My Double Life as a Secret Agent...

We're a little piece into our study on Lewis and Clark. Lots of activities planned, and I emphasize the word planned, as things in my house, and more accurately our little academy never go as planned all the time. Ya'll homeschooling moms out there probably don't have that problem ...right? That is the beauty of the homeschool way, however. We can roll with the punches and make up the difference another day. Lillie completed a Before and after map of the Louisiana Purchase.She used different colors to show foreign and domestic land holdings prior to the purchase and then after. She also completed a state notebooking page for Missouri because that was the jumping off point for the expedition. Get the blank page from Jimmie.

We've started a popsicle stick fort. I let the kids put up the perimeter fence yesterday, but I had to build the buildings because they couldn't get the sticks to stay in place and soon tired of it. I will let them put all the extras in and we may even make some clothespin people to go in it. Looking at the gaps in that fence, I'm not so sure I'd feel entirely safe in that fort......... But this is why I can't trust my children with any project...They turned our fort into a graveyard!

The Lord certainly is taking homeschooling as a prime opportunity to teach me patience.....

Today, Lillie and I used the Jefferson cipher to decode a message and put her name into code. Thomas Jefferson was a secret code nut, apparently and wrote this code specifically to communicate with Meriwether Lewis during the expedition.

This is the super secret dining room table in the super secret hideout and that's Agent Chloe walkin' all over my work!

Lillie's first name would be written : Mkopnk

My name reads: Egopf

If you'd like to take a crack at it (a little secret agent humor) here's the link for it.

Education World Jefferson's Cipher Lesson Plan

It will tell you how to read the cipher and really is alot of fun. Here's a challenge for you if you want to try it. No prize other than the satisfaction of knowing that you too can be a secret agent. Then you, like I, can have an apron that allows you to be invisible when you're trying to talk on the phone before naptime or a Swiffer mop that doubles as a rocket launcher!

Decipher this using the cipher and let me know if you know what it says...

Utxwy ou aqo wxdr

Have a Great Day!!!!!