School this week

This month we've been learning about WW2 and the Great Depression. One of the their assignments was to interview someone who was alive during the Great Depression and WW2. My kids were lucky and have a wonderful couple to interview in our ward. Thanks O.!! Matthew brought his small video camera and Savannah brought her camera. They really enjoyed learning from someone who actually lived during and fought in WW2. Brother O. was a gunner on a B17 Bomber. He was shot down on his 45th mission but luckily was rescued by some Americans before the Japanese were able to get to him. He had so many stories to tell. Sister O. talked about the Great Depression. She said they did fine because they lived on a farm and were never in want of food. She did remember that they only had one pair of shoes and weren't allowed to wear them in the summer. She said to this day she can't go bare foot in the summer. It was very fascinating watching the video that Matthew took. They then had to write a report and read it in front of the history class. In class this week one of the Grandpas came and spoke to the kids. He was one of the only 12 frog men in the war. He was the only one who survived the war to tell his story. He had a very dangerous job swimming into the beaches and finding the best ones for our army to set up camp or attack. He was shot at and had many other awful things happen (look up frog man if you want to know more). I have such a new respect for those that have fought in war. It would be so hard emotionally and I'm not sure you would ever get over those images. I've learned so much more about WW2 then I've ever learned before. I hope the kids will never forget the past so we can have a better future.

Brother O.

Here he is when he joined the service at 18.

Here is a picture of him in the water when his plane was shot down. He had to stay in the water until rescued. He says it was for 12 hours and his wife said it was only 5 hours.

For science the kids have been doing a lot of dissection. The teacher has been wonderful and seems to know everything about Biology. Here are some (kind of gross) pictures of them dissecting a fish and crawdad. I'm a wimp. I'm glad I'm not taking the class but they seem to be enjoying it.

Savannah's group got a sick crawdad. Its body parts were all
the wrong colors and had many things wrong with it.

The younger kids learned about Saturn this week. They wrote a report and read them to each other. We talked about the space crafts sent to Saturn to collect information. We then made balloon Rockets.