Home School in the Woods

I had the privilege of receiving for review the Home School in the Woods Hands-On History Activity Pak for Composers.  I’d been looking at this product in the past to do with my 6^th grade daughter who has been taking piano lessons for 2.5 years.  Since it’s considered an “extra,” purchasing this product always took second fiddle to the core curriculum I had to get.  To say I was ecstatic to review this is an understatement.

I received the downloaded version of this product which retails for $18.95.

There is a CD available for purchase which retails for $19.95.

Directions are included to complete the projects and to finally assemble them in an attractive Lapbook. 

You will need to have card stock in several colors, Velcro, file folders, colored pencils, scissors, and a printer to print out all the projects.

I enjoyed working on the 6 projects with my 6^th grade student.  I was actually more excited than she to get started.  She wanted to immediately start the lapbook assembly not realizing the projects had to be completed first.  The projects include the following activities:

• Periods of music
• Keyboard vocabulary – matching vocabulary with their definitions in a clever pattern.
• Pieces with a purpose – putting together iconic pieces that were heavily influenced by classical music
• Composers timeline – placing the composer in their place in history (Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Modern times, etc.)
• Music appreciation – completing  background sheets on the composers while appreciating an audio of their music.

We printed the project we needed for the day and only worked on one project at a time.  It was plenty to do with cutting, coloring and organizing.  I did the cutting so that my daughter could read the cut-outs and place them where they belonged.  My computer had trouble printing on card stock so we used copy paper for every printout.  It still made for an attractive end product.

I really didn’t want to treat this activity as a school lesson but rather an activity we did together as mother and daughter where we happened to learn a few things along the way.  I asked her what she learned most from doing these projects to which her reply was “knowing where all the instruments belong on the orchestra stage.”  

Home School in the Woods has other Hands On History Activity Paks with themes like Artists, The Old Testament and The New Testament.  They also have beautiful timeline products, map sets, Time Travelers Activity Studies, and other studies to keep your history studies fun and hands-on.  Their products are recommended for 3-8^th grade.  However, I would use some of their products as a fun activity with my high schooler to reinforce concepts she is learning in her history studies.  

We enjoyed working with this product and we completed all of the projects. 

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