Montana Life - Living History and the Summer Road Trip

We made it out with friends again this weekend, for another dose of Montana history on the road - this time with a local Lewis and Clark event, and I'm wondering...

...is it only in Montana where the Native American dancers carry cell phones (handy for rounding up their lost drummer) and cameras...

...and children are called to the front chairs for the beaver skinning demonstration?

Or, is this everyday life everywhere in the country?

Baked Bannock - A Hands on Pioneer Activity

Also on the table, next to what we are now calling a grease lamp, at the Old Trail Museum was another item that caught our attention.  This time, it was not because it was oddly named (although I'm pretty sure they spelled it wrong, and mislabeled it as "hardtack", which it is not - but who am I to argue with the museum people, maybe they know something I don't), but because it looked like it might be something we could eat...

...at least, if we mixed up a batch, at home, ourselves.

Originating in Scotland (the name coming from the Gaelic bhannag, bannach, or bonnach), bannock was adopted into North American Native American culture, becoming fry bread.

There are a number of different variations on the recipe, but basically, it is just a biscuit type bread mix - consisting of flour, salt, baking powder, and water, kneaded together, and fried in a skillet with bacon grease.

I'm imaging an old mountain man frying up a serving of bacon, plopping some of the dough into the still hot grease, to make a biscuit, and then scooping it up, adding a little more flour and water to the pan, for biscuits, bacon and gravy (we have to try that too).

It can however, also be baked in an oven (or for that matter, wrapped on a stick and roasted over a camp fire - another method we would like to try).

We found a child-friendly, oven baked bannock recipe, provided by Chief Earl Old Person of the Blackfeet Nation, on Montanakids.com.

According to the chief, his people traditionally enjoy the bread with a meal of fried beef roast and potatoes, and chokecherry jelly, washed down with coffee or peppermint tea.

We cut the recipe in half, added a tablespoon of sugar (because we could), and enjoyed our bannock warm, with blackberry jelly and lemon curd.

To learn more about bannock bread click to:

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Bannock_%28food%29
http://www.canadianliving.com/food/bannock.php
https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/rsi/fnb/fnb.htm#history
http://montanakids.com/activities_and_games/recipes/Bannock_Bread.htm

Or check out these picture and project books for young audiences:

A Pioneer "What" Light?

The kids all did a double take as we walked through Old Trail Museum in Choteau, MT.

"Mom, does that sign card really say that?"

I can't arch a single eyebrow, but if I could, I would have - "Well, it seems to.  I guess we'll...er...I'll have to look that one up, when we get home."

Which I did, very carefully, and it turns out a "bitch light" refers to a piece of twisted rag, soaked in a pan of grease, usually bacon grease, lit for indoor illumination, in the pioneer era, when candles were in short supply, or too expensive to be had.  In fact, there were a number of similar, but slightly different grease lamps - the Betty, the Phoebe, the cruise, the button, and the slutt (sometimes written "slut") lamp.  

As to the etymology of the word...that seems to be lost to history.  Or, it is at least, buried deeper than I am willing to venture with such a search phrase.  I imagine it was derived from some German or Dutch and English word combination, and it does seem to have to do with the rag wick which was originally called the now offensive word.

I popped around to a large number of history and antiquing sites to glean this bit of information (too many to name sources here), but if you are curious about the lamps, I would suggest "pioneer grease lamps" as the safest of the search phrases to learn more without learning "more".  There are even a number of Little House on the Prairie, Long Winter-inspired, hands on projects for (well supervised) children, out there.  We might yet try our hands at making one, but first we have a few more items to check out.

You really never know what you're going to find in a museum (or what it's going to be called).

 "Thunder Bucket"

Summer Fun 2014 - Water Balloons, Chalk Drawings and the Monument Men - 10 Minute History

I've been listening to an audio version of Robert M Edsel's The Monument Men, Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History.  The movie based on the book was a little lack luster.  I'm hoping the book is better, because the true story is quite intriguing.

The children aren't officially listening, but have been catching snippets of the story as they pass through whatever room I happen to be in. 

So, when I saw our chalk tracings had survived the night, and the sprinklers this morning, I couldn't resist setting up a quick Monuments Men inspired history activity.

First, I sent the younger children out to draw armies (rows of x's and o's  in different colors) advancing on each other in and around our irreplaceable works of art.

I lined the children up, a short distance from the patio, gave them a bucket full of water balloons, and a mission.

The girls' objective was to destroy all of the o's, while their brother attempted to wipe out the x's.

When all the water balloon bombs had burst, and peace was declared, the o's were gone, the x's were fading...

...the artwork was washing away...

...and the children had learned, lives aren't the only things lost in a war.

Summer Fun Day 40 - Founding Fathers Go Fish

We're passing some of the time before the fireworks today by finding the faces behind the signatures on the Declaration of Independence.

I copied pictures of the signers from www.ushistory.org, and edited them in Paint to add the colony each man represented at the Continental Congress, across the top. Then, I printed two wallet sized copies of each image, glued them, individually, onto 3''x4'' pieces of construction paper, and sandwiched them in contact paper...

...ready for a rousing game of "Find the Founding Father".

Do you have a Thomas Jefferson from Virginia?

 Go find a founding father.

Do yoooou have a John Hancock from Massachusetts?

It's great to be a homeschooler.

A Presidential Smile, Or Giving George a Grin

Besides all of his amazing accomplishments as a soldier and statesman, George Washington is probably best remembered for his grin.

We read, and discovered from Deborah Chandra and Madeleine Comora's George Washington's Teeth, just what was behind his smile - or lack of one. The poor president had terrible teeth, followed by difficult dentures.

The simple story, told in rhyme, is perfect for a President's Day story time for younger children, but there is also a fact filled timeline of Washington's dental history, and other events from his life, for older children and adults, at the back of the book.

It left us wondering how different the first presidential portraits might have looked if Washington had had access to modern dentistry, or maybe even a tube of proper toothpaste. To give the children an idea of what a difference a smile can make, I cut and pasted grins from the pictures of the presidents on the White House website, for a mix and match, who's grin is he wearing sort of activity.

Actually, only seven of the presidents are pictured with open mouth smiles. I borrowed two closed mouth smiles from among the rest, to make a nice square picture. Then I scrambled up the presidents, printed the pictures out in black and white so color variations, and skin tone wouldn't matter, and asked the children to figure out which of his predecessor's grins George had borrowed in each square.


Once the children had correctly identified each president's smile, I ask them which one they thought looked best on George Washington. They decided on President Clinton's smile, though that probably has more to do with facial shapes, than moral character, I'm sure.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Pizza (and a Craft) for Everyone!

Do you ever feel like you're loosing your mind? Yesterday, I came across a fabulous idea for making homemade Easy Bake Oven pizza, using refrigerator biscuit crust. Today, I can't find the link again to save my life. It wouldn't be so bad, except the site also mentioned making Easy Bake Oven monkey bread, and I really wanted to check that out.

The pizzas turned out terrific, though. And, true to their name, they are very easy to make.

Just pat down the biscuit dough (half a biscuit if you are using "grands") into a greased, Easy Bake cake pan...


...spread on a spoonful of sauce (we used pizza, spaghetti, or whatever)...


...sprinkle on cheese (we used shredded string cheese)...


...and add a single topping. I splurged and picked up some mini pepperonis, but almost any flat topping would do. You just don't want it to get too bulky, or it won't fit in the Easy Bake.


Place it into the preheated oven for the amount of time listed on the biscuit packaging (15 minutes in our case)...


...for a perfect little pizza.


My intention was to have the younger girls make a couple, for before lunch appetizers (also known as a mid-morning snack)...

...but all of the children decided they wanted to make one, so we switched over to a cookie sheet, and the big oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (another idea from the website I can no longer locate).


While we waited for our pizzas to bake, I read the children Pizza for the Queen by Nancy Castaldo. It's a fun retelling of the history of Pizza Margherita, the basil, cheese and tomato pizza made in honor of the Italian queen in 1889.

In fact, there's even a recipe for Pizza Margherita at the back of the book, as well as some fun pizza facts. Did you know, for instance, that Americans eat 350 slices of pizza per second?

We already had our pizza for the day, so instead of trying out the recipe, we followed up the book with a cardboard, and paper pizza craft from babies, toddlers, and preschoolers, oh my! via Watcha Making Wednesday at The Ramblings and Adventures of a S.A.H.M....


...that called for cardboard crusts, paper toppings, and red paint (we opted for red colored glue) for sauce. The girls helped cut, and scrunch (for the sausage) the toppings.


Then, they happily put together pizzas, that might not have the Italian color scheme of Pizza Margherita...


...but our certainly fit for a queen.


It's great to be a homeschooler.

Linked with stART(story + ART) at A Mommy's Adventures, and the History and Geography link-up at All Things Beautiful.