Last week my old friend (and new neighbor), who just recently started homeschooling, spent the night in our pop-up camper with her kids while her husband was working on the floors in their house. Since it was a school night, we got to homeschool together and it was so fun! Here Delahne is telling the kids the story about the Pilgrims who so longed for religious freedom, they left everything behind and boarded a cargo ship and sailed for two and a half months to a territory they had never seen. The boat was 106 1/2 feet long, and held 100 passengers. The kids all guessed the size of the Mayflower by leaving a chalk mark from one side of the boat to the other. I was a little surprised that out of all these smart kids, 4 yr. old Hope won the prize. She was only about 2 feet off. :)
Where the girls are standing marks one end of the Mayflower, and where the boys are marks the other end. We all tried to imagine what it would be like living for almost an entire summer break, stuck with the same 100 people....eating, sleeping, cooking, going to the bathroom...and yes, probably being sick, one who died, and one who gave birth, right there in the same packed Mayflower. Once I read that there wasn't even enough room for everybody to all lay down at the same time. Wow. This little activity made it so much more real. Thanks Delahne. Next time I want to compare the Mayflower with the Titanic and the Ark. We might need a longer measuring device. :)
The kids are racing from one end to the other.
On our walk back up the road, the girls stopped to say hello to our neighbors.....
Here the girls are making "homemade modeling clay" out of the floor contents of the barn. I don't even want to think about what might be in that modeling clay.
And this is a homeschooler's version of "socialization":
Where the girls are standing marks one end of the Mayflower, and where the boys are marks the other end. We all tried to imagine what it would be like living for almost an entire summer break, stuck with the same 100 people....eating, sleeping, cooking, going to the bathroom...and yes, probably being sick, one who died, and one who gave birth, right there in the same packed Mayflower. Once I read that there wasn't even enough room for everybody to all lay down at the same time. Wow. This little activity made it so much more real. Thanks Delahne. Next time I want to compare the Mayflower with the Titanic and the Ark. We might need a longer measuring device. :)
The kids are racing from one end to the other.
On our walk back up the road, the girls stopped to say hello to our neighbors.....
Here the girls are making "homemade modeling clay" out of the floor contents of the barn. I don't even want to think about what might be in that modeling clay.
And this is a homeschooler's version of "socialization":
10 comments:
Don't you just love the hands on stuff we are able to do as homeschoolers??? I love it!
Looks like so much fun. Thanks for sharing.
I actually got to see and tour an exact replica of the Mayflower and it was shockingly small. I had all the same thoughts you did. I'd have stayed in Spain!
Your kids are all learning and loving the county life. What a blessing.
See if you can find a copy of "Sarah Morton's Day" - it's about a typical day in the life of a Pilgrim child at Plimoth, with color photo-illustrations of a young reenactor, taken at Plimoth Village (just outside of Plymouth, MA). "Sarah" narrates her story, and the book really resonates with kids.
BTW, when the Pilgrims left Leyden (in the Netherlands, where they'd gone for religious freedom) en route to Plymouth, England before setting sail in 1612, they were heading for the already established (1607) Virginia Colony, not the wilds of Massachusetts! A winter storm blew them severely off course, or American history would have been very different...
Hands-on learning is so effective..back in my library days, I created a card game for school-age kids about the Pilgrims, to use after a Pilgrim themed storyhour.
Kids were given a certain number of cards at random -the cards had pictures of things like cows, dogs, cats, guns, goats, churns, beds, looms, tools, books, cooking utensils, clothing, candles, food, etc. which might or might not have been good things to take along, along with points (I think there were some minus points).
Kids could trade, etc -I can't recall all the details, but they had to offer reasons why they wanted to keep or trade, and explain what would be useful and what would be useless, and what would be in-between. We went into the natural history of the area, what local resources were available, what the Pilgrims could make for themselves, and so on. It was fun, thought-provoking, and educational. Children could make their own cards, and the game could be modified for younger children with more cards given, different points, and so on, but it worked especially well with the eight to eleven year olds.
Hope this wordy suggestion is helpful!
Best wishes,
Susan in Ky
Don't forget some classes about the Conquistadores
I need to get your e-mail address. What town did you adopt Ava from? I have a student this year who was adopted from the Ukraine....from a "special needs" orphanage. I was talking to her mom about it at conferences and she asked me what town Ava was in.
Such a beautiful Oklahoma sky :o) Great lesson too!
Great pictures and activities! Just wanted you to know I've been thinking about you and praying for you this week!
I didn't really start a new blog, well I guess I did since it has a new name. It's a long story, but basically I tried to change the background on my other one and it got all wierd on me and wouldn't work. I still can't get it to work, even after all I did with changing names and things. I should have let you know because you are my one and only reader. How sad is that? I'll have to look when I get back to school to see where my student came from, I forgot to bring it home. I'll let you know. I'm doing fine. Baby fever lately! I don't know if you read my post about the formula I got in the mail. :-( I can't believe it's been 9 months.
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