"The Constitution State"

This summer has been full of amazingly fun activities and it has sped by incredibly fast! Along with beach trips, visit to the museums, garage sales, sleepovers, movie marathons and just hanging with friends at the pool, we have also been doing some summer school. I figured it would be a good practice time for me to get the hang of how long each lesson should be and good for the kids to get used to mom being the teacher ;)

Our friends, the Cannons, have been doing summer school with us, kind of a co-op thing. At our house we've started the program USA Road Trip which goes over the facts of every state. We only got through the nation as a whole: our flag, 13 colonies, constitution, the White House, regions of the U.S., map skills... (today was our first lesson on an actual state, but more on that in a second). While at the Cannons house we did math, reading, and learning how to post on a blog. Not to mention they have a pool so we took advantage of that as well. It was so wonderful to be able to spend time with their family! They are in the military so we really only get to see them in the summer. They move back to base when school starts, which for them is next week :( Seriously, summer goes by way faster now then I remember as a kid.

So today was our first school day without friends here. I have to say, some of the girls were not at all happy with the situation. They really, really miss them already. After they accepted the fact that no one else was coming (only took about 20min for them to get on board) ;) we had our lesson on our first state: "The Constitution State"! Which is.........Connecticut! We learned many interesting facts about this little state. For instance, it is named the Constitution State because J. Fiske wrote the very first constitution here, even parts of our U.S. constitution uses part of that one. I was probably the only one who cared about that fact (Brooke caught on to the significance but didn't really care lol) It is also the 5th state. What did they love the most? The very first hamburger was made here. For sure a fact worth knowing. Connecticut is also the birthplace of the first lollipop (which got its name from the creators favorite racehorse). Even more interesting is that you will find the worlds largest Dinosaur Museum here. Where you can see actual dino feet imprints. So in honor of this great state we ate lollipops, made fossils and for lunch had clam chowder. I know, I know, you thought it would have been hamburgers, but we just had them for Austins b-day dinner last night so the kids chose the next food dish the East coast is know for ;) And even with our 100 degree weather, it was still good.

 Look at them all sitting nicely doing their worksheets...you'd never have guessed this was just moments after they were all complaining that their friends were no longer joining us. ;)

 Austin making his fossils in clay.

 Kelsie figuring out what she wants it to look like.

 Becca created he own dino foot print. 

 Brooke experimenting with shells, leaves and berries. The pine needles were by far the neatest looking.

                                                          Shayna hard at work.

Someones fossils ready to be baked. Once they are hard, we are going to see about varnishing them so the imprint stands out a bit more...we shall see. 

There you have it. Our first official day of school without friends. It was fun and I hope they picked up some good info. At least I know they will be able to find it on a map ;)