The program includes tools to help teach to include the Teacher Helps which are most helpful to be printed before teaching the lessons. They provide everything as well as a one-page summary of supplies needed for the respective lesson. The Project Pages provides an opportunity to review ahead of time to ensure you have everything needed in advance. One of the things I liked about the projects is there are more than one to choose from allowing flexibility to meet my child's interests or what I have on hand to complete. Project Days are included in the schedule to give the child more time to complete as needed.
The lesson plan provides everything needed to plan the course and the lessons are broken into such topics as Colonial beginnings, the French and Indian War, issues that caused the war with England, the Continental Congress, George Washington and much more. It is recommended for grades 3-8 and is compatible with Mac and PC. Downloading and accessing the course was very easy.
From there, we only had to click on start and the window for the course opens and provides the following menu:
- Acknowledgements/Copyrights and Usage/Bibliography
- Introduction
- Tips to Consider Before Starting
- Teacher Helps
- Text Lessons, Project Pages, and Project Masters: (grouped by lessons)
- Lessons 1-5
- Lessons 6-10
- Lessons 11-15
- Lessons 16-20
- Lessons 21-25
- Other Resources:
- All Master Pages
- Gallery of Project Photos
- Lap Book™ Instructions
The lessons are set up in a variety of ways:
- "Twaddle Free" projects are focused on penmanship, creative writing, composition, critical thinking, vocabulary and the use of a little imagination which is essential in my opinion.
- Fifty Lap Book™ consists of notebooking and cooking projects ... yes, cooking! How much fun this was! There are also games and other activities that were a hit with my children.
- Optional opportunities to expand the learning adventure with suggested videos, books and more.
Flexibility is the name of the game with the course and as noted above, projects can be chosen as not all have to be done. Also, the lessons can be completed over more than one day or however is best for your child's needs. The Time Travelers U.S. History Studies collection and Project Passport World History Studies can be adapted up or down grade levels per the website. After reviewing our Time Travelers, I agree it can be utilized for younger or older students. I didn't review Project Passport World History Studies or Timeline Collection: A Collection of Historical Timeline Figures, but both look extremely interesting. Further down in this review, you will have the opportunity to click and review what others within the Crew thought of each of the various options available.
As you get started, it's a good idea to have supplies on hand as there is a lot of printing and paper projects. Some of the suggested items include white paper, colored printing paper, white card stock, colored card stock, glue, tape, double sided tape, acetate, colored pencils and three binders. The Tips to Consider section details much more with the course.
It's also a little confusing if you don't read the information provided so I'd highly recommend doing so. The keys to the program for the pages are broken down and are very thorough.
As we started with Lesson 1, Colonial Beginnings, one of the things that I really liked were the penmanship quotes. Not only is copy-work important in that it helps to reinforce what is learned by rewriting, but it also helps to teach correct grammar usage. Every quote for the penmanship lessons also provide the option to print three types of paper for the copy-work exercise that is most suitable to your child. The first option is the text present and the child traces over the pre-written quote. The second option are dashed lines to record the copy-work. The final option is standard lined paper.
As the course details, you can choose which projects to complete as well as which lessons you want to teach. Lesson 1 provided us the opportunity to build a Jamestown Replica. Although she did not finish it, we did have fun starting it.
There were many other learning activities that accompanied the lesson but for the purposes of this review, I'm going to jump to lesson 6.
When we reached lesson 6, it was all about the troubles in Boston. The project below referenced an anti-tea poem that was published before the American Revolution in American newspapers.
Home School In The Woods has a variety of hands-on products ranging from timelines, maps, lapbooks to history lessons. The unique approach is learning through activites which I find is a fun way to learn and we definitely liked Time Travelers: The American Revolution. They include so much in the activities and if you check out the blog, there is even interesting posts such as Adding Interest to History with Recipes. Another fun post is Imagination + History = Dress Up! Dressing up has been always been fun for my children and particularly my youngest. Thanks to my love of Jane Austen awhile back, I introduced her to more about her and gave her a period piece dress which she adored.
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