We do not always do a lot of formal learning during the summer, but Independence Day is always a nice chance to review early American history. Yes, we did learn about it last year. But since learning is a Line upon Line process, we’ll keep learning a little every year until my kids fly the nest.
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In anticipation of the upcoming holiday, we read The Very First Thanksgiving Day. I made my preschool daughter a simple puppet template related to the traditional first Thanksgiving dinner with the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags. Although she is young, playing with First Thanksgiving Story Puppets is a nice start to understanding the meaning of the season as we act out the historical event together.
I first wrote the booklet about early Native American homes because I could not find something simple for a brief introduction to Native Americans for my son. I wanted him to understand that there was a variety of cultures living on the American continent before Europeans arrived. I wanted him to understand that the vastness of the country meant that not every American Indian lived in a tipi. The various landscapes of America meant that the various groups of people also lived very differently.
As I said, I could not find an appropriate picture book for my son back then that shared that kind of information. So I wrote one with the information I wanted to share. 
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Before we jump in to our lessons about American history, I wanted to make sure my daughter had a general understanding of the geography of the USA. The United States of America would be nothing without the land. Before we study the people who live here, we need to understand where “here” is! Our introduction to U.S. geography focused on the major landforms that make up North America: the Rocky Mountains, the Appalachian Mountains, the Great Plains, the Great Lakes, the Mississippi River, and the Grand Canyon, to name a few. We learned the geography of these major American landmarks by reading the folk tales about Paul Bunyan!Continue Reading
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