My family had the privilege of trying Home School in the Woods Time Traveler American History Study: The Early 19th Century 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.
The Time Traveler American History Studies are a seven part series that starts with the New World Explorers and concludes at the end of World War II. 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.
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| Left: Main Menu, Right: Lesson Layout |
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 travel. The Beginning of the main menu includes: Acknowledgements / Copyrights and Usage / Bibliography, Introduction, Tips to Consider Before Starting..., and Teacher Helps which gives you a great foundation. Teacher Helps guides you with preparation and organization, gives you a Lesson Planner schedule to help you see an overview of the things being taught and Additional Resources to pull from. It also includes the printables for the 3-Ring Binder Covers and the Teacher Keys for the timeline.
Each study has twenty-five lessons and is supposed to last roughly 5-10 weeks depending upon how quickly everything is completed. These lessons have reading Text Pages and an activity that go with them. Project Pages accompany these to give directions, list of supplies needed, printing instructions, and illustrations for each project and activity. Masters are provided for all printables.
In the Other Resources section at the end of the main menu there are some visuals and directions to help you with the projects, activities, and lapbook. These include: All Master Pages in numerical order, A Gallery of Project Photos (final photos of what projects should look like at the end), and Lap Book Instructions. You can also have your student catch up with the five Project Days that are included in the schedule. The student will compile a lapbook in the 24th lesson. This lapbook is pieced together throughout the studies. The final lesson is a party with a theme that goes along with the series to celebrate the end of the study. These are very flexible and you can pick and choose what projects work best for your family.
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 Teacher's Binder (reading text, project direction pages, the "Guide-at-a-Glance," teacher keys, and any of the other teacher helps)
- One 3-Ring Binder for the Scrapbook of Sights (student binder for all notebook projects including)
- 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
- Washington, Jefferson, & the Barbary Pirates
- The Louisiana Purchase
- Lewis & Clark
- Inventions & Innovators
- PROJECT DAY - 1
- America, England, and War!
- The Erie Canal
- Trappers, Traders, & Mountain Men
- The First 12 American Presidents
- PROJECT DAY - 2
- People of Interest
- Statehoods & The Alamo
- Native Americans - Part 1
- Native Americans - Part 2
- PROJECT DAY - 3
- Pioneer Living - Part 1
- Pioneer Living - Part 2
- The Wild West!
- ...And Still More Trails
- PROJECT DAY - 4
- The Mexican-American War
- Ante Bellum
- PROJECT DAY - 5
- Pulling together the Lap Book™
- A Chuck Wagon Dinner!
How We Used This and Our Thoughts:
I enlisted my daughter Teela who is going into 4th grade this upcoming school year to learn about The Early 19th Century. She has loved doing Home School in the Woods Project Passports, Ancient Egypt and The Middle Ages study, in the past. 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 written assignments 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 coloring the binder cover. |
This study was jam packed with information. This is all about early U.S. History. It is about the growth of this nation and the people that left their mark on it. In the weeks we had before this review we learned about Barbary Pirates, The Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis & Clark Expedition, and Inventions & Innovators of the time. There are creative writing, recipes and songs of the era, notebook timeline, factfile cards, file folder games, penmanship pages, notebooking activities, three-dimensional projects, arts and crafts, lapbooking, and a Chuck Wagon Dinner to bring the whole unit to a close. We still have not gotten through all the lessons, but we have enjoyed everything that we have done thus far.
This was differently laid out than the Project Passports I was used to. There were no stops or pretending to be on a trip and these did not have any audio files to listen to. Like Project Passport though, 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 to begin with to get things done so you are not overwhelmed.
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| Pioneer Cooking Recipe: Jam Filled Cookies |
Teela really liked our project time together the most. She loves art and making things. She especially loved making the yummy Jam Filled Cookies from one of the Pioneer Cooking recipes. These turned out to be more like scones in my opinion. She also loved learning and singing the songs. We can't wait to make corn husk dolls, a faux coon skin hat, the woven wheat heart, and the other recipes. We are learning a lot and are enjoying every moment. These are so much fun!
I highly recommend the Time Travelers American History Study: The Early 19th Century from Home School in the Woods. This is great for anyone homeschooling who might need some help with teaching The Early 19th Century in a highly educational, fun, and very hands-on way. This is a great stand-alone unit study or can be used to supplement something already being taught. 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 and learning more about United States history with this study!
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BUY IT
You can purchase the download version of the HISTORY Through the Ages Time Travelers American History Study: The Early 19th Century for $27.95 and CD version for $28.95. Also, new this summer are A-La-Carte Projects, individual projects from their materials to purchase without having to buy the whole unit. Visit the for the A-La-Carte Projects above and receive a FREE Erie Canal project from Originally found in Time Travelers: The Early Nineteenth Century by adding the project from the list into your cart and then entering "alacarte" in the discount code bar at check out.
The Review Crew also reviewed Activity-Paks, Lap-Paks, and the Timeline Trio. Read other homeschool curriculum reviews for Home School in the Woods...
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