US History Homeschool Unit Study (Part 1)

During the second semester of our 2022-2023 school year, we studied American history and geography together with a US History Unit Study. Our kids were 7, 4, and 2.

I used the book DK Smithsonian American History: A Visual Encyclopedia for the spine of our unit. The table of contents of this encyclopedia was very helpful at breaking our unit down week-by-week, even if we didn’t use the entire encyclopedia during our unit. Once I began planning, I realized that there was no way to start at the beginning (with Native people) and finish at our current place in history without rushing or leaving too much out. So, I decided we would just learn through the Civil War, and that we’d take second semester of the next school year to learn about Reconstruction through present day.

This pace really let us dig in and explore a lot of topics and people that I felt it were important for my children to begin to understand. We also had the benefit of visiting many important historical sites nearby. One of them I had never even heard of until I started researching this unit. I’ll share all of our great field trips later this month!

Pacing of Unit Study

Week 1: “Me on the Map” (We learned our address, city, state, country & continent)
Week 2: South Carolina Regions (We studied the 6 regions of South Carolina)
Week 3: Native Americans & US Land Regions (We learned about land regions in the United States and the native groups that inhabited them before Europeans arrived)
Week 4: 13 Colonies (We studied English settlement in America and focused on the 13 colonies and British rule)
Week 5: Causes of the Revolution (We touched on taxes and learned about the Boston Tea Party)
Week 6: The American Revolution (We explored a few key locations and people who were important during the Revolution)
Week 7: Second Continental Congress (We learned about the Articles of Confederation & the Constitution)
Week 8: National Symbols, Monuments, & Branches of Government (We explored important places & things in American history and touched on the three branches of government)
Week 9: Causes of the Civil War, Life on a Plantation (We learned about enslaved people and what they were forced to endure. We covered differences in the Northern and Southern states)
Week 10: Election of Abraham Lincoln & Beginning of the War (We learned about Abraham Lincoln and the first shots of the Civil War which were fired only a few miles from where we live!)
Week 11: “Break” To visit Washington, D.C. (We took a family field trip to Washington DC! This was an amazing experience and I’ll share more about this in a few weeks!)
Week 12: The Civil War (We learned about a few key battles, places and people)
Week 13: Lewis and Clarke, Louisiana Purchase, Westward Expansion (We rewound a little and switched gears to focus on Westward expansion. We began reading Little House on the Prairie and learned about Lewis & Clarke)

Favorite Resources for US History Unit

We loved these United States Sticker books. They were extremely pricey compared to what I usually would pay for something like this, but I shopped around a lot before purchasing and I feel like they truly are the best thing out there for how I was hoping to use them. Be aware…they are not perfect. One page has Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthplace in Washington DC. I think they got it confused with the more recent monument that was constructed there. I just made sure to let the kids know that was incorrect.

The book Me on the Map is displayed while a child uses a glue stick to glue a house shape onto an orange circle

We have used this book so many times! This year we used brads to make concentric circles that would rotate showing all the places we live!

Liberty’s Kids is one of the best kid-friendly things out there to explore the American Revolution. Most of the episodes are free on YouTube, and I have created this guide to go along with each episode! My kids weren’t quite old enough to use them, but I hope you’ll be able to!