Tell me the honest truth re: History Pockets

[Nakia]

Are they just lapbooks? We are lapbook failures. As a matter of fact, "lapbook" is a dirty word in our house. All that cutting and pasting had me seeing stars. The kids got frustrated, I got frustrated, it just wasn't pretty. I swore them off forever. But......... I keep seeing History Pockets mentioned. Tell me exactly what they are, pretty please. :D

[Pink Fairy]

I am also a lapbook dropout. I love the concept, but there never seems to be enough time or energy left after we finish our "real" work. Still, the lapbooks we have managed to complete were fun, and the kids learned a lot.

 

Unlike lapbooks, for me History Pockets are just time wasters. The three books I have are chock full of busy work, with lots of cutting/pasting, coloring, etc., but not much meat. The kids were bored and so was I. So they sit on my rejected curriculum shelf, collecting dust along with so many other curriculum disappointments.

[Night Elf]

I don't have much experience with lapbooks. Have you seen the books on the Evan-Moor site? You can actually flip through the entire book so you can see exactly what you're buying.

 

It was cut, color & paste. We tried 2 of them and both times got onto the 2nd pocket and got bored. There are some other things like a folded card, paper figures you dress, and vocabulary. Sorry, I don't remember much more because like I said, we dropped them.

 

I wanted to like them so much because my dd is so crafty, but even she didn't care for them. She doesn't like 'crafty' with her schoolwork. :)

[2cents]

They're lapbook-y but not quite a complete lapbook. They are more like pocketbooks since the crafts go into a pocket. There are not the folds and paper cuts like there are in a lapbook and the pockets are made of construction paper instead of folded file folders. They are close but not what I consider a full-fledged lapbook. I liked them for the younger children. The children enjoyed doing them more than lapbooks because there was a lot less of the craft stuff. The educational content was great.

[Nakia]

I am also a lapbook dropout. I love the concept, but there never seems to be enough time or energy left after we finish our "real" work. Still, the lapbooks we have managed to complete were fun, and the kids learned a lot.

 

Unlike lapbooks, for me History Pockets are just time wasters. The three books I have are chock full of busy work, with lots of cutting/pasting, coloring, etc., but not much meat. The kids were bored and so was I. So they sit on my rejected curriculum shelf, collecting dust along with so many other curriculum disappointments.

 

I was worried about that. We are doing SL so I know we won't have time for a bunch of busy work. I also know my girls will want some projects. I have found tons of free coloring pages online for the little ones. I also posted another thread, and I am getting some great ideas for projects.

 

I don't have much experience with lapbooks. Have you seen the books on the Evan-Moor site? You can actually flip through the entire book so you can see exactly what you're buying.

 

It was cut, color & paste. We tried 2 of them and both times got onto the 2nd pocket and got bored. There are some other things like a folded card, paper figures you dress, and vocabulary. Sorry, I don't remember much more because like I said, we dropped them.

 

I wanted to like them so much because my dd is so crafty, but even she didn't care for them. She doesn't like 'crafty' with her schoolwork. :)

 

My kids are crafty too, but they are happy to have just some paint and some paper. :) I did go over on the Evan-Moor site and they look pretty lapbooky to me. :( Oh well.

 

They're lapbook-y but not quite a complete lapbook. They are more like pocketbooks since the crafts go into a pocket. There are not the folds and paper cuts like there are in a lapbook and the pockets are made of construction paper instead of folded file folders. They are close but not what I consider a full-fledged lapbook. I liked them for the younger children.

 

Thanks. The problem I have is if I use them for my youngers, I end up doing most of the work and that makes me very unhappy.

[JessReplanted]

We used the Native Americans History Pockets this past year (for 1st grade), and we really enjoyed it. It was our 'fun' thing that we didn't do often enough (we still have 3 groups/pockets to finish). My son really enjoyed learning more about Native Americans, and we thought that a lot of the activities were fun!!

[melmichigan]

Ours are still sitting in a drawer. I am determined to finish the my body lapbook the kids started but history pockets might just be a bust in this house. Lots of cut paste, repeat. The idea was nice.

[EKS]

I found them to be glorified coloring books.

[Tiramisu]

They were a waste of money here, too. :glare:

[Smithie]

I think they are incredible resources for some homeschoolers, but not the right fit for my kid and his teacher (i.e. me). We keeps our schoolin' and our craftin' very separate.

[parias1126]

Complete waste of time!!! Ugh! I bought them because they were included as a resource of HO Ancients. My children just got extremely frustrated with them as did I. I put them away and never looked back!

[KarenNC]

My daughter enjoyed them in the first go-round of history, but I only bought one, as I had to photocopy fully half the pages even though I was planning to treat it as a consumable for one child. They are designed as a classroom master, so something that needs to be cut out may be printed on the back of something else that needs to be cut out. It added a fair bit to the cost, so you'll want to factor that in.

 

I don't plan to use them again, honestly. We are not lapbook/scrapbook kind of crafty folks here, either. I didn't think it was worth the investment of time.

[miracleone]

I think it all depends on your child. My daughter enjoyed last year's history because we had the Ancient Civilization history pocket from Evan Moore. The activities were quite redundant...coloring puppet, writing vocabulary words down, making a postcard of each civilzation (those got quite boring) BUT...there's a BUT here...it brought out her creative-thinking out because she wanted to fill her pocket with things she researched about herself, instead of using the info found in the EM book. We went online and found tons of different projects to do. Example, with Ancient Rome, my daughter made a paper doll cut-out of a half-naked guy and she made costumes (out of paper) to show how to dress a Roman soldier; roman game dice, medallion, wrote a short story of Julius Caesar, a little book about Roman gods and goddesses, etc. For China, she did a whole research about foot binding, made a red paper envelope and wrote chinese calligraphy, etc.

 

So I'll say that the pockets were not a complete waste bec. we did use some but they were springboard for more research for my very hands-on crafty learner.

 

You don't necessarily have to buy the history pockets but you can use file folders and staple pockets in them. There are tons of online projects in lessonspathways.com, Guest Hollow, or your general search that you can use if you have a student who likes to do projects :) HTH.

[AppleGreen]

Ok, I'll be in the minority. We have used them and enjoyed them. We used the Native American one last year and are planning on using the Civil War one this year. We do not use them the way they are intended and as with most things, tweak to our liking. We have this sort of morphed lapbook/main lesson book/notebook way we do history. So instead of making pockets, we will pick and choose the pieces that most appeal to us and then include it as a sort of notebooking page. We also put Draw-Write Now drawings and copywork, personal copywork and other interesting tidbits in the history notebook. So some pages have a sort of lapbook feel w/ the HP pieces, but it really is more of a scrapbook of the history we learned for the year. I have the kids color and cut during read alouds or as a little independent time while I am finishing up w/ the other. We do not do every project and there are redundancies.

 

I can see how some would see them as busywork. They are a low maintenance way for me to add a little more doing and fun to our learning. Sure we do more in depth, creative projects, but sometimes I want something crafty w/o me having to be a central part of it. It just adds a different dimension to our notebook.

 

YMMV :)

[Mallory]

We haven't started using them yet, but have them planned for this year.

 

I have looked at them several times over the past 5 years and always written them off as busy work. But lately my 9yo and 4yo (and the others somewhat) have spent lots of time cutting and pasting and making creations.

 

My plan is to copy off the activites that I think they will enjoy. For most things I only made one copy (there were a few that were necklaces or something and I think they'll all want one). They will be set out with the art stuff for free time as we move through the civilizations.

 

I was thinking of making one big pocket of poster board to hang on the wall for all of their creations, or at least for all of them in one civilization. I can see some of the things getting played with until they fall apart (the pyramid model, the puppets) if they are where all can see them.

[silliness7]

Are they just lapbooks? We are lapbook failures. As a matter of fact, "lapbook" is a dirty word in our house. All that cutting and pasting had me seeing stars. The kids got frustrated, I got frustrated, it just wasn't pretty. I swore them off forever. But......... I keep seeing History Pockets mentioned. Tell me exactly what they are, pretty please. :D

 

If you don't like cutting and pasting you probably won't like these. I have a couple History Pockets and they are O.K. I've incorporated bits and pieces of them into our homemade lapbooks.

 

But I do highly recommend the Nursery Rhymes Literature Pockets. I did these when my girls were 4 and 6. They LOVED LOVED LOVED them!! They actually would play with the finished craft while reciting the nursery rhyme. It was precious.

[Daisy]

Ok, I'll be in the minority. We have used them and enjoyed them. We used the Native American one last year and are planning on using the Civil War one this year. We do not use them the way they are intended and as with most things, tweak to our liking. We have this sort of morphed lapbook/main lesson book/notebook way we do history. So instead of making pockets, we will pick and choose the pieces that most appeal to us and then include it as a sort of notebooking page. We also put Draw-Write Now drawings and copywork, personal copywork and other interesting tidbits in the history notebook. So some pages have a sort of lapbook feel w/ the HP pieces, but it really is more of a scrapbook of the history we learned for the year. I have the kids color and cut during read alouds or as a little independent time while I am finishing up w/ the other. We do not do every project and there are redundancies.

 

I can see how some would see them as busywork. They are a low maintenance way for me to add a little more doing and fun to our learning. Sure we do more in depth, creative projects, but sometimes I want something crafty w/o me having to be a central part of it. It just adds a different dimension to our notebook.

 

YMMV :)

 

:iagree: This is exactly how we've used them in the past. My children love their history notebooks. They are basically a scrapbook of all their learning for the year.

 

For the Native American history pockets when they were younger, we did most of the activities, added costumes, foods, etc. and set the living room up like a Native American museum. The children gave their Dad a guided tour of the museum while acting as a particular historical figure in Native American history. They had so much fun and remembered so much of that. It jump-started a huge interest in Native American culture for my daughter. In the years since she had studied just about every Native American tribe in the US.

[Earth Angel_79]

Ok, I'll be in the minority. We have used them and enjoyed them. We used the Native American one last year and are planning on using the Civil War one this year. We do not use them the way they are intended and as with most things, tweak to our liking. We have this sort of morphed lapbook/main lesson book/notebook way we do history. So instead of making pockets, we will pick and choose the pieces that most appeal to us and then include it as a sort of notebooking page. We also put Draw-Write Now drawings and copywork, personal copywork and other interesting tidbits in the history notebook. So some pages have a sort of lapbook feel w/ the HP pieces, but it really is more of a scrapbook of the history we learned for the year. I have the kids color and cut during read alouds or as a little independent time while I am finishing up w/ the other. We do not do every project and there are redundancies.

 

I can see how some would see them as busywork. They are a low maintenance way for me to add a little more doing and fun to our learning. Sure we do more in depth, creative projects, but sometimes I want something crafty w/o me having to be a central part of it. It just adds a different dimension to our notebook.

 

YMMV :)

 

I had written off these as busy work and was thinking instead of buying something else Evan Moore makes called File Folder Reports (seemed a little meatier and had tons of different themes at just a little more money). However, I just bought a huge history lot of someone here and it has History Pockets with it, so I thought, guess we will be using them in some capacity. What I don't want to do is a full-blown lapbook for each Native American culture we study this year (would rather reserve those for our science studies), but I like your ideas! I can see using these this way and feeling like there is much more than just coloring, cutting, and pasting occuring. Thanks!

 

For the Native American history pockets when they were younger, we did most of the activities, added costumes, foods, etc. and set the living room up like a Native American museum. The children gave their Dad a guided tour of the museum while acting as a particular historical figure in Native American history. They had so much fun and remembered so much of that. It jump-started a huge interest in Native American culture for my daughter. In the years since she had studied just about every Native American tribe in the US.

 

Ooooooh! I love this idea!! So cool. Can I steal it? LOL

[miracleone]

That's kinda how we've done it too so it wasn't a total waste of money. I'm looking forward to the Native American HP this year. My daughter actually said she wants to do them again this year. It made learning history fun and interesting for her.

[Dolphin]

However, I am doing the cutting on my own. I prepare everything before we start, it just takes too long and is not as fun otherwise. There was a recipe for hardtack which we made yesterday with the Christopher Columbus pocket. I am however spacing it out over the whole of year 3. Also instead of the construction paper folder they use, I am using a report cover and sheet protectors.

[KAR120C]

We're not particularly crafty sorts in the usual cut-and-paste way, but we enjoyed the two History Pocket things we did. They were the 4-6th grade Revolutionary War and Civil War... I probably wouldn't have bothered with them except that we were throwing in a Civil War field trip in the middle of our Revolutionary War studies, and I wanted to have something concrete to keep them separate. They were fun, and it worked. The educational substance of it is a little trivial - coloring flags, maps, etc. with not a ton of analysis or anything - but when you're about to show up at Gettysburg and you want the kid to be able to say "Oh - that's the flag for the Confederacy" and not "Which ones were the British again?" it's a really useful little thing. :)

 

I got the pdf version, which makes is much easier to print out copies of things without having to take them to Staples all the time.

[sparrow]

They were a big flop at our house. I have a seriously crafty dd and even she groaned when I'd bring out the History Pockets. We ditched them quick.

 

What has worked in the past was the notebooking we did for Five in a Row. I'm thinking of incorporating more of that again next year with our SL 4 and science studies. Dd helped me organize our school shelves this afternoon and spent tons of time looking at her old FIAR notebook pages. Cat anatomy for 'Papa Piccolo', tiny watercolors done for 'Peter Rabbit', the color wheel for a book I can't remember :).

[1bassoon]

Funny this should come up today - my dd11 just finished running "Colonial History Camp", and she used the Colonial History Pocket as her base for the day's activities. The girls all enjoyed it - but it was really mostly a coloring activity.

 

I'm going to check out the Pioneers pocket - either for school next year, or for "Pioneer History Camp". Who wants to send their kids? ;)

[Jennay]

Way too much coloring for my guys. Started the Ancient Civilizations one with Core 1 and quickly ditched it. Gave all my History Pockets to a friend who's dc love that kind of thing. We're doing Core 2 this year and are going to use History Scribe instead.

[SewLittleTime]

We found them boring. Too much color, cut, and paste. We like lapbooking, but HP were not really lapbooking. I'd consider it busy work. We still have one pocket left in the Ancient Civilizations one from SL core 1. I doubt it will ever get finished.

[2cents]

However, I am doing the cutting on my own. I prepare everything before we start, it just takes too long and is not as fun otherwise. There was a recipe for hardtack which we made yesterday with the Christopher Columbus pocket. I am however spacing it out over the whole of year 3. Also instead of the construction paper folder they use, I am using a report cover and sheet protectors.

 

This! When we did the pocketbooks and lapbooks, I did the majority of the cutting and prep work. Maybe that's why it worked for us. The children weren't crazy about all the cutting, pasting etc. so having it done just left the fun part of learning and actually using the items. That was probably the key for us since the children and I have a low tolerance for crafty stuff but liked the idea and look of a project like that. The projects were quite good once you get into them. Their value really ends up depending on what you make out of them. For us, they were a great addition to our studies. :)

[siloam]

My kids don't like writing, so we do them modified. They do love paper crafts, so they do all the paper crafts and the coloring/writing pages we skip. Except my oldest, she likes it to be complete, so she will do the rest on her own time, so to speak.

 

Heather

[AnneGabe]

Nakia, this and your other thread are making me laugh because I've been researching the exact same things for American history this year!

 

I was >thisclose< to buying those history pockets but after this thread I think I'll pass :001_smile:

[mcconnellboys]

They really are pretty much like a lapbook or a scrapbook....

[KrissiK]

We did the Native American one last year with my boys. My boys love color, cut and paste, but it's like... we got so involved in the making of the thing that the content was kind of lost on us. I'm not sure what we learned, but we had fun doing it. I used it in the context of BJU Heritage Studies 1. We were doing that for history and I just didn't feel like they did enough on the Native Americans, so I supplemented with HIstory Pockets. Then, at CHristmas we changed our History plan dramatically and went with SOTW1 and the boys learned tremendously more (that isn't grammatically correct, but it is the way I feel) and retained it. So, I'm not against History Pockets, but I probably wouldn't do it again. It took up a lot of time and I felt didn't have the greatest results.

[Jen in PA]

My DD loves these! I resisted buying them because I thought they looked like boring busywork. She, however, loves having a finished project at the end of the day, and she enjoys cut and paste type activities. I get her set up with the activities and she works on them while I do read-alouds on the same topic. It gives her something to do with her hands while I read, which makes history go a bit more smoothly.

[Nakia]

Thank you for all of your responses. Someone had several of the history pockets for American History on the FS board for a great price, so I went ahead and told her I wanted them. We'll get them and see if it's something we will like or not. They might end up back here for sale. LOL!

 

Thanks again!

[arstephia]

We also hate to cut! But, I liked the little activities and things so I copied the materials, divided things into gallon ziplock bags and my dear mother-in-law cut everything out for my kids while she sat and watched tv or traveled!!!!:hurray: Now when we get to the activity, we just do the learning and gluing. Since my kids don't need the cutting practice, I don't feel a bit guilty, and my MIL loves that she has helped with our homeschooL!

[JadeOrchidSong]

They were a waste of money here, too. :glare:

:iagree:I photocopied the Egyptian one and never got to it. The book is gathering dust on my shelf. Complete waste of money!