The Next Road-Trip is...

...to Washington, DC and New York!

With the summer heat-wave still persisting, we decided to skip the four corners region in September and head instead to the east coast for our next road trip.

The decision came partly because of this year's history and social studies focus - American History & Government. While we homeschool using a classical model, we're going to focus on American history this year rather than pre-modern times worldwide. Next year we'll combine Story of the World 3 & 4 into one year, so that in fifth grade we'll return to the next cycle in Ancient History. The east coast is also home to many friends and family, so we'll have an opportunity to visit with them too!

Planning is underway, with our route there going through Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia to stop and explore historic sites. We'll spend a week in Washington, DC then head up to New York, returning after a stay there through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.

What should we see? Please leave comments!

Taking a Day Trip for History

One of the great things about homeschooling is that we're able to integrate lots of local attractions and programs into our lesson plans. Visits to museums, nature centers and other places provides a rounding to our curriculum and allows our children to experience more than a textbook presentation of information. While mid-Missouri has many, many great options, sometimes going to a great program requires a trip in the car!

The Missouri History Museum (MHM), in St. Louis, has an incredible history program for homeschoolers and they recently released their calendar for the upcoming school year. If you haven't had a chance to review the program, check their website.

Each month the MHM hosts a Homeschool Days program. The line-up this year includes:

• Homeschool Days - America I Am (Registration Required)
  Monday, September 19 2011 at 10:00 am
• Homeschool Days - Numbers and Notes (Registration Required)
  Wednesday, October 26 2011 at 10:00 am
• Homeschool Days - The Civil War in Missouri (Registration Required)
  Monday, November 21 2011 at 10:00 am
• Homeschool Days - Winter Wonderland (Registration Required)
  Monday, December 12 2011 at 10:00 am
• Homeschool Days - Bon Voyage, Lindbergh! (Registration Required)
  Monday, January 30 2012 at 10:00 am
• Homeschool Days - Mammoths & Mastodons (Registration Required)
  Monday, February 20 2012 at 10:00 am
• Homeschool Days - Community and Conflict (Registration Required)
  Wednesday, March 7 2012 at 10:00 am
• Homeschool Days - Movement in Black and White (Registration Required)
  Monday, April 16 2012 at 10:00 am
• Homeschool Days - Celebrating Missouri (Registration Required)
  Monday, May 7 2012 at 10:00 am

The programs are designed for homeschoolers and multiple age children. The above days are on our calendar above, but be sure to REGISTER if you plan to attend as registration is required!

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

If you have a child interested in the Paleolithic-era, the Ragtime Cinema has a movie for you! Cave of Forgotten Dreams opens on Friday, July 15, 2011 at the Ragtime and is about the Chauvet Cave in southern France. The film premiered at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival and consists of footage filmed inside the cave as well as interviews with various scientists and historians. The film also includes footage of the nearby Pont d'Arc natural bridge.

The Ragtime website says:

In 1994, the archaeologist Jean-Marie Chauvet discovered the earliest known visions of mankind: a stunning collection of over 300 Paleolithic-era works of cave art hidden in Southern France. Many writers and photographers have since attempted to gain access to the famous Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc cave, but because of fear that overexposure — even contact with human breath — would damage the incredible discovery, none were let in. That is, until legendary auteur Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man, Fitzcarraldo, Encounters at the End of the World, et al.) asked. Naturally. Using lights that emitted no heat, Herzog created The Cave of Forgotten Dreams, a fascinating, as well as breathtaking, experience that has earned raves from many critics. "A typically quixotic documentary in which great unknown artists from 35,000 years ago collaborate with one in 2011. Profound, mysterious and utterly absorbing." (Adam Smith, Empire)

For more information and showtimes: Ragtime Cinema

Columbia Missouri - 2011 Staycation!

A staycation can be a great way to build memories and do some stealth learning over the summer months for homeschoolers. Often, where you live is rich with resources that are easily forgotten because, well, they're always here. This summer, consider there are likely several treasures that you have either not had the time to go to or attend, have overlooked, or frankly never even heard of before. So embrace the Columbia Staycation and check out what's in our area:

If your family is into History:

Boone Junction Village in Nifong Park
3801 Ponderosa Street, Columbia, MO

In the summer months, visitors can see a furnished pioneer log cabin and a restored Easley Country Store complete with everything the 1920s family would need. Visitors can also enjoy the art and main museums. Docent guided tours showcase three historic Boone county properties -- Maplewood house (1877), the Gordon-Collins cabin (ca. 1821), and the Easley country store (ca. 1890). Tours do involve walking but all facilities are handicap accessible (except the second story of Maplewood).
Admission is: $4 for adults, $2 for children 12 and under.

Jewell Cemetery State Historic Site
Carter Lane & S. Providence, Columbia MO

Jewell Cemetery State Historic Site, Columbia, contains the grave of Missouri's 22nd governor (1875-1877), Charles Hardin, along with descendents of George Jewell. Burial site of former slaves is also preserved and protected here. The most well known member of the Jewell family buried in the cemetery, William Jewell, died while establishing a college in Liberty, Mo. that bears his name. Located on the west side of South Providence Road, one-half block north of Green Meadows Rd.
Cost: Free

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial at Battle Garden
800 S. Stadium Boulevard, Columbia MO

These landscaped gardens with walkways & benches provide a quiet setting for individuals or a place to hold cultural events. The writings of Dr. King are displayed as part of a sculptured amphitheater with eight triangular upright columns. Located next to the MKT Trail, the Garden is free and open to the public and has ample parking.
Cost: Free

MU Museum of Art & Archeology
109 Pickard Hall, UMC, Columbia, MO

A comprehensive collection representative of all periods from Paleolithic to present and from six continents. Offers programs for all ages.
Hours: Tuesday -Friday 9:00 am - 4:00 pm; Thursdays open until 8pm; Saturday and Sunday Noon - 4:00 pm; Closed on Holidays.
Admission is free

State Historical Society of Missouri
1020 Lowry (corner of Hitt Street and Lowry Mall), Columbia, MO

Collections of genealogical material and historical manuscripts, including journals, diaries and photographs as well as reference and newspaper libraries. Thomas Hart Benton and George Caleb Bingham paintings on permanent display. Special programs and group tours offered for all age groups.
Hours are 8:00-4:45, Monday-Friday; 8:00-3:30, Saturday. Closed on holidays.
Cost: Free

Walters-Boone County Historical Museum
3801 Ponderosa Street, Columbia, MO

The Walters-Boone County Historical Museum and Visitors Center, dedicated in August 1990, is reminiscent of a traditional wood-hewn family farmhouse with its weathered boards and broad porches. Boone County's heritage, its history of banking, farming, insurance and medicine, and its role in education as the home of the University of Missouri, all have a place in the museum. Within its 16,000 square feet of floor space, exhibits tell the story of westward expansion along the Boonslick Trace, and enshrine the memory of the pioneers who settled in the heart of Missouri.

If your family is into Science:

Columbia Audubon Society Trailside Museum
Entrance to MKT Trail off Stadium

Located on the west side of the entrance to the parking lot for the MKT Trail and Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial off Stadium. Open on Saturday mornings and Tuesday evenings. Features a bird room which includes nests, an egg collection that dates to pre-World War 1, and a wide variety of avian artifacts. The museum also features a geology exhibit with mammal skulls, butterflies, insects and a cross-section of a 160-year-old tree trunk. There are nest boxes, feeding stations, educational games aimed at pre-teens, a library of bird books, Audubon identification videos for all ages and a folio of James Audubon's work.
Cost: Free

Entomology Museum
1-31 Agriculture Building, Corner of Rollins and Hitt St., Columbia, MO

The Museum currently holds approximately 6 million specimens of insects, arachnids, and fossils and is particularly strong in its holdings of aquatic insects of Ozark streams, as well as the pinned collection of Hemiptera, Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, and slide-mounted Acarina. The Museum is of national and international importance because it is the primary source of insect and arachnid specimens representative of the Ozark Plateau, an area of biogeographic and systematic significance due in part to its high level of endemism.
Hours: 8:30 to 5:00, Monday through Friday.
Cost: Free

Geology Exhibits (Fossils)
Geological Sciences Building, University of Missouri

Collecting rocks, minerals and fossils is fun for all ages. To see what MU's geologists have discovered through the years, head to the Geological Sciences Building, where you'll find such treasures as dinosaur footprints, mastodon and mammoth teeth, freshwater-fish fossils, insects in amber, petrified wood, quartz, crystals, coral, jade, geodes, cave stalagmites and a cast of the largest clam you've ever seen. Don't miss the fossil of a Jurassic Age marine reptile in the east staircase to the second floor. Be sure to check the seismograph in the lobby of the main entrance for a look at global earthquake activity in real time. Visit on your own, or phone ahead for a tour with a graduate student.
Showcase locations: first floor and lower level
Hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (4 p.m. summers)
Admission: free

Herbarium
University of Missouri, Columbia, MO

The University of Missouri Dunn-Palmer Herbarium is located at the Museum Support Center on the University of Missouri's main campus in Columbia, Missouri. The Herbarium was founded in 1856, making it the oldest public institutional herbarium west of the Mississippi River.
Cost: Free

Reptile Display
202 Stewart Hall, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO

Snakes alive! Kids, families and other brave souls are invited to a weekly food fest with Missouri's species of native snakes and amphibians. Only the creatures will be eating, however, when dinner is served. Menu choices typically offered to the eager eaters are mice, goldfish, worms, crickets and crayfish. As an educational experience, the exhibit identifies the reptiles and amphibians likely to be encountered in Missouri. Twenty species of Missouri's native snakes are displayed, including all of Missouri's venomous snakes — cottonmouths, copperheads and three varieties of rattlesnakes — as well as non-venomous species, such as milk snakes (red and brown), rat snakes, garter snakes, ribbon snakes, green snakes and large constrictors. Among the 10 turtle species displayed are two alligator snapping turtles, examples of North America's largest fresh-water turtles.
Hours are Monday-Friday 9am - 4pm with weekly feeding on Fridays at 9:30am. Admission: free

Laws Observatory
5th Floor of the Physics Building, corner of College & Rollins Columbia, MO

On a clear night, the moons of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn, globular clusters of stars and other wonders are visible through the eyepiece of the telescope and on a viewing screen. Members of the Department of Physics and Astronomy or of the Central Missouri Astronomical Association will guide you through the experience. Visitors to the Physics Building may also check MU's link to the Hubble telescope and watch discoveries as they happen. The NASA astronomy display, which provides computer-screen updates in real time, is located in the lobby. The Laws Observatory is located on the roof of the Physics Building on the University of Missouri-Columbia campus, at the northwest corner of the intersection of Rollins and College Avenues. The Observatory is open on clear Wednesday nights with hours of viewing from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm.

If your family is outdoorsy and into Nature:

Walk-About Acres
6800 N. Kircher Road, Columbia, MO

Walk-About Acres is a working farm featuring locally produced honey and honey products, 3 retail greenhouses with a wide variety of plants including tomato, pepper, bedding plants and Grow Native plants. Walk-About Acres has many animals to see during your visit: peacocks, rabbits, turkeys, llamas, Nubian goats and more. Hours: 9 to 5 Tuesday through Saturday; 1 to 5 on Sunday; Closed on Monday.

Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area
McBaine, MO

6 miles southwest of Columbia, near McBaine, off Route K. This 4,269-acre wetland area provides 10 miles of stream frontage on Eagle Bluffs. These marshes provide year-round habitat for migrating and wintering birds as well as a permanent home for wildlife.
Cost: Free

Rock Bridge Memorial State Park
Highway 163, Columbia, MO

Open year-round, dawn to dusk, this 2273-acre day-use park features a natural rock bridge formation, tours of Devil's Icebox Cave, hiking trails, shelter & picnic areas and the Gans Creek Wild Area.
Cost: Free

Three Creeks Conservation Area
Hwy 63 S, on Deer Park Road, Columbia, MO

Open year-round, 4am-10pm, this 1277-acre conservation area offers hiking, biking and horseback riding trails. Primitive camping, seasonal hunting or gathering of mushrooms, nuts & berries is allowed. Cave exploring with permission!
Cost: Free

Is there more?

Absolutely - but the list above gives you a start to creating an amazing Columbia Staycation this summer!