Review: Christmas Comes To America

HOMESCHOOL LEGACY

 

 

 

Well, the month of December is just around the corner. Everyone knows what that means: Family, Food and the Christmas holiday! Our family loves Christmas. We first want to remember what Christmas is all about, the most important thing, the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus! There is nothing like the joy of Christmas. During this time of the year, I like to make school fun. A month or so ago, I was contacted by Homeschool Legacy and given the opportunity to review their Once-A-Week Unit Study----Christmas Comes to America. I thought what a perfect opportunity to have tons of fun learning other Christmas traditions.

 

 

 

Once-A-Week Unit Studies are written for homeschool families, in my opinion, to make learning fun. Why Once-A-Week unit studies? There is no prep-time or work, easily incorporated into anyones schedule, very flexible and Biblically-centered, which is a big plus for our family. Once-A-Week means to do your unit study one day each week.

 

Christmas Comes to America focuses on the history of American Christmas traditions. This study shows one common thread among the cultures. Gift-Givers: Sinterklaas, Christkindl, Father Christmas, among others. These symbols represent the True Saint Nicholas.

 

I will give you an example of no prep-time or work. Each once-a-week study comes with a pick & choose read-alouds list for non-readers, optional books, videos and music list. There are books you read to go along with the study. Each week you are to read one of the books independently and one as a family read-aloud. There are four weeks in this study:

 

Week 1: The Dutch

Week 2: The English

Week 3: The Germans

Week 4: An American Christmas

 

Each week we learned the different names of the gift giver for each country. For example, the Germans have Christkindl (where we get Kris Kringle from) - Christ Child. There are so many activities in this unit study. From making and drinking hot cocoa and marshmallows to building a gingerbread house. We are having so much fun with this. I am looking forward to doing some of the activities we were unable to do. This is definitely  a unit study you don't want to miss!

 

This once-a-week study can be purchased at Homeschool Legacy for $17.95. Go get this study and have a fun Christmas Study for the month of December. They also offer other studies like the one our family used here while back entitled Lewis & Clark: From Sea to Shining Sea which we thoroughly enjoyed.

 



Disclaimer:  I received a free copy of the product in exchange for my honest opinion. All my opinions are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with FTC regulations.

Home School in the Woods - 20th Century America Schoolhouse Review

My bugs are pretty big hands-on learners. We do a lot of unit studies and have done quite a few lap books. We really enjoy this kind of learning. As part of the Schoolhouse Review Crew, we had the opportunity to review a Lap Pak from Home School in the Woods. We decided to choose The 20th Century in America.

This is an awesome product. It is a hands-on History Lap Pak. The children are learning about some of the most important moments in the 20th century. We are reviewing the download version that comes in PDF format. It has a reading text, printable projects and step-by-step directions on how to print and assemble your lap book for each project. This makes it very easy to use.

I printed the reading text, the text assignments & project directions and assembling the Lap Book and put all of these into a 3-ring binder. It made it easier on us to be able to look at these at our convenience. I am printing the projects as we go. There are 22 different activities:

1. Global Conflicts: World Wars

2. Other Conflicts: In The Americas & Global

3. Political Events: Presidents of the 20th Century

4. Social Movements: Movements that made a Mark in History

5. Modern Missionaries

6. Disasters

7. The Stock Market Crash of 1929

8. Science and Technology: Science & Invention of the 20th Century

9. Medical Advancements

10. The Space Race

11. Art: Art Movements of the Modern Era

12. Architecture: Accomplishments in Architecture

13. Literature: 20th Century Authors and Their Literature

14. Music: Music of the Century

15. Transportation: Transportation in America

16. Media: News & Media of the 20th Century

17. Sports: Sports Figures Who Made Their Mark in History

18. People of Interest Across the 20th Century: People of Interest

19. Wrapping up the Century: Diner Menu "Dining Through the Decades"

20. Fashion Through the Decades

21. Slang Terminology

22. Timeline of the 20th Century

As of right now, we have completed 8 of the 22 activities. They are Other Conflicts, Presidents of the 20th Century, Disasters, Medical Advancements, The Space Race, Sports Figures (I think this has been the favorite so far) and "Dining through the Decades." I didn't want to rush through everything just to get it completed in a short time so we are thoroughly enjoying this study and taking our time.

Today we finished up with the Diner Menu activity. It contains 8 recipe cards in this project. So........ we decided to pick one for supper tonight.Everyone chose the Philly Steak Sandwich. Sounds yummy to me!

My three oldest bugs are using this product. Here are a couple of pictures of each bugs lap book so far.



I highly recommend this product. If this is something you might be interested in go here and check it out.

The download version is $21.95 and the CD version is $22.95.

The crew also reviewed the Great Empire Activity Study and Composers Activity Pak. Head over and see what they had to say.

Homeschool Legacy Review

For a while now, I have been wanting to do a unit study with my bugs on the Lewis and Clark expedition. Well, it so happened that Homeschool Legacy was offering 10 different titles for us TOS members to review and the one we were blessed to review is entitled Lewis and Clark: From Sea to Shining Sea. We were so excited! This fit so well into our homeschool. It is recommended the unit study be done once a week for 7 weeks and one entire day be devoted to just that. It couldn't have worked out any better. We do unit studies as part of our homeschool anyway, so us taking an entire day to focus on Lewis and Clark was right up our alley.

 

 

HOMESCHOOL LEGACY offers once -a-week unit studies written by Sharon Gibson. They are biblically centered, pre-planned, hands-on and inexpensive. What more could you ask for! Each week gives you a list of books and video choices that can be checked out at your local library. They also have a suggested schedule to go by to make things easier.

These studies encourage the use of a History Timeline. If you have already begun compiling a timeline, great, just add to it. If you  are like us, have NOT, don't worry. In our study, it gives you directions for a simple, history timeline notebook. We had so much fun making our timelines. We are still adding to them. I plan on getting many more of these once-a-week unit studies from Homeschool Legacy so we can continue adding to our timelines.

There are so many great features to these studies:

          ---Lots of suggestions on reading material and many are at the library.
          ---Hands on activities
          ---Arts & Crafts
          ---Geography, History, Vocabulary, Science and more.
          ---Field Trip Ideas
          ---And additional book suggestions for your Non-Readers or Early ones.

Lewis and Clark: From Sea to Shining Sea

 

Unit Study - $19.99

Grades 2-12

 

 

Homeschool Legacy has 10 other UNIT STUDIES!!!

 

Revolutionary Ideas: The Story of the American Revolution and We the People: Getting to Know Your Constitution looks like something we will be studying in the near future.


Check out what other TOS members have to say about Homeschool Legacy.
 

 

 

 

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this unit study, free of charge, in exchange for my honest opinion and review.