B's History Fair Project for Homeschool Co-Op - Flash Backs to My School Days!

"US Presidents in a Bag (5 Things I've chosen to represent each of their lives."

Our homeschool co-op had a History Fair this morning and B's presentation included a poster board. I've always been critical of parents who do their child's work for them. You can totally tell by looking at the Art wall in a preschool classroom or the 1st grade poster board presentations, which ones were done solely by children and which ones were done by parents who love neatness and straight lines. ;o)

B's presentation was not started until early yesterday afternoon and was still not done when he and the hubs left at 4pm for a planned guys' outing. It was just me and that unfinished History project on the floor and I was sooo tempted to finish it myself! 

I felt like Jacques the shrimp in Finding Nemo when Gill tells him he cannot clean the tank. At first he was all, "I shall resist!" but the dirtier the tank got, he couldn't resist.  When Gill caught Jacques cleaning, he hung his head. "I am ashamed."

But isn't this always the case in life? Be careful who you judge because it always comes back to bite you! At least it does for me. If I've judged a stranger by the snippet of their life I see from the outside, sometime later I'll find myself in that exact situation, and "I am ashamed."

I did resist, though, and he finished his project before dinner.  Phew!

Yesterday was a total flashback to when I was in school.  I always left projects to the last minute and never learned my lesson because I always received good marks on them.  At least it's easier for kids these days to get information for projects at the last minute.  I had no internet.  Most projects were due on Mondays and I never remembered that the local library was closed on Sundays until after it closed on Saturdays.  A 1974 Funk & Wagnall's Encyclopedia was my only reference.

Anywho, the History Fair was great this morning.  Some children chose a literal time or event in History and some chose to explain the history of a person or something.  There were displays on US Presidents, WWII, Hasbro Toys, Sharks, Egypt, Native Americans, Robots, The Wright Brothers, Ballet, Knights, Winnie the Pooh, Harriet Tubman, US Missions to the Moon!

I learned so much from these awesome kids!  I walked around and not only read from their displays but also listened to them tell me about their subject matter.  Somethings I didn't know before this fair:

• Harriet Tubman was not her given name; she was born Araminta Ross.
• A.A. Milne only wrote 4 books with Winnie the Pooh in them and not all off the Winnie the Pooh characters we have today appeared in those four books.  Everything else "Pooh" we have today were expanded upon from his original four works.
• Hasbro was founded by three Rhode Island brothers and their 1st toys were doctor and nurse kits and modeling clay.
• Leonardo DaVinci designed the first robot in 1495.
• I had no idea how many countries were involved in WWII.  The Allies consisted of 26 countries alone!  I only knew about the "major" ones.
• There is a Goblin Shark out there with a long, flat snout.

B chose to do a "montage" (his word, not mine) of the 1st six Presidents in a Bag he's created.  I pulled the pix off my blog, ordered enlarged prints from Costco and B copied and pasted the descriptions from my blog posts.  He glued them onto a poster board from Dollar Tree and wrote a description at the top.

After everyone had presented and learned, we went outside.  The kids played and we mommas chatted.  A very successful co-op, indeed!

A&E Networks' Idea Book for Educators is now digital!

If you've read any of my posts on B's favorite History assignments, Presidents in a Bag, you'll remember that I got the fabulous idea from The Idea Book for Educators, created by A&E networks - History Channel, A&E, H2, History en Espanol and Lifetime programming.  It was a free magazine for educators with lessons that complemented shows on the A&E networks.  It also contains Creative Ideas from Teachers, where teachers can win money for sharing ideas they've come up with to engage their students in learning.  It was one of those teachers who shared the President in a Bag.

I just received an email stating the magazine will no longer be in print; it's now digital!  Here is the link for The Idea Book for Educators if y'all are interested in checking it out or adding it to your lessons.

President in a Bag - James Monroe

Monday, my Dad came out and hung with B.  They went to Target, out to lunch, watched America's Funniest Videos and worked on American History.  B had been stuck on his President in a Bag of James Monroe and my Dad is a huge American History fan, so I thought they could inspire each other. Since his retirement, my Dad always asks for historical non-fiction books each birthday and Christmas about US presidents, wars, battles, generals, etc.  He's quite well-read.

B shared with his Poppop what he knew about Monroe and my Dad was pleasantly surprised that B knew some things he did not.  Then my Dad shared some things he knew about Monroe of which B was unaware.  B showed his Poppop the US Presidents binder he keeps that includes elements from this fabulous lap book I found on homeschoolshare.com, as well as his President in a Bag assignments. The two of them came up with seven things about President Monroe, however B only wanted to show five for his assignment. For the first time, he arranged all the items and took the picture.

Here are the five items B and his Poppop came up with to represent the life of our fifth president, James Monroe:

#1: A Suitcase.  After his presidency and the death of his wife, Elizabeth, Monroe moved to New York to live with his daughter, Maria.

#2: A Map of Florida:  The Florida territory was obtained from Spain during Monroe's presidency.

#3: A Pen.  In 1820, Monroe signed the Missouri Compromise, admitting Maine into the union as a free state to balance Missouri's new admittance as a slave one.

#4: A Tricorne.  Monroe was the last of the revolutionaries, the last of the Founding Fathers, and his nickname was "The Last of the Hats".

#5: Sparklers (the closest thing we had to fireworks):  Monroe was the 3rd president to die on the Fourth of July.  He died on the 55th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  Both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the 50th anniversary.

Read about our other Presidents in a Bag, as well as where we got this idea, in these posts:

• #1 George Washington
• #2 John Adams
• #3 Thomas Jefferson
• #4 James Madison

President in a Bag - James Madison

In September 2013, I wrote a blog post about a wonderful teacher who came up with the President in a Bag idea and inspired us to implement that idea into our study of the American Presidents.  You can read about her here, in our first President in a Bag - George Washington.  

These are the 5 items B came up with to describe the life of our 4th president, James Madison:




#1 A Pen: This repeat item didn't surprise me since Madison was a Founding Father.  The pen reminds B that Madison is the author of The Bill of Rights.

#2: A Checkbook: Madison came up with the idea of checks and balances in our federal government, so that one branch does not gain more power than the others.

#3 A Gardening Hand Cultivator: Madison grew up on a tabacco plantation and retired there after his presidency.  Even though the plantation had slaves, Madison believed slavery was evil and wanted it abolished.

#4 A Bar of Soap: Madison was the shortest US president, at 5'4", and never weighed more than 100 pounds.  A friend of his said he was, "…no bigger than a bar of soap."

#5 A Pair of Pants: Madison was the 1st president to wear trousers, instead of knee britches, in the White House.  B wanted me to tell y'all that the pair of pants in the picture belong to Ken, Barbie's boyfriend.  He felt this needed to be clarified, else y'all would wonder where in the world we got the giant pen, checkbook, cultivator and bar of soap.  So, PSA complete.  ;o)

Read about our other Presidents in a Bag:

• #1 George Washington
• #2 John Adams
• #3 Thomas Jefferson
• #5 James Monroe

President in a Bag - Thomas Jefferson

In September, I wrote a blog post about a wonderful teacher who came up with the President in a Bag idea and inspired us to implement that idea into our study of the American Presidents.  You can read about her here, in our first President in a Bag - George Washington.

As you can see, one of our cats wouldn't get out of the picture.  Everyone loves American History in our house!  So, here are the five items B selected to represent our 3rd president, Thomas Jefferson:

#1  A Pen.  Thomas Jefferson was the author of the Declaration of Independence.

#2  A Wallet.  Thomas Jefferson oversaw the purchase of the Louisiana Purchase during his presidency.

#3  A Map of Virginia.  Thomas Jefferson was born in Virginia, he served as Governor of Virginia and his father, Peter Jefferson, a surveyor, helped create the 1st map of Virginia.

#4  A book.  Thomas Jefferson wanted to create a public university that was not associated with a church.  In order to fund the building of The University of Virginia, he sold his personal book collection to the Library of Congress.

#5  A Rock.  Thomas Jefferson is one of four presidents depicted on Mount Rushmore, as a memorial to his contribution to expanding the United States.

President Jefferson in a bag was pulling teeth from B.  John Adams is his favorite president (so far), so he wasn't really interested in moving onto the next one.  Although, when he was reading about Jefferson, he would call out to me facts that he found cool or amazing.  But he dragged his feet on the bag and I had to prompt him.

The hubs and I love when he presents his items to us because we are learning new facts.  B reads books about each president on his own, so we don't know everything he does.  Hopefully his lack of enthusiasm over this president won't continue through the rest...

Read about our other Presidents in a Bag in these posts:

• #1 George Washington
• #2 John Adams
• #4 James Madison
• #5 James Monroe

Using My Dad's Favorite Childhood Books in Our American History Lessons

My parents, like most parents I'm sure, were hesitant and worried when we announced we were pulling their only grandchild out of public school to homeschool.  But after seeing the positive changes in B's stress level and personality, hearing him share what he learns and even teaching him some lessons themselves, they are our biggest supporters.  Every June, my dad asks for my school supply wish list and provides us with what we need.

This past June, I told my parents we were going to take a break from world History and start on American History.  To my surprise, when dad dropped off our requested school supplies there was also a box with the above pictured books in it.  Twenty-six books (there are only 25 in the picture because we are currently reading about The Swamp Fox, Francis Marion) from the Childhoods of Famous Americans Series.  My dad's books were published in the 1940s.

These books were and still are very precious to my dad.  He loved reading them when he was a child.  My Nana had even written in some of them the dates on which the books were given - birthdays and Christmases starting in 1956.  He lectured both me and B about being careful with them, not drawing in them nor bending the pages.  I'm so grateful he has shared these with us!

The ones we have range in time from James Oglethorpe through John F. Kennedy.  They narrate the childhoods of these men for most of the book and then at the end explain what they accomplished as adults.

The illustrations inside are simple, yet beautiful.  Look at the book, on the right, closed.  The pages are all different widths and uneven, a testament to their age.  :o)

I love books, love the smell of them, the feel of them.  These books are such a blessing and we are reading them when the subject of the book fits into the time period of American History we are covering.

President in a Bag - John Adams

Last month, I wrote a blog post about a wonderful teacher who came up with the President in a Bag idea and inspired us to implement that idea into our study of the American Presidents.  You can read about her here, in our first President in a Bag - George Washington.

Yesterday, B finally finished his second President in a Bag - John Adams.  He has had the 1st 2 items for 2 weeks but could not decide on the last 3 until yesterday.  So, here are the items that B has chosen to describe John Adams' life:

1. The $2 bill.  John Adams was the first vice president of the United States of America, making him the 2nd man in charge.  He was our 2nd president.  He is pictured on the back of the $2 bill in the depiction of John Trumbull's painting "Declaration of Independence".
2. The peace symbol.  Although it cost him reelection, John Adams refused to go to war with France during his presidency, instead choosing peace.  He decided to do what was right instead of what was popular.  Something we discussed that was lacking in a lot of current politicians.
3. A pen.  The colonists were quite angry about the taxes that the English king assessed upon them. Instead of participating in the violent protests, John Adams chose to write articles in the newspapers.
4. A library card.  The Library of Congress was established under John Adams' presidency.
5. A garden trowel.  After his presidency, John Adams retired to farming, fulfilling his desire to follow in his father's footsteps.

Read about our other Presidents in a Bag:

• #1 George Washington
• #3 Thomas Jefferson
• #4 James Madison
• #5 James Monroe

President in a Bag - George Washington

I receive The Idea Book for Educators, a free publication from A&E, History Channel, H2 and Biography.  Inside you'll find study guides to assist us teachers with educating children through shows featured on the four sponsoring channels.  The guides include vocabulary, discussion questions, extended activities and additional resources.  My favorite section is "Creative Ideas From Our Teachers".  Teachers write in and share ideas they've developed and used in their classrooms to get their students engaged in learning and have fun.  It is amazing to read their ideas!  The teachers whose ideas are published in the magazine each receive a $1,000 grant.

One of the winners in the Fall 2013 edition was Bethany Dabel of Grandview High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and her idea was President in a Bag: Exploring the Executive Office.  Each student was to explore the life of a former president and collect 5 objects in a bag to represented their president.  The students then made a presentation to the class, explaining the objects they chose.  Brilliant!  I love hands-on learning as well as tapping B's creativity.

We are studying American History for the first time this year, including presidents of The United States.  When I read Ms. Dabel's idea, I knew if would be a great addition to our lessons.  We're starting at the beginning, and the picture, above, shows 5 of the 6 items B chose to represent George Washington.  He really insisted on adding a 6th one.  Last night, he presented his objects to the hubs and me and this is what and why he chose:

1. B's tricorne, the three-point hat he received during our trip the Williamsburg, Virginia earlier this year.  This hat reminds B of Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze's oil painting Washington Crossing The Delaware.
2. B's toy flint-lock pistol he also received during our Williamsburg trip.  The pistol reminds B that General George Washington was the leader, the top dog, the big cheese of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.
3. A tape measure reminds B how unusually tall George Washington was for his time - 6' 2".
4. The one dollar bill - not only does it have George Washington's picture on it but he was also the first president.
5. Our front door (not shown in picture) represents the fact that George Washington was always welcoming people into his house as long as they dressed nicely.  He even went outside to find people to come in and converse.
6. A tea bag because all hosts offer their guests refreshments, even if they are a stranger you met on the street, and George Washington had to be a proper host.

I'm so thankful to Ms. Dabel and The Idea Book for Educators for sharing her idea!

Read about our other Presidents in a Bag:

• #2 John Adams
• #3 Thomas Jefferson
• #4 James Madison
• #5 James Monroe

Story of the World, Vol. 2, Chapter 17 - Knights & Samurai

If you click on the pictures, they'll enlarge and you'll see more details in the shields and helmet.

We had so much fun with with Chapter 17 - Knights & Samurai - from our History textbook, Story of the World, Vol. 2!  It has actually been the most enjoyable chapter we've done so far.  We did crafts, watched movies, completed a word search, read and really absorbed the learning while having fun.  The SOTW activity book has not provided us with many activities to date.  B does color the map page for every chapter (although he is not interested in any of the other coloring pages), but the activities we've done have been few and far between.  There are lots of suggested activities, however most use supplies we don't have on hand and would involve going to the craft store each week for several supplies.  That cost adds up.  Especially on weeks when an activity requires yards of fabric to be purchased.  I can get creative somewhat and we substitute with what we have on hand, where we can, but on the whole we don't do them.  This chapter, however, provided activities we could do:

• B did a word search that included Arthur and the names of the 12 Knights of the Round Table.  
• He used the knight's shield template to make a shield for himself (the one on the left in the picture) and one for our cats, Yin & Yang (the one on the right - our two cats actually drawn in the Yin Yang position!).  Since he was making shields, he decided to make a Captain America one, as well, and a sword.  All three shields are glued onto cardboard and B's and the Captain America ones have handles on the back.  The handled shields and the sword have been well loved and used during play with his neighborhood friends.  :o)
• B made an origami samurai helmet out of wrapping paper - the only paper I had that was big enough to give us a 22"x 22" square.  The directions for the helmet in the SOTW Activity Book were confusing to us but, thankfully, we found this great tutorial on YouTube.  B was not happy that I asked him to give me a "fierce" look for the pictures here of him in his helmet.  He said, "Mom, I am incapable of making an angry face in pictures. You just can't take me seriously."

We watched First Knight with Sean Connery and Richard Gere, Disney's The Sword in the Stone and The Last Samurai with Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe.  I was worried about the violence in The Last Samurai, and was planning to skip any battle scenes if they were too much, but I didn't.  The Die Hard movies had more graphic violence in them than The Last Samurai, IMO.  That movie was very well done and did a great job explaining the POV of the samurai - their traditions, service, loyalty and honor - and showed the Japanese reserved way of not always saying what they mean.  Even the emperor didn't speak his mind!  We also read a good, short, library book, Samurai by Caroline Leavitt.  The photos and illustrations are beautiful and it suplimented the SOTW chapter with more details.  And, of course, B did his lapbook exercise (he calls it his chapter craft) for this chapter.

Here's to more fun and activity-filled learning in our next chapters!

GeoSafari Laptop

My MIL gave B this GeoSafari Laptop 3 years ago after we announced we were removing B from public school and homeschooling him.  I brought this out a few times and sat him down to play with/learn from it right after he got it and it made him angry.  He didn't know the answers so that made him frustrated and he didn't want to spend the time to learn.  I put away on our homeschool bookcase and decided we'd revisit it another time. And although I would gaze upon it a few times during the past 3 years, I never pulled it back out again, until last week.

Although we got off to a rocky start with our History curriculum, Story of the World, Vol. 2, this "school" year, we've been doing much better since I discovered a free lapbook to accompany SOTW, Vol. 2 last month.  B is enthusiastic about the lapbook because he sees it as "craft time"; the learning is fun.  Every couple of chapters now, we go back and read through our lap book, as well as the review cards in our SOTW Activity Book.  Since B is now retaining more of the History and Geography facts from the Middle Ages with the addition of the lapbook, I decided to bring out the GeoSafari Laptop.

In addition to geography sheets, there are sheets on inventions, Language Arts, Math, quotations, famous people in History, landmarks, animals, weather, anatomy, wars and more.  B had a great time with sheets on continents, bodies of water, world landmarks and ancient wonders of the world.  Succeeding at something is a wonderful incentive to keep doing something.  And it was good to see that what we had be learning for almost 3 years now, was sticking with him.  I like new ways of learning as well as new ways of "testing" retention.  We will definitely be using the GeoSafari Laptop regularly.

Nat Geo Kids' Weird But True App

Do you have this app for your child?  I do.  I'm always on the look out for free ebooks and apps to download and this one was a WINNER.  I don't know if this app is free, currently, but I got it for free last year.  I have a love/hate relationship with this app.  B loves it more than Angry Birds and that's saying a lot.  Any chance he gets, he is on this app reading the one line "weird but true" facts.  And he can't just read them to himself; OH, NO, 8 out of 10, he has to share them with me.  And I want to trust that it's a NatGeo app, so they must be true, right?  But some of these facts are just so off the wall!  Such as:

• A vending machine in Singapore gave away a free soda to anyone who hugged the machine.
• Hot water can freeze faster that cold water.
• Sticking raw bacon in your nostrils can stop serious nosebleeds.

But here's the best part - B remembers ALL of them!  These facts are so crazy and off the wall and perfect for kids that he remembers them.  He brings them up in conversation when applicable.  Like when I commented that the hubs Asian hot wings were extra hot last time and he said he didn't they were hot at all.  B said, "Well, girls have more taste buds than boys, so maybe that's why it tastes hotter to mom."  That's when we teachers know that a child has absorbed, understood and retained something - when they "teach" it to others or use it appropriately.  It is a beautiful thing to behold!  That's the love.  Here's the hate - I wish B had that same verve for History!  History - I wish there was an app for that.  If I could get him to absorb, retain, love History like he does the NatGeo Weird But True facts I'd be so happy and grateful!

I think I need to take a lesson from this app.  We are using Story of the World, Vol. II as our History curriculum this year.  Hmmmm... Just now, when I looked up the link for SOTW on Amazon, the title was different that it was when I received it last Summer....there is an addition to the description.... "History for the Classical Child".  Oh, well, I have enough to concern myself with right now, so I won't dwell.  Anywho, I need to start pulling out the important/big/interesting/quirky one-line facts of our History chapters to focus on.  I don't need him to remember all the details, especially the 1st time around.  The beauty of History class is that you revisit it, in more detail, when you get older.  So I am going to focus in on the key points, reduce them to one-liners, and make a slide presentation on the computer for B, going forward.

I love this about homeschooling!  We pulled B out of public school for him, but the hubs and I have benefitted and learned so much more about our son, ourselves, the world, that we have become students again, too, and we embrace it.  There is no pressure for B, the hubs nor me to memorize.  We are to hear, to absorb, to find what resonates with us and retain.  I love and am grateful for the journey we are on.

The Story of the World - Our History Curriculum for 4th Grade

Last year, based on feedback from other homeschoolers, we used Sonlight curriculum for Social Studies, Geography, Language Arts and Science.  Regardless of how good or bad a curriculum sounds, it's always good to get the feedback of someone you know who has used it, as well as what learning and personality style worked best with it.  We loved the literature-based approach of Sonlight, but with me working full-time outside of the home this past year, it was way too much to keep up with and I felt it lacked review to ensure retention of information.  This year, we are using The Story of the World, Volume II for History.  We received a number of thumbs-up from homeschoolers we know regarding these curricula.  And by "this year" let me explain our "school" year.  We take the month of June and around the 2nd week of December through the Epiphany off.  The rest of the time, we are learning in some form or another.

This is our 3rd year homeschooling.  B went to public school for kindergarten and 1st grade, but we made the decision to homeschool him for 2nd grade, and have reevaluated that decision in the 2 years since then.  At this time, the hubs and I have decided to homeschool B through elementary school and see if he wants to go back to public school when he reaches middle school age.  In my estimation, that gives me 4 years in which to teach him all he needs to know according to the state standards.  Although we are using a different timeline, we hope to arrive at the same destination within the same ETA.  ;o)