The Sinking of the Titanic

We have been studying and reading about the Titanic and what better way to really learn something but to do it? Today marked the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, since we couldn't have a party we did a re-creation of the Titanic's last day. The children all had their boarding passes to get onto the 'ship'. Yesterday we drew names of actual people who were on board the Titanic and then looked up on the Internet which of them lived, and who died. Ruby says," I died on the Titanic" Erik was VERY upset that he died and desperately wanted to draw a new person. Ian was not so concerned but happy that his sister made it out O.K. We had 3 Third Class Passengers and 3 Second Class Passengers. We did not have any 1st Class (Their menu was too involved).

We began by doing some experiments with ice and discussed the tip of the iceberg. We discovered what salt water does to the iceberg and we tried to make ships that float and hold cargo (much harder than it sounds).

My favorite part of home schooling is that all ages can get involved and learn at their level (Now only if I could accomplish that with math). Syndi is so great she even had a separate container that Ruby could use so that she did not interfere with the older children's projects.

Ben and Syndi had the 'ship' decorated and every last detail thought out. We had authentic boarding passes, menus, books, food, and even a replica of the Titanic. Ben was quick to point out that although the real Titanic had 4 smoke stacks only 3 of them worked. The 4th was for show, besides, his ship did not have room for the 4th stack.

The 9 year old stage of making funny faces whenever you get your picture taken is a tough one for a person who loves photos. But, Hey I love the boy and love the enthusiasm he puts into his projects mostly the ones we do with Ben. Aaron is willing to try and is not afraid to make mistakes, a quality I really admire.

The 3rd class passengers were quite pleased with their dinner which consisted of:

Beef Vegetable Soup

Roasted Pork

Boiled Potatoes

Cabin Biscuits

Fresh Bread

Pudding

The Second Class Passengers thoroughly enjoyed their dinner of:

Consomme

Smoked Oysters

Roasted Squab on Watercress (we used Cornish game hen instead of baby pigeon)

Creamed Carrots

Chateau Potatoes

Pear Punch

French Vanilla Ice Cream

One of the benefits of being crew I got to eat all of it! It was delicious. Syndi found a book about the last dinner on the Titanic and copied many of the recipes out of it and they are worth trying and making again. I have not had a meal that rivals that one in a very long time.

We even had a barrier between the two classes so that they knew they could not have something that was not in their class.

We watched the movie The Titanic in 2 parts, before dinner and after. Thanks to Clear Play we did not have to watch the parts that we would not want to subject our children to. What a great invention.

I was surprised at how sensitive Erik was to the suffering and unfairness on the Titanic. Neither him nor Ian could watch the whole movie, it was too stressful.

We still have several activities that we did not get to today, but will have to continue our unit study.

I came home, made dinner, cleaned up, fed the baby, and put the children to bed. At 9:15pm I went running down the hall yelling, "There is a problem on board and the Captain has requested we all meet up on the deck!"

Erik was sound asleep and when I stood him up and let go he fell to the ground! Oops.

Ruby was asleep as well with her head in her bed and the lower half of her body on the floor.

We all grabbed coats and headed to the van where we went and picked up Ben and Syndi. Ben was even wearing his life belt.

Ian did not quite get what we were doing but went along with it. Erik was completely stressed and thinks I'm nuts. That's fine with me, Sean thinks I'm nuts too!

We went out to the beach and recited lines from the movie. The most classic was when Syndi said, "There might me icebergs ahead!" Ben replied, "If there are, I'll be dead" For anyone that has seen The Princess Bride they will get it but it was really funny!!

We went out and stood on the dock at the beach and told who ever wanted to that they could jump in. Ben almost did and I scared his mom. Aaron, Taylor and Ben waded in up to their waist, the rest of us climbed in the van. We had some hot cocoa for the ride home and everyone was in bed by 10:00pm. Not bad for a wonderful day of fun and learning.

We are so blessed to have such amazing friends! I always have great intentions but pulling them off is difficult for me. Syndi motivates me to follow through and provides such great guidance. Everything is always more fun with a friend.