A Trip Across the USA in an Hour and a Half.....

This past Tuesday, Joy and I were lucky enough to be able to take an educational trip across the USA in about an hour and a half! We participated in our homeschool support group's annaul geography fair. If you remember from past years, we usually focus on various countries (Joy has done South Korea and India)....but this year our group decided to focus on studying states. Joy chose Alaska.

Although we have about 30 families in our homeschool group, only 11 families actually participated by exhibiting a state. There were others that came to support and listen and glean knowledge from the presentations. The states represented by the 11 families were: (US Territory) Puerto Rico, Tennessee, Arkansas, Alaska, Florida, Arizona, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Kentucky, Montana, and Texas.

The way it works is each family takes time to read and study about their state. Then they gather the info that they would like to present and put together an exhibit. This usually is a variety of exhibit boards, hands-on-projects, educational hand-outs, dressing in costume according to your country/state, and/or sharing a food from that area.......it can be as simple or involved as each family wishes. Then the children have 3-5 minutes for an oral presentation for their state/country. (When we studied countries, we also had our passports and each family had a stamp to put on each child's passport from that country). However, no passports were needed this time, since we didn't travel out of the country!

Here's a few highlights from our trip across the U.S.....

Joy with her Alaska presentation.....


She and her daddy had fun on this little project. During our study of Alaska, we did alot of reading on the Eskimos (Inuits) from Alaska. They built an igloo from sugar cubes with mortar made from powdered sugar and egg whites.


It was fun reading about the life of an Eskimo family. the Northern Lights, the Iditarod (dog sled racing), the animals of Alaska, and the beautiful landscaping of Alaska. I never knew that the only way to reach Juneau, Alaska, was by boat or plane! I know after studying it that I would one day love to visit there!


Here's Benjamin, Madeline and John Alex presenting Puerto Rico...


Dunnivan and Suzanna presented Arkansas (shown here with their mom and Dison)...


Weslea and Sydney presented Tennessee....


Isabella, Sophia and Alaina presented Florida....


Sarah presented Arizona....


Bobbi and Tyler presented Pennsylvania.....


Daniel and Ellen presented South Carolina and Kentucky (couldn't find them for the picture).....


I did get a shot of Daniel during his presentation of South Carolina...


Drew and Lilly presenting Montana.....




And Graham and Eli presented Texas......


As you can see the exhibits were set up around the gym.




The kids would sit in the floor in front of each display table as that state was being presented, then we would all shift around to the next table to listen to the next presentation. When it was over, everyone went back and visited the tables again, tasting the foods, reading the exhibit boards, and picking up hand-outs from each family that had them.


And here's Joy and her little sidekick....Lilly. We think she's pretty adorable! They were much pretty stuck to each other the entire time. You know how Joy loves little ones and I think the feeling might be mutual between them! :)


I think we had another successful year with our geography fair! I just love our little homeschool group and each and every family, and I'm proud to be part of it. I imagine we'll be back to countries next year and I have a sneaking suspicion that Joy will choose the country of China for her presentation........hmmm.......I wonder why! :)