Check this out! US History and Science Drawings

This is my picture of the three branches of government:  legislative, judicial, and executive

This is a comic of a news reporter at Yellowstone when the super volcano beneath it erupts!

 

What I Did on My Winter Vacation

  In home school I have been learning about the three branches of government, the Charters of Freedom, and what then ensure for us.  After I finished my studies, my brother Zane, my best friend Dylan, my mom, and I went to Washington, D.C. to visit the National Archives and to take a tour of the Capitol Building.

 
   We arrived at the Pentagon City Mall and took the metro to the Navy Memorial/Archives stop on the Yellow Line.  At the National Archives, we hopped into the line of people waiting to have their bags checked.  Soon thereafter we were stepping up to see the Charters of Freedom:  The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.  The Declaration of Independence was very faded from sitting in the U.S. Patent Office in direct sunlight many years ago.  You can still read parts of it clearly, like John Hancock's signature.  The Constitution is in perfect condition.  You can still read the preamble at the beginning of the four-page document.  I also spotted Benjamin Franklin and George Washington's signatures.  The Bill of Rights was in good condition, and you can see all the words to it.  Zane even spotted John Adam's signature.

  After that we took a taxi to the Capitol Building.  We went into their amazing new visitor's center and watched a short movie before we began our tour.  We started in the room called the crypt, where George Washington was going to be buried, but he refused the offer because he didn't want to be treated like a monarch.  This room holds up the rotunda above, where we went next.  Its dome is huge, bigger than I had thought it would be.  Above us was a painting of thirteen ladies representing the original thirteen colonies and right near the front of them sat George Washington.  Around the room were paintings telling little bits of American history.  We then visited the old House Chamber.  It was very small and domed at the top, and was full of statues.

 On our way out, we stopped in at the Library of Congress.  It was probably the most extraordinary building I have ever seen.  It had tons and tons of books inside.  The Grand Hall lobby had a tiled ceiling, corinthian columns, murals, and mosaics everywhere.  I would have stayed there all day, but we couldn't.

Seeing these historical documents and visiting the Capitol Building meant so much more than just reading about them.  I'm looking forward to our next big visit to DC!

My Trip to Yorktown

  Last week my mom and I visited Yorktown, the site of the decisive battle that ended the American Revolution.  The battle of Yorktown lasted two weeks.  British general Cornwalis was trapped at Yorktown - the French fleet had the British blockaded by sea and the Continental Army and the French troops surrounded them by land.  Finally the British surrendered in 1781 and the war officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

  During our visit we saw an encampment with tents behind the Yorktown Victory Center.  We got to see a cooking demonstration using an earthen mound with holes in the bottom of it to cook food over.  There was also a lecture on field medicine, surgery, and apothocary treatments (it was very nasty), but best of all, I got to help in an artillery demonstration.  We couldn't set off the cannon we were pretending to fire, but the people who worked there could!  After we showed how to set off a cannon, the people working there actually shot off a mortar with a loud BANG!

  Not far from the Victory Center is the actual battlefield.  You can still see the earthen battlements made by the soldiers.  Visiting Yorktown was a gratifying conclusion to my studies of the American Revolution.

Animals Inside/Vertebrate Comparison: Human vs. Deer Skeletal Systems

  In science we are studying human anatomy while we learn about vertebrates and bodily systems. I had to choose one body system to create a project on. I chose to focus on the skeletal system because most people associate skeletons with Halloween and I like Halloween and spooky things, but as I learned quickly they weren't scary at all. They turned out to be fascinating.  The skeleton's function is to support the body, promote movement, and to create blood cells from the bone marrow.

 One thing that I have to do is compare and contrast the human skeleton and an another animal's skeleton. Luckily we had a friend named Wendy Martin who had a whole set of deer bones. She lent them to us so that we could try and assemble the bones, find out how old the deer was, and what its cause of death was.The bones were sooooo complex that we had a hard time putting them into the right place. Some of the bones were so small that we couldn't figure out where they went. After assembling the bones, we concluded that the deer was two and a half years old and died of a broken hip. Make no bones about it, it was a very awesome lesson!

Patrick Henry: Revolutionary Man

Patrick Henry was one of America's founding fathers.  He was a post-colonial governor of Virginia, and one of the most influential and radical advocates for the American Revolution and republicanism.  Patrick Henry later opposed the Articles of Confederation with the U.S. Constitution because he feared that it would endanger states rights and individual freedoms.

St. John's Church here in Richmond was the site of the Second Virginia Convention of 1775 and Patrick Henry's famous "give me liberty or give me death!" speech, his plea to unite Virginians to join the cause of the American Revolution.  If you are ever in Richmond, you should check out this historic site.  The church's baptismal font is where Pocahontas was christened and given the Christian name Rebecca.

Scotchtown, located outside of nearby Ashland, Virginia, was one of the many places that Patrick Henry lived.  He lived there for only five years.  Sadly, his wife Sarah was mentally ill, and luckily for her, Patrick had an enlightened view of mental illness.  Most people thought mental illness was caused by the devil.  At Scotchtown, he made sure that she was well taken care of.  When she died, no one would give her a proper burial, so Patrick did it himself.  There is a lilac bush just outside of the house where his wife is supposedly buried.Patrick Henry did not die at Scotchtown, but he moved to Red Hill Plantation closer to Richmond. There he died at the age of sixty three.

   Patrick Henry was a great man because of his revolutionary ideas and his kindness toward his wife. Not many people back then would be kind to mentally ill people. What makes him even more extraordinary was the fact that he taught himself law and he got himself  a job as a lawyer! He truly was a self-made man who was very compassionate towards others.

Johnny Tremain

  
 Eight patriotic men died at Lexington Green in the first volley of bullets; and so began the war for Independence, the American Revolution.

  Reading a work of historical fiction is a great way to get a inside look at historical events. We're learning about the American Revolution and we needed a good book that could give us the colonists' view and Johnny Tremain did just that. Johnny was a colonial silversmith's apprentice and was the best. Johnny had only one problem. He was so prideful in his work that one day he didn't see a puddle of melted wax on the floor, slipped in it and put his hand in molten silver, crippling it. He could no longer be a silversmith.

  Sometimes you need to fight for your beliefs, even if you have to die for them.

   Johnny had to find a new job. He finally settled on carrying papers for the Boston Observer, a local newspaper run secretly by the Sons of Liberty. He made a friend there named Rab. Rab wanted to fight and break away from England. One day Johnny heard the Sons of Liberty talk about having the Boston Tea Party and Johnny was to be part of it.

  "Mother England" taxes our tea, how dare she! We won't buy that tea, but we will board those tea ships and have a tea party in the harbor in which they sit!

Tea. The tea we have as part of our daily drink is gone to the sea for "Mother England" to see.

  During one of the Sons of Liberty meetings, they gave the following instructions.  If Sam Adams declared  "This meeting can do nothing for our country," Johnny would blow on a whistle to signal the start of the tea party. This is exactly what happened. Once Johnny got the signal, he blew on his whistle and patriots in Indian disguises started running onto the tea ships.  CHOP! CRACK! BOOM! SPLASH! That was the sound that came off those ships:  the sound of chests splitting and tea spilling into the harbor. When the work was done, the "Indians" ran back into the city and changed back into their original clothes. The "Indians,"  the British soon found out, were colonists and they had to pay for the tea.

  CRACK! The sound of a British gun firing, sounding the start of the American Revolution.

  The British started moving their troops into the colonies. While the British did that, the colonies formed militias of minutemen to fight back. At Lexington the British started fighting the minutemen and when the skirmish ended, eight minutemen were dead. Johnny knew Rab was at Lexington when the battle happened, so Johnny went looking for him. Johnny learned that Rab was mortally wounded. Rab later died from his wounds. Because of Rab's death, Johnny knows he has to fight for the freedom Rab wanted.  First he needs to have his crippled hand fix, which his friend Dr. Warren offers to do for him.  Johnny takes him up on it and begins to take up the cause. 

  I read this book because you can read all the facts about the American Revolution, but you won't find the important things that everyday people experienced.  Historical fiction gives you a fuller understanding because you get a different view that plain facts can't.  It puts you in the main character's shoes and allows you to see why people did things that they did.

Looking at Colonial Architecture: Shirley and Berkeley Plantations (VA)

  Shirley Plantation is about 10 miles outside of Richmond. We visited it because I am studying colonial history. Shirley was built along the James River in 1613. A man bought the plantation and named it after his wife, Shirley. He died before they moved in, so Shirley sold the plantation to another family. After three generations they could no longer keep the house in the family. They sold the plantation to the Hill Carter family. They still own the plantation today.

   There are lots of architectural designs in the interior that are beautiful. For example, the "Flying" staircase. It has no visible means of holding it up. It is a rare design in buildings. Sorry we don't have any pictures of it.

This is a dovecoat. They would use the doves to send messages, and as an excellent source of juicy dove meat and eggs. This is a picture (right) of me and my mom standing in front of Shirley's 350 year old oak tree.

We also went to Berkeley plantation where there is lots of history!  Our 9th President, William Henry Harrison lived at Berkeley, and Benjamin Harrison, who signed the Declaration of Independence, was born here as well. Berkeley was established in 1619 and was the site of the first thanksgiving. During construction hostile Indians attacked and killed everyone. Soon a new family bought Berkeley and finished construction of the plantation.

This was also the site where the song Taps was composed, and Lincoln came to visit General McClellan and the 140,000 Union troops that were stationed there. I could not imagine looking out the window and seeing so many tents on Berkeley's fields.  I would be scared that the Confederates would come and kill everyone on the plantation.  

 There was a good natural harbor at Berkeley and allowed them to have a good shipbuilding industry. They were master ship builders of the time. There was so much timber at Berkeley, they could make ships for years.

After the Civil War, the plantation fell into disrepair. No one used it or fixed it up until the early 1900's when a new family bought it. They soon opened it up for tourism to make some money to keep the plantation in the family. They still own it today.

I really enjoyed visiting these two plantations.  It gave me a good feel for colonial life.  During this time my family and I also watched the PBS show Colonial House,which was about modern day people setting up a colony in New England.  Their houses were one-roomed, no glass windows, and were simply furnished - very different from the plantations of the rich Virginians.  If I had to chose a colonial home, I think I would pick a plantation house!