Awesome Modern History: World War II

 These were chapters 86 and 87 in  A Child's History of the World.

For our active activity, we trained the kids to extinguish incendiary bombs, like the Brits did during the bombing of London.

Everyone in London had a kit, since even one incendiary could cause serious fires in a city where most of the houses are connected.  If the incendiary wasn't taken care of immediately, it could explode, flinging even more fire over a wider area.

Step 1: Douse it with water.  This doesn't put it out, but it cools it down enough that the next step works.

Step 2: Cover it with sand. This smothers it and stops the actual burning.

 Step 3: Pick it up carefully with your long handled shovel and broom, and put it into your sand bucket.




Step 4: Get it away from your house!

I think what was most interesting to the kids was the idea that during the war, everyone needed to know how to do this.  Kids had real responsibilities.

Of course, most of the children were sent away from London, but they still helped on farms and collected salvage and so forth.

We talked quite a bit about rationing.  The idea that you couldn't just go to the store and buy whatever you wanted was a bit hard to grasp.

For our snack, we had a treat my dad remembered that his grandmother gave him during that time: a little bit of precious sugar sprinkled on the table, with a slice of bread to press into the sugar.

The kids all loved it!



The art project was from Shelli, and she called it "oil bar." 

I've never seen anything like it, but she gessoed a large piece of sturdy paper to make it waterproof.

 Then she spread the whole thing with a bar of black oil paint.

The kids drew on it with gloved hands, and the results were amazing!

They did lot of tanks and explosions, as well as slogans like, "We will never surrender!"

It was a big messy art project that was totally worth it- the kids are going to be talking about this one for a long time!

Awesome Modern History: WWI and the Great Depression

These were chapters 84 and 85 in  A Child's History of the World.

For our active activity, we looked at the difficulty of dropping bombs.  Dropping bombs is easy, of course, but dropping them in the right spot is harder, as they discovered when they first started using airplanes in combat in WWI.

We had them stand over a cup and drop in a "bomb." Pretty simple.

Then we had them try to drop it in while walking past the cup without slowing down or stopping!  Very tricky!




 For our art activity, we dug little trenches and manned them with an assortment of little plastic "army guys."

We used curly ribbon for the barbed wire, and a few boulders that the kids came up with.

Then the two sides walked by, using black or white go chip "bombs" to bomb the other side's trench!

This collapsed the trenches, knocked over the plastic people, and convinced everyone they were glad they weren't in WWI!

 I did bring out my Dad's WWI helmet. 

I should clarify that he didn't fight in WWI (in fact, he was a small child in WWII), but when he was stationed in Germany, he and my Mom visited Verdun and found the helmet, as well as a pierced belt buckle.

We talked about how unfun life in the trenches was, then brought up the Red Cross, and it's service to wounded, and even healthy GIs.

In honor of the Red Cross, we had the snacks they served:

Coffee (for the grown ups!) and doughnuts!

A snack approved by all!

Awesome Modern History: Inventions and Industrial Revolution

 These were chapters 82 and 83 in  A Child's History of the World.

For our active activity, we got the kids up at 5am and made them do dangerous work for 18 hours. 

Kidding! 

We built marble run "machines."

I set up a board (a large picture frame in this case) propped up at an angle, and put out an assortment of wooden blocks and things to build with.

I also put out the geared marble run in case the younger kids weren't interested in constructing their own machines.
Everyone liked that, but they spent more time (and had more fun) building their own!

For our art activity, Shelli set up cyanotypes.

She had some acetate printouts which the kids could use,


and some black markers to add their own embellishments.

This and other objects were laid on paper treated with  chemicals, and then everything was set in sunlight.

They came out beautifully!

For our snack, we made salt potatoes, a byproduct of the Industrial Age!  They started with Irish salt workers in Syracuse, NY some time in the 1800s. They extracted salt from the waters of a local lake by boiling away the water in large evaporation vats. The workers would slip their potatoes into the evaporation vats to cook and 20 minutes later it was lunch time!

Awesome History: Handel, Victoria, Garibaldi

These were chapters 79-81 and they went from a brief history of music, to the Victorian Age, the (contemporaneous) Civil War, the rise of Prussia, Florence Nightengale, and the unification of Italy. Lots to choose from!

For our active activity, we did hoop rolling and The Game of Graces (it's a game where you toss and catch a small hoop using sticks), activities for children on both sides of the Atlantic during this time period.

 For our art activity, we made decorative candle holders.  Florence Nightengale was called "The Lady of the Lamp," but we also put a Victorian decorative spin on these.

In advance, we mixed Mod Podge (glue) with liquid watercolors and coated the inside of mason jars.  Wet, they are opaque, but they become clear and jewel like as they dry over the course of 2-3 days.


 The kids decorated them with jewel stickers and paint.  To keep things simple (and to keep the holders mostly translucent), I gave them gold and silver paint with cotton swaps to make patterns of dots.

These came out beautifully!  I dried them in the oven so they could go home without smearing.


For our snack, we had tea and lemon cakelets with fancy carnation style icing!

Awesome History Round III: Awesome Modern History

 I am so far behind blogging!  We started  Awesome History two weeks ago!

We are continuing A Child's History of the World by Virgil M Hillyer, picking up where we left off last semester, and we'll finish the book this semester.

Our first class was chapters 67-69, which covered Protestants, Queen Elizabeth, and Shakespeare.

Our art activity  and our active activity were a performance of a simplified Midsummer Night's Dream with Choclo playing Bottom.

We did  fruit, bread, and home made cottage cheese for our snack.

I hadn't really thought about it, but cottage cheese is called that because it's the kind of cheese that's easy to make at home (as opposed to cheddar or brie which require specialized skills).

The next week we did chapters 70-72, covering slavery, Cromwell, and Louis XIII and XIV.

For our active activity we did ninepins, a classic game from that time and a precursor to bowling.  We used empty water bottles as pins, and a small ball (a tennis ball would work well).  We set up a little alley in the front hall which helped keep the ball from going wild and ensured that even the littlest kids knocked over pins!

 For our art activity, we made golden sun masks like King Louis XIV, the "Sun King."

We cut our masks out of regular paper plates (really young kids drew them, with adults helping to cut them out).

I then spray painted them gold (outside!).  The genius of this is that the paint absorbs into the paper, so it dries practically instantly.

Then we taped them onto straws as holders.

For our snack, we did a fancy tea with chocolate Madeleines.

I've been making Madeleines for a while now- ever since my friend Rose gave me a set of pans and a Madeleine cookbook as a birthday present- but I hadn't tried chocolate.

My conclusion is that I just like Madeleines!