Gather Round Homeschool: North America - Free Resources for Your Family!

When I first decided to try Gather Round Homeschool, I made the decision to go through the Year 1 units in order. I followed this plan all the way through this unit and then ventured into a Year 2 unit. 🙂

I enjoyed going through the Year 1 units in order, though, because I thought they did a great job of circling back to previously discussed topics. I also really enjoyed the switch between a science and social studies focus each unit.

Since we make each unit last at least five weeks, we only got through the first six units of Year 1 (plus the Christmas Mini-Unit). Our second year was when we did North America and only 2 other units (during this unit we stopped at the U.S. and spent a good amount of time doing a 50 states study!)

If you are unfamiliar with the Gather Round Homeschool curriculum, be sure to check out this blog post that tells more about it! You can also see samples and purchase units on their website. It’s family-style approach to homeschool has been such a blessing to our family!

Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links. Clicking on this link won’t cost you a thing, however I will receive a small percentage back. Thank you for helping support my blog in this way! With that said, I only recommend products that I personally love!

THE RESOURCES:

I love planning themed anything and I think that’s why unit studies appeal to me so much! It’s enjoyable to me to find those extra special things like music, shows, crafts or experiments that add just a little more to what we’re learning.

I’ve also found that our lessons go so much more smoothly when I have everything that I want to introduce to my kids all organized and ready to go. Sometimes we may not get to everything or even go down a different rabbit trail of learning, but it’s so helpful to have what I want readily available.

This can be time-consuming though! Since I’m already doing the work for my own family, my hope is that by sharing the resources I find with you, it will help you save a little of your time. 🙂

My playlists are mostly geared toward elementary and under because that is where my kids are. There are lots of other videos/books/etc you could add if you have older kids as well.

While I’ve used most of these resources with my kids, I always recommend that you preview them before using with your kiddos to make sure it’s a good fit for your family.

Gather Round Homeschool: North America – YouTube Playlist

Many of the video sources in this playlist are favorites of my kiddos. They go in order from Lesson 1 – 20 to make your life easier! Use what you like, leave what you don’t, add what you need.

They can be used during the lesson, after the lesson, or anytime really! How they are used is entirely up to you.

Gather Round Homeschool: North America – Spotify Playlist

This is a playlist I created with traditional music and the national anthems from many of the countries that are discussed in this unit study. I like to use this sometimes during writing time and often during dinner.

At dinner, especially, it adds that little extra touch that helps transport you to that country…especially if you’re eating their food, too!

Gather Round Homeschool: North America – Pinterest Board

I don’t know about you, but I enjoy using Pinterest to gather and organize ideas…and recipes! Sometimes I use the ideas that I find directly and other times scrolling pinterest inspires an idea of my own.

This is yet another thing that takes a little time, so here is your shortcut!

The creator of this curriculum sells a beautiful digital recipe book to go along with the unit if you’d just like to purchase and print that! However, if you choose not to, this board has the recipes that I pinned for every country in the Gather Round Homeschool North America unit…including ones for some of the recipes she recommends. I won’t make ALL of them, but I do plan on making many of them.

I’ve also included some extra ideas such as crafts, STEM projects, etc.!

In an attempt to make it as easy to find what you’re looking for as possible, the recipes go in order from Lesson 1-20 with any activity pins being at the very end of the board!

Gather Round Homeschool: North America – Book List and More!

BOOK LIST

Rebecca Spooner, the creator of Gather Round Homeschool, has an amazing book list in the front of every unit’s teacher’s guide. It’s even divided up by levels to make it easy! I was able to get most of the ones I wanted from our local library and then used Amazon and Thrift Books to get any that were remaining.

I’m also looking at the following books not on that list:

America’s National Parks, by Lonely Planet Kids

The Travel Book: A Journey Through Every Country in the World, by Lonely Planet Kids (A favorite I’ve used through every continental study!)

Weird but True Canada: 300 Outrageous Facts About the True North, by Chelsea Lin

The United States of America Coloring Book, by Jen Racine

The 50 States: Explore the U.S.A with 50 Fact-Filled Maps!, by Gabrielle Balkan

Wooden United States and World Map Puzzles (Ages 3-8)

Guess in 10: States of America (Game)

SHOWS AND MOVIES

Here’s a list of shows and movies for added entertainment that can further reinforce the theme!

Wild Kratts
- “Build it Beaver” – Season 1 (Beaver Dams)
- “Walk on the Wetside” – Season 1 (Costa Rica)
- “Little Howler” – Season 1 (Canada)
- “Shadow: The Black Jaguar” – Season 2 (Central America)
- “Snow Runners” – Season 2 (Canada)
- “Under Frozen Pond” – Season 3 (Maine)
- “Where the Bison Roam” – Season 3 (Great Plains)
- “Prairie Who?” – Season 3 (Great Plains)
- “Puffin Rescue” – Season 4
- “Spirit Bear” – Season 4 (Southeast Alaska)
- “Hero’s Journey” – Season 5 (Migrating Salmon, Alaska)
Molly of Denali (PBS Kids)
Puffin Rock (Netflix)
Octonauts and the Cave of Sac Actun (Netflix)
Spirit (Movie and Series)
Princess and the Frog
Brother Bear
Cars
Coco
Lilo and Stitch
Pocahontas
Rango
Balto (mentioned in Teacher’s Guide)
White Fang
Three Caballeros
Soul Surfer
Unstoppable (Netflix)
Cool Runnings (mentioned in Teacher’s Guide)
Drain the Great Lakes (Disney +)
Big Sur: Wild California (Disney +)
Into the Grand Canyon (Disney +)

I hope that these pre-planned resources help save you time in your unit study planning! Enjoy!

Make sure to check out my resource pages for other Gather Round Homeschool units:

See what we did and what we thought of some of units we’ve completed in these reviews!

What are some of the activities you’ve done or are planning to do with this unit? I’d love to know! Share in the comments below!