Heart of Dakota: Bigger week 17

Daniel Boone! What a man! I do not think I could do half of what he did or expected his family to do! This week learning about how this Frontiers-man crossed over form Pennsylvania to North Carolina to Tennessee then on to Kentucky was amazing. We even mapped it for Geography. See the picture below!

Our character study was on Endurance this week and let me tell you this man must of had endurance! I think we are very soft now a days! Well, and very lucky and blessed too! Unfortunately my kids just did not get the whole thing of endurance. Hey, you know sometimes they get it and sometimes they don't. The thing is to repeat, repeat, repeat and eventually it sinks in!

If you are wondering why I do not have any art posted from our art class we go to each week, it is because it is a two part project so I will post it next week. However, this weeks art project from HOD was SO very cute. The kids and I had so much fun painting Boone swinging from the vine just like in the story where he lost the Indians doing that. Just take a look at the pictures below. My daughter's is so cute with the cheeks painted in and the fearful expression. Mine looks a little too happy! And my son's is just right. Hmmm, sounds almost like the 3 bears! LOL!

One of the other History activities we did was to follow a paper towel trail. Just like Daniel Boone did to find his daughter and friends after being captured by Indians. 40 miles he went. Can you believe it? Well my kids did not have to go 40 miles to find the lost little American Girl doll, Kit, sitting in the driveway! They had a lot of fun doing this activity and asked if they could do it again. So we did!

For Science this week we are still learning about the forest. One of things we learned this week was about the root system and how it gives life to trees and other plants. Their picture of the root, tip and hair was pretty good. Check it out below.

Along with learning about the roots we are doing an on-going experiment trying to grow mold with a piece of stale bread in a baggy and spores using mushrooms. I have a picture of us putting each of the experiments together and then one of the mushrooms two days later. I will keep you all posted on how we are doing because I know you are all riveted to the edge of your seats waiting to know what happens next! LOL!

Oops, I almost forgot. We also read about pollination. Now I have to admit we had mixed feeling on the experiment for this one. It worked fine, but neither of us were very excited about it. Maybe because we used Chocolate and Strawberry milk mix. Maybe if we would have used some other powder it would have worked better!? Oh well, you can not have 36 weeks of excitement. You have to have one or two here and there that just are kinda OK. Right? Either way they did understand how pollination works and the experiment was helpful.

Of course we added to our Timelines and History Notebook today. My son wrote out some facts about the frontier. As an example, originally there were only about 400 people in Kentucky in 1775 and just 15 years later there was more then 75,000. WOW! Now that is expansion! My daughter did the same assignment but a little less facts written. She also drew a very cute picture of Daniel Boone and some other guys dreaming about who knows what. I am still not sure I get it, but that's OK, she at least knows who he is and what he did!'

Well, this week was just a little off for me. I am still not sure why. Maybe because I am having singing withdrawals. Yup, it has been 3 weeks since I have sung a note and I am still not all the way healed form that laryngitis. Bummer. Hopefully I will get back into all my singing that I do weekly and be back on track next week. Well, until then, have a great homeschool week!

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