What users say about similar Our Land Publications programs: My California

My daughter completed this in 4th grade. We really liked it! She liked the colored, newspaper format lessons. It was just enough and not overwhelming. The questions at the end of each lesson and the vocabulary words also helped to incorporate some writing and dictionary usage. We were able to visit many of the places we learned about making it really come alive. I highly recommend it!

Our Land of Liberty: The Story of the United States of America presents American history in a newspaper format. The content and style of presentation makes this course ideal for students in fourth and fifth grades. I envision it working especially well coupled with historical biographies and historical fiction. While I think it works well as your core curriculum, because of the format it can also be used as a supplement alongside another course.  . . .

The author tries to present controversial topics with an unbiased perspective, suggesting that the teacher instigate discussion of such topics by asking, “What would you do in this situation?” This encourages students to think through the situations and apply their own values and judgments, perhaps learning from the mistakes of others. While it might be tempting to simply read through the handouts with students, the suggestions and extra activities in the lesson plans probably make a huge difference in how students learn the material.

What we enjoyed about this curriculum is that the lessons are not long and drawn out. They are short enough to be able to be completed in a timely fashion and still allow some time for exploration of the topics if you wish to expand on them.