The Mother Tongue, Book I: Lessons in Speaking, Reading and Writing English · Sec. 30, I–VII · Part 1: Part First
11. Gemila, the Child of the Desert (part 1)
Goal: Your child can tell how Gemila's family lives in a tent in the desert and how they pack up to move.
You'll need
- The book, open to this lesson
- Paper and pencil (a notebook kept just for this book works well)
- A globe or a free online map
What's in the book
Section 30 is a long story by Jane Andrews about Gemila, a little girl in a desert family who live in a tent and travel with camels. Parts I to VII: evening outside the tent, what the tent is like, supper, the night under the stars, and packing the camels to move to a new spring.
The lesson, step by step
Set the scene
On a globe or map, find the great deserts of North Africa and Arabia.
SayThis story is about a girl named Gemila whose family lives in a tent and moves across the desert with their camels.
A word about the story
The story was written long ago for American children, and the author sometimes compares Gemila's family with "us". She says we could teach them table manners, but they could teach us to be kind and polite to strangers. You may want to talk about how different families have different customs.
Read parts I to VII
Read aloud together, taking turns. It begins:
It is almost sunset; and Abdel Hassan has come out to the door of his tent to enjoy the breeze,
Stop after each part and ask, "What did we learn?"
Tell it back
Close the book. Your child tells what they remember. Prompts:
- What is the tent made of, and how is it held down?
- What did the family eat for supper?
- Why did they have to move?
- How did the camels get loaded?
Write a few sentences
Your child writes 3 or 4 sentences telling how the tent was taken down and packed. Say them aloud first.
Check it gently
Read the sentences aloud. Are they in the right order, the way it happened? If one is out of place, let your child move it. That is the only fix today.
What a good result looks like
Example (written for this guide, not from the book):
Early in the morning the servants took down the tent. They tied the tent poles together and rolled up the cloth with its pegs. Then the camels knelt down to be loaded.
Afterwards
Look at the picture "Palm Trees" in this part of the story and talk about it.
Tip
The story is long. If your child tires, stop after part IV and finish tomorrow.