Georgia History Week of 5/9/11

This week in Exploring Georgia we plan to cover lessons #4 through #7. We'll be learning about the Symbols of Georgia (did you know that Georgia has had 5 state flags?), the location, size, and weather of Georgia, and the land and waters of Georgia.

Our projects this week are: a salt-dough map of the state of Georgia. There are a few different methods for making salt dough maps, and since this project will be the first I've made, I decided I would check out a few different resources on the how-to's of salt dough map making. Some suggest letting the dough dry before painting. In this video they take another approach.
The video teaches you to roll out the dough and then put the map on top and cut out the dough accordingly. I like that approach better than putting the dough on the map and spreading it out.

Here is a blogpost from Teacups in the Garden on another method. I like the way she teaches labeling the map.

The other project we'll tackle is charting the weather for the various portions of the state of Georgia. Just this week, Bethany's Saxon Math lesson was on graphing, so this will be the perfect project to reinforce a useful skill.

I am enjoying Notgrass Company's Exploring Georgia. Their lessons are practical, doable, and Biblical. What a wonderful introduction to a state that holds so much of the Wright Family's history.

Exploring Georgia

Today we begin our study of the state of Georgia, called Exploring Georgia, by Notgrass Company. Exploring Georgia is a state study comprised of 75 lessons that include a Teacher's Manual and a spiral-bound Student Notebook. The notebooks are page after page of matching, coloring pages, map excercises, places for copywork, writing excercises about all things Georgia! See, we're headed to Georgia for about a month toward the end of May, and I couldn't think of anything more fun than finding a curriculum to help us make the most of our time there.

The beauty of homeschooling is that nothing has to be wasted.It reminds me of being a Christian in that Christ intends and desires to teach us through all of our experiences.

Today's lesson was essentially the reading of a long list of words describing Georgia: its features, landmarks, well-known businesses and people, and the like. The children are taking their knowledge and putting it to work doing a word search. I love word searches. THEY love word searches. There's something about looking for these specific words that will help them remember some of the facts about Georgia.

Our scripture for the day is Psalm 24:1, "The earth is the Lords, and all it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it."

This week we'll finish: Lesson 2 "The People of Georgia" (Genesis 1:27) and Lesson 3 "Meet Four Georgia Families" (Psalm 68:6).