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!

Brave Writer's The Arrow

Last month we added Brave Writer's The Arrow to our Language Arts studies and I've noticed the difference in our homeschool already.  We're having so much fun with "The Brave Writer lifestyle". Our own language as well as our awareness of language around us - written, spoken and performed  - is heightened.  Here are some examples of what we've done.

Two weeks ago, on Movie Wednesday, we watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off!  Beforehand, we discussed the meanings of plot, plot twists and climax.  I paused the movie as we went and we discussed who the good guy and bad guy should be according to the rules of right and wrong and who the good & bad guys were in B's eyes according to their personalities.  We discussed how important the script writing and each actor's portrayal of their rolls were in getting us to root for Ferris and relish Principal Rooney's mishaps.

I stopped it a number of times for B to tell me what the plot was, what he thought would happen next, his reaction to the "next" not being what he thought it was, etc.  When it was over, he excitedly told me when he thought climax began and when it ended.  We had this long, animated discussion about how people are not just black and white; we are all full of grays - good and evil, making right and wrong choices for the right and wrong reasons, etc..  It was so wonderful to see him expressing and discussing without just using the words, "Awesome" and "Amazing".

Yesterday, I asked him to write using descriptive language.  I wanted him to paint a picture with his words.  His writing in the past has been, "I played outside with my friends." I asked him to use words to describe the feel of the sun or the warmth of that Spring day.  Playing outside was just an example I gave him; he could write about whatever he wanted.

He chose to describe tasting a macadamia nut, which he did for the first time earlier that day.  I have to share his description with y'all.

"Today I tried a macadamia nut and it was awful!!(There was a frowny face with a tongue sticking out under the 2 exclamation points.)  It was so unbearable and repulsive I had to regurgitate it into the trash."

Now, he didn't try to describe what he thought it tasted like, an old gym sock, for example, but that's something to work on.  The fact that he wrote more than, "I hate macadamia nuts." or "Macadamia nuts are awful." and he wrote two sentences makes me very happy.  He took the assignment seriously and I can give more detailed direction in the future.

Most importantly, he's enjoying language and writing.  He's getting how important it is to his understanding and entertainment and we're (Julie Bogart and I) are stoking the desire in him to write like that for others.

Proud teaching day - B has my Math mind!

I love Math; it was my favorite subject in school.  But it can be a complicated subject.  The phrase, "It's all Greek to me!" is a perfect description of Math for some people.  In my opinion, the single most important factor in a student understanding Math is the teacher.  I was fortunate enough to be taught by some spectacular Math lovers who wanted all their students to understand  and be successful at Math.  The best ones I learned under didn't use the textbooks to teach us how to do problems; they taught us their own way on the board.  And if a student didn't understand that method, the teacher would pull out a different method and see if the student clicked with that one.  No one was left behind or out of the loop.  I was so inspired by these caring, excited teachers that I wanted to teach Math, too.  (Why I didn't is a whole other story….)

We love, love, love our Math curriculum, Life of Fred.  It's literature-based, meaning B learns about a subject through a story.  Math is brought to him through the adventures of a 5 year old boy, Fred, who is a Math professor at Kittens University in Kansas.  This series answers the most asked question of Math students, When am I going to use this in real life?!  Although some of Fred's story actually takes place in the classroom where he teaches Math, most takes place outside of it, in "real life".  Math is needed and used at the bank, the grocery store, telling time, booking a vacation, paying admission to a museum, planting a garden, decorating a room, everywhere!  Life of Fred shows B over and over the importance of Math in "real life" and entertains him with a story.  He is learning and having fun.  The goal of this Math teacher.

I'm one of those people who don't like to "show my work" with Math if I can do it in my head; and I do a lot of Math in my head.  Over the last 4 years, I've given B examples of how I break big problems down into smaller steps that he can do, instead of being overwhelmed by a complicated Math problem.  B can easily add, subtract, multiply and divide with 5s, 10s and 100s and I've tried to show him to break things down into their 5s, 10s and 100s and multiply or divide something by 2 to help solve a problem.

For example, if Sam made $450/week how much does he make a year?  I can't do $450 x 52 weeks in my head, but I can do $450 x 100 weeks = $45,000 and $45,000 / 2 = $22, 500 earned for 50 weeks.  Now I only need to add 2 weeks of $450 to $22,500 to get my answer of $23,400.

President in a Bag - John Quincy Adams

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.

B enjoyed learning about John Quincy Adams, the son of his favorite president, John Adams.  John Quincy Adams was the 1st son of a president to become president.  Like his father, he did what he thought was right, not what was popular.  Therefore, he was only a one term president, like his father.

Here are the five items B chose to represent our sixth President in a Bag, John Quincy Adams:

#1: A Passport.  John Quincy Adams was a diplomat, ministering to The Netherlands, Prussia, Russia and Great Britain.

#2 The Union Jack.  Adams' wife, Louisa, is the only American first lady in history who was not born in the United States.  She was British and John met her in London while he was diplomat.  (B is upset with me because he had to use this picture of the Union Jack.  It's a page of his medal tracking sheet  from this Winter Olympics Pack 2014 from Enchanted Homeschooling Mom.  Our printer ink is running low so I did not want to print off another, larger copy of the flag.  I'm such a terrible mom to make him reuse something, right? hehe)

#3 A Box of Tea.  When President Jefferson called for a shipping embargo in 1807, Senator Adams supported him.  Adams' constituents in Massachusetts were very upset with him for that support since most of their livelihoods depended on shipping.  B associates tea with the Boston Tea Party, which took place in a Massachusetts harbor, so the tea reminds B of this unpopular 1807 embargo.  Adams quit the Senate in 1808.

#4 A Pen.  As President Monroe's Secretary of State, Adams was the main writer of The Monroe Doctrine.

#5 A Camera.  The 1st photographic image taken with a camera occurred during John Quincy Adams' presidency.  Adams was the 1st US president to have his picture taken.  Before then, there were presidential portraits and each artist's view was subjective.

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

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

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.

Life of Fred - Homeschool Happens Everywhere

I'm grateful for all the wonderful ideas my friend Julie @ Creekside Learning has given me to homeschool B.  When she told me about the Life of Fred Math curriculum, it sounded like something that was right up B's alley and we gave it a try in the Fall of 2012.  B really loves his Fred!  He does not have to be told twice to work on Math and he does it independently.  :o)  A year and a half later and we're still happy with Fred.

B likes to settle into a niche, under a blanket or find a friend when he does Life of Fred and I posted several pictures of him on Instagram last year.  Julie suggested that I do a blog post, compiling all of these Life of Fred pictures and I knew she'd come up with another good idea.  Of course, then my muddled brain completely forgot about it.  Well, it's almost a year later and I just remembered, so I'm sitting down to post some of these pix before I forget again!

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

Using the App "Heads Up" by Ellen Degeneres in Our Homeschool Lessons

Ellen DeGeneres created this wonderful, free application called Heads Up!  It's a guessing game you download onto iTunes or an Android.  You hold your device, i.e. iPad, facing away form you, and words or phrases will appear on the screen.  Your partner is looking at the screen and they have to get you to guess what's there.  When you guess correctly, you tilt the screen forward to go to the next card; when you can't get it or your partner can't describe it, you tilt the screen back to pass.  You have a minute to guess as many as you can and the app keeps track of your score for you.

It's like Charades and $100,000 Pyramid for the digital age (so dating myself!).  There are a number of categories called "decks" from which to choose - some are free and some are a one time fee of $0.99 - and there are decks for most ages.  It is so much fun!  We took it with us on our Thanksgiving trip to Boston and introduced it to my parents and my brother.  We were laughing so hard and yelling out our guesses so loud, we thought for sure the guests in the neighboring hotel rooms would call the front desk on us.

But it's not just fun; there are great educational uses for this game, as well.  Anytime I can make a lesson into a game, I've got B's attention.  With the clock running, B has to focus, read, recognize (do I know what that is or not?), make a decision whether to describe it or pass and figure out what to say or do to get me to guess correctly.  Those are a lot of skills to be working on at the same time!  With most decks, you have to use your words and/or sounds to describe things plus there is one deck where you cannot speak at all.

The only thing I dislike about this app, is that it uses the camera on your device to record video of the person acting out/describing what is on the screen.  You can choose to share this video with The Ellen Degeneres Show, your friends or not.  I am not interested in sharing with anyone and wish that I could turn this feature off.  So, I have covered the cameras on both sides of my device to prevent anything from showing up.  Because I don't know what happens to those recordings if I don't share.  Are they deleted?  Saved?  Who might be viewing them?

Although there are learning opportunities in any deck you choose,  I'm going to mention just four of them:

1. "Animals Gone Wild" - B is an animal lover and huge fan of Wild Kratts.  He loves it when an animal he's recently learned about shows up in the list.  And when there's one he doesn't know, he wants to research it and find out all he can about it.
2. "Wish You Were Here" - This deck is a great Geography lesson.  It contains landmarks, bodies of waters, fun travel destinations, etc., from The Colosseum, to The Baltic Sea to Disney World.
3. "Perfect Pairs" - This is a new deck to us and it's a Language Arts lesson in alliteration.   It contains 2-word phrases that begin with the same letter.  We played it tonight and I could not complete the round after one of B's clues had me laughing so hard.  He said, "Oh, oh!  This is something we can't do when friends come over!"  It turns out, the phrase was "double dip".  LOL
4. "Build Your Own Deck" - This is the best one!  For $0.99, I just bought this deck tonight (you can buy as many as you want at $0.99/ea), named it "Fun with Homeschool" and started creating cards with things we've learned or are learning in homeschool.  Isn't that AWESOME?!  I've added names of famous people, Math & Science terms, historical documents, etc.  I'm throwing it all into one deck because I'm frugal and not very organized, but you can buy and create decks about more specific topics if you want.

We don't always use this app for lessons; plenty of times we just play for fun.  However, every time we play, we're learning - about people, places, things and how to communicate with each other.

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.

What I Dislike About Homeschooling

After completing my July 2012 series, 31 Reasons The Hubs and I Have Lasted 17 Years, I received comments on Facebook and in person about doing others.  I immediately thought about doing one about the downside of homeschooling.  A tongue-in-cheek list of the negatives, because our family, our relationships and our lives have only gotten better with homeschooling.  But I was confident that I could come up with at least 10 "bad" things about homeschooling.

I came up with one right away.  Well here we are, 14+ months later, and I've not been able to come up with 9 other negatives about homeschooling!  I've only come up with 1 more.  So, I've given up of on the series idea.  I've let go of trying to find 10 "bad" things about homeschooling.  I think it's wonderful that after 14 months, I could only come up with 2!  Here we go...

#1.  I had to break up with my vibrator.  
B and I are together all the time.  All.  The.  Time.  We don't have to be in the same room or on the same floor at all times, but we are in the house together.  When B was in public school, even half-day kindergarten, I at least had time alone in the house to be with myself.  Not since we started homeschooling!  He stopped taking naps years ago, so that window of opportunity is shut for good.

And believe me, I've tried.  I know what you're thinking -  I'm a horrible, disgusting, slutty mom for trying to use her vibrator with a conscious kid in the house.  No, I'm a homeschool mom who applies learning to everything I do and I did a Science experiment.  I proposed a hypothesis to myself - B will not hear my vibrator under the covers, in my bedroom, behind the closed door, while he is watching TV downstairs with snacks he rarely gets.  Then I tested my hypothesis by doing an experiment.  Finally, I analyzed the data I had gathered during my experiment and came to the conclusion that I had to break up with my vibrator.

I must have been a little too eager to get upstairs.  Or maybe he was (rightly) suspicious of me allowing him to watch something I'd never allowed to be viewed in our house before and the free reign I gave him with the Halloween candy while he watched the show.  Regardless, he came knocking and, upon discovering the bedroom door was locked, he was not going away.  The mood was ruined for me and I've never tried again.  *sigh*

#2.  I can't purge his toys without getting caught.
When he was in preschool and then public school, I had time without B to cull through the toy bins and get rid of the items that were broken or hadn't been played with or even remembered existed in several months.  I'd separate out the items to go and clean and bag them up while he was a school.  Even if he came home before all the Freecyclers had picked up the toys I was getting rid of, B didn't know what was in the bags!  If he asked, I just told him, "stuff for Freecycle", and he let it drop.

The next time he'd go to the toys bins, he knew something was different, something wasn't quite right; he just couldn't put his finger on it...   Ahhh...the good 'ole days.

Now I have to put up with, "Hey! I've been looking for that forever!" and "But that's my favorite toy!" and "I'm going to start playing with it again right now."  Don't get me wrong, the stuff still goes.  I just no longer get the peaceful satisfaction of decluttering with no one being the wiser.  I got a sick amusement from pulling one over on him.  If my 23 yr old self could see what I got excited about now...  :-P

Why do we call the reproductive talk with our kids "the birds and the bees"?

Mom, why is it called "the birds and the bees"?  This question came at 11:05am today while B was emptying the dishwasher.  Good question!  Looking to animals to explain our bodies is a frequently used concept.  For example, the book Everyone Poops.  But why birds and bees for reproduction?  Off to the internet I went and found the answer to his question.

Birds laying eggs = females releasing eggs.  Bees transport pollen from flower to flower = males releasing sperm to fertilize eggs.  Makes complete sense!  If I had actually taken a few minutes to think about it before looking it up, I might have made the connection myself.  Then again, I might have gotten distracted by the 20+ other things on my mind.

Anywho, I answered B's question and can honestly tell the hubs when he comes home that, "Yes, lessons took place today."  ;o)

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

Series: Cooking Around The World With My Son - Mexico

Inspired by Inner Child Food's Kids' Culinary Passport, we have added international cooking lessons to our 5th grade homeschool lessons.  Read about our first country, Italy, here. Today's post is about Mexico.  Like Italy, Mexico cooking day fell during that last week of the pay period: suck-it-up-I'm-not-going-to-the-store week, so we used a recipe as a guide, but worked with what we had on hand.  I have been making my own tortillas this Summer using this recipe from Taste of Home and they are so easy! Ben made the dough and rolled out and cooked the 1st tortilla, but after that he was done.  At least he tried it!  I finished the rest of the batch.  But he did make the fajita filling.  We used The Pioneer Woman's Beef Fajitas recipe.  I love her!  Scouring the fridge and freezer for ingredients I found a quarter of an orange pepper and half a yellow pepper, a tomato from the farmers market that was on the use-or-lose threshold, half a mason jar of homemade salsa and a frozen sirloin steak.  The rest of the ingredients, minus the sour cream, are alway present in my kitchen so B got to work.  

First he made the marinade and then he chopped the peppers and onions.  Although the hubs has supervised B at the cutting board many times, I've only done it once or twice and I'm such a Nervous Nelly!  I have been cooking for 33 years and I cut myself at least a few times a year.  Plus the hubs was at work and he is designated first aider in this house.  However, I need to get over it and B needs to get more practice, so I let him at it.  His favorite part was smashing to garlic cloves to make peeling the skin off a breeze.  He wasn't strong enough to work a traditional garlic press and, since I refused his request to "...chop it up really fast like the professionals on Iron Chef!", I had him use The Garlic Zoom.  He loved it!  Put a clove or two inside, close it up and run it back and forth like a Hot Wheels car.  He did great slicing the onion, peppers and chopping the tomato but I was a wreck.  (I chopped cilantro right before dinner was ready.)  Thank goodness the steak marinated as a whole because I was not ready for him to cut raw meat!

The meat and veggies were put in their separate marinade bags in the fridge right after lunch and at dinner time B cooked the veggies and steak.  I sliced the steak after it had rested and we made our fajitas.  The picture, above, is of mine.  Since the tomato had to be used, I put that on my fajita and kept the salsa on the side with some chips.  I didn't even add cheese and these were muy bueno!

B pointed out Mexico on our world map and we talked about the origin of the fajita along the Mexican/Texas border.  Some of the Mexican cowboys were provided with "leftover" or less desirable pieces of beef, including the skirt steak, as part of their pay so they made fajitas.  "Faja" is Spanish for girdle (or belt or strip) and adding "ito" or "ita" to the end of a word in Spanish indicated affection or smallness.  We have not covered Mexico at all in our History studies, but we will later this year as we progress through American History.

Stay tuned for the country of our next cooking adventure, Japan...

Our Williamsburg, Virginia Top Ten List

B, the hubs and I spent 4 days in Williamsburg, Virginia.  It was a lovely and well-needed mini vacay!  Unfortunately, we were unable to experience Revolutionary City this time.  However, since we are starting American History in 5th grade this month (how is he a 5th grader already?!), we will definitely be making a trip back.  Instead of writing the usual post about our trip, I decided to create a Top 10 List, a la David Letterman.  Although, knowing me, I won't be able to limit each item to just one sentence.  But, it will limit me to only ramble on about 10 things.  ;o)  Disclaimer: these are not all necessarily the best things about our trip, merely the ones that stand out the most.  Here we go...

Our Williamsburg, Virginia Top Ten List 

10.  Stopping at Bass Pro Shop on the way to Williamsburg was the best decision I made!  The hubs got to spend a few hours in his happy place which brought out "vacation hubs".  Trust me, vacation hubs is much more relaxed and easy-going than workday hubs.

9.   This particular Bass Pro Shop has a restaurant and we had lunch there.  The hubs ordered an alligator appetizer and we all tried it.  It had the consistency of cooked shrimp and tasted good.  But one bite was enough for me, thank you very much.

8.   I saw the results of worry and fear over future gun laws in the US - half-empty gun display cases and the inability to restock certain kinds of ammo.  Some people are so afraid they will not be able to buy everything they want in the future, so they are buying it all up now and manufacturers cannot keep up with the demand.

7.   The Cheese Shop makes excellent sandwiches.

6.   B's favorite ride at Busch Gardens turned out to be mine as well - Da Vinci's Cradle.

5.   Seeing the pride and self-satisfaction on B's face when he won the prize he'd set his sites on the very 1st time he tried.  It is a giant banana with dreadlocks and a Rastafarian hat.

4.   B was so happy he finally went on a roller coaster that went upside down.

3.   The hubs and I went to Busch Gardens years before B was born and had our portrait drawn.  On this trip, we had a new one drawn with all 3 of us.

2.   Even though we weren't able to enter Revolutionary City, no child should visit Williamsburg without getting a 3-point hat (or a bonnet) and a toy flintlock pistol, IMO.  B got both.  I remember getting my 3-point hat at Williamsburg as a girl and I played with it for years.

1.   And my absolute favorite things about our trip to Williamsburg was....We spent four days there and not a single person asked B, "Why aren't you in school?"  School systems still had 1 - 2 weeks left before Summer vacation, but there were plenty of other homeschoolers down there.  Due to the historical education to be gained in the area, Williamsburg must be used to us homeschoolers about all year long.  It is so nice not having to explain why you are out in public to complete strangers!

The Flexibility of Homeschooling or Honoring My Child's Interests

I couldn't decide between the two titles for this post, so I used them both.  ;o)  After we spent a couple of weeks on the Knights and Samurai chapter of Story of the World, B decided to do something else for a bit.  He spent the next couple of weeks reading books he likes, drawing comics for the book he's decided to "publish" and sell and write some stories.  The freedom of homeschooling allows you to follow your child's lead and honor what he or she needs.  B only turned the TV on during breakfast to catch up on any Phineas and Ferb episodes that had taped while he slept and then he went off by himself the rest of the day.  He reread all of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, Captain Underpants books and Big Nate books he had.  He wrote fictional stories in the Write Your Own Story Book by Usborne Books.  He gathered together all the comics he'd drawn over the years, corrected the spelling, organized them and created a cover for the book he wants to publish.  There are so many articles and how-to's out there on how to get your children to read or how to instill a love of reading in children.  We've been blessed that our love and desire for books and the worlds they expose us to has been passed onto him organically.

There was no way I was going to deny him when he wanted to do nothing but read, write and create for a couple of weeks.  We honored his interests.  I love this boy and his appetite for learning and books and his endless creativity!  It's amazing how much my child yearns to learn and enjoys learning when he has a say in what we learn and how much of each topic he is ready to take in.  He's still a boy with impulses and self-control issues, who cries when he's frustrated, who wants his parents to tuck him in a night, who dissolves into fits of giggles when the words "pee", "poop" or "butt" are said.  But he is also mature enough to ask me if I need anything, says "yes, ma'am" and "no, sir", runs ahead and opens a door for someone with their arms full and appreciates the difference between a want and a need.  I am so lucky and blessed to be with him everyday, to learn along side of him and guide him to become the man he is meant to be.  Homeschooling was a gift we thought we were giving to B, but we have received so much from it, ourselves.

Learning Happens Everywhere

The checkouts at the grocery store we frequent the most not only have candy, but books, too.  Puzzle books, coloring books, novels and lots of non-fiction for children.  Once B realizes that I will not be saying yes to any requests for candy (I say no every time!  Why does he keep asking?), he picks up a book or books and reads.  Yesterday's book du jour was about whales.  He shared all the fascinating facts out loud so that I, the cashier and the lady behind me in line also learned with him.

• Female Narwhal whales do not have horns like the males do.
• The male Narwhal's horns can be up to 9 ft long.
• The dorsal fin of a male Orca can be up to 6 ft tall.
• Sperm whales have the largest brains of any creature on Earth.  Adult Sperm whale brains can weigh up to 20 lbs.
• Sperms wales are distinguished from other whales by their somewhat squared heads and by the scars they bear from battling the giant squids they eat.

When he finished the whale book, he was excited to see one on snakes and one on spiders, my two least favorite creatures.  Luckily, I was all checked out and it was time to go.  But those facts stuck with him (I had to ask him to tell me some of the facts for this blog post because I, myself, had forgotten all except that the female Narwals have no horns.)  He constantly teaches me to slow down, stop and see the wonder and learning opportunities within everything we come in contact. 

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.