Learning the States and Capitals

We have been tremendously busy this school year with school work (obviously), therapies (originally 3 days per week, but now it has gone down to 2), drum lessons, Boy Scouts, AWANA, field trips, play dates, doctor/dentist appointments, soccer, basketball, chores, and just living life. So, I haven't had much time to sit down and share our schooling adventures with you. But, since things seem to be slowing down a bit (at least for now), and we are in a much better place with our routine, I want to take a little time to share what we are using to learn the States and Capitals this year...



We started our year by learning about our Illinois State history. We used this book, Writing A State Report, to help us with that. This was actually scheduled at the end of last school year, but we didn't get around to doing it and started this year off with it instead. This, along with some "About Me" pages, were a good way to start out the year in a light, fun way. 



For memorizing the states and their capitals, this CD from Audio Memory Publishing has been very helpful. The songs can be a little annoying, but they really do help the kids to memorize.



 

JJ thought the singers on the CD sounded weird and didn't want to listen to them at first. They do sound a little high-pitched, sort of like chipmunks. But, then, EL colored and cut out some pictures of dolphins from a coloring book and wanted to make popsicle stick puppets out of them. To her, the songs sounded like dolphins singing. So, ever since our 2nd day of playing the songs, she and JJ have been making the dolphins dance and sing along as they "swim" through the states. It was a blessing that EL came up with this idea. She really saved the day. (They have also used fish and birds to sing the songs.)  



We are also using this workbook to help us learn more about the states, U.S. Geography, develop map skills, and for some critical thinking and reading comprehension.



This is one of the pages inside the Twin Sisters States and Capitals Wipe Clean Workbook. Here, the kids are using dry-erase markers to match up the states and capitals we have already learned. In the background, you will also see a matching game that was included with our curriculum from My Father's World.

 



We also have game called The Scrambled States of America that we haven't started using yet, but will be doing that soon.