Down, Down the Mountain

We moved on to Down, Down the Mountain for our next Five in a Row book.  Even though they are harder to obtain, I like that the FIAR studies include older books.   I really liked the intrepid and generous natures of the main characters, Hetty and Hank.

For this row we:
~ Planted flower seeds.  K helped me place itty bitty salvia, cosmos, agastache and zinnia seeds in peat pots.  This was a project I was doing anyway, as the last couple years I've been experimenting with growing annuals from seed, as a more economical way to beautify the yard.  It's always fun to watch (..will they or won't they??..) for when the seedlings first pop up out the soil.

~ We constructed a log cabin from Lincoln Logs.  This was a little tricky as our collection is not at all complete.  It consists of a few of the longest sticks and the rest are short.  So our cabin had a lot of windows.  Big windows.  T, of course, was interested in the process, and once we got the cabin put together, he decided there was a highway nearby.  His trucks rumbling past kept inadvertently bumping down weak walls.  Great was the outcry.  I did think it was cute that K dug up Fisher Price furniture to match the description of the cabin's interior in the book.

~ For a drama lesson we went outside and K demonstrated the action words from the part of the story where Hetty and Hank go back to the general store.  Dashed, skipped, dodged, etc.  Both kids really enjoyed acting out these words.  It wasn't a stretch to then explain the meaning to "out of breath".

~ We talked about what general stores are. Here is a link to a photo of a general store--there are even shiny shoes in the window!  And here is an online general store with old-time merchandise to browse.  We also read the poem "General Store" that is mentioned in the manual.  Then we made a general store using items mentioned in the poem and book.  I let K decide on prices for everything, too.

I also told her that this store was so old-fashioned that there was no cash register, unlike the last time we played store.  I had K write down the price amounts and total them when T or I came to buy items. I also had her tally the money she had collected to see if it matched her sales totals at the end of the "day".  We all took turns going to the general store, picking put items, buying them, and then bringing them home to show our "family" what we bought.

~ We looked at pictures of mountain laurel and listened to whipporwills on the computer.

~ We had a Down, Down the Mountain lunch.  K and T helped me make cornbread.  It was really good.  I think I'll use that recipe again the next time I make cornbread.  I also fried bacon and made carmelized turnips.  K actually liked the taste of raw turnips.  I'd never eaten turnips before.  They are spicy, peppery.  I think I also served cheese slices and apples to round things out.  It was a yummy lunch!

~ We learned "The Riddle Song", a supposedly Appalachian song.  My favorite Youtube version was Joan Baez and Pete Seeger singing it together.  I wsn't sure that K really picked up on this song, but recently when the cherries on our cherry tree became ripe, K sang the line "a cherry when it's bloomin', it has no stone..." to T.

~ We made soap!  Actually, it was a melt and pour project.  It turned out cute and now we have a bunch of bar handsoaps for the bathrooms.

It was a busy, fun two weeks with this book!