The Schoolhouse Planner - Travel The World
Nicki Black July 19 2010 01:21:48 PM
Product:The Schoolhouse Planner, Travel the World, June 2010 Module
Vendor:
© 2010 The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC
P.O. Box 8426, Gray, TN 37615
www.thehomeschoolmagazine.com
1-888-718-HOME
Item Details:
Price - $7.95 USD
Number of Pages - 56
Age Range - Elementary School Through High School
Where To Buy The Schoolhouse Planner, Travel the World, June 2010 Module:
Find this module and other fantastic products and resources from The The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine
www.theoldschoolhousestore.com - Check them out!
Want to see what my fellow TOS Crew members thought about Travel the World? www.homeschoolblogger.com/homeschoolcrew
Can you define an archipelago? Do you know that geography is broken down into three distinct branches, namely mathematical geography, physical geography, and political geography? Why are they important if you want to start up a business, particularly one that ships products to your customers? Ah! Then you must Travel the World to find out!
We do the majority of our schooling on the traditional August-May calendar, with the summer reserved to ebb and flow with whatever the days bring our way. *thoughtful glance out the window* Well, actually, we kind of treat our entire year that way, but at least during the school year we also sneak curriculum into the equation. When I introduced our eldest, 12, to the concept that starting this summer we were blessed to have the unique opportunity to explore school materials because I was on the TOS Crew, she responded with a surprise, "Great!". (I'm rethinking this whole summer off thing now, of course.) Travel the World was a very nice passport back into a learning mind set, as well as, a module appropriate for stoking the family travel bug. And frankly, I couldn't remember what an archipelago was either.
What are planning modules, you ask? In a cute little travel-sized bottle, they are fun and interactive mini unit studies, based around a theme or topic. Because Travel the World is obviously travel-themed, the module begins by asking the pertinent question, "What is Geography?", and then sets the vocabulary shuttle of which the rest of the module revolves, with terms like axis, equator, longitude, latitude, atlas, compass rose, and more. For the younger set, these are terms that may be new. As a tween or teen, these are terms that further reinforce that mental Rolodex that's full of information and needs a good ol' spin every now and again to get the dust off. What's more, my DD really liked that the vocabulary terms, and pages throughout of additional online resources, clicked through to a good number of different websites, giving her more opportunity to follow the geography trail. We were also impressed by the colorful and clearly marked maps partnered with the terminology, as we are a family of visual learners with photographic memories.
Travel the World and and other similar modules from TOS are good if you are homeschooling across different age and/or skill levels. There are a lot of engaging and interactive activities for the elementary student, to include vocabulary challenges, fill in the blanks, word scramble and search, crossword and rebus puzzles, handwriting exercises, maps for coloring and pinpointing GNP, and a fun continent lapbook project. This can be made especially interactive and entertaining if you have more than one elementary-aged child, for you can make the activities into games, or create an indoor theater environment if you have the ability to display your laptop screen on your plasma tv, like we do. If your children are older, there is also a high school expansion unit with links to older age-appropriate geography websites, prompts for writing assignments, and even has a couple of tasty-looking recipes that are very easy for a teenager to prepare with minimal guidance. One of the specific elements I really liked about the high school expansion was the addition of relevant literature links and references to the geography expanse. Earlier I mentioned the three branches of geography. Christian scientist, Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806-1873), discovered this line of thought. We were able to click over from Travel the World to read more about his explorations on a prominent academic library website. This was a fantastic find, and one we probably would not have known to search out on our own. If you leverage literature and the web within your homeschool, this module affords you with a breadth of online resources that keep on giving well after the fact. The units within the module were easily digestible, with good stopping points throughout, if you wanted to go off of it to visit topics in more depth that were inspired within it's pages. The module also gave a whimsical poetic nod to Emily Dickinson, of which I appreciated since I also write poetry and am trying to expand the horizons of such with my DD.
To sum up Travel the World into a flavorful spice packet of the world's cuisines, I'd say there is a taste for every student, and the cost of this module is easy on the budget. It's extremely easy to navigate, and journeying through it's pages can be as bite-sized or 3-course meal as you wish.
Happy Homeschooling!
Nicki
Disclosure/disclaimer statement, as required by the FCC:
I have been given this free product in order to write this review. I used this product in my home, and the comments and thoughts shared herein are solely my own, based on my personal experience. Any products reviewed by me as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew have been given to me free of charge in order for me to provide you with an honest and genuine review of those products, and how we used the products within our family. I receive no other form of compensation for the reviews posted on this blog.
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