American History: Early American Settlements: Jamestown 1607

After studying many of the early American explorers, including Sir Walter Raleigh--the Englishmen that first explored and settled the Chesapeake Bay area, we began a new segment of American History: Early American Settlements. Now I realize that the Spanish, the French, and others built settlements in America before the English, but for our purposes, we decided to spend more time on the prominent English settlements. And of course, the first of these (if you don't count Roanoke) was the amazing Jamestown colony. Oh Jamestown! How I have learned to love Jamestown! I could go into so much detail explaining why Jamestown is significant and how God played a hand in it's survival. (See the chapter on Jamestown in Seven Miracles That Saved America for more info.) I could give a full discourse on the necessity of Jamestowns' survival to the later pilgrimage of the real "chosen" immigrants--the Pilgrims and Puritans. (For instance, just think for a minute about the motives of the two separate groups, the composition of their immigrants, and their eventual outcome historically!!) But rather than bore you all with my personal historical analysis, suffice it to say that we (me mostly) thoroughly enjoyed our class on the Jamestown Colony. And I will be forever grateful that we managed to squeeze it in before we rolled into the modern Jamestown Colony Parking lot. (Though I do confess that we just barely shut the book as we got out of the car!) And oh how fun visiting Jamestown was, especially since Uncle Eric and the kids' cousins Mikey and Matthew could join us for all the fun. It was another day of Hoskins homeschooling at its best!!

And here are the pictures to prove it.

First, a few shots of us crossing the river on the ferry. We felt just like the early settlers who also came by boat!







And now the shots at Jamestown. First at the archeological dig site,















And then at the refurbished settlement.

































And even though we didn't really get into its historical significance too much, (we're not that far into American history yet) I just have to include a few shots of our family at Colonial Williamsburg as well.









And yes, this is Mason studying horse poop! Don't ask me why, but he was a bit obsessed with it while we were at Williamsburg. Kind of like Emma couldn't be torn away from the fish guts at the Indian camp in Jamestown. Whose kids are these anyway!?

American History: Early Exploration

Well, as I said in our Geography/History update, after realizing that we were going to be traveling through some pretty historic areas of the country, I decided to go ahead and get a jump start on our American History Class. This turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made. Not only did our history class compensate for our lack of friends and neighbors in Florida, but it felt significant to be studying early American history, especially early exploration of American soil, right where much of it began--Florida. I couldn't have picked a better place, and I had no idea how many historical sites right in Florida we would get the chance to visit. It was fantastic.

Before I get to our field trips; however, let me give a little bit of background on our actual class time. I knew going into our history class that I was going to have to make some purchases I had previously avoided making in my homeschooling adventure. You see, as a great blessing from heaven, I met two first grade teachers during my year in Pennsylvania. Over the course of those short eleven months, I picked their brains on all of the teaching topics I could think of. They taught me so much, and I was also very blessed because they passed on several of their old teaching supplies to me, free of charge. Most of the things they gave me were for teaching reading, i.e. phonics books, decodable readers, etc. They were perfect. By using these resources, as well as the information they gave me, I was able, through a lot of work and divine help, to develop my own reading program. It encompasses all of the phonics rules up through third grade, yet, I have been able to adapt it to learning from kindergarten through first grade. My personal belief is to teach all of the phonics first, to give kids the power and knowledge to read any word that can be approached phonetically, then get into grammar and reading comprehension later. I also use sight words, but my focus with sight words is two fold. First, for early readers, a list of high-frequency words to help them kick start their reading is important. However, other than this basic list, I try to use sight words strictly for non-phonetical words. In this way they can learn to read what can be read, and memorize only what must be memorized. Once their reading is progressing, then, and only then, will I focus on reading comprehension and the more laborious task of grammatical deconstruction. Anyway, you've gotten an earful on my reading philosophy, but my real point is, for reading and writing I have just developed my own programs and avoided having to review or purchase costly teaching aids. With math, I have been lucky to find resources online, as well as simple and inexpensive workbooks to use as teaching tools. And with our science and special unit classes, we have utilized the library and the world around us to learn and discover. I feel that history, on the other hand, is going to have to be approached much differently.

For history, I decided I wanted a textbook of sorts, something I could read from and to the kids.
So, for the first time in my homeschooling career, I was forced into doing some research on actual curriculum. While I figured I could come up with my own activities, I had to find a text to teach history from. Ahh! The moment I had been dreading with homeschooling had arrived. So, how to go about it? Well, I started by asking teachers I knew what they liked. Then, by combining that input with ratings and reviews I was able to find online, as well as with sincere prayer, (The Lord asked me to do this, and He knows my limited time and resources--so I figure I can petition Him for any help that I need. And thankfully the outpouring of love and inspiration has in fact been great! In fact, I have felt and recognized the workings of the Spirit in my life ten times more abundantly since I followed the prompting to home-school than before this was part of my life. And that inspiration has been for both schooling, as well as general life! Indeed, prayer is powerful, and God is good!) I was able to narrow down my choice to three different texts. Once I was down to only three texts, I bought them all. I spent a few days looking through them, and then ended up keeping two of the three sets. The sets that I purchased were: The 11 volume award winning children's history series: The Story of Us, by Joy Hakim, the three-volume Story of the World, by Susan Wise Bauer, and a set of American History children's stories put out by the Christian company Beautiful Feet Books. After looking them over, I sent the Story of the World back, deciding is wasn't focused in enough on American history to be useful to me at this point. Then, I set out to read the books I had bought.

Now I was ready to give teaching American History a go. Before we could get into early explorers; however, we first went over the seven continents and the major oceans. We bought a map of the world and hung it on the wall in our Florida condo. Then we dove in with our first lesson on Leif Eriksson. We had a Beautiful Feet book all about Leif and the vikings that we took a day or two to read and discuss. Then we opened up that Story of Us to the viking chapter and read it as well. This is actually chapter 13 in the first volume of the Story of Us. For the sake of time, and historical speculation, we skipped the first 12 chapters on the secular theories of the first Americans. Before we got to Leif; however, we did talk a little about the popular theories of how the first Americans got here. Rather than discussing those theories in much depth, though, we instead talked about how we KNOW some of the first Americans got here. In other words, about the three groups that the Book of Mormon teaches came to America. We also spent quite a while discussing the scriptures in 2nd Nephi (1:5-9) that talk about the Lords preserving this land. That only those who He allowed to come here were able to. This was an awesome discussion, and one I feel with all of my heart and soul is true. God preserved America for a choice time and a choice people. I believe in American exceptionalism--but hey, we'll save that for a Fourth of July post!

So, back to Leif. After we read up on Leif, then we created what I believe was one of my better teaching ideas--a mini Viking boat. Instead of a sail, we made a Norwegian flag. (Most Vikings originated in Norway.) Then we placed the boat in the ocean along the route that Leif Eriksson sailed when he came to America. If I was really cool we would have drawn the route right onto our map, but I want to keep and re-use the map so we just put the boat on instead. Then we took a day to read about Norway, past and present, and color a Norwegian coloring page. This would be our pattern for each early explorer.

Here is a picture of our early American exploration wall.



As you can see from this picture, the explorers we covered were:

1000 Leif Eriksson
1423 Zheng He (I bet most of you have never heard of him!)
1488 Bartolomeu Dias
1492 Christopher Columbus
1497 Vasco de Gama
1497 John Cabot
1499 Amerigo Vespucci
1510 Vasco de Balboa
1513 Ponce de Leon
1519 Ferdinand Magellan
1519 Hernando Cortez
1532 Francisco Pizarro
1540 Francisco Coronado
1562 Jean Ribault
1577 Sir Francis Drake
1587 Sir Walter Raleigh

Quite a crew, I know. With some we had more detail than others. For instance, we spent a long, long time on Columbus. We read our Beautiful Feet book on Columbus, we read the chapters from our History of Us book on Columbus, we read excerpts out of Columbus' journals, (I bought them for myself for some light Summer reading! I wish light!) and I read the kids part of a book I had just finished reading called the Seven Miracles that Saved America. Then of course we read out of the Book of Mormon about the prophecy of Columbus, (1st Nephi 13:12) and read some of the famous quotes that talk about Moroni's role in helping Columbus. (See the Don Quixote of the Seas quote) It was awesome. And with each new country we encountered, (country they sailed for, not country they were born in) we made a new ship and did a new coloring sheet. The kids loved this class. And I loved it. I vaguely remembered most of this stuff from my own school days, but teaching it helped me put it all together in a way I hadn't previously done. It has also inspired me to do a lot of studying on my own as I teach these topics. I want to know this stuff for myself, inside and out. I also want to be sure I am teaching them the truth, and sometimes it's hard to find out what that is without giving it some time and energy.

Our early exploration unit was really, really great; however, no history class in our home school is complete without a few field trips. So, here are a few photos of us studying history first hand.

Our first stop: Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth. The supposed location of the fountain of youth was about a half an hour south of our condo in Jacksonville. On site they have a large statue of Ponce de Leon,



an all natural spring that they give small samples of,

and all sorts of tropical plants and animals. The kids especially liked the peacocks.

They also had live cannon firings--an event Spencer quite liked. It's hard to say whether he liked watching the cannon being fired, or admiring the worker's sword more, but either way, he was in heaven.



At the end of our visit to the Fountain of Youth we watched a really neat presentation on the early explorers. The presentation had this huge globe and using black light and lasers showed the routes of all of the early explorers while offering a brief history.



Following this presentation we entered the planetarium on site and got an introductory look at ocean navigation using the stars. I wish we had more time and I would have inserted a unit on stars at this point in our class; however, hours in our days are somewhat limited. We will have to get to the stars and outer space as part of our next year's science classes.

Our Second Stop: Old St Augustine. St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied
European established city and port in the continental Untied States. It was first explored in 1513 by the Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon,who claimed the region for the Spanish crown. Then the French exploration of the area began in 1562, under captain Jean Ribault. Ribault explored the area where St. Augustine was later settled, but soon sailed north and established the settlement of Charlesfort in present-day South Carolina. In 1564 some mutineers fled the colony and turned pirate, attacking Spanish vessels in the Caribbean. The Spanish used this as a catalyst to locate and destroy the French settlement, fearing it would serve as a base for future piracy and wanting to dissuade further French colonization. They quickly dispatched Pedro Menendez to go to Florida and establish a base from which to attack the French. The Fort he established was St. Augustine.

Still present in Old St. Augustine are:

the original city walls,





an old wooden school house--the oldest on American soil,



and the original fort.





It was amazing! Our visit to Old St. Augustine was during our last week in Florida and I felt sad we hadn't discovered this little treasure somewhat sooner. Lucky for us, we'll be back in Florida next year and we can do more exploring of the area then. We didn't leave without a trip to the "new" St. Augustine light house and beach though. We got there right at sunset and closed out an exceptional day of Hoskins-style homeschooling.



Our next stop: Savannah, Georgia--The Old Pirate House. This early exploration field trip was actually after we left Florida and were making our way north to Jamestown, Virginia. The brief discussion we had on pirates (not to mention Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean ride and gift shop) was not lost on our little Spence, who immediately decided he was going to go pirate himself. So, in honor of our little pirate, we found this awesome restaurant and tour to take during a dinner stop in Georgia. Here is the entrance to the restaurant,



as well as a front shot of the whole house. The little building in between the two taller buildings is actually the oldest standing building in Georgia. It was the herb house of the original Pirate House Pub and Hotel. The rest of the building had to be refurbished, but the herb house is still standing as it was originally built.



Inside they have each room named as it originally was. We ate Georgian pecan fried chicken, mashed sweet potatoes, and fried pickles, not to mention fresh Georgia Peach Pie right in the Captain's Room.



Then we got a tour from one of the female pirates lodging in the Old Pirate House that night. She told us all about the building, about the real pirates who had lived in this area, and about the "haunted" city of Savannah. Apparently the city was built right on top of hundreds of burial sites leading to its claim to be the most haunted city in America. It was good for a laugh, but I have to say, after being in Salem Massachusetts right at Halloween time, I'd say Salem has them beat!







The kids loved the Old Pirate House, and so did I, especially since it helped break up our long drive. And speaking of our drive, I think our last field trip to Jamestown deserves a post of its own. While part of our study of Jamestown fell under the heading of Early American Exploration, I think it more appropriately falls under the heading of Early American Settlements.

Maple Syruping

Well, after studying lodge pole pine trees, apple trees, Christmas trees, and family trees, I think the maple trees may well finish up our tree unit for the time being. And what a way to end! I have been to maple syrup farms several times, but not during the harvesting weeks. It was cold outside, but totally worth the several hour drive north. We got to tap a tree, boil the syrup down, and drink a little glass of the sweet creation. It was great. And we brought along a few friends to enjoy the day too.

Cooking 101

I don't usually write posts about our core curriculum classes; however, since this math class was a bit out of the ordinary, it will get a spot on our school blog. All throughout the year we have been learning about different types of measurement as part of our math curriculum. We first looked a lot at the measuring of time by learning the calender (days, months, and years) and then learning about telling time (seconds, minutes, and hours). Once we tackled these rather big types of measurement, we broke off into some of the smaller measurement classes. For instance, we talked about measuring temperature with our weather unit. We also did small units on weight and length measurement. Then, when I saw that Easy Bake Ovens were being sold off for pennies (since the light bulbs used in them will soon be illegal) I decided we would add a very basic fractions class and do a measurement unit on cooking.

The whole week that we studied fractions I motivated the kids to get their work done by telling them about our Easy Bake Oven. Then, when the last fraction worksheet was complete, we finally got to kick off our two week Cooking Class. The first night the kids cooked up all of the Easy Bake Mixes that came with their oven for our family home evening treats. Then, we got to the real fun. We looked up recipes online and began cooking a little something in their oven each day. For example, on Tuesday the kids made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for their gymnastics coaches. Or, on Friday, we cooked up hot dogs on a slice of cheese and Ritz cracker for lunch. The following Monday the kids even baked a four layer cake for our Hoskins Family Birthday Party. With each recipe (all except the hot dogs and s'mores where there was no measuring) we talked about teaspoons, tablespoons, and cups. We also reviewed all of the fractions we had covered. And, for a little something extra, we talked about what the different components of the recipes were for--i.e. eggs=emulients, baking soda and powder=leaveners, sugars=sweeteners, etc. The kids LOVED it.





Before too long, however, the kids, and in particular Madison, wanted to cook other things, and in the real oven. So, what could I do but let her give it a try. For a few days I had her help me with everything I made. She mixed ingredients, cooked the crepes, and even helped with the clean up. Then, on the last day of our cooking class, I turned it all over to her. I gave her my buttermilk pancake recipe and told her she was in charge of cooking breakfast. She located all of the ingredients, measured and mixed them, and then cooked the pancakes all by herself (I did turn on the stove for her, but that was all.) I was pretty proud of my little culinary student. As you can see from the picture, she was pretty proud of herself too.



While our next math unit on money won't be quite as tasty as our cooking class, hopefully, with the new cash register Santa brought, it will be equally entertaining.

Oh, and one last funny cooking picture. This is Mason's idea of helping.

The Ants Go Marching Two by Two...

While our Geography/History classes are about to get a lot more regular, our science units are as all over the board as ever. We've learned about worms, frogs, eagles, and bees. We've looked at the Earth, and saving the planet, as well as studied national parks. We've learned about earthquakes, volcanoes, and geysers, about Yellowstone wildlife and the concept of extinction. We've learned about varying flowers and trees. And now we're back to bugs again. There is just something about studying things the kids can get hands on experience with that I simply cannot resist. So, Santa brought the kids an ant farm and we decided to learn all about ants. It has been a blast. A brief overview of our ant unit is as follows:

Day 1: Intro to the ants. We started the day our ants arrived in the mail. This day we set up our ant farm and went to the library to get ant books. We also had a family movie night and watched A Bug's Life.

Day 2: The types of ants: queen, males, and workers, and the life cycle of an ant from egg:larva:pupa:adult ant. We also talked a little about the different jobs that worker ants can have. It's quite amazing how intricate their family systems are. Some ants take care of the eggs or larva, some dig, some get food, some watch the queen. Most people probably knew this stuff, but did you know some ants are in charge of the pet aphids. They kidnap aphids and bring them into their tunnels because the aphids make a sweet nectar that will be released if the ants pet them. Some ants are also in charge of the pet crickets. They also kidnap baby crickets and raise them in their tunnels because they like the music they make. Amazing.

After reading one of our library books on all of the jobs of worker ants, I went around and asked each child what kind of worker they would like to be. Emma wanted to take care of the baby ants in the nursery. Maddi wanted to be the queen. (of course) And Spencer, well Spencer's answer about made me wet my pants it was so funny. He thought for a minute, and then replied, "I don't want to be a worker ant, I want to be a dier ant." "A dier ant?" I said, not having any idea what a dier ant was. "Yeah," he replied. "A Dier ant. I don't want to do any of the work. I just want to mate with the queen and die!" Well, at least he was listening when we read about the jobs of the male ants. They do only live for two to three days. Once they reach adulthood they fly out of the nest, mate with a new queen, and die. Apparently that life sounds pretty good to little Spence.

Day 3: The body of an ant-with extra attention on the three parts of an insect and the ants' exoskeleton. We took some of the ants out of our farm today and studied them in glass jars with magnifying glasses. These little creatures are really so interesting. I find myself staring into their little glass container more than I ever thought I would. Their life is so orderly. Watching them is soothing to me in a weird sort of way, kind of like some people calm down by watching fish.

Day 4: Constructing our own ants to reinforce what we learned on day 3. Tonight we watched Honey I Shrunk the Kids. If you remember, they get a pet ant while they're tiny. This was a great show to get a better look at an ant's body.





Day 5: Ant's antennas. We talked all about what they use them for, and did our own antenna experiments. (In other words, identifying things by our sense of smell.)

Day 6: Other ant experiments including what ants like to eat, how much they can carry, etc.

Day 7: Ant Colonies and Ant Hills.

Day 8: Constructing our own ant nest to reinforce what we learned on day 7.





Day 9: Different kinds of ants, including all of the varieties of Killer Ants. (Spencer loved the killer ants' war strategies!)

Day 10: Ant predators.

Day 11: Visit the Children's Museum Ant Exhibit and pretend to be ants!

Geography/ History Update

Well, we haven't really had a geography/history post since our Minnesota State post. We have; however, been doing geography/history, in our own sort of way. After doing units on Utah, Oklahoma, and Minnesota, (states mom and dad were raised in, and the one we currently live in) we have mostly just been learning about different states that we travel to. I bought quite a few state books, including a cook book, and a sticker chart so that we could keep track of what states we have been to since starting school last summer. Whenever we travel into a new state, we read all about that state in our books, mark the state on our map, and try to find some activities to do while we are there that coincide with what we've read.

For instance, when we went to Chicago, Illinois at the beginning of the year, we learned about the World's Fair there where they built the largest Ferris wheel, we read about Sue, the largest T-Rex Skeleton, and studied up on the Chicago fires. Then, while in Chicago, we visited the Ferris Wheel, went to see Sue, and sang that silly "Fire, Fire" song everywhere we went. We also ate Chicago Deep Dish Pizza--the recommended recipe in our cook book. We try and do this where ever we go so that the kids get a sense for different people and places. It's really quite fun.

Here is a picture of the kids holding up our sticker chart of where we have been since last June.



The states we have visited are: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, (We actually did a little Missouri state unit too, but that write up is in the family tree post.) Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Utah.

In the next six weeks we will also add Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. With this trip, we will have made it just over halfway through the Unites States! I'd say that's quite the accomplishment for our little home school.

We'll keep this up as we visit new states, but I've decided it's time to take on a little more serious study of history. Originally my plan was to learn about the USA as a nation (which we did), then learn something about all of the states (which we were in the middle of), then study some different countries (the ones in Epcot, remember) and then do small units on the seven continents. After that, we would finish up with space. This seemed like it would give the kids a general overview of the world before moving into a real history class. While I think this would have been nice, we have had a slight change in our plans. Last week, Nick found out that Mayo needed him to attend a conference in Washington D.C. the week after we finish our Florida rotation. After much consideration, we've decided to go ahead and drive from Florida up to D.C., attend the conference, and then head home from D.C. This will actually take us right past Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg. So, I've decided to go ahead and dive into our American History Class.

During the month we're in Florida, we're going to hurry and cover early American exploration including Christopher Columbus and many, many others. This course of study will naturally introduce us to some other countries, but will hopefully do it in a more meaningful context than simply picking countries to study at random. After looking at early exploration, we can get straight into the Great Virginia Adventure, with a big focus on Jamestown. This will set the stage nicely for a visit to Jamestown.

After visiting Jamestown and Williamsburg, we'll only have a month or so of school left before taking our summer vacation. As a result, we will only be able to get through the puritans, pilgrims and Indians--a subject we did already in November, but one we'll review again briefly now. (We have to, after all, since we're going to try planting a plot of our garden with the three sisters method the pilgrims used. You'll hear more about this later.) Then we'll let history be for a while and pick back up in the fall with an in-depth look at the original thirteen colonies. Then we'll continue studying American history all the way up until our rotation in Boston during the month of November. By then we hope to have covered everything through the Revolutionary War so we can do some meaningful sightseeing while we're there. With this new plan, I'm not sure when we'll get to look at some of the continents not covered in our early exploration unit (Africa, Antarctica, and Australia), or at outer space, but hey, we'll get there someday. Maybe even when we have enough money to visit them--all except space that is. I don't think we'll ever have enough money to visit the moon!

Family Trees

As part of our ongoing unit on trees, I thought it would be fun to take the month of February, a month we normally celebrate love and family, and study family trees. I myself had just learned how to use the new family search program the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints put out, and it seemed like a good time to get the kids interested in genealogy work. Since we still hadn't gotten around to studying the state of Missouri, the birth place of the three older kids, I figured a good place to start our unit was with the kids own personal histories. As such, our first order of business was to talk to the kids about their individual entrances into the world. We talked about when I was pregnant with each of the kids, and of course, the day they were born. We looked through their baby books, their photo albums, and watched home videos. The kids absolutely loved the few days they each got to be spotlighted.

Following our week and a half of spotlighting, we then took a little bit of time to study the state of Missouri. During this time we made little books entitled Once Upon Time I lived in St. Louis. (I will scan one of these on for a different post on our family blog.) We printed out old pictures of our St. Louis house, our yard, and lots of the places that we used to love to go. During our last few weeks in St. Louis, I envisioned making these books, (though not in the context of homeschooling) and as such, I also took pictures before we moved of each of the kids with their best friends in town. These pictures would make up the last page of each of the kids books. The kids really enjoyed this project, and it helped them "remember" our time in their birth state.

We also took this opportunity to study the whole state of Missouri. We had already talked about the history and destiny of the state of Missouri as far as its religious heritage was concerned, i.e. as the sight of the garden of Eden, and as the place for the New Jerusalem. Now we also talked about more general state history. One of the things that impressed the kids most was the terrible earthquakes of 1811 and 1812 near New Madrid. These quakes were the nation's largest, so big in fact, that they caused the mighty Mississippi to temporarily flow backwards.

With their birth stories, memory books, and Missouri state history behind us, we then moved through our whole family tree and began a few more weeks of pictures and storytelling. Nick and I went first, showing our baby pictures and telling stories of our childhood. Then the kids got to call and Skype with their grandparents to hear their stories and stories about their parents and grandparents. I even sent letters to my grandparents, the kids' great-grandparents, and had them write down stories of their childhoods. The kids loved our daily family history lessons, and begged to hear more and more. They really internalized these stories too, and I could tell from the light in their faces as they listened that we were successfully planting the seeds of genealogy into their hearts. It was an awesome month long unit, and one of the reasons that I love homeschooling. The kids could never have learned all of this stuff at public school!

Here is a picture of Spencer (and Mase) holding the family tree that we made during our unit.
There were a few pictures missing when we took this picture, and eventually Mason got a hold of the tree and ate the faces off of it, but someday Nick and I want to put together a binder with another version of this tree so the kids can always look at it and remember their ancestry.



And here is a picture of Maddi that I took a few days after we finished our family tree unit. I asked her what she was up to and she proudly declared, "I'm playing in a one man band, just like great-great-Grandpa Carter used to do for you when you were a little girl!" Indeed, the music of great-great Grandpa Carter may be one of the most lasting impressions on my kids. They love it when I sing them his lullabies, and in truth, for some reason those lullabies sooth them more than any others. I like to believe it's because he is present beyond the veil when we remember him in this way. The kids also like it when I sing any of his other silly songs. They're even pretty amazing when it comes to knowing the words. Grandpa would be proud!