Friday
Feb242012
Collage Friday - Field Trip!
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 5:00AM 
This week has been one of preparing for Lent, spending a lot of time with math, getting to know about several Presidents, and also taking a special field trip. Most of our reading centered around Presidents. We read a biography of John F. Kennedy and also one of George Washington. We still have Lincoln's to finish next week. The "Who Was..... ?" series is my Favorite Resource This Week! (I found them on sale at Sam's Club - 2 for $5!)
Most of the local school children are on "winter break", which means it's a perfect time for us to be doing school! We will take a two week break at the end of March, so we are going full steam ahead right now. This time of the year is typically hard, and this year is no exception. Our homeschool is busy, my husband's job is exceedingly busy, and it seems as if everyone is overwhelmed. I am trying to say NO a lot and make plenty of time for play and rest.
I had a Mission of Motherhood bookclub meeting this week, too - this group of homeschool moms has been such an encouragement to me. I feel blessed beyond measure to live in an area where there is such support for homeschooling. It's very nice to spend a couple of hours with like minded moms, talking about training our children for Christ.
I have to thank Nicole, from Journey to Excellence, for blogging about Pic Collage - an app for iPad that makes creating collages a SNAP! (IT'S FREE!) I made three fun collages today in about 15 minutes. So, if you're an iPad user this is a good way to join Collage Friday. If not, using PhotoBucket still works wonders.
Does anyone have any other ways to make collages I don't know about?
Now for the collages... I had fun making them this week! I chose to just highlight our field trip to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Little White House, since it was by far our FAVORITE activity this week!
The weather was 75 and sunny (it's February!!) and we were basically the only people at The Little White House. This allowed us a lot of time to talk with the tour guides and hear interesting stories. Most of these people have lived near Warm Springs their entire lives and have great stories to tell.
The Little White House (in Warm Springs, GA - about an hour from where we live) is truly "little". What made this trip special was hearing from Granddaddy (my husband's father) before we left. He told the children about how he remembers seeing FDR (my father-in-law was born in 1933) driving his car and stopping to talk with people. Granddaddy grew up in rural Alabama, not far from the Little White House. What a neat memory.
After touring The Little White House and the museum we could just about picture what my father-in-law had seen. I was so impressed with what a "people's President" FDR was and his sympathy and concern for the poor of this country. Several exhibits focused on The New Deal and his innovations for a country pulling out of the Great Depression.
His love of children (especially children stricken by Polio) was quite obvious, too. We also saw footage of him playing water polo in the pool at Warm Springs with many children - we heard he loved the children there and many of them didn't even realize he was the President of the United States!
The museum before you visit the house is very interesting:
1. GMan posing outside the museum
2. FDR's favorite car - we also got to see how the car had been specially designed (by FDR himself) with hand controls.
3. Lots of information about FDR's life in Georgia - as America was trying to pull itself out of the Depression, FDR being in Georgia put him in touch with common Americans. He was shocked at the lack of education, training, and money.
4. The timeline as you enter the museum is well done and informative. Since Miss B is taking a President's class at our co-op she was very interested in this.
5. You could feel the WARM springs temperature (on the left) and the normal springs temperature (on the right). FDR found much relief in the warm springs here in Georgia. There is still an extensive therapy/rehab center in Warm Springs today.
6. Simulating "Fireside Chats" - how cool is that?
7. The children counted the canes FDR received as gifts over the years - over 100 in all. They were all hand carved and beautiful examples of American folk art. This was my favorite part of the day.
The Flag Walk was also very interesting. I hope you can see that there were 50 flags on this path. For each state there was a sampling of stone from that state, along with a plaque containing the state emblem and date of statehood.
This was just PERFECT for our 50 states study. The kids were so excited to go from state to state and recognize shapes, mottos, and feel the stones. I think Hawaii (the upper right - volcanic ash) was their favorite.
I want to close with two pictures that have a lot of meaning for us. The first is from the very end of the tour... this man, so obviously distraught after FDR's passing, made an impression on us. As we stood looking at this photo, my sweet G put his arm around me and told me his "eyes felt wet".
The second is the unfinished portrait of FDR. He had a stroke at The Little White House while he was sitting for a portrait... he died that same day and the portrait was packed away and never finished. I think it's amazing. Miss B said this was her favorite thing of the day.
How was your week? I'd love for you to leave a comment and/or link a collage. Reading these collages over the weekend gives me so many ideas for our homeschool. Please be sure to grab the button from my sidebar and use it somewhere in your post or on your blog. Also - visit some other blogs in the linky and leave them a comment!
*** I have updated the button code for Collage Friday so that it now points to my Collage Friday page on the top menu. Please grab the new button code if you'd like!! ***
*** I have updated the button code for Collage Friday so that it now points to my Collage Friday page on the top menu. Please grab the new button code if you'd like!! ***
Have a wonderful weekend!
Reader Comments (17)
Wow, what a great week! Love those times when all parts of our homeschool dovetail. We didn't do much of anything this year for President's Day as we were just coming home from vacation. We really need to do a field trip soon, its been a while since we have taken one. Have a great weekend!
Wow! A lot of stuff I would like to learn. I think that would be a great museum to visit. We will be relatively close when we move to VA. It's a whole lot closer than Poland! :-)
Mary, it looks like a fantastic week! So many things here to comment about :)
First, thanks for linking up! We've read several books in that series that we've gotten from the library, and we own several others.
Your field trip looks so great! I will be coming back with the girls to show them these photos because we are making it a point to learn more about FDR due to his ties with The Waltons series.
As far as collages go, Picasa is another way to make collages. I use either Photobucket to create one online, or I use Picasa on my own computer then I upload the collage to Blogger.
I hope you enjoy your weekend!!
What a terrific week -- I loved reading about your field trip and history studies. I am fascinated by the fact that FDR's time in Georgia helped him understand the struggles of "ordinary" Americans and people living in poverty. I better understand what shaped the New Deal.
What a wonderful fieldtrip!! Great pictures too :)
Another awesome week! So glad you enjoyed PicCollage. I'll be working on mine today. But I had my wisdom teeth taken out yesterday, so I am feeling a little out of it.
What a wonderful field trip and a wonderful week in general!
That is indeed a special spot here in Georgia! What a fabulous way to learn so much about what you are studying - plus the special phone call prior to going. So sorry to hear you are sick - we have had a rough week of sickness around here too. You are smart, smart to say no and make plenty of time for rest. Wonderful week! Thanks for hosting collage Friday.
Hope you will consider posting on the Home school field trip monthly hop found here http://lifesadventures-amb-fieldtriphop.blogspot.com/
Thanks for linking up to FTF....collage friday, huh? I'm gonna have to think about joining in on that one!! :)
Dh and I have been to The Little White House back in our pre-children years, but we definitely want to take our kiddos back there. We also sent to the baths at Warm Springs on our trip. What an interesting place to visit!
This is one of those places I would love to take the girls, but one I might not have ever known about if you hadn't shared! Thank you:) Adding to the list of places we must visit! Love the collage
sadly no ipad- I never make collages but I may give it a whirl!
I loved learning about the Little White House. I also loved hearing about your father-in-law's story--I love FDR!
Awesome field trip I am pinning that to my field trip board. I didn't know about that place until now. Those books sound awesome what a great find.
I don't know how we managed to leave Atlanta before visiting The Little White House Museum. It looks like it would have been such a great trip. Thanks for the info.
So much fun! Just love homeschooling dont you!