I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.
Over the past several weeks my children have been learning about Ancient Greece with Project Passport World History Studies by Home School in the Woods. It’s like receiving plethora of subscription boxes at all at once, but you choose the projects that you’d like to include, and when you’re done, you have a completed lapbook, a binder, plus additional hands-on projects that your children have learned from.
What We Received
We received Project Passport: Ancient Greece as a downloadable zip file that included PDF, MP3, and JPEG files. Once unzipped we had pictures and instructions for all of the projects, plus text files and audios for the units.
Each of the 25 ‘stops’ is a lesson on one area of culture or history. Each stop has 2-3 pages of text to read and detailed directions on how to complete each of the elements that are required for the stop. A few of the stops also have audio files to listen to, for a little added fun.
As this is the fourth Project Passport we’ve done, we’ve learned the best way for us to set it up in advance. The first one I think we started off printing lesson by lesson and soon learned that it was much more efficient to spend a day printing everything off at one time and getting things organised in advance.
What I did this time was I printed off all of the Texts and used a coil binder rather than a ring binder. Then I did the same with the Itinerary. From here I used the Itinerary to guide me to print off the Master PDFs, which need to be printed on both coloured and white cardstock and paper, some single-sided, others double-sided.
The full-sized pages which would be kept in the Scrapbook of Sights, I also put into a coil binding to keep them tidy from the start. Then I separated the loose project pages for each stop and kept them in labelled L-folders until they were needed.
Be prepared for the prep work: it probably took me close to a full day to print, bind, and file everything, but it definitely makes everything run much more smoothly later on.
What you’ll need:
The main items you’ll need are a printer, white and colored printer paper, white and coloured cardstock, some acetate, scissors, glue, pencil crayons, a binder, hole-punch, cardboard, and a shoe box. There are other items that may be required for some of the ‘Souvenirs & Gifts’ projects that are more involved, such as fabric, clay, paints, plant pot, plaster of Paris, felt, florist’s tape, and a few others, depending on what you wish to do.
How We Used Ancient Greece
My children worked on Ancient Greece 3-4 days a week. We’d all gather together and they’d each read a stop aloud in the morning. Then over the course of the rest of the day they’d work on the activities for roughly a stop each. Some stops could be completed in a day, while others took longer. From time to time we’d have a catch-up day before moving on to new stops.
Project Passport World History Studies are aimed towards students in grades 3-8. For the youngest children I would perhaps do the reading and the lapbook, and a couple of the other projects, and increase the work for older students, but you know your children best. The entire project is projected to take about 8-12 weeks. It can be done in less time with more than one student working on it or do not complete all of the projects, or it may take more time if you delve further into particular areas of Greek history.
Many stops involve:
- Mapping
- Timeline (if you’d like to work on a timeline only, try Timeline Set: Creation to Christ (Beginning – 100 AD))
- Writing a small newspaper article or advertisement
- Designing a postcard
- Creating a fan deck of People of Interest
Ancient Greece Projects
In addition to the ongoing projects weaved throughout the stops such as mapping and timelines, each stop also has its own focus such as:
- The Archaic Period
- Everyday Live
- Science
- Philosophy
- Alexander The Great
- The Greco-Persian Wars
- Medicine and Disease
- The Arts
For each stop there is about 2-4 pages of text to read on the given topic, and occasionally an audio as well, recorded as if taking place during the time period.
There are then a few additional projects to complete for the stop. You are free to have your children complete just specific projects, or complete them all, depending on their ages, abilities, interests, available supplies, time available, etc. You could choose to just do the lapbooking elements and complete the unit study in a smaller amount of time, or you could do every project, as well as read the suggested books, and even watch movies or visit museums or go further into particular areas of interest your children may have to extend their learning.
Some of the other projects are:
- Learning about the different styles of columns
- Hierarchy of government in Ancient Greece
- The Might of Sparta
- Greek armor, weapons, & warfare
- Clothing of ancient Greece
- Greek recipes
- Building a Parthenon
- Greek pottery
- And more
What Did We Think About This Ancient Greece Unit Study?
As you’ll see below, we’ve used and reviewed several HSITW products over the past 6 years, and naturally, we wouldn’t keep coming back to them if we didn’t think they were worthwhile. Project Passport: Ancient Greece has a lot of prep work, and can be a lot of work for the students, depending upon how many projects you assign your students, but that’s what makes this hands-on and memorable for students.
During the time that my children have been working on Ancient Greece I have been diagnosed with depression, but because they are familiar with how HSITW works, they have been able to do most of the work on their own. There are a couple of larger projects that they still need to complete, either when I’m feeling more up to it or when their dad has time off work and can oversee them. In the meantime, they have been able to continue with their learning off-screen and hands-on and I am confident with the quality of the resources.
More About HSITW
We’ve reviewed many products by HSITW, which you can read:
- Ancient Egypt
- The Middle Ages
- Ancient Rome
- Hands-On History Artists Activity Pak
- Knights Lap-Pak
- Wonders of The World Lap-Pak
- Á La Carte Projects
Click here to read 47 more reviews about Homeschool in the Woods by the Homeschool Review Crew. You will find reviews on their History Through The Ages Timelines, Time Travelers U.S. History Studies, Activity Paks, and Project Passport World History Studies projects.
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