Luv'N Lambert Life

Mental Health, Homeschooling, Epilepsy and More

History

Notgrass Company: America The Beautiful {Crew Review}

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Last year, as I was planning for school, I added American History to our list of subjects I wanted to teach next year.  Over the past year, I’ve searched for books and curriculum to create our own study on this subject.  I was lucky in my finds but I was even luckier when this review appeared on our vendor list for the Schoolhouse Crew.  Notgrass Company’s America the Beautiful curriculum set was just the type of core program I had been looking for.
America the Beautiful is a year long course on American History.  It doesn’t only cover history though.  It is also a literature curriculum and geography course in one.  Designed for children in 5th-8th grade, this program is designed to provide your child with a full year of lessons that cover various important events throughout America’s history.
Parents can choose to complete this course in one year or expand it to two years if they prefer.  Lessons are designed to be completed one per day, five per week or they can be spread to two or three lessons a week as preferred.  Lessons take approximately 45-90 minutes.  Extra time is required for crafts and other activities.  The program is also adaptable to fit your child’s or family’s interests and daily activities can be adjusted to accommodate those interests.
America the Beautiful is a beautifully created curriculum.  There is no teacher’s guide, as the program’s directions are provided throughout each of the main texts.  This is an added bonus for children who are independent learners so they can follow the program with little parental guidance if capable.  Parents, too, can follow along easily without having to flip back and forth to a guide to keep up.
America The Beautiful curriculum package consists of the following:
  • America the Beautiful, Part 1: America from 1000 to 1877
  • America the Beautiful, Part 2: America From the Late 1800’s to the Present
  • We the People: Words from the Makers of American History
  • America the Beautiful: Student Workbook
  • America the Beautiful: Lesson Review
  • Maps of America the Beautiful
  • Timeline of America the Beautiful
  • America the Beautiful: Answer Key
Each of the books in this curriculum are beautifully crafted.  The first three texts are hardback books, with bright glossy covers that draw the users attention to them immediately.  The rich text are filled with gorgeous images of the time period.  The accessory books are all paperback with the Lesson Review and Student Workbook having spiral binding to allow them to lie flat for lesson completion.
An additional literature package is available to expand this program to it’s full capability.  We did not receive this as part of our review and I did not incorporate this part of the lesson plan at the time of completion of this review.  We will be adding it into our future lessons to make this a complete program for our home studies in the future.
The thing I absolutely love most about this curriculum is that it relates everything to God, from the creation of the land to the settling of America on through to today’s times.  The curriculum helps bring to life, God’s plan and creation within America.  This is a beauty that is often missed in secular history programs.
Something I found tremendously easy to incorporate with this program is science.  As we learned about various animals and places in America’s history, it was easy to expand upon our lessons, learning more about the animals and areas themselves.  Especially in early lessons, where many of the animals discussed are local to our own backyard, such as the American Alligator which we have seen on various boating and hunting excursions – and yes, we actually do have one living way back in the back of our own backyard.  Bottle-nosed dolphins can be seen off coast of our shoreline and Green Sea Turtles come up our coast to lay eggs each year.
Black bear make our hunting club their home and recently part of our hunting club was donated to make a wildlife preserve for the bear to live safely for generations to come.  A recent field trip provided a great expedition to see Bison up close.  I never realized they roamed our Southern Coastal lands at one time!  All these beautiful animals right here where our home is!
We learned a great deal about our American Indian heritage through this curriculum as well.  The different tribes and the differences in tribes.  This was especially interesting to us, since Winston and Emmalee both have an extensive American Indian heritage on both their biological father’s and my own side of the family.  The Susquehanna, Cherokee and Lumbee are ancestors to their bloodline.  This curriculum is rich in American Indian history and that was something we greatly appreciate.
We look forward to covering more history using American the Beautiful, particularly learning more about America’s 1st settlements, including our own Charleston, South Carolina.  The many battles of the Revolutionary War were fought right around our home of Georgetown, South Carolina so it will be interesting to see where our future lessons will take us on our journey to learn more outside the pages of the text book.
We have been excitedly marking our way through our America the Beautiful timeline, and mapping our path with our Maps of America the Beautiful historical atlas.  The kids have really enjoyed working together to complete the activities within the Student Workbook.  We have also enjoyed the extra stories and read-alouds from our We the People text.  Many of these stories we have never heard before.
The Lesson Review book is probably the least used of everything we have received, along with America the Beautiful Part 2 text but that’s because we haven’t reached that book yet!  I have used the Lesson Review to ask questions in an effort to ensure the kids are learning as we read.  We, however, are not generally strict to structured learning so we do not normally utilize lesson reviews for homeschooling materials.  I simply ask questions as we go along and the kids answer appropriately to allow me to gauge their level of learning from the curriculum itself.  Still it’s nice to have a Lesson Review to guide me and provide the necessary questions to ensure they are indeed learning.
I can honestly say this curriculum is one that everyone has loved.  Laycie has followed along with us as we have read through lessons.  At age 5, she does become bored before we get through the bulk of the lesson.  Winston and Emmalee have followed along very well and it’s captured their attention at times.  They have enjoyed learning more about the animals and about their heritage thanks to America the Beautiful.  They look forward to future lessons that lead to hands-on field trips for us soon.
America the Beautiful, the curriculum package is available for purchase from Notgrass Company for $99.95.  It is written for children ages 10-14.  This package includes student texts, maps, timeline and the answer key.  At additional cost, you can purchase the America the Beautiful Student Workbook for grades 5-6 for $11.95 or the America the Beautiful Lesson Review for grades 7-8 for $9.95.
To read more reviews of this and other curriculum from Notgrass Company, click the banner below!

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Lucky While Living Cursed {Epilepsy Awareness}

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Today someone mentioned that families with history of Epilepsy are lucky.  That’s a big word: Lucky.  It means to be fortunate.

  1. luck·y  

    /ˈləkē/

    Adjective
    Having, bringing, or resulting from good luck: “a lucky escape”.
    Synonyms
    fortunate – happy – successful – providential

People assume that because a family, like mine, has 5 generations that have Epilepsy and that because I have three children who have Epilepsy, that I am fortunate because I have prior case history to go on and I know where our Epilepsy is coming from.

Let me tell you, that could NOT be further from the truth.

It is true that we do have a strong family history with Epilepsy.   We were lucky to know what this disorder was when my Emmalee began showing signs of seizure.  I was not a satisfied Momma when she was initially diagnosed as having Febrile Seizures and I did not rest until we had the correct diagnoses.

I was lucky to know that I had had this disorder, to know of the signs, the stigmas and the common misdiagnoses of this disorder to be something less.  I was lucky to have a Mother who had suffered through night after night of wondering if I was ever going to wake up in the morning, if I was ever going to be a “normal kid” or if I was going to wake and go into a seizure without her knowledge.  I agree, I was very lucky to have those things.

Her knowledge of this disorder helped get me through, but honestly, we are no farther in knowledge with this disorder than we were 34 years ago when I began having seizures myself.  We are no farther along in knowledge than my Great-grandfathers family or my Grandfather’s mother was when he went through this as a child.  We are no farther along in knowledge than we were when my Grandfather was on three separate medications in an attempt to control this Monster that even now they do not understand.

I am NOT a lucky Momma to have this family history.  Having more than one child with Epilepsy does not help me to understand this any better than it did the day I had one child with Epilepsy.  What I’ve learned past how to deal and the strength I’ve gleaned from my Mother in dealing with it, I have taught myself.

I listen to my children’s neurologist.  I grasp any tidbit of information they have to offer.  I can sense when they are full of crap and my motherly instincts are rarely wrong.  I force them to listen even if it takes multiple visits or me taking my child’s care into my own hands to make that happen.  I do what I must to get my babies the best care possible.

Fact: There is NO CURE for my children.  I’ve known this for a long, long while.  It was confirmed by our neurologist last week, not without care but in an effort to tell me the truth.  It wasn’t a truth I didn’t already know.

Genetic disorders pass through from generation to generation on a gene.  Generally, they skip generations, passing down the line but not activated.  Patterns like Uncle: niece, Grandparent: Grandson and so on are the common inheritance.  It’s very rare to pass from generation to generation directly without there being a gene that causes it.  And it’s extremely rare to pass through for 5 straight known generations (we do not truly know how many generations before my Great-grandfather have had this disorder as there is no record).

Because this disorder is passed on a gene in my family, there is NO CURE for us.  We cannot edit genetic inheritance.  We cannot choose DNA.  It’s a flip of a coin as to which child will pass this on and how many of their children will have it.  I know at least one of my grandchildren will inherit this.  I know most likely at least one of each of my three children’s children will have it.  That’s 3 grandchildren, at least, possibly more that will go through this and there isn’t a cure for them.

It can be controlled.  A cure could be found for my children dealing with it in their lifetime.  I’m not saying that.  What I am saying is that it won’t stop with us.  It will travel on and curse the next generation with it’s terror.

I may be fortunate to have known what this disorder was for each of my children to start, but as I’ve already stated, I know because I’ve taught myself.  The records of my relatives before me are not accessible and even if they were, I doubt they would provide much information.  This disorder was hidden from the world.  It was not and is still not understood by even the doctors trained to provide care for it.  There is no wealth of  wisdom to glean from the past history that we have.

Each and every one of my children’s cases are different.  Each and every one has been treated like a first time case with no common connection.  I am currently pushing for answers, for comparisons, for more information on this disorder and how it relates to us.  My goal is not for a cure, but for understanding of how this disorder works and how it affects my family.  I plan to pass this on for my children’s future and their children.  I plan to arm them with the knowledge to live through their lives with this and be empowered along their path.

This is their life with Epilepsy and the only luck they have is a Momma who will provide them with all she can in preparation for their future in living with this.

Susan K Marlow: Tunnel of Gold {Crew Review}

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From Susan K. Marlow, author of the Circle C Adventures book series, comes a new series called Goldtown Adventures.  This three book series is filled with mystery, allure, and wholesome family goodness.  It’s sure to be a series that every family will love.
Goldtown Adventures tells the story of Jeremiah “Jem” Coulter and his family.  Jem and his family live in Goldtown, a fictional California mining town, where people make their living mining for Gold.  With Jem’s Pa being the local Sheriff, Jem always finds adventure and mischief about.
In Tunnel of Gold, Jem’s father is forced to find a way to make peace between the miners and the Chinese that have taken over the old mines.  The miners must use the old shafts as an air shaft in order to blast deeper to find a new gold vein for the Midas mine.  The Chinese won’t give up their rights to the mine, even though the town is in jeopardy of losing all.
Jem finds himself in the middle of the ruckus when Will finds a way to keep everyone happy.  Will Will’s idea work?  Or will Jem and the others in Goldtown find themselves in a bigger mess than they started with?  And how much danger is Jem putting himself into by following Will’s plan?  To find out, you’ll have to read Tunnel of Gold for yourself. 
For this review, I passed this book onto my beautiful daughter, Emmalee, age 10, to read out loud to her siblings.  Over a period of a week, Emma read the book, chapter by chapter.  The kids really enjoyed learning about Gold mining and the lifestyles of Jem, Ellie and the rest of the gang in Goldtown.  Laycie has gown around acting out parts of the book since listening to the story.  All the kids wish to read more of the Goldtown Adventures, as well as the Circle C Adventures book series which we plan to read in the future.
There is an accompanying, free enrichment guide to go along with Tunnel of Gold which can be found on the website when purchasing this book.  This enrichment guide provides a full unit study to be used along with the book, complete with worksheets and activities like building your own Miner’s Stove out of a can and a small tea light candle.  A recipe for doughnuts is also included in the guide, along with vocabulary for the book, crossword puzzles, and short stories to expand on the history the reader learns throughout the book.  This is a wonderful expansion for the story itself.
Tunnel of Gold is 144 pages long.  There are 18 chapters within the book.  There is also a Historical Note included in the back sharing more about the Gold Rush era and life at the time.
Susan K. Marlow’s Tunnel of Gold, and the rest of the Goldtown Adventure series, is available online for $7.99 per autographed paperback book.  The first and second book of the Goldtown Adventure’s series, Badge of Honor and Tunnel of Gold, are available for purchase together for $13.95 plus shipping.  The third book of the series has not yet been released.

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Dig-It Games: Mayan Mysteries {Crew Review}

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Dig-It Games brings to life the world of the Maya through it’s interactive game, Mayan Mysteries.
Mayan Mysteries allows children to become archaeologists in this fun game.  Children learn about history through play.
Dig-It Games was founded by Suzi Wilczynski, professional archaeologist and former school teacher.  She created Mayan Mysteries and Roman Town to bring to users a fun, interactive way to teach ancient civilizations with archaeology.  Through 10 years of experience with digs in Greece and Israel, Ms. Wilczynski created a way to bring her experiences to students everywhere.
In Mayan Mysteries, players learn about the history of the Maya civilization and culture.  Created for children in grades 5th through 9th, ages 11 and up, this game walks students through a world that would otherwise be forgotten if not for historical digs and documents.  Throughout the game, users discover artifacts, decode ancient glyphs, explore the Maya calendar, visit ancient cities and much much more.
The game itself works as a puzzle with pieces leading to fit into each other in order to open up each level of play.  Included activities test reading comprehension, geographical skills, spatial reasoning, math, science and history skills.  Scientific and analytical thinking skills are practiced throughout gameplay too.
Users begin playing Mayan Mysteries by joining up with Team Q to find the mysterious thief, Landrone.  This leads the user on a chase that spans over the great ancient Maya cities through over 300 expansive challenges and 12 hours of gameplay.  On the journey, the user learns key facts, geographical data, finds countless artifacts, solves glyphs and more.
Users gain achievements for every quest completed, such as the Golden Trowel for collecting 8 artifacts or the Genius Decoder for solving all spirit companion Glyph riddles without using hints.  These achievements are rewards for completion of the mysteries and lessons throughout the game.  
There are tons of artifacts for the player to find throughout the game too.  Through gameplay and digs, the player will find things like a ball player figurine, a ceramic flute, a flint knife, obsidian arrowheads, stingray spines and many more.  The player will learn about each of these items through play as well, leading to an unforgettable online history lesson.
Landrone clues are also provided throughout the expedition to find Landrone.  These clues are kept in Charlie’s journal and can be accessed at any time during gameplay.  
Team Q is who you are helping to find Landrone and solve the Mayan Mysteries.  Team Q consists of Dr. Alex Quinn, the extraordinary archaeologist, and leader of the expeditions.  The twins, Fiona Quinn, future archaeologist extraordinaire and Charlie Quinn, future detective are also a viable part of Team Q.  Along with your help they are sure to solve the mystery and find Landrone.
This fun, fun archaeology game is sure to bring hours of interactive lessons to life for users.  I know we have enjoyed playing and learning more about each artifact and place visited via the game.  My children, ages 10 and 12 have worked together to play through this game and enjoyed learning more.
You can purchase Mayan Mysteries from Dig-It games online for $21.99 for a one year single-user license.  This gives you access to the full game for a year to play.  Mayan Mysteries is also available as an App in the Apple Store or iTunes for $9.99.

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Moving Beyond The Page {Crew Review}

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When I signed up to review Moving Beyond the Page, I thought it was just going to be the usual, boring old kind of curriculum where the student reads the book and completes the worksheets involved.  I had no idea that Moving Beyond the Page was going to be so awesome, so amazing, so wonderful!  From the moment, you open the box the package arrives in, the excitement begins and does not stop.
Our curriculum package arrived in the average cardboard box, once again leading me to believe it was nothing more than a box of books.  But upon opening the box, my opinion quickly changed.  Inside the box was everything needed to learn about the subjects we had chosen to learn, except for common items like pencils and paper.
The package I chose to review from Moving Beyond the Page was something we could easily relate to our hometown in Georgetown, SC and our family interests.  I chose to do a Literature and Science/History combination, choosing American Tall Tales and Legends for our Literature portion and Colonization and Revolution for our Science/History portion.  
American Tall Tales and Legends interested me because these were my personal favorites to learn about when I was a child, as well as Josh’s.  It is often something we find ourselves discussing and I had been looking for a way to introduce more of these wonderful stories and legends to our children in our homeschooling lessons.  As usual, God provided a way to make this happen through our Moving Beyond the Page review.
I’ve also been looking for ways to get my children involved more in our local history.  There’s no better way then to take them straight back to the foundation of our town, by teaching them more about how our area was colonized and the Revolutionary War that led to our nations founding.  Being able to take these ideas even further by showing them things that relate to our readings makes it even better.
Back to our curriculum package.  Upon opening our box, I discovered our Colonization and Revolution lesson book.  This spiral bound book contains everything needed to complete the Science/History portion of our program.  The box also contained the books we needed to read to learn more about our lessons.  The New Americans: Colonial Times 1620-1689, The American Revolution for Kids: A History with 21 Activities and You Wouldn’t Want To Be An American Colonist!: A Settlement You’d Rather Not Start were all included to use with our Colonization and Revolution study.
Our lesson book for American Tall Tales and Legends was available for use online through the Moving Beyond the Page website.  This program allowed me to read through the guidebook straight from the website and print copies of the activity pages needed to complete our lessons.  This was wonderful since it allowed me to print copies of lesson activities for each child, as needed.  In the box for this part of our lessons, I received an American Tall Tales reader and Cut From The Same Cloth: American Women of Myth, Legend, and Tall Tale.  Both these books came together to provide the wonderful stories needed to teach my children about the legends and tales of the United States.
One additional item came in the box for use with our curriculum.  A kit to create our own dream catcher was provided as an activity to be used with our Moving Beyond the Page American Tall Tales and Legends package.  This was a fun addition to the program and something that the kids really enjoyed creating.
The online version of our American Tall Tales and Legends lesson book was a bit different than our printed version of our Colonization and Revolution lesson book.  The printed version laid out how to use our Moving Beyond the Page lessons in the front of our book, then provided a list of required books and materials for the unit study by lesson.  This made getting everything together very easy.
Following the materials list is a list of vocabulary taught throughout the unit, listing words and definitions for each new vocabulary word.  A Unit Review sheet follows the vocabulary list, allowing for a look ahead at each lesson taught through the unit.
Lessons themselves are broken down, beginning with a Getting Started section that shares stuff you will need for the lesson, ideas to keep in mind during the lessons and things to know about the lessons.  A list of questions for the lesson is provided next, followed by lesson activities to complete.  Activities are simple but thorough and get the child thinking about things they have learned, allowing them to absorb the lessons, not just hear them.  
Each lesson in a unit builds in preparing the student for a final project to be completed at the end of the unit study.  The students are asked to complete five of the eight final project suggestions for the study but could do more or less depending upon your schedule.  Some of the projects will require assistance and supervision from the parent to complete.
Much like the print lesson book for Colonization and Revolution, the online lesson book for American Tall Tales and Legends provides an intro to the lesson, complete with lists of materials needed for each lesson.  This is followed with the activities for each lesson, which are to be completed by the student.  Rounding out the end of the lesson is a conclusion that provides additional activities for student completion, like reviewing stories and vocabulary discussed in the section and the sections of the region being discussed at the time.  Just like the print addition, the end of the unit wraps up with a final project for the student to complete.
A nice addition of the online lesson book is that there is an Idea Share section that allows users to go in and add their personal ideas for the unit.  This allows others to share things that have worked for them in aiding to provide projects to make students break free from paper learning and expand to projects in relation to the lessons being learned.  Each lesson has one of these sections to provide additional ideas for activities.
These units are amazingly thorough and so well prepared.  It did not take a lot of work on my part to put them together and the company does provide everything possibly needed for studying the units, included the necessary books for completion.  The only I did not receive for my units was the Timeline of American History but this was not something that I had to have for my unit though it would be a great addition if I were to purchase a full curriculum package from Moving Beyond the Page.
Moving Beyond the Page provides unit studies in full year curriculum packages or in various individual units to study, like was provided for our Schoolhouse Reviews.  They provide studies to be used with children beginning with ages 4-5 up through ages 12-14.  Individual units can be mixed and matched to meet interests and needs of the child.  Individual units do include suggestions for unit matches in the description.  The two units I chose for review were not a suggested match but they worked well together for our needs.
Moving Beyond the Page’s American Tall Tales and Legends Literature Unit is available in print form or as an online version.  It is written to be used with students ages 9-11 and is Relationships: Unit 3 of the full curriculum package for this age group.  Books needed to complete this unit are included in the unit package.  The print version of this package costs $33.47 while the online version costs $29.41.  Once again, this includes all books needed to complete the study.
Moving Beyond the Page’s Colonization and Revolution Science/History study is also available in print or an online version.  It, too, is written to be used with students 9-11 and is Discovery and Survival: Unit 1 of the full curriculum package for this age group.  The print version of this unit costs $51.88 and the online version costs $47.82.  The price of this unit also includes all necessary books to complete the study.
This was a review that my children and I truly loved.  We will be purchasing more Moving Beyond the Page curriculum very soon and look forward to learning more from this company.  

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Home School In The Woods: Great Empires {Crew Review}

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Home School In The Woods is the creation of the wonderful Pak family.  Amy, along with her husband and four children, wanted to share Amy’s creativity in designing better historical images, timelines, unit studies and lap books with others who homeschool so they developed Home School In The Woods in 1998 to bring these items to others.  There wonderful illustrations and materials help bring History to life.

Great Empires is one of many of Home School In The Woods extensive unit studies.  Available as a download or on disk, this study has everything you will need to begin a thorough study of the Greatest Empires known to mankind.  This study if fully hands-on and easily implemented.  Printing and some work putting the study together is required for completion.  Adobe Reader is also required for usage of this program.

For this review, we received a download of the study to use for our daily lessons in our home.  After downloading the program, the curriculum itself opens in a web browser on the start page.  This page provides links to every section of the study, much like a notebook.  A picture of the details of this download, the completed projects and materials is provided for viewing on this page also.

Included in this study are over 30 activities to be completed, including recipes, games, text and more.  It is suggested that it takes 1-3 days to complete an empire study.  Since we were using this for review, we took 1-2 days doing various activities per unit with the idea that we will work over it again later.  The study did require a fair amount of prep from me since I had to preview links and materials to make sure they were working properly and providing the information we needed to complete the study, as well as finding which parts of the study we were actually going to use in our lessons.  I found no problems, thankfully, and was easily able to make this work for us.

A world map is included in this study, for mapping the locations of the Empires provided in the study.  Pre-made timelines are also a part of the study, allowing room for pictures and notes as needed.  These are blackline masters, as are the historical figures provided to be used with the timeline.  They can easily be colored in by children to provide further interaction with the featured era and figure of the time.

Text is provided in a printable form and so is a project activity list for each lesson.  Each unit has activities for mapping, creative projects and even cooking.  This helps brings the lesson itself to life.  Adding books from the library, as well as links from the internet make this study even more easily adaptable for using educationally.

My children and I all enjoyed using this study.  I was able to use it with all three of my children and have them walk away with new knowledge of each of the Empires of the study.  Some of our lessons led to more in depth studies and new found interests in other cultures and also foods.  It was a great program that we thoroughly enjoyed using for the time period of this review.  It is also a program that I will use again in more depth along the way as we revisit this Empires again in our daily curriculum plans.

Great Empires is available from Home School In The Woods online for $18.95 for the download version or $19.95 plus shipping for the CD version.  Other studies are also available and can be viewed online at Home School In The Woods.

Empires included in this study are:
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Greece
Ancient Rome
Ancient China
Arab-Muslim Empire
Mongolian Empire
Viking Empire
Spanish Empire
French Empire
English Empire
German Empire
Japanese Empire

Russian Empire
The United States of America

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