Journey to Excellence

I have had a lot of fun sharing my home state of Missouri with you this week. I have shared all of the fun things to do in St. Louis, Kansas City, and the Ozarks. I have filled you in on a couple of remarkable historic landmarks in the Laura Ingalls Wilder home and childhood home of Mark Twain. But today I thought I would tell you about some of those quirky places that you might want to pull over to see if you are traveling through the state. Here are a few of my favorites on the Roadside America list of Missouri Tourist Attractions and Oddities : Big Chair in Branson, Missouri (there are several things in Branson .. it is a quirky town!). Precious Moments Park and Chapel in Carthage, Missouri. Jim Brown's Gas Station in Center, Missouri. Oldest Continuously Operating Motel on Route 66 in Cuba, Missouri (heck, just drive the old historic Route 66!). Walt Disney Hometown Museum in Marceline, Missouri. Beverly Hillbillies car at Ralph Foster Museum in ...

Are you looking for a little history while in Missouri? There are several historic sites , but two in particular would be worth a special trip. Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Museum Mansfield, Missouri, is home to Rock Ridge Farm, better known as the Laura Ingalls Wilder House . It is the home that Laura and Almanzo built and resided from 1896 until her death in 1957 and where she wrote the Little House books. The home is one of the few surviving structures where Laura actually lived and is now a museum honoring her. The Museum and grounds are open from March 1st to November 15th. You can visit: The homes The Rose Wilder Lane museum The Rocky Ridge Bookstore Laura's Vegetable Garden While you are in Mansfield, and if you love gardening, stop by Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company . I have heard it is quite a site to behold! They specialize in preserving 19th century seeds including Asians and European varieties. Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Muse...

For today's tour of Missouri, we are meandering through The Ozarks. The Ozarks encompass a large stretch of land in Southeast Missouri. If you are looking for some lake and country fun, it would fit the bill for you. Today I will be taking you through Springfield, Branson, and the Lake of the Ozarks. Springfield, Missouri Springfield is a quiet city with its claim to fame being the home of the original Bass Pro Shops . We lived there for seven years and even though it is a fantastic city wherein to reside and raise a family, Bass Pro Shops is about the only touristy thing there is to do there. Really. I only mention Springfield because if you are going to Branson and are into the fishing/hunting/outdoors thing, then it's worth a short drive to Springfield to see it. While at Bass Pro Shops, it's worth a look at the Wonders of Wildlife museum and lunch at Hemingway's is first-rate. And in between Springfield and Branson you will find Lambert's Cafe: H...

Welcome to Day 2 of the Five Days of …. Blog Hop sponsored by the Schoolhouse Review Crew. I am giving you five days of Missouri. Today we are talking about Kansas City. We live much closer to Kansas City than St. Louis. I guess that's why we haven't really vacationed there. I have never looked at it from a tourist's perspective. So that's exactly what I have done. I pretended that I had never been to Kansas City before and were researching a trip there. If I were going to visit Kansas City, I would do it around Christmastime. There are so many fun things to do and see in Kansas City around Christmas. Where to Stay The Country Club Plaza is a magical place with all of its Christmas lights. There are many hotels with views of the Christmas lights, and it's lovely. The shopping and restaurants at The Plaza are second-to-none, and you can walk to get wherever you want. It is a perfect central spot while you visit the city. What to Do Next to Th...

The Schoolhouse Review Crew is participating in a blog hop this week. There are over 60 of my crew members participating in the hop with topics ranging from geography to homemaking to frugal homeschooling to parenting.  With summer vacations nearing, I thought I would change things up a bit and post about all things Missouri this week. I will be posting about our favorite cities to visit, historical landmarks, and just strange and fun things to do here. Missouri is one of those states that is off the radar when it comes to vacationing, but I hope that after reading some of my posts this week you might decide you would like to visit our fine state. Our first stop is our favorite city in Missouri …. St. Louis! We have actually vacationed in St. Louis on three different occasions. It is my kids' favorite place to vacation. No, there are no beaches and we do not go to Six Flags. But, there are so many fun and free things to do in St. Louis that it makes for a really fu...

The winner of The Secret Garden prize pack from my 5 Days of Literature Unit Studies is ..... DONNA from Homeschooling in Sunny Florida & My Midlife "Green" Crisis! Congratulations, Donna! E-mail me at taulmans@netzero.net for your shipping information.

The piece of literature ... The themes ... The corresponding books ... The activities ... We almost have everything we need for a great unit study. But something is missing. In fact, it's that "something" that oftentimes starts me down the path for a particular unit study in the first place. It's time for the field trip. I mentioned in the first post of this series to always be on the lookout for inspiration . Be watching library billboards, community newspapers, blog posts, etc. , for something that might spark a particular interest in your kids (or in you .... sometimes just your enthusiasm is all your child needs to get enthusiastic, as well.) The Secret Garden unit study all started with me seeing a notice on our community blog for auditions for the upcoming community theatre production of the book. The actual play was to take place several months later, so it gave me time to plan the unit, read the book, and do all activities before the production...

We have the featured piece of literature. We have the study themes chosen. We have checked out our corresponding books from the library. And now we need to put together some daily activities to reinforce what we have been reading. Let's face it. Very rarely are we the VERY FIRST one to be forced to come up with some activity ideas for something we are studying. MANY have forged before us. And, I take advantage of those persons of inspiration DAILY! What in the world did we do before the internet?? I shudder to think. Like I previously stated, I knew that I wanted to do some activities with The Secret Garden around the themes of "gardens", "tea parties", and "plants". I specifically wanted to do a full plant unit. So I Googled. And I came upon a FREE plant unit study by Susan Kilbride at FuntasticUnitStudies . This study was one chapter from her book Science Unit Studies for Homeschoolers and Teachers (which I just received complimentary fr...

You have chosen your piece of literature. And you have narrowed down the themes you want to cover. Now is the fun part! You get to figure out what books and activities you will use in your unit study. This is my favorite part of planning a unit study. I could (and usually do) spend HOURS stalking my library and other blogs and websites for ideas. Lets start with the library . That's where I always start. For a unit study, each day we typically read a chapter or two of the featured piece of literature, read a picture book or two on the desired theme, and do an activity. The first thing I do is go to my public library website and do a search of the literature's title. The reason I do this is because sometimes there are books that have activities that tie right into that piece of literature. That happened with The Secret Garden . There is a book called Inside the Secret Garden: a treasury of crafts, recipes and activities by Carolyn Strom Collins that had baking reci...

Now that you have your piece of literature chosen, it's time to start planning your unit. It's now time to choose the themes you will study. Doing this will depend on how much you know about the book you are reading. I had never read The Secret Garden when I decided that we would do a unit on it. Of course if you have time, you can read the book first and jot down themes as you go . Or, you can easily do an internet search. Why reinvent the wheel? There are hundreds of thousands of people out there who have identified themes from literature and gladly posted about them. After some brief research, I decided that our themes would center around gardening and a full plant study . There was also the underlying theme of friendship and kindness that was going to be included in all of our discussions. I had read Charlotte's Web in my childhood, and had seen all of the movies about it. I knew that we would want to study farms, pigs, and spiders . And, what do you know, ...