One More Homeschool Activity--The Capitol Tour

We had been to the Capitol building and looked around before, but we had never had an actual guided tour.  We learned so much when we went with the homeschool group!  Who knew so much symbolism and thought went into the building?   

The Senate side is decorated in red and the House side is decorated in blue.

All the sky lights in the Capitol are symbolic of the transparency of what occurs in the building.  This is the people's building and nothing should be hidden from them.

Some of the office door knobs have the State Seal on them.

The George Washington statue was given to the Idaho Territory in the 1860s.  It was carved from a single piece of pine.

This replica of Winged Victory of Samothrace was one of Idaho's gifts from France on the Merci Train of 1949.  Every state in the U.S. had a boxcar filled with thank-you gifts from France for the help they provided post-WW II.  The original is in the Louvre in France.

Currently used as the committee room for the JFAC, this used to be the Supreme Court from 1912-1970.

Representative Vander Woude's seat in the House.

Governor Otter has both a working office and a ceremonial office.  This is his ceremonial office.  We loved the stuffed otter!

The dome in the rotunda has thirteen large stars for the original colonies and forty-three small stars to represent Idaho's admission as the forty-third state.

A "no longer working" original elevator.

The State Seal mosaic.

An original vault door.

Lincoln Auditorium.  Lincoln is important for Idahoans because he signed the act creating the Idaho territory.

Homeschool Activities

Trip to the Aquarium

The aquarium trip occurred the first week we were back from Iowa and the college boys were still home with us.  Since Russ and I had a meeting that afternoon we couldn't remove ourselves from, Caleb and Nicolas were willing to take Lydia and Seth.  I had been there before with Anna, Lydia, and Seth, but the older boys must have been in school because this was a first visit for them.  

Here Seth is feeding a chameleon.  It goes pretty fast and can be seen best if you put the video on full-screen.

Homeschool Ski Lessons

Seth gave the thumbs up for ski lessons when I registered him in November, but was super reluctant when it actually came time to drive up to Bogus in January.  After the first day, he was totally excited about skiing again.  He would love to go more often, but it is a huge time and money commitment.

The drive up/down Bogus seems to take forever and is quite the perilous drive if the roads are snow-covered.   However, the view is awesome!  Although hard to capture with a picture, hopefully these just give a glimpse of the beautiful snow-covered pine trees, foothills, the city of Boise nestled in the valley, and the mountains on the opposite horizon.