Time for School and Some Fun
Time to learn!
After your morning chores, it would be time to head to school! There was only one school house in Buffalo Grove - St. Mary's School. Everybody under the age of 14 went there. Since St. Mary's was a Catholic school, you would be taught by the Parish nuns for all your lessons. All the boys and girls in town crowded into the one room schoolhouse. There were chalkboards for completing lessons and books for learning math, spelling, and geography.
You learned about everything at school...
At school you were taught all the different subjects – math, science, geography, reading, and English. English was important because you would only speak German at home. Your parents came to the United States 20 years ago, and mostly spoke German at home.
Since your school was run by the Catholic church in town - St. Mary Parish - there was atleast one prayer during the day as well.
Books were important for learning but also very expensive...
Your sister lent you her geography book – "Leading Facts of Geography, Part Two". It was published all the way in Boston so you were lucky to have such a book. Many of the books were older but still used at school. Books were expensive and hard to come by so you knew you had to take good care of them so that other kids younger than you could use them in a few years.
Your favorite subject was geography and learning about new places. You had these great encyclopedias at school to do research on the entire history of the United States.
Time for some fun with friends!
At school lunch, you had a little bit of time to play with friends outside. You played baseball and tag. You were the best catcher on the team and even had your own special catcher's mitt for the occasion!
Unfortunately you couldn't play too long after school. Since you lived on a farm, you had to run home to help finish work again. The work on a farm never ends...