We were first introduced to Home School in the Woods last year when we reviewed their U.S. Election Lap-Pak. We quickly fell in love with this company and have since purchased other lessons. Recently we had the opportunity to review their HISTORY Through the Ages: Ancient Greece Project Passport. This was our first experience with using Home School in the Woods Project Passport and we have been blown away!
Ancient Greece Project Passport
If you’re ready to take a trip through history and discover cultures of another era then this is the choice for you! HISTORY Through the Ages Project Passport World History Study is recommended for grades 3-8 and is filled with hands-on project and activities and includes 25 “Stops” that can be spread out across 8-12 weeks. Throughout these stops, you and your child will experience exciting events and meet the interesting people of Ancient Greece.
Topics Covered
• The Archaic Period
• Greek Government
• Athens and Sparta
• Everyday Life
• Farming
• Business
• Transportation
• Education
• Literature
• Science
• The Hellensistic Age
• Religion (Myth & Heroes)
•And so much more…
How We Used This Product
The amazing thing about this program is you can customize it to fit your homeschool. We are currently studying a different era in history, but it’s only three days a week. With that being said, we added Ancient Greece into our homeschool two days a week and it went really well. My boys have always been fond of Ancient Greece history, so they really enjoy being able to learn even more along with hands-on activities that are found with each lesson.
Not only can you set this to your schedule, but this program is easy to modify as well. At the start of our program, I was the one that prepped all the notebooks, luggage, and that stuff. It took a total of 2-3 hours of prep work on my part before we could begin the lesson. I chose to do all that upfront in hopes that our lessons would run more smoothly overall and they did. Just keep in mind that it’s a lot to keep up with, which is why each stop was put into a manila folder and I would pull it on the day we were going to be working on it. I found this to be the best way to keep up with all the papers and information.
We decided to modify the “newspaper” activity by binding it. With two boys working on the project, I had a feeling it would get shuffled altogether. Sure, we love the feel of the newspaper, but it worked our really well for us. I also decided to bind the timeline in a separate area as well as the text that we would read with each stop. It worked out great if they simply needed to pull the timeline to look over it. That way nothing else had to come out. We did keep our maps, luggage, and other activities in one combined notebook that we would pull out with each stop.
How much time did we spend on each lesson:
This is obviously going to vary per child, but with my reluctant fourth grader, we generally spent around 30-45 minutes per lesson. This includes the reading and activities that go along with each stop. The writing that’s involved in some of the lessons is why we had some days that were longer. Depending on the day, they are asked to write in their newspaper and on the back of the postcards.
Overall Thoughts:
While I am a huge fan of Home School In the Woods, there is A LOT of prep work that goes into Ancient Greece beforehand. I spend several hours copying all the papers and prepping the notebooks. That’s the only part that I’m not a fan of when it comes to these lessons, since I have a full plate already.
As for my boys, they see it differently. They don’t love the lessons as much as I do and that’s alright. We all know that not every curriculum or lesson out there is meant for everyone. My oldest is just not into crafting or writing, which are two things that are involved in these lessons. Will I revisit this when my youngest gets old enough? Without a doubt I’ll be pulling this out again in a couple of years. My youngest has a completely different learning style…a learning style that I feel this Ancient Greece study will go fantastic with.
