Home Grown Hearts Academy Homeschool Blog: Brookdale House - Drawing Around the World: USA

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Brookdale House - Drawing Around the World: USA - Review

Hello Friends, My daughters and I just recently had the opportunity to review Drawing Around the World: USA from the wonderful company, Brookdale House. We were provided with a printable/digital copy to use. We were very thankful because we are always looking for good quality geography curriculum. Quality curriculum is indeed what we received.

About Brookdale House

Brookdale House is a company that designs homeschool curriculum resources for students. Their books feature inductive lessons that allow children to interact with information and make connections that stay with them. Their books rely heavily on child-centered learning. We love this because children are able to engage with big ideas in a child-friendly manner. Their books work because they are designed around the natural way children learn. I have always been a fan of children learning the natural way.

What is Drawing Around the World: USA?

Drawing Around the World: USA outlines a simple, fast, and easy program to teach students to memorize the United States of America. You can purchase Drawing Around the World: USA as a printed copy for $25.95 or as an eBook for $22.95. It's always been a goal of mine to have my children learn all the states.

With Drawing Around the World: USA, my daughters, in only minutes per day, were engaged in fun geography lessons that taught them to draw the 50 states plus Washington D. C. Also, they were able to learn the state capitals and some very interesting facts about each state as they completed a state fact table.

We followed the following suggested weekly schedule:

Day 1:

Study the New State.

Complete the State Fact Table.

Locate and label each new state onto the dashed, black and white map.

Draw all states studied thus far.

Day 2:

Locate and label each new state onto the dashed, black and white map.

Draw all states studied thus far.

Day 3:

Locate and label each new state onto the dashed, black and white map.

Draw all states studied thus far.

Day 4:

List, from memory, the states studied thus far.

Using the blank text box, draw, also from memory, all of the states you have learned.

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I was so thankful that they included a detailed, yet simple schedule. It wasn't overwhelming for my daughters at all. Each day outlined very easy to follow steps. Each state followed the same steps and also reinforced the states previously learned. We also loved that the lessons were short but yet very informative. My daughters also expressed that they enjoyed that it was only four days a week. My oldest daughter enjoyed drawing the states. She is very creative and art orientated, so the drawing was right up her alley. I'm confident that soon she will be able to draw an entire U.S. map without looking. I also enjoyed that this program required no advance planning on my part. My daughters could simply turn to the week’s page and begin. Everything we needed was provided, including maps.

Final Thought

Drawing Around the World: USA is an amazing curriculum for any student wanting to learn the states and capitals, along with other facts. It was fun and educational. I'm very thankful to have it for my daughters to continue to use. I know that they will continue to amaze me with all the new facts they are learning. As you can tell, we recommend it and also look forward to checking out more products from Brookdale House.

Brookdale House offers many different selections such as: