William Bradford and Plymouth: Faith and Individual Ownership

We started with 30 minutes of rough play so they could get tired.

Today's workout was different-

We had the boys compete in relay races with a partner-

• Sprint 
• Bear Crawl 
• Frog jump
• Wheelbarrow
• Crab Walk

All of the moves were done to a cone and back.

We then did the Pledge of Allegiance.

We went over the class rules and affirmations

• I am a warrior
• I play hard
• I work hard
• I respect others
• I never quit
• I defend those who can't defend themselves
• I fight for what is right
• I am a son of God

We then reviewed last week's hero, John Smith, before introducing our new hero: William Bradford.

We read The Story of the Pilgrims by Katharine Ross.  Here is a video with pictures of the book.

We watched another animated Heroes Classic about William Bradford.

We then watched another video called Yours and Mine: The Lesson of 1623, which introduces the idea of the Tragedy of the Commons (it's much easier to understand in the film!- the boys should come away seeing that people behave best when there is individual ownership.)

I then pulled out a toy that looked like one that my son owns.  It was beaten and torn apart.  I told him, "Thank you for sharing this with me!"  As you can imagine he was horrified and very angry that I had treated his toy so poorly.  After talking this through with him for a minute I revealed the truth, that it wasn't his toy at all, and tried to help the boys understand that when we own something (and especially if we've earned it) we have greater incentive to keep it nice and to work hard.

Since the Speedwell sprung a leak before the Mayflower could head to the New World, we had the boys use various materials to build boats and then tried to see which ones floated and which floated the very best in the pool.

After we cleaned up, we let the boys have free time to play dodge ball.

Update- I didn’t show either video (I find the boys don’t want to sit for any screen time- I don’t blame them since school is on a screen!) my boys watched the animated classics video after the class.

The boys LOVED making boats.  We spent probably 45 minutes and could have spent much more time on it. We used cut up pool noodles, rubber bands, duct tape, craft sticks, toothpicks, newspapers, and plastic bags.  

I loved all their creations!