Our family has enjoyed this Crew Voyage so much that we wanted to post a list of favorites. When I began thinking of which were my favorites, I evaluated:

1. Which will we continue to use, and purchase the next levels and/or more materials from?

2. Which did we really learn from?

3. Which fits our style of homeschooling?

4. Appropriate material for grade/age levels, and can it be used with varying age levels?

5. The "WOW!!!!" factor!!!

6. The "FUN" factor!!!

7. The kids ask to do this!!!

8. Quality of products, website, and customer support

9. My fierce admiration for motivated and dedicated individuals who create outstanding programs to fill a void in their own homeschools, then graciously share their talents with the rest of us!!

10. I will tell everyone I know about this!!

Much as I tried, I couldn't choose places for my top eleven, so there's no particular order.

All About Spelling   we finished all 4 levels and are  anxiously awaiting levels 5 and 6!  My AAS review

Truthquest we will definitely be purchasing all of these as we continue our history studies! Truthquest is most definitely our history of choice. My Truthquest Review

Apologia we've been through almost all of the Elementary series, and will continue until we complete every Apologia science program that exists! Definitely our science of choice. My review

Five In A Row (Before FIAR) this has been a most AWESOME experience for Levi, and I will be continuing through all the FIAR's as he's ready. Taylor has asked if she can also do FIAR, so we will be using that next year for her as well!! Before Five in a Row review

Crictical Thinking (Building Thinking SKills and Mathematical Reasoning) we have always enjoyed and used critical thinking materials, but have enjoyed going through them again, and really love the new format of student books with key included. I am THRILLED to have found the Mathematical Reasoning series, and after reviewing the second grade level, ordered Critical Thinking's Preschool Core Bundle for Levi, which includes Mathematical Reasoning for 3 year olds, 4 year olds, then combination preschool one. He is also enjoying beginning Thinking Skills, Can You Find Me, and a few others that we received in the bundle. Critical Thinking materials just plain ROCK!! Mathematical Reasoning  and Building Thinking Skills

Artistic Pursuits this is the easiest yet most complete art program I have seen for independent study!! We will definitely work through all of these books!  Artistic Pursuits review

Bridge to Latin though seemingly "Plain Jane", this program is really easy to use after you get the hang of it with short easy lessons, and simple explainations. We already purchased the Latin Road to English Grammar to use when we are ready to move on!! Our English Grammar (with Latin bonus!) of choice!!  Bridge to Latin review

Kinderbach this is the best music program for littles that I have seen. Though quite expensive$$$, it's one I'll have to splurge on due to Levi continually asking to do more. He plays his keyboard and sings the songs he has learned almost everyday even though we haven't been able to do Kinderbach since our review account expired last January!!  I have promised him we'll get started again once we get moved into our new house and get internet figured out this summer!! KINDERBACH ROCKS!! Kinderbach review

Homeschool in the Woods Activity paks we've never been a lapbook family, but these activity paks are outstanding quality and the girls have just enjoyed them so much. We will definitely be doing more, and trying out some of the other materials from this company!! Homeschool in the Woods review

Friendly Chemistry though the quality of materials could be a lot better, the way this information is put together and presented is truly outstanding. My 12 year old has a grasp of chemistry equivilant or better than most college chemistry students. Hats off to Dr. Hajda! My Friendly review

Trigger Memory Times Tales you simply can't live without these if you have a student learning times tables. My biggest thrill of the year came from the look on my husband's face when my 8 year old whizzed through the answers when I quizzed her times tables!! Trigger Memory review

My "Honorable Mentions" include my favorite homeschool "helps".

*The Old Schoolhouse Magazine -I've subscribed to TOS magazine since my very first month I began homeschooling, and just couldn't live without it. I absolutely LOVE the digital format, and will have a truly difficult time trying to decide between digital and hardcopy when the time comes to renew. The little brown and pink totebag is the my most FAVORITE extra I received this voyage and is all but worn out already, LOL. The planner modules I reviewed are such a fun and cool addition to our extra list as well. TOS ROCKS!!

*Knowledge Quest Homeschooling ABC's - this weekly course is just genius on the part of Terri Johnson. She has put together the perfect tool to help in mentoring all those new and questioning homeschool families out there, as well as for veterans needing a little motivation and support!! I've recommended this to more than I can remember already, and will continue to in the future.  My review

*Salem Ridge Press this is wholesome and trustworthy reading material every homeschooler should have on their shelves. The homeschool graduate behind this company's mission is a true inspiration for the whole homeschool community. Salem Ridge Press review

*Media Angels I really enjoyed seeing the heart of this talented homeschool mom and daughter team. Another true inspiration to our homeschool community! Media Angels review

Kid Favorites:

Morgan's List

Friendly Chemistry

Let's Make a Webpage In review

Media Angel's Truthseeker's series (we purchased the sequels too)

Homeschool in the Woods New Testament Activity Pak

Schleich critters (we have a lot of Schleich stuff already)

Taylor's List:

Salem Ridge Press Mary Jane books (we bought the sequel)

Homeschool in the Woods New Testament Activity pak

Schleich critters

Times Tales

Building Thinking Skills

All About Spelling

Bridge to Latin

Five in a Row (though we didn't receive the regular FIAR to review, she really wants to do it after helping Levi with Before FIAR)

Kinderbach to do with Levi

LEVI's LIST:

Before Five in a Row

Kinderbach

One2 Believe Nativity set and Noah's Ark

Schleich critters

Gena's "Splish" book (I've been meaning to get over to the TOS store to buy an autographed copy for him) Splish review

 So that about wraps it up for me.

One last time- Enjoy your kids!!

Chris

   Although I'm not a classical educator, I have been interested in some aspects of the Classical Christian Education philosophy. Memoria Press has pretty much everything one needs to familiarize, understand, and choose appropriate and quality materials for a classical approach to education. There are abundant resources, articles, FAQ, a newsletter, and catalogue on the Memoria Press website , as well as a forum with endless support and insight.

  Since our family is already using Bridge to Latin and has Latin Road in hand to continue with our Latin studies, we decided to look around at some of the other products. The Traditional Logic and Rhetoric looked very interesting, and something I have studied a little of in the past. 

Traditional Logic 1

The Traditional Logic 1 course we received consisted of the student text, teacher key, and dvd set. This course is very comprehensive, although really easy to use. It explains things very well, and the concepts are well laid out. From the website: "along with a basic understanding of the Christian theory of knowledge, the text presents the four kinds of logical statements, the four ways propositions can be opposed, the three ways in which they can be equivalent, and the seven rules for the validity of syllogisms."

You can see a sample chapter, table of contents, and tour of features here.  This set can be purchased for $68.95, or seperately without the dvd's.  For classical educators out there, I really can't imagine a better or easier program than that offered by Memoria Press. For those that are not familiar with or would like to know more about classic education, Memoria Press would be the very best place to start.

Since we already own four of the Famous Men series books, we chose to review the new Famous Men of Modern Times.

Famous Men of Modern Times

   We received the set including text, student guide, and teacher guide with key. This set is normally $52.85, but is currently $39.95.

It is designed as a year-long workbook course, comprehensively covering the past 500 years. For a table of contents and sample page, click here.

From the website:  "each of the thirty workbook lessons includes famous quotes, a drill of key people and places, ten vocabulary words, 5-10 comprehension questions per lesson, and an activities section that includes map work, timelines, discussion questions, and art projects. The program also comes with plenty of supplemental exercises, including maps, a “Who Said That?” worksheet, and drawing pages. "

My girls are not really interested in history as names and dates to memorize, but we do enjoy the Famous Men series as supplemental reading with our other history studies. These workbooks are well done, but are definitely "workbook" format for those who incorporate this type of learning into their homeschools.

Memoria Press has really been a delightful end to my Crew voyage.  They have helped me understand a whole new realm of learning philosophy, and brought some intriguing and challenging material our way. I will definitely recommend them to any and all classic educators, as well as those who enjoy learning about different learning methods, and, of course, those who are just looking for a good academic challenge.

In the words of Socrates:

"Let him that would move the world, first move himself."

"To find yourself, think for yourself." 

"I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think."

So, go think with your kids!!

Well, here is where my voyage ends. While I'm a little sad, I feel very blessed to have had the priviledge to set sail on the very first TOS Homeschool Crew. As I'm putting my feet again on dry land, there are some new and excited voyagers getting ready to sail again. 

 Stay tuned  for more Crew reviews from a fresh new Crew in 2009-2010!!

BON VOYAGE!!

Chris

TOG website

The first thing that drew me into Tapestry of Grace a few years back was, of course, the name. Who wouldn't want to teach their children using a beautitul tapestry woven together with the grace and love of Jesus Christ?

 Upon visiting their website, I found the Somerville's Lampstand Press, along with an awesome mission statement: "In ancient times, a lamp or torch was hung on a lamp stand so that its light could reach farther. As we write, select, and sell the best homeschooling products we can find, we seek to make your homeschooling path brighter and easier to find."

  This is another company founded and based on a homeschool family's journey to excellence. Marcia Somerville has certainly been added to my list of hero homeschool moms, as everyone knows my fierce dedication and admiration for moms (and dads) who are ultimately dedicated to providing the very best education and training materials for the children they have been entrusted with  (even when the very best is not yet out there). Tapestry of Grace was created in this very light of determination to not give up on providing the very best education for multi-level learners in the same household, and then graciously shared with the rest of the world.

   To begin with, let's visit the three big ideas behind this multi-level, integrated, 4-year classics-based Christian curriculum.

1.) Multilevel Education

   As I navigated this new territory, I was just amazed at the visually pleasing artistry of the products and website, and the clever way in which the Tapestry theme "weaves" together the many facets of the program. And there are...well...so very many facets to this program!! Now I must interject that I began this review by referencing my "finding" of Tapestry a few years back. At that time I did download a free sample of their very first year and unit to take a look into what it was all about. I found the many facets, nooks and crannies of this program to be both fabulous, and overhwhelming at the same time. My original look was really cut short by the fact that I just did not have the time or patience to grasp Tapestry in its entirety, or really even just the parts I needed to propel me forward into this meaty program because of the complexity of it all. 

   This being said, you can imagine my excitment in finding out we were to review a unit of the new redesigned Digital Edition Tapestry of Grace!! This was my chance to dive in and really understand and grasp this intriguing program with some helpful insight from fellow crewmates; some who have already been using it, and some starting at the beginning just like me. For me, this review was among the most challenging, and definitely the most time consuming of any I've done so far.  You see, as I began my journey with my girls sitting beside me to read through which unit we might enjoy studying, I found my eyes already strained from hours of searching their website. There is an unbelievable amount of helpful information there, including a whole community of support to give advice, ideas and answer questions as my crewmates did for me!

   So what did we choose? Well, since we were just finishing up our Egypt study when the TOS Crew voyage began last fall, we decided to plug into the next chronological time period. Year 1 unit 2 seemed to be the best fit. Here it is:

Unit 2: All Governments Are Established by God

10. The Indus Valley, Hinduism, and Buddhism
11. Ancient China: Confucius and Taoism
12. Ancient Americas: Inuit, Mound Builders, and Mayas
13. Early Greeks: Cycladic, Minoan, Mycenaean, and Trojan Cultures
14. Early Greeks: Everyday Life, Religion, and Mythology
15. The Promised Land: Conquest and Settlement
16. Judges, Samuel, and Minor Neighboring Cultures
17. The Rise of Saul and the Philistines
18. David, Shepherd of Israel; the Phoenicians

   I was very intrigued by the first three lessons, because my current history plan didn't include these as individual subjects.  Here is where I hope I don't lose you completely. You see, this TOG was just mindboggling to grasp for me. Upon downloading the different components of the digital edition, (which I felt the instructions were really straight forward and I had no problems with...and now they've made it even simpler to use!) I began clicking around the different areas to see how it worked. First I read about the 4 different levels of study which coorespond to the Classical approach (lower grammar, upper grammar, dialect and rhetoric) and found I have one Upper Grammar and one dialect student. "Perfect,"  I thought! I can even test the multi-level intent of the program!

   As I began to explore the format of the program, I found that for each section of the unit I chose, there were about 50 to 60 pages that contained the working contents of the program:

*Threads-overview of what will be learned broken down by level and core subjects

*Reading Assignments-recommended and alternate book lists

*Weekly Overview- student learning objectives, vocabulary words and timeline, people, activities, geography, etc. broken down into learning levels

*Writing Assignments- broken down into levels, this is the language arts part of the program encompassing grammar and composition

*Student Activities- this is where you will want to print pages for your students to use; it begins with general information for all grades, then is broken into each level complete with daily and weekly assignments, specific activity recipes and instructions, worksheets to use while reading specific literature selections, geography assignments, Bible and church history assignments, and much more; (one of my favorite parts of TOG is the philsophy section for rhetoric students-very cool!)

*Teacher's Notes- background information and history that you will need to discuss and review what the student is learning; discussion questions, and answers to worksheets and assignments in student section are included

*Glance into next week- overview of upcoming lessons to help prepare what you will need

   So after getting familiar with the format and what there was to do, I began looking for the materials to use. Now this was where I hit a brick wall. We are currently residing in a small town where I had already discovered that the library was less than adequate, with no intralibrary loan as I had been accustomed to in larger libraries. I printed off the recommended  and alternate book lists, and began my search. As I suspected, our local library had none of the books, so I searched many of the surrounding community libraries and found none of them either. I spent much time on the internet searching out the books on many websites, including the Lampstand Press bookstore ,but found it simply was not feasable for my family to purchase these resources. Next, I headed to our tried and true Half Price Bookstore, which has saved my homeschooling venture more times than I care to say. My daughters and I split up the list I had printed of Y1U2 recommended and alternative books and searched the shelves for the titles. I came up empty for any of the exact titles, but did find about three books I felt might work.

   This is where my TOG venture started it's downward spiral. I am happy for the families who have unlimited funds to homeschool, and maybe I am a little bitter to be among the crowd who must shop the used boards to stay afloat, but for my family this curriculum is not in our budget. I have certainly done the math and agree that for a family with multiple levels who will be recycling this curriculum for the entirety of the children's education at home it could be affordable, but for my situation is not (particularly without a good library from which to  borrow the resources referred to sometimes by page number). And with the DE of this curriculum, you are not allowed to resell it, or buy it used. That cuts down on the value of the purchase price tremendously for me.

   I quickly found that the resources I had chosen, while they were pretty much the same subject material, really didn't work with the program (two of the books were even the same titles by a different author!). Through conversing with fellow crewmates and perusing the TOG community forum, I did see several mention that they made a lot of substitutions, using whatever their library had available on the subject being studied. One person even stated that they had never spent a penny on materials. So I see this can be done, but I wouldn't be the person to ask how, because it certainly didn't work for me.  I printed off the first two sections, filled in assignment charts for each child (which are really awesome resources by the way) left the books and bookmarked internet site resources I had found, and went through the weekly overview with the girls. We tried, but the whole thing just didn't fit together for us.

   I will state that starting TOG with the Digital Edition or Y1U2 is not a good idea. For my dialectic student not already familiar with this program, reading about Hinduism and Buddism was a bit confusing without first prefacing the culture and beliefs as we did with Egypt. When we studied Egypt last year,I did a lot of research and praying on how to present Egypt in all of it's darkness and death-oriented cultural beliefs before deciding on what to use, how to use it, and even whether to present it at all last year. In the same way, I feel this was not an appropriate way to present and study such controversial material.  With a printed assignment list in hand, and literature resources we had found, what my daughter gleaned from her studies was more about the Hindu and Buddism belief system than the culture, geography or people. I believe had I been more familiar with the program that I could have geared it differently, but then I wouldn't have been really using the program as presented. I am a firm believer that every program out there must be "tweeked" to fit each family, but to me the program should also be usable "as-is" , at least in the beginning stages. Now had we had the recommended books stacked beside us on the table to use, would we have had different results? Don't know. Sorry.

 I do think my experience might have been different if our family would have started TOG at the very beginning Y1U1, having been used to the layout and materials before arriving here, and I would have been able to been more hands on in teaching the unit rather than presenting the material as semi-independent material from the get-go.

   Now in addition to the base program units and books to purchase ,TOG offers quite a lot of "extras". Our Crew was able to choose one "extra" to try out with our unit. I really want the Writing Aids, since myself and my girls have been using a few different writing programs and enjoy writing quite a bit. Okay, I'll admit I'm the one who really loves writing and was hoping for a chance to go through a complete program. As several were interested in the writing aid, I did not get chosen to review it. Instead I recieved my second choice, which is called "Pop Quiz." Now this thing is really cool. It was designed so that Dad can be involved in knowing what the kids are learning. At our house, Dad is always quizzing the kids on what they did that day, but unfortunately has seemed to bring tears more than once, as Daddy really had no way of knowing exactly what they had covered and not. This is an audio CD that Dad can listen to summarizing what they are learning, and then cards with age-appropriate questions Dad can use to ask the "right" questions. Since TOG didn't really work for us, Daddy never became involved to try this out, but I can certainly see how it would add a whole new realm to our learning. I really zoned in on Pop Quiz because it stated "A great tool for mom's on the go". I will certainly agree with that. In my time-crunched situation, I do feel that Pop Quiz would be adequate for my teacher's review of the material without having to sit at the computer and go through the pages of teacher's notes. 

   The many other supplements that go along with TOG just look awesome. For those whom TOG is working, I can imagine they would be wanting to add many of these neat resources to their program. Take a look at all the cool stuff they have to go with your TOG studies! 

My bottom line:

*Too expensive for my family situation, especially since we couldn't borrow any of the book resources from our library. For me, it's just uneconomical to purchase the books, and the program itself can't be used as a sole program without other resources for my family. I have yet to find any individual program that has everything I wish to teach in one place. I am used to using multiple resources together, and have some tried and true favorites. For me, TOG has some really great stuff, but as I would still be using some other beloved history resources with it, that makes the price of TOG out of the question. For those using it as an only-resource, however, it might fit into your budget better than mine. There are families out there for whom it does work as an only-resource with no other history resources necessary.

**I was unable to use the program as written due to lack of resources it recommends, so that left me spending the time the program is suppose to save you finding alternate resources, then spending time trying to figure out how to make them fit in. To me, I was just creating my own history unit study following the TOG outline, which is quite confusing to follow until you get the hang of it.  So my advice...find out which books you can't borrow from your library, and then go ahead and order them. Don't even start the program without the resources sitting in a stack on the table. Once you're an old pro at TOG, then you might find yourself substituting resources, but I wouldn't plan on that until you really get the hang of it. I guess I will add here in this section about having access to appropriate resources that the TOG "extras" would really make the whole program run smoothly. Again, another added expense, but for those with multi-level kids who will be using this over and over, the extras would certainly be worth the extra cost.

***I wouldn't start using TOG with the Digital Edition only. For a beginner, I think it just adds confusion to an already overwhelming program. I would choose the print option so you can hold it in your hands and flip around to get a better feel for the program before trying to navigate it digitally. They do have many different options for printing the program, or you could just take your DE and have it printed yourself. But again, this adds quite a bit of cost to the program. The DE is really nice to have for printing out worksheets, schedules, and assignments for students, but again, you must have a working printer and add in the cost of the ink.

****I would start TOG at the beginning Year 1 Unit 1. They state you can start anywhere, but to me I think the beginning is best. Best part about that is...you can try it out for free. I would REALLY recommend you visit Egypt or Sail to the New World for a three week free trial before purchasing. Interested?

*****TOG will certainly give your student a good grasp of history. It also covers church history, literature, geography, fine arts, government, philosophy, and writing & composition. Tapestry does not include a phonics program, science, math, grammar, spelling, or foreign language. TOG for me would be inserted into my history slot. Unless one is to purchase and use the TOG writing aids( which I really know nothing about because I wasn't chosen to review them), I really don't feel the writing and composition included in the program is adequate for the language arts I include in my homeschool. It would really take a significant chunk of time for me to teach the writing and grammar included in this program and make sure my girls were grasping the concepts. Again, I would basically be creating my own grammar and composition program if I used this outline.

******The TIME involved is completely insane for my family!! I can see *maybe* how if the initial  investment of time to figure out and familiarize yourself with the program was progressing on into using the program that it might get less hectic, and take less time in preparations. But I never got past the hours upon hours of reading and putting it all together to run smoothly. (There is a phenomenon known at the "4-week fog" discussed over at the website.) Again, part of my problem is that I don't have hours upon hours to sit at the computer putting it all together, or reading and learning it all myself to be able to teach it to my kids. I need something that they can do independently and I can easily review with them.  Don't get me wrong here, I do sit with my kids and learn with them a lot. But being gone from the home two days a week, I have limited time to actually sit and go through every little detail of what they are learning with them. One of my goals in homeschooling my children is to give them the skills to be independent learners. To know what to look up and where to look it up; to hunger for knowledge and be so inclined to feed themselves. My job is to help them figure out how to do so, and making sure they are getting adequate "nutrition". I enjoy learning right along beside them, but not learning it all myself then teaching it to them. That's one of the public school methods were are trying to avoid here. As I study and read the TOG program, it looks like it certainly could work for independent study, but again, one would have to have the recommended resources available to begin with. The many pages of teacher's notes just made me feel I must be familiar with all the facts and material myself, and that really just isn't happening at my house. The way I know my kids are learning? They teach what they learned back to me.  

   Well, there's lots more to talk about with TOG, but at this point I feel I've covered the basics. I'm certainly not discouraging anyone from trying out and using this fabulous program. I will admit my many hours spent coming back again and again were because I soooo wanted it to work. I like Tapestry, its ideas, its philosophy, and certainly the story behind why it exists. I just couldn't fit our round peg into its square hole. That doesn't mean it won't work for you, though. If you have a multi-level household, enjoy history, have some extra time to devote to the education of your kids, and a fairly adequate budget to devote to your children's education, then this might just be the program for you. Best case senario? Book yourself into a hotel for a weekend (yep, you'll need a good 2-3 days of reading to even get started!!), take your laptop, and log on to Tapestry of Grace dot com. Even if you decide it's not for you, I guarantee you'll come away with some great encouragement and ideas.

Now, I guess I'd better go find my kids, it's aweful quiet out there after spending all these hours at the computer....

Chris

Our family has loved using Apologia Science for several years. I happened upon Jeannie Fulbright's Young Explorer series while searching for astronomy at Morgan's request the very first year we began homeschooling. We spent a year thoroughly enjoying Exploring Creation with Astronomy, and naturally moved on into Zoology 1, Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day the next year. We actually spent closer to three semesters on Zoology 1, because we explored many of the subjects and chapters in more depth. We started with the introduction, and then skipped to do the insects before the birds due to the season and area we were living at the time. I love the way these texts are layed out to be able to do them in any order you wish to fit your particular situation.

Zoology 1 was really my first taste of complete success with homeschooling for Taylor (She was 6 when we started Zoo 1) . You see, she was a complete Bug-a-Phobe before we began, squealing and screaming, even bursting into tears, at the mere sight of a big fat tomatoe worm, or really anything of the creepy-crawly sort. She was reluctant to participate at first, but remembering  the great experiments, notebooking assignments, and beautiful illustrations we did the year before in the Astronomy book, she agreed to try it out. She soon found out that the creepy-crawlies she had been so scared of were really just God's creatures too, and He created each and every one to be unique and awesome in it's own way. We did so many "extras" when we used this study, that will be lifelong memories. We attended a show called "BUGS" at the local planetarium played on the large 3-d screen on the ceiling that went along with the praying mantus and beetles we were studying. So many extras like this really provided an awesome learning experience. When we got to the bird section,  then the bat section, we did many hands-on projects as well.

I love the notebooking approach with science, because they love having the notebooks they made to look back at and show friends and relatives. We finished up Zoology 2:Swimming Creatures this year with much enthusiasm, as Taylor has always been interested in marine science, and still says she wants to be a Marine Biologist or Vet. She continually uses the book to look back on for reference, so I'm not sure we can say we really "finished" it, LOL.

 We will be beginning Zoology 3: Land Animals of the 6th Day after we are finished up with our TOS Crew projects. Can't wait, it looks awesome!

Two years ago I bought an Apologia General Science set when Morgan was wanting "more" from science. She began, but the textbook approach was not quite what she needed at her age (she was 9 or 10 at the time.) So, we decided to put it aside and just enjoy the Elementary Apologia books until a later time. We were really excited when we received the newest edition of General Science to review! She really enjoyed starting in it again, but this time it seemed to really work for her. She enjoyed going through the history of science, learning a little about ancient times, and many early scientists and their theories. Module 2 covered Scientific Inquiry, which she already had a pretty good handle on, though this presented a few new ideas for her. She is currently working in Module 4 which is all about physics: simple machines, levers, wedges, etc. I didn't know if she would be so interested in this, but she really loves the way this book presents and explains concepts. The quality of illustrations and text is awesome.

You can purchase a multi-media companion cd to compliment the Apologia studies, and we do have the General Science one and love it.

Apologia is definitely our choice for science, and I have recommended it to everyone I know in the homeschool community! I have collected many of the upper level courses already in anticipation of using them later, and have looked through them myself.

You can purchase a General Science set for $85.00 on Apologia's website along with some extras for the study. You can also see sample modules, lab equipment and table of contents there.

You can purchase the Zoology 1, Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day for $35.00 on the Apologia website along with the other elementary series.

Included in the Elementary books are "book extras" on the website where you can access numerous resources including websites, articles, pictures, etc for each chapter you are studying.

Jeannie Fulbright, author of the Elementary Apologia series, also has an awesome website full of information  here, as well as a great yahoo group which discusses using the books.

I can't imagine science without Apologia.

Go learn some science with your kids!!

Chris

More than just memorizing facts, it's REAL HIStory!!

Do you know the two most important questions in life?

Who is God?

Who, then, is mankind?

Michelle Miller has used these Big 2 Beliefs as the basis to develop a phenominal history program.

She says, "It's fine to learn a lot of facts, but it's much better to dig for the really influential factors-what did (this particular group of people) believe about the two most important questions in life?"

With Truthquest history, you will be focusing on what each culture believed about God (or their own gods) and how those beliefs determined the value placed on mankind, because it's those Big 2 Beliefs that forge the foundation -whether weak or strong- for any civilization.

I might as well go ahead and say that history was on the bottom of my list of favorite subjects. I just never saw the point of memorizing dates and times and names. Unfortunately, that's the way history was presented to me, and until I happened upon Michelle's rich and intriguing website 5 years ago when we started homeschooling, I never understood why anyone would want to waste their time studying history. Once Michelle helped me realize that not only was my idea of history wrong, but my defintion was wrong as well, I felt as if my blind eyes had been opened for the first time and I was seeing a bright and beautiful world standing before me! Not only was I overwhelmed to make this discovery for myself, but I was truly overjoyed that my children would be spared the boring (dead) details and learning HIStory in a "real" way that they can be excited about.

So how does Truthquest work? Well, in each chronological guide, Michelle introduces a topic with a lively and rich commentary which will give insight and context to further literature study from books that you choose. She includes an enormous reading list to give you a seemingly never-ending list of rich resources to choose from. She specifically states that you are not to read every book on the list, but the list is so extensive to try and give you enough resources that you might not be discouraged because you can't find a certain book. I know for me one of the most frustrating things about other programs I have tried is the inability to find the materials recommended or referred to. A HUGE plus of Truthquest is that you WILL be able to find resources to use.

So are there questions or tests included so you can determine what your child is learning? Well, Michelle says you won't need any tests to show that your kids are learning: they'll be living what they learn, playing what they learn, talking what they learn, and praying what they learn! When I read this, I almost got tears in my eyes. That is the very criteria that I use to choose learning material for my kids! I have commented on this very thing time and time again with my kids from the very beginning of their little lives.

This being said, included with the commentary and reading selections are "Thinkwrite" exercises. These are strategically placed throughout the manual to help students apply the Big 2 Beliefs to their reading. As they are reading through their chosen literature, they will be answering these questions for the specific people they are studying. Michelle includes her very insightful and knowledgable responses to these exercises to assist in guiding meaningful discussions and explorations.

We were blessed with the Ancient Egypt & Ancient Greece manual.

When we began our TOS Crew voyage last fall, we were about 3/4 through with our study of Egypt using Greenleaf's Guide to Ancient Egypt. I felt as if I were walking on eggshells trying to present this culture with it's dark and death-obsessed beliefs, while showing their extreme resourcefullness and  ingenuity in a positive light. My girls were really enjoying Egypt, as you can see here.  So when the opportunity to "wrap it up" and move on presented itself, I was thrilled. I understood Truthquest already from using the first manual with my girls 5 years ago. At that time, however, our situation was calling for a bit different learning style, as we were just beginning our homeschool journey. I had planned to begin using Truthquest again in the later years, and this was just perfect timing!  (Funny how God orchestrates history, isn't it?)

When our manual arrived in the mail, I refreshed myself by reading through the pages of personal introduction and explaination at the beginning of the manual. My girls were excited to do the same.

As I moved on into Part 1, Ancient Egypt, I found a validating and encourging "note of caution" on studying this culture. Michelle described just what I had been feeling as I was "dancing on eggshells" presenting this material. After a lively discussion of this with my girls, we put a perfect polish on our study and understanding of Ancient Egypt. We began reviewing Ancient Egypt's culture in Part 1, finding several of the books we had already read included, and reviewing those together, then discussing the thinkwrite exercises. In Part 2, we tied together the history in discussions of specific periods, and pharoahs. Part 3 was instrumental in tying together our study, however. We went through Hebrews in Ancient Egypt, discussing Joseph and Moses. We had listened and really enjoyed Cat of Bubastes by G.A. Henty audiobook before, and it really brought about some great imagination and rich discussions about this culture and the Hebrews, among other things.

So we have just finished polishing off our Egypt study, and Truthquest has been instrumental in providing my girls with "learning civilization as God's truth, and realizing the only source of freedom is God's laws, and the only source of human worth is God's love for us." Sound like something you'd like your children to experience? Here it is!

So, onto Ancient Greece. So far, we've been through an introduction to the culture by watching Dave Stott's Drive Through History, which we had and Morgan has already been through. It's a really fun resource for overviewing and touring the culture.

Several of the resources I already had collected, including the Famous Men and Greenleaf guide are recommended resources, so we are all ready to go!! We will probably start with a salt map, since we found this really cements where we are going in place. Stay tuned for updates and pictures!!

We will continue through our Truthquest History until we complete all 7 of the main Truthquest series. These include:

Ancient Egpyt/Ancient Greece

Ancient Rome

Middle Ages

Renaissance, Reformation, Exploration

Age of Revolution l

Age of Revolution ll

Age of Revolution lll

For a timeline of era and to select study, check out this resource.

There are also three levels of American History written for younger students.

These manuals are all adaptable and include literature selections for all ages. That's one thing that makes them so useful and appealing to homeschool study! There are many resources included for cooking, crafts, art, activities and many other things to richly bless your HIStory studies.

At $24.95 per manual, these are truly a homeschooler's dream.

Go learn some REAL HIStory with your kids!

Chris

Best action figures and critters on the planet!!

My family has loved Schleich for a few years now. We have many of these figures, and I must say about half of the kids' Christmas gifts this year came from Schleich, LOL.

They really enjoy the knight collection, castle, and both girls received a fairy treehouse from Grandma and Grandpa this year.

Look how cute:

 We have barns and stalls and unicorns and critters of all sorts from them too.

The kids were in total disbelief when I said "WOW! Guess who has come onboard for review?"

So what do we like so much about these figures? Well, the attention to detail is really incredible. Most of these animals and figures are fairly anatomically correct, size and shapewise. They are super-durable and the colors are really true.

My two horse-crazy girls have collected quite a bunch of all brands of horse figures (and all kinds of other critters) great and small. These figures enjoy a rich and full imaginary world, where many end up in the veterinary hospital for broken legs or other body parts. While casting broken body parts of my toys when I was a kid is among some of my fondest memories, it can be heartbreaking too for a kid to have a whole collection of broken pieces.

I am happy to report, however, that our veterinary hospital has never treated a broken leg on a Schleich animal of any species!!

We love our Schleichs. I'm also happy to have found such nice quality toys that I am proud to give as gifts. When the girls bring out their "brand X" figures to play with, it's really nice to have the Scheichs for the three year old to join in with so the girls don't have to worry about him breaking their toys.

For review purposes, our Schleich farm and zoo happily welcomed:

Swabian-Hall pig                                and piglet

Two humped camel

Male Indian elephant

Lion cub playing

Percheron foal

I'm so happy to report these guys are all getting along nicely here at the Gunn/Schleich farm and zoo sanctuary.

Taylor says the Schleich cowboy is really enjoying trying to ride the camel, and the knights are enjoying their new "war-elephant". The pigs seem to have adopted the fairy treehouse as home, and the lion cub has been adopted by the jaguar. The foal, of course, is right at home on the ranch.

We just bought some of the new stuff including the cutest chickens and chicks at Tractor Supply last week. There are lots of places online to buy Schleich, and Target also is a favorite place to get our Schleichs, but when we visit TSC to get feed or other ranch supplies, we often throw in a couple of new Schleichs.

Look at all the cool new stuff here!

Thank you to Schleich for making such great playfigures!

WE LOVE YOU

Ten thumbs up from Gunn Ranch Academy!!!

GO PLAY WITH YOUR KIDS!!

Chris

I think everyone knows by now how very much we LOVE the Critical Thinking Company at our house.

I was ever-so-thrilled to be chosen to review yet another of their products. With all of their products that we have used and love, we have never had the chance to see or use Mathematical Reasoning. We received Level C, which is labeled for Grade 2.

Taylor is a bit above this level, but really seemed to enjoy looking through the book for review. She said "this doesn't really seem like math, are you sure this is really a math book?" She particularly enjoyed the way it incorporated "boring old problems" into fun exercises, like completing a dot to dot picture by finding the answers to addition problems. Morgan mentioned that she sure wished she had been able to work in this book when she was doing second grade work!

This book can be used for a core curriculum, or as a supplement, as it is written to the standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

 Taylor and I both immediately commented on how colorful and "fun" the pages looked. Most of our math so far has been boring old black and white problems with no illustrations, so this book is really a treat for the visual learner.

The book covers a wide variety of the typical subjects one would expect a second grade math program to cover. You can see the list here. It follows the same critical thinking style of focusing more on "how" to solve the problem than just getting the answer. This book helps children devise strategies to solve a wide variety of math problems.

You can see samples of the activities here.

I was so impressed by this series and have really been trying very hard to find some appropriate learning materials for Levi, that I ordered  Mathematical Reasoning Beginning 1 for age 3, and Beginning 2 for age 4. I also received the Beginning Mathematical Reasoning book which is for ages 3 and 4 in the preschool  book bundle(which includes 9 of their awesome preschool age books)I decided to purchase to use with Levi.

Now these preschool Mathematical Reasoning books are truly some of the greatest preschool material I've ever laid my eyes on. Levi was soooo excited to have his own schoolbooks; I was thrilled beyond words when he was pointing out the colors and shapes and having so much fun answering the questions correctly. To tell you the truth, I wasn't really sure what he would and wouldn't know as far as answering questions, and I was truly surprised and proud at his understanding of putting together the colors, shapes, and numbers, and especially his listening skills for finding the correct combinations asked for.

I just can't tell you how much we love these Mathematical Reasoning books. I'm so especially grateful to have found these preschool ones, as they are just exactly what I needed for my little guy.

I have never been disappointed with anything I've received from the Critical Thinking Company! 

The Level C Mathematical Reasoning book can be purchased on the Critical Thinking website for $32.99, and the Pre-K ones for $29.99.

If you don't already have many of their resources, and are looking for a really great combination of things for a certain grade level, I highly recommend checking out the book bundles ; especially if you are looking for some really cool stuff for your preschooler to do!

We don't have much of their software, so I think that might just be our next big Critical Thinking adventure!

Go think with your kids!

Chris

I previously reviewed Alphabet Alley's Two by Two Matching game and Go Fish card game here.

We were also sent a really cute magnet set to review which is currently undergoing some changes along with the rest of the line of magnetic sets for release in the future. My little one enjoys playing with these type of toys, and they are really a great way to keep toddlers occupied during schooltime with the older ones.

Alphabet Alley has some wonderful Christian themed toys that are such nice quality, durable, and really cute. They will be releasing more toys in the future, so bookmark their website and keep checking back for new releases!

Get great toys here!

Go play with your kids!

Chris

Spanish- Homeschool Edition

I've been looking around at foreign language programs for a couple of years now, trying to decide which method and program would fit our family. This year we decided to give an elementary Spanish program a try that fits into our basic curriculum. Morgan has really enjoyed learning some basics, but it truly is just a "dabble" into the language and really doesn't teach much in the way of reading, writing or grammar.  When I learned of the opportunity to review this comprehensive language program, I was really excited, as was Morgan!

 This program arrived in a bright colorful box which reads "Spanish, Homeschool Edition", 5 Levels determined according to test results (it includes up to ten levels; you can start where you test in at).

Inside, we found:

Homeschool in the Woods

I first learned of Homeschool in the Woods at the very beginning of our homeschool journey, by searching for history and timeline products. Boy does Amy Pak offer some FABULOUS timeline products and history studies including some great unit studies! Her website is unbelievably complete with pictures and descriptions to help motivate homeschoolers new and old alike. She even offers some wonderful unit studies for free! Just a caution: you need a pretty good chunk of time reserved to check it out, as  you'll not want to leave her corner of the world once you visit!

For review, we received one of her "Hands-on-History Activity Paks". I've tried using lapbooks in the past with my girls, but we've not ever really been too thrilled with any we've tried. I must say, though, I was really happy to receive the NewTestament activity pak, because I have been wanting to cover some of this with our current history time period. Great timing! What a blessing!

When I first opened this to look at it, it was apparent it was more than just a lapbook. I have been really impressed with the artistry and nice quality of what I've seen on Amy's website, and this is no exception. The quality and detail of the pictures and projects is just superb. The girls were overjoyed to begin after viewing the download, so I put in a new ink cartridge and began printing the pages out. They worked diligently on each step of the lapbook until their hands were fatigued! They did such a great job on cutting and coloring in the individual components of the project.

They really particularly enjoyed helping Levi make the Armor of God poster, cutting out each piece and helping him glue them on his poster. We haven't completed the New Testament News yet, but this is right along the lines of many things the girls have created in the past- maps, scrolls, etc.  Rolling the scroll up on the sticks really brings it to life.

This has truly been a wonderful and one of our most FAVORITE projects of the year! The girls have really loved this project, and asked if there were more of these? Well, funny you should ask. I actually received Amy's "Artists" activity pak as a gift with something I purchased a couple of years back, and thought it looked like a neat project, but just have never had the chance to try it out. Wow, lucky me! LOL

We will  definitely be purchasing the Old Testament Activity Pak for use next school year. It will be a great project to complete as the first project in our new home! Something to definitely look forward to.

I can't recommend these activity paks enough to everyone out there. They are so detailed and just the absolute neatest way to study Bible history that I have run across. They would be really make neat projects to complete with a co-op, Sunday School class, or any group as well as individuals. They are geared for grades 3-8.

Thank you for using your wonderful artistic talents in such a creative way Amy! These are really beautiful and amazing keepsakes!

Go create something beautiful with your kids!

Chris

One2Believe

WOW!  I'm back with another GREAT product from One2Believe. Remember them? Last October I reviewed their Nativity set which has continued to be played with at our house. Read it here if you missed it! But alas , this Noah's Ark has been added to our list of favorite toys!!

These characters have a nice thick quality, and are really cute. I really like that they are chunky enough to be played with by my little guy who can be tough on toys. The Ark is big enough to be of great use and actually holds the 14 animals plus a few more we added to the collection. The wise men from the nativity have really enjoyed their voyage on the ark with Noah too, I believe, LOL.

I am still just amazed at the commitment of this company to provide Biblical based toys for the enrichment of our children's play. They have so many awesome and educational toys to offer, and I just can't get over their commitment in the "Battle for the Toybox". Check it out!

You can find Noah's Ark for $29.99 along with a lot of other really awesome toys and resources over at their website.

Don't ever miss a chance to go play with your kids!

Chris

 Spelling help!

If spelling is on your kid's schedule of things to do, you should check out this cool software program that is designed to help children practice their spelling words. Once you download the program onto your computer, it's really easy to get started right away. All you need is a microphone that hooks up to your computer, and a spelling list.

Once you click on "Create a spelling list", you record the words along with definitions, sentences, or clues (funny clues are great motivation here), and then your student is all ready to go. Yes, it's just that easy.

Once the student clicks on "Quiz me on a list", she is quizzed on the words one at a time, with immediate feedback (you can choose from different responses). If a word is spelled incorrectly, it will be added to the end of the list to be re-quizzed. The number of correctly spelled words is revealed once the list has been completed.

We have never used spelling lists at our house, so this was a challenge to "fit in". I've tried to add spelling to our schedule, but everything I tried was little more than a time waster, until I finally realized I had "natural spellers." The girls both began reading at 3.5 years of age, and I suppose that their natural decoding abilities have always helped them at spelling. When I catch a word spelled incorrectly, I just point it out and they visually practice it the correct way. This usually corrects spelling errors for us.

Since I have no spelling lists at my house, I wasn't sure what to use to try out this program. I thought about vocabulary words, but those, again, are a bit of a time waster for us. We very rarely run across vocabulary words that really need rote practice, although I think the idea in theory is a great one for some families.

Then I found that Dan Hite, creator of this cool spelling software, has lists of downloadable spelling words over at the website! He has even created some seasonal lists for Valentine's day, St. Pat's day and Easter to add some fun to it. You can import these lists right into your program!

This program can be purchased for $29.95 for a single license, or less per license for multiples. You can get a cd backup for an additional charge as well.

You can also see some screen shots, video demonstrations, and download a free trial if you go check it out!

Go spell with your kids!

Chris

Click here for great art instruction!

How many favorites can one have? Well, not sure if I've hit the limit yet, but add this one to it. This is a GREAT art program.

With Morgan having completed a couple of art studies already, but Taylor not having really been through a "start to finish" art study yet, we decided to review Grades 4-6 Book 1 The Elements of Art and Composition. Here, the elements of art and composition are explored through American art.

My challenge this year has been finding independent curriculum that I can "assign" the girls to do two days a week on their own,that they can truly learn from. This study completely fits that need. I really enjoy sitting down to go over what they've learned and done, and listening to them excitedly explain it to me !!

I purchased ebony pencils and a sketchbook for each of them, and they have really enjoyed the progression of the lessons so far. The layout of this manual is so very easy to follow with colorful pictures and fabulous examples to follow. Look at the sample pages from unit 2 here!

I LOVE the art appreciation pages showing how master artists have used the concepts being discussed in real art. There are even arrows pointing out the topics of study on real pieces of artwork!!

I also love the way the art history pages tie  biographies of artists with the time period. These are far from boring historical accounts of time and dates. I love how the girls have learned about what Americans were thinking, doing and discovering during the artist's lifetime.  This is really a neat way to present this material so the students are able to grasp the ideas and visualize the material for optimal learning. My girls are more "example" type learners than just memorizing boring dates and times. Here, they see more of a story unfolding which helps them internalize that these were "real" people living in "real" times. Very cool.

We will be ordering this whole program for use, including the K-3 books to use with Levi. This is a truly outstanding art program which is EXACTLY what our family needs to learn. Along with the previous Crew review art program we received, the kids will have a rich and full art education.

Besides detailed explanations of the books including sample pages, there are some great articles available to read, frequently asked questions, lists of art supplies required, and an extensive section on philosophy and "How we teach art" on the website.

You can meet the Ellis family here to read about the wonderful homeschooling family behind this awesome curriculum. THANK YOU Brenda, for creating this truly remarkable program!

These are also available for purchase over at the  TOS STOREwith free shipping, with exception of the Preschool book.

Enjoy your kids!

Chris

Math Mammoth

I hate to say I was less than thrilled to think about reviewing another math program. We love our MathUSee, and when I first looked at Math Mammoth I thought, "Oh boy, not another workbook." I tried to keep an open mind, thinking, "but what if it's not just another workbook?"

Let me digress for a moment. Math has been about our toughest subject to find something that "works." Morgan has been ok with most of the programs we have tried, but always less than thrilled with math in general. Taylor disliked everything we tried until we found MathUSee, and hasn't really cared for anything else that we have viewed for review purposes. (We haven't looked at any other math programs since we found a perfect fit with MathUSee.)

That being said, we looked through the many different options that Math Mammoth offers, and Morgan decided to try Decimals 1 and 2 books,  from the Blue Series.

I talked Taylor into giving the Grade 3 books from the Light Blue Series a try, and she reluctantly agreed.

Both the Blue and Light Blue series contain problems with explanations, while the Golden and Green series have problems only. The Blue series is for grades 1-5 and  the Light Blue series is for grades 1-4, while the Golden and Green series include grades 3-8.

Once we received our downloads, I printed off several worksheets to begin with. One reason I chose the series with explanations was to try this out as independent study. When I began to view the worksheets, I was pleasantly surprised that indeed, these did NOT look like "just another workbook."  I really love the way she puts several different patterns together to show the child the relationship between patterns of numbers, not just printing a whole page of random numbers to add or subtract. I thought Taylor would just roll her eyes and say "oh no, not more addition problems..." but she too realized that this was more than just pages of practice problems. She really liked it! Wow!

Maria Miller from Math Mammoth says that the Light Blue series:

I have heard before about Five in a Row from friends and relatives who have used it, but just never had the opportunity to really look at it or use it.

With Levi just turning three years old, I really wanted to try this out with him. I really don't have anything that "fits" for him right now. Well, let me just say this fits like a glove!! I was truly blown away from the very first few pages. I have since become a HUGE Five In a Row fan, even joining the message boards over at the website. I have been overwhelmed at the support that is out there for this awesome program due to the extreme popularity. I purchased a couple of the "Fold-n-Learns" (check them out!)to go with a couple of the books. One we have done and the other will be for later. I went ahead and purchased the  Before Five in a Row Planner as well because, well this stuff is just too cool! (Can you tell I'm head over heals here?)

So, about the actual program...Before Five in a Row has 24 "mini-units" focusing on 24 popular children books for preschool aged children. The author states this is not a "curriculum", and not meant to be "schoolwork." This is a gentle and neat way to get littles excited about learning!! I will admit that at first I started to think, well, we read books and pretty much talk about all this stuff anyway. But as I continued, I began to see the very rich and thoughtful progression and organization of these lessons.

When I searched our poor little local library expecting not to find too many of the books, I was pleasantly surprised that 12 of the 24 were available at our library! I then began searching a few booksellers online and purchased several more. We are only missing about three at this time, which are out of print and have been discussed quite a lot on the FIAR boards. I've really gleaned some wonderful information from those boards that have made this journey even more fun!

We started out with Jesse Bear What Will You Wear, and Levi didn't really like it much at first, but as we talked about a few of the ideas, he began to become more interested.  Our next book I purchased online, and found out I was lucky to have found this out-of-print book for a minimal price. I'm so glad I did, though, because it was one of our favorites so far. As a matter of fact, our experience with this has really convinced me we will be using FIAR for years to come with Levi! This story is called Yellow Ball, and has very few words, but very artistic and creative photos. It is about a ball some children are playing with on a beach that floats away as the children are sidetracked with other beach activities. The ball goes through a storm out at sea, ends up back on a beach, and is found by a mom and little boy who picks it up and hugs it, then takes it home and snuggles with it at bedtime. I tell this story because we looked and looked for a yellow ball, and after finally finding one, took a trip to the beach to let Levi "find" it on the beach. (Nice to live so close to the beach!! )

So, it was a windy day, and just as Levi spotted the ball, the wind caught it and blew it into the water and it floated out too far to reach before we could get it!! We watched the ball float away, just like in the book, instead of picking it up and hugging it and taking it home as we thought he would! So we talked about where we thought it would end up... over across the bay at Port Aransas? Florida? China? We talked about the blessing some other little boy might receive when he finds it on distant shores. We even prayed for it that it would survive any terrible storms it might encounter.  

Well, I looked and looked for another yellow ball, but all I could find was one very small little yellow squishy ball. So, we decided to go ahead and let him find that one so he would have one to keep. He was, indeed, very excited about getting to keep his very own yellow ball the day we went back to the beach. I asked him if he thought it was the same ball, but just shrunk. He said, "no, Mom, I know you just bought this one at Wal Mart for me. That's ok, I like it anyway!" Kids are too smart.

We made art projects from this story, talked about Jesus calming the waters, and so much more. This was just so much fun, and, as intended, will be a memory that lasts a lifetime for Levi, as well as his sisters! We are currently working through Blueberries for Sal (which I don't think Levi will ever want to move on from, he LOVES it, LOL), and then onto The Little Rabbit surrounding Easter.

Stay tuned for updates, and pictures to come!

The second half of Before Five in Row is packed full of learning readiness activities in everyday life...the kitchen, at the store, at bedtime, bathtime, etc.

My 8 year old loves this program, and I have told her I will go ahead and order the regular Five In a Row for her to use as well. They do have "Beyond Five in a Row" for 8-12 year olds, but I think she will really enjoy FIAR in addition to her regular studies. Can't wait to see where this takes us!!

I'm so thrilled to have been introduced to Five In a Row. I officially join the ranks of FIAR fans everywhere, and I finally see what "all the fuss is about!"

You can read all about the Lamberts here, but be prepared to spend quite some time over at Five In a Row; you'll be so glad you found them! Thanks, Lamberts, for your incredible dedication to nurturing and teaching our precious children!! You are really special folks; may you be as richly blessed as your curriculum blesses others!

You can check out all they have to order both in print and in digital!

Go make some memories with your kids!

Chris

Where the Brook and River Meet

Cadron Creek's Where the Brook and River Meet by Margie Gray is truly OUTSTANDING.   Gosh, I don't even know where to begin!!

I guess Thank You for allowing us to enter this fabulous world would be an appropriate beginning!

This very thorough and thought-provoking study is designed to take High School students through the world of Anne of Green Gables, as well as the Victorian era. When I first opened this book, I was truly amazed at the detail and organization of the layout of this curriculum! Our family has enjoyed unit studies before, but never like this.  This study covers literature, history, writing, grammar, fine arts, social studies, Bible, religion, occupational education, and health. Margie has listed in her very detailed and organized lesson plans and subject outlines how each aspect fits into the student's learning profile. 

  Margie offers several different options on her website for purchasing the required and recommeded components to this study. I would personally suggest that you go ahead and order   Anne's Daily Pack so that you have the essential elements of the study and can get started right away. We received for our review Where the Brook and River Meet manual as well as Anne's Anthology. After spending some time figuring out what I needed for review purposes, I searched for and finally purchased the edition of Anne of Green Gables recommended that cooresponds with the the page numbers referred to in the manual.  In continuing this study, however, I plan to purchase the Annotated Anne of Green Gables which is referred to as well. We didn't have any trouble using the regular book, however.

Once we started with the study, I found it very necessary to have the Writer's Inc book as well. While this study can certainly be adapted in any number of ways to include more or less of her activities and lessons, I began to see right off what a loss it would be not to use it all. This is such a very rich and well laid out manual, if you begin with only a few of the suggested materials, I almost guarantee you will end up with most if not all of the supplements before getting too far into it! 

  The description of this study really sums up what it's all about:

"Through varied, thought-provoking activities that stimulate interest and inquiry, they will explore the events and thinking of the time. Combining elements of the classical education of Anne’s day—dictation, recitation, memorization, essay writing—with the interdisciplinary approach of today—use of primary documents, filed trips, hands-on projects—this study will challenge students to reflect on the historical issues of the Victorian day as well as the personal challenges of growing up."

 I do agree this study is best suited for High School age due to the intensive and deep character study, maturation required for completing the full requirements, and rich content of the subject material. My advanced Jr. High student, however, was truly challenged to a new level by this material.  I believe Anne of Green Gables is very appropriate and enjoyable reading material for this younger age, and after the flame has been sparked by this wonderful literature, your daughter will surely be on fire to move on into this rich study a bit later. I just really loved that this is not only a dive into history, but also an amazing character study.

Margie says this about her study:

“Before beginning Where the Brook and River Meet, I asked myself ‘What I want to teach my children?’ The answers came as I started writing—I want to prepare my daughters for singleness or married life; to teach them how to be godly wives and mothers; to help them learn marketable skills; and, above all, I want to nurture them in the knowledge of the Lord. That is what Marilla wanted for Anne and what she set about doing in Anne of Green Gables.’”

That truly sums up my own desires for my girls, and I can't thank Margie enough for working so hard to put her desires into words in this fabulous curriculum.

Anne's Anthology

I will mention next another amazing project by Margie Gray. She compiled for use with her study a wonderful book of many of the pieces, primarily poetry, that Lucy Montgomery mentioned in Anne of Green Gables. This amazing book is almost 700 pages of the pieces that Anne loved, and that Green Gables fans are also familiar with, but might have been "lost in obscurity and the allusions no longer understood."  Most of the poems are given in full text along with notes. We enjoyed, and will enjoy for some time to come, this remarkable book of poetry and such from the Victorian era. This would be a fabulous addition to any study of the Victorian era, or even a poetry/literature study.

Cadron Creek has many other materials available on their website, including a couple of their other Unit studies based on the very rich and favorite literature for younger students, Little House on the Prairie series, and The Chronicles of Narnia. Please check out what our other Crew members had to say , as this wonderful material is just way too good to miss out on! If you've never heard of these studies before, please go check them out.

If you have been considering using already, I would give you a two thumbs up.... You'll be so glad you did!

“Don’t you just love poetry that gives you a crinkly feeling
up and down your back?”
—Anne, Anne of Green Gables, Chapter V

Enjoy your kids, time is fleeting...

Chris

Math Tutor  DVD.com is a great place to pick up some extra help in teaching and learning math. Jason Gibson has quite the credentials , but is the first to say they don't amount to a "hill of beans" if you can't teach a subject in a way that students can understand and learn. My kind of teacher, for sure!!

Math Tutor does teach in a very straight forward method in which students can very easily see the problems worked out on a white board. He does repeat the problem several times, so it might seem kind of boring for those who get the concept faster and don't require repetition, but is very helpful for younger students or those "stuck" on a concept. The nice thing about DVD format is that one can always forward to the next lesson once the concept is mastered.

We received two programs for review:

Basic Math Word Problems and Algebra 2 , both $26.99.

For a limited time, each customer will receive 60 minutes of free online tutoring available 24/7  through Tutor.com, which is a $35.00 value!

These programs are certainly worth the cost, and in my opinion are a great supplement to any math program. My girls were a little bored with the basic word problems because they are already past that level, but had a whole lot of fun viewing the Algebra 2 one trying to figure it out. It's a bit hard to say whether they would actually be of use in our home since we didn't review anything on their level, but I will certainly keep this tool in my Doctor Mom bag in case we ever get stuck and need some extra help. I can certainly see us ordering these in the future, especially once we get to Algebra and on to Calculus. Jason has a whole heap of help over at his website in just about any math level you might need.

Go check it out! Listen to some student success stories, and even view some samples here!

Most of all, have fun learning with your kids!

Chris

Check it out!

Bible Story Songs Inc. is a  music company that has developed some neat scripture based story cds, Mp3 downloads, song books,  sheet music, and other resources.

We received Moses Volume 1- The first 80 years for review.

My older children didn't enjoy this very much, saying that it seemed to sound like it was geared for the younger crowd. We are a very passionate, music loving family and are used to a large variety of music, but they weren't able to listen to this for very long, because I guess it just wasn't our style of music. My 2 year old wasn't really too interested either, so I'm thinking a good target age might be 4 or 5.  I love the concept of scripture based songs, and Bible stories set to music. 

I think these would be really great for a Sunday School class, or VBS! I can see a large class of little ones singing and dancing with these, then maybe using coloring activities to top off learning about these Bible Characters. 

You can listen to some samples HERE!

Go sing with your kids!

Chris

Schola Publications 

   I've always wondered how an in depth study of Latin would truly benefit a student. As a foreign language, there are many more "practical" choices for learning to speak and interact in our world (or so I thought). Since Latin is included throughout many other study topics as basic root words and such, I never considered using it as a core subject. We have used Greek and Latin root word studies as supplements to other studies, but never as an all inclusive foreign language choice.

   Then I began thinking about all the people I've talked to who have taken a foreign language and can't remember a thing about it. I took two years of French in high school, and one year in college, and I truly can't see any benefit in having done so.  So how would Latin have benefited me instead? I believe much of that question has been answered by Barbara Beers in the development of The Latin Road to English Grammar. Read questions and Answers here.

   When this opportunity to further understand the study of Latin and it's benefits through Schola Publications came along, I was very excited. I have always been a lover of English grammar and language arts. My girls both have a knack for this as well. Morgan has advanced quickly through any language/grammar/writing program introduced. Taylor has never really had a "hardcore" teacher -directed English program, but has picked anything Language Arts/English grammar related up well from the basic programs she's worked through.

   I mention their experiences with English grammar here because as I was looking through the Latin Road materials, I found  that it is a basic language curriculum which focuses on English grammar understanding as a road to Latin. The beginning program for K-4 is "The Phonics Road to Spelling and Reading". See it here. It is designed to be the very beginning steps of the Latin Road program.

   The next step for 3-6 grades is the "Bridge to the Latin Road" where we started. See it here. I was afraid this might bore Morgan, but was thrilled with the opportunity to lead Taylor through a thorough learning of English grammar. When we received the package, included was a set of 6 Dvd's which show how to teach the program, a teacher's guide in a binder, and student guides in binders. Also included per student are 3 pencils, regular, blue and red and a scaffolding ruler.

   At first I was a bit confused by the progression of the lessons, as it's not designed just to flip from one page to the next. But after watching the Dvd introduction and beginning lessons, it's pretty easy to figure out where things are located in the notebooks, and how things are grouped together. The other thing that was a bit confusing at first is the reference to the Phonics Road program resources that we didn't have. But this too is easily remedied by watching the Dvd's for understanding and just progressing on into it.

   I really enjoy the ease and no-nonsense approach this program has. The girls mentioned how they love just being able to sit down and do their work without having to dig through a bunch of excess bells and whistles. We can sit down and get through the lessons in 15-30 minutes or less, and sometimes work through multiple lessons at a time depending on attention spans and other obligations.

   I really love the way this program uses the theme of a builder to build the English Language in the same way a carpenter learns to build a house.  They can really relate to much of it after working with Daddy to help build Grandpa Ray's house, and also in preparation for our own house construction!

   The year begins with the rough framing (various parts of speech and sentence structure), then the student learns to add the roofing support and framing design through the building of scaffolding (sentence diagramming). We will continue to progress through our Bridge to Latin until we have built our own English reference handbooks to use during the 3-year study of The Latin Road to English Grammar.

I am so excited to see what the Latin Road has in store for us. We will definitely continue with this program as it is very well written and so very easy to use and understand, and the girls just LOVE it!  

You can check out free samples here!

If you are looking for an easy-to-use thorough English grammar program, look no further than the Bridge to Latin. If you are thinking of using Latin as part of your curriculum, or are looking for a Phonics program for your beginner, check out what our Crew members who tried those out have to say!  TOS Crew links for Schola Publications

Now go build some sentences with your kids!

Chris

Click here to start homeschooling with confidence!

Since beginning our homeschool journey 5 years ago, I've invested thousands of hours in researching the many methods, curriculums, projects, standards, learning styles, educational philosophies, socialization opportunities, and many more of the in's and out's of educating my children at home. My map has many detours, dead ends, and rocky roads on the way to paving my interstate to Gunn Ranch Academy. My early timeline contains many periods of frustration and unrefined progress, mixed with eras of great discovery on the road to creating our little piece of history.

God planted the seeds of homeschooling before Morgan was even born, but we didn't have the opportunity until she was in 2nd grade, and Taylor was a preschooler. When the time came to pull Morgan out of public school, we experienced the same scary, exciting, anxiety-ridden questions that all beginning homeschoolers do. It was obvious God brought us to this place, now what??

Well, Terri Johnson has stepped up and chartered a very complete, informative and encouraging step by step course to answer that very question: "Now what?"

Each week for 6 months, you can receive an email taking you step by step through the learning curve of homeschooling without much of the frustration, huge time investment and information overload that many of us experienced when we started.

As I began lesson A, then moved on through B,C,D,E...

I was really impressed at the timeline Terri uses to introduce each leg of the journey. Now I know Knowledge Quest is famous for superior geography, history and timeline products, but she invites you right onto the ship taking hold of the helm to guide you from the launching point to the discovery of your very own unchartered territory! She has provided a map for what many of us wondered through lost and afraid!! Now, you don't have to feel like Columbus stepping off of that great big ship full of people who were counting on him to lead them to a better life. Yes, the savages and thorny brush is still there, but Terri can lead you right into  a peaceful coexistence as you create your own little piece of history.

It's easy to read a map once someone else has written it down, and this map mirrors so much of what I explored all on my own. For all those folks in the past I've given lists of links, books, and  resources to help make their beginning journey easier, this map includes much of that together in one place, not to mention it's a chronological timeline even!! Wow!  

Don't start your journey without a map. You don't have to drive around for hours wondering which way to turn next, or if you are going in circles. You don't have to step off onto a brand new continent wondering what is lurking in the brush. Let Terri guide you!

For those more experienced explorers out there, this is a fabulous, refreshing way to pull all of your experiences together into one timeline, mapping out where you have been and re-evaluating where it is you might want to go next. Everyone needs some validation and encouragement along the way, and Terri will certainly put the enthusiasm back into your journey!

With hundreds of dollars in bonus materials you can use right away in your homeschool, and a 60 day money back guarantee, why would you not jump onboard and let Terri guide you on the journey of a lifetime? Get your ticket here!!

You can also get a  free copy of the mini-course 5 Ways to Know That You Are on the Right Track" here.

What are you waiting for? Go pack, load up the kids and LET'S GO!!

Chris