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History Unboxed Review

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Ask a homeschooled parent what their favorite subject is to teach and a great many of them will say history. Ask them what subject they hated most in school and the answer will likely be the same – history.

What changed? I suspect that age and perspective has a little bit to do with it, but for most of us one huge change is the way we learned history versus the way we now teach it to our children – and learn alongside them. When we were in school, history was all dry facts, names, and dates. Now, we’re able to teach about the people and events of history. We’re able to tell the stories.

History Unboxed Review and Giveaway

In my house, one big method for telling the stories of the men and women of history is great literature – historical fiction, biographies, literature set in the time period, and living books. The second is – you know what’s coming, right? – hands-on learning.

Two of the biggest hurdles for many homeschool parents when it comes to hands-on projects is coming up with the project ideas and making sure that all of the supplies are on hand. Now there is a fantastic way to overcome those hurdlesHistory Unboxed.

What is History Unboxed?

History Unboxed is a hands-on history subscription service for kids ages 5-15. Once you sign up, you’ll receive one project box each month containing project ideas, craft supplies, and historical facts from a given place and time in history.

One thing I really loved about History Unboxed is that there are separate subscription boxes for 5-9 and 10-15 year old students. So often these types of subscription  services sound like fun, but they’re geared toward young children. That’s kind of a bummer when you’re the parent of older kids and you want to have fun, too.

History Unboxed Project

With History Unboxed, younger kids will receive a letter from “Zane” and older kids will receive a letter from “Ava.” There are also coloring pages in each kit, with a more sophisticated page for older students.

What is in a History Unboxed kit?

Our first kit from History Unboxed was the kit for older kids and contained information about ancient Phoenicia, along with related projects. There was:

  • A letter from Ava describing ancient Phoenicia at the time of her “visit”
  • A fact sheet about ancient Phoenician
  • A coloring page and sticker
  • A sheet with the ancient Phoenician alphabet and a “gold tablet” on which students could write their own message, using the Phoenician alphabet
  • Instructions for Papyrus paper-making (supplies not included, but they were all typical household items)
  • Craft supplies for making a purple batik dyed bag

Hands-on history projects for kids

How are the History Unboxed projects?

Megan and I agreed that the History Unboxed project the we received was appropriate for its intended age range. What middle school aged girl doesn’t want to make a cool, personalized backpack?

The kit came with everything we needed to make the project (except our paintbrush was missing, but I’m the mom of artists – we have dozens of paintbrushes lying around) and Megan was able to complete the entire project on her own, except for one step. It involved this strange device:

iron

It’s called – we hear – an iron and in ancient times (not ancient Phoenicia ancient, but, you know, decades ago ancient) it was used to remove wrinkles from clothes. We just use the dryer for that. However, it is also a heat source, useful in creating a batik wax design on cloth.

One comment I often hear from parents about subscription kits is that they could get all those supplies themselves for less expense. People say the same thing about crafts at festivals – I could make that myself.

Sure you could – but are you going to? If you’re like me, there’s been more than one great project idea that’s fallen by the wayside because you didn’t have all the necessary supplies. With History Unboxed, all the legwork is done for you and it comes straight to your mailbox each month.

I’m at the stage of life where it’s kind of worth paying someone to do all the legwork for me, freeing me up to just do the fun stuff.

Giveaway

Are you curious? Each History Unboxed kit is $19.95 and you’ll sign up to receive one per month until you cancel. However, I’ve also got a box to give away! One winner will receive a one month sample box from History Unboxed.

Can’t wait to get started? If you sign up for the service now, then, win the giveaway, you’ll be given a credit on your subscription account.

Follow the directions on the RaffleCopter widget below to enter.

Rules: This giveaway is open to United States residents, ages 18 years and older only. Giveaway ends at 11:59 PM (ET) on Wednesday, April 22. The winner will be selected at random using Random.org via RaffleCopter.

The winner will notified via email and given 72 hours to respond. You must enter a valid email address to win. In the event that the winner cannot be contacted by email or does not respond within 72 hours, the prize will be forfeited and and alternate winner selected.

Click to read the complete rules. By entering this giveaway, you indicate that you have read and agreed to abide by these rules.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.

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61 Comments

  1. Really cool idea! I never follow through on all the fun hands on stuff because it is so difficult to gather all the elements.

  2. You’re so right about thinking you can do a project cheaper or better, but never actually doing it. Of all the boxed curriculum ideas, this is my favorite!

  3. My kids would LOVE this!!! I’m the queen of intending to get the supplies, but never actually doing it!!

  4. I love that it starts with ancients! I would like it if they added Modern, especially since that is next years time period!

  5. Anything during the Ancient Period, since we’ll be studying that next academic year…Mesopotamia, Indus Valley Civilization, Shang Dynasty, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, etc.

  6. What a neat idea! I love the thought of hands-on learning, but like you said – easier said than done. With this box, everything is ready to go and I’d have no reason not to use it with the kids. Great review, thank you!

  7. This is so cool! I love it! You are right about thinking, “I could do this myself”, yet it never happens. (I am very guilty of this.) 🙂 My daughter and I love the Egypt stuff. My sons would love something on medieval time or the vikings.

  8. How cool! I’d love to see a Civil War period box because I wish I knew more about that time. Thanks for the giveaway!

  9. Greeks, Egyptians, Rome, etc. My three youngest children are just getting interested in ancient civilizations. It would be a blessing to win this.

  10. What a great idea for a product! Being the history lovers that w are anyperiod would be wonderful, but vikings, Lewis & Clark Expedition, WW1 & WW2 and the Revolutionary War come to mind quickly!

  11. I would love to see one on Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia or Rome. Those time periods were always the ones I four most fascinating.

  12. I’m starting history with my 6 year old triplet grandsons this summer. I would LOVE to have this box!

  13. I love the comment about being at the stage of life of letting someone do the legwork for you… I love a bargain but these days….that’s not happening. I would love to check these out.

  14. I have one child in Creation to the Greeks, and one in American history, so these would be the time periods I would be interested in.

  15. Currently my girls and I are studying Colonial History but I think they are starting to be tired of that. My oldest daughter loves WW1 and 2 history most but she likes history in general. Next year we’ll be doing ancient history again so I think I’d pick something from that. Ancient Egypt or Greece.

  16. I love the Jane Austen/ Regency era. I would love to be able to show it to my kids in a way they would better understand.

  17. I would like WWII because I could share it with my grandparent’s the kids’ great-grandparents abd it would be really cool to make that connection with them.

  18. This sounds amazing and I love the idea of a ready to go box. (I’m with you, love the idea of not having to gather all the supplies!) 😉

  19. I think my nieces would enjoy learning about the Pioneer days. These boxes would be so much fun! Thank you for the chance 🙂

  20. I have two boys age 5 and 6, we do a lot of craft and art with our homeschool curriculum. I thought this would free up some of my time, loved the advertising pictures, everything is looking so natural. Well, after receiving about half of my whole year subscriptionow, I am more than disappointed. Cheap materials, more added trash to our ever growing trash fields. Not what I thought it would be. You are better of with a short pinterest search on our desired subject, but if you feel like it, you can also feel free and send me your money 🙂 and I will put it together for you….

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