Hopscotching through the colonies

We are studying the Revolutionary War this year. (Writing this makes me realize that I need to update the homeschooling tab up there on top. I'll work on that in the next few days.) Especially with my younger ones (and ones who are still developing listening skills), I try to do as much hands-on learning as possible. This is why if you had walked by my front yard this morning you would have seen us all out hopping around our driveway.

In order to help everyone visualize the location and each name of colony, I drew them in a fairly large format on our driveway in chalk. Do you know how difficult it is to get the scale correct when you are doing something like this? Connecticut has never been so big, but the locations and shapes were relatively accurate. 

After it was drawn, and I finally convinced everyone to put down the sticks they were waving around (is anyone else driven insane by waving sticks?), we did several different things. First we just practiced finding each colony by tossing stones onto them... like hopscotch. Then I would name a colony and everyone raced to each one and tried to stand in it. This didn't quite work for Rhode Island, so each child putting a finger on it had to suffice. Last, each of us tried hopping through the colonies, only one hop per colony was allowed and you had to say the name of each colony as you landed in it. 

The only downside I can see to all of this is that we have now spent a lot of time with a map from 1775, which is a bit different from a modern one. This means that Vermont doesn't exist and that Maine is not Maine, but a part of Massachusetts. I may have to do an activity so they become acquainted with a modern map as well.

It's also difficult to take photographs of children hopping. A. tried, but all she got were photos that she was not thrilled with and didn't want me to share. The trouble with having a child who is studying photography is that she gets pickier about her own photographs and is less likely to let you put any old thing up on your blog.

So that was the good part of the day. The other parts of my day were taken up with cleaning up after the puppy. I think a vet visit is in order soon because the intestinal distress has not abated. She (Gretel) isn't dehydrated, I've been making sure she has been getting lots of water, but I don't think it should be continuing this long.

Plus I had to take a daughter to the optician to see if the glasses she accidentally sat on and broke the nose pieces off of could be fixed. Of course not. The entire front of the frame has to be reordered. From Spain. My checkbook is not happy. Nor am I for that matter.