50 Nifty United States!

Well pretty quickly into this venture I realized we would do really well with Unit Studies.  I think it was when I was talking to the kids about their cousins moving from Kansas to California, then our weekend trip to St. Louis to meet them, coupled with the weekend trip my Geek comic loving husband took to comic fans favorite convention, Comicon in Chicago when I began to realize these words had no real relevance to my children.  They were desperately lacking in terms of Geography.  And while my initial aim when we began the homeschool journey was to focus first on the very basics (reading, writing, math) before introducing any other subject, I realized I could "juggle" it in a sense where we could still do those basics, but perhaps intertwine it with a theme where they would be learning something else interesting and new at the same time.  I didn't know then how well it would turn out for us, but since I introduced the "50 States" Unit theme, we have learned SO much and kinda secretly snuck in the basic as well as other subjects simply by covering such a broad unit theme.  :-)  While I happily laminated a US Map to decorate our classroom with, I began brainstorming of ways we could bring the map to life.  I started thinking, "could we visit each of these states?"  "Is that a possibility for us right now?" While I decided that may be a bit aggressive of a goal, I realized it might be easier to make friends with people in each state, maybe pen pals and that's when I found "postcard kids", a group of people around the world that happily exchange postcards, many for projects just like ours.  So we set out a goal to swap postcards with another child in each of the 50 states.  When we get a new one, we put a sticker on our map.  The kids LOVE receiving them and seeing what each child wrote on their card; some leave interesting facts about their state, others tell us about themselves. 

The even better part for me is that my kids get in their own "writing" time by composing their own postcards.  Plus they are learning about the basics of mailing a letter, where the name and address goes, stamp, return address, etc. 






and whoever gets the classroom job 
 of "mailman" LOVES checking the mail for new postcards! They all love taking their own postcards out. :-) 

I decided to choose spelling words for them based on our Units and their levels so for example Logan is learning how to spell each and every state, while Gabe and Cayleigh will get easier choices like, map, state, flag, etc. We also began making our own flashcard game.  Each of the kids were involved in making the cards so they seem to be very invested in the project.  We played once and had a lot of fun.  It helps us to recognize the state shape and then to match up the state to it's capital.  The best part is I found State shaped silly bands for prizes as they matched them up!  They LOVED it! :-)

Then I decided to have each child research and present to the rest of us a new state each day (research, public speaking) and they are doing great!  We learn basic things like what the state flag looks like, the state nickname, capital, flower, bird, etc. (Speaking of, did you know that 7 of the US states have a cardinal as their state bird?)  We also chose to incorporate the state quarters in their research and we learn about why each state chose the design they did.  Initially for my younger ones, this opened doors about coins and counting them (Math), and now we are even collecting them.  This opened even more doors as we learned because most states choices involve a great deal of history, geology, environmental science, political science and random geographical facts about each state. Once they are done presenting their papers, we laminate them and are compiling them for an awesome State book (publishing) we can save and treasure forever.  Now, I've just gotta figure out how to bind it!! We found a fun book 
 that tells interesting facts about each state that Logan (reading) to us while I drive us to the park on park days to get our social time out with other homeschoolers and I quiz them after each state to see if they were paying attention (reading comprehension).  Speaking of Park Days, I thought I would post a few pics of their newest friends and fun they 've had there. 

On Weird Science Wednesday (we came up with fun "Special Area" things to do each day), we do fun science experiments (from our 501 Science Experiments book) 
 and try to tie them in with our unit, so one week in our newly created outdoor classroom,
we "made mountains" (since we just discussed the mountain ranges on our maps) trying out different natural elements to decide what made the most solid structure.  It got messy fast, but the kids really enjoy getting this type of hands on learning (who doesn't?). 

 

Each child collected an object (rocks, acorns, sand, dirt) and they built a mountain out of it.  We dumped water on each to determine which held up the most to the weather.  Then we decided to mix them all together and see how that held up.  That one was the most fun for them as they got to get really messy and team up together to make it extra strong!  

By the way,we are REALLY loving our outdoor classroom!  :-)

I found a really cool game called 10 days in the USA and we play that on "Thinking Game Thursday", it really helps all of us to have a better understanding where each and every state is located.  We like it so much, we plan to keep it just for a family game night after the unit is over.  :-)  I also found a 50 States cookbook (health, practical living, home economics) where on our final week of the unit, we will create and taste test dishes from each of the fifty states that they are famous for.  :-)  We have  also been learning a new song called "50 Nifty United States" (music), which we plan to sing in front of some neighbors and friends (performing arts).  So you see, this is why I have fallen in love with the idea of unit studies.  Everything is woven together so it means more to the child learning.  Dots are being connected.  We love it so much the kids have been making their own "unit theme" ideas.  I have placed them in a jar which we will draw from to dictate our next unit.  There will be certain times of the year I will choose relevant unit themes however, to connect the dots even more if that time of year has a focus on something we can learn about. 


Our next Unit?  Halloween, of course!  We will keep that one going the entire month of October with a special focus on different aspects like Week One: Mummies & More (Egypt), Week Two: Creepy Crawlies (Bats, Spiders, Rats), Week Three: Candy (how it's made-candy making class, field trip to candy factory, science with candy), Week Four: Skeletons (Human Bones).  Needless to say, we are pretty excited for October!!


And just as a funny way to close each post, I'll show you some of the fun things Tori got herself into while we were knee deep into homeschool....:-)

Covered in Maple Syrup from her head.....

to her toes!!!