Summer School

Our family has hopes to visit the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center and Fort Clatsop this summer.  We have visited these sites before, but that was a number of years ago.  The older kids, especially Paul, already know a lot about Lewis and Clark.  Grace was required to read Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose this year as part of her history course. However, the little kids need their own introduction to the expedition. So in preparation for our trip, I've been taking the kids through a study of Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery.

We started with the CD and companion book, Lewis and Clark:  Songs of the Journey by Kindra Ankney. We bought this CD/book set a number of years ago.  Unfortunately, it seems to be out of print now. Mrs. Ankney, a homeschool mom, wrote the songs on the CD.  She also wrote and illustrated the book that goes with it.  Our family had the pleasure of seeing Mrs. Ankney and her children perform about eight years ago. She signed our book for us. The CD has long been a family favorite.  The kids have all of the songs memorized.  We loved this volume the first time through and are loving it all over again.

I also reserved a pile of books on Lewis and Clark from the library.  Our library system recently built a new library on our end of town and I'm enjoying it immensely.  It's much cleaner than the old library, there are no transients there, there are no computers with "educational" games on them and the twaddle has its own seperate section, so it's easily ignored.  Another huge plus is that I can browse for books online, have them sent to my local branch (which contacts me via email when my books have arrived) and then I can pick them up at the library's drive through window.  Fantastic!

So I picked up my stack of Lewis and Clark books and the kids and I have been working our way through them.  The kids especially liked the book Seaman's Journal.  It's the story of the expedition through the eyes of Lewis' Newfoundland dog, Seaman.  It's beautifully illustrated with watercolors.  It was a captivating read--for all of us.

The other book we've really enjoyed is Lewis and Clark for Kids:  Their Journey of Discovery with 21 Activities.  To be honest, when I first glanced at the book, the word "activities" turned me off.  However, I've discovered the activities are very doable and don't require a lot of extra materials or effort.  For example, one of the activities was on latitude and longitude.  We got out the globe and answered the questions in the book.  Not difficult.  One of the activities shows how to make a tipi.  We already have a tipi, so we didn't do that one, but the kids did set up our tipi so they could play in it.

Our old VHS version of the Ken Burns movie on Lewis and Clark has been pulled out of the drawer and viewed by the kids.  I also found a single ViewMaster reel on the Lewis and Clark trail at Goodwill recently. It highlights the some of the sites we will be visiting near the end of the trail.  Yes, I know--how providential.

In between reading times, the boys have been dressing up in their Lewis and Clark garb, acting out what they're learning.  Yay for real books and hands on learning!  We can't wait to experience the "real" thing later this summer.