YEAR-END REVIEW: State History from a Christian Perspective

This school year, we used STATE HISTORY FROM A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE to cover United States Geography and Illinois State History.

We started out with Geography of the Fifty States, which is a workbook-based study on the 50 united states of America. It can be used for grades 3-12, and is flexible to use based on skill levels. Each of the states are studied in the order of statehood.

The manual gives suggested schedules for using this curriculum as either a one-semester course, or for a full year. It can be used alone, or it can be combined with 50 States Under God (a study of U.S. History), or with a specific state history course. We chose to use Geography of the Fifty States as part of a full year course, finishing out the year with Illinois State History. This is their suggested schedule for that:

Allow a 30-minute class period per day, 5 days per week. For Geography of the Fifty States, spend 2 days per state (2x50=100 days) and 1 day for each of the 15 Geography Overview Lessons, allowing an extra class day for study before each of the 5 tests. This will give you 120 class days. You may choose to do the state history course at the beginning, the end, or at any point during the course. Whenever you do the state history course, cover one lesson per day. Total for both courses will be 150 days. With the remaining 20-30 days, you may do the state constitution study included in the state history book, do a state history course for another state, do field trips related to your
state, or assign research projects related to your state or any topic covered in the Geography book. A list of expansion suggestions is included in both the state history text and the Geography book.

Each state has a reading assignment and related map-work which includes geographical features such as rivers, mountains, lakes, and major cities. The 50 states and their capitals and locations are also learned (or reviewed, if already learned), along with geographical terms. There are 5 tests and answer keys included in the curriculum.

OUR OPINION:  The content is very good, and it has a lot of great information in it. I feel that JJ learned from it, and it was not a waste of time or money. However, JJ felt it was a bit dry and boring, and he didn't care for all the memorizing of facts, especially the geographical terms. So, I changed things up a bit and decided to use the worksheets from MAPS OF THE UNITED STATES by Emerald Books. These helped him learn more about how to do research and to record information about each state.

When we finished Geography of the Fifty States, we moved on to Illinois State History. Once again, there are several suggestions/ideas for how to use this book, based on age level and interests. Some choose to use a 3-ring binder to make their own state history notebook. However, we chose to use My State Notebook, a pre-formatted scrapbook from Abeka Books. No real reason other than we already had the book, and we liked what we saw. It was easy to use, and there are instructions in the IL State History Master Lesson Plan Book to use along with it that are very helpful.

OUR OPINION:  JJ and I both enjoyed this IL State History course. It is simple to use, and very flexible. JJ learned a lot more about Illinois and, because it was hands-on, I believe it helped him to remember more of the facts. I made him do several quizzes as open-book. Then, he was able to use the quizzes to study for the tests. He had fun learning, and had no problem passing his tests. As for the needed photos, a few are provided in the student text, but most of them we cut out of various tourist/travel guides. We also used some of our own pictures we had taken from around the State.

Now that the book is finished, we have a nice little keepsake to look back on. Here is a quick look at the finished book: