Africa is such a magnificent continent and so much to learn that it can be somewhat overwhelming to a homeschool mom when trying to plan out a unit study and lesson plan as you wonder about what and how much to cover. That is one of the great “teacher aspects” of Amanda Bennett’s “Download N’ GO” products. We have had the opportunity in the past to use a couple of these units and I have been thoroughly pleased with each one. So I was really happy to be able to help kickstart our new year with one of these great units.
Each Download N’GO unit is a week long study and incorporates all the various aspects of traditional unit studies including vocabulary, science, history, geography and much more. With “Expedition: Africa”, the daily objectives were:
Day 1: Where on Earth is Africa?
Day 2: Some of the special places in Africa?
Day 3: A bit of history
Day 4: Cool things to know about Africa
Day 5: Fun and games in Africa
These units are by no means quickie or skimpy even though they are made to be completed within a week. They are written in a relaxed style and easily adapted to your families’ personal learning styles.
The book suggestion lists are great with 8-10 books listed for use for each day. Of course it is up to you how many books you use and what to cover from each one. And in no way do you have to use all of these books as they are just suggested reading. I had no trouble locating most of these books through my library search engine. The books are of various reading levels so that they can be used easily from grades K – 4th… and beyond as this unit is used with a second grader and a 5th grader. If you can not find the books mentioned, book substitutions are easily used and plugged in. Honestly you could actually do this unit without any books at all and your students will come away having learned tons about Africa, but the books really enrich and add the “living” aspect to the unit.
Links and videos are also included in the unit and this is an aspect that I really like since both of my kids are audio-visual learners. But there are so many ways that these units could be used by families with learners of all types.
And if your a lapbooker or notebooker , the minibooks and printables are perfect for you. The only drawback to this for me is the cost involved in printing. And I found that what works best for us, is using the unit as it is on our computer and only printing the components that will actually work for us and I print most of them in black and white and the kids color them (which is fun for them as well as saving me some money).
The activities really help the learning stick through fun and creative play. The arts are covered as the music of Africa is brought in. Spelling/vocabulary needs (one area where I have a hard time covering when trying to create my own lesson plans) are met as Mrs. Amanda gives you the words and fun lapbook minibooks to use to incorporate them in your kids work…
I personally like that missionaries are covered as it helps span even more of the curriculum bridges by including bible. Learning about the weather, animals, and terrain of Africa alone will be enough to have your kids asking for more.
And my FAVORITE section of the DNG Expedition : Africa unit, and that would be the “FUN FAMILY IDEAS”. These are great fieldtrips, things to do at home, great recipes and just all-around wonderful ideas for making the learning come alive and help make my goal of creating life-long learners a reality… Using these units can really make your homeschool fun!!
And at only $7.95 each and easily available for download from TOS they are a bargain in helping the homeschool family to find “fun” and “education” in the same study.
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