Our Studies on Florida- Phase I

Our trip to the capitol allowed us an opportunity to explore some areas of Florida we may have otherwise missed.  But first, we hung out on a sweet little swing outside of our hotel.

Road Trip snacks

St. Mark's Lighthouse and Natural Refuge 

This is about 45 minutes south of Tallahassee.  We had around 4 hours to spare one day, so we took a little detour to see our first lighthouse.  We stopped off at the little nature center and met an incredibly sweet volunteer who told us all about the area, and then showed us pictures of her recent hike on Appalachian Trail.

This girl is in her element

The light prism that was in the lighthouse for many, many years.

We then took the 7 mile road from the nature center down to the lighthouse, with a few stops along the way.  We started a Florida Nature Journal, which we left at home, but we still spent time just being quiet and listening and watching all of the activity around us.  Our world is so busy, that we miss the little things.

We were listening to several gator bellow in the distance.

We finally made it to the lighthouse and we were disappointed that we could not go inside.  They were doing some construction and updating the interior, so we had to stay out.

On our way back, I followed a little brown historic sign to find a civil war battle site.  The Battle of the Natural Bridge.  We discovered that this battle protected Tallahassee from being over taken by the union troops.  Tallahassee was the only capitol in the south to not fall into the hands of the North.

While in Tallahassee, we were invited to visit the Florida Museum of History.  It was a Fantastic museum!  Really, really well done!

This was a neat exhibit, showing the multiple step process to make a dug out canoe.

We learned how to do some rudimentary navigating

Gold!!!

Treasure!

replica of a civil war camp

There were multiple civil war era flags.

This is a map of the battle that we learned about earlier that day, when the confederate army was able to keep the union from finding their way to Tallahassee

The first "glass bottom boat", probably used at Silver Springs

A Medal of Honor

A heartbreaking letter to a mother of a MIA soldier during WWII

We're getting silly!!!

Near the end of our time, the kids started posing like the posters.

Florida's state rock, The Moon Rock.

A beautiful mural outside of the MFH doors

A WWII monument on the street.

We found Collier County!

We took the 'backroads' home.  About an hour and a half from Tally, we passed by this state park.  I decided to turn around and zip in real quick.  We only had about 15 minutes, which was just enough time to get our feet wet and stretch out out legs. The kids asked if we could come back here sometime and camp.  This park was just gorgeous!

On our way up, we stopped for two hours at our favorite Sunflower maze in Masaryktown, just north of where we lived.  "Fun Mom" came out as we traveled through the sunflower maze in the rain.

We had such a great time together.  These are the moments I want to take in and cherish.  These are some of the biggest reasons why I homeschool.  We learn and experience so much more!

Florida History Day

Last year, we met a sweet woman who is deeply involved in many foundations in our area.  I quickly realized that she is someone to get to know :)  She told me about Florida History Day, our state's competition which leads to National History Day.  After doing a bit of research, I knew this was something I wanted to add to Nicole's schooling this year.  I also knew that it would not be easy!  And, it was not.

The theme this year was "Conflict and Compromise in History".  After discussing what those words meant, and throwing out different ideas, Nicole settled upon doing her project at Sergeant Alvin C York, WWI hero and Medal of Honor Recipient.  Her title was "How a Conscientious Objector became one of the Greatest Sergeant on and off the Battlefield."  After becoming a Christian, he promised his mother that he would no longer "drink, cuss, or fight" again.  So, when WWI started, he put on his draft card that he "didn't want to fight".  It wasn't that he was a coward or unskilled, but it was that he believe the Bible, and the Bible said, "Thou shalt not kill."  He soon discovered that the Bible also says, "Blessed are the peacemakers...".  Eventually, York was able to find a compromise between obeying his God and serving His country.  He came to the conclusion that "In order to make peace, he will have to make war."

That was the gist of her project....but it was a HUGE undertaking. First of all, we found out about it late, and had less than 5 weeks to help her research and prepare.  Originally, she was going to write a paper (it is a MASSIVE paper, btw), but then she broke her arm.  A broken arm made it difficult to take notes or even type, and I couldn't give her the time needed to be her full time scribe.  So, she switched from the 2,000 word essay, to the 500 word exhibit board!  I'm not sure it was actually easier! haha.  She finished her board and took it to a county level competition.

She was then invited to represent Collier County at the state level of the Florida History Day competition.  We went to Tallahassee for three days of history and learning fun!  Her exhibit was most certainly the smallest (however they did not reflect the amount of time she spent, truly....she spent dozens and dozens of hours just reading and researching.  We both learned a lot at this state competition.  It was a great experience.


She won an award for Collier County.  It was given to her as a reward for her hard work, even through difficult circumstances.

We learned a lot about this competition and hope to be back next year....with a few more friends along for the ride as well.