Heart of Dakota: Bigger week 24

By KristinN, on April 6th, 2012

Well, it was nice to have a break for Easter. I hemmed and Hawed over taking a break since we just had a week off due to illness. But I decided "I" needed the break. Anyway, this week was a great week learning about several different people

Our first journey was geography. Hey this activity was basically Battleship. My son pulled this off without a hitch and he was the one who actually taught my daughter. So now they can play battleship together.

Our character trait this week was Service. Each day we looked for opportunities to lend out a helping hand to someone in need. Whether that be here at home or even as simple as holding a door open for someone.

In science we were really learning about the peddlers that came around. It gave a great reality check to my kids who have everything they need at their finger tips. I mean we all do. Anytime we need something it is just a few blocks away. But in the pioneer days they had to wait on peddlers or try to make it themselves. Even keeping time back then was a chore. You had to rely on the sun, but what if you wanted t bake at night? Well, clocks got a whole new meaning for them

Both my kids really enjoyed making the water carrier. Now we did it from a small piece of paper and it worked. My son announced that we need to keep a small tarp in the car for now on just in case we need to get water. LOL! It was a cool experiment though. I knew the concept behind it, but it was very neat to be able to take a drink for a piece of paper.

For history we learned about several people this week. We learned about Samuel Morse and the Morse code and telegraph machine. I have attached two videos here for you.

Video About Morse Code and

Video about Telegraph, Morse and how it came about.

Just a way to bring it more to life. Great information. We felt sorry for Vail and Baxter who really did the majority of the work and did not get the credit. But we are thankful for Morse's ingenious plan!

We also learned about Charles Goodyear. Now this one was fun. I never knew any of the information about Goodyear. So I learned a ton. We had a blast going around trying to find things made of rubber. Wow, we sure do depend on that bouncy stuff!

I know this entry was much shorter then the normal, but it is late and I am ready for bed, so short and sweet and to the point today! I hope you all get a kick out of the pictures and have another great week in HOD! See you next week!