The World's Story 1 review

 

 

The World's Story 1



 

 

 

 

The first thing I would like to say is I am a huge fan of Masterbooks!  The books give us a solid Biblical World View to teach our children.

 

First off, let me say the pictures and illustration in this book are amazing! This is the one thing that makes this book stand out for me and my bugs (my children). They love looking at all of the pictures in this book. Young and old alike!

 

In this book, each chapter begins with a "Start Here" section. It tells us what will be discussed in the chapter we are about to read and scripture to go along with it. It lets the reader kinda get an idea of what's coming up next!

 

The book also has what is called "Narration Breaks". This gives the reader time to discuss what has been previously talked about. I think this is a fabulous thing to have. I am able to see just how much my bugs are retaining and learning from the reading we are doing. It gives us a time to talk and ask questions. I really like this part of the book.

 

There are also little sections that are labeled "Read" where it gives us scripture to read and discuss. Another nice section is called "Connect". This section gives us a detailed look into history across the ages. All of these sections, in my opinion, are wonderful. I really like having places to stop and discuss things together instead of just reading to the end and not able to take out time to discuss or stop while reading and forgetting where to start back up. Maybe thats just me but it really helps having a designated place to stop and discuss things. I really feel like it helps everyone to learn and understand things better.

 

Lastly, I would highly recommend this book!!! We are still reading this, taking our time enjoying this fabulous book! From what we have read and studied and discussed, we are loving it! This is one of many excelllent resources from Masterbooks and New Leaf Publishing Group.  We have numerous titles and so far, they are all loved.

 

Go check all of the fabulous books, you won't be disappointed!

 

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer:  I received a digital copy of this book free in exchange for my honest opinion.

Answers Bible Curriculum for Kids

Well, it's that time of the year when everyone is putting out their school supplies and all us homeschool Mom and Dad's are deciding which curriculum we want to order for this upcoming school year! It's so exciting to decide which curriculum we are gonna use in our home each and every year!

Today I want to share with you an amazing company called Masterbooks. They have the most amazing curriculum. I had the pleasure of reviewing Answers for Kids Bible Curriculum and all I can say is WOW!! It's fabulous!!!

I am using this with my 7 and 9 year olds this year for bible. It is such an engaging curriculum and very easy for my bugs to understand. The lesson plans are very easy to use and provide very detailed explanations of each lesson along with scripture, memory verses, visuals and materials to use, Lesson Truths and preparation for your lessons.

It came with a Teacher Resource CD-ROM and also a song cd.

We are not even close to finishing this, so when we are completely through with this wonderful bible curriculum, I will be back for a full review on this including lots of pictures of my bugs learning and having fun with this!!!

I encourage you to go check out Masterbooks. I highly recommend them when deciding on which curriculum you want to use in your homeschool. We love MASTERBOOKS!!!!!

Talk to you later!!!

Curriculum Review: History Revealed: True Tales Set- Volume 1-3

History Revealed: True Tales Set is a multi-cd set that teaches the truth about history from the creation point of view. It was written by Diana Waring, a "history evangelist" that has been teaching history and education since 1990.

This multi-cd set spans the time from the Genesis account of creation through the ancient cultures and even reveals recent discoveries on these amazing times. These cd's are told in a storyteller's enthusiastic manner and is very entertaining to listen to.

This set was originally developed for use with the History Revealed curriculum. We haven't used it in that way as we don't own the History revealed homeschool curriculum.

There are three volumes in this set.

Volume 1: Ancient Civilizations & The Bible contains captivating events and biographies from Creation to Christ

Volume 2: Romans, Reformers, Revolutionaries contain captivating events and biographies from Resurrection to Revolution.

Volume 3: World Empires, World Missions, World Wars contain captivating events and biographies from Napoleon to Korea.

We used these CD's for road-schooling. When we had errands to run, groceries to buy and eye appointments to go to, we would pop a cd into our cd player in our van and listen to these as long as we were riding! I really enjoyed them and really liked the fact that we could still be learning away from home.

I highly recommend this audio series!!! If this is something that interests you and would like to try it in your homeschool, CLICK HERE. 


I received this History Revealed: True Tales Set by Diana Waring from Masterbooks in exchange for my honest review.

Big Book of Earth & Sky Review.....

The Big Book of Earth & Sky is a 15 foot chart showing the inner and outer atmosphere, published by Masterbooks, a division of New Leaf Publishing Group. The book is recommended for children ages 7-12, however, I have six children that range from 18 years of age all the way down to 2 years of age and we are enjoying doing this  study all together.

The chart comes out of the book so you can unfold it to experience all the wonderful information to learn and enjoy!

This book is awesome! Each panel is so colorful and inviting. It has such detailed charts and graphs. We are learning so many things. There are all sorts of facts about oceans, mountains, weather, caves, deep-sea diving, the water cycle, just to name a few.

We highly recommend this book. There is also a Teacher Resource Guide for $5.59 that I recommend using when you are teaching out of this book. It has questions, activities and discussions on what you can do for each study. I downloaded a free preview off of their website that looks like this:

Be sure to Like Master Books Facebook page. Right now they are having a Book Clearance Sale going on. You can save up to 75%.



Disclaimer: I was given this book in exchange for my honest review of this product. No other compensation was given.

Art - Day 9

Today is all about ART! These are not recent. These were drawn by my second bug when she was 11 years old. She will be 14 this month. I had forgotten about these drawing until she showed them to me the other day. I thought this would be the perfect post for today!

 

 

 

God Bless!

The best free ABC Packs ever......

 

I have been looking for a fun ABC learning curriculum for my 5 year old. She knows most of her alphabet but still needs a little practice before I start her in Kindergarten in the fall. I have been following this site for a while but had forgotten about it. The other day, I came across it again and decided to look around a little more than before. I am glad I did. This is the best FREE ABC curriculum I have found. I am really glad I did.

This is something I will be using with my littles for a while. Just wanted to share this awesome site with you!

 

 

Go to: http://www.3dinosaurs.com/printables/abc/abcpacks.php

for these awesome downloads! Enjoy!

 

I plan on sharing our journey with you using these wonderful worksheets!

GOD BLESS!

Lots of goodies......

A few months ago, the bugs and I mailed 20 UPC labels to Sunny D in exchange for 20 books. Yes, I said 20 books! 20 labels for 20 brand new scholastic books. We were so happy to receive our little package of books. I am so happy we decided to participate in the Sunny D book spree this year. Look for it next year and save those Sunny D UPC's!

Look at all those books!

And, I will be catching up on my fun days soon!

Doesn't get any better.......

It doesn't get any better than this! Homeschooling outside on a beautiful day!

Look how much the little one enjoyed it!

Like I said,  doesn't get any better!

Review: Christmas Comes To America

HOMESCHOOL LEGACY

 

 

 

Well, the month of December is just around the corner. Everyone knows what that means: Family, Food and the Christmas holiday! Our family loves Christmas. We first want to remember what Christmas is all about, the most important thing, the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus! There is nothing like the joy of Christmas. During this time of the year, I like to make school fun. A month or so ago, I was contacted by Homeschool Legacy and given the opportunity to review their Once-A-Week Unit Study----Christmas Comes to America. I thought what a perfect opportunity to have tons of fun learning other Christmas traditions.

 

 

 

Once-A-Week Unit Studies are written for homeschool families, in my opinion, to make learning fun. Why Once-A-Week unit studies? There is no prep-time or work, easily incorporated into anyones schedule, very flexible and Biblically-centered, which is a big plus for our family. Once-A-Week means to do your unit study one day each week.

 

Christmas Comes to America focuses on the history of American Christmas traditions. This study shows one common thread among the cultures. Gift-Givers: Sinterklaas, Christkindl, Father Christmas, among others. These symbols represent the True Saint Nicholas.

 

I will give you an example of no prep-time or work. Each once-a-week study comes with a pick & choose read-alouds list for non-readers, optional books, videos and music list. There are books you read to go along with the study. Each week you are to read one of the books independently and one as a family read-aloud. There are four weeks in this study:

 

Week 1: The Dutch

Week 2: The English

Week 3: The Germans

Week 4: An American Christmas

 

Each week we learned the different names of the gift giver for each country. For example, the Germans have Christkindl (where we get Kris Kringle from) - Christ Child. There are so many activities in this unit study. From making and drinking hot cocoa and marshmallows to building a gingerbread house. We are having so much fun with this. I am looking forward to doing some of the activities we were unable to do. This is definitely  a unit study you don't want to miss!

 

This once-a-week study can be purchased at Homeschool Legacy for $17.95. Go get this study and have a fun Christmas Study for the month of December. They also offer other studies like the one our family used here while back entitled Lewis & Clark: From Sea to Shining Sea which we thoroughly enjoyed.

 



Disclaimer:  I received a free copy of the product in exchange for my honest opinion. All my opinions are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with FTC regulations.

Circle Time Review!!!

As a Schoolhouse Review Crew member, I had the opportunity to review Circle Time: Plan the Best Part of Your Homeschool Day, from Preschoolers and Peace.

This ebook I received is 33 pages and has so much insight, tips and ideas from other moms that have used it. Kendra, the author, discusses strageties for accomplishing things you want to get done during this time.

Introduction

Planning a Circle Time That Works for You

How to Get Your Kids on Board

Questions From Moms Like You

Words of Wisdom from other Moms who do Circle Time

Resources, Activities and Ideas

Printable Planner Sheets

This is a great book! Once I finished reading it, I was truly excited. It helped me with more ideas and how I could really improve our upcoming school year in a couple of weeks. We are almost ready to start our new year, so I was happy to have time to try this out. Well, I think it is something we will really enjoy and I am really excited to see how this will work for us. So far so good. I have to say I think since we started with this, it has become everyone's favorite part of the day.

One of the topics was having the older children teach and help out with certain topics. That gave me an idea. Since I will be giving birth to our sixth bug in about four weeks, I thought this would be perfect for the older two bugs. I am still trying to decide what I want them to be in charge of . I am sure with the help of this book, we can come up with something.

I really enjoyed this sweet, short read. This is a great resource for anyone with littles or just needs a little help.

This ebook sells for $4.99.

If you would like to see what other families are saying about Circle Time, head on over to the TOS Crew.

Moving Beyond the Page - Tornado and Amazing Weather - Schoolhouse Review

We received a Language Arts Study and a Science Study from Moving Beyond the Page. It is a literature-based curriculum. This curriculum works well for children that are hands-on learners. They sell complete curriculum and also individual units so you can pick and choose what studies you want to do.

We chose the Language Arts Unit Tornado and the Science Unit Amazing Weather. They can be used separately but are designed to be used together. These units are designed for ages 7-9 and include everything you need for a full study.

We received the physical book for Tornado. The set included the book, Tornado, How the Turtle Got It's Shell and the teachers guide.

The teachers guide is a spiral bound book with lesson plans and student worksheets for you children to work through as they read through the story. There are daily activities listed that you will do for that days lesson.

We received the online access for Amazing Weather. This unit includes the teacher guide (online), On The Same Day in March  
book and Weather and Climate - Geography Facts and Experiments book and a boiling point thermometer. For the student worksheets with the study, I would go online and print the pdf pages for each lesson. With the online access, you can print as much or as little of the pages as needed.

The printable online units seem like the more cost-effective way to go if you are wanting to use this curriculum with multiple students.

The physical unit for Tornado is $24.97 and there is also an online unit available.

The online unit for Amazing Weather is $29.91 and there is also a physical unit available.

Our Final Thoughts

We really enjoyed both of these units. They are really exciting. The teacher's guides are well laid out and easy to follow. All of the  bugs participated in these studies as much as they could. The were always excited to hear what would happen next in the Tornado book. I can see us using Moving Beyond the Page more often. I will be using the online version for our family for everything, that way, everyone can enjoy doing the worksheets. I highly recommendced this curriulum, especially for those who want full inclusive science, language arts or social studies.

Go see what other crew members has to say about Moving Beyond the Page.

Baker Publishing Group~~~Lily Lapp Books (Schoolhouse Review Crew)

If you and your family are looking for some wholesome, fun reading, then look no further! Life with Lily and A New Home for Lily, published through the Baker Publishing Group are just what you are looking for.

Members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew were asked to review these two wonderful books, the first two books in a series,  about a little girl growing up Old Order Amish.

We really enjoy reading Amish fiction books. Every two weeks we go to a Mennonite farm to buy raw cow's milk and raw cream. Although the Amish and Mennonite are different in ways, they also have some similarities. We have really enjoyed making friends with this Mennonite family. They are very genuine and plain people.

The first book, Life with Lily, she lives in upstate New York on an Amish farm and has many adventures along the way, including a new baby brother and starting school. There is always an adventure waiting to happen for Lily, plenty to do and people to love.

In the second book, A New Home for Lily, she moves to Pennsylvania, which means having to adjust to a new school, new friends and a new Amish community. She also meets the most annoying boy in the world, Aaron Yoder! Along this journey some things are good like exploring an attic full of adventure!

One of the authors of these books, Mary Ann Kinsinger was raised Old Order Amish. She started a blog, http://www.ajoyfulchaos.blogspot.com/, after she and her husband decided to leave the Amish church. Here she shares her journey from a happy little Amish girl to where she is today.

My oldest bug read these two books for this review and really enjoyed them. She would talk to me each and every night about what she had read that day. When I asked her how much she liked or disliked these books, she said, "Mom, I only have one word to describe them, AMAZING!"

The books are available, paperback or ebook form for only $12.99 each. They are very high quality books.

The ages are 8-12, according to the publisher but in our opinion, these would be great for all ages. These books would make a great family read-aloud. We highly recommend these two books.

There are two more books in The Adventures of Lily Lapp series coming. A Big Year for Lily and A Surprise for Lily.

Go see what other crew members had to say about these awesome books.

TOS Crew Review - Spanish for You!

We are reviewing the Fiestas curriculum from Spanish for You!

This is a really fun curriculum. We have never studied any type of foreign language so this is all new to us.

Spanish for You! is a year long, multi-level curriculum. It is recommended for children in grades 3-8 and is designed for family, self-study and classroom use. The package includes:

     ***a soft-cover guide book or ebook
     ***24-30 weeks of lesson guides (pdf)
     ***self-checking worksheets (pdf)
     ***audio files of the entire book, includes bonus audio of
           native speaker (mp3)
     ***flashcard/activity pictures (pdf)

The cost for all grade levels in a set is $64.95. If you want just certain grades, you can purchase a package just for grades 3-4 or 5-6 or 7-8 for $39.95. Teacher lesson plans are NOT included and can be purchased for $12.95.

We found that, Fiestas, the curriculum we are using, is really easy to use. I appreciated the different level of lessons. This is perfect for our many children. We enjoyed making the flashcards, we love flashcards! This is very helpful for the little ones. I feel, if they can see a picture of something that we are learning about, it make s it easier for them to comprehend and learn.

The audios are also very helpful. Hearing everything spoken in Spanish is an essential element in learning a new language. We are able to listen and say each word correctly.

If you are looking for a language program that is easy to use, fun, and offers a variety in terms of activities, then go and research this wonderful curriculum Spanish For You!

Check out what other crew members had to say about this curriculum.

Home School in the Woods - 20th Century America Schoolhouse Review

My bugs are pretty big hands-on learners. We do a lot of unit studies and have done quite a few lap books. We really enjoy this kind of learning. As part of the Schoolhouse Review Crew, we had the opportunity to review a Lap Pak from Home School in the Woods. We decided to choose The 20th Century in America.

This is an awesome product. It is a hands-on History Lap Pak. The children are learning about some of the most important moments in the 20th century. We are reviewing the download version that comes in PDF format. It has a reading text, printable projects and step-by-step directions on how to print and assemble your lap book for each project. This makes it very easy to use.

I printed the reading text, the text assignments & project directions and assembling the Lap Book and put all of these into a 3-ring binder. It made it easier on us to be able to look at these at our convenience. I am printing the projects as we go. There are 22 different activities:

1. Global Conflicts: World Wars

2. Other Conflicts: In The Americas & Global

3. Political Events: Presidents of the 20th Century

4. Social Movements: Movements that made a Mark in History

5. Modern Missionaries

6. Disasters

7. The Stock Market Crash of 1929

8. Science and Technology: Science & Invention of the 20th Century

9. Medical Advancements

10. The Space Race

11. Art: Art Movements of the Modern Era

12. Architecture: Accomplishments in Architecture

13. Literature: 20th Century Authors and Their Literature

14. Music: Music of the Century

15. Transportation: Transportation in America

16. Media: News & Media of the 20th Century

17. Sports: Sports Figures Who Made Their Mark in History

18. People of Interest Across the 20th Century: People of Interest

19. Wrapping up the Century: Diner Menu "Dining Through the Decades"

20. Fashion Through the Decades

21. Slang Terminology

22. Timeline of the 20th Century

As of right now, we have completed 8 of the 22 activities. They are Other Conflicts, Presidents of the 20th Century, Disasters, Medical Advancements, The Space Race, Sports Figures (I think this has been the favorite so far) and "Dining through the Decades." I didn't want to rush through everything just to get it completed in a short time so we are thoroughly enjoying this study and taking our time.

Today we finished up with the Diner Menu activity. It contains 8 recipe cards in this project. So........ we decided to pick one for supper tonight.Everyone chose the Philly Steak Sandwich. Sounds yummy to me!

My three oldest bugs are using this product. Here are a couple of pictures of each bugs lap book so far.



I highly recommend this product. If this is something you might be interested in go here and check it out.

The download version is $21.95 and the CD version is $22.95.

The crew also reviewed the Great Empire Activity Study and Composers Activity Pak. Head over and see what they had to say.