I have to admit that I am not able to be creative every minute of every day.  I just do not have the energy.  When I was preparing for our summer learning adventures I knew I wanted something fun for my younger 4 children, ages 1-5,  to do each day.  The other big requirement was that it was laid out for me.  Enter the Letter of the Week curriculum from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  I am really not sure quite how I found her blog, but boy are my children glad I did!

Let me start out by saying this wonderful homeschool mom offers her entire curriculum for free on her website.  However, with over 1400 printable pages, that is a lot of individual files to download.  I decided it was completely worth $10.00 to receive an instant download that gathered those files into sets for me, and even had a few neat bonuses like weekly lesson plans.  The Letter of the Week curriculum is also available on CD for $15.00 if you prefer that route.

So just what is this curriculum like? Colorful and fun!  Basically, each letter has a theme, such as Dd is for Dinosaur, Kk is for Kite, or Vv is for Valentines.  The activities available for each letter vary, but typically include:

• Weekly Bible Verse
• Read aloud books list
• Phonics practice
• Capital/lowercase letter recognition
• 1-10 Numbers recognition
• Counting practice
• Colors
• Shapes
• Fine Motor skills: Lacing cards, cutting, coloring & pre-writing
• Logic skills: Puzzles, size sorting, matching games
• Large Muscle Movement: Large Floor Numbers/Letters Hopscotch
• Singing: Leapfrog A-Z letter sound songs, Bible Verse Songs
• Arts & Crafts for each letter
• Daily Calendar and Weather Activities

Click Here to see a typical week’s materials.  There are also review materials to use at the end of your 26 letter adventure.

How do I use it? I go each month to my local office supply store to print 4 weeks of materials.  There are some pages I simply print at home in black and white, but many are printed in color at the office supply store.  I never print all the activities for a letter, there is simply too much to do in one week for me.  That is a great thing, though, because it gives us variety.  When I get home I begin a laminating and cutting party.  I laminate most of the activities to make them durable.  In three years I can use them again with the newest preschoolers, while right now they are also safe to hand to the 1 year old who likes to taste his letters.  Once all the activities for a letter are laminated and cut out I store them in a file folder labeled with the letter.  Each week I grab out a file and hand out a few activities each day.  It’s that simple.

Here is the way I have found works best for us with 4 children using the materials, we call it stations:

Instead of passing the materials around the table and mixing up pieces in the process (yep, tried it – trust me, not a good idea) the children move from chair to chair.  Of course, with energetic little ones any movement is a great thing to help get those wiggles out.  In the photo above the stations are making a kite out of pattern blocks, sorting kites by size, putting numbered kites in order from 1-10, a kite color matching file folder game, uppercase/lowercase letter k sort, and a dry erase board to practice writing the letter k.  Everything but the dry erase board came from files in the Letter of the Week curriculum, and on subsequent days that week I was able to replace all those stations with the other letter K activities.  You can see the letter Kk printables here to see just how many options we had that week.

So if you are looking for something fun to do with your preschoolers, or maybe you need some independent review materials for a kindergartener’s workboxes, I highly recommend checking out the Letter of the Week curriculum!

Written by Tristan, mom to 5 going on 6 children, homeschooling through unit studies with a side of lapbooks.  You can visit her at her blog, Our Busy Homeschool.

While there are many ‘foreign’ languages a homeschool family can study, the one I recommend for those with young children is American Sign Language.  Our journey to ASL began out of necessity with a child who was non-verbal.  However, as our family has grown and our need disappeared we discovered that sign language was a wonderful tool in our parenting arsenal.  ASL is uniquely hands-on, giving children an active way to use their body while communicating from very early ages.

There are quite a few options available in the sign language arena and the one our family uses consistently is Signing Time.  Today I will give you an overview of the DVD products we love from Signing Time, as well as some neat features on their website.  Video previews from each title are on their website.

Baby Signing Time Series – This is for the youngest learners and signing is led by Rachel Coleman, with animated and real babies all age 2 and younger.  The songs that fill these DVDs make it easy to practice the signs you are learning.  There are 4 DVDs in this series, and we own the first two.  My babies and toddlers enjoy this, and one neat thing is the option to watch one song at a time, keeping viewing time short for the littlest learners.  By the end of this set your family will learn over 100 signs.

Signing Time Series One – The original series of 13 DVDs is recommended for ages 1-8, though I can say even adults will learn and enjoy this series.  Each DVD has a theme for the signs and is a mix of live people, songs, and animation.  We own all of these and love them!  This set alone directly teaches more than 250 signs.  There is some overlap in the signs between each series, but the presentations are aimed at different ages.  Our favorite in this series is hard to choose.  My animal lovers would say #7 Leah’s Farm or #9 The Zoo Train, but another child would choose #3 Everyday Signs and #12 Time to Eat for the fun food songs and signs.

Signing Time Series Two – This series includes several new learning modules that put children’s ASL vocabulary to work teaching some new signs and practicing many signs from Series One at a more challenging level.  We own 10 of the 13 DVDs in this series, and they are some of my favorites.  This series offers titles such as:

• Happy Birthday to You
• Move and Groove
• Helping Out Around the House
• Who Has the Frog (my all time favorite – focusing on all important question words like who, what, where, why)

Believe it or not, there are some more Signing Time DVDs outside those three series, including Practice Time for numbers or ABC’s, Sing and Sign, and Story Time.  We own several of these as well and enjoy them.  Signing Time even offers music cds, flash cards, books, and a classroom edition of DVDs with lesson plans, so explore their store.  Also be sure to sign up for their newsletter for a discount coupon, and keep an eye on those newsletters for more sales and special discounts.  I’ll share a secret – we’ve acquired 95% of our Signing Time collection through those sales.  Last year they even had a sale around Black Friday.

The Signing Time website offers free resources your family may enjoy:

• Coloring Pages
• Crafts
• Games
• Articles to read
• Video Clips
• Progress Charts

One last thing I wanted to mention is just a few of the benefits we’ve seen in our family as we have used ASL.  First, we have been able to communicate with our children, and have them communicate back, from a very early age.  This has cut down dramatically on frustrated tantrums when a 1 year old is trying to tell you something but does not have the words.  We have found sign language to be a wonderful silent option in the middle of church services for correcting, warning, or simply reminding our children of what they need to be doing.  The last reason we love signing as a family is that it helps build our family identity.  It is just ’something we do’ that makes us family.  The kids can use it as a secret language, strengthening their bonds as brothers and sisters.  Sometimes it is just the little things that bring the most memories.

-Written by Tristan, mom to 5 going on 6 children, homeschooling through unit studies with a side of lapbooks.  You can visit her at her blog, Our Busy Homeschool.

“We don’t expect infants and toddlers to develop at the same rate or to do things in exactly the same way, so we do we transport all of our vital, lively distinctly different children to uniform environments, teach them all in one way, expect them to progress at the same pace, and call them below average if they don’t?” ~ Taken from Chapter One, Discover Your Child’s Learning Style.

One of the great aspects of homeschooling is the ability to fit the schooling to the child.  Understanding your child’s learning style can be a lot of help in determining just exactly how to do that.  Although not written specifically to homeschoolers, Discover Your Child’s Learning Style by Mariaemma Willis and Victoria Kindle Hodson is my favorite book to use during this process.  The authors not only cover the learning styles, but also the externals such as lighting, time of day, and noise factors that affect your child’s ability to learn.  They do this with the motivation of helping you help your child learn.  There is no right or wrong, no best way of learning, but it is individualized to the child.  Chapter Two’s title sums it up- Success for Every Child.

The Learning Style Model of Education is presented, utilizing each child’s Learning Style Profile, with the hope of teaching “…the child how to use learning-style information to learn more efficiently in all situations.” The profile reveals five aspects of the learning styles:

Disposition- Perform, Produce, Invent, Relate/Inspire, Think/Create

Talents- Music, Math-Logic, Mechanical Reasoning, Word-Language Reasoning, Spatial, Body Coordination, Interactive, Humor, Life Enhancement

Interests- Sports, Music, etc.

Modality- Auditory, Visual, Tactile-Kinesthetic

Environment- Sound, Lighting, Temperature, etc.

Included in the book are the Learning Style Profile assessments themselves, which are fairly painless.  Your child will rate the areas where they feel strong and  their own answers determine their results.  This can be an eye-opening experience, as many times we will assume that our children learn the same way we do.  It is suggested that you take the test along with your child, which I have done twice now.  With my older children, I discovered that only one of them has the same learning style as me!  As we tend to teach to our own learning style, this was important for me to grasp and understand.  Many of my older children are hands on learners, I am visual.  Knowing this prompted me to prioritize projects and hands-on activities, along with my natural leaning towards reading, writing, and computer work.  We have recently taken the tests with my younger children and I have discovered that the youngest walks to the beat of his own drum- which in this family means he is logical and math oriented.  As I am completely opposite, this book is vital to my understanding of how his brain works.

Many  homeschoolers are hard at work planning the upcoming year, perhaps Discover Your Child’s Learning Style can play a part in making it a successful one.  I know it’s been a blessing in our home.

- Lori is a highly caffeinated mom of seven.  She can be found at Hearthside Homeschool Reviews and More , as well as Reflections and Ramblings of a Not-So-Superwoman .

I ran across the Real Science 4 Kids while attending our local curriculum fair this year.  Right from the start I was attracted to the colorful, yet informative, hands-on learning style.  I didn’t pick up a copy at the time mainly because I really wanted to see what was out there and approach the pros and cons.

In the vast array of options, I really thought I wanted to do Apologia for our first grade.  However, after delving into that a bit, I discovered that it really isn’t geared for the younger aged kids, at least from my perspective.  I felt it would take more work to bring it down to their level than I really wanted to commit to, so  I returned again to Real Science 4 Kids.

Fortunately, I found the Gravitas Publications website.  I went about doing the proper due diligence before committing to a purchase.

Things I found I loved about the curriculum:

• They have a true K-3 grade option. It’s called their “Pre-Level” and it’s available in all of their subjects!
• FREE lesson plans! Included for each subject and available for download directly from their website. You can download it for free without a single purchase, which I found super helpful for me to see the inner workings and intentions of the program.
• They offer a club Lifetime Membership which gives you full access to additional resources like online testing,  additional experiments, e-library, audio talks and more. You only need to purchase it once as it is offered to be used for all age groups and all of your kids.
• The student workbook is colorful, the experiments are fun, and the lessons are not too long.
• They have a gift at taking somewhat difficult concepts and making them not only presentable for younger ages, but somehow applicable and memorable.
• They have multiple ways of purchasing their curricula!
  • Purchase each item (Student  text, lab workbook & Teacher Edition) as a discounted book bundle or individually.
  • Elect to skip the actual textbook and download e-books in a part or whole elements of the curricula.
  • Or my personal favorite, you can choose to download the curricula a chapter at a time! (Chapter Downloads)  I adore this idea because we don’t have to purchase a full set to get going. I don’t have to furnish a full purchase price initially and I am not “locked in”!  We can elect to do chapters from all of their different subjects! (They tie in together anyway).
• The program can be extremely affordable! If you elect to do their e-book chapters, you can get the full chapter bundle for only $3.50!  The full set is $34.95 for e-book download, or $74.56 for the traditional textbooks.
• They offer a chapter preview for free so you can try it out fully before you buy.
• Real Science-4-Kids has a full set of real experiments using household items so you do not need to purchase additional kits or outside teacher resources.

MY cons:

• The author created the curricula to appeal to all homeschoolers, so it is “Worldview Neutral“.  A quote directly from their website sums it up rather nicely: “…. You won’t have to spend time screening your science curriculum for references to God or evolution because Real Science-4-Kids focuses on the science….” For some of you, this may be a plus, but I really wanted a directly biblical science curriculum.
• If you elect to save money with downloads, you will have to print some things from time to time which will ultimately cost more in ink and paper.

Ultimately, I have found that the curriculum will work for us a core to weave with what we have.  I will use this as our base science, and Epi Kardia’s lesson plan to add biblical elements as well.  We love going to the library to expand upon our lessons with living books; which is exactly what we’ll be doing with Real science-4-kids.

When I was a child, my younger sisters studied grammar differently than I did. They learned something mysterious called ‘diagramming’ and had very interesting textbooks.

Many years later a friend of mine was selling some books, and in the pile I found Rod and Staff grammar texts. Exactly what my sisters had studied! Of course I bought them.  We were ready for a formal grammar program.

Following Charlotte Mason’s ideas, we did not do grammar for the first few years, but my oldest was certainly old enough by this time. We had tried Simply Grammar, but it did not have enough practice for the children and required too much of my time. We tried Grammar Songs, but did not appreciate the music. We had a little grocery store diagramming booklet, but that wasn’t enough. Daily Grams had been a good introduction, but we were ready to move on, and the accompanying Easy Grammar was not as thorough as I wished. Christian Liberty Press Grammar had been a huge disappointment because it did not teach in a way that worked for us.

So we were eager to try something else. It turned out that the Building Christian English series from Rod and Staff Publishers was the answer. This is a rigorous, thorough, well-organized, clear, Christian, mom-friendly, multi-year grammar program, with good answer keys and tests. It also includes significant lessons on writing and communication.

About Building Christian English Levels 4-8:

• Each hard cover student text contains about eleven chapters, comprising approximately 120 lessons, and is illustrated with simple black and white drawings.
• The lessons contain clear explanations and examples, with important concepts in boxes.
• After some oral drill questions, the lessons end with written practice and occasionally a review section. Every chapter also ends with an entire review lesson.
• Interspersed through the grammar teaching are writing exercises which are clearly labeled in the table of contents as well as in the text itself.
• The index is clear and thorough.
• In each of these volumes, poetry appreciation and sentence diagramming are taught.
• Exercises and examples often relate to the Bible, nature, or everyday Mennonite life.

The Teacher’s Manual contains the entire student text, with teaching notes and answers printed in large, colored margins. Answers to the worksheets, the chapter tests, and the exams (for higher levels only) are in the back of the book. The worksheets, tests, and exams come in 8×11 inch paperback booklets.

Building With Diligence, 4

This book begins with an overview of the text itself and then moves on to simple studies of subjects and predicates; sentences; nouns; verbs; pronouns; adjectives; adverbs; punctuation; prepositions and conjunctions; and capitalization and dictionary use. Composition lessons include instruction about sentences, paragraphs, unity and order in paragraphs, poetry, reports, stories, and letters. Each chapter begins with a relevant rhyme and has worksheets and a test.

Following the Plan, 5

This level begins with review and covers the previous year’s topics in greater depth—topics such as compound sentences; appositives; outlining; kinds of pronouns; direct, indirect, and divided quotations; conversation in stories; using a concordance; and more. Chapters begin with picture discussions of the subject matter.

Progressing with Courage, 6

Topics range from perfect tenses to diagramming appositive adjectives, from courtesy in conversation to using subordinate conjunctions, and from complex sentences to writing a report. Each chapter begins with a grammar definition and a Bible text. A final test finishes up the year.

Building Securely, 7

This book teaches paragraph coherence, taking notes, oral reports, poetry, and stories. It also refines the student’s understanding of complex sentences, verbals, pronouns, conjunctions and much more.

Preparing for Usefulness, 8

Originally the final volume in the series, this book deepens a student’s ability to prepare paragraphs, letters, reports, outlines, stories, poetry, directions, and summaries. It also reviews and enhances grammar concepts such as compound complex sentences, dashes and parentheses, and verbal phrases.

We are beginning the level 9&10 books, Communicating Effectively, this summer. The two books at this level do not follow each other but can be studied independently. They involve more writing, editing, and speaking skills and less grammar. At this level our children are learning a lot of grammar in their foreign language studies, so I think we will really appreciate the focus on communication.

How We Used It

After a bit of fumbling about with my oldest, who was the patient guinea pig in our search for a grammar program, we discovered a great way to use the Rod and Staff grammar series. Since it only goes to level 9&10, and since it is quite rigorous, we decided to study each volume two years later than recommended. So, in grade 6 our children begin with the level 4 text, and so on.

This works well because by this age our children can study largely on their own. They do not want me to sit down and explain each concept; that is much too slow for them. The writing involved in level 4 is not too overwhelming for a child in grade 6. By the time the child is in grade 7, working on the level 5 book, he or she is able to absorb much of the content without doing all the exercises. I’ll mark whatever a child chooses to do, and then the child takes the test. If the test score is below 80%, the child has to repeat the chapter, doing all the work in order to learn the material. In this way our children develop maturity and are allowed to take charge of their own learning. At the same time, they acquire a thorough and rigorous knowledge of grammar which is helpful in their writing and their foreign language studies.

By starting with the level 4 book, we miss the content of the earlier textbooks. That is not a problem, because by grade 6 our children have learned a lot of grammar concepts from their language lesson programs. Through the years we also casually discuss parts of speech, often in relation to a foreign language.

Obviously, the children need to do their work in scribblers. They write the tests on loose leaf, though this requires creativity with some of the proofreading exercises. For those, the children usually copy down the word or words that need correction. Although this takes some extra time, it works well for us. Of course, you can always buy a test booklet for each child.

We are eager to begin the level 9/10 program for grade 12 next year. I think we will be able to do both texts in one year if we use the content of other courses as topics for the writing exercises.

Our Opinions

The Building Christian English program from Rod and Staff Publishers is rigorous but not overwhelming. It is suitable for independent study, and has a very helpful and thorough answer key for the grammar lessons. Unfortunately there are no marking rubrics for the writing assignments. The tests are thorough, balanced, and have clear answer keys.

Even though we do not agree with every idea presented, I love the fact that many of the examples and exercises reflect the Bible and Christian living. A non-Christian family might find the religious content overwhelming; for us it is part of the program’s appeal.

Our Recommendations

If you want a thorough, well-organized, Christian grammar program, you should check out the Building Christian English series from Rod and Staff Publishers. Although this Mennonite publishing company has no website, there are two related sites that sell this grammar series: Rod and Staff Books and More (sample lessons available) and Anabaptist Bookstore. The series is also available from some homeschool suppliers.

Disclosure: This review is of a textbook series we have used and loved for years. We already had the products and received no compensation for this review.

-Written by Annie Kate, a Christian homeschooling mom of five great children, who blogs at Tea Time With Annie Kate.

At the risk of being redundant, I’d like to highlight one more of Peggy Kaye’s Games books. I’ve already reviewed Games for Math and Games for Writing here at The Curriculum Choice. All three books are similar in format, but I’ve found each of them to be of such great value that I just had to share Games for Reading with you.

Games are a wonderful way to spice up any reading method or curriculum. Children love to play, and fun games can take the drudgery out of drill. Plus, games are a great pastime when it’s too hot to go outside!

This book contains seventy-six games that cover nearly every skill needed for reading. Although they are aimed at beginning readers, meaning 1st through 3rd graders, these games are valuable for proficient readers too.

The games are organized into four parts:

•Part 1 – Games to improve sight vocabulary

•Part 2 – Games that develop phonics/sounding out skills

•Part 3 – Games to strengthen reading comprehension

•Part 4 – Games to get children to love books and want to read!

If you’d like to check out some of these games, you can visit Peggy Kaye’s website to download samples from each of her books.

There are two additional Games books which I have not seen, Games for Learning and Games with Books. If anyone has used these, I’d be interested in hearing about them.

I hope that you and your children can get your hands on a copy of Games for Reading and have some fun playing and learning together!

-Written by Shannon, who blogs about her family’s homeschool adventures at Song of My Heart.

It’s summer and I’m in planning mode!  Are you?

In our eclectic Charlotte Mason style homeschool, we often use the unit study approach for teaching history and science topics. Why?

• We can learn together.
• We can incorporate various learning styles, hands-on activities, real learning and learning projects easily.
• We can immerse ourselves in the time period through living literature.
• We can cover a lot of educational ground in a relatively short amount of time.

One resource I’ve used over and over again as I plan our history studies are A Kid’s Guide Books.

They are super for background information, hands-on ideas and project ideas – and have become the “spine” of my units many times. In other words, I’ve used these as my main unit planning books many times over.

As you click on the graphics below to learn more about each book, you’ll notice varying age recommendations, but each of them are very adaptable for almost any student from K-8. My library has a copy of most of them, but they’re very reasonably priced if you need to buy them.

The books I’ve used and recommend…

The same company that publishes these hands-on history books (Chicago Review Press) offers science, geography and drama selections using the same format. You can check out all those books here.

What are some of your favorite unit study planning resources?

-Written by Cindy, eclectically Charlotte Mason mom of 3.  You can find her blogging at Our Journey Westward or find her nature studies at Shining Dawn Books.

Years ago, when we first started homeschooling, another veteran homeschooler recommended that I take a look at “the Greenleaf history guides” from Greenleaf Press, and I am so glad that she did, and I did! I ended up buying a few of them and have had no regrets whatsoever! They have turned out to be a perfect fit for us in many regards, at different seasons in our homeschool journey, but today I’d like share with you specifically regarding The Greenleaf Guide to Old Testament History by Rob and Cyndy Shearer, “History for the thoughtful child.”.

When our older kiddoes were younger we had a few favorite Bible and devotional-type story books that we read aloud from to them regularly for the majority of our “Bible time”. However, once we started reading aloud straight from the Scriptures, this guide offered us a helpful tool for making that transition easier and more thoughtful.

Therefore, let the minds of young children be well stored with the beautiful narratives of the Old Testament and of the gospels; but, in order that these stories may be always fresh and delightful to them, care must be taken lest Bible teaching stale upon their minds.
(Charlotte Mason, Vol. 1, Home Education, Part V– Lessons As Instruments Of Education, p. 251)

The Shearers have basically taken the Scriptures, from Genesis through Nehemiah (though they left out Leviticus- which we cover with different resources anyways, and may be a bit laborious for younger students), and broken them down into 196 readings, each from a chapter to two chapters long.

To see a complete listing of how the Bible chapters are broken down, as well as a few examples of what each reading/lesson looks like, click here on this link to see it over at cbd.com and you’ll see some links there to view pdf samples.

One of our favorite aspects of this guide has been the open-ended discussion questions included with each reading. A few years ago, as we used it along-side of our family’s Bible read-aloud time, we used these questions as oral narration prompts. However, as our children are now cycling back through these Old Testament readings again, our son has been using these discussion questions as writing prompts for his own private Bible journal time.

There is some brief commentary and helpful “background information” included where necessary, a graphical timeline of Ancient History, along with references to Bible maps, as well as some brief teaching suggestions mentioned here and there. Overall, this guide provides a wonderfully simple to use, comprehensive study of Ancient Israel’s history, using the best historical document we have, the Bible itself.

There are a few recommended books to go along with this study of Ancient Israel, which though they are not necessary, we have found helpful. This book is just what it claims to be, a simple guide to take you and your children through the Old Testament at a nice, comfortable pace. However, we’ve often broken a lesson into two separate readings. The Shearers recommend that you use their Guide to Ancient Egypt (which we’ve also used and appreciate) alongside of this guide for a more involved, complete ancient Bible history program.

Note: The two primary aspects of this guide that I most appreciated, those being its simplicity to use (as in no projects nor preparation necessary) and open-ended (as in no “answers” provided) discussion questions, are the very aspects that caused a friend of mine to not like it, nor use it.

I am reminded of the wise words of Charlotte Mason in this regard, with which I do concur:

We are probably quite incapable of measuring the religious receptivity of children. Nevertheless, their fitness to apprehend the deep things of God is a fact with which we are called to ‘deal prudently,’ and to deal reverently.
(Charlotte Mason, Vol. 1, Home Education, Part V– Lessons As Instruments Of Education, p. 248)

I have found that our children do a good job of thinking through the Scriptures’ ramifications and implications as they read them for themselves, and have personally appreciated their not being told what to think as they read the Word for themselves, especially during their private devotional reading times in the mornings. When they do have questions beyond me (and as they’re getting older, they DO!) we now find ourselves turning to meatier commentaries and texts together anyways, so this guide has been perfectly adequate for our usage!

The price is nice too, especially for all of the use we’ve gotten out of it over the years!

Written by Beth Brewer, a Charlotte Mason inspired, Spirit-led, relaxed-eclectic homeschooling Mama of 3. She’s also an author at The Homeschool Post and blogs her photos, musings, hopes, fears, faith and falterings as she lives, loves and learns with her family at the brew*crew adventure.

What a wonderful experience I have had the last few months!  I received the All-Day Charlotte Mason Seminar on DVD, seminar workbook, and the Laying Down the Rails book and Workshop on DVD from Simply Charlotte Mason to review.  If you have never been over to visit Simply Charlotte Mason, I highly recommend you take a look.  They offer free curriculum guides, free ebooks, and many materials for purchase as well.  They truly help make Charlotte Mason’s homeschool ideas simple.  Their blog is one that always inspires me.

I began by watching the 3 DVDs for the All-Day Charlotte Mason Seminar and taking notes through the accompanying workbook.  I did this over the course of several evenings while my children were falling asleep in their beds, which allowed me some quiet to focus.

Session 1 (34 minutes) introduced me to Charlotte Mason, who she was, when she lived, and her ideas about education.  It was neat to get to know her this way.  I had tried to read her books in the past, but just could not get through them.  It took too much brain power at a time when I was trying to just keep up with my young children and get sleep.

Session 2 (78 minutes) and 3 (71 minutes)held my hand as we went through each subject applying Charlotte Mason’s methods.  Here is where I had many, many ah-ha moments. Short lessons, living books, and narration – these things made sense and could easily be integrated in our unit study family.  I appreciated that I was not expected to add everything in at once.  The appendix explained a doable plan for making the transition to a Charlotte Mason approach a step at a time.  Here is a short clip from the workshop about using narration.

Are we now becoming a Charlotte Mason family? Yes and no.  (grin)  I think narrowly defining any homeschooling family by one method is usually inaccurate.  We prefer to pick and choose the pieces that work for our family.  I have discovered that many of the Charlotte Mason pieces fit our family!  We have already begun to incorporate the following:

• living books
• narration
• scripture memorization

We have plans to incorporate these ideas over the next year:

• map drill
• picture study
• music study

Now let me tell you a little bit about the  Laying Down the Rails book and DVD Workshop that came as part of this set.  I watched the DVD first (45 minutes), using the workbook section for it from the All-Day Charlotte Mason Seminar as I went.  I love Charlotte’s idea that good habits are like railroad tracks, they smooth life out because a child is not having to make the same decisions over and over and over.  I know that is true, even in my own life.  Habits help me to accomplish many of the routine things in my day without the extra effort of decision-making.

Sonya, the workshop presenter, is funny and helpful as she leads you through many of the habits a child can learn.  While there is an extensive list, she emphasizes to start with one habit, and not to add another until the first is truly habit.  It was really helpful to watch the DVD with my husband. He was not up for reading the book, all 230+ pages, but the workshop got us both on the same mental page easily.  He was as excited about habit training as I was.  You can watch a short clip from the DVD right here.

I next spent nearly a month reading and pondering the Laying Down the Rails book.  What a treasure!  It contains Charlotte’s words on each habit gathered into one place, prefaced by a concise definition of the habit and a story that shows how the habit is important.  There are entire chapters on ‘repairing the rails’ – breaking the bad habits we already have, including chapters on some specific problems like dawdling, temper tantrums, and lying.  See a sample from the book HERE.

Where are we now? Well, habit training is a process, and I will be honest that the first person who has to acquire the new habit is me.  However, we are working on our habits slowly and steadily, and I find a lot of support and encouragement when I read through Laying Down the Rails.

Would I buy these products? Yes!  That is an unequivocal yes.  The entire set can be purchased HERE for $54.95.  That includes 3 All-Day Charlotte Mason Seminar DVDs, the Session workbook, 1 Laying Down the Rails workshop DVD, and a print copy of the Laying Down the Rails book.  I love having the All-Day Charlotte Mason Seminar on DVD, a shot of motivation that I can turn on whenever I need a boost.  Homeschooling is a process, and the experience is different with each child.  Having Charlotte Mason’s ideas broken down into manageable tasks gives me easy action plans to try when we need something adjusted.  Laying Down the Rails is a treasure trove of ideas for habit training.  Time will pass and our children will acquire habits.  The question is what habits will they develop – ones we have carefully helped them build or contrary habits that we lazily let develop?

Written by Tristan, mom to 5 going on 6 children, homeschooling through unit studies with a side of lapbooks.  You can visit her at her blog, Our Busy Homeschool.

{Disclaimer: I received these products free from Simply Charlotte Mason to enable this review.  I received no other compensation and all opinions presented herein are my own.}

I can’t even describe how excited I am about a new curriculum I’ve been pouring through for next year!  Normally, I wouldn’t post about products that aren’t tried and true, but this is an amazing exception.  I couldn’t write curriculum that is more “me”!  And just what is “me” and what does this curriculum offer that’s has me so giddy?

• It’s project-based
• Fits with the first year of my four-year history cycle (ancient history)
• Has a Biblically-based, creation-based worldview
• Includes living literature book lists and listening CD’s
• Offers my children choices in their studies
• Can be used with both of my older children at their own levels
• Provides in-depth learning for the real student
• Offers an activity book for younger children which helps with my upcoming 5th grader when other lessons might be too tough
• Incorporates research, writing, timelines, vocabulary, art, mapping, science projects, music, cooking, drama, and MORE!
• Gives ideas specifically for various learning styles
• Provides me with a teacher’s guide and my children with a workbook

So, just what product has me so excited?

Ancient Civilizations and the Bible: A Biblical World History Curriculum from Creation to Jesus Christ by Diana Waring

Wow!  That’s really the best word to describe what I think every time I open the box of curriculum and start thinking about next year’s history.  In fact, I’m thinking I’ll be able to tick off way more than just history in my lesson planner by implementing this curriculum.

I’m going to back up and go through each part of the curriculum that’s available.  I’ll have to be brief because there’s way more to this box than I can talk about in a review.  I’ll also give you my opinion about whether or not each part is necessary.

Sample page from the Student Manual

1. Student Manual – Absolutely necessary and best to have one per student.  This is the book your child will use for just about everything they do.  Text readings, what-to-do lists, digging deeper lists, student record keeping charts, project choices and directions, vocabulary lists, maps and a few other things are found in this 312 page softcover workbook/textbook.   (*I use the word text loosely, because it isn’t a dry, boring text like many books.)
2. Teacher’s Guide – I suppose it isn’t absolutely necessary, but I wouldn’t skip it.  It offers you clear and helpful notes for further discussion with your children – often helping you give Biblically scientific explanations.  It also offers you big-picture planning, ideas for helping your children choose projects that fit their learning styles, additional project ideas, answer keys, and solid explanations about how the curriculum works.
3. Test Kit – Not absolutely necessary, but offers good test taking practice.  This is a booklet that offers you two-page tests with answer keys for each of the nine units.  The tests require written answers with supporting points and vocabulary matching.
4. Elementary Activity Book – Not necessary at all, but very helpful if you have children younger than 5th or 6th grade that will be learning alongside older children.  It offers coloring and puzzle pages, simpler discussion questions, age appropriate additional reading lists, song lyrics, easier hands-on project ideas, and other games/activities that meet the needs of various learning styles.
5. What in the World? CD set – Not necessary, but awesome.  This set of four CD’s includes Diana Waring telling more about the Bible, archaeology, and other scientific evidences that have shaped history.  These stories, ranging from 3-12 minutes, go along with the text as “added bonus” information.  They add a wonderful dimension to the program.
6. True Tales CD set – Not necessary, but awesome.  Diana Waring is a wonderful story-teller and adds to the text info with stories about people, events and more.
7. Digging Deeper CD set - Not necessary, but awesome.  Just as the name describes, Diana Waring goes into more detail about the topics of Noah’s Ark, the first Christmas and the Seven Wonders of the World.  (*Each track on the 3 CD sets is referred to in the teacher’s guide and student manual, so you know what to listen to when.)

*I’m editing this just a bit after reading several comments by experienced users about how wonderful the CD’s are.  I, too, think the CD’s are super and would highly recommend purchasing them if you are able.  However, if you only want/can afford the bare minimum, the CD’s are not necessary to the completion of the program.  If at all able, though, don’t miss out on them!

Sample page from the Teacher's Guide

I’m going to wrap this super-long review up with a quick overview of the nine units.  Each of the nine units is meant to take four weeks to complete.  During each unit, week one is dedicated to reading and discussing.  The student dives in and learns all he or she can about the unit topic.  Week two is dedicated to researching a topic of the student’s choice and presenting findings, as well as completing a timeline and the vocabulary.  Week three allows the student to complete hands-on projects in art, music, science, cooking and/or mapping.  And during week four, the unit culminates with a final project(s) of the student’s choice.

Unit topics include:

• Creation and the Flood
• The Rise of Civilizations
• Egypt and the Exodus
• The Children of Israel
• Assyria & Babylon
• The Persians & Medes
• Greece & the Hellenists
• The Rise of Rome
• Jesus Christ, Immanuel

I truly have never seen a curriculum like this before, especially for the 6th grade and above crowd.  Hands down, it tops my list of all-time favorites!

There are a few curriculum choices that have and will remain consistent through all three of my children.  One of those is the Get Ready for the Code series of workbooks.  And as I’m planning ahead for my little guy who will probably jump into simple workbooks within the next year, Get Ready for the Code, Get Set for the Code and Go for the Code are on my list of phonics to-do’s.

Why do I like this early learning curriculum so much?

• They’re simple for me to use.
• They’re short and sweet for my preschooler.  There’s only one type of activity per page, which keeps a preschooler’s attention much better than a busy page.
• Each book focuses in-depth on only 6-8 lower-case consonants, giving my child lots of practice with each letter.
• They cover letter recognition, letter formation, letter sounds, relating beginning sounds to pictures, left-right orientation, and using small motor skills.
• They’re black and white.  Yep, you heard right, I LIKE that they text and pictures are in black and white.  With preschoolers, I feel like too much color can actually distract them from the task at hand.
• Within each book, letter comparisons are made.  In other words, after learning three letters, there will be a worksheet that asks the child to distinguish in some way between those letters.
• And, maybe most importantly, my first two children found the workbooks to be fun.  They never complained and actually liked having their own “school work” to do.

Once finished with all three books, a preschooler should be ready to dive into more formal phonics lessons such as those covered in the Explode the Code series which begins in Kindergarten.  I like this series, too, but will save its review for another post.

There is one teacher’s guide available to cover all three of the Get Set for the Code books, but I’ve never seen it so I won’t give my opinion one way or another.  I will tell you that I’ve never found a teacher’s guide necessary.  Although, the description on their website says it gives additional teaching ideas and reinforcement activities which could prove to be helpful.

Honestly, you could probably find plenty of phonics workbooks for $1.00 at the local dollar store, but I really like the planned progression of these books.  And for only $6.00-$7.00 each, it doesn’t put a large dent in my pocketbook.

I’d love to hear your early phonics favorites!

-Written by Cindy, an eclectically Charlotte Mason mom of three.  You can find her blogging at Our Journey Westward and Shining Dawn Books.

I had my eye on the Epi Kardia curriculum from the moment I heard of it. I was caught immediately by their name alone as it conveyed exactly the type of homeschooling theology in our home! Imagine my delight when I was offered a 1st grade set to review!  We couldn’t wait for it to arrive!

Epi Kardia is a “historically structured, literature-based curriculum using Charlotte Mason methods” available for grades Kindergarten through High School.  So why Epi Kardia as the curriculum name?…

(from their website) “The Greek words “Epi Kardia” mean at the heart. At Epi Kardia, we feel the heart of home education is the Christ-centered mentoring and discipleship relationship between parents and their children.”

This completely embodies our goals for our homeschool so I just had to try it out.

The day the box came in we were so excited!  I had to rip the box open and dig right in!

My kids were so excited and I was even more pleased with the packaging: eco-friendly packing peanuts!    I joyfully packaged those up for crafts at a later date! (As frugal homeschooling mom, I never miss a moment to reuse and recycle!)

I enjoy the way that the curriculum is broken down into three books so they were not cumbersome to use and their packaging was really pretty! (LOL)

I received the Epi Kardia 1st grade “Lesson Plans” set. This choice is laid out in a daily lesson plan format that outlines each subject for each day, including hands-on ideas, lapbooking suggestions, arts, crafts and more; so you can really just jump in and go!

Epi Kardia offers two different types of curriculum:

1. Complete Programs — their most cost-effective option, Complete Programs  can be used for three years each following our methodology.  Using unit overviews, history, science and music/fine arts book-lists divided by topic,  along with the suggested projects and activities, you write your own lesson plans.

2. Daily Lesson Plans — Love homeschooling (or want to homeschool) but you know you are not a planner, organized or you have a hard time following through? The Daily Lesson Plans are already-planned-in-advance and are written for specific grade levels.  They include weekly goals and objectives for each subject and daily lessons planned integrating the studies of history, science (K-8), language arts and projects.

Features of Epi Kardia Curriculum

• Based on Charlotte Mason methodologies include reading whole, living books, short lessons, oral narration, using copy work and dictation to teach grammar and composition, and more!
• All books listed in the curriculum have been read and evaluated from an evangelical Christian worldview by at least one of the authors
• Integrates the subjects of history, science, language arts (including reading, grammar, composition, phonics, poetry, literature studies, spelling) and fine arts
• Activities, books and projects recommended for each learning style
• Provided in their complete program, components are historical overviews of each time period for teachers/older students, as well as a customizable CD with teaching tools and helpful forms
• The 100+ page teacher’s manuals include abundant information about teaching covered subjects and as well as curriculum related material
• The 6th – 12th grade manual includes an extensive section regarding teaching high school writing.

Epi Kardia is a living book based curriculum, so books are an integral part of it.  In each set there is an outline of books that will be used for that quarter. Although the books are not offered as part of the curriculum purchase, I have found that most are easily found online for free, at your local library, or available used online.  (They even offer the books via links to amazon on their website, to save you time and energy).

Being the frugal family that we are, I’ve elected to procure the books from our local library and online at the free books sites (as listed in my listing of free curriculum). So far, the books have been fun and fairly easy to get. We love going to the library!

I look forward to finding new books that we may have never been exposed to! Like others in living book style curricula, I fully expect to find some books my kids will adore so much they won’t want to return them.

In my humble opinion, Epi Kardia compares nicely with other, more known curriculum such as Sonlight, My Father’s World, or Tapestry of Grace.  Of course, each of these curriculum offer their own perspective, features and lesson plans, which makes each one unique and tailored to each families personal needs.  However, I think the Sullivan family has joyfully found our core curricula of choice!

Prices for the curriculum varies according to your curriculum style choice and media. You can elect to buy the spiral bound books (like pictured above) or a CD.  Prices start at $75.00 for a full curriculum book or, you can choose to try their lesson plans, you may purchase the first unit (The Ancients–six weeks of plans) for only $25.  Epi Kardia is so sure you are going to love them, they even offer a full credit if you choose to buy the full set after purchasing the trial.

Not everything has to become a formal lesson at our house, but I love being able to sneak in some learning with a helping of fun.  I have seen in my own life that songs I have learned as a child I can still remember to this day.  While this has many applications to homeschooling I only want to talk about one today, called Schoolhouse Rock.

Schoolhouse Rock is series of short musical cartoons that aired originally before I was born during the Saturday morning cartoons beginning in 1973.  Topics covered in the original series include songs for multiplication, grammar, science, American history and lawmaking, and computers.  Later offerings from the makers of Schoolhouse Rock include songs about money and taking care of our earth.

In August of 2002 Disney released a 30^th Anniversary DVD set of over 40 Schoolhouse Rock songs.  A few years later we bought the set for our family.  I said it was for homeschool and my husband said it was just for fun.  We were both right! Our children enjoy watching different sections of the DVD.  Each has a favorite song or two.  My 8 year old daughter’s current favorites are:

1. No More Kings – A song about the beginnings of our country and the Revolutionary War.
2. I’m Just a Bill – A song that boils the legislative process down so that even a child can understand how our countries laws are made.  Here it is on You Tube to watch.  (Like everything else on YouTube, the comments below the video may not be appropriate.  We like to click the handy arrow beside the comment section to close it, or watch the video in full screen.)

I love that my children are easily learning many educational topics without a formal lesson.  The DVDs spark my childrens’ interest in topics like conjunctions, multiplcation facts, money and debt, and the branches of the US Government.  We may watch a few songs while waiting for dinner to finish cooking, or have a sing-along as a family for fun.  There are many ways to use the Schoolhouse Rock DVDs.  I am sure we will just happen to pull it out when a child has trouble learning those pesky times tables for another way to reinforce math facts.

The internet abounds with free resources.  Here are a few related to Schoolhouse Rock:

• The lyrics to many of the songs.
• Ideas from educators of lessons that use Schoolhouse Rock songs.
• Many of the songs are available on YouTube with a simple search.  (Remember to close the comments section or watch the videos on full screen to avoid inappropriate material.)

I would love to hear if you have a favorite Schoolhouse Rock song, or any fun ways you can see incorporating Schoolhouse Rock into homeschooling, so please leave a comment!  If you want to learn about some other things we have used in our homeschool read my other Curriculum Choice reviews HERE or visit my blog.

Written by Tristan, mom to 5, homeschooling through unit studies with a side of lapbooks.  You can visit her at her blog, Our Busy Homeschool.

This is one of the first books I purchased when we began homeschooling, and it remains an all-time favorite of mine. I’m typically not a text-book kind of homeschooling Mom – except when it comes to math. It was always my weakest subject, and I don’t have the confidence to stray from my dearly beloved math curriculum. However, I do like to spice math up a bit so that it will be an enjoyable subject for my children.

Contrary to my need for a math curriculum, Games for Math by Peggy Kaye was the only resource I used when my oldest was in Kindergarten, and it nurtured in him a real enjoyment of math. Now it makes a nice supplement to our curriculum.

It includes games for Kindergarten through Third Grade, covering a wide variety of topics including:

• Counting
• Logical Thinking
• Size and Shape
• Addition and Subtraction
• Multiplication and Division
• Estimation
• Geometry
• Measurement
• Place Value
• The Number System (Base-10)

I have also benefitted from the author’s teaching experience, as she offers valuable insights into a child’s development, how they think about math concepts, and how she has used games to successfully teach math to children for over twenty-five years. Her writing style is conversational and makes for an enjoyable read. She really makes me think about how I interact with my own children when teaching math.

You can download some of the games from the book at Peggy Kaye’s website. (Please note that the math games are interspersed with games from her other books on reading and writing, which I will review in the future.)

If sampling a game or two whets your appetite for more, you can find her book at certain local libraries or an online bookseller.

I hope that this resource will help you and your children to have some fun with math!

Written by Shannon, who blogs about her family’s homeschooling adventures at Song of My Heart.

Institute For Excellence in Writing- Teaching Writing: Structure and Style DVDs By Andrew Pudewa

Feeling Empowered as a Parent/Teacher

Many of my blog readers have been asking me to write a review of Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) for a long time. I have hesitated to write the review since we are still very much a work in progress using their system of writing. My boys were in middle school when we first started using  IEW’s Teaching Writing: Style and Structure program.  At this point, after using the plans for three years, I feel prepared to give a review of the program based on how our year is going with this final stage of IEW and their Teaching Writing: Style and Structure DVDs and manual. (TWSS)

Just a Note to Make Things Clear

Please note that there are several programs available through IEW but this review is for the TWSS DVDs and teacher’s manual only. The TWSS DVDs are for the parent to watch and glean techniques and ideas in order to guide their children through the writing process. They are the beginning step to using the IEW system in your home school. Parents do not need any  previous experience teaching writing nor do you even need to be a confident writer. The TWSS DVDs will teach you all you need to know to help your children add structure and style to their writing.

The Strong Points of the TWSS Program

Guides the Parent: The TWSS method of teaching arms the teacher/parent and students with a variety of tools to use in their writing. The IEW system is a system that builds up a great foundation by introducing a structure that the child can use to express his thoughts in a logical and meaningful way. Each new skill slowly adds on the last skill. The DVD lessons in the TWSS series arm the parent with concrete ways to structure and then “dress-up” the student’s writing. Each lesson gives you specific objectives so the parent and student know exactly what the writing piece needs to accomplish. A whole new vocabulary is learned in the process and soon everyone is talking about quality adjectives and who-which clauses. (Link to a handout explaining more about dress-ups.) The most significant thing about the way new tools are added is that we are no longer trying to fix everything all at one time. The lessons help us to concentrate on the new tool introduced and to incorporate the previous tools into our current writing.

Lessons Build From Elementary to High School: Each lesson in the TWSS plan is a baby step to more sophisticated writing. Starting with key word outlines and summaries, your child learns to gather information to write about each week. I love that I can tailor the topics we want to write about to the lesson and make it even more meaningful. My boys are now busy writing instead of thinking of things to write about. The flexibility to choose your topics and apply them to each of the lessons in the TWSS sequence is one of the greatest benefits of this program.

Working from a Key Word Outline Makes Writing Easier

Tailor the Topics for Writing Projects: For instance, this week my boys are working on writing a research report. They both chose a topic from their current areas of study with one choosing a physics topic and one choosing a biography. They had plenty of fresh ideas from their studies to incorporate into their writing assignment. Remember that we did not start off writing research reports, but the TWSS lessons have built from one paragraph summaries to three paragraph essays to now a five paragraph essay with introduction, conclusion, and bibliography. Our next step after mastering the five paragraph essay is to work on what is called a “super essay” which is basically three five paragraph essays tied together with super introduction and super conclusion paragraphs.

Here are the official units covered in TWSS in the DVD lessons:
Units 1-2 Note Making and Summarizing including Stylistic Techniques and Dress Ups
Unit 3-Summarizing Narratives Stories and introducing Sentence Openers
Unit 4-Summarizing Reference for Library Reports and adding in Advanced Dress-Ups: Decorations, Triples
Unit 5-Writing from Pictures
Unit 6-Reports from Multiple Sources (extension of Unit 4)
Unit 7-Creative Writing and introducing introductions and conclusions.
Unit 8-Essays: Basic, Expanded, Super-Essay, Persuasive (extension of Units 4 and 6)
Unit 9-Critiques, Book Reports, and Reviews

Teacher’s Workbook: Along with the DVD lessons, you will receive a workbook with extensive notes for each unit, checklists, charts, and resources  for your child to use with the lessons.

Writing with Their Own Voice: It has always been important to me to have my children develop their own voice in their writing, to have the paper sound like it is from their own thoughts and reasoning. IEW has helped my boys use the IEW tools in a way that makes writing in their own words easier. At first the checklists provided with the lessons seemed cumbersome and awkward. They did not enjoy all the “box checking”. For instance, as the sentence openers are introduced they had to go back and rewrite a lot of their sentences to make sure they had used each sentence opener tool . (More on sentence openers in this IEW document, see page 7) The editing process was tedious and we all loathed that time of the week when we would review the writing and the checklist together. Progressively, each time we used the sentence opener tools in our writing, it became more natural. Now as the boys write an essay they can easily insert the sentence openers as they go along, they are on their mind. By incorporating the various style tools in the TWSS program, they have found their writing voice.

TWSS consists of 6 DVDs for the Parent

Possible Obstacles to Successfully Using the IEW or TWSS Programs

Parent Involvement is High: If you are looking for a short-term fix or a program that you can have your child work through independently, the IEW system is probably not for you. The tools taught through the TWSS DVD lessons are helpful to the parent in their guiding the writing process with their own children. The tools are then used by the student to first learn how to structure their writing and then to incorporate style points to make the writing piece their very own. Your children will benefit from your help and support through the process of learning to write an summary, a story, and essays of all sorts. The DVDs included with the TWSS program can be used over and over and I have found it beneficial to watch them at the beginning of each school year.

Cost of the Writing Program: I struggled with the price tag on this program for over a year before purchasing the DVDs. Our home schooling convention had Andrew Pudewa as a speaker and listening to him explain his ideas and philosophy behind this plan convinced me it was worth the investment. It was also helpful to hear his style of teaching and his great sense of humor that comes through as he teaches. You can listen to his introductory video by going to this LINK and scrolling down to where there is a link to his video.   I have never regretted the decision.We purchased the TWSS and the Student Writing Intensive (SWI) programs together for $239 which when you take into account that we are using the plans for our fourth year, they are a reasonably priced. (The SWI program is a set of DVDs that the student watches and it comes with a complete set of lesson plans. The SWI DVDs correspond with the TWSS DVDs which are for the parent to watch. I need to write a separate review for the SWI plans-stay tuned.)

Help in Using the IEW, TWSS, and SWI Programs

Bonus Student Workshop DVDs: Included in the TWSS DVD program are three disks showing at different levels how Andrew Pudewa teaches his writing workshops using the TWSS lessons. I highly recommend watching these along with your child after getting started with the TWSS plans.

Free Resources: There are some free downloads available on the IEW website, both materials and pod casts.

Online Groups: There is also a very helpful Yahoo Group IEW Families, that has lots of free lesson plans, writing helps, and suggestions for free that you can tap into. The moderator of this group is very good at answering questions so if you are undecided about whether to purchase this program for your family, you might ask her some more specific questions about how you intend to use the IEW programs, especially with younger children.

TWSS DVDs  have made me a more confident writing teacher and coach. I have the tools to do what needs to get done to step my boys through learning to write wonderful essays and then some. The emphasis is on creating great writers all throughout the TWSS plans. All parents can teach writing structure and style using this great product.

I wrote a little bit of my random thoughts on IEW on my Harmony Art Mom blog a few months ago. You can read about it HERE.

Written by Barb-Harmony Art mom.  I also blogs at http://harmonyartmom.blogspot.com and my business is found at http://www.harmonyfinearts.com. I would love for you to join us for the Outdoor Hour Challenges: http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com.

My last review I shared about my search for a grammar text that would finish our study of grammar. I found Our Mother Tongue, and I am pleased with the way it teaches grammar. But, it doesn’t include sentence mechanics. (There is an appendix for the topic, but I don’t find it adequate.) It doesn’t address topics such as where to put commas, semi-colons, and quotation marks; or how to correct sentence fragments and run-on sentences. I realized that I wanted something extra that would provide review for those English topics.

I decided to try Editor in Chief by The Critical Thinking Company. This turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. Each lesson consists of a short passage. The student must read through the passage, find the specified number of errors, and make the necessary corrections. (Sample page)

It has turned out to be a great fit for my almost 12 year old son. He’s at the age where he’s always finding mistakes anyway, so I’m finding this is a great way to put this (often annoying) tendency to good use. Good editing skills are vital to good writing, and I like the way this requires more thought than an assignment that simply instructs the student to put the commas in the correct place or to capitalize all the necessary words. In editing, the student has to find the mistake and figure out why it is wrong in order to correct it.

I would NOT recommend this product for a student that did not already have a good understanding of the concepts. As I mentioned in my previous review, my son was demonstrating that he did understand grammar and sentence mechanics. Editor in Chief provides a way to test if a student can apply his knowledge at a higher level, while reviewing important concepts. This would not be the way I would recommend learning new material. I think that a student should spend time initially in studying correctly written sentences.

The only negative about this product is the price. My son will complete both of the B level workbooks this year. At $17 each, that’s pretty expensive for a supplement. But I was encouraged to see my son enjoying his work for a change, and decided that it was worth the extra expense to us.

Written by Kristen, Neo-classical mom of 4. Kristen blogs at A Day in the Life.

I really love the Rod & Staff English curriculum. It is wonderfully thorough, sequential, and it just makes sense to me. (I even reviewed it on The Curriculum Choice. ) I thought I would continue using it through the 8th grade.

But last year my son (currently 11 years old) asked me why he had to keep doing the same things in English every year. Over… and over… And I didn’t know. (I should mention that he completed grades 3-6 of the Rod & Staff English program.)

Here’s where I make a little confession. I’m a rule follower. I love a system where everything is neat and organized. Step 1, Step 2, etc. I love office supplies, new textbooks, well, books in general. And I never particularly minded “busy work” in school. Not over the top, but doing a page of something that I knew how to do never bothered me.

My son is not like that. He smells busy work a mile away. Practicing concepts he understands seems a waste of time to him. And he clearly understood the concepts. Some of my philosophy has been that he needs to get over it and practice anyway because he’s a kid and doesn’t know as much as he thinks he does. While that may be partially true, I realized that he really was spending a lot of time and learning very little new material in English. So I got to do something that is always fun for me. Curriculum research!

I was looking for a text that he could work through and then be finished. No more grammar study. Now, that’s something he can get excited over. I finally settled on a text called Our Mother Tongue by Nancy Wilson. In the introduction, the author poses the question “Why another grammar book?” The beginning of her answer describes exactly what I was looking for.

That is a good question. The world seems to be quite full of grammar books, but it is not easy to find a text today that covers all the bases, still emphasizes diagramming, is not laden with politically correct jargon, and embraces a Christian world view. I am certainly not claiming to have achieved all these things in this little book, but I have aimed for it. I wanted to produce a grammar book that could be used to teach junior-high students as well as high-school or college students and adults, a book that covered many of the aspects of English grammar succinctly; I also wanted a book that could assume the biblical view of language. At the same time I wanted to whet the appetite of the student to want to know more about the history of our language….

The book is divided into 6 units.

Unit One: The Eight Classes of Words

Unit Two: The Sentence

Unit Three: Special Properties of Nouns and pronouns

Unit Four: Special Properties of Verbs

Unit Five: Verbals

Unit Six: The Special Properties of Modifiers

The 6 units contain a total of 49 lessons. Each lesson has a several accompanying exercises, so we are spreading the lessons out. We will actually use this book for 2 school years, but it could be completed in less. The exercises are usually short, but require thought.

Our Mother Tongue is a very affordable. It retails for only $20, plus $5 for the answer key. In addition the book is not designed to be written in and is completely non-consumable. I love a book that I can reuse later on.

A nice extra is the addition of historical notes on the English language. These are found in most of the lessons and are located on the side of the page, separate from the grammar portion of the text. I find these to be very interesting facts that I have never learned.

The only complaint that I have about this book is that the answer key is not as complete as I would like. There are many exercises that do not have answers included. These are usually the ones in which the answers may vary, but some example correct answers would have been helpful.

I would recommend this for the junior high or high school level for a student that doesn’t need a lot of repetition. It can be used first for grammar instruction and later for a grammar reference.

Written by Kristen, Well-Trained Classical mom of 4. Kristen blogs at A Day in the Life.

Weaver Interlock is a hands-on curriculum for preschoolers and kindergartners made by Alpha-Omega. It offers a flexible, fully outlined lesson plan that covers Creation through the Flood. The program integrates Bible with additional subjects such as science, math, language arts, and social studies.

We started using Interlock Weaver as our first curriculum for my oldest as his preschool curriculum. We continue to use it as a unit study, bible add-on, and intend to use it for my younger boy as well.

Right off the bat, I loved how well planned the curriculum is and how easy it was to follow. Each day is laid out with your bible theme which then “weaves” that theme into multiple subjects. They even include reading suggestions as well as craft projects that use primarily household items.

The program includes a tab in the big binder that is filled with reproducible worksheets and projects, which the kids loved! I loved it too because it saved me so much time not having to separately source printable or crafts for each topic on the internet. The program also comes with a music tape and an introduction to phonics.

If you choose to use Weaver for both preschool and kindergarten, I do suggest you order their full phonics or outside program as the phonics included is really just an introduction. (We didn’t delve too deeply into the phonics introduction because my son was already well versed in the phonetic sounds of the alphabet.)

I found this program a joy and it continues to be a fantastic resource for us. The curriculum runs for $99.00 and is available at http://www.aophomeschooling.com.

Written by Diana, eclectic homeschooling mom of two boys ages 2 and 5, and blogger at Life Curves.

JumpStart has been a trusted name in developing quality educational computer games for many years.  Moving one step forward they have now developed a 3D virtual world full of games which promote fun and education.  The program, targeted for ages 3-10, offers a wide variety of levels to keep all children learning while having fun.  While a three-year old may need some help navigating the site, older children can independently navigate with ease.   There are games which focus on fun but many more focus on math, reading and critical thinking. 

There are many themed worlds in the game such as StoryLand (ages 3-5), AdventureLand (grades K-2nd), MarineLand (ages 5-8) and the newly added FutureLand (ages 8-10).  This is a variety of age ranges which makes it perfect for families to enjoy.   Within these worlds you will find leveled games for your children to play.  Each land is easy to get to through the map provided on your screen.  With ease, your child just points and clicks to go to any of these lands or the Arcade, Main Street, Down Town or the Hall of Fame. 

One of the fun things about starting off in this 3D world is creating your avatar or as it’s called in this world a Jumpeez.  You can choose so many fun options from making your Jumpeez look like you to making it look like an alien.  My daughter loved trying on all the different clothing.  She was even more thrilled to learn that she could “buy” more clothes in the Down Town section once she earned coins from the games.  Once you create your Jumpeez you can pick a name.  This is another fun feature but also increases online safety.  A child cannot use his or her own name.  There is a pre-generated list of names that a child can mix and match to come up with a very unique name.  Such as:  Lilly Silver Flower or William Grey Sword. 

My son loved to spend time in FutureLand.  When you enter this land you become part of the Secret Society of Dr. Brain.  My son enjoyed the games in this section because they were challenging and fun.  I enjoyed knowing his computer time was well spent learning.   I was surprised to see how many topics were covered in the games such as math, grammar, language, critical thinking, government and history.  The games are divided by grades 3&4 and 4&5. 

My 4-year-old daughter loved StoryLand.  Now I will say she loved this virtual world more than my son.  She asked to play daily while my son used this as break from school or for 20 minutes of independent time.   My daughter was fully able to navigate the site on her own.  I was truly surprised when she quickly went from a coloring game to a counting game and then to a letter game.  She was thrilled when she won games!  I found a wonderful solution to allowing her a fun learning activity to play while I taught my older children during school.  The games also reinforced the lessons she was already learning. 

Not unlike many virtual worlds online for children, there is a section that kids may nor may not have interaction with other members.  The first thing that comes to mind for any parent is the question of online safety.  I was thrilled to learn that all conversations a child may have are “canned” messages.  This means that a child picks and chooses what to say from a preset list of common expressions.  A child cannot accidently give out information nor be exposed to inappropriate content from another user.  Interacting with other members is not required nor is it a large portion of the site.  However, if your child has a cousin or a friend that also has JumpStart 3D Virtual World, they can have limited interaction and play some of the multi-player games together.

From talking story books to jet packing around answering math questions this world is an entertaining ride for kids and reinforces valuable lessons.  For a parent, you can be assured your chid is safe and learning sound.  My kids enjoyed playing and I enjoyed watching them play.  I will also admit that I enjoyed playing around myself. 

In my homeschool, I surround my kids with living books, and learning tools that encourage a love and curiosity for knowledge.  I do not rely on technology or online games to teach my children.  However, I do use technology as a tool in my children’s education.  The internet has so much to offer in the way of education and yet so much to offer that is harmful to children.  I have found that JumpStart is a reliable and trusted tool in my kids’ education and fits into my homeschool.  When my 10-year-old son is on a break or finished with an assignment he can further reinforce lessons and have some fun playing on JumpStart.  My four-year old, feels being on the computer is such a priviledge.  She enjoys being independent and showing off what she learned or how what she has already learned helped her win a game.  I am thankful to JumpStart for introducing my kids to this virtual world. 

For more information please visit JumpStart or the JumpStart Blog to see what other parents are saying about this program. 

*Jumpstart provided my children an opportunity to play in the 3D world at no cost in exchange for a review in which they encouraged my full honesty.

Curriculum collects on shelves in our living room and peaks from boxes in the shed. A glance in either place reveals more stuff than we can realistically use. I’m so thankful for the options, but options can paralyze.

So how do I choose what to help me teach my children? How did these books end up in our possession instead of others?

I search for items that line up with our purpose for homeschooling, and trust God to lead me. Yes, the academics are important, but when I consider our goals getting an A in calculus isn’t top priority.

• I want my children to have godly character.
• I want my children to know how to think and reason.
• I want my children to grow in responsibility and self-government.

Can curriculum really address these deeper heart issues? I think that is the whole purpose of learning. So the curriculum crowding the shelves in our home has certain qualities.

It is reflective in nature.

Children need time to think about ideas. I keep multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank worksheets at a minimum.

It lays out the principles of a subject in a sensible way.

Definitions fill full the ideas words represent. A young child can understand that letters make sounds, sounds create words, and words turn into sentences. In this way, they can understand the whole subject of reading before they begin the practice.

It uses original source documents.

Reference materials lay a foundation for self-learning. Quotes inspire us to dig deeper into the context of historical events. Biographies are some of my favorite resources.

The writing is high-quality and inspirational.

This benefits my whole family. When we read good literature, we all enjoy lessons more. Yes, “Spot ran,” is technically a sentence, but it’s not engaging. Every student craves ideas and well-crafted stories.

When I started homeschooling, I had no idea how many wonderful resources I would find. I used to search to find enough for a complete year. Now it seems curriculum finds me.

What about you? What do you look for in curriculum? Do you have more than enough or not enough?

Written by Renae Deckard, Biblical Principled mother of 3. Find Renae’s reflections about homeschool and family life at Life Nurturing Education.

photo credit: kaleid

I noticed lately there is a lot of programs and curriculum that have emphasis on fast learning, colorful and entertaining ways to teach and not to teach.

Basic Math Word Problem Tutor
Subjects 

Disc 1

• Adding Whole Numbers
• Subtracting Whole Numbers
• Multiplying Whole Numbers
• Dividing Whole Numbers
• Adding Decimals
• Subtracting Decimals
• Multiplying Decimals
• Dividing Decimals  

Disc 2

• Adding Fractions
• Subtracting Fractions
• Multiplying Fractions
• Dividing Fractions
• Percents Part 1-2
• Ratio and Proportion

Word problems have been a struggle for sometime with my oldest son, trying to figure out if it’s an adding question or a subtracting question and so forth. This DVD really helps explain how to decipher what the problem is asking of you by using key words in the text.

He is easy to understand and gives many practice problems to help enforce each concept. Great for any child learning word problems or a great tool to use to reinforce these concepts.

You can go to his website @ Math Tutor DVD to learn more.

In my years of homeschooling, one of the most asked questions is, “Which science curriculum should I use?”  I know I have asked that same question many times.  Then one day I asked that question to a physicist friend of mine.  I was very curious what a homeschooling physicist thought was important to teach his children about science and what curriculum he used.  His answer was surprisingly simple.  

He suggested to start out teaching science on the foundation of history.  The explanation was that children will learn equations and the periodic table for many years and still may not have developed an appreciation for science.   The curiosity a child needs to enhance his learning experience comes from people and connections and not from diagrams and equations.  Science is about sparking imagination and exploring the world around you.

In my quest to find a curriculum to fit this concept I discovered, Great Scientists in Action: Early Life, Discoveries, and Experiments.  This is a fun book that you can easily download from CurrClick for under $10.  It’s perfect for one term or semester of school.  The book is divided into chapters that center on different scientists and their discoveries from the past.  At the end of every chapter there are simple experiments to reinforce what was learned.  Your student will learn about Aristotle to Benjamin Franklin to George Washington Carver.  There are additional chapters on Nobel Prize Winners, Women Scientists, Young Scientists, and a research project. 

My children finished this book in one term that lasts 12 weeks.  You can easily tailor this to your needs.  You add this into your normal science curriculum by just bringing out a relevant chapter as needed.  You can focus on one scientista month and use the chapter as a spring board to more in depth assignments.  We used this book twice a week as a crash course into the history of science.  My kids loved this book and looked forward to the assignments.  I felt it inspired a sense of curiosity and enhanced their current studies in history and science.  My daughter is 11, and she used this book as an independent study. 

However you decide to teach science this book can enhance your study of both science and history.  It was very interesting for my kids to learn how scientists questioned the world around them to come up with amazing theories and beliefs.  The book challenged them to look closer at the world and with an eye to see beyond the surface and a mind to ask “why?”.  This is a fairly short book  of 64 pages and easily written for elementary students.  Yet, it does help the student visualize the person behind the discoveries which in turn humanizes science for them.  This set the road for an interest that may not have been there otherwise.  This simple and unassuming workbook is a great addition to your regular history and science curriculum or as a stand alone if used for only a term.  If you want to extend the lessons you will need supplementation and use this book as an outline rather than your main course of study.

The one area that our family tended to not work heavily on was word problems for math. It always seemed to be put in the back of the line with adding, subtracting and multiplying up at top priority. That was until I came across Evan Moor “Daily Word Problems” for Math.

Reading of course needs to be in place in order to really tackle the concept of word problems but once that is firmly established, this curriculum really helps.

Broken up into 5 problems a week with one and two step problems. This curriculum has really helped my oldest son learn how to read and understand math through words. At first he didn’t understand how sentences could turn into a math problem and was very intimidated by this concept.

Now, with the help of Evan Moor he doesn’t feel overwhelmed like he did with other curriculum that gave problems after problems each day. This only tackles a problem a day allowing him to master it, feel confident and then move on.

This book series will help sharpen your child’s problem solving skills, one problem at a time every day for 36 weeks. Each week’s problems are on the same theme. For instance one week is on the presidents and this gives them one problem a day for five days with that same theme.

This book series is in grades 1-6. Includes a scope and sequence chart and an answer key.

You can learn more about Evan Moor by going to their website @ www.evan-moor.com.

This seems like a topic that has been covered elsewhere but I had a reader ask me about my thoughts and experiences with Sonlight and Tapestry of Grace. I will try to do my best at representing our family’s experience with both programs. I originally wrote this entry for my Harmony Art Mom blog in the spring of 2009.

First off, I love both approaches to homeschooling. Some of my fondest years of homeschooling were those years that we used Sonlight. The boys were young and eager to read and to be read to and Sonlight’s choices were a perfect fit for our family’s tastes. I really enjoyed having my days all planned out for me and believe it or not….I did not do much tweaking to Sonlight’s well presented plans. (In fact, if you use my Harmony Fine Arts plans, you will see a striking resemblance to Sonlight’s format.)

I can't bear to part with our favorite Sonlight books.

We used Sonlight’s Core Levels 2, 3, 4, and 6. We also used Levels 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 for science. Somewhere during those years, I found The Well-Trained Mind book and decided that I really liked the idea of a four year cycle of history and I began investigating this idea some more.

We made the decision to switch to a curriculum that followed the four year cycle of history and included the Story of the World books. After much deliberation, we decided on using Tapestry of Grace. We picked up where Core 6 left off and that was with Tapestry of Grace year 3. My boys were in 6th and 7th grades at that time.

There really were two big adjustments coming from Sonlight to Tapestry of Grace.

Choices in Books and a Little More Planning

First of all, the TOG plans are so flexible that you really need to sit down with access to your home library, your local public library, and the internet to coordinate which books you will use to teach each concept. I take each unit’s plans and go through and decide on which books I would like to use to present each week’s concepts. There is definitely a learning curve when it comes to knowing how many books you need to use each week. Within each week, the books are not broken down by pages like in the Sonlight plans. You are given the title of the book and you are left on your own to cover it at a pace that you choose.

Unit Celebration Year 3-Lewis and Clark Dinner

With Tapestry of Grace, I would say that it takes two hours of initial planning per unit (nine weeks) to decide on books and to decide on activities. It also takes an additional 45 minutes or so per week to make sure you have the books you need and if your children are older, to go over the schedule with them to put in their planners. I use the library for many of our books so that means a trip to the library at least every three weeks to check out and return books. We would be doing that library trip anyway so I don’t count that into the planning time.

If you are a box checker, TOG will seem overwhelming unless you understand right up front that you will *not* do everything put down in the plans.

The way that TOG can be a huge time saver in a larger family is the ability to offer history, literature, writing, art appreciation, hands-on activities, geography, and more to everyone from one set of plans. You can keep all your children together in all these subjects and choose from the different levels of books as you go along. The subjects are taught topically and you can use your own resources as well if you want to substitute.

The thorough Teacher’s Notes have been a great help to me as the boys have moved up to the rhetoric level. The notes are very well done and the research has been done and gathered for me.

The advantage of Tapestry of Grace over Sonlight is that you are teaching things topically and you can substitute your own books or books from your public library if you want to. The plans are not put down in such a way that if you don’t have access to a certain book that you are stuck for the week. Another advantage to using Tapestry of Grace is the fact that you can move up and down the levels within each week, using what is appropriate for your particular child. One week your child may read the upper grammar level literature and the next you can offer the dialectic level book if you think they would benefit from it instead. The opposite is also true and you can have your rhetoric level student move down and read the dialectic selection some weeks if the load is too heavy and you need to offer something a little lighter. We do that sometimes if the ideas and concepts are new to our boys.

Tapestry of Grace Unit Display Year 2

More Meaningful Discussions

The second *huge* difference for us moving from Sonlight to Tapestry of Grace has been the increased expectations as far as the boys’ manner of learning. TOG has helped me to make the boys more independent learners. Many times the Sonlight discussions felt like question and answer time but with TOG we have deeper, more meaningful discussions. I think it is the way the material is not spoon-fed to them. Here is a link to some information on TOG’s website that will explain it better than I can.
Teacher’s Notes

Those are my general thoughts about our experiences with both Sonlight and Tapestry of Grace. I would highly recommend going over to Tapestry of Grace’s website and downloading the free complete samples that they offer. You will get a little taste of how the plans are scheduled out and how they differ from Sonlight. Remember there is a learning curve and know that after the first few weeks of using the plans you will be more skilled at knowing how they work together.
Tapestry of Grace-Free Sample

Just so you know, I am not an affiliate for Tapestry of Grace. The thoughts here are my own personal opinions and were drawn from our own experiences. As the years have gone by, our homeschool style has changed quite a bit and I am much better equipped to adapt TOG to our Charlotte Mason/Classical/Project based style of learning. It takes some effort but now that my children are much older, I have the time.

Written by Barb-Harmony Art mom.  She also blogs at http://harmonyartmom.blogspot.com and her business is found at http://www.harmonyfinearts.com. I would love for you to join us for the Outdoor Hour Challenges: http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com.

We enjoy incorporating art into our unit studies. There are many ways to accomplish this, but one of my favorites is to have my children do a lesson from Draw Write Now, a series of books containing beginning drawing lessons and handwriting practice for primary and elementary students. The author, Marie Hablitzel, developed this collection of lessons for her second-grade students after seeing that they were becoming frustrated with their drawing skills and bored with tedious handwriting drills. Starting with the idea that drawing and handwriting require many of the same skills, Mrs. Hablitzel began designing lessons  that combined the two. She also integrated these lessons with other subject areas such as reading, history, geography, and science. The result was students who became enthusiastic about learning to draw and write.

The series consists of eight volumes which can be purchased separately or as a set:

Book 1 – Farm Life, Kids and Critters, Storybook Characters

Book 2 - Christopher Columbus, Autumn Harvest, The Weather

Book 3 -  Native Americans, North America, The Pilgrims

Book 4 - The Polar Regions, The Arctic, The Antarctic

Book 5 – The United States, From Sea to Sea, Moving Forward

Book 6 – Animal Habitats: On Land, Pond and Rivers, Oceans

Book 7 – Animals of the World: Tropical Forests, Northern Forests, Forests Down Under

Book 8 - Animals of the World: Savanna Animals, Grassland Animals, Mountain and Desert Animals

You can see the wide variety of topics, which makes it easy to find a drawing lesson that relates to what your students are learning about.

Each volume contains approximately twenty-four lessons, laid out in a clear, straight-forward manner. Each lesson includes five parts:

1. Introduce the subject – Information and questions are scattered throughout the books that the teacher can use to spark the students’ interest in the subject they will be drawing. There are also suggestions for books related to the topics.

2. Draw the subject – This is my favorite part of each lesson because the author has simplified the drawing process by breaking it down into easy steps, which are pictured for the student. The teacher is encouraged to help students see the objects they are drawing as combinations of lines and simple shapes.

3. Draw the background – Students are encouraged to be creative and use their imaginations as they add details to their drawings.

4. Practice handwriting – Students copy text that relates to the subject of the drawing. I’ve found that my children are much more excited about handwriting practice when it relates to something they have drawn.

5. Color the drawing – Tips are included for the best ways to color certain shapes so as to enhance the child’s drawing and not detract from it.

Each book is rounded out with additional information that I have found very helpful:

• Teaching tips that give great insight and ideas for helping students to succeed at the five parts of each lesson.
• One lesson in each book is dedicated to helping the student draw something from their imagination, as they are encouraged to think about things like how people move, positioning of a horizon line, choosing the size of a subject and deciding upon its placement on the paper, and more.
• “Learn More” sections that contain supplemental information about the subjects being drawn.

We have thoroughly enjoyed the Draw, Write, Now series. After using these lessons, my reluctant artist has gained confidence in his drawing ability and even enjoys drawing now. And since I’ve never had an art lesson in my life, but have always wanted to learn to draw, it has been fun for me to do these lessons along with my children.

You can do a sample lesson from Book 1, the easiest of the eight volumes, by visiting the Draw, Write, Now website, where you’ll find much more information about this series.

Written by Shannon, who enjoys learning to draw alongside her three children. She can be found blogging about her family’s homeschool adventures at Song of My Heart.