News Around Texas

your family might enjoy a weekend of hiking and camping in the Guadalupe Mountains.

You could also hike to see the native Texans’ Rock Art. There are actually tours at many locations in far west Texas and in the western regions of the South Texas Plains, so you’ll need to check the calendar to find a convenient date and place.

Visit Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Museum, part of the Ysleta del Sur Cultural Center in historic El Paso or contact Camel Treks and Camel Corp Re-enactments and get in on a Big Bend adventure!

The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin is one of my favorites—a field trip that’s sure to get students interested in the adventure of learning their state history. Lots to see, hear, touch, explore…even an IMAX!

Several selections in San Antonio run a very close second. (I LOVE San Antonio—something that will probably become obvious as you read this blog.) If you are able to plan a Texas History field trip over a long weekend, you wouldn’t run out of things to see and do! Of course there’s the Alamo and four other historic Spanish missions. (Check the San Antonio Convention and Visitors Bureau for information.) Perhaps less well known is the Institute of Texas Cultures, displaying the best aspects of all the many people groups who now call themselves Texans. And the The Witte Museum has an excellent walk-through diorama depicting the geographical regions of our state, as well as a display of Texas’ first nations—the indigenous tribes.

This region also features:

• Cascade Caverns
• Caverns of Sonora
• Cave without a Name
• Inner Space Caverns
• Longhorn Caverns
• and Natural Bridge Caverns
• as well as many non-profit, private caves.

If that’s not enough, a fair number of forts such as Fort Martin Scott in Fredericksburg make for happy wandering.

…you’ve got a great choice of field trips with deep significance to Texas history. Explorers, missionaries, and revolutionary colonists converged here, and you can see where the action took place!

Replicas of Columbus’ ships, courtesy of Ships of Discovery, can be toured in Corpus Christi harbor. Though Columbus never made it as far as the mainland of Texas, these ships are typical of those that brought other explorers in the Age of Exploration. I was amazed at their small size! Not sure I’d want to cross uncharted oceans in such a small craft…

You could also visit:

The Texas Maritime Museum in Rockport also houses artifacts from LaSalle’s ship in their exhibit, The LaSalle Odyssey. Other Odyssey member museums include:

Matagorda County Museum (Bay City)

Corpus Christi Museum of Science and Natural History (Corpus Christi)

Texana Museum (Edna)

Calhoun County Museum (Port Lavaca)

Museum of the Coastal Bend (Victoria) and

Palacios Area Historical Association (Palacios), and La Petite Belle, a half-scale reconstruction in Palacios home port.

Free maps and pamphlets, available from A Shared Experience, could form the basis of a week-end driving tour of the earliest Spanish colonies, or you might choose a Texas Independence tour. Of course, Presidio La Bahia at Goliad, the San Jacinto Museum of History in La Porte, and the Star of the Republic Museum and Independence Hall at Washington-on-the-Brazos are great places to introduce students to the sweeping saga of our state.

If you prefer something even more interactive, try the Barrington Living History Farm near Washington-on-the-Brazos, Liendo Plantation in Hempstead, or the George Ranch Historical Park at Richmond.

…you’ll be pleased to know that field trips don’t have to be expensive.

Since East Texas was the cradle of colonization, several of our earliest historical sites are preserved through state parks or universities in your area.

Try:

• Caddoan Mounds near Alto
• Mission Tejas State Park in Grapeland
• the Stone Fort Museum and El Camino Real exhibit at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches
• or the East Texas Oil Museum in Kilgore

…my best field trip suggestions would be:

• Frontier Texas!, an award-winning, interactive history museum in Abilene

• Waco Mammoth Site and the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame in Waco

• The Texas Civil War Museum in Fort Worth

In addition, you can order an excellent brochure, Texas Forts Trail, free of charge from the Texas Historical Commission. The ruins at Fort Phantom Hill are a favorite of mine!

…you are have many great field trips nearby!

The play, TEXAS LEGACIES, is an annual summer tradition in the Palo Duro Canyon.  In my opinion it’s well worth the cost and effort, and is a fine way to get kids excited about their state’s history or make sure your school year ends with “a bang instead of a fizzle.” The show runs through the summer season, but seats fill quickly! It’s not too early to begin planning to attend.

Until then, you can enjoy a number of other field trips in your area:

• Lubbock Lake Landmark
• The Brazos River Journey display at The Science Spectrum in Lubbock
• Adobe Walls Historical Battleground
• Fort Concho in San Angelo
• XIT Museum in Dalhart
• National Ranching Heritage Center in Lubbock
• The American Wind Power Center and Windmill Museum (also in Lubbock)
• Panhandle Plains Historical Museum—Canyon
• Permian Basin Petroleum Museum—Midland

If your family is outdoorsy–enjoys camping, hiking, hunting, fishing, bird watching and the like–then you don’t want to miss the Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine (http://www.tpwmagazine.com/). You can follow them on Facebook or subscribe to RSS feed to read their articles online OR you can subscribe to a print copy of the magazine for just $12/year and get a gift subscription at the same time for $8 more. That’s about as affordable as homeschool educational materials get!

And the Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine is educational. Click the “Keep Texas Wild” Teacher Resources button on the homepage to find lesson plans on Texas Rivers, Buffalo Soldiers, indigenous wildlife, and more.

And, like Texas Highways, they have great sections on Travel and State Parks where you’ll get all sorts of ideas for field trips in your area.

To extend your student’s interest in Texas, I give the Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine two thumbs up!

This is NOT a paid endorsement, I promise. The folks at Texas Highways Magazine would not recognize my name, but I have admired their publication for years. It would be a terrific way to broaden your family’s enjoyment of this year you’ve set aside for the study of Texas, and it’s more affordable than you might think!

You’ll understand my enthusiasm when you check out their website (http://www.texashighways.com/). There you’ll find feature articles from the current and previous month–always a good mix of really interesting stuff! Be sure to experiment with the Events Calendar map where you can click on any area and get timely ideas for excursions. More ideas, listed by region, are available under the Destinations tab. Explore the other tabs, too! Free e-postcards, recipes…the Arts & Culture tab even has a special section for Texas History posts.

There are several ways you can enjoy Texas Highways Magazine.

• Bookmark their site as a favorite
• Follow them on Facebook or Twitter
• Subscribe to their e-zine for under $20/year
• Download a single digital issue for $3.95
• Have a print edition mailed to your house for $19.95/year
• HINT: They often offer discount subscriptions. Pick up a single copy where you purchase magazines locally and look for the postcard coupon!

And don’t skip their Gift Shop. Prices are surprisingly reasonable for attractive, high-quality Texas-themed t-shirts (great to keep the family together on field trips) and educational supplements like jigsaw puzzles and travel bingo games.

Like I said, I’m a big fan!

Most of us rely heavily on our sense of sight. We can observe the world around us even from a distance…and that can be a problem. The sense we count on most is the most remote.

Hearing is the next most common source of information…and the next most remote. Sound comes to us from a distance. The sound waves may enter our ears to do the actual transmitting, but they don’t really become a part of us.

Touch is more “tangible.” We have to be in contact with something to learn anything about how it feels. When we use our sense of touch, the learning is more immediate–more personal.

By now you can see where I’m going with this.

When we use our sense of smell to learn about our environment, the molecules actually enter our noses and interact with our body’s chemistry to send information to our brains. Recollect of the smell of a tropical storm moving in from the Gulf, the aroma of coffee over a campfire, or the tang of gunpowder. Though we rarely think of smell as it relates to education, it is actually a very powerful tool.

The most intimate sense of all is the sense of taste. Not only do foods interact with neural receptors on our tongues, but the food we ingest actually becomes a part of us in a very real sense. Your students will have tons of fun sampling Native American foods like cactus pears or jerky, imagining they’re explorers tasting corn–or alligator–for the first time, or sampling chuck wagon beans and biscuits.

Try not to rely only on visual and auditory learning.
Tactile learning is a great route to discovery!

“Mom! Look!”

When was the last time you heard one of your kids get excited about a textbook?

That could be because school books have that “have to” feel to them instead of being “want to” reading. Through discovery learning, Discover Texas counteracts textbook boredom in two ways.

Browse a “real” book

Check out the books suggested in the Teacher Tips section of every volume. Better yet, check out the list two or three weeks before you begin the volume, then reserve appealing titles at your local library or request them through interlibrary loan. If every student chooses their own book, it’s better still. That way, they can share what they learn informally or through creative book reports. (More on these later.)

Explore thousands of great web links

Embedded in the text or at the end of each article in every chapter, you’ll find links to wonderful museums, places of interest, university sites, historical societies…so students can safely explore.

When students discover new and interesting facts for themselves, they begin to take ownership of their own educational process…and that’s exciting!