Windmills, Maps and Mayflowers

Today we continued our study on the Pilgrims, Indians and Mayflower. We read some GREAT books on Squanto. His life reminded me so much of Joseph in the Bible. We learned that Squanto was first sold as a slave to England where he learned English, John Smith brought him back to the what is now Massachusetts, he was then sold again to some monks in Spain where he learned about Christ, the monks felt bad for him, sent him to England to finally be returned to his native homeland only a year prior to the Pilgrims arriving.

His life mirrors so much of Joseph's because so many horrible events occurred where nothing made sense, but then you see God's hand on their lives the entire time. Even amidst tragedy, God is still in control. What a good lesson to move through life with.

After reading books on Squanto, the kids and I made pinwheels to remember the windmills of the Netherlands and how the Pilgrims first escaped England's persecution and resided in the Netherlands for a time. We also drew pictures of the Mayflower and mapped its journey from Plymouth, England to the New World.

I love, LOVE how the kids, even Riah, ask me to sing some hymns like the women on the Mayflower did and ask me to reenact the sounds of the wind and rain as the Pilgrims traveled across the vast Atlantic. It's sinking in, this is all sinking in.

We had learned how God used Squanto to teach the Pilgrims how to plant corn, beans and squash with fish and we popped popcorn to remember how important corn was to the Indians and then to the Pilgrims. We are a little behind this week's lesson plans but that's ok, just making it two weeks instead of one.

Great news, Austen had an " Aha" moment with reading! It was like something clicked in his little wiggly bod of his and his reading is getting a tad faster. Math and language arts are moving along but wow, we just love our unit studies the most.

The day has been gray, cloudy, rainy, cool and so comforting fallish that I can only pray tomorrow is the same. Beautiful school day. Love it!