The Village

I wrote a bit a while ago about the village the kids constructed from sand at one of the camp days.  I had to work on editing a few of the pictures to show the kids work.  The village was very intricate, and included areas for living and working, farming areas, ways to get water, and ways  to travel around the village.  I was impressed with the thought they put into it.  Here are a few pictures of what they did.

This is one part of the village with some larger structures in the foreground and small ones n the background.  If you look closely you can see the farming area in the center of the smaller dwellings.

This is a dwelling that Madeline constructed.

This is a closer picture of the smaller dwellings and the farming area.

The larger structure on the left is the king's house, I am told.  

Postcard Exchange and Learning about the United States

I have discovered an interesting way for the girls to become a little more familiar with the states of the United States.  We are participating in a postcard exchange with other homeschoolers around the country, hoping to collect at least one postcard from each state.  The only problem we have found is that we have had difficulty finding postcards to send.  We decided to make our own.  Madeline and Isabella have been working hard to paint butterflies on cards to be sent out around the country.  Here are some pictures of them painting their cards.

We are doing this through a Yahoo! group.

Puzzling States

The girls' nana brought them a big floor puzzle of the United States.  Madeline just loves this puzzle and puts it together frequently.  She got it out this morning and decided to put it together by herself.  She was very proud that she completed it by herself!

Then she showed off her ability to find several states, including Missouri, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New York (she is very excited about a trip we have scheduled to NYC next summer), Florida, Hawaii, and Alaska.  We had to pull out a map of the world to find exactly where Alaska and Hawaii are located since the puzzle places them both in the ocean southwest of the US, as most maps of the U.S. do.  Luckily I had picked up a couple of place mats with maps of the U.S. and the world on them a couple of weeks ago.  She was surprised to see where Alaska is actually located.    

Here is Madeline pointing out where Missouri is located.

After we were finished finding the states she knows, she decided to take the pieces out one-by-one as I named them.

Then she put the puzzle back together again!

School House Rock Election Collection

Before Election Day, I picked up a this School House Rock DVD.  

I had planned to have the girls watch it while we were waiting for election results.  I was afraid after what had gone on in the past 2 Presidential Elections that it would be a long night.  Well, election night went a little faster than I thought, and I never did show the video to them.  So, last night I got it out.

There was some initial negative reaction to it, particularly on the part of Isabella who said, "Is it all singing?  Where is are the talking parts?".  After the first 2 songs, however, they were all into it.  And, surprisingly, they had their favorites by the end.  "No More Kings" and "The Preamble" were definitely at the top of their lists.

I was also surprised at how much they know already, and the kinds questions and comments they came up with while watching the video.  Madeline noticed that the flag pictured during many of the songs was different.  She asked how many stars were on the flag and already knew that that was how many colonies there were.  I guess she was paying attention when we were at Fort McHenry!  We also had a nice discussion about the right to vote and the fact that at one time only white men were able to vote, prompted by the song "Sufferin' Till Suffrage."

I am sure that we will get this video out again many times in the future as they gain a greater grasp of American History, the U.S. government, and the election process.

Election Day!

Madeline has been seriously following the Presidential election this year.  She is aware of the candidates platforms (on a 5 year old level), has watched debates and new stories about the election and the candidates, she has taken part in and listened to several discussions about the election, had the map of red and blue states explained to her, and even attended an Obama rally. It seemed fitting that she get to go to the polling location to witness voting (of course, she has been with us for every other vote we have cast since she was born).  In fact, all 3 of the girls went with me today when I voted.  Madeline was particularly excited and interested in the voting process.  She got to see the ballot and how it was filled in, and she asked lots of questions.  Now, she is proudly wearing her "I VOTED" sticker!   It was the perfect way to celebrate this historic day!  Now we will spend the evening watching election returns and seeing how that blue and red map turns out when all of the votes have been counted.

Social Studies

What better way to learn about history and social studies than to participate in it!  We took Madeline to the "Change We Need" Rally for Barack Obama last night here in Columbia.  She not only got a glimpse of an incredible presidential candidate (who will hopefully be President), and several other Democratic candidates, but she also got to see thousands of people who were excited about participating in the political process and making their voices heard.  What a wonderful lesson for her in citizenship!