We spent this weeks session learning about preparing for a long and arduous journey of exploration. We read from the Great Atlas of Exploration and the information from Homeschool in the Woods about the life of an explorer. We learnt about provisions and made some of our own.
Provisions for the journey
We wrote a report on scurvy and became ‘Limeys’ to ensure that we didn’t suffer from vitamin C depletion. Limeys are made by squeezing out the juice of limes and giving it to any unsuspecting sister who happened to be within reach:
We dried some fruit and veg (apples and peas). Drying fruit prevented the fruit from going bad whilst maintaining the vitamin content:
We made some hardtack biscuits. These tasted as they sounded-hard! But drying them out to such an extent helped prevent them going bad and ensure the explorers had at least some sort of food to last their journey:
After contemplating making beef jerky, I couldn’t bring myself to dry beef myself and was very relieved when I saw some at the supermarket. They would just need repackaging in a more time appropriate wrapping and the children could try them out in preparation for their exploratory journey:
I know I must be a bit of a wimp but I couldn’t even bring myself to taste it. The children did, though….
Having made the food, we packed them up for the journey and took some photos:
We added them to the back of our explorer’s journal where we are keeping all the recipes we try:
Sailor Knots
Knots are an important skill if you are circumnavigating around the world. I photocopied a few ‘How-To-Knot’ information sheets. Sailors used knots on-board all the time but also used them to make hammocks for sleeping in. We practiced making various knots:
And looked back over T’s hammock making a couple of summers ago:
We made a note of the knots in our journal, making some mini knots to stick in:
We are near ready to actually begin exploring….