**This is my 500th post! Thank you for being with me on this journey.**
It all began when I spent time in my son's fifth grade classroom a few weeks ago.
Somehow, in all my years of school, it was never taught this way. The Pilgrms were brought to LIFE.
My son was given a Pilgrim identity. A name, an age, and an outcome. Usually the outcome was "death in the first year by illness". One death was, "he became lost in the woods, and died from complications of frozen feet".
The suffering, the illnesses, the accidents, the deaths, the marriages, the births...it was all described to these children in a very real, personal way.
The insurmountable obstacles they faced that first winter were new germs, old germs, lack of medicine, lack of clothing, lack of heat, lack of food, LACK OF SHELTER, lack lack lack. omg. How did ANYONE make it through?
It is a much more interesting story to me now that I am an adult, a parent, responsible for real live children.
I will be painfully aware during this holiday season of the realities of the Pilgrims and their seeking religious freedom. I am so thankful for their sacrifices and most of all, for their bravery.
2 comments:
Kate, isn't it fun to learn in a different way doing it as a grown up? Amazing what they went through - I wonder if they will teach the other side of it too - what happened to the Native Americans when the Europeans arrived. History is fascinating, especially as an adult when you can appreciate everything so much more. That had to hit home with those kids though. A brilliant AR moment!!
Thanks for sharing Kate. It is amazing~our lives are soooo cushy in comparison. xo
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