American History/States

[mommymilkies]

I want to start covering this with my children, even if it's out of order with where we are in SOTW. I want them to learn the 50 states & capitols and to do a chronological history through the US. What are some good options for this? We have A History of US on DVD and From Sea to Shining Sea. I'm trying to find something a little more detailed to walk me through this, though. Grades K-5th.

[Melissa B]

I've spent the last two weeks working on this myself. I didn't find much new since I went through American History with my older two girls. Memoria Press does have some new materials that look pretty good. I may order the States & Capitals books to do with the kids next year.

 

I will likely use the Pearson (Core Knowledge) history books I used last time. Pearson has American history for grades 3-6, but we will use them in grades 2-5. I only have the teacher's guides for grade 3. I found they weren't worth the price and would only pick up the others if they were at a greatly reduced price. :) Here is the Pearson American history sequence:

 

3rd - The Earliest Americans, Exploration of North America, The Thirteen Colonies

4th - The American Revolution, U.S. Constitution, Early Presidents, American Reformers

5th - Westward Expansion, The Civil War, Expansion after the Civil War

6th - Immigration, Industrialization, Reform in America

 

We will use the WTM guidelines for narration and add in some biographies and historical fiction that we already have at home.

 

I just purchased Writing Trails through American History to add as well.

With the States & Capitals book, that is likely all we will do. However, I do plan for all of my kids to have a year of American History/Civics in 8th grade.

[Jean in CA]

The easiest way we found to learn states and capitals was through Geography Songs: States and Capitals. Effortless and fun!

 

Also, we bought a few states placemats to use at mealtimes and the kids quiz each other.

 

A nice web site free online geography games: Shepherd's software.

[gsetio]

I'm planning to use this website as supplement next year

 

http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/us-state-games.html

[mommymilkies]

Thanks!

[hmlentz]

I wanted my kids to learn this too, but I didn't want to have to add another thing to their work. So, I found an app called Stack the States (there is also Stack the Countries). They played this game and LOVE it. They can recognize each state by it's outline, have learned facts about them, flags, etc. I gave them each a blank outline map of the US and all of them filled it in completely. I was soo happy. They learned it and I didn't have to add more "work" to their day!

[RootAnn]

We learned the states & their capitals (in the order they were added to the US) this past year just by using these flash cards for 5-15 minutes/day. We didn't go into much of their history as I am planning to do US history for a year starting in the fall. We reinforced it with Sheppard Software (linked previously) & periodic quizzes (oral & written).

[Nathansmommy]

We are learning the states and capitals by region using Trail Guide to US Geography by Cindy Wiggers. It doesn't take a lot of time and my son loves it! A nice supplement is a series called The States...available on DVD on the History Channel website.