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Grandparents Minnesota Style. Mike Link
Читать онлайн.Название Grandparents Minnesota Style
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9781591936053
Автор произведения Mike Link
Жанр Книги о Путешествиях
Серия Grandparents with Style
Издательство Ingram
Your week will place you in the “Northwoods” an area of cliffs and conifers, views of Lake Superior and remote smaller lakes. You will share meals and adventure, and most importantly these memories will last a lifetime.
In no time at all, it’s Friday evening. Everyone gathers around the closing campfire, making s’mores, singing songs and writing down addresses and phone numbers before saying farewell to newfound friends.
Summer camp was never this good.
Bonding and bridging:
There’s no other experience that’ll make you feel quite as young again as a stay at Intergenerational Camp—talk about a flashback! Still, you’ll find an even better reason to attend: It presents a special opportunity for you and your grandchild. Instead of being the authority figure, you stand on equal ground. You’re not in charge, making all of the rules. You’re a camper just like she is. A shared experience such as this is a big step in creating a close relationship. It’s a chance for your grandchild to realize that you can be her friend, as well as her grandparent.
A word to the wise:
In December, The Audubon Center and Eagle Bluff offer a Holiday Family Camp. This intergenerational event is open to entire families, each getting its own dorm room which can sleep up to eight people. During the four days of this event, you and your grandchild can participate in some of the same activities offered during the summer—such as high ropes and wall climbing. However, with the right snow conditions, events can include dog sledding, sleigh rides, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. New Year’s Eve is also celebrated in a special, family-oriented way.
Age of grandchild: 9 to 12
Best season: Summer and Winter
Contact: Audubon Center of the North Woods, 54165 Audubon Drive, Sandstone, MN 55072 • (888) 404-7743 • [email protected] • www.audubon-center.org
Also check out:
Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center, Lanesboro; (507) 467-2437; www.eagle-bluff.org/
Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center, Finland; (800) 523-2733 or (218) 353-7414; www.wolf-ridge.org/
Wonder of Wolves, Ely;
www.roadscholar.org/n/program/summary.aspx?ID=1%2bOI%2b1377
Bringing up a family should be an adventure, not an anxious discipline in which everybody is constantly graded for performance. MILTON R. SAPERSTEIN
Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post
Not much is taught in our schools about the great people who lived in Minnesota before European settlers arrived, but it’s important for children to know as much as they can about Minnesota history. We should introduce our grandchildren to the cultures and traditions of American Indians. The Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post is a great place to start.
The Minnesota Historical Society owns the Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post, which is located along Highway 169, north of Onamia. But it is staffed by tribal members of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. It may be quite a thrill for your grandchild to meet a real Indian, and he will likely be surprised to find that American Indians are just like everyone else. They live in houses, drive cars and go to work.
Inside the museum, take a tour of the magnificent Four Seasons Room. This circular space of walls has been painted in a diorama style to reflect the four seasons of the year. Life-sized, realistic figures pose in front of these images, as if momentarily pausing from their traditional activities. Birds perch in trees, a wolf peers from the woods, and a fire burns in a wigwam.
The other exhibits in the museum are a combination of current and historical displays. Many are interactive, something that will please and entertain your grandchild. Local artists and artisans are often found working in the brightly lit front of the museum. These individuals are happy to explain what they are doing, and sometimes visitors can even try their hand at a craft.
Before leaving, take your grandchild next door to the trading post. You will find a variety of crafts and souvenir items, ranging from trinkets to exquisite, handmade moccasins and baskets. Hand-harvested wild rice is often available too.
An excellent introduction to the Ojibwe people, the Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post provides us with an opportunity to teach our grandchildren about a proud, diverse culture. This is one chance that we shouldn’t pass up.
Bonding and bridging:
Ask your grandchild what American Indians are like, and he’s likely to tell you that they live in tepees, wear feathers in their hair and shoot arrows at people. Where does he get these crazy ideas? From television and movies, of course!
A trip to the Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post is about more than introducing your grandchild to another culture. It’s about teaching him the negative aspects of stereotyping. He assumes that American Indians were (and perhaps still are) violent and scary. Of course, this was never the case for the Ojibwe Indians. Talk with him about stereotypes and how they can harm others. Would he like it if people judged him without getting to know him first? This conversation will help to create in him an awareness of other people and their feelings, and he’ll become a much better person for it.
A word to the wise:
Mille Lacs Kathio State Park north of Onamia is a wonderful place to see the land of the native cultures that thrived in this area. Its nineteen archaeological sites lead you from the early copper period to the time of the Dakota and the Ojibwe. This was a place of settlement long before the Europeans came. According to Ojibwe oral tradition, a three-day battle between the Dakota and Ojibwe was fought here, resulting in the Ojibwe taking possession of the region. Trails and interpretive materials help you discover these stories, and the state park is a wonderful place to hike and enjoy nature.
Age of grandchild: 7 and up
Best season: Summer
Contact: Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post, 43411 Oodena Drive, Onamia, MN 56359 • (320) 532-3632 • [email protected] • http://sites.mnhs.org/historic-sites/mille-lacs-indian-museum
Also check out:
Grand Portage National Monument, Grand Portage; (218) 475-0123; www.nps.gov/grpo
Treaty Site Historic Center, St. Peter; (507) 934-2160; www.nchsmn.org
Our children grow up so fast. Maybe grandchildren are God’s way of giving us a second chance at participating in the miracle of life. UNKNOWN