Sixth Month. 3rd Week. 3rd Day.

So apparently the Abraham Lincoln hat Babe made yesterday was a huge hit. When I got to Babe's house this morning, she was wearing it, and actually working on an attachment for the hat. What kind of attachment, you ask?

"Now I can REALLY be Abraham Lincoln!"

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A lot going on today, with learning about a new president and all! But first in Math, Babe continued with reviewing all coin and counting amounts. When she completed her worksheet, we jumped right into discussion about our third president, Thomas Jefferson.

I turned to his page in one of the best books ever, "I Grew Up to be President" and Babe learned all about the house he built, Monticello, the Declaration of Independence, and the Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark. She also learned that when England came over (again!) and burned down the state capitol and the Library of Congress, Thomas Jefferson sent all of his own books to Washington, D.C. so they could have a library again!

I really focused on the Louisiana Purchase today, and showed her on a map how big the country grew after Thomas Jefferson bought the land from France. I then told her that since Jefferson had to work in Washington, D.C. he couldn't go explore the land himself, so he hired two people named Lewis and Clark to walk the land and write about what they saw. When they wrote to Jefferson telling him all about grizzly bears, Jefferson said he'd never seen one before, so two grizzly bears were sent to the White House to live! Babe was fascinated.

"They lived IN the house?"

"No, they lived outside on the front yard until Jefferson sent them to a zoo!"

"I'm glad there's no bears in my front yard!"

haha.

When I had her tell me everything she learned about Thomas Jefferson, I then told her that we were going to pretend to be Lewis and Clark and go explore the yard, writing and drawing all the animals and plants we see. She got so excited and ran to her room to pack her backpack with "supplies" which included twine, a rubber glove, a pencil, and a magnifying glass.

She took this expedition very seriously. Enjoy the photos!

Her findings were as follows:

I think my favorite is "horssiz."

This took about an hour, so by the end of our trek everyone was ready for lunch.

After lunch, I asked Babe to remind me of what Thomas Jefferson did while he was president.

"He built his own house. Something called jello. Then he wrote a letter to England telling them that they can't tell America what to do anymore. It was called the Decoration of Independence. He told Lewis and Clark to go to the other side of the land that he bought from France so he could know what plants and animals were over there. He had two grizzly bears in his front yard in Washington, D.C! Then, after he was president, when England came over and burnt down the White House and the library, he sent alllllllll of his own books to Washington so that we could have a library again! He was very nice!"

WHOA! Impressive. I told her that she was exactly right! And that she was now going to build her own house like Jefferson did. Though her and Z and Bubs were building forts all day, I handed her some toothpicks, glue, and a sheet of construction paper and had her glue away.

"Is it OK if I get messy?"

haha

I reminded her that Jefferson named his home Monticello, and I asked her what she would name the home she just built. She thought for a few minutes.

"Abrajeff Barack."

"Why that name?"

"I don't know, I just like all the presidents!"

And with that, we ended the day. She is picking up this history information a little too quickly and really well, it kind of freaks me out. While I don't expect her to remember it all, I do hope to keep it fresh in her mind with reminders of random facts every now and then. We will see how that works out.

Sixth Month. 3rd Week. 2nd Day.

Today was another review day, this time on Abraham Lincoln. But first in Math, we went over telling/writing time, and counting money. Babe did well with both, though she needed a quick reminder of how to count by fives starting at a number other than 0. But once she had that figured out, she was good to go. By the end of Math, I was giving her random amounts and she was able to figure out all the ways to use coins to get to that amount. It was cool watching her mind work.

I then had her tell me everything she remembered about Abraham Lincoln, and she still has all the important details down pat - he freed the slaves, the North won the Civil War, and he was the 16th president. Perfect. By then, it was time to go outside for some much needed outside play. Bubs and Z were chomping at the bit to go outside. The weather has been perfect!

After lunch, it was time for an Abraham Lincoln craft, and I was excited about this one. I handed Babe two paper plates and an empty canister of dry oats and told her all of this stuff needed to be covered in black.

"You can color it, you can cover it in black paper, you can do whatever. But it has to be all black."

"OK, that's easy!"

haha

She did great covering the canister with black paper. When she rolled the paper around it, she marked with a pencil where the paper needed to be cut! I was impressed.

When she got to the paper plates, she started cutting out paper and gluing it on, but then she resorted to the black crayon.

While she was creating this part of the craft, I was warming up a glue gun. When she was done, I told her to put the oat canister on top of the paper plate. I then asked her what it looked like.

"It looks like a hat! Like the hat Abraham Lincoln is wearing in that book I read!"

She was exactly right!

As soon as she put it on, she started repeating, "NO MORE SLAVES!" and then told me she was going to go write some rules (laws). So I put on PBS Kids for her to digest the day, but she kept the hat on and grabbed a pen and a notepad.

ha!

She came to me about 20 minutes later with her list of rules.

"No hittin. No slavs. No smackin butt.

Too. Stinking. Cute.

I asked her where she was going to keep her list of laws and she had a great idea.

"Since I'm Abraham Lincoln I'll keep it in my hat!"

And she did. She opened the top of the canister (all planned as part of the craft), and put the sheet of paper in it (along with a calculator).

And with that, she ended the day and started getting ready for dance.

Thus concludes Tuesday!