hands on history

Ancient Egypt Homeschool Unit Study – Hands-on and FUN!

May 6, 2015 | 1 Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Studying Ancient Egypt history has been anything but boring for us because I have been determined to keep it hands-on.

I have to admit though it is not always easy.

When I find homeschool history programs like Project Passport: Ancient Egypt from Home School in the Woods that fits what I think history should look like, I am always delighted to share about it.

Your kids will love this Hands-on Ancient Egypt Unit Study at Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I was given a free copy of Project Passport: Ancient Egypt and I was paid for my time. Compensated for my time does not mean paid off. ALL opinions are my own and for sure I will always tell you what is on my mind. Your experience may vary. When I do accept a review it’s because I am excited to tell you about it. Read my full disclosure here.

Hands-on Homeschool Ancient Egypt History

Though we are history lovers in our home, I know that teaching Ancient Egypt history can be quite boring if you don’t find the right resource.

Passport Project Ancient Egypt Interactive and Hands-on Unit Study @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Using Project Passport: Ancient Egypt from Home School in the Woods over the past few weeks has been by far the best curriculum we have used for studying about Ancient Egypt.

Look at some of these things that makes us swoon over this curriculum.

Hands-on activities like mapping Upper and Lower Egypt, creating post cards and preparing a newspaper and recipes.
It means a lot to me to have high quality clip art and not babyish looking quality printables for middle school kids. The printables are high quality and are all labeled so that you can match them to the correct projects.
There are a variety of activities to choose from to suit any learning style. Tiny is my strongest auditory learner of all of my boys and he really was engaged by the beautiful sounding Mp3s like Touring Down the Nile, Interview with an Embalmer and Building a Pyramid. I haven’t really used the curriculum the way they suggested by picking and choosing. We tried to cram it all in because each project sounded as fun as the next one. We just had to taste a bit of everything. Along with creating minibooks, we created a passport, created a luggage folder (so cute), a travel itinerary, prepared the scrapbook of sights and snapshots of moments in history (timeline).
It’s all laid out Stop by Stop. Even the text you need to read for each lesson is included. This makes it easy to pick up and go when you are short on time.
The teacher’s keys are very helpful and Tiny was able to check his work on his own. I love that part.
I REALLY appreciate a scope and sequence being provided so that I can plan or see what will be covered. I have to create objectives and lesson plan and the teacher in me finds this part extremely helpful.

Look at some of these things that you will want to know before you use Project Passport: Ancient Egypt.

Details are important to history when you want to analyze them. Topics are covered with an eye for details and not broad strokes. If you want details, then it’s a great fit.
It requires a good amount of time for start up because you will want to take time reading through all the directions for both laying out the projects and how to print them. The payoff is rewarding but don’t look at speeding through the set up process. This is a savor the time curriculum.
Like high quality printables should be, you will want to use high quality materials like cardstock and color printables. You can print gray scale too and have the option to color. I think it’s always an advantage to have both options of coloring or gray scale printing though. Because this curriculum is sold by CD or downloads, your printer will be busy.
Though I thrive in organization, having four sub-folders to navigate between might seem overwhelming. It took me a few minutes to figure out that the Itineraries folder in the PDFs sub-folder was the place that I needed to visit at each Stop. It has the instructions for the activities for each stop. There are a total 25 Stops.
It is important to remember that the printables cannot be shrunk, which a lot of printers do. If you do this, like the instructions specifically mentions, it throws off all the printables. An important detail that is easy to forget when you start printing at each Stop. Avoid precious ink and high quality paper by minding the details on each page.

Like a comprehensive unit study should be, you will want to let go of whatever else you are studying about so that your children can enjoy the creative writing, arts and geography weaved throughout each Stop.

Tiny is just about out of the dress up stage but he fondly remembers our hands-on activities with Ancient Egypt (fun with cartouche and Lego pyramid) as we have used Home School in the Woods products through the years.

With this unit study, my focus was on reading the content and listening to the MP3s to prepare him for high school.

Of course, doing as many of the other hands-on activities that we could cram in is also my objective.

Ancient Egypt Unit Study 8 @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Because I couldn’t wait to share with you about how this unit study sparks a love for learning about Ancient Egypt and because of my love for pictures too, look at my first post Ancient Egypt and look at my second one Ancient Egypt Unit Study Part 2.

I have used many laid out unit studies.

Too, you know I have created my own lapbook printables because it has been hard to find history curriculum that has all the things I demand, which are detailed content, pristine clip art, high quality printables, an overflowing amount of hands-on activities and that can be used with multiple ages.

Project Passport: Ancient Egypt receives my highest praise and I can’t wait to grab the other projects in this series.

Thank You Home School in the Woods for the obvious time, care and detail that went into this curriculum. I am proud to be a reviewer of such an amazing product.

Ancient History Series

Company Name: Home School in the Woods Publishing
Website: Home School in the Woods
Product Name: Project Passport: Ancient Egypt
Grades: 3rd to 8th, but I found that it could be tweaked up or down because of the numerous activities. Check out their scope and sequence to see the events
Type of Format: Download
Religious perspective but can be tweaked for a more secular version if you choose.

You’ll love these other hands-on history for studying about Ancient Egypt:

Hugs and love ya,

Ancient Egypt Unit Study Part 2 – Best Hands-on Homeschool Ideas

April 22, 2015 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

One reason I chose to use Ancient Egypt Passport Project from Home School in the Woods is because of the amount of hands-on history that it has.

Today, I am sharing Ancient Egypt Unit Study Part 2 because I want to be sure you to get see wayyy more pictures before I finish this study.

I know I am not using it like suggested meaning you pick and choose what you like to do. That would be too balanced for me.

I tend to be over board when it comes to history and we like sampling a little bit of it all. Don’t do like me.

We are trying to squeeze in every bit of the activities because we can’t wait to make the next activity and also I am visually obsessed so I wanted to be sure you get tons of pictures for this unit study.

Today, we played with paper dolls.

Okay, don’t tell Tiny I said that because it was almost an outright mutiny when I showed him what we were going to do next.

Tiny was almost not going to do these fun Egyptian Figures, but it ended up being such a cool project I am glad we did them.

Homeschool History and Crafts Obsessed

Not only did we enjoy the coloring, but he enjoyed reading about what Egyptians, both adults and kids wore back then.The coolest part is that after using an exacto knife on the paper figures, the clothing can be changed out by sticking tabs from the pieces into the holes or slits cut on the figures.

After a bit of time, he really got into changing out the pieces.

One thing that is so unique was that there were templates to use to cut out actual fabric that can be glued onto the figures.

I thought how fun it would be if you had a girl but that was Tiny’s limit. He wasn’t going to make templates out of material.The finished looking project is a fun way to learn about time period clothing. He was pleased with his finished product.Not only is all the reading you need included with this unit study, which I like because you know the only books I can get here in Ecuador are in Spanish, but then the review of the material is illustrated in different ways like these pop out books.We read about the social system in Ancient Egypt.

Then Tiny glued the text on each mini pop out book to show each level in the social system.Let’s just face it, interacting with mini pop up books are certainly way more fun to handle and review material.

After he made the minibooks, I helped him glue them on the page showing he social pyramid.

Tell me which kid wouldn’t prefer to review material from a page like this instead of a worksheet?Then one more project I wanted to show you was the pocket made for souvenirs.The pages are instructions for dressing up like an Egyptian boy or girl.There are more projects we are working on as we make our way through this hands-on unit study.

Have you ever tried any of the history unit studies from Home School in the Woods? Do you have any favorites?

Look at the other parts we did:

Hugs and love ya,

Homeschool History Teaching Ancient Civilizations Using Netflix

April 21, 2015 | 5 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Besides being a great way unit study starter, movies have a way of taking us back in history. Remember, when we did our FBI Unit Study, we started our unit study by popping popcorn and watching the documentary about the FBI.

Not only do movies capture our children’s attention but they have a way of hooking our children on history too.

Homeschool History Alive

Netflix is one tool I happily pay for each month because the benefits always outweigh the nominal cost.

Though the movies change throughout the years, I always manage to keep a list or two on hand when teaching different periods of history.

Look at my list of homeschool history teaching ancient civilizations using Netflix.

Son of Hercules vs. Medusa
The Ancient Life
The 300 Spartans
Colosseum: A Gladiator’s Story
Cleopatra
The Prince of Egypt
Nova: Building Pharaoh’s Chariot
The Pyramid Code
The Curse of King Tut’s Tomb
Secrets: The Sphinx
Alexandria
Secrets: A Viking Map?
Secrets of the Viking Sword: Nova
Secrets of the Dead: China’s Terracotta Warriors

Whether you add a movie or two for enrichment, as a unit study starter or to add some spice to your day, a movie or two can history alive for a time period in history that sometimes can be hard to teach.

Teaching Ancient Civilizations Using Netflix

I also scour the History Channel and PBS/Nova for movies to go with a specific time period.

Also, be sure to scoot by and check out Teach With Movies for free lesson plans to go with movies. It is such an awesome resource.

Although I don’t use movies to teach exclusively, I feel they are a fun and valuable part of teaching history that can be inspirational.

What about you? Do you add movies to your unit studies or to enrich your curriculum?

Also you’ll love these other resources:

Hugs and love ya,

Homeschool History Teaching Ancient Civilizations Using Netflix @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Ancient Egypt Unit Study – Trip through Ancient History

April 2, 2015 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I am so tickled and excited about starting our Ancient Egypt Passport Project from Home School in the Woods that I can’t wait until the review to share all what we are doing.

We will be using this curriculum over the next month or so and you know I am so visual that I have to share a ton of pictures with you before I do a final review. I know you like pictures too.

One of the reasons I was so giddy to get my hands on this was because of all the activities and projects. We couldn’t wait to get started.

My initial thought on this is that it does require a good amount of time for set up. I have never been afraid of a bit of hard work in the beginning for a nice payoff in the long run.

Too, once we made the passport and luggage (so stinkin’ fun) we can use it for all the other project passport studies.

One thing I want to be sure you know when you start using this is to read carefully all the notes provided.

They are worth the time reading so that you don’t make mistakes in printing.

For example, I appreciated the very fine point of printing “actual size” and not shrinking the pages because the measurements will be off on all projects.

Just be sure you read all the details and take your time.

Hands-On History Ancient Egypt

So the first couple of lessons, which are called Stops (there are 25 Stops total), is where a lot of the prep work is done. We have done 3 STOPS and stopped so that we could catch up on some of the fun projects.

We started by making the fun passport first.

All the templates you need to make each printable is with this download. It is the total package.

Tiny wanted to use a photo for his passport where he was wearing his Ecuadorean hat. He is proud of that native hat.

He actually thought this was cool to make because when we got our passports for coming here to Ecuador, he learned a lot about visas and passports.

Then next we worked on making the timeline called “Snapshots Moments in History”. This baby has 8 pages plus 4 pages of timeline figures and extra pages for decorating.

You can choose to do the pages notebook style or accordion style.

Since we love lapbooks, we decided to go ahead and do the timeline accordion style.

It took a bit of time to cut each page and tape it, but now we have the timeline for the whole project and will be gluing our timeline figures as we go along at each Stop.

Homeschool History Based Activity Study

Then this luggage idea, complete with luggage tag is so creative.

Just a heads up, my luggage looks a bit different than what the instructions said. You will be able to create yours like the model one shown in the download because you probably live near a Wal-mart.

Since everything is not easy to find here in Ecuador, I had to help Tiny create something just a bit different.

First, I couldn’t find a file folder with pockets and brads. I went to 7 stores and they just don’t have that here in Ecuador.

So we made our own pockets and instead of using the brads like the instructions said, we used a file fastener.

If you make it and you live near civilization, it won’t take you near as long as it did for us to make our luggage.

We loved making it though and Tiny even wanted to glue some luggage stickers that we found on the internet onto the outside. It came out so cute.

Inside we store the travel log pages, which Tiny will write on at the end of our journey.

We can store other items in the pockets too.

Then lastly we made our beginning scrap book called Scrapbook of Sights.

The instructions called for a clear outside pocket and a 3 ring binder. Guess what?

They don’t have clear outside pocket binders here and there are only 2 ring binders used here in Ecuador like the picture shown above. Again, your final product will look a bit different than mine does here.

This wasn’t such a big deal though because we just glued the cover page onto the outside and can use a 2 ring binder.

This binder is for storing the map we did about Upper and Lower Egypt and it will store our timeline as we add “snapshots” of our trip.

Too, we listened to our first audio as we headed down the Nile River.

I really like this part to this curriculum because out of all of my boys, Tiny is the strongest audio learner and he just curled up beside as we listened to this audio tour complete with sound effects. So much fun.

You see, there is no way I will be able to get this all in one blog post because there is way too many wonderful things to tell you about this project.

I will update you as we move along through a few more Stops and do more of the projects.

Do you have plans for an upcoming unit study on Ancient Egypt?

You’ll love the other parts to this unit study:

Hugs and love ya,

15 Hands-on History Ideas for Kids Studying the French and Indian War

March 20, 2015 | 12 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I have rounded up 15 hands-on history ideas for middle school kids studying the French and Indian War of 1754 – 1763. Hands-on history not only sparks excitement for continuing to study a topic, but learning sticks because your child is doing and making a connection to the past. Also, look at my page homeschool middle school for more fun tips.

15 Hands-on History Ideas for Kids Studying the French and Indian War

Too, it is always my aim to continue to flesh out my unit studies and add more hands-on history activities as I find them.

Okay, I actually have more than 15 hands-on history ideas for studying about the French and Indian War.

This topic is not an easy one to teach at lower levels and most resources are at the high school level.

French and Indian War

However, I am tickled to share this free resource from the National Park Service which I came across after I completed our first study of the French and Indian War.

It has several downloads and you want to be sure and grab each unit because they are awesome.

Look at each download below. {Source Don Troiani, www.historicalprints.com}

Teacher Background

Unit 1: Who Were the People Involved?

Unit 2: What Were they fighting For?

Unit 3: How Did the Conflict Begin?

Unit 4: How did the War Progress?

Unit 5: How Did the Conflict End? What Were the Consequences?

Unit 6: How Did the French and Indian War Set the Stage for the American Revolution?

Unit 7: Biography Cards

Unit 8: Primary Documents and Artifacts

The ideas for these hands-on activities come from the background information on the free downloads.

15 Hands-on History Ideas for Middle School Kids

One and Two.
Bio Bingo – This free download at NPS has a Bingo game about key events and your student can create biography cards on major characters.

Three.
Nearly everyone in the army would carry flint and steel for starting fires. Check out how to make a flint & steel fire starter. (adult supervision)

Four.
Baskets were made by woman and had many uses. Check out how to make a coiled bowl.

Also, we love the hands-on ideas from Home School in the Woods. Look at their American Revolution hands-on unit which covers the French & Indian War.

Five.
Europeans gave pipe tomahawks as gifts to Indian leaders. With adult supervision, this tomahawk could be made, by an older teen, but there is also an easy cardboard tomahawk . Great activity for a younger learner.

Six.
A compass was an important tool for navigating in North America. Check out my post – homemade compass.

Seven.
Learn about powder horns and create your own.

Eight.
Check out these French and Indian War images which can be used for a fun writing activity.

Nine.
How To Make An Easy Ink pot & Quill Pen with Berry Ink.

French and Indian War Kids Activities

Ten.
Make a tricorn hat.

Eleven.
Learn how to make a beaver hat.

Twelve.
Make a leather pouch. Even though this link is a puzzle pouch, I like it because it has a template for the pouch.

Then here is an easier pouch for a younger child.

Thirteen.
Make an authentic turtle rattle and then there is another version on this same site for a younger child too.

Fourteen.
This is cool to build a fort fence at your house.

The Seven Years War Hands-on Ideas

Fifteen.
Create your own Iroquois wampum belt with string and beads.

And MORE fun things to bring this topic to life!
grab my free French and Indian War lapbook too.

French and Indian War Lapbook | Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Also, prior to The French and Indian War, the Iroquois Confederacy was formed and tried to stay neutral for most of the war.

To flesh out a study on The French and Indian War, be sure to check out my Iroquois Confederacy Unit Study and Lapbook.

Have your student memorize some of the George Washington’s Rules of
Good Behavior close to 1746 , read the story of Mary Jemison who was captured by Indians amidst the war between the British and the French and read the speech of Chief Pontiac of the Ottawa tribe addressing a gathering of Ottawa, Huron, and Potawatomie Indians, May 5, 1763.

Here is a printable crossword puzzle on the French and Indian War. Click printable .pdf at the bottom. Be sure to the answer key too.

Make a bear claw necklace.

Look at this older site, the Fort at No. 4 for postcards to print for a writing exercise or to make it art, learn about colonial money, colonial tools, do an acrostic poem, and a map of the area.

Hope this round up will help you to find some hands-on history activities for this time period and to keep it fun.

Also you’ll love these other hands-on history activities:

hands on history

Ancient Egypt Homeschool Unit Study – Hands-on and FUN!

Hands-on Homeschool Ancient Egypt History

Ancient History Series

Ancient Egypt Unit Study Part 2 – Best Hands-on Homeschool Ideas

Homeschool History and Crafts Obsessed

Homeschool History Teaching Ancient Civilizations Using Netflix

Homeschool History Alive

Teaching Ancient Civilizations Using Netflix

Ancient Egypt Unit Study – Trip through Ancient History

Hands-On History Ancient Egypt

Homeschool History Based Activity Study

15 Hands-on History Ideas for Kids Studying the French and Indian War

French and Indian War

15 Hands-on History Ideas for Middle School Kids

French and Indian War Kids Activities

The Seven Years War Hands-on Ideas

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hands on history

Hands-on Homeschool Ancient Egypt History

Ancient History Series

Homeschool History and Crafts Obsessed

Homeschool History Alive

Teaching Ancient Civilizations Using Netflix

Hands-On History Ancient Egypt

Homeschool History Based Activity Study

French and Indian War

15 Hands-on History Ideas for Middle School Kids

French and Indian War Kids Activities

The Seven Years War Hands-on Ideas

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