Felted Rocks

We are still enjoying, very slowly, our journey through A Pioneer Sampler: The Daily Life of a Pioneer Family in 1840 - this has been a GREAT book to read together. Taking our time has been really enjoyable as we can learn about items on a bit deeper level, enjoy some special projects and let it all soak in.

Today we finished rereading the section on harvesting wool and the uses for it. I have a plan to do a larger felting project for Holly but to start I decided to do a felted rock project. Felting rocks is super simple, fun and leaves you with a sweet little decorative rock to display. A small treasure!

First we chose a smooth river rock. Then Holly chose from our assortment of wool (Thank You to a friend of Bryan's who bought this for us to use, so very sweet!!!!). She broke off a few small chunks. We got a bowl of very warm, soapy water. Taking the rock you wrap it in your first wool choice, dip in the warm water and start forming it around the rock. You add layers as you work with it, making sure to agitate it so the wool fibers all grab and slowly form a solid piece. Keep adding wool and working it in the water, rolling it in your hands, lightly rubbing, rinsing and repeating. Once we had the desired look we then squeezed the water out the best we could, then in a small towel and let them to dry. 

They turned out great and were a lot of fun to do!!! Now she has a better understanding of what the final wool product can and will do... soon we will be starting a bigger project!

Brown Sugar Candy

Thursday Holly made Brown Sugar Candy for part of her unit study on the pioneer life. First we read up on maple sugaring from the Pioneer Sampler. We read a story on the families work to get sap from their sugar bush right off of their farm. The story added wonderful elements of working in the woods, the hard labor that is required and an exciting encounter with a lynx... so exciting! This section discussed how they pull sap and then boil it down for syrup and sugars. I love how it shared on how much the workload is.

We also watched a short clip on how to tap a maple tree for sap. This was a short and sweet video on a modern farm.

The best part of our lesson was making Brown Sugar Candy. Holly did all of the work, pulling ingredients, measuring, working on the stove top under close supervision and taking the time frame measurements. The only portion I helped with was pouring the hot candy from the pot to the buttered pan. This was an easy candy to make for sure! We did make one adjustment. The recipe had called for a dark syrup - I was going to use molasses as a substitute but at the last minute I had Holly use normal syrup... and I am glad I did. I think it better represent the maple flavor we had just learned about.

The candy turned out perfect and is quiet good!!

Log Cabin

We read the first section of a Pioneer Sampler and Holly was just entranced by it. When were done she asked to keep going - a great sign that this will be a really fun unit study!

After reading and having a nice discussion I set her up with Lincoln Logs to recreate her own log cabin. This was a fun task, hard to keep Hudson busy... but worth it. As she built she had to work at it a bit to get the right system down with her Lincoln Logs - she would build to high on one side and then disassemble part of it to get a different row started. It was a great little learning lesson for her.

She was proud of her log cabin when it was finished.

Pioneer Study & Fort Nisqually

We are officially started on our Pioneer Study. The book we are reading through is called A Pioneer Sampler by Barbara Greenwood. This book follows a fictional family through the daily life of a family in 1840. We have several fun projects planned for this unit... some I am really looking forward to!

To kind of kick it off we decided to visit Fort Nisqually (during the Smithsonian's Museum Day - free tickets), a replica of a fort during the pioneer era, ran by the Hudson Bay Company. The fort we visited is not actually located in the same area as the original however it was a great treat for Holly to see some artifacts, learn about some ways of life and get a feel for the era we are about to embark on.

She really had little idea of what to expect. We have not discussed this era too much so it was an eye opener for her to see their homes, how little they owned, the way they had to travel to buy goods, trap/hunt their food, etc. She enjoyed learning about it and is looking forward to learning a lot more. This is a link to Fort Nisqually.