The French Revolution (and a little about the Industrial Revolution)

The French Revolution is such an interesting time. I have been writing a Scarlet Pimpernel-inspired book for the last four years so I've been immersed in the era anyway. But it was really interesting to broaden our focus to what was happening politically in England at that time too and how it affected everyday life for those in both countries. And Napoleon! He is a fascinating figure as well. Then when you reflect that Joseph Smith was also alive during this time, and the church of Jesus Christ being restored, it starts to seem like this era was one of the most important in history!

We really liked these video summaries of the French Revolution and its significance, especially the ones with asterisks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBn7iWzrKoI French rev. video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D3hQS6ezXc Marie Antoinette

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTTvKwCylFY French Revolution crash course

https://www.prageru.com/videos/william-wilberforce-ending-the-slave-trade

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w96Ad6N_SGA French Revolution Part I (Dennis Prager)

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ND5K0xS7YQ Part II

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqJuSRLsJzc Understanding Napoleon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd6E38FfuMg&t=172s Napoleon

I'm sorry to say that the little boys are fascinated with the guillotine! Here's a quick video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbBkybZMa7g

I found this book at a used bookstore (it was definitely not $172 as this linked one is!) and we have been making the paper model in the book. It's fun but takes lots of cutting and precise folding, so it took us a long time, and we had to put it away for dinner one day and just never got it back out again! So we still need to complete it. But I think it will be cool when it's done (I'll try to remember to put a picture here of it!).

The Industrial Revolution was proceeding along during these years as well. It could really be a whole unit in itself, but we did talk one day about steam power and some of the changes it brought into everyday life. We got the steam engine model linked below and it was fun to put together so we could see how the basic steam engine worked!

https://www.history.com/videos/the-guillotine

https://www.prageru.com/videos/tbh-history-industrial-revolution-part-1

https://www.prageru.com/videos/tbh-history-industrial-revolution-part-2-freedom-vs-control

Build steam engine model https://www.enginediy.com/collections/steam-engine-parts/products/steam-engine-kits-to-build

Hot Chocolate through the ages

We learned, of course, about the ways the Aztec and Maya used cacao to make hot chocolate. There are various recipes for "Aztec hot chocolate" online and most of them are probably too spicy for us. And the more authentic they are, probably the less we would like them…but we did want to at least try a little of that bitter chocolatl-style drink.

I had some cocoa nibs (which is just raw cacao bean, crushed a little) so we tried eating those, both roasted and unroasted, to see what they tasted like. We added some of the nibs to our blender with chili powder, cinnamon, vanilla, and water to make our chocolatl. (Which, by the way, we learned means "bitter water." Very apt.)

We poured it back and forth between vessels to make it foamy, like the Maya are shown doing in some old  pictures. (See also here)

It's pretty interesting how grainy those cacao nibs are, no matter what you do to them. We pulverized them in our powerful blender, which you'd think would grind them way more finely than a mortar and pestle ever could, but they still don't just dissolve. And the drink just keeps an oily film on top too. (Emulsifiers help with this, as we learned later.) All the way through the early European days of drinking chocolate in the 1500s and 1600s, through Revolutionary War times and even later, drinking chocolate would have been a little grainy and oily like this. It's the conching [or melanging] process, where it is ground and mixed for three days or whatever it is, which finally makes the chocolate smooth and silky. And aren't we all glad it does?

For purposes of demonstration and because we didn't want to end this activity with a bitter taste in our mouths (ha ha), we skipped a few centuries and made Parisian hot chocolate for a little tea (chocolate) party. We always appreciate a chance to use Nana's pretty tea set!

It's traditional for the eldest daughter to pour, is it not?

Though I don't know if the eldest daughter should have a chocolate mustache.

(I think our tea party last time was nicer. But this one was fun too. And if you want the hot chocolate recipe, it's at this link!)

On another day, we learned about different types of modern (dare I say avant-garde, even?) hot chocolate! We split into teams to make some different kinds. We did have a recipe book but most people just took "inspiration" from it rather than real recipes. Daisy and Gus made…I can't remember, something with vanilla bean, cloves, and milk chocolate, I think. Daisy always comes up with great hot chocolate creations. She prides herself on it (justly).

Nice and foamy!

Teddy and Ziggy made a different kind of hot chocolate, can't recall at the moment

And Junie and Clementine made a white hot chocolate drink. Really delicious!

Junie wrote down her (made-up) recipe so we wouldn't forget it. It was delicious!

Yum! Daisy is well on her way to opening her Hot Chocolate Shop…and she'll have some great recipes and employees to help her!

Pirate Costumes

We were in the thick of our Pirate Unit for Halloween (we'd just finished learning about bats and making our bats, which was Halloweeny too, and all without any intention on my part!) and Marigold made the best Halloween costume with things we had around the house! I loved it! She used the red coat from when Sebby was a British soldier years ago, and she was a bold and fearsome Pirate Queen! (With a little squishy parrot on her shoulders!)

When Ziggy saw Goldie's costume, he was inspired to make one of his own. He always has loved to come up with costumes! (And here is a different parrot entirely.)

Clem-parrot

Another iteration of Zig's costume

Good little pirates!

Pirate Unit Study and Activities

 

I'm not sure what possessed me to do a Pirate Unit Study. I think I was just thinking about how much Ziggy would like it. But we all ended up liking it so much! I learned a lot of things I didn't know, and tied in to many eras of history I hadn't really studied before. It was such a fun unit. It ended up being a pretty long one too!

One fun activity was making our own "Jolly Roger"-style pirate flags. We looked at pictures of other pirate flags for inspiration. The children's flags turned out quite scary! Goldie's flag (above) was particularly devious. It looked like a regular country's flag at first, and then could be flipped around to show that the ship was actually owned by the fearsome M.E.N.! Look at that terrifying pirate marigold emblazoned upon the flag.

Some links for fun things we did:

Video about the Barbary Pirates

Parts of a ship and lots of other interesting pirate links

Even more parts of a ship

Types of pirate ships—if you've ever wondered, as we have, what words like "schooner" and "sloop" and "frigate" mean.

I thought "ship worms" were super interesting to learn about (they are really a type of burrowing clam!)

This video teaching how to tie different knots was really cool. The kids learned to do several of the simpler ones! The explanations and terminology are fascinating too.

Pieces of eight really were coins cut into pieces!

Pirate weapons

We learned about scurvy

We learned how to play Liar's Dice and it's so fun! Very simple, too. Once we got it down we played it a lot, and even the big boys liked to join in. Basically all you need are cups and a bunch of dice.

Have you read about the discovery of the "Queen Anne's Revenge," Blackbeard's real ship? I hadn't. It is a fascinating story. They're still preserving and cataloguing artifacts from it. You can look at some of them at that link.

One of my favorite things to learn about was the basics of sailing and navigation. It was interesting to hear how smart they actually were about it even back in the 1500's and 1600's.

I didn't know the Gulf Stream was so important for sailors. This video talks about the Jet Stream, which the children got interested in after learning about the Gulf Stream.

Information about sailing a big ship like the Queen Anne's Revenge

We watched "Pirates of Penzance" during this unit, of course, and also "Blackbeard's Ghost." Oh, and "Swiss Family Robinson" and "Muppet Treasure Island." Some good ones.

Teddy worked really hard on his red skeleton flag—it was especially hard to cut it out around all those little corners—and it turned out great!

Clementine stole Ziggy's flag, which seems right somehow

Ziggy's skull and crossbones was so good! He did all the drawing and cutting himself!

Junie's had some meaningful symbols on it. Who would dare attack a flag that showed the hourglass sands of life expiring, alongside that bloody sword?

Daisy made up a whole story about her flag, how it was owned by a pirate princess who wasn't actually mean, but wanted to appear so. Her skull is a cupcake and her crossbones are cleaning supplies! That is actually quite appropriate for dear Daisy, who wouldn't hurt a fly.

Oh goodness. Gus's Caw Pirate flag is the cutest. I had forgotten how cute it was. How did he draw such a cute Caw?

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Another day, we made pirate puppets out of paper bags and felt. I cut up an old bandana to use too. (Inspiration from here.)

I liked the variety of pirates the children made. The Pirate Caw is cute, and I love the lady pirate too. (We actually spent a day learning about parrots and macaws as part of this unit because…why not? They sort of go with pirates! Close enough! It was worth it to read all the parrot and macaw books to Gussie!) We even made little paper macaws, just for fun.

I love this guy's mustache and eyepatch!

This ponytail is so good.

Junie's Captain Blackbeard. I like his earring!

Ziggy's scary pirate crew!

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One of Ziggy's pirate drawings…as you see, this pirate is soon going to get a stern talking-to from the Navy Police! Zig was ambivalent about pirates, really. He wanted to like them, and did like them…but also was horrified at their law-breaking ways! As a frequent policeman himself, he didn't feel he could condone such behavior. I felt much the same myself! We talked a lot about why some men would have chosen piracy, and what their other options might have been.

We watched "Captain Phillips" (it's a good movie with Tom Hanks, about modern day pirates…quite intense) with the older girls during this unit, and that sparked some interesting discussions too.

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We learned about map-drawing and I had the children draw a map of a specific place, either in the house or the neighborhood—somewhere we could recognize. Then we tried to guess what each other's maps depicted. (Here are some images of pirate maps we looked at!)

I think the one above is Marigold's map of the storage room. It shows the big paint buckets, the furnace, Christmas decorations, even the grinning pumpkin bucket on a shelf in the corner!

This is Daisy's detailed map of the main floor of the house, even showing furniture, and stepping stones and swings in the backyard!

Ziggy's maps were both so great! He really has an eye for them. This is the house…you can see stairs going up from the van in the garage…then stairs going down in the front of the house and Seb's car parked out front. Then the stairs going upstairs, and Ziggy upstairs in the loft wearing his police outfit! So great!

And this is his map of the hill and the park in front of it, plus a tiny Ziggy riding his bike around it—which about sums up what you would have seen if you visited our house during this time period!