Settlement in a New Land

The Mayflower has landed and we embarked on a study of life in Plymouth this week. Kate Water's books played a large part in our study...her books are excellent giving a "first person" view of life during this time.

It is funny how you can read and discuss history but then something clicks and the child actually gets it was real (even if they are told). This happened with Emma this week. We read several books on the Pilgrims and the first settlers but it was not until we were reading The Thanksgiving Story when she heard about the baby born on the Mayflower, Oceanus, for the 3rd time that it clicked...this was a real event. She got all excited and has played Mayflower and Pilgrims since complete with a baby named Oceanus.

Emma and Baby Oceanus on the deck of the Mayflower.

In addition to Pilgrims we studied the 13 colonies. Emma traced a map to make a picture of the colonies and then we used the state sheets from My Father's World Adventures (we did a year ago) to find out why they were formed and how they got their names. She then labeled her map.

Sign of the Beaver was finished this week. We both really enjoyed this and got a better look at the Native American way of life. it has actually inspired both Emma and I to look at homesteading/survival books to see how to make things from nature. And with all emotionally charged books I choked up on the last line on the book making it hard to read properly. Sigh...I am getting too emotional these days.

We started A Tree in the Trail and I am enjoying it. Emma listens but I am not sure she is getting what I want out of it. Next week we finish this book and start Witch of Blackbird Pond as well as our Colonist study beginning with Welcome to Felicity's World. We will be staying on colonists for a while as we do the Time Traveler's cd. Emma is reading through the Felicity books and also started on the mystery series for Felicity. I love this time period and so I have no problem staying here for a while.

Pilgrims and a Missing Miss Nelson

We were back to school this past week and it was almost a full week of school, July 4th gave us a holiday. First I mentioned in the last blog post about using the Mailbox Magazine for English and I think it was a great decision based on the enthusiasm Emma gave. We spent the week working on the book Miss Nelson is Missing . Emma had fun with each exercise and said she hopes we use this for English forever. I am sure it was the newness and the use of the book Miss Nelson this week but who am I to squash her excitemnet for English work.

For history we started our Colonial Times with a week on Pilgrims and an Archeological Dig. The dig was an idea from the Time Traveler Colonial Life we are using as our spine. It talked about items discovered during a dig at Ferry Farm and had a notebooking page to make showing the things found and what they were for. Emma then did her own dig using a 2 liter bottle as her dig site. The day before I went to the Crowded Closet (a place to find used items of everything and anything) and hunted for small objects that might be found during colonial times and then mixed them in the mud and poured it into the "dig site". Before digging Emma had to mark the side of the bottle with 1 inch marks indicating the layers. As she dug she had to note what layers items were found in as well as describing the item, drawing it and speculating how it was used in an Archeological Journal we made.

Emma uncovered a crystal prism, metal thimble, metal/wooden medallion, and a choker.

We read several books about the pilgrims, mayflower, and the Strangers and why they were traveling to the New World. One book we both enjoyed was Three Young Pilgrims. It was based on 3 real children who were on the Mayflower. At the end of the book it gave some background to the Saints and Strangers plus the names of the people on board the Mayflower. Emma thought some of the names were weird...like Remember...but we discussed why they had those names and even though she still said she would hate to be called Remember she could understand why they did that.

We did not do science this week because I thought we would take a break from Apologia and because the books for Elemental Science Chemistry did not come in. AND I still need to order BJU Science 3, but I am waiting till I have enough in my paypal account to buy that curriculum. Good news is I sort of do...I sold enough on ebay to cover the cost of the curriculum except I need to wait for the transaction to clear which will be about 4 days after the buyers receive their things. I did download the ebook for Chemistry and it looks great...excited to start this.

Next week Daniel starts 11th grade (my baby boy is growing up...sniff, sniff) so I spent free time getting his things ready. I am going to try and blog about his High School stiff but you know teens and their reluctance for parents to discuss them, so we will see. Anyway...I got all his things organized.

We went over how each subject will be done and what is expected for work as well as how grades would be generated. I will discuss the curriculum he is using and how we are using it next week. To help with organizing I put all the weeks needed things on his desk...

...which brings me to his actual desk. Friday he tells me his desk fell apart and he needed duct tape to hold it together (he uses Duct tape for everything). Emma and I had just got back from a bike ride where we saw a nice computer desk being thrown away....guess who got the street side desk...Daniel! God supplies all our needs!