Starting a New History Arc

Story of the World and our own rabbit trails have provided a fantastic history curriculum until recently. But now, with kids aged nine and twelve, we find a desire to delve more deeply.

After talking to some friends, I had to agree that its time to tackle United States history by using the wonderful book series, A History of US, by  Joy Hakim. So far, the kids and I are loving it!

US history, according to Hakim, starts with pre-history. So we talked about the Bering land bridge and early inhabitants of our continent.

Beringia 

The kids made a timeline of early American inhabitants, starting with the Ice Age. We will add to this timeline as we learn more.

Ice Age, 10,000 bce, Paleo Indian, Mastadon Hunt
Ice Age, 6,000 bce, Paleo Indian, Domesticated Dog
Red Ochre Culture, 4,000 bce, Use of copper

3000 bce, Farming
400 bce, Stone weapons, Bison hunt

200 bce to 250 ce, Middle Woodland Culture
1300 ce, Oneida fishing culture, dug out canoes

1500 ce, Conquistadores
1700 ce French Explorers, Trade influence
1776 American Revolution

1800, Black Hawk
1800, Sacajawea, Lewis and Clark

I should add that our timeline is based on information that we collected while at Dickson Mounds museum. The kids looked for archaeological evidence of the different cultures and elements of early American life. For example, on the time line is an example of a bison hunt. Of course bison hunts took place before and after the point in time we showed it. At the museum, however, the kids made note of a particular exhibit showing archaeological evidence of a bison hunt: a bison skeleton with a spear point embedded within, dated to 400 bce! Learning about this stuff in a book is fascinating, but seeing the real evidence is way cool!