Weekly Wrap -Up Link Up

In Our Homeschool this Week: The kids finished reading all of our books about 1600's in America.  They have been working hard on their science fair projects ( we will share when they display them at the science fair).  We've had a light "schoolwork" week, because we've been traveling.  Before we left Maine, we visited a farm with good friends and picked 25 pounds of apples. We also picked our fall pumpkins.
  
 Yesterday we spent the day at Plimouth Plantation in Massachusetts.  It was a great wrap-up to learning about life in the 1600's in America.  It's a living history museum:

...explore a fortified town that is a re-creation of the Pilgrim settlement as it appeared seven years after the arrival of the Mayflower.  Costumed role players portray the lives of documented residents of 1627 Plymouth.

It was a homeschool day, and there were lots of hands-on activities.  We ground corn and sifted it to make flour ( a tedious process which really made me appreciate our modern conveniences), we kneaded dough, we picked out onion seeds from a flower to harvest, we walked on stilts (o.k. we didn't, but the kids did), and played games that children played in the 1600's.

In addition to the Pilgrim settlement there is a smaller Wampanoag Homesite.  We watched a Wampanoag woman cook turkey over an open fire, played Wampanoag games, and sat around the fire on furs talking to a Wampanoag.

Then we finished our day by visiting The Mayflower 2, a reproduction of the original.  It was an amazing day.  I'm so grateful that my kids are able to learn history with us in this way, instead of the way that I learned history.

My Favorite Thing This Week: traveling and learning with our kids



Our Favorite Resources this Week : The kids love The Magic Tree House Fact Tracker:Pilgrims, and we found A to Z Mysteries Mayflower Treasure Hunt.



We're Reading: Chris has finished The Nicholas Flamel series and has started The Fellowship of the Rings (he has already read The Hobbit )Katie is reading #6 in The Warriors series, Chelsea read The Boxcar Children #6 and has started #7, Chris finished reading Gregor the Overlander # 2 to the girls and has started reading #3 to them.  I have not really read anything this week.  My Kindle finally died (she is/was 4 and was well loved and very well used). 


We're Cooking We're Eating : Not much cooking going on because we're traveling, but I did manage to make an apple pie before we left.  Our favorite dessert on our trip has been cupcakes at Cupcake Charlie's in Plymouth, Ma.  I had an apple pie cupcake ( yes with apple pie filling inside) ; need I say more ?