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| Snapshot Summary, July 13-19 |
We finished up our 50-states study with Tennessee, and made a cookie dough map of the state.
We took a lot of little trips this week. Saturday after a picnic lunch...
Then we went to Bays Mountain Park, a 3,550-acre nature preserve that has a Nature Center and Animal Habitats featuring wolves, bobcats, raptors and reptiles. They also have a dam of which you can get a close view. (Here are photos of our trip here three years ago.)
Inpromptu Nature Study.
Their special program this weekend was a Gem and Mineral show in which they encouraged beginning collectors by giving them each four free rocks or minerals from a wide selection.
They also had displays to show gems and minerals up close, some that glowed under a black light and a hands-on exploration table.
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| The Netherland Inn was a stagecoach inn, hosting many famous persons including Presidents Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson and James Polk. |
we toured the Netherland Inn House Museum...
and gardens.
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| An exhibit at Bays Mountain's Nature Center. |
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| Katie sketches the albino Corn Snake at the Reptile House. |
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| Steven and James sort through the rocks and minerals at the Gem and Mineral show . |
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| Quentin views a crystal under a microscope. |
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| Katie gets her first look at her geode once it is cut open. |
This week we also went to the annual Hamlett-Dobson Farm Fest at the Exchange Place Living History Farm in Kingsport, TN
The farm dates from the mid-1800's and the festival celebrates the pleasures of 19th century country life.
The younger boys enjoyed jumping and playing in hay, milking "cows", a hayride, free fresh summer foods such as corn on the cob, watermelon, kettle corn and lemonade, old-time crafts such as tin-punch, talking to and listening to people dressed in period clothes talk about such things as carding and spinning wool, beekeeping and woodworking. It was a fun and educational day that fit perfectly with our history studies.
On Monday we were treated to a full afternoon of adventure at the South Holston Dam, the Weir Dam and Osceola Island, Bristol, TN.
It was part of the TVA projects beginning in the 1940's. It helps supply the power needs of the area and helps control flooding.
The mists were incredibly beautiful.
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| Looking for Fish |
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| Playing Pooh Sticks |
Osceola Island, Cherokee National Forest
Katie took Quentin and James on a nature hike through Osceola Island.
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| squid model in progress |
We have a lot of works-in-progress.
We learned about squid anatomy by sketching and making models of squid.
We learned about the Indian tribes of the Maidu of southern California...
and of the Tlingit of the Northwest and completed craft projects from History Pockets: Native Americans. We are finishing up our study of American Indians, but we want to do a few more hands-on projects, so I imagine that this will go on for the rest of the summer at a leisurely pace.
What We Are Reading
What We Are Reading
We read Sir Cumference and the Sword in the Cone by Cindy Neuschwander, which talks about polygons, their faces, points and edges, Euler's Polyhedron Formula and measurement. We had visited these geometry concepts before, but it was nice to review them again.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, so we have been reading this in the evenings, along with
Our trip last month to Warrior's Path State Park, because of its Narnia play-spaces, peaked Quentin and James' interest in...
The Hobbit (which Sam is reading aloud to our delight)
and The Hardy Boys book 2: The House on the Cliff.
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