Thursday, March 8, 2012

State Studies

My younger girls and I are beginning an in-depth study of the United States. We started out slowly this week by sing the Northern Border song on Geography Songs from Audio Memory. I love using these songs to help teach geography. When Amy (our college graduate) was in 3rd grade, she used to sings these songs when she cleaned the kitchen after supper. Allie and Paige are enjoying this portion of our study.

We are also beginning an extensive lap book. I've printed out some pictures of the states and flags for one section. The little girls are thrilled to start this book. They love anything that is crafty and utilizes markers and scissors. Madelyn and I learned a new shading technique for card making that she will be using for her book. It's hard sometimes to keep her interested in projects that don't over-tax the younger girls. She's such a good sport about doing projects that might appear childish, especially when they have a legitimate education value!

In history, we are close to completing our study of the ancient world in about two weeks. I plan on doing a study of the presidents for the remainder of the school year. It will be a great review for Madelyn and an introduction for the younger girls. We're hoping to see the Gerald Ford museum and Lincoln's home this summer, so I'd like Paige and Allie to have some knowledge of the presidents before we visit.

It's getting hard to keep focused on our studies each day and I think Daylight Savings time is going to put further pressure on our desire to be outside in the sunshine. We're going to continue to plug along, but I'm going to get everyone up early, so we can finish our day by lunch each day.

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