Home School in the Woods ~ Review

While we have reviewed different items from Home School in the Woods in the past, I wanted to try something designed for my youngest daughter. I have not done much history with her and this was the perfect way to introduce her to some history while learning about a man from history who is interesting. This lap-pak is also geared for children in grades K-2nd grade where as the other products we have reviewed have been for the older kids. We spent the last several weeks learning about Benjamin Franklin from the Hands-on History Lap-Paks collection.

Home School in the Woods is a hands-on history company that offers several different products. The lap-pak collection offers a way to spend time on one topic through the process of making a lap book along with a text booklet. The student is able to focus on one topic and learn more about the person, place, or thing.

The Benjamin Franklin lap-pak has everything you and your child need to make a wonderful lap book and read a story with the text booklet that is included.  Your child learns more about Benjamin Franklin’s life, family, and what he learned while growing up. There are twelve hands-on projects to complete that include the following:

• The Franklin Family
• Leather Apron Trades
• Ben Franklin, the Printer
• Printer’s Type
• Ben, the Good Citizen
• Poor Richard’s Almanack
• Franklin’s Inventions
• Benjamin Flies a Kite
• Documents
• Vocabulary
• Pocket of Virtues
• A Timeline of Ben Franklin’s Life

As with all downloadable products, the lap-pak does take some time to print out and read through the instructions. After I had printed all of the pages, I organized them  in the way I was going to use them with my daughter. I know this product is to be made into a lapbook, but we like to do the pages and place them onto construction paper and put them into a three pronged folder to make a book project. The page shown below is how my daughter wanted to show the printing press page. She said “the label should be on the same page and just flip up so we can see the picture.”

We have done each section like the one above and have used more than one page if things didn’t fit just right. My daughter liked going through and coloring the pages and cutting them out and putting them together on different colors of construction paper. She liked making a book and making it her own way.

The only con I have with using these products is the time it takes to print out and figure out how everything is to go together. I love the hands-on approach and I think my children do learn more when they are doing the projects.  My daughter soaked up the information and learned a lot of great things from Benjamin Franklin’s life. I also learned some things about Benjamin Franklin that I did not know about. I also helped my daughter with some of the coloring and it was fun to have a one on one time with her while we were both learning.

Overall, I highly recommend Home School in the Woods for your hands-on history needs.

Be sure to check out their newest product on Ancient Rome.