Category Archives: History

Hiking, History, Museums/Events, Parks

We went to a different country!

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We decided while we were up on the North shore we should go ahead and cross the border into Canada!

It would be a first for everyone in my family.

First stop was the Grand Portage National Monument! It is right near the border and we had gone several years ago.

It ended up being a great stop because we got the early history of the Northwest Trading Company here and then at our next stop we got the what happened when they moved to Canada. I have been reading several historical novels about fur trading around the time of the French and Indian War and early fur trading in America so I found all of these stops fascinating. The boys looked the part! Such a beautiful area! Next we crossed into Canada and went to Fort William!

It is a giant fort and the tour is pretty amazing.

It was a little long for some of my kids but Nick just took them to walk around some.

The man giving the tour acts the part the whole time and was very interesting! He even had the boys act the part! The twins favorite part was the barnyard.

They let you help with chores!

Chicken lovers.

While at Fort William one of the workers told us about a giant waterfall that we really should go see so we looked it up and went, not really knowing what to expect.The Kakabeka Falls was breathtaking!It was a total surprise and was the biggest waterfall I had ever seen!We did not really have any other plans other than make it back over the border and hopefully stop at High Falls on Pigeon River which is at Grand Portage State Park.

What I did not realize was how close to the border it was!

I was a bit flustered from the border patrol questions and totally missed the park so we had to turn around!It ended up being totally worth it though!

It was a beautiful stop and was another part of the history we were learning.

 This is the reason for Grand Portage, this giant waterfall.

Best field trip ever.

History, My Family

While Nick was on his way to Poland…

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Nick needed to go to Poland for work so we decided that we would move up our trip to Minnesota(and miss the fall colors!) so I could stay up their with the kids while he was gone.

We got there Friday night and he left Sunday.

I of course started trip planning right away when we decided to go up there.

I basically keep the kids and I busy to deal with him being gone.

I was super excited when I realized that we got into the Hjemkomst Center for free with our ASTC membership!

I have wanted to go back every year since we first went but it cost too much to get so many kids in.

We dropped off Nick at the airport and went right to see the viking ship!

My father in law came along to see it and help me wrangle kids 😉

I like the replica of a church they have outside also.

The youngest three were getting a bit antsy but we made it through the tour.

We were told they might have stored dead bodies during the plagues in this outside area.

Yikes.

I am so thankful that one membership has gotten us into so many different places though!

This is how most of our family pics go, let me know if you want tips so you too can take amazing pics like this…

What was funny about Nick going to Poland is that he had also gone to Poland 4yrs before almost to the day.

We had just gotten the twins a few months before and it had gone really, really, badly so I was thankful this time went better.

Stay tuned for what we did while he was gone, if I got any sleep with three kids in a camper with me for five nights, and pics from one of my favorite places!

I might have looked like this a few times that week…

History, Homeschooling

Ancient History Curriculum from a Biblical Standpoint.

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This book started it.

I tried to get my boys into it when we studied Ancient History 5 or so years ago but they were too young.

This time at 11&12 I feel like so many doors have opened!

They can comprehend so much, that I struggle with not overwhelming them with material to cover.

The Genius of Ancient Man

This book is a great place to start for some christian apologetics and maybe help an older child see history through a biblical point of view.

If you believe God created man intelligent than all of history makes more sense.

Noah’s Ark, Stonehenge, The Tower of Babel, Indus Valley, all of these things point to ancient man being intelligent.

You  will also notice a giant boom of civilizations after the Tower of Babel. Which would make sense if everyone suddenly spoke different languages.

The author wrote a study guide to go with this book and the boys loved it!

Up until this year I have mostly just had the boys reading a lot for history and science, this year I have been having them actually delve deeper and research.

We have had Life in the Great Ice Age for a while and I learned so much from it.

This year I decided to get the boys the study guide to go with it though to see if they could get even more from it.

This would be a great place to start for Elementary Age.

I found this amazing curriculum from Master Books around the same time!

Biblical Archaeology

It definitely pushes them a bit since they are in 7th grade and it was designed for more 9th-12th but they are learning so much!

I love that it helps them see how the bible fits into history.

All of these resources introduce the idea that maybe the excepted timeline for the pharaohs is off.

If you can open yourself to that possibility then you start finding a lot of evidence to the Exodus.

You can read more about it on Answers in Genesis site, here.

I never really understood how important those detailed lists of “begats” were before.

God gave us a timeline.

At the same time we are listening to this amazing audio adventure series called Jonathan Park.

I have been using this series for a while to help teach scientific creationism but these two new adventures happen to be teaching about the same time period we are learning about!

The Dreamers Tomb touches on the evidence for Joseph and Call of the Exodus talks about Moses and the Exodus.

I always come away from listening with new information to look up.

I love that this series pushes me to understand the bible even more.

I had bought the movie “Patterns of Evidence” a while ago and really enjoyed it. It talks all about the evidence for the bible in the egyptian timeline.

Then when we started this study I bought “Patterns of Evidence for Young Explorers.“

Both were a great way to get the wheels turning on timelines and the bible but now I have found that they have a curriculum to go with both of them!

We are currently not doing this curriculum due to how much my boys are already doing but I printed the sample to look at and would love to try it.

Patterns of Evidence for Young Explorers Curriculum for Elementary Age and Patterns of Evidence Quest Curriculum for High school.

You can also find it on the Answers in Genesis, site.

I might be a bit addicted to this time period now.

I am currently trying to convince my boys that we should just keep studying Biblical Archaeology for several years…

My 12yr old is not convinced.

Yet.

I will keep working on him though…

Check out my video on these resources.