Geography

Last spring, my kids starting working on memorizing the states and capitals. I purchased this set of flash cards which have been great! The front of the cards are color coded for each area of the United States. Each card has a close-up of the state, with a star marking the capital, a picture of the state flag, and a United States map, with the particular state shaded in black. The backs of the cards have all sorts of interesting facts, including the capital, the state bird, the state flower, etc. Both of my kids are now very close to having all the states and capitals memorized!

Inspired by Jessica (again!) and the State-by-State Scrapbooks she is having her boys make, I thought that would be fun for us to incorporate as we are finishing up learning the states & capitals. We did Delaware a week or so ago, and today we did Pennsylvania.

We are using the Discover America State by State series, along with Wish You Were Here: Emily's Guide to the 50 States, that I happened upon at our library. (We are so blessed to have a fabulous library here; they have all the Discover America books; yes, Jessica, I feel your pain and I so wish I could share our library with you!)

Also, just in case anyone wants to know, Seton Home Study School's 5th grade Handwriting book is all about the states! There are basic facts for each state, along with interesting information about Catholic cathedrals, shrines, and other points of Catholic historical interest.