A Brief Stop At Home

Not long ago, Aiden asked me why we always study other countries and never the one that we live in, The United States. I told him that it was because since we live here, we know what kinds of wildlife, transportation, foods, etc. that we have in The US. We did have a reader suggest that we could learn about other parts of the country, study other states, and maybe we'll get to that one day, but for now, we are sticking to countries that are not our native land. 


With that said, today is The Fourth of July, which is Independence Day here in The US. So as a bonus post this week, I thought I'd do a mini lesson about The United States with my littles, which primarily consisted of a couple of Independence Day projects. 


The first is a flag. It seemed fitting since we always recreate flags of other countries. If you've been reading for a while now, then you have likely heard me whine about the difficulty of some of the flags that we have created. I never in a million years would have imagined that our own country's flag would be a challenge, but it was. We measured and remeasured to get the proportions correct so that we could have thirteen equally spaced stripes. After that agony passed, the reality of cutting fifty stars to represent our fifty states, started to sink in. We made several templates, none of which were the right size, still, we dreaded actually outlining, cutting, and gluing fifty stars. Seriously, I know I shouldn't be whining, it's not like I had to sew them on or anything, but I'm the kind of woman that likes to see quick progress. Anyway, after brainstorming a few ideas, we decided that the most efficient way to make the stars was to create a stamp. So using a piece of styrofoam, we cut a star and glued it to the end of a wooden block, then we used a paint brush and brushed white paint on, then stamped away! It was going so well, until we realized that our star was too big. Fifty stars were not going to fit. *sigh*... This is our finished American Flag, with thirty-three of our states represented with stars. At a glance, it looks ok though, right???? 

I really hope I don't lose my citizenship over this. We put in a good effort, really we did. :D  

The other thing I decided to do with my littles was a project that I found on the Family Fun website and you can see here. A little watered down acrylic paint and some straws. You put a dot of watery paint on your paper, then with the straw, blow on the paint and it spreads to look like fireworks. Fun and easy!  

Aiden painted a flag in the top corner of his too! 

To those of you who live in The United States, Happy Independence Day, have fun and be safe. To those of you who do not, I hope that you have enjoyed this little bonus feature, and even if you aren't celebrating our holiday, I hope that you are having fun somewhere. As promised, tomorrow I will be back with a "Traveling Friends" post.