I came across some photos the other day of my daughter’s first birthday party. The photos made me smile as I reminisced. We chose a fairy tale theme, and we had so much fun playing games based on nursery rhymes and fairy tales. We made a centerpiece for the table that included pricess slippers, a crown and princess hats, a Mother Goose book, confetti, and the cake topper from my wedding cake that I saved all these years. I used a clean black bed sheet as the table cloth, making a good backdrop for the scene.
We made a simple rectangular cake with a princess figure standing on the top, with a #1 candle beside it. You can also make a castle cake. (If you want to see the spectacular castle cake I made for a medieval party, you can find it in the Treasure Vault. It’s called “Castle Cake,” next to the “Life-Sized Cardboard Castle” under the Middle Ages period of the history section.)
The first game we played was to construct houses made of straw, wood, and bricks. We used pine needles for the straw, popsycle sticks for the wood, and large red Lego bricks for the bricks. The materials were in separate baskets, and we had an indoor sandbox to help the houses to stand up in the sand. You can do this activity outside if you don’t have an indoor sandbox, or you can get some sand in a large bin. When you stab popsycle sticks or pine needles into the sand, they stay upright. Then you can blow on it really hard, and see if the three little pigs’ houses fall over.
Next we played nursery rhyme games like “Ring Around the Rosie” and “London Bridge is Falling Down.” The kids really enjoyed when my husband and I made a bridge with our arms and interlocked hands, as you can see in the picture.
We had a wonderful time with this theme, as we read many famous works of literature (short stories), leading up to the themed party.
If you are homeschooling older kids, you can assign a writing project of a fairy tale newspaper. These were immensely popular when I taught in the classrooms before I had kids. I read to you many articles and funny ads to give examples of ideas for kids to write in their fairy tale newspapers in the audio So Your Son Hates to Write. (The writing assignments work well for girls, too!)
I’ve always been fascinated by treehouses, ever since, as a young girl, my parents took me to Disneyland in California, where one of the amusements was a replica of the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse from the famous classic book and movie. My young eyes widened at the thought that people could survive without electricity and running water by creating their own sustainable lifestyle, which today would be called homesteading. Being a homeschool family, my husband and I built a fort in between some trees in our backyard that looked and felt like a treehouse, complete with a rope ladder.
Over the years, the kids played in their treehouse-like fort, and we eventually went to stay the night in a large treehouse in Oregon. We filmed our experience back then and put it into the Unit Study Treasure Vault, under our description of all the hands-on activities we did for the literature unit study for Swiss Family Robinson.
Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse Tour (video)
Well, today I have a treat for you, which is a tour of the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse in Disneyworld, Florida, where my husband and I took our kids for a family reunion last summer. We walked through the entire treehouse, stopping at each area with the video camera, giving you a virtual tour:
Years ago when we read the book Swiss Family Robinson as a read-aloud, my kids were excited to draw treehouses from their own imagination. I think my oldest son was 8 years old when he created this drawing:
Years later, my sister (my kids’ aunt) and I created a 3-D model of a treehouse from odds and ends of wood and other bits of cloth and pebbles. We fastened it all together with hot glue. This is what it looked like, along with a description of how we created the entire project:
One of my younger sons (about 5 years old at the time) drew his own version of a treehouse:
So kids of any age can enjoy creating drawings and sculptures of treehouses. One year at a state fair in our area, we saw some children’s models of treehouses. The children used popsycle sticks, branches, and other odds and ends to glue together their masterpiece:
We have truly loved the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse theme over the years, and now that we are able to give you a taste of it with this tour, we thought we’d add the drawings and treehouse models to inspire you. To find out what other hands-on activities we did for the Swiss Family Robinson unit study, you can see our cram-packed article inside our Unit Study Treasure Vault, along with our real-life overnight stay at a treehouse down in Oregon!
This year we had the opportunity to take our family to Disneyworld for the first time, for a family reunion. My husband got a bonus at work, and we got a military discount through my son Stephen, who is in the Air National Guard. It is something my husband had always wanted to do with the kids, because when he grew up in California, he used to go to Disneyland, and he had many happy memories he wanted our children to also experience.
While at Disney for four days, we entered four different theme parks: Magic Mountain, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. If you ever go in the summer, be aware that is is hot and humid, because that might affect your energy level. Oh, and there were downpours of rain almost every day. Regardless of the long lines, the Lord answered my prayer that my feet would hold out, and that I would not be limping through the park. That was truly a miracle because I’ve had problems with the arches of my feet, and I’ve often limped home from a short neighborhood walk.
Magic Kingdom
One of the first rides we went on was the Pirates of the Carribean. It was nearly exactly as I remembered it as a kid. Yes, even though my parents were missionsries in Guatemala, when we came up for furlough, we sometimes went (at least twice as a child) because my grandma lived near Disneyland.
The only difference that my husband noticed was the pirates were not chasing women. Instead the women were chasing the pirates, or one pirate was chasing another pirate. For those of you who remember the ride (or for those of you who have never been), we filmed the ride:
The next ride we took was the Jungle Cruise. You get into a boat, and your tour guide gives you a description of the jungle and its cartoon-like animals. He used a lot of humor, as you can see:
We rode on a lot of other rides at the Magic Kingdom on the first day: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Tiki Room, Haunted Mansion, and Space Mountain. Since we had entered the park at 9am, by the time it poured rain at 4pm, we were ready to go back to the hotel.
On day four, we returned to the Magic Kingdom and did the Mad Tea Party, It’s a Small World, Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, Astro Orbiter, and Seven Dwarves Mine Train.
Epcot Center
The second day, we went to Epcot Center, which is like traveling around the world. It was an overcast day and somewhat drizzly, but we got some clear plastic rain ponchos so that we could keep going. We went to all the countries, including the ride Grand Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros in the Mexico section:
One of my favorite areas of Epcot was the Morocco section. You could walk around the cobbled streets and feel like you were at the Moroccan market. I loved all the architecture, textiles, and lamps.
Later we went to Soaring Around the World—which I LOVED! It felt like you were hang gliding around the world on a virtual ride. We also did the Mission Space, Test Track, and Spaceship Earth rides from Epcot.
Hollywood Studios
At Hollywood Studios, we went on the Tower of Terror, Star Wars Millenium Falcon, Muppet Vision 3D, and Star Tours. The Tower of Terror is basically a Twighlight Zone episode that you are involved in, and the elevator drops. It was definitely high intensity.
Star Tours and Star Wars Millenium Falcon were both Star Wars themed rides where we were in spaceships, trying to outrun enemy ships.
The Mupper Vision 3D was super fun, where we sat in the theater of the Muppet Show, seeing everything in 3D, including the hecklers on the balcony to the right of the theater. Years ago our family created our own episode of the Muppet Show, so my whole family enjoyed this experience.
Animal Kingdom
At Animal Kingdom, we went on Expedition Everest, Kilimanjaro Safaris, and Avatar Flight of Passage. By far, my favorite ride in the entire Disneyworld parks was Avatar Flight of Passage, which was virtual reality where you ride on top of a dragon through the air, over clifftops, and through ocean waves. It was breathtaking—so much so that I rode on it twice. I never knew that one of my bucket list wishes was to fly through the air, and now I got to do it!
The Kilimanjaro Safari was a lot of fun. Come with us on our safari:
All in all, our Disney Adventure was truly magical. We got to see the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom on the final night, which we enjoyed greatly. I’m so thankful to have had the opportunity to visit Disney with my whole family, along with Alan’s sister and her kids. My kids got to know their cousins in a much more in-depth way, and I had many good conversations with my sister-in-law. It was an unforgettable trip!
How would you like to walk through a reproduction of the originalPlymouth Plantation, as if you were one of the Pilgrims landing in America for the first time? Today we will give you a virtual tour! A few months ago, my family was able to visit extended family on the east coast, and one of our field trips was Plymouth Plantation in Massachussetts. I was pleasantly surprised at how extensive the property is. You can see the ocean from the village, and each house had furniture from the 1620’s.
Plymouth Plantation Tour
At the beginning of the tour, we saw a Wampanoag longhouse. From the outside it looks small, but inside it’s very large. First the Native Americans built the structure with bent sticks. Then they filled it in with bark and other materials. They had openings in the ceiling, where smoke could escape.
As you can see from the video, the inside of the Wampanoag longhouse had ribs, and the walls were lined with blankets and furs to keep everyone warm. The fire would have been kindled in the middle of the room for warmth as well as for cooking.
The Pilgrim village had people that were dressed in period costumes as well as tour guides that gave demontrations. I filmed snippets of several of these actors and tour guides. A couple of women were singing an old melodic hymn, a Pilgrim man in one of the cabins was talking about what life was like back in the 1620’s, and a tour guide gave me a demonstration of cooking in that era. It was all very interesting.
I enjoyed seeing the furniture in each of the houses. The beds each had curtains around them to keep in the warmth and to have privacy from the rest of the cabin. Each house had a chimney with a place to cook over a fire for the kitchen area. A small table and chairs rounded out the furniture in each house. The Pilgrims were simple folk.
At the head of the street was a fort, where cannons were kept as well as places to look out above the village, to see if danger was coming. This fort had a place downstairs that looked like it would have been used for school or church, since the entire village could have fit in it.
I also loved the animals and gardens surrounding each Pilgrim house. It really felt like we went back in time!
For more hands-on activities for this time period, take a look at our Pilgrims Unit Study, on sale right now for only $5!
Hi! I'm Susan Evans. I speak at homeschool conferences about hands-on learning and run a huge unit study membership site. I also speak at women's retreats on the topic of prayer.
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