Language Arts » The Curriculum Choice

Sisters in the Wilderness, an Introduction to Canadian History and Literature

Elementary, Geography, High School, Highschool, History, Literature, Living books, Middle School No Responses »

Feb 222012

Here’s a wonderful introduction to Canadian history and literature for the whole family: Sisters in the Wilderness. This DVD portrays the mid-19^th century pioneer life of two sisters who sailed from England expecting an easy existence in the Canadian bush. Incorporating both contemporary artwork and dramatization, this quality film full of beauty, pathos, humanity, and history tells the story of Susannah Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill, both writers. Their two families settled in the bush close to each other and, after years of hardship, moved to town. Throughout their lives both Catharine and Susannah continued to write about their experiences. The movie Sisters in the Wilderness is based on their books.

Although not designed as a curriculum, Sisters in the Wilderness can be used as the basis for a thorough study of Upper Canada pioneer life. It shows

the English background of many immigrants,
the ocean journey,
the arrival in Canada,
survival and adaptation in winter and summer,
hardship and ingenuity,
the Rebellion of 1837
and so much more.

Each element of this beautifully produced movie highlights a fascinating aspect of the history of Upper Canada in the middle of the 19^th century and beyond.

After watching Sisters in the Wilderness and seeing how real pioneer families lived, younger students understand A Pioneer Story much better.

Sisters in the Wilderness gives older students an appealing introduction to the two women’s books as well.

Catharine Parr Traill, the optimistic sister, wrote The Backwoods of Canada, focusing on hints for new colonists and on nature. There is a wealth of practical and everyday history in Catharine’s writing. This book is part of our Canadian geography curriculum.
Susannah Moodie, more gloomy and literary, wrote the famous book Roughing it in the Bush. This sombre personal history of an upper class British gentlewoman trying to survive in the woods was written as a warning to those ‘back home’ who were considering such a move. Roughing it in the Bush has become one of the foundational works in Canadian literature, greatly influencing it in modern times.

In summary, Sisters in the Wilderness, available from Northwoods Press, introduces the whole family to Canadian pioneer life in a delightful way and sets teens on the path to studying Canadian literature.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of Sisters in the Wilderness from Northwoods Press.

Written by Annie Kate, a Christian homeschooling mom of five, who reviews and blogs at Tea Time with Annie Kate. You can read her other Curriculum Choice reviews here.

Spectrum Writing-8 Review

Middle School, Writing 1 Response »

Feb 152012

Have you ever wondered how to help your young teens progress with their writing skills? And how to evaluate how they were doing?

We did, when my daughter was 13 years old or so. We looked through a number of great homeschool writing curricula and then chose one that writes to the student: SPECTRUM WRITING grade 8. We love their writing exercises and how well they describe the steps of the Writing Process, in clear, simple language. Each chapter includes a section which helped me to evaluate my daughter’s work, right along side her.

SPECTRUM WRITING grade 8 – offers a variety of essays and fiction activities to chose from. I followed my daughter’s interests, and had her pick which she would like to do. She decided to try short stories first and later take on essay writing. By the time she was ready to tackle the essay writing, the story writing practice made her writing confidence strong.

As a published writer myself, secondary to being a homeschooler, I recommend starting with whatever writing is the most comfortable and familiar. For example, a child who loves science might like to try Chapter 6, as it is the most like science experiment write-ups. The young cook might like Informational Essays, as they are step-by-step similar to recipes. It’s all a matter of putting pen to the page!

Pick and choose what works for your young writers. In our homeschool, we started with Chapter 4, then went on to Persuasive Writing much later.

SPECTRUM WRITING grade 8 – Chapters:

Writing Basics
Expressive Writing (includes personal narrative)
Descriptive Writing (includes sensory)
To entertain (story writing)
Persuasive Writing (debate kids would love this chapter)
Explanatory Writing (such as science experiment write-ups)
Informational (includes recipes, how to’s)

After each activity or assignment there is a section called “Revise” which includes questions to help the teacher evaluate the student’s work. Each question guided me as to what to expect from the work.

Benefits of SPECTRUM WRITING grade 8:

Written directly to the student.
Each chapter has sequential writing activities, which are straight forward and easy to follow.
Writing terms, such as “voice” are defined clearly.
Reviews writing basics, and includes fiction writing and a variety of essays .
Includes many clearly written forms which help the student to put her thoughts down on paper.

When my daughter finished, her story writing was ready for essays. Next, we chose persuasive writing. First there was a web form, to help generate ideas. Then to build the essay, another form was used to list each of her points, see photo.

Once the first draft was written, she worked on editing and then publishing her writing in its final form. My daughter enjoyed printing it out from her computer.

We always waited to discuss any grammar, spelling or mechanics issues until after the first draft. That helped the words find their place on the page! My suggestion is whatever helps the creativity and work to flow out. Whatever the student writes, follow his or her interests, and the writing skills will follow, too.

For more information, please visit www.FrankSchaffer.com

Watch for more SPECTRUM WRITING reviews in the future, from K to 12.

~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.

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Take Five! for Language Arts

High School, Language Arts, Middle School, Writing No Responses »

Feb 062012

One of hardest subjects for me to teach is writing, especially creative writing. As a long time homeschooling mom, I appreciate that I don’t know everything about everything. Two of my children are gifted writers and it has always been a challenge to offer them interesting writing programs, stimulating them to tap into their creative juices. Finding a resource that meets my high expectations is like finding a treasure!

I received Take Five! for Language Arts as an electronic download to review. I knew immediately upon opening the file that I was going to be able to use this with my high school age son AND he was going to enjoy the simple but imaginative assignments.

The assignments are actually written for practice in critical thinking and just happen to include creative thinking and writing as well. These are not your usual hum-drum writing assignments. Some of the prompts have you make a list or chart, sometimes you actually do a quick sketch before writing, or some of the prompts build on each other from day to day.
Each activity is intended to be done in five minutes so they are easily worked into an otherwise busy high school schedule.
The price is a little high at $23.95 but since the target age group for this book is grades 6 – 12. I could have used this as a resource making it a part of a larger language arts program in middle and high school making it a good investment.
This book would complement many styles of homeschooling including classical, Charlotte Mason, eclectic, or even unschooling.
There is just enough variety to make it interesting, leaving the writer wondering what tomorrow’s assignment will be. Yes, anticipation for the next assignment!

Things to note:

Sometimes you need more than pencil and paper to complete an activity but never anything you wouldn’t already have in a well-stocked homeschool.
I found that Take Five! for Language Arts was really something I needed to be involved in, reading the narrative, prompt, and extensions together with my son. This way we could adapt the assignment if needed or go a little farther if we found it was a “bell ringer” of a topic.
I do not assign a score or grade with these assignments. The task is always to complete the prompt, share it, and receive feedback. I think this gives my son a little more freedom to write or create in a way that fits him.
There is an index at the back of the book categorizing the prompts by language arts skills involved and I found that to be very helpful. For example, if I was looking for a prompt that used persuasive writing, I could scroll to that section and read down the list of prompts working on that genre of writing.
You can download the Table of Contents and a Sample Activity from the publishers website: Maupin House.

My teenage creative writer and I give this program a big thumbs up!

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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Book Review ~ A Necklace for Jiggsy by Kit Grady

Elementary, Reading No Responses »

Jan 272012

A Necklace for Jiggsy
Author: Kit Grady
Softback; 18 pages
Suggested Age: 4 – 12
ISBN: 978161630910
Retail: $10.95

I really like this book as it teaches children about honesty and a little about life. It is a quick story with really neat, bright pictures. The story is about a junk yard dog named Jiggsy and a beautiful necklace he finds. He hears that the owner would like it back but he has gained the respect of many others because of his beautiful necklace – therefore he doesn’t want to return it to her. That is, until he looses his very special pillow. He then realizes how much the original owner of the necklace must feel. He promptly returns it to her – and she returns the favor to him. But you’ll have to read the story to find out how.

This book is very well written and beautifully illustrated!

About Kit Grady:

Kit Grady is a full time children’s illustrator and author living in the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina with her husband, son and border collie, Panda. Her love for drawing animals, nature and children began very early. She continued her passion studying art at Virginia Commonwealth University and later studied under Caldecott winners Uri Shulevitz and Gale Haley. Kit has produced greeting cards and created a weekly children’s page for the local newspaper. Her clients include The United Methodist Publishing House/Cokesbury, Kaeden Books, Guardian Angel Publishing and Meegenius. She is a member of theSociety of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. When not writing and illustrating, she visits schools and libraries to celebrate the joy of reading. Kit, best known for her bright colors and expressive animals, has several new projects due out this year.

For more information, or to purchase your own copy:
Guardian Angel Publishing
St Louis, Missouri 63128

Click HERE to learn more about Guardian Angel Publishing.

Have a wonderfully blessed day!

Come visit Dawn over at her blog, Guiding Light Homeschool, on Facebook and on Twitter…friends are ALWAYS welcome!

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Spelling Power

Language Arts, Spelling 1 Response »

Jan 232012

Hello, fellow homeschoolers! This is the first review I’ve written for the Curriculum Choice. I’m very excited to share my thoughts about and experience with various curricula and resources with the hope that someone finds them helpful. I thought I’d dive right in with everybody’s favorite subject: spelling!

Like math, spelling as a subject offers a variety of methods — and madness. Also like math, some children are naturally stronger in spelling than others. For some families’ mix of learning styles and levels of compliance (in both children and teacher!), spelling workbooks are the ticket. For others, copywork and dictation fill the bill. And let’s not forget the myriad spelling software programs and other books. Alas, none of those worked in my family. That’s why I’m so thankful a friend introduced us to Spelling Power.

Here’s the daily procedure in a nutshell:

You and your child sit down together. You administer the quiz on that day’s group of words.
Each group of words follows a certain phonetic rule (or exceptions to a rule), such as: “/ar/ is usually spelled ar as in jar.”
You use a specific worksheet (printable at home) and follow a certain protocol in giving the quiz: You say the word, use it in a sentence of your own creation (I enjoy that part!), and say the word again.
Your child then says the word aloud, writes it the best way she can, and then says the word again, to cue you for the next word on the list.
At the end of the quiz, you grade it together, with you saying and spelling each word correctly, and your child marking her incorrect words.
She lists the correct spelling of each word she missed on a list called Words to Learn. She then studies only the words she missed on the 10-Step Study Sheet.
The next day, you quiz her on the words she missed yesterday before beginning that day’s quiz. Easy peasy.

Of course, there’s much more to it than that, overall:

Beverly L. Adams-Gordon, the creator of Spelling Power and a home educator, has put much thought and research into this multi-award-winning program.
When you first begin, you test each child to find out in which level he or she should be placed.
Each level includes several review tests (given after several daily tests).
There are delayed recall tests about halfway through the level. Tests again at the end of the level and end of level tests.
If your child continues to miss words he’s studied previously, Spelling Power provides extra learning activities to strengthen his recall.

Don’t let the “Big Orange Book” scare you, though! Once you delve into the curriculum, Spelling Power is very easy to use:

Adams-Gordon provides a Quick-Start Guide to get you up and running.
Although the program is pricier than other spelling curricula, it’s designed to be used from ages eight through adult.
All the materials you’ll need are included via a CD-ROM and a link to a website with downloadable forms.
Moreover, Adams- Gordon designed Spelling Power to teach not only spelling, but dictionary skills and proofreading. It really is a complete program.

Spelling Power has been great for my family. My “natural speller” child loves that she has to study only those words she misses on the quizzes, and my less able speller enjoys Spelling Power’s focus on mastery of spelling rules. She’s able to translate that knowledge to her everyday writing. A boon for me and an accomplishment for her.

For more information on Spelling Power, visit the website at www.spellingpower.com.

Ellen stays busy home educating two middle-grade daughters, chasing two corgis, managing the family’s busy household, reading as much as she can, and writing about life at The Bluestocking Belle.

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K5 Learning

Elementary, Language Arts, Logic, Mathematics, Online, Phonics, Reading, Spelling, Uncategorized 2 Responses »

Jan 182012

To be honest, when I was approached about writing a review for K5 Learning, I was going to pass. We just haven’t liked any online sites that we have tried. I decided it was only fair to give it a quick look before saying no, and my five-year-old was immediately drawn into the site. I responded to the request with a yes.

We started with the recommended learning assessment, to see where my son scored on grade level, so the program could correctly place him to start the program. The assessment has a variety of levels given within it. Some answers will be too easy, others too hard. This is the only way the program can know where your child is in his learning. However, I wish there was a button for parents to choose “does not apply”, as my son correctly answered some questions he had no clue about, just by chance. Once the assessment is over, the parent can log in to see where your child was placed. Evan scored 1st grade, and he is in Kindergarten. (I thought he was reading above K!) After the program knows where your child’s skill level is, you are ready to learn.

The layout is attractive and inviting. Evan has really enjoyed learning his lessons with this program. I wanted to share with you a few examples of the curriculum in action, to give a better idea of what a lesson looks like.

The pros:

These lessons aren’t full of games and a little education, your child will really learn:

phonetic awareness, phonics, sight words, vocabulary and reading comprehension.
numbers and operations, geometry, measurement (including time and money), algebraic thinking and data analysis.
basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts. (with monitored progress for mastery)
spelling-you can even assign your own word lists.

Other positives:

works for special needs learners.
parents have access to learning reports to track progress.
the lessons adjust to your child’s individual learning automatically.

{my favorite part of the lesson}

Each lesson also has a preview of sorts that explains what you are about to learn and how to answer. I really like that about the program.

{this math lesson was challenging, but enjoyable}

{we apparently needed this, as Evan asked if dragons were real!}

The con:

This online curriculum has some great positives and I am glad we were invited to try it. I do have one negative to give, however:

When we went to work on the math facts for mastery, we found they are timed drills. Drills makes sense for older children – but Evan is five, with little keyboard skills. He never could get fast enough to pass, even though he answered all of the questions correctly.

As you can see, 0 were answered quickly enough, but all were correct. It had nothing to do with knowing the facts. I do wish the curriculum had thought of smaller children with little hands and no knowledge of why the numbers don’t go in order on mommy’s computer pad. Evan couldn’t understand why he didn’t pass when he knew all of the answers.

The rest of this site is great, so we will likely just be skipping this section unless that aspect is changed. Overall, it is a great program with true learning as the star. It is just fun enough to keep Evan from feeling overwhelmed, but this isn’t busy work. I would definitely recommend this if you have any interest in computer learning.

Purchase info:

After the trial ends, the monthly subscription for one child is $25 or you can purchase one year for one child for $199. K5 Learning has a free 14 day trial that doesn’t require your credit card to begin. (I love that.)
I would recommend giving the free 14 day trial a try. Evan has really enjoyed this in the few weeks he has been using it. If we had the extra $25 in our budget, I would continue on when our subscription expires. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy K5 Learning this much. It has been a great addition to our day.

Sam's Noggin

**I was given a 3 month subscription in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.**

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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.

Grammar Made Easy by Connie Schenkelberg

Elementary, Grammar, High School, Language Arts, Middle School No Responses »

Dec 302011

Grammar Made Easy

Grammar Made Easy: Writing a Step Above
Author: Connie Schenkelberg
Format: Print and ebook
Pages: 117
Cost: $25 (ebook) or $29 (print)

We are on our third year homeschooling and my son is in 9th grade. Prior to homeschooling, he was public schooled and always got A’s and B’s on his report cards. Imagine my surprise to find that somehow his basic understanding of grammar was missing! Another shocking thing, which honestly made me feel a bit better, was I came across a lot of high school basic grammar items. We tried several different things and finally found this…Grammar Made Easy…what a blessing from the Lord (really)!

The book is recommended for middle school but can be used from elementary to high school. It does not require a lot of teacher preparation nor is there a lot of student work. It is not intended to drill the student but to get the student thinking, learning and liking grammar. What a concept! Grammar Made Easy does include diagramming, which I know some people like and others do not. The good thing is – if you don’t like it, you don’t have to use it! You still benefit from the rest of the teaching.

Each of the 15 chapters is set up to be one week of assignments, but you can work through it at your own pace. For us, we did a chapter a day for the beginning chapters and then slowed down to focus on things that were more challenging. Additionally, Grammar Made Easy truly starts at the beginning with the “S V Sentence” (The Subject-Verb Sentence) and works up slowly from there.

The part I really liked? Grammar Made Easy puts a word in more than one place and makes you think about what part of speech it is. The lessons do not just tell you “this is a noun” or “this is a subject”. That is what we were struggling with and this has helped us overcome it. Praise the Lord!

If you are interested in finding out more, you can see a sample lesson by clicking HERE. Or you can order your own copy by clicking HERE.

Contact information:
Everyday Education, LLC
P.O. Box 549
Ashland, VA 23005
jceved @ comcast . net (take out the spaces, of course)

Have a wonderfully blessed day!

Come visit Dawn over at her blog, Guiding Light Homeschool, on Facebook and on Twitter…friends are ALWAYS welcome!

The Reading Game

Elementary, Language Arts, Reading No Responses »

Dec 192011

I don’t know about your family but anytime our family can include game playing in our school lessons – we do – and love it! In my opinion, playing games is an awesome way to learn anything. The Reading Game is a fast action memory card game designed to help supplement young children on their path to learning to read. The Reading Game was created by the same author of the “Wordly Wise” series.

Included in The Reading Game is a series of six beautifully illustrated storybooks. The memory game cards are common site words that meet the criteria of the Common Core State Standards for Language Arts, Foundational skills, and Reading skills needed for both kindergarten and first graders. To see a full listing of reading standards and how the game correlates with them, click HERE. Enjoy this game with any struggling readers older than first grade.

Each game is played in six stages, each teaching five words. The idea behind the game is that once your child has completed his or her first round with the memory matching game they will have those words embedded into their brains. The different sets of memory cards are color and picture coordinated to connect with the storybooks included with the game. So after finishing the first set of memory cards your child has been introduced to the sight words used in the first storybook. In fact, the storybook uses only those thirty words. This sets your child up for success in reading. It is the frequent exposure through play that hard-wires these words into long-term memory. To play The Reading Game, two players are required, the student and the teacher.

So many first readers are just plain boring and in my opinion do not engage children in a way that they should. The Reading Game is different. These books are interesting and involve animals in their storyline which my own children have really enjoyed. A skunk, snake, bear, penguins, unicorn, and zebra appear in the books.

After completing the entire series, your child should have a reading vocabulary of 180 words. You can learn more details about how the game works and watch a video of it by clicking, HERE.

The author offers sight word assessment worksheets, as well as test sentence assessment worksheets, HERE, to help monitor the progress of your child as you play The Reading Game.

The cost of The Reading Game is 24.95$ and that includes six beautifully illustrated story books, six decks of matching playing cards, and a Teacher and Parent’s Guide. You can find The Reading Game on Facebook. To purchase click, HERE.

Disclaimer: I was sent this game for FREE in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was received.

LightHome Publications Penmanship Books

Elementary, Handwriting No Responses »

Dec 092011

I like handwriting books. They make life simple: Get out the book, turn to the page, write, put the book away. Repeat until the book is finished.

This year, though, I decided that the shipping and handling on my favorite handwriting book was outrageous. I refused to do it. What’s a homeschool mama to do? Download handwriting books instead!

So, I tripped along to Currclick and found an alternative that has made me happy.

A-Z I Like Animals A-Z Crawly Critters Cursive Penmanship

For handwriting we are using two books from LightHome Publications. My first grade son is using A-Z I Like Animals and my third grade daughter is using A to Z Crawly Critters Cursive.

I was initially drawn to the animal theme that is part of both books. The handwriting lessons and the pictures follow the respective animal themes. My kids have especially enjoyed the coloring pages that accompany each letter. They are accurate pencil drawings of the animals discussed in the handwriting lesson.

Both books begin with several pages asking students to trace similarly formed letters. The manuscript book also contains a series of simple mazes at the beginning. From that point, the letters are ordered alphabetically. The manuscript book, A-Z I Like Animals, is a tracing curriculum, so students are given letters and sentences to trace.

The cursive curriculum, A-Z Crawly Critters Cursive, on the other hand, provides both a sentence to trace and, below it, space to write the same sentence. Tracing the letters first has given my children the chance to learn letter formation without pressure.

Because these products were downloaded, I can print as many copies of each page as I need. If a particular letter gives us trouble, I simply print another page for additional practice. If everyone wants to color the picture of the yucca moth, I can easily make that happen by pushing a few buttons. I did print both e-books in their entirety, so that I would have the pages on hand.

I may be done with paper handwriting books forever. LightHome Publications and Currclick have not only made it easy to practice penmanship, they have alleviated those costly shipping and handling fees!

Susan is homeschooling mama to three: a third-grader, a first-grader, and a nearly kindergartner. Their educational philosophy is classical-ish, Charlotte Mason-y, and little bit traditional. She likes for things to be quality and for them to be simple.