The Donner Party

Oh my goodness, that was so awesome, getting to learn about history and science when I learned along with my boys. One of my favorite parts of life!

That has surprisingly been one of my favorite things about homeschooling. We use an intensive history curriculum and I can honestly say I never learned most of the things my kids are learning and they love it. My parents visited last week and when they saw their books and tests and craft projects and knowledge of world history at such young ages they were blown away and the first thing they said was, "I never learned that!" We won't be to the Donner party for a couple more years- we're still in medieval times, but yup looking forward to re-learning that!!

I teach a novel about the Donner Party in my college level English class. It is by James Houston and is titled Snow Mountain Passage. You should check it out. I enjoy teaching this topic because it allows us to reflect on human behavior, racism and perseverance. Many families in the party settled here where I live and one semester I had a direct descendent of one of the survivors. Fascinating stuff.

There is a very good historical series on Netflix called Ken Burns' The West. One of the episodes focuses on the Donner Party. We live in Utah so much of this series covers Utah history, the pioneers, Native Americans, etc. which is what my elementary age children have been studying, so we have been watching that series together.

One of my favorite benefits of educating my kids at home is I get to learn so much also! There are subjects that I vaguely recall studying so it's neat to learn more about them. There are also things I didn't learn that now I'm getting the chance to explore.
My kiddos think it's great fun to teach me if it's a subject I'm not terribly familiar with. Right now my son is studying the life & travels of Marco Polo and he loves to show me the route Marco took along with interesting facts from his travels.
I love learning with them!

Yes, i remember the Donner Party....they were a group of settlers (something like 100) who thought they were going to strike it big in gold in California - they left the mid-west and were overwhelmed with the weather and territory...they ended up with less than half their party....

due to the conditions - they became cannibals in order to survive...

It was a VERY sad situation!

ETA - sorry - YES!! I love helping my kids study!!

I just recently watched an episode of "Mysteries at the Museum" regarding the Donner Party. Pretty intense story and very sad.
Yes-I love learning more about things my son is covering in history or social studies. I got reacquainted with Harriet Tubman last year when my son had to do a report on her. I remember facts here and there about her from Black History Month events. But, wow. What an amazing and influential woman she was. She's on my top ten list of influential Americans of all time now. I'm so glad I took the time to learn more about her!

My son is only six but I love learning along with him. When he was three and into dinosaurs, I got a crash course in dinosaur paleontology and evolution as well as geology.
We had a lot of fun exploring Egypt last summer. I'm excited to learn and grow as he does. I'm sure it's a lot more fun for him, too, when he has an adult he can talk to about these subjects.

I never learned about the Donner party in school, I only learned about it as a teen after my parents divorced and my new step mother taught me about them because they were he family (she was named after the girl whose diary gave many of the details of the trip).

But yes, I often remember something I learned but have no idea when I learned it, and that prompts me to want to update my knowledge on the subject. It can be fun doing that with my children so we learn together :)

It was truly sad. I can't imagine how they lived with themselves once they were rescued.

I was totally intrigued by the Donner party one summer, and read the book Snow Mountain Passage. If I am correct in my memory it was a fictional account but based on real journals and kinda brings the whole thing to life.

I am still disappointed I did not make it to the "Donner Museum" on a road trip back when my husband and I were dating. It's in Truckee CA. We literally rolled in about 5 minutes after it closed, my husband still feels bad. There is a statue there showing how high the snow was and it's crazy that they had to hole up and do their best to live under there (in a cabin or something, I forget).

I'll have to check out the doc, you've re-piqued my interest :) My mom would reference it often growing up so I think her interest rubbed off on me.

My fabulous, twisted history teacher in high school told the story of the Donner party as her "special holiday story" every year to her AP History class. I will always remember her eyes twinkling when she talked about people gnawing on a human liver with the frozen corpse of a cow nearby!
Mrs. O'Donnell, you rock- talk about making history interesting!

Recently, over a few week period of time, my kids and I watched the History of US and it included the sad Donner Party story. My 10 yo daughter was frightened by the events.

We love to do extra research on topics they are learning at school.

Absolutely! And as a teacher I love learning more as well. One of my fellow teachers was SO excited to tell me all she learned (and relearned) about our state last year as she taught her students.

What can I say? I love learning!!! I just always hope that my students can feel that excitement and "catch it"!!!

I watched a movie about the Donner Party last year, on the History Channel I think. But it may be the same one that you found. Although it was more of a movie than a documentary.

Donner? Party of 81. Your table is ready.

Yes...all the time!

Reminds me of my interest in the book "Alive" about the plane crash with the soccer team...