The Gold Spike Ceremony was held at Gold Creek, Montana, on September 8, 1883, marking the completion of the Northern Pacific Railway. The last spike wasn't actually golden, but was the first spike drilled in at Thomsons Junction, Minnesota. The same person drove the spike at Thomsons Junction and at Gold Creek. Who was it?

• Train Printables
• Train Coloring Book
• Trains Theme Unit

I hope you enjoy the research question. To learn more September fun facts check out the September Fundays Calendar.

Six Flags caters to homeschoolers across the country each year by providing exclusive homeschool days for homeschooling families. The upcoming homeschool days are in California and New Jersey.

• 9/27/08 Home School Day at Great Adventure & Wild Safari, New Jersey
  Celebrate with other Home Schooling Families at Six Flags Home School Day! Ticket includes: Admission to the theme park and Wild Safari and exclusive all-you-can-eat-buffet lunch in the Old Country Picnic Grove.
• 11/7/08 Home School Family Day Private Party at Six Flags Magic Mountain, Southern California
  Six Flags presents the 13th Annual Home School Family Day Private Party on Friday, November 7, 2008. Tickets can also include a Catered Picnic in the Park and Souvenir Photo.
• 11/11/08 Home School Day at Discovery Kingdom, Northern California
  The Northern California exclusive Homeschool Day is filled with up-close animal encounters and world-class thrills. All-U-Can Eat picnic buffet is available.

Upon arriving at the Anchorage Airport, my niece proclaimed, "Aunt Bev, You're older than Alaska!" My immediate response was, "No, I'm not" and then a "Yes, I am." as I saw the gigantic 50th Anniversary sign. Ah, well, I am older than Alaska. I knew that, just never heard it put that way before.

Have fun learning about Alaska and all the 50 states as you begin your United States notebook.

Therese shared how her family uses their tablecloth as a patchwork quilt with mementos of their school year. I think it's a great idea and a unique way to share their homeschooling with family and friends. Therese writes:

We started homeschooling my 10-year-old and 5-yr-old sons last year after taking my older son out of a lackluster private school. Nervous about "structure" I decided to set up half of our rather long dining room table with a "school" table cloth. Every morning, after eating breakfast and scanning the newspaper, the boys set up the cloth, get out the books they need and we begin our day. We do literature reading on the front porch (living in Florida helps) and when the weather's too nice to be inside, we go to local parks or locations that fit the material - for instance, we went to the beach for The Old Man and the Sea and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea! In est, the world is our classroom!

The "cloth" has become a patchwork quilt of sorts - with interesting mementos of our busy year. We use fabric markers for notes, grammar & math "rules to remember" and funny pictures and quotes. The boys love to show their friends and family our crazy cloth and it is destined to become a family heirloom, I'm sure!