Author: Carol J. Alexander
Publisher: Lessons From the Homestead
Format: e-book
Price: $3.99
I haven't built a tree house with my children yet. We have a lot of trees, though most of ours are VERY tall, with very HIGH branches. Before we can build a tree house, we need to find one with proper support branches at a more reasonable height. But my children WANT to build a tree house, desperately. Whenever we do start planning our tree house, we'll definitely use Lessons From the Tree House to walk us through the process and learn from the experience.
Carol J. Alexander's boys do have a tree house they built themselves. She's been through the process of supervising its construction already, and she has used that experience to create Lessons From the Tree House, a compilation of over 50 lessons that can be incorporated into the building process. The seventeen page e-book is divided into three sections: the design phase, the building phase, and the enjoyment phase. In each section, Carol includes activity ideas for several different subject areas.
Some of the lessons included in this book are:
- mathematics
- computer skills
- research
- drawing
- science
- writing
- vocabulary
- tool identification
- safety
- Bible history
- budgeting
- public speaking
These are not scripted lesson plans. If you're looking for something that tells you exactly what to say and how to teach the lesson, you will need to look somewhere else. Instead, it is a list of lesson ideas that you can expand upon and personalize to suit your family's interests and learning styles. As a parent, you will still need to turn the idea into an actual lesson for your family. Some of the ideas are discussion topics, some are research topics, and some are actual assignments for your children to do independently. You would not need to complete every lesson idea in this e-book, but would select the ones that most appeal to your family or meet an educational need in your family.
Obviously, the Lessons From the Tree House e-book can't comprise your entire curriculum. It could, however, provide a break from other curriculum options, incorporating more hands-on lessons from life as you build a tree house or tree fort. That could be a much-needed refresher when Spring Fever threatens to derail your school year. This e-book could also provide a foundation for "summer school" to keep your kids' minds and hands busy during summer vacation.
This e-book is small, at only 17 pages long, but it is full of ideas to jump-start your children's creativity and revitalize your school with hands-on lessons. The $3.99 price is a good value for the ideas included. When you purchase the e-book it is sent to your email inbox, for quick and easy download directly to your computer. Like other e-products, it can not be given or sold to anyone else, as it is intended for single family use only. Lessons From the Tree House can be purchased HERE, as well as its companion e-books: Lessons From the Hen House and Lessons From the Seed Catalog. You can also sign up for Carol's Lessons From the Homestead newsletter while you're there.
I don't know about you, but by the time Spring rolls around, I'm fresh out of exciting ideas for our homeschool. I'm just pushing through to the end, much like my kids. Then summer comes, and I'm busy trying to catch up on household tasks, keep up with summer schedules, plan vacations, and prepare for the next school year. Often, my idea of an educational summer activity is to have my kids join the library's summer reading program, or watch an educational movie. I love the idea of having a list of more purposeful activities they can do while building their own tree house. I'm looking forward to using Lessons From The Tree House with my kids.
April E.
This ebook was provided to me free, for review purposes. I was not required to post a positive opinion, and the opinions in this e-book are my own.
