Mom of Many: Famous Figures of the Early Modern Era from Figures In Motion: A TOS Crew Review

Thursday, April 29, 2021

Famous Figures of the Early Modern Era from Figures In Motion: A TOS Crew Review

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

Famous Figures of the Early Modern Era from Figures In Motion

Figures In Motion has been a family favorite for years! In fact, we were delighted we could complete our collection with Famous Figures of the Early Modern Era (the only one we didn't have yet!)

These delightful articulated, historical paper figures are creations of Cathy Diez-Luckie, a homeschool mom. "What is an articulated paper figure?" They are sturdy card stock paper figures with several movable sections - connected together with brads. They make a wonderful, hands-on addition to any of your history studies.

Each volume comes with full-color figures, and black-and-white figures for you to color yourself. The pages are perforated to make them easy to remove. The Famous Figures of the Early Modern Era volume includes 21 history makers from the mid-1500s through the mid-1800s.

This is a great history project for ages 6-12 but, we have enjoyed them at any age! My testers have loved these and created the figures from every other volume of the series, so we were happy to have Famous Figures of the Early Modern Era to go along with our modern history study this year.

Each book contains mini-biographies of each of the figures with dates, and some key facts to remember. Using the figures to create a moveable timeline is a great idea!

A Reading List is also included, which makes a great way to bring the figures to life.

The Directions are super clear and easy to follow. No unusual supplies are required, all you need is a scissors and some brads. It's easy enough for most children to complete independently. So much easier than some of our complicated history projects that are so intense... like paper mâché or salt dough, anyone with me?

Each assembled figure is about 12-13 inches tall with the name of the figure printed on the back (nice when you have a pile of them)

We have used these in so many ways. My first book was Famous Figures of the Middle Ages & Renaissance and I used it to tell history stories in my co-op history class, the students loved seeing "who" was coming to class to tell them the story. When I brought them home, I saw that my children kept on playing and telling stories with them... and I have been using them as an addition to our history study ever since. They make a great review tool to see what they have remembered.

My son (now 15) has LOVED the figures - in fact, they were on his birthday list for several years. Not only did they provide hours of interesting play, they also greatly helped him develop his fine motor skills as he carefully cut and assembled each of them. He's a "lefty", so cutting skills took lots of practice and a left-handed scissors. The figures gave him motivation to keep practicing!

When I asked him what he liked best about them, he said he loved that they could move and make poses. He created elaborate battle scenes with these figures for hours on end. Even now, he offered to "make some more" just to help me 😊

My daughter (age 11) was not about to let him have all the fun! She claimed this volume as "hers" and has been happily creating figures. She really loves using the hole punch we were sent to make the openings for the brads - it helps the figures move more easily.

One of her favorite parts of these books is being able to color her own figures and create new historical figures.

I have been so impressed by how much these figures have gotten used over the years in our homeschool. I would highly encourage you to add them to your history tool chest.

Make sure to visit their website and sign up to get a FREE Articulated King Tut puppet and visit the blog for tons of great ideas and freebies.

Check out reviews from the Crew on the other editions:

Famous Figures of Ancient Times
Famous Figures of the Middle Ages & Renaissance
Famous Figures of the American Revolution
Famous Figures of the Civil War

PS - They also have editions for Dinosaurs and Queen Esther and we love them too!