We had 9 other kids and created, using fimo clay, 2 inch people.
We created the Mayflower using recycled materials and sailed them in a deep pool (many alterations were necessary until their ships actually sailed). With tape measures and chalk the kids measured and drew the actual measurements of the Mayflower on the street. We mamas and kids laid down in the road and were amazed how crowded we were (not to mention that we were laying in the road) and that there were 102 people on the Mayflower.
We founded a town, learning about several different types of governments including dictatorship,communism, monarchy, democracy, monarchy, oligarchy, anarchy. The kids' peeps (AKA the citizens of Bunnyville) voted on a government. To the parent's dismay Anarchy won. This started a fierce and intelligent debate amongst the kids with very little intervention from the parents. The kids decided to re-vote and Democracy won 5-4.
We opened a bank, had checking accounts and designed our own currency which we used to purchase handmade goods in the market every few weeks.
We designed our own flag and voted on the name of the town.
One week we had a career fair. What type of careers were availabe to our early colonists? The parents were the artisans. I was a Miller and a baker. We milled corn (we dried it out, ground it up with mortar and pestal and then we made johnny cakes from an original colonist recipe. We topped them with local honey. Yumm....
One mom was a furniture maker. She taught the kids how to make peep sized furniture using material found in nature. One mom was a weaver. She taught finger weaving and told the kids how to naturally dye fabrics and wool yarn. One mom was a potter. They made peep sized dishes with fimo clay. One mom was a tailor. They made peep sized clothing. One mom was a book binder. The children then took their knowledge and went home to create.
The next week ( and every three weeks or so) they hawked their wares at the Market using their peep created currency (they started out with a $560 loan from the bank) They had to pay for any material that was not found in Nature. We had price lists so they knew how much each item cost. 2" of cardboard cost 10 cents, for example.
They also had to create houses. My daughter used cedar twigs from our yard but some kids used popcicle sticks and one family of kids didn't make a house but instead made beautiful covered wagons.
We also read novels all year including The Sign of the Beaver (settling of Massachusetts and Native American), The Matchlock Gun (French and Indian War), The Courage of Sarah Noble, Squanto Friend of the Pilgrims, Carry on Mr. Bowditch, & Johnny Tremain (Revolution including Sam Adams, John Hancock, Paul Revere to name a few).
Each class session we read a picture book relevant to what we were studying and always always sang patriotic and early american songs. We sang, Yankee Doodle, Nissa, Nissa, Nissa, Davey Crockett, Star Spangled Banner, The National Anthem, If I had a Hammer, This Land is Your Land, and many more. We spent a lot of time learning about the Native Americans and singing native american songs. It really was a great class.
There were so many other cool things that we did but I just can't remember right now.
So we are going to Boston to cap off the marvelous year of homeschooling. We plan on doing the Freedom Trail and Salem.
I will post pictures of our village class when I return home from this awesome vacation!
Some of the inspiration for our Village Co-op came from " The Game of Village arose from Cia Iselin's vibrant imagination and her love of play" Be sure to check out the website and purchase the guide.
