My son LOVES Thaddeus! He's always been a cat lover so this is the perfect...wait...purr-fect travel ambassador. We began when my son was halfway through first grade so he requires my assistance with the lessons. The lessons are a good size, neither too long nor too short. They're easy to do and easy to incorporate into our learning week. I like that they don't require a ton of prep work on my part. We do a lesson once a week and to be honest I enjoy them too. They're simple enough to be understood, they don't talk down to kids and it's complex enough that I enjoy the lessons too.

We took a break for the summer and he actually asked when we can get back to Thaddeus. He loves learning about maps and geography and there are several states he's looking forward to.

I have searched and searched for a good geography curriculum for my ND homeschooler, and this is the absolute BEST option out there.

We started using unit 1 to help my 8yo learn more about the states. And these stories have definitely helped. Following Thaddeus on his travel through the US has been so much fun! And silly, and really helped solidify facts about it each place. As a parent, I also really like the workbook that comes with the program. It’s easy, interactive, and just helps add another layer to what they’ve learned. I also love that each state it broken down into 2-3 days of 10-20 minutes so it’s more digestible for younger kids to sit and read.

We absolutely loved StoryLark Road Geography. Following along with Thaddeus made geography come alive in a way that felt natural and exciting instead of forced or dry. The story-based format was perfect for my auditory learner, and the games added just the right amount of fun and reinforcement without feeling like “school.”

This curriculum made geography memorable, engaging, and something my kids genuinely looked forward to. I highly recommend it for families with auditory learners or kids who thrive with stories and hands-on, play-based learning.

Absolutely gorgeous and cohesive geography curriculum!

The artwork is beautiful, the lessons are engaging, and I like the depth and simplicity of the content, that we're exploring geography not through dry facts but through story-based adventure, games, hands-on projects, reflection prompts, and writing assignments. My daughter loves Thaddeus the Cat, his humorous remarks, the crustacean friends it meets in each state, and its funny expressions. That story-based format makes learning engaging and fun.

Highly recommend it!

I received Hit the Road Geography materials for free in exchange for my honest review.

I never thought I would incorporate Geography to my daughters homeschool routine and when I found Story Lark Road it completely blew my mind. The fun, creative and hands on experience has been amazing. 🥲 And my favorite part is that it provides super easy instructions for parents to teach.
Recommend this 10000% won’t disappoint!

This is our first unit and we are more than pleased. My 8 yo daughter loves Thaddeus and looks forward to hearing his next adventure. I love how easy it reads and lends itself for deeper exploration when she has trouble self-reading some of the words/topics. The cohesive approach to presenting knowledge along with the extended connection with the activities makes it a huge win. We are a science house and love anything hands on. We definitely are looking forward to checking out the next state. I will also say that this goes nicely with our other curriculum as we just started map work and US points of destinations (journeying the states through food).

Both of my boys ages 9 and 6 loved doing these lessons! It was so easy to print and begin working immediately. We did the read aloud format, where I read and the boys followed along, and then they completed the activities. I love how beautiful, easy to read, and straightforward these lessons are. My oldest was able to do the activities himself, and I helped my youngest when he needed it. I loved how the activities got them thinking! I highly recommend and can't wait to see some other states!

My two boys and I have loved doing this all to brief study together. One son is 1st grade and my other is 4th grade and they both adore how this was laid out and presented. They crack up at the stories and I think the graphics are the sweetest. The conversational style with its story and characters and brief facts are so unique and loveable. Beyond that though the extra activities are easy to adapt to either of the grade levels of my children and its indepth without being overwhelming. The activities and pages were laid out in such a way that my boys were excited to do the work...I've never experienced so few eye rolls in my life. Seriously! I am hard to impress and I literally have nothing negative to say other then more please! Thank you for such a wonderful and well thought out unit study.

We recently completed the Nevada unit study and absolutely loved it! My girls (5th grade and 1st grade) both really enjoyed listening to Thaddeus’s adventure, and we found the daily assignments to work really well for both ages with minimal adjustments. At the beginning of the document is a page of what to expect from each day and how to use the study, which is really helpful. This study is clearly broken up into daily reading and daily work, with each day taking us about 20-30 minutes to complete. As a work from home mom who is also homeschooling, it was a great length of time to fit into our busy schedule. My 5th grader loved the daily writing activities being a little more aimed at creative writing rather than just answering questions. We completed the study after having taken a road trip through Nevada the week prior, so our kids had learned a lot of the information during that trip and we were able to recognize some of the locations because we’d been there ourselves. If you’re able to pair up a road trip with the unit study for your own state, I highly recommend it! When we finished up with Nevada, both my kids were asking when we were going to start the next state, so I definitely think we’ll continue with more states.

Our experience with the Hello, California! geography unit has been nothing short of fantastic! As we traveled through California's diverse landscapes and learned about its iconic places, the daily activities kept my 5th grader thoroughly engaged and excited. Each day was a perfect blend of speaking, reading comprehension, writing, and activities (such as word searches, and creating a mini-book) that made learning fun and dynamic. Even my 3-year-old was drawn into the engaging storyline, often listening along and joining in on the excitement, which speaks volumes about the captivating content and storytelling.

The unit's thoughtful design highlighted places and vocabulary throughout the story, encouraging us to look up new places and review or learn unfamiliar words. One of the biggest highlights for my daughter was the measurement map scale activity, where she compared the lengths of different bridges in California—she was absolutely thrilled by it! It was these interactive components that kept her interest and made geography a subject to look forward to each day. We loved how the activities effortlessly brought California to life, blending learning and play in a way that was perfect for her age.

Overall, Hello California! was a delightful and educational journey that brought so much joy to our homeschool days. It was a fantastic way to explore geography while sparking curiosity about California's rich history and diverse locations. Each day offered something new and fun, and we found ourselves eagerly anticipating the next chapter of our adventure. I can’t recommend this unit enough for families looking for a creative and engaging approach to learning geography!

We are looking forward to trying more Storylark Road units in the future.

The curriculum uses adorable characters to explore each state. This week, we learned about Hawaii. I supplemented with a globe and beautiful maps book we already had—everything else was from this curriculum. We followed the characters as they traveled through four of the Hawaiian islands, experienced the culture, food, and had the range of experiences. I loved that it had layered text—there were sidebars with more detail, which was fantastic for my older kids while youngers were doing something else. I also love when leveling is possible because kids of different ages are able to experience one curriculum in age-appropriate ways.
There are days of activities provided, and my kids were sooo happy to pick up this up again over multiple sessions. There are cute activities like guessing distances, for example, which prompted some math and estimation. I turned these into a contest: the activity sheet asked how many banana lengths Hawaii was from California. We discussed how to estimate, did some mental math, and had the kids try to guess their best answers.
We learned Hawaiian words, practiced, and then looked up other Hawaiian words we wanted to know. These words kept peeping up in various other activities, which was so fun!
There were lots of discussion around culture, indigenous people and contributions, and food!
Here are the things that shocked me, in a great way:
-After a *full* hour chunk of learning, my kids *actually* begged me to keep going on the lessons. No joke!
-We played the included game TWICE. My kids wanted to keep playing! (And they did without me!!). The games were super creative.
-My kids were throwing around Hawaiian language, culture, foods, in a totally organic way as a result of this curriculum.
-At the end of the lesson, they asked me if this was part of a new curriculum I would use this year covering all of the states (that is the plan, I believe!) -- really hoping it would be!
**Received free trial in exchange from review.