Review–In the Hands of a Child–Project Pack (TOS Review)

    

We had a great time reviewing In the Hands of a Child, Ships and Submarines Project Pack. We have done several lapbooks over the years, and this is the first time we have done one from Hands of a Child.  I have to say that HANDS DOWN this was our favorite one. 

It wasn’t our favorite because of the subject matter (thoug we loved that too, it was a fun one!), but the layout!!  The layout was similar to those we have used in the past, but there were a few distinguishing features.

1.  Writing options:  My son HATES to write, and therefore I do most of the writing on lapbooks or else he does not enjoy them at all!  The K-3 level of Hands of a Child lapbooks give you 3 options for the writing portion of lapbooking.  You can cut out the pretyped words and glue them in the proper places, you can cut out dotted words for your child to trace and then glue, or your child can do the writing his/herself.  This was IDEAL for my son (age 7), he enjoyed the unit so much more when he could just cut and paste and not write, write, write! 

2.  Content:  Other lapbook units I have done come with the informational packets to go with the topic, however, many times they don’t really line up with the pieces and information to go on them that are placed IN the lapbook.  This unit was spot on….everything that was put into the lapbook was in the informational packet, I didn’t have to do any further searching for information.  Which also means that no real prep work is necessary for this unit.  You simply just print and go! 

3.  The outline:  The unit comes with an outline that breaks the unit down into 5 days worth of work, showing you exactly what to read and what to cut out each day.  This way I knew exactly what we were doing each day and how long the unit would take us, at just a glance.  I would give C the papers he needed to cut out for the day, and I would read the information that went with it, and he was able to glue in the information as I read. 

This unit costs $12, but is currently on sale (through August 31st) for $5! 

Working on the cutting and gluing – we did the pieces each day and saved them to add to the lapbook all at once at the end. 

Putting the lapbook together 

The finished product.  You don’t have to copy the pieces onto colored paper, but it does add to the finished look.  They also suggest using colored folders, but I always buy them in bulk at Costco and use what I have on hand already. 

Making submarines out of tin foil  (this was their own idea, but was sparked by the unit).

This particular unit is geared for K-3, but all the units come with suggestions on adapting the unit for younger and/or older children.  From what I can tell, however, the older units do not come with the pre-typed and dotted line choices for filling in the writing portions of the lapbook pieces though.

We will definitely be looking at Hands of a Child lapbooks for future use!  

The unit comes with a great list of resources to go along with, but here are some items that we already had on hand and used:

Books we read:

Usborne Books

Videos we watched:

Popular Mechanics For Kids Season 1, Ep. 2 "Popular Mechanics For Kids - Season 1 - Episode 2 – Submarines (Amazon)

Popular Mechanics For Kids Season 1, Ep. 9 "Popular Mechanics For Kids - Season 1 - Episode 9 – Boats (Amazon)

Submarine – Hidden Hunter (Netflix)

Super Carrier (Netflix)

All about boats & ships (Netflix)

Brain Pop Jr – Sink OR Float (subscription required)

Bill Nye the Science Guy Buoyancy – which unfortunately seems to have been removed from youtube due to copyright. 

We also did an experiment making tin foil boats and filling them with pennies to see whose could hold the most!