For the past 2 years many of you have been enjoying my history units with American Girl History or the Adventures in America series. History curriculum for the younger years was always so hard for me to find, so I decided to piece together my own and share them with you. History isn’t prominent in the younger years, but these guides are great introductions to lots of topics kids will cover repeatedly throughout their education.
History is one of my passions (I have a BA degree in history specifically 😆) and I LOVE to bring learning to life! Creating a craft replica of something they made in a story, recipes, map work, notebooking, and lots of games really help to make the topics they are learning stick! They also create core memories and a special time together.
Today I’m going to share lots of information and frequently asked questions for those of you interested in using my history guides or want to continue using more. I’m going to break down what each history series contains, how to choose which ones to use, the chronological order through history, and where to find the corresponding books. 😊
Which series should I use?
Either series are SO much fun and very similar in the way they are laid out! All units are 4 weeks long, offer book lists, games, recipes, video suggestions, and full instructions for all the projects. All of my history guides are great for elementary grades, ages 5-11. They can easily be adapted to many different ages and abilities, making it easier to teach everyone together as a family.
American Girl History obviously uses the America Girl chapter books, so many think it is a curriculum just for girls. I have heard from MANY families that have boys that used it and enjoyed it just as much! Each of the books follow an American Girl, but there are always boy characters in the stories as well. I love the way these stories connect kids to history! In each guide I also list several chapter books for boys that you can use in place of the American Girl books. There are a few crafts/projects that are specific to girls in certain guides, but most are gender neutral and loved by all!
I know, as a family with many boys, the American Girl History doesn’t look appealing to them. Totally get it! That is why I created the Adventures in America series that go along with another fun book series “You Wouldn’t Want to…” We have been using it this year as a family and really enjoying it. There are a few repeated projects or recipes from the American Girl series, but there are even more new projects!
The biggest difference between the 2 series is the weekly layout. In American Girl History, each week you are given a check list of sorts with all the things you will complete, in order. You can space them out into your school week however you like. You can typically get everything done in just 2-3 days per week. The Adventures series is broken down by lessons for each week. It shows you all the things to do for each lesson. You can choose to do the lessons one day per week or mesh them together some days. Most of the lessons are broken down between 3-4 days per week, but some are very quick & simple.
Some of the American Girl History units cover time periods and topics that are NOT in the Adventures series, and vice versa, so you can use both! That leads me to the next question…
What order do they go in?
I always suggest going in chronological order when teaching younger kids American History because it makes it less confusing when certain things happen. However, each guide can be done in any order and in any time frame you want. I’m going to share the order of each unit in both series and then all together if you were to use both series simultaneously.
American Girl History begins in 1764 with early Native American tribes and ends in 1945 with WWII. There are 8 original historical American Girls and 8 guides in the bundle. Some additional American Girls are being added this year, but are not part of the bundle just yet! Each girl is typically between 10-50 years apart in history. These guides focus a lot on what it was like to live during these times- what they did for work, school, what they ate, played, how they dressed, as well as some important figures and events.
Kaya 1764- Nez Perce Native Americans, Lewis & Clark
Felicity 1774- American Revolution
Caroline 1812- The War of 1812, Star Spangled Banner (*not included in the bundle)
Josefina 1824- Southwest Frontier: New Mexico
Marie Grace & Cecile 1853- Louisiana history & Mardi Gras
Kirsten 1854- Immigration and Pioneers
Samantha 1904- The Victorian Era
Kit 1934- The Great Depression
You can purchase all the American Girls together in the American Girl History BUNDLE. *Caroline, Marie-Grace & Cecile are not included in the bundle.
You can also grab this fun American Girl History Board Game! It can be played while you learn about any of the girls in the bundle or at the end as a review. *Board Game is INCLUDED in the American Girl History Bundle.
Adventures to the New World is Part 1 of the series and actually starts BEFORE the American Girl series does in the history timeline. These units cover the exploration and beginning settlements of America. The units can be purchased all together or separately. They focus more on specific events & figures in history.
Adventures Through America is Part 2 of this series. Now that we have begun to colonize and settle, these units take you through all the adventures that happen throughout early America.
Now let’s say you wanted to do some of the Adventures to the New World that starts in history before the American Girl guides, you want to match up some of the American Girl & Adventure guides, or you want to continue after the Adventure series ends. This is the chronological order through history for every single history unit.
- Vikings Unit
- Columbus Unit
- Jamestown Unit
- Mayflower Unit
- American Revolution Unit & AG Felicity
- Lewis & Clark Unit & AG Kaya
- AG Caroline
- Oregon Trail & AG Kirsten
- Civil War & AG Addy
- AG Samantha
- AG Kit
- AG Molly
Personally, if I was to do these all over again I would do Adventures to the New World (Part 1) first, then pick American Girl or Adventures Through America to continue with. You can do some of them together that match up, but that is totally up to you!
You can do ANY guide on its own! They don’t have to be in order or you don’t have to do them all. They are great for a study on a topic your kids are interested in or to add fun projects to another curriculum you are using.
How to space these out throughout your school year?
Each unit is 4 weeks long, so typically one month. Using a traditional school schedule, we begin our history units in September and do one per month until April. We take off December for Christmas school things & winter break, and then we have all of May to catch up at the end of the year if we need to. The Adventures in America series (Part 1 and Part 2) has 8 units in total for 8 months, if you do one per month. The American Girl Bundle has 8 units in total for 8 months, if you do one per month. Adding the additional American Girl guides will make it longer (Caroline & others to come.)
We are able to complete the lessons in either series just 2-3 days per week (about an hour or less each day.) If you are reading the American Girl chapter books with the units, we would read one chapter per day. They are usually only 4-5 chapters long for each book. The 4th week in the unit allows you time to catch up or continuing reading other books.
An American Girl Christmas is also a fun guide with 6 mini units you can complete in December. Learn all about the different holiday traditions throughout history!
Where to find the books?
Unfortunately, most of these books are out of print and have to be purchased second hand or borrowed from your library. I always suggest to check your library first! We were fortunate that our library had every single book! You can also purchase them second hand. These are some of my favorite websites to check out and purchase from:
You can also type the book into bookfinder.com and it will help you find many places where the book is sold and the prices to help you compare. I also share lots of books being resold on my Instagram stories, from others who no longer need them.
Here is a list of the main books for all of the Adventures in America series:
Download of American Girl booklist below.
What to do if I can’t find the books?
You CAN still do the guides without some of the books! Each guide comes with a full booklist with lots of other nonfiction, picture books, and chapter books that you can find at your library to supplement. Example HERE (Lewis & Clark booklist.)
If you are using American Girl History and can’t find the Welcome to Their World books, you can just use the chapter books instead but you need all 6! In the back of the chapter books it has a “Looking Back” section that has very similar information and text of the larger book.
This is a FREE booklist to download that shares all the books you need, or which ones to use in its place, should you not be able to find some.
If you are using the Adventures in America series and can’t find the “You Wouldn’t Want to…” books, you can do without! The most important book is the encyclopedia/reference book, usually by DK. I tried my hardest to make sure most of those books were still available on Amazon, but you can find them second hand as well. *Remember that all books sometimes have updated covers! If the title & author are correct it is more than likely the same book just with an updated cover.
Phew! Sorry that was a lot, but I hope I answered as many questions as possible and now have a place you can reference if needed. If you ever have any other questions, definitely feel free to leave them in the comments for me to answer or send me a message. 😊
I really hope you enjoy any of these units! They are a true labor of love, but I have so much confidence in them! They are so much fun and really bring their learning to life!
Happy History Learning!
– Lindsay
**All of my products are PDF downloads. You won’t receive any physical product in the mail. If you need help printing and binding any of my guides you can head to Pure & Simple Printing Company. Use SCHOOLOFSMITHS10 for 10% off your order! They are super fast & affordable!
Ohhh thank you for this! I was wondering how to use both. We will be ending next month with the Mayflower Unit so we will just continue on for next year with the rest. My boys and I love all of your lessons so much!
This is so amazing! I’m so excited that I found your American history curriculum. I see that you’re in California! We plan to do California history in 4th grade (next year) Do you have any plans on doing California history units??
Thank you!! No plans for any California history, we are actually studying that this coming school year and will be using Beautiful Feet Books study. However, I’m sure I will have a blog post or 2 sharing lots of fun project ideas, books, recipes, etc. that we will add to our studies. 🙂
Hi! We bought your AG History bundle for the coming year with my AG obsessed girls. However, after reading this post I’m wondering if we should begin with Adventures part 1 before diving into that? I know that would extend our history a bit, but I’d really like to do ancients next year so don’t plan to loop back around to more American history. Do you think AG can stand alone or would it be best to do Adventures first? Thanks so much for any feedback, I love all of your work!
American Girl can totally stand alone! I did it on its own with my daughter and then we covered the Adventures units a few years later. It was nice having some new topics to cover (like Vikings, etc.) but also great review and deep dives of things we had previously covered with American Girl. If they are obsessed with AG like my daughter was, just do that and they will love it!
What “grade” do you recommend starting these for our AG obsessed girly?! (She’s only going into Kinder but I’ve been slowly collected the books – just missing Kaya 😭)
They are great for any elementary grades K-6th! 🙂