Oct. 26, 2008 - Government club wrap-up

Well we are just about wrapping up our studies on government.  We’ve done a trip to our state capitol, mock elections, meeting with a local state Representative, toured campaign offices and worked on a mailing for a campaign.  At home we’ve studied various parts of government, checks and balances, candidates, other forms of government, how our government was formed and some of the documents and more.  All that we have left is our election night party to watch the returns, play some games and eat pizza. 

You know I’m glad we studied it but I’m also glad it’s almost over too.  I can only take so much politics.  My oldest now thinks this is a possible career choice (well, along with several others at this point…)  He heard from the local state Representative all you have to do is get 200 names on a petition and be 18 to be on the ballot.  On the way home he wanted to know if I’d sign his petition!

Even though it’s over I did learn a lot especially from the book, Are you Liberal, Conservative or Just Confused?.  There’s just so much I was never taught.  One thing that struck me in there was taxes.  Did you know that until the 20^th century when income tax was created all the U.S. governments taxes were from liquor, tobacco and imports?  Now only 3% come from these and 97% come from income tax!*   No wonder so many people came here!

In that book the kids learned about Fascism, Communism and Socialism.  I can’t say that they got it all but at least they have an idea what it means and are familiar with the terms.  When we did this section I just had to read Animal Farm  by George Orwell to them!  I still remember reading it in school and the impact it had on me.  I believe it had a similar effect on my kids today.  It’s not just about Stalin, Marx and Communism but about knowing what you believe and standing up for it.  That was the impact it had on me. 

If you’ve never done Animal Farm by all means try it.  There are many online study guides  that will help you with some of the symbolism if you’ve never done this book before or need to brush up.  I even found an online quiz and only got 2 wrong just from what I remembered years ago.  So what was that about old timers?

The girls did some notebooking and made a lapbook with some of their information.  The boys did all their work in notebooks, paragraphs and reports. 

 You'll notice the lapbooks are very eclectic.  We made the flip books on some of the first presidents ourselves but took a lot of the little booklets from various sources (homeschool share, hands of a child etc...)  You can see some of the sources we used for information in a previous blog.  We still want to add a booklet on impeachment and do our covers but we may not get to that till at least after the election.

So now after doing Government for the fall it will be nice to go back to our regular routine of History.  We were glad to take a break but now glad to return to.  I guess it’s kind of like vacation, it’s great to leave but you always look forward to coming home.

* taken from Are you Liberal Conservative or Confused, by Richard Maybury p.89

Sep. 29, 2008 - Trip to the Capitol

As part of our government study we took a field trip last week to our State Capitol in Lansing Michigan.  We had almost 40 moms and kids who made the trip to tour the capitol and then tour the four story Michigan History Museum down the street.  We took time out for sack lunches we brought with on the lawn at the museum.  God gave us great weather for the day!

The capitol building was beautiful!  It’s all hand painted and they showed us lots of pictures of just how much restoration work they’ve done in recent years. 

We got to sit in on the senate in session.  One of the younger kids who was with us was appalled at the lack of respect the people were showing for whoever was speaking.  If you’ve ever sat in on a similar session you’ll understand what she means.  Everyone is wandering around, talking and doing their own thing while someone is at a podium speaking.  For me I was noticing how much had changed.

When I was a Junior in high school I had gone on a trip to Washington D.C. with a program called Close-up.  We sat in on sessions of both the U.S. House and Senate.  The State seems much the same only NOW they all have laptops on their desks and voting is virtually instantaneous.  It was amazing the difference a little more than 20 years makes.  Does that mean I’m old?

After the tour and lunch we went to the Michigan History museum.  We had a docent who walked with us much of the time and was very good at using the kids as examples and bringing the various exhibits to life using props and things.  There were only a few references to “millions of years” we had to go over with the kids on the way home.  (To which they reply, “I KNOW mom!”)  After the tour the museum gave each of the moms a huge teacher pack of reproducibles to go with what we saw.  Great unexpected bonus!

So if you’re in Michigan check it out sometime.  Oh, and it’s free!  Can’t beat that!

Gina

Sep. 25, 2008 - Election links

We have been studying the election and here are a bunch of links I had put together for our group.  Also, this first link is to a game that we've had a lot of fun playing.  It has three levels which is nice (elementary, middle and high school) and it gets kids to see the election process (primary, issues, electoral votes etc...)  So for those of you studying the election I hope you can find something you can use!

Gina

http://broadband.ciconline.org/elections/Default.aspx 

election game

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2002/guide.html

Government budgets-how created info/deficits…highlights 2002 budget

http://ap.grolier.com/

copy of inaugural address, how electoral college works, party conventions , 2004 information

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/gmanual/browse-gm-07.html

US government manual 07/08 edition

text on constitution, each department (and more departments than imaginable!)

http://www.edhelper.com/American_Government.htm

color books, graded units on finance, branches, elections etc…, crosswords, searches, quizzes

http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/00-2/lp2088.shtml

election night return mapping

http://birdseye.octo.dc.gov/

interatctive map of DC

http://www.whitehouse.gov/kids/tour/

tour of whitehouse by spotty

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/odmdhtml/preshome.html

portraits of presidents

http://www.whitehouse.gov/kids/presidents/index.html

biographies on each president

http://www.teach-nology.com/worksheets/soc_studies/voting/quiz/

voting vocabulary quiz

http://www.homeschoolshare.com/election.php

lapbook elements

http://www.mphomeschool.com/blog/?p=180

notebook pages, worksheets and lapbook elements on campaigning, candidates, advertising, propaganda etc… on current election  EXCELLENT

http://highland.hitcho.com.au/government.htm

unit study, nice living book listing

http://www.civiced.org/index.php?page=stds

government standards for each grade level for civics

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/

supperdelegates, polling , path to presidency

Sep. 19, 2008 - Mock Campaign and Election

Yesterday we had our first meeting for our Government club.  We’re doing a variety of things over September and October to follow the elections.  The meeting yesterday focused on a mock campaign and election.  It was a lot of fun.  You might consider getting a few friends together and giving it a try.  It really helped the kids “see” the vocabulary words we’ve been studying and think through the process and issues in a tangible way.

We first divided up into a red and blue team with 19 kids ranging in age from 6-16.  Each of these teams then were given the task of choosing a candidate.  We chose to go with a Biblical Character rather than take a current political candidate.  This also allowed the kids to take in consideration who would be the best person to choose for their party.

They needed to consider what they know about the characters’ skills, abilities and experiences in order to choose the best candidate.  For instance David might seem a good choice.  He was after all a successful King and was a military man, however he had some personal issues (adultery, rebellious son, murderer etc…) that could prove a liability to the campaign. 

Once their candidate was chosen they then needed to pick a slogan.  On this sheet for the younger kids (age 6-12) and this one for the older kids (13+) I listed a few as examples of slogans as well as outlined their assignments.

After they chose their slogans we split off the older and younger kids (see approximate ages above.)  The younger group then worked on ad’s for their candidate and the older group worked on defining what would be their candidate’s issues.  See the linked sheets above for more information on that part.

The older group will be researching threir issues in the next two weeks and then we’ll have a mock debate.  The linked sheet is to get them started on their research.  There is a National debate we’ll be watching next Friday to get idea’s for the format we’ll use for the actual debate.

Our final event for this part of our government club will be a mock election at our homeschool groups’ fall kick off.  That’s where the younger group will actually hand out their flyers and carry their posters and the older group will give brief speeches before all members (parents and kids alike) are given an opportunity to vote.

So far it’s been a lot of fun and I think the kids are learning a lot in the process!

Jun. 23, 2008 - Student Statesman Institute

Yesterday I dropped my oldest off in Lansing MI at Student Statesman Institute (S.S.I.)   It's a week long experience in goverenment and leadership training (and some Christian worldview too!)  My husband was first introduced to this at the Lansing homeschool convention when he heard James Moffett speak.

We're using it for the majority of our sons government credit for high school.  What a great way to do school!

My husband and I both attended Close-up in Washington D.C.  It's a program for public high school students which teaches you about government.  We learned a lot and it gave us both an interest (and understanding of) the polictical process and government that we otherwise might not have had.  We sat in on senate session, made our own bills to lobby and argue, met many of our congressmen and senators as well as toured the building. 

This program (S.S.I.) looks very much like what we did only it's of course on a state level and most importantly contain a Christian worldview.  I'll let you know Logan (my sons') impression when he gets home!

Right now he was pretty much excited to be dropped off and get to stay in a dorm room with a good friend for the week.  Oh, and he gets to eat college cafeteria food (all you can eat, buffet style) which will be like heaven to him.  He's a teenage boy...what can I say.

Gina