A "Taste" of History

One Saturday in September, a sudden rainstorm hit the farmer's market while I shopped. I quickly ducked from tent to tent, purchasing my normal fruits and vegetables. The last booth just had sweets, which I normally never purchase. However, because of the weather, I set down my bags and talked for a while with the vendor. As we spoke, I noticed some beautiful, molded cookies for sale and asked about them.

The baker told me that the cookies were called springerle cookies and that they originated in Switzerland and southern Germany as far back as the 14th century. He explained that each family would have handcrafted wooden molds and would make these cookies on special occasions, such as weddings, engagements and holidays. In fact, people would often give springerle cookies in the same way we give out Christmas cards. Traditionally, bakers flavor the cookies with anise, but many also use flavors like orange or lemon. After the wonderful history lesson, I decided to purchase three lovely, orange-flavored cookies to teach the kids a little about German history.

A few days later, I made each child a cup of hot tea. Now, I know that Germany is not known for its tea, but I decided that I would rather not give my kids any coffee! I set the table with nice teacups and allowed each child to choose a cookie. Then, I told them about the history while we enjoyed our tasty snack. 

The kids' beautiful cookies:

The kids really enjoyed the tea party, and they learned quite a bit as well. As a lover of history (as well as a descendent of German immigrants), I love giving the kids a "taste" of history and culture that they will remember long after they forget the facts they read about in books.

Loving the Library

As part of our homeschool routine this year, we visit the library every other Monday morning. That gives us time to read the books we choose, while also allowing us to rotate the books regularly to match our lessons and interests. Usually we pick out a few books to fit with a school theme, while the kids choose other books simply because they look fun or interesting.

Last week, while browsing the non-fiction section, I noticed a nice picture book about John James Audubon. Written as a poem/letter from Audubon to his father, explaining his passion for studying birds and nature, the story interspersed various writings from his journals and his actual paintings of birds alongside the lovely illustrations in the book. As an aspiring author and illustrator, Hannah grew more and more delighted as she learned Audubon's story. As soon as I finished reading her the book, she leaped up from the couch and announced, "I'm doing that! I'm going to draw pictures of birds and bugs and sea creatures when I grow up!"

She asked if she could draw some pictures instead of doing her Sing, Spell, Read and Write that afternoon, and I agreed. First, she brought her pumpkin to the school table and studied it carefully, drawing exactly what she saw, just as Audubon did. Then, she took a second piece of paper and wrote a brief paragraph:

"This is a pumpkin that I drew all by my self! I copied a real pumpkin. We also might make pumpkin pie or bars. I really like my pumpkin."

When she had completed that page, she asked permission to get two apples out of the refrigerator, and she drew those as well. She had one large, green apple with a stem, and one small red apple with no stem, and she again focused on drawing each one as she saw it. She finished by writing another paragraph:

"These are two different kids of apples. They are two different colors. One is red and one is green. They look so yummy that I think I am going to have to eat them for a snack."

I love seeing books inspire my children to learn, and I love having the flexibility to change my schedule as needed to accommodate their excitement for what they are learning. Sometimes their creativity extends my lesson plans beyond what I even expected to teach, and, thanks to a wonderful public library, we have a fresh supply of books to broaden our knowledge and kick off new ideas for studying and exploring the world.

Bones and Stones

For Thanksgiving this year, we traveled to visit my dad's family in Pittsburgh, PA. In contrast to our very rustic Thanksgiving last year, we stayed in a hotel with my parents, my brother, and his girlfriend, and we ate our meal in the comfort of my aunt and uncle's home, driving to my grandparent's house for dessert. We had a wonderful time visiting family, many of whom the kids have not seen in a couple of years.

On Saturday, we decided to enjoy Pittsburgh a bit, so we headed across the city to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. What a wonderful museum! I knew they had a great dinosaur exhibit, but I never expected the kids to get so excited about the gems and minerals exhibit. All three kids were completely enthralled with the beautiful rocks and crystals.

Hannah thought they were beautiful and suggested that maybe she would rather be a geologist than an entomologist when she grows up. When we asked Becca about her favorite part of the museum later, she told us, "The rocks. They were pretty and shiny and sparkly and glowy in the dark..." She was adorable!

As I expected, the kids loved the dinosaur exhibit as well. The display had full skeletons of all of the dinosaurs most kids would readily recognize - apatosaurus, diplodocus, triceratops, stegosaurus, and of course, tyrannosaurus rex.

The museum also had many lesser known dinosaurs and another gallery dedicated to Ice Age animals, like mammoths and mastodons.

After viewing all of the wonderful skeletons, we arrived at a section geared entirely towards kids - "Bonehunter's Quarry." Many skeleton replicas lay buried in a waxy clay-like substance. Children first donned a pair of safety goggles and then used a chisel and a paintbrush to carefully excavate the bones. All three kids loved this part - especially Hannah! They definitely learned that uncovering dinosaur bones is a delicate and difficult job, requiring a lot of patience.

We spent the majority of our time in these two sections, but the museum had many more wonderful displays - North American and African animals, birds, Native Americans, Egypt, life in the Polar regions. We did walk through most of the exhibits, but by the end, the kids were tired and ready for lunch. We all had a great time and learned quite a bit, and I think if we go back, we will start on the top floor and work our way down so we can spend more time in some of the displays we missed or rushed through this time.

After a nice lunch, we returned to the hotel for a lazy afternoon. Becca took a nap while Hannah and Ben played with Grandma and PopPop in their hotel room. Well, they played for a little while until they both succumbed to their sleepiness and took a nice long nap on my parents' bed.


Aren't they sweet?

I love museums, and I think I will use this one as a starting point for a long unit on dinosaurs. I have a great book full of dinosaur-themed activities for Ben, and I just finished reading him Dinosaurs Before Dark last month. Now I just need find a way to work some geology into the unit, as well!

A Sweet Adventure

A local farm hosted its annual Maple Syrup Festival this weekend. We missed last year's festival due to snow, so we made a point of attending this year. We knew the kids would love it, and we also needed to buy some more maple syrup, as the gallon we bought two years ago was beginning to run low.

We began the morning by eating pancakes with syrup, and then we headed out to the farm. A tractor drove cart-loads of people from the parking lot to the waiting area down the road. From there, several teams of draft horses pulled people in wagons back into the woods to the place where they made the maple syrup.

All along the road and on all of the paths, metal buckets hung from trees to collect the sap. Many of the buckets were full, with a thin layer of ice across the top because of the freezing nighttime temperatures.

Once we got out of the wagon, we walked through a small trail with a few stations showing the early methods of processing sugar maple sap. At the first station, people wearing period costumes and traditional Native American dress explained how Indians in the region first harvested maple sugar. They collected sap in wooden buckets and poured it into troughs carved into large logs. Then, they heated rocks in a fire and placed those rocks into the sap-filled logs. The hot rocks boiled the water and condensed the syrup, eventually leaving nothing but maple sugar. The Native Americans formed the sugar into cakes and used it on everything until their supply diminished. Unfortunately, this method left a lot of sand in the sugar, which shortened the people's lifespan by wearing down their teeth rapidly.

At the next station, women demonstrated how European settlers later used large kettles to boil down the sap and make syrup.

They needed to stir the sap frequently to prevent it from burning. Many gallons of sap are needed to make a single gallon of maple syrup.

Finally, we entered the "Sugar Shack" where they currently process their maple syrup. Steam filled the room as it evaporated constantly from a large heated vat of sap. In this more modern facility, sap comes directly through tubing that taps into the maple trees, so that people do not have to collect it from buckets every morning.

A man explained the current process of making maple syrup and gave everyone tiny samples of fresh syrup. It tasted wonderful!

After a quick picnic lunch and a stop in another small museum, we purchased some freshly made maple syrup, a piece of maple sugar candy for each of us, and a wonderful smelling maple sugar candle for our house. Once the kids settled into the warm car and the sugar rush began to wear off, they became quite drowsy and literally begged for their beds when we got home! We had a wonderful day, and the kids learned a lot. Hannah and I have already read Little House in the Big Woods together, but I think I will finish off this adventure by reading them all the two chapters from the book that describe how they made maple sugar. Overall, I would say that we had a very sweet adventure!

In Napoli, Where Love is King...

I meant to write this entry around Valentine's Day, but as you can see, I have not updated in almost two months now! But that does not mean that we have not been working...

Hannah recently read Vacation Under the Volcano, a Magic Tree House book that focused on the story of Pompeii. Something about the story captivated her, and she still plays "run away from the volcano" with Ben almost every week. The day she read it, she completed it all at once during her afternoon quiet time. When she came downstairs, she proceeded to describe in great detail the city of Pompeii, the Romans of that time period, and even Mount Vesuvius. She knew all of the correct names and even the appropriate pronunciations. I was shocked! She seemed so curious about the story that Josh and I looked up pictures from Pompeii and showed her the stone people who had been buried in ash. We talked about the sadness of the disaster, but also the blessing that many people were able to escape to other towns.

Around the same time, Ben became enthralled with the song "That's Amore." Josh printed out the words for the kids and they both memorized the entire song as they listened to it on their mp3 player again and again. One night, while I was out for the evening, the kids asked Josh what Napoli was. He explained to them that Napoli is a town in Italy, and then he looked up a map online and found that Napoli is only about 15 miles from Pompeii. He showed the kids where Italy is and pointed out the two cities on the map.

The next day, Hannah was looking at our inflatable globe and sounded out Europe on the map. Suddenly, she yelled, "Mama, look! Here's Napoli and Pompeii on the globe! I know they are in Italy, and Italy looks like a boot, so this is Italy!" I looked at the globe and she was correct. I am continually amazed at what the kids learn from impromptu lessons like the one Josh had given them the night before.

Our New President

Because of the inauguration today, we have spent some time over the past two days discussing our new President. Yesterday, Hannah did this worksheet from Time For Kids.


For the last question, Hannah had a difficult time thinking of what she wanted the President to change, so I asked her if she could think of anything bad. She mentioned somebody we know who uses drugs, and I suggested that the President could help fight against drugs. She liked that idea and wrote it on the lines. Then, she drew a picture to illustrate her idea. When I asked her about it, she told me that the person we know is on the left, holding a drug, and the other person is the President, who is fighting him! I think she took the words "fighting drugs" a little too literally!

Today, I took her in my arms and told her that I think she is old enough now to understand some of the reasons for celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday yesterday and for recognizing the significance of Obama's presidency. Beginning with the founding of our country, I explained slavery and the Civil War, discrimination and the Civil Rights movement. We talked about Martin Luther King, Jr. and about what he preached and how he died. I told her that some people think that white people are better than black people just because of their skin color, and that it is wrong, because God made all of us and loves all of us the same.

"But, Mama," she interrupted, "Pastor Carter has brown skin."

"He does," I said, "Do you think we are any better than he is because we are white and he is not?"

Indignant, she replied, "No! Pastor Carter is my friend!"

I then told her that, although I did not vote for Obama and I do not agree with all of his politics, today is a special day because he is our first black President; that the same people who were once oppressed and forced into slavery can have hope because even the presidency, the highest office in the land, is open to them; and that in the same country where black people could not even use the same drinking fountains or attend the same schools as white people, an African American man is now the leader of the entire country. Grinning widely, she laughed and bounced up and down on her bed. "I am so excited that Barack Obama is our President!" she yelled. Then she said more quietly, "I know something else the President could do besides fight against drugs. He could help white people not hate black people anymore."

"Yes, that would be wonderful," I agreed, hugging her proudly.