We experienced this particular joy again today at our co-op, rather reduced in size from its already small numbers. Today's official topic was life on the home front in World War II. The boys all prepared a short report on one of the following topics: the USO; the American Red Cross; blackouts and air raid drills; Rosie the Riveter; Victory Gardens; Japanese relocation. Walter's topic was blackouts and air raid drills. We found all sorts of exciting resources online, including a variety of videos of various air raid sirens from across the Axis and Allies, an interactive activity where you choose which items would be helpful to have in your Morrison Shelter in your garden in London during an air raid, and a rationing game, where you go to a grocer and try to assemble items for a meal that you had planned and see whether you have enough ration points to purchase needed ingredients or whether things are out of season or simply out of stock. There were also tons of resources on clothing styles of the time, including clothing from feed sacks. And of course letters from children who had been evacuated from London and who had not. There was a lot less information about the American Red Cross and its activity during WWII. I suppose it wasn't quite as exciting as the nursing Nightingales during WWI. But we did find out quite a bit about the Donut Dollies who sold donuts at the Canteens. I wish we had brought doughnuts today!
The girls and I read part of another American Girl book, this one about Molly's aunt, who applies to become a Women's Airforce Service Pilot. So we followed up with some historical information about the WASPs and cut out some wings and patches for ourselves with Fifinella, the Disney-designed mascot.
Then we looked at some pictures of women working in aircraft and other factories during the war. But the highlight was extinguishing and disposing of our own incendiary bomb. The procedure was such: Take a potato and pretend it is an incendiary bomb that is now burning in your attic after being dropped on your roof. Take a hose and put out the fire on the potato and any surrounding area that might be burning (many people would have used buckets of water or a pump siphon in a bucket of water, since most people don't have garden hoses hooked up in their houses and going up to their attics...). Then use the bucket of sand that your family has in its emergency kit to smother the now-wet potato. Take a broom and sweep the extinguished bomb into a shovel. Dump the bomb into a bucket. Carry it far away from your house.
That's all fine and good. Lainey got a little wet when Frances waved the hose wildly at her instead of at the spud. Then the boys came out. And that's when the real fun began. I'm not sure they ever really got through the entire procedure cleanly. See, they wanted their incendiary spuds to be on fire. Which led to a box of matches. Which led to a potato with a flaming stick coming out of it, which led to a potato with eight flaming sticks coming out of it. And who really wants or needs water when you have a fiery potato in your driveway?! Then Frances wanted a chance to strike a match, since she's never done it. But a flaring match can be scary, so she dropped it, thank goodness onto cement where it immediately went out. All in all, I think it was an effective exercise, and they probably will be well prepared if a tuber every falls from the sky and suddenly sprouts lit matches.
I think the adults were all pretty taken aback by just how pervasive the War would have been in everyone's lives, even in America where active fighting and bombing wasn't taking place. Parents would be gone--overseas and in factories or in volunteer jobs, there was so much to worry about as far as personal safety went, food was rationed and favorite recipes might be out the window for a while, signs were up everywhere to remind you that there's a war going on and scary enemies were out there and everyone had to do their part to protect us, and you had to wonder whether your neighbors might be spies or if U-boats were off the coast. I'm surprised that our parents or grandparents who were children or young adults during that era aren't still talking about it constantly. Well, at least mine weren't.... But scary stuff for even everyday life.
We ended by making our own Victory Gardens. Our have radishes, peas, and tomatoes. I would post a picture, but right now it looks like any garden variety pot of dirt. If and when seeds do sprout and grow into plants, I'll provide visual evidence, then. I just thank my lucky stars that neither our country's defense nor my family's nutrition currently depend on how well my garden grows.
Frances happily attended both ballet and flamenco today after a rocky emotional morning. And I was able to go to my private Spanish tutoring session that happens during this time. What an incredible opportunity there is there! Today we practiced asking and answering questions and working on subject verb agreement, all the while concentrating on correct conversational pronunciation, which is a rough spot for me. I picked up a Conversational Spanish for Dummies mini-book tonight in the dollar bin at Target to help me (I already have the full size Spanish for Dummies, and I guess I'm still dumb because I haven't looked at it for about 10 months). I'd like to get the boys back doing Spanish, but I think it might confuse them with all the Latin vocabulary and grammar forms they are having to memorize. They are doing so much better in the class, and with continued studying and review, they should do well on their test Thursday. Meanwhile, I have my own homework to do in writing a little story about two people taking a trip to "la tienda de ropa."
It was a busy glutinous and gluten-free cooking day. I made a rather large breakfast for us this morning, most of which I couldn't eat. Pancakes from scratch, not from my usual mix. Sausage, hash browns, and more pancakes. Then I baked a basic vanilla cake, which I didn't get time to frost. We were going to make a ration recipe that called for stale cake, and I think I'll have some tomorrow, since I forgot to cover the thing after we cut off chunks. Then for lunch I made two versions of baked ziti--the gluten and the gluten-free version, both of which, so I hear, were pretty good. I had my safe one, but then Kerry accidentally finished the rest up for dinner. I don't normally make lunches that involve much prep, so clearly this dietary change is pushing me into more adventurous territory in the kitchen. I'm not a person who particularly relishes cooking for meals. I'm more into baking for special occasions and snacking (the latest 'special occasion' was when I promised Walter that I'd make him a cake if he reached level 70 on Runescape...is that bad mothering or what?!). Tonight I shook together my flour blend that I keep on hand for basic baking and cooking. It involved a trip to Target for a new canister to hold it, since my other one has a crack in it now, and I was able to get a new teapot as well. I burned the hell out of my last teapot and the enamel on it, probably some awful lead-based something, ended up all over the ceramic top of the stove. This one is stainless steel, matches our kitchen better, and hopefully won't cause steam burns every time I have to pull the plug out. Tomorrow's big task is going to be replenishing my supply of chocolate chip cookies. The last ones lasted more than a week, which is a record for me. I'd also like to make snickerdoodles, which are my other favorite cookie.
And tonight I am being beaten at Risk by Walter and Ollie. Ollie always wants to play, and the game requires at least four hours, which I never have to give to it, especially because we live with the human wrecking ball, which makes precarious game boards with tiny, intricately placed pieces a bad idea in his waking hours. We played for about 2 hours tonight, maybe more, and it's just now getting toward the turning point of the war. I think we need to explore some of the Mission Risk and other shorter game options for the future. In my fantasy world, I'd have endless time for engaging in long strategy games...maybe my kids need to make more gaming friends with patience or something. Unfortunately, our experience has been that most other 10 year olds just aren't quite there yet, especially unsupervised. I cringe to think of what would happen if someone authoritative wasn't keeping an eye on Ollie....
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