I was contacted by Homeschool In The Woods (HSITW) and offered one of their lovely new products, Lap-Paks, to try out in exchange for an honest review. I’m not generally one to accept free products in exchange for reviews {I’ve said that before haven’t I?!} because I often stress over getting the review done or liking the items.
~ Don’t miss the giveaway at the end!
Yet, when it came to HSITW, I admit I was totally biased in accepting the product because our family has always loved Time Traveler CDs and I was downright curious about the new product. I was still a little worried about liking the product, because that’s me, but my worries were totally unfounded.
Over the past few months our family has been studying the Middle Ages and so the Knight Lap-Pak was an excellent fit for our current studies. As it turned out I all ready owned the HSITW PassPort Middle Ages CD, and it was fun to see how the two products compared side by side.
Now, something to keep in mind is that this Lap-Pak is geared at the younger crowd of children from K-2. Can I just say I would have gone crazy for this item when my eldest was younger! He’s always been such a hands on learner and has yet to meet a HSITW product he hasn’t loved.
So the Lap-Paks are smaller, more manageable, units for the younger ages. They come complete with instructions for making the lap-pack, extra books to read, information/booklet on what your topic of study is, and even audio files. You know our family loves audio recordings, right?
How I Use Lap-Pak
The one place that the Lap-Paks differ from the Time Travelers series or the Project Passport (PP) series is that the Lap-Paks don’t come with a schedule. They do come with instructions that are numbered so you can follow that order and do it over your unit of study, OR if you have a little one tagging along with the bigger kids it’s so to match up!
Seriously, it’s very very simple to do if you want to use it alongside one of the older studies, which is how we used some of it! I should include here that not all the topics in the PP Middle Ages were covered in the Lap-Pak. Remember the Lap-Pak’s focus was on Knights, not the entirety of the Middle Ages.
The Knight Lap-Pak goes more in depth on knights them on middle ages in general, but my younger son was delighted with that!! He was all about learning about Knights and had all ready emptied the shelves of any book that fit that topic of study.
For an older student using the Lap-Pak, or fluent reader, they’d be able to do the work entirely on their own. This was another huge seller for me because I’m all about teaching my children to be independent learners. The child only has to play the text or read the booklet, their choice! Then they can begin the projects inside.
There are, as always, some lovely resources listed: books and DVDs. We owned quite a few of the books on the list so I pulled them off the shelf and scattered them around the house in prominent areas for easy access and eye luring possibilities.
Something else I did before handing this Lap-Pak over to my child was to print everything out and put them in a notebook. The notebook has clear page protectors inside which I put round stickers on. The stickers are simply for me to write the number of the project that matches the directions. This way, my child can easily locate ALL the pieces he’s looking for, and because we don’t glue things into the end project until everything is done this makes a great storage location for the items until that time as well.
What I Love About Lap-Pak
- There are many things I love about these lovely little Lap-Paks, but I’ll try to keep it really simple.
- I love that these are available through download! This is huge for those of us living overseas with the constant rising prices of fuel and postage. I always get a little giddy when I can enjoy amazing products with minimal shipping costs!
- I also love that these Lap-Paks can be done by children, even at a young age, on their own! As long as you’re comfortable with your child using scissors, glue, and colouring items they can totally do this with minimal to no help!
- I love that the graphics inside are just right for littler ones to colour in. We’re use to the more detailed drawings we’ve come to love from HSITW, but I love that these Lap-Paks have less detail and more open spaces for younger children to colour in.
- I love that there are several choices when printing these products out. You can choose how items based on your students capabilities. This only applies to projects inside that require writing, but that’s generally the time younger students need help!
What I Don’t Love about Lap-Pak
I always include a don’t love section when I’m writing review and sometimes I have a handful of complaints, but other times I don’t. This is one of those don’t times.
While I didn’t mind it, the only thing I can possibly see being an issue for someone would be the lack of schedule. I know there are times we cling to those, but really this is one of those very open and go products! I found it so easy to match up to the older Project Passport Middle Ages, that I can’t fault it.
Bottom Line on Lap-Paks
My boy really loved having something that was all his own to show off at the end of the day. He was most certainly above the grade level that this was recommended for, but it didn’t stop him from enjoying it at all!!
Now for the Lap-Pak Giveaway!
Homeschool in the Woods is giving away one download each of the Knights and Benjamin Franklin K-2 Lap-Paks! Simply follow the instructions in the rafflecopter widget below to enter to win…
For more photos of this lovely product, or the other HSITW products mentioned above, hop on over to Kendra’s blog at: blog.aussiepumpkinpatch.com
Kendra lives in Tasmania Australia with her husband, the Man From Down Under, her two curious boys, a dog that thinks he's human, a guinea pig that won't stop squeaking, & a bird learning to talk back. She's a second generation home educator. She loves using methods from Unit Studies to Boxed Curriculum and everything in between to help feed the curious minds of her two, ever growing, boys. Creator, and avid user, of the Homeschooling Book of Days & The Nature Game. She can be found retelling tales from The Land Down Under over at the Aussie Pumpkin Patch.
thanks for doing this! we always love to learn about knights here in our family!
Would love to try out a lap-pak! Sounds like a great tool for our homeschool!
We haven’t used lap books before. This looks like it would be a good introduction.
We have used several lapbooks, my boys really enjoy them!
I would LOVE this….I have a 6 and 5 year old at home.
Yes, we’ve used lapbooks. In fact, we’re currently constructing one on the American Revolution.
We love lapbooks! My son is autistic, and this kind of hands on, visual learning really helps him remember what we’re studying. I’m also able to get his interest more in things if he knows he gets to make his own book about it.
It has been a while since we have lapbooked but my oldest child did lapbooks for almost everything for her first several years.
We use lapbooks with almost all of our unit studies. THis would be a fun addition.
We use lapbooks to enhance parts of our studies. She enjoys putting them together in a notebook instead of in a folder.
We’ve used lapbooks quite a bit for science. My boys are 1st grade and it’s fun to just pick a subject and make a lapbook on it. We enjoy them!
We love lapbooks!
I’ve used a lapbook once several years ago. The kids loved it, but I haven’t followed up with doing more. I know they would benefit and have a blast doing it!
We are finishing the HSITW Time Travelers series this semester and I am at a loss at what we will do. My kids absolutely love the lap books we’ve made using this program and it has inspired us to create our own about other topics we’ve been interested in. I’m even using the Knights lap pak with my co-op class…a class of 12 boys K-3rd grade age…that’s how much I love the hands on approach and the opportunity to have such a polished finished product we can look back on proudly for years.
I’ve used some lapbooking ideas as a launching point for my children but we’ve never actually completed a lapbook.
My girls learn best hands on. We like to use them with our lit book as well as history, science, and special holidays.
We are using lapnooks for the first time this year. My kids really enjoy working on them.
I have used lapbooks with my oldest, but this would be the first attempt at doing them with my K’er! Thanks for this opportunity!
I like using lapbooks to teach certain subjects which would normally have too much information to retain. The kids love to make them and study them. The best part is when they tell other adults family members all they learned.
I have never tried lap books before, but they look fantastic!
Lapbooks make it more fun for kids who like hands on projects!
My daughter is one who loves to cut and color and paste so lapbooks are a great fit for her at the moment. We’ve used them to study countries and literature.
Lapbooks are a big part of the learning process for my 3rd grader. She loves to cut and paste and is super proud of the items she creates when she is done with them. She is filling a bookshelf in her room with all the lapbooks she has created!