You Are Going To Miss Things

One of the troubles of being a mother, especially a homeschool mother, is feeling the pressure of personally covering all the bases.  It's a well-known myth that a homeschool parent has to know all the subjects with letters behind their name in order to provide a well-rounded education to their child.   It's this lie that convinces a lot of really good parents that they couldn't, nay SHOULDN'T homeschool because they would most certainly overlook something important and mess up their kids.  I feel all of that.  But then I still homeschool.  By choice. We're not forced by circumstance or specific educational needs.  I've always wanted to.  But now that I'm in the throws of almost 3 students, I have to admit: It's a lot.  I don't regret it, but I do worry that I'm going to miss something.  And then I'm reminded of a truth that new homeschoolers don't like to here.  

You are going to miss things. 

*gasp* 

Sometimes they will find what they need somewhere else. 

*gasp again*

And that's okay.  It's actually more than okay.  It embodies what homeschooling is all about.  Teaching them a love for learning so that they can learn anything at any time.

My oldest son has always enjoyed drawing and coloring since he was little.  Handwriting wasn't too big of an issue so I never payed too much attention to his pencil grip until around 1st grade.  He would complain that his hand would start hurting if he had to write very much.  I figured he was exaggerating to get out of work, which I still assure you is a thing with him.  However, at that point I started looking at his pencil grip and realized it wasn't quite right.  It was off just enough that it could be making his hand hurt, but he was not interested in making any changes.  We got those rubbery grips that you put on pencils to help re-teach your fingers and of course he hated them.  So, I chose the guilt rather than the fight.  Fast forward to today, an October morning in 4th grade when we hadn't discussed the subject in months.  He picks up his cursive handwriting book first thing and works on it over breakfast.  After a few minutes he informs me that he figured out what he was doing wrong with his grip!  "All I had to do was move this finger around there. See?"  When I asked him where that came from, he showed me a page in the handwriting that talks about it.  Well, what do ya know?  

If we teach them to love learning, they can then get whatever knowledge they might need.  Worrying about small things that you will likely miss, shouldn't hinder you from sharing this time with them.  God is a wonderful partner when it comes to their education, as long as we don't forget to utilize all He has to offer!

The Shepherd's Stone and The Lion's Roar: A Secret of the Hidden Scrolls Review

We have had the pleasure of reviewing books from The Secret of the Hidden Scrolls series two times before and each time the kids adore them!  WorthyKids Books has brought joy to our house again with the next two installments, Secret of the Hidden Scrolls: The Shepherd's Stone (Book 5) and Secret of the Hidden Scrolls: The Lion's Roar (Book 6).  If your elementary students have never read any of these books, today is the day to start!  As Christian parents, we want Bible stories to come alive to our kids, but ancient words on a page sometimes get stuck in translation.  Each book magically transports Peter and Mary to Biblical times where they race against the clock to solve secrets of the scrolls before they are stuck back in time! They kids get to spy on events like Noah's ark and the battle at Jericho, bringing a kid's eye view to some of the most fantastical events in our history.

What We Received:

We received the next two books in the series.  Both are paperback and over 100 pages and at least 12 chapters.  There are great black and white illustrations at least every 3 or 4 pages.

The Shepherd's Stone takes the kids to David as a shepherd boy and a pack of wolves, they witness the kingdom of Israel and it's enemies the Philistines.  The kids get the chance to hear about David's faith and where his strength comes from!  

In The Lion's Roar, they travel to Babylon where they meet Shadrach and hear about he and his friends' trial by fire years ago.  Then they are introduced to Daniel and the trouble he's having with the high priest.  As the children hide from the high priest with some help from a local friend, Hannah, they witness Daniel's  commitment to God and punishment to the lion's den. 

Who Is It For?

The reading levels of each book is around 2nd grade.  My 8 year old races through each book in a day because he is voracious reader, but also because he loves a good adventure book.  They are simple enough for 6 year old to read and enjoyable enough for 3rd grader to beg for.  As the author continues to add books, I'm certain my son will want to read them despite their ease simply because he's invested now.

What the Kids Thought:

It goes without saying that my 6 and 8 year old enjoy reading these books. When I asked them why, I was told it was because it had to do with the Bible.  They really seemed to connect with these familiar Bible stories presented from a different eye view.  It certainly helped that the series reminded them of certain other book series about a brother and sister that go on adventures to different times.  

What Mom Thought:

In addition to the Biblical reinforcement, the books make a point to label Satan and his forces within each story and then highlights how the children deal with that.  It's been a good exercise for my kids to wrestle with how they deal with Satan's temptations in their own life.  So much more than a fun book!

Would you like a chance to win all 7 of the books in this series? There is a giveaway going on right now! Follow this link to enter: http://bit.ly/ScrollsSweepstakes

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Wondering what other families thought? Check out everyone else's reviews at the link below!

Homeschool Hesitations

This is the first installment of the Homeschool Hesitations series.  As an active homeschooler that maintains relationships with many, many non-homeschoolers, I have found that I hesitate - a lot.  I hesitate to speak when I have a different perspective.  I hesitate to try things that seem right to me, but not exactly socially celebrated.  Even though I often know what I think and desire for my family, I still find myself hesitating.  The sad truth is that it's probably because I'm afraid of what others will think or disagree with.  Considering how opinionated I am, I'm sure that sounds foolish.  And in reality it is.  Which is why I'm creating this series.

The Difference You Bring Is Everything

The reason we hesitate is often tied to a difference.  The path is different.  The outcome is different.  The people are different.  In our culture of individuality, we don't digest difference very effectively.  Many of us have been conditioned to dodge being different because it invariably will bring negative attention.  The irony is that many of our favorite people or restaurants or organizations are our favorite BECAUSE they are different than the rest.  Why did you choose your spouse or your birthday dinner or a favorite vacation spot?  Because somewhere in all of your circumstances they were special and were/provided something most others could not.  They were different! The difference that you bring - whether it be in your personality, your educational choices or your favorite hobby on a cool afternoon - is what makes you YOU!  If that isn't important than what are we even doing in this free American society???  America isn't perfect and as a country we miss the mark a LOT, but we still have freedom of expression, worship, and pursuit of happiness.  Being different in whatever way you are is important!  

Homeschooling is Special

Like two kids barely over 18 deciding to get married - some of society thinks it is unwise to pursue the path of homeschooling.  And like many married couples gone on before us - some make a beautiful life and then some don't make a very good go of it.  But that could be said of all educational paths.  When you have the convicted desire and the blessed opportunity to pursue homeschooling, there is something very special that takes place.  Your family is witness to your difference in the face of so much sameness.  As those little souls grow and develop they instinctively know that their difference is a good and exciting thing. 

I'm no expert in anything, but I've been pursuing homeschooling in some form or fashion for almost 8 years.  I've hit road blocks and contemplated quitting.  I've also found success in teaching my big kids to read, play the piano, and love learning.  I have felt inadequate, alone, judged and very much a failure too.  I have hesitated so often and that hesitation can really hurt.  My desire is to encourage other homeschooling families to hesitate wisely instead of out of fear.  Over the next few weeks we're going to talk about areas we should and should not hesitate when it comes to homeschooling our children.

Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology: An Apologia Review

One of the most faith affirming concepts I've ever considered is the precision and complexity of the human body.  How anyone can believe that our body fell together by accident is beyond me.  Still, it is hard to find high quality curriculum that acknowledges the obvious creator our body must have had.  Last month we were given the opportunity to review Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology from Apologia that does a beautiful job of teaching all about the human body from a Biblical Worldview and highlights the amazing nature of God throughout the text.  

What We Received:

• Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology Text
• Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology Junior Notebooking Journal
• Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology Notebooking Journal
• Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology MP3 Audio CD

The textbook is a hardback book divided into 14 lessons that are full of different experiments and activities to try.  Every so often the text will break and have the student discuss what they have learned, giving another chance for the student to interact with the information.  In addition to scripture sprinkled throughout the text, lesson 14, Growth and Development, talks plainly about God's design for us in relation to Him.   The paper and layout are well done and reminds me of an improved version of a college textbook. 

The first big project we did was make an edible cell out of jello and various candies.  With each item we placed in the jello we reminded each other what it's job was in the cell.  They were giddy with excitement and it was an excellent teaching tool!  Most of the projects only require household objects or things easily obtained.  For this curriculum I did purchase a kit that contained all of the necessary items for all of the projects.  I loved this especially because they were organized and labeled by lesson so there was not hunting for things.  It has made me more consistent with completing the activities part of the program and thus definitely worth it, but not necessary at all.

The MP3 Audio CD is a full reading of the text that fills out the auditory needs of learners.  Because my students are 7 and 4, this curriculum isn't something I just assign a reading.  Some of the time we would sit down together to read and discuss the text, but other times they would listen to the CD and complete pages out of the Notebooking Journal. Not only did this reinforce things we would talk about together, but it also allowed me to be free to do other things for a while.  With a 1 year old cruising around, that is a big plus!  The one challenge with this CD is that is an MP3 and not necessarily compatible with all CD players, but we were able to get it to work on our laptop just fine.

The Notebooking Journal and the Junior Notebooking Journal contain a suggested schedule of activities and the corresponding writing activities like vocabulary lift the flap, copywork in print and cursive, coloring pages, crossword puzzles, note-taking pages, fill-in-the-blank, matching, full color printings of various projects like the mini-books  and the personal person that showcases all the systems, and more.  The Junior Journal is what my 7 year old used because the regular journal is geared more towards 3rd/4th grade and older students with more difficult crossword puzzles and review questions, though both contained all of the fun cutout activities.

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This curriculum is extremely dense with information and activities.  My 7 and 4 year old certainly gained from it, but I can see it being revisited a few years later for even more value.  Between the glimpses of God woven throughout the text, the multi-sensory approach in the program and the generosity of Apologia by including so many elements in this set, we were so very blessed by this review.

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Traditional Spelling II: A Memoria Press Review

Like most things in my life, the needs and interests of homeschooling ebb and flow.  There are periods of freedom and then some of serious structure.  When I was pregnant with the race car and very sick, school looked different for a while.  J and miss Z thrived just the same, but there was more real world education some days.  Now that the race car is 1, life has slowed and gaps have shown themselves.  Since J loves reading and has always done well in that area, we definitely went light on language arts outside of reading.  When this review of Memoria Press came along, I knew I wanted to try their new spelling series!  

Memoria Press is a regular standard in the curriculum world for Classical Christian Education materials and in my experience all of their resources are very thorough and equipped to get the job done! Their spelling series continues in that reputation and we are enjoying Traditional Spelling II.  Traditional Spelling I is intended for grade level first graders coming directly out of Kindergarten.  Traditional Spelling II is geared for 2nd and 3rd graders already on the road to mastering phonetic skills.  We went with Traditional Spelling II since my son reads so heavily and does fairly well in spelling already. 

What We Received:

The set we received included a teacher's manual, a student book, practice sheets, Phonics Flashcards and Classical Phonics, a book of phonetically arranged word lists.

How We Used It:  We started at the beginning with Lesson 1 where he is introduced to a list of words by categorizing them by a particular phonetic component, such as words that end in -ly or begins with a consonant blend. The next section requires the student to color code each part of the words to reinforce the phonetic components. Each lesson continues in the same way, with the following page being some kind of at-level reading that includes several of the lesson's words in it.  These readings include all kinds of topics from recipes and how to make butter to famous people of history.  Following that is a section of fill in the blank using list words.  The final activity is dictation that includes all words and a final sentence.  We followed this pattern and generally kept to one lesson a week.  The flash cards and the Classical Phonics book were mainly used in reference, especially when labeling or explaining new components like a consonant team, something we had never talked about like that before.  The dictation section often served as the spelling test when he would get all of the words right.

What We Liked About It: When completing all the activities, it is difficult for the student to just race through it, which is what my son would rather do.  He is very smart, but would either rather conquer it or simply move on to something else.  Even though he didn't always enjoy slowing down to complete all the sections over the same set of words, it required him to really let the details soak in, which has really payed off in other areas of school.  I also appreciated the reading section and fill in the blank section that truly gave the words a context, something that is easily left out in spelling.

What Didn't Work For Us: The flash cards and Classical Phonics book were only mildly useful so far, but that may be because of the level my son is at.  If he were younger and/or struggling more, I could see them being very useful.

The Homeschool Review Crew reviewed several other products from Memoria Press and one of the subjects they are known for is their Latin programs.  Until this review, I had never really considered using a Latin program in my children's curriculum, but I've been sold on at least trying their introductory program, Prima Latina, that teaches English grammar along side Latin.  I'll have to let you know how it goes, but be sure and read the rest of the Crew's reviews over their entire Latin program, Traditional Spelling I and Music Appreciation I.  Talk about a lot of interesting options!

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How to Homeschool: An Apologia Review

We have a surprising amount of friends (that we had prior to having kids) who are homeschooling their kids.  We also have a lot of friends who aren't.  To those who don't, the hows and whys of homeschooling are often a mystery.  In so many parents' mind there is the thought that "I could never do that." which can also mean "I don't ever want to do that."  Having done it a couple of years now, I do understand the challenge it is for some parents to even consider such a task as homeschooling.  For the parents who might want to, but feel clueless or the parents who think homeschooling is impossible for them, I recommend this video course from Apologia Educational Ministries entitled How to Homeschool with Stunning Confidence, Contagious Joy, and Amazing Focus.  I may be still be young in this homeschooling journey, but through reviewing this course I've seen how important it is to share and learn from our collective homeschooling experiences. No two homeschools will look alike and every one has some wisdom to share.

What Is It?
How to Homeschool is a video course designed to support homeschooling families (and those who would like to be) find success and fulfillment no matter how far you are into the process.  This course comes with 2 DVDs  containing 15 short sessions with Rachael Carman and Leslie Nunnery talking about their myriad of homeschooling experiences and a 70 page book that complements the video conversations, details the personal assignments and provides space for note taking.  The video sessions include topics such as goal setting, curriculum, organization, marriage, graduation, college and everything in between.
Who Is It For?
This course is perfect for someone who has never homeschooled before! It might be even more useful to families who have already begun schooling at home, but feel quite overwhelmed.  
How Much Time Does It Require?
Each video session is less than 15 minutes and each corresponding chapter in the book isn't more than a couple of pages of reading.  Most chapters have a personal assignment at the end for you to complete, sometimes with the help of your spouse.  Knowing that growing families don't have buckets of free time just lying around, the course was designed to be digested in small chunks.  Depending on your needs, it could be very reasonable to spread it out to one chapter a week or for an intensive approach, take 3-4 hours on a Saturday and complete the entire thing.  Either way would prove beneficial.  The assignments especially are something that you could revisit every year to reevaluate your purpose in homeschooling, the students' needs and circumstances in order to best serve the homeschooling unit.

One misconception about homeschooling that still gets stuck in our heads even after we know better is that it is just going to be easy and if we hit opposition of any kind, then it probably isn't for us.  One of the things this course highlights directly is the various struggles you likely will have at one point or another.  You probably WILL have family that don't understand your choice.  You probably WILL have to switch curriculum at some point because it isn't a good fit.  Homeschooling WILL affect your marriage and vice versa.  These are realities that need to be addressed eventually and this course does a good job in preparing you for the best way to walk through it.

Much like childbirth or becoming a mother, the best way to succeed is to seek out others with varying experiences to equip you with wisdom.  Despite how easy it is to believe that no one has ever experienced the difficulties you are facing in homeschooling, the truth is you are not alone or unique in your worries or hesitations.  These video sessions are just like having a cup of coffee with some experienced friends and that is something we could all use from time to time!

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Eclectic Foundations: A Language Arts Program Review

When I officially started homeschooling my oldest the biggest hurdle in my mind was teaching him to read.  Especially for boys, reading can be a major source of contention and I was nervous about how it would go.  Little did I know that not only would he do just fine, but once he learned to read the hurdles only diversified from there!  Much like the different approaches to education, there are various approaches to each subject as well and it can be hard to determine where you prefer to end up on the sliding scale.  We were given the opportunity to review Eclectic Foundations Language Arts Level B from Eclectic Foundations that is a language arts program based on the McGuffey Readers popular in the 1800's through the 1960's.   As you'll see, this program, specifically Level B, combines some very basic and straightforward approaches to engage in phonics, poetry, picture study, grammar and cursive handwriting.  It certainly does live up to it's name in being foundational yet eclectic!
Eclectic Foundations currently offers Level A, B and C with D soon to be released.  We received  Level B, which includes:

• McGuffey's First Eclectic Reader (Publisher graciously copied and bound a public domain edition for our use)
• Teacher's Guide
• Phonics Practice Sheets
• Student Workbook
• McGuffey's Word Cards

The program has 36 4-day/lesson weeks with each lesson being quite short.  Every lesson includes a  task with the McGuffey reader, grammar questions or activities with the cards, cursive handwriting practice, phonics, and a poetry reading/discussion.  Most lessons took us about 15-20 minutes at most, usually less.  Level B is intended for first or second grade, with the material being intentionally advanced in some areas.  For example, much of the grammatical concepts were not fully understood when first introduced.  By design, students are simply introduced to them and understanding is expected to increase with familiarity.  

Our experience:

While his print handwriting isn't exactly winning awards, my 6 year old has been begging to learn cursive.  When the possibility of Eclectic Foundations came on the scene that included cursive and grammar in greater detail than we had done so far, it seemed like a good fit!  

• The short lessons made it very easy to incorporate it into our school time and weren't a burden on his attention span.  
• I found the teacher's guide to be very easy to use with all the information spelled out and available in one place for every lesson (no flipping back and forth like some manuals).
• Scripture and scriptural principles are engaged throughout that helps reinforce the shaping of the heart that we as parents are striving for.  Being reminded (both child and parent) of different aspects of character building, even in the middle of a grammar lesson, is such a blessing!
• The simplicity of this program continues into it's price.  To receive a physical bound version of these items (minus the McGuffy Reader), you would pay approximately $56.  If that is a stretch for your budget, you can purchase the entire PDF version to print out how and when you'd like for $30.

My son is nearing the end of his first grade curriculum and beginning second grade sometime this summer after baby #3 arrives and settles in.  Whatever other curriculum we may begin for second grade, it is my intention to continue with Eclectic Foundations for the remainder of this program because of it's simplicity and straightforward education.  Whatever else he may do, I know we're covering some important, foundational ground that is easy to administer and something he is enjoying.  A victory for everyone!

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Like I mentioned above, there are other levels available with more to come soon.  Feel free to browse other Crew Members reviews through the link below to get a taste of what the other levels involve.