Independence Day 2008

Wow! The 4th of July is already upon us! This year, the kids and I studied the Revolutionary War somewhat, so Independence Day should have new meaning for them! I found this great 4th of July lapbook published by Kingdom Kidz Adventures that I'd like to try- at least in part (it is summer, after all)- with them.

We don't have any plans to celebrate yet- I mean, we WILL celebrate, I'm just not sure HOW... perhaps with a BBQ and watching fireworks. A lot will depend on the weather, which is almost always bad in the afternoons this time of year.

Civil War

We have a Civil War re-enactment coming up soon, so I though this would be a great time to study the Civil War. I found a great pair of books for this. Sounding Forth the Trumpet for Children, by Peter Marshall and David Manuel is written for children ages 9-13. It examines the history of the United States, from the early 1800s through the events leading to the Civil War, focusing on God's plan for this nation and the evil influences of the institution of slavery (Card Catalog Description).

The Sounding Forth the Trumpet Children's Activity Book, by the same authors, is for children ages 5-8 and follows the book fairly well. This reproducible book has puzzles, coloring pages, and even a couple of board games for this age group. I am also using it to follow up with my 11 year old.

We made this forager's cap we found in Great Civil War Projects You Can Build Yourself by Maxine Anderson.

There was also a recipe to make Berry Ink in there.

They had a project for making your own periscope (invented during the Civil War), too, but we got lucky and Lowe's Build and Grow project for this month just happened to be a periscope!

We went to the Education Days at one of the local Civil War Re-enactments. The kids really enjoy this, and so do I! We get to see history come to life as the re-enactors tell us about what daily life was like during the civil war.

Betsy Ross

We are rowing "Betsy Ross: Designer of our Flag" by Ann Weil this month. The boys ask me every day to read "just one more chapter."

We made corn husk dolls- we had to use raffia, since I didn't plan far enough ahead to be able to find sufficient corn husks, but I thought they came out pretty good any way... I gave mine to dd and she loves it.

We also started some Amish Friendship Bread, but that won't be ready until our unit is over, so we made a loaf of bread so we could see yeast at work... (side note- our Amish Friendship bread was moldy after the two days of "do nothing"- I was really disappointed)...

We were fortunate enough to find a replica of the Liberty Bell to visit! And we were able to take a virtual tour of Mrs. Ross's house in Philadelphia.

Learning about the Vernal and Autumnal Equinoxes as well as the Summer & Winter Solstices turned out to be quite enlightening!

Well, after a week off for a mini vacation, then another week off from being sick, we are back to Betsy Ross... I had almost forgotten where we'd left off, but the boys sure hadn't... Dad did a cool mini experiment to show them how heat rises- he held a piece of tissue over a burning candle, and the heat pushed the tissue up (sort of made it wave). Then to demonstrate how oil helps prevent friction, he had them rub their hands very fast, and of course they heated up. Next, he coated their hands with a little cooking oil, to show how it is harder to make them heat up. They loved this!

Here is a little play we did radio-show style-

We got our play from "Heroes in American History" by Scholastic.

We wrapped up Betsy Ross and moved onto a brief outline of the Revolutionary War. The boys made Super Pop Up reports to show what they had learned. They covered the Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere's Ride, and Washington Crossing the Delaware, as well as some of the period costumes. I thought they did a great job. Here are a couple of pictures of theirs: