Field Trip: 1892 School Day

Today the three older kids had a visit to a local one room school house. We've been participating in this for a few years, but last year they were doing some renovations to the schoolhouse. This semester, in preparation for the big day, there was a co-op class and I8 took it as his second class. He loved it. On Co-op Night, he and the other students were able to recite all kinds of poems and sayings from 1892 including the Gettysburg Address. They did a great job!

During the semester the kids made silhouettes, learned what boys and girls wear and made their own flags.

They made a map of the US in 1892 and made lunch pails and napkins for taking lunch to and 1892 school.

The teacher shared stories from books used then.

These flags turned out really well! They used just the right amount of stars.

Lunch is ready to go- no plastic (except for the water bottles- I cheated on that one) and not even peanut butter which was scarce back then.

Our pupils ready for a day at 1892 school

The kids gathered out front this morning. Aren't all those dresses sweet?

The schoolhouse is octagonal in shape. The original house was a four sided wooden structure which burned down. They rebuilt it in brick so that it would not burn.

A good time was held by all, but the weather was a disappointment for sure. It is cold and misty/rainy/foggy today and all week so the kids were inside for recess and lunch. Reportedly, it was COLD inside the schoolhouse and the stove was broken- no heat! You would think this is not an issue in May, but it is!

Morse Code

I8 found a Morse Code Signal Set in his stocking this Christmas. At first, they did quite get them until everyone figured out how to use the flashers. Since then they've been signaling like crazy!

The code is in The Dangerous Book for Boys

J5 spent one whole evening sending code to me and he caught on pretty quickly so that he was deciphering codes from his siblings- and being the first to guess correctly!

The encoder comes with the alphabet on it and then it has the deciphering cards to match.

Blurry- but this is the signal when you squeeze and when you don't it is black. So cool.

This was such a great find to add to I8's adventuring. He loves it and the kids have been having a great time sending messages. E12 is doing a unit on Heroes of Invention which this time around does not include Samuel Morse, but it does go along with the spirit of invention.

Trail Guide News

Some of you may know that we've been using the Trail Guides to US and World Geography for a while now. This year I decided to just work our way through the US Guide. The kids work on daily drills and will have mapping exercises or other geography quests on some days. We've always done geography as part of our unit studies, but the older kids especially like the daily geography work.

There are a lot of really good suggestions for projects in the trail guide that can be used for any geography focus. At the end there is a unit study on Lewis and Clark. I'm about to start a read aloud of The Captain's Dog based on this study.

Here R10 is working on a "signature map" where you write some state fact or name as the perimeter of the state. It was pretty cool when the kids were finished. Can you guess which state that is?

US Trail Guide

There are notebooking pages sold to go with this and the world study. I have the world study at two different levels, but I don't have any of the three (primary, intermediate, secondary) for the US. A must have is the Uncle Josh's Outline Maps. I prefer the CD which has extra maps. I just write out the assignments and occasionally I type them. I write out the mapping assignments on the back of the map they are to do. The kids have a small 1/2" binder with dividers where they keep all of their work.

On the Way to the State Fair

E11's Truth about New York game is on it's way to the New York State Fair! Congratulations E11! (he had three entries in the county fair this year...which uhoh! I failed to report on this year...better take care of that. All three got blue ribbons, but the game got a State Fair purple ribbon!)

He created this game as an assignment of his choice during our study of The Little Red Lighthouse and The Great Gray Bridge. The original version of the game was really nice, but he figured that typing up the various cards and making them look more trim was a good bet.

He spent a lot of time redoing his cards on the computer after figuring out what he wanted and I helped him cover a mouse trap game box to house his game. He decorated everything with NY stickers. See the results of his hard work below.

The Box- He even put a picture of the set up game on the front. I purchased the stickers when I bought the Bare Books game things.

Check out the deed cards. The first ones were done by hand and this really sharpened up the game's image.

Don't these look nice? E11 remembered to give credit where credit is due and these were all from Wikimedia so the are public domain.

Really nice improvement cards. you can see the difference if you click on the original game.

Every thing looks tidy. E11 worked really hard on this game all tolled.

It displays at the State Fair this coming week. No matter how it does at fair, E11 can be really proud. He did his best work on this game. We are planning to take a trip up there mid-week to see how it does. This is the first time any of the kids have advanced on to state fair. E11 is pretty excited.

Everything's Better with Bacon...

The kids have been playing a lot of Oregon Trail on the computer lately. R10 set out on one particular journey with 750 lbs of bacon. Morale was very high for a long time.


Unfortunately, the wagon tipped over in a stream. Loss- 100 lbs of bacon.

Then the wagon tipped as they were going up a hill. Loss- 50 lbs of bacon.

Morale was still high.

Next, the party got stuck in the mud and they had to dump some cargo. Out went another 100 lbs of bacon.

Morale was still very high.

Then they were robbed. Loot stolen- 50 lbs of bacon. R10 says, "Well, people like bacon."

They ate the rest of the bacon. Then morale dropped. Very low.

It's just goes to show...

Everybody's happy till the bacon runs out...

"Next time I'm getting a fiddle," reports R10. "Fiddles keep everybody happy, but you don't have to lug around the bacon."

Lessons learned.