George Washington part 2

We are finishing up our Unit Study on George Washington. I had hoped to squeeze in a little more work, but am thrilled with what we have accomplished. We have learned so much and I am thrilled to hear Selena exclaim with excitement when she discovers interesting facts about George Washington.

Two books we read that I felt were excellent for this unit study, and very appropriate for the younger child were:

George Washington Our First President by Garnet Jackson and President George Washington by David A. Adler. Both books start with his childhood, and look into his education, military life, marriage, and Presidency. We enjoyed a day devoted to relaxed cuddling on the couch reading these two books and many more. I believe these two books by far were Selena's favorites as well.

Selena thought it was very interesting that George Washington enjoyed math and studied on his own to become known as a great surveyor, many farmers called upon him to survey their properties so they knew how much seed to buy for the next year.

I think one of the most interesting facts that Selena is still talking about is the fact that not only was George Washington our first President, but he was also the General in the Revolution War, and lead us to our freedom from England. As she stated, "He truly is the reason we are the country we are!"

We have one more day finishing up some little work, then we will take a short break from history and move on to some science. I am waiting for all of our new curriculum to roll in, and look forward to blogging more from our homeschool.

Update:
Some have been following our journey with Selena. We have bounced all over with different opinions on what is going on, from bipolar, to ADHD. We visited with her pediatrician yesterday who was so surprised over the difference in Selena. We discussed everything that Selena has carried on her shoulders, the worries and fears, the confusion of the past 7 years, and have come to a conclusion that mostly she is just like any other foster child. Now with the adoption behind us and she has had a good month to settle into her forever family we are seeing huge changes. We still deal with some anxieties along with some OCD, but over all she is the sweet girl we had a few years ago before the turmoil entered her little life.  

George Washington Day 1

School has been such a struggle here this year, I must admit I have been pulling my hair out trying to figure out how to get Selena engaged. We have always had fun doing Unit Studies, but last year Selena chose to take a year off from them and just hit the books. We had a lot of fun learning through our curriculum books, but this year things again were just off. No matter what I tried to do I just could not get her engaged. Last week with Presidents Day coming upon I introduced Selena into George Washington. The light bulb turned on, and the gleam on her face was priceless. I must admit I was pretty thrilled, not only to know what she wanted now for school, but also to have the opportunity to get back to unit studies and the way I love to teach.

Today we started our official day back on track with Unit Studies and a deeper look into George Washington. Selena happily listened to the lesson, and took notes for her first journal page. I will be looking for a different format for her journal paper then the one shown above, but it was a start, and I loved to see her eagerness. We learned some very interesting information in our little study today. Now I don't think Selena will ever forget the important dates in George Washington's life, after all Selena and one of her brother's birthday falls on the same day that George Washington died, and get this her other brother was born on the same day as George Washington's Birthday. Selena also found it very interesting to learn that George Washington did not go to college but did his studies from home, this fact made homeschool seem just a little more special to her.

We read the story of George Washington and the Cherry Tree by M.L. Weems. Selena was a bit disappointed when I explained that this was not a true story, but I did point out that it did serve as a great picture of George Washington's character. She then had fun cutting out the cherries to paste on her cherry tree. We also practiced our fractions by dividing pies from a whole pie, to halves, thirds, and fourths.

As on late I have been asking Selena to step up a bit on her basic math facts. We purchased a CD with the math facts set to a nice Rap beat. She is having so much fun listening, singing and learning everyday and I look forward to adding to this collection the multiplication and division facts.

I wasn't sure at first since this was RAP, but it is a decent RAP tune, and I can see where a child can easily pick up the beat, which is catchy making it easy for a child to memorize the math facts without even realizing she is.

We will still be working in our curriculum books, and work, but I promised Selena it would be at an easy slower pace, but I feel strongly that the reading, spelling, and math that she gets from her curriculum is important and well worth keeping up.

I am linking up at All Things Beautiful. We would love to have you stop back by as we proceed forward from here.