American Revolution Road Trip: A Detour to Washington, DC

Although it's not relevant to the American Revolution, I have been wanting to take a longer trip to Washington, DC--and to have Matt there to enjoy it with us!--since the kids and I first went there four years ago.

Those kids are bigger and better walkers now (on this first day, we walked almost 9 miles!), and this time we gave ourselves more time to explore and a larger list of sights to see.

Top on everyone's list, though, were all the Smithsonians one could possibly fit into one's day!

You could never fit all of the Smithsonians into one day, or even one week. Maybe you could ration yourself to one Smithsonian a day, but even then you probably wouldn't see everything in every one.

I began the day a little bummed that we couldn't get into the Smithsonian Museum of African-American History and Culture, which had recently opened and which I had SUPER wanted to see. Since Smithsonian museums are free, it had never occurred to me that I might need to make a reservation, and, alas, all of the timed tickets for the entire year were long gone by the time that we strolled up to it and saw the LONG, long line of bystanders waiting for someone to miss their reservation so that they could be let in a dribble at a time.

Ah, well. The museum isn't going anywhere. We'll be back again to see it someday.

Instead, we hit hit our other favorite Smithsonian museums: the Natural History Museum--

WOOK at how big mah babies have gotten since the last time they stood in front of the elephant!

We found a cookie cutter shark specimen! Of all the sharks in the oceans, the cookie cutter is the scariest. I'm serious. Google it.

These are genuine Neanderthal bones, not the casts that you'll usually find. It's nearly impossible to find genuine remains of our evolutionary ancestors in the US, as we no longer make it a practice to steal treasures and antiquities from their homelands, but the Smithsonian was given this less interesting specimen.

Even though it doesn't have a skull, it's still awesome to us!

Their human evolution gallery, as a whole, is pretty awesome.

We have family lore surrounding the sea otter. In some zoo or other, the older kid noticed that the sea otter is a member of the weasel family. This led to us calling sea otters "sea weasels," which eventually became "sweasels." We bring up sweasels in conversation all the time now.

It annoys me how similar they look. I think the trick is that the Viceroy has white spots there in the top third of the wings, whereas the monarch is orange almost all the way to the top.

These are fabulously concise definitions. I plan to put these exact ones in our memory work, now that our rocks and minerals unit is complete.

The gallery had all of these beautifully labelled and displayed minerals, and I wanted to photograph each one, but the lighting in there is crap. I would throw a lot of money at the Smithsonian if they would make me flash cards of every single crystal and its label!

Hope Diamond!

 --the Air and Space Museum--

Can you see why I photographed this? SHARKS!!!

Self-portrait via Skylab

Wright Flyer!

One of my superpowers is that I know all random songs, and I'm happy to sing them loudly. In public. The older kid showed me this interactive exhibit of early flying-themed songs, and I rewarded her for her thoughtfulness by loudly singing the chorus to this song, which I randomly know.

Don't worry, though. I forced each child to earn $50 in vacation spending money, and the older kid rewarded me for my foresight by blowing all of her money on novelty candy everywhere we went, as well as insisting that candy bars found in the grocery stores that we visited to resupply during the trip also counted. And hotel vending machines.

Even though it's a big city, I'm amazed and impressed at how lovely and walkable DC is. There's always a monument or statue or fountain or little park to rest your bones at.

--and the Smithsonian National Museum of American History:

We got to show Matt the Star-Spangled Banner (which you can't photograph), but his favorite thing was this George Washington statue. He's a major George Washington fanboy.

When the museums closed at 5:30, we did miles more walking to see monuments and memorials, but aren't you tired just from watching us do this part of our day? I am! I'll show you all our monuments and memorials--and our private guided tour of the US Capitol Building!--tomorrow.

American Revolution Road Trip: Fort Necessity

If you're going to study the American Revolution, then the French and Indian War is as good of a place to start as any.

You could also start, of course, with Columbus and the European colonization of North America.

Or you could start with the pilgrims and the Mayflower Compact.

Heck, you could even start with the Magna Carta, if you had a mind to!

But if you really want to just zero in on the American Revolution, with just enough context to understand how it fits into geographical and historical context, then start with the French and Indian War. You'll learn how the European countries fought over North American land, how the Native Americans were used and lied to and manipulated and exploited, why Great Britain thought that the American colonies needed to pay all those taxes, and most of all...

You'll meet young George Washington!

Since our spine for this study was Joy Hakim's A History of Us, we read the chapters in From Colonies to Country that cover the French and Indian War, but also delved more deeply. In particular, the kids used reference materials to color and label their own maps of North America before the French and Indian War and after it. We also used a lot of the curriculum materials on the Fort Necessity Park's website, in particular the lessons on the Forks of the Ohio, which is important for understanding how disputed territory is guarded and governed, and the lesson on the Native Americans who inhabited the land. It's so easy for the Native American story to get lost in studying the American Revolution that I wanted to make a special point of bringing it in from the beginning, especially as the role that they play in this particular war is so important.

I didn't use any flashcards like these, because there weren't any particular facts that I wanted the children to memorize, but I did have them complete several of the mini books from this lapbook for the American Revolution notebooks, and when we go over them again to review and add photos and new information, I might have them complete a couple more of the books. The kiddos also love BrainPop, and as usual, I was not disappointed when I searched their site for the French and Indian War; they have a video for everything!

Our favorite resource, by far, for the French and Indian War was The War that Made America (it's nevertheless pretty dry, so I only made the kids watch it as far as the Fort Necessity info), but here are some other resources that we used:



And here's what it looked like in real life!

We started, of course, with Second Breakfast while the kids worked on a couple of non-site specific activities from their Junior Ranger books.

Then we did a little role-playing.

And then we saw the fort! Kinda... small, isn't it? This is one of the reasons why I love travel so much. Would you ever have believed that Fort Necessity was this small unless you'd seen it for yourself?

Inside the fence is a tiny little shack, and inside the shack is a rustic little table.

And outside the fence is where the enemy is!

I can't imagine that this fence was much protection, alas, especially as you can easily do things like stick your entire head between the posts.

Here the kids are mapping the site for their Junior Ranger books. We were excited to see the pitiful little earthworks in the background, and much of our study vividly represented the misery of huddling behind these earthworks in the pouring rain, half-submerged in standing water, freezing and getting shot at.

Later we hiked away from the fort...

...past the old treeline and the French encampments...

...and along Braddock's Road, the wagon-rutted path that he had his soldiers painfully widen the whole damn way here. When he was killed, the soldiers buried him in the middle of this road, then they marched over his grave and away. They were worried that his corpse would be defiled if his grave was found, and thought this the best way to conceal it.

It's also a lovely natural area. See the milkweed!

The nice thing about historical battlefields and other events is that places that seemed super far away to them are just a short drive away for us, so it was only a minor detour from Fort Necessity to go see the place that I was SUPER excited to see: Jumonville Glen, where Washington and his scouting party surprised a group of French. What happened here and the mistranslation of a later treaty related to this event represents not just the first bloodshed of the French and Indian War, but also influences the development of George Washington into the soldier and leader that he becomes, AND makes very, very, VERY clear why knowing more than one language is important.

It also turns out that it's a fabulous place to explore, with lots of lovely large rocks to climb:

I'm sorry to say, however, that much of the ground around these beautiful boulders was littered with broken glass. We neglected to bring a trash bag on our short hike, so we each collected a big handful of the trash to bring back with us to the car.

After clambering around big rocks so that we could jump down and surprise the French, we tromped back to the car, deposited our broken glass in our own trash bags, made ourselves big sandwiches, and drove the long drive to Washington, D.C. We're going to take a little break from the Revolution itself to see how our fledgling country turned out!

Homeschool Science: Shark Dissection, and our Sharks Science Study

Back in the summer, partly as a bit of thematically-relevant prep for the kids' trip to California and partly just on a whim, I signed the kids and I up for a free MOOC on sharks and global biodiversity through EdX.

Y'all, this course changed our lives.

One week in, and Will was already telling me that she wants to be a marine biologist when she grows up (considering that her next most recent dream job was global dictator, this is for sure a step in the right direction). Two weeks in, and I knew that I was going to be turning this MOOC into a more extensive study, based on how passionate the kids were about it.

Over two months in, and we've just finished that more extensive study, and we're also now completely obsessed with sharks, so much so that I altered our road trip plans to include some shark-related sites.

We did this MOOC live, with everybody participating at their own pace, and for our recent study we used it again as our spine. Instead of going through the entire course again, I gave the kids specific units from specific weeks, tied to enrichment activities to deepen their understanding of shark biology and to contextualize it with human biology.

We memorized the layers of the ocean, for instance, and the types of shark habitats, with the kids creating a giant poster of this and then putting pictures of sharks on it where they live.

We memorized the external anatomy of the shark, particularly all the types of shark caudal fins.

We conducted a comparative anatomy of the shark's internal organs, including some hands-on experimentation with osmosis and the functioning of a shark's oily liver, and comparisons between the human brain and the shark brain, the human heart and the shark heart, and the human respiratory system and the shark respiratory system.

We discussed pop culture representations of sharks, watching Jaws as our main resource for this (although I really should find a copy of Sharknado for us to watch next...), the conservation of sharks and their use in aquariums (with lots of webcams and a planned visit to the New England Aquarium this month!), and how to stay shark safe in the ocean, practicing shark-safe techniques one afternoon at the lake.

The long-anticipated culminating activity of this sharks study was a dissection of an actual shark, the squalus acanthus, or common dogfish. The dogfish shark is bought by science suppliers from fishing by-catch, and our purchase of it first involved a lot of discussion with the kids in which I made clear my reservations about using animals in science but also admitted what educational experiences they would gain from it. The kids did decide that they wanted the experience of dissecting a real animal, and promised that they would treat the shark's corpse respectfully throughout, which they did.

We will revisit the use of animals in our science studies on a case-by-case basis.

We split up our complete shark dissection into four separate sessions--Home Science Tools, where I purchased the shark, assured me that I would be able to re-seal the shark into its bag between sessions, but at the beginning of the fourth session, I noticed that the shark was getting moldy and told the kids that we had to finish up the rest of our dissection on that day. In retrospect, I should have stored it in its bag and in the refrigerator, but who really wants a bagged shark corpse sitting next to the pasta salad?

Funnily, since this was a shark dissection, the session that the kids seemed to enjoy the most was the one on external anatomy. They had a fabulous time finding all of the external features of the shark, poking at them a bit, and photographing them for posterity. Our USB microscope was crucial for this, and I don't know how we could have done the dissection without it:

teeth

skin

a view inside the nares

electroreceptors known as the ampullae of lorenzini

examining the cornea

gill slits 

examining the caudal fin

Home Science Tools provided a brochure on shark dissection, but we vastly preferred The Photomanual and Dissection Guide of the Shark, which is far more informative, although you have to skip around in it in order to conduct an orderly dissection. It's best to consult several sources, I learned, so I also used a few more books from our local university library as reference, as well as several Youtube videos of variable quality.

And here we are finally cutting our shark open!

The cartilage is hard to cut through, so I helped some, but I wanted the kids to do most of the work themselves:

Frankly, I was completely over this shark dissection halfway through our exploration of the shark's stomach contents--fish spines, a gill system, couple of shells, lots of scales and slime.

See those stomach contents? Shudder.

 But I put on my game face and we sailed through the circulatory system--

--the respiratory system--

 --and the skeletal system.

This dissection was hard for me to get through, although I didn't let the kids know it. I'd given them my objections, they'd made an informed decision to do the dissection anyway, and what they needed to do it properly was a guide and mentor, not a moaning sicky-face. To be fair, though, I did take the rest of the day off after this, and I 100% left the clean-up to them while I took a hot shower, then lounged in my bed with a glass of wine and a good book.

Overall, this sharks unit was a terrific science study. We had a good spine, were able to use lots of supporting resources, conducted plenty of interesting hands-on activities, and are able to extend our study with a couple of detours on our upcoming road trip. The kids have always loved science, and always loved animals, but we've now discovered that they also very much love animal biology. Next semester, we're going to try another EdX course, this one on animal behavior, although my plan is to review it myself first so that I can incorporate enrichment activities the first time around.

And we might end up dissecting a sheep's brain...

Here are some other resources that we enjoyed during this sharks unit:

• TEDtalk playlist all about sharks
• Sharks of the World matching game
• Sharkopedia
• newspaper shark craft
• track a shark with Ocearch
• Chondricthyan Tree of Life
• LEGO sharks

Pattern Play Paper Animals in the Playroom

I can't decide if I like these or not.

The kids and I got this book, Pattern Play, free from some publicist or another (fun fact: when you blog, sometimes you get random packages of free stuff in the mail. Usually I know who they're from, but seriously, sometimes I don't! Should I be concerned that anonymous publicists apparently have my home address?), and while we super liked constructing the animals--

--I was kind of freaking out as we were making them, because omg our house is so cluttered already. There is already so much crap on display, from decorative bean mosaics to layers of the ocean posters to potted plants to Harry Potter fanart to jars with colored sand layered in them to coconut monkeys to the freaking Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria!!11!!!! (and yes, I did compile that list from what's basically right in front of me as I sit here at our school table. I'm not even telling you about our table covered in school stuff and the entire wall of books and the keyboard and telescope AND camera tripod in the corner. Sigh...)

Where the hell are a bunch of adorable 3D stand-up paper animals supposed to live, I ask you?!? In bed with me? Next to the cat dish? On top of the dryer?

Or--ooh!--how about in a mobile hanging over the kids' computer? They'd flutter and waft in such a lovely fashion. We don't have any mobiles in the house! In fact, I've never even made a mobile before!

How hard could it be?

Uh...

The first couple of steps that I figured out were brilliant. We found the balance point for each animal as we were constructing it, poked a hole there--

--and threaded a piece of invisible thread through. Then we glued the two sides together, sandwiching the thread between them.

Not. A. Problem.

I bought a super thin dowel, and cut it into some pieces.

Totally doable. 

Then I tied a piece of fishing line to the dead center of the smallest piece--okay, that was pretty fiddly--and hot glued it in place.

Done and done.

The next step, as far as I could figure, was to hang an animal from each end of the dowel, right in the place where the whole thing balanced, and glue it in place.

This. Was. IMPOSSIBLE!

The thread was really slick, and didn't want to knot. I finally got a loop in each piece, then had Syd hold the dowel up by its thread while I balanced the two animals from it. Her arm got tired. I had to let go of the contraption to see if it balanced, but if I let go too much one end of the dowel would fly up and the animals would fall off. The thing would be unbalanced one way, but adjusting one animal by a millimeter would drastically imbalance it the other way.

How the hell to people make mobiles?!?

After a really, really, REALLY long time, I said to hell with it and Syd and I taped some animals, strung to fishing line, from the top of the high shelf above their window seat:

They still flutter and waft, but there was very little engineering required.

Another neat thing about this book is that after you cut each animal out, you have the rest of the patterned paper left to play with. When I was thinking of making my mobile masterpiece, I was thinking that we'd use the circle punch to cut out a lot of circles from the paper, then sandwich the invisible string between an entire line of them and also use that in the mobile.

Now, however, I'm thinking I might do the same thing, but maybe as a garland.

In other news, does anyone have a good mobile-making tutorial to recommend to me?