It’s finally here! We at Silverdale Press are thrilled to announce the re-release of our popular Presidential Election Unit Study 2020 edition. If you’ve loved our Veterans Day Unit Study, Martin Luther King, Jr. Unit Study, or any of our White House unit studies, you will really love Presidential Election Unit Study 2020 for homeschool families and co-ops. Click here to buy now or download a free sample chapter. Presidential elections are a chance to make learning come alive! Presidential elections in the United States can be both exciting and confusing for students and parents alike. For homeschool families and co-ops, they are also a tremendous learning opportunity. Here's confusing part. Most people don’t know how presidential elections work. How does a candidate win a primary? What are delegates, and how are they “captured”? What’s the difference between a primary and a caucus? What are parties, and why do we have them? Why do we have the Electoral College, and how does it even work? How does a candidate win a presidential election? These are important questions. It is vital that we as homeschool parents can help our kids navigate the election process. Now, here’s exciting part. Presidential elections get so much buzz. They are fast-paced and exciting. The debates, advertisements, the strategy all capture our attention for months. This is a great time to get our kids involved and interested in our democracy. It is our job to make sure our kids grow up to be active and involved citizens. It is up to us to make sure that they know about our government and will grow up participate in our democratic process. They need to understand how presidential elections work. What kids should know about presidential elections Kids should know about presidential elections from start to finish. They should know what the Constitution says about who can run and how the winner is decided. They should know about how primaries work and the history of the primary system. They should know about what political parties are and what happens at conventions. They need to know what issues are important in 2020 and what the parties and candidates believe about those issues. The need to know about the Electoral College, the actual system we use for electing a president. They need to know about how candidates win in the Electoral College, and this includes campaign strategy, advertising, and media. They need to know about the debates—what to do and not to do. And they need to know what happens on Election Day, from how voters make decisions all the way through the Inauguration. What you’ll learn in the Presidential Election Unit Study 2020 The Presidential Election Unit Study 2020 for families and co-ops is all you need to energize your homeschool this election season. The Presidential Election Unit Study 2020 has all of your questions covered: The table of contents comes with the free sample chapter. Click here to download or buy now.
What you’ll do in the Presidential Election Unit Study 2020 Each lesson is also loaded with fun activities designed to get your homeschool students engaged in the presidential election.
The Presidential Election Unit Study 2020 will be a great addition to your homeschool or co-op. The Presidential Election Unit Study 2020 comes as a digital download. The study is high-quality and easy to use, and we promise it will enrich your whole family.
0 Comments
Greetings, and Happy New Year! Do you want your kids’ writing to improve in the new year? Though the temperatures may be falling, winter is a great time to start new writing habits. Kids are indoors more. There’s more cozy time. They read more. With fewer hours of daylight, they have more time to be bored. Regular writing practice is the best way to improve your kids’ writing. Why not make a resolution to write every week? In this week’s newsletter we share some great winter writing prompts. These are perfect for the month of January. Pour a steaming cup of tea or cocoa and enjoy! 1. A Feathery Poem Bundle up and take a winter walk out of doors. Bring along your notepad and a pencil. Observe the winter birds. Write a poem about a bird (or birds) in winter. 2. A New National Holiday George Washington and Martin Luther King, Jr. are the only two Americans to have national holidays in their honor. If you could pick another American to be given a national holiday, who would it be and why? 3. Ice Sculpture Contest Your town is holding an ice sculpture contest. You and your friend are determined to enter and win. Write a story about your adventure creating the sculpture and how you beat out the competition. 4. Winter Memory What is your favorite memory of wintertime? In detail, describe the setting, emotions, characters, action. 5. Icy Treats It has snowed a whole foot outside! As a treat for your snow day, you get to create a dessert bar that features treats made with snow and ice. All the kids in your neighborhood are coming, and your job is to write a menu. Invent titles for the desserts and write descriptions of each treat. Christmas is a great time put your regular curriculum aside and snuggle up with your kids with some hot cocoa, popcorn, and a stack of books. Reading aloud quality books is one of the best things you can do for your kids. So, we at Silverdale Press have come up with a list of our favorite Christmas books for children. Take this list with you to the library or use it as a gift guide. We love giving books at Christmas! 1. The Tailor of Gloucester by Beatrix Potter: The mayor is to be married on Christmas Day in the morning. But the poor tailor, who is supposed to be making the mayor’s wedding coat, has run out of twist. The cast of characters also includes a mischievous cat and resourceful mice. Don’t miss this story from one of the most beloved children’s authors of all time. Grades K-6. 2. Christmas in Noisy Village by Astrid Lindgren: The village is noisy because there are so many children running around. In this old-fashioned Christmas tale, learn what the Children of North Farm, Middle Farm, and South Farm do on the days leading up to Christmas. Grades PreK-4. 3. Christmas Farm by Mary Lyn Ray: When Wilma gets tired of growing sunflowers, she decides to grow Christmas trees instead. But she needs the help of her five-year-old neighbor, Parker. Watch how both the trees and Parker grow together. A great book for young naturalists. Grades PreK-4. 4. The Story of Holly & Ivy by Rumer Godden A poor, lost orphan girl stares into a toyshop on Christmas morning. Ivy has never had a doll of her own. Ivy is penniless. And the store is closed. But Ivy knows that the doll, Holly, was meant just for her. Grades K-6. 5. An Orange for Frankie by Patricia Polacco: Frankie looks forward to Christmas Eve because his Pa brings home one orange for each child. But there’s a snowstorm in Michigan, and Pa is waylaid on his trip home from meeting the Florida train. There might be no oranges for Frankie and his siblings to decorate the mantle, per their longstanding family tradition. This is a heartwarming tale, not just of a special citrus treat, but of sibling love and generosity. 6. The Christmas Story by The Metropolitan Museum of Art: This book pairs the Christmas story from Matthew and Luke with exquisite nativity paintings from the Met’s collection. All ages. 7. Franklin and Winston: A Christmas That Changed the World by Douglas Wood: It’s December 1941, and America has just entered World War II. How will the American president spend Christmas? With the British prime minister, of course. In this historically accurate account, see how Winston Churchill spices up Franklin Roosevelt’s White House Christmas. Grades 1-5. 8. The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson: During a frigid Paris Christmas season, three young, recently homeless children befriend a hobo. Find out how they change each other’s lives for the better. Grades 1-6. Happy reading! If you want a Thanksgiving rich in literature, check out our Thanksgiving Book List. It's an annotated list of 10 great books to read in your homeschool. All are compelling non-fiction narratives, rooted in history. 1. Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving by Sarah Halse Anderson. For young readers, this is the story of Sarah Josepha Hale, “editress” of the Godey’s Lady’s Book and the woman who lobbied presidents to establish a national Thanksgiving holiday. Grades PreK-4. 2. Balloons over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade by Melissa Sweet. Meet Tony Sarg, an inventor from an early age. This book tells the story of how he inspired the helium balloons that have become the hallmark of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Grades PreK-4. 3. Thanksgiving in the White House by Gary Hines. This children’s picture book chronicles the first presidential turkey pardon. It tells the story of how Abraham Lincoln’s youngest son, Tad, convinced his father to spare the life of Jack the turkey. Grades PreK-4. 4. Thanksgiving Day by Gail Gibbons. Gibbons is one of the most beloved writers of non-fiction for children. In this book, she tells the story of Thanksgiving, its origins, traditions, and how it is celebrated today. Grades PreK-4. 5. Thanksgiving: A Time to Remember by Barbara Rainey. This book is meant to be read aloud as a family. There are special sections adapted for young readers. In this book, Rainey highlights God’s hand in the history of Thanksgiving. It’s beautifully illustrated, and there is a gratitude journal at the end. Grades PreK-12. 6. Eating the Plates: A Pilgrim Book of Food and Manners by Lucille Recht Penner. This is the perfect Thanksgiving book for your little foodie. It covers the eating habits, customs, and manners of the Pilgrims of Plymouth Plantation. Grades K-6. 7. To My Countrywomen: The Life of Sarah Josepha Hale by Muriel L. Dubois. This is a great little biography of the mother of Thanksgiving. Grades 5-8. 8. Thanksgiving: The True Story by Penny Colman. This book chronicles the history of the Thanksgiving holiday, from the Pilgrim origins to modern-day traditions. It is one of the best overarching accounts of the holiday for the middle grades. Grades 5-8. 9. Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford. Required reading in many history classes, this book counts as one, big primary source! Written by a Pilgrim father, it is the best eyewitness account of the Pilgrims’ great adventure: their stay in Amsterdam, their Mayflower journey, and their relations with Native Americans. Grades 9-12 & grownups. 10. A Great and Godly Adventure by Godfrey Hodgson. Good for the brainy, this book provides a detailed, religious history about what drove the Pilgrims to the New World. Grades 11-12 & grownups. We hope you have a wonderful holiday! P.S. It’s not too late to start our Thanksgiving Unit Study. It’s all the Thanksgiving history, plus fun and creative activities, all in one place! It is high quality and easy to use. It will surely enrich your whole family this holiday. Do you know the story of the mother of Thanksgiving? Sarah Josepha Hale is one of the most fascinating women in American history. If you don’t know her, our homeschool Thanksgiving Unit Study tells the story of how she wrote to--and eventually persuaded--U.S. presidents to declare national days of Thanksgiving. Here’s a bit about Sarah. Sarah was born in Newport, New Hampshire on October 24, 1788, the year before George Washington became the first president of the United States. Schools and colleges did not educate girls back then. This irritated Sarah, but her mother gave her a good education at home. As a girl, she read the Bible and John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. Her brother taught her Latin, math, and philosophy. As she grew older, she championed early education for children. She even opened a preschool, called a dame school, and taught her pupils the alphabet, numbers, and even beginning Latin. She read her brother’s college textbooks (he went to Dartmouth), vicariously receiving a college education through him. When Sarah was 22, her father, a Revolutionary War veteran, sold their farm and opened a tavern. It was there Sarah met a young lawyer named David Hale. Several years later, on October 23, 1813, Sarah and David Hale were married. Back then, married women did not have careers, but Sarah and David devoted two hours each day to reading and writing. Sarah loved those hours. David recommended books, and the couple discussed them together. David thought his wife was an excellent writer, and he sent the poems she wrote to newspapers in hopes that they would publish them. Sarah and some friends even started a writers’ group called the Newport Coterie. Between 1815 and 1820, Sarah gave birth to four children: David, Horatio, Frances Ann, and Sarah Josepha. Then in 1822, tragedy struck. Sarah was pregnant with her fifth child, William, when her husband died of pneumonia. She was only thirty-four years old. Though David’s law practice was successful, he was young and had not saved much money. Sarah would have to raise five children and provide for her family on her own. Fortunately, David’s friends were looking out for Sarah. They knew about her writing talents, and they helped her to publish a collection of poems: The Genius of Oblivion and Other Original Poems. She also wrote newspaper and magazine articles and completed a book called Northwood. The book compared life in the North to the slave-owning South after the Revolutionary War. In it, she described a traditional New England Thanksgiving. Sarah’s book was such a success that Reverend John Blake asked her to be the editor of a new women’s magazine he was publishing called Ladies Magazine. Reverend Blake wanted to use the magazine to set a model for American womanhood. Since Sarah needed money to support her family, she accepted the offer. As “editress,” as she was known, of Ladies Magazine, Sarah had to write persuasively. Her first challenge was to get husbands to agree to pay three dollars for the annual subscription fee. This was a heavy sum at the time. She had to convince them that Ladies Magazine would benefit them. Sarah claimed that if women had more knowledge, they would be better mothers. Better mothers meant better children, which could only lead to a better country. Sarah’s argument worked. Subscriptions rolled in, and the magazine was a success. Sarah’s work as an “editress” kept her busy. She had to write her own editorials, poems, book reviews, and articles, as well as revise and edit the work of other writers for the magazine. While she was busy editing, she even wrote a small book of poems called Poems for Our Children. It contained the poem “Mary’s Lamb,” known today as “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” In 1836, Ladies Magazine merged with Godey’s Lady’s Book, owned by Louis Godey. While Louis Godey did not allow Sarah to take political sides in her writing, he did allow her to write about issues she felt were important. Today, Sarah is best known as the mother of Thanksgiving. From the late 1840s through the 1870s, Sarah argued in Godey’s Lady’s Book that America should celebrate a national day of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday in November. Sarah grew up celebrating Thanksgiving in New England, and she hoped people around the country, in the North and South, could use the holiday to celebrate their common heritage. Sarah wrote to U.S. presidents to try to persuade them to declare national days of Thanksgiving. In the midst of the bloody Civil War, she twice persuaded Abraham Lincoln to declare national days of Thanksgiving. Sarah was almost ninety years old when she finally gave up her editing job. She died at age ninety-one in the year 1879. Sarah's story is just one slice of Thanksgiving history. To learn more, check out our homeschool Thanksgiving Unit Study. |
Silverdale PressCheck out our About Page to learn more about us! Categories |