TRAVEL THE WORLD

 

     In this review I will be looking at The 2009 Schoolhouse Planner June 2010 Module titled Travel the World. This is an e-book download, available from TOS Magazine's Schoolhouse Store for $7.95.  For those who may be fuzzy on the concept, an e-book is one you buy online, download to your computer, then either read it on your computer screen or print it out, your choice.

     The name on the e-book The 2009 Schoolhouse Planner threw me until I researched exactly what the product was. The Old Schoolhouse Magazine publishes a series of unit studies called The Schoolhouse Planner each month from July of one year to June of the next. I reviewed the last module of the 2009 Schoolhouse Planner , which is the June 2010 Module.

     For those who may not know, a unit study is a study focusing on one topic. The topic for the June 2010 Module is  Travel the World, otherwise known as geography.  I was able to use this product with all four of my children at the same time.  I had printed out a black and white version so I could have a hard copy to go over and mark important points.  When we used it together, I set my laptop on the kitchen table and we were able to group around it.

    As I expected, with my 12th grader and, to a lesser extent, my 9th grader, this unit study provided a good, solid geography review.  With my 2nd and 3rd grader, we were able to go more in depth with geography than we previously had.

     My kids all liked the beginning section on latitude and longitude.  They really enjoyed the game link provided to practice finding coordinates.  Because we have a globe and wall maps as suggested, they were also able to see and trace the latitude and longitude lines.  They were able to see exactly where the Tropic Zone, Frigid Zone, and Temperate Zones are located.

     The study then moved on to the continents.  The younger kids really enjoyed the song provided to remember the names of the continents.  With each continent, there is information to read aloud and there are links to maps, information about geographic features and of course games.  I also gave them the print out coloring pages of each continent that is provided. This way they could color the continents while we were reading the information and they were waiting their turns to play the games.  In all honesty, I did not make my 17 year old son color, but all the rest like to color. I ask a lot of questions about what we are reading and to keep it interesting my oldest son kept track of “pointless points” to see who answered their questions correctly.

     Other aspects of this product that I liked were: the included worksheets and coloring pages and the high school expansion section.  There were word searches,word scrambles, crossword and rebus puzzles and fill-in the blank pages.  There were copy work pages, both manuscript and cursive. Also, answer keys were provided for the worksheets. For the high school expansion there was extra information, a Geography challenge and report topics.

  The only drawback to this product for me was, the amount of ink it takes to print out the book.  But thinking about it, this was my first time using this series.  The next time, I will have a better idea of what it entails and may not feel the need to print everything out. It is nice to be able to order an e-book and have it available for download immediately.

     As you can tell, I really enjoyed using this product.  It made a great summer study. The study for us, only took about an hour and half a day for about 4 days.  It was so interesting and something that my various age children could all do together.  I found it very unusual to find something that would be a benefit not only for a 12th grader but also a 2nd grader.  This was the first time other than worship and read aloud books they had been able to sit together for any type of lesson.  All in all, I think I will try another module of the planner in the future.

I received this product for Free in exchange for my honest review.