Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you will leave me a comment below about the things you are most thankful for. Among other things, I am thankful for the United States of America – this greatest experiment in the history of human civilization. Without this country, we would not know what life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness mean. In our homeschool, we took three days to study about Thanksgiving.

First, we did some crafts, coloring pages, math unit studies and other activities from this list:

• Thanksgiving Lapbook Ideas (Squidoo lens)

My children doing crafts at the table

My daughter enjoyed the crafts, which gives me energy to bring craft time back more often

My son cut lots of feathers, and even helped his sister a bit

Brother did not have the patience to sit through a photo shoot with the paper roll turkeys, but he made one of these

• Cute Turkey Buttoning and Matching Color Activity (Preschool) – This will have to wait until next week when I can get supplies. I was going to buy them the day before Thanksgiving, but we got snowed in.

My daughter taking advantage of a snow day

My son enjoying our first snow day

• Even Cuter Turkey Buttoning and Color Matching Activity (Preschool)
• Cardboard Turkey – This website inspired me to make my own turkey craft. Homeschooling moms are allowed to make their own crafts, aren’t they?

Turkey Craft I made just because I felt inspired. But then, I realized it inspired the kids to see their mom cut and paint.

• PreK-2 Common Core-aligned Thanksgiving Lesson Plan (Scholastic)
• Thankful for… (Personalized Turkey Craft)

This particular Thanksgiving craft personalized the holiday when we wrote what they were thankful for on every feather of the turkey

More than anything, my daughter loved cutting paper in small bits

She is thankful for Jesus, good food, birthday cakes, her brother, snow and the Titanic

Thankful for snow, sun, sister, parents, God’s power, and evergreens

We learned/sang some Thanksgiving songs:

• We Gather Together
• Thanksgiving Medley
• I’m A Little Turkey (to the tune of “I’m A Little Teapot”)

Then, we read these books:

• Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving
• Turkey Trouble
• One Tough Turkey
• Happy Thanksgiving, Biscuit (still to get)

Finally, the children watched some videos:

• A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving – 25 minutes. It’s such a classic piece of Americana. They liked the silly parts and how Snoopy set the table. Later that day, when daddy came home, they set a Thanksgiving table with their toy kitchen set, complete with a tablecloth (daddy’s coat) and referenced how Snoopy tied the corners of the tablecloth. One of the characters uses bad language once and I had to explain to the kids we don’t talk that way. Also, that they will meet people who talk that way and we should love them as Jesus does and pray for them and respect them.
• Plimoth Plantation and Scholastic Virtual Field Trip – 5 minutes of skipping around the video, to see different characters present their lives. It’s a longer documentary, for upper elementary grades, too boring for my kids. The Google Earth presentation of the Mayflower itinerary fascinated them and reminded them of the Titanic’s attempt at crossing the Atlantic. I would have never put the two together. It seems our Titanic visit and its wall map showing the intended itinerary over the ocean is still fresh in their minds.
• Mayflower movie trailer – 1 minute.

She made most of the mess and was willing to clean it up.

Teaching a Thanksgiving unit study inspires me because I know from experience what it is like to move countries. While growing up in Communist Romania, I used to listen to The Voice of America – a forbidden activity. Their broadcast about Thanksgiving has stayed with me ever since. Who would have thought I would end up in the USA, homeschooling my American children and teaching them about Thanksgiving?