American Government/Election Unit

After wrapping up our 1600's America unit with a visit to Plimouth Plantation in Ma, I decided to spend some time  learning about our government and the election process.  As with everything else in homeschooling , I began by gathering good books.  These are the books that we will use:

The Voice of the People: American Democracy in Action by Betsy Maestro and Guilio Maestro
Presidential Elections and Other Cool Facts by Syl Sobel
House Mouse Senate Mouse by Peter Barnes and Cheryl Barnes
Marshall the Courthouse Mouse: A Tail of the US Supreme Court Peter Barnes and Cheryl Barnes
Duck for President Doreen Cronin
Woodrow, the White House Mouse Peter Barnes and Cheryl Barnes
Shh, We're Writing the Constitution Elizabeth Levy
The Counterfeit Constitution Mystery Carole Marsh (this is just for fun that I found in my library)

I found two good web sites: Children's Books and Web Sites about US Government
Ben's Guide to US Government for Kids

I originally wanted to have the kids create lapbooks and I found one on Homeschool Share; however one of my kids made some very audible noises, so I improvised.  We used some of the lapbook resources and some information from Ben's Guide to US Government for Kids and made it into a book.( All I did was take the "lap" from book, and we were fine.)

We divided the book into sections:
The Constitution
The Three Branches of Government:
Legislative
Executive
Judicial
How Laws are Made
Election of the President
Electoral College

We left room in our books to add more information as we study about our government.  As the election draws nearer, Daddy will be in charge of up-to-date current information (he was a political science major.)