Home School in the Woods Review

In case you didn't know, it's coming up on election time. In our home we have been talking a lot about words such as voting, President, Senator, and so on. So, when I was offered a chance to review HISTORY Through the Ages Hands-on History Lap-Pak: U.S. Elections from Home School in the Woods, I said "Yes, please!"

We received the digital pack of the Hands-On History Lap-Pak: U.S. Elections. It has all you need to make your lap book from start to finish. This is a very well done lap book, so you have a lot of choices of items to put into your family's folder. You set the schedule, the method, the order, and choose what you want to take from it, perfect for people who enjoy flexibility in a program.

What you get: Instructions, MP3 of the reading text, the reading text in printed format, and 21 projects to include.

My first impressions: You will NOT wonder how you are going to fill a lap book once you see this program. There are a lot of options and choices for what to include. Also, the artwork is awesome. When your children color the pictures, it's actually like a piece of art. I think that's what stood out to me the most when I first opened the pack, the beautiful images I saw. Lastly, it was so simple to get going. There weren't a bunch of confusing file names to try and figure out. You downloaded it, clicked "start" and off you went. It was in a logical and easy to follow order.

Overall Information: This lap pak is listed for grades 3-8 and I think that grade level fits quite well.Oh, and you get all of this for only $18.95 for the digital download. Yeah. Love it! You could use certain portions for a second grader that wanted to work with his siblings and even an older child would enjoy the depth of the knowledge contained in this kit, but for the most part I feel this grade range is right on track with the information, how it's presented, and the activities included. This means it's great for a family project to work on together.

I started by looking over everything. I read how to do this pak, the information that the kids would learn, almost like a mini class for myself so I could understand the process. I printed all the items for the book, put them in order, and got our folders, glue, colored pencils and crayons ready.

What We Learned: HISTORY Through the Ages Hands-on History Lap-Pak: U.S. Elections from Home School in the Woods includes such information as election vocabulary, 3 branches of government, suffrage, primaries, caucuses, national convention, forms of government, qualifications of someone who wants an office, and more.

What I Liked: I liked the MP3 that came with the download that read aloud to us. That was a nice change from Mom reading it out loud or each child having to read their own text. This set really lent itself to great discussions that went deeper into each of the topics. It doesn't tell you who to vote for but helps you understand the why, how, and when of voting so you can make sound decisions, understand what you are seeing on TV, and even lead to a discussion about who we, as the parents, were voting for and why we felt we were making the best decision. (which made us think hard about the WHY on some of our own decisions there because we had to explain them to our children).  Discussion is huge to me and a big part of my teaching method and just how we live our daily life, so that was a big point in this project. I loved the discussion it brought to the table.