This was one of our favorite adventures – and it was so close to where we live!

Once upon a time, the weather was getting warmer and the kids were cooped up in the house going bonkers. Mom came to the rescue by suggesting we all get out and go to the park.

The kids thought we were just going to the park down the road (which is really just a playground on paved cement). Little did they know the grand scheme I had laid out!

National Museum of Korea – Children’s Museum

The first video of our adventure was really an accident. I was planning on taking the kids to the Yongsan Family Park because I had read that it was full of neat walking trails and lots of grass and space to run.

We left kind of late in the morning, and since we had to make several metro stops to get to our destination (part of the package of living on the silly #6 brown line), it was nearly lunch time when we got there.

Then – I decided to take the exit that said ‘National Museum of Korea” instead of the one that led us straight out onto the street.

So we came out of the subway right smack in front of the giant museum. We were hungry and went in search of a restaurant.

Walking up to the main building, we saw a map of the grounds. Surely there would be a snack bar of some sort right? A kindly gentleman came up to us and explained how to get to the cafeteria. As we were making out way there, we kept seeing signs for a Children’s Museum – and they seemed to point to an area that was not in the paid part of the museum.

So after eating some fried chicken and bibimbap we decided to check it out!

The children’s museum was right down the hall from the cafeteria and when we inquired about it we found out it was free!

There are about 5 main areas inside and loads of hands-on activities. My kids learned to much about the history, culture, and customs of Korea. And just like our experience in Kansas, it provided a free option so we didn’t have to pay to get into the main museum area (where the kids would probably get bored).

I highly recommend a trip to the National Museum of Korea to anyone headed to Seoul. Especially the children’s area.

Just outside of the children’s museum was an awesome store. We found a lot of paper and cardboard model kits – and Raven bought and put together a kit of Gyeongbokgung palace. Denna found a set of origami papers that made all kinds of little people dressed in folk outfits. She picked a set that had the traditional dress of Korea.

There were a lot of school kids there that day, and if you listen to the last part of the video you can hear a bunch of girls screaming. A group of middle school girls had cornered Gaius inside one of the play buildings (to fawn over him and call him cute) and when he roared at them they over-reacted with screams and shouts. I had to cut the video off because one of the museum workers had wandered over to check out what was going on.

Yongsan Family Park

After the screaming girls calmed down, we decided to head out into the open air. It was a little bit of a walk to get down to the actual playground area of Yongsan Park, but along the way we discovered beautiful cherry blossom orchards and buildings and pagodas galore.

We wandered back through the pagoda area on our way to get on the subway to go home (you will see that in our video).

I saw a lot of walking paths that we didn’t explore so you could probably spend a good day just meandering through the gardens and areas of the park.

We stopped at the playground for a while but it was full of school groups as well – and the little kids didn’t seem to want to play with the foreigners. Gaius did make one friend and then ended up getting in a sand fight with him.

I was really surprised at how many kids there were and how little workers. I bet there were 20-25 kids for each adult. These were little kids – probably a preschool or toddler daycare.

The kids then discovered a stage area (where we film the wrap-up of our experience at the museum), and then they spotted the pond and walking path that led back to the pagodas.

Along the way we found a couple of waterfalls and more beautiful scenery. By the time we got through the pagoda garden again the kids were tired out and ready to head home.

It was a very fun day and the best part about it was that it was all free! Well – other than our lunch which was around 23,000 won ($20) for the 4 of us. And our subway tickets. But you get what I mean.

I bet if you packed a picnic lunch you could spend the entire day exploring. And if you live closer to the Ichon station, you can walk there!

Our other UHS adventures:

• Convenience Snacks
• Hello Kitty Cafe

And don’t forget to subscribe to unschoolershaveseoul on Youtube – like and comment on our videos. That Youtube channel is our family project.

The post UHS Thursday: Our Trip To Yongsan Family Park appeared first on These Temporary Tents.

This 10 in 10 list is inspired by two amazing books that I recently picked up at the library on our military post.

Back in Kansas, we were reading and notebooking about the Civil War as it applied to the territory of Kansas. We kind of stopped our studies when we got to Korea – that is until I found these books.

They were both in the new section of books and they caught my eye because of their beautiful artwork and the fact that they featured women. So I came up with a list of books about amazing women from the Civil War (or right before, or right after).

I present to you – Ten Books About Famous Civil War Era Women

Make sure to get my free notebooking set for this list – link below!

*This post contains affiliate links. By purchasing through them, I make a little moolah to keep this site up and running.

Click on any title in this list to be taken to the book on Amazon.

1. Louisa May’s Battle

Little Women is one of my favorite books of all time.

Did you know Louisa May Alcott was a nurse during the Civil War? Did you know the person who hired her was Dorothea Dix? Did you know she caught Typhoid fever and her father came to get her?

Her story is amazing, and it makes her writing even more poignant and real.

My greatest pride is. . .that I had a very small share in the war which put an end to a great wrong. -Louisa May Alcott

2. My Last Skirt: The Story of Jennie Hodgers

Otherwise known as Albert Cashier, Jennie Hodgers lived as a man for most of her life. She worked as a grocery clerk, a farmhand, and served in the infantry during the Civil War.

This is a story about a woman who saw the opportunities of life as easier for a man.

3. Marching With Aunt Susan

Told from the viewpoint of a young girl, this is the story of the women’s suffrage movement and Susan B. Anthony.

Women, we might as well be dogs baying the moon as petitioners without the right to vote! -Susan B. Anthony

4. Clara Barton (Angel of the Battlefield)

This book is part of the Heroes of History series, biographies for older children.

Founder of the American Red Cross, fearless humanitarian, and nurse on the front-lines of the war, Clara Barton is probably one of the most fantastic women of her time.

5. Mr. Lincoln’s Whiskers

A little girl once wrote a letter to President Lincoln and suggested he would look good in a beard. Her advice led to the first president to sport facial hair in office.

Later, Lincoln visited Grace Bedell to show her his new whiskers and bless her with a kiss.

6. Who was Harriet Tubman?

I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say; I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger. -Harriet Tubman

Born a slave herself in Maryland, Minty (aka Harriet) risked her life hundreds of times to free slaves. She was also a nurse and a union spy during the war.

7. Mary Walker Wears The Pants

Mary Walker was a reformer, a doctor, and a woman who riled up people wherever she went.

She was arrested several times for impersonating a man and causing a disturbance by wearing pants. She offered herself up as a Democratic candidate for Congress (women couldn’t even vote until one year after she died). She earned a medal of honor for her work during the war. It was later taken back (when the rules changed that you had to serve in actual combat) but she refused to stop wearing it – she wore her medal for the rest of her life. It was restored to her posthumously by President Carter in 1977.

Raven’s artwork of Mary Walker for our notebook

If you want to learn about the reforms and movements that surrounded the Civil War – you need to read about Mary Edwards Walker.

8. A Picture Book of Harriet Beecher Stowe

A beautifully illustrated book about the author of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. Harriet Beecher Stowe was paramount in changing the public view about the injustices of slavery.

9. Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth spoke to crowds and would tell a story of a young girl, born into slavery, who was beat and sold numerous times. This girl watched her parents die.

That girl was Sojourner.

This picture book portrays the famous abolitionist through a very modern style of art.

10. Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving

Author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, Sarah Hale was an influential editor and writer. It was through her lobbying that Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday.

Sarah was kind of the Martha Stewart of her time – she wrote about practical fashion, homemaking, and being a proper lady. She stands out on this list because she was against women’s suffrage and received a storm of criticism for some of her editorial pieces about maintaining cultural gender roles.

Free Famous Women Notebooking Set

I have created a notebooking pack just for this list – and you can download it for free!

There is a page for each lady listed above with their name and image.

Download the pdf file through Google Drive (click the download button below then file -> download over at Google).

Other links to famous women from the Civil War

• Famous Women of the American Civil War (a great Pinterest board)
• Famous Women of the Civil War (links to short biographies)
• Grace Bedell (from Kansapedia)
• Susan B. Anthony (again – Kansapedia)
• Territorial Characters (from Read Kansas! – there are three famous Kansas women listed – click on the image for a pdf download)
• Woman’s Work in the Civil War – free public domain ebook

And another book I found at the library: Outrageous Women of Civil War Times

More books about famous women

More books about the Civil War

If you want even more Civil War study ideas, you can check out my post series Blood On The Border. You can also download my other notebooking set The Civil War Comes to Kansas for free!

If you want even more notebooking resources, Notebooking Pages is having a birthday party tonight (May 21st) at 9pm Eastern. Join them on their Facebook page for freebies, giveaways, and discounts!

If you enjoyed this post then check out the other bloggers participating in the 10 in 10! Ten weeks of top ten lists, inspired by Many Little Blessings.

The post Ten Books About Famous Civil War Era Women appeared first on These Temporary Tents.

We’ve been busy uploading videos onto our Unschoolers Have Seoul YouTube channel!

Since the videos are mainly the kids’ project, I thought I would make Thursdays over here “UHS” days {Unschoolers Have Seoul} and share a video along with an extended explanation from my point of view.

I really just suggest ideas for videos to the girls and tape them, along with providing important commentary during filming.

Tasting Korean Snacks from the Convenience Store

The kids had a great idea about showing some of the different snack-type foods that you can buy here because a lot of it we had never seen, and you can only get a few American food items like Oreos at the convenience stores.

So we walked to the park and afterwards we exchanged a $20 (which came out to roughly 23,000 won) and went to HomeBase. You will hear and see more about HomeBase later.

The girls picked out a few drinks and snacks that they wanted to try. Gaius decided it looked fun and went all out – but his choices were very strange.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it on here, but he has an ongoing passion for sea creatures.

So he proceeded to try to buy every single bag of chips, package of cookies, and canned good that had an octopus, squid, shrimp, or fish on it.

As you can see from the video, he succeeded in getting a few sea-themed snacks home. And he thoroughly enjoyed them.

Since we’ve made that video, I have discovered a few more fun snacks, so we will have to make a Korean snacks part 2. One of my favorites is called Sora Snacks and they are like a honey coated rice cracker with sesame seed sprinkled on them.

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Our long time dream of having a large home with a basement playroom didn’t exactly come to fruition when we moved to Korea.

Right now, we have to be content with a 1300 square foot apartment where you can hear a pin drop from across the house.

We didn’t bring a lot of toys with us to Korea because I wanted things to be simple and I didn’t know where we were going to keep everything. So the few toys we did bring have their spots in the kids’ rooms.

They don’t seem to miss what we left behind. Since our arrival, we have found many ways to have fun without expensive toys (although we have bought a few from the commissary).

Here are ten ways that my kids make their own toys using things around the house:

1. Make forts with blankets and chairs

I think making forts is one of the oldest youthful entertainments in the world.

All it takes is a few chairs, a big sheet, and a wild adventure.

2. Pots, pans, and muffin tins

You can do all kinds of fun things with items from the kitchen. The kids like to play cooking show and use my pans with wooden spoons. Their food is usually cut up paper or even play-dough sometimes.

3. Empty containers make pretend groceries

Korea has an extensive recycling system and so we usually have a lot of empty containers in a tub in our kitchen. We have started cleaning those containers out and taping them shut to make play groceries.

Gaius likes to take his shopping cart back and forth from his room to the grocery store the girls have set up in the dining room.

4. Making play weapons

We have a fancy wooden sword that Gaius got at the Renaissance Festival last year, but his favorite weapons to play with are the ones he makes himself.

Right now his favorite bow is made from a plastic hanger and some yarn.

We also have:

• light saber made from recycled foam
• toilet paper roll gun
• a sword belt made from daddy’s belt
• twisted paper swords

In the past, the kids have also made weapons from duct tape and cardboard. Check out Warfare By Duct Tape for some great inspiration.

5. Dress-up with fabric

You don’t need fancy sewing skills to make a super hero cape or a fairy skirt. All you need is to know is how to tie a knot.

Large flour sack towels, scarves, old clothes, and even scrap fabric make great dress-up toys.

6. Boxes make a great dollhouse

Denna likes to use scissors and tape to make a cereal or pasta box into a dollhouse for her Barbies.

She also makes furniture from cardboard using ideas from When Mother Lets Us Make Paper Box Furniture and The Book of Jolly Boxcraft.

7. Sail away in a plastic storage tub

After we finished unpacking, we had a multitude of empty plastic tubs for the kids to use as boats, trains, and even sitting areas while they played Wii!

Hint: they also make great shells if you are pretending to be a turtle.

8. Water play is soothing

Sometimes when the kids get bored and we can’t go outside to play, I get out a small plastic tub and gather cups, funnels, and bottles and let them play with water on the floor of the bathroom.

I make sure to supervise Gaius so he doesn’t slip and fall.

This can keep them busy for hours and it really helps to calm and relax them.

9. A broom and some baby wipes

Cleaning can become the funnest thing in the world if you let your kids have a few baby wipes and a spray bottle of water.

Gaius also likes the little hand broom and he will go around catching dust bunnies, pretending to be the groundskeeper of the building.

10. Using daddy’s tools

We have a few play tools that the kids use often, but they also like to use real tools from daddy’s toolbox.

Gaius loves to play with a tape measure and a pair of pliers.  He goes around the house fixing things for us.

We realized just how handy he was one day when we gave him a screwdriver and he proceeded to remove the handle and one wheel from his shopping cart. He was beaming from ear to ear with pride! We gently showed him how to put them back on and from now on we make sure to pay attention when he is in a fixing mood.

What things do your kids like to play with that aren’t toys? Do they make their own toys?

If you enjoyed this post then check out the other bloggers participating in the 10 in 10! Ten weeks of top ten lists, inspired by Many Little Blessings.

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Remember when I said that it hadn’t hit me yet that we were in another country across the world?

Well – it hit me.

I officially miss Kansas, I feel strange here, and I’m struggling with a few things.

That doesn’t make this move a bust, it just makes me human.

I still have a smile on my face most days. There have been a few rough patches I have to admit. But it’s not really about liking/disliking Korea. I love Korea. It has more to do with stress – the stress of figuring out what works for us, how to get around, and dealing with the differences.

Our life is different

We went from having our own home with a huge back yard and plenty of freedom to an apartment with no yard and lots of loud neighbors.

We went from a lively homeschool group to one that we haven’t even gotten in touch with because they have very little space to meet.

Our church situation has changed also – which we knew it would. We are thankful that we have found a church where we feel welcomed and where we can worship. It’s just hard to connect with people outside of Sunday because people come from all over the Seoul metro area.

Korea is different

We haven’t had so much of a culture shock I don’t think because we did a lot of “research” before we left, and we had the attitude coming here that we were going to immerse ourselves into the culture.

I didn’t want to come to Korea and live by other Americans. I wanted to experience the culture and country first hand, so we have tried to rely as little on the Army post as possible.

We’ve slowly been learning the language and getting to know people in our neighborhood. We’ve made a lot of friends on the subway.

I think the biggest difference for me is living in the city.

Seoul is – overwhelming.

It is easy to get around, the people are friendly, and the streets are safe.

But Seoul is like an all-consuming black hole. I never knew how some people could grow up in New York and never leave the city – ever. Now I know how. Because being inside the city becomes your reality – it engulfs you.

My Midwestern roots are screaming to just run for the hills.

I’ve had to really make an effort to find the little spots of green, the wide open spaces here in Seoul and treasure them. It helps keep my sanity.

Yet some things remain the same

For Mother’s Day, we took a bus to Osan to visit Jay. He is taking a class down there and it was a perfect opportunity to get out of Seoul and see another part of the country.

We didn’t see a lot besides hills and more skyscrapers, but it was nice.

On that bus ride, I was just struck with the irony of how similar some things are here in Korea and in America.

Other than the signs written in Korean, the scenery could have been from a car trip through Virginia or parts of Oregon. Green mountains rolling against the setting sun.

I think we all laugh a little too hard at some of the things we find in common with what we are culturally programmed for. It’s ironic because it resonates with our past.

People are still the same. They still desire connection.

Korea has stop signs, and malls, and perfume departments that stink, and supermarkets.

It’s these things that help us make sense of the differences around us. It helps us feel a little less small and strange.

Those similarities brings us back to the reality that we are all just human – attempting to conquer this shared experience of life.

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Having a separate YouTube account for our video project has thrown me for a loop. I always forget to post the videos here for my readers to see!

Our Hello Kitty Cafe trip was a while ago, and since then we have made several other videos and even had a giveaway of a basket filled with Korean goodies.

Don’t worry though, we are in the process of making another giveaway basket and will be posting the giveaway here rather than having in on our Facebook page. We had a few disappointed viewers who couldn’t access the giveaway because they don’t have Facebook accounts. Boo – fail on us.

So we edited the video as best we could to take out the unsavory words. I think you can only catch one if you listen really close.

It’s not a cafe that we could go to every day. For one thing, it is overwhelmingly PINK. And it basically exists for the pop culture factor alone. But the girls will remember our trip there for a long time with fondness.

Even if we didn’t buy an expensive doll. Ha!

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