Resources for Then the Rules Changed
World Puzzles (Downloadable)
Word Games Answer Keys
Activities
Ancestor Immigration – All people in the Americas immigrated from somewhere else. Some came a few years ago, some several hundred years ago, and some thousands of years ago. Ask people in your family what stories they know about your immigrant ancestors. When did they come? From where? Why?
Recent Immigration – If possible, talk with someone who immigrated recently. Where did they come from? Why? What and who did they have to leave behind? What did they want to bring with them?
Downloadable activities
Isaacs Train Route Across the US
Recipes
Make a food like Isaac ate. Each food has many recipes, but here is one.
Cherry Pudding
Isaac called this choischa moos (choy-sha mos–like most without the t)
- Heat in a kettle until it bubbles
- 1/2 cup water and two 14-16 ounce cans of cherries, with the juice
- Stir together
- 1/3 cup flour and 1/4-1/3 cup sugar
- Add 1/2 cup milk
- Stir mixture into bubbling fruit. Keep stirring until mixture thickens
- Turn off heat and stir in 1/2 cup sour cream
- Serve hot or cold
Instead of cherries, you can use fresh, frozen, canned, or dried peaches, plums, apricots, strawberries, apples, pears, rhubarb, or raisins.
Garden Greens Soup
This soup was made in summer when there were leafy vegetables in the garden
- Use a 4-6 quart kettle
- Peel and dice 2 medium size potatoes
- Cook in 1 quart of broth (beef, chicken, or vegetable)
- When partly cooked, add chopped vegetables
- 1 small bunch green onions (tops and bulbs)
- 2-3 cups beet leaves and/or swiss chard and/or spinach
- 2 cups tomatoes, or 2 cups tomato juice
- Add 2-4 tablespoons chopped dill
- Add ½ to 1 teaspoon salt, if desired
- When ready to serve, add 1/4 cup cultured sour cream
Museums
Visit a museum.
- Look for exhibits related to Isaac’s story.
- Note museums that have an activity booklet that connects exhibits and passages from Then the Rules Changed.
- Look for something related to a story from your family.
American Historical Society of Germans from Russia Museum, Lincoln, NE (631 D Street).
Ask for an activity booklet or download here.
Look for these things: travel hamper/trunk, flax, pictures of Czarina Catherine and Czar Alexander, picture of ship, map of colonies, wheat, window with sower, sausage stuffer, heating stove, small hand-operated forge, steamer trunk/beet box, cow.
Homestead National Historical Park of America, Beatrice NE (8523 West State Hwy. 4). Look for these things: scythe, sod cutter, single share plow. For an activity booklet, ask at the museum or download here.
Henderson Heritage Park, Henderson, NE (1 mile south of I-80, 1½ miles north of town)
Ask for an activity booklet or download here.
Look for these things: chest, clock, stove, headscarf, basket with Zweiback,
Kauffman Museum, North Newton, KS (2801 N Main St.)
Look for these things: reed shoes, boots, shirt, winter hat, scarf, painted furniture, dowry chest, clock, hand basket, travel hamper, steamer trunk, scythe, wooden rake, shovel, pitchfork. For an activity booklet, ask at the museum or download here.
Goessel Mennonite Heritage & Agricultural Museum, Goessel, KS (200 N. Poplar). Look for a steamer trunk, shroud, socks, painted headscarf, clock, wheat, scythe, pitchfork, stove, one-share plow, desk, slate. For an activity booklet, ask at the museum or download here.
Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies, Hillsboro, KS (Tabor College campus, 400 S. Jefferson). Look for these things: painted head scarf, water kettle, steamer trunk.
Major County Historical Society & Museum, Fairview, OK. Look for steamer trunk, train, plow, wheat, handmade rake, scythe, sausage stuffer, school, broom. For an activity booklet, ask at the museum or download here.
Thought and Discussion Questions
- What and who did Isaac have to leave behind when he came to America?
- If you were Isaac, what and who would you have to leave behind?
- What did Isaac want to take?
- What would you want to take?
- What could he actually take?
- What do you think you could actually take?
- What is different in Isaac’s new country than he imagined while he was in his old country?
- How does he show what he thinks about the differences?
- What is something from your past that you remember?
- What in your life now is the same or different?
- Who are people Isaac is curious about?
- Who is he afraid of? Why?
- Who would you like to know more about? Who are you afraid of? Why?
- What could help you learn more? Be less afraid?
Resources for Caught in the Middle
Downloadable Activities
Research: Stories and Poems Mentioned in Caught in the Middle
Thought and Discussion Questions
Receiving a Gift:
Early in the story, Frau Fleming says, “I hope we do not have to move again, but if we must, I will take the samovar … unless there is a girl who keeps our ways.” (Page 42)
- How did Alice keep those ways? What is an example?
- How did she not keep those ways? What is an example?
- Who could Frau Fleming give the samovar to?
- What do you think made Frau Fleming give it to Alice?
Effects of War:
Frau Fleming said to Alice, “Everyone is hurt in war.” (Page 41)
- Do you agree? Why, or why not?
- Who are some people in the story who are hurt by the war’s effects?
- In what ways are they hurt?
- The word war does not always mean military battle between countries. It is used in a phrase like “war against poverty.”
- Is the word war a good one to use in that phrase? Why, or why not?
- What is another way to say the same thing without using the word war?
- What is another phrase that uses the word war?
- The word war is also used in the phrase “righteous war.”
- What is a situation when a war might be righteous?
- Who is hurt? Who is helped?
- Could the goal of the war be achieved without military battle?
- Why, or why not?
- If so, how?