Chapter 3: James, King of Two Countries

Activities for this chapter:

• discuss Guy Fawkes Day, still celebrated though its history is not well remembered, not entirely reputable, anti-Catholic sentiment (George Washington condemned the celebration:    

"As the Commander in Chief has been apprized of a design form'd for the observance of the ridiculous and childish custom of burning the Effigy of the pope - He cannot help expressing his surprise that there should be Officers and Soldiers in this army so void of common sense, as not to see the impropriety of such a step at the Huncture; at a Time when we are solliciting, and have really obtain'd, the friendship and alliance of the people of Canada, whom we ought to consider as Brethren embarked on the same Cause.  The defence of the general Liberty of America: At such a juncture, and in such Circumstances, to be insulting to their Religion, is so monstrous, as not to be suffered or excused; it is our duty to address public thanks to these our Brethren, as to them we are so much indebted for every late happy Success over the common Enemy in Canada." (Writings of Washington, Vol 4 Oct. 1775-Apr. 1776, page 65, US Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 1931)

see also, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/washington-condemns-guy-fawkes-festivities), look at Guy Fawkes mask (now sometimes used as a symbol of anti-government protest), read the poem, "Remember, remember the fifth of November," collect historical coins--"a penny for the Guy," Guy Fawkes as eponym of the word "guy" http://www.businessinsider.com/guy-fawkes-created-the-word-guy-2013-11

• discuss the King James Bible, difference between "you" and "thou," see http://www.timesandseasons.org/index.php/2015/09/the-kjv-and-the-thereofs-thereof/, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_James_Version, also discuss the Douay-Rheims Bible https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douay–Rheims_Bible, explain divisions of the bible (Old and New Testaments, book, chapter, and verse), look up Ecclesiastes 1:2, "vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas," and look at a vanitas still life painting

• see videos of Scottish bagpipes and dancing, and learn how to do a highland dance

• discuss tartans in Scotland (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/01/world/europe/kosher-kilts-and-plaid-skullcaps-scotlands-jews-get-a-tartan.html?_r=0, http://www.scotclans.com/scottish-clans/tartan-pattern-book/, difference between basket weave and twill (The Magic of Handweaving by Sigrid Piroch, p 44, also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twill), weave tartan cloth pouch on cardboard loom, using either basket weave or twill, instructions in Kids Weaving: Projects for Kids of All Ages by Sarah Swett

Links for this chapter:

• Wikipedia page on the Book of Common Prayer: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Common_Prayer

• List of online editions of the Book of Common Prayer: http://anglicansonline.org/resources/bcp.html

• Wikipedia page on Tartan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartan

• Kids activities with tartan patterns: http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/tartan

• Bagpipes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagpipes

What we did:

For show-and-tell we heard about the history of banana cultivation and sampled a delicious fried plantain dish.  We also learned about the history of ribbons and looked at a pouch tied with a ribbon.  We heard about an ongoing project to make an Aztec stone knife and watched a video that explained how to make a cutting blade out of stone.  We saw a Minecraft model of a Dutch village and dike.  And we saw the beginning of a small mud-house project.

It took a lot longer than expected to warp the cardboard looms so we will be working on them in the coming weeks.

The project in Sarah Swett's book Kids Weaving: Projects for Kids of All Ages was to make a pouch with a basket weave with a thin warp thread and thick wool yarn for the weft, and after taking it off the cardboard loom, washing and fulling it to felt the wool.  In retrospect it would have been better to stick with the project in the book.  We made the bags by using the same size yarn for warp and weft and using a twill weave.  The result is very pretty but it meant that the top loops on the loom didn't finish off on their own--we had to weave through every loop so the pouch wouldn't unravel.  Also, because we used so many different yarns to make the tartan, there were many loose ends that needed to be tucked in thus making a weak weave and a not very practical pouch.  But the result is very pretty, and we certainly learned a lot!

Here are some more links on weaving with cardboard looms, the first ones have instructions for the kind of cardboard loom we used: http://www.rabbitgeek.com/file/weavecardboardloom.pdf, http://glennaharris.org/pdf/Draw_String_Pouch.pdf, http://www.roundvalleyschools.org/pages/uploaded_files/Weaving%20Fram.pdf,
https://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/monographs/mn_htw.pdf, http://www.weavingtoday.com/weaving-for-kids, http://taliesin.confabulation.com/~workstead/cardboardweave.html, http://www.art-rageous.net/Weaving.html, http://www.interweave.com/Weaving/projects_articles/Handwoven-Bags-For-Beginners.pdf, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4MitkDeKPg, http://www.craftypod.com/2011/07/11/a-community-weaving-project-at-the-museum-of-contemporary-craft/, https://cassiestephens.blogspot.com/2012/06/in-art-room-weaving-part-1.html

Here are two of the twill weave tartan bags, two finished and one is on its way: