Our Mayflower Voyage!!!

We are having a blast this week learning about the Pilgrims! Yesterday, we read " For The Light and Glory" about the Pilgrims struggles in Holland, the failed voyage of the Speedwell as well as their voyage on the Mayflower. I have NEVER heard any of these stories! I cannot believe that I consistently, through college, had an A+ in History and so much of the Christian aspects of history were left out or completely omitted. Not under my watch baby.

We are reading a book called " Don't Know Much About Pilgrims". This is a really good read for the kids and points out really interesting facts. For example, " The Pilgrims said prayer after prayer. The sailors said anything but prayers." The kids packed very strategically and into a very small bag the items that they were to take on their maiden voyage. Included was the Bible, a hatchet and sword, some clothes, a lantern and some food. I think they packed pretty well. Austen asked if they kids brought toys- great question! I told him that they probably did not bring many toys, if any at all, due to the limited space and the practicality of bringing only things that served a direct purpose.

Jayden read Psalm 27 while we sat in the lower level of our " Mayflower".  One of my favorite verses from Pslam 27: 13-14

    I remain confident of this:
   I will see the goodness of the LORD
   in the land of the living.
¹⁴ Wait for the LORD;
   be strong and take heart
   and wait for the LORD.
 We then sang some psalms, worshipped God together, then I turned the lights off and we listened to the crashing of the waves, the rain hitting the side of the ship, babies crying, goats bleating, pigs snorting, people getting seasick and the ship rocking.

The kids were dressed in Pilgrim garb ( probably more reminiscent of the Puritan clothing that we all came to associate with Pilgrims), but nevertheless, they looked pretty cute. We talked about trusting God even when life seems very uncertain or scary.

All three kids than slept on the floor of the Mayflower as we sailed through the Atlantic Ocean. Finally, after much prayer someone yelled , " Land Ho!" and expectantly, we peered out to see a vast coastline with low lying beach shrub and our new home that we would call Plymouth.

Finally, Ben has a copy of all our our nations historical documents, one being the Mayflower Compact. We read about the importance of this and I was simply fascinated by it. Our country was actually founded on Godly principals, According to the book, " The Light and the Glory"- this was the first time in all of history that a group of people came together and used the bible as their source on which to draw up their laws and regulations- The Mayflower Compact.

We also completed both boys math, language arts, Spanish and Bible today- what a great day. Now to enjoy some hot apple crisp. Mmm, love me some fall time.