Last year my family used Elemental History's Adventures in America. It provides a great list of read aloud books with an easy schedule to follow. There are three lessons scheduled a week in addition to the chapters to read aloud. Two of those days she has written a one page overview about an event or person in American history and the other day focuses on the state you are learning (in order of their admittance to the US). Her overviews tell a good story and help put the living books into the larger narrative of American history. We enjoyed the books she chose. This is basically the only part we used last year.
In the future we might use the copywork sentences - they were a little too long for my son at the beginning of the year. I also decided that we would memorize states and capitals at another time (next year we will use these resources during cycle 3 of CC). She includes a nice outline map of each state which you could use for lots of different projects - not just putting together a state notebook. She also provides a line drawn picture that matches the main theme of the lesson. My oldest is NOT interested in coloring but the line drawings were very nice. I did try to shrink them to fit four on a page and use them as a timeline. I made the pictures but lacked the follow through to actually put up the timeline. At the time I had a 3 yo and a newborn so we also skipped the art activities. They are explained well and easy enough to do but crafty things are not my strong point. If you use the full curriculum, as outlined, in the end you will have read some great stories, have a wonderful notebook covering the first half of American history (with copywork sentences and colored pictures) and have done some fun craft projects along the way. I think it is a great introduction to American history.
I expect to use this curriculum again once my middle child is in early elementary.
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