Prairie Class and Easter Eggs

The weekend was so busy that we colored our Easter Eggs the day after Easter. Patrick, who is almost 13, bailed on the project. Sniff. Babies growing up-God I hate that. He didn't do the Easter Egg Hunt at my sister in law's house either.

Tae and Morgan had a good time coloring the eggs though.

My happy kid.

Color blending.

Pretty eggs.

Today was the kids first day of Prairie Class. One of our homeschooling moms taught the class at the Warwick Library. She did an awesome job.

They discussed geography and life on the prairie.

Each of the kids received a folder and a new prairie name. Tae was named Daniel and Morgan can't remember her name.

The kids got some really awesome handouts and talked about how folks on the Prairie would live. There was discussion about the Oregon Trail and the

Early Pioneers and Transcontinental Railroad.

These aren't brownies, they are salt dough bricks.

The kids used these to make their sod house replicas.

Paying close attention to figure out the pattern.

Sod Brick house construction.

Finding just the right pattern to make it work.

How many bricks do I need?

The roof goes on.

Ta-da!

Perhaps it's a lean-to.

The kids also learned what chores were like for Prairie kids. Kids were responsible for twisting the grass into tight ropes. These would have been used to burn in the fireplace since no wood was available and winters were very cold. The kids took home patterns to make bonnets, church dolls, and tin can musical instruments.

They also got a pie tin to make a decorative prairie design on.

Then came the butter making. Each child had heavy cream and shook and shook the container until the butter formed.

Delicious butter. We'll take this home and add a little salt.

Morgan tried some yummy biscuits with homemade butter and a little smucker's jelly to sweeten it just a bit.

Tae went back for seconds. He wanted to know who had the job of shaking all the butter at the grocery store because "his arms must get awfully tired making all that butter."

One more class next week. Can't wait to see what Tina has in store.