For the past 2 weeks, Ben and I have focused our studies on more patriotic themes....Election Day and Veteran's Day. 

For Election Day, we used a unit from www.homeschoolshare.com based on the book The Ballot Box Battle by Emily Arnold McCully.  This story was about a lady named Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a famous leader in the struggle for the woman's right to vote.  It jumpstarted our study into the history of voting in America and how our government officials are elected.  We also read a couple of other very informative books:  You Want Women to Vote, Lizzie Stanton? by Jean Frita, VOTE! by Eileen Cristelow, and America Votes:  How Our President is Elected by Linda Granfield.  Ben and I also held an election of our own:  The Ice Cream Election. 

On Election Day, we had lunch at a local deli and visited the library.  We brought our Ice Cream Election ballots with us and asked people we encountered throughout the day to vote for their favorite ice cream.  We also polled family members and each other.  Everyone really seemed to enjoy it this activity, especially Ben.  Afterwards, Ben and I went to the polls so that I could vote.  He was very curious about who I was voting for and why.  I was able to find and print off information about our local candidates to show him.  Here are a few pictures from our Election lapbook.

Here is the cover with a photocopy of our book and some election clipart.

This is the lapbook opened up.  It is probably the smallest lapbook we have made.  But I decided with the Presidential election coming up next year, we can add to it then.

Here you can see the inside of or vocabulary minit book and our Ice Cream election ballots and tally sheet.  The winner of our election was Strawberry Ice Cream!  (Ben was quite disappointed having voted for chocolate)

Here you can see the inside of our Vote minit book, where Ben figured out not only how old he needed to be to vote, but when he would be old enough (2018) and in what election he'll first be able to vote (2019).  You'll also find his "voter registration" card and some info about the requirements to become the president, a senator, or a representative.

In this section of the lapbook, you'll find information about the amendments to the constitution that changed age, gender, and racial barriers to voting and information about the republican and democratic parties and their symbols.  There is also a sheet of copywork The copywork is the 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

This week, we have focused on Veteran's Day.  Using the printable booklets from www.enchantedlearning.com, we were able to learn about the different US Armed Forces, their basic jobs, and their flags.   We also read a couple of good books, including:  The Wall by Eve Bunting and  Pepper's Purple Heart:  A Veteran's Day Story by Heather French Henry.  Ironically Mrs. Henry lives here in Louisville and is both a former Miss America and married to a local politician, former Lieutenant Governor, Steve Henry. 

We also watched the Reading Rainbow episode based on The Wall and a National Geographic documentary about Arlington National Cemetary.  And we read several entries from a wonderful book, The American Story by Jennifer Armstron.  This book chronicles American history in short story format 100 different tales.  There were stories about WW I, WW II, and the Vietnam War. 

We were also fortunate to have recently visited Arlington National Cemetary on a trip to Washington DC and were able to see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns.  Ben was mesmerized by this ceremony and it was a great jumping off point for this study.  I'm including a slideshow presentation of that ceremony in this blog entry.

As a service project, we are putting together a care package for our friends' husband and father, who is currently serving in Iraq.  We love you Damon, Christi, Dana, Dylan, Nate, and Jenna and so appreciate the sacrifice your family is making to keep us safe!