Thanksgiving

[charliedacia]

I am thinking about during some sort of unit study about the first Thanksgiving during November. I'm still looking for resources. Is anyone else thinking of doing this? What's in your plans? Book and website suggestions??

[Fieryfly]

We are in the middle of some Native American studies, and plan to culminate with the North Eastern Native Americans. From there we can move on to the pilgrims and the 1st Thanksgiving. This will start our study of early America.

Here are two that I've bookmarked and plan to glean ideas from:
http://www.thevirtualvine.com/thanksgiving.html
http://www.littlegiraffes.com/thanksgiving.html
http://www.thekcrew.net/pilgrims.html
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/thanksgiving/

I'm still searching for more and can post more later!

[Lillian J]

Plimouth Plantation - to find some really fascinating and beautifully illustrated online activities having to do with what really happened at "the first Thanksgiving." They even have a lot of interactive photos, with tours inside various buildings.

Lillian

[3momkmb]

Lillian stole my suggestion

[dharmamama]

This book tells what really happened at "the first Thanksgiving" (which was neither a first nor was it really a "Thanksgiving," it was just a rather ordinary harvest festival, and the Pilgrims did not actually invite the Wampanoag; they came because they heard guns being fired and were afraid the Pilgrims were going to war).

Namaste!

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by 3momkmb

Lillian stole my suggestion

Lillian

[folkypoet]

Here's a page from Oyate that covers "Recommended Books about Thanksgiving" and "Books to Avoid about Thanksgiving."

From the website:

Oyate is a Native organization working to see that our lives and histories are portrayed honestly, and so that all people will know our stories belong to us. For Native children, it is as important as it has ever been for them to know who they are and what they come from. It is a matter of survival. For all children, it is time to learn the truth of history. Only in this way will they come to have the understanding and respect for each other that now, more than ever, will be necessary for life to continue.

[WastedGlamour]

Thank you dharmamama for the book suggestion and folkypoet for the link. Teaching my daugther the truth about thanksgiving is very important to me and these will be wonderful ressources for me to use! I avoid the traditional thanksgiving celebration/story at all cost and the fact that they teach it in public school makes my skin crawl ( reason #103 to homeschool! It's a long list )

[Lillian J]

The story reported in the Plymouth Plantation is not the traditional one either. I was there with my family and got to talk to the docents who all play the parts of individual historic Plymouth residents by name. They're incredibly well informed about every little aspect of the colony, talk the various dialects (I believe there were 11 or more) that were in use at the time, and will speak only in their own time. If you ask about Thanksgiving, they'll be perplexed and explain that Thanksgiving is simply a solemn day of prayer in the church - but that it doesn't include "heathen." They'll mention that there was a harvest celebration of some kind awhile back, but that wasn't Thanksgiving. And if you ask about buckles on hats or shoes, they'll really be perplexed - "What would their purpose be?" - Lillian

[oceanbaby]

Originally Posted by folkypoet

Here's a page from Oyate that covers "Recommended Books about Thanksgiving" and "Books to Avoid about Thanksgiving."

Hmm, quite a disparity between the amount of books on the first list and the amount on the second!

This is a topic that is very important to me, as I really want ds to have a correct understanding about events that are celebrated en masse in our culture. However, it seems like many of the books/resources that are truthful in their account are aimed at older ages (he is 5).

Does anyone have any resources or ideas about how to discuss Thanksgiving with very young children? Right now we have just been talking about it as a time to give give thanks for those people/things in our lives that we are grateful for, and maybe that's all he needs right now. But if there is a beginner book I'd be very interested in knowing about it.

[genifer]

Im not sure about your five yo but mine wouldnt be able to digest all the info about the 'real thanksgiving' at all. Not sure about the best way to handle it. perhaps if you keep it simple, telling him what thanksgiving means to you and thru the years build on that.

[dharmamama]

Originally Posted by oceanbaby

Does anyone have any resources or ideas about how to discuss Thanksgiving with very young children?

With my kids, who are 4 and 3 (I haven't talked about T-giving with the 12 year old yet, as she just joined us), I have always framed it as "There is a story about T-giving that says blah blah blah, but that's just a story. Daddy and I celebrate T-giving because it's a day to remember how much we love and appreciate the things that make our lives good."

(FWIW, we use the same tack in discussing popular Christian holidays, such as Christmas, that we celebrate for their cultural significance.)

Namaste!

[homeschoolmommyof1]

I subscribe to the www.liveandlearnpress.com yahoogroup....every so often they make a FREE lapbook available for there members ( membership to the group is of course FREE too ).
This time it is a BIG Thanksgiving Lapbook...I think a 4th of July one and St. Patricks Day ist there too.

Check them out

[UUMom]

We have a membership to Plimouth and we've told our children the 'real' story from the get-go. Even my littlest one knows that we celebrate T'giving because we are grateful for what we have (and most of the relatives have that day off so it's easier to get together on that particular Thurs), not because we think conquering millions of other people is something good. Being thankful for our lives in no way takes away from the real story.

Going to PP is an interesting, moving experiece. On one hand, there is the money and rape aspect of settling the 'new world' , but otoh, those people were enomously grateful to have simply survived their experience. So we discuss that, as well as what it meant to the people already here.

The native interpreters at PP are amazing folks, as are the European interpreters. We ask all sorts of questions of both, and it's amazing in all of it's complexity. Ftr, the British interpreters are representing certain people of the time and do no go out of character. The native interpreters speak as themselves, with their own names, from a modern prespective. So anything can be asked. There is no hiding what acutally happened. What was stolen.

One intersting thing some people do not know about those first Euros in Plimouth is that to the native people they appeared, at first, less threatening than earlier Euros. Prior to the Mayflower, which brought women and children, all other Euros came with only weapons and men. Many of those folks took the native people as slaves. The Mayflower seemed different to them and there was more interaction. The chief of the Wampanoags even lived among the 'pilgrims' for a year to scope them out, and found them 'different'.

Also, in all of my trips to PP, I had not heard the story of the Wampanoags coming only because they thought the Euros were going to war that day. It was actually a series of days and many Wampanoags did attend, and they brought food, as what the Pilgrims offerred wasn't enough. Just not going to cut it.

Of course it all ended in near annihilation the native people, but in the beginning there was actual interest on both siides in learning about each other.

So, on one hand, harvest festivals and feeling blesed for what one has are natural extensions of humanity, but on the other hand, most 'first t'giving' stories are a load of bunk. The real story is far more interesting, not to mention very important for people to know.

Here is the link that might be interesting to some. I also urge people to check out the entire site, and it's current sensitivity to reality. The Two People, One Story page is very moving. One gets a good dosae of reality in this film before one even steps foot into the recreated villages.

http://www.plimoth.org/learn/history...ticHistory.asp

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by UUMom

Here is the link that might be interesting to some. I also urge people to check out the entire site, and it's current sensitivity to reality. The Two People, One Story page is very moving. One gets a good dosae of reality in this film before one even steps foot into the recreated villages.

Yes - the tone at PP is very even handed. It was loud and clear, for instance, that the Pilgrims brought a lot of hardship on themselves by building the same traditional style of homes they had known in Europe, where the Wampanoags had a sound and practical style of housing and living that got them through the winters just fine. There's been a lot of scholarship and dedication that's gone into putting the whole thing together. We were in awe of what they've done. Lucky you to be able to go there often - those people are a wealth of knowledge, and it's such an adventure to ask questions and get them to talking from the individual roles they're playing! - Lillian

[dharmamama]

I just wanted to share that I found a FABULOUS book at our library the other day. It is called Nickommoh! and it is by Jackie French Koller. It is the story of a Narragansett harvest feast and the author has a page-long note in the back explaining that Native Americans celebrated "thanksgiving" feasts long, long, long before the Pilgrims ever set foot in Plimoth/Plymouth. The author's note also explains that the traditional "First Thanksgiving" was very much like a traditional native American celebration. The book uses a lot of words in the Narragansett language, which makes it challenging to read aloud but also very interesting. There is also a glossary in the back explaining the Narragansett words (but unfortunately not providing a pronunciation guide).

I think that this is just about the best "Thanksgiving" book that I have ever seen.

Namaste!