Monday, January 27, 2014

Tea Party Wigs!!

If you've read my posts for any length of time, you know that we use the Story of the World for our history lessons.  This year we are in Volume 3, and we've come upon the 2 or 3 lessons that cover the American colonies and the American Revolution.

If you know me at all, then you know that I won't ever be satisfied with brushing over American history in two short lessons!    So I'm taking a lot of extra time to expand on this section of history with the kids.

For example, we're memorizing part of the Declaration of Independence.  All day today I heard my six-year-old vehemently proclaiming "UNALIENABLE RIGHTS!"   all over the house.  Makes me smile.

Today we also read this book together:


We had a good discussion about the seemingly trivial nature of a three-cent tax, and why the colonists were so outraged by King George the III over this tea tax.

We had the most fun making some colonial powdered wigs.  I got the idea from this book



We started by putting some cutt-off old nylons on our model's head.
But we quickly realized that to finish the wig, we needed to take the nylons off her head, or her hair would be covered in glue.

So we put the nylons on an upturned bowl and went to work.  We used stuffing and batting to create our masterpiece.




Looking through our Tea Party book, we noticed that the "Mohawk Indians" who dumped tea in the water that night had painted their faces and added feathers to their hair.
 So we did too.  We dressed up our male model as if he were going to join the Tea Party that fateful December night.


Love his angry "attack" face.  

Yeah, then we realized that we had to really hustle to get the makeup off before eating a quick lunch and heading out the door to gymnastics!  WOOPS!