No School Day 6

Day 6 no school

Yes, it's Saturday, but there hasn't been school for a week and perhaps we will take a different day off some time, so "home school" was in session!

Beautiful sunny day, although cold

Social Studies/History. Carissa was supposed to be studying the civil war at regular school this week so we decided to go to Wilson's Creek National Battlefield where a civil war battle was fought. We learned the first Union General was killed in battle there, General Lyon. In our opinion the best way to see the national park is on horseback, you know, how the people and the soldiers back then would have done it! We want to be authentic.
 
We had a lovely ride up until the point of crossing Wilson's Creek, (which for my Utah friends is huge river) Before our ride the park ranger assured us the river crossing was open and the river didn't look too deep. Well, you can't always trust a government official, because as the kids on their horses headed into the river it was up to their saddle pads! Instant lesson in water run off and why we should pack extra socks in the first aid kit we carry. Although wet, the kids made it through fine, Scott and I chose to go a different way and not go swimming today. Probably wouldn't have been bad had it been August when the real battle of the war was fought. But today it was under 50 degrees so not the best weather for swimming. Then we had a great picnic lunch at Confederate General Sterling Price's cabin where the battle of Bloody Hill unfolded many years ago.
 
We enjoyed the new trail riding seat cushions, they worked perfectly (see No school day #3 and #4 for more info)
 
Always more fun to go visit places where history happened than to just read about it in a book! And yes, we practiced social distancing, lots of distancing.
 
Earth Science- noticed that the national park is much better at controlling water run off and erosion on their trails than the state forest is. The national park has man made intermittent flat areas on the trail and areas to direct the water off the trail so it doesn't run straight down and cause complete trail erosion like we experienced at the state forest.
 
Music- as we drove to the battlefield we looked out the window and what did we see? Popcorn popping on the Bradford pear tree. Then we all had to burst into song!
 
Civil Engineering- Kids did have a bit of time to work on building their Minecraft cities. Because of our recent trail rides and encounters with erosion they have decided to remove all dirt roads from their "cities" and replace them with pavement, add drainage ditches to both sided, build a reservoir to handle the run off, add a power plant to light the city and add other rivers to drain off the reservoir when it gets too full so it doesn't flood the campgrounds. Ya that is going to take awhile.