The chalkboard said Psalm 24:1 and the date, the lamp was on in the reading nook, and my five-year-old was already curled in the soft chair with a picture book facing him. That is how a state study week begins in our classroom. Nothing fancy. A verse, a lamp, and a page waiting in the basket.
I want to tell you plainly how we use Our 50 States: Weeks 3-6, because I am not a curriculum expert and I do not want you to think there is a secret method. There is only a pace we can keep.
Three pages, six states, four weeks
The bundle is made for Kindergarten and has three pages: Virginia and North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky, and Ohio and Indiana. Weeks 3 through 6 is four weeks, so here is how we spread it:
- Week 3: Virginia and North Carolina.
- Week 4: Tennessee and Kentucky.
- Week 5: Ohio and Indiana.
- Week 6: no new page. We go back to our favorites, and I let my five-year-old choose.
That last week is my favorite. A little one learns a place by visiting it twice. Giving a week to revisiting keeps me from rushing, and it keeps the study from turning into a checklist.
The five-minute opener we do every day
Before anyone picks up a pencil, we gather at the big shared table and I say something like this:
"This week we are visiting Tennessee. Put your finger on the page where you think it lives. Now tell me one thing you notice."
That is the whole opener. He might say the shape looks long, or that he likes the name. I say "Yes, God made that place too," and we move on. If you have an atlas or a map at home, set it beside the page and let him hunt for the same shape there. It takes five minutes and he is already leaning in.
How the page gets used across the week
I do not ask for a finished page in one sitting. Monday is the opener and a first look. Tuesday and Wednesday, he works a little on it while I sit beside him. Thursday we read a picture book from the nook basket, and Friday I clip the page up on our wall where the week's work hangs. Seeing the six states go up one pair at a time is a quiet kind of encouragement for both of us.
Most pages come out of that week with room left to spare, and I have stopped minding. One page across a week is enough for a five-year-old.
Where the three-year-old fits
My younger one is not doing the Kindergarten page, and I do not pretend he is. He sits on his stool at the shared table for the opener, gets a crayon and a blank sheet of paper, and has his own job: he finds "the shape" with his finger when his brother does. Then he scribbles a state of his own. When he wanders off to his small desk, I let him. He is hearing the names of places all the same, and he can say "Kentucky" now, which delights us both.
If you want something extra for the little one, the Fall Leaf Stamping Printable Activity Pack is for all ages and sits well beside a state study. The Pumpkin Size Sort is a good Preschool choice for a day when he wants something that is wholly his.
If you teach at a kitchen table
For two years we did exactly this at the kitchen table, so please hear me: you do not need a classroom for it. Clear one end the night before, put the week's page in a basket with a pencil and crayons, and write the verse on a sticky note if you have no chalkboard. If you are curious what a dedicated space can look like later, I wrote about designing your homeschool classroom. But the study works the same at either table.
Why a geography study is also a faith study
I did not start this study to produce a child who can name Ohio. I started it because I want my boys to know that the world they are looking at on the page belongs to God, every river and hill of it, and that the people living in those places are His too. So the verse on our chalkboard those weeks is the same each day, and by Friday both boys can say it with me. That is the real lesson, and the states are the doorway.
What it costs and how to begin
Every worksheet in the worksheet shop is $4.00, or $2.00 for members. Joining is free, forever, and it takes 50% off every worksheet. If you want to talk it through with other mamas, the members' forum has rooms by age and a room for the hard days. And since homeschool requirements differ from state to state, check our resources page for where to look up the rules for yours.
Print the first page, light a candle or turn on a lamp, and sit down beside your little one. That is enough for a Monday. The earth is the Lord's, and we get to show it to them slowly.
