Jefferson and the Supreme Court (Kevin, 3rd Grade, Week 5)

This is what I "caught" Kevin doing the other day while he was supposed to be playing outside. He grabbed Daddy's Bible, and took a seat and started reading Genesis 1 since he was surrounded by God's beautiful creation!! Oh I love the work God is doing in his sweet little life!

This Week's Book List:

The New Nation by Joy Hakim

Of Courage Undaunted by James Daugherty

Our Country's Presidents by Ann Bausum

A Visit to William Blake's Inn by Nancy Willard

Wilberforce: An Activity Book by Andrew Edwards and Fleur Thornton

The Supreme Court of the United States by David Heath

Rocky Mountains by Wayne Lynch

The Sun: Our Nearest Star by Franklyn M. Branley

This week Kevin learned about Chief Justice John Marshall. Marshall was the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He was Thomas Jefferson's cousin, although the two men detested one another because of their political ideas. Kevin studied the Supreme Court and the responsibilities it holds. He also learned about Marbury vs. Madison and judicial review.

Kevin also learned about the Three Branches of Government, checks and balances, and separation of powers. We especially covered the Judicial Branch in more detail. However, while studying the executive branch, Kevin had a bit of a "revelation" and said, "Mom, Daddy is part of the government!! Awesome!!"

We finished reading Of Courage Undaunted this week, and therefore finished learning about the Lewis and Clark Expedition. What a great book to cover in very illustrative detail the findings and adventures of this journey.

One of Kevin's assignments this week was to plan a vacation to the Mississippi Valley. He flipped through travel booklets from Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas. From those 5 states, he chose to plan his vacation to Kentucky. His assignment was to plan out a 7 day vacation. We also reviewed another family's vacation to Louisiana for a day, and Kevin was able to calculate their costs for the day, which came to $200, excluding travel and hotel expenses. Kevin was able to study different tourist attractions for New Orleans, as well as sharpen up his math skills. This was a great illustration of how thankful we should be for times we are able to take vacations, because they are not cheap!

Kevin also started learning about William Wilberforce. After reading about this man of God, and watching Amazing Grace, Kevin was really moved by his determination and perseverance. Wilberforce took on a cause that has forever impacted our world. With his passion for freedom and equality, after years of pushing and debating, he finally saw the passing of a bill to end the slave trade in England.

Recently I came across a blog that had an idea for D.E.A.R time. "Drop Everything And Read". We have always kind of done this already, usually when Mom needs to cook dinner, or the kids just need a few minutes to settle down. But, we have never had such a cute name to refer to this time as. So, this week we started incorporating D.E.A.R time into our days. The kids LOVE it!


Our homeschool group participated in an archaeological dig this week for one of the local universities. We were given a small kit with soil that the university had collected from a NY man's yard after an entire skeleton of a Mastodon was dug up (while he was trying to dig a swimming pool). The kids were able to be archaeologists for a day and explore a bit of earth to see what they could find. Kevin found 6 shells and a root ;)

Kevin and Daddy also continued working on plans for Kevin's invention project. We should be all ready to assemble it by the time Dad gets home =)

For Science this week we began our lesson on the sun. Kevin learned about solar flares and sun spots. He learned about revolutions and rotations. And he learned the dangers of looking directly into the sun. Unfortunately we were not blessed with enough sunlight this week to do our first activity. Hopefully we will be able to melt chocolate using a magnifying glass next week.

For Grammar, Kevin was introduced to graphic organizers. He has started the "pre-writing" process for a small assignment he will work on over the next few weeks. This week he used a cluster diagram to list details about the three branches of government. Next week he will begin the "rough draft" phase of writing for this assignment.

We also studied Adverbs. =)

And this week we managed to squeeze in lots of PLAY time! By God's grace we have been finishing better every week, and this week was the best so far. We had extra time leftover this week, which was quickly gobbled up to play with one another!

For more of Kevin's 3rd Grade Moments, click {HERE}.