The Boston Tea Party

This post could have also been titled, "Out of Desperation" or "If You Can't Beat Them, Join Them" or "Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures". You get the idea. The day after a holiday, especially one that involves a late night can be hard. On everyone. This is especially true when you have a child with a big imagination who is easily carried away with her current obsession and easily sucks multiple other children down her rabbit hole. It led at one point yesterday morning to L. crying on the couch because not enough people wanted to play Boston Tea Party with her. 

I had saved the large box that our new bookcases came in for such a time as this. Grabbing scissors and packing tape, I created a ship. One of the Boston Tea Party ships, to be exact. L. and G. later decided it would be the Dartmouth. (I can now tell you that there were three ships involved in the Boston Tea Party. The other two were the Beaver and the Eleanor.) Having a good prop was all that was needed to convince others to join the tea party and peace was restored for a while.

L. and G. in the Dartmouth

Look closely and you will see they are holding cardboard axes. They needed them to break open the crates of tea.

A crate of tea. On the plus side, G. and L. can now spell and read the word 'tea'.

And then they wanted a flag. So I drew and they colored the Union Jack. Because it was a British ship, you know.

Play on the Dartmouth continues today. The ship has only had to go into dry dock once for repairs. G. wants some paddles because she is concerned about steering. L. has listened to the Yankee Doodle book (the book that started this whole escapade) multiple times and I've already read it once before my second cup of coffee. I also found a children's cartoon online which tells the story of the Botson Tea Party and it has been watched at least five times. L. follows me around telling me she wishes she could go to Boston to see the Boston Tea Party ship recreation. (Which, I grant her, she would enjoy immensely.) And since it is rainy and I have bills to pay, the youngers are about to sit down to watch Johnny Tremain.

A funny anecdote. At one point yesterday afternoon, the Dartmouth had been taken outside and a harbor found in the shade in the front yard. A woman walks by, pauses, says, "Excuse me, but are you by any chance homeschoolers?" It turns out she will be starting to homeschool her children in the fall and we chatted for a bit. But inwardly I was laughing because at that moment we really did look like stereotypical homeschoolers with the cardboard ship flying the British flag in the front yard complete with somewhat wildly dressed children who didn't quite make it to the hair brushing stage that morning.