Canada Day and Independence Day

It all started after we watched the video of The Scrambled States of America.

While we watched the video, I held up some of the States for her from her puzzle.

We had tried reading the book in January and it hadn't held Bear's interest.  The video, 6 months later, sure did.  And so a week later, at breakfast, I suggested to Bear that I might read her The Scrambled States of America Talent Show.
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 Bear had fun pointing out the States on her placemat (Target) as I read the book.  This led to work with her puzzle.
I would point to a State and say its name and she would find the puzzle piece (no help from Mommy).  She's always been very good at puzzles.

She came up with the idea to match the puzzle piece to her placemat before finding its spot on the puzzle.

Here she's showing me Texas.

And then she looked for the piece to match.

Then she placed the piece.

She had a hard time finding Nebraska, so when she did find it, she was so delighted, she squealed.

As she worked on the puzzle I told her about how the States started as colonies, pointing out some of them and that the colonies had a war, a big fight, with Britain because they didn't like her rules. The colonies won the fight and their independence and became the United States.  

We listened to the anthem on youtube (I'm actually Canadian and didn't actually know the Star Spangled Banner.)

I explained the lyrics to the first verse and we sang it a few times.  

Yesterday, I told Bear it was Canada Day, the day Canada became a country.  We listened to the O Canada on youtube and she learned the lyrics to that.  

Today, we made a very special cake to celebrate the two independence days and her mixed heritage.

 

Click on the buttons to check out what other preschoolers did this week.