How/when do you teach "civics"?

marypoppins · Post by **marypoppins** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 9:25 am

Hi ladies,

I've been wondering about this for a while....

I am remembering back to my elementary school days, and I know that I was fairly young when we were introduced to the way our government works with the 3 branches of govt., congress, etc., and if you were to pick up a BJU or Abeka text book, these things are touched upon in the early grades - introduced so dc have some idea about how things work here in the U.S.

I know it is fairly standard to have a 12th grade Am. Govt. course, but at some point *before* then, I think dc should understand how our govt. works. I guess my question is, does HOD address civics, and if so, when? I know Carrie was a teacher, so I'm sure she has ideas/thoughts on this topic. If HOD does not specifically teach these concepts, I'm wondering what you ladies have used to supplement in this area.

Thanks!

water2wine · Post by **water2wine** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 12:26 pm

This is a great question. I have just been looking into this myself. I hope Carrie answers this but I will tell you what we are doing. We are going to teach it with Preparing. The reason for that is A. I have too much I am adding to Bigger

And B. I think it would be great to teach with World History when it makes sense to me to study our government in the context of other government systems and also to see God's hand in the forming of the US govt. Also trying to teach the providential view here and so we are already starting that along with Bigger we added a book source that addresses that. So to me for what I have is to study actual civics with PHFG. And to me it fits with the theme of the unit name actually because it is a step in "preparing" them to go out into the world for His Glory.

So none of this is a HOD answer except that it is in my personal answer of how to link it to HOD.

HTH But hoping also to hear Carrie on this. She may have a great plan for it.

Tansy · Post by **Tansy** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 1:39 pm

In TX I noticed that is is a requirement to teach "citizenship" so ever since we moved here that has been added in every 3-4 months.

We go to the library and get out books at her lvl on voting, the flag, our government and we volunteer our time at the ministry and a nursing home. Girl scouts also helped with this! we did school and got patches.

I'm always one for doubling up so when I had to go to Austin for the adoption paperwork the building we had to get our stuffed stamped at was across the street from the State capital. So I printed out the state senate trading cards and we played senator bingo. Went to the kids museum and had a great field trip. Since I have to go yet again this February we shall do it all over again.

Melanie · Post by **Melanie** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:11 pm

Tansy - would you (or anyone else) happen to remember any of the titles of the books you've used? I guess I have been very neglectful of this area, it has never occured to me to teach "citizenship".

(slap to head...I could've had a V8..)

I like w2w's idea of waiting for Preparing as well...I'm not sure how much they would actually "get" at their young age, but with the election coming up it might not hurt to introduce the concept.

Tansy · Post by **Tansy** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:33 pm

No I can't.. ok wait I can.... most of them were "rookie readers" or "true books". I can help you out this way tho look in non fiction in these sections (dewy decimal system)

Voting 324.973
Flags 929.92
Congress 328.730
Oo wait I found one we used!
Meet my grandmother : she's a United States senator 328.73092 McE

and another one
Making a law / by Sarah de Capua. 328.73077 DeC

ok look for the author Sarah de Capua she must write for scholastic these are the ones we used because they we available and at her lvl of understanding.
"Becoming a Citizen" <---- my daughter was becoming a Citizen...
"Being A Governor"
"Voting"

Post by **Carrie** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 3:35 pm

marypoppins,

We actually do teach the 3 branches of government in "Bigger..." along with our overview of American history. The kiddos notebook on it. We also have patriotism and citizenship threads that run throughout the readings in both Beyond and Bigger..... There are topics on many of the Presidents and the office of President, quite a bit on the flag, discussion of how the Constitution was written, copywork and practice of the Pledge of Allegiance, discussion of and singing of the Star-Spangled Banner.

We also make a deck of cards with the names of the 50 states and their abbreviations as we read about them becoming states. We begin the cards with the 13 colonies, and move on to adding states that were northern states and states that later seceded as Southern states during the Civil War. We also show which states were added after the Civil War.

Anyway, I could go on listing, but you get the idea...Bigger... is designed to be an introduction to the area of citizenship within the meaningful context of learning about the men an women who lived it! The patriotism shown throughout "Beyond..." lays a great foundation for the civics topics in "Bigger...".

Eventually, we will recommend a time for you to do a state study, which is often done anytime between 4th and 8th grade depending on the state.

I hope that helps! With the structure of our guides, we pray that you will have leftover time each day to study any topics that you personally feel are important to add to your student's day.

Blessings,
Carrie

water2wine · Post by **water2wine** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 3:44 pm

This is actually what I have found so far if anyone is interested. I have none of these resources. So this is just from reading reviews and trying to find what I am looking for to teach my kids the view I want them to know.

Then I was looking at this for a general overview but not sure if this is it. But just for sort of learning the facts.
Government 101 Packet By: Laura Petrisin

And this one for original intent.
Christianity and the Constitution: The Faith of Our Founding Fathers
by John Eidsmoe (Author)

Then I was going to definitely link this book it links to world well and in my mind give a great sounding board to compare world to Us Govt and link God into all of that.
How Should We Then Live? By: Francis Schaeffer

So I am thinking that is my mini course I will put together next year.

I did not see Carries answer.

But I am excited to get to all that in Bigger and this is definitely the kind of EXTRA thing we are just adding. It's not really something I would have expected to find in a unit study.

It's something that is really important to my husband so I am trying to cover it well.

Post by **Carrie** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 4:37 pm

As far as books that do a good job of introducing civics concepts to younger children, I just wanted to mention the Mice series by Peter Barnes. Here's a link at Amazon to the one on Presidents: http://www.amazon.com/Woodrow-President ... gy_b_img_b

Other books in the series include "Marshall the Courthouse Mouse", "House Mouse Senate Mouse", and "Woodrow the White House Mouse".

Just some fun ones to consider if you're looking for extra civics for your young ones this election year!

Blessings,
Carrie

water2wine · Post by **water2wine** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 5:33 pm

Yeah! Thanks for listing those Carrie. That is about as far as I want to go this year. So we're going to check those out.

Here is a link to a site someone else gave me that is fun and very informative. We are using these this year and I think it would go for younger kids along with Carries books.

http://bensguide.gpo.gov/3-5/index.html

marypoppins · Post by **marypoppins** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 11:06 am

Thank you all! Carrie, each time you answer one of my questions, it is just further affirmation that HOD is the right choice for next year!
Thanks also to the other ladies who gave such great suggestions. I am going to bookmark this page for future reference.