Category: History

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Time Travelers: The Civil War – Review

I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

My kids don’t like boring history books. They want to learn history with their hands on it. Doing fun activities instead of reading a book is an excellent way for my kids to remember what we are learning. We used Time Travelers: The Civil War from Home School in the Woods with Ray Ray over the last few weeks.

Time Travelers US History Studies are theme studies based on different events that happened in the United States. I know Ray Ray loves anything with action, so we went with the Civil War study. Everything we got for the review was in digital format, but you could also order the CD version.

There are 25 lessons in this study, and you can spread them out how you would like. You can do one lesson a day for five weeks, like the suggested schedule shows, or you can do fewer lessons a week. We opted to do lessons every other day since that is how we split up our history and science courses.

Each day, we have a little bit of reading that will talk about the theme for the day. We can follow this up with different fun activities. We currently have a newspaper from the times that we add to periodically. As we do the various activities, we add them to a lapbook to store away in our portfolio. These lapbooks are also a great way to go back and review what we have learned throughout the year.

With this study, you get the PDFs of what you need, but you will have to supply the paper, file folder (for your lapbook), and other supplies. You will be in charge of printing everything for this study. That is fine for us because of our printer setup, and I like that I will be able to use this again when Little Miss is learning about American History.

These studies are geared for grades 3-8. They are adaptable to the ages by adding or taking away different activities. With Ray Ray being on the older side of the recommended age, I had him do more of the extended activities, but I know when Little Miss does this for the first time, she won’t do as much.

I enjoy that the Lesson Plan Schedule shows all the different activities that can be done with each lesson. I can have that in front of me while I go and print all the various pages. There is also a Lesson Projects page for each lesson. This page will detail the different projects and explain how to print the projects to make them turn out correctly.

The one thing about this study from Home School in the Woods is that it is not an open and go study. There is printing, cutting, assembling. This used to be an issue for me when my kids were younger, but now that they are older, I can make them help with all of this. Ray Ray enjoys being a part of completing all of these projects because they make them his.

While the cutting, coloring, and assembling is the fun part for Ray Ray, he is not my writer. I would have loved the newspaper concept when I was in school; Ray Ray does not like this. Because I need him to write more, I find the newspaper to be the perfect way to get him to investigate more about what was happening during the Civil War without writing a full report for me.

Home School in the Woods has many different options for all of your hands-on history learning needs. Check out some of the other products that were reviewed right here.

Hands On History with Homeschool in the Woods

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Ronald Reagan: Destiny at His Side – Book Review

I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

We love adding books into our learning whenever we can. When given a chance to pick a book from YWAM Publishing and their Heroes of History, I let Ray Ray pick one. He decided he wanted to learn a little more about Ronald Reagan. For the last few weeks, he has been reading Ronald Reagan: Destiny at His Side.

What It Is

For this review, we got a copy of Ronald Reagan: Destiny at His Side and the digital unit study guide. The book is paperback and just over 220 pages in length. The study guide is packed full of ways to use this book as part of your school curriculum. The beauty of these books, you can use them for school or just for fun reading.

This book starts with an exciting first chapter on the attempted assassination of President Reagan but then brings us back to his beginnings as a child named Dutch. As we read the book, we follow the life of Dutch as he works his way to becoming president. For my history buff son, this was fun and interesting to learn about Ronald Reagan’s life.

Going through the unit study guide, you can find ways to use the Heroes of History series as a complete history curriculum. Books like Meriwether Lewis: Off the Edge of the Map and Abraham Lincoln: A New Birth of Freedom allow you to move through the history of our country through the eyes of those who lived it.

How We Used It

As I mentioned, Ray Ray is my history buff son. He loves to learn on his own about events that have happened, so a standard history curriculum is rather dull for him. I allowed him to pick the book of the person he would like to learn more about and used the unity study guide to use this for his history. With the unit study guide, we took a simple book and were able to add in history, geography, and writing, among other things.

There is no right or wrong way on how to schedule this unit study. I opted to have Ray Ray read a chapter every other day. On the opposite days, he would work on the chapter questions. I had him keep a notebook where he could take notes and write out the answers to the questions. As we went along, I would also grab an idea from the student explorations, either writing or a hands-on project, to have Ray Ray complete.

What We Thought

Ray Ray is in love with this type of history learning. I love that I can pick and chose the different things from the unit study guide to enhance his knowledge of Ronald Reagan. Honestly, even if we were not using this for history, I can see Ray Ray just grabbing one of these books and reading it for the fun of it.

I love that the books are easy to read yet full of information. They are well laid out and work for family read-aloud or independent learning. The unit study guide is full of beautiful ideas that check your understanding of the book and bring it to life.

If you are looking for a change in your history curriculum or a way to add to it, I recommend the Heroes of History series. But you don’t have to take my word for it. Check out the other reviews right here.

YWAM Publishing

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Famous Figures of Ancient Times – Our Review

I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

History can be boring. But, it doesn’t have to be! We have been using Famous Figures of Ancient Times from Figures in Motion to add some hands-on fun with Little Miss’s history lessons.

What Is It

Famous Figures of Ancient Times is a paperback book containing 21 famous people from ancient times. There is a short description of each person along with a reading list that can go along with the book.

Each of the figures comes in two ways and all the paper is a heavy cardstock. The first version of the character is just a line drawing for your kids to color themselves. The second is a full-color version that just needs to be cut and put together.

The putting together is very easy, as all parts are labeled on the back. You simply match and attach. It is really that easy!

Famous Figures of Ancient Times can be a stand-alone history curriculum or it can be used as a resource to add fun to your current curriculum.

How We Used It

Our current history curriculum has reading that I read aloud to the kids. During this time, Little Miss would get the character that we were learning about that day (if there was one), or would catch up on some that we had already learned about.

After making her figures, Little Miss would be able to go around and create scenes with them to show dad and big brother what she had learned. This was a fun way to see if she was listening while I was reading.

While we used this as an added resource to our current curriculum, you could easily use this as a stand-alone history curriculum. With the information on each figure, you have a great base. There is also a great book list to add more learning for each time period.

What We Thought

The quality of this book was great! The figures are very sturdy and hold up to use after making them. It was fun to see those we were reading about come to life for my daughter. 

I really like that there are two options for each figure, so my daughter can decide if she wants to be creative or just give herself something to do while listening. Seeing that the list of figures included all the major ones from our history curriculum.

Little Miss used to be bored during history, but now she wants to do it first so she can make more figures. This is a great addition to our homeschool history lessons!

Figures in Motion have other time periods also. If you want to see those and see how other homeschool families used Figures in Motion in their homeschool, check it out over here.

Figures in Motion

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Children’s Atlas of the U.S.A. ~ A Master Books Review

We love to have books that are fun to read and we learn from them. We got the chance to review the Children’s Atlas of the U.S.A. from Master Books and we were thrilled!

What Is It

There are 112 pages to this book. While we got the digital copy, we love to hold things, so I printed this book out (Thank you HP Instant Ink!).  I just wish I had used a thicker paper when I printed, live and learn. After a short introduction and a table of contents, we have a two-page spread on every state in the U.S.A. At the end of the book, we have the District of Columbia also listed, along with a glossary and index.

Each two-page spread will name the state, show it on the map, and give us a map of just the state with the major cities. There is a sidebar that lists the state’s preamble, statehood history, population ranking, capital, state flower and bird, nickname, and highest point. We also have the state flag, seal, and an interesting fact.

The first page will share with us some interesting state history facts. The second page shares with us Wonders in God’s World for the state. Both of these pages are full of beautiful color pictures. If this is anything like the Children’s Atlas of the World, which we own in the physical form, I know that those pictures are so much more beautiful on the printed pages versus my printing. We honestly still loved the pictures.

How We Used It

With the current course of study that we are in, we are not focusing on the U.S.A. but that did not stop us from adding this into our studies. We added this book into our daily moring time, only we only used it once a week. We grab the book on Wednesday of every week, read a two-page spread of one state, and discuss. It is that simple. Yes, we could add more. What? We could do some copy work, we could add a more detailed study of the state. We could even do more than one state a week. However, right now, we are using this as an introduction to the U.S.A.

In the future, we do plan to use this more. We will go through all the states one time as an introduction. We will start over again in about a year. The next time we go through this book, we will add a little more extra work. And that cycle will continue until the kids know the U.S.A. and some facts about each state…and mom and dad also!

What Did We Think

We loved this book! The information in the book is wonderful! We have learned so much, even though we are only a few states in. We love the options that come with this book. You can really use this however you want. I have found my husband flipping through the pages when he thinks no one is looking. The kids don’t think they are really adding another subject to their day, but they are learning each time we open the book.

This book will be used for many years in our homeschool. From learning state by state, or by adding this in as we learn about the history of the U.S.A. There are endless possibilities, just let your mind, or your children’s mind take the lead for how to use this!

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Wonders of Creation – A MasterBooks Review

My kids love books. This is no surprise! We have been reading books since they were babies. While they love reading books, sometimes reading to learn is not always as fun. We have had a chance to take a look at the digital copy of Wonders of Creation: Design in a Fallen World from MasterBooks. This book has helped us enjoy learning while reading!

What It Is

We had the digital copy of Wonders of Creation, but there is also a physical copy if you want to actually get your hands on this book!

Our digital copy has 218 pages from start to finish. There are 14 chapters in the book:

Table of Contents

  • 1. Since the Creation of the World
  • 2. Land Mammals
  • 3. Sea Creatures
  • 4. Birds and Flight
  • 5. Insects
  • 6. Stars and Planets
  • 7. Starlight and Time
  • 8. Beauty
  • 9. Mathematics and Beauty
  • 10. Materials
  • 11. Mankind
  • 12. A Changed World
  • 13. The Six Days of Genesis
  • 14. What Happened?

This book will not only talk about the perfect world that God created, but it ends with what went wrong. This is not a dark and terrible ending, rather we are walked through the fall that Adam and Eve created, and we are learning about the why’s that have come from this. The explanations have not only helped my kids understand the pain and suffering of the world, but it has also helped me understand it better!

How We Used It

Since this was not a textbook, there are no questions to be answered, besides our own, we used this as a book to read as we wanted. We started reading from the beginning but found ourselves jumping to the different categories that we were more interested in.

While we didn’t always use this for a textbook, I did decide that we would pull this out and read at least one section a week. This allowed us to talk about how everything was made perfectly the way that God had created it. It was the perfect break in our typical school and allowed us to still learn.

What We Thought Of It

We give this book thumbs up! We really enjoyed scrolling through and looking at the pictures. This leads to us reading about the different creations of the world and how they work. While reading about the Fall is not something we look forward to, this book was able to describe it in a great way for all of us to understand.

This is a book that my kids will be loving for years to come. I love knowing that my kids will be able to learn about creation with a strong biblical viewpoint. This will help them defend their faith and know that all was created just the way God wanted it to be.

If you are looking for a beautiful book full of great pictures and useful information, you will want to grab a copy of Wonders of Creation for yourself!

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Biblical Worldview History with Pathway to Liberty – A Homeschool Crew Review

My boys love history, they are like their father when it comes to that. I have never really liked it. This made it hard for me to teach this subject. We have tried many things, but nothing met my expectations or theirs at the same time. That is until we found Pathway to Liberty Homeschool Curriculum!

Ray Ray and I have had the chance to check out Pathway to Liberty’s World History (Year 4 Level 2) a part of A Pathway to Liberty’s History Curriculum. We are excited to tell you all about it!

What It Is

For this review, we received a spiral bound teacher guide as well as a spiral bound student guide. The student guide is about 100 pages longer than the teacher guide because it has the extra pages for the students to write their answers on for each lesson.

Each guide starts the week the same way. We see the overview of the week. This has the scripture, principle, and leading idea for the week. There are four lessons for each week. We not only see our current level but all four levels and what is to be done for each lesson. There are also writing options for each level as well as ways to expand the history and vocabulary words.

 

Each week, the lessons are clearly labeled which makes it easy to see what needs to be done. The pages are black and white, which is simple to print if you get the digital edition.

How We Used It

Ray Ray and I would sit down together at the beginning of the week, sometimes Monday, other weeks it was Tuesday due to appointments. We would look over the weekly overview and talk about what we would be doing each day. This gave him an overview and allowed him to mentally plan what was going to happen.

Many of the reading was in the guides, but we did also use The Chain of Liberty (find it here) and A History of US (we found all of the ones we needed at our library). Some of the readings got a little long for Ray Ray, so we would take turns reading them.

 

Since there are only four lessons each week, we would take the extra day to work on our vocabulary and writing. The weeks when we started on Tuesday instead of Monday, we would only do the vocabulary on Friday. I really appreciated that all the levels writing options are listed in each guide. This meant some weeks I could have Ray Ray do his level or level one if it was a tough week. Meeting him in the middle is always something I love to do.

What We Thought

This is the history curriculum that I have been searching for! It is based on Biblical Worldview and shows Christ in history. I love the scripture verses and principles at the start of each week and how the rest of the week grows off that.

The lessons take about 20-30 minutes, but they are not boring. They are fun and engaging. There are YouTube videos that are made to go along with some of the lessons. These really made Ray Ray even more interested. He loves watching YouTube, so watching these was a fun addition to the lessons.

I really enjoyed being able to open the teacher’s guide and not feel lost. I could easily work through this with Ray Ray. The hardest part I had was to go on my libraries website to get the A History of US books on hold for when I needed them.

If you are looking for a history curriculum that is biblically based, Pathway to Liberty is what you are looking for!

Read the rest of the reviews from the Crew right here:

Universal History, The Middle Ages, US History & World History Curriculum {Pathway to Liberty Homeschool Curriculum Reviews}
 

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À La Carte Projects from Home School in the Woods – A Homeschool Crew Review

History is not always a fun topic. Sometimes it can get boring. But it is a subject that needs to be taught so that we can learn from it. I love our current History curriculum, but I feel that it needs some more hands-on fun. I am able to add to our curriculum with the Home School in the Woods  À La Carte products.

We were able to try out the Pirate Panolpy, A Trip to Town game, and America’s Beginnings Newspaper Collection. Each of these went with the time we are currently studying in our history curriculum. This was an excellent way for us to supplement our curriculum with fun, hands-on activities that brought our learning to life for the kids.

What Is It

The À La Carte products from Home School in the Woods is a great way to grab fun hands-on activities for your children to learn history. The items available cover many different time periods and there are many more being added regularly. This makes me happy after trying these three items out.

Each of these items came to me as a PDF download. They were in black and white and allowed me, or the children a chance to color them in as we saw fit. This was fun at times as I let the kids to color some of the parts, but other times I wished it was already in color, so I didn’t have to worry about it myself in the prep time.

Pirate Panolpy is a game of Pirate Garb. In this game, we learn about the different pieces of clothing that a pirate wears. For this game, we each needed the picture of a pirate in his skivvies. As we rolled a six-sided die, we would put different pieces of clothing on the pirate. We would talk about the clothing as we put it on and why the pirate needed that piece of clothing. The first person who fully clothed their pirate was the winner.

A Trip to Town is another game we had the chance to get our hands on. This game is a file folder game of colonial life. This game uses the different artisans, vocabulary, diseases, and terminology of the time period to help your child learn about the daily life of the colonial life. This is a game that we played a few times before Ray Ray began to understand what he needed to do. This is also a product that required more prep time from me before we could play it. After watching the fun that Ray Ray had learning, I would do it all over again without an issue.

Finally, we had the chance to use America’s Beginnings Newspaper Collection. This was a fun way to take what we were learning and put it down in our own words. This collection included The Explorer Weekly, a new world explorers newspaper and The Town Crier, a colonial-era newspaper. Each of these gives your child main topics to write about while creating their own newspapers.

How We Used Them

We started with Pirate Panoply game since this was the first thing we were learning about. In our history lessons, I am able to read them aloud to both Ray Ray and Little Miss. Because of this, I had both Ray Ray and Little Miss play this game with me. First things, I had everyone color their own clothing items for this game. This gave them something to do and took the load off of me for prepping.

The kids loved this game. Their favorite part was seeing the pirate in his skivvies! My boys would never wear that as their skivvies. This game was a fun game to get the basic knowledge of clothing. The kids thought this was fun and they wanted to play it many times, even after we moved past pirates in our lessons.

A Trip to Town was a game that required a lot of prep for me. This is one that I wish would have come pre-colored. I could have printed it and used it in black and white, but what fun would that have been? This is also the one item that I had that had the most pages to print. For me, this was not a big deal, the only issue I had was that I didn’t have cardstock on hand to print on, but that was easily resolved. After that, I was ready to cut all the pieces out and get prepared to play the game. This is a game for 2-6 players, so I was able to spend some time with Ray Ray on this game. Little Miss would love to join us from time to time, but Ray Ray and I were the primary users of the game.

Playing this game, we had to make our “shopping list” and proceed to gather all these supplies by answering questions or telling the definitions to vocabulary terms. Our first time playing, we spent a lot of time in our history book, or on Google, but as we kept playing, both Ray Ray and I spent less time looking up answers and just knowing them! This showed me that he was learning something. I can’t wait until Little Miss is ready to join us in this game!

Now the newspaper collection. This is one that we love. One that we will keep using! As we worked through the different time periods, we would fill in the topics in the newspaper. Some of these topics were New Land Named America But Was it a Mistake, Russia Sends Explorer! Vitus Bering Tells All, Jamestown Settlement A Success!, and America Establishes “Thirteen Colonies”. These were just a few of the things Ray Ray was able to fill in and write about. As we learned these topics in our history curriculum, we would spend time writing for our newspaper.

What We Thought

This was just what we were looking for in our history curriculum! While we love our living stories, sometimes we need to add more. The À La Carte options give us just that, and we can pick and choose what we want to use. We don’t have to use everything for the time period, but we can use what we really like and take a break from our lessons to have some fun.

Ray Ray really enjoys writing his own newspapers. He started off slow but has been slowly adding to them as we go on. He loves being able to show these off as he finishes them. In fact, because of how much he enjoys these newspapers, I plan to get A Young Country Newspaper Collection to keep these newspapers going through our history lessons.

Finally, while the file folder game took some prep time for me, I have to admit that we learned a lot from it. Because of this, I plan to grab the Westward Ho! File Folder Game when we reach that time period.

We have had so much fun adding some hands-on activities to our history lessons. I am glad that Home School in the Woods has made this À La Carte option available! This means that I can add in what we like when we want it. This is one of the best things to happen to our history lessons in as long as I can remember!

À La Carte Projects - Individual projects designed to enhance your studies! {Home School in the Woods Reviews}
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Drive Thru History Adventures – A Homeschool Crew Review

This is a review post. I received this item in exchange for my honest review. Below you will find just that, my honest review.

History is a subject that the kids in my house love to learn about. But I am not too big of a fan. That means it is hard for me to find what they need to learn in a fun way. No longer am I having that issue now that we have the history videos from Drive Thru History Adventures.

What Is It

Drive Thru History Adventures is an online program that gives you access to World History, American History, and Bible History Adventures videos and curriculum resources. This is a great way to make history come alive for your children, and bring the right to the site of where these things happened!

What do I mean by that? Drive Thru History videos bring you on site with host Dave Stotts to see where history happened. This brings the past alive for you and your students. I add you into this because you will find yourself sucked into the videos as much as your children are.

We focused on Bible History Adventures and American History for this review. Moe Man was bored with his current Bible study, so we tried this and got two thumbs up. Ray Ray and Little Miss are learning American History this year, and we decided that Drive Thru History was an excellent resource for that.

How We Used It

We used this program in two different ways to meet the needs of our children. First, Moe Man used Bible History Adventures as a daily Bible Study. This means that every day during our school week, Moe Man would use Bible History Adventures to help him dig deeper into his Bible Study.

The beginning of the week, Moe Man would take the time and watch the episode while completing the discussion questions. But that was not the end of it for him. With the curriculum available on the website, we were able to build on each lesson. For each video, there is a Bible passage or two that go along with the topic of the video. It is available to read online, but I would have Moe Man read it in his Bible. Finally, we would finish the week with the Dig Deeper articles. These were a great way to find more about the topic, and I would have Moe Man write me a short paper on each of the ones he read.

The American History Adventures was set up in much the same way, only instead of Bible passages, there were articles that go along with the topic, like the Mayflower Compact or The Declaration of Independence.

Since I was using this with Ray Ray as a supplement, we used this a little differently. We didn’t do a lot of the Dig Deeper articles unless Ray Ray was interested in something. We would watch the videos, usually having extra family members join in and we would discuss the questions at the end. Where I had Moe Man write the answers out, Ray Ray would verbally give me the answers.

What We Thought

The kids were in love with this site! They were in love with the videos! Even Daddy wanted to watch with the kids. I would have to say that the videos were the favorite part of the whole thing for the kids. They were well made with Dave Stotts talking to us as the viewers. We never felt like we were watching some boring history video, to us we were watching a fun show that we wanted to binge watch all day.

I personally love that each of these three sections are set up in a way that when used as a full curriculum, we can open and go. All the information for each episode is on that page of the site. There are beautiful pictures and fun little “side road” notes about each lesson. Moe Man was able to spend time on here without needing assistance from me, which he loves and the younger kids were able to play around on the pages to watch what they wanted and read more as they wanted.

My favorite part about all of this? The Adventures TV! This is where I would let the kids go crazy and watch what they wanted. This is set up like many of our streaming apps, and all the videos from all the programs are available, this also includes Behind the Scenes and Dave’s Adventures. These are the favorite sections for the kids and me!

If you are looking for a fun and interactive history curriculum, this is going to be your best bet! What is even better, if you grab your own annual subscription, you can get The Gospels DVD collection for free, right here.

Head on over and see what everyone else is doing with their Adventures by clicking on this picture:

Drive Thru History Adventures - Subscription {Drive Thru History Adventures Reviews}
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Wulf the Saxon: Heirloom Audio Productions – A Homeschool Crew Review

This is a review post. I received this item in exchange for my honest review. Below you will find just that, my honest review.

Action, adventure, and drama. The things that pull the listener in, no matter their age is what makes Heirloom Audio Productions a company to keep your eyes on! We have had the chance to follow along with many of their previous audio dramas, and I am happy to say that we have had the opportunity to live the adventure of Wulf the Saxon over the last few weeks.

What Is It

We had the chance review the physical CD set of two CDs. The adventure of Wulf the Saxon takes about 2.5 hours. You will not be bored during this time. You will be drawn into the adventure as each character is played by a different person. This means, rather than listen to a story, you are listening to the actual adventure. You are listening to a T.V. show with your eyes closed and watching the action happen in your head!

In this audio drama, we follow Wulf, a young Saxon landholder. We are taken into the story by Mr. George, who tells this story to two young brothers. Wulf stands up for himself and for what he believes this. Because of this, he is punished. Through this and many other trials, Wulf stays true to himself, being loyal and trustworthy.

Wulf is with Earl Harold when they experience a shipwreck due to a storm. This leaves them on the shores of Normandy, and they find themselves captured by the Normans. Wulf stayed true during this time, and after they got out of the capture of the Normans, under a false oath of loyalty by Duke William.

But this was not the end of the battle for Wulf. He has much more he had to get through before he was able to take a breath and marry the woman he loved, the daughter of the man that he stayed with after escaping Norman custody, Agnes.

How We Used It

My kids love to listen to audio stories. They especially like them when we are in the car. I have also found that having them listen to them at bedtime instead of watching T.V. is a great way to ensure a great nights sleep. But I also like to be able to play it while we are eating lunch or playing some simple games at the table.

Between the use of our physical CD set, we had access to LiveTheAdventureClub.com from our previous reviews. This online club allowed us access to the option to listen to the story online as well. Not only that, but there are many other fun activities on the club for the kids to do.

What We Thought of It

My kids loved this audio drama as much as all the other ones that we have had the opportunity to listen to! We love Mr. George introducing us to the story. Ray Ray says, “He is so interesting and makes me want to hear what he has to share.” Hearing Mr. George be our narrator throughout this whole story was fun. He is our constant in all of these audio dramas from Heirloom Audio Productions.

The kids and I enjoyed listening. We loved all the sound effects that have been added in. If you have the chance to listen to this with earbuds in or a good set of headphones, please do. This takes the story and adds so much more to it!

We are once again happy with the chance to enjoy another fantastic audio drama. If you are in this time period for your history lessons, or if you just want a great audio drama to listen to before bed, this is one that you need to have on hand!

There were a total of 100 reviews of this product. Check out some of the other reviews right here:

Wulf the Saxon {Heirloom Audio Productions Reviews}
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The Thrifty Guide to Time Traveling – A Book Review

Time Travel

Every child loves to travel, and time travel is a great adventure! These last few weeks, the kids and I have been preparing for some traveling through time as we read The Thrifty Guide to the American Revolution: A Handbook for Time Travelers and The Thrifty Guide to Ancient Rome: A Handbook for Time Travelers written by Jonathan W. Stokes.

Time Travel
These books are written in 2163 and 2164 offering complete vacation packages for tourists who wish to travel back in history. You will find ratings on places to eat, as well as places to stay not to mention many helpful hints to get you through different difficulties that may arise.
Each book is written, literally as a travel guide. However, there are some rules for time traveling, such as not permanently changing the past. There are even insights on how to Prank the Past. My kids got a kick out of these sections!

time travel
We spent much time in the American Revolution, as this is the period we are currently learning about. The kids were laughing through this whole book! They found it funny to be reading a book that was telling them about British Battle Strategies as if they were actually lining up to fight and how to survive a cannon shot!
I do have to mention, not that it was a big deal for us, but there are sometimes when I notice the author could have used a different phrase. One such time was on the map of Bunker Hill. While I know they are trying to be funny and hit a target age group, some families would rather not see something like this.

time travel
These books are filled with so many unusual situations, yet they are also filled with so much history! The way the past is brought up and presented is what is making this stick for my kids. I love to give them books that are full of information, but sometimes they just need something funny. Finding a book that does both at the same time is a significant win in my book!

time travel
The Thrifty Time Travelers are middle school-aged books. I used it with my third and first graders. They loved them, primarily as we used them together. We would read a section and laugh as we would figure out what we would do, as well as talking about the events that were happening.
We have a new addition to our bookshelf, and I am happy to hand this to the kids when they want something fun to read. I know they will have fun, and I know they will walk away learning something new!

Both of these books will be available on January 30, 2018. You can pre-order your copy of Ancient Rome or American Revolution from Amazon.

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