I really, really loved using History Pockets with my children in grades 1-3. This series made it very easy to make lapbooks/notebooks on the various topics available. I am still going to use the "Go West" book when we cover the pioneers again this year. The rest we used and I've since sold, but I always recommend them to newbie homeschoolers who want to do fun activities with their children.

Now, I'm just NOT the most creative person - my right brain is a bit on the underdeveloped side - so I need to have activities laid out for me. In addition, my kids don't like to go majorly overboard on the hands-on stuff either. My 6th grader does like to create notebooks that she can save and look at again, so I was thrilled when I came upon the Hands-On History series (HOH) for grades 4-8. We used the American Revolution book last year with great success. If you've used History Pockets, then you'll also love the HOH books!

In each book, there are 12-16 activities/mini-books/projects, a vocabulary section, sometimes a play for the kids to read aloud or act out and ALL of the reproducibles you will need to make a notebook on that topic. In addition, answers to the questions that are on the reproducibles are also included. Sometimes, I just copy the answers and we "cut and paste" so that the kids can have more time to draw, color, or decorate the project. At the back of all of the activities is a Guide to show how to put the notebook together. We don't complete ALL of the activities every time and you don't have to either - just pick and choose what is best for your family! You can view 8 sample pages at this link.

Two other books by Michael Gravois I also own are Country Report Projects for Any Country and State Report Projects for Any State.

Check out these books at Amazon to see the insides of most of these books! I hope you have found this review helpful .... DISCLAIMER: I am in no way affiliated with this company - I'm just one HAPPY CUSTOMER!

... Kris ...