous results for the people she loves. Her impulsivity causes her to tend to do the exact opposite of what her allies wanted her to do, thinking it’s her best course of action. She is often caught in a decision about who to follow. We recognize a good side to Kate, that doesn’t seem masked. We witness Kate seeming sure of herself, and then distraught when she discovers she’s completely wrong about something. She’s loyal, a good listener and seems genuinely concerned about others. Character arc — remains to be seen. Possibly progress toward better decision-making?

Sawyer — Con-man, tortured soul, orphan, guarded.
Sawyer seems to do everything in his power to make people hate him – and he’s succeeding. When his guard is down, though, we see that he’s ashamed of his “bad” past, but doesn’t feel there’s anything he can do about it. He resigns himself to the role he’s chosen. (Character arc — showing the good that’s been in him all along — free will can impact destiny.)

Sayid — Soldier, torturer, murderer, tech-wiz, lie-detector
One of the more honest and predictable characters, it’s easy to like Sayid despite the fact that he consistently does horrible things to people. His moral compass is different than mine, but I think he usually does things with the best of intentions – sometimes regretting his actions afterward, other times not. Character arc — continual progression toward becoming a non-murderer, with continual regression to the role he knows so well.

Jin – Husband, hit-man, poor-fisherman-turned-hig-society, outsider
Sun – Dissatisfied wife, secret-keeper, envious of Americans
These two characters develop in unison, even when they’re not together. We see Sun prepared to leave Jin for doing horrible things, supposedly in the name of their marriage. Although both seem to want to be rescued, as time passes it almost seems like crashing on the island was a blessing to them both. Character arc — rediscovering the true love they had for each other when they married.

I would love to read your own LOST character arc comments – please share!

LOST Homeschool Lessons Series:
Themes
Character Arc
Symbols
Games!
History/Literature

We’re doing some summer homeschooling (plan is here) and a large part of it centers around the analysis of the TV series, LOST.

NOTE: If you watch the series, this will all make sense to you. If you don’t watch the series, I highly recommend it, but you have to watch it from the beginning – we purchased the first 4 seasons on DVD. You can’t just watch a couple episodes and have any understanding at all. My series here includes only the simplest of the discussion points. For in depth LOST analysis, please visit the message boards or Lostpedia.

These are the discussions we’re having as a family, with regards to the show. We’re currently watching Season 2.

Free Will/Choice - the “Losties” are constantly faced with decisions, and their choices usually have consequences.

Destiny/Fate – certain characters use these words often, and some seem resigned to a predestined journey, while others believe life’s what they make it.

Faith - often confused with the “destiny/fate” discussion, but “faith” is it’s own theme in the show. Faith in a higher power, faith in other characters, faith in self.

Good/Evil – a much easier explanation for much of what happens on the island, but doubtful it will be that simple in the end.

Purpose - ties in with the destiny/fate discussion, but also free-will. Sometimes we discover our true purpose when something happens to us. Sometimes it’s when we make a choice.

I would love your comments about the themes in LOST. I’ll continue the LOST curriculum series throughout the summer as we explore all the writing components in this outstanding show. Next in my series will be Character Development/Arc

LOST Homeschool Lessons Series:
Themes
Character Arc
Symbols
Games!
History/Literature

Last week I introduced our plan for summer homeschooling. Here are some of the books we’ll use. Many are from Mindware. I’ll continue to add to this list as we find great materials!

Analogy Challenges Level B Age 11-14

Analogy Challenges Level A – Grades 3-5

Connections: Activities for Deductive Thinking

Total Sudoku

Lateral Thinking Puzzlers

Grid Perplexors Level B, Deductive Logic Puzzles

Brain In A Box Grade 5 (boardgame)

Cooking Rocks! Rachael Ray 30-Minute Meals for Kids (will also look for Aton Brown cookbooks — thanks for the tip, Sandra!)

Books to read aloud with my 5th grader (we’ll begin with these):

The 39 Clues: The Sword Thief (Third book in series)

Wright 3 (Sequel to Chasing Vermeer)

What are some of your favorite summer school/homeschool materials?

Our kids generally don’t participate in summer school, partly because we move to the cabin, and partly because it gives us an opportunity to revisit the stuff we loved most about our homeschool experiment. Although I’ll only expect a flexible few hours per week of sit down work, I think it will be enough to keep skills fresh and maintain interest at the same time. It also provides just enough schedule to keep us all on an even keel.

For the past few weeks I’ve been asking the kids what they’d like to study this summer and here’s what we’ve established so far.

Craig – fifth grade next fall

Cooking! I purchased a Rachel Ray cookbook for kids and that will be the mainstay of Craig’s cooking curriculum. Cooking is one of the few topics that covers just about every subject area — math (measurement), reading (recipes), science (duh) and social studies (ethnic foods).

Read aloud – probably continuing The 39 Clues series or the sequel to Chasing Vermeer.

Darla – seventh grade next fall

LOST – character and plot analysis with emphasis on foreshadowing, symbolism and writing techniques. I’m excited about this one. She was interested in watching with me last season, but LOST isn’t a show you can watch just an episode or two. So we purchased the first four seasons on DVD and we’re going to analyze the writing on the show. It’s a superb example of plot weaving and character development.

US State and Capitols - we figured out this past year that she missed this part of the curriculum during our move from one district to another. This will be a chance to fix this gap in the curriculum.

Darla reads like a fanatic, so she’ll dive into whatever books she wants. And she’ll volunteer all summer at the local library, to organize the weekly storytime.

Both kids

Learn to play Backgammon (critical symbol in LOST.)

We will also do math practice with brainteasers. And we’re joining the Science Museum of Minnesota again, so will attend the Titanic exhibit, as well as inundating Collector’s Corner with all of our Utah finds and the new discoveries we’ll surely make on biking field trips this summer!

Here I’ve listed some of the specific titles of the books we’ll use. I’ll periodically add to this list as we discover new lessons we’d like to learn. What are you doing for summer homeschooling?

***GUEST POST BY 4TH GRADE CRAIG***

In September, when Darla reviewed the excellent book, The Secret of Wellington’s Map, the PR folks for Planet of the Dogs contacted us and asked if Craig would be interested in reviewing it, since he’s the perfect age for the series. This is Craig’s first book review. I hope you’ll enjoy reading it, as much as I enjoyed the fact he finally got his nose in a book.

Planet of the Dogs, by Robert McCarty is a great book. This book is about two people from planet Earth helping the dogs on Planet of the Dogs to harvest their food. Then the dogs on Planet of the Dogs decide to help make peace on planet Earth when the Stone City warriors attacked Green Meadow on Earth.

My favorite character was a man named BIK (pronounced B-I-K.) I liked him because he was very active and caring for his friends and family.

My favorite part was at the end when they were in the woods and then the dogs started barking and then troops started chopping down trees and BIK told BIC — another captain — that he was in charge. Then BIK ran out to his children and he saw a crash site over a hill into water. BIK knew they could not swim, so he jumped down and saw two vicious dogs. He thought they killed Nikki and Nik, then he took a sword out of his picket and heard a deep voice say they did not kill your children they saved your children. He turned around and saw troops armed and then he booked across the river.

His children were there and they said, “We will give them back if you declare peace.” BIK reached in his pocket and took out a horn and blew it and then he said, “I declare peace.”

People my age who dogs would love this book. I recommend it!

Read about how Barking Planet supports therapy dog programs in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

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