Mom2OandE Posted September 5, 2012 Share Posted September 5, 2012 So I purchased Road Trip to cover our US State Study. I was very excited about this and really focused our theme on it in a lot of things. My kids do not seem to be enjoying it. It's also a lot. We are doing it two days a week (2 states a week) and aren't even doing most of the activities. I do like the books she recommends. I'm thinking of switching things up next week. I'm thinking of tackling it one day a week as a region and spend a month or so on each region. I wouldn't worry about state reports but instead let the kids tour the places on the internet. At the end of each region maybe an art project. Of course we would still work on memorizing the states and capitals and do some games. I guess overall just being more flexible with it. Has anyone done this? Do you think it would work? Any other suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skeeterbug Posted September 5, 2012 Share Posted September 5, 2012 I haven't used Road Trip USA, but I am using her Expedition Earth. It is scheduled as 5 days a week, one country a week. That's way too fast for us. Instead I print off her page of lesson plans and use it as a checklist. We don't do everything on the list and we don't do it everyday. We spend 2-3 weeks per country. I do try to include a craft and a recipe for each country, those are the things that make it memorable. It will take us longer than a year to complete it, but I don't have any reason to do it in just one year. I think the way you are thinking of doing it sounds great. You can make it work for you. I own Road Trip USA and have briefly glanced through it but haven't used it. I wouldn't do it at her pace, but that means I wouldn't get through it in a year either. If your kids aren't enjoying it then tweaking it sounds like the right thing to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpklehm Posted September 5, 2012 Share Posted September 5, 2012 :bigear: I'm interested in hearing what others are doing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Embassy Posted September 5, 2012 Share Posted September 5, 2012 We are doing something a little like you describe. We are taking a virtual road trip around the USA and Canada. I wrote details about how it will work for us here. That reminds me...I have to go and enter their starting positions. They drew their starting state/province today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomatHWTK Posted September 5, 2012 Share Posted September 5, 2012 Here's another recent discussion on the topic. I mentioned some of the resources we are using in a post there, as did others. You might find something you like. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angelmama1209 Posted September 5, 2012 Share Posted September 5, 2012 2 states a week is definitely too fast. we did 1 state a week, 3 days a week and did use additional resources, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted September 5, 2012 Share Posted September 5, 2012 Just to give you a fun resource-- We like Cooking Up US History. It has recipes by stages of history, but also has a neat part where different regional US recipes are explored! It'd fit right in with your regional approach. There are also research suggestions and more books listed you can use to do that research, but you don't have to. :001_smile: Cooking Up US History Table of Contents You can click on the ToC and see various examples of recipes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom2OandE Posted September 5, 2012 Author Share Posted September 5, 2012 Thanks for your feedback. I do like the virtual road trp that was posted and I'll be sure to check out that book. I'm traveling this weekend to seem my mom and gram (who is dying unfortunatly) and I think I'll use my kid free airport time to really think about all of this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom2OandE Posted September 5, 2012 Author Share Posted September 5, 2012 Just to give you a fun resource--We like Cooking Up US History. It has recipes by stages of history, but also has a neat part where different regional US recipes are explored! It'd fit right in with your regional approach. There are also research suggestions and more books listed you can use to do that research, but you don't have to. :001_smile: Cooking Up US History Table of Contents You can click on the ToC and see various examples of recipes. I went ahead and ordered it. I even ordered another one I saw. I think I need to make it more hands on and active. I need to spice it up and this just might be the best way! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mama2Many4 Posted September 5, 2012 Share Posted September 5, 2012 So I purchased Road Trip to cover our US State Study. I was very excited about this and really focused our theme on it in a lot of things. My kids do not seem to be enjoying it. It's also a lot. We are doing it two days a week (2 states a week) and aren't even doing most of the activities. I do like the books she recommends. I'm thinking of switching things up next week. I'm thinking of tackling it one day a week as a region and spend a month or so on each region. I wouldn't worry about state reports but instead let the kids tour the places on the internet. At the end of each region maybe an art project. Of course we would still work on memorizing the states and capitals and do some games. I guess overall just being more flexible with it. Has anyone done this? Do you think it would work? Any other suggestions? You may want to check out the U.S. Geography Curriculum that I put together. It's free which is better. Just thought I'd throw it out there! http://www.tendingourlordsgarden.blogspot.com/2012/05/new-geography-resource.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bellaandmilly Posted September 5, 2012 Share Posted September 5, 2012 We are doing this as well. I thought two states was too much to do in a week, so we are just doing one. I think the way you are considering doing it sounds great. We don't do everything exactly the way she lays out, but definitely use it as a starting point. My girls love seeing real pictures of things, so we will look things up on the internet. We did a virtual tour of the White House for that lesson and did an oxidation experiment for the statue of liberty. We aren't doing the tiny little booklets at all, too much tedious cutting. And today we did Delaware, but I didn't want to do the bridge craft. Looks great, but where in the world would I keep that thing? Instead my girls painted peach blossom pictures with watercolors. (of course, my first grader said she didn't use the peach blossom picture, she used her imagination... so her picture was more of a colorful garden. :001_smile: ) We do like to look things up in the atlas and they are enjoying hearing the "If you lived" book. We also added a quarter map. My girls are all into collecting those quarters so I used my 40% off Hobby Lobby coupon and bought the map to put them in. We don't have a big school room so we have no space for an animal wall or a huge map. Instead we are using a notebook for seperating the different animals into families and we have a small map where we put tiny star stickers on the state we "visit". I haven't had them do a state report, We just talk about it. My first grader couldn't fill it all out and my 3rd grader would not want more writing. I might start filling them out myself with their answers just to have it written though. We are combining the two foods from Connecticut and Delaware because while studying Connecticut my 4 month old and I ended up with whooping cough (yay us, vaccinations and all) so that week was a blur) we will have clam chowder and crab cakes hopefully ts week. I have no idea at the end of the year if they will be able to tell me where most of the states are, but for now they are enjoying it because they like fun activities, hands on stuff. Hopefully they remember other stuff too, but mine are so young I figure all of this will be repeated again to them. Would love for them to remember that Delaware was the first state, but right now they might only remember that they liked drinking milk and painting peach blossoms. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angelmama1209 Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 We are doing this as well. I thought two states was too much to do in a week, so we are just doing one. I think the way you are considering doing it sounds great. We don't do everything exactly the way she lays out, but definitely use it as a starting point. My girls love seeing real pictures of things, so we will look things up on the internet. We did a virtual tour of the White House for that lesson and did an oxidation experiment for the statue of liberty. We aren't doing the tiny little booklets at all, too much tedious cutting. And today we did Delaware, but I didn't want to do the bridge craft. Looks great, but where in the world would I keep that thing? Instead my girls painted peach blossom pictures with watercolors. (of course, my first grader said she didn't use the peach blossom picture, she used her imagination... so her picture was more of a colorful garden. :001_smile: ) We do like to look things up in the atlas and they are enjoying hearing the "If you lived" book. We also added a quarter map. My girls are all into collecting those quarters so I used my 40% off Hobby Lobby coupon and bought the map to put them in. We don't have a big school room so we have no space for an animal wall or a huge map. Instead we are using a notebook for seperating the different animals into families and we have a small map where we put tiny star stickers on the state we "visit". I haven't had them do a state report, We just talk about it. My first grader couldn't fill it all out and my 3rd grader would not want more writing. I might start filling them out myself with their answers just to have it written though. We are combining the two foods from Connecticut and Delaware because while studying Connecticut my 4 month old and I ended up with whooping cough (yay us, vaccinations and all) so that week was a blur) we will have clam chowder and crab cakes hopefully ts week. I have no idea at the end of the year if they will be able to tell me where most of the states are, but for now they are enjoying it because they like fun activities, hands on stuff. Hopefully they remember other stuff too, but mine are so young I figure all of this will be repeated again to them. Would love for them to remember that Delaware was the first state, but right now they might only remember that they liked drinking milk and painting peach blossoms. :001_smile: check out this site for your quarters activities: http://www.usmint.gov/kids/coinNews/50sq/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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