State: The Facts, State Study {Laurelwood Books Review}

We decided to cover state history this year. The State the Facts: a Guide to Studying Your State from Laurelwood Books is a perfect tool for digging deeper into your state’s history.

We recently received State: The Facts, a Guide to Studying Your State by Mary Ellen Tedrow. I wasn’t sure what to expect since none of my kids have done an official state study yet. I was excited to begin! On the back of the book, it states that even though most state studies are done in grades 4-6 this book can be used for any grade level. Two of my kids, ages 9 and 11 (grades 4 & 6) shared this book as they worked their way through it.

We decided to start out by going to the library and getting some books about the history of our state and some facts about the state. This was fun for the kids to get to pick out some books and bring them back home to work through the Little Yellow Book Study Guide for States.

I noticed right away that in the instructions for the books it stated that the book can be done in any order. We started out by coloring the state flag and then by writing about some key historical people for our state. The state study book provides almost 60 pages of worksheet type pages meant to be filled out by the student. There is ample opportunity for:

paragraph writing
fill in the blanks
authors and titles of books
a book report
famous men and women of the state
the state flag then and now
the US Flag
key facts about when your state became a state
questions about our country’s elected officials
finding ways to contact your congressman
key questions for the congressman or senator

The beginning of the book starts off with instructions on how to call the local librarian and what the kids can ask them. The first questions revolve around asking the librarian how to contact the congressman and finding out if they carry books about their state. The next few pages are about how to call their congressman and questions to ask as they interview them (Example: How long have you been in office?). This was the only thing I had questions about regarding this book. I might be in the minority, but I don’t feel comfortable asking my kids to call their librarian when most information can be found online nowadays, in fact, in many ways the computer and the internet are easier to use and quicker than calling a live person. I wonder if it is even appropriate to call the librarian for something like this, unless your child or family doesn’t have access to the internet. The phone number, the name and even the books regarding the local congressman are available online. I do like, however, allowing the child to do their own research and develop their skills to find out information independently.

I do think this state study is a great project for kids in grades 2-8, and I think there are some fantastic ideas in the book for engaging your child and encouraging them to learn more about their state.