Adventures in MFW ~ Week 10

Still working on week 10. There are a lot of activities this week!!!

We are reading about the Declaration of Independence this week and how Thomas Jefferson painstakingly wrote and re-wrote it until it was perfect in his (and his committee's) eyes. And then how he had to re-re-write it after the Continental Congress changed a few things. To get an idea of what a process that must have been for poor Mr. Jefferson, we made our own quill pens and berry ink.

Again, it was a simple recipe - crush some berries, save the juice and add some vinegar and salt. Simple enough.

The kids were amazed at (1) how easy it was to extract the juice (2) how many berries it takes to make such a small amount of ink and (3) how little ink you really need to write.

We cut the tip off a store-bought feather, hollowed out the end and snipped a cut on one side to control the ink flow. Then we were off and running. It took a bit to get the hang of it...

But before long we figured it out.

I wonder how long it took Thomas Jefferson to make his perfect copy?!?