Everyday Educator - Giving Thanks
00:00:00.000 | (soft music)
00:00:02.420 | Welcome friends to this episode
00:00:06.280 | of the Everyday Educator podcast.
00:00:09.000 | I'm your host, Lisa Bailey,
00:00:10.740 | and I am excited to spend some time with you today
00:00:14.300 | as we encourage one another, learn together,
00:00:17.660 | and ponder the delights and challenges
00:00:20.680 | that make homeschooling the adventure of a lifetime.
00:00:24.280 | Whether you're just considering
00:00:26.260 | this homeschooling possibility
00:00:28.160 | or deep into the daily delight of family learning,
00:00:32.200 | I believe you'll enjoy thinking along with us.
00:00:36.180 | But don't forget, although this online community is awesome,
00:00:40.720 | you'll find even closer support in a local CC community.
00:00:45.720 | So go to classicalconversations.com
00:00:49.760 | and find a community near you today.
00:00:53.760 | Well families, happy Thanksgiving.
00:00:57.920 | I can hardly believe that the week of Thanksgiving is here.
00:01:02.480 | This year has flown by for me and my family,
00:01:06.640 | and I suspect it has done the same thing for you.
00:01:10.180 | And as we approach the holiday this week,
00:01:13.840 | I've got a couple of questions
00:01:15.880 | for you and your family to consider.
00:01:18.520 | I have a poem to share with you,
00:01:21.480 | I have a story to share with you,
00:01:24.020 | and I have a passage from scripture to share with you.
00:01:27.880 | As we prepare our hearts to be truly thankful,
00:01:32.060 | I wanna ask you, and maybe, maybe you will choose
00:01:36.920 | to listen to this podcast this week as a family,
00:01:41.200 | maybe as you road trip to a relative's house
00:01:44.960 | or to the beach or to the mountains
00:01:47.240 | to celebrate Thanksgiving with your family.
00:01:50.080 | And if you are all together in the car
00:01:52.980 | listening to this podcast, maybe you'll stop the recording
00:01:57.980 | and talk together about some of the questions
00:02:02.860 | that I'm gonna ask you.
00:02:04.260 | Here's the first one.
00:02:06.220 | What does Thanksgiving mean to your family?
00:02:11.220 | Now moms and dads, you might want to take this opportunity
00:02:17.620 | to share some stories of Thanksgiving
00:02:20.900 | when you were a little girl or when you were a little boy
00:02:24.480 | and give your kids a picture of what Thanksgivings were like
00:02:29.480 | when you were young, when you were growing up.
00:02:32.040 | Did you go to your grandparents' home?
00:02:34.600 | Was that in the city?
00:02:36.060 | Was that in the country?
00:02:38.320 | Has your family always celebrated
00:02:41.600 | a traditional American Thanksgiving?
00:02:44.600 | Or is that something new for your family?
00:02:47.760 | Do you have other traditions associated with Thanksgiving
00:02:52.580 | that maybe many of us don't share
00:02:56.140 | but that are very important to your family?
00:02:59.600 | What are you being thankful for?
00:03:02.560 | What do you do together as a family to celebrate?
00:03:07.560 | When you gather to visit and to eat, what is your family?
00:03:16.420 | What are you and your friends truly celebrating?
00:03:21.420 | For the early settlers in this new world,
00:03:25.920 | here's maybe something surprising.
00:03:28.600 | Thanksgiving was not always about abundance.
00:03:33.600 | That's right.
00:03:36.700 | Thanksgiving was not always about abundance.
00:03:39.180 | In fact, listen to this poem by Hezekiah Butterworth.
00:03:44.180 | And it's going to remind us that in the beginning,
00:03:49.180 | maybe Thanksgiving was about something else.
00:03:53.580 | See if you, as you listen, can discover
00:03:56.500 | what these Plymouth settlers were called to give thanks for.
00:04:01.500 | The title of the poem is "Five Colonels of Corn."
00:04:10.660 | 'Twas the year of the famine in Plymouth of old,
00:04:14.940 | the ice and the snow from the thatched roofs had rolled.
00:04:19.940 | Through the warm purple skies steered the geese or the seas
00:04:24.580 | and the woodpeckers tapped in the clocks of the trees.
00:04:29.140 | And the boughs on the slopes to the south winds lay bare
00:04:33.220 | and dreaming of summer, the buds swelled in snow.
00:04:38.900 | The buds swelled in the air.
00:04:42.540 | The pale pilgrims welcomed each reddening morn.
00:04:47.340 | There were left but for rations five kernels of corn,
00:04:52.340 | five kernels of corn, five kernels of corn.
00:04:59.160 | But to Bradford, a feast were five kernels of corn.
00:05:06.340 | Five kernels of corn, five kernels of corn.
00:05:10.620 | Ye people be glad for five kernels of corn.
00:05:15.620 | So Bradford cried out on bleak burial hill
00:05:20.660 | and the thin women stood in their doors, white and still.
00:05:25.800 | Lo, the harbor of Plymouth rolls bright in the spring.
00:05:31.080 | The maples grow red and the woodrobins sing.
00:05:35.360 | The west wind is blowing and fading the snow
00:05:39.720 | and the pleasant pines sing and the Arbutus' blow.
00:05:44.720 | Five kernels of corn, five kernels of corn
00:05:49.500 | to each one be given five kernels of corn.
00:05:54.500 | Oh Bradford of Austerfield hast on thy way.
00:06:00.620 | The west winds are blowing o'er Provincetown Bay.
00:06:04.820 | The white havens bloom but the pine domes are chill
00:06:09.820 | and new graves have furrowed Precisioners Hill.
00:06:14.980 | Give thanks all ye people, the warm skies have come.
00:06:20.940 | The hilltops are sunny and green grows the home
00:06:25.980 | and the trumpets of winds and the white march is gone.
00:06:30.860 | Five kernels of corn, five kernels of corn.
00:06:35.180 | Ye have for thanksgiving five kernels of corn.
00:06:40.180 | The ravens gift eat and be humble and pray.
00:06:44.540 | A new light is breaking and truth leads the way.
00:06:49.540 | One taper, a thousand shall kindle.
00:06:53.940 | Rejoice that to you has been given the wilderness voice.
00:06:58.640 | Oh Bradford of Austerfield daring the wave
00:07:02.460 | and safe through the sounding blasts leading the brave.
00:07:07.380 | A deed such as thine was the free nation born
00:07:12.020 | and the festal world sings the five kernels of corn.
00:07:17.020 | Five kernels of corn, five kernels of corn.
00:07:24.120 | The nation gives thanks for five kernels of corn.
00:07:29.120 | To the thanksgiving feast, bring five kernels of corn.
00:07:35.000 | You see thanksgiving might be a season
00:07:44.440 | and not always in the fall.
00:07:49.620 | These settlers celebrated in this poem,
00:07:54.100 | you can tell by the wording,
00:07:56.680 | they were celebrating the coming of spring,
00:08:00.060 | coming warmth and a chance, another chance,
00:08:03.640 | a new chance to grow food.
00:08:06.540 | They celebrated in this poem not abundance but survival
00:08:11.540 | with five kernels of corn.
00:08:16.560 | And it was a call to remember not abundance but enough
00:08:21.560 | and the fact that through the providence of God,
00:08:31.120 | they had survived.
00:08:33.000 | So what will you and your family be thankful for this season?
00:08:38.000 | Think about what are your basics
00:08:44.800 | that keep your family going?
00:08:47.460 | These Plymouth settlers were not celebrating abundance,
00:08:51.360 | they were celebrating the just barely enough.
00:08:54.920 | They were celebrating what kept their hearts hopeful
00:08:59.160 | and their bodies alive.
00:09:01.640 | So what are the basics that keep your family going?
00:09:06.640 | And if you want to read that poem again,
00:09:11.360 | you can find it in Words Aptly Spoken American Documents.
00:09:16.200 | I also want to share a story for you.
00:09:20.700 | It's called The First Thanksgiving.
00:09:25.200 | It is by Albert Blaisdell and Francis Ball
00:09:31.160 | and it is one of the stories that you can find
00:09:34.480 | in New World Echoes.
00:09:36.400 | So if you want to use this like a read aloud,
00:09:41.400 | you can just listen.
00:09:43.560 | But if you'd like for it to be a follow along,
00:09:46.680 | you can find this story in New World Echoes on page 171.
00:09:51.680 | It's called The First Thanksgiving.
00:09:57.860 | All through the first summer and the early part of autumn,
00:10:04.760 | the pilgrims were happy and busy.
00:10:07.920 | They had planted and cared for their first fields of corn.
00:10:12.560 | They had found wild strawberries in the meadows,
00:10:15.960 | raspberries on the hillsides and wild grapes in the woods.
00:10:20.960 | In the forest, just back of the village,
00:10:25.040 | wild turkeys and deer were easily shot.
00:10:29.480 | In the shallow waters of the bay,
00:10:31.960 | there was plenty of fish, clams and lobsters.
00:10:36.760 | The summer had been warm with a good deal of rain
00:10:40.260 | and much sunshine and so when the autumn came,
00:10:45.160 | there was a fine crop of corn.
00:10:48.800 | Let us gather the fruits of our first labors
00:10:53.960 | and rejoice together, said Governor Bradford.
00:10:58.940 | Yes, said Elder Brewster, let us take a day
00:11:02.960 | upon which we may thank God for all our blessings
00:11:07.120 | and invite to it our Indian friends
00:11:12.120 | who have been so kind to us.
00:11:15.160 | The pilgrims said that one day was not enough
00:11:21.040 | so they planned to have a celebration for a whole week.
00:11:26.240 | This took place most likely in October.
00:11:29.980 | The great Indian chief, Massasoit,
00:11:33.780 | came with 90 of his bravest warriors,
00:11:37.340 | all gaily dressed in deer skins, feathers and fox tails
00:11:41.900 | with their faces smeared with red, white and yellow paint.
00:11:46.900 | As a sign of rank, Massasoit wore around his neck
00:11:50.980 | a string of bones and a bag of tobacco.
00:11:54.980 | In his belt, he carried a long knife.
00:11:58.440 | His face was painted red and his hair was so daubed
00:12:02.500 | with oil that Governor Bradford said he looked greasily.
00:12:07.500 | Now, there were only 11 buildings
00:12:11.280 | in the whole of Plymouth Village, four log storehouses
00:12:16.280 | and seven little log dwelling houses.
00:12:19.760 | So the Indian guests ate and slept out of doors.
00:12:25.700 | This was no matter, for it was one of those warm weeks
00:12:29.940 | in the season we call now Indian summer.
00:12:34.400 | To supply meat for the occasion,
00:12:37.940 | four men had already been sent out to hunt wild turkeys.
00:12:42.580 | They killed enough in one day
00:12:45.560 | to last the whole company almost a week.
00:12:49.460 | Massasoit helped the feast along
00:12:53.100 | by sending some of his best hunters into the woods.
00:12:57.580 | They killed five deer, which they gave
00:13:01.020 | to their pale face friends that all might have enough to eat.
00:13:06.020 | Under the trees were built long, rude tables
00:13:11.340 | on which were piled baked clams, broiled fish,
00:13:15.660 | roast turkey and deer meat.
00:13:18.820 | The young pilgrim women helped serve the food
00:13:22.220 | to the hungry Redskins.
00:13:24.740 | Let us remember two of the fair girls
00:13:27.460 | who waited on the tables.
00:13:29.820 | One was Mary Chilton who leaped
00:13:32.540 | from the boat at Plymouth Rock.
00:13:35.140 | The other was Mary Allerton.
00:13:37.580 | She lived for 78 years after this first Thanksgiving
00:13:42.580 | and those who came over in the Mayflower,
00:13:46.340 | of those, she was the last to die.
00:13:50.860 | What a merry time everybody had during that week.
00:13:54.640 | It may be they joked Governor Bradford
00:13:57.500 | about stepping into a deer trap set by the Indians
00:14:01.660 | and being jerked up by the leg.
00:14:04.700 | How the women must have laughed
00:14:06.860 | as they told about the first Monday morning at Cape Cod
00:14:11.260 | when they all went ashore to wash their clothes.
00:14:15.020 | It must have been a big washing
00:14:17.040 | for there had been no chance to do it at sea
00:14:20.300 | so stormy had been the long voyage of 63 days.
00:14:25.300 | They little thought that Monday would afterward
00:14:29.100 | be kept as wash day.
00:14:31.800 | Then there was young John Howland
00:14:35.780 | who in mid ocean fell overboard
00:14:38.180 | but was quick enough to catch hold of a trailing rope.
00:14:42.220 | Perhaps after dinner he invited Elizabeth Tilley
00:14:45.860 | whom he afterward married to sail over to Clark's Island
00:14:50.220 | and returned by moonlight.
00:14:52.860 | With them it may be went John Alden and Priscilla Mullins
00:14:57.860 | whose love story is so sweetly told by the poet Longfellow.
00:15:02.940 | One proud mother we may be sure
00:15:06.460 | showed her bright eyed boy peregrine white.
00:15:10.580 | And so the fun went on.
00:15:13.900 | In the daytime the young men ran races,
00:15:17.140 | played games and had a shooting match.
00:15:20.240 | Every night the Indians sang and danced for their friends
00:15:24.500 | and to make things still more lively
00:15:27.080 | they gave every now and then a shrill war whoop
00:15:30.840 | that made the woods echo in the still night air.
00:15:35.580 | The Indians had already learned to love
00:15:38.780 | and fear Captain Miles Standish.
00:15:41.940 | Some of them called him boiling water
00:15:45.540 | because he was easily made angry.
00:15:48.500 | Others called him Captain Shrimp
00:15:51.420 | on account of his small size.
00:15:53.840 | Every morning the shrewd captain put on his armor
00:15:58.860 | and paraded his little company of a dozen or more soldiers
00:16:02.980 | and when he fired off the cannon on Burial Hill
00:16:06.220 | the Indians must have felt that the English
00:16:08.820 | were men of might thus to harness up thunder and lightning.
00:16:14.700 | During this week of fun and frolic
00:16:16.620 | it was a wonder if young Jack Billington
00:16:19.480 | did not play some prank on the Indians.
00:16:23.100 | He was the boy who fired off his father's gun one day
00:16:27.280 | close to a keg of gunpowder
00:16:29.680 | in the crowded cabin of the Mayflower.
00:16:32.460 | The third day came.
00:16:36.300 | Massa Soyet had been well treated
00:16:38.460 | and no doubt would have liked to stay longer
00:16:41.780 | but he had said he could stay only three days
00:16:45.620 | so the pipe of peace was silently passed around.
00:16:50.480 | Then taking their presence of glass beads and trinkets
00:16:54.620 | the Indian king and his warriors said farewell
00:16:58.380 | to their English friends and began their long tramp
00:17:02.460 | through the woods to their wigwams on Mount Hope Bay.
00:17:06.080 | On the last day of this Thanksgiving party
00:17:10.760 | the pilgrims had a service of prayer and praise.
00:17:15.700 | Elder Brewster preached the first Thanksgiving sermon.
00:17:20.080 | After thanking God for all his goodness
00:17:23.280 | he did not forget many loved ones sleeping on the hillside.
00:17:28.280 | He spoke of noble John Carver the first governor
00:17:33.000 | who had died of worry and overwork.
00:17:37.400 | Nor was Rose Standish forgotten, the lovely young wife
00:17:41.080 | of Captain Miles Standish whose death was caused
00:17:44.820 | by cold and lack of good food.
00:17:47.760 | And then there was gentle Dorothy, wife of Governor Bradford
00:17:53.260 | who had fallen overboard from the Mayflower
00:17:56.460 | in Provincetown Harbor while her husband was coasting
00:18:00.620 | along the bleak shore in search of a place for a home.
00:18:06.220 | The first Thanksgiving took place nearly 300 years ago.
00:18:11.100 | And since that time almost without interruption
00:18:14.980 | Thanksgiving has been kept by the people of New England
00:18:19.120 | as the great family festival of the year.
00:18:23.160 | At this time children and grandchildren returned
00:18:26.480 | to the old home, the long table is spread
00:18:30.540 | and brothers and sisters separated often by many miles
00:18:35.320 | again set side by side.
00:18:38.380 | Today Thanksgiving is observed in nearly all the states
00:18:43.100 | of the union, a season of sweet and blessed memories.
00:18:47.900 | And this story you can read again
00:18:52.620 | in the Copper Lodge Library book, New World Echoes.
00:18:57.440 | It's called The First Thanksgiving.
00:19:01.140 | Now you probably noticed toward the end
00:19:04.220 | I mentioned, well, I read in the story it said
00:19:07.600 | the first Thanksgiving took place nearly 300 years ago.
00:19:10.940 | And those of you who are really good at mental math
00:19:13.500 | are probably thinking that number seems way off to me.
00:19:17.340 | And you're right, but here's the thing.
00:19:19.900 | This story was written by Albert Blaisdell
00:19:23.460 | and Francis Ball in 1915.
00:19:27.540 | So they counted from 1915 back to the very first Thanksgiving
00:19:33.560 | and we are more than 100 years ahead of that telling.
00:19:38.560 | So what do you think about that story?
00:19:45.920 | Where do the details come from?
00:19:49.960 | There are journals that give some of the perspective
00:19:54.160 | of some of the people who lived in the colony
00:19:58.180 | and participated in that first Thanksgiving.
00:20:03.360 | There are lots of things that happened
00:20:05.300 | in that first Thanksgiving that probably do not happen
00:20:09.200 | in any of the celebrations that you're a part of.
00:20:12.680 | You might play games outside,
00:20:15.440 | but I bet that they're not shooting matches.
00:20:18.120 | They probably pick up football games.
00:20:21.880 | You probably have really good things to eat,
00:20:26.120 | but not a lot of people have roasted clams
00:20:31.320 | on their Thanksgiving table.
00:20:34.140 | You have many things to be thankful for,
00:20:38.380 | but they are probably different things
00:20:43.160 | than those of the first Thanksgiving participants.
00:20:47.980 | So here's something for you to think about with your family.
00:20:51.780 | For what are we thankful?
00:20:57.000 | And you know what?
00:20:58.520 | It's easy to just say, oh, I'm thankful for my mom
00:21:02.840 | and for my dad and for my home and for my bed
00:21:06.460 | and for good food.
00:21:08.400 | Let this Thanksgiving be a real time for you to reflect
00:21:13.160 | not only on the things that you are thankful for,
00:21:18.160 | but the people for whom you are thankful
00:21:23.560 | and the intangibles like safety and freedom
00:21:28.560 | and love and hope that you may also celebrate.
00:21:36.920 | So think about this with your family.
00:21:42.040 | How do we show our thanks?
00:21:46.080 | As little kids, most of us are taught to say thank you
00:21:50.000 | and please to express thanks for a good meal by saying,
00:21:54.980 | when I was a little girl, I always had to say
00:21:57.920 | before I was excused, may I be excused?
00:22:02.520 | I enjoyed it after every meal,
00:22:05.480 | even when I did not truly enjoy it, okay?
00:22:09.480 | So many of us give thanks verbally,
00:22:12.440 | but how else do we express our thanks?
00:22:16.160 | What attitude can we show that speaks thanks?
00:22:21.160 | What words of, what deeds of service might we do
00:22:28.160 | that could express our thanks?
00:22:30.380 | To whom are we thankful?
00:22:34.320 | Maybe you are thankful this season for another family member
00:22:39.320 | who has blessed you or served you in some way.
00:22:44.000 | I suspect that upon deep reflection,
00:22:48.280 | we are all thankful to the Lord
00:22:50.880 | and it might be a great exercise as a family
00:22:55.120 | to think about what are you thankful to the Lord for
00:22:59.840 | in this day, in this week, in this month,
00:23:03.360 | in this season, in this year?
00:23:07.220 | So one thing that we saw in this story,
00:23:11.840 | the first Thanksgiving, was that the settlers,
00:23:15.440 | the early settlers wanted to share the spirit of Thanksgiving
00:23:20.440 | not just with their neighbors who had come with them
00:23:26.080 | over on the Mayflower, but with the new friends
00:23:29.940 | that they had made in the new world.
00:23:33.080 | So how is sharing a part of saying thanks?
00:23:39.900 | Many of us celebrate Thanksgiving with family members
00:23:43.540 | that we don't see often or that at least
00:23:46.260 | we don't see every day.
00:23:48.000 | Maybe you have a Thanksgiving ceremony with your neighbors
00:23:51.700 | or with your church family or even with your CC community.
00:23:56.500 | How does sharing help us say thanks?
00:24:01.500 | And here's another, here's another thought.
00:24:07.380 | Are we only thankful for our happy times?
00:24:12.380 | Are we only thankful for the good things
00:24:17.800 | that we see in our lives?
00:24:20.740 | How can God lead us to grow into becoming thankful
00:24:26.620 | for the hard times and the trying circumstances?
00:24:32.600 | In what ways can we become thankful for those?
00:24:37.520 | What do those things offer us that cause us to grow
00:24:42.520 | in our understanding of the Lord and our appreciation
00:24:48.640 | for all He does for us?
00:24:51.400 | How can remembering hard times
00:24:56.360 | bring us a spirit of gratitude?
00:25:01.280 | So I ask you, talk with your family,
00:25:04.440 | what are you remembering this year
00:25:08.320 | and how can you honor those memories?
00:25:13.820 | As we end our time together on the podcast today,
00:25:18.320 | the Giving Thanks podcast, I want to share with you a Psalm.
00:25:23.320 | I think it might be the first long passage
00:25:30.200 | that I ever memorized as a second grader.
00:25:32.960 | And it resonates with me sometimes in the night,
00:25:38.180 | sometimes during joyful times, but also during hard times.
00:25:42.860 | The Psalm 100 calls me to be thankful
00:25:48.920 | and I hope it will call you to be thankful.
00:25:53.600 | Psalm 100, shout for joy to the Lord all the earth.
00:25:59.640 | Worship the Lord with gladness.
00:26:03.320 | Come before Him with joyful songs.
00:26:08.080 | Know that the Lord is God.
00:26:13.080 | It is He who made us and we are His.
00:26:18.600 | We are His people, the sheep of His pasture.
00:26:25.320 | Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.
00:26:30.320 | Give thanks to Him and praise His name,
00:26:37.140 | for the Lord is good and His love endures forever.
00:26:42.140 | His faithfulness continues through all generations.
00:26:52.020 | The Lord is worthy of our praise and our truest measure
00:26:57.020 | of thanks belongs to Him.
00:27:02.680 | For the Lord is good, His love endures forever
00:27:09.640 | and His faithfulness continues through all generations.
00:27:17.300 | Happy Thanksgiving, you guys, and I will look forward
00:27:22.300 | to celebrating Advent with you when we meet again.
00:27:27.600 | And hey, before we go, if you're traveling for Thanksgiving,
00:27:32.660 | maybe you're traveling when you hear this,
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00:27:39.760 | classical conversations, podcasts that you might enjoy.
00:27:46.040 | If you're a mom looking for parenting tips
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00:28:01.240 | Delice and Jenny, they are the hosts
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00:28:14.880 | and stories, they're just a lot of fun.
00:28:18.200 | Delice and Jenny are fun to listen to.
00:28:20.980 | And if you are interested in current events
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00:28:28.240 | and how your Christianity relates to all these topics,
00:28:31.500 | you need to check out Refining Rhetoric
00:28:34.320 | with Robert Bortons.
00:28:36.240 | On this show, Robert, who is the CEO
00:28:39.280 | of Classical Conversations, Robert guides listeners
00:28:42.800 | using the 15 classical tools of learning
00:28:46.440 | to navigate current events and critical issues.
00:28:49.480 | He has really interesting guests every podcast
00:28:54.480 | and I think you would really enjoy listening to this.
00:28:58.000 | If either of these sounds up your alley,
00:29:00.560 | you can listen to both of these shows
00:29:03.000 | on your favorite podcast streaming app
00:29:05.440 | or you can go to their own website
00:29:09.460 | so you can check out blessingsandmotherhood.com
00:29:14.460 | and refiningrhetoric.com.
00:29:18.300 | Two more great podcasts for y'all to get a part of.
00:29:23.300 | So thanks for being with me today.
00:29:26.300 | Happy Thanksgiving and I'll see you next time.
00:29:29.120 | Bye bye.
00:29:30.080 | (gentle music)
00:29:32.660 | you
00:29:34.720 | [BLANK_AUDIO]