Our Journey Westward » Pioneers

History in Your Backyard

Cindy — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:00:34 +0000

Our farm has a rich 1800′s history. And considering the arrowheads we find occasionally, probably a lot of prior history as well.

I’ve told you before about how we find 19th and 20th century garbage as we plow the garden every year. Near the garden spot once stood a large red brick home with a rock foundation, several fireplaces, a stately staircase and amazing trim work. The bricks were handmade from the clay on the farm – maybe by slaves, maybe by paid help? There was a basement with two small rooms with one window in each room, rock walls and a small fireplace for heat. These were undoubtedly quarters for some sort of house help.

Sadly, by the time we moved onto the farm, the once majestic show house was in far too desperate shape to save. This picture is actually the Mary Todd Lincoln House in Lexington. Although the house on our farm was not this majestic, it at least gives you an idea of the style since we never took a good picture of it before it’s demise. Shame on us!

As we tore down the house, we saved as many things as possible. The stone foundation became our fireplace and the poplar floor joists became our flooring. Many of the other materials like doors, fireplace mantles, windows and even the bricks have been sold to people who are reusing them in loving projects. We’ve saved some of those architectural pieces for ourselves (if we ever get around to doing interesting projects again.)

After reading a little of the history, I know you’ll find it just as exciting as me that there are remnants of a rock wall on the back of the farm. History claims that the rock walls in this area were built by migrant Irish workers who came to America because of the Irish Potato Famine. I’m just in awe every time I go back to see this wall that was built by such strong and courageous people so many years ago. Even if the rock wall has mostly been washed away and I’m only able to treasure about 20 feet of it!

Two other interesting historical finds on our farm and a neighboring farm…

A rock root cellar – the entrance is nearly caved-in.

A horse-drawn farm wagon that sadly sits below the ruble of a fallen barn.

I love learning the history of our farm, town, county and state. Just a little research will lead you to so many wonderful field trips, classes and other opportunities to learn about the history in your backyard!

Ancient History Final Projects

Fort Boonesborough

Cindy — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:32:15 +0000

Don’t ever call me completely punctual. We studied early pioneers and settlers of Kentucky at the beginning of last school year. A trip to Fort Boonesborough – the first pioneer settlement in KY – was planned then, but we never made it. My children never fear, though – eventually I tend to fulfill my promises.

You can learn more about Fort Boonesborough at:

Kentucky State Parks

Fort Boonesborough Living History

Fort Boonesborough Foundation

We had a great time touring the fort, watching an action-packed film, visiting with reinactors and taking a walk down to the beach located on the KY River. Field trips are worth their weight in gold!

Outside the fort

Inside the fort

Learning to start a fire

Caleb’s favorite part – the jail

Visiting with Daniel Boone to get our land deed

A view of the beach

Westward Expansion Projects

Cindy — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 14:32:16 +0000

Well, time flies! We finished off our Westward Expansion unit with a “project week”. On Monday, I gave the kids a test and a project list, both of which were to be completed by Friday. I don’t always give tests, but I like to surprise them once in a while with new methods of assessment. As for projects, Caleb had to choose three to complete and present, while Mahayla had to choose four. Besides math and a little grammar and reading, projects were the only things on the schooling agenda.

(I’m not sure my links show up very well, so I wanted to point out that you can access my test and project list at hslaunch. Run your mouse over those words in the paragraph above and they will link to the files.)

Here’s what the kids came up with. As usual, I’m not only pleased, but very surprised at their ingenuity and eagerness to do a good job. Give ‘em and inch and they’ll take a mile – that’s a good thing in this case!

Mahayla had to choose four projects. She couldn’t decide, so chose to complete five instead. (Next time I complain, remind me of this!)

A diorama and file folder report on Lewis and Clark

A quilt square. She researched pioneer quilt squares on the internet and came up with this one named “Oh Suzanna”. She completed the entire quilt square from start to finish without any help from me. Not bad for a first timer, huh? My granny would be so proud!

A five page report on Sam Houston, who happens to be in our family line. She had to interview my mom who has done extensive geneology research, and had to find information on her own.

A cowboy meal of chili and homemade crackers.

Homemade Crackers

1 c flour

1 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

1/2 cube butter

1/4 c milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix flour, baking powder and salt. Use fork to mash butter in until it looks like crumbs. Add milk and stir until dough forms a ball. Sprinkle flour on counter and roll dough into a flat rectangle with a rolling pin. Use a knife to cut the dough into small squares. Place onto a greased cookie sheet and poke holes into the crackers with a fork. Bake for 9 minutes. Makes about 24 crackers.

And she was Flying Sparrow in their original play entitled “Cowboy and Indian”. It was complete with five scenes, a playbill and a script!

Caleb had to choose three projects. In his usual fashion, he chose projects that required lots of hands-on and little writing. That’s okay, though, because he was still required to give a presentation about the projects. Even with very little writing, the information he gleaned and presented was very good.

A model of the Lewis and Clark keelboat.

A model of the corner watchtower from a fort that might have been set up along one of the trails west. He said he would have built the whole fort, but ran out of Lincoln Logs!

And he was Jeremiah (with a great country accent) in their play “Cowboy and Indian”. As you can see, the play ended rather sadly. Jeremiah and Flying Sparrow couldn’t find a better way to solve their conflict except through the use of guns. Maybe we watch too many Gunsmoke episodes on Sunday afternoons?

Westward Expansion Resources

Cindy — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:33:49 +0000

We’re nearing the end of our Westward Expansion unit, so I’m moving the resources from my sidebar into a post for future reference. I’ll be adding Slavery and Civil War resources to the side bar over the next few days.

My Spine – Amanda Bennett Pioneers Unit

Research Questions

Teacher Planet Links

Louisiana Purchase Game

Lewis and Clark Lessons

Lewis and Clark Mapping Activities

Easy Fun School Lewis and Clark Unit

Easy Fun School Santa Fe Trail Unit

Easy Fun School Gold Rush Unit

Homemade Lewis and Clark Journals

Cindy — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:30:07 +0000

Lewis and Clark kept wonderfully detailed journals as they charted unknown American territory in the early 1800′s. Their journals included everything from a daily diary of events to sketches and descriptions of new plants and animals along the way to maps of the land around them.

To help my children understand the scope of what was included in the Lewis and Clark journals, we created worn leather journals from old paper bags in which I asked the kids to jot down all sorts of notes throughout one of our homeschool days.

The journals….

Take a flat section of brown paper bag and crinkle it up until it looks like worn leather when smoothed out again.

Carefully burn the edges to give the journal even more of a weathered look.

Line several sheets of white paper on top of the paper bag.

Lay the papers on top of a piece of wood. Hammer several holes all the way through the papers using a large nail and a hammer.

Use whatever string you desire (we used raffia) and whatever lacing method you desire to lace the pages together.

Fold the notebook in half and there you have a ready-made journal.

Here’s what we included in the journals throughout the day…

Notes from important events throughout the day.

Sketches of interesting plants and animals we found on a winter nature walk. I also asked the kids to include notes to describe the plants and animals as if they’d never seen them before. If we were able to find tracks from the animals, they added sketches of those as well.

We couldn’t decide who had made these little tracks, but they were one of the few finds on our cold and blustery walk.

And finally, the journals included a map of the hiking area.

We tracked our journey into the “unknown” so we could find our way home. (This left nice little treats for the critters, too.)

This was all part of our super-fun unit study day yesterday. Today we’ve caught Oregon Fever!

A True Unit Study Day

Cindy — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:26:31 +0000

Not everyday is a full unit study day around here, but today was one of those days where every subject just fit perfectly into the Lewis and Clark portion of our Westward Expansion unit. (Except Bible time. I could have fit that in, too, but we’re working our way through Hebrews and I didn’t want to take a break.)

So what did we do? Lots!

Math/Geography/Writing:

We had a lesson on latitude and longitude that included a notebooking page to tell what latitude and longitude are, as well as asking the kids to draw some simple maps with help from a couple of atlases we have around the house. I also had them find some places in the atlas and decide their location. Then I asked them a few questions to determine how far a person would have to travel from one place to another using only the latitude and longitude markings.

Math/Geography/Writing:

We did mini-archeological digs using rice and small objects I buried in the rice. To kick the lesson up a notch, the kids had to keep accurate records of their dig using cm grid paper. They had a ball using small paintbrushes to uncover the artifacts.

Nature(Science)/History/Geography/Writing/Handicrafts/Life Skills:

We made and completed explorer’s journals similar to the journals Lewis and Clark kept on their travels. I’ll do a more in depth post on these journals tomorrow, but essentially, after reading How We Crossed The West: The Adventures Of Lewis And Clark we went on our own journey to mark a trail, discover plants and animals and map our territory. Even though it was cold, it was so much fun!

Reading/History/Keyboarding:

Caleb especially liked the Go West Across America with Lewis and Clark interactive website. And they both did some quiet reading from our selection of westward expansion themed library books.

This is the kind of rich learning day that I just love! And, surprise, surprise, no one complained once about school today!

Westward Expansion Unit Plans

Cindy — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:44:10 +0000

Our Pioneer unit will soon be underway! I thought I’d share some of our plans as I try to get my thoughts organized.

I’ve added some links, activity books and literature books that I plan to use for our Pioneer Unit in my sidebar – scroll pretty far down.

Here’s the rest of the plan….

Daily

Copywork Quotes from Amanda Bennett’s Pioneers

Timeline and Map work

Reading/Research

Work on one or more projects (project ideas below) and/or work on a hands-on project from Westward Ho!, Pioneer Days or Wild West Days

Order of Learning – most of the outline comes from Amanda Bennett’s Pioneers, I have noted when I added something with an *.

Daniel Boone – pioneer, frontier boundaries after Revolutionary War, Wilderness Road, Northwest Ordinance

Thomas Jefferson – Louisiana Purchase

Lewis and Clark – Northwest Passage, plants and animals discovered (nature journals), geographic barriers, cartography, map of Native American tribes across N. America

Sacagawea – conestoga wagons, Monroe Doctrine, fur trade, Oregon Fever (*use some of the Sacagawea unit)

*War of 1812 – America & Great Britain, disagreement over shipping & trade on seas – Embargo Act, Henry Clay, fought in America & Canada, Star Spangled Banner, Treaty of Ghent

Jedediah Smith – Oregon Trail, Santa Fe Trail (*use bits and pieces of Oregon Trail and Santa Fe Trail units)

Davy Crockett – prairie schooner, Jason Lee, Independence Rock

*Trail of Tears – Indian Removal Act, Andrew Jackson, Cherokee history

Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman) – six states created from 1816-1821, wagon groupings, Pony Express

*The Battle of the Alamo – some of Alamo unit

*Oklahoma Land Run – some of Oklahoma Land Run unit

*Chisolm Trail and Cowboys – some of Chisolm Trail unit, Buffalo Bill, Ben Holladay, Annie Oakley, Wild Bill Hickock

Potential Projects

Choose one major pioneer to research and complete a biography project.

Choose one major westward expansion movement or event and create a presentation project.

Interview grandma (who is very much into our family’s history) about a pioneer relative. Put together a book including the story behind the person with pictures if able.

Plan and prepare for a “no electricity day”.

Prepare a book report on assigned chapter book.

As usual, I’ll be sharing bits and pieces of the unit as we go along. As my blog’s title says, we’re just about ready to go on “Our Journey Westward”!