Wednesday, August 13, 2025

Notes on Jane Austen

Relaxing and watching movies on my vacation, I decided to make a list of my favorite adaptations for when I get to teach Austen again (grade 8)!


Sense & Sensibility - 1811


Pride & Prejudice - 1813


Emma - 1816


I don't have notes on Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, or Persuasion but will add them if I find something I enjoy!


Past blog posts:

Lesson Planning for Pride & Prejudice
Jan 12, 2018

Field Trips and Special Guests
Apr 11, 2018

"Regency Day" by Leah, age 14
Apr 19, 2018


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Saturday, August 2, 2025

Local History - Revolutionary War

We began with the tea parties!

According to this very helpful article from the American Battlefield Trust, thirteen towns in Colonial America had tea parties in addition to Boston.

Two of them happened in Maryland: the Chestertown Tea Party and the Annapolis Tea Party (also called the Burning of the Peggy Stewart).

    #1 - Dec 3, 1773 - Charleston SC

    #2 - Dec 12, 1773 - Lexington MA

    #3 - Dec 16, 1773 - Boston MA

    #4 - Dec 25, 1773 - Philadelphia PA

    #5 - Dec 31, 1773 - Provincetown MA


    #6 - Jan 1774 - Princeton NJ

    #7 - Mar 6, 1774 - Boston MA (second)

    #8 - Mar/Apr 1774 - Wilmington NC

    #9 - Apr 22, 1774 - Sandy Hook NJ / New York NY

    #10 - May 23, 1774 - Chestertown MD

    #11 - Jul 1774 - Charleston SC (second)

    #12 - Sep 15, 1774 - York ME

    #13 - Oct 19, 1774 - Annapolis MD

    #14 - Oct 25, 1774 - Edenton NC

    #15 - Nov 3, 1774 - Charleston SC (third)

    #16 - Nov 7, 1774 - Yorktown VA

    #17 - Dec 22, 1774 - Greenwich NJ


The American Revolution (1765–1783) is the term for the whole span of time, and the Revolutionary War is the last eight years of it (1775-1783). War officially began April 19, 1775 with the Battles of Lexington & Concord.


We first read Farmer George Plants a Nation by Peggy Thomas and talked about what Zac remembered from our visit to Mount Vernon VA last year.

Then we went to the public library to look at their display on the Annapolis Tea Party, and read The Chester Town Tea Party by Brenda Seabrooke (#10) and The World Turned Upside Down: Children of 1776 by Ann Jensen (#13).


Annapolis Tea Party

Then it was field trip time! I chose the Annapolis Maritime Museum & Park.

723 2nd Street, Annapolis MD

Historical Marker Database (hmdb.org)

You don't have to enter the museum to see this historical marker, so if you're only in Annapolis for the Rev. War you can skip the museum. As it turns out, it's all about oysters (and housed in an old oyster packing plant). So I'm going to add my photos and notes to Local Industry - Waterman.


Before we left Annapolis, we also stopped at the Hammond-Harwood House.

19 Maryland Avenue, Annapolis MD


Declaration of Independence

On Sunday we went and visited Thomas Stone National Historic Site in Port Tobacco MD. Like George Plater III, Thomas Stone was one of the representatives for Maryland at the 2nd Continental Congress. Stone was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence (1776) and was chosen for the committee that drafted the Articles of Confederation (1777).

I picked this site because Thomas Stone was a signer of the Declaration but later found out that there's a connection between Stone and Stewart (the merchant who was forced to burn his ship during the Annapolis Tea Party)!

Anthony Stewart owned a house in Annapolis MD which he had also named the Peggy Stewart (he named both ship and house after his daughter). Stewart, a Loyalist, ended up leaving Maryland after things got unpleasant. His wife defaulted on the mortgage and the house reverted to Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer (another founding father, and uncle of Thomas Stone). Thomas Stone then bought the Peggy Stewart House from his uncle in 1783.


On Monday, just for fun, we watched 1776!


As a Bicentennial baby, I'm pretty excited that next year everyone will be celebrating the 250 year anniversary of the United States (Semiquincentennial, ie. half of 500). And I just realized that by Zac learning a little bit about the Revolutionary War now, he'll have a much better understanding of what's going on next year during all of the festivities!

I think that a brief look at two wars is plenty in fourth grade, so for our study of Local History in Southern Illinois, we'll do the French & Indian War and the Revolutionary War. I'll have a whole new state to learn about!


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Thursday, July 31, 2025

Museums for All

Am I the only one who didn't know about this program??

"Through Museums for All, those receiving food assistance (SNAP benefits) can gain free or reduced admission to more than 1,500 museums throughout the United States simply by presenting their EBT card and a photo ID."

If you have a LINK card (which many families in Illinois receive automatically for the summer, since their child will not have access to breakfast & lunch through the schools) you absolutely need to know about this!


As it turns out, almost all of the museums I wanted to take Zac to this summer for his main lesson block, and all of the museums we've visited in past years, offer FREE ADMISSION to our family as part of Museums for All!

Here is the list for Maryland. You can also put in your zip code and search for everything in a 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 50, 100, 200, and 500 mile radius.


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Wednesday, July 23, 2025

SWI Investigations

Since I'm on vacation, and can't write a ton of posts about what we are doing in the classroom, I'm taking requests for topics! One thing that has come up lately is Structured Word Inquiry (SWI). Once you get past using Engage with the Page (the lovely picture book and lesson plan ideas from Fiona Hamilton... see below) as a starting point, how do you have the confidence to dive into an inquiry? What if your child asks you about a word? What if you wonder something about a word? What exactly do you do?


A Spoonful of Frogs: A Halloween Book for Kids
by Casey Lyall

video of the author reading the book

lesson plan idea for the < -ful > suffix


So here's a list of blog posts and other resources I've found around the Internet that thoroughly talk about one SWI investigation, soup to nuts.

We will start with two graphics from some SWI courses I've taken, and a picture of me with Doug Harper (we met at a SWI conference in Chicago IL). I was sooo excited to meet the author of etymonline!

from Real Spelling

from Pete Bowers

me being excited about SWI!


Sample investigations that may be helpful:

< companion >
from Mary Beth Steven


< condensation >
PDF from Pete Bowers


< doctor >
from Mary Beth Steven


< hear > and < heard >
from Mona Voelkel


< imagine >
PDF from Pete Bowers


< ion >
from Mary Beth Steven


< likeable >
from Mary Beth Steven


< pneumonia > and < pneumatic >
my blog post


< pros > and < cons >
from Mary Beth Steven
also includes
< explosion >
< constantly >



< rodent > and < dentist >
my blog post


Tricky Words – Here We Go Again!
from Mary Beth Steven
< accommodate >
< kaleidoscope >
< ceiling >
< patience >


I highly recommend Mary Beth Steven's blog if you're interested in SWI. Loved her post on Renovating the Weekly Spelling Test!


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Monday, July 21, 2025

Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail

If anyone ever questions whether I lesson plan for fun, I definitely do. 😊

I'm spending a lot of my vacation finishing up partially-written Ruzuku courses, and planning Zac's main lesson block. I don't know if he will ever want to do an MLB during the summer again, but I'm having a blast!

I figured out all of our Revolutionary War activities, but I'm hitting a wall when it comes to the War of 1812. That's because there's TOO MUCH. We can, of course, visit sites in future summers (a fact of which I'm trying to remind myself). There's no need to do it all in the next few weeks...


By the Dawn's Early Light: The Story of the Star-Spangled Banner
by Steven Kroll


The problem, of course, is the Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail. And I think the best thing for me is to just research it and take a bunch of notes, and then narrow things down from there. I'm a little bit paralyzed by thinking that I'll miss something great that's right by us. So research is the answer here!

(My entire waldorfcurriculum.com website came about because I just wanted a place to keep notes. What main lesson blocks are done in each grade? Whenever I had any ideas for the blocks, I put my notes there so I wouldn't lose them. Then I had more notes because I had actually taught them. And even more notes because now I've taught them two or three or four times! But it all started basically as an outline of what was done when.)


~ ~ ~ ~ ~


"The Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail commemorates the Chesapeake Campaign of the War of 1812 and gets its name from our national anthem. Consisting of water and overland routes, the trail extends from Virginia through southern Maryland, closely following the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. As this trail passes by the shoreline of Douglas Point Special Recreation Management Area in Charles County, Maryland, it follows the War of 1812 route of the British fleet, which chocked Washington, D.C. with shipping blockades and whose sailors ravaged the coastline of the Chesapeake Bay with frequent raids. This trail commemorates the people, events, and naval history, which inspired our national anthem."

- https://www.blm.gov/visit/star-spangled-banner-national-historic-trail


- from Star-Spangled Banner Fact Sheet


Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail
brochure & map (PDF)


Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail
Junior Ranger Activity Book
ages 6-12 (PDF)


I also found some lesson plans for teachers, but completing the Junior Ranger Activity Book will be enough for us.


Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail Passport Stamp Locations:


~ ~ ~ ~ ~


If we decide we don't want to get into Junior Ranger Activity Books, Passport Stamps, etc., we can always just look for roadside historical markers. I'd love to drive the length of Calvert County and just see where the British came through. (Of course, they also came up the waterways on either side of the county: Chesapeake Bay to the east and Patuxent River to the west.)

So, after all that research, I finally found a map that would really help me!

War of 1812 Battles
"Chesapeake Campaign"
Apr 23, 1813 - Sep 14, 1814
American Battlefield Trust (PDF)


These are the War of 1812 battles that took place in Calvert County MD:

Jun 11, 1814 - Hallowing Point

Jun 22, 1814 - Benedict

Jun 26, 1814 - St. Leonard Creek

Jul 2, 1814 - St. Leonard

Jul 16, 1814 - Calverton

Jul 17, 1814 - Huntingtown

Jul 19, 1814 - Prince Frederick


Even if we just stick to our county there's a LOT of information! Some ideas:

Solomons
Calvert Marine Museum exhibit
Menace on the Horizon marker


Jun 1


Jun 8-10 and Jun 26
Battles of St. Leonard Creek


Jun 15


Jun 15-17


Jun 17


Jun 26


Jul 19


Jul 21


Aug 19-20


Aug 19-30


Aug 19


Aug 20


The Burning of Washington was Aug 24-25. Fort McHenry was Sep 13-14.


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Sunday, July 20, 2025

Local Industry - Tobacco Farmer

My second goal was for Zac to learn more about tobacco farming. So our other field trip destination on Saturday was Historic Sotterley, also known as Sotterley Plantation. Tobacco was THE crop when I was growing up in Southern Maryland. In fact, when we visited my grandmother (who is 105) and she was talking with me and Zac about her life, she said that at one point they had a small farm. I asked her, what did you grow on the farm? She looked very surprised and said, tobacco.

I reminded Zac yesterday about how surprised she had been. To her mind, of course it was tobacco. No one grew anything else.

It's so difficult to find any tobacco being grown today that it's hard for Zac -- or any school child -- to understand just how prevelant it was, and to picture field after field after field. Calvert County's flag even has a tobacco leaf on it!

When I was a child I knew it was back-to-school time when they started harvesting the tobacco. We could watch from the windows of the school bus.

Sotterley, built beginning in 1703 and on the shores of the Patuxent River, was largely a tobacco plantation, and I was hoping it might be one of the few places left in Southern Maryland that still grew it. And they did have a small tobacco field for demonstration purposes!

We made the unfortunate decision to take the Manor Tour (which I do not recommend) and so we were too exhausted after that to tour the grounds. I'd like to go back someday and see all the things we missed.

Pros: Interesting historical site. Reasonable cost. Excellent assortment of colonial toys in gift shop. Tobacco still grown.

Cons: Cash is not accepted. Limited hours. Manor tour not recommended. Outdated signage. Language regarding slavery could be improved.


I have a few ideas of other things we can do as a follow up to this. There's a restored tobacco barn that we can walk to, so we will definitely do that. We can visit Grammy again, and Zac can ask her some more specific questions about growing tobacco. We can watch this video and then drive by this field, which is right along the highway and on the way to the library.


And we can read Molly Bannaky -- tobacco plays a big part in her story -- and learn more about Benjamin Banneker!


Molly Bannaky
by Alice McGill


Here are the other books in my Benjamin Banneker collection. I'm fascinated by his life, and even included him in my Famous Inventors Ruzuku course!

Ticktock Banneker's Clock by Shana Keller

What Are You Figuring Now? A Story about Benjamin Banneker by Jeri Ferris
chapters 4 & 5  

Dear Benjamin Banneker by Andrea Davis Pinkney


Banneker was a contemporary of the Founding Fathers, corresponded with Thomas Jefferson, and assisted with the initial survey of Washington, D.C.

Benjamin Banneker:
The black tobacco farmer who the presidents couldn't ignore
whitehousehistory.org


We could even visit the Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum which is in Baltimore County!


Although I went there only for tobacco, learning about Sotterley transitions us really nicely into the Revolutionary War. George Plater III, who was both born and buried there, represented St. Mary's County as a member of the Annapolis Convention (1774-1776), attended the 2nd Continental Congress as a delegate for Maryland (1778-1780), voted to ratify the United States Constitution (1788), and was the state's sixth governor (1791-1792). Sotterley's History will be relevant when we get to the War of 1812 as well!



UPDATE: When we visited Haberdeventure in Port Tobacco MD, one of the buildings on the site was a tobacco barn. We've been able to see plenty of tobacco barns, but this is the only one I've been able to take Zac into. It's lovely to go inside, because you can actually sit there with the breeze coming through the openings in the walls -- and even the doors -- and feel and understand that it was perfectly designed for ventilation and drying.



UPDATE: At a craft day, Zac silkscreened this lovely design of a tobacco barn onto a canvas for me. I love it! It will forever remind me of home.


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Local Industry - Waterman

Saturday was a field trip day! My first goal was for Zac to learn more about watermen.


Waterman's Child
by Barbara Mitchell


Looking back at the field trip ideas in my LGHI Booklist for Southern Maryland, I chose St. Clement's Island Museum in Coltons Point MD for "Waterman."

Note: Later this summer we will also visit the Calvert Marine Museum and J.C. Lore Oyster House as well as Annmarie Sculpture Garden when we are down in Solomons MD. I remember when the Tonger was the first sculpture installed at Annmarie Garden, and it remains one of my favorite pieces!

Several pieces at Annmarie, actually, are about the life of a waterman:

“A Tribute to the Oyster Tonger, A Chesapeake Waterman”

“A Surveyor’s Map”


Just as they intended, the quotes carved in “A Surveyor’s Map” are wearing away over time as people walk on the boards... I know it's part of the art concept, but it still makes me sad to see. I remember when the art was new.

"That's when a penny was a penny!"


Anyway, to keep things fresh for me as well as for Zac, on Saturday we went to a museum we had never been to before: St. Clement's Island Museum.

As it turns out, this museum is much more about the founding of Maryland (St. Clement's Island was first landing, St. Mary's City was first capital).

We did take the water taxi out to the island itself, which I recommend. It's significantly smaller now (from approx. 400 acres when Leonard Calvert arrived down to 13 acres today). The $7.00 per person fee for the water taxi also includes admission to the museum before or after you see the island.

Happily, Zac was reading Leonard Calvert and the Maryland Adventure by Ann Jensen while we were in the car, so he was all caught up on the history of the place, and recognized a lot of the quotes on the island's signage.

The person at the Admissions Desk freely admitted that a better museum for what I had in mind was Piney Point Lighthouse Museum & Historic Park, so we will have to go there in the future. Although this museum was billed as having an exhibit on watermen, it was only one display case.

Pros: The island is small and would be a very sweet place to bring a picnic. It takes only a few minutes to walk from one end to the other. Zac absolutely loved going inside the lighthouse! The water taxi ride is short and quite pleasant. And even though we didn't learn much about oysters, the water was full of crab pots, and the island was filled with people fishing on the shores and crabbing on the boardwalk. When we stepped off the boat, the first thing Zac saw was someone bringing up a crab net with a lively Maryland blue crab in it! So, in a way, we actually did learn about watermen!

Cons: We didn't learn much from the museum.

How to Pick a Maryland Crab video

Zac at the top of the lighthouse!


Note that when you are on your way to St. Clement's Island Museum you will pass a tiny building with a hand-drawn "United States Post Office" sign. Next you will pass a sign that says "End State Maintenance." It'll be a strictly residential area, and you'll think you're about to drive straight off the end of the road into the water. Don't worry. You are in the right place!


UPDATE: While doing research for our Annapolis Tea Party field trip, I found the Annapolis Maritime Museum (723 2nd St, Annapolis MD). It has three signs with quite a bit about oysters that will be really helpful for Zac's MLB:


UPDATE: Well, I don't know about Piney Point, because we never visited it, but I think that the Annapolis Maritime Museum is PERFECT for learning about watermen and oysters. The museum is quite small and only consists of one room, but that's because it's housed in a former oyster packing plant.

The exhibits are very well done. I especially loved that they made a bar graph, to represent how many oysters were harvested from the bay over time, with oyster shells. What a clever idea! The museum was filled with artifacts. I would hands-down go to this museum again if I were studying the Chesapeake Bay and local industry. And it is part of Museums for All!

hand tongs

hydraulic tongs

dredge


When we left the museum we stopped at Wild Country Seafood and had some fried oysters. Delicious!

Note that driving and parking in Annapolis can be quite tricky. To visit the Maritime Museum, you do have to know the exact width of your vehicle because you will be navigating a tight squeeze between two rows of parked cars (and watching out for oncoming vehicles as well). Welcome to Eastport! We parked at Horn Point Harbor at 105 Eastern Avenue, and walked through the space in the fence. For the Hammond-Harwood House, we parked out on King George Street alongside St. John's College (free 9 hour parking).


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