Pilgrims & Turkeys

favorite book, before its disappearance

the boys capturing a close up of their ant farm- so fun to watch!

sweet, sweet Moriah doing her school and pretending to be a "caveman"

Austen's  fish,corn,dirt picture

Riah coloring her Indian wooden person ( the boys had pilgrims)

Getting ready to walk for life!

What a busy, busy week we have had! I cannot even believe everything that has been accomplished in one week and that was a huge part to me not being able to blog as much as I wanted to. We are wrapping up our unit on responsibility. Let me recap everything that we have been doing. First off, the kids made a picture showing how Squanto helped the Pilgrims learn how to grow corn. We glued down three goldfish crackers, then five kernels of popcorn kernels, then dirt. The kids each drew a picture of a blackbird, crow and worm and we learned the following poem:

" Five kernels of corn in a row

One for the blackbird, one for the crow

One for the cutworm and two to grow."

We talked about the meaning of the poem and what the fish were for and then the following day, they drew the sun and rain to their picture. This is a progressive picture as tomorrow we will add a cornstalk and then finally draw in a corn ear. The kids really understand the importance of the Indians, the Pilgrims and the difference between the Jamestown settlers and Pilgrims.

We sang " A Turkey Sat On A Backyard Fence" and used Jay's beanie baby turkey to act it out. That was really cute and pretty festive. The kids then traced their hands and created turkeys out of their hand prints with glued on sequins, feathers and whatever else they deemed necessary.

I thought of having a huge Thanksgiving Feast but I think we will wait until the actual Thanksgiving and tonight the kids are going to a Fall Hoe Down with dancing, chili, bobbing for apples, caramel apples and fellowship so I think that will take the place of a finale for this unit and make it a lot easier on me as well.

We completed our unit reading of "101 Dalmatians" and are beginning "The Incredible Journey". Austen's reading is really coming along- slow but coming. I think, for five, he is doing great! Math is moving along - what is the saying, " slow and steady wins the race"?

The kids and I walked in a Crisis Pregnancy Walk today and I was so proud of them. On the way to, they were talking about helping mamas and their babies. Riah goes, " We going to help the mamas and maybe even chase their babies around, high five!!!" - the girl cracks me up! On a sad note, we lost Hannah's favorite dinosaur book on the walk. Now I need to hunt it down on Amazon to buy. Poor Lou.

I think I am going to wrap up our Responsibility unit this week, like now, I'm wrapping it up- its done. I feel that the kids fully understand responsibility- to the core. They work very hard, most of the time, at demonstrating it and I am so ready to move on to a new trait. We have had a great, spanning all the way back to our start with chores and pets, beavers, ants to now- the settlers. Wow, and the fact the kids remember and retain so much of what we have learned is so exciting for me. Moriah thinks the entire Bible is "Psalms" and  wants me to sing every verse she finds- sometimes I sing it in minor and make it sound intense and scary- haha :)

Our next trait- Courage!

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!

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.

Wrapping Up Jamestown

What a busy day today. The boys had bible quiz, we all had church, then Awanas tonight and we threw in some school this afternoon. After taking a 45 minute hiatus from life, I went upstairs with newspaper, pretend feathers and face paint. We made Indian headdresses as well as adorned them with symbolic paint of their choosing. Jayden was "Raccoon Claw" and Austen was "Mewolf". I have these three bamboo sticks that I purchased at Target awhile ago and just have not gotten around to buying a large decorative vase to put them in so we used them as a tepee today. Yes, we know that the Indians in Jamestown did NOT live in tepees but limited means means creative solutions.

The boys really enjoyed getting into character and we traded beads back and forth. I pretended to be the settlers from Jamestown and their yellow beads symbolized the gold. I kept trying to cheat them out and trade my blue beads for four of their gold beads- because, as we learned, gold had no intrinsic value to the Indians. We discussed was this kind or honorable of the settlers and how would we feel if someone tried to take advantage of us.

Next, we played uno, in a circle, and if I won I was able to keep all of their yellow beads. I won twice. Finally, we read a couple of books on John Smith and talked about Pocahontas and her role in saving John Smith's life and the good relations between the Indians and the settlers as long as Smith was around. I feel so sad knowing that the Indians were so giving and wanting, for the most part, good relations with the settlers ....and yet, so many were greedy, selfish and had no respect for the Indian's way of life.

A few days ago, we were able to watch a live blacksmith demonstration and explanation on how to forge metal into useful objects, ie: tools and weapons. Jayden practiced forging metal into a knife. Austen had a chance to do it but completely froze up and made his hands go limp the minute I tried to put the protective gloves on him. Then, a spark few past him and , infront of everyone, he started screaming. Quite a memorable moment. Then, later that same day, Jay was able to participate in an archery class. Both of these were very cool as we were learning about Indians and how they hunted with arrows, the findings of arrowheads in Jamestown and then lastly, the blacksmiths within Jamestown and the important role that they played in creating tools and weapons for the settlers. Love how God ties in our lessons to practical applications- always!

Finally, tomorrow we are beginning our three week study on the Pilgrims in Plymouth but we should be receiving a great package of resources from the park ranger at Jamestown in Virginia. Wow, I was so excited to call and talk to the ranger there. He was so helpful and so willing to help with our study. We will definitely come back to Jamestown and do some more activities once our package arrives. I also ordered some travel brochures from Plymouth to be delivered this week as well. The best I can do since we live so far from both locations....also, the park ranger is sending us two Virginia post cards. Yeah!!!

A Day in Jamestown...Hmmm

Ok, I will begin this with what we did today. We read a few more books on Jamestown and began to read a book on Pocahontas but needed to stop because Hannah refused to stop screeching and pulling on pages. The boys went outside to build wattle and daub ( mud) walls just as the colonist did for their homes and buildings inside the fort. We drove stakes ( small sticks) into the ground, intertwined vines ( fresh off the tree leaf twigs) in between the stakes and formed mud around the structure to dry and harden.

The boys worked pretty hard on their wall, washed up outside and came in to go upstairs and start recreating the Jamestown fort. We first tried to use legos but were having a very hard time forming a triangle point on the green building mat so we switched to lincoln logs. This worked fairly well,  they created a fort and set up their Indians and Cavaliers and workmen. The boys pretended to have a battle of gunfire and arrows and enjoyed this for awhile. Finally, this afternoon, we worked on math.

Ok, now I will fill in the gaps. Today was honestly a very frustrating day. Hannah was into everything. I felt that nothing was getting done to the level that I had expected it to. My plan for sitting and reading turned into a disaster as books were falling off the couch, Hannah was all over, drooling over everything and screeching. Austen kept zoning out, Moriah was being a complete " Ramona" and Jay was fine.

When we were outside building our walls, Austen kept asking me over and over if there were ants outside, and if they were going to climb up their wall...to see my son's opinion of ants see this post nature walk turns deadly. Then, when the boys went upstairs they kept coming down over and over because " so and so was not helping, they weren't sure how to do it....". I had imagined them upstairs for hours playing and creating this fort. Darn you expectations. THEN, our lincoln logs kept falling over, Hannah again, crept upstairs and tried to be the jolly green giant and overtake the poor Indians and Colonists. Then, after it was all over, Moriah destroyed the entire fort. The icing on the cake.

To say that I felt quite defeated today was for sure. It was just a frustrating day. I want everyday to move seamless and smooth and that is an unrealistic expectation, I want Moriah to be a "big helper" everyday and that is unrealistic. Finally, tonight, the kids were told to go upstairs to brush teeth.....we hear run,laugh,run,laugh, scream.....run upstairs and Austen caught a corner with his forehead, huge bump, huge gash that by God's grace did not break open and averting a trip to the Urgent Care and huge screams. Ok, breathe, God give me grace right now because more than anything I feel angry for their disobedience. Needless to say, I am thankful they are in bed. Tomorrow is a busy day with a blacksmith field trip, art co op and an archery class..... oh, and Jay had an origami class tonight so Hannah and I hung out at Target while she tried to eat my new pumpkin spice candle and then later, spilled an entire sippy cup of milk over my newly mopped floor.

Anyone else ever have days like mine? More than anything I want to down an iced mocha with whip....more than anything....but since we have no coffee and I am too tired to go out , I"ll settle for crackers and iced water instead. Here's to a new day tomorrow.

Pointillism

just a proud new "cubbie"

Austen's is a sand storm in the desert

Jay's is a jungle with a sunset

Today was an incredibly busy day but we accomplished almost everything that was on my list so I feel pretty satisfied. I am beginning a new study on art and the different types of art. This study will take us through the next few months and I hope that kids walk away with a fun, new awareness of art and how to create and look into a painting, sculpture or drawing with new perspective.

To begin with we are studying Impressionist artists, more specifically Monet. I looked and researched who to begin with a I love his artwork so I figured this would be a good starting point. We observed his painting, " Garden at Sainte-Adresse" and I threw out some questions like, what are the people doing, what type of weather is it, what season, is it windy, sunny, how can you tell......? I really enjoyed watching the boys look at the details of the painting and explain where they came up with the answers to their observations.

After looking at the picture and talking about his technique a little bit, we decided to paint "en plein air". The boys picked a habitat that they would like to be standing or sitting in while painting and went to work. They first sketched with lines their surroundings and then, using the pointillism technique they painted. Pointillism is when an artist paints pictures using thousands of tiny dots of color.

At first, Jayden and Austen were not thrilled about being told how to paint. I explained to them that although they were free to decide what to paint, the purpose of this exercise was to explore different techniques therefore, following directions was imperative. After they saw how much fun it was to mix colors, dab their cotton swabs in the paint and create a beautiful scene, they enjoyed the challenge very much.

We listened to colonial music while we painted and now, I just need to hang my corkboard up so I can display their work. Their math and language arts took all morning because we needed to do two lessons each. Also, we read more on Jamestown, the workman vs Cavaliers and colored and discussed who was more suited for life in the colony.

Finally, I read a narrative of the "Starving Time" where colonists ate the leather from their shoes to try and stay alive. The verse, Proverbs 20:4 " The lazy man does not plow in season, so he begs during the harvest and has nothing."- the early colonists pretty much lived out this verse. Since the main goal for many of the Virginia Company was to find gold and other precious metals, they wasted so much of their time searching and not preparing for the cold,harsh winter that was at hand. I am learning so much and probably way more pumped about this topic than they ever will be :)

Colonial America

We are on to a Brave New World. I came across a notebook I had started for Jayden when we briefly studied the different explorers. Wow, I really wish we had a working printer- what cool pictures of people and things I had found. If anyone would like to buy us a printer, feel free :) We just received an out of control summer electric bill ( with the air at 82) and I am just over the heat. Anyways! Had I been a pilgrim, as we learned today, we would have had to deal with a whole "gaggle" of other issues, so thank you God for expensive air conditioning.

Our ant farm arrived yesterday but we will be without ants for a few more weeks, or atleast until the temperature drops to below 85 degrees. So maybe, just maybe by November they will arrive. We delved into plenty and I mean plenty of Colonial America books this morning. I love history! I pray that my kids will pick up on this passion as well and that I will aid in the making of it come alive for them. Today, however, my only goal was to play a lot of games ( accomplished) and read a LOT( also accomplished).

One of the books we read was all the foul and disgusting parts of being a colonist. I knew the kids, especially the boys would enjoy this one. To be honest, it was fascinating! We talked about their outhouses, dumping chamber pots in the streets ( and that the kids had the responsibility of this job), that they lived in dark 20x20 one room homes that smelled of stew, smoke and sweat. Sounds accommodating, doesn't it :)

This is what I LOVE about reading real books. The kids are not simply asked to read one paragraph about the colonist lives but rather, we have over 30 books ( we will NOT read all of them) on Indians and their point of view, Jamestown, Plymouth Rock, the Mayflower, Squanto, Pilgrims, hardships, their homes, the first Thanksgiving, etc....as well as our activities and field trips so that this learning experiences literally jumps off the page at them and becomes memorable. This is my prayer, atleast.

One book we read was called, "Little Wolf". It is a story about a young Indian and how their way of life was changed dramatically by the white man. It is a level three easy read so it made this very sad and complex issue very easy to understand, especially for Jayden. My goal in teaching history is not only to show the great things but also the unfair and hurtful things that humans inflict on other humans.

As I write our lesson plans for the next week, focusing on Jamestown, some of our activities include: discussing the Cavalier's clothing vs the workmen' clothing, drawing a picture of each and then watercoloring them, eating gruel, writing a newspaper article of life in Jamestown, making a wattle and daub wall and dressing like Indians and Pilgrims.

I decided not to wait until November to finish off our responsibility unit because then I would find myself competing with other patrons at the library for books on Pilgrims, Indians, Thanksgiving, etc. I would rather have all the books to myself and not have to return them early because " this book as been requested by another patron."

Here's to looking forward to six more great weeks of Settlers, Indians, History and Learning! " Land Ho!"