Land Ho!

I am once again embarking on a year of fun reviewing products for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. First up is one of their very own products, the E-Book: June 2010 Module: Travel the World! ($7.95 download). This is a 50+ page unit study all about the wonderful topic of geography.

The e-book is full of information presented in a fun way that covers:

• maps
• globes
• all the continents
• oceans
• links for interactive fun on-line
• copywork
• lapbook elements to create either a lapbook or notebook
• puzzles
• coloring pages
• information for a high school expansion of the topic
• recipes (yum!)

If you'd like to see for yourself, please click HERE to check out the ten page sample which includes the table of contents.

My boys and I are currently doing "light" school as we are finishing up our 2009-2010 school year and getting ready to take a short break before starting our 2010-2011 school year. We tend to school year round since it gives us the most flexibility with our schedule. 

I began by reading the first few pages out loud to all three of them. I am currently schooling a six, nine, and thirteen year old so it covers a wide age range (the e-book, not my school but then again, that does as well doesn't it?). All were engaged although my thirteen year old does try very hard to not seem like he enjoys things, but I digress. We had fun pulling out an old globe to use and to see an accurate model of the world. 

What we liked:

This is a stand-alone unit. It's designed to either be a quick look at geography or it could easily be used to be the jumping off spot for further in-depth study. Over the last few months we have been involved in a geography co-op. This unit study sort of filled in the spots we didn't cover - the general aspects of geography. It worked well with the wide age range of children I have. The toddler I babysit even had fun coloring all the neat coloring pages. Overall we really liked it and had a lot of fun with it.

If you'd like to see what else the TOS Store can offer you, click HERE. 

Be sure to head over to the TOS Homeschool Crew blog to see what other members of the Crew had to say about this product.

*Disclaimer: I was not paid for this review. All opinions shared are my own. TOS Crew Members are given the product free of charge in exchange for our unbiased opinion of the product.

Review: Homeschool in the Woods

It's been a bit freaky lately for me as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew. Time and time again I've been given products to try out that I've been eying for our homeschool. And it's happened once again - kind of.

Homeschool in the Woods is the brainchild of Amy Pak. Amy has created many different and wonderful resources for homeschoolers including her timeline figures that many use as well as the newest unit study lapbooks (which is what I've been eying). Crew members were recently given her newest brainchild - Old World Style Maps both for the United States and the World.

If you have the Record of Time timeline notebook, these maps would be familiar. Amy created this new product after many customers had asked specifically for the maps used in the timeline notebook.

I have to say that my mouth literally dropped open after I downloaded the maps we were given. Not only did we get a slew of maps but also a ton of notebooking pages! In fact, here is what I was given:

• 130 World Maps
• 40 bonus notebooking pages for world study (my absolute favorite is the "Fact" page for each country)
• 180 United States maps
• 50+ bonus notebooking pages for a state study

   

The black and white illustrations are wonderfully done. I was just so impressed by this product. It is so open-ended and can be used for so many wonderful studies. I'm looking forward to using them in a state study in the next year or so.

The maps are available either as a download ($18.95 each) or you can purchase a CD ($19.95 each). If you are interested in both, there is also a Combo-Pak available. The digital download is $28.95 and the CD is $29.95. Click here to go to the ordering page at Homeschool in the Woods.

Be sure to head over to the TOS Homeschool Crew blog to see what other Crew members had to say about the Olde World Style maps.

*Disclaimer: I was not paid for this review. All opinions shared are my own. TOS Crew Members are given the product free of charge in exchange for our unbiased opinion of the product.