The 20th Century in America-Lap-Pak Review

Home School in the Woods has provided me with the downloadable 20th Century in America-Lap-Pak suggested for grades 3-8.  Emma (grade 4) and I have spent the last six weeks or so working on this study.  Though not part of this review, we have also used History through the Ages Timeline Figures, Time Travelers: The Early 19th Century and most recently I purchased Composers. I have been very impressed with all of the above.

The Lap-Pak consists of 22 projects to be completed and made into a lapbook.  It covers everything from wars/conflicts, food, fashion, sports, presidents, disasters and so much more.  These are the most professionally done lapbooks I have ever used.  Every project is of excellent quality.

20th Century in America-Lap-Pak is available on CD or as a download.  I decided to print out the entire study before we started.  It was a lot of printing, but I like to have everything at my fingertips ready to go at a moment's notice.  To complete this project you will need white printer paper, colored paper and cardstock.  There are some other items you will need as well such as scissors (lots of cutting), an exacto knife, colored pencils, a variety of adhesives and a few other supplies.

 Everything is detailed for you in the introduction so you will know what you need including detailed directions for how to put each project together along with diagrams and directions for assembling the lap-pack as well.  Except for one of the projects, I didn't have to reprint anything....even the two sided projects which usually seem so confusing to me.

This is the booklet. I am amazed that I was able to easily print
 this booklet on both sides of the paper without an issue.  

I decided that rather than do each project in order as they are listed in the booklet we would use the timeline and work through the century chronologically.  Though we are enjoying studying this way, I think it might have been a better idea to just work our way through the book since we started this so late in the school year (chronologically would have worked better if we were spending a year or an entire semester on this.)  However, this is actually one of the things I love about this lap-pack.  You can make it what YOU want it and have it be as in depth or as "light" as you and/or your children want it to be.

I love this timeline book. You can pull the end out from the flap and
pull out the entire timeline as one long  piece.  It then folds back up easily.
The white squares can be colored by your student (or not) and added to the timeline.
The cover of the booklet is shown above the timeline.

A suggested resource list (mostly books) is also included.  We have taken some of the suggested books out of the library and also just took books out that we found on the topics I chose from the timeline.

As I mentioned there are 22 projects to complete.  They cover World Wars and other conflicts, political events, movements that made a mark in history, missionaries, disasters, architecture, music, art, authors and literature  food, fashion and much more.

What we have done is worked on projects as we have read the printed booklet as well as LOTS of books we have taken out of the library from The Wizard of Oz to books about Admiral Peary (I'd never heard of him before), George Washington Carver, The Wright Brothers, The Titanic, The Lusitania....and lots more.

I thought I'd include some pictures of some of the projects. Some of the projects the students write and draw on and others are just put together.  I will show samples of both types.

World Wars:

This is the first project covering WWI, WWII and the Cold War.
Each flap lifts up for the student to write something about each war.

Disasters:

This project has tabs the open on either side to reveal information about each disaster.

People of Interest:

This is a fun project.  Each card is lined on one side for the student to write on and the other side
has a space for a drawing.  The cards fit into a TV holder.  

Transportation:

This project tells about transportation by land, sea and sky.
You can pull the strip out  to read about each.
Extra strips are included for students to make their own.

Slang Terminology:

Cards with slang from each decade (the decade and meaning of each phrase is on the opposite side).
You also have the option of printing them on separate cards to make a matching game.

Medical Advancements:

The plunger on this "syringe" moves up and down.
As it moves, you can read about different medical advances in the window.
Both sides of the plunger have advances printed on them.

Here are a few more of the projects.  I LOVE the record player.  You can spin the record
and little windows reveal the different types of music from the decades.  The
project standing in the back is Fashion Through the Decades.  I love this one.  It even has acetate windows!
There is a menu, space exploration, authors and literature, sports figures and missionaries

We are not even close to being finished with this study, but I can't wait to see it all put together.  You can view completed samples on the webpage.  I highly recommend this study for anyone who enjoys learning history and doing projects.  I happen to love cutting, pasting, coloring etc so this has been a lot of fun.  We're really enjoying learning and the completed lap-pack will serve as a wonderful reminder of everything that we have learned.  You would probably not like this lap-pack if you don't enjoy projects and/or like lesson plans all laid out for you.


You can purchase The 20th Century in America-Lap-Pak for $21.95 (downloadable) or $22.95(CD).

See what others are saying about Homeschool in the Woods  on The Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.




Three different titles are being reviewed; The 20th Century in America-Lap-Pak, The Composer Activity Pak and The Great Empires Activity Pak.

Review: A Journey Through Learning

Do you enjoy lapbooking?  Have you ever even heard of lapbooking?  I discovered it many years ago and I've always thought it was a great way to learn.  A Journey Through Learning offers a multitude of lapbooks that you can use with your students.  I was given 4 lapbooks for this review and expected to complete just one, but we've actually finished two so I will share both.  We did Letters, Numbers and Shapes ,which is for ages 3-5 and The Earth, for grades 1-4.

A Journey Through Learning was created by two homeschooling moms, Nancy and Paula.  Take a moment to read their touching story.  If you are not familiar with lapbooking you may wish to watch these how to videos.

Letters, Numbers and Shapes is a 51 page pdf document with printable mini-books and activities to do with your younger children.  There are several booklets for tracing letters on the outside then copying the same letter under a flap on the inside, there is an ice cream cone triangle book, a firetruck rectangle book, number writing, a one-to-one correspondence activity with cards for matching numbers to objects, a booklet for matching capital and lowercase letters and more.

covers of the lapbooks Ellie and Connor made

You could choose to complete a booklet each day and have enough for about 4 school weeks.  We chose to just keep working on several books at a time and had this completed in about a week.  The end of the e-book contains 9 pages of finger plays, letter activities, poems, things to do with letters, learning about shapes with food.  There are lots of fun ideas in here to keep you busy for much longer.

a completed lapbook with the idea sheets that are also included

Connor matching capital and lowercase letters

cards to math numbers with objects

One of the things I really love about A Journey Through Learning is they provide you with an exact placement guide for each booklet in your lapbook.  You don't have to try to figure out what fits where! 

Here is a clip of part of the placement guide for this lapbook:

Add caption

The Earth lapbook is designed for your first to fourth grader.  It is an excellent introduction to Earth Science or would make a great go along for whatever Earth Science curriculum you are using.

The Earth is a 42 page e-book with directions for completing the lapbook, then each lapbook mini-book is accompanied by a page of text. No outside sources are needed to complete the lapbook.  There are 14 mini-books, a book list along with some songs, poems and crafts are included as well. 

The cover of Emma's lapbook

This is the cover of a layers of the earth booklet

and the inside of the same booklet

Part of the completed lapbook shown with the placement diagram that is included.

The Earth lapbook covers layers of the earth, types of rocks, landforms, seasons, mountains, volcanoes and more.

One thing I wanted to mention is that in the poem section there is a poem by Jane Yolen called Earth Day that starts out, "I am the earth, the earth is me." It's a little pantheistic for me, but it's not really a part of the study and you certainly wouldn't have to read it.  This would not prevent me from purchasing the study, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Overall, we had a good time with these lapbooks and will likely complete more in the future.  These lapbooks are especially fun for kids who enjoy crafts and making projects.

You can purchase Letters, Numbers and Shapes for $13 (as a download...see the link for more options) and The Earth is also available for $13 as a download and $21 printed.

A Journey Through Learning offers lapbooks to go along with Jeannie Fulbright's Apologia Titles, Classical Conversations and many more! They also have Express Lapbooks for only $1!

See what others are saying about A Journey Through Learning on the crew blog.