Ben Franklin - DNG Review

I signed up with DownloadNGo to do the Ben Franklin study. I have to admit, I was somewhat hesitant to do so, I like getting stuff free and then being able to review it, but I see Benjamin Franklin as being a real American icon, and did I want to take time to teach a five year old about him at this stage? Really wasn't sure, do know though that I'm glad I signed up for it. "Mommy! Can we learn more??" I heard this twice during the study. :)

On Day one he drew this On Day Two we learned about making trade signs and different places in the world that Ben went to. We used our big map to look for those countries and when we went out in the afternoon, they had a big map there too so the lad needed to use his memory to figure out where Ben went. :)

And Today we learned about inventing and being a person of good Character. We had a hoot playing a glass armonica and learning about electricity and street lights! We tested out how to be honest, generous, curious and being brave. This was just fun to test out emotions and thoughts by the things we say and do.

Here's an overview of what you get in a unit study from DownloadNGo
We haven't made it to day five yet and not sure if we will this week or not. Time will tell, when we do, I'll link to it here as well. :)

Each study is set out to be done over five days, but you can do them however you wish, they are easy to modify and easy to take side trips off of (aka... we took a side trip to figure out why Ben Franklin disliked the eagle and liked the turkey). The lad wasn't sure if he agreed with Ben or not. :)

Day 1: Who Was Ben Franklin?
Day 2: People and Places in Ben Franklin’s Life
Day 3: The Accomplishments of Ben Franklin
Day 4: Lessons to Learn From Ben Franklin
Day 5: Remembering Ben Franklin

Each day has a variety of activities to complete from colouring, drawing, making small books, activities for older children and younger children, books you can get out of the library, embedded videos, and links to a variety of pages on-line.

Now I have to admit I had two problems with this study
1. conflicting information on-line. For instance when asked how many brothers and sisters ben had, one site said one amount, another site said a different amount. That was confusing and caused a "I DON"T KNOW MOMMY!!! THEY SAY IT DIFFERENTER FROM THE OTHER!" (he likes to be right and sometimes gets loud if he just doesn't it or if the information seems wrong) Mind you, it did lead to a quieter discussion of how it is sometimes hard to find information that tells the truth online, and sometimes even in books, and that's why we go to different sites/books and compare and then take the commonly accepted answer UNLESS there's a reason not to.

2. maps. We need different maps. Trying to match up a detail map with a non-detail maps was very simply beyond our scope this week. And I just wasn't up for a search to find my own better map...though hold on.. I guess I could have gone to blackline to see if THEY had a detail map of the colonies..... hmm...I will need to look into that. :)

You can get Ben Franklin from The Old schoolhouse for $6.25 right now, usually it costs $7.95. It also comes as part of the patriotic package. with George Washington, Constitution Celebration, and Ben Franklin. for $23.85.

The Study of Ben Franklin is currently on sale for $6.25 is available at DownloadNGo

To read what other reviewers have to say, go here. I know that I learned new ways that I can expand out study from reading them. Some were just a fun read. :)