Oregon Trail

One of the things that I'm trying to incorporate in our homeschool is project based learning.  The day to day grind of workbooks get to everyone, even with the added plus of living books to read. 

I decided to have the big girls work on a project for the Oregon Trail and found this absolutely fantastic website! 

This week that girls have set up their wagon families.  They decided who they were going to be on the trail and made up information about their families.  Princess is married with children and her parents riding in a separate wagon.  Bug-a-bug is a child with siblings and parents.

Today we spent time working on the Supply List.  The girls had to decide how many items for the tents and bedding that they needed and what the cost was going to be.  Some of the items weren't on the list so we discussed how easy it would be to make these items.  We will be covering food and cooking utensils tomorrow and other supplies later this week.

Next week we will start on Monday, packing our wagon and determining how many animals we are going to take along with us.  We started reading Bound for Oregon by Jean Van Leeuwen.  The girls are loving the story.  Tuesday we will be off on our trip and following the trail and sites along the map.  I'm going to look up some of the sites so that they have those to look at and reference.  If I get really energetic maybe I'll make a power-point.  Okay, probably not.....this term paper is due soon and I need to concentrate on that first. 

One of the things I love about this website is that there are FATE cards to follow along with.  Some are good, some bad, some are just quick decisions that may hold you up a day to see something special or do some hunting; but all are very interesting and fun. 

I hope you get a second to take a look at this website!!  Its absolutely fantastic!

Enjoy!