Tag Archive | Thanksgiving

Slavery and The Mayflower… Unit Studies

Just a quick note – Activity Village has gone to membership, we found it rather reasonable and so paid in. This means I will still be posting their links. Some things are free, I will try to remember to indicate what is in the future! 

 

I let the twins chose a unit study for history to start out their new year. This has been a mixed success as the time it took to work on this unit was longer than expected and had us running into seasonal projects. So I do need to work on amping up our time on US history and ignoring some of the softer “fun” topics.

I looked all over for a good free lapbook resource to no avail. So we splurged and got a lapbook from Currclick – Slavery in North America by Hands of a Child. It was worth every penny!

Of course I requested books from the library:

Instead of covering Thanksgiving once again and going into massive detail on a first meal that may or may not (most likely NOT) happened as it has been repeated along with all sorts of cultural issues we focused on one thing this year – The Mayflower. We decided to make a fact poster and still do a few fun Thanksgiving themed worksheets.

We used the following library books:

For worksheets do check out Activity Village’s Thanksgiving sheets HERE, Education.com has my Thanksgiving folder HERE and EnchantedLearning is a great help HERE (this is a link to my search results). I would suggest lots of google searches but those are my three go to sites (some membership fees to access everything are required for Education.com and EnchantedLearning).

Our Mayflower fact poster

Our Mayflower fact poster

This entry was posted on 15/01/2017, in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

Now November

Hmm let’s see… November… AMERICAN Thanksgiving, a visit from Nana and Baba, full on fall weather, school, the beginning of the Christmas countdown. Because Nana and Baba were there in the right time frame we also saw Santa which you can read about in a previous post.20161123_162137

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Beach towels from their travels

Beach towels from their travels

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. Not only did Nana and Baba take over the cooking and make a full on turkey dinner BUT the Novaks also joined us! The kids were beyond excited to have the 4 boys over and we adults had a great visit.img_20161124_231211

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Echo chose our seasonally coloured cake. I baked it.

Echo chose our seasonally coloured cake. I baked it.

And the twins decorated it.

And the twins decorated it.

20161124_173601Ken and I snuck off after Thanksgiving for basically a second honeymoon. For the first time in over 12 years we went out overnight WITHOUT kids. We went to a B and B that Karyn and I had visited previously in Wisconsin (different room). We hung out in our awesome room.

20161125_161515img_20161126_213308img_20161126_004401Went out for a delicious dinner at an old mill.img_20161126_004425

Dressed up for a dinner out.

Dressed up for a dinner out.

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20161125_18300220161125_191718Shopped at an amazing yarn place.img_20161126_134823

AND drove out of our way to an even more amazing wool place.img_20161127_131241

Oh yah I spent a little

Oh yah I spent a little

We even stopped in at a brewery for a tasting for Ken.20161126_144504

20161126_145307And visited the capital building.img_20161126_155637

It was AMAZING.

ALMOST like back home.

ALMOST like back home.

It really was as good as people say!

It really was as good as people say!

Breakfast

Breakfast

Wisconsin = cheese of course

Wisconsin = cheese of course

NAP

NAP

The weather went from sundresses and sunshine to snow and snowboots.20161110_133413_hdr

img_20161103_165205img_20161109_152440img_20161118_202542img_20161123_093838We spent plenty of quality time at the YMCA.img_20161129_001509

img_20161114_185445img_20161116_19221020161112_113929And Ken and I went to an open house at Shandai and Ravyn’s new digs.20161112_155802

We found time for Home Depot.img_20161106_002011

Crocheted in spare moments.

Cat butt coasters!

Cat butt coasters!

Fingerless dragonscale gloves.

Fingerless dragonscale gloves.

Hats for cats!

Hats for cats!

The girls had their nails done by Nana.img_20161129_184624

And the twins pitched in with some baking.img_20161129_123128

We decorated our tree. img_20161130_164329

And watched our local black squirrel run our yard like a boss.img_20161107_180213

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img_20161102_11400320161110_114009Can you believe we even found time for schooling.img_20161104_141811 img_20161108_155520img_20161115_160111

Prepping the Christmas countdown paper chain.

Prepping the Christmas countdown paper chain.

20161130_141557And a visit with the Schwartz family!img_20161118_234013

A trip to IKEA had us well lit and the girls in new beds. img_20161106_001855

img_20161106_231021November went by in a blink of an eye. But it was a fun blink!img_20161111_130831

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Christmas decorations at the YMCA

Christmas decorations at the YMCA

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November, Over 6 Months Later…

November isn’t nearly so busy up in Canada… this American Thanksgiving thing takes getting used to and we have not gotten there yet. I am not a Black Friday shopping person… that is WAY too close to Christmas for my comfort. BUT we do try to cover something about it each year in our homeschool curriculum.

What is funny is that when I do these blog entries looking back at these months long gone I try to think about the month before I look at the pictures on the camera and our phone… November… well beyond Thanksgiving… well I drew a total blank… November, fall, I am pretty sure Nana and Baba took a trip… maybe… crochet, I know I did a lot of that (but when don’t I?)… we had to have homeschooled… crafted some I am sure… but concrete things… well darn you November, you just didn’t stick on the brain!

These flew off to Canada for a group of little girls to enjoy.

These flew off to Canada for a group of little girls to enjoy.

Oh wait! Remembrance Day… I mean Veteran’s Day… Though I wear my poppy and called it the former… don’t forget that. We did a mini unit on it that month. I do love the In Flander’s Fields poem (and not just because a Canadian wrote it).

Let’s see… we played in the snow… at the end of the month.DSCN1303[1]

DSCN1305[1]IMAG1490We did Home Depot.DSCN1280[1]

We were thankful with our gratitude turkey feathers.DSCN1306[1]

Echo got her inner artist going.DSCN1284[1]

DSCN1296[1]Trinity and Emanuel helped me make handmade Christmas cards.DSCN1302[1]

We managed to make it to a craft at the Lakeshore educational store. IMAG1368

We started our Christmas decorating with a mini tree in the basement. DSCN1292[1]

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And put the large one up in the dining area for a lovely Christmas glow.IMG_20151123_011129

We made a trip to the Lego store at Mall of America. The kids love playing with the blocks they have out for use. DSCN1297[1]

IMAG1466Of course we set up our advent calendars. Echo got her very own paper chain countdown that she helped me put together.DSCN1309[1]

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We had company over. Cousin Robbie one night, the Schwartz family another.IMAG1337

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We made a visit over to Robbie’s house too where Aunty Judy introduced us to their turtle.IMG_20151121_152326

And had a homeschool field trip to a newspaper for the twins! IMAG1390

Of course we did some shopping and with decorations at Walmart and cute little ones at Sam’s.. I took pictures. I think all in all we did good last November!!IMAG1494

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