State Flowers

I don't have a flower photo to share today, but I've been looking at flowers all day. In preparing for our 2008-2009 school year, I've been printing off color pages with state flowers and birds. I'm getting these from homeschool share.

Last fall, 6 started to ask what 1st grade would look like (he's always thinking ahead). He asked what we would do after our Nations study. He though for a minute, then suggested we study the states. This spring, as I started to think about next year, I decided he was right. We've enjoyed our Five in a Row studies. And since I pulled books from all 4 volumes to match each country we studied with our co-op, the books about America are the ones we have left. It will be a good fit.

A friend gave each of my boys a copy of Our 50 States. It's a beautiful book! We'll really enjoy using it this entire year as I've taken the road map from the inside cover as a way to schedule our calendar. We're beginning with Massachusetts in September and ending with Hawaii in May. We'll cover about half of our 50 states...and read many fun books along the way. I'm going to record our journey here. I hope I can keep up with it the entire year. I still have half of last year saved as drafts ready to post. I will finish those up as I'm able to add the photos.

In a way, this will be a virtual version of my dream RV trip. I'm not sure we'll ever have the money to take a real trip like this. But, if we get the chance, our notebooks will serve as fun travel guides.

This is the part of homeschooling that allows me to keep my 3yo excited about school (reading and coloring) and engaged with our 'group' school time. This is the part that I'm sure I can do. This is the creative part of me that comes naturally. The language arts and math have me a bit (or maybe a lot) nervous as I'll be teaching 2 kids next year. It's hard to have one-on-one time with each of my kids. If you've got any great suggestions on that...let me know.