Honoring our soldiers

During the second week of November, our "school games" were all related to a theme. I couldn't think of a name for the theme except Patriotic. I wanted to incorporate Election Day and Veterans' Day into our lessons so Cash could begin to have an early understanding of them, but knew that it would be difficult to get a lot of resources that were age appropriate. It was a struggle, but we had a fun week.

It started off the weekend before with a barrel of soldiers, tanks, fighter jets and a double-blade helicopter. I had seen this at the toy store a month or so earlier, and when they went on sale for less that $5 I knew it would be perfect. The boys loved playing with them. I tried to set them up, but it seemed that the fighter jet and Baylen just wanted to knock them all over.

It wasn't until Bryan and Jennifer came over that it started to be productive play. Cash loved playing with Bryan. He taught him some of the names of the different pieces, put the stickers on the tanks and planes, and explained some things to Cash. (I didn't take pictures when they were here, though. Bummer.)

I explained to Cash that Bryan was a real soldier. I'm not sure Cash understands yet, but I'm hoping that he will grow to have an appreciation for all that our soldiers have done and do for us.

I got tickled at Cash. He held up one soldier and said, "This one has a sippie cup in his hand." Bryan said, "No, that's actually a grenade." :)

B liked playing with it all, too. I think his favorite was the actual barrel that it all came in. He used it to stand on to reach the light switches for the rest of the week. Lovely.

We also colored pictures for two of our favorite soldiers. We colored one and sent it to Bryan later in the week, and Cash colored a picture of an Air Force veteran for my uncle David.

We also painted many, many (I'm not sure why it was so much fun) pictures of the American flag. I tried teaching the Pledge of Allegiance, but we didn't get very far. I found some great books, though, at the library that we used during the week to read through the pledge.

I was a little bummed because we were supposed to meet my uncle at Aviation Park that week. He had agreed to show Cash and B the three planes they have there and tell them all about them. It was actually really cold and windy on the day we had planned on meeting, so we had to postpone it. The weather has just been cold, windy and rainy since. I'm hoping that we'll still get to go over there with him sometime.

We did, however, make it to the Glasgow Veterans' Day parade, and Bubba went with us. :)

Here they are, ready for the parade!

The KY State Troopers were there. Cash pointed out the "guys with the guns" and "our country's flag!"

B took one look at this and said, "Wow!"

Jr. ROTC from Barren Co.

and veterans on motorcycles

It was a very short parade, and sadly, there weren't many people on the streets to watch it. It hurts me to see the lack of respect for so many that sacrificed so much. I can only hope that as my boys grow up, they will have an appreciation for the people who defend our country so bravely.