I cannot say enough good about the US Constitution and Government course. In fact, it may just be my *favorite* course we’ve ever done from The Good and the Beautiful. I truly loved it. It was engaging for Jacob (and me!), the depth of information was excellent, AND, most importantly, it left me with so much gratitude for the founders of our great nation. The Constitution was divinely inspired and we have an obligation to make sure its truths are honored in our government.
Course Overview
This course is designed for kiddos in grades 4-8 (Jacob was in 5th Grade when we did this course). It’s objective is “to teach students about the establishment and early development of America’s government through the study of the founding documents – the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the 27 Amendments – and the lives of the Founding Fathers and Mothers.” AND IT DOES! This course definitely fulfills its objective.
Throughout the course, your kiddo will work in their student journal to highlight several of the Founding Men and Women of our country. These were one of my favorite things. It did not portray these individuals as perfect, but it did focus on their strength of character and the hardships that they overcame. I felt inspired.
Another thing I loved in this course was the diversity of the lessons. It took a topic that could potentially be dry and added lots of engaging resources to go along with it.
The last thing I wanted to mention, is while its focus is on the founding of our nation, the course does go through each of the 27 Amendments as well – so taking you to a more modern America (the last amendment ratified in 1992).
Course Book
When you order the course, you will receive a Course Book. This is where your lessons and activities are. One thing I would love to be changed is that while there is a perforated edge to tear our the pages, I found it difficult to get a nice crisp edge. I wish there was a separate packet of loose pages with things that needed to be taken out of the book.
Structure
There are 32 lessons in the course and they are designed to take 45 minutes. We had hoped to use this for a semester but it took us MUCH longer. I even planned on an hour for the lessons, but there were many lessons that we had to stretch out over two days. Once we got into the Overview of the Constitution lesson and the lessons covering Articles 1-3, almost all of those took us two days. So based on our experience, if you did this course twice a week, it would take at least 20 weeks.
Topics
Speaking of the lessons, here are the topics covered within the course, and how they are divided into lessons:
- Seeking Truth
- Our Duty
- Common Sense
- Declaration of Independence
- Slavery and the Founding Fathers
- The Articles of Confederation
- The Great Compromise
- The Framing of the Constitution
- Federalists and Anti-Federalists
- Of the People. By the People, For the People
- Overview of the Constitution
- Article I, Sections 1-3
- Article I, Sections 4-6
- Article I, Section 7: How a Bill Becomes a Law, Part 1
- Article I, Section 7: How a Bill Becomes a Law, Part 2
- Article I, Section 8
- Article I, Sections 9-10
- Article II, Section 1
- Article II, Sections 2-4
- Article III, Sections 1-3
- Article IV
- Articles V, VI, and VII
- Separation of Powers, Checks & Balances
- Introduction to the Bill of Rights
- First Amendment
- Second through Fifth Amendments
- Sixth through Tenth Amendments
- Eleventh and Twelfth Amendments
- Reconstruction Amendments
- Sixteenth through Eighteenth Amendments
- Nineteenth through Twenty-Third Amendments
- Twenty-Fourth through Twenty-Seventh Amendments
Student Journal
The Student Journal is FANTASTIC! Jacob really took a lot of pride in his work within the journal and I think it will be something I hold onto for him. It contains a timeline, biographies, the Declaration of Independence, an overview of the Articles of the Constitution, the entire United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and other various activities. It is a treasure.
Biographies
As I mentioned earlier, there are several short audio biographies you will be prompted to listen to throughout the course. These are very well done and engaging. You access these online.
Mystery on Constitution Island
I had no idea what to expect from this book before we started but we LOVED it! The course prompts you when to read and we were always itching to read more. It was very engaging and a great mystery story which somehow wove a lot of information along with it (without feeling weird if you know what I mean). Very much recommend it!
Answer Key
There is a PDF Answer Key that you can print off. I printed and bound ours but it is really short and you could probably get away with just looking it up as needed if you wanted to.
Activity Book
The last piece that you can purchase is an Activity Book to accompany the course. My understanding is that this is not designed for the student completing the course, but to keep other little hands (aka kiddos) busy while you are working with your older students. I got one for Sarah – since she usually does history with us – and she used it sometimes and other times she would do her own thing. Flipping through it now, there were only three pages she didn’t end up doing, so she did use it, but I would definitely not say it was an essential purchase.
Supplies
The supplies for this course are very minimal. Looking back over the supply list, I had everything already on hand – so no worries there!
Favorite Moments & Activities
Final Thoughts
This course is beautifully done and inspires a great love for our country. I am so grateful that this is available to help teach our young people (and all of us).
