Friday, August 16, 2013

Hands of a Child: World Government {Schoolhouse Review}

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In the Hands of a Child sent Schoolhouse Review Crew members an assortment of Lapbooks and Note Packs to review. Our family received the World Governments Note Pack appropriate for children in grades 8-12.
 
Hands of a Child strives to provide hands-on learning for all ages that's educational and fun. This company offers a wide variety of Lapbooks and Note Packs covering many different subjects such as history, science, math, Bible, geography, holiday, just for fun, and more.
 
My 9th grade son chose a Note Pack instead of a Lapbook, so before I jump into the World Governments Note Pack review, let me tell you a little about Note Packs and notebooking. If you are not familiar with this style of learning, I hope this information proves helpful.
 
Hands of a Child Note Packs make excellent stand-alone unit studies or can be used as a supplement to an existing curriculum. They follow the model of Notebooking which is basically another way of saying educational journaling. With Notebooking, a student records information he's learned in a notebook or binder. The student then fills his notebook with pages that can include copywork, drawings, maps, narrations, reports, timelines, and more. Notebooking is like lapbooking without all of the cutting and pasting!
 
Notebooking can help students improve their comprehension, listening, narrating, artistic and organization skills. Students also have the opportunity to express themselves in a creative way and can easily show off their work once a notebook is completed. A finished notebook equals an instant scrapbook!
 
All Hands of a Child Note Packs contain all of the information, activities, and graphic templates needed to complete a notebook. They also include a Research Guide, Activity Questions, and Notebooking Pages.
 
Supplies needed for notebooking are rather simple - white or colored copy paper, notebook or binder, and writing and coloring tools.
 
 
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Once you have all of your supplies, you are ready to begin! The World Governments Note Pack follows this layout:

* Table of Contents
* Planning Guide
* Research Guide
* Graphic Templates

The Planning Guide contains the 5-day lesson plan for the note pack. It tells you what to read and which assignments to complete on specific days. Immediately following the planning guide is a related reading list, a bibliography, and an Activities and Instructions page. There are 15 activities (plus 2 extension activities) in this note pack. Each activity has a corresponding graphic template that can be found after the Research Guide.

The Research Guide contains all of the lessons that are to be read before completing the activities. It's laid out in a chapter-like format, and included at the end of the eight-page guide is a list of vocabulary words to learn during the study.

So, what did my son learn by completing the World Governments Note Pack during his very first week of high school in history class? I am so glad you asked! Here's a taste of what he learned about:
  • Roles of Government
  • Powers of Government
  • Limited and Unlimited Government
  • Types of Government
  • Forms of Democracy
  • Famous Dictators
  • Types of Republics
  • Governments Based on Economics
  • Types of Monarchies
  • International Organizations
Vocabulary Words learned:
  • Anarchy
  • Arbitrator
  • Compensation
  • Democracy
  • Dictatorship
  • Draft
  • Emir
  • Federation
  • Government
  • Hierarchy
  • Immigration
  • Monarch
  • Monarchy
  • Political
  • Republic
  • Sovereign
  • Tax
  • Theocracy

Most of the activities comprised worksheets in which information from the lessons needed to be recorded in the appropriate graphic templates. Some of the templates asked for my son's opinion. For example, he was asked to write about a governmental power with which he agreed and one with which he didn't agree. Also, he was asked to write a report answering the following question: "If you were to establish your own country, what type of government would you have and why. In these types of assignments, children really have to demonstrate how well they understand what they've learned.

 

The last assignment was kind of fun. My son had to think up an international organization that he'd like to create, and he had to describe its purpose and goals, give it a name, and design a logo. Being a little on the silly side, he came up with the National Association of Nerds and Geeks. :) Here's the logo he designed using Pic Monkey:



My son's opinion of the World Government Note Pack: He said it was easy work - most of the work was just copying from the lesson except for a few further research assignments. He also said that though it was informative, it wasn't hard core or anything - just learned the basics of government. One minor thing he didn't like was the layout. Flipping back and forth between sections was a bit bothersome.

*Really, my son's last point was a very minor issue. It might have been a little less bothersome if after each lesson the corresponding activity and graphic template immediately followed.

Hands of a Child World Governments Note Pack is a great unit study for learning the basics of world governments. For children in upper high school grades, it would probably be very beneficial to delve deeper by reading some or all of the suggested related reading. It's also flexible but can easily be completed in 5 days according to the schedule. The regular price for this Note Pack is $12.00, but it is currently on sale for $5.00. Don't miss this great deal - check them out today!


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2 comments:

kewkew said...

This looks like a great resource. i wonder if they will still be available when my children get older though. I have pinned your post for future reference though. Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Professional essay writing is closely related to the vocabulary usage you mentioned. We will encourage our writers to use the methods you indicated. Thank you for sharing!!!

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