HMJ: Plymouth Colony

In life this week...

We got more snow!!! Oh yea, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. The kids blew through their school work to get out in the fluffy stuff. My son made the mistake of jumping around the ice on our shallow pond. He came in soaked from the hips down ;-) Sometimes he really does forget how big he is getting. We look each other in the eye... wow moments for mom ;-)

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In homeschool this week...

We are studying Plymouth Colony this week. If ever I felt bummed about the move to Alaska last summer, it is this American History unit. In Maryland we visited so many great historic places, but we didn't get up to New England. It would have been so much easier to take a field trip from the East Coast to these places. But we have to be content with where God has placed us right? Right.

The kids did a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting the Jamestown Colony with the Plymouth Colony. What a difference a King's Land Grant makes!!! Studying the hardships and trials these people made to attempt a new life for themselves was eye opening. We are a military family, and we have to move around A LOT, but this leaving was different in so many ways. There was no job waiting, no wives group to welcome them, no neighbors who have gone through the same sort of relocation process ready to assist. Not all of the settlers had noble intentions, the Virginia Company had profits in their cross hairs, but many of these early settlers just wanted freedom. The natives also responded differntly to each colony. Those seeking their own freedom tried to work alongside the Native Americans. Those seeking fortune exploited the Natives.

This was a good life lesson moment for my kids. We talked about how selfishness and greed can corrupt our own household. The kids easily saw how this affects others. It was a wonderful teaching moment.

Videos this week:

• Awesome video of the history of the Pilgrim's!!!  The Mayflower Pilgrims
• Great video concerning the first social pact of the New World: The Mayflower Compact
• Fun facts about the Mayflower ship: Mayflower Deconstructed
• The inception of the Dutch East India Trade Company (VOC) maps
• Shorter history of the Dutch East India Trade Company
• A brief history of the Thirty Year's War, done by students

Books this week:

• Almost Home, based on the diary of a girl aboard the Mayflower
• The Lion of the North, a Henty book, historic fiction written for young men, AWESOME books!!! Many are free for the Kindle ;-)

All these links can be found in the History Hunting page, Colonial Era. If you have a post dedicated to history, please link it in. We love history!!!



 We also made silhouettes of the kids. That was a bit more challenging for this non-artistic mother. After discovering that the old light-casting-shadow wouldn't work with our standard 8x10 paper, my daughter suggested just tracing her profile. So she laid on the table and I traced her profile (after much giggling of course!!). We chose to do the silhouette in reverse simply because she can be just as lazy as me with attempting to cut 2 papers at one time carfully ;-)

If I plan to do this 'for real' some time, I am going to follow these very easy instructions from Rachel on making silhouettes!!!

Source: linesacross.com via Kay on Pinterest

Video to share...

 I was finally able to get that video moved around of the moose hubby saw on Fort Richardson. These critters were wandering around just across the street from the grocery on post.

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