King of Kings

We haven't been doing as many activities based around Iona's Bible readings lately, as other things seem to have filled our time. However, this week we began stories about Samuel choosing Saul to be King of Israel, then stories of Saul and David, so I thought a lapbook about kings might be a good idea. It's been easier said than done, though, as I can't find much online directly about that.

I started by discussing with Iona what God said in our children's Bible about how Israel shouldn't have a King as he was their King. From that we made a picture of a crown labelled "God is our King":

I drew a crown shape on sugar paper, then Iona helped me stick bits of kitchen foil onto it, followed by a "fur" edging of cotton wool. I'd wanted to decorate the crown but didn't really have anything suitable so the picture had sat around all week waiting for inspiration. Then yesterday we visited my husband's family (now I can finally drive again after my heart operation) and Iona got her Christmas present from one of her aunts. It was a Grafix Glitter Art Chest , which turned out to be absolutely perfect for finishing the crown. We were able to put some fake gems on, along with some glitter, although we had to use our own PVA as the glue stick included in the set wasn't up to the job. Iona and I were both pleased with the result, though, and it's now decorating the wall above our computer.

Reading was a lot harder than I expected, too, with not many books at Iona's level available in the local libraries about kings or royalty. I extended the theme a little, though, and borrowed a book about leadership, Being a Leader. It didn't really explain what a leader was, but gave good examples of how a good leader should behave. I expanded on some of the examples in that book by reading Iona Taking Turns, which we also enjoyed. I did manage to find a lovely Usborne book about royalty, Kings and Queens (History of Britain), which we flicked through. It was too grown-up to read to her, but we looked at the pictures and I explained who people were. I hadn't really intended to start teaching Iona history until we'd introduced the concept by talking about her history, Mummy and Daddy's history, and back through her grandparents' experiences, to try to make the concept more real. However, I've been doing that informally, and I made sure to look through the Usborne book backwards, so we could begin by looking at the present Queen, her son who will be King, and his son, an even more future King who we've been talking about getting married in 2 months. My plan in borrowing this book is to use it to draw up a time chart with Iona, showing Kings and Queens throughout Britain's history, with other key events added as we look at them (including such important events as Iona being born!). What I'm not sure is where I'll put it. I've heard that other home educating families put them up in the hallway, but we don't really have enough bare wall anywhere in this house.

Online, I found a few useful printables. Sunday School Fun Zone had a good colouring page of Samuel anointing Saul, while DLTK had a K for King to assemble; Iona liked sticking the pieces on which I cut out for her.

She was able to name this letter when I asked her what it was, and we talked about how the word "king" begins with a K.

We have looked through her Spanish picture dictionary, and found the Spanish words for "king", "queen", "prince", and "princess", so I'm planning on making a mini book of some sort to illustrate this. I'm also thinking of doing something with Iona about "The Lion King", and probably "Old King Cole" to finish this study, and I will hopefully be able to put photos here of the finished lapbook.