Postcards from the Trip

Because Momma is cheap.

And because we like to make art.

Because it's homeschooling in geography.

And because gift shops don't usually sell postcards of our favorite weird stuff that we saw, or the random imaginary stuff that we thought about.

Hence our DIY postcards, drawn in fine-point Sharpie on Bristol board that I cut to USPS standard postcard sizes. Thus Sydney was able to draw a Gateway Arch with sunflowers growing almost up to its top, a sight that I'd REALLY like to see in real life:

And Willow was able to send her impressions of the Real Pirates exhibit at the St. Louis Science Center back to one of her little playmates, who she knows would enjoy the idea of the swordplay:

I sent Matt a postcard of the Gateway Arch on which I diagrammed the location of all the mean/nice people and weird overheard conversations that I encountered--it wasn't as good as being able to poke him and hiss, "Oh, my God! Look over there!", but it was close.

One night, when we were working at the dining room table in my parents' house, I asked the girls to draw a postcard of their absolute favorite thing from the past couple of days of travel that we'd just finished. Here's Sydney's postcard:

It's the hotel pool, of course.

My Child as a Confederate Soldier

Do all history museums let kids dress up like a Confederate Soldier, or just the history museums in the South?

It definitely takes a special kind of history musem to have a real, live, working soda fountain:

Although sprinkles may be a more modern invention:

But after eating a lot of ice cream (with an old-fashioned cherry coke for me and a strawberry coke for my mother), there is nothing better than to run around outside on the grounds of the old Fort Smith, chasing covered wagons--

--and doing a happy little jig next to the gallows:

Unfortunately, it wasn't the anniversary of any executions, and so the noose wasn't up. Can't have everything, I guess...

I Rawk at Tetris

I accepted, met, and EXCEEDED the challenge put out by the St. Louis Science Center, which sadly did not put its money where its mouth was:

I love Tetris. LOVE it. I can remember sitting in civics class in junior high, playing Tetris in my head the way that I've heard that really smart people play mental chess, or mental baseball. Of course, I was a really smart 80s Nintendo nerd who'd never even touched a chessboard until I bought one myself with my own money at Wal-mart later that year, so I played mental Tetris.

The girls, too, enjoyed these Tetris magnets--

--which reminded me that I totally have some magnet-backed felt at home (bought at clearance from Joann's, and likely put on clearance because it's such an odd item), and I am TOTALLY going to make my own set of Tetris magnets when we're done with our road trip.

Speaking of road trips...I showed the girls how to use a rotary dial telephone at the local history museum today. They did NOT get it--Sydney kept just poking her finger at each number, no matter how many times I demonstrated the dial procedure, just poke, poke, poke, and I was all, raising my voice, "You have to DIAL it, that's why it's called a DIAL telephone, because you DIAL the number!!!"

When is the last time that you actually dialed a telephone number?

630 Feet, Straight Up

Was our visit to the Gateway Arch wonderful? I mean, was it crowded and touristy? Was it tiresome and tedious? Were the kids whiny and bored? Was security a pain in the butt, and also worryingly lax?

Sometimes, but also?

Yes, it was WONDERFUL!

Will thoroughly enjoyed her every second, from start to finish, parking garage entrance to parking garage exit. Syd was a bit more of a challenge--she's a child who enjoys her comforts, and a long walk on a warm day, a long wait in a long line, are nearly intolerable to her. However, there are three things in her favor: 1) She rarely throws a fit in public, 2) She perks up readily when the scenario changes, and 3) she can often be settled down with a Sesame Street podcast on my ipod. So she watched a lot of Sesame Street while we waited.

And the wait? Worth it. The crazy tram-ride was apparently super-fun, and as soon as we got all the way up and out of our tram at the top of the arch and the girls saw what it was all about, they were thrilled.

THRILLED.

Universally and unequivocally thrilled.

The little windows along the top of the arch are perfect for children, because they're on a well-carpeted slant that even a little kid can easily scramble up, and two kids fit perfectly at one window:

I was worried that the kiddos would look out the window for two seconds and then be done, and that I wouldn't get much of a chance to sightsee, but that wasn't the case at all. The girls visited every single window in the arch, and spent long minutes at each one, excitedly pointing out to each other objects of fascination such as Swimming Pools! On roofs! Satellite dishes! On roofs! A chair over there! On that roof! And lots and lots of debris floating down the flooded Mississippi.

I thought that it was pretty cool to watch a Cardinals game from the top of the arch:

And those tiny, tiny people?

They're 630 feet straight down from us.

We had a looooooong drive after that, which encompassed the final book in our Geronimo Stilton trilogy and the first seven audiobooks of the Magic Tree House series (book 8 is waiting for us on the way to Memphis, and then we'll move on to The Mouse and the Motorcycle), and today has been mostly about tantrums and junk food and dark circles under little eyes, but Willow did draw a picture this evening that looked a lot like this photo:

630 feet, straight up from us.

Next on the Agenda

Guess where we're going today!

Full Circle

First Day of School:

Last Day of School:

Now, let's go on a road trip!

Studying Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky

Our first unit study is considerably more seatwork oriented than I'd normally choose, but in my defense, it is meant to be done primarily in the car, where the children will be seated, so there you go. The activities, however, are just as eclectic as my kiddos.

First we have the binder:

I covered each girl's binder in a brown paper bag book cover, and let them decorate them. Willow actually chose thematically-appropriate decorations:

This unit study is on each of the states that we'll be visiting during our upcoming road trip--Missouri, Arkansas, Tenneessee, and Kentucky--so Willow drew the Gateway Arch, a horse, and the Mississipi River (with sailboats, because she hasn't seen a real live riverboat yet, silly girl).

Now, the girls aren't actually required to do any of the activities that I'm about to show you, but I do know what they tend to like, so I'm guessing that Willow will do quite a bit of these, and that Sydney will do a few and goof around with a few more. Both binders are also identical, even though the girls are at different academic levels, because they still tend to get jealous when they see that a sister has something that they don't. So some of the stuff in the binder is too easy for Willow, and a lot of stuff in the binder is too hard for Sydney. Thankfully, Sydney doesn't get frustrated at Willow-level stuff, and Willow doesn't get bored by Sydney-level stuff--if they don't want to do something, they just don't.

Each binder has a US map from AAA and a ton of copy paper tucked into the front cover, a clipboard clipped to the inside cover, a notebook tucked into the back cover, and a mesh bag of supplies clipped onto a binder ring:

Of course, all this stuff will immediately get completely disorganized, but I plan to ask the girls to bring their binders in with us each night at our various motels, so I can neaten them then.

Each binder has a set of matboard stencils for all the states we'll be visiting; US map and flag coloring pages from Super Teacher Worksheets; state maps for each state from Megamaps; cut-and-fold three-dimensional animal pages for various animals we might see, such as thoroughbreds or Indiana bats--

--from Form Wild; coloring pages for horses and the Gateway Arch from the Dover Sampler series; and downloadable children's activity books for various places we'll visit, such as the Fort Smith National Historic Site, and places that we won't visit but that are still AWESOME!!!, such as...

The Arkansas.gov site has a terrific children's activity book which offers coloring pages for ALL of the state stuff. State gem? The diamond. State bird? The mockingbird. State fruit/vegetable? The vine ripe pink tomato. State rock? Bauxite. State cooking vessel? The dutch oven. And yes, I COULD go on.

More on Syd's level, the binder also includes a file folder game of sorting fruits and vegetables, from File Folder Fun, and a set of Betsy McCall paper dolls highlighting Betsy's trip down the Mississippi on a riverboat:

More on Will's level are some Spanish flashcards of words like horse, duck, grandma, and grandpa, from Boca Beth; and 20 or so mazes from KrazyDad--navigational skillz, you know.

Among the books that the girls have chosen for the trip are numerous children's books about Appalachia, other geographical locations we'll visit, tall tales, horse books, and a biography of Elvis (I can't resist!). Some of the DVDs include a children's Spanish documentary of St. Louis, more horse movies, more tall tales, etc. And some of the CDs are folk songs, Elvis hits, and audiobooks that take place in some of the places we'll visit, although audiobooks tend to be very hit or miss, love it or absolutely hate it, with the kiddos.

As for the traveling, I really do intend for it to be pretty low-key. My goal is to see at least one site that is meaningfully geographically or historically every place we visit, and to also do at least one super-fun kid thing. So in St. Louis I plan to take the girls to the St. Louis Science Center (Willow is really looking forward to the pirates exhibition), and also up in the Gateway Arch (this will be a first for me, too). In Fort Smith, where we'll spend a few days with my family, I plan to take them to the Fort Smith Museum of History (which has a real, honest-to-god working soda fountain), and there will also be lots of playgrounds, cousin and grandma time, cable television watching, candy eating, etc. While I'm in Ft. Smith I plan to plan where to go in Tennessee and still stay out from underfoot of the flood recovery efforts, but Willow is already talking about the Kentucky Horse Park, and thanks to the Wonderlab being an ASTC Passport participant, we get free admission to pretty much every hands-on museum in the country that we walk ourselves into, and we may walk ourselves into several on our trip.

But if all of THAT gets boring, don't worry--the girls will still have their other workbooks, and their other DVDS and CDs and picture books, and Hank the Cowdog and toy ponies aplenty, and computer games and indoor pools and stopping to pee and lots of snacks...

We are going to have an excellent time together.