Civil War Study

This week, we really began our study of the American Civil War. I say we really began, because I have been trying to teach this for the past 3 weeks and with little success.
Our curriculum had everything I could possibly need, but it was lacking in some of the important areas and over emphisied others- by that I mean, it was suggested to read the children's version of Uncle Tom's Cabin. I read the first few paragraphs or the parts I could understand enough to read and got really angry at how the slaves were treated. It was too much for me and way too much for my children. From one perspective, it would not bother many families, but when you are a "brown" family, the book is seen from an entirely different point of view. Oh, I said brown because my six year old is really into his colors. He refuses to refer to people as black and white, because they are not. He chooses to say black people are really brown and white people are really apricot- or at least those are the colors he uses when he has to color people. LOL Out of the mouths of babes...
So, anyway, my next issue to tackle was to teach the Civil War not only from an apricot perspective, but also brown. So, it's equivalent to teaching two history lessons at once. This was twice the work and well worth it. But then I was faced with a more difficult task-how to teach the Civil War and some of its causes without breeding hate and to teach forgiveness. Easier said than done. Of course when dealing with the Civil War, slavery is synonymous with it. Ugh! I tried to be as gentle as possible with it and my children appeared to do okay, until one night my six year old came to me and told me he was scared of being sold by slave traders. THAT DID IT! I had to find some other way to teach this and make it fun and not scary.
I remember I was sitting at my desk and I put my head down to rest. I was so frustrated because this was a lesson I had really been looking forward to teaching because it's my favorite time period. While my head was down, I prayed. When I picked my head back up, there was an email that had come it about a day before and my eyes went directly to it. I jumped because it scared me so bad! It was from Home School in the Woods and their new Civil War Unit Study! God is so good! I love it when he does things like that-it's my confirmation to keep right on homeschooling!
Any way, I went to the link and bought it. I am so pleased! It was money well spent! We have only done one week of it and I still have things leftover to do this week. We are having so much fun! My children hurry to get through the rest of their school work, so we can get started with our study. Wow!  That alone was worth the money lol I was so pleased with the gentle approach to slavery and the different things that lead up to the Civil War.-it has been an answered prayer and I am sooooooooooo grateful for this curriculum! We combine it with reading, "A History of US" by Joy Hakim and "Sea to Shining Sea" Children's Version.
While looking online for a few coloring pages for my younger two, I found this great website and printed off their African American coloring pages. It was helpful and whatever we talked about for that day with the older ones, is what the younger ones colored that day:
http://blackhistoryeverymonth.blogspot.com/search/label/coloring%20pages
I am going to try and post weekly because there is so much info to try to cover at the end of the study. Besides, I need to keep this info for when the younger two have to cover this topic again when they are older.
Okay, here's something we did yesterday. My local State Museum had a Civil War Reenactment! We have a great State Museum and they are so homeschool friendly. Truly a blessing to me. In February, I was bummed because they had a Underground Railroad class just for homeschoolers and I missed it by one day! Ugh! I wanted to cry-actually, I think I did shed a tear or two. Anyway, I recieved an email about the Civil War Reenactment. I was so happy! I planned for three weeks to be there and then saw on the news that we were to have showers and thunderstorms the whole day starting at noon. NOOOOOOOOOOO! So, I did what only I could do- I prayed and asked the Lord to hold back the rain long enough for us to see a little of it. It was to be from Noon to 3PM.
Well, guess what...God held back the rain and not only were my children able to see it, they were also able to be IN it!!! Yea! As we were leaving and walking back to our van, we were under a shelter and I looked out, and the rain began! What a mighty God we serve!
Of course I have pictures to share.

Here's a pic of my children working on their newspaper, "The Camp Kettle"

Working on coloring pages about runaway slaves during Colonial times:


Alright, these next two pictures are pretty special to me. My two younger ones finish their work before the two older ones, so to help fill in the time, my son reads outloud to his youngest brother. Here they are reading, "The Patchwork Quilt". The quilt they have over them is a family quilt like the one in the story. You can see the whole story here: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/barrynmissy1972/341637/


The Civil War Re-enactment

Senate Page For A Day

Have you ever just sat and thought about the wonderment of God? I do and it leaves me in awe! God's timing is always perfect and he knows what he doing, way before we half way figure it out. I am referring to the a post I put on here a few weeks ago. I thought my curriculum told us to discuss the way a bill becomes a law, but it didn't, it said to write a law. By the time I realized what had happened, the school day was done and we had a lot of fun : ) At least they learned something! Look at it here:

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/barrynmissy1972/665398/

Yesterday, my two older children were able to serve as Senate Pages at our local State House. My daughter served about 2 years ago, but my son was unable to go at that time, due to his age. He didn't miss it this time around! Very educational experience for all of us. Since we were at the State Capitol Building, of course part of the discussion was how a bill becomes a law! Perfect! My son was excited, because he had a, "I GET IT!" moment. I just love those times!

Some of the things they did were to take a tour of the State House-including the Supreme Court, run errands, deliver notes to senators in their offices, and help the senate interns. From there I met up with them and we went to lunch in a nearby mall. After lunch, they went to the Senate Floor and met our Senator of whom they got thier picture taken with-cool! They helped out in there, by delivering messages-I heard from lobbyists and doing other small tasks. It was very educating and enlightening.

While they were serving, I was able to take a free tour of the House- it is beautiful! I really wouldn't think of a Government building being pretty, considering I was raised military, but this one is an exception. There is so much history in the building. I saw and sat in some the representatives seats and the senators seats. The room with my state's supreme court was covered in wood paneling made from wood in my state.

After my experience, I would strongly suggest that you check out your state senate and see if they have a similar program. If you have to drive a bit of a way, it's worth it. I met some really nice parents from different parts of my state and my children enjoyed theirs as they paged together.

Alright, here are some pics:

Outside of State House





Supreme Court and Tour Guide



Bust of Abraham Lincoln



Top floor



The Rotunda and three floors



Waiting to get to work



Writing a thank you note to the Senator



On the Senate Floor-finally!



Meeting and greeting various Senators



OUR SENATOR! She is a sweet heart!



Working the Senate Floor!



Well, that's all the pics for now- we had a great time and are very grateful for the experience!

Loving the new lens!

I am so blessed to have gotten a new camera (I named her Nikki-for Nikon)! It came with a lens and I was thrilled to have it, but I kept reading about telephoto lenses. I'm new to all this camera talk, so I looked online at pictures taken with one. It was exactly what I had been looking for, but I REFUSE to pay $800-$900 for a lens-my conscience will not let me do it.
At my sons last basketball game, I came in a little late and slid into the nearest seat in the bleachers and there were two other moms with the exact camera I have. After chatting for a minute or two, they informed me that I could find pretty good lenses on Ebay and get a good deal. One said she purchased her's for about $30. I prayed. I told the Lord I wanted a telephoto lens and did not want to pay more than $30. When I got home, I went straight to Ebay to look- well, there was one for my camera and for only $20! There was one day left I was a little hesitant, until I realized this is what I have been praying for. I jumped in the bidding and no one else bid! I won it Sunday night and got it in the mail today. I was so clueless! I played around with it for a little while and really couldn't figure out what the difference was in this lens and the one I already had. It's manual lens and I had to use my camera on manual- (I normally use it on automatic, like a point and shoot) I gave myself a crash course, then everything I had read about aperture, and shutters and all that came back to me and things began to make a lot of sense! Ooooo, this was fun! I got all that figured out, and put the camera down, then picked it right back up. At that point something caught my eye, there were some lines going across the top of the lens with numbers. Hmmmm, what is this? I pulled the barrel of the lens towards me and to my surprise it moved!
Aggghhhhh!!!! I broke it! No, I didn't- that's what makes it telephoto! I went back outside (in our balmy 70 degree weather) and zoomed in one on thing, focused and shoot!
This is the lens I had been looking for and didn't know how to explain it to anyone. If you are not into cameras this may sound like gibberish, but if you get it, then you know what I mean! Anyway, here are some pictures and what the new lens can do...and to think, I used to think camera people were nerds!

I have been wanting pictures where the subject is in focus and the background is blurred:

I am excited with these pictures because my kids are moving and runnng and they are not blurred!

This one is my favorite for the day:

I'm just a bill...

Remember that song? Our assignment for today was to explain how a thought becomes a law or the making of a law.
Not an easy task to explain to a 6 & 8 year old AND make it interesting- until the Lord dropped this idea into my brain- it was really fun and I thought I would pass it on.
First, we watched our dvd copy of this:

Then we made our own "Bills":



From there, we had our own little way of showing how a bill is passed. I can't remember who was who, but my children wrote the idea for a law on the back of their "Bill". One was for everyone to go to church on Sundays. Then one of older children was congress and the other was the house of representatives, I was the President (because I'm the decider!)
They went through each of the steps. If their bills passed, then they got a gold sticker from me to put on their "Bills".
Here they are presenting their bills to congress. After he has them make some changes, he passes the "Bill".

Now, here they are with House of Representatives- she is really thinking about it and discussing it with them!

They are concerned that their bills won't pass:

They passed!

To make your own bills, just roll up a piece of paper, tape the ends and let the kids draw faces on them. With another piece of paper, cut out the arms and legs, tape them on and you will have your own "Bill".

I'm still here!

I am still here! It's been a while since I have posted due to...well, life!

I miss blogging, but other things come first and by the time I can really sit down and do a little, It's time to go to bed. I have a little time tonight so I thought I would post an update or something. Now, I'm about to post everything that has happened since then- well, not really everything.

We have been busy doing school work, being involved in our church anniversary, basket ball, basket ball, and basket ball! Whew, I am tired! My oldest son's team came in 3rd place. Not bad for his first year playing in a while. They almost won 2nd place but missed it by one point. I loved his team and his coach was excellent! The attitude of the players and the coach were very impressive! Here's a picture-that's my husband sitting at the table keeping score:

My son with his trophy:

My middle son played B-Ball also and my husband was his coach. Those games were good, but really funny at times, considering these kids were all 7 or 8 years old and it's their fist time playing. I can't tell you how many times baskets were made at the wrong basket! Without fail, the balls always went in!

In case you can't figure it out, my son is standing right by the ref.


One of the team mothers bought cupcakes for the final game, on top were these cute little basket ball baskets. My son was more into that than he was his trophy. I thought they were pretty neat, too!

All of these pictures bring me to a blessing I have been waiting and praying to purchase- My camera! My husband purchased me a high end point & shoot camera. It had a lost of features that helped me to learn photography. My reason for wanting it was because my children were growing up so fast and I wanted pictures of them- good pictures, you know, not the Walmart Studio Kind (those are good, when you want studio pics- I am not putting Wally World down at all) but the kind that are taken outdoors and at random of kids being kids and doing kid things. I want to remember what my kids look like when they were sleeping when they were 4-5 years old, I want to remember all that sweetness about them. Then I want to be able to show their children, and they can show their children. After checking out the prices of a few photographers, I realized that I could easily buy a good camera for same amount I was going to pay the photographers for. So, I bugged my husband and he got me an Olympus sp550 uz.. I really do like it, buuuuuutttttt the shutter lag was terrible! Shutter lag is the time it takes for you to push the button and for the picture to be taken. My kids would be looking at the camera and it would take so long for the camera to respond that I would end up getting a good picture of the side of their heads! Not good. That camera is great for nature pictures, still pictures and stuff like that- it's definately not for children portraits. I plan to keep it for all the good points it has.
So that's when I realized I need to bump things up a bit...I bought....a ....professional camera! Yeah, I'm still scared to say it, but it hasn't been so bad. I took the above pictures with it and I am taking lessons from a wonderful friend who is willing to put with me- he takes awesome pictures! (Shhhh, don't tell him I said that- it will go to his head, lol) I have been playing around with it and having fun. Here's one I took of my youngest son. He was in the kitchen and I liked how the light was on his face:
I will post more pics tomorrow, but that's all for now...