What Your Child Is Learning in Unit 5 "Life in a Growing Nation"

In the next few weeks, your child will explore how a young United States expanded its borders and exercised influence in the community of nations. He or she will also examine life in America in the early 1800s. Your child will learn about frontier life, the experience of traveling the Oregon and California trails to the Far West, and how the expanding frontier affected Native Americans.

Activities You Can Do at Home to Support Your Child's Learning

Chapter 13 Birth of a New Nation

• This chapter explores the daily life of children in the United States from 1800 to 1850. First, work with your child to make a list of children's daily activities in the early 1800s. Then each of you can make a list of your own daily activities for one weekday and one weekend day. Your child's list will be what he or she does now; your list will be what you did when you were your child's age. Compare all three lists, discussing the similarities and differences.

Chapter 14 Moving West

• Read a book (such as Jack London's short stories of the West) or watch a movie together about settlers moving west. Talk about the different reasons people moved west and some of their different experiences.

• Pretend your family is about to begin a journey from east to west on the first transcontinental railroad. Ask your child what he or she would expect the ride to be like. Together, make a list of what the family will need to take with them.

Chapter 15 Settling the Far West

• Native Americans experienced dramatic changes during the early settlement of the West. Encourage your child to choose one group of Native Americans from this region and to learn more how this group lived before Europeans arrived. Then locate articles in present-day newspapers and magazines that tell about how this group lives today.