Last week we finished up a short, but successful unit on our state.  I think all involved liked the change of pace this time around.  Mahayla practically completed her readings, worksheets and projects on her own, while Caleb and I tackled his work at our own pace.  Here are just a few highlights.  (By the way, the camera that died recently revived itself to coma status.  It will charge enough to take two or three pictures as long as there's plenty of sunlight.  Until we can buy my new camera, I'll take coma over death!)

Completed notebooks.

A scavenger hunt of our county.  (I had a picture here and then realized that it gave too much information about us.  Sorry!)

This was fun.  Basically, I just wrote down facts concerning our county that I wanted the kids to know.  We went to the courthouse, city building and tourism office asking different people to help fill in the facts.  Afterward, we visited the cemetery to learn more about some noteable people buried there and attempted to visit our local museum.  (They were closed this month.)

Here are the scavenger hunt items:

 *Name three important historical sites.

*Find the names of two famous people from ___ County.  What made them famous?

*What important invention came from ___ County?

*Who holds the following offices?

     Mayor

     Judge Executive

     Chief of Police

     Sheriff

     District Judge

     Curcuit Judge

     State Representative

     State Senator

*What is the purpose of the tourism department?

*What offices are located in the Court House?

*What is ___ County's largest industry?

*What are three natural resources found in ___ County?

Field Trip Journals from Mammoth Cave.

They each had to learn about an animal native to KY.  Mahayla chose the raccoon and Caleb chose the black bear.  After preparing a diorama including the animal in a complete habitat, they had to give an oral presentation telling everything they learned about it. 

They also had to research a famous Kentuckian and give a first-person report.  I know you'll have no problem figuring out that Mahayla is Jenny Wiley, a pioneer woman taken captive by indians, who bravely escaped.   One of our state parks is named after her.  And of course, Caleb is Daniel Boone, the explorer who basically paved the way for pioneers to settle in Kentucky.  :)

After a week's break to catch up on some artist and around the world studies, we're off to medieval times next week!