Review - HISTORY Through the Ages Project Passport World History Study: Ancient Greece from Home School in the Woods

I was thrilled to get a chance to review the new HISTORY Through the Ages Project Passport World History Study: Ancient Greece study from Home School in the Woods.

Other members of the Homeschool Review Crew had the opportunity to review other titles within the HISTORY Through the Ages Project Passport World History Study series, such as:

Ancient Egypt
The Middle Ages
Renaissance & Reformation


Ancient Greece is the newest and 4th in the series of Project Passport lapbook studies. One thing that is new within the Ancient Greece information is the new timeline add-on figures.

What is Home School in the Woods and what is the HISTORY Through the Ages Project Passport World History Study: Ancient Greece all about?

It's a project packet that includes tons of activities and reading material to learn about Ancient Greece.

• It's a Timeline, 
• It's a Newspaper, 
• It's a Lapbook, 
• It's Notebooking
• It's a Unit Study
• It's Games. 
• It's Audio Listening Sections. 
• It's Research Book, DVD, CD, and Music Recommendations to Explore Further. 

It is basically a 25-lesson downloaded pdf packet loaded with a variety of learning tools to learn in a hands-on style that simulates preparing to travel with a passport, journeying along the way, and packing up tangible learning documentation to have on hand as proof of history taught and learned for your records.

Our Favorite Part is the Lapbook!

I received a download of the Project Passport study that includes an information-rich packet containing everything you need to construct a lapbook and conduct a unit study on Ancient Greece.

Basically, the pdf download is packed with lessons, referred to as stops.

Each journey involves 25 stops Stop 1 - Laying the Foundation Part 1: From Noah to the Minoans Stop 2 - Laying the Foundation Part 2: Mycenaeans to Dark Ages Stop 3 - The Archaic Period Stop 4 - Greek Government Stop 5 - Athens Stop 6 - Sparta Stop 7 - Everyday Live Part I Stop 8 - Everyday Life Part 2 Stop 9 - Farming, Business, Transportation Stop 10 - Education, Oration, Literature Stop 11 - Science Stop 12 - Medicine and Disease Stop 13 - The Arts Stop 14 - Philosophy Stop 15 - Religion - Part I Titans, Gods and Monsters Stop 16 - Religion - Part 2 The Heroes and the People Stop 17 - Warfare Stop 18 - The Greco-Persian Wars Stop 19 - The Golden Age and The Peloponnesian War Stop 20 - Sparta, Thebes, and the Coming of the Macedonians Stop 21 - Alexander the Great Stop 22 - The Hellenistic Age Stop 23 - The Greeks and the Jews Stop 24 - Rediscovering Ancient Greece Stop 25 - Packing Up ** You can use the project anyway that fits into your homeschool. Some use it 3 to 5 times a week, completing a stop each day. Others, complete one stop per week or in whatever timeframe works for you.

The project is laid out with many components, but the lapbook is our favorite part. It starts with reading the Introduction, Travel Tips, Travel Planner: Quick Stop Itinerary, Additional Resources, and Acknowledgements:

Next, you prepare your passport for the journey:


The lessons (Stops) are set out with links and pictures to click on and abbreviations to make it easy to follow. The abbreviations consist of the following:

SS - Scrapbook of Sights (Timeline with pictures of historic people and events, Snapshots of moments in history, and maps)
A Camera Icon for Snapshots of moments in history
LB - Lapbook

And, other icons as pictured:

How Did We Use It?

I began with the Introduction of how to use it followed by printing the pages I needed. After that, we made our passport and began to assemble the timeline and lapbook.

It didn't take long for me to discover that we could approach this study in one of several ways: Either do it step by step as it is laid out with several stops, or have a full out week or week-end session like a concentrated Ancient Greece camp focusing only on Greek history. We have done focused full week or camp-style sessions before with lapbooking, so we first, thought it would be best to just jump in like an all-out full day camp on Greece lapbooking, but as we worked this one, we decided that we wanted to delve more into it and take it slow doing one to three lessons (stops) per week.

What Did We Think?

My youngest child LOVES lapbooks, and I absolutely love  Home School in the Woods and especially the lapbook portion of the study. The studies are in-depth learning and leave tons of room to make it your own and expand upon the study as you see fit. If I had my way all of the time, our entire homeschool would be centered around hands-on arts and crafts. This Project Passport would fit right into that style of learning, and with one of my children being EXTREMELY HANDS-ON, this is a wonderful project in my book.

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TOS Review - Essential Skills Advantage Complete Home Learning Suite

When homeschooling a child whose birthday is late fall/borderline between the grades, I'm always looking for all-in-one programs that reassure me that she is getting a well-rounded, full education and not missing something basic from the previous/lower grade as she rises to the challenges of the higher/next grade. So, when I was offered the opportunity to review the Complete Home Learning Suite from Essential Skills Advantage, I was quite excited.

What is the Essential Skills Advantage Complete Home Learning Suite?

Pretty much the name says it well. It is online and presents lessons for K-6 Graders. We used it for the 4th Grade level which includes lessons in:

Reading

Language and Grammar

Math

Science (The science levels went up through 3rd grade, but we still has access to this level.)

Geography

Within each subject are sub-programs and individual lessons. For instance, under Math is a section of Math Operations, and under that section are several activities within each section such as Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division.

The site is set up to automatically generate bar graph reports as the child completes each lesson. These reports provide an overview with the option of clicking on more detailed reports for specific subjects, and you can choose to create a report card which you can add notes to and print out.

The graphics are colorful but not overly simplified or babyish. Nor are they distracting, but rather they accentuate the topic at hand to help make learning interesting.

        

How Did We Use It?

I received an online subscription for one year for one student. The pricing is set up to include your choice of one or up to 10 students. I used it with one child, my 9-year-old 4th grader.

Her grade is slightly complicated to explain. We often refer to her as our Fraction Half Grader, and this year we went full out with the upper grade choice instead. Let me explain: In our public school district, her birthday puts her in 3rd grade, barely. But, when she was Kindergarten level, she was already reading fluently, so we started her as a 1st Grader instead. So, as she progressed through the early grades, she was always technically a Kindergartner, but doing First Grade work, K/1. Then, a technically a first grader doing 2nd grade work, 1/2. Then technically a second grader doing 3rd grade work. Until we put an end to the halves this year and called her a full-fledge 4th Grader. This was a great idea for that time, but since that time, she keeps up well on some subjects but others are points of struggle that make me put her back to the lower Grade level.

Long story short: I was excited to get a full-curriculum course to gauge her overall ability to see if it is up to 4th Grade level work.

I set up my 4th grader and let her go to town, verbally assigning to her the subjects and lessons I wanted her to finish each day. I found it very easy to set up the account for the student, who logs on through the parent account. It's equally as easy to turn it over to the child to complete with very little teacher intensive energy needed.

  

 

What Did We Think?

We really liked it. My daughter found the site easy to use and colorful with nice graphics and no lag loading screens. My daughter often finds online audio instruction annoying and distracting, but not so with this learning site. It was the opposite. The instruction was age appropriate with pleasant audio.

FIND ESSENTIAL SKILLS ADVANTAGE COMPLETE HOME LEARNING SUITE ON SOCIAL MEDIA @:

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Google +: https://plus.google.com/u/0/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/skillsadvantage
Blog: http://buyesa.com/blog/

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

TOS Review - A+ Interactive Math Mini-Courses

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Out of all of the subjects, math is the one my youngest struggles with the most, so I was excited to get a chance to review the Math Mini-Courses from A+ Interactive Math.

What is A+ Interactive Math Mini-Courses?

These Mini-Courses are short online video tutorials that concentrate on specific areas of math and introduce concepts that span from very basic early elementary level to the more advanced level. They are intended to close learning gaps a child may have in particular areas of math.
The child logs onto the A+ site and watches a short video lesson. He or she then has the option of working through questions online or having them printed off from a PDF file. The tests are presented in the same format. Along the way, the parent/teacher is able to view reports to gauge the student's progress. There are also certificates to print along the way.
I was given a full year of access to my choice of two of these 20 Math Mini-Courses availalbe that includes:

•  Counting and Identifying Numbers (1st-3rd) - 15 lessons
•  Place Value and Number Combinations (1st-3rd) - 15 lessons
•  Naming, Comparing and Arranging Numbers (1st-3rd) - 17 lessons
•  Early Elementary Fractions (1st-3rd) - 10 lessons
•  Early Elementary Addition (1st-3rd) - 17 lessons
•  Early Elementary Subtraction (1st-3rd) - 15 lessons
•  Elementary and Middle School Multiplication (2nd-6th) - 13 lessons
•  Elementary and Middle School Division (2nd-6th) - 15 lessons
•  Tables, Charts and Graphs (1st-6th) - 17 lessons
•  Elementary Geometry (1st-4th) - 19 lessons
•  Elementary Algebra (1st-4th) - 27 lessons
•  Advanced Geometry (4th-7th) - 35 lessons
•  Advanced Fractions (4th-8th) - 26 lessons
•  Decimal Numbers (3rd-7th) - 20 lessons
•  Percentages (5th-8th) - 13 lessons
•  Time (1st-4th) - 20 lessons
•  Money (1st-5th) - 18 lessons
• Number Types and Conversions (3rd-6th) - 35 lessons
•  Ratio, Proportions, Probability and Statistics (3rd-6th) - 14 lessons
•  Measurements and Conversions (2nd-6th) - 23 lessons

How Did We Use It?

We chose to use the Elementary Geometry and the Elementary and Middle School Multiplication Mini-Courses:

I was asked to use at least one of the two programs regularly with a student. We ended up completing the geometry course and most of the multiplication one.

What Did We Think?

I like the idea of presenting blips of information concentrated on learning one particular area of math where the student is struggling. It makes it not so overwhelming. I also appreciated that there was the option to print the PDF worksheets and tests as well as each of the lessons are also in PDF form if you want to view as more of a textbook or print the whole thing out for use. I liked the immediate feedback as the child would interact with the online work. I think the only thing I would change is that I wish the program automatically recognized when my child had completed a video lesson, but it was not overly cumbersome to manually check each lesson upon completion just sometimes confusing as to what lesson we actually finished.

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Visit on Facebook, Twitter @A+TutorSoft , Pinterest, and Google+.

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