Pilgrim study

For the last 2 weeks, we have been doing a study on Pilgrims.  We made lapbooks using the Pilgrim project pack from Homeschool E-store.  We all learned a lot.  There were many things we studied that I did not know - including the story of Squanto.  I am including pictures from both boys' lapbooks.  Nicolas's is red and Alex's is blue.

Here are their covers.

This is Alex's left flap.  We learned some vocabulary words as we went through the study.  The top matchbook is "Shhh!  Secret Meeting" explaining why the Pilgrims had to meet in secret - if King James knew they were worshipping in a different way than he required, they would be persecuted (vocabulary word.)

This is Nicolas's book opened up. 

Starting at the far left, the top Pilgrim book explains why they were called Pilgrims - that they traveled far from home for religious reasons.  The top yellow book called "The Scrooby Separatists" talks about the people from Scrooby, England who separated from the Church of England and went to Holland to get away from King James.  While they were there, they noticed their children losing the English ways and fogetting the English values.  That's when they decide to travel to America to bring their children up with English values and still have freedom to worship the way they please. 

The green book is a biography of William Bradford, the 2nd governor of Plymouth Colony.  The black and white picture on the left is a picture of Bradford. 

The orange pilgrim picture opens up to tell about what kinds of clothes the pilgrims wore.  The rest of the pictures just fill in.

This is the right side of Nicolas's lapbook.  There is a picture of the Mayflower with a map below it showing the Mayflower's route.  This flap lifts up to reveal:

...the first 13 colonies of the US.  Under this flap we have...

a blue envelope book talking about their journey - there was not enough food, many were sick, it was very crowded and there were lots of storms.  The Mayflower Compact book states that the compact was an agreement between the Pilgrims and England that England would send supplies and Plymouth Colony would return the favor.  They would still follow English rules, but they would be their own separate colony.  The green book asks When they sailed? - 1620, How many passengers? 102, and The name of the ship? - the Mayflower.   The rest are just fill-in pictures.

On the far right of Alex's (blue) book, we began our talk about the Indians who helped the pilgrims, Samoset matchbook and Squanto.  We read a wonderful story about Squanto called "Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving" by Eric Metaxas.  It really brings to a point that God had a specific plan for Squanto to be kidnapped so that he could learn the language and be saved from the disease that killed his entire village so that he could help the Pilgrims later.  It compared him to the Joseph story of Genesis, that what men intended for evil, God intended for good.  I highly recommend the book!

Below the Indian books we created a turkey pop-up book.

Behind this flap...

we have a book called "Giving Thanks" that tells some of the things the Pilgrims were thankful for.  Then we did the fan book stating what we are thankful for - family, food, Jesus, parents, etc.

Then to finish up, the boys copied a prayer and glued it to the back of the book.  "Without Thy sunshine and Thy rain We could not have the golden grain; Without Thy love we'd not be fed; We thank Thee for our daily bread."  Nicolas only copied the last 2 lines because it takes him so long to write.  Alex wrote his in cursive, even though he "hates cursive".  He writes so neatly when he takes his time!

We really had a lot of fun with this study.  As an extra, we have been reading "The Mayflower Secret" by Dave and Neta Jackson (the Trailblazer Series).  It is too much for Nicolas to sit and listen too.  It's a late elementary reader, and with the King James language in it, it's hard to understand.  We still have 3 chapters left that I am hoping to finish up tomorrow.  It's a good book, and Alex enjoys listening to it.  We plan to use several other Trailblazer books, especially about missionaries the next school year.

Tennessee Vacation

For our fall break this year, we went to Sevierville, TN with my in-laws to a cabin they own there.  I have always loved Tennessee, but have never been there in the fall.  It is so beautiful when the trees start changing colors!  Even though this was our fall break, we did a couple things that I will count as a school day.  We had just finished talking about horses, so the first thing we did was go to Five Oaks Riding Stables and we all rode horses for 1 hour.  We had to force Nicolas on, but he now says that was his favorite part of vacation.  This is the first time I had ever been on a horse also. 

Alex on his horse,

Nicolas on his horse, Coal.

After horse back riding, we went to Nascar Speedpark.  We went there the last time we were in Tennessee, but it was the spring, and it was busy.  This time there was hardly anyone else there, so the people running the tracks let the kids stay on as long as they wanted to.  The kids wanted to go trick-or-treating while we were there, so we found out Five Oaks Tanger Outlet had trick-or-treating in the stores.  The boys dressed up in their Jedi robes once again and got lots of candy.  That gave me a chance to scope out the stores I would like to shop at in the future!  Ryan and I went to a Mystery Dinner Theatre that night, while the kids stayed with Grandpa and Grandma.  The food was good and the show was funny, (Frankly Scarlet, You're Dead).

Grandpa and Grandma wanted to take all of us to Wonderworks.  It is like a science museum, but the building was built upside down.  They had a hurricane and earthquake simulator, a bed of nails, several optical illusions, a space center, to name a few.  Alex built his own rollercoaster on a computer, then got in a "pod" and was able to ride the rollercoaster he built. 

The last day we were there, we took a trip into the Smokey Mountain National Park.  Along the road we were on, there were 3 old log cabins along with the barns, mills and other buildings that went along with the farm.  The first homestead had a brochure telling about the history of the farmer who lived there.  It was neat to go inside the cabins and bars.  We hiked on the trails a couple of different times and of course got some great pictures of the view.

This is the sunrise from our bedroom window. Gorgeous!!

The rest of our vacation was spent shopping, playing in the game room at the cabin (pool and arcade), and sitting in the hot tub.  No one was ready to leave!

Africa lapbook

We finished our African Animals lapbook today.  Here are pictures of Alex's finished project.

 

 Also wanted to share, yesterday Nicolas decided to make his own flag (a product of reading The Finest Horse in Town and studying how to draw a moving flag.)  He decided rather than draw one, he wanted to make one.  Now, this is normal for both boys to be drawing flags and leaving them all over my house :)  But this time, he didn't want paper.  He wanted a piece of fabric.  I just happened to have some extra white in the closet.  After coloring on the colors, he went outside to find a stick (not difficult with the winds we have had).  Then he went to the garage to get a shovel to dig himself a hole to put his stick into.  It is now flying out front beside the front steps.  He's very proud of it.

Horse Lapbook

We finished our lapbook yesterday, so I am posting pictures of Nicolas's.  I will show you pictures of Alex's next lapbook.  Since they both look basically the same, I decided not to post pictures of both of the same unit.  We are watching a movie today called "The Saddle Club" that I got from the library.  It is all about horses.  Lots of different emotions in this movie!  Also, we read Jan Brett's Fritz and the Beautiful Horses yesterday.

Our Horse Study

During co-op, we read Paul Revere's Ride by Longfellow and this week The Finest Horse in Town.  Last week, in trying to keep with the horse theme, I decided to read and study Mrs. Mack by Patricia Polacco.  VERY GOOD BOOK!  We didn't do a lapbook on any of the books, but instead did a horses lapbook.  When it's completed, I will post pictures.  I wasn't sure how in-depth I was going to get because I didn't know how interested the boys would be in horses.  Turns out they were very interested!  So I had to add more components to the lapbook as the week progressed. 

We went to a co-op family's house that owns a couple horses.  The boys loved being able to feed and touch the horse.  They are ready to try to ride one.  I'm not sure if we can make that happen in the near future, but I have an idea in the works.  If it pans out, I will have pictures later :)  We all have learned many new things about horses this week.  They haven't asked if we can get a horse yet, but if my idea come about and they get to ride one, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that question next.  Just what we need, is another pet (already 8 hamsters, 2 cats and a fish.)

Anyway, here are pictures of them feeding the horse.

It's Pumpkin Time!

This weekend was the Sweetser Pumpkin Walk.  This is the first year the boys were in the costume parade. 

The "Peyton Manning" in the middle of my 2 little "Jedi's" is their cousin.  There were a lot of kids in the parade, and some very clever little costumes.  We didn't put much thought into ours this year since we will be in Tennesse over Halloween this year.  I'm not sure we will do any trick-or-treating this year.

Both boys participated in the Pumpkin Walk also, submitting their own carved pumpkins.  Alex won an Honorable Mention for his tombstone pumpkin.  I was surprised.  I kept encouraging him to do something more unique, but he insisted that was what he wanted to do.  Nicolas drew his own ghost, but I had to help him carve it. 

 

Last 2 field trips

Aren't field trips great?!?  We get a break from the sitting down portion of school, but our kids are still learning something.  Since it is fire safety awareness month, we visited the fire station.  Alex is a cub scout.  One of his requirements was to draw a plan to leave our house should it be on fire.  We had already talked about it last year, but it's so good to review it every year.  Both boys remembered our meeting place, by the neighbor's house.  Our house is small, so we only have a front door and a back door.  We talked about when we would use which door and what would happen if they could not come downstairs to get out.  (Sit by the window and wait for the fire department.  Go ahead and unlock the window, but DON'T OPEN IT until they are there.)  While at the fire station, one of the firemen put on his uniform, complete with mask and air tank.  Some kids would be scare of the "monster", but it was good for the kids to see what a fireman would look like when they came into the house to rescue them.

After a lunch at the park, we went to the pumpkin patch.  It was such a beautiful day!  We were able to take off our jackets and enjoy the sunshine.  Played some games, went on a hayride, had a scavenger hunt, and then everyone got to pick out a small pumpkin.  Here are what the boys picked out: