as I was researching for our Elections Study I ran across this.........

The symbol of the Republican Party is the elephant. During the mid term elections way back in 1874, Deomcrats tried to scare voters into thinking President Grant would seek to run for a third term. Thomas Nast, a cartoonist for the Harper's Weekly, depicted a Democratic donkey trying to scare a Republican elephant -- and both symbols stuck.

For a long time Republicans have been known as the "G.O.P." And party faithfuls thought it meant the "Grand Old Party." But apparently the orignal meaning (in 1875) was "gallant old party.' And when automobiles were invented it also came to mean, "get out and push." 

Taken from the GOP website

We had a lovely moth fly in last night when my daughter let one of the cats in. My oldest son caught it in his bug catcher and left him there all night. Then early this morning the kids found another one. We know they are moths b/c of their fat, furry bodies. ( we did a study on butterflies and moths a while back ) Many people think moths are ugly, dirty and lack color -- and while many do lack color, there are ones that are simply beautiful.

Unlike butterflies, who only come out during the day, some moths can be out during the day and night. The Cinnabar and Burnet moths are a couple who venture out during the daylight.

So we had these two guys visit with us and are still visiting with us. They've sat on the kids' hands, sat on their shoulders -- all the while they are finishing up their elections notebooks today. We also drew him in our nature journals.

The neat thing about this moth is that on my daughters hand, the wings were colored, when they went to the flower, they turned brown.

Even little River joined in on the fun.

We haven't had much success identifying them. But we are enjoying them quite a bit!

A few facts about Thomas Jefferson:

• married Martha Skelton, they had 6 kids but only 2 survived past early childhood
• he invented the swivel chair
• introduced ice cream to America
• first to grow tomatoes in America; people thought they were poisonous so he wanted to show them otherwise

And he designed Monticello, of course that was his home ~ isn't that cool?!

We talked about the words Politics, Political Party, Caucus, & Primary.  I had no idea what a caucus or primary was, now I know. Websites: here, caucus, primary & WordCentral 

The first 2 main parties in America were the Federalists ( Alexander Hamilton ) & the Democratic-Republicans ( Thomas Jefferson. )  Websites: parties, history of political parties

Then we colored the Presidential Seal and talked what the symbols represent. I've never looked at the seal in this much detail. You can print a seal to color HERE, and another website to give you the symbol info,HERE.

• stars: 50 states
• eagle: symbolizes the president's role as Head of State
• shield: 13 stripes for the 13 colonies
• olive branch: symbolizes peace
• arrows: symbolizes the president's role as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces

We moved on to John Adams today. The kids are continuing to read from The Presidents Sticker Book.

***I included websites for those of you planning an Election Unit.***

Did you know John Adams, just like George Washington, did not have any teeth? Unlike George though, John didn't want to wear fake teeth and as he aged many found him difficult to understand.

John Adams coloring page

We wrote a few facts about John.

We discussed how the first American voters cast their votes.

• voice votes
• paper ballots, called Party Tickets, were put into ballot boxes

Website HERE

We talked about the first voters being only white adult males. The kids found that to be terrible; especially the girls! Here is a website we used with the timeline of voting. And here's a neat one your kids will enjoy ~ a Voting Time Machine.

Last, we named the three levels of government in America. Using 3 different colors to represent the levels, we drew the US in one, that being the Federal gov't., our home state of Colorado, which is the second level ( State gov't, ) and then with the last color we labeled our city ( Local gov't. )  I used this & this website for the types of gov't and their duties.

Ok, so this is the 3rd time I've tried to post this. UGH!

We started our Elections Unit this week and the kids are really enjoying it.

We began with George Washington, as he was our first president. The kids read the section on him out of

The Presidents Sticker Book by John Holms.

We found a few interesting facts. Here are couple of our favorites:

~ he married Martha Custis, a widow with 2 children, whom George adopted
~ he loved the outdoors, fox hunting, fishing, being in nature
~ he played cars and pool ( I didn't even know they had billards back then ) in his free time
COOL FACT! ~ he only had one real tooth, no one knows where it was in his mouth, but he wore cow's teeth, hippo teeth, elephant ivory, walrus ivory and OTHER people's teeth!!!

We then defined 'government,' talked about why we need it, what the three types are and which type the U.S. has. We used Word Central .

After we moved on to defining an 'election' & how often we elect a President in the U.S. We used Webster's 1828 Dictionary  and Word Central .

Kids have been on here making their own blogs and one of them posted on mine -- so thats why there's been an empty space here.

Thanks for keeping up with me while I've been away. Hubby was on vacation and we were enjoying spending time with him.

We are finally starting our Elections Unit this week...a little later than I planned, but at least we're getting to it.

I'll be around to catch up with you all soon -- hopefully today or tomorrow. Hope all is well!

We decided to take a detour with our Rain/Weather Study and talk about

R a i n b o w s!

What is a rainbow?

Rainbows are spectacular rays of color. Sunlight looks white, but it's really made up of different colors...red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet or ROY G BIV ( we remembered this from our study on the Sun ) The sun makes rainbows when white sunlight passes through rain drops. The raindrops act like tiny prisms. They bend the different colors in white light, so the light spreads out into a band of colors that can be reflected back to you as a rainbow.

What conditions are needed to see one?

1. Rain
2. Sunlight
3. you must be standing between the rain and the sun

Are there full cicle rainbows?

YES! If we were high enough in the air we would see them, but b/c we are low on the horizon we only see half or part of it. Pilots often see them.

Double Rainbows?

Yes, they do happen! The inner and brighter rainbow has the red on the top and the blue on the bottom side. The outer and dimmer rainbow has the color scheme reversed.

Can a rainbow appear during the night?

Yes! The nighttime rainbow is very rare and occurs only when the moon is bright enough and positioned the right way in respect to the rain.

We also did a couple activites to help us understand.

INDOOR RAINBOW: We took a glass jar, put a mirror inside and tilted it. We then took a flashlight and pointed it at the mirror. It displayed light on the wall with a rainbow on either side.

We also proved that light is made up of not white but ROY G BIV.

We took a CD and pointed the flashlight at it, making a beautiful display of rainbows on the CD.

A couple journal entries in their weather journals.

I missed the last assignment, just couldn't get to it last week.

Memory Verse: Psalms 26:2 NIV
Test me, O LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind. 

Intro: Try it, you’ll like it! (Life Cereal)
When everyone else was afraid to try Life Cereal, they called on Mikey. Sometimes stepping out of our comfort zone is just too scary. Have you felt God gently (or maybe not so gently) nudging you to do something for someone else? You know that it needs to be done, but you keep putting it off because it is outside of your comfort zone? Well ladies, this week we are taking a step outside of our comfort zones.

Assignment: This week I want you to do something for someone else. Do you have a neighbor that needs you? Do you know an elderly person or single mom that could use you? What about the homeless? Pack even one single sack lunch and give it to someone in need. Do you know someone in blogland that is struggling right now and could use a note from you about how much you care? Pray about this. Let God put on your heart the perfect thing for you to do for another. Was stepping out of your comfort zone in this area as hard as you thought it might be? Could you see the gratefulness in their eyes? Hear it in their voice? Tell it from their typing? Do you think you might make doing things like this a more regular part of your time?  If this is an area that you are already active in, tell us how you feel this has impacted your life.

My husband has a servant's heart and it's by his example that propelled me into praying for my own heart to be softened in this area. I don't think it's something that comes naturally; I believe you have to ask for it. The Word says, 'You have not b/c you ask not.'  I do believe, however, it is something the Lord requires of us -- to be servants. How can we show the love of Jesus without it?

This isn't out of my/our comfort zone since it's something we try and do regularly, as the Spirit leads. Generally it's not something we share, we feel doing them in secret is best -- our reward is not from man, but from Him. But for the sake of this assignment, I will share a little.

We love to bless others, whether that be baking goodies for new neighbors ( even if some of them thought it was strange that we did it, sad that its a rare thing, isn't it? ), helping with car troubles, blessing someone with money anonymously, sometimes we are moved to take a homeless person out for lunch ( I will say that is a bit out of my comfort zone, but not my husband's ), even blessing families with Christmas presents for their children, again, anonymously.  It's something we have become passionate about. One thing we love doing, it has been a tradition for many years, is wrapping presents ( hats, blankets, gloves, gift cards for food places ) and taking them downtown on Christmas Eve to whatever homeless we can find. We get out and pray with them, hug them, and bless them with the gift. Even our children go -- we want them to see the importance of having a servant's heart and what better way for them to learn than by being right in the middle and helping.

How does it make me feel? Oh man it's the best feeling to GIVE to others. Showing God's love to people. Seeing the smile on their face that tells them they do matter, someone cares. It reminds me of the scripture that says, 'It's God's goodness that brings people to repentance.' Isn't that our goal? To see others come to a saving knowledge of Jesus? And of course to continue to show, even believers, His love whatever way the Holy Spirit leads......

Another of my favorite verses: 2 Corinthians 2:14 I am a child of God who ALWAYS triumphs in Christ and releases His fragrance in every place.

We started with the first rain; Genesis chapters 6 through 8. Raining for 40 days and 40 nights. Meterologists refer to this kind of flood as a 'traditional flood' ~ one brought on by a lots of rain.

Then we moved on to the Water Cycle

~ water evaporates from oceans, lakes, rivers and even puddles, any water source
~ when the evaporated water reaches high into the atmosphere it condenses( remember cold air can't hold its water ) and forms clouds
~ when the teeny water droplets within the clouds get big and heavy, they fall as rain

Here is one of the kids' drawings on the Water Cycle.

We talked about hail some months ago when we had a hail storm, here is that post.

This time we included HAILING ANIMALS. Yes, it's true, the following animals were frozen within hailstones.

~ 1882, frogs in Dubuque, Iowa, when the ice thawed the frogs hopped away
~ 1894, 6 in. turtles in Vicksburg, Missouri
~ 1821, herring fell in Scotland
~ 1870, snails in Chester, Pennsylvania
~ 1892, mussels in Paderborn, Germany
~ 1939 frogs in Trowbridge, England
~ 1941, a clam hit a boy on the shoulder in Yuma, Arizona
~ 1973, ducks in Startgutt, Arkansas

WHY? ~ b/c of WATERSPOUTS ( tornados over water ) that fling these animals into the upper atmosphere where they ice over and eventually fall. How's that for science, history and fun all rolled into one?!

To include a bit of fun, we made RAIN STICKS!

You need paper towel tubes, nails, rice or small dried beans, tape and index cards.

 You can paint or decorate it anyway you wish -- my children, however, chose to keep them plain.

We're going to continue with rain and do a small unit on rainbows next.

We wrapped up 'Gone-Away Lake' last week. We really enjoyed all the nature within this fabulous book. Lots of plant, insect and tree names throughout. The adventure was a great one!

The kids drew their favorite part of the story. This is Kaden's drawing of Villa Caprice, one of the old homes at Gone-Away Lake.

Our next read-aloud

'My Side of the Mountain' by Jean Craighead George

It's checked out, from the library, at the moment so we must wait a few days to get started.