Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Super-Typical Homeschooling Thanksgiving

I'm officially on a break from pre-party preparations. You see, a certain little girl turns 1 year old tomorrow even though her mommy tried to keep her a baby. Her mommy tried to get her to cuddle more and rock more, and never helped her to roll over or crawl. But she's turning 1 in spite of all that.

So now her mommy is in the middle of preparing a "We're So Thankful for Lydia" Thanksgiving Feast as the theme for her party. I stole this idea from my dear friend, Vicki, who did a Thanksgiving dinner for her daughter who turned one in the month of June. But Thanksgiving they had because they were so thankful! (Hi Vicki! Great idea!)

Anyway, I'm supposed to be frosting the 3 tiered carrot cake I whipped up this afternoon during a rare incident of baking motivation. But I'm taking a break and blogging . . . (And the cream cheese has to soften.)

So I thought I'd share a little something Christian Homeschoolers are good at: Thanksgiving. Us CH'ers tend to be great at Thanksgiving because we love delving into the expansive literature on the God-centered beginnings of this country. (Then of course, we like to stop studying American History about the time we started killing all the Indians. Typically, that's when we go back to Genesis and start working our way forward again.)

So the day after Halloween, I guarantee all the really good Thanksgiving books have been checked out of the library by Homeschooling Moms. We've got a good 7 or 8 ourselves right now. So we read to our kids, and they read to us, and they spend time reading to their younger siblings, and pretty soon, we've got tons and tons of knowledge about "The First Thanksgiving".

But sometime you've got to stop reading and do something. So I said, Make a model of the First Thanksgiving with Playdough!" Here's what they did:

That, folks, is the First Thanksgiving. we were running out of playdough so she could only make two people. But Claire assured me there were really more people there.

And they've got all the fixin's right down to the peas and carrots! Gotta love those legs stickin' out of the turkey!

Then, Caleb, not willing to be outdone by his older sister made this:
It is "A mountain with a hole in it." Maybe somebody should have read him another Thanksgiving book before he got started.

Luke spent all of his time with the funky little tool that makes spaghetti or hair, so he only got one person done.

Claire also likes that spaghetti/hair machine. But she wanted to make sure both the curly and the straight haired peoples of the world were represented.

And that's Caleb trying to sneak his mountain into another photo.

Okay, Caleb, let's take another picture of your mountain.

And a final shot with the other sculptor.
We're Christian Homeschoolers and we love Thanksgiving.

10 comments:

Ginger said...

Claire, that is totally awesome!! Sorry Luke.
We're reading Squanto and the First Thanksgiving. Then our fave, The Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dalgliesh. OH and I found a book on What Colonial America Ate and Why, recipes and stories. We're gonna make johnny cakes, apple pandowdy, and spoon bread! I'm so excited. :)

Anonymous said...

Ok, call me crazy. Call me a stalker...I have to confess that I'm in love with Jody Robinson!! (of course, in a friend sort of way) It's 12:14 am...I've had a long, full, day of homeschooling and tending to a family of 8..plus let's see..15 animals..and I've been sitting here, at my computer reading every post I can possibly read from Robinson Moments. (ummmm..for the last..shall I say...almost 2 HOURS!) I even went back and reread the posts I read months ago. Jody, you are an amazing and remarkable woman...we are all blessed to know you..I'm just looking forward to eternity, when we'll have oodles of time to just hang out...in between worshipping Jesus, of course!
Anyway, just know..you are loved!

Mark said...

Jane, You get to be president of the Robinson Moments Fan Club! The other 4 people who read this blog are now under your complete, inspiring leadership.

Love you so much!

Life on The Rowland Ranch said...

With humility, I accept. And I promise to uphold this title with complete loyalty and respect..forever and ever amen. :)

Life on The Rowland Ranch said...

As president of the Robinson Moments Fan Club. I would like to make my very first recommendation. Jody, did you know you can turn your blog into a book?! Yes, for the very low price of $22.95,hardcover, you can have your blog in book format. If you go to their website, and type in you blog address, they'll even show you an example of what your book will look like right there! Cool! :) Here's the link.
www.blog2print.com

Anonymous said...

Wow! I didn't look at any blogs for 3 days and the whole bloggin' world changed! Jody has a fan club and I'm not president! :-( Lydia turned one! Vicki got a blog! And so much more! Wow! Good job being a SUPER CH!!!!!

Mark said...

Jane, I didn't know my blog could be a book! That's really good work so far. It's nice to see people taking their roles seriously around here.

And Kelly, you are officially the Executive Vice President of Attendance. Your diligence in commenting on this blog has not gone unnoticed and is greatly appreciated. Now, the other 3 people who read here daily have two tiers of quality, faithful leadership to turn to in their time of crisis.

Kelly said...

Thanks girl. I just NEEDED you to know that I was still a faithful Moments follower. By the way, I believe you have at least 4 more people reading your blog than I have reading mine. Oh well. I'm really just doing it for the blog book. I knew about that - if I was president I would have told you about it. I guess that's why I'm only Vice! hehe

Shipra Panosian said...

Jane, I'm sposed to be schooling too and instead here I am catching up on Jody's blog!

Jody, this is a great idea. Bet my boys would enjoy doing something hands on like this for thanksgiving instead of the just the usual 'reading of the books'.

Mark said...

Next week we're making pilgrim hats out of striped shortbread cookies (turned upside down) with marshmallows for the top. Stay tuned . . .