HISTORY Through the Ages Project Passport World History Study: Ancient Greece from Home School in the Woods: A TOS CREW REVIEW

HISTORY Through the Ages Project Passport World History Study:Ancient Greece from Home School in the Woods

Why would you ever want to study history from a dry old textbook? We have been busy exploring the history of Greece with HISTORY Through the Ages Project Passport World History Study:Ancient Greece from Home School in the Woods. History has come alive! 

This downloadable unit study is designed for grades 3-8. It features 25 "stops" along your way as you travel through Ancient Greece. You will explore government, everyday life, history, medicine, science, food, arts, philosophy and more! It's a full 6-12 weeks of learning (depending on how fast you like to travel...) Check out this sample lesson and take a peek at this video to learn about the Project Passport Series:

All you need is the study - available on CD or as a download, your computer, a printer (with lots of ink) and some readily available supplies...

I'm still old-fashioned, and like to see my lessons all laid out, So I printed out my "Itinerary" so I can see where we are going.  This study is VERY easy to use, everything you need for each lesson is clearly laid out for you.  Each lessons includes several pages of written information called the "Guide Book Text" about the "stop" or lesson, that you can read to your children.  This lays a foundation for everything they are learning along the way.

At each stop, multiple activities are included to engage your students in what they are learning.  A timeline, "Scrapbook of Sights" - notebooking, mapping activities, audios, hands-on activities and a really nice lapbook are just a few of them. The wide variety allows YOU to pick and choose which of them are a good fit for your learning styles.

Since we are lapbook fans - I printed out all the lapbook components right away, and put together a single lapbook that we used each day to introduce our stop.  My kiddos love moving all the different flaps, slides, and uncovering the information.  They enjoy it so much, they spend their "free time" looking trough it over and over and my older children loved helping create the lapbook.  It makes a great reminder of what we learned too!

This is a very comprehensive, well-researched and written study. It's filled with facts, information and details of life in Ancient Greece. Even after multiple trips, we'd still have more to discover in this study!  One of our favorite parts were the dozens of hands-on activities (all with detailed instructions for mom) included in the study.

Here they are with some creations - greek pottery, frescos, and hoplite sheilds!  This is the type of learning that really sticks.

But, that's just the tip of the iceberg - we made our own "Great Greeks" fan cards,  paper dolls, and even a "Greek Life" board game! We can't wait to tackle the model of the Parthenon next!  This study has done an amazing job of capturing the attention of all my very DIFFERENT children's personalities.

I just can't say enough about how much I appreciate how  Home School in the Woods makes teaching history fun and easy, both for me and my students.  This is one MUST-Have resource! (and Ancient Rome is coming in 2018...)

Check out the other products the Crew has been using:
Ancient Egypt
The Middle Ages
Renaissance & Reformation
Find Home School in the Woods on Social Media:
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Twitter:  https://twitter.com/HSintheWoods  @HSintheWoods


Hashtags: #hsreviews #history #unitstudies #AncientCivilizations #lapbooking
See what other members of the Crew thought here

Valentine's (without the boxes!)

Yeah!!

I'm finally free of the love/hate relationship with Valentine's boxes...


This is what we made this year,  Valentine's Smores Mix

Simple:

M&M's
Marshmallows
Graham cracker fish


That's all...no paper mache, no paint, no contest.   Ok, maybe I miss it... a little :-)

First Friday Friends - January

Our January meeting was all about a "Heart of Beauty".

After filling the house with the smells of chocolate chip cookies... we demonstrated (with the help of a dear mom friend who can ROCK high heels and short skirts) what true beauty looks like!  If you want to know more...you should check out their book :-)

For our craft - we made adorable cork boards with some key verses about how God sees beauty.

Each of them were unique, just like our beautiful daughters.

This is such a beautiful group!

Go Upward!

It's that time of year... Upward Basketball season!

Here's our "stars" this season... 2 basketball players - one in her final season, and one in her first. And... our cheerleader!

We love the Upward program.  It's a Christian based sports program that focuses on building sport skills and character.  All of our children have had a chance to play the sports they love, make new friends and have fun! (without the high level commitment of time and finances that most sport programs demand...)

I think the cheerleader may have found her life's calling...

Times Alive by Times Tables the Fun Way: A TOS Homeschool Crew Review

Times Alive by Times Tables the Fun Way
Some days I feel like I will never leave multiplication fact practice behind... my 8 kiddos = MANY years of practice!. Thankfully, Times Alive by Times Tables the Fun Way (City Creek Press), which is online lessons with animated songs and stories to learn times tables the fun way, has made it painless this time around! My 2nd and 3rd graders are having a blast with our three-month subscription. The smile says it all :-)

This is an online, subscription that features animated stories, songs and practice to help master those pesky multiplication facts. Multiple students can access your subscription from the same computer. It's very affordable - just an initial $6.95 setup fee and a monthly fee of just $9.95. They recommend using the program for 20 minutes a day at least twice a week. The 18 lessons could be completed in a single month, or you can extend your subscription for more practice.

One of my testers is in 2nd grade and just beginning to learn multiplication. My other tester has been struggling to get them memorized for quite some time. They both LOVED this program.


It's very user friendly, and easy to get started. The program remembers your computer's "cookies" to track your student's progress. Multiple students can use the same computer, but with unique log-in names. The lessons can be completed in any order, so your student can really focus in on the facts they may be struggling with.  This was very helpful for my 3rd grader who already had some of her facts mastered.  

The videos are all animated characters with silly stories that help illustrate the multiplication facts in a memorable way - great for my visual learners. The songs help my auditory learners cement the multiplication facts. I find myself singing them as I'm correcting their math! Take a peek at one of the videos...

It's very easy to see their progress, and for them to find where to start again. The program records which videos have been viewed, which lessons have been completed and even scores on their quizzes. You can see exactly what they have learned.

The Progress check is where they practice what they learned from the song and video. First with the picture prompts, and then with the facts.

And, one of my testers favorite parts - the games! My testers enjoyed the coloring pages over and over.

I am a huge fan of this type of learning. My testers showed MARKED improvement in their math lessons after just a few sessions. If you have a child that learns a bit "differently", this is the program for you.  

Find  Times Tables the Fun Way on Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LearnMultiplication/ 
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F35_ZRpRzJI 


Hashtags: #hsreviews #onlinemath #mathsupplement #multiplication #learnmultiplication See what other members of the Crew thought here

The Tea Party

You may remember, I blogged about my Girls' weekend with Lydia, and we went shopping for antique teacups and saucers.

We had our special "Girls' Tea Party"!

The cups were specially suited to each of my daughters.  Lydia had a hard time keeping it a secret, but we pulled it off.



We read "A Cup of Christmas Tea" - one of our Christmas favorites, enjoyed our tea and cookies, and made more wonderful memories together!