O Say Can You See...

Last week, in observance of Independence Day, we launched into a small unit study of the American Flag. Last Thursday, we read "Betsy Ross" by Alexandra Wallner. I didn't realize that it was possible that she didn't actually sew the first flag. I was always taught that as fact in school, but apparently there is some evidence to suggest she didn't, in fact sew the original 13 star flag. Oh well. It's alot more interesting story anyway. We added Betsy of our lapbook and our Book of Centuries. If you aren't familiar with the Book of Centuries, it is great. I don't feel pressured to study history in order because it arranges historical events in such a way that you can observe time relationship between those events. You can print your own FREE at Simply Charlotte Mason.
Here is the first American Flag.

This is an artist rendition of Betsy sewing the flag...Love the Hair!

Now, one of the neatest parts of the story is how Betsy made a difficult five point star with one snip of her scissors. Fiction? Apparently not. Here's instructions for how it's done. Here's Lillie with the finished product. I had to do it twice and it still didn't come out perfect.

Our craft was a popsicle stick flag.Now, today we read "By the Dawn's Early Light: The Story of the Star Spangled Banner" by Steven Kroll. Beautiful illustrations, by the way. We added Francis Scott Key to our Lapbook and Book of Centuries. The original poem was four stanzas long , but we only sing the first stanza as our national anthem. We watched a short documentary of Francis Scott Key...

Now, I've heard alot of people sing the National Anthem over the years, but the best I've heard is not some famous star. Nope, it's this kid. Hands down. I love the way he's moving his leg and I want you to pay attention to the players and coaches in the background...their reaction when this kid hits the high note.
BE SURE TO TURN OFF THE MUSIC PLAYER ON THE RIGHT SO YOU AREN'T DISTRACTED!!!!!!


Alright, now I took the words to the song and wrote each on an index card. I shuffled those cards and laid them out. As I read the song to Lillie, she had to find the write word card and assemble the song. She did great. This really showed me alot about the progress she's making in reading. Her sight words she knew right off, but just by me sounding the harder words out that she had never seen, she managed to pick out the right cards.

Reading today was from Hubbard's Cupboard. Here's a link to some free printable readers. They are really neat and FREE! Speaking of FREE (quite possibly my favorite word these days) add this site to your favorites and make it part of your routine to check it DAILY for free homeschool resources!

Lillie is working on money for her math right now. We've mastered pennies and now we're onto nickels. I set up store with Lillie because it's a lot more fun than drilling facts into her, which tends to make her buck up since her attention span is like...zilch. Here's some great resources I've found on teaching money...

Kindergarten Coins

Great Math Lesson Plans

In my Above Rubies newsletter, I got a great quote. "Live every day so that when you wake up in the morning, the devil gets shaky and says ' Oh no! She's awake!" I thought that was pretty good. Have a great day!