Our History focus this week took us from the Pilgrims through the start of the Revolutionary War. We spent a few days learning about the French and Indian War and thanks to our Stories of America book we read about the establishment of each colony and the causes of the war.  We read an old James Daugherty book on Daniel Boone and spent a few days playing and learning with our Pin it! Maps US History Bundle.  One of our favorite new (to us) historical figures we read about was Captain William Wadsworth. The boys loved the story of the charter oak and the story of the drummers.

We worked to set the stage for the next week of American History. (See our booklist at the end of the post!)  I wanted the boys to have a big picture view by focusing on a few lives lived at the time. My older boys read some biographies in their spare time. Does that seem like a ton of work? The reason for all of this work is that our CC facility was unable to host us between weeks 3 & 4 so we had two weeks to do week 3. Everything was clipping a long at a good pace….

Then Hurricane Irma became a category 5 and headed straight for us. We fled to North Carolina.

I could write an entire post just about the stress and anxiety of that week.  Deciding what to save from our home and what to leave behind, determine the safest time to leave when faced with gridlock and gas shortages. It was exhausting. Praise God we made it safely to North Carolina, where we spent 6 days with my family.  We needed to get the boys out of the house so we took several nature walks, met up with friends and of course, went on a field trip.

We spent a beautiful day at Cowpens battlefield. We went on a walking tour with a ranger, enjoyed the beautiful weather and found all sorts of feathers and sticks and rocks.  The boys enjoyed asking questions and eventually the younger boys and I broke away for a slow walk in the woods.  A peaceful day that soothed us even though it took place on a battlefield.

6 days later we were home. Exhausted and overwhelmed and eager to get back to our usual rhythm. Most of the families in our community waited several days to get power back and my family is currently without internet, hence the radio silence on most of our social media these days.  We dove back into our books with more biographies and took advantage of the extra time to really delve into our Essentials charts.

Book list:
The Boston Tea Party by Russell Freedman
Paul Revere’s Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
George vs. George: The American Revolution As Seen from Both Sides by Rosalyn Schanzer
Can’t You Make Them Behave, King George? by Jean Fritz
The Scarlet Stockings Spy by Trina Hanks Noble
Sybil’s Night Ride by Karen Winnick
The Story of the Boston Tea Party: Cornerstones of Freedom
Colonial Voices: Hear Them Speak: The Outbreak of the Boston Tea Party Told from Multiple Points-of-View! By Kay Winters
Benjamin Franklin by D’ulaires
Paul Revere by Esther Forbes