We found it super funny that after drawing such a novel place as North Macedonia, the next country we drew was ... the United States of America!
Since we are from the United States, my kids have been learning about our culture, history, language, and foods since birth, so we tried to take a novel approach to our country. We decided to focus more on our territories, although we did watch a few episodes of Liberty's Kids (see below).
Video List
- US Territories Song - lists all of the inhabited territories and their capitals
- A look at America's territories - short video that describes more about the legal relationship between the territories and the US
I often list to Radiolab podcasts, and around this time they broadcast one called Americanish that talks about the interesting dilemmas posed by being an American territory, especially in American Samoa where its residents are US Nationals, not US citizens. Really fascinating, but won't really hold the attention of kids.
Here are some other resources for those who want to dive into the US a little more. While we didn't watch them for this round, we have used these to help us learn about the country in conjunction with school projects, etc.
- All 50 US States summarized (Geography Now!) - since this is, by definition, a short informal description of the states, he gets a little stereotypical, which may offend your local loyalties
- Things You Didn't Know About the US Territories - longer and dryer, but interesting
- Liberty's Kids is a series that used to run on PBS all about the American Revolution. It is really interesting and covers a very wide scope of historical figures and events. My kids love it and always beg to watch more episodes. We own the complete DVD set from Amazon.
- Stack the States - my kids have a lot of fun playing this app, and it is never a chore when I tell them to spend some time on it. It teaches state shapes, names, capitals, abbreviations, neighbors, and several other things.
- Geography Drive USA - this game lets kids take a virtual road trip back and forth across the USA, learning facts about all of the states along the way
