World War II Study

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

World War II has become my favorite time period to read about on my own the last couple years, and while I've read the kids some biographies and talked about the circumstances during that time, we've never done a full study of it. When we had the opportunity to review a product from one of our favorite companies, I knew that the Time Traveler's U.S. History Studies: World War II would be perfect.

Home School in the Woods is known for their detailed, hands-on history curricula. We have used various resources from their many product lines over the years and have loved each one. From their Project Passports to their Activity Studies to their Hands-on History Lap-Paks to each À La Carte item, the choices are full of information, high quality, and so very fun. This was our first experience with the Time Traveler's U.S. History Studies series, and it did not disappoint!

Home School in the Woods is a family business that was started as a way to make history real, understandable, and applicable. Using timelines and realistic illustrations as a foundation, they've created many resources to make learning history an enjoyable process.

The World War II study is part of the Time Traveler's U.S. History Studies series which covers topics such as Colonial Life, The American Revolution, and The Civil War among others. Each Time Traveler's is a complete study of a specific topic with multiple projects and accompanying text. The units are geared toward grades 3-8 and were created to include everything for a compact assignment.

The download (also available as a CD) comes as a zip file. Once you open it, and see the multiple folders, click on the "start" file. At that point, the entire program will open in your browser, making it very easy to use. Instead of clicking through multiple folders, trying to bounce back and forth among the resources, everything is laid out as you need it.

There are full step-by-step instructions for each component. The Text Pages are the informational part of the lessons. The text is engaging and fact-filled and can be read word-for-word while teaching. The Project Pages list each project for the lesson, including detailed instructions, illustrtions, and needed materials. The Masters are the printable pages for the projects. They are individual PDFs and sometimes offer different choices of style and format.

I love studying together as a family as much as possible and appreciate that these studies from Home School in the Woods can easily be used with a range of ages. My kids are 14, 12, 10, 8, and 5 years old, and each one is enjoying learning about World War II. I read the lesson texts to them, stopping many times to further discuss an idea, research additional information, or look at a map. We've had many good discussions about freedom, the abuse of power, keeping leaders accountable, and fighting for what is right. 

The lessons begin long before the war by explaining what the world was like after WWI and describe the events that led up to the next world war. From there, the study teaches chronologically touching on topics such as individual battles, America's official entrance to the war, Hitler's Fortress, concentration camps, peace, and more. Lesson 25 ends the study with a Celebration Day, complete with authentic ration recipes, activities, games, and more.

Like all the resources from Home School in the Woods, this one is packed with activities! Many of the pages--timeline, penmanship quotes, war terms, propaganda posters, military medals, and many others--will be kept in a 3-ringed binder. There are some multi-step projects that will be added to throughout the study, such as a detailed lapbook, sample newspaper, record book, and mapping major events. There is also hands-on learning options, too, like planting a victory garden, sewing a garrison cap, cooking war ration recipes (like the buttermilk sponge custard that we made), making a souvenir pillowcase, and sending a soldier care package. 

There are so many activity suggestions that you can easily choose which ones would be best for you and your kids.

We have been doing 1-2 lessons a week depending on the number of activities we've chosen and taking into consideration our relaxed summer schedule. The text is perfect for the target age, explaining the details in simple terms while sprinkling in more advanced vocabulary and concepts. The study offers many options for activities that vary in both content and skill. There are even a few games included like Bingo using foreign war terms, a Battleship-type on paper, and a trivia file folder game. 

While there is already plenty of information and activities in the study itself, you can find many more books, videos, and other suggestions in the Additional Resources section to further your learning.

The World War II Time Traveler's U.S. History Studies truly is a hands-on adventure in history!

Home School in the Woods offers many products that teach history. With this being an election year, the U.S. Elections Lap-Pak would be a perfect addition to your school day. It's important that our children understand the election process and appreciate their responsibility to vote. If you'd like to see just how thorough the study is, you can read our review from a few year ago. I think it's time we pull it out and work through it again, too!

Home School in the Woods is generously sponsoring a giveaway through the end of August. You can get a FREE copy of Greek Life! File Folder Game when you use code TOSGameNight. Happy learning!

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If you'd like to learn more about all that Home School in the Woods has to offer, you can read more reviews of their products on the Homeschool Review Crew blog.

Wonders of the World

I have wanted to study the Wonders of the World with my kids for a long time, so when we had the opportunity to review a product from one of our very favorite vendors that offered a study on them, I jumped at the chance. Home School in the Woods is known for their detailed, hands-on history curricula. We have used various resources from their many product lines over the years and have loved each one. From their Project Passports to their Activity Studies to their Hands-on History Lap-Paks to each À La Carte item, the choices are full of information, high quality, and so very fun. 

Home School in the Woods is a family business that was started as a way to make history real, understandable, and applicable. Using timelines and realistic illustrations as a foundation, they've created many resources to make learning history an enjoyable process.

The Wonders of the World study is part of the Hands-on History Lap-Paks series. Each Lap-Pak is a complete study of a specific topic with multiple projects and accompanying text.

The download (also available as a CD) comes as a zip file. Once you open it, and see the multiple folders, click on the "start" file. At that point, the entire program will open in your browser, making it very easy to use. Instead of clicking through multiple folders, trying to bounce back and forth among the resources, everything is laid out as you need it. 

There are full step-by-step directions for everything you need. The text is given in 2 ways: printed and audio. The printed form can be chosen for a booklet format or a full-size binder format. The audio is the word-for-word version of the printed text and is divided into 2 sections with each topic listing the time index, making it simple to advance to the needed place. 

The study includes Wonders from four categories:

• Ancient 
• Great Pyramid of Giza
• The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
• The Statue of Zeus at Olympia
• The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
• The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
• The Colossus of Rhodes
• The Lighthouse of Alexandria
• Medieval
• Stonehenge
• The Leaning Tower of Pisa
• The Colosseum
• The Hagia Sophia
• The Great Wall of China
• The Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa
• The Lost Porcelain Pagoda
• Modern
• The Channel Tunnel
• The CN Tower
• The Empire State Building
• The Golden Gate Bridge
• Itaipu Dam
• The Panama Canal
• The Netherlands North Sea Protection Works
• Natural
• Mount Everest
• The Grand Canyon
• The Northern Lights
• The Harbor of Rio de Janeeiro
• The Great Barrier Reef
• Paricutín: The Volcano in a Cornfield
• Victoria Falls 

The suggested ages for the study is grades 3-8. My kids are in 8th, 5th, 3rd, and 1st grades. I'd say it is definitely perfect for my three older ones, but my little one had no issues following along. I chose to read the text to my kids, instead of listening to the provided audio. I find that they can focus better on me than a recording. Plus, I like stopping and adding my own thoughts or rabbit trails, looking up pictures, and discussing various aspects as a family. These Lap-Paks are both fantastic stand-alone studies and also great starting points to be enhanced with further resources. 

Each Wonder of the World has a description about it, including where it was/is, when it was built, how it was built or created, why it came to be, and in some cases how it was destroyed (just ask my kids what they think about earthquakes, ha). They talk about people, materials, measurements, purposes, and all sorts of other fascinating details. 

Along with the description is a hands-on project for the Lap-Pak or lapbook. The activities can be as simple as a picture of the Wonder with a description glued to the back to more complicated parts like moving gladiators, swinging gates, or 3D stones. Most of the necessary materials are things like white and colored paper and cardstock, colored pencils, glue, and tape, but a few of the projects add some extra attention to detail by incorporating cardboard, salt, cotton ball, brads, and watercolors.
When the study is complete, all the projects are glued into the Lap-Pak. My kids love looking at these lapbooks from past studies we've done. They have fun opening flaps, spinning wheels, lifting folds, and moving parts. But even more than having fun, the kids remember more details about what they've learned. Seeing all those pieces in the Pak reminds them of the information they studied and helps them to recall so much more than if they simply sat and listened to me read. This Lap-Pak is an extremely important part of the study. 

If you've never used the materials from Home School in the Woods, it can be overwhelming at first. Expect a lot of printing. And cutting. And coloring and assembling and organizing. It is work, yes, but many important and well-done things are. When your child raves about a study--even during the summer months--talks for days about the information they've learned, or even picks up a project they had studied years before and can still recount many of the details, you will know that it was worth it.

This is why this company is one of our favorites. Their history materials are packed full of information. Their projects are creative and fun. The combination of the two makes the Hands-on History Lap-Paks a perfection addition to our learning. We can't wait to finish learning about the last few Wonders in the study.  

    

This study on the Wonders of the World was shorter and very specific. If you're looking for a longer and more detailed study about a time period and place, you would love the entire Project Passport collection.

We've taken "trips" to Ancient Egypt and the Middle Ages ourselves, so I was excited to hear that they recently completed the final installment to the series. Project Passport Ancient Rome will take your family to early Rome and teach you all about the Republic, everyday life, philosophy, education, architecture, religion, science, and so much more. Pack your bags, this will be a trip you don't want to miss!           

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You can read more reviews of the many hands-on history products offered by Home School in the Woods on the Homeschool Review Crew blog.

The Greatest Inventors Review

I often to refer to my kiddos as little inventors. They love to create new things, whether they use Lego pieces or bits of odds and ends found around the house. We go through a lot of tape, string, and rubber bands, and I find various projects in different stages all across the house. They're always explaining new inventions to me. In that sense, they are so much like their daddy. Probably my favorite thing that he's created is a motorized wagon with benches that he designed from an old wheel chair. It's the perfect convenience when we spend a day trip at places like zoos and museums. It draws attention everywhere we go, and I feel so much pride when people stop to ask questions and praise his invention.

Because of that creative gene and their curiosity, I knew my kids would enjoy a study of The Greatest Inventors from A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks.

A Journey Through Learning was started by two homeschooling moms. When they commented that there was a lack of quality, hands-on materials that covered fun topics, their husbands encouraged them to start their own business. Over the course of the last 10 years, they experienced some early struggles and a devastating event, created many products, won multiple awards, and have built a thriving company. While their passion is lapbooks, they also offer unit studies, notebooking pages, and copywork pages.

Lapbooks are a fun, hands-on way of learning and recording information. Each lapbook is focused on a topic of study and then filled with various mini-booklets of key information. They do require a little work, as there is printing, cutting, folding, gluing, writing, and whatnot involved, but the process is fun and helps to cement the information in the student's mind. Plus, it serves as a great refresher later on as the student flips through and remembers the information. These lapbooks from A Journey Through Learning are designed to be as simple to use as possible. They even have various videos that describe what they are and how to set them up.

The first many pages of the download are filled with the how-tos of the book. There's a list of supplies, the assembly of the book, tips and tricks, picture diagrams, and more. The rest of the 67-page book is the study guide and mini-booklet patterns. The format is such that there is a study guide page for an inventor, and then there is the accompanying pattern pages for that inventor for the lapbook immediately afterward. This setup makes it super easy to find what you need.

Another aspect of this book that makes it simple to use is that there are diagrams at the top of every pattern page to show you exactly where the mini-booklet is placed in the lapbook. There is also a full diagram of the whole lapbook in the beginning pages of the book, but these small diagrams throughout are very helpful as you're working your way through the material. I did find one mistake though. The mini diagram lists the Guglielmo/Marconi booklet as being in folder one, but the main diagram shows folder two. Since we already had another inventor in that spot in folder one, when we got to that, all we had to do was check the main diagram in the beginning of the book.

Just as I assumed, my kids enjoyed learning about the various inventors and their creations. The material is not a full-blown description of each person's life, but just a brief summary with an overview and tidbits of information. Some of the study guide feels a little disjointed. For instance, they list some of the events in Marconi's life, mention his death, and then immediately talk about when he was drafted in the Italian Army, his service there, and more of his life.

You can choose to use the study guide as a simple introduction to the inventors, or you can use it as a springboard for further study. Since we've been on a summer schedule, this was the perfect amount of work for a day. The kids and I would read the one-page description of an inventor, make the mini-booklet, and add it to our lapbook. There were a few times when we would look up more information, like a video of a working cotton gin or a picture of an ear phonautograph, but mostly we stuck to the material in the download.

The lapbook itself is more basic than other lapbooks we've created. There aren't spinning parts or detailed features. Instead, these are simple and can be created quickly. Everything is printed on plain, white printer paper, so there's no swapping paper for colored or cardstock. I think both versions have their advantages, but if you're looking for convenience and ease, A Journey Through Learning is the way to go. There are also easy-to-understand directions at the top of every pattern page that explain what needs to be done for the mini-booklets.

I think The Greatest Inventors was a perfect summer study and definitely plan to incorporate more lapbooks from A Journey Through Learning in our schooling.

You can connect with A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks on the following social media sites:

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You can read more reviews of this lapbook an of some of the other products offered by A Journey Through Learning on the Homeschool Review Crew blog.

Project Passport: Ancient Egypt

A new year has started with the Homeschool Review Crew! And what better way is there to start than with  a review from one of our favorite vendors? Home School in the Woods is known for their detailed, hands-on history curricula. Their Project Passport series offers many studies that take you in a trip to various lands and time periods. The studies are created in a fashion that makes you feel as if you are truly traveling by taking you on a thrilling, educational journey.

We are currently "visiting" Ancient Egypt with the digital version of HISTORY Through the Ages Project Passport World History Study: Ancient Egypt. My kids have always been fascinated by the pyramids, mummies, hieroglyphics, pharaohs, and all things Ancient Egypt. They were excited to take another Project Passport trip back in time.  

Home School in the Woods is a family business that was started as a way to make history real, understandable, and applicable. Using timelines and realistic illustrations as a foundation, they've created many resources to make learning history an enjoyable process. I, like Amy the driving force of the company, did not enjoy the boring textbooks in high school. It wasn't until we started our own homeschooling journey that I started to realize that learning history wasn't boring, but, in fact, could be quite interesting. I was excited to download this study and travel to the Middle Ages.

The download (also available as a CD) comes as a zip file. Once you open it, and see the multiple folders, click on the "start" file. At that point, the entire program will open in your browser, making it very easy to use. Instead of clicking through multiple folders, trying to bounce back and forth among the resources, everything is laid out as you need it.   

Using Project Passport is like taking an actual trip to a specific time period. The program is divided into 25 stops or destinations:

• Stops 1-2 Laying the Foundation
• Stops 3-5 Everyday Life
• Stop 6 Agriculture, Trade, and Transportation
• Stop 7 Education
• Stop 8 Literature and Writing
• Stop 9 The Sciences
• Stop 10 Medicine and Disease
• Stop 11 Ancient Egyptian Arts
• Stop 12 The Great Builders
• Stop 13 Religion and the "gods"
• Stop 14 Governing the Land
• Stop 15 The First Dynasties
• Stop 16 From Chaos to Order and Back Again to Chaos
• Stop 17 A Land Divided
• Stop 18 The New Kingdom Begins
• Stop 19 Egypt's Most Famous Women
• Stop 20 The Conquering Pharaoh
• Stop 21 Akhenaton and Tutankhamen
• Stop 22 Egypt Fades Away
• Stop 23 Ancient Egypt and the Bible
• Stop 24 Bringing Back the Past
• Stop 25 Packing Up  

The first few stops require a bit of work. What makes this study so well-done, also makes it so much work. Laying the Foundation is where you create many of the things you'll need for the trip: a realistic passport, a luggage folder complete with tag, a scrapbook of sights, a postcard rack, a newspaper, timeline, and more. Since this is our second Project Passport trip, we were able to use the same luggage and passport from before. Everything else is specific to each individual study.

 
This study is recommended for grades 3-8, but, as with many things, we adapted it to be used as a family project. That means that I was completing each step for a 6th grader, 3rd grader, 1st grader, and a preschooler (a few stops along the way, the preschooler lost interest in many of the activities. I stopped printing the materials for him, but he does listen to and participate in the lessons).  It required much paper and cardstock and even more preparation. Since we are doing the trip together, I printed certain things (newspaper, Egyptian cookbook, games, etc.) only once and keep it in a separate 3-ring binder to be used by all. Other things (timelines, maps, souvenir cards, postcards, etc.) I printed a set for each child to be kept in their own binders. Since the kiddos are a bit older now, they can do much of their own cutting, gluing, and whatnot this time around.

For each stop, there is a guide book text, which contains all the reading material for learning, and a travel itinerary, which gives thorough step-by-step instructions for the activities. A sample stop might be like this: reading text, adding snapshot moments to the timeline, writing a newspaper article or a postcard, and one or more other activities like playing a game or creating a souvenir craft. Another impressive feature at some of the stops is the audio tours, where the "tour guide" and background noises make you feel like you're really in Egypt.

This is my third study from Home School in the Woods, and I am just as impressed as I was the first time. We average about one stop a week, as there is so much involved with the lessons. Since we have a busy get-into-everything toddler in our home, we wait until his nap time to head back to Egypt. One day we'll read the guidebook text (which usually spirals into deeper discussions of the topics and results in our looking at various pictures). Another day, we'll work on some of the simpler projects. Day three, we reserve for some of the more complicated, hands-on learning.   

One thing that really increased our learning that my parents visited Egypt a few years ago. The kids and I were able to look through their pictures and see the places and things that we are learning about. I was also able to show them my own cartouche that my parents brought back for me. All these things made the learning more personal for us.   


Here's what my kids said about this product:
    

"I like the Pyramids! And I like the projects.

"I like that it has a lot of coloring."

"I like when you read about it to us. I don't like the coloring, but I like the projects."
 

The only negative opinion I have about this study is the breakdown of the PDFs. Because everything has very specific printing instructions (regular paper, colored paper, white cardstock, colored cardstock) each individual page is its own file. I understand the need for the "special" pages. The problem comes in when you have to print lengthy things like the timeline or newspaper. Because of the individual files, you have to open the file, print one page, turn it around, open another file, and print the back. To make things simpler, I would like to see those entire resources as one file so I can choose the double-sided printing option and my printer can do the work for me. My techie husband was able to grab those files, combine them in a PDF converter app, and then print all at once. It was faster than printing it according to the directions, but it seems like an unnecessary step when it could come as one file in the download. 

Aside from the printing suggestion, I absolutely love this study. The amount of information and the varying activities are astounding. It is a lot of work to prepare, but that's part of why it's so well-loved in our home. I can guarantee we'll take another Project Passport trip one day as there are so many places we can visit, like their newest title, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome (coming 2018). 

I think the biggest compliment I can share about this product is when my daughter announced in the middle of our study one day, "This is my favorite school thing ever."

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If you'd like to see some of the other fun studies from this company, please read the reviews on the Homeschool Review Crew blog. 

Music Appreciation

We are a music-loving family that understands the importance of good, quality music in our lives. That's why I was excited to review a product about music appreciation. Leighton went to college for a music major. We were both very involved in the music program while there (in fact, it was while playing in the handbell choir that we got to know each other and fell in love!) and continued to participate in various aspects of the music program in our church. You can often hear music playing or random singing while in our house. Yes, we love music. However, I've never incorporated music study into our days. Oh, I meant to; I just never knew where to start or how to proceed.

And then came the Music Appreciation: Book 1: for the Elementary Grades. We started our study with Bach and quickly learned that this wonderful homeschool music program from Zeezok Publishing LLC was exactly what I needed.

Zeezok Publishing LLC was started by homeschoolers in 1993 who wanted to offer top quality materials that complement educational needs. They have a variety of curricula and supplemental materials like their Z-Guides to the Movies, Civil War series, Presidential Penmanship, A Noble Experiment, literature books, and more. They continue to expand their resources and are dedicated to offering publications that will enrich, educate, and edify. 

The Music Appreciation Book 1 Collection meets and exceeds all of the national standards required for music appreciation for kindergarten-6th grade. The set includes a student activity book, music discs, lapbooks, and individual biography books for 7 classical composers (dating from 1685-1828).  

The curriculum covers 4 weeks of study for each of the composers:

• Bach
• Handel
• Haydn
• Mozart
• Beethoven
• Paganini
• Schubert

The biographies are absolutely perfect for this age level. From the size of the book to the font to the writing style to the pictures, it's everything a child's book should be. My older 3 kids (ages 10, 8, 6) loved the book and begged me to read "just one more chapter" each day. The accurate story was written so the elementary ages can comprehend, but also has richer vocabulary woven throughout. It includes words like trudged, haste, nestling, oaken, and scarcely. Nearly every page or page spread has a black and white picture that seems perfect for the era. There are even portions of sheet music written by Bach sprinkled throughout the the book.

The student activity book contains the learning exercises for all 7 composers. The entire book is perforated and hole-punched, so you could transfer it to a 3-ringed binder for easier use. A sample lesson plan is given at the beginning of each composure section. 

Week One of the Bach study looks like this:

• Read Chapter 1
• Answer Comprehension Quesions
• Character Qualities
• Tidbits of Interest
• Assemble Lapbook Folder
• Bach Family Facts
• Places that Bach Visited Map Activity
• Learning About Stringed Instruments Activity

This curriculum is very easy to use with multiple ages. I read the book aloud to the kids and then we completed the activities together. They always race to see who can answer the comprehension questions first, and I enjoy seeing how much they retained. There's so much more than just answering questions though. There are exercises about learning character qualities, mapping, random facts (did you know Bach's hands could span 12 notes? or that he had 20 children?), history of 18th century Germany, copywork, and plenty of  sections dedicated to music (i.e. terms, instruments, styles). 

While we've enjoyed all aspects of this study, our favorites have been the hands-on activities. We made a loaf of rye bread and enjoyed it warm, fresh from the oven like Bach. We preformed an oxidation experiment with pennies to understand why the top of St. Michael's church in Hamburg turned green. We even were able to pluck out some of Bach's compositions on our keyboard using the music in the book.

  

Along with the written music, the curriculum comes with discs so you can listen to the music, as well. The book gives a brief description of each song and lists the matching track number, making it incredibly easy to use over the course of the study. The kids and I all enjoyed listening to the beautiful music of one of the masters. We do listen to classical music at times throughout our days, so it was fun to watch the kids faces light up as they recognized songs. "Hey, this sounds familiar!" or "I've heard this before!" we commonly heard as the songs played.

The final component to the curriculum is the lapbook. My kids adore lapbooks. They're time-consuming and require much work, but they are such a fun way of learning. I like that my kids will look through their lapbooks long after our study is complete and recall what we've learned. Booklets, pockets, pieces, moving parts--they're all part of the lapbook charm. This one even includes an entire game board on the back that's focused around Bach's life. 

As far as lapbook go, this one is easy to print and easy to assemble. There are no directions to print any of the pages on cardstock (though it would provide stability), so it's just a click of a button to get the whole thing to print at one. The pages print in color, which saves time during the assembly, as well. There are detailed directions in both the student activity book and the lapbook CD for the activities and assembly.

I am blown away at the quality of this curriculum. Seriously. It is packed full of information on not just the composer, music, and instruments, but incorporates much more, too. And not only that, it's fun! Between the reading book, the exercises, the hand-on activities, the music, the lapbook, there's something for every learning style--visual, kinesthetic, auditory. We've started our study Handel, and I can tell this one's going to be a hit, too. 

If you are wanting to teach music appreciation in your homeschool, I highly recommend this collection.

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If you'd like to read more reviews of this curriculum, please visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.

Presidential Elections Lap-Pak

With this being a presidential election year and my husband's interest in politics, there's been conversations around the house about candidates, debates, and whatnot.  My kids have been asking questions about the election, so I knew they'd appreciate studying and reviewing HISTORY Through the Ages Hands-on History Lap-Pak: U.S. Elections from Home School in the Woods.

Home School in the Woods is a family business that was started as a way to make history real, understandable, and applicable. Using timelines and realistic illustrations as a foundation, they've created many resources to make learning history an enjoyable process. I, like Amy the driving force of the company, did not enjoy the boring textbooks in high school. It wasn't until we started our own homeschooling journey that I started to realize that learning history wasn't boring, but, in fact, could be quite interesting. But politics? While my husband enjoys it, I do not. We enjoyed our last study from Home School in the Woods so much. Could they really create a study on the election process that was enjoyable?  I was excited to download it and find out.
 

The download (also available as a CD) comes as a zip file. Once you open it, and see the multiple folders, click on the "start" file. At that point, the entire program will open in your browser, making it very easy to use. Instead of clicking through multiple folders, trying to bounce back and forth among the resources, everything is laid out as you need it.

There are full step-by-step directions for everything you need. The text is given in 2 ways: printed and audio. The printed form can be chosen for a booklet format or a full-size binder format. The audio is the word-for-word version of the printed text and is divided into 2 sections with each topic listing the time index, making it simple to advance to the needed place.

The lap-pak topic activities include the following:

•  Definition of Election
• Different Forms of Government
• The American Experiment
• The Three Branches of Government
• Suffrage
• Who Do We Vote For?
• Terms of Office
•  A "Handful" of Political Parties
• Caucuses & Primaries
• National Conventions
• The Presidential Campaign: Platform
• The Presidential Campaign: Stump Speaking
• The Presidential Campaign: Media--News Source
• The Presidential Campaign:Advertising--Spreading the Word!
• Raising Money
• Statistics
• Election Day
• The Electoral College
• Inauguration Day
• The electoral Race!
• The "Vocabinet"

I normally like to use these kinds of studies with all the kiddos and make it a family project, but this articular one is geared for 3rd-8th graders. While that hasn't stopped me from using material above my little ones' ages in the past, I didn't think the younger kids would follow along with political learning just yet. I'm sure they picked up bits and pieces of the information though as my 10-year-old and I sat at the table each day and listened to the audio together.

I chose to print the pages for the activities day-by-day, so while we listened to the text, I would work on cutting the projects and he would work on either coloring the pieces or simply building with Legos (I've found that it's best for retaining information for my little ones to keep their hands busy while listening to audio). This setup worked really well, because it gave me the opportunity to stop the narration to give further detail or ask him questions about it.

We completed 2-3 topics each day, depending on how long it took us to do them. After we listened to the narration, we completed the projects. Cutting, coloring, taping, gluing, folding--there is much work involved to make this lap-pak. But isn't there often much work involved to get a quality product? There are flaps that open, sections that pop-up, portions that slide, wheels that turn, tabs to pull. Pictures don't truly do the pak justice. We should have taken a quick video to show all the movable parts. 

  
 My son didn't enjoy the study at first. Coloring is not something he typically enjoys and listening to the text seemed boring. After a couple days of working and assembling the projects though, he began to have fun. He created his own items for a campaign as if he were running for president. He drew a commercial, designed a button, crafted a lawn sign, and even chose his own presidential slogan. He looked forward to the assignments each day and asked to work on them. I kept hearing things like "That is so cool!" and "That's cute." Mostly what I've heard from him though is "Thank you for helping me make this!" I'm not sure there's anything better to a homeschool mom's ears than her child thanking her for the study. 

"I like everything about it. I really like the pop-ups and all the things in the book. 

There's so much here! Thank you for letting me do this."  

The only frustrating thing I have about this study is the breakdown of the PDFs. Because everything has very specific printing instructions (regular paper, colored paper, white cardstock, colored cardstock) each page is its own file. I understand that need for the "special" pages. The problem comes in when you have to change and rechange the paper multiple times to print. Because of the individual files, you have to open the file, print one page, open another file, and print again. Even if you do not have to change the type of paper for each part of the project, you still have to open multiple files. To make things simpler, maybe all the files could be combined into one large file, so a user could choose to print all similar pages at one time.

Aside from the printing suggestion, I absolutely love this study. The amount of information at an easy-to-understand level and the varying activities are astounding. Not only has my son enjoyed learning about the election process, he's also retained much of the information and has been talking about it through the days. Because the lap-pak is creative and fun, he can keep it to review throughout the years, as well. If you're wanting a quality study to teach your kids the presiential election process, I highly recommend  this hands-on lap-pak.

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If you'd like to read more reviews of this lap-pak, please visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.