Almost Finished

Hannah has been doubling up on work so we can finish this week. It's time. All the "lessons" will end this Friday. The beginning of next week, we will clean up our history notebooks and work on our timeline. Oh, and plan for our big school show. Yes, last year Hannah and I planned an end of school performance for my husband and parents (in town for Hannah's ballet recital). We had programs, costumes, a prelude, diplomas... it was hysterical.

Well, Hannah has been working on the school show for weeks now. I seem to have started something. And my parents are in town next week... maybe for the school show? : )

The kids will recite poetry they have memorized. Hannah will read her Abraham Lincoln report in costume. We'll sing the States Song. Hannah will recite a lot of memory work: the Presidents, the Preamble, the beginning of the Declaration of Independence, the list of prepositions... you get the picture. It's a fun end to the year. And the kids love showing off what they have learned. Thankfully, my husband and parents are a very enthusiastic living room audience.

As we finish up, I have been going through the piles and thinking about all that we have learned and loved this year. Here are a couple of our favorites...

:: Beautiful Feet's Early American History (for Primary Grades)


I cannot begin to explain how much the kids LOVED every single book we read. And our history lessons are always being carried out in pretend play. I love overhearing them becoming the children of a particular time. "I'll be Squanto and you be..."

We will finish the last book tomorrow and Will has already asked if we can still do history over the summer.

:: My Father's World State Sheets

We do geography during lunch, learning about a few states each week (in order of statehood). Everyday I pull out the U.S. map placemat, Our Fifty States, and the MFW state sheet while we eat. Hannah reads the fact sheet, brief history, and interesting trivia on the back of the sheet. Then we flip through the photos in the book. The history of each state has fit nicely with our history studies. And we have all loved laughing together over the funny information included on each sheet.

Did you know that in Kentucky it is illegal to carry an ice cream cone in one's pocket? and Texas law allows astronauts to vote while they are in space? and it's against the law the gargle in public in Louisiana?

I love that Will is dying to visit Wisconsin because it's called "Land of Lakes." And Hannah wants to go to Montana because there are only 6 people per square mile. That girl needs to move to the country. I think I may need to go with her.