Hands of a Child Curriculum Review

We reviewed Honing Your Study Skills from Hands of a Child.

I chose the note pack. What’s a note pack? From the company:

Note Packs are ready-to-go notebooking units. With our Note Packs your students are able to enjoy the same Research Guide and activities as our lapbooks, but without all of the cutting and pasting! Simply 3-hole punch the fun and interesting pages and add them to any 3-ring binder. Note Packs are available in the same formats as lapbooks.

Also available as a lapbook – eBook, CD, printed, combo, or kit. Prices vary.

When I saw this, I knew it was just what I was looking for to help my teen with her study skills and note taking. We’ve kinda winged it until now, but her work load is getting too much for her to not have a plan and study skills in place.

I printed the pages out on pretty paper and after she completed them, we 3-hole punched it all and put it in a folder for her to keep in her minioffice file.

I put the file on her iPad mini so she could read the lessons and instructions as she went along. Perfection!

Liz independently completed the note pack in just a couple days.

Then we reviewed what she learned.

I especially liked the pages on time management and reference materials. We try to do it old school and I make sure my kids know how to use dictionaries, thesauruses, and encyclopedias. Then they can search the Internet. I extended the lesson by comparing primary and secondary sources. We discussed plagiarism and the reliability of Wikipedia as a reference source. We discussed research and source citation methods for different subjects. I can’t wait until she’s ready for complex research assignments! I plan to have her complete a small literary analysis this year. I love MLA.

The note taking and study success pages were eye-opening for Liz who has never really had to study before. (I think I went until my 3rd year of college before I had to study…)

Of course, I could have gathered all these materials and taught the lessons, but Liz loved the concept of the notebooking. She read, wrote, and narrated it back to me! All keys to learning well.

The best part? I can reuse many of the pages for any subject. There are biography notebooking pages. A weekly schedule is a great tool for her to learn to manage her time. I’ve been providing her with a schedule, but now I will release that responsibility to her! A mnemonic page is useful. We did the study area evaluation and decided on how to best utilize study and learning spaces.

3 main types of learning: