Aspasia Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 Do you use them? Do you like them? Are they useful? Do they add to your study? Could the time be better spent? Just trying to decide if I want to try these for history next year. I bought some Lit Pockets (Fairy Tales) for kindergarten, and I was kind of disappointed. It just seemed like a lot of coloring and not much more. DD loves to color, but she prefers to color in her coloring books and not so much for "school". Mainly, I just didn't feel like they added much to our experience with the story. Are History Pockets much different? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALB Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 My kids enjoy them, but I pretty much agree with you. They are a lot of coloring, cutting and stapling for what you get. Usually each section comes with a few pages of information that you read together, and then several small "activities" or worksheets. My favorite so far has been the Native American one, because it goes more in depth about each group than the other resources we were using. The pilgrim one and the Ancient History one didn't really add any new information that we hadn't already covered in our books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TraceyS/FL Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 They are all available in the Teachertoolbox from Evan-Moor, so if there is other stuff you would use that might be the best way to go? Homeschool Buyers Co-op has a discount right now on membership. I"ve found it worth the price - and since the pockets are extra - I don't have a lot of guilt if we don't get to them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morgan Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 Both of my kids have enjoyed them. I agree that it is a lot of coloring and cutting, but they are more educational than the kindergarten ones imho. I have a subscription to teacher fillebox and we have done quite a few of the Ancient History ones this year and my dd6 loves them. Teacher Filebox is definitely worth looking into though because it will be cheaper to get the subscription than buy a bunch of individual books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5LittleMonkeys Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 I used the Ancient Greek one two years ago with two of my dc, and am using it again now with a co-op class. Both times we format the "pockets" differently. We use a notebook that pages can be removed or added to...more of a journal or scrapbook. I think if you use these in isolation of anything else they can be very flat. I added in additional reading - fiction and non-fiction, documentaries, movies, extra activities and art, and since we live outside of Nashville, we get to go to the replica of the Parthenon! (The girls in my co-op class are soooo excited to see where a scene of Percy Jackson was filmed. :p) They definitely would not be for every dc. My oldest would rather scrub toilets than be subjected to coloring, cutting and pasting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tess in the Burbs Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 We have done several and my kids liked them. One more than the other. We took time off using them but both asked to get more. I found some lap booking stuff they like too. If you use what you want but don't feel you have to do it all its fun stuff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmom2011 Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 n/m Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heathermomster Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 DS enjoyed the Western Expansion and Civil War history pockets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lily_Grace Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 Nope. They were a failure here. However, I have found a use for them at co-op. We do a hands on activity, and then I pass out one part of the history pocket to each kid - and when I say one part I mean one picture or what-not. They all collaborate to eventually make a giant History Pocket poster. I've also found it's better to use a variety of paper with them so that you're not trying to show off how many pages a box of Crayola can cover. We're treating it as more of an -Ology type of deal, where the headers are all printed on light parchment, the outlines of the tent page are copied onto tan scrapbooking paper and so forth. They can be made good, but the effort that has to go into them is often too much to make it worthwhile . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spetzi Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 My kids liked most of them and still remember the material from the activities. We've used and like History Pockets, but the favorite here was Tall Tales. I didn't think EVERY activity was worth the time to cut and paste so I skipped a few in each book, but I didn't feel that anything vital was missed. You could even just do one pocket for some of these and I think it would be educational for the child. I recommend reading through and photocopying the pages you need at least for each pocket at a time and gathering your supplies ahead of time (paper fasteners and popsicle sticks might hold up activities if you don't have them on hand.) I also wanted to comment as she grows it will be less directing, cutting, etc. from you and then it's more fun for both of you because it's all hers. These are not expensive books, but you can often buy them used for even less and there are often many on the market since they are not consumable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheres Toto Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 My kids like the ones we have done so far. I don't use every page or do every activity but I like the brief descriptions (we are using the Native American one currently) and key points. We are not making them into pockets as instructed. We attach them to cardstock for notebook pages, or in the case of the Native Americans, we are using the actual pocket titles and dictionary cards my son does on a poster (can be seen here, kind of an expansion of the grid included in the file), while my dd glues hers to cardstock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXMary2 Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 We enjoy them, but I only choose the ones that go along with our lessons really well and don't take up too much time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WIS0320 Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 I think it really depends on the child. My dd loves them :) :iagree: I don't think they provide much educational depth but my daughter loves to cut/paste/color so they are a fun addition to other things that we do for history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momtoamiracle Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 I downloaded them from teacherfilebox so feel they are a good value. As my son likes very short lessons I think they will work well for us. He's not one to color but he does like making pop up things and other crafty things like that. We just did a kangaroo out of a cardboard paper holder and a cut out of a kangaroo. He enjoyed that so I think he will enjoy the pockets. Probably won't make them as pockets but notebooks. We will get into them this week, along with perusing the encyclopedia for the same civilization. SOTW was just too long for him right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alessandra Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 Years ago, I got some History Pockets -- such high hopes! But they were not a success. The cutouts weren't very imaginative -- we preferred Scholastic's Easy Make and Learn series or some of the Dover books or HITW. The History Pockets tried to do too much, imo. A bit of text about the time period (boring), writing practice (like the 'postcard from'), dramatic play (cutout puppets). I can see how the HP could work well in a co-op, though Also the illustrations all seem to be in the Early Blackline Master style. They don't compare with a colorful Dover book or a delicately illustrated HITW rendering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elizabeth rose Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 WinterPromise uses the native american one in AS!, so that's the one we have used here. It's okay, all it is is reading some text, coloring and stapling. It's not worth the money imo, my kids would rather draw than color something in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProudGrandma Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 we did the Ancient Egypt one when we were doing SOTW 1 and my 3 kids loved doing it. We are going to try the Tall Tales one...since we finished with our Grammar and I wanted to add something sort of fun too. The book comes today from Amazon, so I will look at it and see if it will be fun...or busy work...not sure yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linders Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 Seemed a bit too "busy work" to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodland Mist Academy Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 We ordered a few for history one year. We promptly sent them back and ordered more books to read instead. My dd was relieved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjand6more Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 Hp has filled a gap for cut/paste/color that my dd10 was feeling. She LOVED them. It seemed to her to be a great enrichment act to go along with SOTW or CHOW. Now, my oldest, is a different story. He hates busy work and crafty type activities. So, depends on the kid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swainsonshawk Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 8 year old daughter loves them. I read the little lesson from the text part and them she assembles the color, cut, paste thing with me. She eats it up. She doesn't really listen to our group history lessons, so at least she gets my undivided attention with these My three older boys never did like them, though--too much boring-type quasi-art. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swainsonshawk Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 double post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 I have been trying to compare history pockets to A Journey through Learning's binder builder (for Truthquest American history) any ideas how they compare? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momling Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 You might look into History Portfolio. We started off doing all of the suggested pictures/activities/writing and moved into doing mostly everything on our own. It can be very flexible like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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