Hands-on History with Home School in the Woods

Our kids are mostly hands-on learners. They can listen to a lesson or watch a lesson, but when I ask them a question about it I often receive blank stares. When lessons include hands-on learning, though, they are more likely to be engaged in the lesson and if asked the same questions are better able to answer them.

Disclosure: I received complimentary products to facilitate my review. Regardless, all opinions are my own and those of my family.
Home School in the Woods offers hands-on history materials for for younger students with the goal of igniting a passion for learning history. History should never be a boring subject, and they intend to make sure it’s not! As a mom with children that retain more when they are learning hands-on I can definitely appreciate what Home School in the Woods offers and the passion they have to make history come alive!
For my review I received a variety of materials including the Knights Lap-Pak, Benjamin Franklin Lap-Pak, HISTORY Through the Ages “Record of Time” and HISTORY Through the Ages Timeline Figures.
Unfortunately, due to our big move, we are off to a bit of a slow start this year, so we have only been working on the Knights Lap-Pak, though I was thinking Benjamin Franklin would have been perfect given we were learning more about Presidents this month, but because of our children’s special needs, it’s better to stick with the a key project because chances are high that if we come back to it, we’ll have to review a lot of it or almost start over. So, we continued with the Knights Lap-Pak, which they have been enjoying!

The Knights Lap-Pak is available in both a CD and download format for PC or MAC. We received the download format for individual family use. We received the download format, and everything comes nicely in a zip file that is easy to download. Instructions are included in the download, and they make everything easy by walking through everything step-by-step for printing, materials needed, how to put everything together, etc. It’s really thorough. I didn’t feel like I had a lot of material and then had to navigate my own way around it – I was able to organize everything and know exactly what we needed to do!
The Knights Lap-Pak is recommended for grades K-2, and we have been using it with our older two children who are ages 7 and 8 and are both doing 2nd Grade level work. As I mentioned, they are both hands-on learners. History has been a particularly challenging subject because they both have special needs. They have a hard time focusing, and unless they really feel involved in the lesson, they don’t get much out of it. With the Knights Lap-Pak, I can see that they really feel involved in the lesson. They are learning as they complete activities and are having fun at the same time! They even want to show off their work!

They do both have fine-motor challenges as well, so some of the work is challenging, but it also offers an opportunity to practice their fine-motor skills. Because they are really enjoying what they are learning and want their Lap-Pak to look nice, they have been working really hard to not only be engaged in the lessons but work hard on the cutting, pasting, and preparing as well!
I think the Knights Lap-Pak was a great introduction for our kids. They have loved learning more about knights, and I know they’ll continue to work hard and enjoy themselves while doing it, which is what I love to see! I can’t wait to check out the Ben Franklin Lap-Pak next! We’ll also be sharing more about the timelines as well once we get a little more settled into our homeschooling routine! One thing is for sure, this is exactly the type of history materials that are perfect for getting our kids excited about learning history!

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