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!
