Finding Montessori: Little House Activities Part II

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Little House Activities Part II

There are so many beautiful parts of our country that have connections to the past. I currently live in Tennessee, which was never a part of the country where the Ingalls or Wilder families settled, but by doing a bit of research, I was able to find relics of the past in the Smoky Mountains that 1. gave my kids an idea of how people lived in those times, 2. is within a day's drive, and 3. was free!

We visited Cades Cove in the Smoky Mountain National Park. This area of the park is home to many examples of log homes and buildings for exploring as well as a living history area. Schools nearby to the mountains are able to go here for field trips but curriculum materials are provided on the national park website for free. I found their lesson plans to be very helpful.

Elijah Oliver's Cabin

Pumpkin and Little Dude enjoyed exploring the home and buildings around Cades Cove. They were able to see how the buildings were constructed and imagine how a family would have lived.

log construction up close

springhouse

Little Dude loved exploring around the Springhouse, a building built as the family's "refrigerator." The cold running water cooled food to keep it fresh.

wood shingles of springhouse

Pumpkin and Little Dude had a lesson from their Papa on how this log barn must have been constructed. Everywhere we looked, it was clear how independent and hard-working these settlers were.

We moved on to explore a grist mill and were lucky enough to meet up with a musician playing the guitar, banjo, and dulcimer. Also that day was a demonstration of making sorghum molasses. The kids were able to watch the sorghum cane being crushed by a mill powered by a friendly mule and boiled down into sweet syrup. We tasted the molasses and it was the best I've tasted. We bought some home with us but you can get it here.