The Westward HO! Scrapbook

This is a video tour of the scrapbook we made for our Westward HO! unit study. Be sure to pause the playlist before starting the video.



Video created by Rachel and Anna

The Music:

Oh Susanna!
traditional
fiddle: Rachel
guitar: Emily
mandolin: Anna

Buffalo Gals
traditional
fiddle: Anna
guitar: Emily

Brownie Soddy

Today we made a brownie soddy. First, we mixed up two envelopes of brownie mix. We added nuts (rocks) and coconut (grass) and baked them. After they cooled, I cut them into rectangles. Then the kids stacked them to resemble a soddy using some homemade icing for glue. We smeared icing on a piece of cardstock for the roof. Cute, huh?

Yesterday was a very busy day with groceries, errands, fiddle lessons, and haircuts. But there were blessings amongst the busyness. An encouraging phone call from a close friend. The companionship of Abby on my grocery trip. An hour and a half alone in the woods while the kids were in the fiddle teacher's house. A blessing from a sweet friend, who refused to take money for the girls' haircuts. Chocolate kisses (and real ones, too!). And a small cross-stitch project started, after many years away from needlework.




Today is another busy day. But this morning we wanted to have a pioneer breakfast, so Anna and I made Corn Dodgers from the Five in a Row Cookbook. (Just as a side note, the FIAR cookbook is a great cookbook to own even if you don't use Five in a Row.) We picked and dried apples last summer and added some of those to our meal. We had molasses, bacon, and big, fat raisins still on the stems.

Off later to lunch with my hubby, then the family is playing music for a Valentine's banquet tonight.

Rag Rug!

We had fun braiding a rag rug today. We found out it takes a LOT of material for a tiny rug. The pioneer women must have saved rags for a long time just to make one rug, huh?

BTW, my children do own more than one shirt each, in case you've been noticing what they are wearing in the photos lately. It's actually starting to be quite funny.

Only 3 more Travel and Fate cards to read on the Westward Ho! website. Sadly, no more read alouds. 2 more projects, plus finishing our diary and our scrapbook. We're almost to Oregon!

Soda Bread, Anyone?

Earlier in the week, Thomas and Carrie made soda bread after reading about saleratus. It turned out so well, we want to make it more regularly for Sunday morning breakfast.

Southern Soda Bread

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 cups buttermilk
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
4 1/2 Tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together first 5 ingredients in a large bowl. Make a well in center of mixture. Add buttermilk, eggs, and butter, whisking just until thoroughly blended. Batter should almost smooth. Pour batter into 2 lightly greased 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pans.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Rotate pans in oven, and shield with aluminum foil. Bake 30-35 minutes or until a long wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on a wire rack 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife along edges of bread to loosen from pans. Remove from pans to a wire rack, and cool completely. Yield: 2 loaves

Making Yogurt Cheese

Here's a picture of the kids starting their cheese today. We'll post more about it later....

School at Our House

If you are following what we're doing for Westward Ho!:

This week we've traveled all the way across Nebraska. We've learned about Jim Bridger, rattlesnakes, rifles, blacksmiths, Chimney Rock, and Native Americans. Thomas has almost finished reading Flaming Arrows and I've been reading Pioneer Girl by Andrea Warren for our read aloud time.

The book we're using to learn about explorers is Famous Pioneers by Franklin Folsom. It has short chapters and interesting stories.

Tomorrow we're planning to make cheese!

For Abby's FIAR, we've started Daniel's Duck. We're planning to make molasses cookies tomorrow and we're reading The Cabin Faced West. She had fun yesterday holding up a card with quotation marks on it every time there was dialog in the story.

Here's a picture of Thomas making his Chimney Rock minit book.

Busy School Day

Here are a few pictures I'm sharing of the kids making butter.

We are enjoying Westward HO! so much. Today we made butter, did some research about the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails, made several minit books for our scrapbook, researched the Sager family (On to Oregon is based on this real family), and made a timeline.

I'm struck by the courage and perseverance of the pioneers. This is my favorite time period, but I'm not sure I would have had the same endurance. I think we are too soft nowadays.

Oh, My!

It's hard work to get everything done before we pull out for Oregon!

Yesterday we learned about wagons (did you know the pioneers did NOT use Conestoga wagons, but used smaller Prairie Schooners instead??) and taped off an area on the floor to show the size of our wagon. Wow! I wouldn't be able to take my Hoosier cabinet or my antique cedar chest or my cedar wardrobe! And what about all the books???? The kids were amazed at the size, too. We learned a good bit from this site. Thomas has just finished drawing a diagram of a wagon on the front of a minit book.

We're off to the couch to read a chapter in On to Oregon, have Thomas (9) read to me from Flaming Arrows by William O. Steele, and read a short bio about an explorer. Abby (6) thinks this unit study is BIG FUN!

Our First Day of Westward Ho!

Here is a picture of some of the books we're using for WWHO. Today we started reading The Prairie Schooners by Glen Rounds and On to Oregon, which is a fictional account of the Sager family who lost both parents and had to go on to Oregon with only the children, led through the wilderness by the 13-year old son after they lost track of their wagon train.

We got started on our supply lists today and wrote descriptions of our family members. I found some great information here that helped me find a family whose identity we could use. I googled the family I had chosen and found a good bit of information about them, so we're able to "flesh out" our story better.

We are planning to create a scrapbook, so today we started our diary and will include our supply ledger.

It's very cold outside and everyone wants to stay inside, so Tom is running around the house with a wheeled suitcase, pretending it's his covered wagon! Don't you love it when the kids really get into what you're doing?

Oregon or Bust!

Tomorrow we start Westward Ho!, a month-long unit study about The Oregon Trail and westward expansion. We're so excited!

I've spent the last few weeks preparing a map, finding identities for our family to assume while we're on the journey, making daily plans, and gathering books here at home, at the library, and through inter-library loan. We'll be keeping a diary and making minit books for a scrapbook. I'm planning a few hands-on activities, as well.

Load 'em up and head 'em out!!