Sunday, July 28, 2013

"Brother Brigham Says..." (Pioneer Week)



Native Utahns know that the week of July 24th means Pioneer fun! That's because July 24, 1847 is the day that our pioneer ancestors first entered the Salt Lake Valley and declared that 'this was the place' they would settle. Fleeing from religious persecution they made their way across miles and miles of treacherous desert, enduring incredible hardships, but all the while forging ahead with faith and fortitude.  Utahns, as well as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, look forward to this time each year when we can honor our pioneers by remembering their courage, their struggles and sacrifices, and above all, their faith.  As a result, July 24th is a full-blown state holiday in Utah, complete with the annual "Days of '47" parade, professional rodeos and many other festivities. 


No matter where you live and no matter what your religious beliefs are though, we all have pioneers who came before us in one way or another.  So find ways to celebrate them by learning about your own personal histories, taking field trips, reading books, visiting museums, or preparing recipes and playing games common to your ancestors' time period. 



 . . .

Members of the LDS faith know that Brigham Young, the prophet and president of our Church at the time, led the Mormon pioneers west on their journey to the Salt Lake Valley. As kids, each Pioneer Day we would sing the song "Brother Brigham Says" by Nonie Sorenson, a clever song about  some of the wise counsel that Brigham Young gave the saints while crossing the plains.  Overtime, the title to this song became our nickname for this week's unit. 

Here are my family's annual traditions for our pioneer week, or as we like to call it "Brother Brigham Says":

{Please note that a lot of these activities are specific to Salt Lake City, Utah, where I grew up. For those outside of Utah, I hope it will at least inspire some pioneer fun of your own, or at the very least give you some awesome suggestions of things to do if you ever visit Salt Lake!}


Visit Brigham Young Historic Park




Take a Tour of the "Beehive House"
(Brigham Young's Home)





Visit Brigham Young Cemetery

Just East of Temple Square in Salt Lake City is a tiny cemetery nestled between modern sky-rise apartments. A quiet place for pondering, this beautiful little memorial park is where Brigham Young and some other notable pioneers are buried, including Brigham Young's wife MaryAnn Angel. 







Eat Lunch at the Lion House Pantry

Once part of Brigham Young's personal residence, this home-turned-restaurant has some of the most delicious homemade goodness. 




Their rolls are THE best!



Have Gingerbread at This is the Place Monument




The Sunday before Pioneer Day, my family's tradition is always to go up to "This is the Place Monument" (dedicated to the site where  the Pioneers first saw the valley and Brigham Young declared it to be the place where they would settle).  We take a pan of freshly baked gingerbread to eat with homemade whipped cream and sliced bananas while we sit and talk about our pioneer ancestors. 


at Allrecipes.com


Visit The Daughters of the Utah Pioneer Museum

Located next to Utah's State Capital Building, this museum houses an enormous amount of pioneer artifacts including Brigham Young's covered wagon.  We even found some items that belonged to our very own ancestors!  



Be a Pioneer at This is the Place Heritage Park

Laid out to look and feel like a real pioneer village in the 1850's this Heritage Park is complete with log cabins, victorian homes, a school house, a mercantile store, a barbershop and a bank. In fact, there are over 50 historic buildings to visit and activities for every age level. Some of our favorites include attending "school" where a headmistress teaches you the Deseret Alphabet, petting  animals in the barnyard, riding the train, panning for gold, carding sheep's wool, hand-washing laundry with a washboard and lye soap, and playing pioneer games! Don't forget to get an ice-cold Sarsparilla (pioneer soda) and some horehounds and lemon drops (pioneer candy) at the mercantile store!







And be sure to wear your pioneer bonnets!

. . .

I was excited to find that my current hometown has a pioneer village of its own: The Pioneer Living History Village!  My son and I invited some of his good buddies and their moms to join us on a visit! Thanks to all who came!



Make Pioneer Crafts and Tasty Treats

Over the years we have done a lot of pioneer crafts and activities during our "Brother Brigham Says" unit: churning our own homemade butter, dipping candles, making yarn and corn husk dolls, soap carving, and braiding rag rugs, etc. And one year we even hand-sewed miniature quilts for our dolls! Thankfully I found a few blogs that already have instructions on how to do most of these activities (whew! that saved me some time!) See the links below.


at the CraftyCrow.net






at Wikihow.com



How to Make
at VeronicaArmstrong.com



Kid-Friendly 
at Jamiecooksitup.net




Sing Pioneer Songs 

Go Bring Them In From the Plains, arr. Sam Cardon
Come, Come Ye Saints, LDS Hymnbook
Brother Brigham Says, Nonie Sorenson
The Handcart Song, LDS Children's Songbook
Pioneer Children Sang as they WalkedLDS Children's Songbook
To Be a PioneerLDS Children's Songbook



Read Pioneer Books







For older children:





One of our very favorite pioneer books is
Betsy Buttons by Erla Young.  It tells the true story of Liza Jane, a young pioneer girl and her doll Betsy Buttons, who both came across the plains with the Mormon pioneers. For many years, Erla hand sewed beautiful Betsy Buttons dolls after the same pattern used by Liza Jane's mother. My mom was able to collect over the years a Betsy Buttons doll for each of her daughters. 




Have a Campfire Dinner

Growing up we would always go to a real chuckwagon dinner at a restaurant called WagonMaster where you could actually sit in a covered wagon to eat your pioneer grub. Sadly, this restaurant closed years ago.  Dutch oven or tinfoil dinners made over a campfire are a perfect alternative though. My family has enjoyed both of these options many times over the years thanks to my dad who loved taking us camping and was a pro at dutch oven cooking! Still makes my mouth water thinking about his peach cobbler. 



at OutsideMom.com



at Highheelsandgrills.blogspot.com




Watch Pioneer Videos

The three we recommend are: 

Legacy: A Mormon Journey
available on DVD at the LDS Distribution Center


17 Miracles 
A major motion picture available wherever DVDs are sold



A Pioneer Miracle
 A powerful, moving short film available from Deseret book as a double-feature DVD.






Read and Learn about your 
Own Pioneer Ancestry! 

Of all the activities we do for this unit, the most important and the most impactful is our discussion of our pioneer ancestors. My mom over the years has read to us stories, memoirs, even original journal entries. And not just from our own ancestral line. There are SO many AMAZING pioneer stories of faith, courage, and miracles. If you are members of the LDS faith, no doubt you have heard many of these stories throughout your life. These stories and lessons are beautiful and moving reminders of what it means to sacrifice, to endure, and to have real faith. And they can serve to strengthen us in our own times of trial as we cross the "wilderness" of life. 

Here are just a few suggestions: 





(The well known story of a man who defends 
the Willie Martin Handcart company)






Sleep out for the "Days of '47" Parade 

I've actually had the opportunity to ride on a float in this parade twice as a child. But other years, my family has enjoyed joining thousands of others in sleeping out downtown on the parade route so we'll have front row seats for the big parade! In the words of John Denver "we don't get a lot of sleep but we have a lot of fun!"



These pictures make me smile :) 



I am so thankful for my own pioneer ancestors.   
For Pleasant Drake who never made it to the Salt Lake Valley because she died in Council Bluffs, Iowa, crying out for vegetables. For Benjamin Cazier who wrote in his diary about broken wagons, muddy rivers, dusty trails, and miles and miles and miles of walking. For Walter Wickam who came across the plains as an 11 year-old boy without his parents and who suffered from Mountain Fever the entire way. For his sister Rose who came with him and recorded in her diary that "every morning the Captain would ask if he was dead yet."  She spoke of rationed food, starving cattle, and wading through snow up to their knees. "We saw great hardships," she wrote. 

And for the many, many other pioneers who experienced sacrifices such as this. For the mothers who buried their babies in unmarked graves, for the children who lost their parents along the way, for the limbs that were amputated due to frost bite, for the bellies that experienced unimaginable hunger, for the blistered, shoeless feet that kept walking mile after mile, and most of all for the example these pioneers are of steadfast and unfaltering faith. 


"Come, Come Ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear, but with joy wend your way. Though hard to you, this journey may appear, grace shall be as your day . . . Gird up your loins; fresh courage take. Our God will never us forsake. And soon we'll have this tale to tell-- All is well! All is well."


Happy Pioneer Week!



Saturday, July 20, 2013

"I Believe I Can Fly" Week




The next unit in our weeks of "Summer Magic" is: I Believe I Can Fly!  This week focuses on different elements of "taking to the air" - the flight of birds, soaring high on a ferris wheel, flying kites, running with the wind, and aiming high by learning to set goals and have faith in oneself. 




These are some of the activities that we do for this unit:


VISIT AN AVIARY,
Go Bird Watching, or Go See the Birds at your Zoo

Some cities have an aviary, like my hometown, which happens to be a world-class aviary so if you live there you should definitely go!  An aviary is a great way to get up close and personal with all kinds of birds! If you don't live by one though, go bird watching or visit your zoo to see what kinds of birds they have there. A lot of zoos even feature a bird show! 

In Salt Lake City, Utah
During your visit, be sure to learn some new facts about the birds you see. Like for example, did you know that: 

The smallest bird in the world is only 5cm long! 


A group of larks is called an exaltation, a group of chickens is

 called a peep, a group of geese is called a gaggle, a group of 

ravens is called a murder, and a group of owls is called a

 parliament.

A birds heart can beat up to 1000 times per minute!


Some birds use stars as a form of navigation.




MAKE "BIRD NESTS" FOR DINNER

We made these this week and they were really yummy. There are A LOT of recipes with lots of variations, so pick the one that sounds the best to you. I used the recipe here though, if you're interested. 



"Make a nest of pleasant thoughts." 
Mary Englebreit 



LEARN ABOUT BIRDS and FLIGHT

Do a "bird report" using books you check out at the library or read some of our favorite books about birds and/or "flight": 






"Use what talents you have. The woods would have little music if no birds sang their song, except those that sang the best." 
Reverend Oliver Wilson



SING "I BELIEVE I CAN FLY" 
(by R. Kelly from the movie Space Jam)


This is a great song that teaches kids the importance of setting goals and believing in themselves, and was my mom's inspiration for this unit. Sing this song with your kids and discuss what it means in each of their own lives. What goals do your kids want to reach for? What dreams do they have for the future?  Explain to them that if they work hard and dream big, they can accomplish anything!

This is one of my FAVORITE quotes. It led me to achieve some of the biggest accomplishments I've made in my own life:



 BELIEVE that you can fly! 




FLY KITES and 
MAKE KITE SANDWICHES

Here are two examples of how we make our kite sandwiches. The first, is a tunafish sandwich cut into the shape of a kite. To make the kite string, just peel a long carrot. It will naturally curl. Tuck it into the bottom corner of your "kite."


Or, here is a PB and J open-face version. Spread your peanut butter and jelly onto a piece of kite-shaped bread in a pattern like so. Use the same carrot technique for the kite string. 



MAKE "Run Like the Wind" Sticks 

We got this idea from Parent magazine years ago. It is a fun and easy craft that allows your kids to literally run like the wind. Follow the instructions to make your own wind catchers:

Here are pictures I took to help illustrate each step: 


You will need:
1 clear or white large trash bag
2 large plastic cups
1 long wooden stick or dowel
2 rubberbands
Scissors

1. Cut the bottoms off of two large plastic cups
2. Take the sealed end of the trash bag and wrap it around one cup, about 1" from the rim. Tape it in place.
3. Thread the other end of the trash bag through the second plastic cup.
4. Push the cup all the way up the bag so that it overlaps the first cup and their rims touch.
5. With scissors, cut the loose end of the trash bag into thin strips stopping about 2/3 of the way up.
6. Poke two opposing holes on either side of the cups, just below the rim of the bottom cup.
7. Push a wooden dowel or stick through both holes.
8. Rubber band each side of the stick to hold it in place.

Hold onto the bottom of the stick and run with it, the cup opening facing the direction you are running. The cup will catch the wind and funnel it through your trash bag streamers!






TAKE A RIDE ON A FERRIS WHEEL 

There's nothing like getting on a big ferris wheel to feel like you are soaring high in the sky. My mom made this a little tradition we always did during our "I Believe I Can Fly" Week.  It was convenient because there is a ferris wheel right next to Tracy Aviary, where we would go to see the birds! Take your own kids for a ride on a ferris wheel or find another way to soar above the ground! 





Thanks to my awesome sister-in-law for taking these pics!



MAKE CLOTHESPIN AIRPLANES


From Parents.com 




LEARN A LESSON FROM THE GEESE

During this unit we would always talk about Geese. My mom had this little article that teaches five beautiful lessons about these remarkable birds and I was excited to see that this same article is posted on a Christian website so that you too can read it! :


Teach your own kids about geese and the important lessons we can learn from their example. 




WATCH "FLY AWAY HOME"

A cute movie about a little girl and a flock of orphaned geese. 




"When you come to the edge of all the light you have, and must take a step into the darkness and unknown, believe that one of two things will happen...  Either there will be something solid for you to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly."  

Patrick Overton