This week has been one of preparing for Lent, spending a lot of time with math, getting to know about several Presidents, and also taking a special field trip. Most of our reading centered around Presidents. We read a biography of John F. Kennedy and also one of George Washington. We still have Lincoln's to finish next week. The "Who Was..... ?" series is my Favorite Resource This Week! (I found them on sale at Sam's Club - 2 for $5!)
Most of the local school children are on "winter break", which means it's a perfect time for us to be doing school! We will take a two week break at the end of March, so we are going full steam ahead right now. This time of the year is typically hard, and this year is no exception. Our homeschool is busy, my husband's job is exceedingly busy, and it seems as if everyone is overwhelmed. I am trying to say NO a lot and make plenty of time for play and rest.
I had a Mission of Motherhood bookclub meeting this week, too - this group of homeschool moms has been such an encouragement to me. I feel blessed beyond measure to live in an area where there is such support for homeschooling. It's very nice to spend a couple of hours with like minded moms, talking about training our children for Christ.
I have to thank Nicole, from Journey to Excellence, for blogging about Pic Collage - an app for iPad that makes creating collages a SNAP! (IT'S FREE!) I made three fun collages today in about 15 minutes. So, if you're an iPad user this is a good way to join Collage Friday. If not, using PhotoBucket still works wonders.
Does anyone have any other ways to make collages I don't know about?
Now for the collages... I had fun making them this week! I chose to just highlight our field trip to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Little White House, since it was by far our FAVORITE activity this week!
The weather was 75 and sunny (it's February!!) and we were basically the only people at The Little White House. This allowed us a lot of time to talk with the tour guides and hear interesting stories. Most of these people have lived near Warm Springs their entire lives and have great stories to tell.
The Little White House (in Warm Springs, GA - about an hour from where we live) is truly "little". What made this trip special was hearing from Granddaddy (my husband's father) before we left. He told the children about how he remembers seeing FDR (my father-in-law was born in 1933) driving his car and stopping to talk with people. Granddaddy grew up in rural Alabama, not far from the Little White House. What a neat memory.
After touring The Little White House and the museum we could just about picture what my father-in-law had seen. I was so impressed with what a "people's President" FDR was and his sympathy and concern for the poor of this country. Several exhibits focused on The New Deal and his innovations for a country pulling out of the Great Depression.
His love of children (especially children stricken by Polio) was quite obvious, too. We also saw footage of him playing water polo in the pool at Warm Springs with many children - we heard he loved the children there and many of them didn't even realize he was the President of the United States!
The museum before you visit the house is very interesting:
1. GMan posing outside the museum
2. FDR's favorite car - we also got to see how the car had been specially designed (by FDR himself) with hand controls.
3. Lots of information about FDR's life in Georgia - as America was trying to pull itself out of the Depression, FDR being in Georgia put him in touch with common Americans. He was shocked at the lack of education, training, and money.
4. The timeline as you enter the museum is well done and informative. Since Miss B is taking a President's class at our co-op she was very interested in this.
5. You could feel the WARM springs temperature (on the left) and the normal springs temperature (on the right). FDR found much relief in the warm springs here in Georgia. There is still an extensive therapy/rehab center in Warm Springs today.
6. Simulating "Fireside Chats" - how cool is that?
7. The children counted the canes FDR received as gifts over the years - over 100 in all. They were all hand carved and beautiful examples of American folk art. This was my favorite part of the day.
The Flag Walk was also very interesting. I hope you can see that there were 50 flags on this path. For each state there was a sampling of stone from that state, along with a plaque containing the state emblem and date of statehood.
This was just PERFECT for our 50 states study. The kids were so excited to go from state to state and recognize shapes, mottos, and feel the stones. I think Hawaii (the upper right - volcanic ash) was their favorite.
I want to close with two pictures that have a lot of meaning for us. The first is from the very end of the tour... this man, so obviously distraught after FDR's passing, made an impression on us. As we stood looking at this photo, my sweet G put his arm around me and told me his "eyes felt wet".
The second is the unfinished portrait of FDR. He had a stroke at The Little White House while he was sitting for a portrait... he died that same day and the portrait was packed away and never finished. I think it's amazing. Miss B said this was her favorite thing of the day.
How was your week? I'd love for you to leave a comment and/or link a collage. Reading these collages over the weekend gives me so many ideas for our homeschool. Please be sure to grab the button from my sidebar and use it somewhere in your post or on your blog. Also - visit some other blogs in the linky and leave them a comment!
*** I have updated the button code for Collage Friday so that it now points to my Collage Friday page on the top menu. Please grab the new button code if you'd like!! ***
*** I have updated the button code for Collage Friday so that it now points to my Collage Friday page on the top menu. Please grab the new button code if you'd like!! ***
Have a wonderful weekend!
