"Flag Week"

After going over some general American history items over the week end, we officially started our USA unit on Monday June 14th--Flag Day. Of course this lent itself to talking about our country's beautiful waving emblem--Old Glory. First we studied the history of the flag by dabbling in a little Revolutionary War History. However, our discussion of the war was brief, and then we mostly focused on the making of the flag and how the flag has changed over time. We also covered what the parts of the flag--stars, stripes, and colors represent. In order to bring the colonial flag to life, we decided we would take on quite the project-sew our very own! First we had to do a little research on the rules of making flags, learn flag etiquette, and of course figure out the dimensions, etc. The trickiest part of course was making the stars. One of our books, however, was very helpful in this respect. It talked about how the original flag that General George Washington brought to Betsy Ross had six-point stars on it. Betsy Ross was an accomplished seamstress; however, and knew a secret way to make perfect five-point stars. She showed Washington how to fold a piece of cloth so that only one cut was required to make perfect five point stars every time. Thus, Washington agreed to switch to the five-point star represented on the flag today. Luckily for us, after explaining all of this, the book also showed us how to make the one cut stars. Here are the kids practicing making five-point stars on paper.



We strung these stars over our windows for a festive look.



And here are the kids working so hard on our very own cloth flag. I let them do most of the work too, from cutting the strips, sewing them together, and ironing on the cloth stars we later cut out.





It took us almost all week to make our flag, but you can bet they will never forget what the colonial flag looked like, or what it represented. Here they are holding our finished product.



In addition to talking about flag history and sewing our own flag, we also used this week to talk about the pledge and to work on learning some of our patriotic songs. The kids mastered You're a Grand Old Flag, America the Beautiful, God Bless America, and even The National Anthem. (They didn't care much for My Country 'Tis of Thee). Actually, I think they loved The National Anthem the most. We read the story of Francis Scott Key and went through the words one at a time with our little dictionary. (It is amazing how quickly kids really do learn new words too. I asked Maddi a few weeks after this when we were reading Tuck Everlasting one night if she knew what "dawn" meant. She thought for a minute, and then said, "Oh, of course, it means early in the morning." "How did you know that?" I questioned. "From The National Anthem of course, Oh say can you see, by the dawn's early light." That was a reaffirming moment in time!) By the end of our discussion, I was telling them through my tears about the excitement Key felt as he looked through the fog and was relieved to see our flag was still there. What a moment that must have been for him. And how strong the spirit was in our little home school as I could bear testimony to the kids about God's hand in preserving this great nation! It was an awesome experience, and one that made me so grateful for our decision to home school! It's like I told my mother recently, my kids will take for granted much of their gospel learning. It may never occur to them that other kids don't know how God worked to preserve this country and to guide and inspire the founding fathers. It may never occur to them that other children don't automatically know the origins of the Native Americans, and so many other things. What a blessing the restored gospel and all of it's light and wisdom are! And how grateful I am to have been sustained by God thus far in our homeschooling experience so that I can teach my own children real truth as they learn of this incredible county! I do have such a testimony of the Greatness of this Country. I know God led righteous men and women here to seek religious freedom. I know the soldiers were aided by a heavenly presence in winning our countries freedom and the God truly did inspire the founding fathers to write a god-fearing, near perfect constitution for this country. One that would allow for the religious fervor that paved the way for the gospel to be restored in its fullness through the prophet Joseph Smith. A lot has happened since that restoration, but I believe that most people in this country still worship God Almighty, and I am saddened that one day this will cease to be true. I am afraid that day is coming too quickly, especially with recent legislation in this country to greatly weaken our constitution. What a sad and scary day when our constitution, in fulfillment of prophecy, will hang by a thread. And what a joy it will be when Christ Himself comes to reign again and establishes a perfect government upon the Earth. When will that be, I wonder. Hopefully sooner rather than later.