For a history buff like my son, Project Passport World History Studies: Renaissance & Reformation from Home School in the Woods is a fun and engaging way to learn history. My family just loves Home School in the Woods products.
With Home School in the Woods Project Passport series, you have so many options for projects and extras. There is something for every type of learner with Home School in the Woods Project Passport World History Studies: Renaissance & Reformation. Seriously – you NEED to check out Home School in the Woods Passport World History, you will be amazed!
You can check out our reviews of other Home School in the Woods products Project Passport: Ancient Greece, Hands-On Activity Pack: Composers, and Project Passport: Middle Ages.
What You Get
Let me start by saying you get a LOT of material with Project Passport. That being said, it is well-organized! Home School in the Woods products are available in digital download or CD format. We received the digital download version of Home School in the Woods Project Passport World History Studies: Renaissance & Reformation. We received a .zip file with everything we need for the course. It is the same as what is on the CD so both formats give you the same content.
Project Passport gives you everything you need to study World History: Renaissance & Reformation for approximately 6 weeks. The Renaissance & Reformation is intended for grades 3-6 but is easily modified for older and younger students.
The Renaissance & Reformation has 25 stops with over 50 hands-on projects and activities throughout. During the study, the student will learn about music, invention, and drama during the Renaissance and meeting interesting historical persons like Michaelangelo, Martin Luther, Magellan and Galileo. The student will read about Exploration, Invention, Church Reform, and Science and Art, writing up a news bulletin about the event or recording it on their timeline. You can check out a sample lesson and a sample audio drama here.
The download includes activities such as:
- Maps
- Souvenir craft cards
- Timeline
- File folder games
- Lap book options
- And more….
Another fun addition to their studies is recipes from the time period. This is a fun extra that the whole family can enjoy. You can read a great blog post on the Home School in the Woods site about how you can add a culinary extra to your history study.
The download includes step-by-step instructions for each stop as well as photos of completed projects and activities to help you assemble the projects. The download also includes several different cover and spine options for your Scrapbook of Sights binder (this is where you keep everything you work on during your journey.)
Working through it
Once you receive your .zip file, you will download everything and go to the “start here” menu and see what comes next. It is very easy to install and intuitive to work through. Though the sheer amount of materials can seem overwhelming, once you get in and get the hang of it, it’s very easy to use.
One of the first things you do is get your “passport” ready as well as your “luggage” setup. If you do subsequent Project Passports, you can add them to your passport and your luggage. This is a fun way to see all the places that you have studied.
The first “stop” takes a bit to get going because you have to set up everything – your passport and luggage as well as items for the first lessons etc. However, once you are set up, it’s easy to move through the lessons.
Some lessons take more than others to get through because the projects are more intricate. But I will say that, even though some of the projects looked a little daunting, the instructions are very clear and there are pictures showing what the completed project should look like, making it pretty easy to use and move through.
There is geography mapping and a timeline that goes along with everything. Since my son loves geography and maps, we definitely included it. There are several suggestions included on how to use these with your study.
The “stops” are easy to work through. These itineraries tell you exactly what to do and what is included or can be added to the lesson. I didn’t print these out because they are for me and it saves paper but you could very easily print them out and have them in a binder to work through.
The text of the lessons is included with the printouts. You can read them on the computer or print them out. No other books are necessary for the lessons. I liked that I could print them out and have the kids read them or just read them out loud for us all to hear.
The time commitment of each lesson is very manageable, and we enjoyed our lesson time. However, the amount of time dedicated to the lessons is really up to you, depending upon how many extra activities and extras you chose to do.
Some of the projects were more intricate and took more time. For instance, since this study is about the Renaissance & Reformation, we studied some Shakespeare. We made a Shakespeare theatre diorama. My son isn’t a big colorer so he didn’t want to color it but my daughter is anxious to color it herself. We had fun! Included were segments of Shakespearian plays so we could act it out with the figures. We had fun! And the included instructions and finished project photos made it easy to assemble.
What We Thought
We really enjoyed the study. This is a time period we have studied very little so it was fun to focus on something new. The kids really liked the postcards from famous people and the Shakespeare theatre project. We also enjoyed the Audio Tour: Michelangelo & Rome.
Each lesson the student is encouraged to add to the newspaper, writing about what they learned at the stop. My kids didn’t love that part but didn’t mind it and the fun newspaper background made it a little more appealing.
The audio tours were very fun and my kids liked them a lot. There are several throughout the study including Martin Luther’s 99 These and Shakespeare’s Globe, to name a few.
Overall, as usual, we love Project Passport World History and look forward to more in the future.
If you have never done a Project Passport, you can check out this blog post about Project Passport which gives some great details about the study and how they can be used. Check out this great video showing you what Time Travelers History Study Series is all about.
We have done several of these and will continue to use them with our history studies in the future. We look forward to checking out their newest Project Passport: Ancient Rome. Another great one for those new to Project Passport is Project Passport: Egypt.
Be sure to check out what the rest of the Homeschool Review Crew had to say about Project Passport and their other products, Timeline Collection: A Collection of Historical Timeline Figures and Time Travelers U.S. History Studies, but clicking the banner below.
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