And the presidents live...Where?

Yesterday, I asked my second grader where and what Washington D.C. was.

Her answer- which I'll get to in a moment- was a little disheartening.
Just what are they teaching kids these days in school, anyway?

Oh wait...in our family, I am the teacher!

But hold on... before I give home schooling a negative image, let me say that last year- our first home school year- we did in fact go over all of this vital information and much, much more.

I was so very determined to do this right, it being our very first year, and all...
So ...we read biographies of George Washington, his wife, Martha... studied the colonies, the pilgrims, Columbus, Betsy Ross, Abraham Lincoln...and even more recent figures such as Martin Luther King.
If it was important to American history, you can be sure we covered it. Honestly!

And geography? We did that, too. She actually enjoyed having us name a state so that she could try and find it on the big map last year.
We touched on the study of the hemispheres and continents... and even threw in all those oceans, for good measure!

And let's not forget that "talking globe" that her little sister got last Christmas. Nothing beats a little mini-world you can steer a plane around, as you learn about geography to the tune of putt-putt sounds.

And in my daughter's defense- she's actually a very smart girl. She even seemed to be enjoying hearing about pioneer kids or life with the Pilgrims, while all the time excelling in those faithful subjects, math and language arts.
Not to mention, memorizing all those Awana Bible verses!

Sometimes, I would even test her after we studied a subject, just to make sure she remembered it. And she almost always did!


Oh, where then, had I gone so terribly wrong?

After thinking this through the past twenty-four hours, I've decided that maybe...just maybe...she was able to retain only some of all the wonderful knowledge we gained last year. Um...after all...she was only in 1st grade. Hello? First grade!
My husband likes to say that he was just learning his ABC's how to tie his shoes in first grade! (And he has two degrees!)

Honestly, though...in my defense, it wasn't as if I completely overloaded the poor girl. Please don't envision me standing over her, tapping my ruler while I drilled those states and president facts. Our biographies were truly those kid-friendly kind.
And yes...she even had time to play with her My Little Ponies and watch mindless Disney movies on the side.

My other realization was that, just recently, her little brain was taxed this week while learning a new math concept. We're talking 2 digits multiplying with 2 digits, people...even my brain gets taxed just correcting the work!

So, I'm taking all of this into consideration as last night, at the library, I calmly added a children's learning video entitled, "Learning about Washington D.C." to the top of the stack.
I'm just so creative like that.

And, now that I've had time to think on all this, I am so much less flabbergasted at her answering what and where Washington D.C. is by saying,

"Isn't it that mall we went to?"

But at the time, my mind reeled...Huh?
Um...I'm remembered that there is the mall with the similar name as the capitol of our great nation, but no....try again.
"You know, Honey..." I urged. "All of our 50 states have capitols. But Washington D.C. is really important...and it's the capitol of somewhere very big..."

"Texas?"

SIGH...At least her granddad, born and bred in Amarillo, would have smiled.