This Week in History-----A TOS Review

I recently was able to try THIS WEEK IN HISTORY from A Thomas Jefferson Education. It is an online resource to teach students different events in history for each day on the calendar year. It also delivers a weekly lesson straight to your email inbox. How wonderful is that!!!! For just $9.99 per month, you can log onto tjed.org and click "This Week in History" and obtain numerous resources to specific events that happened in the upcoming week in history.

Each week I receive an email from Rachel DeMille that sets up each date for the upcoming week. Very helpful if you like to be organized in your homeschool. Under each one of the dates are listed at least one, if not more, events that occurred in history on that date. Then under that, there are all kinds of links listed from websites to visit, books to read and many, many activities to do. It's amazing! There is even a This Week in History Archives. If you missed a day, you can look that day up in the archives and see what happened on that specific day.

One of our favorite days was July 24. You can go here and see this weeks events between July 19 - July 25. On the 24th, in 1847, it tells us that pioneers cross the plains to settle the west. Well, this period in history is one of our favorites. So, we decided to do a few things on this day. We completed a couple of worksheets that are available from a link on the website. One entitled Pioneer Life Vocabulary and one entitled Pioneer Life Alphabet Activity.

That same day we prepared a pioneer supper. We made Chuckwagon Beans and cornbread. We even used our grain mill to grind fresh corn for the cornbread.
Here is our chuckwagon bean recipe from backwoodshome.com.

Chuckwagon Beans

1 16-ounce bag of dry pinto beans

9 cups water

Two large onions, peeled and chopped

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano

2 cloves garlic, minced or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 tablespoon brown sugar or molasses

Wash the beans and heat them along with 6 cups water until they boil for 5 minutes, then turn the stove off.  Let them sit for an hour. Add three more cups of water and boil it all again. Now add everything else, stir it up and cook it for another hour.

This site makes learning history so much fun.

I do know one thing, we will use this source all year long in our homeschool for learning and enjoying history. I am planning to pick two events per week for us to work on in our homeschool. We might do more if we can fit it into our schedule. We LOVE THIS WEEK IN HISTORY!

If you would like to enjoy history lessons like we are, go here and subscribe.

To see other reviews, go here.

Disclaimer: I received a full subscription from tjed.org in return for my honest opinion and review.



Math Made Easy Review

As a Schoolhouse review crew member, I had the opportunity to review Multiplication Teaching and Learning Made Easy from MATH MADE EASY. It was written by Glenda Brown James for the purpose of teaching you child to master their multiplication facts in just six short weeks.  The elimination of early learning of 0's, 1's, 10's and 11's narrows the math facts down to only 36 facts to be learned. These facts are divided into 6 weeks of study, introducing six facts per week.

The book is a spiral-bound workbook that consist of three different parts: worksheets, games and flashcards. There are three lesson plans in the front of the book, a multiplication pre-test and a multiplication post-test. The weekly guide sheet lists the six facts by week.

There are five worksheets to be completed per week, one for each day. There are also multiplication reviews for each week.  Through this review, we learned that this book is reproductible for the use within the immediate family. A big plus for large families!

Also included are three games that are to be used to reinforce the facts your child/children are learning. Two of the three games recommend laminating certain parts. I don't have a laminating machine but I have a friend who suggested using clear contact paper. It worked like a charm! AND, there are perforated fact cards labeled by the week in the back. I also used the contact paper on these.

How we used the product and our thoughts:

I had my 11 year old bug use this every day, the way it is recommended and the first thing she said to me was, "Mom, this is by far the best math book ever to learn my facts with." I was soooo excited and relieved. It is definitely a new way to learn and teach multiplication....an old subject. She has been enjoying and eager to see what each day holds. The worksheets are very fun and at the same time, educational. I highly recommend this product for learning your multiplication facts.  She is learning her facts and enjoying it at the same time. JOY!

Pricing and other products:

The Homeschool Multiplication Package can be purchased for $24.95.

They also have a Homeschool Addition Package for $24.95. I will definitely purchase this for my upcoming Preschool and Kindergarten bugs.


Click here to see what other crew members had to say about Math Made Easy.

Disclaimer: I received Math Made Easy - Multiplication free, in return for my honest opinion and review.

Schoolhouse Review: Create Better Writers

I had a chance to take a look at and review several products from Create Better Writers. It was a new curriculum for our homeschool. We have never used any kind of writing curriculum in our homeschool so I was a little nervous.

These were the products we received for review:

          .......1. The Homeschool Writing Action Plan
          .......2. How To Teach the Paragraph
          .......3. How To Teach the Five Paragraph Essay

I printed each one of these ebooks and put them in a binder. We were not provided with the full writing program but I can see us purchasing it and using it in our homeschool in the near future.

Before we began "How to Teach the Paragraph", I read through the Homeschool Action Plan.

 It is broken down into three parts:

                    Part I    - Summary of the Steps
                    Part II   - Pacing Charts
                    Part III  - The Road Map 

I liked the Road Map part because it provided sample worksheets and lesson plans.

How to Teach a Paragraph is recommended for Grades 3 and up. It will teach your students, in one simple trick, how to master the paragraph. After learning that, I was amazed how quickly it was for the oldest two bugs to feel confident in their writing skills. Even though they pretty much know how to write a paragraph, we are still planning on taking our time with these lessons.

How to Teach The Five Paragraph Essay contains a step-by-step plan on teaching the five paragraph essay. It was easy to move right into this and as of right now, they are still working on this lesson.

Our goal is to complete and master a five paragraph essay before Christmas. This writing program is very easy to teach, so I feel confident that after completing this , my bugs will be able to successfully write a five paragraph essay and become successful writers. Another plus to this program is that it gives homeschool parents a single writing program that can be used with multiple grade levels simultaneously.

Prices for Create Better Writers products:

          ~~~Complete Writing Program ebook (download version) is on sale for $54.80. 

                The Soft cover is on sale for $59.00. You can view the complete program

                here.  Both versions come with How to Teach the Five Paragraph Essay ebook

                for FREE.

        ~~~The Five Paragraph Essay ebook (download version) is $17.95. The soft cover is

               $19.95. You can view these here.

         ~~~How to Teach the Paragraph comes as ebook only and is $7.99. It is free with the

               purchase of the Five Paragraph Essay book or complete writing program.

               You can view it here.

         ~~~Home School Writing Action Plan ebook is $15.95 and the soft cover is $19.95.

               You can view them here.

They also have a couple of bundles that can be purchased also.

Read what other crew members had to say here.

Disclaimer: I received How to Teach a Paragraph and How to Teach a Five-Paragraph Essay free, in exchange for my honest opinion and review.

SchoolhouseTeachers Review

I have been subscribing to The Old Schoolhouse magazine for a while now. It is the most complete resource, in my opinion, that I have seen in all my six years of homeschooling. It has moves to an online publication and there are still older editions available.

TOS magazine launched SchoolhouseTeachers.com earlier this year and it is by far one of the best resources out there for a homeschooling family. There is something for everyone. It provides monthly, weekly and daily lessons in many different subjects. I do recommend that you watch the introductory video . I was a little overwhelmed with the fabulous, information packed site at first but after spending time on there and becoming familiar with everything, I can easily access and quickly find anything I want.

OK, lets start with the Schoolhouse Teachers section. Under this tab are the following links: Career Exploration, Chemistry, College Choice Guidance, Economics, Figures in History, Filmmaking, Geography, High School Math, History, Home Economics, Lapbooking, Literature, Special Needs, Technology and Writing.
    
Each one of these lessons comes with at least one download.

The next tab is the Schoolhouse Dailies. It consists of Summer Olympics, Daily Grammer, Daily Math, Daily Writing, Ditch the Desk: Hands-on-K-5, Everyday Easels, Everyday Explorers: Canada, Everyday Explorers: USA, Pre-K Activites: Read and Play, Summer Shakespeare, This Day in History and This Month's Menu. I have to say that in this category, we used the tab, This Day in History the most. It gives you the monthly history facts for each day. It usually gives two events per day, an assignment and printables. The bugs really enjoyed this part of the site. It was their favorite. Each day they would look forward to learning what happened that day just many years ago. It made learning fun. We also used This Month's Menu a good bit. There are many different kinds of recipes to choose from. Our garden blessed us with an abundance of zucchini. So we decided to find new recipes for these fast growing veggies. We looked under This Month's Menu and found Zucchini Cobbler and Zucchini Rice Casserole .  I recommend these is you have lots of zucchini from your garden this summer. Yummy!!!

Now, on to the next tab. See how someone could get a little overwhelmed! Schoolhouse Extras, this by far is my favorite tab. It consist of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine (my favorite), TOS Back Issues, Monthly Bonus E-Books ( I am making a CD of these), Free E-book, Schoolhouse Expo and Schoolhouse Planners. I have been so excited about these planners. The 2012-2013 Schoolhouse Planner include five unbelievable PDF e-books that has nearly 800 pages.

          The Five schoolhouse planners include:

          1. Big Planner
          2. Primary Planner
          3. Intermediate Planner
          4. High School Planner
          5. Special Needs Planner

All of these planners are chock-full of pages of calendar sheets, planning sheets, notebooking sheets, field trip sheets, chore charts, Bible reading schedules (one thing I was planning for this year and now using thanks to Schoolhouse Teachers.com) and the list goes on and on and on!!! 

Personally, I am really loving the Big Planner. I have never used a planner for our homeschooling schedule. I enjoy being able to print out the pages I want and know I will use and create my very own planner(binder). Some pages I know I won't use, so, it's convenient to be able to pick and choose.

As if this isn't enough already, there is another tab with curriculum resources entitled Schoolhouse Library. It consists of Copybooks, Homeschool Life, Monthly Theme, Reading List June, Reading List July, Reading List Summer, Teacher Lesson Archives, Art Shelf, Craft Shelf, Homemaking and House Keeping Shelf, Nature Shelf and Spelling Shelf. The copybooks were something we used daily also because we are a VERY Charlotte Mason-style homeschool. We do alot of copywork for each and every subject so I assigned "A Copybook of The Road Not Taken". I have always loved this poem by Robert Frost. In high school, many years ago, my husband and I were required to memorize this poem so I thought it would be fun for the bugs to see and learn something their Mom and Dad did in school. We have really enjoyed the copybooks from this site.

If you are not sure Schoolhouse Teachers will meet you needs, you can view sample lessons here. You will soon see that this site will fill every need and more for your homeschool.

You can become a Schoolhouse Teacher's member for just $5.95 a month, and you can join now and pay only $1 for your first month. There is also an option of purchasing a full year's worth membership all at once for $64.26 ------- save up to 10% when an entire year is purchased.

My Thoughts:

For me, this site is proving to be an awesome place for someone who is looking for inspiration and encouragement for homeschooling. I feel this site will fill in some of the gaps (or so I think) in our homeschool. I am beyond pleased with the site and content and intend to continue using this to supplement our other curriculum. I feel very blessed to have found this site.

Be sure to see how other homeschooling families are using this resource.

Disclaimer: I received a membership from Schoolhouse Teachers.com in exchange for my honest opinion and review.

No-Nonsense Algebra: A Schoolhouse Review

We received a copy of No-Nonsense Algebra fromMath Essentials. My 14 year old bug is hopefully ready to tackle some algebra!

No-Nonsense Algebra begins with simple algebraic equations. It is a complete algebra course. Each lesson includes an introduction, exercises, examples and reviews. There is also online teaching for each lesson that is included free with the book purchase. In the back of the book is a website: www.nononsensealgebra.com. There is a sticker on the inside back cover of the book. You register at the website using the special code and this is how you get the free online video lessons.

The table of contents include:

          Chapter 1 - Necessary Tools for Algebra

          Chapter 2 - Solving Equations

          Chapter 3 - Graphing and Analyzing Linear Equations

          Chapter 4 - Solving and Graphing Inequalities

          Chapter 5 - Systems of Linear Equations and Inequalities

          Chapter 6 - Polynomials

          Chapter 7 - Rational Expressive (Algebraic Fractions)

          Chapter 8 - Radical Expressions and Geometry

          Chapter 9 - Quadratic Equations

          Chapter10 - Algebra Word Problems



My Thoughts:

I think this is a great product for a great price. My 14 year old bug is  and will enjoy using No-Nonsense Algebra. She likes that the lessons are short and each one of the lessons focuses on one concept with review.

In addition to the No-Nonsense Algebra program, Math Essentials gave each of us crew members an additional Master Essential Math Skills Book. I received the Geometry book. This is a supplement to be used with a full curriculum. It is a good book for more practice and review of Geometry.





No-Nonsense Algebra retails for $27.95.

The Geometry supplement retails for $11.95.


  Disclaimer:  As a member of the TOS crew, I received these two books free for my honest opinion and this reveiw.


Click here to see other crew review.

Knowledge Quest Review

We have been so very blessed to be able to review the Map Trek 6 E-Book Set. Knowledge Quest, Inc. was started in 2001 by Todd and Terri Johnson. They are a homeschooling family with six children. Their desire was to produce simple black and white maps that children could color and label while studying World and American history. They eventually moved into other history, geography and timeline-related products. In 2011, they added educational mobile apps for the iPhone and iPad to their line-up.

Each ebook includes black outline maps, teacher answer maps, glossary of terms and lesson plans for the Ancient World, Medieval World, New World, Modern World and U. S. Maps. This is also available printed or on CD-ROM.

Lesson Plans have been included and are broken down into three categories: Level A, Level B and Level C.

**********Level A - This level is for children who are in grades 1st-4th.

**********Level B - This level is for children who are in grades 5th-8th.

**********Level C - This level is for high schoolers, 9th - 12th grade.

These maps can be used with numerous history curricula. Knowledge Quest also has curriculum integration guides, free of charge, to download and use with the history curriculum of your choice. They recommend to have a globe, wall map and/or separate atlas for reference.

How to get it:

Each E-Book is $14.95, with the exception of the U.S. Edition being $19.95.

The complete CD-ROM collection is $39.95.

The Map Trek 6 E-Book Set is $47.00.

Map Trek Hardcover book & CD-ROM is $55.00.

MY THOUGHTS.......

One word, AWESOME!!!!!!! I can't say enough about this product. I think my favorite thing about Map Trek is having all these maps in e-book form. I can print as many copies as I want or not. I print what I need, when I need it. Even the little bugs enjoy coloring maps. I also LOVE having teacher maps. They are in full color and it is easy to check everyones maps. There is nothing about this product I dislike. I can see us using this product for many, many years to come!

See what other crew members had to say about Knowledge Quest!



Keyboarding for the Christian School (Schoolhouse Review Crew)

My two oldest bugs have been asking to do some kind of keyboarding program for a little while now. When we were given the opportunity to review Keyboarding for the Christian School I was very excited.

Keyboarding for the Christian School is not a game like other keyboarding programs. It is a typing curriculum for private schools and homeschools geared towards grades 6 and up. It came as a printable e-book. I printed the e-book and put it into a binder with a page protector on each sheet.

It comes as a book so the student looks at their paper and not the computer screen.


~~~~From the website~~~~

Why choose a printable e-book versus a web-based program? Think about the things you type. Are they readily available to copy from the screen or are they something that you are looking at on a piece of paper? Usually you are typing something from a rough draft. If the lessons are only available on the computer monitor, your student will not get the needed skill of transferring information from paper to the computer. A printable e-book allows you the preference of binding the whole book or just giving your student one page at a time. A printable e-book is portable and economical.

When your child or children finish this program, they will have learned touch typing through.......
          typing, drills, timings, letters, envelopes, APA and MLA Reports (the only book that features both), centering, proofreaders' marks, and creating tables with a Biblical perspective.

My thoughts:

I am not the least bit surprised that Keyboarding for the Christian School is now an award-winning e-book. In a way, it reminds me of when I took a "typing class" in high school on a TYPEWRITER!!! Long time ago!! I am very pleased with this program and my two oldest bugs are finding it fun and refreshing.

HOW TO GET IT.....

     Order from: Christian Keyboarding
     https://www.christiankeyboarding.com/

     Price:  $ 15.95

Here is a coupon code for you to use:

     20 percent off code: SUMMER2012
     Expires:  8/29/12


Don't forget to check out what the rest of the crew said about Keyboarding for the Christian School.