A review of a Middle Ages history unit study

We love projects, and we love activity based learning, so I was very excited to receive a hands on history program from Home School in the Woods called HISTORY Through the Ages Project Passport World History Study: Middle Ages. There were four of these Project Passport studies for us to choose from, and we could only choose one for this review! They all looked so fun, how could I pick? Well, I chose the Middle Ages because we are studying that time era this school year, so I thought it'd be a great supplement. Little did I know that this would be more than a supplement! It is packed with so much information that it really could be used as a stand alone curriculum for the history of the Middle Ages (or whichever Project Passport study you choose).

This unit study was given to me as a digital file to download. As soon as I received the link to my download, I immediately got to work printing. There are many pages that need to be printed in the beginning especially as things are getting set up for the whole "traveling" experience. This download includes 25 "stops," and within each stop there are several tasks, projects, events, readings, and things to do and learn. Everything is laid out step by step within each stop, and easy to follow.

The very first stop we got to "pack for the trip" by making these fun suicase looking notebooks that even included a passport. We put the boys' pictures inside their passport, and filled them out with their names and everything. They sure had fun making these. I also put everything together in a 3-ring binder as suggested so I could keep it all together. It was also suggested to make a "scrapbook of sights" for each child, but I opted to just keep it all in my binder.

There are so many activities that it took us a lot longer to get through the stops than I thought it would. We made it through about 3 of the 25 stops. We were able to get some of the foundations of the study done like creating the scrapbook, timeline, and postcard stand. I looked ahead to see what projects lay ahead, and I saw things like games, art projects, puppets, lapbook elements, cooking, and more. I look forward to those projects as we continue through the study, but for now this is what we have done.

We printed up the newspaper, so that we can write newspaper articles along the way...

We have a timeline to add people and places we discover as we "travel"...

I did a lot of the prepping in the beginning to get us started because I knew my boys would just get bogged down if I tried to have them help me. So, I cut the "luggage" folders, and printed and taped the timeline together. I didn't include a picture, but I also made the postcard holder (there are postcards that they get to read and draw on during each stop). There are many opportunities for the students to write, and create things throughout the project.

I think we really enjoyed this Project Passport study of the Middle Ages. I think it would be fun to try out their newest one HISTORY Through the Ages Project Passport World History Study: Ancient Greece. Some of the other crew chose to review that study, and it looks like it is packed with a lot of great projects too. If you'd like to see what the others had to say about their passport studies click on the banner below.

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