One of the “school” projects that we’re going to work on next summer (okay – I’m disguising schoolwork as fun!) is digital photography.  My two children already fiddle with my camera but I’d like to spend extra time with them in learning how to set up a picture and get a really good photo, not just another snapshot.  The November issue of Molly’s Digest is going to really help me out with our lessons.  I’ve been learning tips from how to set up a photo, how to suit the photo subjects to how to get interesting angles and perspectives (i.e. getting down on my knees).  All of these tips will help us in learning how to take great photos – ones that are really interesting. 

Let’s not forget that once you get finished taking the pictures you need to do something with them (other than storing them on your hard drive).  I can hear the gasps now but I don’t scrapbook.  Of all the craft projects I’ve ever tried, scrapbooking just isn’t my thing.  I simply don’t have the time and when a project begins to mount and mount, I just look at the pile and let it sit.  It’s too overwhelming sometimes.  But, I still love to take pictures.  Instead of making beautiful pages for a scrapbook I simply slap them into a photo album (by date order) and I’m done!  However, after reading Molly’s November issue, I have been enlightened to the many ways to organize a photo album (by trip, event, by child, etc.) other than just by date order.  These tips are really going to come in handy since we just got back from a week’s vacation in DC.  What timing!!!  Again, the November issue has really got some great ideas for digital scrapbooking (which is probably much more up my alley) including listing many websites that offer free digital scrapbooking supplies.  In addition, I’ve got many new ideas for organizing photo albums and pictures waiting to go into photo albums.  I can’t wait to get started!

And what edition of Molly isn’t complete without recipes!?  I’ve promised myself that at least once a week I’m going to pull out my crockpot and “fire it up” (so to speak).  I forget that I have one even though I know how easy it is to prepare a meal and let it cook on its own while we handle school work, errands and even work itself.  There are so many wonderful slow cooker recipes in this issue that my mouth was watering while I envisioned these dishes in my own crockpot:  Slow-Cooker Lasagna, Vegetarian Chili, Cheesy Chicken, Pot Roast and more!!  As Rachael Ray would say, “Yummo!”

If you haven’t ordered your November issue yet, don’t wait and order it now.  It’ll definitely be worth the small investment!

Autumn is one of my favorite seasons.  I love the savory dishes, apple ciders, hot cocoa and Friday night “family date nights” - watching really good movies while we snuggle on the couch surrounded by heaps of blankets and pillows.  What can get better than that?

Well… how about the new Download N Go series?  The first unit study is devoted to Autumn Treasures.  In 5 short days, just one week, your K-4^th grader will learn about autumn, the changing of the leaves, Johnny Appleseed, apples then on to pumpkins, butterflies and popcorn.  Make a lapbook, jump into fall and learn to love Autumn like I do.

Finally!  We are almost finished with our school year.  Yeah!  It's been a crazy school year.  Although I enjoyed it tremendously, I'm always a little relieved and happy when we can put another year behind us, enjoy the summer and plan for the next year.

I have some really great plans for next year, but I wanted to focus for just a second on this year.  Usually I have a planner/calendar that I keep track of what each of my students has done or I'll use homeschooltracker.com.  However, we since had such an unusual school year, the calendar/planner was not utilized.  So, to put something in writing as to what we accomplished this year, I wrote a report for each child that outlined by subject what we worked on, the original goals and the achievement of those goals.  In addition, I stated our goals for next year and what program we plan on using.  I think this is a great way to summarize all of my students' achievements.  Plus, it gives me a better perspective of what we accomplished, even without established curriculums.

At the end of each school year, I gather all of their completed work, binders, folders, workbooks, etc. and put them in a 12x12x6 box, label the box with my child's name, school year and grade level.  Then I tape it shut and file it away.  Usually I'll take the calendar/planner and place it on top of all the paperwork so that it's the first thing I'll see when I re-open the box.  Instead of adding the planner this year, I'm going to place this Summary Report on top.  What a great way to reflect on what we've done during the school year - even if I review the summary 20 years later!

I hope y'all have a blessed day!

Unbelievable program!!!  I absolutely love Latina Christiana I.  We had the privilege of reviewing this program, including Famous Men of Rome.  This is my official last review for the TOS Crew and I'm so pleased that I get to end with such an awesome curriculum.

The Latina Christiana program we reviewed included the teacher manual, student guide, Instructional DVDs, and Pronunciation CD.  Cheryl Lowe makes learning Latin fun and easy.  I have never taken Latin before (not in junior high, high school or college) and was a little intimidated to try teaching it without KNOWING it, but I need not have worried.  I simply pop in the DVD and Ms. Lowe teaches for me.  I get to participate with my children and we all learn it together.  Isn't that cool?!!

Each Latin class includes a prayer, vocabulary, derivatives, grammar, songs and lots of help from Ms. Lowe.  We do copywork three times a week with the vocabulary and grammar lessons and then we quiz each other on these same items.  By Thursday we complete the worksheets and on Friday we test.  It's such a wonderful format and very helpful for those like me who want to teach Latin but know absolutely nothing about it.

There are times throughout the day that I find myself singing "Christus Vincit" (which is one of the Latin songs you learn in this program).  We'll sometimes listen to the Pronunciation CD (which has the songs on it) while we're working on our Latin worksheets.  My son (he's 10) comments everytime about how beautiful the music is (and I really have to agree with him).

This program is designed for students in grades 3 and up.  My son is picking it up rather quickly (4th grade) and I'm also using it for my 1st grader.  She's following along pretty good at this point.  We practice the drills together and review the material more than with my son, but she's learning it just the same.  It's really cool how they quiz each other on their vocabulary and grammar, correcting each other as well.  They're really learning the material quite nicely and I'm rather pleased with how this program is working with our regular school work.  We do spend more time on it, but I think it's important to get this information down.  I am not using the tests for my daughter, though.  I think she's a little young for that.

As for Famous Men of Rome, we are really enjoying the full color illustrations (can you say beautiful?!) and the material itself is very interesting.  We read one chapter a week and then my son completes the accompanying student guide material for that chapter.  He finds it a little challenging at times but all in all he's really enjoying the material.  Famous Men of Rome starts with the founding of Rome and the ancestry behind it - all the way up through Rome's fall.  There are 30 chapters and each chapter outlines a "famous man of Rome", including Horatius, Cicero, Marcus Aurelius and many others.  This book is a really wonderful complement to Latina Christiana I.  My son reads each chapter to us (which applies towards his daily reading assignment as well) and then we discuss what happened.  They each give me a narrative of what they've heard or read and sometimes I'll even ask them to write a short paragraph on what they've learned (the wonders of Charlotte Mason!).

In Summary:

• Latina Christiana I:  Teacher guide, student guide, pronunciation CD, instructional DVDs and flashcards = $97.90
  • Very easy system of learning Latin
  • Perfect for those with no previous Latin experience
  • Very detailed curriculum that includes not only Latin but grammar and vocabulary as well
• Famous Men of Rome (teacher guide, text and student guide) = $39.95
  • History of Rome from the beginning to the fall of the empire
  • 30 lessons about 30 different Roman men
• Wonderful program!!!!
• Website also contains free drill worksheets, practice worksheets, free songs, etc.
• Upon completion of the material, you can email Memoria Press and receive a free completion certificate for your Latin scholar
• Overall: 

Overview of Program

I’ve heard wonderful things about Tapestry of Grace (TOG) all these years we’ve been homeschooling, but have never really looked at the program – until now.  TOG uses a unit study approach for history, geography, reading, language arts, etc.  You only need to add spelling, math and a foreign language to complete your studies.  Each year is divided into 4 units, each unit lasting 9 weeks for a 36-week school year.

There is four years worth of material covering Genesis through the 20^th century.  The entire program is divided into four levels based on grade level.  So, while we studied Year 1, Unit 4, my daughter was at the Lower Grammar level and my son was in the Upper Grammar level, but we studied the same material, just the content was slightly different.  Here are the four levels:

Ø     Lower grammar (K-3)

Ø     Upper grammar (4-6)

Ø     Dialectic (7^th-9^th)

Ø     Rhetoric (10^th-12^th)

Theoretically, you could cycle through all four years several times throughout your homeschooling journey.  With each cycle you would study at the next highest level, covering the same material but with different books and exercises, for a more detailed, intensive study.

Setting It Up / Installation

Our set up & installation process included several steps and was quite confusing.  However, TOG has fine-tuned their process so that future users won’t go through what we did and now the process is much simpler and easier, which is really wonderful.  When you order the digital edition, directly from your personal account on the Lampstand Bookshelf store, you’ll have instant access to download your material, including the LockLizard software (which is needed to view their copyrighted material).

Just a note - TOG is offering both their original printed material as well as the new digital edition, but the digital edition version is less expensive and some people prefer the digital editions to the hard copy version. 

Personally, I prefer to have a curriculum physically in my hand.  It’s easier for me to figure something out if I have a tangible item I can touch, maneuver, flip through, dog-ear or tab.  It also gives me a full picture of what’s expected.  Some people love e-books, digital curriculums, etc – but call me a traditionalist – I love to curl up on the couch with my children while we homeschool with a good old-fashioned book in our hands.  I understand the reasoning for moving to a digital format, especially in today’s economy, and you can definitely print the portions you need from the digital edition as you need them – which could save you money in the longrun.  

If you would like to learn more about the digital edition of Tapestry of Grace, please visit their website.  Everything you’d ever want to know about TOG is all in one easy-to-find location.

In addition, TOG has a wonderful technical support staff.  They are very helpful and will walk with you through the installation process if you’re having any problems or questions. 

Review of Actual Unit

The Year 1, Unit 4 study covers rise and fall of the Roman Empire, covering topics from Estruscans and the founding of Rome, the everyday life of the Roman Republic, the Punic Wars and the change from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire all the way up through the falling of Rome to the barbarians.

This unit study is very detailed and thorough covering these subjects each week:

Ø     Reading assignments for core history

Ø     In-depth history

Ø     Literature / Language Arts

Ø     Arts and activities and the

Ø     Worldview (Bible reading)

Then, following the reading assignments come writing assignments, memory games, art projects, geography assignments, etc.

How We Used TOG in our Homeschool

Our history this spring has been revolving around Rome so when we were offered the chance to choose which section we wanted to study, Rome was at the top of the list.

My intention was to use TOG alone in our study of Rome, but I had a difficult finding all the books that TOG used/recommended in their lessons.  They were either checked out or our library simply didn’t have them.  Now, if we had a larger homeschool budget, we could have purchased each of the books but that’s just not possible for us (and would have been very expensive).  Now, you probably could do an interlibrary loan and be fine, but we’re in a small town and that wasn’t really an option for us.  So, I ended up improvising and using other books that covered the same material.  This worked for us in most cases but didn’t follow along exactly with the TOG program.  So, while my intention was to follow as closely as possible that’s not exactly how it ended up for us.

I really like the idea of a unit study approach and while we’ve done them before, the format from TOG really didn’t suit us.  It seemed to be a very formal approach for a unit study and in the beginning it was quite overwhelming.  I almost felt compelled to do exactly what they suggested or my children wouldn’t be able to follow along with the material.  I’m not sure that makes sense, but it’s almost like the material mandated what we needed to do and when to do it rather than us using it as it fitted into our homeschool life. 

Now, this may be just the program that other families will love.  In fact, I know other families who really love this program – especially those who homeschool multiple grade levels.  This would be a great program for them because you cover the same topics – but at different levels of difficulty.  I can see where it would be a wonderful timesaver in that situation.

Also, if your students LOVE to read and work on projects, then this would be a great curriculum for your family – from cookie dough maps to paper mache projects. 

I also reviewed the Evaluation supplement and found it to be very helpful.  Even though we weren't able to find and use all the required books, the evaluations allowed me to make sure that my children were still learning the information that was intended with this program.

In Summary:

Ø     Cost

o        Each digital edition unit is $45.00 x 4 units per year = $180.00

o        The printed edition per unit is $60.00 x 4 units per year = $ 240.00

Ø     Unit study approach to history – includes literature, history, geography, reading, language arts

Ø     Great for families teaching multiple grade levels

Ø     Digital edition is downloadable, almost instantly

I’ve heard wonderful things about the Exploring Creation series through Apologia for many years now.  But, we’ve always been a really tight budget and by the time math, language arts, foreign language, etc. were purchased, there was never enough money to purchase anything else.  But, having had a chance to fully review Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day, I can see that we needed to find the little bit of extra money for this curriculum. 

For a general overview, let me explain how the curriculum works and then we’ll dive into what it covers.  First, this entire book covers flying creatures – from the basics of zoology all the way through birds, insects and flying reptiles.  Each lesson begins with basic instruction of a particular topic, like “What Makes a Bird a Bird?” and then it breaks that subject down into manageable pieces for the student to read and understand.  There’s a project or two, a scientific experiment (nothing dangerous) and then the completion of a Scientific Speculation Sheet which is basically a review (including the hypothesis and conclusion) of the experiment.  All in all, it takes a couple of weeks per chapter to fully cover the material – from creating notebooks (which is really awesome to show your child’s work at the end of the year) to completing the experiments and data recording.

As for what this curriculum covers, Apologia’s website states that in this book:

“…your children will begin exploring the dynamics of flight and animal classification, understanding why the design we see in these incredible creatures points us to our Creator God. Then, get ready for the exciting adventure of learning about birds. Your children will learn how to attract various bird species to your yard and identify them by looking at their special physical characteristics, diverse nests, and interesting domestic practices. They will also learn the anatomy and the glorious design that enables birds to do remarkable things. After becoming amateur ornithologists, your children will explore the world of chiropterology, which is the study of bats.”

With that being said, we have had the opportunity to review this book and really love it!  My son asks to do this every day.  He really enjoys science in general, but this book is put into such a great format that it’s easy for him to read through and understand.  He really enjoys the science experiments and getting out and exploring what we’ve learned.  This book is not designed to be read and then answer questions at the end of the chapter – BORING!!!  It’s designed for the student to immerse himself, reading the material, applying what he’s learned in simple experiments or projects and then using the scientific method to complete his work.  It’s a really awesome format and both of my children are really retaining what they’re learning.

I definitely plan on purchasing additional material from Apologia for next year and will continue to use them as our science curriculum from now on.

In summary:

Ø     Price:  $35.00

Ø     Title:  Exploring Creation with Zoology 1 – Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day

Ø     For Elementary Grades

Ø     No worksheets or boring assignments, hands-on science experiments and projects

Ø     Overall: 

Critical Thinking has done it again!  We have had the chance to review Mathematical Reasoning Level B (for 1^st grade).  Vivid color pages, easy to understand instructions and full of fun activities, what first grader wouldn’t love this math book! 

What I really like about this book is that it covers the complete core requirements for first grade and includes topics such as:

Ø     Addition

Ø     Bar Graphs

Ø     Calendar

Ø     Capacity

Ø     Fractions

Ø     Language

Ø     Manipulatives

Ø     Matching

Ø     Money

Ø     Shapes

Ø     Subtraction

Ø     + many more topics

Critical Thinking has always done a great job of making learning fun – from language arts to science and math.  This book is no exception.  It follows the same format as the other Critical Thinking material in that each lessons builds upon the next, helping your child become “more comfortable with concepts but also challenging them to continue building their math skills.”

My daughter is in first grade but is already doing second grade math.  I used this book as a supplement to what she has already learned and it’s seemed to help her with what she’s doing now.  It’s been a wonderful addition to her “free time” activities although it’s really learning.  I love how that works!  She thinks she’s having fun and all the while she’s learning and reinforcing the things she’s already learned!

In summary:

Ø     Price:  $32.99 (book)

Ø     Core curriculum for 1^st grade math

Ø     Overall: 

We've had the pleasure of reviewing (aka playing with) various toys from Schleich:  a goose, swabian-hall pig, koala, sea lion, African black rhino calf and a gazelle.  My son is a little too old for these (or so he says) but my daughter immediately brought down her Noah's ark set and added them to her menagerie. 

Since then, she's had many adventures with her new crew.  They've sailed the high seas, fought off enemies (and fought with each other) but in the end, they end up being good friends, learning to get along with each other.  Every day is an adventure when you have Schleich figures to play with!

Although the figures are made in China, Schleich complies with the new Federal Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA) to ensure that its products do not contain lead.  In fact, each shipment's packing slip contains a unique 7-digit number that allows you, the consumer, to find the Certificate of Conformity for the items you purchased.  That's pretty cool.

I went to their website to see what else Schleich offers and my goodness, they have TONS of different animals, from wildlife to barn animals, trees, sea animals, human life, prehistoric mammals.  You name it and they've probably got it!

These are really wonderful little toys and suitable for children 3 and over.  I've seen their products in various stores around our area and my daughter has always gravitated to them as we walk by.  She just loves animals!!  To say the least, we were extremely pleased to receive these toys to review and I would recommend them for anyone who's children love animals.

In summary:

• Various wildlife & barnyard figures
• Prices range based on the animal / set
• Suitable for children 3+
• Can be purchased on-line or through a local store
• Overall: 

I just received an email from 4th Day Alliance.  They are hosting a month-long membership drive (FOR FREE!!).  And, a chance to win cool prizes.  Here's all the info:

Content is actually still being posted and updated weekly.  Since this is the International Year of Astronomy, evolutionists are doing all they can to inculcate the world with their false science, and they are using astronomy as a means to do it.  We'd like to counter their efforts as best as possible.  So, we are asking you to help us with a membership drive. 

 What an awesome lap book / activity pack!!  I’ve never used a formal “lap book” pack and I’ve never had the opportunity to use one of the Homeschool in the Woods products.  What a joy!

We had a great time reviewing The New Testament from the Homeschool in the Woods.  Each day we were able to read from the Bible and study the Word of God, taking time to use the projects in the pack.  In this particular pack, there were 15 projects covering the lineage from David to Jesus all the way through Paul’s journeys.

Now, to be truthful my son (he’s 10) doesn’t really like coloring or cutting, etc.  He never has.  He’s always rushed through these kinds of projects and not really cared about how they turned out.  With that being said, he was actually very patient and took his time with this project. 

My daughter on the other hand LOVES to color, cut, glue, tape, paint, etc.  Anything that involves any kind of arts or crafts is right up her alley.  She just loves it.  But, she tends to rush through projects so that she can get started on the next one without really taking the time to enjoy and appreciate what she’s currently working on.  She’ll start out very detailed using various colors and then as she gets bored with it, her pictures become hurried and monotone (all blue, all green, etc.).  Anyway, we are definitely taking our time with this activity pack and working through it slowly, appreciating what’s taking place within the Bible readings and in our projects.  One of the projects was about the miracles that Jesus performed.  So, we took our time and read through each of the verses and sections in the activity pack.  By the time we are done they will have very nice (and well appreciated) lap books on the New Testament. 

We’ve tried a few lap books this year on our own as part of our independent studies and they’ve turned out pretty well.  However, most of the material I come up with on my own.  After doing one of Amy Pak’s activity packs, I must say that ours pale in comparison.  The materials that Amy has put together are beautiful with very creative ways of conveying the information we’ve read and learned.  I can’t wait to see how my children’s finished projects turn out!

Also, this pack comes with very detailed instructions for each project.  The only one I had problems with is the Beatitudes fold-out piece.  It’s confusing as all get-out (that’s Texan for, “It makes no sense to me.”).  We ended up putting it together our own way.  It doesn’t look like it’s supposed to look, but I just couldn’t understand how to put it all together with the instructions.  Out of all that we’ve done, that was by far the trickiest.  Everything else has worked out wonderfully and we've all really enjoyed reading and learning from the Bible as well as applying what we've learned in the form of the New Testament activity pack.

In summary:

Ø     Price:  $18.95 download or $19.95 on CD

Ø     Hands-On History Activity Pak