Today kicked off our summer theme weeks. If you've been following along, this week is Decades Week, where each day we are celebrating a new decade.
I let the older boys sleep in today (they still aren't adjusted back from the library lock-in all nighter), while Hayden and I hung out. He was very helpful letting the dogs out for me (Asa was in the office today- boo!), he reminded me he needed his ear drops put in, and he helped me get laundry through (we're still working on blanket fort blankets and sheets-- the last is FINALLY in the dryer). I managed to get our weekly dinner's up too. Lots accomplished before we woke up Calib and Peyton, did our 20 minutes of reading and had some lunch.
I did find these wanted signs all over the house today. I'm not really sure what it's about, but I can tell you Hayden has quite the imagination.
As we discussed some things about the 1930's (the great depression and the dust bowl), we watched a couple of quick videos on PBS.com. I can explain plenty to the boys, but the short videos are great, and they don't mind sitting for them, because I usually pick ones about 5 minutes long.
Then we headed outside for our dust bowl experiment. We had some 'top soil' (sand), built some houses (out of blocks), planted some crops (cut up pipe cleaners), and added a couple of (match box) cars. The wind (the hairdryer), was supposed to show how dust got kicked up, ruined crops, and got into houses and cars, making life hard and miserable. BUT, my sand was outside, in a sealed bag in the Florida humidity. It was wet, so it wasn't working. We decided to go inside for awhile, and try it out after the 'drought' (the Florida sun dried it out enough)
Another high light of the 1930's- Amelia Earhart. We learned about her crossing the Atlantic, and about how she disappeared. We then made our own airplanes out of straws, tape and index cards.
It literately took less than five minutes to put them together, and they flew pretty well.
It entertained the boys for nearly 45 minutes. I may have made my own and flown it a few times, too. If I did this again, I'd try those smoothie straws, they might fly a little better with more air moving through them.
Of course, big news in the 20's was the 21st amendment- which repealed the 18th amendment: Prohibition was over! To celebrate, we made kiddie cocktails. The boys LOVED these. I told them there was a two drink maximum at this establishment. They had one mid-day, and one with dinner. I then told Asa about how they reminded me of my childhood, when my grandma and grandpa took us to red lobster and ordered us all kiddy cocktails. Sadly, I didn't have the cool red sword to put the cherries on for the boys, so I had to settle for just throwing them in.
Also a gem of the 30s: Monopoly. It was popular to play games about getting rich and building monopolies in the hard times of the depression. We thought this was a great opportunity to break out our Alaska-opoly. Calib was the banker, and the boys all handled their own money well (Nobody tell them this is slightly a math lesson, okay?) I ended up winning, but nobody ended up too unhappy. Peyton did comment "Well, this wouldn't cheer me up in the depression. Now I'm just broke in the game AND real life"
After Monopoly, we went back outside to check on how the drought was coming along, and the sand had dried out and was perfect for our mini dust bowl.
The boys actually really liked doing this, they all took turn blowing the sand around from different directions. Calib complained he got sand in his eye. I told him it was just like the Dust Bowl!
We noted how sand had gotten all in our house, and cars, and blown away most of our crops.
I really think the boys would have done this all day. At dinner, when we asked favorite parts of the day (something we do here every night), both Hayden and Peyton picked the dust bowl.
Hayden continued being a helper, and took on making the Depression Cake. We had made one last year when Peyton was learning about the depression on his timeline (the way he talked today I was so impressed with everything he remembered!), we made one and nobody but Calib enjoyed it. We used a different recipe this time, and while it wasn't amazing, it was MUCH better. More bread than cake, but still good.
Here it is ready to go in the oven.
For dinner, I made Pork Depression Stew. It wasn't amazing, but not terrible either. As a bonus, I think this whole pot cost just over $3.
While I worked on the stew, the boys made Hooverville houses. Hoovervilles are what people called shanty towns in the 1930's (Named after President Hoover because people blamed him for getting them into the great depression), people also used newspapers to cover themselves up and called them Hoover Blankets. I combined the two, and the boys made little forts out of newspaper.
Since Asa was at work while the boys were building, he judged the forts and awarded a first, second, and third place when he got home. It was perfect because he didn't know whose was whose.
Maybel was partial to Calib's build.
But Asa ended up picking Hayden's as the winner (his finished fort is below), and he got a prize of 7 points. Calib came in second with 5 points, and Peyton came in third with 3.
I did add bread to dinner (Publix had pizza dough buy one get one this week), and I put cheese on it, (though that's not too accurate for the 30's- cheese was more of a luxury) and cut up some fruit to try and round out the meal.
While the boys had their 'cocktails', Asa made his a little more authentic.
I did have to make a trip to Target for my best coupon find of the week- for $1.73, I got three boxes of Snickers ice cream bars.
Our tree from learning about the government came down for Calib's birthday and so we could start a board for the decades.
Each time we discuss something new, it gets added to the board. The boys only know to pay attention to what goes with what decade. They don't know at the end of the week, I'm going to take them all down and see how many they can put up with the right decade.
After dinner we popped some popcorn on the stove. Popcorn and Movie theaters didn't really go hand-in-hand until the 1930's. Tonight's movie from the 30's: The Wizard of Oz! The boys had never seen it before ( I know, total parental fail!) It was released in 1939. As we were watching it, we noted that it was actually released closer to the Civil War than it is to today. (74 years passed form the end of the civil war till the released of Wizard of Oz, and now 75 years has passed since it's release)
Here's a shot of the depression cake. Not too bad. It tasted like a cinnamon raisin bread.
That's it from the 1930's, and we're moving on.
Next Up: We take on the 40's!
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