This unit took only two weeks.  We simply read a book everyday about past presidents, being the president, the White House and Washington D.C.  Each kiddo had to choose five presidents to research and complete a project about each one.  At the end of the two weeks, they presented their projects – short, sweet and simple for me!

They were able to choose from the following project choices:

• a file folder report
• a photographic poster
• a sculpture and mini-report
• a cereal box report
• a newspaper article
• a mobile

I gave them very little direction in completing projects this time around.  After the presentations, we talked about each project and the good points.  We also evaluated what could’ve been better.  My children were pretty hard on themselves – harder than I would’ve been!  But, it was good for them to notice what they might improve on next time.

On to the projects…

Below are the unit resources that have been in my sidebar just in case anyone’s interested in a study of the presidents in the future.
Presidents of the United States

Coloring Pages of the Presidents

Presidential Hangman

Related posts:

1. Kentucky Unit Study
2. Westward Expansion Unit Plans
3. Plans For A Kentucky Unit

Last week we finished a unit on US Government and Civics using The United States Government 7th-12th grade lapbooking unit from Knowledge Box Central.  It was a great refresher for me and a super way to teach my children everything from the history of the Constitution to the design and procedures of our government to the rights and responsibilities we have as citizens.  We should all be teaching US Government and Civics anyway, but in light of so many political issues in our country right now, it’s extremely important to teach our children the fundamentals of how our government is supposed to work and what we can and should do about it when it isn’t working like it should.  (Sorry for the run-on sentence and the soap box.)

Anywho, here are some pictures of our lapbook.

To be sure they understood the wealth of information learned during the unit, I gave the kiddos a test that you can download from my Homeschool Launch page.  Mahayla scored 100% without help.  Caleb was allowed to use his lapbook when he came across a tough question.  With the help of his lapbook, he scored 100%, too!

We’ve moved on to the first of a four-part energy/physics unit – focusing on the definition of energy, heat and electricity.  Some of our resources are posted in the sidebar.  I’ll post about our fun soon!

Related posts:

1. Plans For A Kentucky Unit
2. Westward Expansion Unit Plans
3. American Revolution Unit