Horsin' around

After attending a workshop on unit studies over the summer, I decided to give it a try this year. Using this method, we choose a topic and most of our subjects relate to the topic. Our first unit study was on Russia, and it went well, although we had to give ourselves a little grace as we got used to this new method.

Now we're getting ready to wrap up our unit study on horses. We have had so much fun with this one! We have learned about different breeds of horses, including their origin, size, characteristics, and common uses. We've learned the names used to describe the colors and markings of a horse. We've diagramed the anatomy of the horse and labeled the parts of the hoof. We've discussed many famous people and places that have some connection with the horse: ancient Egypt (one of the first civilizations to use horses), George Washington (who owned the first mule in the U.S.), and Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders in the Spanish-American war.

Julianne read Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey (which she says is one of the best books ever spoiled by the worst ending ever) and Caleb is about to finish up The Black Stallion. I am reading Black Beauty aloud to them, which is a real treat since this is my first time reading it! We watched the documentary on Sea Biscuit, which the kids thought would be boring, but actually found fascinating.

We've used books to teach different methods of drawing a horse from scratch. We've learned about the body language of a horse. The kids have written descriptive paragraphs, a poem, looked up definitions for "horse" vocabulary, and copied famous quotes that relate to horses.

Our latest project was determining how much it costs to own a horse. We called a stable and a farrier (photo), and visited the vet and a feed & tack store. All our projects have been used to make a cool notebook for each child that I know they will enjoy looking back on for years to come.

Best of all, the kids have had FUN and are all retaining so much of what they're learning. When I picked Elisa up from church last night, her teacher told me that during a game of charades, Elisa stumped the other kids by acting out dressage.

We are just about finished, and if the weather cooperates, our grand finale will be a trip to a riding stable for a horse ride. The Edward Jones guy in Cresent City is a real cowboy and has invited us to visit his ranch, so we are hoping to eventually make a trip there.

When you come try out the new guest room, you'll have to take a peek at the kids' horse notebooks too!