Poor Jacques Cartier

Today, during our homeschool co-op, Mrs Sarah was teaching the kids about Jacques Cartier, the French explorer who tried to sail down the St. Lawrence River.  While she was describing his difficult journey...

"Then did anyone get beheaded?" (Iris)
"Um...no."  (Mrs. Sarah)
"Iris likes it when people are beheaded" (Clyde)

After they heard about Cartier and his journeys into Canada, Mrs. Sarah began to ask them questions to see what they remembered.

"So, did Cartier ever make it to the Great Lakes?"  (Mrs. Sarah)
"No."  (Land)
"Why didn't he?"  (Mrs Sarah)
"Cause he's not smart AT ALL!"  (Land)
"Well, they didn't make it to the Great Lakes, because of the big rocks and the shallow rapids...their ship couldn't get through."  (Mrs. Sarah)
"Yeah, and when they got stuck on the big rocks, people ran out and stabbed them all!!"  (McKellan)

As I look back on the conversations that took place during this lesson, it occurs to me that our kids went into it with some mysterious predisposition to dislike poor Jacques Cartier.

On a more cheerful note, the kids enjoyed their lesson on John Cabot and the demonstration illustrating how much easier it was for the English fishermen to fish in Newfoundland than in England.