I'm happy to say, that our week long unit with Eli Whitney is complete! It wasn't the most colorful unit we've ever done.... but, we both learned a great deal. How he supplied 10,000 muskets for the Revolutionary War...which meant Tommie spent all day, everyday.... making shooting-bang-pop noises! Rolling my eyes. Oh sure, you may think that's funny... but after serpentining around my house- dodging Nerf gun bullets all week... sort of got old. Okay, where was I? Of course, he was the Father of Mass Production and the cotton gin. And, I did pull out 15 spelling words, dictation and narration was also added. I just happened to have a handful of real cotton...with real seeds inside the bolls, too. It is pretty tough trying to pull those seeds out! Those poor slaves...what a tedious job. Although, the cotton gin "seemed" like a good invention... it really wasn't. The price of cotton was so valuable here...because England was just absolutely crazy for it... and paid us big money for it...that, the cotton gin machine enabled more farmers to grow cotton, hence buying more slaves! Gin is short for engine.



I gave Tommie a taste of what school away from home would be like... I bullied his scooter away from him and took off on it!

At scouts, he made this beeswax (yes, he rolled it) and bean candle holder. Dang, that beeswax sure melts fast! But, we really enjoyed it! And, it smelled so...beeswaxy!

Off to start our day....