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Product Review

Hands On History Kit–South America Unit Study

October 31, 2013 | 35 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

SP @  Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Art In History Kit

When I was planning our hands on activities for our South America unit study, I realized that not so many were fun and age appropriate.  So I was tickled when we got a chance to play with review a fun hands on history kit from Art in History. We chose the Incan empire food vessel kit.

So you know how Tiny got his mom’s lack of art creativity, but it has never hindered us from schooling on the wild side when we set out for an art adventure. The Incan Empire Food Storage Vessel kit helps all novice and expert art adventurers alike because it contains everything you need in one sweet box for each child.

Here is what came in our kit:

  • A replica of a jar from the Incan Empire.
  • Paintbrush, sponge, paint pallet, acrylic paint pods AND
  • FREE lesson plan with background information on the Incan Empire.
World History Ancient Egypt - King Tutankhamun Tomb Frieze (1333- 1324 BC) Middle Eastern Studies - Omani Majmar (100-Present) French Revolution - Limoges Style Tabatiere (1769-1324)
American History Mission of San Antonio De Valero - Alamo Fresco Tiles (1718-1793) American Revolution - Colonial Teapot (1763-1788) English Colonial - Slipware Plate (1650-1800)

 

With so many choices of art projects for world history and American history plus the fact that we can have another excuse to study history longer made us excited about this craft.

We spent several days poring over the lesson plan and tying it in to what we learned so far on our South America unit study.  It is hard to focus on the background information with all the art and craft supplies waiting for Tiny’s itching little hands.

Even though the lesson plan didn’t come with questions and answers or vocabulary words, I am glad because the teacher in me would have been tempted to have him complete all of that before we started.  If you tend to be relaxed on the days you do hands on projects like I am, then you will like the background information provided in the lesson plan and can use it as a read through.

We did an oral narration after we read through it because I wanted our focus to stay on the delight of doing something hands on. After we read it together, I made sure too that Tiny had some kind of idea of how to plan his design which is geometrical for the Incans. Hands on History Kit - Incan Empire South America

The 12 page free lesson plan (wow) has an ample amount of information in it including a color map and color samples (thank you) of how to paint the jar.  Next time when I get a kit, I will hold back the art part of the kit and use the free lesson plan to build our unit study so Tiny doesn’t know about about the art. We stalked our mail man on this one, but I will keep it a secret next time because I didn’t know the free information would be so very helpful in building my unit study.

Discovery Through Creativity

If you wanted to build a more in depth unit study from the free lesson plan received with your kit, you could use the information in several ways:

  • locate the Incan Empire on the map for geography;
  • prepare a vocabulary word puzzle with some of the terms for language arts;
  • create more hands on activities like a quipu (a special knotted string) for art history;
  • focus on understanding the areas like Cuzco and Machu Picchu for history;
  • include some science on understanding the spread of disease like small pox which was introduced to the Incans from the Europeans; and
  • I could see some nature sketches because the Incan people liked to use natural landscapes and simple forms on their pottery.

Regarding the art part of this kit, I loved the fact that the kit comes with the acrylic paint colors that would be used in that time period. Each pod is just the right amount to complete the project and believe me Tiny had to paint it several times or just so until his standard was met.

Warm tones of brown and sepia make up this kit and if you look  at the website, for Art in History you can see that other appropriate colors for that time in history are matched up to to each product.

Of course, you can never go wrong with step by step painting directions too. We need them at our house, but you are probably more artsy than we are.

Hands on History Kit  for Unit Study History Kit

I do like the fact that I was not scrambling to locate all of our art products or pulling buckets tubes of paint that have either gone bad or having to buy new ones because I didn’t have the “right” color in the house at the moment. Just a dab will do you on paint as we have learned over the years so the paint pods are just the right amount and size.

Incan Food Storage Incan Food Storage

The tips such as using a rubber band around your jar and sketching your design first on paper, I found very helpful.

Tiny made his own pattern on paper first too, which consisted of diamonds, circles and lines. Then instead of line drawing on the jar, he painted free hand onto his jar. He didn’t want to use the rubber band or pencil lightly on the jar because it “it might mess it up” according to him.

Our children have different standards for their work at different ages.  And, I have found that the delight is in the process of learning, creating and doing it his way.

But isn’t that what counts? When they are delighted with the end project. (Don’t tell anybody, but Tiny actually put some food in there to see if he could get it out.)

Interdisciplinary Learning – What?

I have to let you know one more thing which has the unit study loving teacher in me excited and that is Art in History has expansive teacher’s guides for unit studies. You know unit study providers which has content laid out can be limited at times. It can be daunting to plan and why reinvent the wheel when we can spend our time doing something else we enjoy. So that is why I am tickled about this new company because their unit studies are laid out in a 4 – 5 day lesson format.

Check out the teacher’s guides at Art in History that are for an in-depth unit study.

This project is a big hands on hit in our home.  Here are some of our other hands on projects too.

Negrinho a Dessert From Brazil

Salt Dough Map

How to Make an Easy Roman Shield & Free Set of Wings

Product Facts a Glance

PLEASE NOTE: All historically correct paint colors are included with purchase of
Artifact(s). Paint colors may vary depending on monitor variations.

Product Name: Incan Empire Food Storage Vessel

Website: Art in History

Prices: $9.95. Plus shipping/handling

Type of Product: Physical Art project kit for one child.

Customer Service: I had a question about their products and my question was quickly answered  by customer service.

Social Media Links:

Facebook

Twitter @artinhistory

Pinterest

YouTube

Hugs and love you

2012Tinasignature Should Homeschool History Be Covered in Chronological Order?

 

 

 

35 CommentsFiled Under: Giveaways, Hands-On Activities, History Resources, Product Review, Sponsored Posts Tagged With: hands-on, review

Homeschoolers Who Want More Than College

October 20, 2013 | 4 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Homeschoolers lead the educational world in many ways because we want to step to a different pace when helping our teens plan for life in the real world.  We don’t want cookie cutter education. So I am delighted, no thrilled to tell you about Praxis, which is an intensive 10 month program as an option for homeschoolers who want more than just college.

Praxis Alternative to College @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

S Post at Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus 3

Alternative to College

If you have homeschooled for any length of time, you know that not all homeschoolers want to go to college. They have second thoughts about what use to be just accepted as fact. The truth of it is that a college degree is no guarantee that your teen won’t struggle to find work and be successful.

Up until now,  I didn’t know of any program for homeschoolers that fed the business and entrepreneurial side of my sons. You know the Mr. has been an entrepreneur who is also in sales almost the whole time we have been married. If you are married to one you know what I mean because they do a little of a lot of things they are talented at and sales too.

I can say he has shaped my positive view of sales and business from the first time we met.

Dare I make a tiny confession? Call us insane, but while riding in the car, we like to listen to Chet Holmes and Tony Robbins.   My sons have been required to read books assigned by the Mr. about selling so they understand our business.

So when I first heard about Praxis, I spent considerable time poring over their website and watching the videos because I am excited about understanding their concept.

You know I always have to put everything in an organized package, so I broke down into sections what I feel is important in helping you to understand what they offer.

About Praxis

Though you may be tempted to use the word internship, this is not an internship. This is an opportunity to learn hands-on while receiving a business education too. Praxis is a company that recognizes the natural strengths and abilities of young business minds and wants to nurture that into a career complete with a portfolio.

I find that young people or seasoned business folks too don’t know what a portfolio is let alone build one.  I have seen salesman that have to be told their strengths and capabilities. Mind you a lot of salesman I know don’t like reading or fooling with something like that because they are too busy creating new ideas, but they soon find out you are the only one to showcase your strengths.

Helping a young high achiever now to see the need of letting the rest of the hiring world view their talents in a portfolio saves them precious time down the road when applying for a job they are motivated to go after.

So applicants of Praxis are those kids of ours that are entrepreneurial and do not fit the mold of college. Right away from an early age they may have people,  managerial and business skills that we noticed from the time they were born. A college may have them repeat the same things that we taught them in high school.

Praxis recognizes that a business skill set needs to be developed by business minded people. So their staff comes from various educational and business backgrounds.

Applicants for Praxis would be

  • young adults from 18 to twentyish and up. Basically, young adults mature enough to live on their own and work while pursuing this business and educational venture.
  • self-starters who want an alternative to college.
  • willing to relocate where the job opportunities are located.
  • getting paid (oh yes that computes) while they learn online and work for companies interested in the fresh ideas of young innovators.
  • instructed ALL online in academics by experts in their respective areas.
  • required to take tests (yes we know as homeschoolers that they are a necessary part of life) but the beauty of these tests are that they are oral. Again, another tell tale sign that Praxis understands that young business applicants are not necessarily paper/pen and sit in the cubicle type of kids.

How does Praxis work?

  • Like a partnership between student and businesses, participants are matched with businesses located in areas that have partnered with Praxis.
  • Students complete a 10 month program that consists of not only 10 hours a week of school online (you know we are already familiar with online work because a lot of our teens do CLEP and use other free online courses),  but are encouraged to interact and discuss the material and then do a test.
  • Because they understand the value of a rigorous education as well as business savvy, they have designed 6 rigorous curriculum modules that participants will go through.

Praxis 6 Rigorous Modules @ Tinas Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Want to check it out? Go to Praxis and click on Curriculum to download a .pdf about the course study.

What does it cost?

Certainly worth considering is the price, but more important to note is the value. It cost $13,000.00. I know, it does sound like a lot of money and that is because it is. But, follow me on this because we’re familiar with taking any curriculum that we are interested in purchasing and breaking down the cost to realize what we pay per year or per child. In other words, determine the cost over the term. Praxis is no different.

Your son or daughter will get paid $10.00 per hour for a 30 hour week. Simple math tells us that $300.00 x 40 weeks (10 months) = $12,000.00. I like that.

Divide 1,000.00 which is the balance of the original cost (13,000.00) over 10 months and that is $100.00 dollars a month.

Another huge advantage to this is that a young adult can appreciate the value of his education when he is working and paying it off as opposed to having mom and dad pay for it later or being saddled with a large college debt.

Your child’s hard work does equal an increased perceived value in his or her own education because now it has intrinsic value. Another win win because the young adult has already invested his time and money into this course.  Starting off in the business world with less debt teaches an important business lesson from the beginning.

You see why I am excited about this unique company, but there is more!

3 Shortcuts To Achieving Success In Record Time

We already think outside of  the box because of the fact we homeschool and take the road less traveled. Key to understanding what Praxis offers is knowing how we could use their services to meet our unique needs in multiple ways.

I don’t think it really comes down to having to make a choice between attending college or not. You know I always feel like we want it all in homeschooling and most of us set the bar real high with education.

Using Praxis as an alternative to college, during a gap year or as a stand alone business enterprise for those that won’t be pressed into classroom service leaves you plenty of options in how to use their program.

Sign Up is Taking Place Now & Follow Facebook for the Latest

There are two program/enrollment periods.

1st Option – The program runs from February – November. (Applications are being accepted for the February – November 2014 period through December 1. Hurry.)

2nd Option – The program runs from September – June. (Applicants are being accepted for this time period now too because sometimes you need to make long range plans.)

I am already following them on facebook and twitter for the latest. Go here to facebook: Discover Praxis to LIKE them. If your kids are too young now but you want to keep tabs on this company, then check out their newsletter at the bottom of Praxis home page on the right side to sign up.

Without sounding too over the top because I am so excited to know about this company, I am proud to do this review about Praxis. No longer are the risk takers, creative and business minded young adults in the homeschooling. They are practical and see the value of real life learning. Focusing not just on academic greatness, but now having an option with Praxis to arm our children with real life experiences just adds to the reason we homeschool. We want it all.

Check out my other posts about homeschooling high school or older children:

Happily Homeschooling Through Highschool

Guiding Older Children

Just Breathe……

Hormonal Teenagers Or High Achieving Teenagers

Product Facts At A Glance

Name: Praxis

Website: discoverpraxis.com

Program/Product: 10 month educational and business  program for the business minded, the risk takers and the young adults willing to break the mold.

Price: $13,000.00.  Whoa,  but doing the math helps you to see the value. Applicants get paid $10.00 per hour for a 30 hour week. 30 hours x 40 weeks is $12,000.00.  1,000.00 divided by 10 months makes $100.00 per month and that equals value AND the best part no debt or very little.

Social Media:

Facebook

YouTube

Twitter @ discoverpraxis

Linkedin

Price and information are correct as of the date of this review.

Hugs and love ya,

2012Tinasignature Woo Worthy Big Calendar by NeuYear

4 CommentsFiled Under: Graduate a Homeschooler, Product Review Tagged With: product review

Safe Email for Kids – Can you be too Protective?

September 30, 2013 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

 

Kid Email Review @ Tinas Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Sponsored Post at Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus 3

 

Like us, kids enjoy connecting with each other. So when I heard about Kids Email last year I was thrilled to use it. I was told about the trial period and one thing I knew that I absolutely loved right away about the way they do business was the fact that I did not have to give out ONE piece of personal information.

What I Heart About Safe Email for Kids

A lot of sites make you fill out every piece of personal information about yourself, including your charge card before you get to test drive any of the fancy features. Not so with Kids Email. They are so proud and sure of their product that you don’t have to give out ONE piece of information and that includes your billing information before you get to use it.

That appealed to me right away and then that is not even the best part about their service. It truly is very unique which is why I am proud to have them as a sponsor.

I saved some pictures when I set up Tiny’s personal and unique email so I could show you.

Kids Email Sign In Area

Isn’t that a cool sign in area? I can tell you Tiny was a lot more excited than I thought he would be when I finally set up his personal email.

Some of the things that Tiny enjoys besides having his own personalized email of course is how kid friendly it is.

image

The window is big and there are not a lot of complicated buttons and ways for him to get in trouble because there is no outside links on the pages.

I have to mention the “settings” button is just way too cute from a technical point of view. When he clicks it, the only setting he has is choosing a background. But he was way into it like he was really managing a high tech device. I got a good silent chuckle. It is absolutely a sweet way to introduce him to managing settings.

It also has quite a few adorable background choices. This one above was the first one and bit too young for his liking, but your guy may love it.

Plenty to choose from for both boys and girls.

Tiny finally chose the wolf background, his favorite. I had to email him right away so he could start using his inbox and receive an email. Well he had to get over the fact first that I would actually let him have an email way earlier than I did Mr. Senior 2013.

But, one of the reasons I like it is the parental control area which is the best part. From the beginning, it literally takes just minutes to sign up and get going AND each one of your kids can have their own email. You are still managing them all from one location.  Goodness knows I don’t need to learn how to manage any more techie devices so this keeps it nice and easy.

After I registered, all I do is add children. Then I check to see if the email is available that we created. It is so I get going. Now here is the feature that sold me and the reason Jo Public can see his email if Tiny ever gives his email away without me knowing about it (yep I have no perfect kids over here) is that……………..

UNLESS I add an email to his contact list, he NEVER gets the email. It stays in the queue for me. Sweet!!!!!

There is even a setting for a format for older children so that the email does not look so babyish and the older child format gets a choice of an email that ends in a kmail.org suffix so it looks a bit more sophisticated.

And if all that protection is not enough for the kids, there is a message at the bottom of the email. So there is no doubt a person knows they are emailing a kid AND their emails are watched.

Too, because I know we have this problem around here and that is Tiny has to be reminded about when to get off devices. So there is a setting to post time limits. And, because email is a privilege, it also has a monitor for a

child that is grounded. Look at all those settings on the left side. It’s smart too because when I added Mr. Awesome so I could play with it, it automatically included him in Tiny’s contact list as a sibling.

I also like the fact that I can get a copy of Tiny’s outgoing or incoming email, decide if images will be allowed and remove links if I want to.

Email Writing By Kids

Did I tell you too that email is a great way to get writing phobic kids to write? Emails are still somewhat formal unlike texting. I used email with Mr. Awesome to help spur on his writing because there is so much satisfaction in getting emails from their friends. It makes them want to write and see a purpose in writing. Not that your kids have to agree with you when you assign their work, but you do want them to eventually see the value of the life skills you are teaching them.

kids email young author competition

Because Kids Email is kid friendly, I have a neat competition to tell you about. Kids Email is hosting their first Young Author Competition. Write a story and share it with Kids Email. Winners of each age group will have their books professionally illustrated and shared with other kids.

Check out Kids Email Young Author competition by going to their blog here.

You see, it would have been nice to have Kids Email around when Mr. Awesome and Mr. Senior 2013 were young, but I am grateful they are here for Tiny. It allows him to have an email way earlier than my other two boys ever did.

Remember, test out all the fancy features FREE, no obligation ever, by clicking on Kids Email.

curriculum_award_2013

One more thing, I want you to know, yep I am bragging proud just a tad bit about my sponsor, but they won an award for top homeschooling products of 2013.

They are such nice folks they never asked me to talk about this, but I wanted you to know. I am grateful for my sponsors because I am proud to partner with them because I feel they have unique products we can use. Too, I appreciate their support of my blog and websites and I ALWAYS have time to say Thank You.

Don’t forget to check out Kids Email young author’s writing competition!

products facts a glance 1

Product: Safe Email Service for Kids

Website: Kids Email. Org

Ages: Young Children until you feel safe enough for them to have any other email. Is that 30 years old? Okay, okay.

Free things you’ll like: Free 30 day Trial Period, NO Credit Card info needed. Love it.

Price: Month to Month $4.95. They have a special going on right now and you get up to 6 email accounts for 13 months for $38.95 which is $2.99 per month.

Note: All prices are true and correct at the time of this blog posting.

Hugs and love ya,

2012Tinasignature Negrinho From Brazil–South America Unit Study

Leave a CommentFiled Under: Product Review, Sponsored Posts Tagged With: kidsemail productreview

Woo-Worthy Big Calendar by NeuYear

September 10, 2013 | 36 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Big Calendar

Even when life throws me a few curves, I always have time to drool over new organizing tools for our homeschool area. Because I can never get enough of organizing, I jumped at the chance of reviewing an academic year big wall calendar by NeuYear.

Psssst…. because I don’t want you to miss it, I want you to know right away that I will be hosting another giveaway and it will be for these calendars.  As always at the end of this post, I will give you the details.

Woo-Worthy Big Wall Calendar

First though I have to tell you what I love about this woo-worthy big wall calendar.  I tend to fuss be picky because I want a wall calendar that is not only pretty, but practical.

Then a lot of the big wall calendars that I have used before tend to be bulky and heavy. It’s almost like having another honey do project because I normally can’t hang one by myself.  The wall calendar I will end up using the most will be one that is a DIY when it comes to hanging it.

Right away when I received my shipment in a nice sturdy container tube, I could see that it was not only lightweight, but durable and laminated to use with dry erase markers. That was the first sign that this calendar was a keeper.

Too, you know I told you my house is almost upside down because we are making some changes. So my command center or area that I had in the kitchen is not there anymore. I was kind of suffering withdrawal from not having one organized spot in my home at the moment.

How To Be a Transient Organizer

On top of that I am trying to line out classes for Mr. Senior 2013,  juggle doctor’s appointments for the Mr. and keep our school going so I was feeling a bit defeated in looking over my whole plan at a year’s glance until I got this calendar. I knew right away what I wanted to do with it and how I wanted to use it to organize. I would create a temporary command center so that everybody can see at a glance what is planned.

003
Temporary Command Center @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool PLus

I grabbed some gift wrapping paper I had and covered a foam board. Then I used some  washi tape and covered some clothes pin.  It took literally 15 minutes to make a temporary command center and bring some instant organizing awwww to my homeschool and life for the year.

I love, love the fact that the calendar is so lightweight that I can just use clothes pins to hold it up, not to mention that I am using lightweight foam board as my backdrop. I have put this in my school area for now, but I can pick it up and move it to another part of the house as I make changes in my home.

Of course, it helps that my new NeuYear calendar is a smokin’ hot color because I love turquoise/aqua, any shade of it and gray.  The beauty of the NeuYear calendar lies in how simple, but elegant and uncluttered the design is. I don’t want the design to compete with whatever design or colors I may want to use in my area.

I know you have seen those calendars with tons of heavy designing and graphics. I tend to steer clear because sometimes what you see online is not how it looks when it arrives. With this calendar, what you see is what you get.

Too, a command center is a place for the whole family to glance at without being overwhelmed by design clutter or heavy color.  The doctor’s appointments, our homeschool routine, field trips and our classes should stay center stage as the appointments are what is important to focus on. It is easy to find my appointments because they stay clear and sharp with NeuYear’s clean and chic design.

Why I Love the NeuYear Big Wall Calendar

Review of NeuYear Calendar 2 @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

But I have not even gotten to the best parts of  this calendar. You would think a calendar is just a calendar, but there are several reasons I am loving this one and taking time to tell you about it.

  • Besides being lightweight, this calendar can be placed either  vertical or horizontal. Yes, it’s double-sided. Does that mean it’s like getting two calendars for the price of one? I am using it vertically, but I love knowing I have options when I decide to give it a permanent resting home.
big calendar Neu Year
  • The next thing that has me loving this unique design is that there are no spaces or gaps in between the months. Yes, NO wasted space or date confusion.
  • The grid is nice and big enough to write in. I received the laminated calendar to use with dry erase markers which I prefer instead of the paper one. You may like their other calendar which is a regular paper surface.
Big Calendar
  • The other thing I like about this laminated calendar and tell me if I am the only one that does this, but I use post it notes/sticky tabs for some of my recurring events or appointments. I just move the tabs like hubby’s Dr. appointments as I need to instead of always writing in the space. So I am tickled that the boxes are just the perfect size and not too big for my tabs.
Review of NeuYear Calendar 4 @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus
  • When it comes to long term planning, appointments and deadlines, I have learned something new about myself with this review and that is how much I love this big wall calendar. My command area in my kitchen was on my kitchen bar. It was small, but had a  decent size  calendar to lay on my countertop.  I realized how much the boys have been coming to this and glancing at it rather then flipping open my family calendar.  Too, I love everything about looking at our school year at a glance and knowing that my boys don’t have to crack open my curriculum planner that I prefer to just keep as mine. Hubby can see what is going on with us too.

Using the right tools to make every day an awwww organizing day even on a temporary basis without being tedious is not an easy feat. If you want a simple but elegant, clutter free calendar, then NeuYear calendars are a perfect option.

For all those organizational gurus and techies, I list below the measurement and facts at a glance for you. Also, remember to sign up for their newsletter to see their latest updates. I have that below too.

NeuYear Calendar

Product Name:Academic Year Wall Calendar Laminated (Dry Erase)

Website: NeuYear.Net

Prices: Dry erase $24.00 Regular Paper $19.00

Type of Product: Physical Giant Wall Calendar

Size of Wall Calendar: 27” x 39”. Turn landscape or portrait.

All prices are good as of the date of this review.

Hugs and love ya,

2012Tinasignature South America Unit Study resources

36 CommentsFiled Under: Giveaways, Product Review Tagged With: product review

Review of Great Empires Activity Study by Home School in the Woods + Year End Co-op + Free Printable

May 25, 2013 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Warning: Picture overload!

  We just had our year end co-op. How do you choose a few pictures from all of the hard work of each child? As each family shared what delighted them, I have tried to scatter as many pictures as I could throughout this review.

Great Empires by Home School In the Woods

Review of Great Empires

Over the years I have shared my passion for history that is both hands-on and interactive because it breathes life into lifeless events of the past. So when planning our year end history co-op, I decided to use the Great Empires Activity Study, which is an activity study by Home School in the Woods. I have to say a fair amount of swooning was involved because of the scope of empires that the Great Empires Activity Study covers.

Curriculum Review Home School in the Woods

Great Empires Activity Study by Home School in the Woods covers fourteen empires: Ancient China, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Arab-Muslims, English Empire, French Empire, German Empire, Japanese Empire, Mongols, Russian Empire, Spanish Empire, United States and Viking. Not wanting to make a choice using the eeeny, meeny, miny and moe method between any of these swoon worthy civilizations for our history loving co-op, I decided to cover a little about each of these empires through hands-on projects.

Viking Coins

Organizing and assigning hands-on projects for our Great Empires co-op was easy and enjoyable because of how the information is laid out. After reviewing the download of the material I received, I noticed the files are organized by master, texts and projects. The projects page for each empire, I found extremely useful in wading through all of the excellent material. The project page is like your weekly lesson plan at a glance page and the master is your lesson plan for the day. The master pages include a helpful teacher’s key reference, which is a map marked with key areas, boundaries and other helpful features for each region covered by that empire. Glancing at the project page, we could select all the hands-on activities that we wanted to do and find them among the 107 master pages.

Russian Dolls

Too, background information on each empire is vital in covering the topics like we did because we wanted to savor a morsel of each empire. The text pages for each empire are 2-3 pages. However, one gem about the text pages is that they cover the empire at its height. Non-history loving folks don’t like history because they can get caught up in a quagmire of details that can drain the life out of a history lesson. Unsure of which invention, event or key point to highlight, a budding history buff may come away more confused. However, the text pages by Home School in the Woods shaves off non-essential details for the elementary age child but builds appreciation by covering key events that are significant for each civilization. If you are a give-me-the-facts-only type of person, you will enjoy reading about each empire in the condensed text because you won’t come away feeling overwhelmed. Beyond covering key events for each empire or covering significant inventions, the text unifies the past to the present. Your child comes away with a better understanding of the impact previous civilizations made in today’s world. Keeping it simple without being boring makes the text a nifty feature.

Ancient Rome

However, if you already have a basic framework of history knowledge and want to explore beyond that foundation, you will enjoy the additional reading suggestions in each projects page and the extensive links found in the text which directs you to a website page at Home School in the Woods. Easily, you could spend a week on each empire.

Egyptian Cartouche craft

Because the Great Empires Activity Study is about exploring, discovering and hands-on learning, you will find plenty of activities for each empire from making scones when learning about the English empire to making an Egyptian cartouche. Activities vary with each empire from learning about history through cooking, painting pottery like the Greeks and printing minibooks about famous people to Japanese kiragami.

Japanese Paper

You will not find cheesy analogies of history clip art in this product. All of the clipart, projects and pictures have amazing detail. If you are a non-artsy person you will enjoy assembling the easy to do projects because a lot of them are printable. You decide if you want to color or not.

Review Great Empire in the Woods | Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Here is what I find most appealing about this product:

  • The scope of empires covered. If you have been lagging behind in covering history topics or are trying to follow the 4 year cycle used by a lot of homeschoolers and it is going slower than you would like to, using Great Empires Activity Study would be a useful tool if you want a bird’s-eye view.
  • It can be used as a stand-alone history curriculum because you have the option with additional reading material listed in the projects pages and links provided by Home School in the Woods to extend each empire. With the abundance of reading recommendations and because we love history, I personally would take two weeks to cover each empire if I were using this as a stand-alone curriculum. Doing one hands-on activity per week would not be overly time consuming and you could easily end up with a year’s worth of history.  What a bargain for the price and you are using it for all of your children.
  • If you are using a history text and would like the flexibility of adding in an activity to enrich your reading, then Great Empires Activity Study would be a nice fit.
  • Great Empires Activity Study allowed a lot of room for flexibility in our co-op setting because it allowed each family to focus on the topic that interested them.
  • History clip art matters to me because pictures are important in history. The fine detail and high quality pictures can be used for a timeline, history notebook or to add to a lapbook.
  • Many of the creative activities can be printed and do not involve a lot of teacher supervision or tons of crafty artsy items on hand to do them.
  • The constant in all the empires is the beautiful teacher’s key map. Providing a key map for each empire is like having a mini geography curriculum as a bonus.

 Review Great Empire in the Woods | Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I feel that persons can vary tremendously on what each one thinks is a disadvantage in a product. I prefer using the word considerations because it gives you pause for thought to see if your circumstances fit that product.

Mongol Beef

Considerations for this product would be:

  • There is not a lesson planning guide or checklist for each day’s activities. For some homeschoolers that may feel like freedom to explore and breathe but for others having a to-do checklist each day may feel a bit more secure.
  • Some of these activities are ones that history lovers may have already done if they have been homeschooling for a while or find them easy but again the product is aimed at the elementary aged child.

 Review Great Empire in the Woods | Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Download Free Notebook Cover here.

You know I have to organize most products I get and this one was no different. I have created a printable for you to use as cover page for your binder when covering these empires.

Ancient Greece Pottery

{Tiny had a wonderful time at the co-op. I’ll share with you soon how we made his easy, easy Roman costume,helmet and shield.}

Review Great Empire in the Woods | Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

{A huge dose of thanks and love to Cynthia and Kelley. Cynthia did the beautiful Egyptian pillars. Would you like to know how she made them? I’ll share that in an upcoming post too. Thank you to Kelley for the beautiful Great Empires Co-op banner with those smokin’ hot wooden letters.}

Home School in the Woods is an excellent example of showing how history does not have to involve a textbook or always acquiring random uninteresting facts. With background information on each past civilization and several creative activities to choose from on each empire, you will not be disappointed with Great Empires Activity Study. Whether you are studying about the legends of Crete or are exploring the adventures of Captain John Smith, adding in hands-on history along with a huge dose of field trips and a history co-op or two is a sure way to making learning about the past meaningful.

Thank You Amy Pak and crew for keeping history fun through the Great Empires Activity Study. My kids loved it!

 Review Great Empire in the Woods | Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Product Name: Great Empires Activity Study

Website: Home School in the Woods

List Price: Download Version $18.95; CD Version $19.95

Grades/Ages to use it for:  Elementary grades. I see though that with the links and additional reading, that you could use this with multiple ages.

Type of Product:  CD or Download.

Customer Service: My download was emailed to me in a timely manner as promised.

 Review Great Empire in the Woods | Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

{There are so many games to go along with these empires. A variety of games from each empire would be: Knucklebones, Roman Ball, Disc, Rota, Ephedrismo, Abarisa, Balonmano, Cinco Marias, Blind Man, Catch the Dragon and Chinese Ball to name a few.

Above: The kids are playing Catch the Dragon.You have to love homeschooling when even the older kids don’t mind teaching the younger ones how to play the game.}

Review Great Empire in the Woods | Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

{Mummy Wrap game. Okay, not so ancient, but fun!}

Hugs and love ya,

All product information is correct and accurate as of the date of this review.

 

 

 

 

Leave a CommentFiled Under: Field Trips & My Co-ops, History Resources, Homeschool Curriculum Review, Product Review

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