Lewis And Clark National Historic Trail: Ecola State Park

There is something very otherworldly and endearing about the Oregon coast. I love it so much that our family took a second trip there this year, just a couple of months after our last visit. I always try to soak in as much beauty as possible, and to be expected, as much historical trivia as the kidlets can swallow.

As part of my quest to see every stinkin' Lewis and Clark spot in the U-nited States, we made the trek to Ecola State Park. "Ecola" (ekkoli) is the Chinook word for "whale," which is what Lewis and Clark went to find at this site. They had heard it through the grapevine... that some beached whale coulda been thine... blubber blubber, yeah!

Well, the words "beached whale" and "blubber" are enough to get me on the move too.

So. While wintering at Fort Clatsop, Lewis and Clark hiked a team off in search of the "monstrous fish." Sacagawea had begged to walk along; I assume she needed to see something other than the four walls of the room in her fort. Just guessing! 

Anyway, the team was just in time to see the whale stripped to its bone, with the local villagers "busily engaged boiling the blubber." However, they were still able to barter for 300 pounds of blubber and a few gallons of oil. From the journal of William Clark: 

“Small as this stock is I prise it highly; and thank providence for directing the whale to us; and think him much more kind to us than he was to jonah, having Sent this Monster to be Swallowed by us in Sted of Swallowing of us as jonah’s did.”

A thankful and witty character, that Willy!

We hiked much in the way that Lewis and Clark did, that is if they'd traveled via a classy red minivan. But that didn't stop us from seeing the same views, as Clark described, "the grandest and most pleasing prospects which my eyes ever surveyed, in front of a boundless Ocean.”

I hope you enjoy the pleasing prospects (taken from Indian Beach) as well.

More from the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail: The Salt Works, Cape Disappointment, and Fort Clatsop.

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Lewis And Clark National Historic Trail: Fort Clatsop

For most of my life, "history" has been very inaccessible to me. I pretty much have to see something to believe it, and in case you need the reminder, I ain't been alive for most of what we call, "history."

You see my dilemma.

And seeing as I don't have a time machine and can't rightly go back and watch history in the making, I have to patch together my knowledge via book after boring book after documentary after book.

So. You can imagine my delight when I stumbled upon Fort Clatsop, a piece of history come alive right before my beady green eyes!

Fort Clatsop was the "home" built by the Lewis and Clark team while they wintered near the Pacific coast. The fort housed twenty-seven enlisted men in three separate quarters. Lewis and Clark shared the captains' quarters, and Sacagawea and fam got a room of their own. It is thought that Clark's slave, York, stayed in the orderly room. That means that 31 men, one woman, an infant, and a dog all shared about 250 square feet of space.

Hell-o!

And did I mention that it rained for 94 of the 106 days they were there?

WELCOME TO THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST, GUYS.

They spent the winter making notes, prepping for the trip back east, and losing their ever-loving minds. Why? Let's take a journal sample from our spelling champ, Clark:

December 31, 1805

"Last night was Cloudy and Some rain, this day prove Cloudy and Showerry are day."

January 1, 1806

"This morning proved cloudy with moderate rain, after a pleasent worm night during which there fell but little rain."

January 2, 1806

"A Cloudy rainey morning after a wet night."

January 3, 1806

"The Sun rose fair this morning for the first time for Six weeks past, the Clouds Soon obscure it from our view, and a Shower of rain Suckceeded."

SUCKceeded, indeed!

My family toured Fort Clatsop right at the time we were studying it at home, which made the whole experience eight bazillion times more exciting. Well, for me, at least. And for you, you know! You get the official tour via pictures. You're welcome.

More from the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail: The Salt Works, Cape Disappointment.

Next stop on the Lewis and Clark trail--a beached whale! Or, the site of where one was. You know. One of those.

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Homeschooling With Small Children Around

I've not once schooled my kids without having other small kids around. I started schooling when I had a preschooler and a toddler, and then I eventually added an incredibly busy and talkative baby to that mix. My kids are just now nine, seven, and five--and for the most part, I school only the older two boys while the youngest drives us insane delights us with her presence.

I have to admit, this is one of the hardest parts about homeschooling. It's also one of those things that most families have to deal with at some point or another. I'm going to list off a few tricks I've used through the years--and then allow others to chime in at the end.

Tips For Homeschooling With Small Children Around

1. Use edutainment. Yep. I put that as numero uno. I do my best to play educational DVDs like ones that teach sign language (for babies, too) or immerse my kids in a foreign language. Next after that, I click on the public tv station, and after that, a round of soap operas. Oh, I kid. Anyway, I try to limit this to only when necessary and generally under an hour a day.
   
   
   
2. Have an older child play with the younger child. This works if you have more than two kids and are trying to school one without the "baby" underfoot. My daughter is more social than a bazillion butterflies combined, so I pay my son a dollar for every half-hour he entertains his sister AWAY FROM MY SIGHT. Win all around!
   
   
   
3. Let the younger child "write" alongside her siblings. In the past, I've used everything from crayons, pencils, white boards, color wonder, a magna doodle, and an aqua doodle.
   
   
   
4. Take advantage of nap time(s). I know. This is the worst one yet. And yet, there are some parts of schooling that can't be done unless the wee babe is asleep.
   
   
   
5. Make "school time" for the older kids "craft time" for the younger ones. Ideas for the different age groups include playing with PlayDoh, cutting with scissors, pasting with a glue stick, paint with water, coloring, and decorating with stickers. You'll notice I didn't include markers. Nope. Nooooo markers.
   
   
   
6. Give the kid something to eat. This is a tried-and-true trick for kids of all ages. I often give my youngest child a snack while I'm reading to her brothers. During the week, I eat my lunch while I'm prepping everyone else's (take that, enjoyment police!) and then I read to all three kids while their faces are stuffed full of food. I pick things to read that are applicable to everyone--poetry, science, geography.
   
   
   
7. Pull out the educational toys. The quiet ones, that is. Lacing beads, lacing shapes, blocks, Duplos or Legos, Lincoln logs, wood puzzles, stacking and sorting toys, pattern blocks, and play vegetables. These kinds of things end up on my Christmas wish list every year.
   
   
   
8. Make room for messy play. Nothing enthralls a young child more than a mess. Scooping and pouring out water, making bubbles in water, playing with sand, and using edible finger paint. I used to let my preschool boys dump beans on the carpet and they'd drive their matchbox cars through that for hours. At least it felt like hours. Or maybe that was just the cleanup. But still, they loved getting out that bin of beans.
   
   
   
9. Hold the youngest child on your lap. What baby / toddler / preschooler doesn't love to be held by her mom? (Okay, mine. So she sits beside me. And wiggles and rubs my leg raw.) However, there are days my girl will sit and listen quietly to the journals of Lewis and Clark, and why shouldn't she be allowed to listen if she wants to?
   
   
   
10. Sit on the floor and "play" with the young child while schooling the older. Moms are magnificent at multitasking. There's no reason why you can't stack blocks and dole out spelling words at the same time. The only one who complains is Oma Achin Back. I've also ridden my exercise bike *while* holding a toddler *while* giving out spelling words. See? The options are limitless.

Okay, let's hear from everyone else. How do you keep the little'uns occupied while the big'uns do school?

Disclaimer: No one asked me to promote any of the items linked to above. But if you do click over to amazon and make any purchase, I happen to get a small percentage of the sale. It's how I'm funding my kids' college education. If they choose the public library as their school, that is.

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More tips over at We Are That Family!

Thinking About Homeschooling? Here Are Some Tips.

I'm just about to finish up my fifth year of homeschooling, and I can say with certainty that this choice has been one of the best I've ever made. I wasn't so sure when I started, and there are particular days I'd like to burn from the books--but still. I feel a great sense of contentment in my daily "job."

That being said, anyone starting out on the homeschooling journey always feels overwhelmed. ALWAYS. And it seems that each spring I get a handful of people who wonder if this crazy thing called "homeschooling" could work for them. This is the shortened version of what I tell them.


Ten Tips For Those Thinking About Homeschooling

1. Don't obsess about curriculum. Okay, so some things are better than others, and what works for one kid might not work for another, AND YET. At the end of the day, remember that school used to consist of McGuffey Readers and a chalk slate--AND THAT'S IT. There are no magic bullets no matter how deeply you bury yourself in the internet. Just pick something you think is good and go for it.
   
   
   
2. Find someone similar in personality to you who's a bit further down the homeschooling road. Ask her for advice on curriculum. It helps to talk things over with a human, especially one who approaches the beast in a similar manner as you.
   
   
   
3. Think like a one-room schoolhouse. You'd be amazed how many subjects can be shared across the age groups. For a while, I attempted to teach US history to one child and world history to another. You know how crazy that made me? More crazy than usual. A few weeks into the school year, I ditched that plan and got everyone on board with the same topic. And much like a one-room schoolhouse, I ask my older kids to read to the youngest one, and to lead her through some basic workbook activities. And that is a lovely, lovely thing.
   
   
   
4. Make the library your new best friend. Each child should have his own card, and you should get a teacher card too. You know how many items I can put on hold on my teacher card? A WHOLE HECKOFA LOT. (Bliss!)
   
   
   
5. Build a support network. One or two friends to share the crazy is sufficient. Beyond that, having a larger group to hang out with and do field trips with is ideal.
   
   
   
6. Know why you want to homeschool and write it down. You'll need this for the harder days. And you'll also be asked this question by friends, family, and strangers alike.
   
   
   
7. Determine what homeschooling is going to take the place of. You can't spend a good chunk of time schooling your kids without something else having to go. For me, that thing I don't do is keep an immaculate house. I figure I have the rest of my life to scrub and dust, but only a short time to spend with my kids.
   
   
   
8. Give it two years. It took me that long to get my "school legs." I had no idea what I was doing when I started off, and needed quite a bit of structure and help at first. But then I developed my own opinions (oh, did I!) and my own ways and now the planning and daily execution goes a lot more smoothly. "Daily execution," heh heh heh.
   
   
   
9. Make a plan, but hold it with an open hand. No matter how sparkly the books or how stately the schedule, nothing ever works in real life as well as it does on paper. Prepare to tweak, tweak, and tweak--and even trash something completely if it simply isn't working.
   
   
   
10. Realize that no homeschooling mom is a saint. Not one. We are just as lovingly inadequate as the next gal. If you clash with your child in your parenting, you'll likely clash in your teaching. Realize also that where you adore your child in your parenting, you'll also adore your child in your teaching--and have opportunity to do so more often. This is perhaps my favorite thing of homeschooling.

Well, that's all my shriveled mind could come up with. What would you add to the list?

More tips over at We Are That Family!

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Book It Reading Program For Homeschoolers

I'm reading yet another lighthearted poetry book to the kids these days. I find that we actually enjoy the stuff when we don't have to cut through thirty-eight layers of meaning just to grasp the gist of the poem. Poetry is also a lot better when the subject is food--take for example this small excerpt by David Canzoneri and Bill Martin Jr.:

Let there be pizza on earth, 
And let it be eaten by me,
Let there be pizza on earth,
As far as the eye can see...

I love pizza so much I could write a poem about it myself. That's why when I saw that Pizza Hut has a BOOK IT program for homeschoolers, I signed my kids right up. There's nothing more important than gettin' my pizza fix encouraging kids to read. Besides, the whole thing reminds me of the thrill of filling up my BOOK IT button before my older brother could recite the words "MY SISTER REIGNS SUPREME."

Speaking of supreme, that's always my pizza of choice. Hubs and I like to split a large while the kids each get their own (free!) personal pan.

With the homeschool program, the dictator teacher gets to set the rules herself, determining the number of books or pages or hours the kid has to read (per month) in order to earn his coupon. The program runs for six months, October through March, so each eligible child (grades K-6) can earn up to six free personal pan pizzas a year.

Enrollment starts now and runs through September 1st. It's easy to sign up online, and the packet with a year's worth of coupons arrives via mail early fall.

Does anyone else participate in a reading rewards program?

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