Teaching United States geography has never been easier. Learn about individual state birds, animals, flowers, and other interesting facts like populations, states flags, and significant cities, plus so much more with this 50 states homeschool geography curriculum.
*Disclosure: I was asked for an honest review of Traveling the States. I was compensated for my time. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own. I only choose to share resources that I would use with my own family and those that I believe other families will enjoy and benefit from.
Amazing 50 States Homeschool Geography Curriculum
“Mama, how far away is Georgia from where we live?”
My daughter has been asking lots of questions like that over the past several months. Sometimes she asks about a distant city or another state, and she wants to know where she is in this great country compared to other friends and family. I figured it was a good time to introduce United States geography.
My daughter’s only requirement was that this curriculum needed to teach her about the state animals and birds, as well as geography. She’s a big animal lover, so this was important to her.
Let me tell you, Traveling the States did not disappoint!
Waldock Way’s Traveling the States
Traveling the States is a unit study style year-long curriculum created by Jessica of The Waldock Way.
Traveling the States is a digital product emailed to you after purchase. There are lots of easy-to-click links within the teacher’s manual. Although I still printed off the student workbook and the teacher’s manual.
There are only two required books you’ll need for this curriculum:
- The 50 States: Explore the U.S.A. with 50 fact-filled maps!
- Eat Your Way Through the USA
However, Jessica has done a fantastic job at researching additional books for each state as well as extras, including:
- game list – both games you can purchase seperatly, and several printable games to make learning about the states hands-on and interactive!
- linking YouTube playlist
- state profile page
- flag page
- USA coloring page
- nature profile page
- plus so much more
Did you know there is even a handy set of printouts so you can print your own state postcard, snapshots, landmark building cards, brochure templates, and famous person report template to enrich and extend the learning experience?
*We ended up pairing Traveling the States with Traveling the Parks because they can work seamlessly together*
United States Geography for Kids
Traveling the States is so easy to use. You can choose to go in any order you like to learn the states. We chose our home state of Tennessee first! But you may decide to go in alphabetical order or in which the states gained their statehood! It’s totally up to you.
The Nature Profiles pages cover a bird or animal, flower, and tree for each state with a photo, fun facts, and scientific name. This was exactly what my daughter wanted, folks! I let my daughter be as creative as she wished to when filling out the Racoon Nature Profile.
She may have also used the phrase”trash panda.”
So, of course, we had to play the card game Trash Pandas afterward!
My daughter painted the state coloring page with its state animal, flower, and tree while I read aloud about one of the many famous people from Tennessee. I had chosen a few extra books for just such learning, including:
- Who Was Dolly Parton – because we live about an hour from her hometown
- Wilma Rudolph – because my daughter loves learning about strong women in history
- Who Was Aretha Franklin – another strong woman with ties to Tennessee
- United Tweets of America – just a fun fact-filled book that my daughter loved
- Who was Elvis Presley – the King of rock and roll
- Who Was Davy Crockett – because we live about 15 miles from his birthplace
50 States Homeschool Geography Curriculum
Traveling the States is recommended for ALL ages, although I would recommend 8-12ish. But, you know your child best. *You could use it for younger kids and leave some things out. Read aloud to them if they are not strong readers or scribe for them if they are not strong writers. With older kids, you can add extra work in like additional reading, writing, or hands-on projects.*
What I Love about Waldock Way’s Traveling the States
My daughter and I love Waldock Way’s Traveling the States homeschool curriculum.
- Traveling the States is not scripted. You are given a suggested schedule of activities to do each day. However, you can modify the schedule to better fit your child and your homeschool! This is perfect for our delight-directed/interest-led homeschool.
- The number of resources listed makes me swoon! There are so many tidbits you can add but aren’t required. We chose to go heavy on the Nature extras because my daughter was interested in animals. I’m throwing in resources about strong women from each state because my daughter wants and needs to see women represented.
- You can find many of the book suggestions at your local library if you are budget conscious.
- This curriculum is digital, so I didn’t need to print anything off except the student notebook! Although, there are extra games, state brochures, postcards, snapshots, and landmark builing cards you can print off.
United States Geography for Kids
Folks, my daughter loves Traveling the States. I love the adaptability and oodles of resources that I would never have found on my own. If your child loves hands-on activities, art, games, and cooking, then this curriculum is for them! Teaching United States geography has never been easier or more fun! So come on and explore our United States!
You may also enjoy learning about how we incorporated Waldock’s Wizard and Wands into our homeschool last year: Harry Potter Homeschool Perfect for Young Wizards