Welcome to Our Checks and Balances Homeschool Social Studies Course

Getting Started with Our Checks and Balances Homeschool Social Studies Course

Checks and Balances is a four-week mini-course that introduces the responsibilities of a government and its citizens. Checks and Balances homeschool social studies lessons use text, activities, puzzles, and copywork to teach about the branches of government, the Electoral College, and more.

Overview

• 4 weeks
• Includes text-based lessons, activities, optional lapbooking templates, copywork, links to additional information, and review puzzles with answer key
• Grades 5–8

Supplies Needed

Corresponding lessons on SchoolhouseTeachers.com; journal for notetaking and research.

What to Do

Go to Class Lessons and download the lesson plan and lessons file. Start with the Day 1 assignment. Follow the instructions each day on the lesson plan and check them off when completed.

Course Sample for Our Checks and Balances Homeschool Social Studies Course

To view a full sample of this course, click here.

Checks and Balances
Week 1: Government and the Executive Branch

What is a government? Let’s take a look at the definition of government. Oh, not in today’s dictionary. Let’s travel back in history and use Noah Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828:

Government, n. Direction; regulation. These precepts will serve for the government of our conduct.

1. Control; restraint . . .
2. The exercise of authority; direction, and restraint exercised over the actions of men in communities, societies, or states; the administration of public affairs, according to established constitution, laws, and usages . . .
3. The exercise of authority by a parent . . .
4. The system of polity in a state; that form of fundamental rules and principles by which a nation or state is governed, or by which individual members of a body politic are to regulate their social actions; a constitution, either written or unwritten, by which the rights and duties of citizens and public officers are prescribed and defined . . .

Discussion

Let’s discuss some of the great principles found in these definitions.

1. Where does government first start? That’s right—in the direction, regulation, control, and restraint in our own life.
2. Where should the precepts for our own self-government come from? Right again—God’s Word! Parents have the responsibility to teach and train their children in these precepts (Deut. 6:7) and govern their children well.