I like to do some kind of "Interesting or Current Event" with my boys every week so I thought I would share what we are learning about. 
This week we are learning about the border conflict in the state of Georgia.  I had never heard of it before, but apparently this has been around since the 1800's.  Here is an excerpt:

If Tennessee's southern border were the 35th parallel - as Congress designated in 1796 - Georgia would have a share of the Tennessee River. But a surveying team sent by Georgia to chart the line in 1818 was a bit off the mark.
Historians say mathematician James Camak, who led the team, begged the state to provide him the latest equipment, but instead he had to rely on an English sextant _ an instrument more familiar to sea captains than land surveyors. Other stories say Camak's team was scared away by an American Indian party.
Surveyors now know that the Georgia-Tennessee border was placed about 1.1 miles south of where it should be. But that, surveyor Bart Crattle said, is history.
"Just because you have more accurate equipment, you can't start moving border lines," said Crattle, a Georgian who works in Chattanooga and is licensed to survey in both states. "Can you imagine what would happen to our boundary lines? They'd be all willy-nilly.
"It's correct _ no matter how wrong it is."

Interesting statement!  "it's correct - no matter how wrong it is."  That's a new one! 
Two side effects of making the 35th parallel Tennessee's southern line would be: Georgia would get a chunk of Chattanooga, and Mississippi would get a slice of Memphis.
I thought it was an intriguing story so here is what we are doing with it this week:
- I printed out the news story for the boys to read.
- I printed out a map of the the boundary in dispute for them to study
- I had them watch the newsclip from FOX news
- I made a ballot for them to vote on.  They can vote either that they think the border should remain where it has always been or that they think it should be moved to where it originally should have been.
Here are the links if you are interested:
News story: http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Feb08/0,4670,DroughtStateLine,00.html or
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/09/AR2008020902283_pf.html
Map of area: http://tinyurl.com/2cffvs
Video news report (watch if you can): http://tinyurl.com/2269g4
Enjoy!  Dee