Great Lake States

How many great lakes can you name? Can you name all of them? Here is trick that I taught the kids this week while we studied the great lake states...HOMES. H = Huron O= Ontario M= Michigan E= Erie and S = Superior.

This past week the kids and I traveled to Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.

Here are some ideas and photos to share...


Michigan is shaped like a mitten. That is why it is often referred to as the mitten state. There are over a thousand islands near and around Michigan to explore. It is the birthplace of the affordable first car invented by Henry Ford. Who also gets the credit of his invention of the assembly line.
Ihad the kids construct their own assembly line. I took a roll of foil, a car from my Cowboy son and all my child labor hands in my home. The car that my son had came apart in piece so this worked great for our demonstration. I also showed them a video on Utube of a real assembly line from the 50's and one of today. The kids were amazed by the video from today's era. Robots have replaced people. Robots in Japan assemble cars. I guess job security in the auto assembly line is a term of the past now.
The cheesehead state is the state of Wisconsin. The kids memorized the great lakes.

In Ohio we had fun making and eating homemade ice cream while learning about dairy cows. We also went on a local farm tour for our little cowboy.
We had the joy of seeing a two day old horse. He was so cute and still wobbly on his long legs. The kids will never forget this one. They talked about it all the way home.

They also learned about Neil Armstrong. I didn't realize that so many presidents and astronauts were born in Ohio.

On Friday we learned about Indiana and Illinois. Sport did a notebook page on the baseball teams found in Illinois and my Dancer did one on Lincoln. We also learned out the Chicago fire.

Here is a list of books that we read this week:

-B is for Badger: Wisconsin Alphabet by Kathy Jo Wargin
- The Great Lakes by James Barry
- Welcome to the USA Wisconsin by Ann Heinrichs
- Welcome to the USA Michigan by Ann Heinrichs
-Along Came the Model T! by Robert Quakenbush
-B is for Buckeye: Ohio Alphabet by MArcia Schonberg
- One Giant Leap: Story of Neil Armstrong by Don Brown
- My Dad Works on a Farm by Sarah Hughes
- Cows in the Parlor by Cynthis McFarland
- L is for Lincoln: Illinois Alphabet by Kathy jo Wargin
- Welcome to the USA Illinois by Ann Heinrichs
- H is for Hoosier : Indiana Alphabet by Ann Heinrichs
- Welcome to the USA Indiana by Ann Heinrichs

Camping with Friends

Camping with friends can be quite an adventure. We had a chance to do just that this past weekend. We traveled a few hundred miles away to the Sequoia National Forest. Friends of our have a family cabin in a small town located there. Here are a quick highlights and pictures from our trip with friends.

If you are traveling with friends make sure you have understanding friends especially if you have a child who throws up in their car. Our cowboy threw up in the car on the ride there. Sadly, he couldn't wait until reaching the rest stop. Traveling in a van in the back did not agree with our little one. Luckily, they have kids too and have faced this situation many times.

If you are traveling with more kids than parents you are out numbered. Decibel levels are high and lack of sleep always occurs. The parents would have fun staying up late playing cards only to find that our kids would awake at 5:30 in the morning. Seems we had our own roosters in the cabin. Yikes! We still had fun!

My dancer is a horse lover. She had her horse appetite fed by getting to ride a horse. She also got to help groom and feed one.

It was cowboys first time on a horse. He loved it.

Roasting marshmallows is a must for campers. Makes for great memories.The kids loved the smores and sticky marshmallows. It seems sticky stuff was everywhere, what fun. Sadly, Sport (my oldest) couldn't have sticky marshmallows due to his braces. He made up for it in chocolate and graham crackers though. We also sang songs, told stories and played flashlight tag near the campfire.

One important thing the children did learn this weekend is even though the outside temperature reads in the 80's...River water is COLD!!! Yes the kids were curious to go wading in a nearby river. Their adventure was short lived. Yes, very short lived. This is something they will never forget.

Go and make some memories with your kids..try camping for a change.

Southwest States Week 2

I apologize for this late in coming post. Last weekend we were out of town so this Southwest State post will be short and sweet. We spent 3 days at a cabin with friends in the Sequoia National forest. The kids had a blast. It was like a giant sleep over. Lots of play, hiking, eating and sight seeing. I will post some pictures soon. Right now I will give a quick glimpse of what we did for our second week desert study....

We learned about the dust bowl state, Oklahoma on Monday. We topped it off by watching the musical Oklahoma. My dancer loved the singing and dancing numbers and the beautiful colorful dresses in the show.

Tuesday we moved on to the Lone star state of Texas. My little cowboy was excited that we got to revisit Davey Crockett. We learned about the events of the Alamo and watched the Disney version of the Alamo.

Wednesday we explored caves and learned what animals and plant life can survive in caves. Since Carlsbad Caverns is located in New Mexico we also learned about stalagcyites and stalagmites. Sadly, we had so much preparation for our trip that we will have to set up our stalagcyite and stalagmite experiment for another time.

We also took the time this week to finish our desert diorama. The kids painted their desert animals and added sand. They came out looking great.

Here is a list of books that we read this week...

- S is for Sooner: An Oklahoma Alphabet by Devin Scilian
- Dust for Dinner by Ann Turner
- Welcome to the USA Oklahoma by Ann Heinrichs
- Welcome to the USA Texas by Ann Heinrichs
- The Alamo by Dennis Brindell Fradin
- The Inside-Outside book of Texas by Roxie Munro
- The Story of the Alamo by Norman Richards
- Pecos Bill by Steven Kellogg
- Let's Take a Field Trip to a Cave by Kathy Furgang
- Welcome to the USA New Mexico by Ann Heinrichs

Southwest States Week 1

Do you know the Bible has many references in it about the desert? The two main stories that may come to mind is Moses and the Israelites wandering in the desert after fleeing the Egyptians and Jesus' 40 days in the desert. The desert offers beauty, solitude, challenges and many obstacles just to name a few. The desert is an amazing habitat created by God and we learned some interesting things about it ....

The first thing I did with my kids was to find out what they already knew about a desert. Since we live in California they have as the privilege of being able to drive through a desert. Now when we learned about swamp life that was a bit of a stretch of the imagination. (One of these years we will make it to the south.)

Next, I taught them the trick on how to spell desert. I told them the years in school that I would improperly spell desert with two "SS" instead of one. We all had a laugh.

One thing I never realized that there are so many varieties of cactus'. We learned bout the animals that live in them and around them. How to get water from them if you are ever stranded in a desert. I had them make a model of one out of cardboard. I had precut the pieces. They painted and added the spikes or spines on them. Then they made desert animals out of modeling clay. We will have to paint them next week, after they harden up more.

They also made a sand art desert animal and colored a picture of the Grand Canyon.

Here is a list of books that we read this week on the Southwest...

-Desert Animals at Night by Lynn Stone

- A Walk in the Desert by Caroline Arnold

- The Seed and the Giant Saguaro by Jennifer Ward

- Cactus in the Desert by Phyllis Busch

- Around one Cactus by Anthiny Fredericks

- Welcome to the USA Arizona by Ann Heinrichs

- Meet Josefina: An American Girl by Valerie Trip

It's Great to be Eight!!!

I'm back!!!

As I mentioned to you last time we took our dancing daughter to Disneyland for her 8th birthday. The whole family had so much fun. The weather was picture perfect for California and the average wait in line time averaged about 20 minutes. This time we were able to have her picture with Princess Jasmine. Two years ago when she turned 6 she had her picture with Cinderella.

Since we went to Disneyland on Monday, her actual birthday we had a small celebration at home Sunday the day before with cake and presents.

Each year my kids get to pick their theme cake and ice cream flavor out. Dancer chose a ballerina slipper cake. I found an easy recipe on line. It took me such a short time to make. Each slipper is made from a frozen Sarah Lee pound cake found at your grocer's freezer. Luckily we were just having a small gathering because this cake would not be able to feed a large party.

She opened up some precious homemade dolls that her grandma had made for her. Dancer has a similar one in a different color that she had made with her. She had told Grandma that she wanted a doll in each color. Grandma said she had fun making and naming each one. She signed each one and wrote their name and birth date on each doll.

Each year we make a point to thank God for that precious child on their birthday. This year we held her on our bed and prayed for her and her future years to come.

Happy Birthday to our little Dancer. You are such a blessing to our family!!!