When Katie asked me what theme I would like to use to teach our children, I told her that I wanted to learn about the Revolutionary War and the Founding of America. (Since then I have learned that a mother's passion for a subject is paramount--whether she gets it naturally or whether she gets it by study or both).
I threw out our poster before I got a photo of it. The poster below is a compilation of still pictures I got from a video of our poster.
Later I learned that Katie disliked the idea of learning about war and battles. But she didn't share her feelings with me then because she wanted to work with me. We didn't know each other well at all, but we were determined to work together, so we made little demands of each other at first--hemming and hawing in order to please each other.
We didn't know the best way to organize our American Revolution theme. We were writing for our young children ages one to nine years, and we needed a way to capture their hearts and imaginations. Katie finally remembered that we were supposed to write a rationale—the reason behind the theme. Everything fell into place when we wrote our rationale:
“Through the eyes of Abigail Adams and her compatriots, our children will understand the Revolutionary War and the Founding of America.”
The idea was to have a ‘tea’ with Abigail Adams and her fellow revolutionaries. She would be our first and main guest, and then other guests would come throughout the year to have ‘tea’ with our children and teach them about their lives and times. After Katie and I wrote down our “why,” the “what” and the “how” flowed easily from our hearts and pens!
COLONIAL ESCAPADE components:
Hornbooks and Harvest--colonial life within the home and moving out to the fields and town.
Tea Time--The most important building in the town was the church and most of the social life centered around church activity. (Abigail's father was a minister).
Border Buddies--New England, Mid-Atlantic and Southern colonies, and Atlantic Ocean.
Storybook Heroes--Across the ocean King George III ruled unjustly and spurred patriots to create a rival government.
Yankee Doodle--The result was the Declaration of Independence, the Revolution and the eventual Constitution.
That first year was magical. Our children fell in love with the Revolutionary spirit, colonial times, and the forging of the nation. Near the end of the year, Katie finally broke the news to me that she really and acting out the battles. Study brings passion.
One day a week our families met together at our homes. The moms presented key points and inquiries, or brought in visitors to present key points.
Our first tea with Abigail Adams
Anna, Amber, Cherie, "Abigail Adams," Jasmyn, Hal IV, Jonathan
"I think of the feathered cap and wooden sword that [children] have that we as adults have lost. I think they're looking for mystery, a magic. Just an inkling of it and they're with you."
Just a little imagination and fun brings the children into the adventure of learning! Every time a visitor came, each family received a timeline piece. We used moveable timeline pieces so that we could put things in the right order, even if we didn't learn them sequentially. At the end of our key point day the children delighted in placing each piece in its proper place on our timeline.
Flying kites with Benjamin Franklin:
Franklin Inquiry: making electricity with batteries:
One of the most exciting visitors was Paul Revere. On a Monday evening our family went to Katie's home where Paul Revere told us a little bit about himself, then read Longfellow's, Paul Revere's Ride. "Listen my children and you share hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere..."
After our tea together, Paul Revere went home. While we visited, we heard shouting outside, "The Regulars are coming! Turn out the militia!" The children jumped up and screamed. We all ran to the door and there was Paul Revere and William Dawes on horseback. (We only had the use of two horses, so Samuel Prescott must have been traveling another way).
The patriots invited the children to ride with them to warn the neighbors to send out the militia. (Revere never said, "The British are coming," since on April 18, 1775 the colonies were still part of the British empire.)
Hal and Cherie warn the neighbors
Katie, Jonathan, and Cherie are the Redcoats, while Jasmyn, Amber, Anna and Hal IV are the rebels:
Major John Pitcairn:
"Disperse ye rebels! Lay down your arms. Throw down your arms ye villains, ye rebels."
Captain John Parker:
"Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here."
Later at the North Bridge in Concord: "Fire, fellow-soldiers, for God's sake, fire!"
Then, later that morning--Samuel Adams wrote: "Oh what a glorious morning is this."
At one point in the year I was Sam Adams.
At one point in the year I was Sam Adams.
Petticoat Patriots
Jasmyn really wanted to be a visitor. So Katie and I decided to skip parts of our curriculum because after she was a visitor, the other three girls wanted to be visitors too. Jasmyn was six years old and chose to be Emily Geiger, whom she learned of when we shared the key points in a topic called Petticoat Patriots.
Our poster-board Petticoat Patriots' mind map.
Emily Geiger carried a war message through British lines, but was caught and put in a room so a woman could come search her. Before the woman arrived, Emily read the message and ate it. Jasmyn reenacted this for us--she ate her message, just to show us it could be done:
Emily Geiger rides again! Katie had a horse, so Jasmyn recreated Emily Geiger's Ride.
Jasmyn set a pattern for the rest of the Petticoat Patriot visitors. At six years of age Jasmyn wrote a play about Emily Geiger, and all four girls read it together in a readers theater. She also brought her timeline piece. For her tea she brought along Emily Geiger's Southern Cornbread Muffins, with a recipe.
Amber visited our school as The Little Black-Eyed Rebel, Mary Redmond:
She shared the poem The Little Black-Eyed Rebel. Mary Redmond, was a Philadelphia girl who kissed the vegetable boy in order to get letters from the rebel army to their families while the city was under British occupation. That day we ate Mary Redmond's Snickerdoodles, which up until that time, I hadn't realized were colonial cookies.
Cherie was Deborah Sampson, who dressed as a boy so she could fight in the war.
Anna was Nancy Hart, who killed tory soldiers.
Amber, Jasmyn and Hal IV reenacted most or all of these and other Revolutionary war stories. Liked good, big sisters, Amber and Jasmyn dressed Hal IV up as Emily Geiger, so he would eat a message. They also dressed him up as Nancy Hart so he could say that he shot the tory soldiers. The only reason I remember any of this is because we have videos of much of it.
The word "tory" reminds me of an incident a few years later. We had moved to Victorville and a lady in our ward, Jeanine Castillo, named her newborn baby, Tory. You would have thought she named her "Demon" the way Jasmyn reacted. I had to assure Jazz that Sister Castillo did indeed love her country, and that she probably never heard of a tory before.
Besty Ross helped us make our own flags--we put puff-paint stars on them after she left:
George Washington (Katie's husband), the Father of our Country:
Thomas Jefferson shared how he wrote the Declaration of Independence:
While we studied the thirteen original colonies, of the inquiries was to "ask 13 people to name the 13 colonies," then graph your findings to see which colonies were most named, the average number of colonies named, etc.
Amber and Jasmyn had fun doing this inquiry. They called some relatives, asked their questions, and graphed the data. Afterwards the girls were confused that even though they could name all the colonies and their divisions, it was okay that other adults could not.
That's one side effect of learning--after learning something, you have to be compassionate of those who don't know what you know, especially if others are older than you.
Learning from our visitors of the past was exciting. No matter who it was, we knew there was something important to know about this person.
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