Biographies (and Attila the Hun)

Last week, the Curly-headed girl developed an aversion to Attila the Hun. He's "mean and scary."

One goal I have for the girls is to help them learn to obtain a few of the harder life lessons vicariously. For instance, being mean and scary doesn't help you "win friends and influence people." Biographies are good for that. After they read a biography, I want them to be able to articulate the following (and back up their judgment by citing specifics from the person's life).

• who the person was - Attila the Hun was mean and scary.
• when/where he or she lived - He lived in the A.D. 400's in Europe on a horse.
• what he or she accomplished in relative order - He took his armies on a mad rampage through Europe and killed a bunch of people.
• what character qualities set him apart from the crowd - He was mean and scary.

They should also be able to tell what character qualities they liked best and least, and why; and what they choices they would have made differently.

This year, we're going to spend some time thinking about these things.