Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew. I was not paid to write this review but asked to give an honest critique. I pray it is helpful and beneficial to all who read it!
Who loves lapbooks?? We actually have not used them much in our homeschool until now! We gave them a try this summer and have been supplementing our geography for 2nd and 4th grade with Home School in the Woods Activity Pak: Make-a-State! It has been a wonderful addition of hands-on history this summer!
We live in the great state of Iowa and chose it as our first state to make! There is SO much info packed into each state activity Pak, that I had both my 2nd and 4th graders work on this together. It took us a few weeks to get more than halfway through, but that is because we are on summer schedule…so it’s a bit lazy and less strict this month 🙂 If we were on our normal school day schedule, we could get through this lapbook in 2 weeks or less.
Home School in the Woods does a fantastic job of outlining what to print off and how to assemble your Activity Pak lapbook. Though sometimes pictures are just hard to follow (just me?), so I did a short video here of the basic put-together of the lapbook to start:
The Make-a-State Activity Pak is a printable download, so you can print it all off at once, or simply print what you need at the time. We printed all the options we could for Iowa, then started coloring and cutting them out together (usually while watching a favorite movie too :)). I like that a lot of the pintables have fun images to go with, so your kids don’t always have to draw the pictures for each area.
After we had everything colored and cut out, I chose one activity at a time to complete with them. We started with Key State Facts and State Quarter. The keys for the Key State Facts are held on to the lapbook with a brad and it holds great! We love how hands-on the Activity Pak really is!
Each activity took less than 10 minutes to complete together. I typically find the information for each section, then share it with the kids and they helped write it in and tape it together. I find that tape holds better than glue sticks, it’s just more reliable 🙂
Here’s all the projects that are included in your Make-a-State Activity pak:
What I love about the Home School in the Woods Activity Paks is that they have TONS of information included! We tried to do every project in this Pak, but you certainly don’t have to, yet you’ll still gather lots of great new facts to learn about each state.
Another great option that we plan to start using soon is the Printable Essential Timeline Library. It is a great addition to history curriculum for your homeschool, as it presents both historical and biblical figures throughout time. When you visit the Homeschool Review Crew website, you can find more families that used the Printable Essential Timeline Library too!
We still have some time to finish our Iowa State Activity Pak, but here is what we have completed thus far!
Our homeschool is an eclectic approach to curriculum, so we mix and match all things that fit each of our children. These lapbooks by Home School in the Woods have become a consistent addition to our homeschool history curriculum and more. Be sure to visit the Homeschool Review Crew for more great reviews from HSTW and more!
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