This past week I have still been out of it with the virus and as such we kept the home education routine to our scaled back version but the kids actually surprised us and ended up doing quite a bit of History by themselves.
Before we came down with the virus we were working through the Middle Ages, very slowly, watching lots of documentaries, reading a number of sources and doing a few little projects. The kids and I had already worked through the Black Death Topic Pack together but we still had the Peasant’s Revolt and the Becket and Henry II Topic Packs that I was planning on going through with them. And then the virus struck and all plans went out the window.
But this past week the kids unpacked the two unused Medieval Topic packs and worked through them by themselves. And I know they did a good job because when I came downstairs to check on them my daughter used the character cards from the Peasants’ Revolt to explain the order of events to me.
And my hubbie told me they did the same with the Thomas Becket pack – apparently over lunch he was given a detailed lesson all about Becket and Henry II.
I have always enjoyed using these Topic Packs as part of our home education but the fact that both the kids (aged 9 and 11) were so confident with the topic packs that they continued using them and worked through 2 packs while I was unwell was not something I was expecting. And for me this once again proves that this Oaka style of a Topic pack – using key sentences with graphics, followed by a learning map and character cards and then a write your own booklet does work for kids. It is accessible learning and my youngest even told me he enjoys reading the topic booklets so much that he wishes we had more. (I will add only my 11 year old worked through the Write Your Own notes. My nine-year old just read the booklet with his sister and worked with the learning map and character cards – which I am totally happy with).
I am thrilled with how these topic packs have worked this past week. I have been exhausted, with a continuous headache and a strange mind fog where I just was not thinking straight and definately not on the best form for education. But both kids still managed to continue learning and based on the explanations that they gave both their father and myself they definately understand the events and what unfolded in both cases. I definately agree with my son and think we are going to need more of these topic packs.
A few extra photos to show what these topic packs look like inside.
The Peasants’ Revolt and Life in Medieval Towns
I should also probably explain the way we store items in our house. The Oaka Book Topic Packs are stored on the kids’ bookshelf, next to other reference books that we have. And that includes the topic packs that we have already worked through and new “unused” topic packs. I have always had a policy that if there is anything in the house that is educational the kids have free access to it, I don’t hold back resources for when I want to do a topic.
For those who may be interested other History Topic Packs that we have used in the past are the Battle of Hastings and The Spanish Armada.
Admin Note – You can buy the Oaka Book Topic Packs directly from their website and you can also buy some of them on Amazon.
Oaka Books know that my kids enjoy their topic packs and have read some of my other posts so they have kindly sent us more packs to use. If and how we use them is entirely up to us. We are NOT paid for these posts.
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