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Switzerland Unit Study – History, Geography, a Lapbook & More!

Heidi 1 Comment February 10, 2017

Have you ever tried a unit study? Do you like the idea of immersing yourself and your kids in a country and culture? Using this Switzerland Unit Study you can not only learn about cuckoo clocks, cooking, learning about cheese, Swiss history (including the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland), and geography, but you go on a fun adventure to solve a mystery!

What’s Included in the CASE OF ADVENTURE Switzerland Unit Study

I find unit studies a fabulous way to immerse yourself in any subject, and a living book – even better! With that in mind I jumped at the chance to use the CASE O F ADVENTURE travel series unit study, Destination Switzerland. This included using the novel, Cuckoo Clock Secrets in Switzerland, the MEGA Travel Activity Pack and the Destination Switzerland unit study. Put all of these things together and you have an extensive unit study on Switzerland that includes history, geography, reading, lapbooking and so much more!

{I received a copies of the book as well as the printable packs and was compensated for my time in writing this review. All views are my own and I was not required to write a positive review. Please see my full Disclosure Policy for more details.}

Standout Features of this Switzerland Unit Study

1. A Living Book as the Spine

Cuckoo Clock Secrets in Switzerland is about a homeschooling family that travels. In this first adventure they travel to Switzerland where they solve a mystery about an ancient coin, all while weaving in learning about the history, culture, and geography of Switzerland and its people.

“Dive into adventure with Ren, Rome, Jake, Libby and Tiffany as they discover an ancient coin and a mystery connected with a cuckoo clock which takes them to the beautiful land of Switzerland. In their quest to solve the puzzle, they unearth some fascinating history and recover a lost fortune.

2. Content for Multiple Ages

In the guide for this Switzerland unit study there are designations for older students (generally 8-13), and younger students (generally ages 5-7).

For example when working with the lapbook components you can choose to have your students write in them in their own words (older students) or you can print out the provided inserts and have your students glue them in (younger students).

3. TONS of Materials to Choose From

While the sheer number of pages in each of the printable packs can be overwhelming at first, once you read through the Teacher’s Guide and organize your thoughts you will find it liberating. Why? Because while there is TONS to choose from, that is a benefit not a negative. It offers you not only the above mentioned content for multiple ages, but varying types of activities for how far and how in depth you would like to go.

{PS. The dog helps! 🙂 }

My daughter is 10 and sort of falls in the middle of the younger and older age range of this. She loves doing lapbooks so we chose many of the lapbook components and I used this as a chance to cover some world geography as well.

Since we are spreading this Switzerland Unit Study out over many weeks I am keeping a folder with all the mini books we make, mapping we do, any photos of things we have done, and we will combine it all together on card stock and have it bound to create an awesome scrapbook style book for her to keep!

4. Flexible Scheduling

The Destination Switzerland Unit Study Pack is designed to accompany the book, Cuckoo Clock Secrets in Switzerland. In this pack you will find a VERY detailed Teacher’s Guide.

I recommend doing the “mommy research” ahead of time by printing out the Teacher’s Guide, deciding what components you are going to use, and then printing just those resources you need. It can help to use separate folders, or as I did, paperclip each of the days printables together so when you dive in with your child/children you are all organized and ready to go. I also put the Teacher’s Guide into a 3 Prong Folder for ease of use.

Due to the flexibility of this Switzerland Unit Study, you can take 12-14 weeks going at a more leisurely pace, adding in lots of extras and do a day or two here and there. Or you can take a couple of week and do nothing but this for your homeschooling!

5. All in One Resource

Want everything all together? This unit study has everything you need, from the living book to the printables, video links (within the Teacher’s Guide you are given a link to a page on their website where the video links are broken down by chapter) and extension activities! CASE OF ADVENTURE makes this Switzerland unit study an all in one resource so you don’t have to search or dig for information or activities!