Fruit Inspection

This year we are focusing a good bit of time on the ole U.S. of A. I knew part of our C.C. memory work for cycle 3 was going to be learning the states and their capitals, so I was thrilled when I ran across Roadtrip USA on another homeschool mom’s blog. It was very inexpensive for a complete curriculum that we can use all year!

The curriculum is very well organized. We not only learn the state and its capital, we also learn it’s history, flag, industries, famous people from the state and the foods that are popular there. There is a coloring page, travel logs, passports, recipes, and more.

Both of my kids have enjoyed the “Roadtrip” portion of our school days. I love it because each week is already laid out for me. I print a few worksheets, get a couple books from the library and voila…Geography class. It doesn’t get much easier than that!

In addition to the curriculum, I also bought a giant wall map (seen above), made 2 copies and had them laminated so we could use dry erase markers on them. The map came with a corny, albeit catchy, tune that names all the states and capitals. The maps come in handy because we are are also going to be learning the names and location of rivers, lakes, mountain ranges, deserts, trails, and other prominent features.

Emery’s favorite part of the week is Friday, when I challenge him with our States Flashcards. I let him challenge his sister at first but she wasn’t as, shall we say…passionate about learning them as he was, so I let him go head to head with me instead. Now, I know my states and capitals pretty well, so I thought this would be a good match up. Boy, was I wrong! He blew me away! I think it helps that he likes to play the “Stack the States” app on my iPhone. He not only knows the capital of each state, but I can give him a flashcard with nothing but a shape of a state on it, and he knows which one it is. Here he is a couple weeks ago, going through the cards himself. Nothing is on the front of the card except a shape, the state flag, and a tiny map that shows where the state is located. What a stinker!