Furniture Assembly by Middle Schoolers

The start of every year usually finds me sorting and reorganizing something somewhere in the house. Having moved in the last few months, my husband and I both had a long list of tasks to accomplish in those free days between Christmas and New Years Eve. This year, my goal was to make our homeschool/project space more usable, which required a trip to IKEA.

 Elisabeth picked out a desk and chair and Jonah also picked out a desk chair. I was pleasantly surprised that they were able to assemble their desk chairs all by themselves. Elisabeth had some very minimal help from me involving tightening a couple of screws, while Jonah had none, giving me exasperated looks if I even came near. Elisabeth's desk was a bit too complex a project for her to accomplish on her own, but she did give me a lot of help and even assisted me in putting together my desk.

Lately, I have been particularly struck with how grownup these two are and somewhat nostalgic about those days when they were younger and supremely adorable. One forgets how tiring those days are and just remembers how stinking cute they were. The joy of their sweetness overwhelms the weariness of it all. This experience has reminded me that there are advantages to their independence and this phase of their development. I still look at them in adoration and wonder these days, but less due to raw cuteness and more for the amazing persons they are becoming.

Related Blog Posts:

• Furniture Assembly for 1st Graders (shannafern.com)

Unschooling with Baking

Baking Kids Love bu Cindy Mushet

Before vacation, I picked up the book Baking Kids Love by Cindy Mushat at a Scholastic Warehouse sale. Elisabeth has expressed an interest in baking for some time and I thought this recipe book might be a good one for her (and me). I have tried to let her help me bake in the past, but when it is my project that I plan to serve to others I have a hard time giving up control. Getting this book does seem to have solved that issue and I was able to be much more hands off and let her just do it. Elisabeth picked out a recipe from the book and helped purchase the necessary ingredients. I was pleased to see her follow the recipe and get to the end product with only minor help and supervision from me.  

Baking, after all, is a great unschooling activity. I'm glad I found a way step back and encourage interest. 

She:

• read the recipe
• learned that 1/2 cup plus 1/2 cup equals 1 cup 
• learned what 1 1/4 cup means
• learned how to use a mixer including how to insert and remove the beaters
• learned to distinguish tablespoon (tbsp) from teaspoon (tsp)

Milk Chocolate and Toffee Bars

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Furniture Assembly for 1st Graders

Jonah has been learning some practical skills this week - furniture assembly. We've spent the last two weeks moving, unpacking, and acquiring furniture. So far, all the new furniture has needed some form of assembly - the cons of buying online or from IKEA. Yesterday, Jonah did an excellent job helping me put together shelves for the play room. This week's schooling has entailed a lot of vocational training and life skills.

Richmond: Americamps and Civil War History

Our Americamps Site

We were in Richmond, Virginia a couple of weeks ago. Due to a lack of planning, we had to change campsites after just a couple of nights. We relocated from Pocahontas State Park southwest of town to an Americamps just off highway 95 north of Richmond.

Except for the road noise, the Americamps campground was nice and fairly priced. The Wifi was very good as well. We tend to like more natural surroundings but it met our needs for the two nights we were there. Plus, we were in a great location for accessing historic areas in downtown Richmond. 

We went to the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar. This museum provided a good broad brush presentation of the Civil War in America: the issues involved, some of the facts and the way of life during that time. Some of the displays were a bit complicated but there was enough there to interest a 5 and 6 year old with some Civil War background already. The short video at the beginning did a great job of explaining how there were a lot of issues that gave rise to the Civil War. While slavery was an issue unto itself, this video made the point that slavery was an underlying aspect to all the other issues as well. I found that message to be very profound, and, in my own mind at least, I have no doubts (assuming I ever had any) as to the central cause of the Civil War in America.

The National Park Service Civil War Visitor Center

Right next door is the National Park Service Civil War Visitor Center at Tredegar Iron Works. Both sites give information on the importance of the Tredegar Iron Works during the Civil War as this site was the primary site of artillery production for southern troops. The National Park focuses on Richmond and it surrounding area during the Civil War including the Peninsula Campaign and the Seven Days Battles.  

After this we journeyed out to Cold Harbor which was a major battle field early in the war with the Battle of Gaines's Mill but is most notable for the Battle of Cold Harbor which took place at the end of the war during General Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign. General Lee was victorious on both occasions. At the time of the war, the Cold Harbor area was mostly open fields and pasture, but now much is forested. We walked through the site looking at the trenches that were dug, but it was only in the more open areas that you understand their necessity. I haven't visited many Civil War Battlefields, but, of the one's that I have, this is the first one where I grasped at least of vague understanding of what it would have been like to be there a hundred and fifty years ago.

Jonah in a Civil War Trench at Cold Harbor

So if you want to get a flavor for the Civil War in America, Richmond is a good place to start. And there are many more battlefields and museums in the area than these few that I have mentioned devoted to the topic.

For a comprehensive list of Richmond Civil War sites, consider this one on the Civil War Traveler site (civilwartraveler.com).  Traveling on......

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