Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Honest. Quirky. Real. Practical tips, candid reviews, and stereotype-smashing humor for homeschooling families.

Honest. Quirky. Real. Practical tips, candid reviews, and stereotype-smashing humor for homeschooling families.

8 Excellent Resources for Studying the United States

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One of the most memorable activities my kids and I have done in all our years of homeschooling was 50 States Friday. We ended each week by learning about a different state. It was a fun, low-key, unhurried way to study our country.

Following are some of my favorite resources for studying the United States (and one or two that I wish had been around back then).

8 Excellent Resources for Studying the United States

1. The Desk Atlas of the United States

This is a resource that wasn’t around when we did our original study, but I have never seen a more beautifully illustrated atlas of the United States for kids (and their parents!). Each two-page spread is chock full of information about each state. Even the book cover (inside and out) contains interesting facts and trivia.

2. State Quarters

It’s easy to use the quarters themselves by just finding out what is on the back and why it was chosen. We liked to tie in a related book when we could. For example, we were introduced to John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club, by checking out the back of a California quarter. We found a fascinating book about him at the library when the kids wanted to learn more.

If you don’t understand the significance of the picture on the back of the state quarter, the U.S. Mint site is a great place for finding out more.

3. State Note Book

The State Note Book from Geography Matters is a fantastic resource for studying the United States. It features a notebooking page for each state with a U.S. map outline where students can color in the state, space for facts about each state, and a sticker set that includes the bird, tree, and flower for each state.

Just add a state flag sticker set and you’re good to go!

4. Pin-It Maps

We love Pin-It Maps, and their United States map set would make an excellent addition to any study of the 50 states. The set includes flag pins for each state, which would make a great learning tool, review, or hands-on quiz. Each pin has the two-letter state abbreviation on the back for an additional learning opportunity.

Plus, the pin map of the United States has the capital and major cities marked so that kids not only learn the names of the capitals but also where each is located.

Of course, edible maps are always fun, too.

5. Crayola’s State Coloring Pages

These beautiful state coloring pages are perfect for younger students without being too juvenile for older kids. They all feature the state flag and the outline of the state. Other features vary but usually include some combination of state symbols, such as the bird, flower, fish, or butterfly.

8 Excellent Resources for Studying the United States

6. State Facts and Trivia

50 States.com was my favorite website for our Fifty State Fridays. It lists facts and random trivia for each state. It was those tidbits of trivia that we always found most memorable. I always tried to come up with a craft or activity based on at least one random fact for each state.

For example, when we learned that Alabama still has a law on the books (or they did at the time we studied the state) banning fake mustaches, we all made fake mustaches to wear for the day.

America’s Story is another fun website for discovering fun trivia facts about each state. And, Pam Barnhill’s 8 for Each State provides fascinating facts, activities, and resources for each state.

7.State Facts and Symbols Books

The {State Name} Facts and Symbols series by Emily McAuliffe is a fantastic series of books. There is one for each state, providing details and big, colorful photographs about various state facts and symbols, such as the state bird, the capital, the location, and more. They were one of my favorite reference tools for our studies.

Also, if you’d like to tie literature into your state study, don’t miss the Around the USA Study from Cindy West. She lists literature options for each state.

8. State Recipes

We always loved to look for foods to make for each state based on either an interesting piece of trivia or a state symbol. This list of state recipes makes a  great place to start.

Eat Your Way Through the USA is another handy resource. There are usually two recipes per state, along with interesting facts about each.

Has your family ever studied the fifty states? What resources would you add?

Original resource list published June 25, 2009

Giveaway: $320 Ultimate Bundle from Pin It! Maps

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The best kind of learning is hands-on learning and Pin It! Maps bring an incredible hands-on experience to geography. We discovered Pin It! Maps the first year we were using workbooks. Each week, Megan was supposed to fill in a blank outline map in her geography book.

She hated it. The maps were confusing and difficult to decipher. Then, we found Pin It! Maps.

Pin It! Maps Ultimate Bundle Giveaway

What are Pin It! Maps?

These big, gorgeously-detailed maps bring geography to life! The Ultimate Bundle includes 12 pin maps, 43 labeled maps, and 1,752 flags.  All those maps, pins, and flags mean the bundle is incredibly versatile for teaching world geography and U.S. history and geography to kids from kindergarten all the way through high school.

Pin It! Maps - Hands-on Maps for Homeschoolers

The sets contain pin maps (for pinning the included country, state, and historical flags) and control maps featuring countries, flags, states, landforms, and bodies of water. We love the fact that the control maps are broken down into different topics.

So, for example, if your child is labeling the countries of Europe, the control map features only the countries. There is a separate control map for landforms. This allows a student to concentrate on one aspect of the maps without getting bogged down by too much detail.

Hands-on Map Activities

What is including in the Pin It! Maps Ultimate Bundle?

The Ultimate Bundle, valued at nearly $320, includes:

  • Twelve 18 x 24″ Pin Maps (USA, US History 1800s, Early America, World, North America, South America, Central America/ Caribbean, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia/ Oceania, and Land & Water Forms)
  • Four 18 x 24 x .5″ foam sheets and one 9 x 24 x .5″ foam sheet with plastic corners for the pin maps
  • Forty-one 12 x 18″ labeled maps
  • Two 6 x 18″ labeled land and water maps
  • 1,752 flag labels, national, state, and historical flags (cut and ready to assemble)
  • Plastic flag poles and flag bases
  • 1/2″ Transparent Scotch tape for colored flag labels
  • 3/4″ Transparent Scotch tape for national flags

Due to safety concerns in shipping, the set does not include the straight pins needed to assemble the flag pins. They can be purchased on Amazon or at craft and hobby stores.

Pin It! Maps U.S. History and Geography Bundle

U.S. History and Geography Bundle

Pin It! Maps Giveaway

The folks at Pin It! Maps are giving away one Ultimate Bundle! Follow the directions on the RaffleCopter widget below to enter.

Rules: This giveaway is open to United States residents, ages 18 years and older only. Giveaway ends at 11:59 PM (ET) on Monday, March 20, 2017. The winner will be selected at random using Random.org via RaffleCopter.

The winner will be notified via email and given 72 hours to respond. You must enter a valid email address to win. In the event that the winner cannot be contacted by email or does not respond within 72 hours, the prize will be forfeited and an alternate winner selected.

Click to read the complete rules. By entering this giveaway, you indicate that you have read and agreed to abide by these rules.

This post is linked to the Hip Homeschool Hop.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Get Hands-On with US History and Geography Using Pin-It Maps!

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When you read, are you able to picture the setting and characters in your head? I totally do that. As I’m reading, I’m watching the scenes play out in my head. Sometimes the details get a little fuzzy, though. If I’m reading a book with a picture of the characters on the front, I’ll often flip to the front cover to get the image fresh in my mind before I continue reading.

I thought maybe I was crazy, but I asked Megan, and she said she does that same thing – maybe not flipping to the cover to see the picture. She acted like that was a little weird. But, definitely watching the sometimes fuzzy scene play out in her mind.

While we might disagree on the front cover thing, we both agreed that having some sort of visual helps us to have a much clearer understanding of what’s going on – and that’s one big reason why we love Pin-It Maps. Being able to look at a map and see how the places relate to each other makes the events we’re reading about make so much more sense.

pin-it-maps-review

Megan really enjoyed using Pin-It Maps when she studied world geography a couple of years ago – I mean, really, really enjoyed it because she hated the boring, difficult-to-read, black-and-white outline maps in her textbook. Being able to pin key places and features on the gorgeous, hand-shaded Pin-It Maps helped her to more accurately visualize the places she was studying.

USA and US History Maps from Pin-It Maps

Now the folks at Pin-It Maps have added a fantastic set of USA and US history maps to their collection. If you’re studying anything to do with United States geography or its history, you’ll want to check out these maps!

The new set includes:

  • (3) 18 x 24″ Pin Maps – The United States, US History 1800s, and Early America
  • (11) 12 x 18″ Control Maps featuring facts such as American Indians, The 13 Colonies, Revolutionary War, French and Indian War, Westward Expansion, the Civil War, and more
  • 557 flag labels and state/ historical flags
  • Everything you need to assemble and use the maps, including two 18 x 24 x .5″ foam sheets with plastic corners; plastic flagpoles and bases; and even the tape to assemble the flags

The only thing you’ll need that is not included is a set of size 28 1-3/4 inch straight pins because they pose a safety risk for shipping, but they’re readily available at Amazon, hobby stores, and usually in the craft/sewing section of most department stores.

How to Use Pin-It Maps

These gorgeous, detailed maps are versatile enough to make an excellent addition to nearly any US history and/or geography curriculum or unit study. Farmhouse Schoolhouse shared some fantastic ideas for creating a unit study based on the US map bundle.

We recently decided to bridge Megan’s Titanic study and her World War I/World War II study with a brief overview recap of American history. We’re using the History Channel’s The Story of Us along with the USA and US history map bundle. After watching the episode on the early settlements, Megan pinned the 13 colonies and major settlements.

map-of-thirteen-colonies

As she goes through, she’ll be able to pin Native American tribes, westward expansion, Revolutionary and Civil War battles and more – there are control maps for each of those!

There are also flag pins for all 50 states, which will make a perfect addition to our 50 states study. These pins have provided (and will continue to provide) excellent practice for matching each state with its flag and correctly locating each state on the unlabeled map.

Plus, each flag pin has the two state abbreviation on the back which is great practice for kids and adults alike. (Please tell me I’m not the only one who has to think for a couple of seconds about the M states.)

hands-on map of the United States

There are a couple of ways you can go about assembling the flags. Option 1 is to pull out all your supplies and assemble them while binge-watching your favorite TV show. It’s a good excuse if you need one. {grin}

Option 2 is just to assemble each set as you need them. That’s what we’ve been doing. Megan has assembled all of our flag pins because it’s something she can easily do while FaceTiming her friends. See? The good excuse works there, too. “I am doing school, Mom. I’m assembling flag pins.”

Once assembled, an IRIS photo storage case is an excellent option for storing the flags. You can order preprinted storage container labels, which fit perfectly on the photo storage containers and are color-coded to match the flags, making it easy to quickly find the ones you’re looking for.

Pin-It Maps review

We love Pin-It Maps for studying U.S. history and geography and we think you will, too!

Around the World Stories Review {+giveaway}

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I have dreamed of traveling since I was a pre-teen. First on my list is Australia. A certain Aussie soap star may have been the initial trigger for that dream. (I’ll leave it up to you to guess if I’m talking about Robert Scorpio or Dr. Noah Drake on General Hospital – or both. However, that’s neither here nor there. The point is, I’ve long been fascinated with visiting Australia.)

Next on my list are England, Scotland, and Ireland.

I don’t know if my travel dreams will ever come to fruition, but thanks to one American family who is allowing the rest of us to live vicariously through them and their stories, we can travel Europe.

Around the World Stories Review {+giveaway}

Around the World Stories invites families to travel and discover the world through original audio stories.The family who created the site left the U.S. in June to travel Europe for a year, writing and recording stories as they go. {insert dreamy sigh here}

ATWS family

Around the World Stories is a website subscription service. Your subscription gets you access to the site featuring a new story every week and a parent guide for each story.

Around the World Stories

I agree with the creators of Around the World Stories, “Lessons may come and go, but a good story sticks.”

The high-quality audio stories run 25-35 minutes each. Written for kids ages 4-10, the stories are so well done that I think they’ll appeal to an even wider age range of listeners. I’ve enjoyed them!

[bctt tweet=”Lessons may come and go, but a good story sticks.” username=”Kris_WUHSMom”]

You can listen to the stories on any device that has internet access since they’re streamed on the website. If you want to have access to them later, you can download them to your music library and sync with other devices like you would a podcast or music.

Each week, a new story is added to the website, and each month focuses on a different European country. So far, there are stories for The Netherlands, Germany, and France.

As Matt and Tania (the creators) and their family travel around Europe this year, they’ll be adding new stories inspired by the 13 countries they’ll be visiting. They’ve even gotten their kids in on the action by letting them record some of the story intros.

ATW Stories

If you’d like, you can live vicariously and follow along on their adventures on their blog, Facebook , or Instagram.

The audio stories are fantastic for listening to as your kids engage in other quiet activities, such as coloring, painting, drawing, creating with Legos or Play-doh, or riding in the car. Audio stories allow kids to exercise their imaginations, build thinking skills, and increase their attention spans.

Around the World Stories Parent Guide

Each Around the World Stories tale includes a parent guide with more information about the setting and details of the story and suggestions for related activities. It includes a glossary of the foreign words and phrases used in the tale so that you can practice them at home.

ATWS Website

You can also expect the parent guide to include things such as:

  • Recipes
  • Crafts
  • Cultural facts
  • Tie-ins to literature, art, and history
  • Facts about related national holidays
Around the World Stories Review {+giveaway} pin

Around the World Stories provide an excellent opportunity to bring geography to life in a unique and captivating way. Bonus points for doing so in a way that gives Mom (or Dad) a break from reading! Not only do you get a break, but you’ll enjoy the stories, too.

You can sign up for Around the World Stories for $7.95 per month, payable by credit card or PayPal, and you can cancel anytime from your subscription page. You can also purchase gift subscriptions.

Giveaway

Does Around the World Stories sound like something you and your family would enjoy? I’ve got a chance for you to win! One WUHS reader will win a one-year subscription to Around the World Stories – but you don’t have to wait! Get started with the first month. If you win, you can cancel and let your prize subscription take over. Follow the directions on the RaffleCopter widget below to enter.

Rules: This giveaway is open to United States residents, ages 18 years and older only. Giveaway ends at 11:59 PM (ET) on Wednesday, August 31, 2016. The winner will be selected at random using Random.org via RaffleCopter.

The winner will be notified via email and given 72 hours to respond. You must enter a valid email address to win. In the event that the winner cannot be contacted by email or does not respond within 72 hours, the prize will be forfeited and an alternate winner selected.

Click to read the complete rules. By entering this giveaway, you indicate that you have read and agreed to abide by these rules.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

How to Make a Puzzle Map

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Written by Susan Williams of Education Possible.

If you are looking for a crafty, creative, and easy way to help your kids learn about maps and geography we have a fun idea for you.Why not make your own puzzle maps?

My family loves to learn with maps – we have built several types of edible maps and we have even created our own atlases. Sometimes we like to get the glue and scissors out for our hands-on projects and that is exactly what we need for this puzzle building activity.

How to Make a Puzzle Map

Why Make a Puzzle Map?

Puzzles help children of all ages understand how things fit together. By making their own puzzle map children will build a better understanding of where states, countries, or continents are in relation to each other and the world around them.

We intentionally keep this project simple so kids of any age can make their own puzzles of areas they want to learn more about. We use basic outline maps of the places we are studying. Depending on their areas of study kids can even color or label their maps to represent what they are learning (climate, topography, etc.).

Puzzles also serve as a great tool for review. While assembling their puzzle maps students can review names and locations of different places, fun facts, and more.

How to Make a Puzzle Map

Puzzle Map Supplies

Supplies for making a puzzle map:

  • Paper (regular or card stock)
  • Online source for printable maps (we prefer National Geographic MapMachine)
  • Scissors
  • Thin cardboard such a cereal box
  • Mod Podge
  • Craft brush or sponge

Step 1: Print outline map. Select an outline map for the area/region you are studying. Print the map onto a sheet of paper.

Step 2: Time for glue. Apply a thin coat of Mod Podge to the cardboard surface using the craft brush or sponge.

Hands-on geography project

Step 3: Attach map. Place the printed map on top of the glue and smooth into place, removing all air bubbles. Let dry for 2+ hours. (Note: I usually place a heavy book over the glued paper to keep it flat while drying, but be sure there is no glue around the edges as you don’t want it to stick to your book!)

Step 4: Cut. Cut the map along state/country boundary lines. Store completed puzzle pieces in plastic bags to keep pieces together for future use.

DIY Puzzle Map

Optional: To better preserve your puzzle you may want to add a layer of Mod Podge on top of completed puzzle pieces.

Puzzle Map

Learning about geography can be a lot of fun when you include creative, hands-on activities. Don’t just look at maps in a book, bring them to life with a few simple craft supplies, and make your own puzzle maps!