Special Harmony Fine Arts Discount

 Fine Arts  No Responses »
Apr 272012
 


Thank you all for participating in the Harmony Fine Arts Giveaway this week! We had an amazing response to the giveaway. Congratulations to our winners: Kathy and Jenny! Did you miss the review? You should see what all the excitement is about and read my review of Harmony Fine Arts Plans for Music and Art Appreciation. But there’s more – a weekend discount!

Special 25% Discount on Harmony Fine Arts for The Curriculum Choice Readers!

From Barb-Harmony Art Mom:

As a way of thanking you all for your participation in the Harmony Fine Arts Giveaway here on The Curriculum Choice, I would like to extend a special discounted price for ebook versions of my plans. Click over to the Specials Page on Harmony Art Mom blog to read all the details. Barb-Harmony Art Mom explains how to order so that you get the discount, plus how to get started with your Harmony Fine Arts plans.

Regular Price $17.44. Special Discounted price $12.95- A 25% Discount!
Grades 1-8 are eligible for the discount.

Special Price Ends Midnight, April 30, 2012.

Click over to the Specials Page now!

 

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Harmony Fine Arts Plans for Art and Music Appreciation

 Age, Art, Charlotte Mason, Elementary, Fine Arts, High School, Middle School, Music  101 Responses »
Apr 232012
 

You are in for a treat at the end. Don’t miss the giveaway!

Dear homeschool parent,

Are you like me? Do you long to enrich your homeschool with studies of composers and artists? Do you wish that someone would just do it all for you? You know, invest the time in research, find the online links, point you to the resources you need? All I really wanted to be able to do was open something up and teach. Have it all right there and not have to pull it all together myself.

It’s done. Yes, really. It’s all done for you. Barb-Harmony Art Mom has created just what you need. She, too, was like us. Here is what Barb has to say about the Harmony Fine Arts (HFA) plans she created:

The idea behind this program came from my own home schooling experience. I was always searching for a plan for picture study and composer study. It seemed simple enough to do myself but I just never did it. I also wanted to use the classical style and Charlotte Mason’s ideas for our art and music. I wanted all the great resources organized in the four-year cycle of history. I wanted it to be flexible and easy to use. I never found what I was searching for so I decided to do it myself!

This is the art and music appreciation program for busy people. We have done all the research and organizing. You are able to open our plan and offer a great program for your children.

As mentioned above, the plans are organized by the four-year cycle of history. They are presented as follows but plans for individual grades are available:

  • Grammar – Grades 1-4
  • Logic – Grades 5-8
  • Rhetoric – Grades 9-12

(First grade plans are a general overview and gentle introduction to composers and artists. Starting with grade 2, the plans work chronologically through the four year history cycle.)

Art Plans:

Offer three options so you can choose what is best for your homeschool.

  • You can simply choose picture study with links to view all the art online for easy viewing.
  • You can add in an art appreciation study with short activities.
  • You can even follow along in certain grades with the formal art program Artistic Pursuits or Drawing with Children or Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad – depending on the grade level.
  • Depending on which option you choose within the art plans – you can allow for one or two 45-minute art periods per week.

Composer Study:

  • Choose to study the composers and listen to their music or
  • Enhance your music study with suggested books

Included: artist and composer notebooking pages, coloring pages of famous art.

How we use Harmony Fine Arts Plans in our home: we adopted Angie and her boys at Petra School’s Wednesday habit of artist and composer study. All this means is that we push back the dishes from lunch. I open up the Harmony Fine Art Plans on my computer. I turn on the music of the composer we are studying. Or I click over to the optional online listening of Classics for Kids. We might work on a notebook page while listening.

Next, depending on the day, I might click over to view artwork of the artist we are studying. We may follow with an artist notebook page or a Draw Squad lesson. This takes 15 to 30 minutes once a week. But building a weekly habit has tuned us all in and made us want more the rest of the week.

  • “Can we play that again? I really like it.” 14-year-old
  • Six-year-old whistling along to Beethoven’s 9th Symphony when I turn on the classical music just for listening fun.

The Many Benefits of Art and Music Study:

Cost: All costs are listed on the order page of the Harmony Fine Arts website. Bundles are available as well as individual year plans. I purchased the Middle School Medieval/Renaissance Plans at the start of this school year for $17.44. A whole year of study for the whole family for less than $20 – one that brings that much learning and enjoyment? What a bargain!

Print or ebook? Harmony Fine Arts Plans are available in both print or ebook format.

In Summary: What I originally intended for my middle-schoolers to study has extended to full blown appreciation for the whole family – all five children.

  • The artist and composer studies compliment our Tapestry of Grace studies beautifully.
  • For this mama, using HFA plans is easy. I just click to open the plans, click to print what we might like to compliment our studies, click to print a coloring page for the younger ones.
  • Not to mention, this type of enrichment is pure delight. It might just be what your homeschool needs too.

“All my music I wrote for God.” ~ J. S. Bach

I shared about our studies on my Hodgepodge site and my friend Kimberly, a pianist and life-long musician, had this to say…

“It warms my heart when I hear children learning about classical music! So many of those composers had such a love for God and were certainly gifted. When you mention Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Debussy, etc. to most children, they have no idea who they are. It’s so sad because these musicians have had such an impact on our world. It’s wonderful that you’re sharing this education with your children!” ~Kimberly

I agree – there is so much history and part of HIS story we can learn from those gifted and Godly. With thanks to Harmony Fine Arts for creating a wonderful tool for just such an education.

Now for the giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Homeschooling for over a decade now, Tricia faces a daily dose of chaos with five children. She shares a mixture of free art lessons, recipes and the practical at Hodgepodge. Her husband, Steve, also shares reviews here at Curriculum Choice.

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Winter Promise All American 1

 Art, Bible, Elementary, Hands On, High School, History & Geography, Living books, Middle School, Unit study resources  2 Responses »
Mar 122012
 

A Bit of Background: For the 2011 school year my family decided to make a change in our curriculum. If you’ve read my blog before you’ll know we’re Five In A Row fans, and after 4 years of their curriculum with my eldest it was time to move forward to give him something a bit meatier for his grade level.

After some prayerful research and web surfing I discovered there’s a lot of curriculum out there that a homeschooling mama can choose from. In fact there’s so much that at times I felt truly overloaded with choices. In the end I wrote down my needs on one side of a sheet of paper and my wants on the other side. From there I was able to quickly weed out curriculum that would be of no use to me and finally settle on ones that would work. From that very short list I settled on Winter Promise All American 1.

I chose to use All American 1 because it covers your needs from grades 1-7. This does not mean that you can use this particular core for seven years, rather it means that if you have students ranging from first through seventh grades it’s a good fit for you. If you have students older than that and wish to keep them all together, you can also purchase a high school add on pack.

How We Use It:

This was our very first year using an “out of the box” curriculum. {Out of the box simply means everything you need to use is included and you’re off and running.} We basically used it exactly as it’s laid out. I ordered the core {All American 1; AA-1}, as well as the accompanying Character Supplement, Art Study, and I even picked out a science pack to round everything out.

All but the science is scheduled right in your main core. All I have to do is open to the week and day I’m on and we’re off and running. I will confess, that at times we didn’t use it exactly as it was laid out. Some weeks were incredibly light and we wanted more so we did two weeks in one. This isn’t too hard if you have a couple of back to back light weeks. Winter Promise cores are only mapped out for a four day school week.

Our core also came with Student Planning Pages that I chose not to use. I had high hopes of using them for my 4/5 grader to learn to be a more independent learner. However because his younger brother was also doing the core, it limited how much I could permit him to do on his own.

This core also came with plenty of web links to enhance the study. We did not check most of these out. We did visit a few and they were so-so. Eventually we found we were fully satisfied with the vast amount of crafts and notebooking that we were doing.

I also chose to use some of the read-alouds as audio books because our family adores having a book playing in the car. During one of our long journeys this year I purchased Fever {our current read aloud} as an audio and plugged it in the car and were able to enjoy the story while we traveled.

What I Loved:

I loved, loved, loved, the fact that this particular core decided to use Homeschool In The Woods Time (HSITW) Traveler Packs {worthy of a review all their own!}. My family happens to be HUGE HSITW fans and these packs are nothing short of fantastic. The fact that Winter Promise chose to use them in this particular core was one of the deciding factors in our purchase!

I loved the fast array of historical fiction we read this year. Many of the books I was none the wise for and wouldn’t have chosen had I not used this curriculum. We learned so much from the good quality literature that we read and my children still refer to these characters {some fictional some real} as life-long friends.

I can not stress how amazing it was to have our school year laid out for us, all 36 weeks, 180 days worth. I suffer from chronic migraines and there are times in my life where planning out our school is nothing short of a miracle. We also had to abruptly move in September and helped a family member move.. twice! It was such a relief to know that despite all of that we were not going to be held up because I hadn’t had time to finish planning the final bits of our school week. Instead, we grabbed some of our books and hit the road!

Customer Service! Living overseas I have an overseas mailing address and a US address. When the company accidentally mailed something to the wrong address, they quickly refunded my shipping so that I could then pay to have it forwarded to the right place. Anytime I contacted them they were quick to answer my questions in full. I was grateful for that.

 

The Timeline. Oh. My. I’ve never met a timeline I’m so in love with, and we’ve tried a lot! Over the years I’m pretty sure we’ve used no less than four timelines, but this one is the best! It’s a notebook timeline separated by years. You then glue timeline figures to the separating pages and place all notebooking, lapbooking, maps, etc. behind these pages. My children equally love these huge notebooks. They are a beautiful portfolio of the work they’ve done all year! Even if you use nothing else from this company, I assure you their timeline is worth purchasing all on it’s own!

What I Don’t Love:

I didn’t love the price of shipping for overseas users. Check out my tips at the end of this post for help in reducing the cost of shipping!

I was disappointed to see a few typos in the Core. Only a couple, but they did throw me for a loop for a minute.

I found the Character study to be a bit weak for my family. The prints of the artwork were small and dark compared to the large copies we found online.

To be totally honest and fair with my review I must admit my children loved the art portion and requested it frequently! I would also like to have seen the prints turned into coloring sheets for the children. I never asked my children to try their hands at drawing the pictures we studied. I knew my eight-year-old would have been quickly overwhelmed and frustrated with his attempts. Had the art prints been coloring pictures it would have allowed him to try it and critique his art in a positive way.

Their resale policy. I was unaware when I purchased from them that they had a strict request that you don’t resell their exclusive material.

I was also disappointed to see that if I had not included the Bible Character Supplement there would have been no “Christian” reference to their curriculum. I admit to being disappointed because it’s considered a Christian curriculum and I would have loved to see that better integrated.

Geography. In the AA-1 core there was geography worked into it. We ended up only doing a few weeks before leaving it alone and only doing the geography that applied to our stories {mapping the Lewis & Clark trail, Mapping the Erie canal, finding the places specific battles took place, etc.}

Tips I’d Like To Share:

I want to offer up a few tips for anyone trying to decide about Winter Promise.

  • Try ringing them directly to place your order. While I ordered online, I did ring them later that week to confirm that my order had taken place and to find out exactly when it would be shipped out. If you have your order shipped to an overseas address you must ring them anyway.
  • Only order Winter Promise Exclusives from them. That means the Core Manual, Bible, Art, Timeline, etc. Order all the books you’ll need from other sources. This is exactly what I did. I chose to order all my books {read alouds, readers, and go alongs} from Book Depository. They offer free shipping to most of the world and I knew exactly when they’d show up at my front door! No waiting on a middle man to get them to me. This is huge for overseas purchasers! The biggest complaint for people who purchased an entire core from this company that lived overseas was that books trickled in over months.
  • Use the samples on their websites, & really investigate their website! All American 1 is not listed as a core on their Themed Humanities page, but it is available if you look at the American Story {1 or 2} as a better option if you are working with a wider range of children.
  • If you don’t want to do all the crafts included, don’t! There were many I skipped mainly because we all ready had done lots and I knew my involvement would be heavily needed. For crafts that my children could do on their own I supplied them with what they needed and let them lose. For crafts that needed my involvement we only picked a few to do each week.
  • Purchase your Time Traveler Packs from The Old Schoohouse Magazine.* This will greatly reduce your costs because you won’t pay shipping for them! They are shipped directly from the Pak family and arrive in amazingly quick time. You can’t go wrong there! We also purchased the Homeschool In The Woods Mapping CD to use with the geography written in the core {the same geography we chose to drop because it seemed very watery instead of rich and purposeful.} *If you live overseas you will not be able to get the free shipping mentioned above. Instead email HSITW! When I did that they offered to put them in a priority mail envelope and post them to me, up to six, for the current price of that envelope {at the time of this review I believe the envelopes cost $14 USD}

Bottom Line:

We absolutely loved our year with Winter Promise’s All-American 1! My children learned and created so much this year. They have a timeline notebook bursting with the proof of their labors and will continue to fill that over the rest of their homeschooling “careers”. I am grateful for the freedom it gave me as I dealt with life this year. Despite my initial concerns when making the switch I’m incredibly glad that I did!

Notes: The cores do not come bound as you see in the above pictures. I chose to bind my own copy! Each core comes pre-hole punched and ready to slip into a three ring binder.

*You might also be interested in Jimmie’s review of Winter Promise American Story 1 here.

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Playful Learning-Develop Your Child’s Sense of Joy and Wonder

 Art, Elementary, Hands On, Mathematics, Science, Writing  No Responses »
Mar 052012
 

What a treat for the eyes and a delight to the heart! I LOVE this book and any mom who is looking for ways to build on play-based learning, this book is a gem. The book, Playful Learning by Mariah Bruehl, will help you create an atmosphere of learning by building spaces and providing activities that spark creativity and fun. Looking back over my years as a homeschooling mom, I realize the best learning takes place when I could build on my child’s interest in a relaxed and enjoyable way. The trick was to be prepared for those moments.

Sometimes it is as easy as creating a learning environment, introducing your child to the space, and then letting them explore.

Playful Learning is the kind of book that can be referred to again and again and you will always find some new idea to spark a creative activity. It is a visually appealing book that outlines areas of your home where you can set the stage for playing and natural learning.  The author stresses the importance of free and unstructured time for children to explore their interests and Playful Learning gives specific ideas for building on your child’s natural inclinations to play and learn by organizing play spaces and materials to nurture the interest alongside your child.

“Playful Learning gives us as parents an opportunity to play again! It is wonderful to teach the way we wish we had been taught. I have rediscovered my own awe and wonder of the world.”

 

  • Do you want to nurture your child’s love of writing? Young writers will be encouraged to keep lists and notebooks, write stories and letters, and have a try at bookmaking.
  • Do you want to build an art area, a child’s science “lab”, or a cozy reading library? Images and resource lists are included in this book.
  • Has your child shown an interest in learning geography?  Create maps together and learn more about the world we live in using suggestions in this section of the book.
  • Is your child a nature lover? Activities illustrated will help your child better connect the the natural world in your own backyard.

Mariah Bruehl will give ideas in pictures and words, making it easier to provide a richer learning experience at home by showing you activities to plan on and offer as you play through your day.

She explains that the key for parents is to stay “one step ahead”.  I appreciate that this book assumes you want to identify an interest and then build on it, preparing yourself to offer up the space and ingredients for playful learning at home. She outlines in each main section the stages of learning, how to stay “one step ahead”, the process of building on interests, and then more ways to explore with your child. She suggests skimming the book with your child and then refer back to it when they become interested in a particular subject.

The book includes lots of printables in the back of the book as well as from the Playful Learning website. What a great way to get started with your Playful Learning experiences! You may also want to follow Playful Learning on Pinterest where there are many, many wonderful additional ideas for you to implement in your home.

Excellent resource for families with children from ages 4-8 (even older if you extend the ideas). This book will be a perfect supplement to any homeschooling curriculum and can be used with any style of learning. Big thumbs up for this sparkling gem of a book!

Written by Barb-Harmony Art Mom.  I blog at Harmony Art Mom and am the creator of  Harmony Fine Arts. I would love for you to join us for the Outdoor Hour Challenges at the Handbook of Nature Study.

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A World of Adventure

 Bible, Elementary, Fine Arts, Hands On, History & Geography, Language Arts, Living books, Middle School, Science, Unit study resources  No Responses »
Mar 022012
 

I am so excited to introduce you to a fabulous, award winning unit study, A World of Adventure.

Written for grades 4-8 by Dorian Holt, a mom who successfully homeschooled her own son, A World of Adventure is the first volume in the Learning Adventures series.

If you enjoy using unit studies, or have been curious about trying them, I hope you will find this review helpful and informative.

What A World of Adventure is:

A World of Adventure is a complete curriculum, covering every subject except math, with detailed, guided lesson plans for 180 school days. Dorian designed this curriculum to use books most of us can borrow from our local library, to help lesson our financial burdens while homeschooling.

When you visit the Learning Adventure site, you will be pleased to find lots of samples, encouragement and information. I was very struck however, at one thing I did not find, up-selling. There are a few things you can add, which I will discuss in a moment, but this company does not lure you in with a lower price point and then give you a mile long list of extras you can’t live without.

That was a breath of fresh air to me.

A World of Adventure is also very Christian. You begin your journey in Egypt, with the Bible. The story of Joseph and his brothers is a favorite in my home, and this section of the Bible leans well to soaking up the culture and story.

The lessons are written from a Christian perspective. Bible reading and Scripture memorization are a huge part of our family, and this curriculum has both.

What A World of Adventure covers:

  • Ancient Egypt
  • Ancient Greece
  • Ancient Rome
  • Middle Ages
  • Renaissance and Reformation
  • Age of Exploration

What the lessons look like:

I have tried to do this on my own before. Even after spending hours searching and combing the internet, library, and our homeschool library, I don’t come up with even a fraction of what this curriculum offers – and am left in tears.

The lessons are history based, but thread all of the other subjects into what you are reading. For example, in the story of Joseph and his brothers, you will be reading history from the Bible, but you will also learn from the guide-vocabulary, Greek and Latin prefixes, suffixes and root words. You will travel in books learning Ancient Egypt, discuss what a civilization is, learn about the culture of Egypt, and study life in the desert. You will also discuss elements of literature, memorize scripture and sing hymns.

The lessons are there for you so that you can teach confidently. You can make them flexible to fit your current needs. Just think of Dorian as your homeschooling friend, who has been where you are and is helping you on your journey.

You won’t be stranded at your school table, you will find this curriculum takes you to hands on projects, and you will spend time together in the kitchen as well.

This curriculum is packed with more to learn than I have ever seen. Everything is guided for you. There is even a game you can purchase that acts as a review.

The price:

  • You can get all 790 pages of detailed lesson plans for $90.00 That’s right, $90.00. What a blessing!  The curriculum comes to you shrink wrapped, ready to go in a binder.
  • Other than the game ($39.00) the other useful extras offered are printed student pages ($20.00) and the customer requested Supplement for Little Adventurers ($15.00 each time period) which gives you lesson plans for children K-3. (Supplement does not stand alone.)
  • You can see a sample of lesson plans here.

This curriculum has it all, I really have enjoyed reviewing it. We will be using A World of Adventure in our homeschool in the future, and I can’t wait. I hope you’ll check it out and find it as fascinating as I do.

**I received this curriculum at no cost to me, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.**

 

 

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Birdcage Press Art Ditto Game Review

 Art, Electives, Elementary, Fine Arts, High School, Middle School, Preschool  22 Responses »
Feb 232012
 

You are in for a treat! Not only are we offering a giveaway but you have nine more chances to win at the sites we are teaming up with…
We are all about adding in the joy of art in our homeschool. And what a fun way to view beautiful pieces of art – holding copies of them right in your hand. Playing a game? Even better! As a parent, I am very impressed with the quality of Art Ditto by Birdcage Press. The children are very impressed with the fun factor.

For ages 4 and up (all my children enjoyed it – from age 4 up to 14):

  • Brilliantly-colored cards. Glossy and thick – will stand the test of my rough and tumble household.
  • Simple memory game with benefit of learning famous pieces of art.
  • Includes 48 tiles – so younger ones can play with just a few and older children can be challenged by using the whole set.
  • Easy enough for children to play independently.

For a more advanced way of playing – pretend your are an art collector:

  • Eight (8) art collecting cards that show details on one side and full paintings on the other.
  • Cards include names of famous artists (hooray! A supplement to our homeschool studies).
  • Find the matching tiles and collect them on the cards.
  • The cards give a visual of how different artists depict birds, boats, cats, flowers, horses and more.

Need even more of a challenge? Learn words in 4 languages.

You might be interested to know:

  • Art Ditto won the Creative Child Game of the Year Award as well as the Parents’ Choice Recommended Award.
  • Art Ditto is also available in an American Art version. (Which Rachel at at Finding Joy is reviewing)
  • You can browse all the Birdcage Press art products here.

Conclusion: Playing Art Ditto over and over makes us interested in all the other products from Bird Cage press. Click over to their site for more detail and to browse other games in the art category. We loved Art Ditto so much that we ordered Go Fish for Renaissance Artists to compliment our Tapestry of Grace studies.

Happy faces! Play memory games! Collect your favorite art! And as a homeschool parent, enjoy a high-quality, educational resource for your homeschool.

Find Art Ditto and many more wonderful educational products via the Birdcage Press website.

*Special shipping discount code on all orders: IN12 is good until 3/31/12

Please note: I received this Art Ditto game in exchange for a review. I always give my honest opinion and love to share our family’s experiences when reviewing a product.

Now for the giveaway! The giveaway will only run through Sunday, February 26th. The winner will be announced Monday, the 27th. Birdcage Press is kindly offering one (1) Art Ditto game to our readers.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

More Chances to Win! The Curriculum Choice is joining with these wonderful sites in reviewing Birdcage Press products. Be sure to visit each blog to find out about more of these great resources. Plus enter to win a different game or product at each site!

Spell Outloud — Choice of Egyptian Art Cards or Battle Cards-Military Jets

Finding Joy — Choice of Wild Cards – North American Birds or Art Ditto Game.

Jimmie’s Collage –Choice of Impressionist or Renaissance Art Game

Mama’s Learning Corner — Renaissance Art Game

Handbook of Nature Study — Wild Cards-Backyard Birds

Harmony Art Mom — Choice of Go Fish for Art or Art Close-Up Cards

Hodgepodge — Go Fish for Wildlife – Sea Creatures

The Traveling Praters — Choice of Go Fish for Van Gogh and Friends or 52 Amazing Places-National Parks
Get Along Home — Choice of Wild Cards, Backyard Birds or Renaissance Art Game

Tricia has been homeschooling for over a decade now. She faces a daily dose of chaos balancing the needs of five children from preschool to middle school (and playing educational games) at Hodgepodge.

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See the Light Art DVDs

 Art, Electives, Fine Arts, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Feb 102012
 

I love art, but have no real training in it.  I believe my children need to learn art techniques, but I can’t afford $60/hour lessons at the local art studio.  What’s a homeschooling mom to do?  Well…I had the blessing of reviewing lessons 1-12 of See the Light Art Class DVD’s and found them to be full of solid instruction at a reasonable price.

Before I even begin telling you about the lessons, you ought to know the film quality is very good.  That means a lot to me considering so many DVD programs I review leave a lot to be desired in quality.  No need to worry with these!

The complete first year program consists of 36 lessons, meant to be taught once per week.  The teacher has an engaging personality, gives clear directions, and models lessons at an appropriate pace – all important aspects allowing my children to stay focused.  And, she teaches lessons incrementally, meaning each new lesson expands on a previously learned skill.

Technique and art vocabulary are key components in the lessons, as well as learning how to effectively use various art media.  Even though the lessons are simple to implement, they are in-depth, making art class a serious (and fun) venture.  Additionally, each lesson is wholeheartedly Christian, tying in Bible verses or mini-devotionals to the art topic at hand.

Students are encouraged to have their own “toolbox” of basic art supplies including #2 pencils, paper, a drawing pencil, charcoal pencils, a black Sharpie marker, colored pencils, a sharpener, a medium to large box of crayons, a large white eraser and a kneaded eraser.   Some lessons will include easily found household supplies, too, like two apples in lesson 3, for example.

Each lesson lasts approximately 15 minutes and it’s assumed your child will put to practice some of the newly learned skills afterward.  I have used the lessons with my 6th and 9th graders, but even my five year old enjoyed taking part most of the time.

You can purchase all 36 DVD lessons in a bundle for $99.  (Yes, that seems high, but it’s an entire year of art instruction.)  You can also purchase DVDs of four lessons each for $14.99 or get an online subscription which “unlocks” four lessons at a time for only $10 per month.

My children aren’t the most artistically gifted kids you’ll ever meet, but the lessons have really improved their skills.  If you’re skeptical, try the first three lessons for free!

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Draw, Write, Now

 Art, Elementary, Handwriting, Language Arts  No Responses »
Jan 092012
 

Draw Write Now handwriting and art program helped my daughter develop her printing skills and have fun while doing it! The series consists of eight books, each with a different theme and all written at the same level. You can start with any of the eight books. I took my daughter to the nearby children’s book store and she chose Book 1 – On the Farm, Kids, Critters. It was full of her favorite animals to draw!

When we opened the book together, we saw that each lesson included a shape or animal to draw and a short story to copy. Each story included facts about the animal or shape, such as “Rabbits eat plants” or “Ducks have webbed feet.” My second grader enjoyed copying down these new facts, and of course, drawing her new animal!

My daughter’s favorites were the sheep and penguin.

Benefits:

  • This program is built on success! Each animal or shape is explained in step-by-step drawings.
  • Explanations are very easy to follow.
  • While drawing, my daughter was developing her fine motor skills! We placed special drawings into frames and, of course, posted on the frig!
  • Draw,Write Now was a good fit for my daughter because she knew how to form each letter but needed a lot of practice in her printing.
  • Drawing also helped my daughter practice following a sequence – which improved her reading skills!

Skill building: As we worked through three of these books, my daughter developed better control of her pencil. Then while copying the sentences, she began to think up her own stories! Soon she was writing down these stories and illustrating them. The following year, she wrote a story about a toucan and illustrated it for a story contest.

  • Draw Write Now is aimed at the first or second grade level.
  • Although we chose from the animal books, Draw Write Now also offers a number of science and social studies topics.
  • Each of the eight books has 64 pages and is non-consumable.
  • Draw, Write, Now also offers lined paper, books to draw in, pencil grips and grasp positioning guides and more on their site.

Below are the eight Draw, Write Now titles:

  • Book 1  On Farm, Kids, Critters
  • Book 2 Columbus, Autumn Harvest, Weather
  • Book 3 North America, Native Americans, Pilgrims
  • Book 4 Polar Regions, Arctic, Antarctic
  • Book 5 U.S, From Sea to Sea
  • Book 6 Animal Habitats, Land, Ponds, Ocean
  • Book 7 Animals of the World, Part 1, Tropical
  • Book 8 Animals, part 2, Savannas, Grasslands

In summary, I would recommend Draw, Write, Now to families with young children who know how to form letters – and want to improve printing skills in a fun and creative way!

For more information, please visit the Draw Write Now site. You might also like Shannon’s review of Draw, Write, Now.

~Written by Betsy, a veteran homeschooler who likes unit studies and offers Homeschool Consulting, as a volunteer, to new and experienced families. She can be reached on her Facebook, at Jane Sproger. 

A Young Scholar’s Guide to Composers

 Music, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Sep 162011
 

This past year our family was introduced to a study from Bright Ideas Press called A Young Scholar’s Guide to Composers. You might already be familiar with Bright Ideas Press if you use their history curriculum, The Mystery of History.

A Young Scholars Guide to Composers is a One-Year Curriculum for Grades 4-8. It is Christian based and Chronological. It is broken down into 32 weekly lessons that cover 26 famous composers and 6 eras of music.

The study begins with an introduction into Ancient Music and Music in the Middle Ages. You then cover music in the Renaissance and then move into the Baroque Period. At that point you begin covering individual composers and their lives. The rest of the book is broken down into periods of history covering The Baroque period, The Classical Period, The Romantic Period, and The Contemporary Period. You learn about famous composers within each of the above periods of history.

The study offers a suggested schedule for your studies which they have broken down into three days a week, but the study is very flexible and can be used easily in any manner that you desire to use it. In fact, we have on a couple of occasions done the study two days in one week and then picked it back up the following week.

If you follow the suggested study in the book it is recommended that on Day 1 you listen to the recommended selections, read the lesson from the book (each lesson runs approximately 1200 words and takes about 15 minutes to read aloud), and fill in the note- taking pages or answer the Student Review Questions. On Day 2 it suggests that you listen to the selections again, fill in the Composer Info Cards (which are included in the back of the book as reproducibles), and color in the timeline. Day 3 suggests that you listen to the selection(s) again and match the composer to his place of birth on a world map. Again, reproducibles are available in the back of the book.

Above is a sample of the reproducible Composer Info Cards that the book offers.

This is the back of the Info Card which your student/child fills out.

This is a sample of the composers faces that you cut out and glue to the front of the Info Cards. These faces are also used on the included timeline in the book. We have used the faces on our own timeline that we already had set up for our schooling.

Our family has very much enjoyed using this study. One of the things that I love about it is that it can easily be geared towards various ages. While it is written for grades 4-8th, even my  younger children have been able to get a lot out of just listening to the various composers. The back of the book includes coloring pages and my younger children have really enjoyed coloring them as they listen to various pieces of music by each composer. One of our very first composers to study was George Frideric Handel.

This is the coloring page that my daughter Ally (7), and Camden (5) worked on while we listened to his works of music and my older kids filled out their composer cards.

As far as the music itself is concerned, towards the back of the book are suggested web addresses where you can listen to selections from the various artists that you will be studying. Most of the addresses are You Tube videos. While some of the website addresses may change over time and some may therefore not be in use anymore, it has been our experience that most have still been active. When I have come across an address that is no longer active it has been easy to simply type in the name of the piece that is suggested in the book and find selections on You Tube to listen too. I have appreciated having recommended selections to pull up and listen to as we have gone through our studies rather than having to do my own search on what to listen too.

Also included in this book are note-taking pages, quizzes, and answer keys.

Just to give you a sample of how our study began, we started out reading about Ancient Music and Music during the Middle Ages on our first week. Our listening suggestions during this week was, the Gregorian Chant, The Salve Regina, and Dies Irae. As we listened to the suggestions we replayed them several times discussing things such as whether we heard harmony or only melody in the music? Is the tune catchy? What type of feelings does it convey? We tried turning the music off and singing the melody back to see if we could. We also tried tapping our feet to the music. On our second week we learned about music during the Renaissance time period. Our suggestions of music for this week were Piffaro and “Summer Is Icumen In”. We discussed the same questions regarding this music that we did on week one. On week three we read about the Baroque Period and began our study of composers with Antonio Vivaldi. From that point on, each week contained a new composer to study.

This Composer Study is 298 pages long and is available in paperback book form for $34.95 or as a CD-Rom book for $29.95. You can download sample pages of the study from the Bright Ideas Website. To do so or to purchase the book visit, HERE.

Jennifer is mom to 6 children, 2 boys and 4 girls, ages 14 down to 5. The Unsell family is in their 10th year of homeschooling and are a bit eclectic in their approach to schooling. You can find their family blog at Adventures in Unsell Land.

My Father’s World: 1st grade

 Art, Bible, Charlotte Mason, Classical, Elementary, Geography, Grammar, Hands On, Language Arts, Living books, Music, Nature Study, Phonics, Reading, Science, Spelling, Unit study resources  3 Responses »
Aug 222011
 

What immediately drew me to My Father’s World is that the curriculum is the fact that it is fairly stand alone. You purchase either the basic set or their deluxe set, and you are ready to go!  I adore this as our little library in this rural community really doesn’t have the variety or selection of books that we were used to in San Diego. This means filling in blanks or filling out a curriculum is a challenge now so a curriculum with most of the absolutely necessary books included was a huge plus to us.

However, like the true bibliophiles that we are, I wanted the option of having more, should we be able to find them. True to the Charlotte Mason element, the curriculum is surrounded by the “living books” concept so the usage of books is completely up to you.  I love that they include this in every year.

About My Father’s World 

mfw basicMy Father’s World isn’t just a Charlotte Mason style offering but rather a unique fusion of sorts, merging both “the best of Charlotte Mason, classical education, and unit studies with a Biblical worldview and international focus.”

My Father’s World offers grades K-2nd grade as a more independent, semi-stand alone element and then moves into a family 5 year cycle that works around a central theme. The 5 year cycle is specifically geared for multiple ages, for grades 2nd-8th so there is savings to be found as families with more than one child use the same program to teach all children in 2nd – 8th grade.

Year One Geography: Exploring Countries and Cultures
Year Two History: Creation to the Greeks
Year Three History: Rome to the Reformation
Year Four U.S./World History: Exploration to 1850
Year Five U.S./World History: 1850 to Modern Times

 

They also offer a bridge year called Adventures in My Father’s World, which is geared for families 2nd or 3rd graders who have no siblings in 4th – 8th grade.(We will be doing this program next year as I have a 4year old and a 7 year old.)

 

Our Adventure

Currently we are working our way though My Father’s World, 1st grade.  I adore this program as it is laid out in an easy to follow, daily workbook fashion.  It’s easy for me to combine the integrated social studies, science, art and Bible elements with both kids, while focusing independently on the phonics and math.  My boys love that they are learning together, doing the same things, despite their age and grade differences.

The curriculum does include a 1st grade phonics-based reading program that focuses on the Bible and more fun, hands-on math activities.  We include our own K4 phonics and and additional math program (Math U See) for both boys as I found their math not as intensive as I think it needs to be for the grade.

mfw craftsOne major element we always seemed to miss with our previous years curriculum was the arts; we simply didn’t always make time for them.

With My Father’s World, art, music, crafts,hands-on learning is a major part of the curriculum. Everything is planned out and outlined for you to see the day before so you can prep easily, using common household items most of the time.  My boys have enjoyed this more consistent addition to our learning and I have found they have better attitudes and have better lesson retention.

The only cons that I have experience thus far is that the 1st grade teachers book is only formatted with a daily lesson plan. It lacks the easy, one glace, weekly grid that their latter versions offer.  I also felt the math that is included is a bit weak for the age group so we needed to supplement an additional math program. Ultimately, minor things that we easily rectified.

For a full curriculum, It’s fairly affordable, especially when you compare it to larger, more known companies. For the 1st grade curriculum, you can elect to get their basic package for only $136.oo or their deluxe package for $239.00.  As the years grow in complexity, so does the number of books included which will contribute to a steady raise in the overall costs. However, remaining competitive and within reach for most families.

Overall, My Father’s World, or MFW, has been a blessing to our household. It’s affordable, fun, engaging and the children really do learn.

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