Most homeschool families know about the wonderful Project Packs created by In the Hands of a Child authors Katie Kubesh, Niki McNeil, and Kimm Bellotto. With a Project Pack in hand, any homeschool parent can help a child create a lapbook that will serve not only as a reminder of skills learned, but also of memories made along the way. If you are looking for a way to introduce poetry to your child, then look no further than the Project Pack called A Peek at Poetry and Poets.

A Peek at Poetry and Poets is a 53-page pack that delves into such topics as the structure of poetry, metric patterns, and various forms of poetry. Brief biographies of famous poets are featured, along with listings of their most revered works. Vocabulary terms are defined, and there is a list of related reading materials. This Project Pack includes 15 hands-on activities, with detailed instructions on how to complete a poetry and poets lapbook. The last page features two full-color photos of lapbooks so that you can see what the end result might look like.

I have the spiral-bound printed copy, which is of high quality and feels durable. I like the fact that this is all I need to create a lapbook right away. The intended grade range for A Peek at Poetry and Poets is 5th-10th grade, but I think it could be adapted for use with younger children who are studying a unit on poetry. Unit studies can sometimes be difficult to pull together, so purchasing a Project Pack is helpful in that everything is right there for you. With this particular pack, you would need to look up the poems to read to your child, but by doing that, you may discover other poems by these poets that you have never read before.

In the Hands of a Child Project Packs are very useful tools to add to any homeschool curriculum. By using hands-on activities, children are involved in learning in a way that is creative and meaningful to them. Children rarely forget about something they have made or put together by themselves. For this reason, I definitely recommend the A Peek at Poetry and Poets Project Pack.

Product review by Jenny Thompson, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, February 2010