As this school year comes to a close, we can’t help but feel it has been a ringing success!
We LOVE homeschooling! The kids are learning and growing and I love having a front row seat on this journey. Our family unity along with time spent playing and working together as a family is priceless!
The “Touring America in a School Year” theme has encouraged us to broaden our food horizons as we tasted an iconic food from each state. Some foods we will return to often are definitely West Virginia pepperoni rolls, Nebraska runzas, Massachusetts Boston creme pie, homemade doughnuts from Connecticut, chicken fried steak from Oklahoma, and Philly cheesesteaks from Pennsylvania.
Another thing I LOVED about making iconic foods was spending extra time with my family in the kitchen. Trying these new recipes often pushed me out of my comfort zone. The kids loved helping as often as possible! Tony even took the reins and made a couple of the dishes like chicken fried steak and Philly cheesesteak. Memories made in the kitchen are my favorite!
However, not all our culinary attempts were a success. We set out to make salt water taffy for New Jersey. First, I misread the thermometer resulting in under cooked goo… Second round I was multitasking, and the temperature rises more quickly after reaching 200 degrees… who knew?!?! We ended up with Jolly Ranchers. I have since bought banana flavoring to make a third attempt. Honestly, I haven’t made time for this third attempt. A good item to add to our summer bucket list.
We enjoyed watching YouTube videos of places to visit in each state. Marshall loved anything with a beach. Zaylee loved light houses and rollercoasters. Jozlin loved the state and national parks and now wants to visit an amusement park one day. Watching these videos gave Tony the itch to travel. I enjoyed sitting on my couch appreciating so many of God’s great creations!
We learned about at least one historical person from each state which was enlightening and a great taste of history.
We created Exploration Notebooks along the way. With every state we wrote down the state, state capital, fun places we would like to visit, and a little about the historical person from that state. We glued in the state flag, placed a state sticker, and glued in a picture of the iconic food from that state. Even Marshall who was in preschool would scribble notes, glue in the flag and picture, and place the sticker in his notebook. He LOVED this! I was glad to see that this worked from ages 4 to 38.
Our intention was not to memorize things but gain appreciation and knowledge about the United States of America. Even Marshall thoroughly enjoyed this study of the states. He is now obsessed with Mississippi and wants to visit there next. This natural approach was perfect for our family.
The simple curriculum added some spice to our homeschool. It covers a little US Geography, History, and Culinary Arts. We have walked through every step of this. It isn’t perfect, but it is fun. I want to share it for free through my shop. Click the link below to go to the product page.
I hope you enjoy Touring America in a school year with your family too!
💕 Terynn
Non-Affiliate links to some of the supplies we used: United States Stickers, State Stickers for Notebooking, & Notebooks