I’ve been a huge fan of Homeschool In The Woods for a long time! Their products are just funtastic. Thus far we’ve used three different time traveler packs and are gearing up to use another two next year!

Each Time Traveler pack is loaded with crafts, recipes, copywork, notebooking pages and lapbooking pages. It’s six weeks of school pre-planned for you, but many of them can easily be extended well beyond six weeks!

How I use it:

I have now used four of these wonderful Time Traveler packs with another two lined up for next year. Each one has been used pretty much the same way. We print out the pieces that we’ll need to make our notebook and lapbook. Then we follow the schedule provided in with each Time Traveler CD.

The exception was with the Early 19th Century CD. Wow, is this CD loaded! Because we used this alongside the Winter Promise Curriculum we chose to make our way through this particular CD at a slower pace and I’m really glad we did! It’s just loaded with so much information I really believe you could spend an entire week on each and every one of the twenty-two lessons!

We work for four consecutive days on the lessons provided and use our fifth day as “project day”, as suggested in the CD. Project day is where things really get fun. You can work on any of the craft projects you might not have attempted yet {if desired}. There’s usually a recipe or two and often vocabulary words to use.

Really, the CDs couldn’t be simpler to use. There are pictures of each project so you can visually see the step-by-step instructions. But panic not if you would prefer to read the instructions because they are written out as well!

What I love:

I love that there’s a simple schedule, premade, that I can follow if I so wish. I usually do!

Everything is on a CD-disc so I can print it out if I want, or not. I prefer to print out the notebooking and lapbooking pieces and put the lessons and instructions onto my iPad for ease. But, I’ve also printed it all out in the past and that works just as well too!

I love the homemade games in each unit, they are such a fun way for children to remember what they’ve learned!

I love that each time we use one of these kits my kids feel like they are a part of history. They walk away knowing so much and feeling as though they’ve made fast friends.

I love that each unit comes with a list of additional books and videos you can use to enhance your learning experience, if you want. You won’t miss out if you choose not to use them!

I love that there are recipes included. There’s nothing quite like food to help my boys understand a certain time in history. The recipes are usually fairly simple and don’t require any special ingredients. Despite a few food allergies in our home I find that I can adapt all the recipes with ease.

I love that I can purchase just one of these CDs and legally make copies for all my children! No need to buy more then one copy – just print off as much as you need.

I love that these are written from a Christian perspective and that perspective is woven throughout the entire six weeks worth of lessons.

What I don’t like:

There’s precious little to not like about this particular curriculum, however to be honest with my review the one thing I wish was possible with this was to purchase them as downloads!

International shipping can be pricey, and even when it’s not it can take an excruciatingly long time to get stuff from other places. {Two weeks in general for us in Tasmania, but there are times when it can take 6-8 weeks!!} If these items were available as downloads it would reduce the need for international shipping.

However, I must also note that I once emailed Amy Pak about these not being downloadable and she was very honest and stated that the sheer size of them was part of the problem. The other problem was that there are huge images {remember you get timeline pieces, notebook pieces and lapbooking pieces – not to mention all the other goodies I’ve named} that would be distorted when they bring the size down to make download faster. She’s also very willing to put several CDs in a priority mail envelope for you {or was last time I emailed her} so if you stock up and purchase a few at a time then you’re good to go!

Bottom Line:

Thanks to the Pak family’s love for history and sharing it with the rest of the world. Because of this nifty series, my children have fallen in love with history. What more can I ask for?

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.

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.

“Let them once get in touch with Nature, and a habit it formed which will be a source of delight through life. We were all meant to be naturalists, each in his degree, and it is inexcusable to live in a world so full of the marvels of plant and animal life and to care for none of these things.”
– Charlotte Mason

My family and I were privileged to enjoy this Easter study last year. We plan to enjoy parts of it again this Easter.

You can focus on the Easter story over the course of a week, a month or longer – using this ebook study in the way that best suits your family. Authors Cindy West and Melissa Leach say, “Our hope is that you will read a selection from the Bible…then get outside to find sweet signs of the Author.”

Included are:

• Bible references for the Easter story
• Hymn list for the Easter season

Nature ideas/walks organized to compliment:

• Palm Sunday
• Sweet Fragrances
• The Passover
• Mount of Olives
• Black Friday
• Burial
• Resurrection
• Traditional Easter Studies

Within each section above, the following is included:

• Suggested books to accompany the topic study.
• Ideas and suggestions for nature study. (For example, while studying the mount of olives it is suggested you go on a hike over a hill. On a scavenger hunt based on the jelly bean prayer – you and your children spend time finding something in nature to represent all the colors mentioned in the prayer.)
• A notebooking or sketching page to complete a follow up activity.

Bonus features:

• Where to Study Nature: offering encouragement for those living in cities to find parks plus simple ‘get out in your own backyard’ motivation.
• Gearing up and Being Safe: From using common sense and having a healthy fear to ‘leaves of three let them be’ and a list of suggested backpack gear.

As a teacher I found this Easter Nature Study through the holidays to be easy to reference and use right then. All the ideas were compiled for me in one spot. The notebooking pages – I only had to print out. All I needed to do was add some books – and for the children to catch my enthusiasm.

• Easter Nature Study Through the Holidays is a mini unit study available for $5.00. Visit Shining Dawn Books to learn more about any of the full-length nature studies.
• Nature Study Through the Holidays Easter Mini Unit is 32 pages with seven full-color notebooking pages.
• You can view a sample of this ebook at Shining Dawn books here.

A seasonal unit study such as this is a refreshing change up in routine for us. This mini book of nature studies for Easter helped us hone our senses, prompted us to get outside – and opened our eyes to His love for us!

What better way to welcome the Easter season?

Now for the giveaway!! Cindy West, owner of Shining Dawn Books and review author here at The Curriculum Choice has kindly offered five (5) copies of her ebook to give away!!

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~Tricia has been homeschooling for over a decade. She faces a daily dose of chaos teaching five children. She contributes a blend of writing at parenting, frugal living and homeschool sites as well as her own daily Hodgepodge.

“When I see the monarch butterfly I’m reminded that there is a God…There’s no way a monarch butterfly could happen by random chance.” ~ Jules H. Poirier, Creation Scientist

The Crowe family did yet another spectacular job in giving glory to our Creator with their newest DVD, Your Backyard: Life and Journey of the Amazing Monarch Butterfly. The Crowe children star in and lead us on a learning adventure. Our hosts:

• Taylor, First Born Son, Backyard Scientist
• Samuel, Second Born Son, Monarch Netter
• Grace, Third Born Child, Monarch Spotter

Our impressions of the Monarch DVD include:

Pointing to the Creator: I was struck with the incredible detail of the monarch butterfly, the exquisite design. The beauty of the Creator’s plan. Just one example of His plan is the beautiful image, above, of the milkweed plant. Crowe’s Nest explains that the journey of the monarch coincides with spring and the emergence of milkweed.

“Are you ever simply amazed at God’s goodness? Down to the very last detail. Everything. So beautiful. So purposeful and so orderly.” ~Samuel Crowe

Seeking to learn from experts: What better way to learn than from those who have devoted their life’s work to learning all they can about the monarch butterfly?  Taylor, Samuel and Grace visit with Destiny Phillips who teaches the Crowe children how to find monarch eggs in a field of milkweed and other nectar sources. Ms. Phillips also:

• takes the Crowe children on a field trip to the nature center where she raises hundreds of butterflies.
• shows viewers how to tag monarchs and participate in monarch watch via University of Kansas.
• points out the differences in male and female monarchs.

The Crowe children also include the viewers on a visit with Mr. Poirier – a Creation Scientist, author and musician. From the Crowe’s Nest Media site: “87-year-young Mr. Poirier is such a delight!  With a career that includes designing the radal pulse altimeter used in the Apollo 11 moon missions, Mr. Poirier’s fascination of the monarch’s incredible navigational ability led him to do extensive research, writing several books about the amazing monarch!”

Teaching with beautiful video: the quality of the filming is impressive. We stopped the time lapse of the life cycle several times because we were simply amazed at what we saw! “Would you like to see a magnified view of the butterfly emerging?” ~Samuel Crowe

Music that praises the Father: This is My Father’s World, other hymns and classical music play gently in the background.

Fun Facts: Animated Professor Solomon, the Owl, pops in for a visit throughout the DVD, sharing the wisdom of God’s design plus simply amazing facts about the monarch butterfly. He often uses his ‘Owlvision’ TV screen to teach.

Humor! We enjoyed the clever choice of sound effects throughout. Samuel’s description of his ‘famed’ monarch netting is fun – complete with slow motion.

A homeschool unit study! You can build an entire unit study around the Life and Journey of the Amazing Monarch Butterfly DVD – right in your own backyard! Watch the DVD several times to learn not only the life cycle of the butterfly but migration, all about the milkweed plant, raising butterflies, netting and more.

“God designed the monarch to have four distinct stages of life.” ~ Taylor Crowe

Inspiration: You might even be inspired to raise monarchs. You can learn how in the bonus features of the DVD. You may even wish to create an environment in your own backyard to welcome butterflies. A backyard butterfly haven!

See what all we learned and enjoyed? Just a sampling of what is included:

• Time elapse of caterpillar hatching from egg
• Experts showing how to find monarch eggs and caterpillars – which plants to search and how to look on the underneath of leaves
• How to net and gently hold butterflies. Plus a fun instant replay of Samuel netting a monarch!
• Differences and comparison between butterflies who mimic monarch butterflies
• The complete life cycle of a butterfly
• Tips for tagging with 1, 2, 3 steps

After watching the DVD, my children and I were excited. They asked if we could do a study of the life cycle of the butterfly again. My daughter found paper and pencil and sketched a butterfly right then!

Here are just a few reactions from my children while we enjoyed Your Backyard: DVD

• “Oh my! That’s awesome!” ~ 14-year-old
• “The butterfly’s heart reforms, Mama!” ~ nine-year-old
• “Mama! It turned into a butterfly!” ~ four-year-old
• We decided we’d like Crowe’s Nest Media shirts like the Crowe children wear in the DVD!

We then enjoyed the nearly 45 minutes of bonus features, including:

• How to raise monarchs
• Ordering tags
• Mr. Jules Poirier’s testimony
• Behind the scenes
• About the bottom shelf
• Professor Solomon’s quiz
• Your Backyard Trailer
• This is My Father’s World
• Bloopers

In summary, I am grateful to Crowe’s Nest Media for finding, researching and pointing out how much there is to learn about the monarch butterfly. This God-honoring production left us excited to learn more, smiling at a family enjoying working together and teaching, and thankful to a God who designs the heavens and the earth.

Crowe’s Nest Media is a family venture. The Crowe family created, edited, animated, starred in and produced this DVD. They are offering more exciting details for you!

• Crowe’s Nest Media is offering The Curriculum Choice readers, not only a giveaway of a DVD but a discount code when you order.

• A companion, downloadable, study guide will be released. If you purchase the DVD now, you will receive a discount code for the study guide. (So you can easily enjoy that unit study!) The study guide will include the following: content review, discussion questions, fill- in-the-blank questions, true & false questions, diagrams to label, opportunities to draw, essay questions, copy work selections, copy work pages for various ages, coloring pages, and opportunities for further study. In addition, the study guide will provide note-booking pages for various levels so that children will be able to create a “monarch” keepsake notebook.
• Please visit Crowe’s Nest Media for more details on the monarch DVD and just to simply enjoy their beautiful site!
• Crowe’s Nest Media’s Monarch DVD was selected as a semi-finalist of the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival.
• This monarch DVD is the second project by Crowe’s Nest media. Their first, Your Backyard: A Young Beginner’s Guide to Identifying 18 Common Feeder Birds by Sight and Sound is also reviewed here on our site.

Special Offer!! You can purchase Your Backyard: The Life and Journey of the Amazing Monarch DVD from Crowe’s Nest Media now for $19.95. Crowe’s Nest Media is offering Curriculum Choice readers a coupon code that will entitle you to the FREE DOWNLOAD of the study guide just as soon as it is complete. This coupon code will also give you $1 off your DVD purchase. The below coupon code is good until Friday, February 3rd:

Just use Coupon Code CurriculumChoice at check out.

Please note: I received this DVD and the giveaway copy in exchange for a review. I always give my honest opinion and love to share our family’s experiences when reviewing a product. I also will receive a small affiliate commission if you purchase the DVD using the coupon code listed above.

Won’t you join Taylor, Samuel and Grace on another learning adventure? We did! “Be encouraged by the amazing displays of our Creator…It’s an incredible journey of discovery, all right. And we’re especially glad you are coming along with us.”

Now for the giveaway!

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The Curriculum Choice is joining in with these great blogs, listed below, in offering a giveaway of Your Backyard DVD. You will want to visit each site and enter for a chance to win a Crowe’s Nest Media Monarch DVD!

• Spell Outloud
• Finding Joy
• Handbook of Nature Study
• Mama’s Learning Corner
• The Traveling Praters
• Get Along Home

~Tricia faces a daily dose of chaos homeschooling five children. She contributes a blend of writing at parenting, frugal living and homeschool sites as well as her own daily Hodgepodge.

Saturday morning. Big stack of hot pancakes on your plate. You pour maple syrup and pick up your fork. Ever wonder how that maple syrup is made? We did! And we learned the process from the Moore family on their newest DVD.

This charming DVD, More Than Making Maple Syrup, is produced by the Moore family. The Moores are a Christian, homeschooling family of twelve from the hills of Virginia. All family members play a role in the DVD – either in production or starring in the film. More than Making Maple Syrup is a delight. Beautiful Virginia mountain scenery, a family enjoying working together and one star of a two-year-old making pancakes – all on his own!
The DVD features how to make maple syrup in 7 simple steps:

1. Selecting your trees
2. Choosing and cleaning your equipment
3. Tapping the trees
4. Collecting the sap
5. Making the syrup
6. Removing the taps from your trees
7. Enjoying your syrup

Plus we learned:

• The types of maple trees.
• How many taps you can place on a certain size of maple tree.
• What time of year maple syrup can be harvested, the best temperatures for sap collection.
• The boiling and canning process

and enjoyed:

• Cuteness. “My favorite was when the two-year-old made pancakes!” ~ my nine-year-old
• Original music by Nathan Clark George
• Children honoring their parents with “yes, sir” and “yes, ma’am”

All shared giving God the glory. Quoted at the end of the video: Psalm 128 says, God blesses everyone who fears the Lord, Who walks in His ways. When you eat the labor of your hands, You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you.

Bonus material includes:

• Making maple syrup “news” episode
• behind the scenes and bloopers
• a printable pancake recipe

Enjoy this trailer from Moore Family Films…

More Than Making Maple Syrup from Moore Family Films on Vimeo.

“Whether you want to learn how to make maple syrup, or you just want to enjoy some wholesome laughter as a family of 12 unites to accomplish a job together, we invite you to join the Moore Family in one of their favorite harvests of the year… tapping Maple trees and making Maple syrup!”

More than Making Maple Syrup is available now for $15.95 on DVD from the Moore family, just in time for tapping season in February. Visit their site, Moore Family Films.

Making maple syrup is… “pretty simple! Whether you go out and tap your own trees and make your own or just have a new appreciation for the syrup… Until next time we hope you and your family get out there and enjoy God’s wonderful creation in your neck of the woods!”

Special thanks to Crowe’s Nest Media for introducing us to the Moore family. Kellie Crowe says, “Not only will your family learn how to make maple syrup, they’ll learn how to better love one another, simply by watching the precious interaction of this encouraging family.  We’re always encouraged by every production of Moore Family Films!”

We sure enjoyed this seasonal study of maple trees, tapping, making maple syrup and more! Truly this DVD is more than Making Maple Syrup. It’s a unit study by itself or a jumping off place for further study.

Now for the giveaway! The Moore family is offering one DVD copy of More Than Making Maple Syrup, available HERE, to The Curriculum Choice readers. The rules are as follows:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

~Tricia faces a daily dose of chaos homeschooling five children. She contributes a blend of writing at parenting, frugal living and homeschool sites as well as her own daily Hodgepodge.

Konos is a hands-on learning, Christian worldview curriculum consisting of three volumes. Each volume encompasses two years of study and is about 400 pages full of every subject you could possibly imagine! There are HUNDREDS of activities to go along with each unit.

The subjects included are:

• social studies
• practical living
• math
• language arts
• creative expression
• Bible, science
• arts & crafts
• field trip ideas
• music
• history
• geography and the list goes on!

The goal behind Konos is to teach and instill character within our children. Instilling character is accomplished by reinforcing the character traits within the subjects listed above. Volume II consists of the following character traits: Inquisitiveness, Responsibility, Love/Generosity, Courage, Wisdom and Loyalty. You do not need to follow these traits in any particular order and may choose to skip around as much as possible. However, Volume I is geared more towards the younger learner.

A complete math and language arts curriculum are both still needed, since Konos does not offer an in-depth study of these subjects. However, your child will still receive a very large amount of writing, story telling, and reading from this curriculum.

Everything your child will need from grades kindergarten through eighth is included in the above three volumes. This is an all inclusive unit study. Every child, from kindergarten through eighth grade can learn at the same time. Konos is divided into younger, middle and older sections. For example, if you are learning about pets in the Responsibility unit, the younger dictates ways to compare and contrast cats and dogs, the middle may write a list and a short research paper and the older may make an extensive list, research and prepare a paper and presentation on what they had learned about the different breeds.

A week-by-week schedule is another plus to Konos. If you need a little bit of guidance, the authors have included a weekly break down. If you are feeling a bit daring, just pick and choose the activities that you feel your child(ren) would benefit the most from.

A book list at the start of each unit is provided. I have reached the point where I look at the week’s sub-unit and will reserve anything and everything at the library that I feel would benefit and enrich our study. We use the library for everything! At any given time our home is brimming with over 100 checked out books all reinforcing our trait for that month and the sub-units within that trait.
How it works in our home: My children and I have been working with volume II this year and have loved every minute of it! At this time, we are studying Courage. For the past three weeks we have been traveling through the Bible, reading the history of the men and women who exemplified courage while facing danger, death or betrayal as well as other historical figures. We read about Daniel in the lion’s den and researched different interesting facts on lions. My seven-year-old wrote brief paragraphs on lions while my five and three-year-old children drew a picture. Also, we listened to a lion’s roar and talked about seeing the lions at the zoo.

An example of the many hands on activities is our fleur de lys flag we created to remember the courage of Joan of Arc. We marched around our neighborhood as soldiers and priests like in the battle of Jericho from the Bible. We made a sling sho. We also completed heat experiments with fire as we learned of the courage of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. This upcoming week, we will be reading “Call It Courage” while eating coconut, mangoes, bananas. We’ll learn about sea life, and where Polynesia is located on the globe.

I highly recommend Konos for any parent who wants a fun, challenging, interactive and multi-level curriculum. You will be required to dedicate more time into the lesson plans, gathering supplies and preparing than your usual workbook curriculum; however it is WORTH IT! Jessica Hulcy and Carole Thaxton created Konos for their children and I am so thankful that they made this available to other homeschooling parents.

Each volume costs $110. Yet consider that this is a two-year all-inclusive study! For more information visit www.konos.com.

My husband and I have been thrilled to introduce the Learn Our History DVD’s to our children.  We both have a passion for teaching fundamental truths about the history of the United States in our homeschool.  Believe it or not, much of what we read/hear/watch is either extremely watered-down or downright misleading.  Not so with this series of DVD’s from Learn Our History!

In each of the videos, you will travel back in time with the TimeCycle Academy – a small group of children who get to the heart of history by actually visiting various historical periods.  Through meeting important historical figures, hearing primary source speeches or conversations, and mingling with the people of the time period, a wonderful (and easily understandable) picture is painted for your own children.

From the Revolutionary War to 9/11 and the War on Terror, many of the United States’ important stories are told through animated, 30 minute (approximately) DVD’s.  All my children – from 5-14 – have enjoyed watching.  While the animation may be a bit immature for the 14 year old, the information gleaned has not been immature at all!  In fact, even I now have a clearer picture of some of the historical events!

Learn Our History currently has 7 videos in the series.  Seven more are in the works for 2012, with a vision for more than 70 in the future.  Co-founder, Mike Huckabee, believes the series teaches historical facts without bias and promotes a strong sense of patriotism in our children.  I agree.

Navigation of the website is a tad difficult and purchasing prices are not clearly marked.  Your first video – in which you receive a physical DVD and online streaming – is only $9.95 + $3.95 shipping.  Once you purchase the first video, you will be offered a new video monthly, via email, for $11.95 + $3.95 shipping.  You will be automatically billed and the video shipped if you don’t respond with a “no thank you” phone call.  While I think the prices are very fair and worth the money, the monthly mailing subscription is not my cup of tea.

(In their FAQ’s, it states that you can call their customer service line to talk about other options for purchasing.  When I decide to purchase more, I’ll be making this phone call.)

Even though I received 3 of these videos for free in exchange for my (honest) review, I DO plan to purchase more!  They have truly been a great addition to our history lessons.

Before the start of this school year I asked my older children what they’d like to learn more about. My eldest, then a rising eighth grader, said photography. Specifically digital photography. Hadn’t I just seen Amanda Bennett tweet about that same unit study being on sale?

“I think a photography class should be a requirement in all educational programs because it makes you see the world rather than just look at it.” ~Author Unknown

Not only did my daughter learn about digital photography but her enthusiasm encouraged her siblings. It’s also been a learning opportunity for mom. Isn’t that a wonderful benefit of homeschooling – continuing education for the teacher too?

The unit study is an approach for the whole family. Each week is presented:

• For Two Levels – Lower (elementary) and Upper (middle/high grades) – so everyone can learn together if you’d like!
• With a List of favorite books

From the unit study site: “Topics covered in this study include:

• The science of light and lenses.
• The history of photography.
• Camera basics.
• Composing a photo.
• Famous photographers and their work.
• Applications of photography.
• Working with a digital photograph. “

“Every artist was first an amateur.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Four Weeks of Study. Each week includes:

• Learning Plans for Days 1-4
• Weekly Windup
• Additional Internet Sites
• Today’s Quote
• Words of Wisdom (vocabulary)
• Interesting people and places
• Read and discover

The Digital Photography unit is in pdf format. A download with all the internet links readily available.

The digital photography unit is fun!

What we liked: This unit is easily adaptable to any schedule. We chose to spread the four weeks out over eight. The study is rich with information so you can dig as deeply as you’d like for your student(s) to – on any level. We really enjoyed the family project ideas (e.g., a family calendar for grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins across the country), plus the daily quotes, a few of which are scattered throughout this post. My daughter liked the photography assignments – she used her iPod on photo scavenger hunts and challenges and photography journal assignments. This study was even the inspiration for her science fair project: Comparing the Camera to the Human Eye.

“Photography was once described as painting with light.” ~ Anonymous

Where to find Digital Photography Unit Study and more information:

• Amanda Bennett’s Digital Photography is available from Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett here
• You can view a sample and peek inside the unit here
• You might also be interested in Amanda’s explanation of What is a Unit Study? here

In summary: Digital Photography was everything we needed in one, neat pdf format. A jumping off place for learning. Inspiration for more exploration. Amanda Bennett’s unit study built confidence and opened wider the doors of delight with photography.

~Tricia faces a daily dose of chaos homeschooling five children. She contributes a blend of writing at parenting, frugal living and homeschool sites as well as her own daily Hodgepodge.

We use a lot of Unit Studies in our home school. A couple of years ago I stumbled upon the For Kids Unit Studies. Each study contains a book written about the subject and 21 activities that tie into what you are reading. One of our first to use was Lewis and Clark for Kids: Their Journey of Discovery with 21 Activities (For Kids series) by Janis Herbert.

We really had fun with this study.  My favorite part of these unit studies are the activities that are included in the books.

In one of the many activities, we learned that Lewis knew red face paint (called vermillion) would be a welcome gift among the Indians they would meet on their expedition. His dye was made from grinding minerals into pigment. We used a recipe included in the book to make up our own homemade face paint much like Lewis did. The kids then had fun painting themselves up like indians as we wondered what it was like as the expedition met their first tribes of Indians along the way.

Our very favorite activity was to make some homemade fruit leather. We learned in our readings a bit about the foods that Lewis and Clark ate on their expedition across the country. It was interesting to learn how they stored food and what they ate. They traded a lot with the Indians as they met different tribes.

This Lewis and Clark study is 131 pages in length and is broken down into 9 chapters which cover the following….

• Chapter 1 – Covers 1770- 1804. Activities include learning about Latitude and Longitude and making Vermillion (homemade face paint).

• Chapter 2 – Covers 1804 May through August of that year. Activities include lessons on preserving plants and identifying them as well as making homemade fruit leather and learning about the lunar cycle.

• Chapter 3 – Covers August 1804- October 1804. Activities include: Telling a story of your year on pretend buffalo hide, constructing a muslin tipi, constructing a dance rattle, and a recipe to make a great plains stew.

• Chapter 4 – October 1804- February 1805. Activities include: Tracking animals and learning to play hoop and pole.

• Chapter 5 – April 1805- June 1805. Activities include learning some specific Indian dances, making a buffalo mask, sewing your own pair of moccasins.

• Chapter 6 – July 1805- August 1805. Activities include learning to speak Indian signs and making a basket.

• Chapter 7 – September 1805- December 1805. Activities include making a drum, doing an archaeological dig, and making beeswax candles.

• Chapter 8 – March 1806- August 1806. Activity is recognizing and making trail signs.

• Chapter 9 – August 1806- September 1806. Activity is a celebration for the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

__________________________________

Most of the supplies needed for the above activities are easy to find items that you typically have around the house, but some of the supplies are things that would need to be purchased. With 21 activities and most chapters having multiple activities you certainly do not have to do each and every activity to make the study complete. In fact our family only completed a handful of them. A few of the activities were a bit more time consuming than I desired such as making our own moccasins.

Included at the front of the book are 2 timelines, one being from the birth to death of both Lewis and Clark and one being about the expedition. Also included is a preface about the Louisiana Purchase and a map of the expedition. The back of the book has a glossary of terms used in the study and a listing of Lewis and Clark sites around the United States that you can visit as well as organizations and events that revolve around Lewis and Clark. The back of the book also has a listing of web sites to explore for further information/reading.

Other For Kids unit study titles include: Thomas Edison, Monet, World War 2, Civil Rights Movement, Civil War, The American Revolution, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, Isaac Newton, The Underground Railroad, and more. Titles are written by various authors.

-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 with a focus on unit studies and living books. You can find their family blog at Adventures in Unsell Land.

Ready to See the World?

We are looking forward to a full and fun year of galloping through the continents of the world. This unit study approach to geography incorporates literature, language arts, science, bible, and various activities, as well as holidays and celebrations. Travel and tourism contacts are also included.

Galloping the Globe provides a suggested schedule for one country per week or two, and ample suggestions for each of the above subjects. Also included is an activity CD-ROM (my older copy did not come with this). I ordered it and am so glad that I did! While my manual has pages that can be photocopied to create notebook pages with, the ease of printing them from the computer is a huge plus. As a bonus, the CD includes additional notebook pages not included in the original manual.

Getting Started!

We are off to Asia this week.  Today we learned a little about China, colored China on the map, and, for old times’ sake (from our years of Five in a Row), read The Story of Ping. For more world traveling fun we are  preparing to learn about Pandas, make Egg Drop Soup, and also play ping-pong, China’s national sport!

Additional Resources:

A globe, beginner atlas, children’s dictionary, and a bible are suggested for your student to have on hand. In addition to Galloping the Globe, there is core book list. While I own some of those books and can see that they will be useful, I propose that if you could not afford all of the additional resources, it would not be difficult to utilize the library and the Internet to fill in the information. Many of the resources are available from the publisher’s site, Geography Matters.

I love it!

Created for homeschool families by homeschool moms, I think this manual is a perfect fit for our family. While I don’t turn my nose up at more traditional curriculum, I do have a special place in my heart for things that were written just for me!

-Laurie Duquette is mom to 7 children and a grandma of 3. Her family is beginning their 19th year of homeschooling. You can read more about their  homeschooling adventures at Keeping It Simple.

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 

My 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.

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.

One 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.

We’re jumping into the Middle Ages for history again this year!  I love following a four-year repeating cycle of history and science.  Each time we dive back into a subject with so much more breadth and depth, we find ourselves completely enthralled {yet again} in the subject matter.

Besides using Romans, Reformers and Revolutionaries and TruthQuest History as our spine curricula, I’ve found a few “extras” that have been wonderful additions for studying the time period.  The Medieval Alliance Board Game from Jett Educational Games is one of those fun extras.

Our family loves a good game anyway, but even more when it purposely fits into something we’re studying.  And even more again when the game acts as a “teacher” besides just being fun.  Medieval Alliance is all of these: fun, fitting and very instructional!

Each player becomes a knight serving a particular king or queen during the late Middle Ages.  His or her goal is to be the first knight to form an alliance with the King of Agrafor by collecting precious gifts to give to the king in his castle.

Each knight earns money for purchasing gifts by collecting income from land holdings (feudalism).  As money is collected, knights travel throughout the land to find the armor smith, weapon smith, shrine and market where gifts can be purchased.  (Beautiful photos of actual medieval artifacts and art are included.)  Once all required gifts are purchased, the knight must beware the king’s guard in the castle as he or she strives to reach the king.

During journeys through the kingdom, other knights can challenge you to a joust which means you might lose valuable money and turns.  Chance cards have to be drawn sometimes, too, which can prove to benefit or set back your journey.  Either way, though, the chance cards provide a wealth of valuable information about the time period!  You’ll be introduced to:

• lifestyles
• customs
• hygiene
• famous people
• battles
• markets
• artwork
• tools and weapons
• occupations
• and more!

What better way to learn about a time period than to dive right in and become part of it?

Since there is a good deal of reading involved on the chance cards, it’s most easily played by children who are good readers.  However, younger children can still play with help.  Enjoy!

-Cindy West is an eclectically Charlotte Mason mom of 3 from Central KY.  You can find her blogging at Our Journey Westward and find her NaturExplorers studies at Shining Dawn Books.

(Medieval Alliance was provided to Cindy free for review.  As always, she shares only her honest opinions.)

Epi Kardia.

In Greek, it means “at the heart.”

To me, this curriculum gets right to the heart of what we want homeschooling to be in our family – a Christ-centered relationship and discipleship between parents and their children.

My Family’s Story

I’m continuously searching for the “best” curriculum for our needs, which are ever-changing.  Unfortunately, my small town leaves a lot desired when it comes to curriculum availability.  And, because I’m an incredibly visual and hands-on person, it’s hard for me to commit to buying things that I can’t thumb through.

I was recently given the chance to take a sneak peak at the Epi Kardia curriculum by the company.  It, along with a few others, had been bookmarked in my “check out later” file – so when the chance came along, I was giddy.  No lie.

Epi Kardia is a literature based Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling.  What does that mean?  Well, Epi Kardia uses the Bible to take your student through history.  But, wait.  If you think your student is just going to be memorizing passages, you are so wrong.  The folks at Epi Kardia have broken down a structured learning plan for each grade.  For example, if you choose the first set in the 1st Grade plan, you’re child will be learning about:  The Ancients, Middle Ages, Renaissance & Reformation.

With each topic, the Bible along with a variety of other christian and non-christian (but approved by Epi Kardia) books are used to help teach your child more about the subject he or she is supposed to be learning.  Because of it’s Charlotte Mason approach, Epi Kardia also includes a lot of copy-work and handwriting exercises.  It’s so impressive to see how they’ve really brought a myriad of important subjects (Bible, History/Reading, Science, English/Phonics, Arts) together in a wonderful education plan.

Quick Breakdown

The Pros-

• Teaches Bible, History/Reading, Science, English/Phonics, Arts (some programs similar to this one do not teach science)
• Included is a book list, complete with ISBN numbers
• The plans leave plenty of time for “projects”
• Costs about the same as its competitors’ programs ($250 for printed, $200 for CD)
• Requires little planning as it’s all done for you!

The Cons-

• It’s a Charlotte Mason approach, so if your child doesn’t learn well with this method, it may not be right for them.  (Although, if you’ve never tried it, I’d recommend it!)
• It didn’t have quite as many projects as I’d like – I’m VERY hands on and project-oriented, as is my oldest.  But, this is easily remedied, and an extra project or two can be added to our schedule.  However, for those of you who aren’t insane about crafting and projects the way I am, they have the perfect amount.  Enough to teach a point without being overbearing for your schedule.
• You’re actually going to have to go to the library or amazon.com to get the books.  Everything you need is not included in these plans (meaning, you’ll have to buy or borrow books from their book-lists).
• The website can be a little confusing (navigation and figuring out which package entails what).

Would I use it?

Yes, yes I would.

Learn More:

To learn more, you can visit their website, check out their scope and sequence, or view a sample.

Written by Ashley.  Find more of Ashley’s writings and reflections on motherhood, marriage and life on her blog.

What’s taken me so long to try TruthQuest History???  I have had the mistaken impression that TruthQuest guides were only glorified book lists that I could develop myself.  While it’s true that I could come up with an appropriate list of living literature for a specific time period, these guides are SO much more!

1. First, you get a complete look at the era, covering all of the important people, places and events in a general order of occurrence.
2. Second, you get a full listing of appropriate living literature which will immerse your child into the era, its people, and its events.
3. Third, and most important to me, Michelle Miller offers deliciously written commentary throughout the guide to give you an overall picture of the era, as well as tying seamless transitions from one important event to another.

Using a living literature approach to history as a Charlotte Mason style homeschooler, I have often felt a slight disconnect in moving from one thing to another in a particular era.  In other words, when we’ve read a wonderful book about Martin Luther, another about the Holy Roman Empire, then another about King Henry VIII, I haven’t always known how to give my children the “whole picture” about how they fit together.

With TruthQuest guides, I now have the “missing ingredient” I’ve been searching for – a living literature approach to history PLUS a non-textbook, complete overview in between the living literature to tie everything together for me! (Boy, was that a long, drawn-out description!)  Michelle Miller’s writing style is living itself -  sometimes humorous, sometimes tongue in cheek, always interesting.

Don’t get the impression that you are totally off the hook as the teacher using a TruthQuest guide. You will still be responsible for attaining all the living literature and may want to occasionally throw in a project or two.  However, there are open-ended question sprinkled throughout the guide called ThinkWrites which can be used for discussion and/or writing assignments.

Speaking of the literature, each section includes several book choices, many of which should be available at your library.  Your child isn’t expected to read everything on the list, but instead you choose one or two, then move on to the next section of the era.  Additionally, since many of the guides can be used with various age levels, the book lists not only include brief descriptions, but appropriate age levels, too.

To give you a picture of how in-depth and thorough the guides are, I’ll give you the table of contents from the TruthQuest History – Renaissance, Reformation & Exploration guide I am using.  These are just the main headings, as each contains several specific lessons with literature choices and overviews.

• John Wycliff and Jan Hus
• Growth of Towns
• Northern Art Begins to Change
• Dawn of the Renaissance
• Early Renaissance Art
• Exploration Begins
• Fall of Constantinople
• A Visit to Italy
• The Princes of Prints
• War of the Roses
• Think Like a King
• Artists of the High Renaissance
• Ferdinand and Isabella
• Holy Roman Empire and France
• Christopher Columbus and Other Early Explorers
• Church Leaders
• Machiavelli and His Prince
• Reformation Rumble
• Francis of France
• Charles V and His Spanish Holy Roman Empire
• Ottoman Empire
• Spain’s New World Empire
• Early Native Americans of the Southwest
• King Henry VIII
• Reformation Spreads
• Science Takes a Leap
• Russia and Ivan the Terrible
• The French in the New World
• The Counter-Reformation
• Later Renaissance Art
• Queen Elizabeth
• John Knox
• Mary, Queen of Scots
• England Gets into the Race for the New World
• Spanish Armada
• Walter Raleigh
• William Shakespeare
• Later-Counter-Reformation Figures
• The idea War
• Holland Yearns for Freedom
• Battle of Lepanto
• El Greco
• Scien-a-rama
• Mystery of the Roanoke Colony

Wow.  See what I mean?  You might not be able to tell from the list above, but a focus on Christianity is prevelent throughout the book.  The author strives to make God’s Providence a main focus, as history is HIS story.

This particular guide is appropriate for grades 5-12, but TruthQuest guides are available for all grades in all eras of history.  Check them out! If you’re a living literature, Charlotte Mason or Classical kind of mom, you’ll be glad you did!

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

(Cindy received TruthQuest History: Renaissance, Reformation & Exploration free for review.  As always, she only writes her honest opinions.)

Have you found a curriculum you and your children absolutely love? One that is a perfect fit for everyone’s learning style? A nice match for the age range of your household? That, my friends, is how I feel about Tapestry of Grace.

I am fresh from representing Tapestry in a booth at my local homeschool convention. The three of us booth hostesses were not selling Tapestry that weekend. We were simply there to help, to answer questions and to share how we use the curriculum in our homes. Three days worth of talking Tapestry with fellow homeschoolers! So, what I am sharing here is not only my family’s years of experience with Tapestry but also what I learned were the biggest questions for newcomers to this curriculum.

Those that walked up to the booth, brand new to Tapestry or those who had never heard of it before asked this most often: What is it? Will you explain it?

Tapestry of Grace is a classical approach, Biblically-based, unit study curriculum for the whole family. Tapestry covers eight subjects. Everyone learning together – each child on their own learning and skill level. Here are the subjects Tapestry covers:

• History
• Writing
• Literature
• Geography
• Fine Arts
• Church History
• Philosophy
• Government

So you need to add: Math, Grammar and Science

Tapestry of Grace is a unit study approach. Four eras or year plans of history. Four units each year. Everyone studying the same topics. The history cycle (from the Tapestry site):

• Year 1 covers the Ancient World.
• Year 2 covers the Medieval World through the American Revolution.
• Year 3 covers the 1800′s
• Year 4 begins in 1900 and ends with current events.

Weekly plans: Kristen does a wonderful job of describing how the weekly plans are presented in her Review of Tapestry of Grace. She describes each section: the threads, reading assignments, weekly overview, writing assignments, student activity pages, teacher notes and glance into next week.

Here’s a peek at how Tapestry works in our home: When we first started with Tapestry of Grace I had a 5th, 4th and 1st grader. Plus a three-year-old and an infant. We spread one year of learning over two years. I love this pace. Especially with little ones under foot and older ones needing to concentrate on independent work. Tapestry gave us “a map for the journey.” The following words are from Marcia’s Somerville’s blog, Love the Journey, several years ago.

• This was us before Tapestry: “…using traditional homeschooling curricula, instead of preserving family unity, each child is put into his own little car and travels each day his individual roads. Mom becomes more of a traffic cop trying to keep all the bumper cars on their tracks than the driver of the family van.
• After: Using Tapestry, everyone travels together and explores the landscape of Classical Education from a Christian perspective in one family van that mom and dad really do drive.“

Everyone learning together. Really? Yes. This year, I had a 7th, 6th and 3rd grader. Plus, of course the preschoolers learning as well. One week the older two had a shared writing assignment. They were to write a radio show. Set in the early 1900s, they worked together on a story of the Wright brothers. They recruited their two younger sisters as additional characters and sound effects technicians. Sixth grader used the radio equipment that was his great-grandfather’s. (Do you see?)

Tapestry addresses all our different learning styles:

• Hands on projects: I have one child that particularly flourishes when she gets to do a book report on a display board. Woven throughout Tapestry assignments are art and activity projects for individual students as well as for the whole family. The lapbook supplements are wonderful for those that enjoy hands on learning as well.

• Auditory learners – can listen to audio books for literature and history studies. Many of these we borrow from the library.
• Independent learning – My eldest likes to load up her books and tuck herself off in a corner. There are plenty of opportunities for those that work best on their own – which is the aim for the transition from dialectic (roughly middle school) to rhetoric (high school).

Even learning for mom and dad! Marcia Somerville explains Tapestry this way: Picture your family getting in the family van and heading out on a cross-country trek. There is something on the journey for everyone. For mom, extensive, weekly teacher notes give you all you would ever need for grades K-12 all the years of your homeschooling journey. For dad, a Pop Quiz. This CD is easy to listen to on a work commute, giving an overview and highlights of the learning going on at home.

If you are new to Tapestry, their website is a wonderful place to start:

• Download a free, three-week trial of Tapestry. Explore Egypt with your family and explore Tapestry of Grace at the same time. This is what we did when considering Tapestry. It helped me, as the teacher, see how the curriculum works. And it got the children all excited!
• Marcia Somerville’s video explanation of the map of humanities. Hear directly from Tapestry creator and author about the journey of Tapestry of Grace. She regularly posts on her blog specific Tapestry information as well as general homeschool encouragement.
• Also on the Tapestry of Grace site, under the Explore Tapestry tab, you can view explanations of the cyclical plans, weekly plans. learning levels, the three big ideas. Pull up a chair and spend some time here.

Learn from fellow Tapestry users:

• An extensive online community – forum, photo gallery, find a co-op, find a friend.
• Harmony Art Mom – a friend and mom using Tapestry of Grace through high school. She shares all of her practical Tapestry tips, topics, techniques. How much I have learned from Barb! Please read her review Sonlight vs. Tapestry of Grace here on the Curriculum Choice as well as other Curriculum Choice reviews.
• More on the day to day Tapestry of Grace in our home, including preparing for a new Tapestry of Grace year, here.

But I feel overwhelmed by Tapestry of Grace. How do I make it work? Never have we ever done all of the subjects each week. Tapestry is truly a smorgasbord. When I open that week plan, I zone in on the learning levels for my children and ignore the rest. Even then, depending on the week, we may choose to only tackle the core history assignment. Other weeks, as we are wrapping up a unit, we may concentrate more on the arts and activities, doing assignments and larger projects together as a family.

We never finish up each and every assignment for the week. This curriculum serves you and your needs, matching the season of your life. There is so much to choose from! You don’t have to check it all off. Yet, that is also one of the beautiful benefits of Tapestry. You can tailor it by topic for your family, changing it to your children’s needs, matching the books you already have on your shelf. Dig deep or skim the surface. Rich learning either way.

Cost: One time investment. When you buy a year or even a unit of Tapestry of Grace you have it to use over and over again. Cycling through with each child. Your youngest ones have the chance to learn at the different levels up to four times.

How do you like your curriculum? Tapestry is available in print or digital form. Or, you can purchase both for each unit. I made the transition from print to digital last year. I found it easy to have everything on my computer to click on and reach – all in one spot. However, my two new Tapestry hostess friends both preferred having the digital version on their computers AND the print version to hold and flip through.

What about all those books? Oh the books we read! Each unit is rich with living books. Buying all the books for each unit is an option. However, I can purchase the ‘spine’ resource we will be using that year or that unit and reserve the rest at the library. Most of the books are available there. If not the first resource listed, then I usually already have the books listed on the alternate resource page in each week’s reading. Or can find them at the library. For years 3 and 4, Story of the World was listed as an alternate resource. Already had that on my shelf!

Bookshelf Central is the spot to load your cart up on books. You can select the books you need for all learning levels the entire year. Or you can fill your cart with just the books you will need for your grammar students for unit one. The online cartoon character, Grace, leads you through the Buying Guide step by step.

Optional Supplements:

• Lapbooks: available for each unit, either on disc for you to print. Or pre-printed on colored paper for you and your child to assemble. Some families purchase a lapbook for each child. In our family, we use the lapbook as a review at the end of the unit. Each child picks several topics to work on and research. Click here.

• Pop Quiz: Dad can listen on his commute to work. Supper time discussion can be about all the learning going on at home. The children and I have also used Pop Quiz CDs ourselves as an overview – in the car – going from place to place during the week. Click here for more information.
• Map Aids: all the maps you need to print for one year in one place. Available in disc form or as an add on to Tapestry DE. Click here.

• Writing Aids: A resource for all ages. One time purchase to be used as a supplement to Tapestry writing assignments or as an independent writing handbook. We turn to this guide to see what is expected in an assignment. What is a book report? How do you organize a display board? All types of writing graphs, wheels, diagrams and more to print to aid in the writing process. Click here.
• Evaluations: Tests and quizzes to see how much your children are absorbing. The Tapestry site says, “Evaluations are unique because they test in keeping with the Tapestry style–integrated and multi-sensory!” Click here.
• Government Elective: Available for rhetoric students. Key documents for further study. Click here.
• Online Classes: for dialectic and rhetoric students. Click here.

Unit Celebrations: a celebration brings closure to a unit of study. These can be extensive or simple. Children can dress as a character from the time period they’ve studied and put on a play. Invite grandparents, friends and neighbors to view display boards, reports and school work. Celebrate all you’ve learned. Here’s an example of a unit study from our Year 4 studies and our Year 2 studies.

Continuing Education: I feel that continuing education and encouragement for mom is important. I look forward to the sessions at homeschool convention each year. As well as just seeing the sheer number of homeschoolers that fill that convention hall! With Tapestry of Grace, I’m learning right along with my children. All the resources I need to teach them at my fingertips. Extensive teacher notes from K all the way through high school.

As one heading into our fourth year of Tapestry, let me suggest: Take a summer or holiday break to get to know Tapestry. Take your time navigating their website. Download the free, three-week trial and have fun trying it out with your children. Trying it on is how we all find out if it fits.

In summary: Tapestry brings us all together for learning. As a family we are learning history – HIS Story – beginning with creation and leading to present times. And, when we are all learning together that means less work for mom. I’m not teaching those eight subjects times my five children. I’m teaching them once. Tapestry reaches the needs of all my children and gradually builds independent learners. All it takes is a few steps into the buffet of options available each unit, and the children are off and running on their own.

This year, as I officially start one more of my children on the Tapestry road and transition another into high school, I have the confidence and tools I need. I’m looking forward to teaching my kindergartener, 4th, 7th and 8th graders all together. And I’m sure the three-year-old will be joining in often. So, yes, I’d agree with the Tapestry of Grace slogan, Love the Journey.

And, once more I strongly suggest you download a free, three-week trial of Tapestry. See how it works for your family by actually using it. Print it out and hold it in your hand. We did it that one summer and then knew it was for us.

How about you? Have you already attended or do you plan to attend a homeschool convention? What questions do you have about Tapestry of Grace?

~Tricia faces a daily dose of chaos homeschooling five children. She regularly shares about Tapestry of Grace at Hodgepodge. She also contributes a blend of writing at parenting, homeschool, frugal living and allergy sites.

At a Glance:

Product:  The Curiosity Files Unit Study: Zombie Fire Ants

Age level: 8-13

Use as: unit study

Instruction time: Fun filled and moderate to high as it is a hands on unit study.

Prep time: Low since it includes everything you need for a fun study.

Cost: $19.90 for a bundle that includes the The Secondary Schoolhouse Planner and your choice of one Curiosity Files Unit Study.

Rating: 5 out of 5 golden apples

Purchase HERE.

Anyone who has read anything I’ve written or is familiar with me knows I strive to instill a love of learning in my children.  I want to spark their imagination and get them excited about the world created by God for them.  I’ll be honest, that’s a lot of enthusiasm to put in your morning coffee.  Some days, no matter how hard you try, you cannot make direct and indirect objects exciting. Facing facts that sometimes school is, well, school, I try to look for fun unit studies and projects to keep up the excitement.  It was when I saw my children’s eyes glazed over at the mention of a unit study, I realized that making something fun is not always the answer.  Sometimes our amazing world provides enough wonder that the need to make graphing into some fun unit study is thankfully pushed aside.  This is the reason I love The Curiosity Files.  That and as soon as I said zombie fire ants my kids stood to attention with jaws dropped waiting to hear more!

The Curiosity Files explores the oddities in the world that make learning a joy.  These unit studies do not entertain by cheap thrills but educate by tapping into a child’s innate curiosity.  It provides the heart of a scientist so it’s easy for your child to feel inspired.  More over, the study never fails to give glory to God.  Yes, science and God do mix and The Curiosity Files proves it.

So what can you expect from The Curiosity Files unit studies?  You can expect to learn something new, exciting and fun.  You can expect a science lesson, copywork, bible lesson, games, puzzles, geography, projects, notebooking and lapbooking.  The material is solid and the method is smooth, logical, and fits any teaching or learning style.

The unit study is recommended for ages 8-13.  I have a 13, 11, 5 and 2 year old.  While my five year old needed to have some things adjusted, she learned quite a bit and enjoyed being a part of this.  My 2 year old was none the wiser as we did this while she slept.  My 11 year old boy had the most fun with this study.  I would not suggest this study for a child under 5 or over 13.  I think the 8-13 recommendation is perfect.  If you seek to add some fun, creativity, and curiosity into your routine without resorting to cheap thrills and entertainment, I recommend The Curiosity Files. The studies include: Zombie Fire Ants, Blue Diamond, Dung Beetle, Red Tide, MRSA, Puffer Fish, and Blue-Footed Booby.

Written by Richele, mother of 4 children, homeschooler for 9 years, and proud to say she taught tying your shoes and physics in one day.  She blogs at Under the Golden Apple Tree.

Last February my family spent several days creating murals to hang in their bedrooms.  Coordinating several children to produce something beautiful to hang on the wall can be challenging.  We used inexpensive downloads from Art Murals for Kids as our guide for several reasons:

• They’re easy – even my 2 year old can color.
• They’re printable – which meant if a piece got messed up and bothered the children they could just print again and redo it.
• They make beautiful final products.

My sons chose to use Oil Pastels to color their version of Van Gogh’s Starry Night.  They decided to try following the original for their colors.  This came from the Mini Impressionist Mural Set, which is only $5.00.  In this set the murals are small – our Starry Night printout was 6 pages, measuring 23″x 19″.  It was just right for a family to do together instead of a classroom.  There is a larger version of Starry Night available for download that is 24 pages and measures 48″x 36″.  I really like how the colors of the oil pastels are bold.  The only drawback to oil pastels is they are a bit smudgy – mostly on children’s hands!

My daughters used crayons with this mural for their bedroom.  They chose this one for the animals.  Their file was also $5.00and included two sizes to use: a 36-page version measuring 45″x 45″ and a 9-page mini version measuring 22.5″ x 22.5″.  I think the crayons looks all right, it just does not stand out as much as the oil pastels.  We may try painting a mural sometime for a change.

There are quite a few other mural possibilities to choose from at Art Murals for Kids.  She even offers coloring books of famous paintings that would be a fun addition to an artist study.  Be sure to check out her companion site, Art Projects for Kids for tons of art project ideas to use with your children.  I’ve found some real gems as I’ve explored the archives!

Tristan is a happily homeschooling LDS mother to 6 blessings age 9, 6, 5, 3, 2, and 5 months old.  You can drop in and visit anytime over at her blog, Our Busy Homeschool.  Read her other Curriculum Choice posts here.

{Disclaimer: I purchased these products on my own.  This is not a sponsored post in any way.  And yes, we hope to purchase more murals in the future!}

Here’s one book no homeschooling family should miss:  A Pioneer Story: The Daily Life of a Canadian Family in 1840.  It combines heartwarming stories of a busy pioneer family with the background information and hands-on activities of a unit study.  Truly, it is a winning combination.

Beautifully illustrated, this story of the Robertsons fills our hearts and minds with the life of a pioneer family in the backwoods of eastern Canada.  We follow Sarah (10), Willy(9), George(13), and Meg (15), as well as Granny, Pa, Ma, little sister Lizzy, and baby Tommy, through a whole year of maple sugaring, baby animals, milking, sheep shearing, fishing and more.

With the Robertson children we face the terror of meeting a lynx, the thrills of building a new home, the hard work of bringing in the harvest before the storm, and the joys of surviving a night lost in the wintery woods.  We trade with a jolly peddler, meet a new English boy at the school, and visit Uncle Jacob’s home for a thrillingly different Christmas.

Reminiscent of Laura Ingalls Wilders’ stories, these tales are not only the delightful story of a busy family, but also a wonderful introduction to the book’s detailed explanations and activities.

For example, in the chapter “Finding a Honey Tree,” Uncle Jacob took Sarah and Willy out to mark a bee tree in anticipation of the fall, when the honey could be harvested.   After enjoying the story, we learn about bees, harvesting wild honey, and pioneer remedies.

“Signs of Spring” shows us the family’s house, winter diet, cooking, and farmyard in such wonderfully illustrated detail that we can almost imagine their lives for ourselves.  When Sarah found the year’s first egg, the entire breadth of pioneer experience is revealed in Ma’s response:

Ma stroked the egg dreamily.  “Pudding,” she said.  “I’ll make a nice egg pudding for tonight’s supper.  There’ll be a good mouthful for each of us.”

When the peddler arrived, he brought joy and excitement to everyone in the family.  Itinerant preachers, shoe makers, peddlers, tailors, and tinkers all were welcome visitors at the farm.  Crafts in “The Peddler’s Visit” include making a punched tin picture, a pioneer water carrier, and a sand clock.

Willy spent a lot of time with his friend Neekeek, and occasionally Neekeek’s uncle would teach the boys a new skill.  Once he taught them how to catch trout with their bare hands.  When Willy came home triumphantly with the fish he had just caught, George scoffed at his story.  Granny, on the other hand, laughed, “Och, aye!  Tickling trout. Your granda was a dab hand at that. Many’s the poached fish we had from the laird’s stream.  Scooped up just that way.  Good for you, young Will!”  Of course this chapter discusses fishing, hunting, guns, and snares.

Throughout the book we learn to read the weather, make a balance scale, prepare for winter, make candles, use a bake oven, build a road, and thresh the grain while we live, laugh, and bicker with the family.  While the bickering does bother me, this book is, on the whole, happy and inspiring. The illustrations are a joy, and the stories are a treat.  My children enjoyed A Pioneer Story even more than I did both times I read it aloud, and they’ve enjoyed it on their own as well.

A free Teaching Guide is available.

-Written by Annie Kate, a Christian homeschooling mom of five, who reviews and blogs at Tea Time with Annie Kate.

One of the issues I’ve struggled with over my years of homeschooling is the desire to do hands-on science projects with my children and the time/effort/inconvenience needed to gather all of the materials to do so. While I adore doing hands-on projects with my children, I do not enjoy gathering up all of the needed materials, running out at the last minute to purchase that one thing I thought I had but I actually don’t, and realizing that I can’t do the desired project because I just can’t find or purchase a required object.  Therefore, all in one hands-on kits have always greatly appealed to me!

Given my love of the convenience of hands-on, educational kits, I was thrilled when I was contacted by a representative from The Young Scientists Club to review one of their new kits.  I chose Science on a Tracking Expedition from their Nature Series.  Science on a Tracking Expedition is geared for children ages 4 and up.  I am using it with my 9 and 12 year old sons, and I also plan to include my 14 year old daughter in some of the activities as well.  Most of the materials in the kit can be used multiple times, making it quite practical for more than one child to use at once.  As well, the materials that may need to be replaced with multiple users (dirt, plaster of paris, paints, and plastic bowls) are quite easy to gather or purchase.

The primary focus of this hands-on kit is on learning to identify and appreciate animal tracks. Children (and adults) learn to identify many different animal tracks such as Black Bear, Great Blue Heron, Gray Wolf, Raccoon, Opossum, Wild Turkey, Whitetailed Deer, and Striped Skunk.  Utilizing the materials included in this kit, children learn about animals tracks through a wide variety of hands-on activities. The very clear instruction manual included has directions for the adult and also has directions written directly to the child.  Hands-on activities include:

• Making animal track prints using the plastic animal track molds
• Matching the animal tracks to the animals using stickers and a big poster perfect for a child’s room or schoolroom
• Writing a short story based on the arrangement of animal tracks at the bottom of the poster
• Making animal casts using the materials provided
• Making animal casts from real tracks found on a nature hike
• Attracting animals to a specific area of one’s yard and identifying the animal tracks
• Playing a matching memory game in which animal tracks are matched to the animal

While there is definitely enough educational material included to spend at least a week of science lessons exploring the activities, this kit could easily be the beginning of a unit study about animal tracks.  Additional books, videos, or field trips could be added to learn more about the featured animal tracks.

If you would like to learn more about Science on a Tracking Expedition or other educational science kits, you can visit The Young Scientists Club website to learn more about the wide variety of products they offer.  Science on a Tracking Expedition is available for purchase at The Young Scientists Club website for $29.99.

Samantha has homeschooled her three children since her oldest child was in first grade.  She uses a wide variety of curriculum in her homeschool to best meet the needs of her children.  Samantha writes about homeschooling and family life at To Be Busy At Home.  Samantha received the Science on a Tracking Expedition kit free in exchange for her review of the product.  No other compensation, monetary or otherwise was given for her review.

I have three reproducible books from Carson Dellosa Publishing that have been helping us in our studies of different countries.  They are a series geared for elementary ages.  The first book, A Trip Around the World, helps you and your children explore life in Mexico, Brazil, Egypt, Kenya, Germany, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, China, Japan, Australia, Canada, and the United States.  Another Trip Around the World takes you to Panama, Venezuela, Argentina, Antarctica, South Africa, Nigeria, Israel, Greece, Italy, France, Russia, and India.  A New Trip Around the World covers 12 more countries: Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Cuba, Peru, Chile, Spain, the United Kingdom, Norway, Iraq, Afghanistan, Ghana, and Morocco.  All three books are similarly laid out, each country’s section has the following:

• Basic Information – area, population, flag descriptions, etc.
• Fascinating Facts – This could be sports, animals, education, or historical, among other things.
• Language activities
• Recipes
• Printable maps, flags, and a worksheet
• Classroom activity ideas and a resource list to find more books

I really like these books and they are the first ones I read when we get ready to start learning about a new country. Why?  Because I get a great, succinct orientation to the country myself, one that gives me ideas of some of the possible topics we can study that relate to the country.  I admit, I am not as familiar with life in other countries as I could be, so I really like having this one-stop spot for familiarizing myself with the basics and some interesting facts.  I have found these to be fun and add neat things to our Expedition Earth study for my 4th grader.  Read my review of Expedition Earth here.

I can see using these books as a simple, stand alone set of unit studies for a weekly ‘country study’ that happens one day each week. I know my children are enjoying our country studies, and even when we move to a science focus come January we can keep exploring the world in a quick way when we just need to shake things up a bit.

What are some of your favorite reproducible books? I would love to know if you have used these or others in your homeschool, so please leave a comment!

Written by Tristan, mom to 6 children ages 9 to newborn, homeschooling through unit studies with a side of lapbooks.  You can visit her at her blog, Our Busy Homeschool, or read her other Curriculum Choice posts here.

History is on of my very favorite subjects to teach.  I’ve always loved history and if you’ve read my blog for very long at all, you know I’m a project kind of homeschool mama.

I don’t use any one history curriculum…I use a wide variety of project books with one or two great spine books to base our unit off of.  One resource that I’ve gone back to over and over is Evan Moor’s History Pocket Series.

I absolutely love these books!  For us, we use them as a way to tie up our unit that we’ve been studying OR as a resource we use right along with our unit from start to finish to enhance what we’re learning.

History Pocket books have tons of simple, easy, but very informational projects organized into categories.  For each category, the students make a pocket and put their projects into the pocket.
By the end of the unit, each student has their own pocket book…a great way to show off all they’ve learned during the unit.

There are a wide variety of themes that these books come in.  Areas of history such as Ancient Egypt, Rome, and Greece are books we’ve completed in our homeschool.  There’s also Native Americans, Colonial America, Moving West, Civil War, and American Revolution, and more.I love that when you’re finished using these books, you have a great pocket book full of your kids’ creations to show at the end of the unit.  Personally, I wouldn’t use these as a spine in my unit study, but they are a great enhancement.

These photos are from books that we’ve worked on.  If you would like to look closer, here’s a link to the history section on my blog.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you’ll try these fabulous history books!!

Alicia is a literature loving homeschool mom of 3.  You can find her blogging at La Famille.

Whether you study history chronologically or, like we do, in whatever order that strikes our fancy, The Mystery of History is a curriculum worth considering.

It is a complete, chronological history of the world, which combines secular and Biblical history. The hardback textbook is written in a conversational style that holds the reader’s attention.

The Companion Guide, which is used in conjunction with the hardback reader, contains:

•28 weeks worth of learning activities for younger, middle, and older students

•Memory cards

•Hands-on projects

•Field trip suggestions

•Review games

•Informative articles for the teacher

•Form for recording grades

•Outline maps

•Geography activities

•Supplemental book list

•Pretests, quizzes, and answer keys

•Timeline helps

The curriculum can be used with grades K-8th, but the author states in her letter to teachers that she has provided “tracks to run on that best match Middle Students, those from about 4th to 8th grades”. The activities can be adapted to fit the needs of younger and older students as well.

Pros:

• God is placed at the center of the world’s history. The reader can see how His hand has shaped human events.
• Mrs. Hobar’s writing style is much more interesting than that of most dry, traditional textbooks.
• The Student Reader is a beautiful, colorful, hardback volume.
• The activities and helps in the Companion Guide are fun and hands-on, helping to make the history lesson come alive.
• The curriculum is written in a way that simplifies multi-level teaching, especially if you use the Companion Guide.
• Students are encouraged to keep a history notebook in which they place their completed activities. I think it’s nice to have a keepsake like this for reviewing material.
• Even if you don’t teach history chronologically, this is a wonderful resource for studying a specific time period.
• Traces world events chronologically, lining them up with Biblical history. (For example, the reader learns what was going on in the rest of the world when King David was on the throne of Israel.) Obviously, the events of Volume 3 take place after Bible times.
• Encourages the use of and gives instructions for making a timeline, which is a wonderful tool for helping students to visualize the unfolding of historical events.

Cons:

• The only drawback I could find to The Mystery of History was the fact that the textbook did not hold the attention of my 5 and 7 year old.  My 9 year old, however, listened and enjoyed it as a read aloud. My youngers could easily be included in many of the Companion Guide activities though.

To see a video explaining more about The Mystery of History and to view prices for the textbook, companion guide, and supplementary products, visit Bright Ideas Press.

Written by Shannon, who blogs about her family’s hands-on history studies and other homeschool adventures at Song of My Heart.

We have many, many Dover coloring books, and they have changed the life of at least one of our children.  Miss 12 spends hours carefully coloring fashions of the past.  She has learned so much history simply from studying the pictures and reading the captions.  In fact, when she looks at paintings she can date them accurately, just by what the people are wearing!  She’s also learned a lot about color, realism, different media, and shading from the historical fashion coloring books.

Of course, not all Dover coloring books are about historical fashions.  We have books about military planes, cowboys, dogs, birds of prey, weeds, butterflies, and more.  Many of these books have small full-color examples of each coloring page, and all of them have informative captions for each picture.  Other coloring book titles include castles, farm animals, and ABC’s .  You can see them all here.

Note that these are not your typical scribble-in-when-you-are-four-years-old coloring books.  The pictures are detailed and accurate and would be a pleasant challenge even for an adult.  The paper is high quality, and we’ve even used markers on them, although pencil crayons and gel-pens work better.

For children who love to do something with their hands while mom reads aloud or while chatting with friends, there is no better Christmas gift or add-on to a school subject.  Of course these books will not work for all children, but since they are relatively inexpensive it’s worth a try.  If the kids don’t like them, you can always color them yourself.  In fact, I’m regularly tempted to order some of the great artists books for myself, but right now my days are too full to add a project like that.

To try out actual coloring pages, you can sign up for free weekly samples at the Dover web site.

Caution:  Occasionally the outfits in the fashion coloring books are indecent.  Some of the other books, such as those about art, may need a similar warning, but I have not seen them.

Disclosure

This review is based on the many Dover coloring books we have bought over the years. I do not receive any compensation for it.

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

Nature study is something my family has only been doing for a few months now.  When I began looking for something to hold my hand as we jumped into the nature study waters I came across the NaturExplorers series by Shining Dawn Books.  These downloadable unit studies were just what I needed.  I received Constant Conifers ($12.00) for my family to review.

Packed into each unit I found:

• Inspiration to get me enthusiastic about the topic, and literature suggestions I used at my library.
• Basic information for the topic in one place so I could just read and go if I wanted to skip the library.
• Lots of out in nature ideas – the gold mine I was looking for!  I had pages upon pages of ways we could explore our topic in the outdoors.  Each day we went out I knew I was ready to help guide my children to learn a little bit more than they had the last time we were outside.
• Writing and research ideas to bring our learning back inside.
• References for Bible study, artist study, composer study and poetry tie-ins, with internet links.
• Notebooking pages to print and use with many of the activity ideas.

During our study of conifers we learned so much about these ‘cone-bearers’. We chose one special conifer by our backyard fence to explore in detail and compare with a maple tree in our yard.  It really helped to be able to touch and see the trees close up when we were learning about cones, sap, bark, needles/leaves, and more.  We spent one day watching for creatures in and around our conifer, another looking at cones in wet weather versus dry, measuring, drawing, and even smelling our tree.  You can see a sample of Constant Conifers on this page.  The units are written for elementary ages, with ideas for using it with both younger and older students.  All my children were able to learn together with Constant Conifers!

I have plans to pull Constant Conifers back out in mid-winter and see what new observations we can make about our special tree in a new season. There were so many great nature study ideas that we could not get to them all the first time around.  I also have my eye on several more of the NaturExplorer units, including Snow and Ice.  I know my kids would have a blast with that one during the winter blahs around February or March!

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, or read her other Curriculum Choice posts here.

{Disclaimer: I received a free copy of Constant Conifers when I approached Shining Dawn Books about doing a review.  I received no other compensation and all opinions presented herein are my own.}