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!

Our Studies with Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Who would have thought I would become an advocate for unit studies after years of training and teaching one subject- science. However, it is a wonderful way to introduce topics of all kinds at a young age and works very well for our kids.

Farmer Boy is one of their favorites. Who can't identify with this young boy and all the food he gets to eat?! The bonus is that he grew up in NY state and we've been able to take some local field trips to get a chance to see some of the things she describes in her book.

We got the chance to discover more about the phases of matter by discussing how the Wilders handled their bath routine in the very cold winters. Almanzo and his brother have to go out and gather the water from a tub that is filled with ice on the porch. They have to break the ice and scoop the water out to bring it in and warm it by the fire. They always leave a hole in the middle so the ice doesn't break the barrel apart. R was really good at remembering that part. They listed what they already knew about solids, liquids, and gases and whatever questions they had. Then we did some reading and experimenting. We observed evaporation by leaving some water in a dish near the window. Then we experimented to see which molecules moved faster- the hot ones or the cold ones. We used food coloring in hot and cold water to prove that when the temperature increases, the more energy the molecules have and this moves the coloring around faster. Everyone enjoyed that demonstration.

We observed ice and water and how one will fill any space and how one holds its shape. They had the chance to write down their observations and list what they learned and we added them to the notebook. Our next step is to differentiate between the phases in everyday items. That will have to wait for next week. The weather is getting nicer and baseball calls to us more than our book work some days! We plan to set up our official weather station as well.

E- 8.5 copies a design originated by his sister.

R 6.75- is very creative when it comes to artistic expression.

I 4.75- likes to join in on the fun activities and I usually require less writing from him (for now!)