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Thursday, March 26, 2009

Louisiana Purchase and Lewis & Clark





We have started a new co-op with another Classical Conversations family. Basically, we will be studying about Westward Expansion and pioneers. For a "spine", we are using Great Pioneer Projects You Can Build Yourself by Rachel Dickinson and Learning Through History's magazine, Westward Ho!

In the past, Alexandra and I had worked through most of the small book, "What A Deal!" The Louisana Purchase by Carole Marsh. I wish I would have got this book at again as we would have made some Mississippi Mud Pie or built a raft of pretzle rods.

I also have the Kaleidoscope Kids Book, The Lewis & Carol Expedition, which has lots of great projects in it. But, I just wasn't up to it! I was literally putting together this first study the morning of our co-op.


So, what did we do?
  • At Enchanted Learning, we read about the Louisiana Purchase and took a quiz.


  • We also read about Lewis & Clark at Enchanted Learning.


  • We watched Schoolhouse Rock's "Elbow Room" (shown above).


  • We colored a map of the Louisian Purchase.


  • I think I found this part the most interesting - we discussed the Westward Journey series of nickels that the US mint released in 2004-2006. I was able to find 4 of the 5 coins at our house and especially enjoyed the coin that has a replica of the Peace Medal the explorers gave to Native American chiefs. "It shows the hand of a Native American and the hand aof a European-American clasped in a friendly handshake below a crossed pipe and tomahawk." I'd seen these coins before, but hadn't really paid any attention to them or what they meant.


  • Lastly, I still hope to complete this one: Over the past year and a half, Alexandra has earned 3 Junior Ranger badges. Well, you can earn a Lewis and Clark Junior Web Ranger by doing research online (or in a book), filling out this form, and mailing it in! I've printed it out, I just need to set down with Alexandra and do the work now.

Our next stop in history - The Oregon Trail.

2 comments:

  1. Schoolhouse Rock is still one of my favs after all of this time and now my girls love it too! I ordered the complete set from Amazon and do not regret it at all!

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  2. This is so awesome, Dana! And I'm so inspired. This is one area of history that we have really sadly neglected. I'm going to put it on my list of things to explore.
    I really enjoyed watching the schoolhouse rock video. They really take me back to my old cartoon watching days.....LOL!
    It all sounds like a wonderfully planned out study. I'll be curious to read about it more in the next coming weeks.

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