Has anyone used History Portfolio series?

[ballzy]

Any thoughts on this? It looks like it has some nice activities.

TIA

Colleen

[susie in tx]

My dd loved it when she used it. Unfortunately, I didn't keep up with it.

[PixieKris]

We are using it right now. I had my daughter choose between it and the Brimwood Press binder, and my daughter LOVES the portfolio, but I wish we'd done the Brimwood Press stuff. I liked her report forms (and the color coding as to which continent things went to) and pretty much all of the Brimwood Press Products. My daughter likes the portfolio because of all the different sized boxes - we paste in photos, she does comic strips, she writes reports and poetry, and draws pictures. I can't complain at all about the product, and it is working great for my daughter - just for my own organizational style, the Brimwood Press binder would fit better.

Just my .02.... Have fun!!
Kris

[Monkey Island Academy]

I have used these with my 2 sons (now ages 7 and 9) and have really enjoyed them. When we first used them the "junior" version was not available. We used SOTW as our history spine and as we finished chapters I wrote down my son's narrations for him and then he would illustrate the things that interested him about the topic. Some times we printed out pictures from the internet too. Like a picture of Archimedes jumping naked from his bathtub! That was a huge hit! :D
I think my oldest son was 6 when we first did Ancients and I look back on this portfolio now and the drawings are soooooo cool and precious to me! I have looked at the new Junior versions with all of the cut and paste stuff worked out for you and though they look good I don't think I would go that route. The personalization of the original version is just too cool.

FWIW I made my own versions for the boys for the middle ages and renaissance. Cost was a big factor for me in that year of study. Now we are back to using the pre-made one for American History and loving it.

In summary, I think it is a really nice product and makes a great keepsake no matter if you are using it with a young child or a high-schooler. A great way to organize your history study and very user friendly.

OK. This was a bit long-winded and rambling. Sorry, I'm tired today. I hope this helped in some way.

Michelle J

[Tina in WA]

Kris- What age is your dd? And which HP are you using?

Michelle- Are you using the American History HP? Is that the modern one?

I have been looking at these a LOT myself. I just don't know if I could/would put that much money into something for 4 kids and not end up using it.

~Tina

[Monkey Island Academy]

Hi Tina!

Yes, we are using the Modern history portfolio right now. Since my kids are still pretty little we use it very loosely. The portfolios have "chapter" divisions which suggest what kinds of narrations or illustrations to include for each topic. We pretty much ignore the suggestions and the kids do what interests them the most.

I agree about the cost. Especially if you have a number of kids to buy for. That's why I did my own for Middle ages and Renaissance. It would have been $100.00 for just the portfolios (not teachers guides) for both my boys to do one for each period.. And although the time period covers lots of stuff, I don't think we would have needed to cover everything the portfolios would have suggested either. At least not at this level of learning. In my situation now, I know that we have enjoyed them and kept up with them, so I went ahead and got the Modern one. It has been a motivating and organizing tool for us and I might not have otherwise been as good at keeping up with narrations.

Do you have children that are close in age where 2 could share a book? For the younger ones I think this would work really well as each could draw their own picture for a given topic and you could add short narrations. There is plenty of space in these books to do that, I would think.

Or you could try making your own. Make a few different pages with empty boxes on them, maybe 4 or 5 different layouts as masters and then copy the pages as you need them for narration onto cardstock. Put them in page protectors in a 3 ring binder and have them bound into a book when you finish your study.

I hope this makes sense. Did I mention that I'm tired today?

Michelle J

[Tina in WA]

You gave me some things to think about. Don't know if I am up to creating my own... But I will have to think about your suggestion.

Oh I don't think I could let 2 kids work on one... It would drive me nuts. I can hear it now, "NO, I didn't want that there." "I want to draw this time." etc... My kids work well together, but they like to have their own items to work on. :) But thanks for the idea. It might help someone else. :D

Ya, I did a mock check out for 4 kids and WOWWIE! I, of course, have to purchase all the extras for anything. And with 4 kids, it can be steep. I have thought of doing it with my younger 2 only (1st & 3rd), because I can do different stuff with my 7th and 5th grader. I am still thinking on that one.

Thanks so much for your reply. It has given me more to think about. I really like the looks of this.

By chance, do you blog and share what your portfolio's are like? I would be interested in seeing what you do. :)

~Tina

[Monkey Island Academy]

Sadly, I am only a blog-wanna be. I think the idea sounds like so much fun and it would be a chance to share a lot of what we do with family, but I haven't taken that first step to doing it yet. I'm not even sure what the first step is, LOL!

Maybe I'll take some pictures of some of the pages, see how they turn out, and email them to you sometime. Let me work on that. Or would it just be easier to start a blog?

Michelle

[Tina in WA]

I would love to see them. :D Thanks for the offer. You can email me through this forum.

But I am sure others would love to see them too. :o) If you want to start a blog, I recommendBlogger (https://www.blogger.com/start) . It was way easier for me to use then homeschoolblogger.

I really appreciate the time you have taken to share your experience.

~Tina

[ballzy]

in grade 7. I'm just wondering if it will be too easy for him, plus it doesn't look like there's any outlining, and that's a skill I'd like him to start doing.

Colleen

[PixieKris]

My daughter is 11 (6th grade) right now. We did the Ancient History and are working our way through Medieval right now. I am hoping also to start the Renaissance one.

We don't follow her suggestions very closely. My only other complaint (and my daughter also noticed this, without me pointing it out to her) was the focus on european history as opposed to WORLD history. So, when we studied Castles, we put our knights and samurai in the same area. That has helped us keep the "world" in the perspective. (That, and the fact that Story of the World has a world perspective, so we remember to include other places besides Europe! The portfolio does have a small "world" area in the back, but not big enough for us!! :) )

Have fun!

Kris