JJ's JUNIOR YEAR - FALL 2019 Field Trips

Here's a quick peek at some of the interesting places we visited during JJ's first Semester of Junior year. . . .

September 16, 2019 - We stopped at a local cafe' to watch charcoal artist, Mack Leighty, in action. It was interesting to have our questions answered and to watch him work. His charcoal drawings are so incredibly detailed that they look like black and white photographs. 

One of the finished drawings.

September 18, 2019 - A fun trip to Casey, IL, to see all the BIG things, many of which are in the Guinness Book of World Records. JJ is pictured here in a big bird cage with two of his cousins.

November 16, 2019 - JJ took his first college trip with a group of friends/family to visit the campus of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.

Post Office

November 21, 2019 - We took a visit to the local Post Office to see how things are run behind the counter.

We are still exploring job/career options this year, and hope to be visiting several more businesses during this final Semester of Junior year.

FIELD TRIP: Candles Holocaust Museum

A uniform for a male prisoner at Auschwitz.

Yesterday, we traveled to Terre Haute, Indiana, to visit the CANDLES HOLOCAUST MUSEUM. It was really interesting. It was founded by EVA KOR, a Holocaust survivor. She, and her 8 year old twin sister, Miriam, were one of the Mengele Twins. 

Josef Menegle was a Nazi doctor at Auschwitz who planned and supervised experiments that were done on over 200 sets of twins. One twin acted as a "control" while the other one was injected with different substances to see how they reacted.

Josef Mengele

Eva and Miriam are pictured on the left as young girls. The other two photos are of their two older sisters.

The entire family was forced to ride in a crowded cattle car for 3 days with no provisions. They were lied to and not told where they were going. They ended up here. This is the entrance to the concentration camp. One track took all the twins and other "selected" Jews to one area. Another track took the remaining Jews to be put to death in the gas chambers.

A photo of several Mengele Twins. They were forced to sit naked while waiting to be experimented on. Eva and her sister were only 8 years old when they were brought there.

After the war, the 14 year old girls went to live with an aunt who also survived. The girls' parents and sisters had not survived.

The girls later immigrated to Israel and joined the Israeli army.

Both sisters found love, married, and started families of their own. Miriam stayed in Israel, while Eva ended up making her home in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Eva's sister had poor health for many years, due to the experiments that were done on her. She eventually needed a kidney transplant (which Eva provided for her), then ultimately died of progressive bladder cancer. Eva was devastated by Miriam's death, but wanted to do something positive in her memory. So, in 1995, she opened the CANDLES Museum and Education Center.

For the first part of our visit, we walked around the museum looking at the photos and displays.

Then, for the last part of our visit, we were privileged to sit and listen to Eva as she told her story. She is now 85 years old.

We were able to get our photo taken with Eva.

This last photo is a bit blurry, but we asked to see the tattoo on Eva's arm. Every prisoner who came into the camps was forced to have a number tattooed on their arm. The numbers on Eva's tattoo were hard to make out now, due to age and skin condition, but it was still evident that a tattoo was there. Eva knew those numbers by memory and told us what they were.

If you get a chance to stop in at this museum, I encourage you to do that. Eva is not only a Holocaust survivor, she is an advocate for FORGIVENESS, and is known to help people in finding their own path to self-healing. Her story is riveting and inspiring.

"Anger is a seed for war, forgiveness is a seed for peace."  ~ Eva Kor

FALL 2018 FIELD TRIPS: Apple Orchard & Monk's Mound

Our first field trip this Fall was on September 26th, our annual trip to a nearby apple orchard.

It was wet and muddy out there this year, but still a nice day to enjoy being outside.
 

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Last May, you may remember we visited Cahokia Mounds. Here is the blog post I wrote about it:

MAY 2018 FIELD TRIP to CAHOKIA MOUNDS

On that trip, we wanted to climb the biggest mound, Monk's Mound, but it was too hot that day. So, we finally got the chance to go back in cooler weather. Here are a few photos we took when we went on October 20th. It was a windy day, but it was nice to have the sun shining.

There were 2 sets of stairs. Here is JJ on his way up the first set.

A view of the second set of stairs.

David's legs were hurting after climbing the first set of stairs, so he took a break. You can see him sitting on the bench.

JJ and I met David as he finally reached the top.

A view of the parking lot from the top of the mound. My mom and EL were waiting there.

I zoomed in a bit, and you can see Mom standing next to the van. We waved at her. 

A good view of St. Louis from the top of the mound.

David and me, sitting on a bench at the top. St. Louis is in the background.

The wind was really bothering my ears, so I went back down before the guys did.

 

Back at the van, I could see the guys standing at the top of the mound. You can barely see them in this picture. There are two dots to the left of the big tree.

 

I zoomed in again, and was able to see them better.

It was a fun little adventure, and definitely good exercise!

MAY 2018 FIELD TRIP: Cahokia Mounds

ILLINOIS HISTORY has been one of JJ's subjects this year. A few weeks ago, he began studying about the early inhabitants of Illinois - the Mississippians from CAHOKIA MOUNDS.  So, we decided to schedule a field trip, and ended up visiting over Mother's Day weekend. 

EL and JJ at Cahokia Mounds.

We arrived just in time that afternoon to join a free, guided, walking tour. My mom is in this photo with the kids, waiting for the tour to begin. 

Here we are on the walking tour, learning about the different types of mounds on the grounds. There are 3 different types:  Platform, Ridge-top, and Conical.

This was one of the mounds we passed on the walking tour. I believe it is a ridge-top mound, which was probably used as either an area landmark or a burial ground. By this point in the tour, we had  been outside for about 10 minutes and realized how hot it was getting (near 90 degrees!). My mom and I could not handle the heat, so we exited the tour and all went back to the air conditioned Interpretive Center.

 

One of the murals inside the museum shows what the village might have looked like.

After watching a short theatrical presentation about the village, we explored the museum and saw life-sized models of the natives and their surroundings.

A view of some of the foods they ate. Their diet consisted of squash, corn, seeds and beans, berries, wild game and fish.

Here is one of the recipes displayed which the natives probably ate.

Some of the arrow heads that were found on the grounds.

JJ looking at another mural.

David is watching a short video about Wood henge, which was a large en-circled area used to keep track of the seasons.

 

Family photo in the museum.

I did not take this photo, but found it on Wikipedia. This is Monk's Mound, a massive platform mound, most likely where the high chief lived. It is the largest man-made earthen mound north of Mexico. This is the only mound at Cahokia Mounds that is allowed to be climbed. As you can see, there are stairs leading all the way to the top. JJ really wanted to make this climb, however, it was near 94 degrees by then! So, we decided we would return in the Fall, when the temperatures are cooler, and make the climb then.

Cahokia Mounds is a free (donation-based) historical landmark in Collinsville, IL. If you get a chance to go, it is an interesting trip. Just don't go on the walking tour when it is in the 90's, unless you bring lots of water and are accustomed to high temperatures. 

APRIL 2018 FIELD TRIP: Lincoln Log Cabin Live-in Program

Yesterday was the 3rd year JJ participated in a "live-in" program with our homeschool group at LINCOLN LOG CABIN STATE HISTORIC SITE. This was his last year to participate due to aging out, but he has really enjoyed this program. The students are dressed in period clothing and are "transported back in time" to the year 1845. The girls wear dresses and aprons while the boys put on work shirts. They spend a couple of hours performing duties and chores that were typical on an 1840s farm.

Here is where the students start out. They are told the rules, and then dressed in their costumes. Several families had to cancel this time, so there were only 4 boys and (I think) 9 girls. In previous years, we have had up to 15 or more in each group.

The boys pushed a wagon over to the stable to load dirty straw onto. This is a working farm with real animals, so the chores are real, also.

Here are two of the boys using pitchforks to load the straw. JJ is on the right.

After the straw was loaded, they pushed the load down the sidewalk and took it to a place to dump it.

Another chore for the boys was carrying wood from the wood shed to the wood box inside the cabin. The boys were also allowed to saw wood using a two-man saw, but I didn't get a picture of that chore.

Here is JJ carrying wood into the cabin where the girls have a fire going and are working in the kitchen. 

The girls were nice and warm inside the cabin, making Johnny Cake for us all to try. EL was asked if she wanted to participate, and she said no, but we stood in cabin for awhile to watch what they were doing. She's the one in the hat.

The boys are taking turns dipping candles. The girls did this also. When they were finished, each student was allowed to take home one candle as a souvenir.

JJ and a friend are carrying a heavy bucket of spikes, which were needed for the next chore of splitting a log.

The boys are lined up and taking turns hitting the spike with a sledge hammer.

JJ is taking his turn with the sledge hammer. This was his favorite chore.

It was a chilly day, but at least the sun was shining. JJ's arm muscles were sore the next day, but he was happy to have taken part.