Our Thanksgiving Unit

Last week we were on the road again so I decided to take a break from our regular routine of curriculum and do a Thanksgiving Unit. Titus is very much a hands on type kid so I wanted everything to be interactive and fun. We actually had a great time schooling and since we were on the road, I had to be very choosy about things that made big messes...so all of the things you will find below take little effort to pull off and get cleaned up! (that's always a plus to me!)

Here is a snapshot of what we did last week. I tried to include links and photos so you could get ideas and do some fun things with your kiddos this week! Enjoy!

We started off the week by watching Scholastic's Voyage of the Mayflower::

I HIGHLY recommend this! It is fun and easy for the kids to understand. It has photos and lots of facts. After having watched the Voyage of the Mayflower, we did a Timeline. (I made the timeline out of construction paper and the free Pilgrim Story printable HERE)

After those activities Titus knew the over all story of Thanksgiving pretty well. Next we divided up the days:: one day we majored on the Wampanoag Tribe and their accounts of the events and the next day we did the same with The Pilgrims. With each we did a craft that went along with it. Here are some of the crafts::

We did hats from construction paper and they wore them while we listened to the stories and acted out some parts::

Made Tomahawks (from a Hobby Lobby kit)

We made The Mayflower (model from Michael's) and painted on this printable::

For the Pilgrim's day we read "The Pilgrims' First Thanksgiving" by Ann McGovern and we made Pilgrim hats.

On the Wampanoag day we read "Squanto's Journey" and made the Tomahawk.

After reading the books to Titus I had him draw a picture of what he learned. This is an example of what he drew after "Squanto's Journey."

For more information through out the week, we referred to the

The Usborne Encyclopedia of History::

Titus worked on a Thanksgiving book the entire week. He did a couple pages a day. He found it fun and out of the ordinary of what we do. It is a little cheesy but he loved it. (It was free printable from here, just click on the Thanksgiving Lapbook word document)

We did an "I Am Thankful" book. I found this online and cut it out and made it a book.

(Find it Here)

I found some random worksheet for him to do as well. One was a diagram to compare and contrast two turkeys and another worksheet was the Pilgrim story told that you had to de-code then answer questions. He really liked both! (these came with the Pilgrim Story document from the timeline above but this is the link again:: here)

And he did some really great reading. He really loved this Magic Tree House since we were learning all about the people that the kids in the book end up meeting. It was perfect.

I did some things with Justus that were more geared toward Pre-School learning. Justus definitely did some of the above mentioned things, such as the Tomahawk and Mayflower but some of the things were not suitable for his age or attention span :)

With him I did a hand print turkey and we worked on colors and counting. HUGE hit! And I did a construction paper turkey where I laid out the feathers and said, "find a red feather and lets glue it on next to the yellow feather," then he would attempt to pick a red feather out of the bunch and we would talk about how to put it next to the yellow one. This was obviously to make sure he is still knowing his colors and work on fine motor skills as well.

We read these pre-school books:: The Littlest Pilgrim, One Little, Two Little Three Little Pilgrims, and Thanks for Thanksgiving::

I am sure we did some other things but this is all I have photographed. If you follow Vernon on twitter, then you were blessed to see Titus' Wampanoag Indian Chief dance. It was hilarious. He really got into the Wampanoag portion. It was very fun. Justus just took it all in. :)

I hope this helps some of y'all get pointed in the right direction this week as you school or as you have your kids home on Thanksgiving break.

Have a tremendous holiday.

I am thankful.

-A

Happy Reformation Day!

Happy Reformation Day & Halloween to all our friends! This year Titus is dressing up as Dragonoid (he has no idea who this is, he just thought the costume looked amazing, HA!) and Justus is going as a T-Rex. He loves dinosaurs so this has been such a fun costume for him. He stomps around and growls, it's hilarious. Vernon and I are going as St. Louis Cardinal's fans but, in fear for our lives, we did not wear all our gear to Boo at The Zoo. I wore a Cards shirt and that was enough :) It was the day of Game 7 so it was risky. We will, however, be all dressed up tomorrow!

In honor of Reformation Day, last night Titus and I built a mock church of Wittenberg out of boxes and construction paper. We then dressed up in robes made of blankets and acted out Martin Luther nailing the 95 Theses to the church doors. Here is a funny picture I caught of Titus aka Martin Luther.

This week and weekend, leading up to today, Titus and I read this book about Martin Luther's life.

Martin Luther:: A Man Who Changed The World

It is pretty good....it has a lot of information about Martin Luther, which was great, but I am definiately on a search for a shorter version that is more kid oriented. This one was great for the purpose we needed it for. We used it last year as well...so he was familiar with it.

Along with the letters of the week, each week we use this book for some short fun church history...it's a hilarious book! I recommend it as much for adults :) We skipped to L for Luther last night to look at what it had to say::

The Church History ABC's

We did a VERY short lap book project that I hope to expand on and it turned out like this::

This is actually my first time to experiment with "lapbooking." It was fun and easy and now Titus has something to put in his binder to keep for the future for "research."

Hope all of you have a fun day today and enjoy this evening!

Happy Reformation Day and Halloween!!

Easter Weekend

We had a fantastic Easter weekend this year. We are showered with good friends who are now as dear to us as family. Living so far from our families is hard at times and holidays tend to make us remember this reality. Last year in MO was the first Easter of Titus life (that he is able to remember:: so since he was 2) that we did not spend the weekend in Irving celebrating with friends and serving South Irving. We were so fortunate to jump right back in to our "tradition" of spending Saturday morning with friends at FBCI and Sunday afternoon at The Durham's. Thanks to all our friends who have warmly welcomed us right back into your lives after being gone 1.5 years. We love y'all to the moon!!! (and our families appreciate your kindness towards us as we are so far from them!)

One of our "traditions" on Saturday morning of Easter weekend, is to attempt to get a decent picture of all the kiddos together. As you will see below, we've come a long way in the past few years :)

2009:: priceless::

2011::

I mean, can you handle this picture! I love it!

And since we are far from home I thought I would include some pictures of the boys in their Easter garb so that all the friends and family could enjoy their cuteness too!

Justus:: 2 years old

Titus:: 6 years old

Every Easter Sunday we go to The Durham's house for a fantastic meal. The Durham's have families and singles over for Easter Dinner who do not have family around DFW to celebrate with. Every year it is such a blast! Pastor John hides a bag of goodies for each person around the house and we all have to hunt...yes, even the adults. Here is a picture of Pastor John playing with Spy Gear w/ Titus after we opened all our goodie bags. He is one of the coolest Pastor's we've ever known. Around The Durham's you, no matter how old you are, always feel important and loved.

Well that's a wrap folks. Its a month late but better late than never.

Strength and Honor; Thanks Mom!

Mother’s Day has always been special to me. Even before I had children myself, I valued highly this day and wanted so badly to honor my mom. Well, lets just say I failed miserably each year knowing that the measly gift card and flowers did NO justice to all that my mom had given to us.

In May of 1986, just a week after Mother’s day, my mom tragically became a single mother of three. My father died of a heart attack at the very young age of 39 leaving my mom with the three children in a new city, states away from all the she had ever called home.

My mom had strength that only God can grant. With a loving family (both her family and my dad’s) by her side, she made the choice to move us back to Missouri to be close to her family and around some things that were, at least, familiar. In the following months she put her self through beauty school, working and going to school full time. During this time she met all our needs. We never went without. We always had breakfast hot when we got up and dinner together in the evenings. How she did it, I’ll never know.

My mother taught us through her actions to engage grief. She never made light of our pain, even on the day I cried because we got a new vacuum. I had memories of my dad vacuuming and was afraid that if everything that reminded me of him went away that I would never remember him. She came in bed with my sister (who was 11) and I (age 7) and we all cried together.

She always encouraged us to feel the grief but not to let it cripple us. She taught us, again through her actions, that God can sustain you even when you think it is impossible to stand. She never missed any of our baseball or basketball games and she was even my brothers Cub Scout leader! She is every woman.

My mom had two choices: 1) to make the most of out of the deep pain, provide for her children, and to give them a future or 2) remain in the deep recesses of grief and turn inward while solely caring for her self. My mom was strong. She made the right choice and did the best she possibly could, not ignoring the pain, but engaging it while going on with life and caring for us.

My mom had a choice, but thousands of moms around the world do not. They are forced by masters to provide for their children by selling themselves countless times a day, knowing this will be the heritage of their daughters. They have no choice to walk away. Slavery is real. It is real life to them and their children.

Knowing this reality, we now have a choice: to make a difference or ignore it all together. And this Mother’s Day I am making the choice to make a difference and in that, honor my mother, Debbie Simerly, and you too could join me.

As Our Own is a ministry that has rescued and cares for over 60 girls, many of them were being raised in brothels in India. This ministry is giving us and opportunity to honor our Mothers this Mother’s Day by donating to their “Thanks Mom!” campaign. This money will go towards the care of the sweet girls who have been rescued and now need care as they are raised to make a difference in their country.

So mom, in honor of your strength and courage in the face of pain, we are donating to our friends at As Our Own in your name. I love you!

If you would like to join me, here are the steps::

STEP 1 :: Give to our Thanks, Mom! campaign to honor your mom on Mother’s Day, May 8. (click HERE)

STEP 2 :: In the donation comments box, tell us what you appreciate most about your mom.

STEP 3 :: Download a certificate for your mom that explains the gift you’ve made in her name.

Honor your mom this Mother's Day and make a huge difference for a sweet girl in India!

A Little Late

I usually go all out for Reformation Day and make fun costumes for all (see here, here and here)...not this year. We've been traveling so much that I havent had a chance....sooo we pulled into town late on the 30th and ran to target...needless to say they didnt have much to choose from but the boys were thrilled to be super heros! (even if the costumes dont quite fit! J's was WAY too small and T's was too big) IT is funny that neither of them have ever seen Iron Man or Spider Man except in books at Barnes and Noble but they loved them all the same!

We went to an neighborhood outreach party with some friends in North County on the 31st and had a great time!! We got to hang out with the Kuntz's and the Reardon's! I got pics of everyone except Uriah...he was Woody and as cute as could be ;) Here are some photos::