Opinions on Homeschool in the Woods Time Traveler's History please.

[mazakaal]

I'm looking for some fun supplements to add to dc's history studies next year. We'll be covering the period from the Revolutionary War until the end of the 19th century. I have SOTW for our main spine, along with the activity guide and lots of readers and read alouds. I have Usborne and Kingfisher and Children's Encyclopedia of American History for supplements. I'd just like to add some hands-on fun stuff. Anyone have experience with theTime Traveler's History series from Homeschool in the Woods? My kids aren't big fans of lapbooks, so if they are mostly lapbook materials, they won't be a great fit for us, but it looks like there's other things like crafts, games, and activities. So are they mostly lapbooks with a few other bits or a good balance of everything?

 

I'm considering the American Revolution, Early 19th Century, and Civil War sets for my then 9yo and 11yo. Thanks.

[Tess in the Burbs]

We haven't used the history kits but we did get a free download once of the Jamestown fort to cut/create and it was fun. We are using their Old Testament kit this year. I print off the cut outs and they actually like it. We stopped History Pockets b/c Ds said he was done with them! But he's liking the Old Testament things to make and I like how much writing they offer in the 'newspaper' assignments. So I assume the history stuff would be similar. So my lapbooking hating Ds actually likes their product.

 

However, I used https://handsnhearts.com/blog/2012/10/why-hands-on-history/ for history one year and I liked it too. Lots of hands on stuff. Good mix of girl/boy stuff. You can do just the projects but it also comes with Bible verses and some lesson information if you want that as well. Very pleased and I could get a second student kit so both kids could do all the projects if they wanted.

 

HTH!

[mazakaal]

Thanks for the information and the recommendation of Hands and Hearts. I'll have a look at that too.

[3peasinapod]

Bumping. I have decided to try one of the Time Travelers CDs next year for American History, and I would like to know what people think too. I did find an excellent review on a blog, which helped me see how it worked a little better.

[nukeswife]

We're had been working on Early Modern HIstory for 2 years before this school year hit, with lots of starting and stopping. We had made it to the American revolution, so this year I decided I wouldn't mind bagging off world history for the rest and just focus on American for the last bit of Early Modern. I decided the best way to do that would be to use the HITW TT Early 19th Century. So far my kids are loving it. They love all the lapbook things we've done. I haven't done much reading other than what comes in the Time Traveler, but when we did the first 12 presidents project for the lapbook we watch "The Presidents" from the history channel for those 1st 12. The kids have enjoyed things so much that I'm thinking I may not use SOTW 4 for the rest of this year when we're done with this one and just do the Civil War one and maybe the next one if we get that far, or I may just pick and choose projects from them to go with either HO modern times or SOTW 4. My kid weren't big fans of most of the stuff in the SOTW AG, but they really like the ones in TT.

[unity]

I bought the one for the Industrial Revolution to the Depression. I think it's just meh. It's a zillion papercrafts, with a few very complicated other crafts thrown in. We're not super crazy about lapbooks, either, and all the detailed cutting is not fun for us. I do think I've gotten my money's worth, but I regret printing it all out before we started, because we haven't been inspired to use half of it. Also, I bought it used. I think if you're mostly hoping to find other crafts or activities, you might look for another resource, like maybe one of those activity books.

[mystika1]

I have been using the Time Travelers Explorers cd and my dd finally enjoys history. I plan on using this from now on for history studies. I like the layout and the instructions are very clear.

 

My 2 cents.

 

Penny

 

[kolamum]

We've used all the cds they currently offer for US History & love them. If you're using them alongside another curriculum here's some things you MIGHT want to consider:

 

You don't need to do everything on the cd. Each CD has lapbook, notebook, extra craft, games, & recipes to do.. WEEKLY!

 

If your children are younger SKIP the newspaper idea & save it for use when they are older.

 

They make GREAT spines on their own so you may find it silly to read both your normal text & your HSITW Lesson. We had this issue using them WITH SL, so I left the Landmark book & Used HSITW as the spine. For WW2 we liked matching up with the WW2 SL book & the cd & didn't mind the extra information

 

Print out what you will do BEFORE you begin. I set aside a day to print out an entire cd at one go. I print out all the Labook & Notebook bits we'll use. If I'm using the games or anything else I print that out too. I take all the lessons & turn them into one Giant PDF & slap it on our ipad. I have printed the ENTIRE cd & bound it before, but you don't need to & I like the new way I did it this past year. Made things super simple. :)

 

You do NOT need to do EVERYTHING on the cd.

 

The first time we did R. War we did EVERYTHING & we LOVED it. We did it as a family, matched it up with Liberty Kid Videos & it was ALL we did for 6 weeks, but we LOVED it. We wrapped it up in time to have the party for the 4th of July one year.

 

The following year we did WP All American 1 which matches up 3 of the cds. We did NOT do everything with the cds that year. We did NOT do the recipes, the extra crafts, SOME of the games, & none of the newspaper articles. We STILL had fun, STILL filled our notebooks, & STILL learned plenty.

 

If you're interested in a more indepth view of what's on each cd I've taken pictures of all my kids projects with the Cds from Explorer - WW2 & posted photos in weekly wrap up's on my blog. :) We seriously loved all of it :D

[mom31257]

I bought the one for the Industrial Revolution to the Depression. I think it's just meh. It's a zillion papercrafts, with a few very complicated other crafts thrown in. We're not super crazy about lapbooks, either, and all the detailed cutting is not fun for us. I do think I've gotten my money's worth, but I regret printing it all out before we started, because we haven't been inspired to use half of it. Also, I bought it used. I think if you're mostly hoping to find other crafts or activities, you might look for another resource, like maybe one of those activity books.

 

 

You could always sell the CD and include the things you've printed and not used. I know I'm looking at letting my ds choose a couple to do next year, and I'd love to be able to buy it already printed.

[mazakaal]

Thanks so much for all the replies. Ds walked up to the computer when I was reading that review that 3peasinapod posted, and he really liked the look of the photos. He browsed the website with me and is really excited about it, which is impressive because he doesn't get excited about a whole lot. I think I'll give them a try. Thanks.