Today's Geography Lesson

I love homeschooling so much and all the fun things the kids and I learn together! We are using the Geography Matters curriculum for geography (obviously). This year we chose to do U.S. Geography since we did World Geography last year.

Lionel is using the Trail Guide to U.S. Geography book, and Sweet-Pea is using Cantering the Country. Her book is actually a complete unit study, but we are using other material for the rest of her subjects, so we just take what we need for geography.

I really love this curriculum and highly recommend it. Lionel is in 8th grade and Sweet-Pea is in 1st, but the best part is that we can do it altogether. She does a lot of coloring, filling in the blanks and puzzles, but he does more intense research and fact finding.



Besides the books, we go online to research interesting things together, and we also use the DVD series entitled The States, put out by A&E and the History channel. Each state has about a 15 minute segment where they talk about the history and show what that state is known for. Pretty interesting stuff if you ask me! The kids love this little 'break' from their bookwork too.

Another thing we use is the Eat Your Way Through the USA book. There are oodles of recipes listed by each state - along with some interesting facts. We don't use this as much as I'd like to...only when time allows.




So...what did we learn today? Well, here are a few interesting bits of information we found about Kentucky...the state we are currently studying.

Did you know:

• Fort Knox has over $6 billion in gold!?! Unfortunately they don't give tours (or samples - hee hee), so don't bother going to check.
  
• There was once a law in KY that a wife could not rearrange the household furniture without her husband's consent. (I'd be arrested in no time, I'm always rearranging things!)
• The KY Derby makes the most money in the shortest amount of time out of any sport in the USA. The race is just barely 2 minutes in length (usually shorter) and so much money exchanges hands during that time. They also have a 10 day long celebration that brings in lots of money as well. Oh my!!!
• Lionel loved the fact that all Chevy Corvettes are made in Bowling Green, KY
• KY has a cave (Mammoth Cave) that is over 350 miles (so far!)
• The first KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) was made by Col. Sanders in Corban.
• The song Happy Birthday To You was written by 2 sisters from KY in 1893...what's even more interesting is that the song still makes $2 million per year. My question is, 'how'??
  

Here's a photo of some gold bricks from Fort Knox..just to tempt you. hee hee It's so pretty that it almost looks fake! Can you imagine picking up one of these 400 ounce bricks? Wow!! FYI...Fort Knox has also held various other items: The Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the Articles of Confederation, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and three volumes of the Gutenberg Bible.

Pretty cool stuff, huh?