Wisdom and Government - Weeks 1 and 2 of 4

Last week we started the government portion of our wisdom unit, actually early government.  There are four weeks in this subunit and we have divided it up as follows: 
Wk 1 - The state of the country after the war and just before the Constitution, George Washington
Wk 2 - The making of the Constitution, Parliamentary Procedure, Ben Franklin
Wk 3 - 3 Branches of the government, men who were present for the writing of the constitution
Wk 4 - Thomas Jefferson and Monticello

Here's the rundown of what we did at KONOS co-op last week:

• prayer and pledge of allegiance
• Each family reports on a portion of George Washington's life in a short drama. (Pg 29 Act # 2)
• Discuss Shay's Rebellion and Whiskey Rebellion using Bible to answer questions. (Pg 30 Act # 4)
• Make book from George Washington's Rules of Civility and discuss. (Pg 29 Act # 3a)
• Discuss Federalist Papers and read the first couple entries. (Pg 30-31 Act # 8)

And here's the rundown of what we did this week:

• prayer and pledge
• Each child shares either an epitaph or an acrostic that they have written previously this week. (Pgs 32 & 34 Act #'s 16 and 21)
• Have the kids tell what they know about Benjamin Franklin and discuss his printing business.  Make block stamps using wax.  This one was pretty difficult.  It was especially hard getting the wax smooth and even.  I would maybe try sanding the wax down to an even surface and then somehow heating it to make it smooth but I haven't experimented enough to tell you for sure if that would work.  This was a great activity and I would do it again but I would do some experimenting myself before having the kids attempt it.  For us it was definitely a discovery project and it took a great deal of our 3 hour co-op time.  (Pg 34 Act # 19)
• Learn about Parliamentary Procedure and hold a mock meeting.  (Pg 36 Act #'s 28-30)

All of our activities came from KONOS Volume II.  Let me know if you need help finding anything!