Pioneer Study: Morse Code

Remember how fascinated the big kid was by Morse code at Conner Prairie?

Well, we went back home and learned it.

Not all of it, but enough of it for the child to at least be able to call for help--

--and to tell a telegraph pen pal her name (sort of):

She wasn't interested enough in the topic, in the end, to memorize the entire alphabet, or make her own telegraph, or study electricity, or follow any of the other billion or so leads that a child who continued to be inspired by Morse code could follow, but she and her sister and I did enjoy the following resources in our little study:

• many, many youtube videos (for some reason, I really like this old-school Army video)
• this Morse code translator--this is a favorite, because I think that the kid's fascination with Morse code is mainly because she loves listening to it
• many, many books, including:

Because this big kid loves books the most, I like to use books, in particular, to build context and expand her interest in a particular topic. So while we have a couple of books just about Morse code there, I also offered books that included Morse code in with ciphers, codebreaking, and other languages.

It worked, because reading the code books got the kid interested in the Rosetta Stone...

So that's another topic to dive deeply into on another day!

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, dog-walking mishaps, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!