World War 2: Unschool Homeschool Exploration

Thought I'd jump right in with a "day in the life" of an "unschool homeschool" day. Seems only right as I've started a group on the topic and all, hmm? Today wasn't exceptionally fascinating, but I think that's probably a good way to start, as I'm not trying to make anyone feel insecure about their own homeschool days - and TRUST me, some of our days are next level learning, yo!

But not today. Today we had a pediatrician appointment and a little guy feeling ouchy, so we let him go back to sleep for a bit. And then he woke up and we did things! Yay! Allow me to tell you a bit about it!

​He's been quite interested in WW2 lately - which is great as we have the The National WWII Museum close by. So some days, like today, he reads different things about it. Today he read these two Simple History Guides - one an overview of WW2 and the other on the rise of Hitler. This focus arose in preparation for an essay he's writing - which calls for a reaction to this quote by Elie Wiesel: ​

​"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.
The opposite of beauty is not ugliness, it's indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference.
​And the opposite of life is not death, but indifference between life and death."

Does he agree or disagree with this quote - and why? That's what he needs to decide and deconstruct.
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Our exploration of indifference naturally brought us to Martin Niemöller's piece:

"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."

​Which naturally led us to wonder who the heck WAS Hitler anyway? And how did the world let this happen? How?!

So many lessons, so many conversations. That was "school" today: History, religion, ethics, politics, geography, love, hate, anger, fear, warfare, the Holocaust, the Great Depression, and the cost of indifference. It's a conversation we'll have again in a day or two, once he's allowed it to settle and comes back with new thoughts. And then he'll draft a frame for his essay - a story sandwich is what we've termed it (and is a structure we employ for all writing, really). But more on THAT another day.
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These books are pretty neat, FYI (links above). They're approximately fifty pages each and jam-packed with excellent, engaging info, written in comic format (graphic novel, whatever you prefer to call it. Cartoons?).

​Anyway, I can tell you he learned lots more today than he would have studying facts in isolation and told to memorize for a test. And we explored concepts he wouldn't have discovered as readily on his own, had he been left to unschool in the wild. That's for true ;) -- and I have no worries over helping those efforts along!

​What did your little learn today? And how did s/he learn it?