After our visit at the Laura Ingalls Homestead, we had to put the pedal to the metal and travel through Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and on to Ohio. During our travels through these states we had our first sitings of fireflies – what an amazing creation!!! God is so creative and fun….fireflies are just an example of His creativity!
We used our hours in the car to learn more about the states. Another great resource we used was this book: The Man in the Map.
The books uses rhymes and pictures to help you remember the names and location of the states. We learned that Ohio is a drinking cup that is filled up by a never ending supply of water from Lake Erie!
Another neat little tip about learning U.S. geography - specifically the Great Lakes. The acronym HOMES stands for the Great Lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior.
We ended up in Mt. Vernon, Ohio where Jordan competed in the National Bible Quizzing Competition at the Nazarene College. He did wonderfully, placing 12th out of 232 teens ages 13-18 in his age division. A very big accomplishment for anyone, let alone someone in their very first year of teen quizzing.
Jordan's name on the big screen during the awards ceremony. The top 20 individuals received awards.
During the week of competition, we had a few afternoons to explore the Amish Country. It is beautiful, with lush green, rolling hills. We found it funny that in Ohio most people here have HUGE lawns….actually acres of pasture (I’m not exaggerating) that they mow for lawn and no fences. We even saw a guy mowing the field, where he actually had a horse, with his riding lawn mower. In Eastern Oregon we would fence those pastures and put livestock in them, or at least mow it and sell the hay. But in Ohio, everyone is mowing….all the time….. curious!
Come back tomorrow and see where we go next!
Very funny about the huge field/yard situation. Congrats to Jordan who we are so, so proud of. Great job sweety!
ReplyDelete