The product itself is just a cd and you will need to either read everything online or print it off. I usually do not like this format but I was familiar with this product from past use and knew what to expect of myself (pre-printing before the day needed) and printed what was needed for the week on the weekend as I made schedules. This way I only printed off what I absolutely needed. For us, this was the lesson page, the project pages that only contained lapbook work and the actual lap book work. We did not need the notebooking pages. The cd has a detailed section on how to set up the lapbook...very detailed with step by step pictures on the actual making of the lapbook as well as where everything goes. Pictures of our finished lapbook are at the end of this post.
The lessons themselves were about 2 pages long. These were very detailed but written in a matter of fact way so the delivery of the info was boring. They info on the explorers were dry facts with no drawing in power to the reader or listener. I usually just highlighted the main things needed for each explorer and picked one or two facts of interest if any or used the sheets as a guide on who we were studying for the day. Here is where library books came in handy. The books offered the info in a more interesting way. Even if my child was older the lesson pages would not have drawn her in...I read them and yawned. It could have been the subject to...so many explorers and trying to get the info on 2 pages might have meant leave out the glitz. We will see how the other lessons are written in the other TT curricula, but since I am using them as guides I am fine with this.
The amount of offerings each day and/or week kept things interesting and always something could be found that interests the child. From elaborate projects such as building a large cardboard ship to play in (we did not do this) to making spice cookies (yummy). The activities also drew on different skills from creative writing to hands on experiments and allowed you (or your child) to do as little or as much as wanted. I felt we always had options on activities and not once was left with no project for the week. Each week ended with 2 recipes from a country where the explorers were sent from. Several games could be made, these looked very nice (not hokey) and even though we did not do them I feel they were excellently created and looked fun for the whole family. Suggestions for an end of the curriculum party complete with decorations are also given. Be sure to take pictures of the projects because on the lapbook there is a section specifically for pictures of the projects.
The lapbook is put together in an orderly fashion and when closed is a tidy single file folder size. We did a lapbook last year that was like a road map when trying to fold it up, a complete headache each time we added to it. This one is neat, as in not messy. We made ours as suggested including the making of the ropes, but you could just glue the picture on the front and that would be good enough. They suggest you put your lapbook pieces in a bag and assemble it at the end, but we added as we went so no lost pieces (which I am sure would have happened even if I placed them in a zip lock and hid them in a lock box). The lapbook display pieces were not elaborate (with the exception of the equipment wheel) and easy for my 3rd grader to figure out on her own, but not boring. Some could be made as detailed or as plain as the creator wanted them to be so no feeling locked into a certain design method. All the pieces are placed in a pleasing manner so when opened you do not feel overwhelmed but in an inviting come-see-what-I-learned manner. Note: the lapbook had acetate mini maps you could create for the different explorer routes but we did not do those.
Overall I feel the Time Traveler Explorers cd was well worth the money and did exactly what I wanted. It provided me with a guide on explorers to teach to Emma, fun activities, and a neat lapbook, plus it went well with the SL curriculum weeks 1-4. I will most certainly be continuing with my plan to use the Time Traveler cds with SL.
Thanks for the review. I wondered about the lesson pages and if they would be interesting as a spine. The lapbook looks good!
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