Sled dogs

We read Baby in a Basket by Gloria Rand this week.  It's the story of a woman and her 2 daughters who leave the dark days of winter in Alaska and head to Washington on a horse drawn sleigh.  The trip will take 10 days on the sleigh and then 5 days on a steamship.  This story is based on a true story and details some trouble they have along the way.  In order to transport her 4 month old daughter, she lines a basket with furs and the baby travels in the basket.  We took a rabbit trail with this one and talked about sled dogs and the Iditarod race.   I got the unit study as a freebie from homeschool e-store.  We only used parts of the unit study.  Here are pictures of the lapbooks we created.

These are of Alex's book:

This one is Nicolas's book open:

We talked about the first uses of a dog sled and the diptheria outbreak in Nome, Alaska in 1925.  We talked about the 4 main breeds used for dog sledding and a little more detail about the Siberian Husky.  Then we looked at the different lengths of races and the positions each dog holds on the dog sled.  Finally we learned the different Musher commands. 

Last night, Nicolas was running through the house around corner from the living room into the kitchen yelling "Haw" which means turn right, and "Gee" - turn left like he was in a dog sled race.  I thought it was very funny!

Tuesday night was Alex's scout pack meeting.  Every year in January, they play a game called Dog Sled races.  I had forgetten about them doing it this week, but it worked out great with our lessons.  Here is picture.  Alex is the one with his head turned behind him.  They are pulling another scout in a sled.

On Monday, we have a friend coming to the house that has raced in the Iditarod several years ago.  He will be talking briefly with the boys about his experience and showing them some pictures.  I will post something about that next week.