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Discover Africa Notebooking Packet Review

In the last semester of last school year, my youngest daughter told me she wanted to study Africa.  I didn't know of any curriculum off the top of my head, so I did a little research and we ended up using Journey Into Africa. It turned out to be a pretty good curriculum, but even though it gave a good overview of Africa and its history, it in no way covered every country. Not even close. Joely was still itching to learn more—to study all of Africa.

It just so happened that we finished Journey Into Africa a couple weeks ago, right about the same I got an email from Jessica at BalancingEverything.com letting me know about a new Africa notebooking pack she just finished creating. Needless to say, my daughter was very excited!

About the Discover Africa Notebooking Packet

The Discover Africa notebooking packet comes as a 300mb ZIP file download that contains several folders with all the printable notebooking pages and other goodies. If you've never used a notebooking packet before, the idea is you print out the pages you want to use and put them in a 3-ring binder to use.

Here's what the ZIP file looked like when I unzipped it.

The FLAGS folder contains a full-color PDF of the flags of each African country. There are 8 flags to each sheet, so you could easily print them on cardstock, cut them out, and use them as flashcards.

The INDIVIDUAL-BLANK folder contains an individual notebooking sheet (in PDF format) for each of the 54 African countries. You can click on the thumbnail to see a sample notebooking sheet of Algeria full-size. The notebooking page is beautifully laid out and can be filled in with as much or as little information as you'd like.

The INDIVIDUAL-FILLED-OUT folder also contains individual PDF files of each country, but some of the information on the notebooking page is already filled out. You can click on the thumbnail to see an example of this type of notebooking page.
The MAPS folder contains individual PDF files of outline maps of each country, as well as maps of the continent of Africa and the African countries. Students can color in the African countries map as they read about each individual country. (At least that's what Joely is doing!)

The MERGED-BLANK & MERGED-FILLED-OUT folders each contains a single compiled PDF file of all of the individual notebooking sheets (either blank or filled-out) and maps so you can easily print out a single file for all 54 countries at one time. Jessica even set it up so you can easily have it printed double-sided if you'd like.

The PHOTOS folder contains photos of the people and dress from each country. The photos are meant to be cut out and affixed to the appropriate country's notebooking sheet. (By the way, Jessica made a huge effort to make sure the photos she included were modest, and I think she did a great job!)

The last item in the folder is the 19-page Resource and Introductory Guide which includes helpful suggestions about how to use the notebooking packet, recommended books and website to enhance your Africa study, and directions for printing and organizing the PDF printables.

In truth, we're not really much of a notebooking family, but this Discover Africa packet just might change that. It's laid out so well that it's not overwhelming in the least, so even non-notebookers like me can handle it. Here's what our notebook looks like so far!


If you'd like your own copy of this great notebooking packet,  you can purchase Discover Africa here on Jessica's site.

Comments

  2. Vette Z says

    I would so love to win this! I just started my 9-yr-old son on studying Africa, so this will be right on time!

  3. Debra T says

    We love Notebooking! I am so glad that you reviewed this, I have also been looking for an Africa Comprehensive Study! I would love to entered in this giveaway! Thanks!

  19. Christina says

    This is so awesome! We're finishing up Mystery of History and I've been trying to get together our next great adventure. I can't wait until we get to jump into each continent. This will be a great one for Africa!

  21. Sandy Drago says

    I have tweeted… facebooked, commented on facebook, emailed and commente on this page about the Africa give away. love your site!

  26. Allison says

    What an awesome tool! I have a friend who's husband is African and this would be so fun for her children! Another friend homeschools and has adopted children from Africa as well. I'm excited to share this post with her. As for me, I'm always looking for great tools to teach and save them on my computer to use later. My daughter is just 5 (with two boys following, ages 2 and 1). Thanks for this opportunity!

  27. Karen says

    Love the idea. We're not a notebooking family yet, but may be when the children get into more advanced studies.