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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.

Number combinations and Twins

In my house I have two school age children, who are two different types of learners. My daughter is artistic oriented. She loves drawing, coloring, and writing. And she's very good at those things. My son is math oriented. He loves building, solving, and counting, which he also is very good at.

We played a little exercise today during math time, which enaged both of their interests, and can easily be adapted for each child's level of understanding. We took index cards, and on the blank side I drew a black line, and made a group of dots of differing amounts on each half. My 1st grader had more dots to count, my Kindergartener had less dots to count.

(ignore the crooked lines and the less-than-perfect dots, this was made during our discussion, and I knew they would be throw aways, this isn't something you would want to laminate and keep around necessarily. But my compulsive self wanted to make a perfect looking one just for pictures, I've resisted!)

In math this week we've been talking about "twins." (4+3=7 and 3+4=7 ) So on the back of each index card they needed to write the number combinations and figure out the sum, then write the twin as well.

Then I gave them a few blank ones, to write their own combination of numbers, and the math sentences on the back. My daughter, the artistic and creative one, was a bit more ambitious than her skills are capable of, and drew about 86 dots on one side, and 74 dots on the other side, then she became stumped when she couldn't figure out the sum and kept loosing count! We finally agreed that Mom knew what she was talking about, and she ended up settling for a number in the 20's.

My kindergartener dislikes writing with a captial D! But if you give the kid a math game, he will show that he DOES know how to write the numbers, even if his handwriting needs a lot of improvement. Not bad for the second week of school, and the kid who refused to write them independently before today, huh?

(Let's pretend that I know why this picture keeps posting rotated, and I'm just leaving it like this for flare, because I can't figure out why some flip and some don't! Sorry. )

You can also use domino's to write the number combinations, challenge them to figure out the sum. We also used colored popsicle sticks that I got at the dollar store to show two different combinations in each hand, we orally figured out the sum, and then crossed their hands to reverse the number combination, helping them get the idea of "twin" addition facts.

To learn how to write numbers, my son has been practicing his letters on these worksheets, which I made for preschool activities pritint off my own templates from kidzone. I made a binder of beginner words, their names, capital letters, lowercase letters, and numbers, then put them in page protectors. They trace the letters or numbers with dry erase markers so they can be used again and again, and from kid to kid!

After he successfully wrote numbers with a pencil, and wasn't tracing or transition writing them, he felt much more confident in himself, and told me that he prefers a notebook now, he doesn't want to use the preschool workbooks anymore. WIN!