MFW Thanksgiving Week

and then came Thanksgiving week....

and it about crushed me, derailed me.... made me question our journey.

How can I do this with so many children? How can I do this when sickness comes?

Moms, I want to be honest. 
I was in the trenches of homeschooling mommy worry.

And the holiday week, the lessons, even our cherished dinner with the dearest friends, never happened, at least not at all like *I* planned.

The learning looked a lot like just sitting and reading, or cutting and coloring and gluing, while holding a sweet baby with a high fever.

It was this sweet book, which was read, twice.

It was these pumpkins that were measured, and floated, and admired, but never more used.

(hers was 19 inches round)

but we did learn about the parts of the pumpkin alternatively
sometimes you just have to be flexible and print something out and know it will be okay

and we learned about the pumpkin cycle
 even making up sweet little books

and we did sit and read and read and finished our read aloud Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims.

while we enjoyed this "corny" snack

and there was turkey and all of the wonderfulness that comes with that, but it showed up on our doorstep, by true friends, who cooked for nine and delivered it with care, to hungry house of a thankful family, who truly felt loved.

and the rest.... oh, it does not matter. 
we lived. we loved. we made it through. and that was enough.

and yes, it would have been lovely to do the wonderful ideas that were in the curriculum,
but it is not the end of the world that we did not. 

and

you can find more about our Native American studies here

and more about our studies on the Pilgrims here

and more about our curriculum here

and some really fun, mostly free, resources 

This Thanksgiving Book, which we also created this week
First Thanksgiving Book

Pumpkin Life Cycle

Pumpkin Life Cycle Writing Activity

Pumpkin Addition

and this one which was a great addition for my preschooler and not quite first grader
Thanksgiving Letter Match

happy educating, in all seasons