How the States Got Their Shapes

We are home from another camping trip! I scheduled one post for our time away and then had trouble getting things in order for a post upon our return! We camped up on Lake Ontario at Fair Haven Beach State Park- a family favorite and it began and ended with severe weather including a "close" miss on an F2 tornado (which we would have certainly crossed paths with had we not delayed our departure that day and some too- close for- comfort lightning)! In between we had the earthquake and now we are wrapping up our wild weather week with a grazing from Hurricane Irene.  I have some great nature study to share with you from this trip. Look for it soon.

In the meantime, I wanted to share with you a book and accompanying TV show on the History Channel that maybe you have not seen. It's called How the States Got Their Shapes and it's based on the book with the same name by Mark Stein. The show was a special we caught one time while channel surfing and they ended up turning it into a series. This is a gem of a show! Run now to set your DVRs for this one. All of our kids enjoy it and the host, Brian Unger is pretty funny.

Since they keep quoting the author on the show, I finally sought to get the book at the library. So far E12 has read it and loved it and R11 is working on it now.

We record this show regularly now (along with the Price Is Right...don't ask!) and we love to watch it as a family. We learn lots of tidbits about the states and how they ended up with the borders they have. Some of them will surprise you!