Tuesday 2 April 2013

A Journey through Learning - TOS Review





A Journey through Learning was started by two homeschoolers who were disappointed with the quality of hands-on learning projects available so they decided to make their own.

They have created a series of lapbooks and we were offered the chance to review some of them. I chose the Knights and Castles downloadable lapbook as we haven't covered this time period in our history lessons yet.


The pack starts with a 'things to know' page which gives tips on how to create and store lapbooks for those who haven't used them before. Not only that, but the individual chapters/mini books also have step-by-step instructions along with a 'map' of where it would sit in the finished article.

Knights and Castles is divided into ten lessons - each contains a printable read out and the lapbooking components. This lapbook covers the fall of Rome, a knights training, weapons, armour, battle, heraldry, castles, lifestyle/ feudal system, housing and Christianity during the middle ages.

At the back of the pack there is a suggested list of additional books and resources that could be used to expand your study of the subject. There are also narration pages for both younger and older students, a book log, a biography sheet and a NICK sheet for note taking (Notes, Information & Comments and Key words) which the girls found really useful.

The girls used this twice a week and averaged 30 mins for each lesson. The directions were so good that they didn't need any input from me, I just gave them the print out and left them to it : )


I liked that there is enough information in the reading pages to just use this as your resource however the list of suggested reading let the girls explore further. This really sparked their interest so it encouraged them to do even more reading! 

You can tell the authors have used a lot of lapbooks as these are so well organised - they have a unique layout that makes them really easy to use.

Lilly and Sunflower both liked doing the lapbook - they were grossed out by the bug beds (servants sleeping on rushes infested with bugs) and enjoyed learning all about heraldic symbols and creating their own. They have asked to do another which I always take as a good endorsement for a product : )


The Knights and Castles lapbook is aimed at grades 2-7 and is available for $13 as a download, you can also opt to have a printed version or buy it on a CD.

A Journey through Learning has a wide variety of lapbooks available including some which are curriculum based for Maestro, Apologia, Truthquest etc.  They also run a number of special offers including a $1 express lapbook and $5 lapbook of the month.

You can see what my crew mates thought of this and other Journey through Learning products over at the TOS Blog

















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