Counting Pinecones: Colonial Life (A Homeschool Crew Review)

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

This year for our history curriculum, the kids will be learning US History from early colonization to 1850. Because of this, we were super thrilled to have the opportunity to review the Time Travelers: Colonial Life history study, part of the Time Travelers U.S. History Studies for Grades 3-8th offered by Home School in the Woods. This unit is the perfect supplement to our upcoming history curriculum. Offering a vast array of interactive, hands-on unit studies, lap books, Time Traveler series and more, Home School in the Woods offers a unique style curriculum that brings history to life.

If you are unfamiliar with history studies from Home School in the Woods, they are period focused studies that have multiple components to help students learn. Through the course of the study, students are presented a wide variety of activities: notebooking, lapbooking, crafts, copywork, creative writing, cooking, maps, timelines and more. This particular unit study over the Colonial period of US History contains various activities for the kids to complete as they learn about how America's Colonies Began, The Colonial Home, Clothing, Food, Family Life, School, Faith in the Colonies, Villages & Cities, Health & Medicine, Artisans, Crime & Punishment, Plantations & Slavery, Pleasures & Pastimes, and Holidays!

The Time Travelers Colonial Life study is a digital file that is completely contained on your computer. Once purchased, a user downloads a ZIP file containing all the files for the study which is then extracted to their computer. This installs all the files necessary and means once installed the unit study can be accessed and printed without the need for internet access. Once installed, the unit study is loaded up as an easy to use webpage which gives quick access to all the files needed for each lesson. Colonial Life contains 25 lessons that can be done over the course of 5-10 weeks. Every 5th Lesson is considered a "Craft Day" which allows for the student to focus on completing projects for the previous 4 lessons as well as to concentrate and review vocabulary and important facts/dates learned before moving on.

Each lesson contains Text Pages and Project pages. Each lesson begins with a briefly written lesson written in an interesting, story style format. This format is reminiscent of "living storybooks" or a Charlotte Mason style format.

The second component of the unit is the lesson projects. These follow the text pages and contain activity choices to reinforce the topic just discussed. These Project Pages tell what activities will be completed for the lesson including which pages will need to be printed out. They also contain step by step instructions for completing each project. A Photo Gallery is also included also gives a visual aid of the final outcome of the projects and placement of components for the lapbook to help assist with the projects.

We have been using this unit study not so much as a curriculum this time around, but just as a fun way to continue to learn while we are adjusting to our move and enjoying the summer. As the kids have always enjoyed studies from Home School in the Woods, this has been a great option for having them do something educational without it seeming “too educational”.. To them, it’s more fun than work.

Without a doubt, the favorite lesson so far has been about Colonial food. Every Home School in the Woods unit we have done has always included a food unit, where the kids make a recipe book filled with recipes from the area or time period they are studying. The Colonial Times unit is no different.

With recipes in hand, Ashleigh decided she wanted to cook the Chicken Pie and Johnny Cake found in the recipe book. We printed out a second copy of the recipe so she wouldn’t have to use the recipe book she worked so hard on coloring for her lapbook and she got to work while Mom supervised.

From start to finish, she was able to follow the directions very easily and was able to produce a meal that everyone really enjoyed and deemed as a repeater.

I really look forward to restarting this product next month when we begin our school year in earnest as I think this will fit in perfectly with our upcoming curriculum.

I've yet to find a product from Home School in the Woods that we haven't loved and this study about the Colonial Life is no different. And Home School in the Woods has recently added some new Biblical history timelines to their Individual Timeline Sets that include Timeline Set: Creation to Christ (Beginning - 100 AD) and Timeline Set: Resurrection to Revolution (0 -1799 AD). Some of the members of the Crew have been reviewing these Timeline Sets with their families these last few weeks, so be sure to read their reviews. You can also find more detailed information about this product by reading Home School in the Woods blog .