I Wish Every Kid in America Could Learn This

One day my 12 yo came to me and asked if there was a class that could teach her how the world works.  Wow. That's a broad question.

"Where was this coming from?" I asked.

Well, I don't know for sure. But she sure notices that I listen to a lot of talk radio and that I pay attention to local, state and federal issues.  Sometimes she asks me questions on those topics that I can't even begin to address because the answer is so big.  And so I have to give her one of those lame, "'I'll tell you later" responses.  But here she was, asking me to please help her decipher the world.  Hm.  Where do you start?

After trying to narrow her questions down a little bit I gathered that she wanted to know about money, government, politics and economies.  Yikes.  I didn't think I'd be dealing with this subject matter for a while yet!

I did some research and found an AWESOME resource HERE.

We started out with What Ever Happened to Penny Candy and she is now in the middle of What Ever Happened to Justice.

This is her favorite class! Can you believe it?  I did buy the guides to go with the books, and I also wrote up a syllabus for her to follow so shes can digest it in small bits.  So it's taking us some time.  But wow, I do wish that every kid in America could read these books and take a class like this!  It's amazing.

The good news is that this can be written up as a full credit of high school civics if you do the work with the readings.  And why not!  The knowledge base is fabulous and will help create the educated citizenry that our republic needs if it is to ever survive.

Better than Recess

This morning we were at the co-op for a Valentine's Day party  and Presentation Day (kids share something about what they've been working on at home over the past six weeks).  The sun decided to make a rare and much appreciated appearance this morning!! So we left early and headed to the park.  It was GLORIOUS to say the least.  Just what we needed to help shake the winter blues.  We were shedding coats, digging in sand and rocks, hurling stones into the ocean and rocking those swings!  I was feeling sorry for the kiddos stuck in a classroom with their noses pressed to the glass, waiting for the hours to pass so they too could enjoy this sparkling day.

Days like this one remind me how lucky I am to hang out with my kids every day, how much I love to see them playing together; how much I savor our time freedom and our flexibilty.

Yep, today's outing at the park was WAY better than any recess.

 Finding the perfect rock.

 Throwing rocks in the water is a sure kid pleaser.

 Ah, basking in the warmth of this February morning.

 Buddy found a friend to hang out with.

 Yeah, it took me a good five minutes to get this shot.  Worth it?   I think so.

 There goes the train

 Brave enough to hold a little crab!!

 Digging for more crabs.   This kept them busy for a good while!

On the way home we were dreaming about summer, wishing for our bathing suits, making travel plans and thoroughly enjoying some rare Seattle winter sun! 

Kinderboys - Police Detective Lesson Plan

I have four children.  My third child, the only boy, is five right now.  Since he lives in a house full of girls, it's important to me that he has plenty of time to hang with other boys and just BE a boy.  So I created a class for him called Kinderboys. 

I started teaching Kinderboys this fall at our co-op. But things didn't exactly go as planned, and it ended up being just a 3-week session.

So starting today I began a new session of Kinderboys, held at my home.  We currently have 5 boys in the class and I think that's pleeenty for now. :)  Love their energy!  This session we are focusing on Communities and Community Workers.    My theme was inspired by some curriculum I bought from Moving Beyond the Page.   It's an ok curriculum.  I don't love it as much as I was hoping too.  It's a little too School-ey, if you know what I mean, and doesn't really seem tailored to the home schooled child.  It's supposed to be for "Gifted" kids, but I'm not sure which part of it is supposedly "gifted".  The only part of the lesson that I incorporated  today was a printing page for the letter P.

Anyway, it served as a guide to spark some ideas and I took off from there. Actually, let me say that the internet did most of the work for me and I just added a few of my own ideas to it.  I'm so grateful to all of you moms and teachers who post your work and your ideas to share with the world. 

So today I introduced the concept of Community and defined it as "a group of people who live and work together."  We talked about different levels of communities all the way from families to nations.

We started by reading



I asked the boys to count all the different jobs they saw people doing in the book. At the end I asked them what their favorite job from the book was. 

Then I asked if they had seen any police in the book (no).  I asked them to close their eyes while I pulled out a police hat



They thought that was pretty cool.  I let them each try it on. I asked each boy, as he took his turn to wear the hat, what he thought police officers do for work.  Some of their answers were interesting.  "Put people in chains!" was my favorite answer.

So to clarify what officers, and especially POLICE DETECTIVES do, we read this book



That helped!

From there we practiced doing things that police detectives do. 

First, we talked about the importance of keeping your body fit if you're going to be chasing bad guys.  We did some Alpha Exercise!  I have cards that have exercises on them corresponding to each letter of the alphabet.  So we spell the child's name, and do the exercise for each letter of the name.  I think I Have a post on this blog somewhere about those cards.

Then we did some target practice.  That was fun.  We used a dart gun to shoot at this target drawn on a white board and keep track of our points.  Each boy got 3 shots.

Next we talked about fingerprints.  I got my ideas for this part of the class from this site:
http://www.squidoo.com/detectives-lesson-plan 

We took finger prints using washable ink, classified their patterns (loop, whorl or arch). Using the magnifying glass to look at finger tips was fun.

Then we lifted our own finger prints off of a mirror and added those to our folders as well.  To lift our finger prints, I had the boys press a greasy finger onto a hand-held mirror, dust the print with cocoa powder, and cover it with a piece of clear tape.  I found that the best way to remove excess powder without destroying the print was to use the ends of my hair as a brush.  Sounds crazy, but it really worked well. Every other brush I tried removed too much of the print.  Then we lifted the tape and put it on an index card which we added to our files. Here are some pictures of the file folder I put together for the boys with their finger print books i.  You can see the cocoa powder print on the bottom left.


Here are some pictures of the file folder I put together for the boys with their finger print books in them. 

We didn't' have time to color the Nate the Great hat during class. I sent that home with each boy. But we did have time to make badges.

And we took mug shots of each boy.  Here's my kiddo's "bad guy face"

I think one of our favorite activities was the shoe print matching game.  We talked about foot prints being clues for detectives.  Then I showed them the paper with all the shoe prints on it and gave them a bucket of shoes. As a group, I asked them to match the shoe to the print.  It was fun to watch them discuss it and come to a consensus.  They got most of them right!

At the end of class we read Nate The Great



while eating popcorn and applesauce.  Yum!  We had a great time and it took the entire 90mintues. Our Kinderboys meet every other week, with field trips in between. So next Friday we're going to tour the police station.  Then we'll have a class on construction workers and carpenters. 

American History-The Great Seal

This year my third grader has used the Paths of Exploration from The Trail Guide to Learning Series.


 We've enjoyed it for the most part. I love the emphasis on literature and American History. We especially enjoyed the task to learn more about the Great Seal. It's on every dollar bill. But how much do we really know about it? We spent some time doing a little extra research in addition to what was in the text and here are a few resources that you may find interesting on this topic:
http://www.greatseal.com/symbols/index.html

Here's a fun coloring page: http://www.classbrain.com/artteach/uploads/greatseal.pdf

And then we used the last page of this packet to make Great Seal bookmarks. http://www.americanheritage.org/AHEF_Elementary_Extraction_04_6_Great_Seal.pdf

After learning more about the symbolism emblazoned in the Great Seal, both front and back, it really hit home to me how desperately our Founding Fathers were trying to convey the essential concepts of American Exceptional-ism, Peace through Strength, National Unity, and the influence of divine guidance on this never ending American Experiment. I believe that if our current policy makers would take time to remember these things and apply them to their decisions we'd see some very positive changes in government.

The Ressurection

I had posted this little story on my family blog a few weeks ago. But as I re-read it, I noticed again how big an impact good literature can have on our lives and the important discussions it can initiate with our children.

So I'm sharing this with you here as yet another example of how good literature can waken even the youngest of souls to everlasting truths.

We read Charlotte’s Web a while back. If you have read it you know it’s about a pig named Wilbur who is afraid that he will be killed by the farmer at Christmas time. His Spider Friend, Charlotte, resolves to keep him a live by making everyone believe he is “some pig”.

Well, more than once in the book, Wilbur laments his situation by repeatedly saying, “I don’t want to die….I don’t want to die….”

Poor Sofia was truly distressed by these passages and started asking me lots of questions about death. How do you die? Why do you die? Am I gong to die? Are you going to die? When? And then she would always end the conversation in a sad whiny voice with, “Moooom. I don’t want to DIE!’ and then I’d do my best to console her.

Well, then about a week ago, I was in the bathtub reading the Ensign (a magazine published by the LDS church). Sofie sauntered in and stood next to me, looking at pictures in the magazine. She pointed to a picture of Christ (I can’t remember which picture it was) and asked me about it. Our conversation, led by the picture, was about Christ’s death and resurrection. I explained very simply that Jesus died. "Oh, He did??"

And then I explained that he is alive again. "OH HE IS????" And that because he died and lives again, we can all live again with him after we die.

Her reaction to this glad news was so sweet, so sincere, so pure…I can hardly describe it. Her face literally brightened and she smiled so big. “Oh mommy! That makes me so happyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!”

And for one second I was able to look into a child’s heart with all it’s innocence and purity. She didn’t doubt or question the resurrection. She accepted it fully and with joy. She understood it immediately and laid aside her fears of death. We’ve never had a sad conversation about death since.

Being “mom” is sometimes draining, EXHAUSTING, mundane and very demanding. These special little moments when we get a glance at the bigger picture are the best, sweetest rewards. And there’s no other way to earn them. So glad I get to be mom and be part of these little awakenings in each of their little souls.