Homeschool Review Crew - Home School in the Woods Elections

I was thrilled to get a chance to review the Hands-On History Lap-Pak entitled U.S. Elections from Home School in the Woods. Home School in the Woods is a hands-on history company, with multiple product lines.







Other members of the Homeschool Review Crew got a chance to check out some of their other products, including the following, so be sure to click on the picture at the end of this review to see what they had to say about these other great products from Home School in the Woods:

Hands-on HistoryLap-Paks
*U.S. Elections
*20th Century in America
*Wonders of the World
*Benjamin Franklin
*Knights

Project Passport World History Studies

*Ancient Egypt
*Ancient Greece
*The Middle Ages
*Renaissance & Reformation

Time Travelers American History
*New World Explorers
*Colonial Life
*The American Revolution
*The Early 19th Century
*The Civil War
*Industrial Revolution through Great Depression
*World War II

Hands-on History Activity-Paks
*The Old Testament
*The New Testament
*Composers
*Artists
*Make-A-State

Hands-on History Activity Studies

*History of Holidays
*Great Empires

À La Carte Timelines.

*Ancient Greece Timeline
*The Early Nineteenth Century Timeline
*A Timeline of World War II
*Timeline of the American Revolution
*The War Between the States Timeline
*Science, Invention, and Mathematicians Timeline
*America's Progress into the 20th Century Timeline
*The Middle Ages Timeline
*The Renaissance and Reformation Timeline

**SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT**

I am happy to announce that they were also able to release their Project Passport: Ancient Rome study a little bit ahead of schedule! This is part of their Project Passport collection.

What is the U.S. Elections Hands-on History Lap-Pak?

The Hands-On History Lap-Pak I received was on the U. S. Elections. I received a download link of a packet that included all of the information needed to create a lapbook about the topic of the U.S. Elections. This included reading material and all of the pieces needed.

U. S. Elections Lap-Pak is suggested for students in grades 3 to 8 and comes as a download that is compatible with Mac and PC. It walks you through the election process with reading material and hands-on projects that help to reinforce the lessons, as well as introduce you to new information. introduces your student to the U.S. presidential elections process, a brief walk through the establishment of the USA's government and present various aspects of how presidential campaigns work. The study does this by using hands-on activities.

There are 21 lap booking projects which use tools of creative writing, coloring, drawing, and research to emphasize the points presented.

The reading text comes in two formats to print:

full-size pages of text for a binder option
or
a 24-page booklet to store with the lap book

The download also came with mp3 files of the text put to audio.

Also provided is the text on audio, so you can read along with the narrator or choose to sit and work on the projects while listening to the audio in the background.

It comes with all of the pieces of the Lap-Pak you need to print, cut out, and assemble as well as clear, step-by-step illustrated directions and photos to refer to.

Also included is a list of suggested resources and reading suggestions to further your study.

The information included in the downloads covers:

The definition of “Election”
The different Forms of Government and the Three Branches of Government
The American Experiment, Suffrage
Who Do We Vote For?
Terms of Office, Political Parties, Caucuses, Primaries, and National Conventions
The Presidential Campaign: Platform, Stump Speaking, Media News Source, Advertising or Spreading the Word, Raising Money, Statistics
Election Day
The Electoral College and The Electoral Race
Inauguration Day
“Vocabinet” section which is a clever way to display, store, and learn important vocabulary words

How Did We Use It?

First, I downloaded the links and printed everything out before sitting down to assemble the Lap-Pak. I had to make a decision as to who I would use this with since I have a high school junior who needs a unit on politics/the constitution, etc. yet I have an 11-year-old who absolutely loves these lap books. Once I saw the suggested age range on the Pak, my decision was made for me, the winner would be my 11-year-old to help me out with the review, but I figured it wouldn't hurt if my high school junior caught a glimpse with the audio, readings, and observing us put together the Lap-Pak. I was asked to work at least one lesson per week during the review period, but we easily worked more than that.

What Did We Think?

I have used products from Home School in the Woods before and have never been disappointed. This one is no exception. My hands-on learning, art/crafts loving daughter absolutely loves lap book style learning. I enjoy how the Lap-Pak includes the reading material in different formats. I chose to put together the handheld booklet for use to access all of the reading segments in the study.

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Read what other members of the Homeschool Review Crew thought by clicking on the picture below:

TOS Review - Project Passport World History The Middle Ages with Home School In The Woods

I was thrilled to get a chance to review the Project Passport World History Study: The Middle Ages from Home School in the Woods.

What is Home School in the Woods and Project Passport World History Study: The Middle Ages?

If you've ever used Home School In The Woods, you already know that they use hands-on projects along with lap book assembly style of unit studies as a launching pad for in-depth lessons on various topics.

For this review, I received a digital download of this unit study about the Middle Ages. The lessons take the student through assembling a Passport travelogue, a Medieval Times Newspaper, plus a 3-ring binder Scrapbook of Sights with a timeline of the Middle Ages, a lap book, and a Teacher's Guide book to assemble as you learn.

There are also some audio tour mp3 files included, a file-folder game called Journey Through The Middle Ages, and 3D projects, like making your own Robin Hood cap or floral wreath head piece, a board game that would have been played during the Middle Ages, stick puppets,making a viking long ship, designing your own coat of arms, a pilgrim's badge, herb salts, rose water,  and stained glass as well as mosaic projects. It also has instructions for how to make a 3D castle out of sugar cubes, toothpicks, and marzipan knights.

   

   

   

   

The lessons include a series of 25 stops where the student learns facts about the Middle Ages as they put together their "passport" full of information.

Stops 1-3 - Laying the Foundation
Stops 4-7 - Everyday Life during the Middle Ages
Stops 8-9 - Business during the Middle Ages
Stop 10 - Science and Invention
Stop 11 - Education
Stop 12 - The Arts
Stop 13 - Medicine and Disease
Stops 14-16 - The Church
Stops 17-18 - The Crusades
Stop 19 - Knights and Chivalry
Stops 20-21 - The Vikings
Stop 22-24 - Battles, Wars, and Conflicts
Stop 25 - Packing Up - Final Stop and Lapbook Assembly

How Did We Use It?

I decided that the best way to do this would be to present one new stop each day. As I began to dive into the material more, I learned that some days we could easily accomplish more than one stop while other stops would end up taking us longer than one day. Since we were done with the bulk of the school year and entering the summer months, I thought it would be a great idea to use this as part of our own at-home summer camp on the Middle Ages.

I began by reading how to prepare the pages, what to print, what the guide icons mean, etc. This included preparing the teacher's guide book and reading:

Teacher Guide:



The Teacher Guide includes:

Introduction - Travel Tips - Travel Planner: Quick Stop Itinerary - Additional Resources - Acknowledgements / Bibliography / Usage

We began assembling the Scrapbook of Sights notebook, the Medieval Times newspaper and the Passport/Travelogue notes which are to then be added to as we journey through the Middle Ages.

Passport:

  

Medieval Times Newspaper:

Scrapbook of Sights (Including Post Card Moments):

   
   

Lapbook:

I then printed of  the pages for one day at a time, as we needed them I printed them. I chose to leave the read-only pages on the PDF file and send it to my phone or access from my laptop to read instead of printing those. I also did the same thing with the Travel Itinerary sheets.

What Did We Think?

This Project Passport will make you feel as though you have actually traveled on an epic adventure to the time of the Middle Ages to catch a huge glimpse into everyday life of Medieval times. We found this to be fun, interactive and so very informative!

This is absolutely NOT a boring lesson plan system by any means. It IS definitely in-depth learning, but is presented in an interactive and interesting format that keeps the student engaged and involved in learning.  We especially love the 3D projects that are included as we are truly hands-on crafts kind of learners. In the end, even without the amazing 3D projects, you have some very nice tangible pieces of scrapbook and lapbook keepsakes for the purpose of record-keeping or future reference.

It took me probably about a day or the better part of at least half of a day's worth of preparation to get my bearings, figure out the format, and prepare the printing pages so that I understood the process enough and was prepared with all of the materials ready to sit with my child to learn. But, any preparation time in the beginning is well worth it, because as you dig into each new Stop along the way, it all comes together and makes sense.

Home School in The Woods makes other unit studies as well, and you can find the company on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google +.

Besides The Middle Ages study that I got to review, the TOS Review Crew had the privilege of reviewing other Project Passport World History studies, including one from Ancient Egypt and one from the Renaissance and Reformation time periods. Read what other members of the TOS Review Crew thought by clicking on the picture below: