lexington county museum

Thursday we went to the Lexington County Museum to learn about Native Americans.  The boys learned about Native American games, legends such as ‘How the Turtle cracked his shell’, different furs that they were able to feel, food the Native Americans grew, the way they wove baskets, and they also were able to make a small clay pot.  One interesting fact that I didn’t realize was that the Cherokee Indians didn’t wear the feather headdress like I thought Indians did.  They wore the simple turbans like the tour guide is wearing here, that had a few feathers tucked in the side.  So I am learning right along with the boys ☺

talking about legends

the boogie man mask

catch the stick game

you had to shake the basket and count how many rocks had a black mark on them, and whoever had the highest number won…

 

pinecone basketball

 

throwing arrows made out of feathers with rocks attached to them for weights, and corncobs through the wreaths…

catch the rabbit game…they threw the stick to try and hit a ball that two other kids were rolling to each other…

lacrosse

same catch the rabbit game

learning about different skins

a papoose that a chief’s wife would use

halloween fun

I usually don’t decorate for Halloween.  I start to think at the end of the season I’m going to stock up on clearance decoration items for the next year, and I usually don’t. But one thing that we did last year that the boys enjoyed was making salt dough ghosts, so that’s what we did this year too. I found it on the Family Fun website and it looked easy, and I can handle easy with not a whole lot of instructions.  The kids really enjoyed it and walk by our “Halloween decoration table” and play with the ghosts every now and then.  We also made paper bag trees and used paper lunch sacks instead of the big grocery paper bags.  We’ve just now added some other spooky characters that I found in a kit at WalMart today for $5.  It was modeling clay and instructions on how to make a few Halloween characters…just something to channel the kids desire to do something crafty.  They’ve been wanting to work with clay ever since we went to the Lexington County museum yesterday and were able to make a small clay pot in conjuction with learning about the Native Americans and how they lived.   I’ve been needing to incorporate some fun, crafty things with the kids, so I was glad I found some easy ways to accomplish this. 

    His head fell off Mommy!!   OOOOOOHHHHHH…I’m scared…    Shaun had just come in from work, so don’t mind his stained clothing…it was muddy that day!!    Shaun’s ghost he made and Carson thought we were making snowmen…     Getting ready to be cooked in the microwave…           

    

Carson enjoyed playing with the scene the most.  We read the book “Five Little Pumpkins” and he made 5 little orange pumpkins to sit on the gate, like in the story.  Then he placed them on the tree to make a pumpkin tree…he has some imagination.