200 years ago things were very different than they are today...

     Our current them of "Long Ago and Today" is sparking lots of great discussion.  We began thinking about how times have changed with the help of Virginia Lee Burton's classic, The Little House which depicts changes in transportation, communication, and life in the countryside through the perspective of a little house that remains the same as the world changes around her.  This led us to Donald Hall's The Ox-Cart Man which gave the children a closer view of how all the members of a family worked year round to make or grow almost all of what they needed.  Some members of the class thought they'd like to have lived the way the Ox-Cart Man's family did about 200 years ago while others thought, no- they liked things just the way they are now!  Despite the varying opinions, the whole class has enjoyed making candles, trying out some stitching samplers, playing with old fashioned props, and making butter.  Take a look!