Peaches, Peanuts and Cotton...OH My!!

Today was a school holiday here, Martin Luther King Jr. The timing worked out great with our Southern region State Study. It was a complete God thing. When February rolls around and Lincoln's birthday is celebrated we will be deep into our learning of the Civil War. I'm looking forward to that one because Lincoln is one of my favorite presidents.

Well, this past week was certainly packed with learning, a field trip, a Biology dissection and some attitude problems here at home. Without further due I will give you a brief review of things.....

On Monday we visited the Yellowhammer state....Alabama. We learned about George Washington Carver, the peanut scientist. A remarkable life story of his and how he later helped the cotton farmers with teaching them about crop rotation and by planting peanuts and sweet potatoes to replace needed minerals in the soil that were lost. I had the kids label a peanut plant and make homemade peanut butter. Baba loved it. The others didn't think it was sweet enough.

On Tuesday we took a steamboat along the Mississippi river in Mississippi. This was our day of struggles and bad attitudes. I had the kids map out the river route on a USA map. They also learned how cotton is grown and picked. Just briefly due to the fact that they will be learning about this more in depth next week in co-op. We read a book about Eli Whitney. I pointed out that his invention of the cotton gin transformed the world.

Then we were off to pick peaches in the state of Georgia. We read books about Martin Luther King and did a few crafts. I don't know if you can tell what this picture is but it is two hands shaking. One is of lighter skin and the other is darker. The kids had such a hard time with this study on discrimination. They though it was silly to have separate playgrounds, schools and bathrooms just because of some one's skin color. They were saddened to hear of all the hatred that resulted too because of this.

On Thursday our park group went on a double field trip. It was the field trip of food. It was quite yummy too! First we went to Krispy Kreme Donuts. The kids got to watch how donuts are made and sample a glazed donut.

Next, we went to the Rain Forest Cafe and took a tour and ate lunch there. Here are some photos to share. The ones in the Rain Forest Cafe turned out a little dark. It was a neat place. The kids loved it and want to take Daddy soon.

Friday, the kids participated in a dissection of a star fish. Coco loved it and took it home to share with Daddy that night. Chip begged for us not to take it home. He was reliving the horror of last years' dissection of a rat. Coco took it home and shared it with friends and family to look at. Most girls hate this type of thing but not her, she loves it and finds it fascinating. I was the same way as a kid.

After the dissection we had a quick study on Arkansas. We learned that Arkansas is the only state that diamonds are found in. They actually have a mining area open to the public to dig for diamonds. Chip is already planning a family vacation to this state. He is planning on finding the largest diamond and selling it on EBAY. Where he found out about EBAY, I may never know!!!

I hope all of you had a great week. Tomorrow I'm hosting co-op. It should be nice we haven't gotten together with friends for learning for weeks. Sadly, today we had a family pull out from co-op for a short while. It will prove to be a challenge to act out Civil War scenes with only two families. Maybe one family will be the Union and the other Confederates. I know my kids will ant to choose the rebels. We shall see on this one.

May God continue to bless you where ever you are reading this from. Here is a list of books that we read this week:

-Welcome to the USA Alabama by Ann Heinrichs

-Y is for Yellowhammer: An Alabama Alphabet by Carol Crane

- George Washington Carver: The Peanut Scientist by Patricia Fedrick McKissack

- I like Peanuts by Jennifer Julius

- Peanuts by Selsam

-M is for Magnolia: A Mississippi Alphabet by Michael Shoulders

- Welcome to the USA Mississippi by Ann Heinrichs

-Cotton by Millicnet Selsam

-The Inventions of Eli Whitney: The Cotton Gin by Holly Cefrey

- Welcome to the USA Georgia by Ann Heinrichs

- Happy Birthday, Dr. King! by Kathryn Jones

- P is for Peach: A Georgia Alphabet by Carol Crane

-Picture book of Martin Luther King Jr. by David Adler

-N is for Natural State: An Arkansas Alphabet- Michael Shoulders

- Welcome to the USA Arkansas by Ann Heinrichs