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This is the way to do state studies! Yes! My son loves Bunyan and Banjoes, and requests we play it everytime we drive anywhere in the state. He's a little young yet, bit we'll definitely look at these down the road. You might be interested to note that the website American Indians in Childrens Literature by Debbie Reese gives a very scathing review of Sleeping Bear Press and Mackinac Island Press. I've been trying to avoid their books, especially the ones that claim to be "inspired" by Native legends. But M is for Mittens looks innocent enough. Maybe we'll check it out of the library.
Yes, I definitely wouldn't want to lean too heavily on the pseudo-Native American legends. The alphabet series is a pretty fun overview, though surface level--I was won over when they included Vernors for V...a staple at my Michigan family gatherings although I can barely drink it.
Virginia please! We just finished Confessions of a homeschoolers "Road Trip" curriculum and would love to hone in on our state for the summer and into the new school year! So much history here!
It definitely won't be done by this summer, sorry! ;) These state studies have taken a surprisingly long time in the 'research and development' phase. There's so much to learn about for each state! :)
Love the look of these! We do Geography alongside US History. So we learned about Pennsylvania when we studied the making of the constitution. Oklahoma when we learned about the Trail of Tears, California during the Gold Rush, etc. How long do you anticipate these studies would take? Did I miss that in the video?
I think that's such a wise way to intertwine history and geography! The Michigan and Texas units are each 6 units, and I have a sample schedule showing how a unit could be split up over a week, which would make this study take 6 weeks. I think it's very flexible, though, it could be done more intensively over a shorter period of time.
I will add that to our list! I have loved how our state studies are coming out, Arizona will release soon, but they have been slow to come together because of the research and illustrations required.
I've been hesitant to invest in Geography curriculum because so many of the "cookie cutter" facts are useless and soon forgetable. However, your approach to focus on significant historical and current events, leaders who made a difference will be knowledge useful into adulthood. I wish you were further along but so glad you've started.
That's exactly why I wanted to get started--the "fun facts" approach seemed so forgettable to me, and the focus on minutia left kids without really understanding the significance of the state (i.e. yes, Petoskey stones are a fun and neat quirk of Michigan, but they actually don't define much about the experience of living in Michigan, the culture, and Michigan's contributions to the US). And yes--that's the problem...we've only just begun and these units have taken a good long time in production. Slowly!
The other thing about "fun facts" based programs that drives me wild is that so many states have common state birds that maybe aren't as reflective of the unique ecosystems of those states (ex. MI's State bird is the Red Breasted Robin, but I'd say the Kirtland Warbler is one of our most ecologically important)
Yes--there are quite a few "state symbols" around the US that are only slightly connected to the state--while other animals play a much more important role.
Thank you so much! That's exactly the frustration I had--the many, many state studies were so "fun fact" focused that I felt like kids didn't really get to have a chance to really know deep and important aspects of the state.
That sounds like a great system! We decided to start with writing about the states that we have the most experience with living in--I figured that was an easier way to approach the research and development side. :)
We have American heritage so we do want to study US geography as well as Aussie geography!!! We prefer doing geography to history!!! We love to do geography rabbit trails and those books would start loads!!! We could use your format both for American states and how we study the Aussie states!!!
These are flexible, but were written targeting mid-elementary level, because 3rd-4th grade is typically when students will do a more in-depth study of their state. There are definitely elements of it that a K and 2nd grader would enjoy (the picture books, nature information about the state tree, bird, etc.), but a lot of the history (i.e. history of Detroit, history of Mackinac Bridge or the Soo Locks) might be a little bit too detailed for their age level. You can see some example pages in the shop listing: www.wheredyoulearnthat.com/shop/p/michigan-state-study
Do you have any recommendations for highschool USA geography. I have homeschooled my daughter all the way up to 9th grade since pre k but we realized we never did USA geography 😮 she was my world history kid and did do American history but never geography heavy…. As in she didn’t learn all the state names and their capitals. But she is so history savvy…. But just not those traditional things. We did Charlotte Mason style so maybe we just skipped over that 😳 If possible, a crash course would be great, and not a whole year of it or an American history curriculum that is geography heavy for high school 🙏🏼
I don't know of any US geography courses specifically targeted at high school age...but I feel like the content is largely the same in this subject area (names of states, capitals, important landmarks, important industries and geographical features....it's more that with a high schooler they'll probably remember more of it or have more advanced output. Sonlight has a simple unit study approach:www.sonlight.com/50-states-unit-study All they have is that 50 States book,which is done in the style with infographic maps, so it's not cartoony or little kid-ish, in my opinion. And then the student can create a notebook summarizing what they learn about each state. I think you could DIY that approach very easily and a high schooler could create a pretty cool 50 States notebook, even doing a little extra research if you wanted to go further, the state government websites each typically have interesting information on the state .
