Highlight of the School Year

The boys and I (maybe more I than them) have been enjoying a rockin' fun unit study on national parks.  We spent five weeks on it while we paused our regular science curriculum to wait for bugs and worms to make themselves findable.

We started off with a history of the national parks system and the radical idea of having places in our country that belong to everyone and are protected in their (mostly) natural state for generations to enjoy.  That sounds so normal to us now.  I know I take for granted that the Grand Canyon, the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde, and the California Redwoods will be around when I want to see them.  But in many countries, people buy up the most scenic and impressive places and make homes or shopping malls out of them.  The US was the first country to preserve uniquely beautiful places for the public delight, and dozens of countries have since followed suit.

Then we spent a week each on four different parks, each of which lent themselves so well to other interesting studies.  Glacier National Park has lots of fascinating history, but along with the park itself, we learned about ecosystems and habitats.  When we studied North Cascades National Park, we also spent a day learning about (and building!) dams, since Ross Lake, a favorite camping spot in that area, is formed by a dam.  In studying Theodore Roosevelt National Park, we tied in lots of interesting information about Teddy Roosevelt himself and conservation, since that was a passion of his life and presidency.  

Turning celery red and blue illustrated the effects of ground pollution on plants -- part of the conservation study.

And finally we wrapped up with a week on Wind Cave National Park, learning about caves in general, and taking a field trip to Wind Cave in South Dakota.

Wade and Isaac held up Isaac's shirt in front of the cave opening to show the intensity of the wind blowing out.  It was almost 20 mph that day, but has been clocked at up to 70 mph!

This incredible formation found almost exclusively in Wind Cave is called boxwork.

I am so taken with the beauty, the nature, the philosophy of a national parks system.  I'd love to spend a whole year or two and actually cover all 58 parks plus some national monuments, forests, seashores and landmarks (although I'd definitely want to find an actual curriculum for that, rather than building my own every week!).  Maybe someday I'll actually create that curriculum... for my grandkids.