Children are naturally curious creatures and with so many under one roof coupled with the fact that we homeschool, we are frequently looking things up to answer the various questions that arise. For instance, the children found that one of the chickens had laid an egg the size of a cherry tomato. We looked it up and found out that such an egg occurs on occasion, that there is no yolk inside and that they are called – by some – fairy eggs.
Here are some other fairy eggs we found this week:
- My son and I are reading a book on the Oregon Trail for his history class called Bound for Oregon. The protagonist’s younger sister got cholera, which led to discussion of the kinds of diseases they had to worry about on the long trek. This led to the naming of dysentery which led to the discussion of the old Oregon Trail game that one frequently sees featured in memes now-a-days. He wanted to see the game and we found it on this site which has a couple of other Oregon Trail themed merchandise (the card game is in my Amazon cart to play after we finish the book) as well as plenty of information about the Oregon Trail itself.
https://www.visitoregon.com/the-oregon-trail-game-online/
- While reading the same book, the family came to the Continental Divide which the protagonist’s father explained was the point in the continent in which all streams and rivers, etc. to the east of it made their way to the Atlantic and all streams and rivers, etc. to the west of it made their way into the Pacific. I’d heard of the Continental Divide, but I never knew that’s what it was!
https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/trails/cdt
- In Language Arts, we were learning about Oliver Wendell Holmes’s poem “Old Ironsides”. He wrote it to save the USS Constitution, a naval frigate that had served in the War of 1812, from demolition and his efforts paid off. Not only did he save her from being demolished, he left behind a poem for many a fifth grader to have the pleasure of having to memorize for their Language Arts classes.
Here’s a copy of the poem:
https://americanliterature.com/author/oliver-wendell-holmes/poem/old-ironsides
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