Ohio!

It is time to do some catching up on my posts about the States. We have still be faithfully learning (though I did take a one week break as we were traveling so much we were hardly home) but I just didn't take the time to report. Around a month ago we studies about Ohio. It was a fun State to study and we enjoyed trying some of their foods.

Ohio is the "Buckeye state" with the Buckeye as its state tree. The kids were familiar with Buckeyes because it is a tree/nut that my Dad really likes (I guess when he was young and growing up in Iowa they had them their and he enjoyed collecting the shiny buckeyes) and this past fall he happened to discover a tree near the church building and he took the kids over to it and they collected a bunch of buckeyes. They aren't that useful but are pretty and shiny. We were trying to dream up a neat craft for them and meanwhile made the mistake of storing them in a plastic bag where many of them molded. We do still have a few of them around here though.

We made some "Buckeyes" during Ohio week. They are a yummy peanut butter candy that are pictured above along with a real buckeye.

Some of the other State symbols are:

• Flower: Scarlet Carnation
• Insect: Lady Bug
• Animal: White tailed deer
• Bird: Cardinal
• Beverage: Tomato Juice (I guess they make the most, I planned on having some as I really like it but I never did.)
• Wildflower: Large White Trillium. This is one of my favorite flowers. We had them growing all over at our last house and I fell in love. We only have one at this house and I know just where it is and I keep track of it each year. It happens to be blooming right now.

Famous People:

7 presidents came form Ohio (Second only in number to Virginia, I believe). They were: James A. Garfield, Ulysses S. Grant, Warren G. Harding, Rutherford B. Hayes, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley and William H. Taft.
Some others of interest were the Wright Brothers (They did go to North Carolina to test out their first airplanes), Zane Grey ( I have enjoyed some of his books, quite a long time ago) and Eddie Rickenbacker ~aviator (I read his biography last year and really enjoyed it.)

Ohio has a lot of neat history including being a vital part of the underground railroad. To see some historical photos go here.

One of the foods we tried was the Maid-Rite sandwich which I understand is a big thing in parts of Ohio.

My cousin Shelly who lived in Ohio for a while told me that Cincinnati Chili was a local specialty (though she said that she didn't really care for it and I have to say that we rather agree with her.). I decided we better try it so the above is the result. With this Chili you can have a 2 way, 3 way, 4 way or 5 way depending on what you have with the Chili.

If any of you have more information to share with us about Ohio we would still love to learn more. This week we are studying about Illinois.