Our next lady is one of the most widely read authors in English literature! Her writing has gained her historical importance among critics and scholars for her irony, social commentary, and realism. 😉
Fourth Step: ~Sneak Peek~
daughters
Third Step: Amelia Earhart ~Conclusion~
So this month has been crazy hectic! Turns out we’re moving. In a month. Needless to say the blog has taken a back seat and so has Amelia Earhart. We’ve still been doing activities and reading, but it hasn’t been as well thought out it as it as been before. Which is unfortunate, but that’s life sometimes, right?! So, our move involved a trip to our new, soon to be home in the Pacific Northwest, which meant a trip to the airport!
The airport was so fun for the kids! We’ve been before, but it’s been two years so the excitement and anticipation was new all over again for the older two. We spent a little time at the Battle of Midway Memorial exhibit at Midway International Airport.Part of the exhibit includes a plane recovered from Lake Michigan in 1991, the SBD Dauntless Dive-Bomber. It hangs from the ceiling as part of the exhibit and is the same type of plane flown in the Battle of Midway in WWII. The exhibition also includes interactive kiosks with videos, pictures and sculpture commemorating the battle. The kids had a good time exploring it while we waited at the airport. Unfortunately, my camera was packed and I only have some terrible iPhone pics of us at the airport. The timing of this trip was perfect and so fitting while we learn about Amelia Earhart and aviation! (Excuse the iPhone pics from the airport, I accidentally checked my camera! 🙂
Once we got back we did a little experimenting with some different planes in our backyard. It wasn’t very scientific at all, but it was fun! We had a very large styrofoam plane, an inflatable vinyl plane and foam plane that launched from a gun-type device and we flew them all off our deck in the backyard to see which went the furthest. The kid were a little surprised that the largest plane went the furthest. I could go into more detail about why some planes worked and some didn’t, but this was just about fun. 🙂
We also read some great books about Amelia Earhart this month. My daughter’s favorite by far was ‘I AmAmelia Earhart,’ by Brad Meltzer. She brought to school when it when it was her turn to bring in a book for read aloud and carried it with her for a couple of weeks. It’s a really fun and cute book for young kids the puts an emphasis on following dreams and working hard to achieve them. Admittedly, it’s a favorite of mine as well. We also read ‘Night Flight: Amelia Earhart Crosses the Atlantic,’ by Robert Burleigh, which was great for describing what is like to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean. Finally, we used ‘Amelia Earhart: The Legend of the Lost Aviator,’ by Shelley Tanaka as reference for Amelia’s life and achievements.
We still have a couple more weeks until the move, hopefully I can get back on track soon! It will be quite interesting to take an adventure of our own!
Third Step: Amelia Earhart ~Exploring~
The kids had such a fabulous time visiting the aviation museum and that was due in part to some of the people we met there. One of the museum volunteers informed us that one of the women who is a board of directors for the museum holds many world records in aviation herself! While taking pictures outside we met Dan who invited us to take a closer look at some planes that he owns. The kids loved climbing up into the planes, playing with some of the controls and just exploring the ins and outs of the planes. My husband and I enjoyed talking with Dan and learning about his journey to aviation and learning to fly. He actually learned with his mother, another inspiring lady! It was great to hear all these men tell us about great and inspiring women in aviation! After touring Dan’s hangar he took us over to Midwest Aeronautique LLC to meet Bob and Jim who are in the long process of restoring an aircraft from the 1940’s built by the Fairchild Aircraft Company.
This particular plane was built in the US as part of an US Army Air Force contract then shipped to Great Britain where it flew for the Air Transport Auxilary until the end of the war. After that it was sold to dentist in the Netherlands in the 60’s who flew it there. It went through tree owners before ending up with Jim and Bob and Aeronautique in 2001. They have been restoring this piece of history in their care since that time!! They showed us a picture of what the plane looked like when they bought it and it was literally a pile of metal and wood when they got it. What they have done since then is painstakingly restore every aspect of it by hand, and it’s truly impressive what they’ve done! They definitely have a passion for this project and it shows. They kids were enamored of the work they were doing and were thrilled to sit inside this piece of history! I, was personally stunned at how little holds these aircrafts together! It’s literally string, canvas, and tape! There’s some wood and metal in there too, but OMG, I don’t know how men and women flew these planes across oceans, in wars, and all other situations! Truly remarkable, and I know that I could never do it!
Exploring the hangar
Up up and away!
At Midwest Aeronautique LLC
Jim shows us the inside of the wing.
That’s basically kite string tied in there!
High five!
The plane they are restoring when it was found and purchased by them.
The front of the plane as it’s being restored.
Getting to sit inside history!!
Bob, Jim, and Dan with the fam!
Third Step: Amelia Earhart ~Wise Words~
Standard
Third Step: Amelia Earhart
Another month and another fabulous lady to learn about! Amelia Earhart is the focus of this month’s studies. Like Nellie Bly, she is also an adventuring woman and we are in the adventuring spirit! We had a fabulous visit to one of our local aviation museums, Illinois Aviation Museum, to kick things off! We had a phenomenal time looking at all the different planes, helicopters, and memorabilia at the museum. Some of the museum is inside a hangar where you can see planes, a helicopter and also get a behind the scenes look at some of the museum’s restoration efforts and speak to volunteers manning the museum. Outside we got an up close and personal look at more planes and jets, along with witnessing the occasional take off of aircraft from the airport that houses the museum. While we were outside we met a local pilot who invited us to his hangar and let the kids sit inside the cockpit of one of his planes. He also took us to meet Jim and Bob of Midwest Aeronautique LLC who showed us their current restoration project and an inside look at how some of these planes are made. We capped off our afternoon, dubbed by my son as, ‘the best day ever,’ at Charlie’s the airport diner. While there we got a front row seat to the runway and some fab diner food(they received the 5 Prop award for best airport food in the state)! More about our afternoon at IAM to come, but for now here are some favorite photos!
Charles Lindbergh Collage
Charles Lindbergh Collage
Charles Lindbergh Collage
Charles Lindbergh Collage
Second Step: Nellie Bly ~Exploring Cont’d and Conclusion~
Studying Nellie Bly has been a treasure trove of learning for us! We left off in England in my last post. From there we continued to France where we made strawberry crepes, then we headed to Egypt and made some self portraits of ourselves as ancient Egyptian pharaohs. In the last two weeks we also got our first package from our monthly subscription to Little Passports to continue our world studies after Nellie Bly and we did a quick activity about how Nellie traveled, that is with one 16″x9″ bag for a 72 day trip! It was all capped off with a trip to our local train diner for lunch and the kids’ Festival of Countries program at their school! The kids had a fabulous time making crepes when we ‘visited’ France on our travels! It was a little messy, but they tasted great! After we did all the mixing, sifting and pouring of ingredients the kids had some time to just play at the table with some of the ingredients while I cooked the crepes. We finally cleaned up, added some strawberry, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce to our crepes, and sat down to eat! The recipe for the crepes(which really were fantastic) along with other links to the activities and materials can be found on my Pinterest page for Nellie. Our next activity on our trip ’round the world were ancient Egyptian pharaoh self portraits. The kids loved seeing themselves as ancient pharaohs and coloring their headdresses and tunics. I let their Festival of Countries studies at school take them the rest of the way around the world as life kind of got in the way of us doing it at home. 🙂
We begin with some eggs!
Sifting in some flour…
Done adding water!
Pouring in the milk…
Mixing
Some more flour
Sift, sift, sift
More mixing
Mix it up!
Time to eat!
Yum!
Crepe taco 🙂
Crepe taco 🙂
Pharaoh portraits. 🙂
Pharaoh portraits. 🙂
Pharaoh portraits. 🙂
We received the first of our monthly activities from Little Passports, a subscription service that sends us materials to learn about a new country each month. The first kit introduces you to the hosts of your studies, Sam and Sofia, who are doing the traveling and sharing the adventures with you through: letters, stickers, maps, information, computer games and more. Each kit after that focuses on a new country and sends you new materials for fun and games while you learn.
Looking at our new world map
Playing online
Meeting Sofia and Sam
Inspired by our kits from Little Passports, we decided to try an exercise in packing for travel. Nellie Bly traveled the world for 72 days with just one hand bag measuring 16″x9″ in size, about the size of a loaf of bread. The bag that I bought for our photo shoot was the same size and style as that bag. I thought it would be fun to see if we could pack for a two day trip to Grandma’s with that bag. We made a pile of items that we thought we would need to be away from home for two days. The kid grabbed pillows, blankets, clothes, toys, etc. Needless, to say, the items did not fit in the bag! They ended up narrowing down to just a few small items to take with them. My son didn’t seem to mind editing his pile, but my daughter was a little frustrated, lol!
Brother’s pile
Big Sister’s pile
Big piles, little bag.
How to get it all in the bag…
We decided to wrap up our studies at Choo Choo Johnny’s, a local train diner for lunch. It seemed appropriate and was a lot fun! 🙂 We also got to see the kids perform at their Festival of Countries program which was really fantastic and included songs, dances, costumes and they brought home a ‘suitcase'(portfolio) of all their activities from their studies! We had so much fun learning this month and are looking forward to our next awesome lady, a real ‘fly girl!’ 😉
Here comes the food on the gravy train! 🙂
Hi caboose!
A mini town and train model on display
A mini town and train model on display
Trains were even going around the room above us!
One of the booths was dedicated to some train play.
One of the booths was dedicated to some train play.
Ice cream!
Ice cream!
Ice cream!
Ice cream!
Ice cream!
Second Step: Nellie Bly ~Exploring~
There are so many great opportunities for learning when it comes to Nellie Bly! I’ve had to narrow down some of my ideas quite a bit! Nellie Bly’s life and career lend themselves to many fantastic themes that activities can be planned around, but in keeping with our photo shoot I’ve chosen ‘around the world’ as our theme. It opens up so many doors to learn about so much with the kids and is easy to make age appropriate since my girlies are still quite little! I’m also kind of cheating a little since Big Sister and Brother are in the midst of an international unit at preschool! They’re already doing half of my work for me! 😉
So, to kick off Nellie Bly we started with a game. We played the game Round the World With Nellie Bly. It’s a 300 piece puzzle, that when complete, is a remake of a board game released in 1890. The puzzle comes with rules, game pieces and a die as well. I let the kids attempt to help with the puzzle but it was a little beyond them. I ended up putting the puzzle together and was happy to have a quiet activity to do by myself after the kids went to bed. 🙂 When they discovered it finished the next morning they were excited to take a look and play a round. I let them have some time to look at the game first and just play with the pieces a bit. The game board is very picture heavy and some of the pictures sparked some conversations about Nellie’s trip and travel in general which was a great start! The real fun came when we started to play though(fun is a debatable adjective here if you ask the kids, lol)! Nearly every single space on the board sends you somewhere else. You could be sent back to port, back 2, 5, or even 10 spaces. You might get lucky on a rare occasion and land on a spot that is ‘safe’ and let you be or you could actually be propelled forward a few spots. The kids found this incredibly frustrating. They never knew what would happen next and the idea that they could be sent back so often and so far was galling! It was a perfect segue into a chat about what travel was like back in the 1890’s and why it was such an accomplishment for Nellie to go around the world in 72 days!
That evening I began reading ‘It Can’t Be Done Nellie Bly,’ by Bonnie Christensen to the kids. It’s a telling of Nellie’s journey as she circumnavigated the globe and the adventures she encountered along the way. With some of her stops in the book we will also stop and complete an activity to go with that country. Her first stop is in London, England.
In honor of London we attempted to paint peg people to look like the Queen’s Guard and discussed some ways that England is similar and different from the US. This is where that international unit at school is really helping out! They’re making all kinds of connections and are familiar with some of the places we’ll be talking and reading about already. I tried to paint a peg person as well. I was nearly done when I left it to dry and put Little Sister to bed, and upon returning to finish it up, I found my son had taken the liberty of finishing it for me. See the pictures below for the result, lol! After painting our peg people I took out some passport sticker books that I ordered from Oriental Trading Co. and we put a sticker in our passport for London. Next up is France, then Italy, Egypt, Hong Kong and Singapore. We’ll see if I’m crafty enough and find the time to do an activity for each!
I’ve created a Pinterest board with links to all the things mentioned above for your reference! 🙂
Checking out the newly finished puzzle/game
Exploring
Playing
Painting
Painting
Look!
Painting
Passport
My Royal Guard, Big Sister, Brother, Little Sister and finally Big Sister wanted to paint her version of Nellie Bly 🙂
Second Step: Nellie Bly ~Favorites~
Here are a few more pictures that were favorites from our Nellie Bly shoot. After taking 800+ pics there’s bound to be a lot of favorites, right?! 🙂
Second Step: Nellie Bly ~Introduction~
Nellie Bly! I was so excited for this step! Big Sister’s personality reminds me a bit of this famous reporter and globetrotting record breaker. Nellie Bly is the pen name of a journalist born Elizabeth Cochrane. She is known for her edgy stunt-style reporting which included a trip around the world inspired by Jules Verne’s ‘Around the World in 80 Days.’ This feat made her a household name in 1889-1990. It was this trip that inspired our photo shoot and the activities during our study of Nellie Bly.
Though Jules Verne’s fictional character Phileas Fogg completed his journey in 80 days, Nellie Bly circumnavigated the globe in 72. She did it with only two days notice from her employer, with only one handbag measuring 16″x7,” and was basically unchaperoned(unheard of in her day). These were all feats for her day and some still would be today. On her journey she traveled from New Jersey through England, France(with a pit stop to meet with Jules Verne himself), Egypt, Italy, Singapore, Hong Kong, and San Francisco before arriving back at New Jersey. She encountered many obstacles along the way, but beat even her own personal goal of 75 days by 3 days. Through writing about her experiences and having them published as she went, she became a household name and the most well-known woman in the world at the time. She inspired songs, fashion, and games created in her name as a result.
Nellie Bly’s trip around the world brought her through Joliet and Chicago, IL on her way back home. Nellie arrived in Illinois on the The Miss Nellie Bly Special, a train for the express purpose of getting Nellie on her way to break a world’s record for traveling around the world. It was a passenger train comprised of one passenger car and an engine that set new speed records during its trip. Nellie passed through Joliet and Chicago on the morning of January 24th, 1890, 114 years ago.
At that time the current stations in Joliet(Joliet Union Station) and Chicago(Chicago Union Station), did not exist. Both locations had overhauls and new stations built just a few short years after Nellie’s trip. They were, however, in the same basic locations. I had hoped to have our photo shoot on the anniversary of Nellie’s stop in Joliet, but the weather around here this year did not cooperate! But, we did get to shoot at Joliet Union Station and on the same tracks she rode on her legendary journey! It really was an incredible experience. The whole family had fun exploring the station and its history.
We are really looking forward to learning more about this amazing woman in the coming weeks! I have created a Pinterest board for all things Nellie that I used as inspiration while researching her and planning our activities, you can check it out here!
In front of the mural ‘Visions of Joliet’ by Alejandro Romero
Getting inspired by Jules Verne’s ‘Around the World in 80 Days’
Little Sister getting in on the action
‘It Can’t Be Done Nellie Bly’ by Bonnie Christensen
Channeling Nellie’s spirit
Gotta catch that train!
Meeting the conductor
Meeting the conductor
One of many murals outside along the station
Off she goes, my little adventurer!
First Step: Frida Kahlo
I have been obsessing over this project for the last 6 weeks and have been so excited to take it out of the planning stage and actually start DOING it! There were some things I wanted to figure out first though, where to start, how to proceed, what components should it have or not have, should there be a limit to how many women we study, a criteria for who we would and would not study? I asked myself all those questions and many more. At first I was going to limit to 5 women and complete it by my daughter’s 5th birthday. Then I started to make a list of women to choose from. It was clear from very early on that there would be no way I could choose only 5 women. My next thought was to study one woman a month until my daughter’s 5th birthday, that would give me 10 women to choose from. Something about that didn’t work for me either. So, in the end I decided to leave it open ended. We would learn about as many women as we wanted and whomever we wanted with no constraints on time and just see where this took us. A blog seemed like the natural way to catalog our progress, and so here we are!
It was so hard to decide who would be our first step, there are so many wonderful women to choose from! Ultimately, it boiled down to who I wanted to photograph indoors since this has been a crazy winter in Chicago and many other women I have specific locations that I’d like shoot at for their photos. This narrowed down the field and I chose Frida Kahlo.
I have long held a love for Frida Kahlo’s very personal and beautiful art from the moment I first laid eyes on her painting, ‘Little Deer’. It was my freshman year in college during an art appreciation course and I’ve been in love ever since. As I learned more about her through her artwork, biographies, and her diary throughout the years, my love for her grew. I even had a cat named Frida! What an extraordinarily fascinating woman! I wanted to share a little bit of her inspiring work and her life with my daughters. We read books, colored pages from the internet and a coloring book, and made paper dolls from a book and the internet. We also downloaded a fabulous app. Our studies were obviously limited, as Frida’s life contains a lot of adult content. There is so much more to her life than her paintings and the little bit of information I shared with my daughters, but hopefully when they are older(and more things are age appropriate) we will delve a little deeper!
The pictures were a lot of fun to take! I got the shirt and skirt on Big Sister from Rancho Alpino on Etsy, and the rest I scoured from around the house, and I painted the backdrop. When I started taking pics of Big Sister, Little Sister decided that she wanted a part of the action too! After several photo bombs later we borrowed some flowers from Big Sister’s hair, got a little dress out of the closet that Grandma brought back from a trip to Mexico, and found another of Mommy’s scarves for Little Sister and we were off! I’m so glad she wanted to join in, those are some of my favorite pictures of the girls together. When I was trying to direct Big Sister on how to stand and to hold her elbows, Little Sister was listening too. I had no idea, until I looked at the pictures when I was done, what a good little listener she was! So adorable! I’m looking forward to many more steps together with these girls!
My Two Fridas
Sisters
Sweet Sisters
My Frida in a Frame
Serious Face
Channeling Frida
Fun with Photoshop
Fun with Photoshop
Flying With Frida
A Step in Her Shoes 
