One of my favorite things about homeschooling my kids is the ability to let them lead the way. One thing my daughter has recently been asking to study is our state so the opportunity to review the Chronicles of __ State History Notebook, Grades 3-8 from Hewitt Homeschooling Resources came at the perfect time.
While she is maybe a little on the younger side {technically end of 2nd grade} for this, she has been loving it. One thing she has been learning a lot is how to not only research the information you need, but also to only include the relevant information instead of every single word and fact that she finds about something. I’ve been enjoying learning about the changes to our state flag along with her. What you receive is a binder full of activity type pages for your child to complete. We aren’t even a quarter of the way through this yet and my daughter is already planning to do one for Wisconsin, then Florida so it’s safe to say that she likes it.
This Chronicles of Minnesota book encourages my daughter to dig deeper than just what the state flag, flower, bird, etc. is. It is broken down into different sections – Facts, symbols and emblems; Geography and population; Industries and Jobs; History and Government; Misc., Field Trips and Photographs and an award at the end.
I love that it encourages your child to interview different people in the state. What a great way to discover how things have changed from the past to the present by interviewing and elderly person born in the state and a newer resident. Not only do they research but they also get to create their own things. They have the opportunity to create a historical skit, a state newsletter, and so much more. I really love that there is a spot in the history section to create a timeline of your state. We have a wall of timelines so we will add this when it’s finished.
The field trip section is awesome. The pages for different field trip ideas include preliminary research, questions to ask, new vocabulary and follow-up activities for it.
Pretty much everything you can think of to learn about your state is included in an easy to complete binder. The best part is that you don’t have to go in order. If you are visiting the state capital – go through some of the government pages to learn more about it beforehand.
Hewitt Homeschooling Resources offers more than just this Chronicles of your State notebook. Find out what some other folks have to say about the products they reviewed by clicking the image below.
