I just received this from Catherine Fortin - she has been a real resource for Language teachers and Home Educators and she offers classes as well:

(see link for details on her classes: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/NorthCarolina/744124/ )

My colleague Diane Farrug & I are starting up an exciting resource for homeschooling parents: a free e-newsletter full of free ideas, activities, and printables supported by clear "how to teach" tips for parents.

We realize that what we do, teaching a foreign language takes so much training and experience, and we want to give this to homeschool parents. We also include free videos on how to teach and how to do specific lessons and activities. The days of giving children a Spanish or French handout and not really knowing what to do with it to maximize it are over.  We're here to help.

Here is the link to the sign up for the free homeschool e-newsletter:

http://foreignlanguagefun.com/2009/11/free-nativity-mini-book-in-french-and-spanish-for-homeschoolers/


Catherine F Fortin
http://foreignlanguagehouse.com

This looks Great  - Go Sign up!!!! Merit K

This is a time of year when as a family, we focus on the virtue of Thankfulness. We have been studying American History this year and how even though the colonists suffered greatly in this land they had travel to, they remembered to give thanks to the Lord for the things that they did have- especially their freedoms!

One of the ways that we have always loved to use to help us remember to be grateful, particularly at this time of year, is to make a "Thanksgiving Tree".

I haven't done it this year, since the kids are a little older now, but I used to make a "tree" with branches out of a pattern and some brown construction paper and cut out "leaves" from colorful paper similar to the ones here:

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/leaf/leaftemplate.shtml

An easy way to do lots of these leaves is to print them on the computer. You can buy colored paper for the printer. Then have your little ones work on some small motor skills by cutting them out with you.

We put the Tree on the wall with "sticky tack" and then every day, the kids would write something that they were thankful for on a leaf and we put the leaf on or around the tree. When they were small, I made this part of their handwriting practice.

Here is a site that has a craft idea for a really cute Thanksgiving Tree using "handprints" from your kids instead of my leaf idea:

http://www.familycorner.com/archives/familytime/2.shtml

Another clever way to make a "Thankful Tree" is with branches or trimmings from your yard and a bucket or large plastic butter tub. You will need plaster of paris for this tree. Mix the Plaster of Paris according to directions and then fill the butter tub with it. Place the branches into the tub and let the plaster harden (about 1-2 hours) You might need to hold them up for a little bit until they stay upright on their own :0 )

Once this is fully hardened, cover the butter tub with colorful tissue paper or burlap fabric so that it looks "Fallish"

Then attach the leaves by punching a hole in each one and tying them to the tree with a ribbon, yarn or raffia.

The fun thing about the plaster of paris tree is that you can change the covering on the butter tub for lots of different occaisions and make it a Christmas tree or a candy tree, an Easter Tree (you are getting the idea)... so it makes a nice decoration and learning tool in the future seasons as well, depending on what creative ideas you come up with for using it!

Have a creative week full of Thanksgiving!

(and try not to be a turkey)

Merit K

Free Homeschooling History Curriculum – really!

Some of you know that I am a member of the Old Schoolhouse “Crew” (a homeschool product review team). We were recently sent a CD of an American History Curriculum product called “America’s Heritage” that is available to anyone for the asking- FREE.

We were asked to examine and use it and then to post our opinions of it so that you could decide if it was a resource that might work for your family.

 Right now, I am teaching 5^th, 7^th and 9^th grades. Although the CD I received contains all lessons for all the grade levels, I chose to try the High School Level of the American Heritage Foundation’s product since I am using All American History (see my previous review) with my 5^th and 8^th graders.

 “America’s Heritage: An Adventure in Liberty” is targeted for students in grades 9-12 and it provides good information on some of the aspects of our country that other texts may leave behind. This curriculum tackles some tough issues that we are dealing with today, such as the right to freedom of religious expression, particularly in the public schools. It addresses the free enterprise system and some of the heroes of that system, entrepreneurs who had a profound influence on the culture and prosperity of our Nation.

 Here is an excerpt I really liked from the forward of the Curriculum for 9-12^th Grades:

“The Miracle of America: A Revolutionary Idea

In only a little more than 200 years, our ancestors transformed this country from a wilderness into a great nation. This nation demonstrates what can be accomplished by free people who create a government limited to serving the people rather than being their master. The moral and ethical basis of good conduct was derived from the faith that built America. That faith grew from the common belief that each individual is endowed with basic rights and responsibilities by our Creator. That is the foundation of our democratic republic expressed in the Declaration of Independence.”

As I mentioned, the America’s Heritage Curriculum is available free (they can accept donations at their site) from the American Heritage Foundation. It has been valued at around $150.00. The program was developed for grades K-12, as a way to promote good citizenship, and good stewardship of our freedoms. The American Heritage Foundation seeks to do this by educating students about our country’s history.

It seems to be geared towards a classroom setting, but it contains some great kernels of information that both public school students and those that learn at home can benefit from. My daughter and I both loved that the curriculum included the wording of some of our original documents, such as the Mayflower Compact and the Bill of Rights. It did a good job of trying to relate the rights and responsibilities we have today and those original writings which have so clearly enumerated those rights for us throughout our History.

 The High School Curriculum focuses on pointing the student towards the foundations of the freedoms that we have to day. It includes specific Lesson Plans, Templates and soundly teaches students about how our past faith relates to our present freedoms.

 In my opinion, the lessons are a bit dry, but they can really be spiced up by using this along with some living books and the internet. Overall this could be used as a good framework around which you and your student can hang some additional discussions and research.

Did I mention that the American Heritage Education Foundation’s High School American History Program is FREE? You can also request a CD to be sent to you, (also free). If you would prefer to have everything already printed out, this excellent resource is available in a printed our binder format for only $19.50.

It is simple to pay that online: http://americanheritage.org/online_pay.html, or you may mail them a check.

If you just want the free stuff (and there is some good stuff in there) you can download the pdf files or request a CD Here: http://www.americanheritage.org/

There is some helpful information here and the price is right !

Celebrate American Heritage Month in November!

“American Heritage Month gives us all an opportunity to reflect on our roots as Americans from a fresh perspective. It is a time to remember that we Americans have brought with us many different heritages, but we have joined together in this country as one people.

The Declaration of Independence sets forth our fundamental values, and the Constitution serves to protect those values. Our schools, teachers, students, and other citizens help preserve and strengthen the miracle that is America. As Thomas Jefferson said, ‘If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.’”

The American Heritage Education Foundation, Inc.

I truly am Thankful at this time of the year, for the many blessings of faith, freedom, friends and turkey!

Merit K

The History text we recently reviewed, has this eye catching phrase as it's subtitle:  

 "Uniting America's Story, Piece by Piece"

That thought provoking phrase caught my attention on the shiny cover of the lovely new book in front of me.

It is true that puzzle of our relatively young country continues to come together, and there is only one who can see the complete result. But surely, one way we can improve our chances of making sure that the future result is a thing of beauty, is to understand our past and to trust in God with our future.

This History curiculum is one great resource for giving your students the ability to do that. The author truly brings to life the people of the time periods that we are learning about. Being able to read about how things began is an exciting way to relate to some of the things that are happening in our culture in the present era!

For the purpose of this review, our family received this History textbook set free from Bright Ideas Press.The History Textbook's title is ” All American History, Volume One- The Explorers to the Jacksonians” by Celeste W. Rakes.

We reviewed the entire set which includes the Student Reader, Activity book and the Teacher’s Guide. It is available for purchase as a set, for $68.00.

This is a complete curriculum, intended for grades 5-8. The 32 weekly lessons in Volume One can easily be modified to meet the needs of your family or classroom. The accompanying Teacher’s Guide offers many ideas for adding value to your student’s learning experience with creative activity suggestions and research ideas for your older students, as well as suggestions for adapting the material for the younger set, so it works very well either for a Home educator or a classroom teacher.

This book is also perfect for use with a timeline! It includes some of the figures you will need in the back of the Teacher’s Guide – your students can add them to the pages in the activity book and then put those into a timeline notebook, if they like. Bright Ideas Press also sells additional timeline characters in a separate package which are very nice (I use them)  

The Teacher’s Guide contains Lesson Plans, including activity ideas, additional resource suggestions, timeline dates and even a checklist for materials that lets you know which materials are optional and which materials you will be required to have on hand to teach each lesson. The Answer Key for the Student Activity Book is also found in the Teacher’s Guide.

The Student text includes a very good amount of information about the people, places and events that began our American History. The material is organized in an easy to follow chronological format with clear maps and Student Activity Pages in the Student book which make it simple to create your own timeline or American History Timeline Notebook. We found that the Student text is written in a way which is not just informative, but creates interest in the historical events and the people who lived at that time period. We are enjoying this curriculum very much. (not just because the cover is shiny :) 

The Teacher’s Guide offers the teacher guidance in how to use the text as a framework for further research and exploration.

I especially love that the activities included in this extensive Teacher’s guide are more than just “busywork”- they involve them in more learning! There are game ideas, geography and map work, quality book suggestions which are conveniently listed by age groups, and writing assignments which allow for integration of writing skills into your history curriculum.

I have always believed that integrating subjects is a great way to increase both retention of information and enjoyment of the subjects! This textbook does that very well. If you are looking for an American History program for next year, I would suggest that you look into this one. It is very creative and yet logical!

Two thumbs up  from Mom (who is not typically a textbook kinda gal) And two thumbs up from the kids  

Here is where you can find more information or even purchase these books (There is also a Volume Two)

http://brightideaspress.com/?page_id=6

Here there is even Yahoo Group Support for using these texts :

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AllAmericanHistory/

Timeline Guide and figures can be seen here (I really do like these too):

http://brightideaspress.com/?page_id=132 

 Thanks for Reading :)

Merit K

http://www.abcteach.com/

 This is an online resource for preschool- 8^th grade levels which includes some nice educational games, puzzles, pre-made worksheets, loads of seasonal worksheets, custom worksheet generators and clip art to help you make “centers” and custom games (such as file folder games). The website membership allows you to customize your papers for Notebooking or Lapbooking activities as well.

According to their website, they are a teacher’s site that, “With high quality content added on a weekly basis, abcteach is considered a world-class educational resource by its many members across the globe, and one that exceeds the offerings of other websites while offering unlimited access at very competitive prices.”

Membership to “ABC Teach” gives you access to over 35,000 pages of printable worksheets and activities, to abctools, our exclusive custom document generators- plus  really cool clip art  (my favorite)!

I believe that I may be addicted to their clip art section!

Our family's learning style naturally tends to be “non-worksheet” oriented. We lean towards “Hands On” activities, living a Lifestyle of Learning, as well as using lots of "Living books" and natural learning as the framework of our educational plan. Ruth Beechick and Charlotte Mason are my heroines, so you can imagine that I began by thinking that "it just wouldn’t be my “cup of tea”. Although most of what was available, I wasn't able to use, I was pleasantly surprised to find that they had a lot of nice things on the site (Wow- not just boring old worksheets -lol!).  

I did enjoy exploring a lot of their membership areas and I found that just browsing, seemed to inspire my creativity.

I came away from the website with some really good ideas to ‘tweak’ for my homeschool! The worksheet generators were easy to use and I liked the idea that you could customize them to use with whatever curriculum or books you choose. A lot of what they had was below level for my kids or I would classify as a little too close to "busy work" for my students. But much of it would be great for a classroom teacher and some of the things would be great for Homeschoolers too.

You could save a lot of money using this website to create your own tests and worksheets for your child, from any textbook.  

In addition, they have many ready made worksheets available in all the subject areas:

Oh how I wish I had access to this stuff when I was a substitue teacher!

They have some really great things you can try FREE on their website as well, so I would suggest that you might enjoy a look around and if you find that you use a lot of worksheets or especially would like to create your own worksheets, you might like to obtain a membership at this award winning site!

The yearly membership fee for ABC Teach is $40.00.  

Just to let you know, the “Homeschool Buyers Co-op” offers a Group Buy price of $20.00 per year (plus the Co-ops’ processing fee of $2.00- it is free to join the co-op). This is available until November 30, 2009. You can find out more about that special price right here:

https://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/index.php?option=com_hsbc_epp_order&Itemid=1203

Many thanks to my fellow “TOS Crew” member, Lisa, at the Berry Patch, http://maineberrypatch.blogspot.com/  for the update on the group discount!

In order to test out their product, ABC Teach provided me with one month's access to the membership area of their website, free, so that I could properly evaluate all that they offer. No other compensation was received in exchange for my review of this website. 

(except, to be honest,  I do get to keep the clip art and isn't that better than money anyway?)

Until next time - stay CREATIVE!

 Merit K

“My Access” Home Edition - http://www.vantagelearning.com/home/products/mahome/

The best way to learn about writing is by doing it. Writing is one of those skills that your children will use all their life. It is one of the most important ways we communicate. The ability to write well is a valuable asset in life, in college and in the work force.  

The “My Access” writing instruction program is a great way to let your students write about many different topics and life experiences! This program teaches, and then allows them to practice Narrative, Persuasive and Informative writing skills.

Each 12-month subscription of  this web-based computer program includes a “parent” account and your choice of  up to six student accounts. It is perfect for Homeschooling Families, or any parent who wants to help their children improve their writing skills.

Whether you love to have your students write about field trips and research specific subjects they are studying on a regular basis, or you just get tired of trying to think of creative writing topics, never fear – “My Access” home edition includes 90 writing topics for three different distinct age groups (8-10, 11-14, and 15-18).

These interesting "jump starters" can encourage reluctant students to begin writing. If your student is already working on a topic in a current curriculum, or if you have a specific topic in mind for an assignment, you can enter a personalized writing topic assignment for that child. This is great for helping your students integrate their learning by allowing them to write across the curriculum and improve their ability to write an informative essay or an imaginative narrative!

The lessons are self-paced and interactive. The online tutorial guides your students in a fun and creative way through the entire writing process: planning, organizing, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. The program includes graphic organizers and printables such as a Monthly writing plan to help your student improve their ability to work to a deadline.

Artificial Intelligence technology is used for scoring the student’s writing projects which frees up the time of the Homeschooling parent and can ease the parent child relationship if your child hates to have you correct their writing papers with that EVIL red pen!

The student is given specific feedback regarding their essay right away and then, most importantly, given the opportunity and the tools to improve it.

This artificial intelligence program gives your student writing tips and feedback on the key traits of focus, content development, organization, vocabulary and grammar. Editing and writing tools are all right there for the student to reference quickly, including a thesaurus, grammar-checker, spell-checker, and a word bank to help students vary and develop their vocabulary.

Parents can easily make assignments from the parent control panel and can receive and print out  a report on each student on their own timetable. I found that the settings are very flexible for the age groups and for the student accounts. Additionally the program allows you to set a deadline for the assignments which your students can see at their start up page. This is a great tool for learning how to create a schedule and fosters independence in your student’s learning experience.

My Access Home Edition’s 12 Month Subscription price is $99.95 and this price includes up to six students. You can begin it anytime and it not only can be used as a stand alone writing resource, it complements any existing curriculum. I also benefits you by freeing up your time by correcting your students work, as well as providing access to expert writing tips tailored to your student and convenient tools to them.

Vantage Learning

Right now you can receive a discount on your  http://www.vantagelearning.com/ Enter Coupon Code TOSW9 at checkout and receive 20% off the retail price.

This offer is valid through December 15, 2009.

My students have been slow to warm up to the program, but that is because my main “writer” is already working on the “One Year Adventure Novel” and doesn’t want to take time away from that project. I have figured out how the program works and how to assign her more personalized topics that will be of specific interest to her in her Economics class and her Current Events/Worldview studies so she will be working more with the program this Month!

My boys are learning a lot this year about creative writing and I have been very pleased with the program and will enjoy incorporating it into the rest of our school year.

Just to let you all know, the company let me download the program free in order to review it, and that comes with a year long membership. I do not receive compensation for reviews of any of the products I am reviewing on my blog.

Also, although I love the Old Schoolhouse Magazine and the vendors' products that I have reviewed have been wonderful, I have specifically chosen not to "affiliate" (where you receive monetary compensation for referrring readers to products) with TOS or with any of the vendors that I am reviewing this year so that I can give an impartial opinion on all of these products.

Thanks for Reading,

MeritK

... I promise I will try to keep it "clean" people!

For the Old Schoolhouse Crew (TOS Crew) reviews this year, we have received some unusual and fun items including DVDs, study materials for the SAT and ACT test, nature magazines, curriculum, computer games, the Study Pod, educational games and historical fiction books.

I have learned that I never really know what might be in my mailbox!

Recently, I opened the mailbox and found a box that smelled really good! When we opened it, we found a sampler package of cute little handcrafted soaps from “Virginia Soaps and Scents”.

Adorable Packaging!

The Spargur family asked us to have our families use these samples and to let you know about them. I can tell you that we have used these free products with great enthusiasm! The scents were mild, relaxing and natural and the soaps lasted. (I still have some left!)

 Here is what we used:

Laundry soap kit (real laundry soap – not detergent)

A Soap Sampler which contained sample sized bars of a Ginger Lime scented Shampoo Bar as well as “Coconut Lemongrass”, “Fresh Orange”, and “Oatmeal, Milk and Honey” scented hand and body bars.

The soaps are all made from natural ingredients! They are gentle and non-drying. The scents were very nice. I used the shampoo bar and I even used the soaps for shaving with great results. I liked the fact that these were handcrafted by this Homeschooling family!

Documentation : My Hair After the First Shampoo Bar I ever Used! 

My favorite though, is the laundry soap.

Once we mixed it all up, it made a ½ gallon from our sample kit and it was really easy. If you have always wanted to try making your own laundry soap, you should get the kit and see how fun it is! It really wasn’t as time consuming as I thought it would be. Once the laundry soap had turned into a nice gel, we used it for every load. It was quite an event to see the liquid turn into a gel (I know- we don't get out much-lol!).

I used it on our whites, on damp musty towels, and on jeans with red clay stains from the yard. But the ultimate test was the kittens!  We were fostering some 3 week old kittens temporarily and so I used it to wash load after load of their bedding and boy did it freshen and clean it perfectly! 

 The Ultimate Laundry Test...

Boys and Kittens!

I consider the laundry soap they sell a great value at only $4.95 (plus shipping) for a kit that will make 2 gallons. Tide costs a lot more, has a lot of stuff in it we don't need and doesn't really get my clothes any cleaner. We only had to use ½ cup on each load of laundry we did. I thought that I might need more on the larger loads, but the ½ C. did just as well on the large loads as on the medium ones!

The soaps are also a good value. Natural, non-drying and long lasting- plus they smell delicious! You can get them here http://www.va-soaps.com/vss_004.htm

(Prices for the Regular sized 4.5 oz bars are $ 4.50 each or 3 for $12.00 and they even offer sample sets so you can try all the scents 12, 1.5 oz bars for $18.00)

They have lots of other natural, personal care items that are also made with the same care and attention as the samples that we received.

Some of their items would make wonderful gifts as well! (hint, hint!)

Find them here : http://www.va-soaps.com/vss_013.htm

 PS - I am still using the shampoo bar- I do have to use my conditioner with this because I have that frizzy wavy hair, but I just blow dried it for the picture above and didn't style it at all. I got a couple of compliments on my hair and no one even knew I had changed anything at all :)

 Glamour Girl -Out for now!

Merit K

…it’s the “Amazing Bible World History Timeline” from Bible Charts and Maps!

We have always used various Timelines to go along with our History and Geography Studies because it really does help us to place events into their proper context and chronology. It also allows us to see which individuals were contemporaries (which always surprises me and I really enjoy a good surprise!).  

Using a Timeline along with your curriculum really gives a sense of where things, people and events ‘belong’ in the course of History.

Some of the timelines we have used over the years have been homemade, and some we have purchased. So I was really interested to see what the Timeline from Bible Charts and Maps, would be like. After receiving it to review for the TOS crew, I have come to the conclusion that this sturdy and comprehensive chart is an incredible addition to our study tools!

This laminated wall chart is not made out of poster paper, it is really sturdy. First I hauled it all over our school room to find a good place to put it and I tried putting it up in at least two places before I settled on tacking it to the bulletin board near our Arts and Crafts area. Now it is regularly being pawed over by three kids and a Mom J It looks to me as though it will last through years of this kind of use.  

The timeline goes along well with our “Annuals of the World” by James Ussher and the “Timetables of History“ by Grun, which we are also using.

The chart is a great visual aid and really helps you to see at a glance the timetable of events as recorded in the Scriptures and in secular writings. I like the spiral format of the timeline since it makes it simple to see what was happening in which area of the world during any given time period. It is also easy to compare the events recorded by the writers of Biblical History and contemporary historical events and figures. The Timeline is comprehensive, clear and easy to read giving a true sense of the flow of the history of mankind.

I never wanted a wall timeline because the ones that I have seen are the Banner style and they are looooong! But this timeline fits a “world” of information in a relatively small area, by using a clever spiral to show when world events occurred. It measures 38” by 46” and as you can see from my picture, it just about fits in the area of our Bulletin board. It hangs over a little at the bottom where I used “sticky tack” to hang it.

I am enjoying using it in addition to our other resources and I must say that it is more convenient to glance at the Amazing Bible World History Timeline INDEX (right on the chart) than it is to pull out the timeline books- I may become extremely lazy!

If you order it soon, you can take advantage of the low price of  $29.97 and receive FREE an interactive Holy Land Maps download (lets you see the boundaries “then and now”) and a free digital version of the timeline to download and use on your computer.

If you use a timeline in your Homeschool, or if you have thought about using one, this one is a good choice. It is practical and sturdy, includes Biblical history and chronology alongside other world events and is an easy to read visual aid for your children. The price is very reasonable, as you will see if you compare prices for other timelines.      

This is a resource that I recommend you check out:  

 http://bibletimeline.net/index.html

I do not receive any compensation for my review, other than I get to keep this great Timeline and the freebies that I mentioned above!

Hope you are having a creative week!

MeritK

The "Workbox", that is !

Sue Patrick’s Workbox System User Guide

by Sue Patrick

The Old Schoolhouse Review “Crew” or TOS crew received this e-book to review, and as with all the products we received the e-book free to read and evaluate. Sue Patrick requested that we be willing to actually try out her system, and not just review the book. So, after glancing through the book to see what I would need, I loaded up the kids, and headed to the Walmart Super Center for supplies. Everything that I purchased to do the “system” for one child, totaled around $45.00, but you could do it for less, or you could spend more depending on your budget. I decided to try this out with my youngest first, since he is the least resistant to change!

Sue Patrick has written a very helpful “Manuel” for her system, but this guide includes many other tidbits of information and suggestions for your Homeschool. The author has a good grasp on the way we learn and provides much insight into ways to improve our Home Education Programs. For those of us who often feel we get "off track" with our independent learners, this is a system that can help us get back where we need to be. For those who are just starting out in their Homeschooling journey, this is a system that can help to smooth your way.

This book provides much more than a system that helps you to get more done (although it will do that). She frames her educational philosophy for you, which can help you to ‘flesh out’ your own educational ideas. Her “User Guide” is laid out in a very logical way that is easy to understand. She gives good step by step directions on ways to improve your child’s ability to be independent and to encourage them to be proactive in their learning.

Much of what she recommends that pertains to students with special needs can also be applied to learners with regular needs. I loved her emphasis on how we need to be sure that we are teaching our children “how to learn” and how to organize their work space so that they can be productive. The skills that they learn now, will serve them well in the future too!

Her website requires that you be a registered user (book owner) in order to access and download materials and forms that are not included in the e-book, but there are sample pages from the book available here: http://www.workboxsystem.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/booksamplesuepatricksworkboxsystem.pdf

The e-book that we received costs $19.00 and the print copy of the book is $19.95 (plus shipping). The author has a variety of packages that you can purchase, including one with personal consulting charges, and some with pre-made items and supplies that you will use if you do not want to make your own and if you use the system exactly as she recommends.

Now I will show you how we are using the system in our Homeschool J It is a little different from the way that she recommends and I am sure that if you decide to try her book and system, it will look a little different at your house too since all our families and children (and space issues!) are not the same.

Getting the Boxes Ready: I used clear plastic pockets so that I can change the numbers when I want to. You can also use velcro to attach the numbers to the boxes.

The Boxes on the Shelf:

The basket next to the shelf is where the items or books go when my 10 year old (aka the Guinea Pig) is finished with them. Some of the books, like the Math books, are going back into the boxes because we use them every day.

In the picture above, you can see that we have our cards and our schedule all together so he can see at a glance what needs to be done. This means that he can start his work whenever he is ready and go on to his next task without waiting for me to tell him what is next!

This enables me to help one of the other children with their work, or get a much needed task done while they are working independantly. I think that I am going to expand this to the other children now that we have discovered what a good system it really is for us. My oldest is hesitant to try it, but I really do think that it will apply well to a High Schooler!

Well, I will keep you posted and you will be able to see how it works for my High School Student on my "Mission Possible" Blog :  (http://cre8tivehome.wordpress.com/) where I will be blogging specifically about teaching High School at home!

Signing off for now - Merit K

... Well, I know how you can find out ...

It’s Ohio, in the year 1858 and young Sarah is about to experience a tragedy that will change her life. Instead of dwelling on her own pain, she seeks out ways to alleviate the pain of others. Sarah is a sensitive, likeable and believable character that we enjoyed getting to know between the pages of a book that the author asked the Old Schoolhouse Magazine (TOS) Crew to review.

“Sarah’s Wish” is the first book in a series of exciting books written by Jim Baumgardner. The stories are historical fiction written by a lover of history, and the characters in the stories are based, in part, on the author’s ancestors.   

Author Jim Baumgardner, Keeping History alive for us ...

Throughout the story, the author gives interesting details about the time period, such as descriptions of items which we now think of as very old fashioned! He also includes a glossary of terms so we were not left to determine what the mysterious word meant only by the context of the story.

As I read aloud, we all learned more about the lifestyle of that era. We chuckled at Granny’s use of homey phrases and humor. We were sobered by the descriptions of the deprivation and abuses of slavery. The characters in the book deal with death and loss in a sensitive way. Death is presented as the believer being ushered into the presence of God and thus, opens opportunities for you to talk to your students about both death, and living with such a loss.  

The books are about a spunky girl, but most boys will like them too since there is lots of adventure, and Sarah is an optimistic person with a lot of initiative. I read these aloud with my boys 10 and 12 and they stayed interested in the story line and action. Older students will enjoy reading this book independantly and perhaps researching more about the period before the Civil War in the United States. Younger students can listen and learn too!

The lovely drawing above is Sarah, as depicted by Ruth Rawlings of Augusta, Kansas.

The book, “Sarah’s Wish” is available from the author, at this link for only $9.99 with free shipping and handling: http://www.sarahbooks.net/index.html

The copy of the book that I received free to review also came with a free download of the audio book as well (what a nice surprise!) and it is really good. It is read by an expressive young lady who “does the voices” very well J This 4 CD set is also available from the author for just $16.99 at the link above.

I just want to say, that I really liked the book, as much as the kids did. I think it was because of all the discussions that ensued! You may not have an many “talkers” in your family as we do, but the story and the history of antebellum times, really struck a note of interest with the kids. Exploring the author’s wonderful website was just as educational as reading his book!

 You can check out information on the history of Sarah’s era here: http://www.sarahbooks.net/ugrr.html

 You can also read more about the author, the other books in his series and even sign up for a “Sarah” e-newsletter like we did!  

http://www.sarahbooks.net/the_author.html

BTW: I received this book at no charge from the author, so that I could give my candid opinion of the product based on personal use with my family in my Home Education Program. No other compensation was received and I am not an employee of TOS nor am I affiliated with any of the companies whose products I am asked to review. I just do this for fun, and for the chance to let you know about some of the really creative new products and some good old ones that you might not know about yet!

May God Bless - Merit K

My family loves books.

We love to read them and we even love the smell of the old books, but there is a more recent phenomenon which we have begun to love almost as much and that is e-books. We received some free e-books from Guardian Angel Publishing to review for them. The titles I used and reviewed included:

 “The Sum of our Parts” which was a favorite of my boys who are 10 and 12 years old! This book is a fun way to learn to name the bones in our skeleton. Great at this time of year and goofy fun for my boys. We were cracking up right away!

The favorite illustration of all is pictured here  - what people would look like without bones! "Yuck" I said "Coooool" said all three of my children!

“Hamster Holidays” is a rollicking grammar adventure with these cute critters! The boys liked this way of learning and reviewing their Grammar much better than a plain old worksheet. The illustrations are really beautiful.

“Rainbow Sheep” a wonderful story with an integrated craft for your students and lots of information on wool and felting and crafting with these items. We really learned a lot from these books! When you look at the illustrations in this book, particularly, you will just want to reach out and touch them they look so textured. The way the author brings the hands on learning into it at the back of the book really makes the reader interested in trying one of the craft ideas.

“Maybe We Are Flamingos” was a little young for my crew’s taste but I really loved it. I thought the illustrations were delightful. The storyline is sweet and the pictures are really of such good quality.

“Gifts from God” includes pretty and unusual photo art along with Bible verses. I haven’t used this one yet with the boys, but I looked it over and I am planning to have the boys copy the verses as copywork. I think they will enjoy looking at the colorful photos as they copy the Bible verses.

Guardian Angel publishes books for children from toddlers to Tweens (0-12 years old) but parents will enjoy these books too. The styles of the books and e-books range from fanciful to factual, but all the ones that we looked at as e-books and the ones we looked at on the website are fun. There is nothing nicer for a Home Educator than to come across an educational resource that helps you maintain a love of learning in your home.

Guardian Angel Publishes e-books ($5.00 PDF files), CD’s of their books (and print copies of these beautiful and well written stories as well. Some of the books come in a DVD format. (Rainbow Sheep)

Take a look at the website where you can see what I am talking about and even look at some of their items free:

 http://www.guardianangelpublishing.com/

Free E-books and information on the artists and writers can be found at this link: http://www.guardianangelpublishing.com/freebies.htm

Well, we enjoyed reviewing these books very much and are excited to learn about another resource we didn't know about! I hope that you will be too.

I do not receive any compensation from any company for a review of their products. Although this publisher did send me the ebooks to review at no cost to me, it is with the understanding that I am able to share my personal experience with the products and my opinion as a Homeschooler, parent and former classroom teacher.

 Until later - Merit K

I hadn’t seen “Nature Friend Magazine” for a couple of years. Our family had previously subscribed and really enjoyed this magazine. I even did a review of it on my other blog a couple of years ago and re-posted it (http://cre8tivehome.wordpress.com/2009/05/26/entry-for-may-26-2009/)

when I moved my blog to Wordpress this year. So it was great to hear that we were going to get to review the magazine for the TOS Crew reviews.

We received the August and September issues free from the publisher to review. I was thrilled with the magazine’s fresh new layout and professional quality. The content had always been superior in my opinion and the old fashioned simplicity of the old layout was really quaint and I loved it, but the new magazines are gorgeous!

The children always enjoyed reading the nature articles so that wasn’t different to us. I had to hunt down the magazines in order to look at them myself. They kept disappearing to another room in the house. The entire family (especially Dad) loved looking at the beautiful photography in these two issues!

This magazine has always had so much more content and depth than the typical kid’s nature magazine. Every issue is fun, educational and a delight to the eye. The magazine’s publishers provide mini art and photography lessons, hidden pictures, puzzles and jokes and a venue for your children’s own artwork, photography and writing as well. Each month they showcase the work of their readers who have learned something from the lessons in the previous month. I was so glad to see that they had kept the “You Can Draw” section (which shows how to do a realistic drawing of an animal or plant) since that was always my favorite.  Our Nature notebooks always looked better after the Nature Friend Magazine arrived!

Another thing that I always liked about the Nature Friend Magazine was that it is not only a reinforcer of the Science that I have taught the children, but it was often a ‘springboard’ for them and they would experiment and explore further as a result of reading the magazine. Nature Friend continues to encourage its readers to be active learners and not just passively enjoy a good article about nature.

One of my explorers at Stone Mountain, NC

The magazine design is of a professional quality. The articles are all from a Biblical perspective and the content is excellent. This is a Monthly periodical. The Magazine Subscription price is $36.00 for 1 year or 2 years for $68.00.

You can find out more about this magazine, or subscribe at their website: http://www.naturefriendmagazine.com/index.pl?linkid=subscribe

You can view sample magazines here: http://www.naturefriendmagazine.com/index.pl?linkid=4;class=gen

Study guides are now available to go with each issue to help you with your Homeschool nature study. Although I didn’t get a chance to review them, you can get more information and look at a sample here:

http://www.naturefriendmagazine.com/index.pl?linkid=31;class=gen

Nature Friend Magazine Savings

SAVE with Coupon Code: BLOG93 

Friends, use coupon code BLOG93 to save $3.00 off your new subscription. You are also invited to post this invitation on your homeschool blog.  Opportunity is valid until November 30, 2009. 

Merit K

This is an independant review and not a paid endorsement. I am not affiliated with Nature Friend Magazine or any of the companies whose products or curriculum I am reviewing on my blogs. The products are given to me to use with my family in order for me to give a review, but no other compensation is given. I hope you appreciate getting my honest opinion on these items :0) 

More Help is on the Way!

Help for taking the SAT and so much more!

 We received this set to review from Maven of Memory Publishing, which includes:

1) The 4 DVD Set of the class entitled “College Prep Genius- Master the SAT” Class”

2) “The No Brainer Way to SAT Success” guidebook

3) “No Brainer” Workbook

Being new to homeschooling a High School student, (ooo – I shudder just typing that!) I wasn’t sure what to think about my ninth grader studying for the SAT. Quite honestly, it seemed a little “high pressure” for my family’s relaxed learning style, but as we watched the DVD’s and began to work our way through the book, I realized that it wasn’t being “high pressure” it was taking off the pressure!

In just a few short lessons, I was already seeing the benefits of early and adequate preparation for the SAT especially since the author, Jean Burk so clearly pointed out that studying for the exams with this curriculum is like earning money towards college because our students will be working towards earning scholarships based on their SAT success!

Another thing that I liked about this resource is that it is well suited to the Homeschool environment. It was created by a home educator and would be easy to use in a co-op class (they even have a license for that!).

The DVD guides your students through the book and workbook assignments so that they are able to work completely independantly. The recommendations made by the author provide a good foundation for your student to begin taking the SAT or PSAT with confidence.

The book also includes a lot of information that is helpful to any parent who is just beginning to guide the interests and strengths of their High School students, such as information on where they can find information on available scholarships, as well as tips for College Prep and checklists for a College Prep High School Plan.

She provides much more than just examples of the types of questions the students can expect to see. There are charts with recommendations for the types of curriculum your student should begin to use in the Junior High Years to enable them to better use reasoning and logic skills. She gives specific strategies to help the students make the most of their time while taking the SAT test or PSAT and hints on dealing with the essay section. The Book and DVD cover each section of the SAT in detail and the Workbook provides numerous examples of questions in each section for the student to practice their newly found testing strategies.

 We have not used any other SAT Prep Materials, but I have looked some over and “College Prep Genius” compares very nicely in price at only $79.00, especially with her money back guarantee (some of the courses I saw were $300.00). Additionally, it looked to me as though the content was superior to at least some of the test prep materials I have glanced through and none of them contained the Homeschool oriented content that this one does!

The set is available here for only $79.00  http://www.collegeprepgenius.com/

From September 25-November 15^th you can get FREE Shipping and Handling by using the order code: HSBlog09

Another neat link to check out on this publisher's website is the Vocab Cafe' which features books written by Jean Burk's son to help your Middle school and High School students improve and expand their vocabulary in a fun way (rather than a stuffy textbook) We haven't tried these out, but they look good:

http://www.vocabcafe.com/

Well, we will keep you posted on our High School Adventure - thanks for joining us along the way!

Merit K 

VocabCafe’

http://www.vocabcafe.com/

http://www.vocabcafe.com/author.html

... what’s on my desk right now?

If you look closely, you will see a giant economy size Kleenex box (I’m getting a little cold - achoo!), a red scotch tape dispenser, my favorite stapler, a magnetic paper clip holder, a red and white book marker from Morningstar Research Center (who knows where I picked this up-it must have been free somewhere!) my purple pen, a steno pad, “In” (full) and “Out” folder organizers and “The Complete Career, College, and High School Guide for Homeschoolers” by Jill Dixon, B.S. Ed., M.Ed. (in my purple notebook)

This e-book is just like having a Guidance Counselor in a Binder!

 As Home Educators one thing that can be a concern to us as our children near High School age is the possibility of a gap in the area of career direction. Sometimes a parent is their child’s best career advisor, but sometimes, an objective opinion of our child’s strengths, such as a school guidance counselor might be expected to provide, is desirable for the Homeschooled child.

It can be a challenge to try and find information on different types of careers for which our student might be suited based on their temperament and interests. Many career assessments are written with adults in mind and they tend to focus on helping an established adult change careers rather than helping a young person direct their thinking toward beginning a particular type of career.

Educational Diagnostic Prescriptive Services has done a superb job of assembling this book in order to help your student with this type of “self discovery”. This is a practical resource that will enable them to formulate a workable plan for their education and desired career.   

 (from their website) The 224 page guide includes:

 4 clear self–administered and self–scored assessments designed to find:

1) Your work and service preference and gifts

2) Your personality type

3) Your primary learning style

4) Your work environment preference

and match these with your 3 best College Majors and Careers

(Now, this is from me) The Book also brings insight to parents who are teaching their High Schoolers at home which will help us to determine proper coursework and create learning opportunities which will best suit our young adults. Including :

(and this is from their website – again)

• A list of college majors / Middle School and High School Courses and activities for each major
• Career Interview candidates for each major
• Over 650 occupations and the fastest growing jobs for this decade
• A complete High School Handbook which includes: High School Requirements, a complete list of Courses, Volunteer and Service Opportunities, ACT/PSAT/SAT Preparation, Calculating Your G.P.A., Preparing Transcripts, Applying for Scholarships, and more
• Several Forms for High School and Career Planning (*The guide itself can be used as an elective credit of ½ for High School)
• And more!

(me again) I have noticed that many High Schools require their 9^th or 10th grade students to participate in classes designed to help them with future career choices, so this course is appropriate and qualified to include in your High School student’s transcript.

My 9^th Grade daughter is learning and thoroughly enjoying the self assessment format of this guide and I am relived to have help in choosing classes for the next few years as well as validation of the courses we have chosen for her in the past.

I am impressed with how comprehensive the guide is. They didn’t include a list of all the “little extras” on their list at the website. Some of the things that my daughter and I both liked were:

 Detailed information on the types of college entrance tests and the differences between them

Suggested activities and Community service participation that can be counted towards High school credit

Advice from Homeschooled Graduates

 Samples of a transcript and Student Biography

 Information on CLEP and AP exams

  I am sure that my daughter will be better prepared for her High School, college and her career choices as a result of using this curriculum! Even students who are not interested in going on to college will benefit from using this curriculum as it does not have a narrow focus.

The guide helps the student and parent find the educational plan and the future career which suits them best by taking into consideration the many dimensions of personality, temperament and preferences instead of simply drawing conclusions based on a students strengths and weaknesses which are not the only indicators of what would be a good career for the individual.    

E.D.U.D.P.S. has two other great products that we are currently using and reviewing for “The Old Schoolhouse Magazine”. They are “Roots and Fruits” and “Write With the Best” (Vol. 1 &2). I plan to write a more detailed review on our use of each of these products in the very near future, because they are wonderful!  

“The Complete Career, College, and High School Guide for Homeschoolers” is available in soft cover for $39.95 or as an e-book (not a PDF) for the one that I have used most extensively with my daughter and I want to do justice to each one of these terrific resources so that you can decide if they might be just what you have been looking for!   The information on the Guide is on their website here: http://edudps.com/career-guide-details.html

 “Write with the Best” Vol. 1 is available in a 3 ring binder format for only $24.95, printed pages only (no Binder) for $22.95 and is on sale in the e-book format for only $14.95. Volume 2 of the set which teaches expository and informative writing, continues with some of the same wonderful features that I love such as;

The use of real literature to illustrate descriptive writing to young people and encourage them to model their writing after the great writers (such as my personal favorite - Charles Dickens J)

The lessons involve nominal teacher prep –which encourages independent learning and allows Mom to catch up on the laundry!

It employs short lessons that can be used with different age groups which appeals to lots of styles of Homeschooling

And it provides specific guides for your writer so that they can check their rough drafts and correct them before you evaluate their writing. These parameters serve to make writing an enjoyable process for the student rather than a discouraging task and help them to see that they can succeed in this important area of communication.  

 “Write with the Best” Vol.2 is only $18.65 for the e-book format, $29.95 for the soft cover and is available in printed pages only for $ 27.45

http://edudps.com/WWTBVOL2.html

“Roots and Fruits” vocabulary program is useable with young students and yet still interesting to older students. The program emphasizes an understanding of the vocabulary word rather than just memorization of a definition. Mrs. Dixon makes suggestions for ways to use “Roots and Fruits” with different age groups and all of these books keep in mind the different learning styles of children. http://edudps.com/roots-and-fruits.html

This book is available as an e-book for the excellent price of only $11.25, the soft cover is in a comb binding for $19.98 and you can get the pages only (to put in your own purple notebook like me;) for $17.48.

It is obvious that Mrs. Dixon is a gifted teacher. Her experience and wisdom shine through immediately in the practical organization of the material, the teaching tips and suggestions and the consideration for the unique character of Home education.

I can highly recommend these resources to you.

Hope you will go and check out for yourself all the other great items and free excerpts that are available on their site!

Have a good Week - Merit K

A Journey Through Learning’s "Autumn" Lapbook

"Hotdog" Folds, "Hamburger" Folds, " Accordion" folds... Oh my!

I have finally learned how to fold a Lapbook! The authors of this book give very clear instructions on how to fold the folders into the Lapbook base, as well as how to create and fold the mini-books that go in the Lapbook. Even the "lapbook challenged" like me, can succeed with these books!

I loved the step by step instructions in these lapbooks. They were so easy that many students will be able to follow them on their own. I previously tried to create a Lapbook sold by another company, with my youngest and we had a little difficulty following the instructions that were given, but that was not a problem with the “Journey to Learning Lapbook”.

These Lapbooks contained specific instructions and everything you need to create a fun thematic Lapbook. We are currently creating the Autumn Lapbook, but I was also able to look at several of the other selections available on their website: http://www.ajourneythroughlearning.com/  including; The Parables of the King, Reptiles, Amphibians and The Desert Lapbooks. They all were very nice and included the same easy to follow directions on how to assemble the Lapbook!

Another great suggestion by the authors is to have the student also create a binder/notebook to go along with the Lapbook. This will enable them to keep all their supplies at hand and allows them to include their notes and any copy work you might assign them. Students can also add to their notebook, their own creative writing, drawings on the subject, poems or even photographs of items from their nature hikes.

In addition, the "Autumn" Lapbook that we are using, contains “Hands on” activity ideas – such as building a bird’s nest and a Nature Scavenger Hunt. This enables the Autumn Lapbook to integrate nicely with your “Nature study” or science. Your child might be creative and add natural touches to the lapbooks as well as adding the mini-books to the Lapbook base. Children are encouraged to observe and learn about birds and their habits and this Lapbook contains Narration pages for both older and younger students. In this lapbook, they make a "pocket" for them to put their own favorite recipe cards into - you can then make a favorite recipe together. This enables you to integrate Math and Home economics as well, creating a neat Mini Unit for Fall!

This Lapbook has been a really fun and active way of Learning about the Fall Holidays and traditions as well as the first Thanksgiving celebration, Birds and their Migration patterns and Fall leaves.

Here you can see a Sample of the Autumn Lapbook pages we worked with - http://www.ajourneythroughlearning.com/

The authors have also included a template in this lapbook for a simple list that allows your student to concisely keep notes on new information and list new vocabulary/spelling words (Key Words) for them to add to their notebook.

You can print the Lapbook in color if you have a child like mine, that doesn’t want to color in all the pictures. There is still plenty for them to do on the mini-books without the coloring. It is a fun project and allows for a lot of creativity and individuality as well as providing a structure for your child’s learning.

The pictures are interesting and the material is informative. The Lapbook was recommended for grades 2-7^th, but my 5 & 7^th graders, although they enjoy hands on projects, found the information was a bit simplistic and a lot of what they have studied in previous years. I would say that for my family, this would have been appropriate material for the K-3^rd grade. I have found that as we are going along in this Lapbook, I need to “tweak” it for my 5^th grader since as it is a bit easy for him.

My 7^th grader has been inspired to try and create his own custom Lapbook about “National Treasures” and is very excited to learn some of these folds and lapbooking techniques which are new to us. The company has a Template package that looks like it will be just what he needs to personalize his project!

" A Journey Through Learning" has a lot of other neat materials available on their website some of which co-ordinate with their Lapbook/Thematic Units such as Notebooking pages and Copywork pages that co-ordinate with their Lapbook sets – I thought these were also very reasonably priced: http://www.ajourneythroughlearning.com/

The Lapbook that we used - "Autumn" is available as a download (which is what we used) for just $13.00. You can purchase a CD for $14.00 or get the printed version for $21.00. They have FREE shipping!!!!