Over the past weeks my 12-year-old daughter has been working on a Time Travelers U.S. History Studies unit pack entitled Time Travelers: Colonial Life from Home School in the Woods. This unit pack contains 25 lessons that can spread across 5-10 weeks. The suggested age range is quite broad, 3rd-8th grade. This is both MAC and PC compatible. Lesson texts, lesson plan layouts, activity directions, sample photos of activities, master copies, and resources are all included in the pack.
Here is what is covered in the Colonial Life Unit Study:
- America's Colonies Begin
- The Colonial Home Part 1
- The Colonial Home Part 2
- The Colonial Home Part 3
- Project Day 1
- Colonial Clothing
- Colonial Food
- Family Life
- The Colonial School
- Project Day 2
- Faith in the Colonies Part 1
- Faith in the Colonies Part 2
- Colonial Pleasures & Pastimes
- Villages & Cities
- Project Day 3
- Health & Medicine
- Colonial Artisans Part 1
- Colonial Artisans Part 2
- Holidays in the Colonies
- Project Day 4
- Crime & Punishment
- Plantations & Slavery in the Colonies
- Project Day 5
- Pulling Together the Lap Book
- Colonial Spree!
Student's complete a binder for a portion of their projects and activities. This is also the
perfect place to keep the lesson texts, activity directions, and lesson plan layout. We just chose to use a white binder that had a clear front pocket for the Time Travelers Colonial Life
Title Page and the spine flap insert.
The lesson plan layout is broken down into a 5-day schedule. If items are to be included into
the Lap Book it will be notated with a (LB) and if the item is to be included in the
notebook the item will be notated with a (NB). Each day specifies exactly what needs to
be accomplished. I found that following this schedule didn't quite work for our family.
Our schedule is a bit crazy and complicated and so we worked through it at our own pace.
Actual photos of completed projects are given so that students can see what their
finished products may look like. This is a screenshot of one of the completed projects
shown.
LET THE LEARN AND FUN BEGIN!
This particular hands-on activity went along with an studying about "Digging Up Clues
From The Past" and was entitled, "Archeological Dig." My daughter had to collect
household items and using dirt search for the items kind of like archeologists have to do.
Throughout the Unit Study there is a good amount of Penmanship practice. Students
can either choose to practice print or cursive. Here my daughter is copying Rule 1 of
Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation.
This cute red barn contains items that you would find on a typical Colonial farm
such as wooden storage barrels, a quern, a wooden hayfork, a sickle, mules, milking cows, and a yoke and oxen.
This is the outside of the Colonial Life Lap Book.
This colonial woman is standing in front of a house.
This is a colonial rope bed. On top of the rope bed would be a mattress stuffed with
a variety of materials such as straw, feathers, or corn husks. The downside of such mattresses is that they often came with unwanted critters such as fleas, ticks, and mites! Kind of makes you want to scratch yourself, doesn't it? This weaving project took quite awhile and my daughter and I commented about how long it must have taken to weave an actual real bed, ugh! In the reading it talks about it being the children's job to re-knot the ropes as they began to sag.
Each lesson starts out with a short reading about a specific topic having to do
with Colonial Life. The activity that follows goes along with the reading.
The lesson project gives step-by-step instructions as to how to compete the project.
This particular project is all about The Apothecary Shoppe.
My daughter had so much fun learning about all of the different plants and flowers and their many uses for ailments and healing.
Did you know that Sage was used in combination with other herbs
for headaches. When boiled down, used as a mouthwash for sore throats and
infected gums.
My daughter said, "Home School in the Woods is more fun that other curriculums because you actually get to do hands on learning. I don't really feel like I am doing school work when I am doing Home School in the Woods. I actually have fun doing it! I wish that all learning could be so much fun."
I was blown away by the amount of information that my daughter has learned about Colonial Life and she has taken it upon herself to look at the list of additional resources and read more about various areas about topics that intrigue her about this time period.
I absolutely love Home School in the Woods and so do my kiddos. The hands on learning through notebooking and lap books makes learning so much more fun. I also find that, at least for my kiddos, they tend to remember the material better when learning this way. Students really get to dig into a particular subject matter, such as Colonial Times, and learn a plethora of information about that time period, subject matter, or whatever they happen to be studying via Home School in the Woods. Over the years we have used many of the unit studies throughout their site which includes: Hands-On History Lap-Paks, Project Passport World History Studies, Time Travelers U.S. History Studies, Hands-On History Activity-Paks, Hands-On History Activity Studies, and A La Carte Projects.
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