My family had the privilege of trying the HISTORY Through the Ages Project Passport World History Study: The Middle Ages from Home School in the Woods for this review to use in conjunction with our own homeschool curriculum. This is a Homeschool Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.
Home School in the Woods is a family run business that creates Christian based history curriculum for homeschooling. This curriculum immerses your student in the topic. It is very hands-on with lapbooks, timelines, recipes, art, creative writing, notebook projects, dramatized audio theater, maps, crafts, projects, re-enactments, file-folder games, vocabulary to learn, etc.
My family got to pick one of four different HISTORY Through the Ages Project Passport World History Study curriculum: Ancient Egypt (3100 BC to 30 BC), The Middle Ages (400 AD to 1500 AD), Renaissance & Reformation (1100 AD to 1660 AD) and their newest Ancient Greece (6000 BC to 146 BC). Home School in the Woods will also eventually be expanding the series to include studies of Ancient Rome which will be out in 2018! We had already reviewed Ancient Egypt and loved it, so we decided to pick a new one and settled on The Middle Ages because it is sounded like such a fascinating subject. As I have said before, my whole family are history enthusiasts. We also love learning about different cultures and even though we were not new to learning about The Middle Ages, this study didn't disappoint and we learned a lot on the journey.
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| There are icons that help along one side and buttons that link to nice clear photos of the finished projects. |
The Project Passport World History Studies are a virtual trip through history. These are recommended for grades 3-8. There are two different versions you can purchase, a CD version or a digital download version. With the CD version everything that you access and print is on the CD. With the digital download version you download a zipped file, place all of the contents into a folder on your computer, and access it by the start.htm file that is in that folder. We received the digital download version. This "trip" is supposed to last roughly 6-12 weeks depending upon how quickly everything is completed. For Each Project Passport World History Study you make a passport and "luggage" folder to hold some of the stuff you print off and make along the journey. Each "trip" has 25 chapters called "stops", where you observe action-packed events and meet fascinating people along the way. At each stop you come to there will be "Guide Book Text" which is information for the student to read about a certain topic explored and a "Travel Itinerary" that covers the project choices and directions. There are also helpful icons that let you know what you will be doing and color photos of all the completed projects so you know how they are supposed to look like when finished. There are a lot of printables of information and projects to do. Masters are available for all printables. There are so many things to do on the trip, for example: creating a "Scrapbook of Sights" (notebook for storing the notebook projects), dining on local cuisine with the "Dining out Guide" (recipes to create food and drink that was popular in the area at the time), taking pictures ("Snapshot Moments in History" scrapbook timeline), reporting on important people and happenings (a newspaper creative writing assignment - In The Middle Ages study it is called "The Medieval Times"), making "souvenirs" to remember your stay (craft/art projects), dressing like the locals (clothing of the era: fun dress up craft), making a lapbook, playing games (file-folder games), collecting postcards, listening to tour guides (dramatized audio theater - there are 7 of these), and so much more!
We found that there was a lot of preparation that needed to happen before getting started. There is a lot of things needing printed, items needing prepared for crafts and other projects, and general preparation of materials before one can begin the journey. The Travel Itinerary and Travel Planner: Quick Stop Itinerary helps with this a lot!
You will need a few items to get you through the lessons:
- Working Printer
- Color and Black Ink for the printer to cover all the printing that will be happening
- White and Colored Printer Paper
- White and Colored Cardstock (this is best, but admittedly we didn't have any of this and used only white printer paper and it worked OK)
- One 3-Ring Binder for the Guide Book (teacher binder for Introduction, Travel Tips, Travel Planner: Quick Stop Itinerary, Travel Itinerary, Guide Book Text, and Additional Resources)
- One 3-Ring Binder for the Scrapbook of Sights (student binder for all notebook projects)
- Colored File Folders or Colored Pocket Folders with Fasteners
- Scissors and/or an X-acto Knife (when using an X-acto Knife you will need a thick piece of cardboard or self healing mat to use as a cutting surface)
- Crayons, Markers, or Colored Pencils to color the pictures, if desired
- Glue
- Other Craft supplies specified for each of the different projects that your student wants to do
This is what the HISTORY Through the Ages Project Passport World History Study: The Middle Ages covers:
- Laying the Foundation – Part I: Introduction
- Laying the Foundation – Part II: Barbarians in the South & East
- Laying the Foundation – Part III: Barbarians in the North & West
- Everyday Life – Part I: Family
- Everyday Life – Part II: Clothing & Food
- Everyday Life – Part III: Community
- Everyday Life – Part IV: Crime, Punishment... and Entertainment
- Business – Part I: Towns and Guilds
- Business – Part II: Merchants, Trade, and Exploration
- Science and Invention
- Education
- The Arts
- Medicine and Disease
- The Church – Part I: History
- The Church – Part II: Church and other Religious Events
- The Church – Part III: Monastic Life
- The Crusades – Part I: The Big Four
- The Crusades – Part II: Other Crusades
- Knights and Chivalry
- The Vikings – Part I: Viking Life
- The Vikings – Part II: Era of the Viking
- Battles, Wars, and Conflicts – Part I: The Muslim Invasions
- Battles, Wars, and Conflicts – Part II: Eastern Europe
- Battles, Wars, and Conflicts – Part III: England
- Final Stop - Packing Up!
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| Teela coloring the Scrapbook of Sights Cover. |
How We Used This and Our Thoughts:
I enlisted my daughter Teela who is in 3rd grade this year to learn about The Middle Ages since she loved doing the Ancient Egypt study before. This is supposed to be for 3rd through 8th graders so most of the projects she did very well on. She did need my help with some of the more advanced projects and writing assignments and it took her a lot longer to get through some of the stops than it might have taken for my older boys. I learned quite a bit too while helping her with this study.
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| Teela making a puppet show with the Medieval Stick Puppets. |
This study, like the first we did, was jam packed with information. I am glad that I already had experience doing this type of program because everything seemed to go faster. The instructions are not hard, but there is a lot of things to set up and print out initially and throughout the program....so be aware of that and set some time aside initially to get things done so you are not overwhelmed. We still have not gotten through all the stops, but we have enjoyed everything that we have done thus far. I love that it is from a biblical Christian perspective too.
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| Wassail making is fun and delicious! |
Teela really liked our project time together. She loves art and making things. She especially loved making the stick puppets clothed in costume of the era. She even put on a puppet show with our puppet stage. We also made some very yummy Wassail with the Dining out Guide recipe, which everyone enjoyed. We very much enjoyed the audio tour too. We are learning a lot along the stops and are enjoying every moment. These are so much fun!
I highly recommend the Project Passport World History Study: The Middle Ages from Home School in the Woods. This is great for anyone homeschooling who might need some help with teaching The Middle Ages in a highly educational, fun, and very hands-on way. This would also be perfect for those wanting something fun to do with their kids in the summer time. I am looking forward to reviewing more from Home School in the Woods in the future!
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BUY IT
You can purchase the download version of the HISTORY Through the Ages Project Passport World History Study: The Middle Ages for $33.95 and CD version for $34.95.
Download the scope and sequence, listen to a sample audio tour, see photo examples of projects, and watch a video of "What is a Project Passport" when you click the link above, to get more of an idea about the program.
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