{photo by Brenda Tebbets}
It’s Labor Day, and there are no classes on campus today or tomorrow, so enjoy the small break and consider doing an enrichment activity or two for E&E hours. Each student needs 12 hours of Enrichment and Educational activities per trimester, and these can be met through field trips, museums, exploring a topic of interest, viewing documentaries or historical movies, and other educational activities. SLOCA Enrichment or Academy classes count too.
Speaking of field trips, today we bring you a Magical Moment from the Tebbets family all about their summer trip to California's gold country. Eric and Brenda Tebbets are a Track B family in their 6th year at SLOCA, with children Tristan (Int) and Jacob (LMS). Brenda writes:
Eureka!
One of my favorite moments are those times when I see something around us and use that moment to quiz my children to see if they can recall what they have learned at school. Recently, we just visited the Angels Camp Museum in Tuolomne County. My main reason for stopping there was to see the Mark Twain display. I really did not know what else to expect on our visit there. They had an impressive collection of carraiges from the 1800's. Everything from a hearse, fire wagon, stagecoach, a covered wagon and many others.
One of my favorite displays were the 2 printing presses they have. I quickly asked my boys, “who invented the printing press?” I'm sure we impressed Jim, the staff member, when my son could answer the question – Johann Gutenberg. He then gave my boys a private lesson on how the presses worked. After that, while the boys explored the mining section of the museum, Jim showed my husband and I the display on how the Stamp Mills worked for mining the gold out of the mountains. It was really cool just to see the display in motion, and even with all the Gold Rush episodes I have seen, Jim's explanation of how each step worked made it all the more interesting. After that, Jim taught our family the technique for panning for gold. Another great moment was when he used the word Eureka and asked if we knew what it meant. My son quickly answered, “I found it, and it was Archimedes who said it.” Again, I think we took Jim by surprise that a 10 year old knew this answer.
Although we stopped at this museum just to bring to life Mark Twain, which we had covered in school the year before last, we were able to tie 3 of the 4 time periods we study at SLOCA, the Ancients – Archimedes, Renaissance – Johann Gutenberg, and Modern Times – Mark Twain. I am always impressed with education that my children receive at SLOCA, but it is moments like these that remind me that all that hard work is priceless.
Thanks for sharing, Brenda! We love hearing about how history comes to life for our families, and how our students make connections and appreciate experiences like this!
If you have a Magical Moment to share on the blog, we would LOVE to hear it! It can be something from a trip like this, or a homeschool victory, or any special moment for you or your kids that reminds you why you have chosen to educate this way. Please email Down Home and tell us about it!
Also, if you took photos on the first day of school, we would love to share some of those on the blog as well! Please upload them to flickr (email Down Home for instructions if you need them) or email them straight to the blog coordinator – thank you! We are always looking for photos of school events and homeschool days, so keep the photos coming!
