Constitutional History Homeschool: Teach the Three Stories

Start with the problem, not the Preamble

Most Constitution units open with "We the People." It's a fine sentence. But it's the answer, and kids hear it before they know what the question was. If you've suspected that's why the unit never seems to stick, you're not wrong, and it's no wonder kids tune out.

The question was the Articles of Confederation. The Continental Congress adopted them on November 15, 1777, and they took effect when Maryland ratified on March 1, 1781. The National Archives describes the result as a "league of friendship" among 13 independent states. The central government couldn't tax. There was no executive branch. And any change to the Articles had to be confirmed by every single state legislature, which made fixing them close to impossible.

That's my one strong opinion on this subject: teach the failure first. A child who understands why a government that couldn't raise money was in trouble will read Article I, Section 8 with real interest. A child who starts with the Preamble is memorizing.

The three stories, in order

1. The problem (1777-1786)

Cover what the Articles allowed and what they didn't. Have your child list three things the national government couldn't do, then guess what problems each one caused. In September 1786, delegates met at Annapolis to discuss commercial problems. Their report, from Madison and Hamilton, called on Congress to summon delegates from all the states to revise the Articles.

2. The argument (1787-1788)

The Constitutional Convention opened in Philadelphia on May 25, 1787. According to the National Archives, 74 delegates were appointed and 55 actually attended. By mid-June they'd decided to redesign the government entirely rather than patch the Articles. They met for the last time on September 17, 1787, when the Constitution was signed. Three delegates in the hall that day, George Mason, Elbridge Gerry and Edmund Randolph, refused to sign it.

Then came ratification, which is the part most curricula rush. Article VII said nine state ratifying conventions were enough to establish the Constitution. Between October 1787 and May 1788, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay published 85 essays in New York newspapers under the pen name "Publius" to persuade New Yorkers to ratify. We know them as the Federalist Papers. On July 2, 1788, the Confederation Congress received word that New Hampshire had become the ninth state to ratify. The new government took effect in 1789.

3. The changes (1789-today)

On September 25, 1789, the First Congress proposed 12 amendments. By December 15, 1791, three-fourths of the states had ratified ten of them, the Bill of Rights. One of the two leftovers, about congressional pay, was finally ratified in 1992 as the 27th Amendment, 203 years after it was proposed. Kids love that one.

From there, pick a handful of later amendments and connect each to the history around it:

Article V explains how all of this works: two-thirds of both houses of Congress (or a convention called by two-thirds of the states) proposes an amendment, and three-fourths of the states ratify it. Have your child compare that with the Articles' every-state rule. It's the cleanest single example of what the framers changed.

A quick timeline for the wall

• 1777: Congress adopts the Articles of Confederation
• 1781: The Articles take effect
• 1786: Annapolis Convention
• 1787: Constitutional Convention, May 25 to September 17
• 1787-1788: The Federalist Papers
• 1788: New Hampshire becomes the ninth state to ratify
• 1789: The Constitution takes effect; Congress proposes 12 amendments
• 1791: The Bill of Rights is ratified
• 1992: The 27th Amendment is ratified

How it changes by age

K-2: Rules and why groups need them. Make a family "constitution" with three rules and a way to change them.

Grades 3-5: The story of 1787 as a story. Who was in the room, what they argued about, and what happened after. Read the Preamble aloud and talk about each phrase.

Grades 6-8: Read short sections of the Articles and the Constitution side by side. Look at the Bill of Rights one amendment at a time.

High school: A few full Federalist essays, the ratification debate from both sides, and later amendments tied to the eras that produced them. Have your teen write one argument essay using primary sources only.

This is history, which is a little different from civics. Civics asks how the government works now and how to take part in it. Constitutional history asks how it got this way. If you're planning the wider picture, our guides to homeschool history curriculum, homeschool social studies and world history homeschool cover how it fits into the rest of the year.

Where to find the primary sources

• National Archives, America's Founding Documents. Full transcripts of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and amendments 11 to 27, plus background on how the Constitution was written and ratified.
• DocsTeach. A free site from the National Archives Foundation with thousands of primary sources and ready-made, document-based activities you can copy and adapt.
• Library of Congress. The full text of the Federalist Papers, with background on when and where they were published.

Fair warning: the original documents are hard reading. Eighteenth-century sentences are long, and a ten-year-old won't get through a Federalist essay alone. Read short passages together, out loud, and save full essays for high school. And if your family wants to cover how the Constitution is interpreted today, which is where the arguments get heated, teach how the process works before anyone's opinion on a case.

Where Just Tutor Me fits

Just Tutor Me doesn't teach constitutional history today. Math, Reading, Science and Language Arts are live, and a History & Social Studies subject, which includes a Government & Civics strand, is coming soon. It isn't available to use yet, so for now you'll need a separate history resource and the plan above.

What it does handle is the four live subjects, with a placement assessment for each child and mastery-based progress, which can free up time for the reading and discussion this topic needs. Bring Your Own Curriculum, which lets you upload your own textbooks for the tutor to reference, works inside those four subjects too, so it won't turn a civics text into a course. The features page lists what's included.

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