Kings and Queens and a Dream Come True : )
I have to teach governments as a Social Studies unit this year… governments to grade 5 students. First of all, we live in a country with one of the most corrupt governments in the world. How do I explain responsibility and accountability when we have no REAL example to follow? Second of all, my students don’t remember anything about the government of any previous country they have lived in. We can’t even play the hypothetical game!! How do you teach anything to 10 and 11 year olds if they have no examples, background knowledge, or application practice???!!! Hahaha. Needless to say, this unit is a struggle. (Did I mention I don’t even have a book to teach out of??)
So today I introduced Monarchy. HA! There are only very few true Monarchies in the world … some countries in Africa and Saudi Arabia (sort of). I had to carefully explain why the Queen of England does not count because they act more like a Republic/Democracy and she has no real power. How can I teach Monarchies if there ARE no examples in the world and the examples we have are false?! HAHA.
I decided to make it simple. We studied the US Constitution for Constitutional Governments: Democracy, Republics, and Constitutional Monarchies. The kids wrote a constitution for the groups they sit in. Next, I introduced Monarchies. We discussed that ‘technically’ we don’t have a good example in the present day. We talked about why that might be and now each group has their own king or queen that is ruling over them. The king or queen picked one person to be their Privy Council and now the commoners have to live by the king or queen’s laws. Kind of fun to watch.
The best part of this whole explanation of Social Studies is that the kid who makes my life a nightmare has been punished by his king and now must remain silent for the entire day. HAHA! The kid cannot speak - a dream come true for me! God is good in such sneaky ways! : )





























