The most interesting aspect of World War I in our recent studies, was about the continued development of air flight and the Red Baron.  Although I've been to the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum twice before, I didn't realize until the other day that there is a gallery about the airplane in WWI.  The opening displays were of none other than the Red Baron himself. In one window was the classic Red Baron pizza box amongst other items. In this window was one of my favorite imaginative dogs...Snoopy.

It was interesting reading about the Red Baron. Then we got to see some old movies from the 30's, about the dog fights in WWI. Did you know there is a Carey Grant movie and a Fred Astaire movie where each represent WWI pilots?  We learned that these early war aviators were called knights of their era, which was romanticized by the movie industry. 

After the movies, we got to see the real war, showcasing the development of the airplane during the hopeless war. 

       My husband enjoyed reading about individuals like Billy Mitchell, whom he read about in his PFE, in preparation for his numerous promotion tests in the military. At the time he studied and reviewed USAF history year after year after year, he kept telling me he wasn't retaining much information. However, while we were here, he kept telling us about a few individuals before he read their placards. 

     We all found interesting things to see.  My son saw a video clip of an elderly man who was one of the WWI flying aces.  My son also had fun seeing many of the things he had read about in history and researched for a writing project.   

     To my surprise, I found aviators who were influcnced by my favorite historical figure, forming the Lafayette Escadrille. These guys obviously knew their history!  If you don't know who Lafayette is, or how he could inspire others, here is a synopsis of his life.

We read about some of the pilots of the Lafayette Escadrille. Like Lafayette who joined our fight for liberty in 1777, years before the country of France officially lent support, the American pilots also lent themselves to France during WWI in 1914, before the country of America got involved in 1918. 

Here's one of their kepi's...

     Everything in this WWI exhibit was interesting. Most things I expected to see.  However, Lafayette took me by surprise.  It made me feel good to know that some Americans living in France knew their American history.  This was definitely the most fun part of the day for me.

    Since we now live near Washington DC, we took advantage of a field trip opportunity in light of our recent studies of the Wright Brothers. The Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum have an excellent exhibit on the Wright Brothers, including the infamous 1903 Wright Flyer.  If you cannot go to Washington DC to see this interesting display, you can read the on-line exhibit, which includes activities.

     There are numerous hands on activities and terrific life sized displays. When you first walk in, you feel as though you are in front of the Wright brothers' home in Dayton, Ohio. Then you work your way into the amazingly methodical development they undertook for the first sustained flight.  Eventually you can imagine yourself on the beach at Kitty Hawk, watching the first manned flight. We originally took a whirlwind tour of this after sightseeing in Washington DC last summer, then we went through about 2/3s of the exhibit a month ago. The museum closed about the time we reached their work in WWI.  Sunday when we arrived, we went directly to where we left off, to the WWI part of the exhibit.  We only had a few hours, and wanted to see the wind tunnel downstairs, as well as the "Airplanes in the Great War" exhibit.  After reading about the Wrights in WWI, we were overwhelmed with the wealth of displays on the Wrights we still had not seen.  There's never enough time in a museum.  We decided to make use of our time by pushing on to the other exhibits.

     Last month many things from the exhibit impressed me.  The methodical resourcefulness and ingenuity of Orville and Wilbur Wright was quite impressive, considering their trade was in bicycles. In fact, it is amazing how they used their knowledge of bicycles in the development of the airplane.

     The concepts the Wright brothers worked with were available in a hands on gallery called the "How Things Fly" exhibit. Anything hands on is always a thrill for my son.  Over the years I have strongly impressed on my children that when we go to a museum and there is a hands-on activity, they cannot participate unless they read the information to understand the point of the activity. Now my son doesn't need to read as much as he used to, because he walks in with a wealth of information already stored in his head.   

 We quickly located the wind tunnel...

When I was in elementary school, I read a biography on the Wright brothers and was fascinated by their wind tunnel. I've been anxious to see one of these up close. However this wind tunnel wasn't anything like I expected. Horrors...there was math involved!  The concepts did not come easily to me. My son, however, understood everything and had a blast figuring out all the procedures.  Basically he was doing something with this part of the wind tunnel...

...which is explained and illustrated here...

Then he moved on to other aspects of the mechanics of flight.

Getting lost in the concepts of physics, which was never a strength of mine (geology is easier) I kept reading and trying to understand the concepts.

Eventually I realized there were two main groups of people doing the activities. One group were the kids who aimlessly went through, making the machines move without reading anything.  The other group were the adults, trying to contain themselves while waiting for my son to finish his analysis of the activity. I have a feeling these adults are engineers. They were like kids in a candy shop.

      Throughout the day, there are demonstrations in this gallery. We got to see one which was down to earth and understandable. The demonstrator did a terrific job working with the children to allow them to help and showing them the props. After that we left.  This hands-on gallery was my son's favorite part of the day. I asked him how much he understood and learned there. He matter of factly said that he already knew all that stuff! He did? He said he had learned it in his science curriculum, but now he got to experience it, which was fun for him.  Wow!  If only the doctors could see him now. He was born a preemie and the doctors used to worry about his educational development. No problem there. I think he gets an A+ for the day. He's always been the type to pretty much teach himself. Interestingly though, he's been coming to me more lately, to hear my ideas about things, which surprises me.  In hindsight, I admit some of the concepts are sinking in.  My husband said when he was outside of the office at work today, he'd watch the planes from Reagan National, working out the concepts we had read about in the acitivity center.  I noticed a few planes from Dulles in the sky this afternoon, when I was out to do errands. However applying the physics we studied about didn't occur to me until my husband mentioned it. My mind was more on languages, writing and the history surrounding the plane. Now that I think about it, I can imagine how the physics allows the plane to work.  The displays must be pretty good if I can understand the basic ideas!     

     Last week we concluded our study of World War I.  I did not think I would enjoy studying this war, yet I admit it was extremely interesting.  TOG notes and recommended books did an excellent job of clearly explaining the intricate web of alliances that led to the Great War.  In fact, our history lessons have been foreboding the impending gloom in Europe for many weeks (from all the way back in Year 3 Unit 4). The children have sat at the dinner table, explaining the complexities of the beginning of the war with their dad, by their own initiative.  They also explained the uniqueness of the war due to changing technology from trenchwarfare to the use  of chemical warfare.  When my husband was in the military, he used to bring his gas mask home to clean inbetween exercises. (There is nothing like walking into the powder room and finding this eerie "face" staring up at you from the sink.)  We continue to make connections from the past to the present.

     One of the most fascinating aspects of the war that we studied was the continued development of the airplane.  Initially, enemies in the air would shoot guns at each other. That led to technology to attach the gun to the plane, yet there was the problem of the bullets deflecting off the propellers back into the plane.  That led to more technology to synchronize everything so that the bullets fire inbetween rotations of the propellers.  We also learned about the WWI flying aces, most notably the Red Baron. At last, the Red Baron is more than a Snoopy cartoon and a man on a pizza box.

     My children have not seen a Peanuts cartoon in years, so they do not remember Snoopy and his imaginative exploits in the air with his doghouse. Those scenes used to be my absolute favorites in the Peanuts cartoons. I guess I have a thing for dogs who like costumes and have an overactive imagination. It was funny in that during our weekly Socratic Discussion on WWI and the airplanes, I kept trying to link Snoopy to the Red Baron but my kids couldn't remember those scenes.  I finally thought to google and I found an old Snoopy scene from Peanuts.  We watched several, including some newer ones. After watching a few, my kids agreed with me, the classic Snoopy flying through the air on his doghouse from a clip from Peanuts was the best! It's from YouTube and titled, "Baron versus Beagle: The Original 'Dogfight'."

     It was especially nice to do something lighthearted after reading about all the heaviness of this war, which used completely different battle techniques resulting in hopeless stalemates and death. Unlike previous wars where the men got out and met face to face, did the job of combat and the survivors moved on, for the first time men sat and waited in trenches with stalemate battles, hoping the fog of chemicals would not appear on the horizon.  We also watched All Quiet on the Western Front, which is heavy with everything we had read about in our history books about dismal, dreary disgusting unsantitary life in the trenches, chemical warfare, flamethrowers, rats, disease, hunger...It was real, it really happened, and the peace talks only kept the pot simmering until it boiled over into the Second World War.  After all that dreariness and reality, it was nice to take a step back and be a little lighthearted for a bit.  This is extremely important to remember, in this era where kids have to grow up fast in an ever changing society and while learning difficult dark history, to allow kids opportunities to just be kids.   

     I always figured there was more to the story of the Red Baron.  It was interesting to learn how the airplane was further developed during the war and how the Red Baron became classic.  The excellence of the Red Baron made history and is classic to this day, even influencing a dog with an overactive imagination!   

     Our current history studies remind us of our summer vacation a few years ago in 2004.  We visited upstate New York, where I had scheduled a ride on a train, since my 8yo son was a huge train fan. Not wanting just any railroad, I searched high and low on-line for the perfect one. The most scenic one near the location we were staying, would take us for a ride along the Hudson River in the Adirondack Mountains. 

     When we arrived we had time to tour the depot.  There was a terrific train display through the mountains and village. 

     While walking around we discovered we had stumbled upon a piece of history. Theodore Roosevelt was famous for enjoying time in the wilds of the Adirondacks. President McKinley had recently been shot, but appeared to be recovering nicely. Vice President Roosevelt was encouraged to finish his vacation, to encourage America that all was well. While hiking on nearby Mt Marcy, he received news that McKinley had taken a turn for the worse.  After finally reaching the nearest depot hours later, Roosevelt received a telegram stating that McKinley had died.  Roosevelt was now the President of the United States.  He caught a train from the depot to take the oath of office.  Which depot was he at when he received this news?  The very one in which we were standing, the Upper Hudson Railroad!  Not only did we stumble upon a piece of interesting history, this was a prize like a bull moose!  My husband is a fan of Theodore Roosevelt and had been working on a massive biography of him for a few years.  My husband does not enjoy books, so this proves how much he admired Roosevelt!  Because of my husband's interest in Theodore Roosevelt, the kids and I had come to admire him too!  We had a great time riding on the railroad and looking at some of the same scenery Roosevelt would have seen.