Betsy Ross

We are rowing "Betsy Ross: Designer of our Flag" by Ann Weil this month. The boys ask me every day to read "just one more chapter."

We made corn husk dolls- we had to use raffia, since I didn't plan far enough ahead to be able to find sufficient corn husks, but I thought they came out pretty good any way... I gave mine to dd and she loves it.

We also started some Amish Friendship Bread, but that won't be ready until our unit is over, so we made a loaf of bread so we could see yeast at work... (side note- our Amish Friendship bread was moldy after the two days of "do nothing"- I was really disappointed)...

We were fortunate enough to find a replica of the Liberty Bell to visit! And we were able to take a virtual tour of Mrs. Ross's house in Philadelphia.

Learning about the Vernal and Autumnal Equinoxes as well as the Summer & Winter Solstices turned out to be quite enlightening!

Well, after a week off for a mini vacation, then another week off from being sick, we are back to Betsy Ross... I had almost forgotten where we'd left off, but the boys sure hadn't... Dad did a cool mini experiment to show them how heat rises- he held a piece of tissue over a burning candle, and the heat pushed the tissue up (sort of made it wave). Then to demonstrate how oil helps prevent friction, he had them rub their hands very fast, and of course they heated up. Next, he coated their hands with a little cooking oil, to show how it is harder to make them heat up. They loved this!

Here is a little play we did radio-show style-

We got our play from "Heroes in American History" by Scholastic.

We wrapped up Betsy Ross and moved onto a brief outline of the Revolutionary War. The boys made Super Pop Up reports to show what they had learned. They covered the Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere's Ride, and Washington Crossing the Delaware, as well as some of the period costumes. I thought they did a great job. Here are a couple of pictures of theirs: