Dinosaurs

Well, we weren't originally planning on doing a unit on dinosaurs until next year, but after we got knee-deep into preparations for Mason's dinosaur birthday party, I decided to declare a school mini-unit to indulge the kids growing interest. It was nothing too outlandish, but we did read quite a bit about dinosaurs during our two week unit. We also did some hands on activities associated with the party. First off, we needed dinosaur bones for our Dino dig activity at the party. As a result, one night we mixed up a play-dough-like concoction and Nick and the kids molded true to life dinosaur bones using books for models.



Then, at the party, the kids got to dig for bones in both the sandy Dino dig and do "actual" rock excavations from the Dino rock we purchased. (these photos are on the family blog) It was a super party, and it worked out to be an appropriate time to introduce my children to the world of dinosaurs. At some point I'm sure the school curriculum will require a more in-depth look at the prehistoric creatures, but this was a good start.

The Pilgrims and the Indians

Who can teach elementary school without a November unit on the Pilgrims and the Indians?? Not us, obviously. And we studied them in quite a bit of detail too, knowing that we will be enjoying Thanksgiving in Plymouth next November. Here are a few photos of us during the course of our study:









It was a pretty typical review of the Pilgrims and the Indians, with the typical crafts and activities, but I will never tire of teaching these stories and the wonderful legacy left to us by those special people and that special gathering.

Trees

After taking a lovely trip to Yellowstone, where we capped off our Church History and National Park units, we settled back into school with a much more practical agenda for the winter months. Our days of trips and outdoor adventures will be coming to a close with the onset of winter, and although the long hours spent at home during the winter will be less exciting, I think they will prove to be very necessary to our ultimate educational goals. In other words, I think it's time to get more serious with reading and math and stop having so much fun!! Well, not that reading and math can't be fun, but not in the same way that all of our science and geography units have been fun. Anyways, even though we are settling into a more rigorous math and reading routine, I did decide to take the kids on one more great outing before we entered our winter hibernation.

This time we took a trip to the local apple orchard. We've been here before to pick apples, but this trip to the orchard would be somewhat different. Pick apples we would, but we had much more to do there than just eat glorious honey crisps in the cool fall breezes. This time we would be holding class in the grassy orchard, spending time examining the trees, and the fruit, and the seeds. If you recall back to the beginning of our school year when I posted the different curriculum requirements, there was a science requirement that read:
Children should know that there are two kinds of plants: deciduous and evergreen.
And that was about all it said on the topic of trees and most plants. As always, however, this would not suffice for our home-school. As a result, we decided to kick off a full unit on trees, and one that would last over several months rather than beginning and ending in the apple orchard. As I mentioned before, this unit actually came into my mind when we were talking about the lodge pole pines of Yellowstone. The kids were so interested in the fires and how the pine cones "popped" in the heat that I thought it would be a good starting point to kick off a full unit on trees. So, that is just what we did. I found two diagrams, one of the lifecycle of a deciduous tree, most of which are angiosperms (i.e. and apple tree) and one of the lifecycle of an evergreen tree, most of which are gymnosperms (i.e. a lodge pole pine.) These diagrams were perfect because they focused on seed propagation, and let us return to a discussion of the lodge pole pine cones and how they burst and spread their seeds after the fires. We could then compare and contrast that with the seeds that grow on the angiosperms and eventually turn into the delicious fruit that we all love to eat. This led into a conversation about how those seeds were spread and on and on. The kids loved our tree lessons, and were so excited to go study the apple trees close up.
And wouldn't anyone be excited to have school in this quaint little setting?



It all started with the usual hay ride into the orchards...







followed by a few minutes enjoying the farm animals. Mason was a little timid at first, but not EmmaLee. In fact, some of the chicks got loose while we were there and Emma single-handedly rounded them up.







After playing with the farm animals, we walked through the corn maze,



and then proceeded with plenty of apple picking...





and then lots of apple eating and apple cider drinking.



Then we pulled out the tree books and read and read. It was homeschooling at its best.

While we did lots of tree crafts and tree lessons during this time period, our tree talks won't end here. We'll revisit trees again in December with our Christmas tree. Then we're going to do an honorary tree unit in February when we talk about family trees. And then we will be off to collect and boil down our own syrup in the March Maple Tree Festival up in St. Paul. Perhaps we will even go swinging on birches when we get to our poetry unit, or spend a day in the summer climbing trees just for good measure. Who knows, and who knew trees could be so wonderful!

Oh, and I almost forgot to include this picture of us truly enjoying the fruits of our labors in the orchard:

National Parks

After spending a week and a half saving the planet, we dove head-long into our next unit on national parks. We had no time to lose as our Yellowstone Trip was only about ten days away. Still, we had to be thorough. We started out by talking about national parks in general. We talked about what national parks are, how they came into being, and who is in charge of watching over and protecting them. (The Park Rangers) We actually took quite a bit of time looking up national parks in a national parks book we purchased, and the kids loved playing National Park Memory--a special version we picked up at the Science museum.



My favorite part; however, was when we moved into the discussion of the very first national park in the whole wide world: Yellowstone National Park. I just love Yellowstone, having gone there many many times as both a child and an adult. I was so excited to have this chance to teach my kids all about it, not to mention to take them there. I decided to break my Yellowstone Unit into two parts: 1)Geothermal Features and 2) Yellowstone Wildlife.

First, geothermal features. This section was a blast to teach--literally. First we reviewed the layers of the earth and everything the kids learned about fault lines in Summer Camp. Then we took a day to talk about volcanoes--Yellowstone is actually sitting on a large dormant one. During this discussion we of course had to construct our own volcano and cause it to erupt. The kids thought that was great. Unfortunately, Nick deleted the picture of our amazing handiwork! After talking about volcanoes, we went into a long section on the active geothermal features in the park, namely, geysers, hot springs, mud pots, and fumaroles. I have been to the park many times and I never realized the difference between all of these things. It was fascinating, and the kiddos loved it. They were so excited to swim in a hot spring, smell a fumarole, and watch Old Faithful erupt!

As we talked about all of the geothermal features, as well as the Yellowstone volcano and earthquakes, somewhere along the way we got side tracked on the Yellowstone fires. We got so side-tracked, in fact, that I decided to make a third section simply on the fires. Spence was especiallly taken with them-watching online video after video of the great forests burning. Then of course we had to talk about how they fought the fires and watch video after video of the airplanes dumping water and chemicals on the fires in an attempt to put them out. The kids were mesmorized. They were also devestated thinking that the whole park was still burned down. Fortuntely, we learned that the park was not entirely burned down, and that the fire actually did much good for the park. This lead into a discussion of the famous lodge-pole pines that dot the park. We learned all about their life span and how important fires can actually be to their growth. I even learned something as we discussed the logde-pole pine cones that contain the seedlings for new trees. Only under extreme heat can the cones pop and release their seeds. And only with adequate light (i.e. not being blocked by too many big trees) can the seeds take root and grow. It was an interesting tangent, and one that gave me an idea for another special unit when we get home from our trip.

Because we got side-tracked, we didn't get to our wildlife segment before leaving on our trip. I did; however, teach them all about the wildlife while we were in the park. We talked about the deer, elk, moose, and bison. We talked about black and grizzly bears, including what to do if you were ever to meet a real bear in the wild. We read about eagles and trumpeter swans. We studied marmots and chipmunks and beavers. And of course, we traced the history of the gray wolf and it's significance in the park. All the while we munched on special Yellowstone Animal Crackers and marked off the animals on our Yellowstone Bingo Cards as we came across them. It was awesome! A school special unit and a family vacation we will all never forget. (For all the pictures check out the Yellowstone Post on our family blog.)

The First Day of School

Well, today is the first day of school. Public school that is. It is the real day of truth. I awoke early this morning with such mixed feelings. I know we are supposed to home school, but there is still this strange feeling of being left out. I can't help but look at Maddi and feel kind of sad. She has no idea what today is, but I do. I know the Lord has a purpose for all things, and he can give us so much more than the world. I know for myself that we don't need the experiences of the world to be fulfilled and to grow into His people. Still, my heart feels heavy as I know that Nick and I have chosen to deprive Maddi of this life experience. She can never have another first day of Kindergarten again. Today will come and go, and with it, that opportunity. From here on out, if we ever put her back into school, she will be different. All of the other kids will have already started. They shared that experience all together. They all walked through the door of the school together. They kissed their mothers good-bye, met their teacher, played on their first recess--everything you do on the first day of kindergarten. All except my Maddi. I love her so much, as I do all my kids. I don't want her to miss out on anything in life. I don't want her to be strange, or different. But, then again, I guess I do. I guess that is what this all boils down to for us. We will have to be strange and different--peculiar--if that's what He requires. I feel intensely sad today, but intensely grateful as well. I pray that my children will be grateful for this decision too, and not look back with anger or resentment. Who knew being a parent was going to be so complicated! Heaven help us as we try to negotiate this monumental task! Or should I say, keep helping us, as He always does.

Music Makers

I wanted to include a brief post here about an extra-curricular school project that I have decided to take on again this year. This project is a once-a-week, two hour musical class I refer to as Music Makers. It is much like the Kinder Music programs available in many states, but differs in that I have no certification to run it, and so, I run it free of charge. It is quite a time-consuming program, both in prep time and in running time, but I decided to run it again this year to meet two of our family's home schooling needs. First off, it gives us a formal music curriculum to teach not only actual musical education (i.e. notes, rhythm, instruments, etc.), but to also teach topical items through music. And second, it gives my children some classmates other than each other. They love the company, and I hold music makers parties at each holiday to help enhance their home-schooling experience. While there are times when I wonder why I give myself the extra work, for the most part I love hosting the class. If I was really ambitious I would start a music makers blog to follow all of the crazy stuff we do in class, but lets be honest, I've got to sleep sometime!

Earth Summer Camp

I think every Kindergartner, in this modern day and age, has a unit on "the Planet Earth" and how to care for it. Consequently, I felt like I too should brooch this subject with my children, and perhaps try to be a little greener myself in the process. Originally, I thought I would hold this class sometime close to Earth Day; however, when I saw an Earth Summer Camp at our community center, I decided we would have this special unit sooner than later. It seemed to fit into our schedule nicely too. The kids could go to summer camp and get introduced to the planet Earth. Their class would cover the placement of Earth in the solar system, the actual layers of the planet Earth, rocks, mountains, fault lines, etc., and then briefly touch on conservation issues. Then our home school unit could expand on the conservation issues, including days on water conservation, energy conservation, garbage conservation and recycling, air pollution, and move into a discussion of taking care of our planet. This would lead very nicely into our next special unit on National Parks. After all, national parks are simply land set aside to protect and conserve. After covering national parks generally, then we'd move into specifically studying Yellowstone National Park, in anticipation of our trip there in a few weeks. At that point, my kids would already have a foundation for discussing the geothermal features in Yellowstone, and learning about the plants and wildlife would just be fun little extras! It would all flow so logically--necessary in my world of teaching! There was only one problem! Day one of summer camp put a wrench in my plan! Let me explain.

Perhaps I am naive, or I just didn't give it a lot of thought, but when my children arrived home from the first day of summer camp and told me all about how the earth was formed when a big explosion happened in outer space, shooting our planet off like a rocket into its current placement in the universe, I about died! I probably should have assumed that a Science summer camp on the Earth would teach Big Bang theory, but to be honest, when I enrolled them I was thinking more about the Earth's composition than about its origin. Needless to say; however, after day one of summer camp, origin was forefront in my mind. In fact, my two week holiday came to an abrupt halt, and the kids and I began an immediate dialogue about the earth's creation.

Now, let me pause here and say two things. First of all, I want to note, in behalf of all of you scientifically minded individuals, that I am not in direct opposition to everything supposed in the Big Bang theory. Just most of it. And secondly, let me just state that my kids have in fact been taught the true creation story. Many times in fact. Which was part of the reason it was so troubling to hear them tell this second version as fact. This ought to be a lesson to all parents. Even children who have been taught the truth, may not recognize a contraction when it is presented to them from another source. When my kids shared with me their understanding of the Big Bang theory, as it had been taught to them in summer school, they did not see any problem with it. They didn't connect it to the creation story we read in Genesis. Then, when I asked them how the world could be created by a big bang when the scriptures teach that Jesus Christ was the creator of the world, they just stared at me kind of confused. Eventually we got to the obvious conclusion, the one that many Christian scientists have come to, that Christ just caused the Big Bang, but even that was insufficient. My kids still couldn't seem to get past the mental image of some big explosion, and after talking and talking and talking, it was clear that a very accidental version of the creation was still stuck in their minds. I was upset, and angry at myself for not anticipating the topic. I was also ready to keep them out of the rest of the week of summer school, not to mention march right in and tell their teacher what I thought of her teaching Big Bang to my 4 and 5 year olds. My level headed husband; however, pointed out what a good teaching moment this was. "They need to confront some opposition." he said reasonably. And I guess that's true. It helps them to learn that not everything they will ever learn is true, and that they need to always weigh new understanding in light of their cherished gospel knowledge. It also taught me the absolute necessity of talking to children about what they see and hear in other places, and the obligation we have to teach them the truth.

So, teach them the truth we did. We countered Science summer camp with our own unit on Creationism. We read out of the Old Testament and Pearl of Great Price every night. We discussed the order and purpose of each day, the beauty of it all, and most importantly, the great Creator Himself. We testified to the truth of the scriptures, and told them to anticipate their visit to the temple as an adult where they could learn even more about God's creation of this Earth. It turned out to be a very positive experience. And although the U-Tube explosion video was very impressive, I think the true message sunk deeper into their hearts. And, as for their teacher, well, I couldn't resist having a little talk with her. Only, I made the kids do the dirty work. I helped them write her a letter about how we believe that Jesus Christ created the Earth. We then gave her a pass along card for a free Bible where she could read all about it.

Following our week studying the Creation, we then launched into our Save the Planet week. First we talked about garbage. We watched our Little Hard Hats movie on where the garbage goes. We visited the city landfill, talked to our garbage man, and made recycled paper. Through it all, we were careful to cover the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle program presented in most schools, and then tried to implement these ideas into our home. The kids went crazy with it all. They made special garbage cans in our house just for recyclable goods, they went through our current recycle bin and garbage to find things they could re-use (i.e. they used all the old baby food jars to sort their legos into), and they became quite effectively--the recycling police. We even thought we would try our hand at a compost bin; however, after actually building the thing, we determined that we weren't quite that green yet!

Once we finished our discussion on garbage, we moved straight into energy conservation. We watched our movie on Ben Franklin and the history of electricity. Then we learned all about power plants and how energy gets to our homes. Then we brainstormed ways to save energy, as well as had a unit on safety as regarding electrical power sources. By the end of these discussions our little police had duel jobs: recycling and energy-efficiency monitoring.

We couldn't end there though. We had to learn about water, where it comes from (the water cycle), how it gets to our homes, and how important it is that we have enough of it. The kids loved our field trip to the water tower, and you guessed it, they became diligent about not wasting water as well. In fact, one night during dinner, Spencer stood up and went to the sliding glass door. He then proceeded to open the door and poor his glass of water on the flowers outside. When I asked him what the heck he was doing, he informed me that he was no longer thirsty and that rather than wasting the water, he was going to water the plants with it. Pretty impressive, I know. Not too mention hilarious! I have to confess that even I started to get caught up in all of this. I told Nick that I want some of those down-spout water containers for Christmas. We already store drinking water in our food storage, but storing rainwater for outdoor use seems like a equally good idea!

Even water conservation didn't bring our unit to a close though. What true "greeny" can teach about saving the Earth without a class on the O-zone layer and global warming? Maddi was actually very affected by this discussion, particularly the part about air pollution and acid rain. She announced that we were going to start riding our bikes everywhere, and she has also decided she wants to protest airplane usage. It was amazing to see how the kids truly cared about these issues. It made me realize how truly wise it is to teach children when they are young. They internalize the beliefs, and as the adage states, when they are old, they will not depart from them.

Here is a shot of the kids holding some of their projects from our Planet Earth Unit:
Think green signs, paper mache globes, recycled paper, grass that they planted in a cup, and their own version of the planet earth cut out of construction paper. (Maddi built a Mayo Clinic right in the center of her Earth and made her Daddy very proud.)

Continuing Revelation

After 11 crazy weeks of non-stop home schooling, the kids and I decided it was time to take our first holiday. I desperately needed a break from such a full-on schedule, and the kids wanted some time to play with their friends before their school year started. After some consideration, we decided upon a two-week vacation. The first week would be pure play. Then, during the second week, I actually enrolled the kids in an Earth Summer Camp--still a break for me, but back to school for them!

During our little vacation, I took the time to ponder and evaluate many things. Of course, the number one question on my mind was: How is home-schooling going and do I want to back out while I still have the chance? This was a hard question to answer in my state of sheer exhaustion. The 11 weeks of school we had just completed was a roller coaster of stress and excitement. I loved spending time with the kids learning and exploring and discovering. And to be honest, I think the kids loved spending the time with me. They have been better kids lately than ever before, and I think it is a direct correlation of our time spent together. In addition to loving my time with the kids, I feel like have renewed my own love for learning. I feel curious again about the world, rather than being too busy too notice. It is wonderful. On the other hand; however, I have never had so many nights that I cry myself to sleep simply because I am so tired. I feel overwhelmed all of the time; inadequate to the task at hand. Part of me wants so badly to send Maddi off to school and put Spence back in pre-school. Then I would be down to two kids a day. I could get so much done! Honestly; however, I know this is not an option. I am into this neck deep, whether the real school year has started or not. Consequently, rather than day-dreaming about sending the kids off to school like everyone else in the world, most of my time during our vacation was spent trying to figure out how I am going to survive as I keep on home schooling. In truth, I already know the answer. SIMPLIFY. Our school was only supposed to be for a few hours a day three days a week. However, it has somehow evolved into four to six hours everyday of the week. That's wonderful because we are learning so much and spending so much time together--but the time constraint is eating me for lunch. So, I have been struggling to figure out how to simplify. Gratefully, I have not been left on my own. One day, as I sat thinking about our home school, the revelation simply came. It was pure and simple, and so beautiful to me. The inspiration was this: stop doing circle time every day. The kids already grasp the calender, the days, weeks, and months. They understand the weather, seasons, etc. They simply don't need to keep doing it everyday anymore. I realized that if I just moved circle time to the first day of the week, then that would open up hours of time for me every other day. We could still do table time and other classes each day, but save ourselves at least an hour a day on circle time. It may seem like a simple solution to everyone else, but it was one I know I didn't come to on my own. It was as though Heavenly Father's arms encircled me with love. I am so thankful for continuing revelation--both for the assurance that we are on the right track, and for the needed knowledge and understanding to make it through each new day.

Indian Literature

Just as a quick side note to our states unit, since so many (if not all) of the United States have Indian history, we have tried to incorporate some "Indian Literature" into each state unit. We read about the Ute's with the state of Utah, including some of the actual documents that passed between the Indians and Brigham Young. Then for Oklahoma and Minnesota I found books about Indian legends. For Oklahoma we read the Legend of the Indian Paintbrush. The kids loved this story that describes the beautiful flower and how it came into being after a small Indian boy left his paintbrushes on the hill after painting the sunset. In fact, after we read it, they insisted on taking a night to paint the sunset themselves.



Then for the state of Minnesota, I found a book called The Legend of the Lady Slipper. The Pink Lady Slipper is the state flower of Minnesota , so this book also captured the kids attention. Hopefully we can continue to incorporate some of this Indian literature as we go throughout the rest of the year--both for our own enjoyment, and because it is part of the school curriculum!

"The Gopher State"

After two fun-filled weeks of pioneering and land-running, I was honestly ready to declare a homeschooling holiday and just stare at the wall for a few days. I decided; however, to push through with just one more week of school before our holiday. This week we moved onto state number three: Minnesota. I was going to go with the whole "where we all grew up" trend and do Missouri next, but then I decided we had better do Minnesota while it was still summer so we could site see as part of our schooling. And site see we did. After learning all about Minnesota in our states books, we took a weekend field-trip to see some of the famous sights in our own lovely state. Since we have already been to the Mall of America, the old Pillsbury flour mills, Lake City (where water-skiing was invented) and the Mayo Clinic, our first destination on this site-seeing tour was Itasca State Park,



a beautiful area about five hours north of our Rochester home. We invited some of our adventurous friends to join on us the weekend tour, and decided that camping would be the best (not to mention cheapest) way to take it all in. While we almost had to cancel the trip due to severe weather (we were literally sitting in a tornado warning while we were supposed to be loading the car!) at the last minute we just "took off", arriving at our camp site a little after midnight. The next morning we cooked a big breakfast feast,



and then headed out for the great adventures of the day. After all, Itasca State Park, though probably unknown to most everyone in the U.S., is actually quite a significant location. Within the park lies the beautiful Lake Itasca--headwaters of the mighty Mississippi River. You can hike up to the lake and take a swim,













pause to enjoy the view,





or simply wade across the great river at it's most shallow and narrow opening.





We couldn't resist doing all three. And it was actually quite an awesome experience. Afterward we paused for lunch in the back of the truck,



and then spent the better part of the day just enjoying the scenery. One aspect of the scenery the kids especially enjoyed was this giant eagle's nest we came across. Amazingly enough, just as we spotted it, two eaglets poked their heads up and then proceeded to take their first flying lesson right in our view. It was awesome! And appropriate to our Minnesota weekend since our state has such a high population of the bird.



The next day we broke camp and made a six hour loop back to our homes through a number of stops. Here we are at the Paul Bunyan and Babe Monument, (it was a blast studying a few tall tales!)





and at the Judy Garland home.





We also saw some of the old lumber and paper mills, but somehow failed to snap a picture while we were there. All in all, the weekend was a blast. And left us more than ready for a well deserved home schooling vacation! (aka. the beautiful world of simply hanging out instead of holding 4-6 hours of school each day!)

"The Sooner State"

After studying the state of Utah, we moved directly into doing a week on the great state of Oklahoma. It worked out nicely because my parents came into town for a few days and I was able to recruit my mother to do a large part of the teaching. She spent several days teaching the kids all about Oklahoma history. Although she touched on the dust bowl and other significant events and peoples, the bulk of her lesson was on the Native Americans history. She discussed the history of the Indians, how they were moved into Oklahoma during the Trail of Tears and resided there until the great Oklahoma Land Runs. She taught them about the five civilized tribes, (the kids couldn't stop laughing over the Chick-I Saw Indians!) and about the Indians daily life (Spencer became obsessed with bow and arrows and Indian Quivers after this discussion). She also brought all sorts of props to show and give the kids i.e. the Oklahoma flag, a dream catcher to hand downstairs in their rooms, some Indian figurines, and real Indian jewelry from a friend of hers who is a true Indian Princess. Here she is at the table teaching away:



The kids loved talking all about Indian culture and lifestyles. They were saddened by the stories of the government mistreating the Indians, and shocked when they got to the part of the lesson on the Land Runs. How could the government break its promise to the Indians and give their lands away? It was a powerful teaching moment for the kids, and one that gave us an opportunity to talk about the Book of Mormon prophesies about the Indians.

Although the kids were upset by the fact that the government decided to give away the Indians' land via the Oklahoma Land Run of 1889, I knew our Oklahoma Unit wouldn't be complete without a Land Run re-enactment. Growing up in Oklahoma, our elementary schools always held a Land Run day, so I knew just how to proceed. Our first task; however, was to round up some settlers in search of free land so we wouldn't have to "run" all by ourselves. With so many wonderful friends, that didn't prove to be much of a challenge.

Our next order of business was to host a few activities to make preparations throughout the week of our land-run. First the kids came over to decorate small flags that they would attach to their stakes. Next we had them over to make stick horses to ride during the big event.



And then, finally the actual Land Run Day arrived. The kids all dressed up and brought their stakes and stick horses. (As you can see in the photo, we even saved our covered wagon for the great event.) We made them all stand outside behind a long red ribbon and wait for the cap-gun fire to set off in search of their land. Our whole back-yard was staked off and the kids were instructed to find their piece of earth and place their stake next to the large stake marking their territory. It was absolutely adorable to see these kids get so into the Run, and it brought back so many fond memories of my own childhood in Oklahoma. Here are a few pictures of the kids on the big day:









Just as the kids were lining up, several of the neighbors came outside to see what all the excitement was about. A few people walking by also stopped to watch us as all the commotion broke out. I don't know if they thought we were having a birthday party, or what, but it was quite comical to end up with an audience for our Oklahoma Land Run Day. I should have gone over and explained it all to them, but I didn't want to miss out on watching the kiddo stake out their claims.

Once everyone got some land, then it was time for some good-old Oklahoma cuisine. We prepared BBQ Brisket in honor of the Oklahoma beef, we had chips and cowboy caviar, corn and watermelon, and a delicious peanut dessert made with real Oklahoma wheat and peanuts. Here are our two little love-birds eating their dinner over on their land.



Following the land run, we all settled in for a movie night to watch, well, the famous Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical Oklahoma of course! The kids and I had been listening to the music all week and it seemed appropriate to cap off our weeks events with the classic film. After all, "We know we belong to the land. And the land we belong to is grand! And when we say Yeeow! Ayipioeeay! We're only sayin' you're doin' fine, Oklahoma! Oklahoma O.K.!"

"The Beehive State"

After completing our Safety Kids Unit, I decided it was time to come back to Geography again and begin our Individual States Unit. Originally I wanted to go through all of the fifty states. I bought several "50 states" fact books, a 50 states coloring book, a 50 states cook book, one of those quarter collecting boards, a state sticker map, and laminated maps for the kids to mark as we traveled to various states. With all of our supplies in place, I then went about picking the order of the states we would study. Since we kicked off our states week the week of July 24th, we decided to commence by studying the wonderful state of Utah.

We began by covering the Indian and pioneer heritage that Utah has. While we spent some time on the Ute Indians, most of our history lesson centered around the Mormon pioneers. In fact, we started our discussion with Joseph Smith, the prophet of the restoration, and worked our way all the way through until the saints entered the Salt Lake Valley and Brigham Young declared: This is the right place! The kids knew most of this information already, but it was a wonderful chance to review that heritage that belongs as much to us as it does the state of Utah. As part of this history review, we again created a poster board of us at church history sites, this time in the form of a chronological time line. After living on the east coast for a year, we are lucky to have visited almost every church history site there is including: Sharon Vermont--birthplace of Joseph Smith, Palmyra, Harmony Pennsylvania--Joseph and Emma's first home and restoration of the priesthood, Fayette New York--organization of the church, Kirtland, Ohio, Liberty, Independence, and Nauvoo. Here is a shot of our poster board time line.



As you can see, it stops after showing pictures of us in Nauvoo. We didn't end the poster board there; however, since we will soon have more to add. In September our family is going to make a trip back to Nauvoo, and then follow the Mormon trail all the way into the Salt Lake Valley. We will camp our way across the country from Nauvoo, to Winter Quarters, to Martin's Cove, and on through Immigration Canyon. Someday we want to make the trek in covered wagons, but this is the best we can do for now.

In honor of the pioneer trek, we not only planned our own trek for our family vacation, but decided that we needed to have a "symbollic trek" that actually correlated with our weeks of study and with the 24th of July. So, after a few days of reading and reading and reading Mormon history, we decided to make some Mormon history of our own. Dad and the kids worked hard to construct the frame for a covered wagon, and I sewed the canvas cover.



Then we got to the near impossible task of actually loading our wagon. Our journey would only be for one night--July 23rd to July 24th, but since our wagon was somewhat smaller than those the pioneers used, I figure it was actually pretty comparable. And what a nightmare it was to try and pack it. We managed our tent, one pillow, a sheet and blanket, all of our food and cookware for dinner and breakfast the following morning, our pajamas, and our scriptures. It took quite some time to get it all sorted out, to decide what absolutely had to come and what we could leave, and to prepare to make our trek. All in all, I think I appreciated the exercise the most, and truly felt the pangs of leaving things behind. I wasn't the only one who got into it though. As I gathered our food together, the kids stood by the window and pleaded with me to hurry because "the mobs were coming". Then, when we were finally loaded, our wagon threatening to burst, I think a tear escaped Maddi's little eyes. We really felt like we were leaving our home, never to return. Here's a shot of our littlest pioneer child standing next to the loaded wagon.




With one last farewell, we began our trek around and around and around the block.





The kids were dressed in pioneer attire, and you can only imagine the looks we drew as we "walked and walked and walked." This again gave me new found appreciation for the pioneers. I only went around the blocks a few times, with the kids doing most of the work of pulling the wagon, but even with that little amount of walking I felt sore and tired from carrying the baby, and unbelievably hot! I was glad when we finally came back to our back yard and decided to camp for the night.



And camp we did, but not without making a true pioneer dinner first--or at least our idea of a pioneer dinner: fresh trout we had caught ourselves, blueberries, homemade wheat bread we had made the day before--complete with hand churned butter, (this had been part of our pioneer children chores and lifestyle lesson) and some zucchini from our garden. All of it was carefully cooked over the fire, and it was so tasty. After dinner, we settled onto the hard ground inside of our tent, and went quickly to sleep.

That night, in the middle of the night, we had another true pioneer experience. We awoke with a start to a terrible storm that blew in with a vengeance. It came from out of nowhere, and gave us all quite a fright. I hurried in with the baby, and by the time I got back outside the wind had picked up something fierce. Nick was carrying stuff up to the house, and the screaming children took a tumble as the wind rolled the tent. There was no time to rescue the kids though, the first order of business was to get the fire extinguished before we started the whole cornfield on fire. We had left the coals in the fire pit when we went off to bed (not smart!) and when the wind picked up it sent them ablaze. The flames reached well over ten feet, and would have burnt everything in sight if the rain hadn't appeared only seconds later. But appear it did, and it poured. We ran around like crazy trying to get the kids and supplies inside. I was convinced we were going to die, overcome by the elements. Actually, I was sure we were all being picked up by a massive tornado! It was so frightening! But after much fear and craziness, we all soon found ourselves safe and dry and warm inside the walls of our home--a place the pioneers never would have had the luxury of fleeing to in such a storm. It was another powerful lesson, and one we talked a lot about the next morning over our skillet cornbread and blueberries and cream. It was our own little Mormon history indeed, and we capped it off with a big Pioneer Day celebration. We invited all of the members in the neighborhood--a total of 13 families--over for a BBQ that night and requested that everyone bring either family recipes or "Traditional Utah food". As a result, we had a smattering of jellos, including green jello (no carrots though), some funeral potatoes , and other comically Mormon cuisine. We visited and ate and then roasted marshmallows and had a firework show. It was a meaningful way for us to study and commemorate the true pioneer heroes that had entered the Salt Lake Valley on that very day so many year before.

While talking about and recreating Utah history was a fabulous start to our Utah week, it was not the end of our Utah Unit. With the history in place, we were then free to discuss all sorts of things about Utah from it's nickname of "the Beehive State" (We actually paused here and spent a few days talking about bees, studying how they make honey, dissecting flowers and learning about pollination, etc. This was the perfect way to get some science overlap. And bees are more amazing than you know. Sometime you should ask Nick to demonstrate a bee waggle dance and explain it's significance. You'll be down right amazed!), to the Transcontinental railroad (we'll visit Promontory Point on our Utah trip as well), to discussing the capitol, state flower, tree, bird, etc, and to reading about how Utah residents eat twice as much candy as any other state--a fact that our states cookbook attributed to Mormons' candy-making activities within their homes every Monday night! Ha! The kids loved delving into all sorts of topics; however, I think their favorite part of these discussions was the day they received a package from their grandparents out in Utah. This package contained all sorts of Utah items including: a real piece of honeycomb, lye soap, pioneer money, a golden spike, rocks from the Rocky Mountains, glass from some Utah ghost towns, and of course, some Salt Water Taffy from the Great Salt Lake! The kids, as you can see in this photo, just loved getting the educational and exciting present!



Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Hoskins! And thanks be to God for protecting those righteous men and women who sacrificed so much to cross the plains and eventually gained religious freedom in the land of Deseret. We love our pioneer heritage and our religious and family ties to the wonderful state of Utah!