Fourth in Plymouth

This Fourth of July, we took a trip to Plymouth, Massachusetts. I have always wanted to visit this town due to its historical significance, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to do so on the day we celebrate our country's birth.

We started the day by catching the parade that winds through downtown Plymouth.




The Fire trucks came first

An old ambulance

 

The Hot Wheels Truck was a big hit with my boys

After we had watched the fire trucks pass, we realized that we were not in the right spot for the parade, so we ambled through the streets of Plymouth, pausing on our way to gaze at Plymouth Rock and the statues of William Bradford and Chief Massasoit. Looking out over they bay, I tried to imagine what it would have been like to see the Mayflower approaching on the horizon. Likewise, I looked at the layout of the shore and the town and attempted to picture what's the pilgrims would have seen as they first arrived. We walked up the oldest street in the U.S., and I discovered signs that indicated where some of the first houses were built as well as other historic homes. Then I turned my attention back to the parade.

 

Plymouth Rock



My kids in front of Plymouth Rock

Chief Massasoit

K by the William Bradford statue




 

K and H by William Bradford

The third side of William Bradford -- K insisted on having her picture taken by each side





Joseph Tribble House

We finally settled down to watch the parade with these two churches behind us.

The First Parish Church in Plymouth.
Founded by the Pilgrims in 1620,
 it is now a Unitarian Universalist church.

Church of the Pilgrimage -- a congregational church.




My kids had never really watched a major parade, and they were thrilled when they learned that candy would be thrown their way. Don't get me wrong. The fire trucks, old cars, marching bands, and various floats were all exciting, but I know that they highly anticipated the next person throwing teeth-rotting delicacies their way. They also received small American flags and a copy of the Constitution, which, to their credit, thrilled them just as much as the candy. I finally told them to let the other kids have the candy, and they settled down to watch the rest of the parade.




A trolley shuttle

 

The only float with a blow-up figure



No parade is complete
without Uncle Sam.





The Veterans

The Blue Coats. These guys had the guns
and flags they were spinning around.

When the parade was finally over, we headed back to the apartment where we were staying to hydrate and reapply sunscreen. S fell asleep on the way, so we ended up hanging out in the A/C for a while before heading back out. It also allowed us time to plan our afternoon.

 



The hill where the Pilgrims buried their dead
 that first winter.

Once S woke up, we ventured out again toward the Jenney Grist Mill, a highlight in my book. We stopped for some shaved ice along the way, paused at the hill where the Pilgrims secretly buried their dead to hide their weakness, and meandered through Brewster Gardens as we made our way toward the mill.





Tribute to the immigrant settlers of the area.
At the base of the statue, it reads, "At great personal sacrifice, they established new homes in a new world and by their hard work enriched and transformed this town of their adoption, precious to a grateful posterity is the remembrance of their lives and labors."

Walking through Brewster Gardens

K by the Pilgrim Maiden. The plaque reads, "To those intrepid English Women whose courage, fortitude, and devotion brought a new nation into being, this statue of the Pilgrim Maiden is dedicated."  

Crossing the bridge

Walking alongside the brook that the mill uses to power its mill





The grist mill appealed to my often-neglected inner-engineer. The guide explained how it worked and answered my many questions to my satisfaction. My only disappointment in the whole experience was that I was unable to purchase cornmeal at the end of the tour. Their clutch was under repair, and they had not been able to grind any corn for more than a week. This meant that they were sold out for the time being. Maybe another day....

Back of the mill

Jenney Grist Mill



After the mill, we wandered down to the 1749 Courthouse Museum for a quick peak around. The upstairs houses a reproduction of the courtroom, and my kids enjoyed playing the parts of judges and witnesses in court. By this time, everyone was hungry, so we stopped for dinner before heading back to the apartment for some downtime before the fireworks.

 

 

Old fire engine in the 1749 Courthouse museum

Old handcuffs and legal document

Judge AJ

K tried to be serious in the witness stand...

But it is hard with such a silly brother

Judge H

Panel of Judges

Even Timo took a turn

 

 

Watching the band

When we arrived at the apartment, we met the owners, who told us that there was a band concert that evening before the fireworks. I knew my kids would enjoy the patriotic music, so we decided to stop and listen before settling down in a spot to watch the firework display. I was surprised that S seemed to enjoy the music more than any of my other kids, and he happily clapped along to the various marches that were played. When the band took an intermission, we left to scout out a spot for the much-anticipated fireworks.

The cannons

We thought about watching here, but we decided against it

Waiting for the fireworks



The reflection of the fireworks in
the water added to the thrill of
the event.

The fireworks did not disappoint us. I saw many I had never witnessed before, and the kids seemed to enjoy them as well. The bonus was the firing of the cannons. You've got to love a big boom. After it was all over, we headed back to the apartment for a much-needed night's rest.

Sewing Class

At the end of last spring, I asked our dear, sweet neighbor to teach my daughter to sew. She happily agreed, and the two of them have met together weekly since summer to work on a variety of projects together.

They started with some basic embroidery and worked up from there. K's first completed project was a small runner she keeps on a table in her room.

The end of the runner she made.

The next project I saw her working on was a hand-embroidered bib for S. It turns out that the needlework aspect of sewing is NOT her thing. She quickly grew tired of the repetition, and I had to keep at her to work on it. We used read-aloud time during school, trips, and Adventures in Odyssey to help her move along, and she is almost done.

Meanwhile, K brought home two doll dresses that she and my neighbor made together and a pillow she made for my birthday out of quilt blocks. I know she has worked long and hard to finish these projects, and I am so proud of her. She has also completed some basic mending, becoming the go-to girl for buttons that need to be sewn on and small tears that need repair.

The red doll dress

She still has babydoll quilts to finish, along with the aforementioned bib, but her projects should be complete by the time we move.

I am so grateful for a wonderful neighbor who worked so diligently with my sweet K to teach her a skill I don't enjoy. I know there were some times she got bored with the aspects of sewing that are pure drudgery, but finishing the projects has excited her. Perhaps it is time to buy a sewing machine.

Indian Pudding

K has to give a speech in history this fall for our co-op. Since her assigned date is close to Thanksgiving, we chose to have her present some information regarding the first Thanksgiving as opposed to modern-day Thanksgiving. She will be focusing on food, so we chose to cook a dish which could have been served during the original feast.

After searching the web and a few colonial cook-books, we settled on Indian pudding. This would have probably been what they ate for dessert instead of the traditional pumpkin pie. We found a basic recipe to try this rainy afternoon, and it just came out of the oven.

My thoughts on the dish are that it tastes basic and earthy in a good way. The two main flavors are cornmeal and molasses, with no added spices (those would be added by the colonists later in the 1700s).

Indian Pudding -- Not much to look at

 K qualified her opinion of it by stating, "They didn't have much back then." She seems to understand that they didn't even have what we would consider the basics. I am not sure the kids in her class will appreciate the taste. K is unsure of it, but AJ likes it. As for me, I think it is fun to taste something the pilgrims could have shared with the Wampanoag people during that historic time.

First Steps

For the past couple of weeks, S has been looking like he is about to start walking. He has taken a few steps here and there (including four while I was trying to fill in my ballot), but he usually gives up after one step. Crawling is so much easier. Today, he was holding a broom, and it must have given him just the right amount of balance as he took several steps in a row. I watched incredulously as he kept walking. I know that any day now, he will just take off. My little baby is growing up.

Six Already?

We celebrated AJ's birthday this month. Timo was away for his actual birthday, so we held his party the following weekend. This year, he was able to invite more kids since he has had more of an opportunity to make friends through the co-op. It was great seeing so many kids come to celebrate with my (not-so) little guy.

AJ wanted a knight-themed party, so we purchased plates, cups, plastic blow-up swords, sheilds, and masks before the party. Then, I decorated some chocolate cupcakes with crowns, sheilds, and swords to match the theme.

I have to take a moment to thank my wonderful hubby for taking the kids out of the house so I could have the uninterrupted time to get these done. They took a lot longer than they probably should have, but my birthday boy was happy with the end results. I tried to put some creativity into the sheilds, placing Lego pieces, a puzzle piece, a car, a swing, a cape, and a slide on the sheilds instead of the usual symbols.

AJ seemed to have a ton of fun playing with his friends at his party. I don't know how much of his sixth birthday he will remember, but you never know what kids will recall. If he can look back with a smile, I will count it as a success.

Science Class

I have been teaching a science class at our home school co-op this semester. The kids are around AJ's age, and I struggled with what topic to teach them. I finally settled on energy. That topic encompasses so much, and it would provide a platform from which to jump into physics at a later date.

I don't know how much they are learning, but I have definitely put forth effort in creating a hands-on learning experience.

 

We started off with just an introduction to energy. We talked about distance, force, and work. Then we moved into the definition of energy: the ability to do work. From there, we moved into potential and kinetic energy, discussing elastic potential and gravitational potential energy. We then shifted our focus and discussed how energy is changed from one form to another and what we can do with it. We built a simple flywheel generator with a couple of motors and a bicycle tire to generate electricity to turn a propeller. This was a great visual for the kids to see and (hopefully) understand how windmills and turbines work. We also built a simple solar toy car. Then, it was time to build our own batteries using household items.

 

I explained that all that was needed was two different metals and an acid. I realize that there are alkaline batteries, but I didn't want to get into that. We used copper and zinc as our metals, and the kids each built their own potato battery and lemon battery.

I then showed them how to build a voltaic cell. They each helped with one layer.  We used zinc washers, copper pennies, and vinegar-soaked paper towel circles for this one. Unfortunately, our voltaic cell was the only battery which generated enough voltage and current to light our LED. I did bring along a multimeter to measure the output of their other batteries, though, and every one of the children built a functioning food-based battery.

 

Voltaic Cell

The following week, we used specially-formulated play-dough to build circuits. I showed them how to put LEDs in series and parallel, and they definitely enjoyed the wow-factor that this produced.


LEDs in parallel

After that, I let them loose to create their own circuits. AJ built a submarine, one girl built a bunny, and another girl built a cat. It was so much fun to witness their creativity. AJ's submarine boasted three lights, and this project allowed me to discuss short circuits and why their LEDs wouldn't light if they did not put them in the circuit right.

This week, we plan on continuing the circuit fun, and I also plan on reviewing what we learned so far this fall. Although I was a bit intimidated at first, I am happy I took on this task. While the kids have been learning about science, I have been learning about teaching. This should assist me as I continue in my quest to educate my children at home.