Our Thanksgiving school plans

Well, November is upon us and Thanksgiving is right around the corner! (We won't even TALK about how quickly it will be Christmas time!) Anyway, I thought I'd share some of the wonderful books that we will focus on this week. My plan is to focus on the Pilgrims this week and native Americans next week. We will wrap up our Thanksgiving unit on Thanksgiving week as we talk about the first Thanksgiving.

I really love these books about Pilgrim life and the Mayflower. They all are illustrated with photographs taken at Plimoth Plantation and on the Mayflower II, replicas of the original sites. I hope to one day take our children there for a "field trip', but for now, we'll have to content ourselves with the books.

Sarah Morton's Day talks about life for a Pilgrim girl.

Samuel Eaton's Day is the counterpart, sharing what life was like for a Pilgrim boy.

And On the Mayflower chronicles what the journey on the Mayflower was like from the perspective of a ship's apprentice and a young girl traveling without her parents.

I discovered this book last year . . . it's by Patricia Polacco, one of our favorite authors. This book talks about the Jewish holiday of Sukkoth, a celebration of the harvest and thanks to God for His provision.

And then there are the "fun" books -- books we will read as we cuddle up on the couch!
This book is great -- it teaches the chorus of the hymn "Count Your Blessings" and lists things to be thankful for in a style reminiscent of "One, Two Buckle My Shoe".

And this is our new favorite this year . . . so sweet! We've read it several times already!

A lot of what we do this month will be focusing on history -- learning about the Pilgrims and native Americans: what they ate and wore, where they lived and how they spent their time each day. For Bible time, we are working on memorizing Psalm 100 and making "Thankful Turkeys" where we will add tail feathers for each thing that we are thankful for. (I'll try to post a picture of that as we add to it.)

Most of all, I really want the next two months especially to be full of memories we make together. So often, the months of November and December are just a blur of one activity or project after another. I want to SLOW DOWN and savor each moment . . . each book we read, each activity we do, even the silly things my sweet children do. Childhood is so fleeting and they are growing up right before my eyes. I don't want to miss a moment of this precious time by being too busy to enjoy it.

So that's my plan . . . feel free to check in with me and ask me how I'm doing! ;)