An American Thanksgiving
Four weeks leading up to Thanksgiving
How a harvest feast in 1621 became a national holiday. Your children meet the people who carried the idea of a day of thanks from Plymouth to the White House, and learn a song the whole family already half knows.
The four weeks
- Week 1
The Harvest of 1621
The Pilgrims, the Wampanoag, and Squanto at Plymouth.
- Week 2
A Nation Gives Thanks
George Washington's Thanksgiving proclamation of 1789.
- Week 3
The Mother of Thanksgiving
Sarah Josepha Hale's long campaign, and Abraham Lincoln's answer.
- Week 4
Over the River
Lydia Maria Child and the poem that became a holiday song.
Memory work for the unit: “Over the River and Through the Wood,” by Lydia Maria Child (Primer and Ledger); “The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers,” by Felicia Hemans (Journal)
Three levels, one story
Every week tells the same story at three reading levels, so brothers and sisters study the same topic and talk it over together. Buy the level you need, or the Family Edition for all three.
- PrimerAges 6 to 8Read together with a parent
- LedgerAges 9 to 11Read and work alone
- JournalAges 12 to 14Longer reading, deeper questions
Each week includes
- A short reading written for the level
- A person to meet, with an odd-but-true fact
- A Quote of the Week that teaches a virtue
- A real primary source, explained in plain words
- Vocabulary, questions, and memory work with a QR code to hear it
- A parent key with answers and a dinner-table question