So Adam, age 6, starts singing quietly while he's playing with his cheetah figurines... "I like being with you, I like being with you..." to which I interrupted and asked him what he was singing about. He told me he likes being with me! I told him I thought that was great, and that I like being with him, too. He continued the conversation, explaining to me that he has "earned homeschooling" and that he "deserves it." What do I do with that?! I was overjoyed to say the least. To know that he is so happy learning at home, with me, enough to start singing a song about it while he played with one of his favorite toys. It puts a smile in my heart! We actually did have a super fun day. We started by doing a fun lesson on the original 13 colonies of our country. I want them to understand as much as they can about our nation and its history when they are in Washington DC. They colored a map of the 13 colonies. Then they colored that same area on a full map of the United States... so they could get a perspective of the size of our country when it began compared to its size today. I also had them color an American flag when there were 13 states and a present day American flag. Adam has his US geography down fairly well (he builds this US puzzle about 5 times a week!), as do the girls, so I was able to explain to them that the 13 colonies actually are 16 present-day states... not thirteen... because three of the original states have been further divided. It was a really fun lesson... and I think it was very helpful for understanding our important documents, which I talked about next... I introduced some of the important documents we will be seeing while in DC... the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution of the United States... and that we will get to see where all of these documents were signed while in Philadelphia. This was also a really fun discussion. They all know the first part of the Preamble of the Constitution, "We the People..." although Anna almost knows the entire Preamble! Tomorrow we will do more with the constitution and the major people who were involved with these documents. I used my new stroller cover today at Gym & Swim... much nicer than draping a blanket over the front... which always slipped off.
