The big move

Hey everyone! Sorry I have been so silent in this space. We packed up our few belongings and moved far away from Oregon. We moved for many reasons, some I can not share just yet but will as soon as I can. Sorry for being so cryptic but you will understand why soon. We just now got internet up and running in our 1800s farmhouse (on 61 acres!!!!) and I am starting to play catch up. This week I will be posting some photos and thoughts from our long trek over on my Instagram account  so please do join me there!

The big move

Three Island Crossing (Back on the Oregon Trail)

Last weekend my family and I traveled to Three Island Crossing State Park in Glenns Ferry, Idaho for the Three Island Crossing re-enactment and celebration. We have had a love for all things Oregon Trail related since we traveled the trail ourselves back in 2009 (you can see our adventures here), so this re-enactment was something we were all looking forward to. The girls even created special outfits for the trip. Unfortunately, at the last minute the officials deemed the river levels too high for safe crossing and cancelled the re-enactment. We decided to still head out there for the festivities anyways.

We all enjoyed walking the trails the pioneers did and taking it all in but the weather was excruciatingly hot. Our children were having quite a hard time with it (one in particular was just having quite the rough week) which took away their enthusiasm for the history and beauty we were witnessing. It made me think of the pioneer families who suffered through it before me. I wonder how they handled the heat exhaustion and the meltdowns. We stayed only a few hours and then decided that if we really wanted to discover all the bits of history there, it would be better for all involved if we came back in the early autumn. At least now we have something more to look forward to!

On a related note, I thought I would share some of our favorite Oregon Trail/Pioneer books with all of you. We spent the week before the trip re-reading them all.

Younger children:
Apples to Oregon
Papa and the Pioneer Quilt
Prairie Day
Best Friends

 Non-Fiction:
 If You Traveled West In A Covered Wagon
 The Oregon Trail
Lewis and Clark
Laura Ingalls Wilder An Author's Story

Chapter books:
Bound for Oregon
The American Girl Kirsten series 
Oregon Trail Diary of Hattie Campbell (Dear America series)
 The Little House books

I should add that these chapter books were fast reads (aka a bit too easy) for K but just right for C.

I also picked up Reading, Writing and Riding Along the Oregon-California Trails to add to our collection while at the museum gift shop. I am looking forward to using it with the girls in the coming weeks. Do any of your have Oregon Trail related children's books you love that I didn't mention? I would especially love to know of any for K's age range that might be more at her reading level.

Three Island Crossing (Back on the Oregon Trail)

Boise, Guru Donuts and a Baby

Photographs from our trip to Boise the other week. Vegan, soy-free donuts. Enough said. The children's first look at activism.
...and just because I have a million Baby F photos sitting on my computer: Baby yawns! I love little baby yawns!

Boise, Guru Donuts and a Baby

Potatoes and innocence

He is always pointing his fingers - I have no idea where he got it from, but it appears to be his thing. Our little Simpkin Jackie O' Kitten had to spend the day at the vet's office last week for her spay appointment. When we dropped her off, K overheard the vet mention "heat" and thought it was some horrible sickness. With a concerned and extremely serious face she asked me if we can get heat or if only cats and dogs get it. I am so thankful for her innocence as I am not ready to have the talk, yet.

Since Simpkin's appointment was in Boise, an hour's drive from us, we decided to stay in the area and have a picnic in the rose garden and then check out the Idaho State Historical Museum. There was a lot of focus on the pioneers, Native Americans and even the Oregon Trail, so we ended up spending hours there soaking it all in. The girls love museums, and really I need to be better about visiting them more often. Little L, on the other hand, is not quite ready to spend long periods of time looking at things he can't touch, but thankfully they had some interactive displays that helped him through it. Being a topping on a potato was, by far, his favorite.

I was hoping to spend a lot of time at this particular museum this upcoming school year since K will be in third grade and that year is focused on farming and building. But the museum will be closing in August for three years (!) due to renovations. It looks like we better visit as often as we can until then, and I had better make some changes to our lesson plan.

Oh and p.s. -  I pulled out Beyond the birds and the bees when we arrived back home that evening. I guess it's probably a good idea to get a head start and prepare myself, even if I really don't want to.

Potatoes and innocence

Snake River! (homeschooling with the history and nature around us)

Red-winged black bird
More pictures from Purple Grandma's visit. I think you can see why these ones needed a post of their own, I couldn't stop snapping away that day!

If you have been following this blog for awhile then you know our love for Oregon Trail history (we even followed the trail when we moved out to Oregon from Virginia), so when we discovered that the Snake river was just around the corner from us we had to go exploring. The closest section of the river is located on a birding trail (even more exciting!) so we did a little bird watching on the way. I was wishing that I brought my binoculars and bird book, but we have many plans to go back and do our main lessons there over the summer, so we'll make up for lost time then.

I have to admit we were all awestruck when we finally came upon the river. It was a little bit of a hike to get there but the beauty occupied my little ones' thoughts so they didn't seem to notice the distance. We watched the water flowing past and wondered what it felt like to those brave pioneers when they came across it so many years ago. As I looked across to the other side of the river I just couldn't fathom crossing that much water with a wagon holding what few belonging I had and my precious family. I mentioned it to my girls and it sparked a lovely conversation about how they did it. Granted we were not in the exact area the settlers crossed (but we do hope to visit there someday soon, too!) but still you could get an idea of the fear that must have overcome them.

I truly enjoy bringing history to life for my children, and even myself. I oftentimes think that if I had  lessons with opportunities like this growing up I would have been a lot more into school. I can still remember one of the few field trips we made when I was in school - a trip to an Erie canal museum and village. The Erie canal was all around me growing up in New York but that trip really brought it to life for me. I hope to have trips like that all the time with my children and really inspire a love of learning through them. I dream of owning an RV and just traveling the country, teaching all the way, and with Kevin's job there is always opportunities to travel abroad. Imagine learning about Ireland's history while living in Ireland?!

Snake River! (homeschooling with the history and nature around us)