lessons

Another Week Bites The Dust {Thoughts From Me}

June 10, 2017 by Dana

And another week bites the dust.

I’m totally off schedule. I feel behind in the plans I had. I need to set up a better plan to stay on track.

Emma is talking my head off. Distracting me from what I need to do but that’s okay because I don’t mind hearing her talk. She’s such a social creature.

Laycie is putting all her energy into learning about baby possums. She’s learned so much about them. Next week we will dive deeper into some lessons to learn a little more.

Winston has been working on his Minecraft game, mowing grass, building social skills. He’s ready for another Georgia trip. He had a lot of fun. I’m glad.

Jackson is busy busy. He’s learning big, little and middle in sizes. He’s learning that Daddy is big and Mommy is big and he is little. He’s learning colors like grey. He is counting to 10 on his own. He’s gaining new skills every day. He can balance on his head on the couch. And today he actually held the possum. He asked without prompting. I was totally proud of him.

So life is busy and unorganized right now but we’re working on it and we’re enjoying life together. Life is messy but joy overcomes the mess every day. So for now I’m living in the moment and letting life go as it will.

Until next time…

Dana

Moving Beyond The Page {Crew Review}

July 10, 2014 by Dana

Have you ever found a curriculum that simply blows you away and makes you reconsider everything you’ve ever used for homeschooling? For me that curriculum company is Moving Beyond the Page. Their unit studies are so thorough, so simple to use and yet so much fun!

For this review, we were given access to our choice of products. Trust me, this was NOT an easy decision to make. Since we have been studying the Revolutionary War in relation to our Hometown of Georgetown, SC, I choose two units that I thought we best fit to our current lessons. For our Language Arts Package, I chose Abigail Adams and for our History Package, I chose Revolution.

{Language Arts – Abigail Adams, History – Revolution}

As soon as I saw Moving Beyond the Page listed as one of our vendors, I knew I didn’t want to miss out. I reviewed another set of packaged programs for this company with the Schoolhouse Team last year and we absolutely LOVED it. I wanted to see if we’d feel the same way this year and I’m happy to say we still LOVE them.
Our Language Arts Package provided us with an online guidebook to use and a physical book to read to learn all about the life of Abigail Adams. The book we received is Abigail Adams Witness to a Revolution by Natalie S. Bober. It is filled with information on Mrs. Adams life and the things she saw during this important time in the early beginning of America.

The online guide for Abigail Adams provides a wonderful lesson plan which is simple to follow. You simply log into the website and follow the links. There are activity pages that can be printed out to use with the lessons being learned. There are also bonus suggestions from others to help you extend your lessons even farther. I really enjoy the formatting of the online guide and the extra content that helps to bring the lessons to life.

I must admit though, my children found the book on Mrs. Adams lengthy and slightly boring and so did I since I was reading it to them. I think this book and lesson package would be better suited for a more structured homeschool setting than ours. I was able to find readings from various websites and books from the library to help us make our lessons more interesting. There were some areas where reading the information provided in the book Abigail Adams Witness to a Revolution could not be avoided and we read through and did learn a lot from the reading.

For our History Package, we were sent a physical copy of the Revolution Guidebook, along with the hands-on book Great Colonial America Projects You Can Build Yourself by Kris Bordessa and We Were There, Too! Young People in US History by Phillip Hoose. I will admit this package was immediately a favorite of both myself and the kiddos. Both these books are amazing and they add so much to the lesson itself.

Great Colonial America Projects contains so many interesting facts and super-fun projects to complete! It includes words to know which can be used for Vocabulary exercises and also for copywork. It features different persons from the time period throughout the book, providing a better look at those important historical figures and their influence on American History. This book also gives timeline tidbits would could easily be used to create a physical timeline in your lessons. There are so many things we learned from this one little book!

We Were There, Too! is a beautiful book itself. It’s a glossy covered, hardback book that is sturdily made. It reads like a textbook but the stories are so interesting. They really draw the reader in and the students as well. Beginning with the discovery of America, this book takes you on a long walk through History. One that you won’t soon forget.

We Were There, Too! also contains new words that can be used for Vocabulary, Spelling, Copywork and more. Lessons on the specific people who made History happen can be easily expanded upon though the book is pretty thorough in examining these people and is historically accurate in it’s information. This book is a wonderful addition to our lessons and our homeschooling.

The Revolution Guidebook is approximately 168 pages long. It begins with covering history from the settling of America which did surprise me, as I was expecting it to only cover the actual Revolutionary period and the War itself. I was thrilled to discover it began with America’s settlement and covered some information that we had already been discussing in our homeschooling over the weeks before we began this study.

The guidebooks for both of these packages are written so that the teacher can jump right in and begin right away. The packages come with the books and some packages come with extra activities that may otherwise be hard to locate so that you can easily begin the study. These packages are set up as unit studies and as most unit studies do, they cover the information being learned thoroughly both by providing excellent reading selections with the chosen books and by providing a thorough and completely planned guidebook to direct the teacher through the lesson.

We used these unit studies together in conjuction as much as possible. They fit well together, since Abigail Adams was a witness to the Revolution which we were discussing in the Revolution study. We used these lessons almost daily over the review period and we learned a lot from them. We also learned a lot about the history of our hometown, and nearby Charleston in the process. We enjoyed how the lessons brought so much of our home’s past to life for us.
The guidebooks provide lessons activities, extensions, suggestions for extra books to read and so much more. Best yet, they are so so so easy to follow. We have learned so much with these lesson packages in such a short time because of the simple and easy layout which makes it easy to jump right in and learn. I’m really considering switching other parts of our learning program to Moving Beyond the Page because of the ease of using the program and it’s completeness.

The packaging prices aren’t bad either. The Language Arts Package for Abigail Adams with the Online Guidebook is priced as $26.88 at time of this review. This includes access to the guidebook online and the physical book Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution. This package is designed for use with students ages 12-14 or who have a reading level of 8-9th grade.

The History Package for Revolution with a printed copy of the guidebook is $65.93. It comes with the guidebook in print copy, a copy of Great Colonial American Projects You Can Build Yourself and We Were There, Too!: Young People in US History. This package is designed for use with students age 12-14 or who have a reading level of 8-9th grade.

You can also find Moving Beyond the Page on Facebook:

www.facebook.com/movingbeyondthepage

To read more reviews of Moving Beyond the Page and see other curriculum packages available, please click on the banner below!

VocabularySpellingCity: Premium Account {Crew Review}

October 30, 2013 by Dana

If you can remember my review from last year, then you’ll remember how much we LOVED VocabularySpellingCity! This website is amazing for teaching spelling and vocabulary, all in one place. Designed to be fun and easy, one could not ask for more!

VocabularySpellingCity helps you, as the teacher and parent, set up lessons that work for you and are manageable. Through interactive gaming, students learn what vocabulary or a word list that you have set for them. Best thing is that VocabularySpellingCity also helps you keep track of it all, all in the same place.

All you have to do is:

log into a parent account,
set up a classroom,
add your students,
set the lessons either by choosing premade lessons or creating your own
and your children can get started.

VocabularySpellingCity makes it all super easy to do.

With a premium membership you can choose:

special learning activities for each child’s grade level
assign different lists to individual children
record test results and create accountability for lessons
import lists
create flashcards to use online or print
teach definitions, antonyms, synonyms or parts of speech for the spelling or vocabulary lists chosen

There is so much available through VocabularySpellingCity to make learning easier and ensure children are thoroughly learning both spelling and vocabulary through their online lessons. VocabularySpellingCity can also be used off the computer by printing out worksheets, flashcards and other resources for expanding lessons offline.

Through VocabularySpellingCity, you can find list for Science words, Social Studies, words that rhyme, abbreviations, word families, words with more than one meaning, the Dolch-sight word lists and even more. You can also find Language Arts lessons on nouns, parts of speech, compound words, figurative language and more. Extra helps for handwriting and spelling are also available.

In the Premium account you can add up to 5 students and customize each account to the child’s grade level. I personally chose not to set grade levels for my children but I did set lessons for each by assigning them to each student as they fit to my student. I allow my children to work on word and vocabulary lists that fit what we are learning. I simply input what words we are learning for the week and VocabularySpellingCity does the rest for me. My child can then log-in and complete their work as assigned for each week. It doesn’t matter what time they go on to use the program. It will be there when they are able to get to it.

Now I’ve said this website is super easy to use throughout this review but if for some reason you find yourself lost or stuck, there are lots of videos to explain just what you need to know. There are even videos for the student lessons at VocabularySpellingCity. Everything you need is right there at your fingertips.

You can use VocabularySpellingCity for free but you won’t get the extra writing and vocubulary options that are available with the Premium membership. However, you still get plenty of activities and it’s a great way to try out the program, which can be used with all students in grades K-12.

Premium account game extras include:

Vocabulary Test Me
Flashcards, which I mentioned several times above
LetterFall
Sentence and Paragraph Writing Practice
Match It for Sentences and Definitions
Which Word? for Sentences and Definitions
Word-O-Rama
Crossword
and Parts Of Speech

Each of these extra games allows more detailed instruction and more fun for the lessons being taught.

You can purchase a premium family account with VocabularySpellingCity for $29.99 a year. This allows you access for up to 5 students for a full year. Access for more than 5 students can also be purchased.

To read more reviews of VocabularySpellingCity, please click the banner below!

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Bible Study Guide for All Ages: Primary Level {Crew Review}

August 12, 2013 by Dana

If you’ve been looking for a great way to teach Bible study to your children, Bible Study Guide for All Ages is a great program to choose. Bible Study Guide for All Ages makes learning about the Bible fun and easy. This program is sure to capture the attention of any age.

For this review, we chose the Primary plan. This plan is created for children in 1st-2nd grades and is a great plan for children who know a little about the Bible but are ready to advance into a deeper level of learning. Our Bible Study Guide for All Ages kit came with the Primary Level Teacher Guide, Color Bible Book Summary Cards, enough Primary Student pages for all the kids, and an accompanying Children’s Songs CD.

Along with the contents of the kit, each student will need a Bible of their own to use. This will be used for finding Biblical text throughout the lessons. Finding the Bible verses with help or on their own, allows students to learn the much needed skill of using their Bible and reading on their own.

Crayons, pencils and other writing utensils are also necessary for this program. We personally love anything we can color, draw and design so we broke out crayons and colored pencils for this program. I love anything that encourages the kids uniqueness in artistic ways.

The one thing we did not receive, that was not 100% necessary but would have been a nice addition to our kit, was the Unlabeled Wall Map and Time Line with Label book. This timeline is used throughout the program and mentioned in our lessons but it wasn’t something we had to have in order to complete any lesson. The bonus of it though, is that it would have allowed us to track Biblical events and figures in a hands-on way. I’m sure I could easily create my own or just a notebook type Timeline and captured the same effect for our family and we may do that in the future.

The Bible Study Guide for All Ages Primary Level Teacher’s Guide is wire-bound which allows the guide to lie flat for lessons. In it, you will find directions to every lesson and task for this level of the program. The book begins with Teacher Instructions, explaining how this program works and how to use it in your classroom. I found it very easy to understand and make work for us at home, though it can also be used in a Sunday School classroom if you’d prefer.

Lessons can be completed once a day or spread to a few days in a week, depending upon the child. Generally, only one lesson a week would be completed though you can complete more if you wish. This program is designed much like a Sunday School Bible Study which would only be used once a week on Sunday’s.

Lessons are fairly short and should take only an hour or so to complete, if that. Each lesson has an objective to teach the child some important lesson of the Bible. In the beginning of each lesson in the guide there is also a list for the lessons needed materials. These are things you will gather to be able to complete the lesson with the child(ren).

Lessons always begin with a review of the previous lesson. This allows the child to show what they know and what they remember from the previous lesson. This also allows the teacher to gauge the child’s learning and reteach areas that may have been missed in the previous lesson.

The second part of the lesson is the Memory Work. This is generally where important Bible facts and songs are introduced. Bible verses are also reviewed during this section. Anything that a student needs to memorize for the lesson is introduced here.

The third section is the Things to Know section. This is the real introduction to the week’s lesson and where the backbone of the lesson is found. Things to Know sets the background for the main lesson to come.

The next step is to Get Active! This is the give and take of the lesson, where the teacher questions the students and challenges their thinking to get them thinking lessons through. This section if scripted well for the teacher and easily followed, though students answers will always differ from the suggested ones in the book. This section also sets the stage for the story of the lesson.

Finally, we reach the Bible Text. This is the story portion that brings the Bible story into relation of all we have learned so far. Stories vary in length and are always followed by review questions to keep students challenged and thinking during lessons. As you read through this section, students can follow along with their comic book images in their student text workbook. This helps bring the story to life for the student learning.

Following the text section, students learn where it happened on the Map. This is included in their student text but you can elaborate by using a wall map or a timeline. This allows the child to see for themselves where this part of the story happened and relate it to today instead of just a story from a book. It helps to bring the lesson and story to life for the child.

The last step of the lesson is to Apply It! Show what you both have learned, parent and student. Talk about the lesson, why it’s important, how you can prevent yourself from doing something you shouldn’t or encourage others to do what they should. Each lesson’s Apply It! is different but every one has an important lesson to be taught.

The Student lesson pages are extra long and come in black and white. This allows the child to be creative in coloring the pages. It also helps cut down printing costs. The pages are full of character, using comic book type imagery to keep children engaged.

The Bible Book Summary Cards are fully colored and work to bring life to this program. The back of each card provides information that goes along with each lesson. It also includes questions for the teacher to ask the student. The great part is that all of this is on the back of the card, so as the teacher holds it up for the student to view, the teacher can be reading this part of the lesson without the student realizing there is anything there.

Children’s Songs CD is also included with this program. This 2 CD set includes 90 songs for your students to use along with the lessons. These also help bring the stories to life and get your child off the couch and into the lesson. These aren’t the usual, every day Bible songs either but they are catchy tunes that your family will be singing again and again.

We used this program as directed, following through the lessons together. It was simple enough to do and the kids enjoyed the time spent with one another on it. Winston especially enjoyed the comic book characters and the easy reading, which helped encourage him with his reading skills. Emmalee read much of the lesson to us, which allowed me a break from doing all the reading myself. The lessons were just the right amount of study and time for Laycie too. They were not overwhelming and were just the right amount of detail for each one of us.

Bible Study Guide for All Ages: Primary Level is available to purchase online for $9.95 for the 1-26 lesson Teacher’s Guide and $5.95 for the 1-26 Student Lesson pages. Lessons are broken down into sections of 26 lessons at a time. There are a total of 208 lessons available for the Primary Level of this program.

The Bible Book Summary Cards are also available for purchase. These come in Full Color 8.5″x11″ cards or Color-It-Yourself 11″x14″ posters. Both come with 66 cards to use with the program and are both priced at $24.95 each.

The Children’s Songs CD set is a 2 disk set containing 90 children’s Bible songs. The cost for it is $19.95.

For more reviews of Bible Study Guide for All Ages, please click on the banner below!

Memoria Press: Geography I {Crew Review}

June 17, 2013 by Dana

Memoria Press has been creating Classical Christian Educational materials for Western Civilization since 1994. Their products focus upon simplicity, affordability and quality and are designed with flexibility in mind for homeschooling families who know little about the subjects they are learning about. Memoria Press products provide high academic standards for learning.

For this review, The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew was offered a choice between Memoria Press’ Prima Latina and Geography I. I chose Geography I for us because it was more fitting to the ages of my children. It is also a current interest in our home education.

Geography I arrived boxed nicely together in a few weeks. Our box contained a teacher’s guide, student text and student workbook for Geography I and a Teacher’s Key and Student Workbook for the United States. The set is soft-covered with crisp white pages inside. Most of the print is black line master.

Geography I’s teacher guide contains the answers to all of the questions through the Geography I Student Workbook. In the back of this book are quiz and tests for review of the lessons learned. There is no other lesson information in this guide aside from the answers to the questions and the quiz and tests provided in the back.

Geography I’s student text covers The Middle East, North Africa and Europe. The student text breaks each of these continents down into countries. As you work through the text, the student learns a little about each continent. They learn first the Story of the Land which tells the history of the land. Then they learn the Land of the Story which tells specifically about the land itself. Each section also includes Fast Facts to tell you quick facts about the area.

Each of the continents is broken into countries. Each countries page tells the student about the history of that country and then tells what the country is like today. There are also Fast Facts included for each of these countries, as well as a picture of the area, a flag to color in and a map on the opposite page showing the country and area covered. This repeats for every country and continent shared in this text.

At the end of the Student Text is a colorized section of country flags for review and also to help the student know what color to color the flag for the country they are currently learning about. Lessons are approximately two pages long, though they are thorough on information provided about each continent and country.

The Student Workbook is where the work is at. In the workbook, students must identify and label the countries on the continent maps. They must break each country down, sharing capitals and facts. This is repeated for each continent and country covered through Geography I.

The United States set is a review for students learning in Geography I. Just like the Geography I teacher’s guide, the United States teacher’s guide provides the answers to the student workbook and also quiz and tests through the back of the book. There is no lesson guide provided in either of these teacher guides. Lessons are provided through the accompanying workbooks and student texts.

The United States Student Workbook is a States and Capitals Review text. In this workbook, students will review the states and capitals of all of the United States. These are broken down into regions to make the review easier for the student. There is a United States map as a whole included in the front of the workbook.

These books work together to provide a full curriculum for Geography I. Depending upon the teacher and student, this curriculum could be covered in a matter of weeks to a year. The lessons are not long and can be completed quickly and easily. Review expectations were for us to use this curriculum 3-4 times a week through the review, which allowed us to cover much of the curriculum before the review period ended.

Geography I is for students in grades 4-8. My students that used this curriculum were ages 10 and 12. I also did work with my 5 year old, allowing her to listen while we read through the country and continent information and providing her maps to color as we learned about each country.

We enjoyed using Memoria Press’ Geography I in our lessons because the lessons themselves were not long and the information we learned was just the right amount as to not be overwhelming each day we worked on them. Our lesson week began with discussion of the continent and completing the workbook pages to go with it. Then we worked through countries, taking our time to learn more by looking them up online and checking the news to see if they were mentioned recently. After doing this research, the kids were left to complete their worksheets for lesson. I placed the worksheet into dry erase covers so they could both complete the necessary worksheets for this curriculum.

Memoria Press offers Geography I as a part of their 4th Grade Curriculum. It can be purchased as the 4th Grade Geography set for $48.00 plus shipping. This set includes the Geography I teachers guide, student text, and student workbook, along with the United States States and Capitals Review teacher’s guide and student workbook. Geography I covers The Middle East, North Africa and Europe in the text. To view more curriculum from Memoria Press, please visit their website!

LiteracySoft: Phonics and Reading with McGuffey {Crew Review}

May 8, 2013 by Dana

LiteracySoft is a quality company dedicated to developing easy-to-use, inexpensive programs to teach reading to people of all ages. LiteracySoft uses lessons from McGuffey Readers to teach their simple method and get readers reading. Whether through their app or on PC, LiteracySoft is fun for all.

For this review, we were given a free download of the LiteracySoft app to try. Phonics and Reading with McGuffey contains 52 complete lessons for reading. These 52 lessons work to bring the student up to a first grade reading level. It is also a great reading review tool for those struggling with reading at any age.

Phonics and Reading with McGuffey allows the student to work at his/her own pace without having an instructor telling them what they need to do. Taking away the instructor often takes the pressure out of learning to read and puts it into the hands of the child, allowing them to grasp important reading concepts as they work through the program on their own. And what better way is there to do that then with an all time, tried and true great like the McGuffey Reader!

In this app, the student will find all 52 McGuffey Primer lessons, 44 letter sounds of English and their graphemes, over 60 letter sound animations, more than 400 practice vocabulary words, and an over 9000 nonsense word audio dictionary.

After downloading the app, the user will find the unique ABC icon on their iPad page and can immediately begin after downloading is finished. Spoken directions tell the user what to do when beginning. Choose a color button and type your name to get started with this app.

On the next page, the user can then read the Table of Contents, change their settings or begin the lesson. Choosing the Table of Contents allows the user to choose from any of the 53 included lessons on the app. This allows the user to jump around and repeat lessons as needed.

In the User Settings section, the user can choose to skip phonics rules explanations, not to sound out words in a phonics blender, use an Open Dyslexic font, monochrome letters in words and sentences for easier viewing and hide the previous and next lesson arrows throughout the program.

Upon clicking Begin Lesson, there is a brief instructional showing the student how to use the app. At the top, the user can find a repeat button. Below that is a menu button. There is also a previous and next part button to click back or ahead in a lesson. The lessons, as mentioned before, follow those in the McGuffey Primer, so they are simple and easy to follow along with.

Cute actions graphics are included along with the lesson, which also goes along with the original primer lessons in style, only more up-to-date for this time period. As the student works through, the program sounds out the word, completing this with the complete word’s spoken name: cat = c a t (kuh aa tuh) = cat.

As lessons increase, so do the activities included. A jump menu appears to allow the student to work on different activities throughout that lesson. Some of these activities include workings specifically on Letter Sounds, new words, Phonics with flashcards, blending phonics, viewing the lesson’s illustrations closer, practice of reading, quizes, spelling practice and sight word drilling. Students working through can pick and choose the activities they’d like to complete as they work through each lesson.

This app quickly became a family favorite for us. My children’s reading skills and development has increased greatly just in the review period of a few short weeks. This program is something that will be added into our homeschooling for all our readers. The kids all agree it’s a lot of fun to complete lessons. It’s also great for my interactive, video-game learner who hates learning to read anything in a book.

We used this app for several weeks. I was able to create a profile for every one of my children and myself to play with this app. It was very easy to set up lessons for each of them to complete. This app was a little advanced still for my 5 year old but she is gradually growing into it. It was perfect for my struggling reader to work with and he has made a lot of improvement in a short time. My advanced reader also found the app enjoyable and used it to hone in on her personal reading skills and goals.

Phonics and Reading with McGuffey app is available in through the LiteracySoft website. There is a free trail of the first 10 lessons available and also available for trial on PC.