We joined a geography group – and this month’s theme is the UK. To be honest – I wasn’t even sure what the UK was comprised of. Seemed British to my recollection – but I could not give a complete sentence defining it. So our beginning questions were – who is in it, when did it start, what does it encompass?
Visiting with friends and a trip to the library quickly told us that the UK is comprised of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland the Principality of Wales and the Province of Northern Ireland. We added Kingdom & Principality to the vocabulary list in our Geography lapbook. We learned that each of these are not considered countries. We learned about Constitutional Monarchies and Parliamentary Governments. Added these to our vocab list. After browsing the books, the most interesting topics to the boys were the Irish Setters for Lil Jon and that that Horses have different name in Gaelic and that the drum has a different name and that they use music to calm the horses. These tidbits were added to our lapbooks. We are riding horses at Crystal Peaks – and their new found interest seemed to tie in so we checked out books with the new vocabulary we are learning while grooming. Parts of the horse, equipment they use. Drawn and written – added to the lapbook. It just so happens that we were reminded by Homeschool Radio Shows that April 18-19 is the date that Paul Revere and others rode their famous ride. Back to the library to check out some books. We put off reading them all weekend. Saturday evening Gater found a patch of a flag in the dumpster of a friend. They gave it to him . . . but – that patch had the Union Jack on the corner, and stars on the other side. Which lead to a look up – research on the internet of which flag it belongs to. A short hunt led us to Australia. A nice discussion on why Australia is tied to the British Empire – which lead to the book on Paul Revere – which brought discussion on how their ride was the first offensive move against the British in the American Revolution. More Tidbits for our lapbooks. It was helpful that the boys had finished their memory work for the year for Awana – so I was checking out poetry to introduce to keep the memory muscle flexible over the summer – and that Paul Revere’s Ride was written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. While in 821 section of the library – we checked out some Robert Louis Stevenson and some Shel Silverstein of Where the Sidewalk Ends and other fun poetry to read and enjoy. We printed out a horse picture off of Enchanted Learning for Lil Jon to color and print out the parts and found a nice 3 paragraph report on Paul Revere for Gater to fill in the blanks and make a colorful title to put in his lapbook.

Each day – ebb and flow. Each day something new. Right now Gater is in the living room trying to find the most obnoxious Silverstein poem to memorize to embarrass his mother with during Literary Lunch this month. He thinks he’s being sneaky. But what he doesn’t quite understand is that I memorized them all as a child – so even a line or two spoken aloud brings back great memories to me. Go ahead – embarrass your poor mommy.

Jon has asked a couple of times this week if we are going to "do school" today. He has such a love of completed worksheets still. I smile and say – ya sure maybe after we finish drawing horses. We’ll see – maybe we’ll still be on a break. To the outside eye we might be on bunny trails that happen to criss cross. To my eye I see His hand guiding our learning to the joy of our family and to his heavenly host – who thrill at the sounds of little boys giggling over silly poetry.