What's round on the ends and high in the middle?

OHIO!

We are finishing up a fun month-long study of our home state. We are participating in some academic enrichment classes with our homeschool group on Monday afternoons. The theme for this month was Ohio. I was fortunate to be able to teach Ray and Adam's class. We made Ohio flags and learned a whole bunch about the symbols of Ohio (state seal, bird, flower, tree, motto, etc.), famous Ohioans, and Ohio wildlife. We learned about products grown, raised, and manufactured in Ohio. We made Buckeye necklaces and marched to music from the OSU marching band. We even memorized a poem called "An Ohio Pledge"by Marcia Schoenberg. (Check out The Ohio Reader, B is for Buckeye, and Cardinal Numbers all by Schoenberg.)

Ray's favorite parts of our Ohio study were learning about the Wright Brothers (who were born and raised in Ohio) and making a collage of Ohio animals and having the opportunity to touch some furs and skulls from Ohio animals.

Adam wouldn't tell me his favorite parts, but I think they were eating apples while we learned about Johnny Appleseed's journeys through Ohio and eating chocolate/peanut butter buckeyes. (He definitely takes after me!)

Today we culminated our Ohio study in a special way... with a visit to the Ohio Statehouse! My friend Kelly works across the street from the Statehouse in downtown Columbus. She also does a lot of work in the Statehouse. She invited us to take a tour of the Statehouse. Her mother and daughters met us there and I brought my nephew Carter along as he had today off school. So it was a big field trip adventure. I am embarrassed to admit that I've lived here all my life and I've never been in the Statehouse before today!

For the boys a big highlight of the tour was going through a maze of underground tunnels to get from Kelly's office to the Statehouse.

Our tour started in the map room where we got to explore this giant floor map of Ohio's 88 counties.
Before checking out the Senate and House chambers, we stopped in the beautiful rotunda where Kelly taught the children a bit about what goes on in this beautiful building.
Ray and I really loved looking up at the dome over the rotunda.Although the children are too young to really understand the significance of the Statehouse and all that goes on there, they really enjoyed the adventure of going there and exploring. We even ate lunch in the cafe! It was a great finish to a wonderful month of learning about our state.