Homeschooling History Lessons

This morning it was raining and kind of yucky out. A friend had offered to take the girls and I to a play date at our church. Unfortunatly, her son was sick and so she called an canceled. My children we really excited about getting out of the house, so I hung my head and shared the bad news. There was some mild wailing and nashing of teeth but eventually they came around. I decided to do something different with homeschool beyond the standard ABC's 123's to keep everyone interested. Russ and I are taking several road trips this year and have decided to use each trip as a homeschooling opportunity. This is as good a time as ever to start learning-so off we went.
I decided to talk about our very own state of Indiana. I found some coloring pages on www.crayloa.com that were very helpful. That got the girls interested. The page had the state bird, flower, flag, and capital on it. While my daughter colored the flag I searched the internet for information about the flag. This is what I found out. The state of Indiana was founded in 1816 the flag was not accepted until 1917. There are 19 stars on the flag representing the 19 states that were part of the Union at the time Indiana was accepted as a state. The first 13 stars on the flag represent the 13 colonies, the 5 stars represent the next 5 entered into the Union and the last star represents the new state of Indiana the 19th state of the United States of America! The tourch represents Liberty and Enlightenment. All very facinating. I grew up in Illinois and was taught all about that flag when I was in 4th grade. I only remember small snipits of that information- so this has been oodles of fun for me. The state bird is a cardinal. THis is also true for my old home in Illinois as well as Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, and West Virginia. Who knew!! I also taught them to sing Back Home Again in Indiana. I learned this song (not out of devotion to our lovely state) but instead as a show song for the Sweet Adleines when I was in college. So glad I did! I am excited to start study on the next state! We are heading to Chicago for a wedding in a couple of weeks so I think the next state to study will be Illinois~ good to share my roots with my kiddies!

Homeschooling can be so difficult sometimes and then there are days like this that give me such hope and encouragement. I am so glad that I stuck through the difficult times!