Jul
Review of Home School in the Woods ~ Project Passport Renaissance & Reformation
Hailey’s favorite subject during this last school year was most definitely history. She loves it best when I read to her about the topic we are learning about while she colors or works on a project. She learns best that way- she needs to have some sort of project she is working on related to our topic of learning. The funny thing is that while I was in school I never liked history, but it has become my favorite subject now too.
I was so excited when given the chance to do a review for Home School in the Woods! Their unit studies are planned out exactly how Hailey learns- lots of hands on activities. We looked over the choices in the Project Passport World History Studies and Hailey decided she was most interested in checking out Project Passport World History Study: Renaissance & Reformation.
Home School in the Woods was developed by homeschooling mom, Amy Pak. She understands the importance of having hands on projects and activities to go along with the information you are studying. The activities that go along with the time period will make you and your children feel like they are really living at that time. There are activities for cooking food from the time period, dressing up, making 3-D projects, and more. In addition there are history readings, maps, and timelines.
Project Passport World History has three different studies you can pick from. There is Ancient Egypt, The Middle Ages, and the one we picked- Renaissance & Reformation. The studies each have 25 stops- at each stop there are different historical figures or interesting events that you learn more about. There are more than 50 hands on activities to pick from in each study- so there is definitely something for everyone!
The Project Passport World History studies are for children in grades 3-8 and can be purchased as a download or as a CD. I reviewed the downloaded version, which can be used on a PC or a Mac.
So, how did we use it?
When I first downloaded Renaissance & Reformation, I have to admit feeling a bit overwhelmed. There is so much to look through. Once I took the time, when the kids were all in bed, to really look it over and read through the introduction and the travel tips, it made a lot more sense to me. It took a while to go through the first few stops to get everything ready to start teaching. There was a lot of printing to be done, on different kinds of paper (white paper, colored paper, white card stock, colored card stock, etc), and it took quite a bit of time.
At first I wanted to do all of the projects, but I realized very soon that was not possible. I tend to feel like I have to do it all rather than picking the ones that are the best fit for us, but it would take a long time to do everything! Since we are on summer vacation right now, we decided to do more of the scrapbook activities and 3-D projects that Hailey really loves to do. There were some days that we were able to complete more than one stop and there were other times when we had to stretch one stop out over a couple of days. Here are some of the activities we did:
Hailey started out by making a passport to take on her journey through the Renaissance & Reformation.
Hailey made a postcard of Florence, Italy after learning about Cosimo de Medici.
Hailey tried a few different art techniques she learned about from the Renaissance era. Here she worked on making a fresco.
Hunter thought it looked fun and decided he wanted to join in and make one too.
Hunter working on his fresco.
Hailey decided to make a self portrait for her fresco.
Hailey learned about the different social classes during the Renaissance.
She also worked on a chalk pastel.
The finished artwork.
Another kind of art she learned about was Chiaroscuro, which means light-dark.
Hailey enjoyed working on a masquerade mask.
Her creation
Hailey’s favorite project was definitely Shakespeare’s Globe.
She worked very hard coloring and putting together the playhouse.
Then she entertained us with a little performance.
I asked Hailey what she thought of Project Passport World History Study: Renaissance & Reformation. She said it was a lot of fun and she liked doing the projects. She definitely wants to do more! I think the hands on projects are perfect for her learning style. She is at the younger end of the recommended age range (she just finished 3rd grade) and some of the readings were over her head. I would like to add in some of my own choices of historical fiction for me to read to her while she colors and works on the activities. I also wish there was an option to buy everything already printed out- the printing takes a lot of time. That being said, I really enjoyed using Home School in the Woods and would absolutely use more of their unit studies! Both of us learned a lot and had fun creating projects and memories together. I highly recommend it!
Want to learn more about Home School in the Woods?
Love the projects and I feel the same way about history – I hated it in school but love it so much more now that we’re homeschooling!