Missouri History Museum

2025-26 School Year–Week Thirty-One

The penultimate week of the 2025-26 school year has come to an end!

We are really wrapping things up at this point. Chickadee continued her massive algebra review. We read about Tiananmen Square, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the first Persian Gulf War in history. In writing, she analyzed and summarized a short story by Hemingway. We read about the atmosphere, especially atmospheric pressure and energy in the atmosphere, in science. We continued reading The Phantom Tollbooth. The final recipe we’ll make from the American Girl Sweet & Savory Treats Cookbook this year (I have something special planned for next week) was Cheese & Chive Crackers inspired by Courtney.

And today we went on a field trip I’ve been looking forward to for weeks, and one that bridges the 2025-26 school year with our 2026 summer school focused on the 100th anniversary of the Mother Road. In place of their regularly-scheduled History Exploration Day this month, the Missouri History Museum is holding a Route 66 Centennial Festival all weekend, and we were able to hear a talk by Author Cheryl Eichar Jett about the women who worked behind-the-scenes along Route 66, see some classic cars and neon signs, plan a retro trip, and make our own version of neon using pastel chalks (a craft I may revisit at home!). And while we were there, we finally got to ride the much-maligned but still fun Loop Trolley from end to end!

One week to go, and then it’s on to high school!

2024-25 School Year–Week Twenty-Eight

We finally made it out of the house on a field trip! On Wednesday, we went to see the new “Collected” exhibit at the Missouri History Museum…I was very impressed with it!

This was also a short week for us, as we always take the day off on Good Friday. Ladybug finished the second volume of Jane Eyre. In psychology she read about social dynamics. She continued to work on her final research paper. In writing she wrote four different theses. She finished reading On The Hippie Trail…her last social studies book is American Nations. We made it to the final chapter of our study of the history of Christianity, and discussed what it means to be a confessional Christian today.

Chickadee worked with graphs in pre-algebra, performing transformations including reflections, rotations, translations, and dilations. She read about the California Gold Rush in history. We finished The Bronze Bow. In science she began a very long chapter about the nervous system. Her writing assignment is to combine the various topoi for writing about history to complete a paper about Joan of Arc.

I’m hoping for a few more field trips before the end of the school year!

Chickadee Thursday

We had a fun time learning about women’s suffrage at the Missouri History Museum!

This may be the last installment of my long-running “Chickadee Thursday” series. She will be turning 13 in a few days, and that was my intended cut-off for sharing weekly photos of her…obviously, I have to stop sometime, because I’m not going to be following her around when she’s in her 30s so I can keep snapping pics! I am having some second thoughts about stopping now, though…I’m considering waiting until she completes junior high next year, but we’ll see…or not! Either way, I intend to keep recording the really special moments and events, just on a much less regular schedule!

2024-25 School Year–Week Twenty-Four

Not a whole lot to say this week, as we spent our time wrapping things up before spring break. Ladybug had a psychology test and continued reading Jane Eyre, Between the World and Me, and Murder on the Orient Express. Chickadee learned about the Pythagorean Theorem in pre-algebra, the Trail of Tears in history, and the digestive system in science, and continued reading The Bronze Bow. And we finally made it back to the Missouri History Museum…this month’s theme was of great interest to me, because it focused on women and fashion, a topic near and dear to my heart!

See you after our break!

2024-25 School Year–Christmas School

This year’s Christmas school was a bit more low-key than usual, but still fun. I wanted to tie our Paris 2024 summer school to our holiday studies, so I decided to go with “Christmas in France.” Unfortunately, I had a challenging time finding things unique to France to learn about it…it seems as though many of their Christmas traditions and even carols are borrowed from other European countries, so I really had to stretch to come up with activities. We did read a few French Christmas legends, and learned about a few Christmas songs. Coming up with an ornament craft was next to impossible, but I finally decided on cork Christmas trees, since France is famous for wine:

Finding a few cookie recipes wasn’t too challenging…we’ve made madeleines and palmiers before, but the sablés (not to mention the icing) were new for us:

And today we went to the History Exploration Day for the month at the Missouri History Museum, where the theme was immigrants and holiday celebrations…very timely, and we even got to see German dancers!

We also got to see the dress and coat Judy Garland wore in the Christmas scene of Meet Me in St. Louis!

That’s it for us in 2024…see you next year!

Chickadee Thursday

When we went to the Missouri History Museum for our last field trip of the school year, Chickadee was very excited to see that they were offering face painting (for free!) because that’s not something she’s ever gotten to do. She was even more excited when she discovered that one of the options was a Poké Ball, plus GLITTER!

2023-24 School Year–Week Thirty-Two

We finished the final chapter of the 2023-24 school year!

Ladybug wrapped up a few final things this week. She read about magnetism in physics. In history, she read about Joan of Arc, Henry VII, and the fall of Constantinople. She read some literary selections from the Restoration and Neoclassical Age, including Phillis Wheatley’s “To S.M., A Young African Painter, On Seeing His Work.”

Chickadee finished her math curriculum by learning how to calculate simple interest with i=prt. She completed her final writing assignment about African and Asian elephants and their habitats. She also completed her grammar review for the year. We read about Paul’s missionary journeys and trip to Rome.

We had one final field trip for the 2023-24 school year…we attended the final History Exploration Day for the year at the Missouri History Museum, which focused on recreation, which is both a fun and serious topic, as we looked not only at how people enjoyed recreation in the past, but also who wasn’t welcome at various locations.

And one last fun activity before the end:

On to the summer…there’s a lot we’re looking forward to, including the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games!

Chickadee Thursday

When we visited the Missouri History Museum, we were very excited that the north entrance is open again, and we were happy to see that they have a new set of letters (and the city flag on a heart!) out front. Chickadee was especially excited that her nail polish matched the heart…she had painted her nails with St. Louis city flag in mind, but had no idea about the new photo spot outside the museum!

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