This is a very simple resource with only 21 pages (roughly one page a week) using lovely photographs ordered to a kind of iconography with respect to very basic US symbols. There is a page with a picture and paragraph about the US flag, one about the Constitution, one about the White House and Congress, and one about the Supreme Court. We think having students acquainted with these icons of our country is important in itself and would be wonderful as preparation for a trip to Washington DC, if anyone is lucky enough to go there. The text also has 11 pages with pictures and a paragraph or two about well known US landmarks and early American settlements (a page for the Grand Canyon, the Great Lakes, Mount St. Helens, CA Redwood and Sequoia trees, Yellowstone National Park, Death Valley, Niagara Falls,  Mount Rushmore, Fort Ross, the Santa Barbara Mission, Jamestown, and Castillo de San Marcos). When Laura's children were little she remembers getting out a map and showing where Grandma and Grandpa lived, and various aunts and uncles and cousins. It made learning the states and capitals easier and more meaningful when the time came. This is a similar approach; it will help make US icons more known (which is good in itself) and will be good preparation for the states and capitals memorization. This text also meets CA state standards for Social Studies, but it fits well with our methodology and will only add about five minutes to a week. (One could, of course, spend more time by getting out the maps and having discussions about the material, if one wanted to.) 

Sample pages of this book are available online; click here to view them.