Illinois

May's state was Illinois. I've decided what when we hit a state that our library can't help us with much, we should focus on some side interest that relates to the state - in this case we picked Abraham Lincoln. Besides Lincoln we were able to find a couple of farm stories - which were very interesting to me because my mom is from Illinois and her father was a farmer. Probably his father was a farmer and so on. So I've been to an old Illinois farm and associate that part of it with the state more than the tall buildings in Chicago.

Other than Lincoln and the farms, we watched a youtube about the Chicago fire (very interesting, done by the Weather channel - I didn't realize that although 4 square miles were burned, only about 300 people died - and the same night there were also huge fires in both Wisconsin and Michigan. The Weather Channel video attributed the source to the traditional "Miss O'Leary's cow" story, but a commenter cryptically suggested that the three fires were caused by a comet. Perhaps the world will never know...). I also taught the kids the little song:

Chicken in the ca(r) and the ca(r) won't go! That's how you spell - CHI-CA-GO!

They liked that a lot :)



We (that is I) made Abe Lincoln hats.  Caleb complained, "Mommy, you are doing all the craft", but I didn't realize in the planning that it would require as much from the glue gun.  We watched a video about Lincoln's presidency (it was a cartoon) and Caleb was really affected by learning about the civil war and slavery.




And we made little books about Illinois - instead of the Crayola state page, I didn't think it was that great for Illinois.



Our state outline collage - see the t-rex in the center?  That's Sue, we read a fun book called The Field Mouse and a Dinosaur Named Sue. 

For our meal we had Chicago-style Deep Dish Pizza.  It was fantastic, but I've never had Chicago style pizza before, so I don't know how it compares.

For dessert we had Mary Todd Lincoln's Vanilla Almond Cake. 

Yes siree, Abe Lincoln himself ate this cake!   It was good, but kind of a grown up dessert.  The kids weren't that impressed.

The next two states are Indiana and Iowa  - and both of them border Illinois!  After that is Kansas.  So geographically we are going to be in the heart of America for the summer.