Tag Archives: world history

Home School In The Woods Review

My kids have been enjoying learning about history with several exciting hands on Á La Carte Projects from Home School in the Woods.

We have used several of the larger projects from Home School In The Woods in our homeschool and we love the details and learning adventure they take us on.

Home School In The Woods has a wide variety of affordable single Á La Carte Projects to choose from such as: creative writing, 3-dimensional crafts, authentic historical crafts, period games, historical timelines, Art history, newspapers, Lap booking, World History, American History, Ancient Empires, and more.

The smaller single projects offered in Á La Carte Projects are samples from the larger projects they offer.  These single projects can be completed easily and quickly. Á La Carte is a win win for busy homeschoolers who might not have time for the larger study but want to enhance their learning.  Or maybe they just want to sample a project before diving into the larger project studies.  Either way, you can now choose from a variety of quick to create hands on projects that help your child interact with history while having lots of fun.

We were recently sent 3 of their Á La Carte Projects to review:

Martin Luther’s 95 Theses File Folder Project

Martin Luther’s 95 Theses File Folder Project

18 pages

PDF Download

Grades 3rd-12th

Retail $4

Five hundred years ago, the religious and political world was changed by a man named Martin Luther.  He was a German theology professor (he held many titles including university theology professor, priest, Vicor over 11 Catholic churches, monk, clergy, etc),  and publicly stood up to corruption, man made traditions, false doctrine, and hypocrisy in the church.

Martin Luther bravely nailed his 95 Theses to the doors of the All Saints Catholic Church in Wittenberg Germany on October 31, 1517, the eve of All Saints Day.  Within two weeks printed copies of the Thesis had spread all over Germany and within two months copies had been distributed all over Europe.  This event is considered as the pivotal moment in history when the Reformation of the church began, and what soon followed as the Roman Catholic church split into two main groups called Catholics and Protestants.

Martin Luther’s 95 Theses File Folder Project was created specifically to honor the 500th anniversary of this historic event.

This project contains a beautifully illustrated pictures on the one side, and a biographical summary of the life of Martin Luther, a list of his hymns, and the 95 Theses on the backside.

The Jamestown Replica

The Jamestown Replica

8 pages

PDF Download

Grades 3rd-8th

Retail $3

If you are studying early American History then this project is for you.  Jamestown, Virginia, was the first settlement to establish itself permanently in the English colonies.

Founded in 1607, the Jamestown Colony provided the British with a foothold in the New World as the those in religious and political powers, including the Vatican and the Kings of Europe, race to conquer the world’s resources.  This project is also found in the larger product called Time Travelers: The American Revolution.

This project uses a few printables and double sided tape to make a 3-D replica of Jamestown.

In this project, you create a fenced fort, with a church and several houses.

The Progress of Faith From Europe to the Colonies Timeline

The Progress of Faith From Europe to the Colonies Timeline

Covers 1500 A.D. through 1791 A.D.

16 pages

PDF Download

Grades 3rd-12th

Retail $3

If you are studying the History of the Protestant Church or the American colonial era, then you will definitely want to get this project.  You can get The Progress of Faith From Europe to the Colonies Timeline as a stand alone project or you can also buy it in the project called Time Travelers: Colonial Life.

This timeline helps us understand the faith of early Americans.  It helps us understand how key men and women in history influenced the Christian faith that was a part of the early American colonies and helped establish this nation.

This set comes with 24 labeled and dated figures from the Timeline Figures Collection and a predated timeline that covers from 1500 A.D. through 1791 A.D..

First we printed the project pages and cut off the extra area from the timeline pages.

Then we taped the timeline pages together, and hole punch one edge of the timeline.

Next we cut out the figures, and glued the figures on to the timeline.

This timeline opens and folds back nicely into a three ring binder, and is easily unfolded for study and presentation.  It has plenty of room to add additional information, such as key historical events (wars, technology, economy, plagues, migration, etc) that your student might want to add later.

It is very interesting to see all of the key people who were involved in helping develop the Christian Protestant church and eventually bring this religious freedom to America.

Final Thoughts:

We have really enjoyed working on these projects.  Each project is simple to create and go together easily.  They make a nice visual presentation of the subject.  Because these learning projects are multi-sensory and hands on, kids retain they information they learned better than just reading about history.

While we worked on our projects for this review, we looked up information on Wikipedia about Martin Luther and his 95 Theses while creating these projects (we did a a google search for en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-five_Theses) so we could understand the bigger picture of what took place.  Now we want to learn more about this time in history and how it impacts the Christian faith, freedom, and life today.  I am very interested to continue the learning and purchase three larger studies for my family: the Project Passport: Renaissance & Reformation and  Timeline Pack: Resurrection to Revolution and the Time Travelers: Colonial Life.

We love using hands on history projects in our home. I would like to get more of these Á La Carte Projects soon. There are so many great projects to choose from.  It will be hard to decide.

I think my kids would enjoy The Art of Quilling 3D Project.  This looks project like a lot of fun and a way to really be creative once you learn how and do a few templates first.  I would think imagination and how much time you have to give it would be the only limit to this.  It also looks like a great “quiet” activity, which is needed sometimes. 

We would also like the do the Greek Life! File Folder Game.  The older three kids have been learning Greek and I think this game would enhance their learning even more. It comes with lots of pieces to create including a game, players, cards, ancient coins, and more.

A few of the wonderful Home School In The Woods projects we have completed in the past few years are:

Project Passport: The Middle Ages

Time Travelers: Industrial Revolution through Great Depression 

Home School In The Woods has a huge variety of hands on History products to choose from.  Be sure to check out their website and see if they have something that might interest your kids and enhance their history studies.

For a great explanation of these different kinds of projects, check out these short videos:

Activity Paks, Activity Studies, and Lap Paks

Time Travelers Series

Project Passport Series

Timelines and Maps

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Home School In The Woods Project Passport Review

I am excited to share with you about wonderful product we will be using this fall called  Project Passport  World History Study: The Middle Ages by Home School In The Woods

Home School in the Woods Review

Home School In The Woods is a company created by a real homeschool family in 2002.  The Pak family understands the challenges of learning history in a way that is truthful, as well as easy to understand and remember.   They have created many wonderful uncensored historical homeschool curriculum resources for families, including amazing illustrated history timelines, lapbooks, notebooks, and unit studies.  The printable graphics and illustrations in the activities and the organization really gives this curriculum a special quality and I encourage everyone to check out their products and see which ones will work for your family.

Project Passport World History Study: The Middle Ages

Home School in the Woods Review

Format: CD or Download (Mac & PC Compatible)
Suggested grades: 3-8
For individual family use.
PDF Download Version $33.95
CD Version $34.95

WHAT IS INCLUDED:

This history product contains 25 lessons (or stops along the journey) that cover people, events in history, and geography from The Middle Ages about 400 AD to 1500 AD.   Some of the main historical events covered include:

  • Barbarian invasions,
  • Everyday Medieval life,
  • The structure of the classes,
  • Towns & guilds,
  • Science & invention,
  • Medieval education,
  • The arts,
  • Church history,
  • The castle,
  • The Crusades,
  • Knights,
  • Vikings,
  • Battles & wars

When your student is done, they will have made a passport that can be used for this and additional Project Passport Studies in history, a lapbook of all their research activities, a scrapbook of sights visited and project papers completed and a history timeline.  They will have several arts and craft souvenirs, file folder games, and recipes that they have made along the learning journey too.

Project Masters
The CD includes directions and printable masters for over 50 projects and activities.  This is very flexible. You can choose all of the the projects, or choose just a few of them that work best for your family!

Project Passport

Activities:

  • Creative Writing
  • File Folder Game
  • “Scrapbook of Sights” for storing notebook projects
  • Newspaper “The Medieval Times”
  • “Snapshot Moments in History” Scrapbook Timeline
  • “Postcards from Famous Folks”
  • Souvenir Craft Cards with a dozen 3-D projects to make
  • “Dining Out Guide” of Recipes
  • Lap Book Projects (over a dozen)
  • Dramatized Audio Tours
  • Travel Tips
  • Teacher Keys
  • Itinerary

Dramatized Audio Tours,
There is nearly an hour of listening on dramatized audio tours. Join “Knight in Shining Armor Tours” as Agatha (your tour guide) and Brian (your coach driver) take you on medieval excursions, such as a town on a Festival Day, a monastery where you will hear the sounds of Gregorian Chant, or the Battlefield of Hastings, and the Duke William of Normandy.

Travel Planner
The travel planner helps the teacher see the whole schedule.  They can see upcoming topics and projects at a glance and plan and gather supplies accordingly.  Use a three-ring binder to lay everything out for this history study including: Travel Tips, teacher keys, Additional Resources (should you wish to include more reading or viewing to enhance the study), and a Quick-Stop Itinerary.   Also included is a 3 ring binder notebook cover you can print in either color or black & white.  Putting everything in a binder will help you keep it neat and organized.

Notebook

Teachers Guide
The teacher’s Guide Book houses the reading Guide Book Text, the Travel Itineraries of project directions, as well as Travel Tips, teacher keys, and any of the other teacher helps.

Lapbook, Notebook, and Souvenirs
Throughout this history study,  students will accumulate many lapbook or notebook items they created from printouts and research activities to include in a final lapbook / notebook / scrapbook of the learning adventure.  Some of the specific activities include  “Snapshot Moments in History” timeline, Mapping the Barbarian Invasions, Famous People of the Crusades, Medieval Weaponry & Armor, The Coat of Arms, Illuminations, Pilgrims & Pilgrimages, etc.

We Love It!!!

All of my kids love this curriculum.  It is hands on and my kids love hands on unit studies on any subject, and this one is especially exciting.   We have this as our number one history and geography curriculum for this fall.   The Project Passports are designed to last at least 8 to 12 weeks in length.  That would mean doing two or three lessons per week.  However, this will project will stretch for 25 weeks if you choose to do one lesson a week, choose to do more of the projects suggested, and go deeper in the learning opportunities that are offered.  So I would personally recommend taking your time with this learning adventure and get as much from it as you can. It is quite the adventure and your kids are going to love it!

I am so impressed with this company and I personally would love to have all of the resources they have created for our homeschool.   We were sent their Project Passport World History Study: The Middle Ages for review and it is so huge, it will completely fill our history schedule this fall for our upcoming school year.  Here are just a few details to let you know more of what this about and I hope you will check them out and get started using them in your curriculum too.

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