Inventing History

It's time for history presentations again. We are still learning about the westward expansion and inventors of the time period. Delaney wanted to present again and chose to learn about Johnny Appleseed. She enjoyed reading books and watching a video on youtube about him. She enjoyed dressing up as Johnny Appleseed but was irritated that the "hat" didn't fit very well. I had to hold the pot in place as it kept falling off her head.

Cailin has been reading Kirsten of the American Girls series books. Kirsten was a girl who immigrated from Sweeden and moved westward to Minnesota in the 1850's. What's fun is that this also reflects our own personal family history, I have ancestors that were born in Sweeden in the 1850's--sometime in 1880-81 they homesteaded in Kensington Douglas County, Minnesota. From there they moved and settled in the Spokane area in the late 1920's --when my Grandfather was a young child.

Another family ancestors traveled from Sweeden to Canada and then homesteaded in Minnesota.

Cailin's report was on something near and dear to most people's heart--food! We enjoyed reading about (and eating some too) of creamy potatoes, ham, fruit soup, ginger cookies, dark brown bread. One thing we learned and turned our nose up too...they buttered their bread with lard. Yuck.

Connor, ever loving all things about science researched and reported on the various inventors and their inventions. His favorite inventor is Thomas Edison, he loved that he invented over 1,000 inventions. Here he is showing the timeline he created.

Ryan did his research on another inventor, Eli Whitney. He invented the Cotton Gin and the Springload Rifle. Ryan is very eagar to learn about the Civil War, it was Whitney's invention that helped cotton become a huge cash crop for the Southerners which prolonged slavery and contributed to the issues of slavery and states rights over which the Civil War was fought.

And how can anyone resist this cute smile. After enjoying some food of the time, brown bread, stew and ice cream, (we learned that Thomas Jefferson loved ice cream), we enjoyed the sunshine and played outside.

If you can see it, Liam really liked ice cream too, can you see his ice cream mustache?