summer school 2026

Tasty Tuesday–Dining Down the Mother Road (At Home)–Part One

We’re having a Route 66 summer! We kicked off the centennial celebration last week with a dinner from The Route 66 Cookbook, a volume that has recipes made famous at restaurants from one end of the Mother Road to the other. The main course was the “Route 66 Pup,” a hot dog with chili, onions, mustard blend, and homemade jalapeño spread, all topped with French fries, inspired by the menu at Tail o’ The Pup near the end of the route in California

For dessert I made the “Docs S’mores Sundae” inspired by the one served at Docs Just Off 66, a location a little closer to home in Girard, IL.

Stay tuned as we try more recipes from The Route 66 Cookbook!

Old Chain of Rocks Bridge

On Wednesday, we took a walk across the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge that connects Madison, IL with St. Louis, MO over the Mississippi River.

The bridge was built in 1929 and was part of old Route 66. It was open to vehicular traffic for about 40 years, and in 1999 became a pedestrian bridge. At about a mile long, it looks like it goes on forever! I guess you don’t usually think about how long bridges are when you’re zipping across them in a car!

But if you look closely, you’ll notice the most remarkable feature of the bridge…a 30-degree turn that was added to the design to make the waters below easier for boats to navigate.

It’s a truly impressive bend…I can’t really imagine actually driving across it!

One of the reasons the waters of the Mississippi are tough to navigate at this point, besides the eponymous “chain of rocks” under the water, are the two “castles” (originally water intake towers) adjacent to the bridge.

There are a few references to Route 66 along the way:

It is an outstanding example of engineering!

There are gates at each end of the bridge that are presumably closed from sunset to sunrise:

We walked from one state to another…and back!

This was our first Route 66-themed field trip for this year’s summer school…I have a few more planned that I’m also really excited about!

Chickadee Thursday

One last look at our trip to Chicagoland…this time, at the Umbrella Sky Project in Elmhurst.

And a first glimpse at this year’s Route 66 Centennial-themed summer school, with a field trip to the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge:

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!