Homeschooling is so fun!
I booked a tour of the U.S. Capital online at: http://tinyurl.com/77bh6o
I still need to contact a Senator to get tickets into Congress chambers. Will also ask them about a White House tour: http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/tours/
In addition, we're learning our U.S. Presidents.
I once saw a news report where they asked people on the street who the 1st five Presidents were - sadly the only person to answer correctly was a Chinese student in China!
Do you know the Presidents? If not, you can learn with us...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvy0wRLD5s8 for a fun kid's video
Here's who we're learning now (a few each day): http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/chronological.html
Okay, ready for more? Here are the next 9 Presidents:
Alrighty, I've got some more for us:
And the final push to the end:
Tips for Learning:
We try to learn a few details about each one- it helps us remember better.
Also, we learn in groups of three. We get those three down pat before we add three more.
Finally, we learn the date of key Presidents and say them aloud when we run through them:
- Washington- 1789
- Lincoln- 1861
- Teddy Roosevelt-1901
- Franklin D. Roosevelt- 1933
- John F. Kennedy - 1961
- Ronald Reagan- 1981
- Barack Obama- 2009!
Those key Presidents' dates provide framework for our brains, especially if we know the Presidents in order.
We also learned the 13 Original Colonies:
- Georgia
- South Carolina
- North Carolina
- Virginia
- Maryland
- Delaware
- New Jersey
- Pennsylvania
- Connecticut
- Rhode Island
- New York
- New Hampshire
- Massachusetts!
Even Lia knows the Presidents and Colonies! I'd never have expected a 9-year-old to be able to memorize so well, but she can. I guess we shouldn't underestimate young ones!
She also learned all 31 states of Mexico and all of the Canadian Provinces and Territories before we traveled there. (Okay, that was Mama bragging, I admit. Shameful, but true!)
Homeschooling:
I also admit that we sat around the breakfast table this morning reciting the Presidents. Ned and Jazy show off with their quick run throughs but the rest of us earn louder cheering when we finally hack our way to the end.
Before we began homeschooling, the kids had a different attitude that was rather dismissive of our parental teaching. We would not have typically studied at the Saturday breakfast table, but it was fun learning. In fact, Ned is in there this 4:30 pm Saturday afternoon working with Lia on math right now. Homeschooling is going really well!
Update: We finally learned all our Presidents while driving down to Disney. Whew! Jazy can say them all in 45 seconds. She gets a pizza. The rest of us are still working on it. We forced everyone we told to listen to us recite them. Some were unlucky enough to hear them backward. We are proud of us! :)
