The First Amendment, High School, Promote Your Blog or Business

Today, we watched a video on Youtube about Civics 101.  It was about 40 minutes, and I shared it in a previous post.  It was concise and to the point which I like especially for High School.  After watching it, and some discussion, I had Caitlin write out the 10 Amendments that make up the Bill of Rights.  Next Monday we will focus on the First Amendment.  All of my posts may contain affiliate links.

The First Amendment affords us a lot of rights.  Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom to petition.  But what do all of these mean, and how do they play into society?  That is what we will be focusing on next week.  There is a short video below, and then a book you might also be interested in.  This blog is not about right or left, secular or religious.  It is about information, facts and yes even opinions.  Which brings me to the image I shared.  That is actually a painting I did.  I am a Christian, so painting Santa Claus saying Happy Holidays can be a very hot topic of conversation, and free speech, plus the freedom of religion.  Caitlin will have to pick one of the rights covered in the First Amendment and make an argument for it, or against it, and why.   I am going into depth with her much more than I did with DJ.  Because, she doesn't tend to speak up, give an opinion, or use her voice.  I am hoping these exercises will be very good for her.  My other child is very good at arguing, lol.

I have focused so much this year on starting an online Health Coaching business, plus getting ready to do some Kidney Awareness classes, that this blog has gotten neglected.  Very neglected.  I am hoping to change that by increasing readership and engagement.  I will be starting a whole host of fun promoting, and link sharing posts for other bloggers, or small business owners. Other posts will be on fun topics for you to add your ideas to and get them shared.   There will be no rules as to what blogging platform, or where you sell.  The only rule is that you have to share other items or posts.  The first one will start tomorrow with a Twitter share.  If you are interested to be sure and follow this blog and check back in tomorrow.  I haven't decided yet for the other days, and it probably won't be every day.  I hope to see you tomorrow for the Twitter blog post share.

Olympics and Yard Work

This week is a kind of fun week for us.  Because we are trying to be sure and watch our athletes in the Olympics, and activities outside of the house, we have decided to mix things up a bit.  There will be very little traditional style learning this week.  For example, today the kids made their valentines for their grandparents, and wrote their monthly letters.  In case you are wondering what I am talking about, I decided as a part of random acts of kindness, they would write their grandparents a letter each month.  This serves another purpose as well, practicing writing skills for my fourth grader.  I am really pushing the writing this year for her.  To me she still has a long way to go, but has improved so much.  She only has two more letters on her friend list, and then monthly letters to grandparents.  So, I will be looking for some new writing prompts for her.  On the plus side her spelling has improved immensely. 

Then we watched some Snowboarding and Freestyle Skiing.  Caitlin's skiier made it through, but we didn't get to see that yet, and DJ's snowboarders were not in the slope style, but we did get to watch a young man named Sage, from the USA take the gold in that event.  How exciting! 

Then, after lunch, we were outdoors doing yard work.  The lawnmower would not start, so I planted some of the flowers I bought last Friday.  My new tire garden is coming along, I need four more tires, and they need to be painted.  We got some raking done, and picking up sticks and garbage blown around from this nasty Winter.  A lot of my plants were damaged this Winter, it has been so cold.  They have been trimmed back and are already starting to come back, bigger and better I hope.  I planted Peonies, Bleeding Hearts, and some fruit bushes today. 

Caitlin, and I, painted the cabinet nobs in the kitchen black, added a nice touch, and I started working on her special birthday plates.  I will share those later.

Last week we started the Virtual Tour of the United States, with Alaska.  I need to find some info on the Exxon Valdez spill for them to ponder.  If you want to add the tour to your Geography lessons, you can follow along on my Pinterest board.  This is actually to go along with our popsicle stick game to learn the states and the capitols.  We continue our other History work as well.

I have not yet decided for tomorrow, but will probably be similar to today.