What We Did Over Summer Vacation - Part 4

Also in August, we visited Lake County History Center for a pioneer day field trip.  We got to learn about life in pioneer times by performing some hands-on tasks such as doing chores in a log cabin, making johnny cakes over the fire, hand-dipping candles, and participating in lessons in a one-room schoolhouse.  It was great fun and you could really see the information being absorbed and "clicking" in the kids' heads.  I overheard Monkey saying to another boy in our group when we were in the log cabin, "This sure would be a neat life," and Bug still occasionally says "yes ma'am" to me, many weeks later, after being taught that's the proper way that children speak to adults in the schoolhouse that day.

Hand-dipping candles

Blacksmith

The little boys (including Bug) were sent out to fetch wood, with one big boy in charge.  Monkey's group was sent to bring back buckets of water.

She was really entertaining.  She taught us about pioneer life and showed us how to grind corn and make johnny cakes over the fire, which was a daily breakfast staple.

 

The teacher, calling the children in to school.

Leading everyone in a "blab" lesson.

Monkey doing his lesson on his slate.  Notice the woodstove in front of him - the teacher discussed how that kept everyone warm in winter and required work from both teacher and students to keep it going.

What We Did Over Summer Vacation - Part 3

Also in August, we made our first visit to the Cleveland Botanical Garden.  I had been a little hesitant to go because I didn't know if the boys would be that interested, but we all thoroughly enjoyed the trip and spent a good 4+ hours exploring the place.  Highlights were the butterfly enclosure and the children's garden - especially the splash pad.  What motivated me to go, though, was that I had heard good things about the temporary Lego sculpture exhibit and I wanted to see it before it ended.  They were placed all around the gardens and it was fun to come across them as we wandered.
 

Let me back up a second - our spring/summer To-Do List

In May or June, we wrote a To-Do list together of all the stuff we wanted to do over the next few months.  It was taped to one of our kitchen cabinets all summer.  Here it is:

If you can't read it, here's the list (with completed items crossed off):
Visit Great Lakes Science Center
Visit Pump-It-Up
Visit Sky Max
Sleep Outside / Camp Out
Complete Spring Hiking Spree
Visit a Lake Erie Beach
Go Fishing
Get a RV
Go Running
Go to Yankee Peddler
See Hot Air Balloons
Go to the Pet Store
Watch Chickens Do Chicken Stuff
Cleveland Zoo
MAPS Museum
Hale Farm
Go to Brandywine Falls
Akron Zoo
Cleveland Botanical Gardens (before Aug 24)
Blossom Concerts
Bike Ride
Stan Hywet

All in all, not a bad summer!  So the recent collection of posts are highlights of things from this list - there are more to come, but I only wrote posts about things we haven't done before, or at least, things I haven't posted about before.  There are 3 or 4 more posts ready to go.  A note on the items that did not get crossed off of the list:  some will get moved onto our fall To-Do list.  "Get an RV" will get bumped indefinitely - Monkey wrote that because he knows we really want to get one and travel, although it's not going to be in the budget anytime soon.  He also wrote "Go running" and I'm not exactly sure what he meant by that... the boys run around like maniacs all the time so I could have crossed it off I suppose.  He may have just meant to go running errands.  I don't think he meant to go running, in a purposeful, athletic way... because that's just not happening.  Not my thing.  Shooting off on a tangent though, that reminds me of a conversation I need to record for posterity: Bug challenged his big brother to a race when we were hiking a couple weeks ago - he said, "First one to the bottom of this hill is a FRESH EGG!"  I love his way of looking at things.