New Testament Activity-Pak (Lap Book): Homeschool In The Woods

I have long been a fan of Amy Pak and Homeschool in the Woods products. We already own her timeline figures on CD, as well as the timeline book itself. I love the artwork she uses, the detail in the drawings, and the neatness of the writing describing the art. Everything I've received from this company has always been well done and produced professional looking results.

It was a pleasant surprise when I discovered that Homeschool in the Woods now produces unit studies and lap books. As of this writing, they carry five history Activity Studies covering New World Explorers through The Civil War. These include your text, Project Pages, lesson plans, etc. They also now carry Hands On Activity Paks, which are wonderful to supplement your studies. At this point there are three available, The Old Testament, The New Testament, and Artists. I was thrilled to have the chance to receive and review The New Testament Activity-Pak.



This Activity-Pak contains masters to create a lapbook of the New Testament, plus a New Testament News scroll and an Armor of God poster. As usual, the artwork is great and the text is neat and easy on the eye. A beautiful finished product is almost guaranteed.

I discovered lapbooking several years ago and love it. It's a wonderful learning tool and produces treasured mementos of my children's homeschooling. We have a couple file boxes full of the lapbooks they've created over the years and, unlike the math workbooks or book reports, these are keepers!

There are many different ways to lapbook. You can always create an original, or you can purchase a pre-cut and pre-colored research style fill-in the blank option, or you can choose one that has the information pre-printed so that you just have to color it and put it together. The Lap Book portion of this Activity-Pak is in the last category. My children love coloring and cutting and putting the pieces together and so are enjoying this one. As this is a topic we have studied, and continue to study, I am using this as a review time.

The folds and booklets included are fun and interesting. The Birth of Christ booklet flips open to a 3-D stable. The letters of Paul are postcards in a mailbox (love this!). The miracles of Christ are listed under cut-outs of loaves and fish in a basket. The whole thing is incredibly clever.

It's recommended for grades 3-8 and I would agree, unless you want to be there to help with the cutting and putting it all together. I am using this with 1st-8th grade and I put together my 1st grader's pieces as a demonstration to the others, so that's an option that works well. If you are unfamiliar with lapbooking, you may want to look up some of the common folds and mini-books, as there is not a lot of information included in the instructions.

The New Testament News project provides your creative writing. You create this scroll by taping the papers end to end and then using wooden dowels on either end. The student is given the headlines and they read the Scripture passage and then write the articles. There are also advertisements included for illustration. This is a great way to make report writing a little more exciting.

The Armor of God poster is an over sized poster of your child (you can either print and paste an actual picture of your child or have them draw their likeness). The student colors the poster and the armor pieces and then creates a pocket to store them. Each morning, they can take the pieces out and put on their armor, both literally and Spiritually! This is an excellent tool for teaching the importance of this Scripture passage and, in my mind, is worth the price of the Activity-Pak all by itself.

The Activity-Pak is available in CD and digital format, and includes all the masters for you to print yourself (I use cardstock as it makes for a sturdier lapbook). The CD version sells for $19.95 and the digital for $18.95, so choose whichever appeals to you most. Be sure to check out the other items available from Homeschool in the Woods too. As I said, this is one of my favorite companies!