Adventures in Dad Land

We are trying a new campground.  We asked for suggestions, and after checking to see which campgrounds still had sites available, (we seem to be going on a busy camping weekend) we used various factors to determine that we would go to Fairfield State Park.  One factor was drive time, as we are only going for four days and three nights.  We don’t want to spend the entire trip on the road!  We also wanted to be sure there are plenty of trails to hike.  Fairfield has 15 miles of continuous, multi-use trails.  In addition, there is a two-mile nature trail, and a one-mile bird watching trail! 

Lastly we wanted there to be fishing!  On past camping trips, we have gone “fishing,” which means we have helped the kids to cast the lines on their little poles into the water without bait.  They have used a small casting plug, which is designed to help them get the hang of casting and reeling, without the dangers of hooking themselves, mommy, or daddy!  This time, we decided to buy fishing poles and a small supply of tackle to do some basic fishing off of a fishing pier at Fairfield State Park, which is apparently a great fishing lake. 

The following was taken from the website of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.  “Fairfield Lake is warmed by the TXU Big Brown power plant. Because of our warm water, people come from all over Texas to enjoy some fantastic winter fishing opportunities. From November through February, we have tournaments every weekend. Fishing Clubs from the Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Waco, Austin, and Tyler areas host tournaments here. Why drive all the way to the Texas Gulf Coast to enjoy fishing for Red Drum! What makes Fairfield different then most lakes is that, because of the warm winter temperatures, it is stocked with Red Drum (aka Red Fish). The state record for Inland Red Drum was taken here at Fairfield Lake. (44 inches, 36.83 lbs.)”

So, yesterday, we went and purchased a small tackle box, and enough tackle to do some basic fishing and fill up one area of the tackle box.  This morning, during a school break, the kids wanted to help me set it up.  Here are some pictures of the fun…

Here we are getting ready to load the tackle box! Looks like someone forgot to comb his hair this morning!

Here is Megan loading some sinkers into a cubby…

Here is Kyle loading in some sinkers…

Next we have Megan teaching us how a bobber works…

And here we have the finished product…we are excited about putting it to use soon!!

 So thus begins the ten day countdown to Fall Family Camping ‘09!!

One of my goals with this blog is to share interesting little tidbits that I learn while teaching my little ones.  My aim for these stories will be to share things that I wish I had remembered from school myself.  Unfortunately, there will probably be plenty of material along these lines.  Thus, my first post, regarding marathon, will be to share just one such tidbit…

In 490 B.C., King Darius was ruler of Persia.  The previous king, King Cyrus, had left a mighty land, which included the former Babylon.  Kind Darius decided it was time for him to expand the kingdom, and he set his sights on Greece.  The Greeks had formerly given him trouble in the form of aid to subjects who had rebelled against him. 

King Darius sent messengers to all of the cities of Greece ordering them to send him earth and water as a sign that they would peacably give him their land and become his subjects.  Many cities did so, but Athens and Sparta refused.  Athens and Sparta determined they would fight Persia and asked surrounding cities to join them.

Darius was angry, and sent 600 triremes carrying 200 soldiers each to war.  That’s 120,000 soldiers.  They sailed across the sea and landed on the plain of Marathon, twenty-six miles away from Athens.  

The Athenians sent a message requesting help from Sparta, in the form of a famous runner named Pheidippides.  He ran with little rest to carry the message to Sparta, about one hundred and fifty miles away.  The Spartans were superstitious and thought it was bad luck to start a trip when the moon was full, so they sent word that they would join up when the moon was no longer full. 

The Athenians knew they could not wait, so they sent soldiers to Marathon.  They sent out 10,000 soldiers, along with 1,000 from a nearby village that wanted to help.  So there were a total of 11,000 soldiers against Persia’s 120,000! 

The Greeks were well trained athletes who were fighting for their freedom, homes, and families.  The Persian were mostly slaves who were forced to fight by King Darius.

The Athenians were victorious.  They called once again on Pheidippides to carry the message that they had won back to Athens, which was twenty-six miles away.  He had recently run from Athens to Sparta, and back with very little rest, so he was a bit weary.  He ran from Marathon to Athens with the wonderful news of their victory and immediately upon sharing the news, he fell over dead!

As a way of honoring Pheidippides and his famous run, we now have what are called marathons, in which runners complete a twenty-six mile journey, the same distance that was run from Marathon to Athens. 

This is one of the most famous battles in history, because huge Persia was beaten by tiny Athens.  However, this was not the last time the Greeks were to see the Persians…

We read this story in one of our favorite books for teacking the kids world history, which can be purchased from Amazon here: