Shortly after visiting Mayan ruins at Tikal, I was doing some research on local history and discovered that here in North America we had our own version of ancient peoples, the "Mound Builders", creating earthworks in the Eastern part of the United States. The history of these mounds has been lost, though some people have made educated guesses. In the 1830's, there were many small and some large mounds discovered right in my neighborhood, though they have since been plowed over and destroyed by farmers and civilization.

Since I couldn't find a mound in my backyard, I thought it would be neat to see a larger, possibly animal-shaped mound. Last week we went on a camping trip to Wisconsin, and I finally got the chance to see some real Indian mounds. We went to two mound locations in Madison. One group of mounds was at Governor Nelson State Park, and the other was in Forest Hill Cemetery.

The Cemetery
I enjoyed seeing mounds at the cemetery. There was no admission fee and the mounds were easy to locate. We saw a (headless) goose mound, some linear mounds and also two panther mounds. The grass was clipped short, and obviously there were no grave markers on the mounds, so their outlines were easy to make out. We were able to walk on top of the mounds and take pictures as well.

The State Park
I also chose to go to the state park because I read that it held conical mounds, in addition to a panther mound and possibly a linear mound. We paid $5 for a one-hour pass, in order to walk the 1-mile trail. The timing was just about perfect. The park did have some interesting features, such as the area of bur oak savanna that was being restored, but we came to see Indian mounds, and those were a disappointment. The entire trail was in the woods, so as you can imagine there was underbrush, bushes, and trees all over the place. The conical mounds were easy to find, but they were smaller than I thought. Plus they were covered in brush and weeds, so they were obscured. The panther mound was also obscured because of the forest. The only part that we could see from the trail was the tail end. The sign in front of where we were standing instructed us to respect this priceless piece of history and please not walk on it.

Tips for Mound-Hunters
I look forward to seeing more mounds in future travels, and I would recommend them to anyone who takes an interest in American history. Here is a Google map of many popular mounds in North America. If you are going to visit some mounds, I would recommend seeing some that are mowed or otherwise easily visible. No wooded areas. Another idea would be to see them in the winter, when there are no leaves on the trees or weeds growing. Also, there is really no reason to pay admission fees, because there are many wonderful mounds that you can see for free, such as the ones we found at the cemetery.

Have you ever seen Indian mounds? What did you think?

As part of my "Bookshelf-Only Reading Challenge", I recently finished up John Adams, a biography by David McCullough. (A full review can be found on my Goodreads page.) I was reminded of how powerful a biography is in teaching history, even to old married folks like myself.

Why is a biography more effective than a history textbook? One word: STORY. In a biography, you really get to know a person. You sympathize, rejoice with, cry with and laugh with the characters, which conveniently happened to be real people. You get a feel for that person's character, philosophy of life, and how he or she made decisions.

In reading about John Adams, second President of the United States, I didn't just read about John Adams. That would have been incredibly boring. I also got to know his wife Abigail, children John Quincy, Charles, Thomas and Nabby... his best friends and political enemies. I got to see the old, lazy side of "early to bed, early to rise" Ben Franklin in France. I became more acquainted with the spendthrift side of Thomas Jefferson, who, at the end of the book, died $100,000 in debt. In addition to these "characters" I also got to know Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, James Madison, James Monroe, Samuel Adams, Napoleon Bonaparte, the Marquis Lafayette and his wife, John Paul Jones, and even bad guy King George III to a point where they were no longer just names to me, but real people.

Those things, places and events that had previously been floating around in my mind somewhere under the file "1700s" (John Paul Jones, the French Revolution, the Federalist party) have now been more nicely arranged to where I can understand and better appreciate that which took place. And I can also better appreciate our second President, who I doubt many of us can even name.

A Better Homeschool Curriculum
I have no authority to say what works or what doesn't work as a homeschool mom, but I do have years and years of experience as a student, which I will be happy to share.

I don't remember having any history "curriculum" at all after 7th grade. None, nilch, nada. Instead, I had a ton of great historical fiction, biographies and autobiographies at my disposal (read: library!) and the occasional tourist stop at some place of historical significance. My teacher-mom didn't really appreciate history as much as my dad, but gave us plenty of opportunities to not only read about history see and touch it. For example, as I read about Monticello this month, I could remember the hilltop where it stood, the gardens, slave quarters, and family cemetery out back. I remembered Jefferson's octagon-shaped "cabinet" room with curious scientific instruments and an adjustable desk that he bought on his trip to France (a.k.a international shopping spree). Was I alive in 1800? No, but I did get the opportunity to visit Monticello as a teenager. (No time or money for an in-person visit? Many of these places offer online virtual tours for free.)

And don't think you have to start your third-grader on a mammoth 650-page book about a man that most kids have never heard of. Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" books are a great way to introduce biographies. I was only in elementary school when my mom read these to my sister and I, and we were able to see most, if not all of the historical sites after reading the books. Obviously I had little knowledge of history at nine or ten years old and don't remember as much about it as later trips, but it was a fun introduction.

I think it's sad that our schools- public, private, and home schools- cause history to be a boring, unimportant but necessary school subject instead of the fascinating, meaningful story that it is. History is not about memorizing names, dates and places. History is about learning from the past, and if nothing else, it can sure be entertaining!

Maybe this is the inner better-than-thou homeschooler coming out of me, but I can't stand it when people get their centuries mixed up. Or they get World War II mixed up with World War I. We're not talking about presidents here, laws, shoe styles or small minutia like that. We're talking about grown adults, who have sat through many a history class, not knowing the 1820 from 1920. I think there is something messed up about the way we are teaching history. 

So there's my rant, and here's my challenge: if you want to cultivate an appreciation of history in yourself or someone else, throw all your textbooks in the nearest dumpster. There are plenty of good biographies out there to enjoy, and if you're not a reader, there's this great thing called the History Channel, which has many documentary offerings on Netflix. And it doesn't stop there. You can buy historically-dressed dolls and paper dolls, history-themed games like Axis and Allies, go to presidential mansions... it's a slippery slope that gets more fun as you go down. 

Do you enjoy reading biographies? Why or why not?

We spent Saturday touring the ancient Mayan ruins of Tikal and celebrating eight months of wonderful wedded bliss. 

Tikal is every hardcore homeschooler's dream. It was an ancient, prosperous Mayan city built in the middle of a jungle, a center of culture, economics, history and politics. And on top of all that, Tikal was filmed in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

It really did feel like we were in a movie, with strange plants and trees, spider monkeys hanging around and ruins all over. At Tikal it is estimated that there are around 4,000 ruins, but many of those remain unexcavated.
As a 10-year-old archaeologist, I fascinated myself with "excavating" old trash dumps and "ruins" around our farm, so you can imagine how excited I was to visit a real historical site with undiscovered remains in my midst. It was pretty awesome.

Our tour was led by Carlos.

I didn't take many photos at Tikal. There are plenty of pictures available online and a photograph is nowhere NEAR the same as seeing it in person. The Mayans were very sophisticated in their architecture and structure of society; this is easy to say but hard to believe until you actually see what they built in person.

After visiting the ruins, we spent the afternoon at the island of Flores, strolling the streets eating ice cream and enjoying the backpacker world. We met one guy who was in the process of biking from Argentina (the southern tip of the Americas!) to Alaska- a four-year journey. During the day we also talked with two Israelis, three Spaniards and also three girls from Norway, in addition to our tour guide who was a native Guatemalan and probably some other people I forgot about. If you know my husband, this should be no surprise.

Before we left, we celebrated our 8-month anniversary with dinner at a restaurant over the water. We ordered barbecue chicken pizza, which was very good but nothing similar to what we eat in the states. On our way to find a taxi, we stumbled into the local beer/ Christmas tree-putting-up festival. It was pretty packed, with food, live music and lots of people.

After an overnight bus ride, we were very happy to get back to our hostel and sleep for a few hours. As I write, Hubs is making friends with a Frenchman. Go figure. :)

-Bethany