The Great State Project

While we are done with Classical Conversations for the year, we are not done with homeschooling.  Over the summer Zippy is embarking on a fun exploration of the states.  I was inspired by the coloring wall map that I got for my birthday this past year.  As Zippy finishes a state it is marked in either red or blue (she is coloring in the rest in her free time, usually when I am reading aloud).  Because we only have a two and half months to complete as many states as possible, she is doing multiple states per week.

I really wanted Zippy to keep reading, writing, and presenting over the summer so she would not forget some of the great skills that she learned in Classical Conversations this past year. 

She is using the Sleeping Bear Press alphabet books as a starting point. We are so blessed that our local library has all of the states.

While these might, at first glance look like ordinary alphabet books, they offer a world of information in the side margins.  Each week Zippy picks 2 or 3 books to read.  Out of her selection she picks one to write a report on.  These reports consist of 3 topics (3 letters) that have a common theme.  For instance, in her Ohio report, her theme was nature and her paragraphs were on the buckeye, Holden Arboretum, and nature preserves, with introduction and concluding paragraphs.  She then chooses on of her paragraphs to give a short presentation.

The states that she does not do a written report she draws a picture of something that she liked about the state.  Check out Hawaii's picture below. I think this is her best yet.

In addition to reading, writing, drawing, and presenting she is also memorizing the state capitals. She memorized once when she was in school, but this is a nice refresher for her.  We add the capitol of the states that she chose for week to the prior week's capitols, that way she is building and reinforcing knowledge.