50 states Concept 1 Unit 1 9-11

With the move and everything else that has been going on we are still only in concept 1 9-11 MBTP  . We are nearing the end of Unit 1, the 50 states. It was one of the units she looked really forward to, and with all the recent traveling it really was very enjoyable. I had many people tell me, there were better ways to study the 50 states and I can’t disagree that there are about a million cool ways you can learn about them (traveling probably thee best anyways ) but for bookworms like us, this way was pretty fun, too.

The book Smart About the Fifty States (Smart About History) is used throughout the unit. It is made like a class report and every student reports about a few states or one specific region. So it really feels like reading a class report and like the book was written by kids, which again makes it easy to understand for kids. She was able to pick out information easily and gather facts quickly.
Since we had purchased the complete 9-11 curriculum we also received a a super fun game , the Scrambled States card game. It is such a fun game that we have played it over and over again and  I loved that it was so easy to understand that little sister was even able to join us.  We had some fun family game nights and I am sure this game will be played many more times.

With starting 9-11 we also hit a major milestone and a big change with MBTP. Now we are working with the independent student books, which means all the lessons are completely directed towards the child. No more, tell your child to do this, or that. On the one  part, super cool…. On the other, a lot to get used to !  Luckily ( so far, at least ) this seems to work out well, and she is very happy to work on her own. I am not sure how it will work with the later units, but of course if needed there is always the parent book in the back to refer to. So far, I love that I can send her off with her studies, and she will work through the activities and check mark them when finished.  Both kiddos have also just recently gotten their own laptops so now all the individual research projects are easily taken care off.

Since we are quite a bit behind I feel like we need to skip a little here and there, but since she is in charge, she also gets a bit more to say on what to skip and what not. This was something I really kind of wanted to skip, but after she saw the word cookie and decorating this battle was over and I just agreed to make the cookie for the western US states 😉 What the heck.. it’s Christmas time anyways and I pretty much had the baking stuff still out from the day before. I made a double batch and we had plenty of cookie dough left to make Christmas cookie’s with cookie cutters and little sister was super happy about decorating cookies as well !

Here is a super simple sugar cookie recipe that will work. We simply cut out the state map provided with MBTP and copied it on parchment paper, rolled out the dough and cut it out on the dough. Since it’s a rather large piece we made sure not to roll it out too thin, adjusted the baking time a little and stuck the cookie in the oven. We decorated with food coloring, sprinkles and chocolate chips 🙂

Total Time:
2 hr 25 min
Prep:
2 hr 15 min
Cook:
10 min

Yield:approximately 36 2-inch cookie
Level:Easy
Ingredients
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup (or 1 stick) butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2 -1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Salt to taste
To decorate: 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
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Directions
In an electric mixer cream the butter with the brown sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs one at a time, mix well. Sift together the flour and salt, add it to the wet ingredients beating until just incorporated. Place the dough in a 1 gallon size plastic bag. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours and up to 8 hours. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. On a lightly floured board roll the dough to approximately 1/4 inch thick. Remove rolled dough to a lightly floured board and using any shape cookie cutter cut the dough into shapes. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 7 to 10 minutes (depending on the size of the cookies). Remove to a rack and cool before decorating. Place the rack with the cookies over another pan to catch the excess chocolate. Put the chocolate in a quart size plastic bag. Place the bag with the chocolate in a saucepan with hot water. Allow the chocolate to melt, squeezing the bag to mix occasionally. Snip one of the corners off and drizzle chocolate over the cookies. Allow chocolate to set before serving.

So much for now, I will post some fun stuff about the Poetry Unit that we are also currently working on, soon !