Great Americans and Black History month

We started February learning a bit about Black History month, and we also started a timeline for our wall of "Great American People in America's History" to finish out through this school year. The kids added their own birth years and names to the time line, and we added facts that we learned earlier in the year such as the year the Constitution was signed, and when George Washington was born. We studied a bit about Martin Luther King Jr when we covered Georgia during our discussion when we came to that part of the country, so we added him too during the beginning of Black History month.

Earlier this week we read the story of Moses in the bible, and the children used their journal writing time to express their feelings about slaves and children of God.

We watched a video about Harriet Tubman.

Animated Heroes Harriet Tubman

So in our discussion of slavery, and a nation divided about government, we talked about the Federalists and the Confederates. We discussed the Mason Dixon line in our geography time today, and the kids made a collage depicting the state boundaries during that time, and now. And it transitioned into our time for the day when we stand and say the Pledge of Allegience, reminding them that our country now has a Federal flag, a Federal government, (and regardless of my husband's southern sentiment!) that is where we are today.

Map of the USA during the Civil war

Flags of a nation divided

We finished up our week by watching the video of Abraham Lincoln and adding him to our timeline too.

We've been working on listening, and respect, and other character building values in our devotional time, so I added a listening exercise to help them. We started reading Fablehaven, and I have to say that I LOVE the big vocabulary in it! It doesn't water anything down with the low expectation that children won't understand, instead it adds an adventure and fantasy to bring them UP to comprehend a broader vocabulary base, that frankly, our country is lacking in education. The kids are enjoying it!

Kellan is full of wiggles, so it has been more challenging to get him interested in reading, but he's doing it at his own pace, and I've been pleased with his progress. Keeping his interest during reading time (and therefor keeping him out of trouble) has been a challenge, so I came up with this:

I skim through the few pages that I intend to read to them, and write him a list of vocabulary words to listen for. And if he hears it, he makes a check mark by it. Then after our reading time, we say the words, use them in a sentence, and even make a word search activity sheet with the new vocabulary words some days. It has helped immensely, and it has thickened the stimulation for Maren too, who loves books and reading, and still wants more.

What are your kids reading right now?

Germany

We're finally getting around... the world that is. We've focused a lot on our own country the first half of our school year, with conversations about other countries, this was the first week we did a "study" of a country. We started in Germany, which seemed fitting for us because of family history that goes back to that country. We're at a place in our Creation Studying where we are focusing on God creating man, we're doing fun art work showing our personalities, our 5 senses, our feelings, etc. And now we're transitioning into our family, and family history a little bit. So there ya go, that brings us to Germany.

We painted the flag of Germany today and displayed it with our own country's flag, then included them in our prayers.

We made a family tree to add to our devotional time this week.

We read some Grimm's childrens fairytales, and The Bremen-town Musicians

We had Beethoven (courtesy of Baby Einstein's cd's) blaring in the background. The Bible has a lot to say about music and instruments, so we sampled some of the greats from Germany- Ludwig Van Beethoven, Johann Sebastian Bach, Brahms

We learned about Albert Einstein, and how much math applies to everything like flying into space, or building a computer, I think Kellan has a new hero since he loves math so much.

Young Albert Einstein- Laurence Santrey

Albert Einstein coloring page

And what would a miniature princess like Maren be without the mention of all of the castles in Germany?

Castle Maze

Today wraps up our study of Germany by reading The Dutchess Bakes a Cake- Virginia Kahl and making a German Chocolate cake for a certain (newly) SEVEN year old's birthday party tomorrow. I wonder if she'll be just as excited about saurkraut and potatoes for dinner tonight?

After dinner, we'll watch The Sound of Music (yeah yeah, I know it's Austria. But they speak German. And it's a great movie ;) close enough!)

Free

Happy Constitution Day!

September 17th, 1787 the Constitution of the United States was completed, and adopted by the Delegates that day. It became effective March 4, 1789, but we introduced it today in our studies to show reverence and understanding for the wisdom that brought it forth.

And for the men who blazed the trail.

We're studying the USA in geography and history, and more than just memorizing the capitals, we are truly diving in to the history of this great nation.

Starting with George Washington this week in history was more important and appropriate than starting with him the first week of school. It gave time to introduce a basic understanding of government, Presidents, and states.

Also, since George Washington was one of the Delegates who signed the constitution, it made a nice transition into talking about our Capitol. Did you know that the cornerstone of the Capitol was laid by George Washington on September 18th, 1793?

More than just learning about the freedoms that we enjoy, is also taking advantage of them. We went to the library to find lots of gems for our studies. With the internet, and the public library, it can either supplement or entirely create the subject material for whatever you choose!

We even found DVD's for children about the constitution, and American Hero's volumes such as this one we watched today: Animated Hero Classic: George Washington We had these movies growing up, and my mom shipped them out to me, I loved this more than other movies for children, because it didn't shy away from the depiction of the heroes respect for God. That's a true hero in my book!

Other ways we used free resources for our subjects was checking out this book:

This was such a cute book to compliment our study of the Creation, Day 3 of all of the things God created on this Earth, and WHY He created this first, and not Man!

The Creation

Who knew that you could stretch out a small chapter in the Bible for so long? So far we have accomplished 3 weeks of school, and have only covered Day 2 of the Creation story. Here's why!

I'm using it as an association for a LOT of their geography for the first half of the school year. We have read the story several times in these 3 weeks, but each time I'm emphasizing with my voice different key words as they listen, then we transition into our geography lesson about the emphasized part.

For instance, starting with just reading the story, it introduced the concept of a 7 day week and we reviewed the days of the week. -Another day we reviewed the days of the week and expanded with the concepts of "Today, Yesterday, and Tomorrow." -Another lesson was about the description of what was created the first day, dividing the light from the dark, naming the day and the night. We transitioned into our discussion of the Earth rotating, the sun rise and sunset, and the other places in the world that are night when we are day.

We just wrapped up Day 2 of the creation, learning about the firmaments above and the firmaments below, with lots of cool science experiments about liquids, condensation, cloud formations, and separating firmaments of our own like with oil and water. We also talked about some of the physics of the world that God created to govern all forms of life, such as gravity. When you break each day down, you can really stretch it out to relate to so many subjects.

Next week we're heading into Day 3, discussing the dry land being divided from the sea, so we introduced land/sea into our geography. We are narrowing down our specific studies to the USA this year, but first we talked about continents, which one we live on, and how many countries there are on it.

We rolled out some blue playdough, then put it on a paper plate, using a kid's cereal bowl to press and make a round shape. Next we rolled out green playdough (on the vinyl table cover), and I gave them a map of the world like this one you can print here . Then they took a paper clip opened up to poke holes around the continent of choice to their playdough underneath. Having them recognize which continent you are studying helps to associate the lessons they've had. Once they're done poking all around the continent, the shape separates from the extra, and we placed it on top of our sea of blue.

After it dried, we also labeled N,S,E,W on the plates. Next week as we dive into learning about the names of the oceans, types of bodies of water, and land differences we'll add some detail to this simple project.

Other ideas for days of creation study can include:

• Day 2- Firmaments above and below- evaporation, gas, liquid, weather
• Day 2- Firmaments above and below- atmosphere
• Day 2- Firmaments above and below- physic laws that govern
• Day 3- land and sea- types of terrain in parts of the world
• Day 3- land and sea- solids and liquids
• Day 3- land and sea- names of continents, and names of the 4 oceans
• Day 3- land and sea- tectonic plates, latitude and longitude, volcanoes
• Day 4- Plants- types of things in the garden
• Day 4- Plants- Herbs
• Day 4- Plants- seeds, photosynthesis, soil, composting
• Day 4- Stars in the heavens- astronomy
• Day 4- Stars in the heavens- seasons
• Day 4- Stars in the heavens- navigation
• Day 4- Stars in the heavens- signs
• Day 5- Fish and Fowl- oxygen, lungs and gills
• Day 5- Fish and Fowl- migration
• Day 5- Fish and Fowl- laying eggs, circle of life
• Day 5- Fish and Fowl- grouping (flock of birds, school of fish)
• Day 5/6- All creatures- classification (mammal, fish, fowl, reptile, marsupial, amphibian)
• Day 6- All creatures on land, predators or prey
• Day 6- Man- family tree
• Day 6- Man- male/female, boy/girl, mothers/fathers
• Day 6- Man- our uniqueness as individuals, features, personalities
• Day 6- Man- responsibility of dominion over all the earth
• Day 6- Man- relationship to God and Jesus Christ
• Day 6- Man- genealogy, journal keeping
• Day 7- Rest- worship, service, charity, commandments, community, work ethic, accountability, appreciation, patience, so-many-virtues can be taught here.

We're keeping track of our learning in our Creation Lapbook that we're making throughout the weeks to come, with ideas using Christian printables about the creation here , Creation lapbook artwork here, and some projects from Galloping the Globe of the USA relating to our location on this beautiful planet our Heavenly Father created for us.

Not two thumbs up...

Two FINGERS up!!

We're doing the USA for most of our Geography and History through the year, from Galloping the Globe, and also a little from Expedition Earth by Erica @ confessions of a homeschooler. As we're just beginning our lessons, it made the most sense to start the kids learning about where they live, their address, and finding it on a globe and atlas.

So today as we expanded our learning about North Carolina to begin studying the states, the state bird is the Cardinal, and we had a fun little activity to go along with it. The poem is originally about just birds, but we said it like this:

Two little cardinals sitting on a hill

One named Jack, one named Jill.

Fly away Jack, fly away Jill.

Come back Jack, come back Jill.

This Kindergartener was definitely more enthusiastic to do his worksheets with his red birds holding his pencil!

And this little guy was occupied for quite awhile too, checking out his red little fingers. I colored his on the front of his fingers, so that every time he grabbed an object, it would catch his attention more, and he'd sit and just stare every time.

We just used washable crayola markers in red on their fingers, and also black to draw 2 eyes and a triangle for the beak. So simple, and so fun.