Sculpture Tour (aka Home Schooling Attempt)

Since we haven't been able to enroll the boys in school yet, we've begun some home schooling. We already had planned to keep Cormac going in Spanish and Algebra and Declan in math, but teaching them full time was not really part of the plan. For our first attempt, we planned a sculpture tour of City Centre and Merchant City (basically downtown Glasgow where the main shops and businesses are), followed by some writing and research about the people in the statues.

The Cenotaph, an amazing monument to fallen soldiers from the Great War (WW1) and other conflicts. Notice all the poppy wreaths laid on the memorial.

We arrived close to Robert Burns's birthday, which is a big deal in Scotland. A week later there are still flowers given by local clubs and societies (like The Glasgow Haggis Club).

Robert Burns is Scotland’s poet laureate. He is known here as simply, ‘The Bard.’ He wrote poetry during the Romantic Movement, but he was originally a tenant farmer. The Romantic Movement started during the second half of the 18^th century. It was an artistic and literary movement, during which the format of these two things changed drastically. The new format drew heavily from the creator’s emotions, which were channeled through the art. Robert Burns’ poetry fit this format. He married a woman named Jean Armour, and with her had two children, who were twins. To keep his poetry fresh and new, he toured Scotland to get information about local folklore and songs. He died of a heart condition when he was thirty-seven. (by Cormac)

Robert Peel was born February 5 1788. He became a politician at age 21, a very unusually young age. He worked at the House of Commons. However, working in politics in a very difficult job and soon he was forced to resign in 1835. Soon Robert found another job being the MP of The Irish Rotten Borough of Cashel, Tipperary (rotten boroughs had small electorates so were used to gain influence in the government). He died in 1850. (by Declan)

Queen Victoria triumphant under the ferris wheel.

Donald Dewar, first Minister of Scotland, not related to founder of Dewar's Scotch Distillery, John Dewar.