Journey of the Mayflower and the Mayflower Compact

Since everyone does their Thanksgiving studies in November, I decided to start early on ours so that  we could make sure that the library books we needed are available.  I wanted to cover more information about the Pilgrims and Wampanoag this year.  To start our studies we read about the Separatists as they left England and moved to Holland; and then later made their journey across the Atlantic.

Books we used:
William Bradford, Plymouth's Faithful Pilgrim by Gary. D. Schmidt
P is for Pilgrim by Carol Crane
Giving Thanks The 1621 Harvest Feast, by Kate Waters
Beauty and the Beaks, A Turkey's Cautionary Tale, by Mary Jane and Herm Auch (truthfully I didn't want the book, only the huge turkey puppet that came with it...but it was an interesting read).  Isn't this a great puppet?

Movies we used:
Colonial Life for Children, Plimoth Plantation, by Schlessinger Media
William Bradford the First Thanksgiving, by Living History Productions, Inc.

Enchanted Learning has a lovely Crossing of the Mayflower map and question/answer sheet that we printed out and worked on to memorize the facts of the trip. The girls are fascinated with Oceanus Hopkins, the baby that was born aboard the Mayflower.  They like the name Oceanus I guess.  We also printed a circular  Pilgrim book from Enchanted Learning.

We spent time learning about the Mayflower Compact.  I printed out copies of the Compact and then the girls used some of my Tim Holtz Distressing Ink to "antique" the paper.  The concept of "go lightly" wasn't grasped well...so the appearance is a bit harsher (and dare I say, gross looking) than intended.

We've also spent time this week working on more life skills.  Olivia has been helping in the kitchen a lot more, and Lindsey is quite the little laundress!

We have started going on daily walks around our neighborhood first thing in the mornings.  The girls were thrilled when we stumbled on a new home being built.  The first day we went by, the lumber was just being delivered, so we watched that tedious process.   By the following day the entire sub floor was complete. Today they have three of the four exterior walls up.  The kids look forward to going by each day on our walk.  The construction crew always waves and smiles as we stop to point out what's being done.

We have a bookfair in our area that opens up for two weeks at a time, several times a year. I finally made it over this past week and was really happy to find some great Christmas gifts, project packs and a Wonderboard Magnetic Geometric Shapes kit.  The kids have been having lots of fun with it, and they're being very creative.  They also had a house building magnetic board set that I wish I'd bought, now that we've found this lovely home being built nearby!  However, the girls are doing ok designing their own houses.

We're moving right along in Latin.  We're only on lesson 7, because that's typically the subject that gets cut if we're running out of time.  In my defense, I also do a review week about once per month where I spend the entire week going over all the words and phrases we've learned.  Olivia is really doing a great job.  I'm  thrilled to see how quickly she's taking to it.

I had planned on doing crafty type things today, but we had unexpected company for the entire day.  We spent the majority of the day outside,  making leaf piles to jump in...and no, I didn't think to take photos.

Tomorrow is the typical co-op and ballet day.  Although, it is pizza day at co-op, so I'm looking forward to having that for lunch instead of my standard PB&J.

Head over to the Weekly Wrap Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers to check out everyone else's week.