Good Site for Testing Your Geography: U.S. States

Test your U.S. states geography skills online at this website:

http://lizardpoint.com/geography/usa-quiz.php

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

While the area schools shut down for the day, Sisney H.O.U.S.E. held school as usual, devoting the day to learning more about Martin Luther King, Jr. When I asked Maddy and Kenna (K and 1st graders) who Martin Luther King, Jr. was, they didn't remember. So, we devoted the whole school day to learn not just about the holiday that honors the birthday of revolutionary civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., but also to teach my children about this famous man of history and highlight the importance of the civil rights movement.

Using the following links, we learned all about how our "own" race, meaning the white people like us, were not always so nice to black people. We talked about how, even today, a lot of people are mean to anyone whose skin color is different than their own. Decades have past since Martin Luther King, Jr. worked - and died - trying to change America's laws...unfortunately, there is still much work to be done. Mr. King's speech, "I Have A Dream" is still just that in so many ways. I want my children to be part of the solution to making this dream a reality.

At https://www.teachervision.com/tv/printables/botr/botr_27_28-30.pdf, we found out some great information on Martin Luther King, Jr. that is age appropriate for younger kids. I want them to learn the basics...as they get older we can get into the "nastier" side of the civil rights movement.

We found a mini poster for the girls to create as they learned the facts about Martin Luther King, Jr. and his dream for a better America for all people at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Martin-Luther-King-Jr-Poster-Activity-FREEBIE-1015734.

We cut out, put together, and then read a free booklet on Martin Luther King, Jr. at https://www.teachervision.com/tv/printables/TCR/1576904679_333-338.pdf. Kids absorb so much more when there's a hands-on activity to go along with what they are learning rather than just being lectured or read to,

As a craft, the girls traced their handprint in many different colors of construction paper and then glued them together and wrote "Many people working together can change things." (one of Mr. King's quotes) on each palm. We hung the banner up in our classroom.

We read "The Story About Ruby Bridges" by Robert Coles. Very age appropriate for kindergarten and 1st grade! A true story set in 1960,  Ruby Bridges, at age 6, was a little girl who was court-ordered - along with 3 other little black girls - to attend all white schools. I'm not sure why Ruby's story has been told and the other children's were not, but it's a book that EVERY parent should read to their children. On Ruby's very first day of school, an angry mob of white folks crowded around the school entrance and were loudly and physically protesting this child entering the school. Neither the New Orleans police nor the Lousiana State Police would step in to help protect these 4 kids (attending two different white schools). It took the president ordering Federal Marshals to escort Ruby into school everyday. The neighborhood parents quit sending their own kids to school. Ruby sat alone in her classroom for months and did her school work.

What bothers me is that surely, many of those white families were "professed" Christians. Yet, they not only angrily protested but willingly disrupted their own children's education to keep their kids from being in the room with Ruby. How sad! But you know what? God was still in control, and this little 6 year old black girl stopped every day on her way to school and prayed for the people who out, not just to keep her out of their school, but to do her bodily harm had they gotten a hold of her. That, my friends, is the testimony and witness of a true Christian family and a true Christian way to raise your daughter. Ruby asked God to forgive those people. And you know what? The book I read to the girls, "The Story of Ruby Bridges" by Robert Coles, doesn't say how much time past (we know months) but finally 2 boys went back to school, slowly followed by many more.

I hope that Alan and I have/are doing a better job at teaching our children that the color of your skin doesn't matter. Kenna even asked at the beginning of the story, "What's are 'white people'?" Character counts so much more! Teaching our children to respect others and to always do the right thing no matter what the crowd is doing are possibly the most important things you can teach your child, right after teaching them (like Ruby's family did) that THE most important thing is to have a close and personal relationship with God.

Again, I want my children to be part of the solution to America's problems, not part of problem. 

 

Reader's Digest Article Says the American School System is Damaging to Kids

I'm kind of surprised that Reader's Digest is bashing the American School systems, but at the same time..."Thanks, Reader's Digest, for not "going with the crowd" on this subject! Read all about it here:

http://www.rd.com/advice/parenting/american-school-system-damaging-kids/

Learning About Graphs

Here's a simple way to teach your children about how to make a graph. Made on paper, letting the kids brainstorm something to make a graph of (at the moment it's very cold here and I'm thinking they are definitely wishing for summertime), here's what they came up with:

Geoboard Time!

Haven't been updating in almost a week. I cracked my tailbone two Saturdays ago and it got a lot worse before it finally starting feeling better. And by that, I mean being able to sit comfortably for more than 10 minutes at a time!

Enough about fractured tailbones! On to math!

My kids love using their geoboards. The ones we have were part of our Saxon manipulatives package to go along with our Saxon math program. If you don't have a geoboard, they are simple to make (and the homemade ones can be used with more materials than the ones we currently have, too). Just take a square piece of wood and mark spots on it to form rows of dots spaced about an inch-and-a-half to two inches apart. These rows, should line up up-and-down and across the board, to form and fill in a large square. Then you simply nail in some small nails (leave them sticking up enough to wrap rubber bands around them.

The kids can use rubber bands to make shapes on the board and it can be used over and over again.

 

For older kids, you could even put the nails in a circle shape (outline only or smaller circles inside the outer one) and let them create a 3-D "Spirograph" design.

I've even seen where someone has taken an outline of their home state, placed the paper copy on a board for their guide, and put the nails in to outline their state. For a really fancy effect, they put nails in the shape of a heart where their hometown is located within the state map, and again, using the "spirograph" concept, made a beautiful work of art. (By the way, this will sneak in a geography lesson.)

The point of the geoboard is, of course, to teach math concepts, but it can also be a lot of fun! Your children will learn to copy designs, learn to create their own shapes and designs, and enjoy the assignment.

Farm Credit Scholarships

We are not to this point yet, obviously, with a kindergartener and 1st grader, but wanted to put the word out there for anyone who might qualify this year. Farm Credit is giving away 21 $1,500 scholarships to high school seniors pursuing agriculture careers. Applications are available online at farmcreditIL.com. The deadline to apply is February 28, 2014.

If you live in a state other than Illinois, you should check to see if your state offers Farm Credit Services and the scholarships.

Homeschooling Is Nothing New

The concept of homeschool is nothing new...

  January 1939. "Negro sharecropper mother teaching children numbers and alphabet in home. Transylvania, Louisiana." Medium-format nitrate negative by Russell Lee for the Resettlement Administration.

Interesting Background Information on 10 Dr. Seuss Books

 

http://www.mentalfloss.com/article/28843/10-stories-behind-dr-seuss-stories

The above link takes to an interesting background info on 10 of Dr. Seuss' books. Interesting reading. Especially about how some of the logging industry wasn't very happy about the book, The Lorax and later sponsored The Truax, a similar book—but from the logging point of view.