When we got home from our vacation we took a week break to get done all the birthday stuff and then we jumped back in to Utah and the Pioneers.
Instead of lapbooks like we did for Norway, and regular books like we did for George Washington, we made a bag for Utah. The idea was we would decorate our bag and then fill it with things that would remind us of what we learned. The "test" at the end of the unit was to go through all the items in the bag with Derek and explain what they had to do with Utah. We also took a couple of "field trips." First, we'll start with our bags. Here is Joshua's.
The bags included the following:
a bag of salt for the Great Salt Lake and the Bonneville Salt Flats
a bag of sand/dirt to represent the deserts in Utah
a rock (Joshua took two) to represent all the mountains. King's Peak being highest in the Uintahs and the two biggest in Utah county that we can see from our house - Mt. Nebo and Mt. Timpanogos
a map of Utah so they can show where all these geographic things actually are - plus a few other things
a dinosaur to represent all the dino bones they find here and the kids had to name 5 specific dinos
a feather or two to represent the 5 Native American tribes who lived here before the pioneers came (in case you are wondering, Ute, Piaute, Goshute, Shoshone, and Navajo.)
a penny to represent the Kennecott Copper Mine - a man made hole so big you can see it from space!
a little bee to remind us that we are the Beehive State because Brigham Young wanted us to be busy as bees.
a little golden (brass) screw to remind us of the Golden Spike at Promontory, Utah. When the railroad was being built, one side from the West and one side from the East, they met up right in Utah.
a picture they chose from the Ensign depicting a scene from a pioneer story.
a bunch of photos from their field trips and other things we did for which I didn't have something to put in the bag.
a little "book" we made telling their 5 favorite things about Utah. Joshua's favorite thing was that Utahns eat a lot of Jello (we NEVER eat Jello - I think this was supposed to be a hint.)
One of the first field trips we went on was to the statue of Father Escalante and Father Domingez (and Joaquin, the little Ute boy!) at the Spanish Fork library. Jim Bridger and John Fremont were both explorers here, but Fathers Escalante and Dominguez were here about 1776 exploring what is now called the Spanish Trail from Santa Fe to San Diego (I think that is where they stopped). They came out Spanish Fork Canyon and stood on a hill and said, This is where we will build a city! But it was too far away from everyone else and nobody ever actually made it back up here. The Escalante Cross is up on that hill still and it is a great hike that we like to go on at least once a year. Anyway, there is a nice statue at the library downtown and we went and took a picture but I accidentally deleted it earlier today and I can't even find a photo online. oh well.
Also there was a children's parade as part of the Fiesta Day's celebration which is in honor of Pioneer days. We didn't learn anything about Utah or the Pioneers, but it was fun. Joshua is a lion and Abigail is a Zebra.
The day before Pioneer Day we went to the Pioneer Village in Provo. It is pretty awesome. There is so much stuff to see in that little "village." They had a schoolhouse, two cabin homes, blacksmith, general store and about 5 other buildings, plus an outhouse. They even put in an orchard - about 4 fruit trees - and a garden to show realistically how the people had to live. One thing I really liked that was pointed out to us was that there were no trash cans in those little one room cabins because they didn't have anything to throw away - they just kept using things or turned them into other things! The kids' favorite things was the schoolhouse and the bell outside. They rang the bell a lot. That was kind of annoying. And there were little toys the pioneer children used to play that they played with - like the bear on the ropes that teaches kids to milk cows. We had races. Here are a few photos.
For dinner we had foil dinners. We wanted to have them cooked over the fire outside but Derek had to work late and it was too much work. The pioneers at a lot of corn and potatoes and carrots. Mostly a lot of root vegetables because after a long winter that was just about all they had left in the spring.
Later that night I woke Abigail and Joshua up at 10:00 or so and we went to a park to watch the city's fireworks show. The view would have been better from the actual park where they were lighting the fireworks, but there was less traffic and this park was closer to home. There was a sizeable group at our park and they were lighting their own fireworks, so that was fun to see. The kids were really tired, but I think they had fun.
We had also learned that Temple Square in Salt Lake City was a major Utah attraction (some of us already knew this :) so we took a day trip up to Salt Lake and visited Temple Square. After visiting the pioneer village, Joshua was amazed that those pioneers also built the Temple. We had a good time, but it was hot. We wanted to also go to the Church History Museum but we were too tired and hungry (and my parking spot was only good for 2 hours) so instead we did a quick tour of the Conference Center. A sweet foreign tour guide took us to the auditorium (the big room that seats 21,000 - we also learned that fact) and to the roof where we just had time to go to the top of the waterfall. I've done the whole tour before and the roof is awesome, but better to tour it in the Fall or Spring when it isn't literally 100 degrees outside. The waterfall was just perfect for us.
I would have taken more pictures of the Capitol Building because it really was beautiful, but the mood was kind of gone, plus we had to get home.
Also, just for fun, this is a little desk I just received during our trip to California that actually belonged to one of those pioneers! Except she was 9 years old when she crossed the plains and I assume she didn't acquire this desk until much later in her life. Still, this was Sarah Edwards desk and she is my grandmother's grandmother. What a treasure.
Other things we did? We made a little pioneer toy called a Jumping Jack. At first these were a little tricky to make, but after 4 I got the hang of it. You hold the string at the top and pull the string at the bottom and the legs and arms jump up and down. Pioneers made them out of wood, not poster board.
We also made soap, just like the pioneers. Well, kind of like the pioneers. The kids just melted glycerin soap and added flowers, dye, and/or perfume. (May have been a little heavy on the dye.) Then they watched as the moms (I did this with a couple of other women who already knew how to make soap and had all the supplies) made soap out of lye, oils, water, clay or dye, and scents. What a fascinating process! What is even more fascinating is that the pioneers made their own lye out of ashes. I never looked up how they did that. And since they didn't have fancy olive or palm oil (I forgot the third oil we used) they used fat from animals! Resourceful people. I already knew all that, but it was interesting to think about it as I was actually making soap - it made the experience so much more meaningful. I hope to get into soap making soon. I've got about 10 bars curing downstairs in my laundry room (and it smells fantastic every time I walk in there!) but maybe next year for my birthday I can stock up on supplies or something. First I've got to work on canning. But before then, we have to work on not eating all our vegetables straight off the vine. With 8 tomato plants out back, I still had to buy tomatoes today since we wouldn't have enough for dinner tomorrow because we eat the garden ones as fast as they turn red!
And lastly, I just remembered, as we were learning about pioneer villages and school - a lot of home school and then one room schoolhouses - we learned they used slates and chalk to learn their lessons. Luckily, a couple months ago at a garage sale I found these two little slates and bought them for pennies thinking I would probably come up for use for them in our home school later. Good move. We pulled out these slates and our chalk and I just let the kids play with them. They had a good time.
And finally (I know you thought "lastly" up above meant I was done) I just wanted to post this last photo. One, because it is funny with Lukas just laying there with his blanket and his baby and two, because Derek has started a new tradition in our home school. He reads to the kids every night from a book that has to do with what we are learning. In this picture he is reading an adapted Dr. Doolittle, just because that is a book we had on hand. Every night he would read a chapter or so. But now that we are on our Switzerland unit, he has started reading Heidi to them. He wont let me read to the children from these books because it is his special time with the kids. I think this is a very good thing for our family. I love that he knows it is important for him to be involved in their lives and in their education, even if he can't be home all day like I am.
All right, THAT is all. We are already a full week into our Switzerland Unit. If I've learned my lesson (that it takes 4 days to make a blog post about a unit if you wait till the very end) I will post a couple about Switzerland instead of one big one, but don't hold your breath.
Instead of lapbooks like we did for Norway, and regular books like we did for George Washington, we made a bag for Utah. The idea was we would decorate our bag and then fill it with things that would remind us of what we learned. The "test" at the end of the unit was to go through all the items in the bag with Derek and explain what they had to do with Utah. We also took a couple of "field trips." First, we'll start with our bags. Here is Joshua's.
The bags included the following:
a bag of salt for the Great Salt Lake and the Bonneville Salt Flats
a bag of sand/dirt to represent the deserts in Utah
a rock (Joshua took two) to represent all the mountains. King's Peak being highest in the Uintahs and the two biggest in Utah county that we can see from our house - Mt. Nebo and Mt. Timpanogos
a map of Utah so they can show where all these geographic things actually are - plus a few other things
a dinosaur to represent all the dino bones they find here and the kids had to name 5 specific dinos
a feather or two to represent the 5 Native American tribes who lived here before the pioneers came (in case you are wondering, Ute, Piaute, Goshute, Shoshone, and Navajo.)
a penny to represent the Kennecott Copper Mine - a man made hole so big you can see it from space!
a little bee to remind us that we are the Beehive State because Brigham Young wanted us to be busy as bees.
a little golden (brass) screw to remind us of the Golden Spike at Promontory, Utah. When the railroad was being built, one side from the West and one side from the East, they met up right in Utah.
a picture they chose from the Ensign depicting a scene from a pioneer story.
a bunch of photos from their field trips and other things we did for which I didn't have something to put in the bag.
a little "book" we made telling their 5 favorite things about Utah. Joshua's favorite thing was that Utahns eat a lot of Jello (we NEVER eat Jello - I think this was supposed to be a hint.)
One of the first field trips we went on was to the statue of Father Escalante and Father Domingez (and Joaquin, the little Ute boy!) at the Spanish Fork library. Jim Bridger and John Fremont were both explorers here, but Fathers Escalante and Dominguez were here about 1776 exploring what is now called the Spanish Trail from Santa Fe to San Diego (I think that is where they stopped). They came out Spanish Fork Canyon and stood on a hill and said, This is where we will build a city! But it was too far away from everyone else and nobody ever actually made it back up here. The Escalante Cross is up on that hill still and it is a great hike that we like to go on at least once a year. Anyway, there is a nice statue at the library downtown and we went and took a picture but I accidentally deleted it earlier today and I can't even find a photo online. oh well.
Also there was a children's parade as part of the Fiesta Day's celebration which is in honor of Pioneer days. We didn't learn anything about Utah or the Pioneers, but it was fun. Joshua is a lion and Abigail is a Zebra.
The day before Pioneer Day we went to the Pioneer Village in Provo. It is pretty awesome. There is so much stuff to see in that little "village." They had a schoolhouse, two cabin homes, blacksmith, general store and about 5 other buildings, plus an outhouse. They even put in an orchard - about 4 fruit trees - and a garden to show realistically how the people had to live. One thing I really liked that was pointed out to us was that there were no trash cans in those little one room cabins because they didn't have anything to throw away - they just kept using things or turned them into other things! The kids' favorite things was the schoolhouse and the bell outside. They rang the bell a lot. That was kind of annoying. And there were little toys the pioneer children used to play that they played with - like the bear on the ropes that teaches kids to milk cows. We had races. Here are a few photos.
On Pioneer Day we went to the Grand Parade on Center Street. We went with Joshua's two best friend's and their families - plus the cousins of one of the friends. The parade was fun - it wasn't hot and sunny so that helped, but it was still warm so that was nice. The kids enjoyed collecting candy although Lukas wasn't too into the whole parade thing. We brought homemade gingerbread and homemade fresh squeezed lemonade for our group because we had learned that pioneers, although traveling over the plains and mountains, would take the 4th of July off and just celebrate with big bonfires, music, dancing, storytelling, and of course gingerbread and lemonade. It was so good! I think we will keep that tradition.
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| eating gingerbread! |
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| This was the coolest thing in the entire parade! 2060 young men from the stakes around Payson and Spanish Fork joined together to re-create what the army of Helaman may have looked like. They looked so awesome! And here is Captain Moroni and Helaman at the front! They had a truck with huge speakers playing the Armies of Helaman primary song and at one point all the boys stopped, pounded their staffs into the group in unison faster and faster and then stopped and shouted, "We do not doubt!" it was amazing. |
For dinner we had foil dinners. We wanted to have them cooked over the fire outside but Derek had to work late and it was too much work. The pioneers at a lot of corn and potatoes and carrots. Mostly a lot of root vegetables because after a long winter that was just about all they had left in the spring.
Later that night I woke Abigail and Joshua up at 10:00 or so and we went to a park to watch the city's fireworks show. The view would have been better from the actual park where they were lighting the fireworks, but there was less traffic and this park was closer to home. There was a sizeable group at our park and they were lighting their own fireworks, so that was fun to see. The kids were really tired, but I think they had fun.
We had also learned that Temple Square in Salt Lake City was a major Utah attraction (some of us already knew this :) so we took a day trip up to Salt Lake and visited Temple Square. After visiting the pioneer village, Joshua was amazed that those pioneers also built the Temple. We had a good time, but it was hot. We wanted to also go to the Church History Museum but we were too tired and hungry (and my parking spot was only good for 2 hours) so instead we did a quick tour of the Conference Center. A sweet foreign tour guide took us to the auditorium (the big room that seats 21,000 - we also learned that fact) and to the roof where we just had time to go to the top of the waterfall. I've done the whole tour before and the roof is awesome, but better to tour it in the Fall or Spring when it isn't literally 100 degrees outside. The waterfall was just perfect for us.
Then back to car parked on 200 West for a picnic in the park strip. It was shady and the grass was green, plus there wasn't really any traffic going by so I figured it was good enough. The other option was at the Capitol Building, our last stop on our field trip, but I knew there wasn't any real shade there, so actually, I guess that really wasn't an option, was it.
And then to the Capitol Building. We had learned earlier that the federal government is made up of three equal branches (emphasis on equal and how that is slowly changing and not for the better) and that all three branches are limited by the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land. It was fun to see that the three branches of Utah government work in the Utah Capitol Building - even if they have other buildings where they maybe do most of their work.
The real story of our trip to the Capitol Building was Abigail getting her fingers stuck in the elevator door and her screaming and me calling out "Help! Help! I need some help here!" Three policemen came running and they helped me get Abby's fingers out of the elevator door. It is a blessing that her fingers are so little. She could have broken all of them but in the end they were all just a little squished. She was so scared and so embarrassed that she wouldn't talk for a while and she just held her head in my chest. The policemen and I and my four little kids went into a back hallway. The policeman in charge asked I would like someone to come take a look at her fingers, just in case. I said sure, thinking there was probably just somebody downstairs or something. But no, the police had to call an ambulance! We waited for about 15 minutes and the paramedics came. Abigail was too embarrassed still to answer their questions. They said it looked fine but they couldn't be sure without an x-ray, and then they asked if I wanted them to take her to the hospital in the ambulance! I suppose they have to do this to cover their backs in case they say that it looks totally fine and not to worry, but then actually the hand is broken or something. She was fine. Just shaken up quite a bit. I apologized that we had caused so much trouble and another of the police said stuff like that happened all the time at the Capitol, but usually it was people falling down the stairs. Still, since it happened on government property, they had to make a full write up. Joshua looked disappointed and asked if we could still walk around the building and look at it, since Abigail's accident happened before we even got to see anything. So we did. Lukas got out of the stroller and Abigail got in. Kaleb was still in the front carrier and Joshua and I walked around and looked at the paintings on the wall. I'm so glad nothing worse happened. Let this be a lesson to all of you. When you are in an elevator and your mother tells you to take your hand off the door THREE TIMES, you better do it, because after the third time you might just lose your hand - unless of course, you have a very small hand, which I am grateful that Abigail has.
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| Fathers Escalante and Dominguez plus Joaquin there in the back |
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| Brigham Young - this is the right place! |
Also, just for fun, this is a little desk I just received during our trip to California that actually belonged to one of those pioneers! Except she was 9 years old when she crossed the plains and I assume she didn't acquire this desk until much later in her life. Still, this was Sarah Edwards desk and she is my grandmother's grandmother. What a treasure.
Other things we did? We made a little pioneer toy called a Jumping Jack. At first these were a little tricky to make, but after 4 I got the hang of it. You hold the string at the top and pull the string at the bottom and the legs and arms jump up and down. Pioneers made them out of wood, not poster board.
We also made soap, just like the pioneers. Well, kind of like the pioneers. The kids just melted glycerin soap and added flowers, dye, and/or perfume. (May have been a little heavy on the dye.) Then they watched as the moms (I did this with a couple of other women who already knew how to make soap and had all the supplies) made soap out of lye, oils, water, clay or dye, and scents. What a fascinating process! What is even more fascinating is that the pioneers made their own lye out of ashes. I never looked up how they did that. And since they didn't have fancy olive or palm oil (I forgot the third oil we used) they used fat from animals! Resourceful people. I already knew all that, but it was interesting to think about it as I was actually making soap - it made the experience so much more meaningful. I hope to get into soap making soon. I've got about 10 bars curing downstairs in my laundry room (and it smells fantastic every time I walk in there!) but maybe next year for my birthday I can stock up on supplies or something. First I've got to work on canning. But before then, we have to work on not eating all our vegetables straight off the vine. With 8 tomato plants out back, I still had to buy tomatoes today since we wouldn't have enough for dinner tomorrow because we eat the garden ones as fast as they turn red!
And lastly, I just remembered, as we were learning about pioneer villages and school - a lot of home school and then one room schoolhouses - we learned they used slates and chalk to learn their lessons. Luckily, a couple months ago at a garage sale I found these two little slates and bought them for pennies thinking I would probably come up for use for them in our home school later. Good move. We pulled out these slates and our chalk and I just let the kids play with them. They had a good time.
And finally (I know you thought "lastly" up above meant I was done) I just wanted to post this last photo. One, because it is funny with Lukas just laying there with his blanket and his baby and two, because Derek has started a new tradition in our home school. He reads to the kids every night from a book that has to do with what we are learning. In this picture he is reading an adapted Dr. Doolittle, just because that is a book we had on hand. Every night he would read a chapter or so. But now that we are on our Switzerland unit, he has started reading Heidi to them. He wont let me read to the children from these books because it is his special time with the kids. I think this is a very good thing for our family. I love that he knows it is important for him to be involved in their lives and in their education, even if he can't be home all day like I am.
All right, THAT is all. We are already a full week into our Switzerland Unit. If I've learned my lesson (that it takes 4 days to make a blog post about a unit if you wait till the very end) I will post a couple about Switzerland instead of one big one, but don't hold your breath.
UPDATE: Oops, I forgot. We also made a wagon train for our window and wove a couple of mats (we were discussing how the pioneers had to make everything, even their own clothes and carpets, etc. so we used paper for some basic weaving.
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