• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Luv'N Lambert Life

Luv'N Lambert Life

A blog about living with Epilepsy, IBHS, Homeschooling and so much more

  • A Bit About Me
  • Epilepsy Awareness
  • Contact

unit studies

Moving Beyond The Page {Crew Review}

July 10, 2014 by Dana

Moving Beyond the Page Review

Have you ever found a curriculum that simply blows you away and makes you reconsider everything you’ve ever used for homeschooling?  For me that curriculum company is Moving Beyond the Page.  Their unit studies are so thorough, so simple to use and yet so much fun!

For this review, we were given access to our choice of products.  Trust me, this was NOT an easy decision to make.  Since we have been studying the Revolutionary War in relation to our Hometown of Georgetown, SC, I choose two units that I thought we best fit to our current lessons.  For our Language Arts Package, I chose Abigail Adams and for our History Package, I chose Revolution.

{Language Arts – Abigail Adams,   History – Revolution}

 

As soon as I saw Moving Beyond the Page listed as one of our vendors, I knew I didn’t want to miss out.  I reviewed another set of packaged programs for this company with the Schoolhouse Team last year and we absolutely LOVED it.  I wanted to see if we’d feel the same way this year and I’m happy to say we still LOVE them.

Our Language Arts Package provided us with an online guidebook to use and a physical book to read to learn all about the life of Abigail Adams.  The book we received is Abigail Adams Witness to a Revolution by Natalie S. Bober.  It is filled with information on Mrs. Adams life and the things she saw during this important time in the early beginning of America. 


The online guide for Abigail Adams provides a wonderful lesson plan which is simple to follow.  You simply log into the website and follow the links.  There are activity pages that can be printed out to use with the lessons being learned.  There are also bonus suggestions from others to help you extend your lessons  even farther.  I really enjoy the formatting of the online guide and the extra content that helps to bring the lessons to life.

I must admit though, my children found the book on Mrs. Adams lengthy and slightly boring and so did I since I was reading it to them.  I think this book and lesson package would be better suited for a more structured homeschool setting than ours.  I was able to find readings from various websites and books from the library to help us make our lessons more interesting.  There were some areas where reading the information provided in the book Abigail Adams Witness to a Revolution could not be avoided and we read through and did learn a lot from the reading.

For our History Package, we were sent a physical copy of the Revolution Guidebook, along with the hands-on book Great Colonial America Projects You Can Build Yourself by Kris Bordessa and We Were There, Too!  Young People in US History by Phillip Hoose.  I will admit this package was immediately a favorite of both myself and the kiddos.  Both these books are amazing and they add so much to the lesson itself.

Great Colonial America Projects contains so many interesting facts and super-fun projects to complete!  It includes words to know which can be used for Vocabulary exercises and also for copywork.  It features different persons from the time period throughout the book, providing a better look at those important historical figures and their influence on American History.  This book also gives timeline tidbits would could easily be used to create a physical timeline in your lessons.  There are so many things we learned from this one little book!

We Were There, Too! is a beautiful book itself.  It’s a glossy covered, hardback book that is sturdily made.  It reads like a textbook but the stories are so interesting.  They really draw the reader in and the students as well.  Beginning with the discovery of America, this book takes you on a long walk through History.  One that you won’t soon forget.

We Were There, Too! also contains new words that can be used for Vocabulary, Spelling, Copywork and more.  Lessons on the specific people who made History happen can be easily expanded upon though the book is pretty thorough in examining these people and is historically accurate in it’s information.  This book is a wonderful addition to our lessons and our homeschooling.

The Revolution Guidebook is approximately 168 pages long.  It begins with covering history from the settling of America which did surprise me, as I was expecting it to only cover the actual Revolutionary period and the War itself.  I was thrilled to discover it began with America’s settlement and covered some information that we had already been discussing in our homeschooling over the weeks before we began this study.

The guidebooks for both of these packages are written so that the teacher can jump right in and begin right away.  The packages come with the books and some packages come with extra activities that may otherwise be hard to locate so that you can easily begin the study.  These packages are set up as unit studies and as most unit studies do, they cover the information being learned thoroughly both by providing excellent reading selections with the chosen books and by providing a thorough and completely planned guidebook to direct the teacher through the lesson. 


  We used these unit studies together in conjuction as much as possible.  They fit well together, since Abigail Adams was a witness to the Revolution which we were discussing in the Revolution study.  We used these lessons almost daily over the review period and we learned a lot from them.  We also learned a lot about the history of our hometown, and nearby Charleston in the process.  We enjoyed how the lessons brought so much of our home’s past to life for us.

The guidebooks provide lessons activities, extensions, suggestions for extra books to read and so much more.  Best yet, they are so so so easy to follow.  We have learned so much with these lesson packages in such a short time because of the simple and easy layout which makes it easy to jump right in and learn.  I’m really considering switching other parts of our learning program to Moving Beyond the Page because of the ease of using the program and it’s completeness.

The packaging prices aren’t bad either.  The Language Arts Package for Abigail Adams with the Online Guidebook is priced as $26.88 at time of this review.  This includes access to the guidebook online and the physical book Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution.  This package is designed for use with students ages 12-14 or who have a reading level of 8-9th grade.

The History Package for Revolution with a printed copy of the guidebook is $65.93.  It comes with the guidebook in print copy, a copy of Great Colonial American Projects You Can Build Yourself and We Were There, Too!: Young People in US History.  This package is designed for use with students age 12-14 or who have a reading level of 8-9th grade.

You can also find Moving Beyond the Page on Facebook:

www.facebook.com/movingbeyondthepage

To read more reviews of Moving Beyond the Page and see other curriculum packages available, please click on the banner below!

Click to read Crew Reviews
Crew Disclaimer

Filed Under: 2014, Abigail Adams, complete homeschool curriculum, crew review, History, homeschool curriculum, language arts, lessons, Revolution, science, study, unit studies

Home School In The Woods: Great Empires {Crew Review}

May 5, 2013 by Dana

Home School In The Woods is the creation of the wonderful Pak family.  Amy, along with her husband and four children, wanted to share Amy’s creativity in designing better historical images, timelines, unit studies and lap books with others who homeschool so they developed Home School In The Woods in 1998 to bring these items to others.  There wonderful illustrations and materials help bring History to life.

Great Empires is one of many of Home School In The Woods extensive unit studies.  Available as a download or on disk, this study has everything you will need to begin a thorough study of the Greatest Empires known to mankind.  This study if fully hands-on and easily implemented.  Printing and some work putting the study together is required for completion.  Adobe Reader is also required for usage of this program.

For this review, we received a download of the study to use for our daily lessons in our home.  After downloading the program, the curriculum itself opens in a web browser on the start page.  This page provides links to every section of the study, much like a notebook.  A picture of the details of this download, the completed projects and materials is provided for viewing on this page also.

Included in this study are over 30 activities to be completed, including recipes, games, text and more.  It is suggested that it takes 1-3 days to complete an empire study.  Since we were using this for review, we took 1-2 days doing various activities per unit with the idea that we will work over it again later.  The study did require a fair amount of prep from me since I had to preview links and materials to make sure they were working properly and providing the information we needed to complete the study, as well as finding which parts of the study we were actually going to use in our lessons.  I found no problems, thankfully, and was easily able to make this work for us.

A world map is included in this study, for mapping the locations of the Empires provided in the study.  Pre-made timelines are also a part of the study, allowing room for pictures and notes as needed.  These are blackline masters, as are the historical figures provided to be used with the timeline.  They can easily be colored in by children to provide further interaction with the featured era and figure of the time.

Text is provided in a printable form and so is a project activity list for each lesson.  Each unit has activities for mapping, creative projects and even cooking.  This helps brings the lesson itself to life.  Adding books from the library, as well as links from the internet make this study even more easily adaptable for using educationally.

My children and I all enjoyed using this study.  I was able to use it with all three of my children and have them walk away with new knowledge of each of the Empires of the study.  Some of our lessons led to more in depth studies and new found interests in other cultures and also foods.  It was a great program that we thoroughly enjoyed using for the time period of this review.  It is also a program that I will use again in more depth along the way as we revisit this Empires again in our daily curriculum plans.

Great Empires is available from Home School In The Woods online for $18.95 for the download version or $19.95 plus shipping for the CD version.  Other studies are also available and can be viewed online at Home School In The Woods.

Empires included in this study are:
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Greece
Ancient Rome
Ancient China
Arab-Muslim Empire
Mongolian Empire
Viking Empire
Spanish Empire
French Empire
English Empire
German Empire
Japanese Empire

Russian Empire
The United States of America

Photobucket
 photo DisclaimerGraphic1_zpsf612f371.gif

Filed Under: 2013, crew review, Empire studies, Empires, Great Empires, History, history studies, history unit study, Home School In The Woods, Homeschool studies, Schoolhouse review, unit studies

Primary Sidebar

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Archives

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

Facebook

Facebook

Copyright © 2022 · Genesis Sample on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in