Simply Stated

Simply Stated by Kreative Simplicity is a US geography study based on literature (sort of).

One of the things that drew me to this program is the literature base, of course because what could be better? But also the authors; they are mom’s who are in the trenches with me.

I love buying curriculum by homeschooling moms for homeschooling moms. Who better understands the struggles of educating one’s own children than someone who is doing it too?

This program really is simple. It is designed to be used by grades 1-6. There website is very helpful and breaks it down into daily bites so you know exactly how to use it. If you are interested in this program, pop over to their website and check it out. You really get a good idea of how to use the program.

The book itself is nothing special, just a comb bound book. The states are broken down into sections; The Heartland States, the Mid-Atlantic States, The New England States, The Pacific States, The Mountain States, The Southwest States, The Great Lake States, The southeast States, and the Appalachian States. In the book, each state has one page on which is listed several picture books (with a short synopsis) that relate to that state.

You don’t have to do them in that order for the program to work, however. My family did the states along with our American History year, in order of when they became states.

Simply Stated also has you creating a simple notebook page with the basics, name of state, state flower, bird etc, and basic simple facts. You do this by using some of the consumables they recommend on their site. My family also learned some valuable map skills using this course.

One caution…I have a tendency to complicate things. It says right in the book that it works best if you keep it simple and guess what? They were right. We got a little overwhelmed with all that there was to do last year and Simply Stated got dropped from our schedule. I am undaunted however. The kids really liked doing our geography time and I’m determined to start where we left off last year and keep going, this time keeping it simple!

I ordered (and would recommend) the States Kit which is $59.95 It includes the following.

U.S. Coloring Book (you’ll want one per child)

Kid’s Road Atlas (you could get one per child, but we shared this book)

U.S. Cookbook (This is a great book! My dd loved making weekly recipes out of this book for the family)

Sticker Picture Map

Fact Pack cards

Don’t Know Much About the 50 States (this is a great book, but I was able to get it from the library)

Here is a link to my regular blog where I blogged about how I was going to use this program. It was a good idea, but like I said it got too complicated. I should have just done it like they said and had each child create a page per state. However, it was really neat to have a real map of each state come in the mail!