Review:: Download N Go: Expedtion Australia
Do you know what lollies are? How about how big a koala is when it is born? My boys do, thanks in part to Expedition Australia, one of The Old Schoolhouse’s Download N Go Series.
Download N Go: Expedition Australia is a unit study that explores science, history, geography, and culture while embarking on an adventure down-under. We learned about the continents, explored the beautiful geography of Australia, met the animals of Australia, and translated Australian-speak. The boys were also encouraged to compare and contrast their home with Australia, which made for some interesting discussion… and the expressed desire of one son to move to Australia (after all, 55 degrees and sunny sounded far better than 39 with a chance of snow!) This e-book is recommended for students in grades K-4, but I felt it could easily be adapted to use with children in upper-elementary school on into middle-school by encouraging older students to delve into the geography and culture in more depth. The list of Family Fun Ideas included at the end of the book provides a wonderful start for further exploration.
Our Australian adventure was our first experience in using an internet-linked e-book, an e-book that contains numerous links to websites and You-Tube videos that enhance the learning experience. We don’t typically use the computer a great deal during our homeschooling day, so this activity was a real treat for my computer-loving boys. At the end of each of the segments, they were asking to watch more video clips on Australia or to look up more Australian words. A few of the links they found boring – a word we don’t usually allow in our home, but in this case I’d have to agree that some were more informative and did add more to the lessons than others, so I would suggest previewing the links before introducing them to your children and selecting only those that you feel do indeed add to your learning experience.
Using the computer to complete a lapbooking activity.
One thing I really liked about this e-book is that although it does rely highly on the links to convey information to the students, the author, Amanda Bennett, also includes a comprehensive list of in-print books for additional reading. Since I am a book in the hand kind-of-gal, I appreciated this addition. We did find a number of the books at our library. Some of them the boys and I read together during our school-day, while others they have read/looked through on their own in their free-time.
In addition to this being our first internet-linked e-book experience, this was also our first lapbooking experience. I am familiar with lapbooking and I’ve thought about trying it with my boys for some time now, but I kept putting it off, fearing they would be turned off by the amount of writing, cutting, and gluing involved. Somehow, I couldn’t help but see some of the lapbooking activities I had seen on-line and in-person as busy-work. Was I wrong! Ryan and Connor both LOVED their first lapbooking experience. We had no sooner finished our first day of lapbooking activities, and Connor was asking if we could move on to the activities for Day 2!
The activity sheets included in this e-book are well-thought-out, informative, and colorful. The templates for the lapbooks are easy to use. Our (almost) completed lapbooks are already treasured possessions. Both boys have proclaimed that they will do a presentation on Australia using their lapbooks for their co-op classes. This is a high honor indeed as only the most prized possessions are deemed worthy of co-op presentations by my boys (think Legos, Webkinz, and photos of pets!)
I did have to adapt a few of the lapbooking activities for the ages and abilities of my children, which did result in my spending a bit more than the author-indicated 15 minutes of prep-time necessary to begin this unit, but even so, the activities proved to be very easily modified and my prep-time was still extremely reasonable. Primarily, I altered the activities to decrease the amount of writing, particularly when the boys were expected to write more than a few words in small spaces. Instead of having them write the definitions to vocabulary words on the backs of small cards, for example, I had them write the vocabulary word on the front of the card and then we found a definition on-line which we printed out and glued to the back of the card. I also decreased the amount of drawing required by searching on-line for photos of the various animals and geographic formations the kids were to draw and printing thumb-nail sized photos to glue in the appropriate spaces.
Overall, our first internet-linked e-book experience AND our first lapbooking experience were pleasant ones. The Download N Go: Expedition Australia was fun and informative! Ryan has already made me promise that if there is ever a Download N Go: Expedition India I will purchase it for him “since it is someplace I am going to go.” Wait until I tell him that I just peeked at the TOS Download N Go FAQs and saw a few new geography adventures coming in the Spring: Expedition Ireland, Expedition China, and Expedition Mexico! I’m sure he’ll be just as excited about these as he would be about Expedition India. After all, they are probably also places he’s “going to go;” his list of places to visit reads like roll-call at the United Nations!
Oh, and now to those questions at the start. If you visit Australia and ask for lollies, you’ll get a handful of candy. And a koala, well, it’s the size of a large jelly bean when it is born! For more exciting Australian facts, visit The Old Schoolhouse Store and download your own copy of Download N Go Expedition Australia for the very reasonable price of just $7.95.
Pros:
*A complete, well-laid-out, easy-to-use unit study with loads of fun facts and geographical
information on Australia at a very reasonable price, only $7.95!
information on Australia at a very reasonable price, only $7.95!
*A wonderfully simple-to-use lapbook component, so easy even a first-timer can use it with
success!
success!
*An introduction to some fun websites and beautiful You-Tube footage (of The Great Barrier
Reef, for example) related to Australia.
Reef, for example) related to Australia.
Cons:
*Overall, just a little too much reliance on internet-links for me; I still prefer a good book.
Although some of the sites truly enhanced the learning experience, others offered no more
than the books we read, and still others offered very little.
Although some of the sites truly enhanced the learning experience, others offered no more
than the books we read, and still others offered very little.
This product was given to me for review purposes. I do not have to return the product to the vendor.
I was not paid for this post. All opinions expressed in this post are mine.