January was an unusual school month for us because a good portion of it was spent on the road. We managed to make quite a few of those days count for school with lots of reading and activities that the girls could do on their own in the car and stopping at museums and historical places along the way. We spent a full day in DC visiting the Natural History Museum, the American History Museum, the WWII Memorial, the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial.
We attended my sister's Coast Guard boot camp graduation ceremony. They learned about the Coast Guard (adding to their knowledge about the Army that two of their uncles serve in) and got a small tour of the base.
My plan was to stop in Philadelphia and visit the liberty bell and a museum or two there, but we were so tired that I just couldn't make it happen. It all worked out though because we stayed in Allentown, PA, which just so happens to be the town (then called Northampton) where the liberty bell was moved to during the Revolutionary War to hide it from the British. They have a small museum and an exact replica (minus the crack!) of the real Liberty Bell, but you actually get to ring this one! We read a few books in preparation for our visit, so the girls were really excited to see it in person. Emma Lee was even able to answer some of the questions our guide asked.
We also had a fun day visiting the Hershey's Chocolate Factory and learning how they make their chocolate - good stuff!
We jumped right back into a more regular type of school when we returned home. To go along with what we had already learned this month through our visits, we continued learning about some American history, some of our presidents, and the process of becoming a president. We did some of our own imaginary presidential campaigning, and Emma Lee and Kerri both did a little persuasive writing on why they should get your vote for president!
We also had fun learning about compound words through reading, games, and activities. (This Silly Milly book was a big hit with them.)
We even managed to stay on schedule enough to hit our 100th day of school on the last day the month! We had tons of fun celebrating the number 100. They made 100th day glasses, found balloons numbered from 1-100 and popped them in order, painted a picture of 100 gumballs in a gumball machine, figured out what all they can do in 100 seconds (they loved this!), made some predictions about how much space 100 drops of water would take up, made (and ate!) a trail mix snack made up of 100 things (sunflower seeds, nuts, pretzels, chocolate chips, etc), did a little 100th day graphing, and put together a 100 piece puzzle (that actually ended up being a 99 piece puzzle - oops!).
It was a great way to end a great month!
