Thanksgiving Resources

Hi Homeschoolers! I am so thankful I am able to homeschool and I pray I am always able. That brings me to today's post - I'd like to make it a repository for all the cool resources I find related to Thanksgiving. I hope it will continue to grow over the years. So let's get started:

1) This is the proclamation in 1863 that became the basis for a Thanksgiving national holiday on the fourth Thursday in November. I like the background and context of it. The fact that the people felt a need to show their thanks even in the face of war is inspiring.

2) Here is a link to an episode of This is America Charlie Brown called The Mayflower Voyagers. It features the peanuts gang in the roles of children on the historic voyage and discusses their journey and the first Thanksgiving. I like they way it draws kids into the story, talking about how the children played an important role when the adults suffered illness.

3) This segment of Drive Thru History discusses the Mayflower Compact, considered a foundational document of our representative US government. And here is the text of the compact.

4)  This film made by New Dimension Media was well done, in my opinion. I like how we got some more insight into the lives of the Native Americans involved with the Pilgrims.

5) As a kid I always wondered why was that horn thing called a cornucopia? I think this Wikipedia page gives a concise and helpful discussion of it. And here are some pictures of horns of plenty to color.

6) These Thanksgiving poems would make nice copywork or cute entertainment at dinner when recited by the little ones. I like number nine.

7) I found this cute Thanksgiving-dinner-themed logic game where you have to arrange the guests around the table according to what (or whom!) they like or don't like. I just had to play it. It was fun and was a bit of a mental workout. See if you and your family can beat my score of 11,000!

8) We watched Monumental today and it was so good. I enjoyed the in-depth look at who the Pilgrims were and what motivated them. The number of obstacles they faced was daunting, even before they left for America. Most of their story in the film is before they landed here, which is something I don't think I've ever seen before. I also enjoyed the discussion of the monument in Plymouth about "the matrix of liberty." The role of faith in our country's history is such an integral and fascinating subject and the fact that the our forefathers felt it needed to be foundational is reason enough to look at it, IMHO.


That's it for now. May your Thanksgiving be full of many blessings to count!

Updated 3/24/2020.