America’s Struggle to Become a Nation with The Timeline of the Revolution (Teacher Guide) is a comprehensive study of the history of America’s struggle to become a free nation for your 4^th-6^th grade students. This 36 week course is broken down into easy to manage lessons that include; reading, vocabulary, worksheets, quarterly quizzes and activities. You can choose either a five-day or four-day plan.

The Teacher Guide is filled with everything you need. The worksheets and pages are perforated and three-hole punched so that you can tear them out for easy use. Suggested daily schedules include space to record student scores and completion dates. History reading selections are clearly outlined on the top of each lesson and come from the full color text – America’s Struggle to Become a Nation.

The Teacher Guide includes Patriotic Song Lyrics (and the stories behind the song) as well as a full timeline of events leading to the Revolution. Answer keys for worksheet and quizzes are right there for easy reference. Additional recommended resources are listed for further investigation.

The main text is a 384 page, softcover book. The 34 chapters are divided into three reading sections each, and is considered a full school year history course. One unique feature of this program is the recommended audio selections available at UncleRickAudios.com.  Uncle Rick is a storyteller, and his audios are recordings of books about America’s Godly heritage. You can use these to bring the stories to life, and to take the learning with you on the go. 

A key learning component is the Student Journal. This is a place for your student to write in after they read each chapter. They pretend they are a child living at the time of the Revolutionary War and “journal” what they have just read about from that perspective.  The worksheet pages offer Journal Entry suggestions for each chapter.

Additional hands-on projects and activities are included for each chapter as well. From making your own flour fort (with M & M’s!) to memorizing the Preamble to the Constitution – these activities are designed to bring history to life for your student.

We have been enjoying this course tremendously.  My elementary students are easily able to read and complete the daily assignments independently, but this is too good not to join them! Woven throughout is the focus on America’s Christian heritage.  Sidebars introduce great Americans and interesting facts. Scripture is quoted throughout. This is a beautiful telling of our country’s history and heritage. We have enjoyed the art and illustrations along with our reading. Some of our favorite chapters featured short introductions to each of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the signers of the Constitution, what inspiring men they were!

The Appendix includes four primary documents of our nation; The Declaration of Independence, The Bill of Rights, Washington’s Inaugural Address of 1789 and George Washington’s Farewell Address of 1796.

This is a rich study to share together as a family.

—Product review by Renita Bentz, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, May, 2016