11.16.2010

A Preschool Thanksgiving




Upon a time 
once not too long ago
my dear friend heard my heart
saying it missed having wee ones around
to home school
for homeschooling the tiny
is such a delight.
I said
it will be a joy
to someday have grandchildren
with whom I can teach and create
for I am a home schooler at heart
and will always be
no matter how old my own children grow.
Upon hearing such spoken words
she turned on the light
in my world of too-old-for-finger-painting children
and beckoned me 
to share my love for beauty, homeschooling and wee ones
with the precious 
who although not my own
frequently pitter patter their chubby feet
through my homey home.
So an adventure with the young we had
my boys and I....


******


We began our Thanksgiving Adventure
under our 'church tent' in our England
singing songs of thankfulness
clapping, stomping and raising our hands
until King James 
told us we could no longer sing our songs.
Here is my King James:



Since we don't want to stop singing our songs,
we made boats
making sure to draw pictures on them
of all the things we would put on our boats
if we were sailing away from King James
and his England.



Then we sailed our boats into my living room America
where we found a village built of Lincoln Logs
(thanks to my older boys)
and some wild corn
for that is what the pilgrims found in the new world.


After playing in our new found America for a while
we noticed how hungry we were
for kids are pretty much always hungry
but there was no food
other than that hard old corn
when Squanto came in to help us.
Here is my Squanto:



He showed us how to plant corn with fish
(goldfish crackers, that is)
in his garden out side
so we could have more food to eat.




Squanto showed the pilgrims how to pop popcorn, too.
My Squanto gave each a bag of caramel corn I made the night before.
I know.
They probably didn't have caramel corn
but we did:


Since the Indians helped us so,
when our food grew
we made a feast to share together.
We made apple turnovers.
We ate them:






After walking through the Thanksgiving story,
we made a few more projects
like this turkey picture
where hands were colorfully painted 
to make a turkey print.
Each mom wrote down their child's thankful words:






We made a corn bracelet:


(hint. it's not as easy as one would think to get holes in corn.
poke holes ahead of time after soaking kernels
or for your entertainment
have the big boys use a drill.)


and a 'give thanks' banner
(hint. glue seeps through felt. use a cool hot glue gun??!!?)


We read this simply beautiful picture book walking us through our pilgrim adventure:




A story was told
and many thankful words were spoken today
for we were reminded that there is much we have to be thankful for.

*****

May you all have a few quiet moments this week
to sit with the young in your life
showing them the many ways they too are blessed.



3 comments:

  1. Anonymous16.11.10

    i feel compelled to say something... you are truly amazing and very inspiring. I love everything you write it makes me want to write about something... anything!!! Its the simple things in life that are so precious and i know from personal experience that it is easy to lose sight of that and focus on worldly pleasures. thank you for just being you
    P.S. i think you should write a kids book. i know i would read it :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wonderful! You're an inspiration. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Why didn't my comment go through the other day? Urgh...

    This was such a fun school day. Thanks for all the work you put into it!

    ReplyDelete

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