Our Charleston Adventure

I found that there is a tour offered in Charleston for kids based on this book, Joseph's Charleston Adventure. I was able to find the book at the library. We decided to just do it ourselves so that we could take our time. In the back of the book, there is a description of each of the places.

The book is about a little boy who helps a lost dog find his way back home. Along the way, they pass by many famous places in Charleston, SC. Some of them were places we had wanted to see, but hadn't gotten to yet. We took the same path as the boy in the book.

Kids with the book and ready to start their adventure.



 White Point Gardens (most people call it the Battery): overlooks Charleston Harbor; cannons from the Civil War



cannonballs stacked like pyramids



 High Battery Seawall



 The house behind the kids has a piazza, which is a porch located on the side of the house to avoid the sun.



 Rainbow Row: most of these colorful houses on East Bay St. are connected; they were built in the early 1700s for merchants, with stores on the first floor and living quarters on the top.



Old Exchange Building: has a dungeon; George Washington danced in the Great Hall



In the book, there is a man standing about where the kids are that is dressed in clothing that was worn during the American Revolution. The guy was there as we went down the street on our way to the Battery, but he was gone when we came back to take the pictures. We had to go inside to find him.



 St. Michael's Episcopal Church: oldest surviving church building in Charleston. It's located at an intersection called the Four Corners of Law, referring to the four types of law on each corner: city, state, federal, and God's law. 



 Washington Park: located next to City Hall

It's hard to see, but on the left side of the picture, the kids are standing next to a fountain that the boy in the book drank from.



Of course, they all had to have a drink too.



This monument in the park was designed by the same person who designed the Washington Monument.



Behind the kids is Chalmers St., which is paved with cobblestones. Cobblestones were brought from Europe in ships to weight down the bottoms when they were not carrying cargo.



 The PInk House: one of the oldest buildings in Charleston; painted pink since the early 1600s



 Dock Street Theatre: located on the site of one of the first playhouses in America



 St. Philip's Episcopal Church: oldest church congregation in the Southeast

Colin was disappointed that he couldn't go up into the steeple like the boy in the book, but we did get to go inside the church and look around.



 Old City Market: open-air market where things have been sold for over 200 years



 If you look to the right side of the above picture closely, you can see a lady making a sweetgrass basket. These were first made by slaves who came from Africa and are woven from bulrush, palmetto fronds, pine needles, and sweetgrass. You find these being sold in several places in Charleston and Mount Pleasant.

In Mount Pleasant, there are many places just like this set up alongside the road to sell the baskets.





It wasn't in the book, but we went to Waterfront Park. It was cold last time we were there so this was the first time they got to get into the fountain.

Charles Towne Landing

Charles Towne was the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Carolinas. They landed in 1670. There is a museum to show more about what life would have been like during that time.



 They have animals that lived in SC when Europeans settled here in 1670. We were able to see lots of different birds, turkeys, vultures, bear, deer, elk, bison, otters, etc.



 







 

A reproduction of a 17th century trading ship.



 

 On the other side of the water behind the girls is an alligator. We saw two alligators during our visit.



We spent a lot of time walking along the trails looking at all the flowers and trees.

Easter

The Easter bunny came!



Chad heard Colin sneaking down the steps at 6:30 a.m. He sent him back to bed only to go up and find that he went to the girls' room and turned on the TV waking the girls. Got that off and everyone went back to sleep for a little while. That boy gets so excited about holidays. I bet he'll be the one waking up his kids on holiday mornings.









I'm pretty sure the girls chose their dresses because they came with matching ones for their dolls.



EGG HUNT

Molly got a little head start and took off running.

Easter Activities

 Here are some of the fun activities we did for Easter. 

The kids painted these wooden crosses I got from the Dollar Tree. I bought them last year, but we didn't get a chance to do it then.





They decorated a bunny cake.



Coloring eggs.





Resurrection Rolls

To make these the kids dipped a marshmallow into melted butter and then rolled it in a sugar/cinnamon mixture. Then they laid the marshmallow on a cresent roll and rolled it up making sure there were no openings.





The marshmallow represents the body of Jesus. The butter, cinnamon, and sugar are for oils and spices that bodies would have been annointed with before burying.  The crescent roll represents the tomb. After you bake them, the marshmallow (body of Christ) is no longer there.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit & Beatrix Potter

We all enjoyed our time with Peter Rabbit last week. I found some Peter Rabbit coloring books and sticker/book sets in the dollar section at Target. The kids made their own books using the stickers. We spent some time learning more about Beatrix Potter too. We watched the movie, Miss Potter. We read several of her books and a few books about her life. Caleigh especially liked The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck because she has a little stuffed animal of her. She saw it when we were at Disney World in the England section of EPCOT and just had to have it. We also read and learned more about England and gardens.

I found a DVD at the library with many of the Beatrix Potter tales and the kids really liked those.

Notebook stuff: what is a fortnight, things that grow in Mr. McGregor's garden, how you can tell the story is an animal fantasy, where is England, and what I know about Beatrix Potter. You can also see the rabbit stuff from last week included here.

Pirate Unit Study- Part 3

Oops! I just realized I left this in my draft folder waiting to upload the pictures.

Here are the notebook pages from our pirate study:

Inside the top book titled pirates are pages for clothing, weapons, ships, and sayings. On the bottom left is a holder for the treasure map the kids made. Pirate speak has pirate words that the kids lifted to write what each means underneath. On the right, they matched the pirate gear to the picture of the pirate.

  

On the top left, they labeled the seas. On the bottom, they wrote the definition of an island and drew their own jolly roger. On the right, they put the directions on the compass and wrote what they learned about parrots.