Our Study within a Study- New York State

Farmer Boy provides us with a great view of farming in NY in the mid 1800s. The Wilders owned a large farm in Malone, NY which is way up near the Canadian border above the Adirondack Mtns. We would love to take the kids there this summer. I'll keep you posted on our plans. It's still quite a haul from where we are so we will have to work on the details to make it a pleasant experience!

For now, I'm using the setting of the book as a jumping off point for our study of the state of New York. As hard as it is to believe, we've been here for seven years already and three of our children are NY natives. How did this happen?! Interestingly, none of our kids are natives of Maryland and we consider ourselves pretty hardcore Marylanders...or maybe I should speak for myself! At any rate, in accordance with our homeschool guidelines we are studying the history and geography of New York. Don't worry...I'll make sure we get some Maryland history in there at some point!

I'm planning a huge mini unit on NY and when I have it all together I will add to this post. For now, we began with a simple political map of the state. They had to list some cities they knew and of course we added Malone and identified the capital- Albany. We identified the main bodies of water and the surrounding states and country.

E 8.5- map and a drawing of the Wilder barns based on the written description

I 4.75- nicely colored map of NY and a wonderfully drawn log cabin. I loves to draw using the series "Draw Write Now". It has step by step instructions for drawing lots of themed items including this log cabin.

R 6.75- loves to draw and she has done a terrific job with her map and Wilder barn. We did have some help from the Wilder Homestead website because they have a picture of the model of the original barns which are now gone. To give the kids perspective while we were reading and the barn was described with its dimensions, I was quick to point out that the hay-bay was larger than our house!