The Vikings Are Coming!

The Time Travelers Adventure Club is back up and running after a summer of living only in the 21st century. September we studied the Vikings---their culture, runes, clothing, cool head gear and more. The club has grown and so now we have a preschool group, a 2nd grade group, and a Big Kids group. Overall, I think this has been good for the kids since they can now learn more at their unique levels. Unfortunately, I cannot show photos as my digital camera recently broke. :( If photos are posted, it means I located my 2nd camera and was able to retrieve the old photos!

New World Discoverers Book Club

Our other new club this year is the New World Discoverers Book Club, an American history club & Socratic discussion group combined. The kids spent September reading about the early explorers to the Americas and reading and discussing books!

Brand New S'mArties Art Club!

Blazing Trails Adventure Clubs now sponsors 2 new clubs: one of them being the S'mArties Art Club. The Art Club is for kids up to 3rd grade. We spent September studying two medieval artists: Cimabue and Giotto. After learning a bit about their lives and studying two of their works of art, the children made projects inspired by them. We have done watercolors, oil pastels, scratch art (like Giotto as a boy), and fresco painting. If I can retrieve my photos, I'll put up some examples of the kids' work!

SAND Club Kicks off Hardwoods Study

The SAND Club will be studying the three major Minnesota biomes this year, in an effort to understand the Minnesota-area wilderness as experienced by the early explorers, voyageurs, and missionaries. In September and October, we will study the Hardwood Forest. We are using the Jr. Naturalist booklets put out by the DNR. We visited Fort Snelling State Park and the informative ranger took us on a walk through the forest, showing us a variety of interesting plants and trees. We collected leaves (with her permission!) and made leaf prints at the Nature Center. My favorite new critter is now the leaf miner, a small insect that burrows through leaves, leaving small tunnels behind. Very interesting!

SAND Club Learns about Land Use Now & Then

In May, we visited Dunrovin Retreat Center. Mary Meeds kindly took us on a tour of the grounds, which was a fabulous review of many things we studied this year. First, she showed us their herb garden, where they grow herbs for use in the dining hall. On the tour, we saw jack in the pulpits, spruce trees, marsh marigolds, and many other wildflowers and trees as Mary discussed the challenge of keeping the forest thriving despite the invasion of buckthorn. She also shared with us how they treat their water in order to make sure the St. Croix River stays clean. Finally, we enjoyed a hike through the grounds, and crossed a bridge that goes through their ponds. We ended up at a garden that now grows where folks used to swim (in an old swimming pool). There, we helped weed the garden where they grow much of the food they serve at the Retreat Center.




The second week we visited Little Flower Farm. Chiara took us on an extensive tour in which we got to collect eggs, and touch goats who tried to escape their pens. We saw the greenhouses and fields, saw how the Dowells encourage their hens to lay eggs by fooling them with golf balls, and learned about sheep shearing and how to correctly sharpen and use a scythe. In the end, we enjoyed some truly delicious goat cheese made by Chiara. I think it was profitable for the children to consider the challenges of caring for such big properties.

We finished up the year by talking about what we had learned. Today, just as in years past, we hunt, fish, grow plants, gather plants, and recreate. We also build cities, settle (semi)permanently in houses and build roads. We aren't necessarily "better" than the people of the past, and they aren't necessarily "better" than we are. What truly matters is how we live our lives---are we loving more today than we did yesterday? Are we enjoying and caring for the world God created? Are we letting God work through us? Are we turning our hearts and our lives over to Him? The measure that we radiate hope and joy manifests the condition of our soul.

Wildflowers and Wild Edibles

Attempts to visit some state parks this month for programs on wildflowers went awry. Alas, Saturdays just don't work for our families! Boo hoo for my family as we have most Saturdays free. However, we did manage to squeeze in one big and fun day at our house for a wildflower and wild edible exploring/coloring/painting extravaganza. We started out with a discussion of all the native wildflowers and plants in our yard that Ojibway peoples used for food or medicines around the turn of the last century. There were quite a few because our yard is a jungle. :) We have yarrow, jack in the pulpit, wild strawberry, wild geranium, false salomonseal, nettle, blackberry, and red raspberry. Then we went on a hunt for these and other wild edibles (chives, mint, violets, and maple). We did avoid the nettles. Whew. It was a blast.






Then we headed indoors to color some wildflower coloring pages and then paint our own favorite wildflower.









The following day, my family headed to Wm O'Brien State Park to take in their wildflower walk. We felt pretty big for our britches as we have most of the flowers we saw in our yard!

Beowulf... please don't mistake me for Grendel

Ah, Beowulf. How can you not shudder at the old tale? Anyhoo, lots of talk this month about monks and saints, as well as the glorious age of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. We covered St. Meinrad, Ss. Bendict & Scholastica, and St. Kevin of Ireland. In doing so, we had to cover some geography. Besides being fun, and a history whiz, our intrepid History Guide is also an amazing cartographer!



Here we are enjoying the amazing spring weather and planning the most historically involved game of tag ever. If you didn't want to be caught, you had to shout out the name of a historical figure we studied this year---one that hadn't already been called. Needless to say, I did much worse than the kids.





And you gotta love historical anachronism, because it's fun! Here a Pirate guides our review activity:

SAND Club Studies Native Peoples

After a session in which we talked about the various native people groups that have lived in the St. Croix Valley, each family picked a people group to study. Some of the families planned to meet at Mounds Park. We rounded out our unit with a fasinating storytelling session at the Minnesota History Center with "Buzz," a Dakota and Cherokee man, who had us riveted to his every word. My kids still talk about Buzz and what he taught them about thunder being our friend, because it warns us of the lightning! Our projects are still in process.

History Club Visits Ruins

Not ancient, but PRETTY COOL nontheless. The history club went to Mill Ruins Park to see what real ruins are like as a kick-off to this month as we study the fall of Rome. The rain even held off till we were all done!! YES!

SAND Club Finishes Mammal Studies

After a Mammal Hunt in which various club members found squirrels, cats, dogs, people, moose, horses, and even a whale (these guys are thorough!) we talked about what makes a mammal a mammal and then began to discuss Mammal families (canines, etc.). We finished up with an in-depth look at the common St. Croix Valley mammal orders and families and then did our Presentations. Yours truly got so involved in em-ceeing the event that I forgot to take pics until the end--but here are some.

Time Travelers Study Martyrs and Saints

It was neat to study St. Valentine in "his" month--as well as some less well known saints like St. Christopher, St. Barbara, St. Clement, St. Felix and St. Philomena. We also heard about the difficulties that the later Roman emperors had "balancing" all the duties of being an emperor, leading to the split between West and East. Here Nicholai gets a try at being an emperor and trying to balance it all....



I'm sure he was relieved to get some "caesars" to help him...

We finished out the month with a semi-serious puppet show using the hand puppets we made of the 12 disciples. The kids learned where they preached and how and where they died.

SAND Club Visits Mammals at the MN Zoo

On Friday, we saw a fisher, wolf, coyotes, puma, lynx, and many other mammals and other animals while visiting the MN Zoo. Here are some photos of the children enjoying the swimming gymnastics of the river otter.






I confess I forgot to take photos during the rest of the mammal visit, but did manage to snap one when we met up at the aquarium!

SAND Club studies St. Croix Valley Fish & Birds

January was a month to study native birds and fish for the SAND Club. We kicked off our studies with a great field trip to the Bell Museum of Natural History. After exploring the dioramas of bird characteristics and fish behaviors, we spent a long time in the Touch room. Here are some shots of the kids exploring and having fun!





While in the Touch room, a Bell Museum staff member educated the kids on sharks. No, not a St. Croix Valley fish (thank goodness!) but the kids seemed really engaged nonetheless.



The second week two of our dads educated us. Chris H. taught the kids all about birds, and took the kids on a bird walk. Steve H. took the second half of the class and passed around cool lures for fish while telling us all about the interesting fish we can find close to home.

The third week we did a variety of fish and bird related games projects, including Fish coloring pages, Bird Bingo, Fish Memory, a Cross-fish puzzle, Japanese fish printing (gyotaku) and making pinecone bird feeders! Whew! We ran out of time (literally) when we discovered that the batteries in our clock had run out, causing us to run overtime! Oops!

Time Travelers Study the Apostles in January

January was a month for in-depth study of the apostles. We kicked off our study with a VERY fun trip to Midtown Global Market in Minneapolis to get the experience of being in a place with many cultures, as the apostles experienced on their many travels. Some of the kids wanted Viking swords and helmets. (These will no doubt be reappearing later when we actually study the Vikings!) Of course, the kids' favorite part was the indoor playground!






We read many stories of the apostles' journeys and finished up our unit by starting to make hand puppets of each of the apostles.