Homeschooling Katie (and myself)

This is our first year homeschooling. It has been fun. But what has been cool, to me anyway, is how much I am learning. (I'd say relearning, but I honestly don't know if I ever knew some of this stuff!) For example, the other day Katie's writing assignment was "If you could go anywhere for a vacation where would you go and why?". Katie proceeded to write about wanting to go to South Dakota. I didn't even know she knew about South Dakota so I asked her why she wants to go there. She said she wants to see the mountain with the men's faces in it (Mount Rushmore). I was shocked. Then I realized I didn't even know that Mount Rushmore was in South Dakota. I would have said something profound like, "It's on the east side of the country". I looked it up and sure enough she was right. We will never again forget that Mount Rushmore is in South Dakota. Why did she know this and I did not? She watched a Veggie Tale where Larry made fun of South Dakota and at the end of the film make a music video about the great things in South Dakota. Who says Veggie Tales aren't educational?!
Another example of how much Katie is teaching me, she did a report on the Mayflower. She researched at a friends house and wrote the oral report there. I had nothing to do with is until it was time to practice. As she practiced I learned that there were 102 passengers on the Mayflower; 32 of them being kids. Later in the day after having her practice several times Eli comes in and tells me he is one of the 32 kids on the "flower boat". We are all learning from keeping Katie home!