LET'S GET REAL: Homeschool Review Crew: Our Review of Home School in the Woods

We have always enjoyed the amazing products that you can get from Home School in the Woods. When we were picked to receive and review some Á La Carte products we were so excited. We chose The Erie Canal Lap Book Project and the Name That State! File Folder Game. I have always liked to incorporate fun activities into what we are learning and Home School in the Woods helps us to do that.

Above is our Erie Canal Lap Book Project. Before we started it we went to the library to get out a few books on the subject and even got a video that helped us to learn more about how the Erie Canal was constructed and what went into planning it. While the lap book wasn't difficult to make, we sure had fun making it. The download that you receive after purchasing this product comes with a couple of choices. You can use the project with the facts of the Erie Canal already printed on the card, or you can use the template where you write facts about it.

We chose to use the one where we could write some great facts about this special canal. My daughter loved using her new colored pencils to color the templates. She then cut out the pieces and used a glue stick to put it all together. The instructions that come with the download are simple and easy for a child to understand. I love that she can work on these projects on her own or with a sibling.

Our next project was the Name That State! File Folder Game. This was fun to work on together. After you download it and print what sections you would like to use, you get to color it and make it your own. We wanted our map to be full of many colors. We even picked out a beautiful green file folder to glue our game board to.

We chose to print the map and state cards on card stock, so it would be a bit more hearty as we will be using it often. Card stock is thicker than normal paper and lasts a bit longer under use. We also decided to laminate our state cards, that are used in the game, so they would last longer as well. They look great!

The instructions of the game and how to put it together were easy to follow. We added a few parts of our own like our game pieces. We didn't want to waste paper to use as markers for the game, so we improvised and used game pieces from another favorite.

The kids had a lot of fun playing this game. It helped us review where the states are located and what their capitals are. We also discussed a few facts about each state like the year they became a state and the region they are located in. I feel that if we make learning fun, our children will be more receptive and able to retain more information.

If you would like to learn more about these resources and many others, I encourage you to visit the Home School in the Woods web page or their social media pages listed below: