Pioneer Unit

Time for our 3rd annual pioneer unit!  We love this unit so much and look forward to it all year.  When we did this unit for the first time in 2018 it really changed me and gave me a deep desire to homeschool my kids full time.  Each year we have had some over lap...Read More

Last year we had a pioneer themed campout and we were looking forward to doing that again this year. Well, on Friday evening, we were all packed up and headed to the campsite when a big storm rolled in and it wasn’t looking promising. So we turned around and came back home. On Saturday, we...Read More

Why would the pioneers do what they did?  Why would they give up everything?  Many (including my own ancestors) lost family members because they were disowned when they joined the church.  Many had multiple children die because they were living in unfavorable conditions (starvation, sickness, disease, extreme weather, etc.)  Many had previously led comfortable and...Read More

Today is Pioneer Day! On July 24, 1847, (172 years ago today), the first group of Pioneers finally emerged from the last canyon, and entered the Salt Lake Valley.  Wilford Woodruff expressed their feelings when he wrote, “We came in full view of the great valley or basin” of “the Salt Lake and land of...Read More

After leaving Nauvoo at the beginning of 1846, and the trek across Iowa taking much longer than expected, The Saints made a temporary settlement, for the winter, on both sides of the Missouri River (on the border of Iowa and Nebraska). They named this settlement Winter Quarters and it became an instant city on the...Read More

Today, we took turns teaching school. Both Matilda Allison Casper and Harriet Matilda Casper Marchant both taught school. Matilda taught the school that Harriet attended. Harriet was very good in spelling and was a rather good reader. She was also good at arithmetic. Many sacrifices were made by Harriet’s family to obtain books, as books...Read More