A Stable Beginning

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

God-focused Bible curriculum with Positive Action for Christ ~ a TOS review

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with FTC Regulations.

Years ago while visiting our state’s homeschool convention for the first time I discovered a God-focused Bible curriculum while roaming the floors of the convention halls. I had never heard of Positive Action Bible Curriculum before then but I was in love with this curriculum at first glance of their Bible Curriculum. A few weeks ago we were blessed to receive the 4th Grade - Building Life Castles curriculum to use.

Just who is Positive Action For Christ? They are a Christian publishing company that started back in 1969. The company specializes in educational material for students from Kindergarten to High School. Upon opening up our curriculum box I discovered the Grade 4 Bible curriculum with a teacher’s manual (including curriculum binder) and student workbook and squealed with joy. What I had originally planned out for McKenzie this year was not coming together as I had planned so I was truly grateful for the opportunity to use this 4th grade set with her.

Even though McKenzie is in 5th grade, this curriculum fits our needs. The curriculum covers the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit, and study the ministry of the Apostle Paul.
Lessons 1–13: The life and ministry of Jesus Christ, with a special emphasis on His teaching and atonement for us

Lessons 14–17: The work of the Holy Spirit in believers

Lessons 18–28: Explanations and examples of godly character from both Old and New Testaments Lessons 29–35: The life and ministry of the Apostle Paul

A scripture memory system is also included with this curriculum to get students to hide the word of God in their hearts. instead of learning a new verse each week from different areas of the Bible, students learn a passage of scripture over a couple of weeks. A review week is also built in so that mastery of the passage is gained before moving on to the next passage. Four passages are memorized in the Building Life Castles curriculum:

John 1:1-17

2 Peter 1:8

Psalms 1:1-6

Titus 3:3-8

Examples of godly character from both the Old and the New Testaments are weaved through this fourth edition with colorful and easy to understand pages. Other updates to this edition include bringing the vocabulary words to the forefront for easy reference of unfamiliar terms and page headings to make the teacher manual.

The teacher's manual which sells for $33.95, and is a complete resource that includes:

35 lessons (one per week)

Target truths (objectives)

Teaching strategy section

Weekly character traits

Practical applications

Interesting stories Ideas for puzzles, skits, artwork, buzz groups, and discussion

Plans for 3, 4, or 5 day Bible class schedules

Completed student's manual answer key pages

Reproducible weekly quizzes with answer key

Scripture memory program

The student workbook which sells for $17.95, and encourages students to hide God’s Word in their hearts. It includes:

Vocabulary sections

Words for songs in music curriculum

Puzzles, artwork, and maps

Life application sections

Attractive full-color format

Various levels & thinking skills

Material usable with any Bible translation

Scripture memorization sheet 160 pages

Everything you need to complete this Bible Curriculum, minus your student’s own personal Bible is included. And if you prefer digital editions, Positive Action also offers digital editions of both the Teachers Manual ($23.95) and the Student Manual ($9.95). Extra resources are also available to purchase for $9.95. The resources included in this set include:

Student Manual Facsimiles - PDF

Student Manual Answer Slides - PDF

Editable Quizzes - PDF, Word

Study Artwork - PNG

Music Recording - MP3

Using this curriculum with McKenzie has been a breeze! I love that she can get up and work on one section per day. Typically, I have her complete a section and then we review it together. Since there are 4 sections, A-C plus the Life Castle section that helps expand on the lesson pertaining to the students life we used it four days a week. She is currently finishing up Lesson 5 and enjoying it.

Hands down I recommend Positive Action's For Christ Bible curriculum to any family seeking an in-depth study of God’s Word for their children! I am so excited to continue through this curriculum with McKenzie and will be adding curriculum for Micah next year as well. But don’t just take my word for it, check out what 20 of my CrewMates thought of this program by clicking the banner below. And if you are interested in ordering your own curriculum you can get free shipping by using the coupon code REVIEW20 when ordering online or by phone. This is just for US customers.

Building Life Castles {Positive Action Bible Curriculum Reviews}

Company ~ Positive Action Bible Curriculum

Product ~ 4th Grade - Building Life Castles

Format ~ hard copy

Ages ~ 4th graders

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Wednesday, September 2, 2020

Learn to Read with Reading Eggs ~ a TOS review

If you need a little bit of fun to spice up learning to read for your children, look no further than Blake eLearning Inc. learn to read program called Reading Eggs!

Reading Eggs provides a fun and interactive way to get kids to learn how to read. They accomplish this by introducing beginner readers to the world of reading through interactive stories and games with fun characters. Micah has has been using their newest addition to the Reading Eggs line up, Fast Phonics, and loving every bit of his experience.

Reading Eggs has five distinct components to the program including:

~ Reading Eggs Junior for children aged 2-4 years

Reading Eggs Junior is the perfect amount of stimulation for your young toddler who is just beginning their learning journey. With a huge library of read-aloud books, songs, alphabet games, and the all-important phonemic awareness activities your toddler will be engaged from day one.

~ Reading Eggs for children aged 3-7 years

With Reading Eggs your children aged 4-7 will learn everything from letter recognition, phonics, to reading early readers while using this program. To capture and hold a young child’s attention and make the reading experience multi-sensory there are also puzzles, games, and songs to make the process F-U-N! Not to mention the chance to win golden eggs and rewards to help the child progress toward the end goal and feel proud of themselves.

~ Fast Phonics for children aged 5-10

Most beginning readers need a little bit more practice with phonics when learning to read, so the creators created Fast Phonics to focus on building phonics instruction. The Fast Phonics program helps children to learn the 44 sounds of the English language. The program moves quickly but helps to reinforce reading and spelling skills.

~ Reading Eggspress for children aged 7-13

Do you have an older child or want to continue on the reading journey? No problem! Reading Eggspress {a sister part of the Reading Eggs World} is geared towards older children, aged 7-13, to encourage fluent reading. Using real books for reading this program is jam packed with hundreds of interactive reading activities and games to encourage fluent reading!

~ Mathseeds for children aged 3-9 years

Mathseeds teaches kids 3-9 the core math and problem solving skills needed to be successful. Through highly interactive lessons, Mathseeds keeps kids interested in completing math skills. Mathseeds is also available to play on a tablet so you can take the learning on the go if you have internet connection.

For this review, I focused on the Fast Phonics portion only with Micah, my 6year old first grader. He has really enjoyed the learning time. Micah has been working with the program at least 4 days a week for a minimum of 15 minutes. The lessons are engaging and fun so it keeps him interested. His reading has improved tremendously and his is eager to read the books within the program lessons.

We had a great time using the Fast Phonics portion of the Reading Eggs program! All in all, we highly recommend Reading Eggs for anyone looking for a fun and exciting reading or math supplement. We received a 12- month subscription for the purpose of this review and have enjoyed it from the start! Be sure to check out what my CrewMates think our the Reading Eggs Program by clicking the banner below to read their thoughts.

Reading Eggs Subscription {Blake eLearning Inc Reviews}

Company ~ Reading Eggs

Product ~ Reading Eggs

Format ~ Online program

Price ~ All Access for up to 4 children $89.00

Ages ~ 2-13 years old

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Wordless Wednesday

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Friday, August 28, 2020

Happy 11th Birthday McKenzie

Happy 11th birthday McKenzie!!!

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Thursday, August 27, 2020

ThemeVille Math: Grade 2 ~ a TOS review

Morning friends! Another week down in our homeschooling year. Have you started back to school yet? Are you a new homeschooler feeling kind of lost and confused about what curriculum to use? Because there are so many quality curriculum out there it is easy to do.
Today I want to share with you a math curriculum. If you are looking for a straight forward homeschool math program, check out the options from ThemeVille Math. We received a copy of the 2nd grade program for our review, let me tell you about it.

ThemeVille Math is a complete homeschool math curriculum that is workbook based and it is based on the Common Core standards. There are manipulative for the program, they can be purchased separately. However, you might already have these items on hand. There are also videos if you or your child needs extra help understanding the concepts presented. I checked out the videos initially, but found them to not be needed for my son or I.

The curriculum is divided into daily lessons and also a daily review. With 120 lessons and 10 tests the format for completing the work each day.

Pre-Lesson ~ this is a review warm up of previous topics studied.

Daily Lesson ~ the main concepts are taught here including problem solving

The workbook is a thick, three hole punched, softcover worktext. Inside the pages are black and white without much illustration. I personally like this because there is not much distraction as some programs have with lots of colors or illustrations. I would prefer to have the pages be perforated for easy removal because the book is so big. Being able to remove the pages to be stored inside our weekly binder would be a huge plus, especially since it would make it easier to write on the pages.

The Scope and Sequence of this curriculum is aligned with the Second grade Common Core standards. The following topics will be covered in this curriculum:

Review of the Level 1

Place values of 100s, 10s, 1s

Multiplication/division within 100

Even – odd numbers

Long addition/subtraction

Operations with arrays, number line, money

Numerals – words

Comparison/rounding of numbers

Plane/solid figures, perimeter

Clock reading, calendar

Graph reading/plotting

Word problems

A Solutions Guide is also included. It is set up as a visual solution guide and is quick and easy to use.

While we have been plowing through this curriculum over the summer, it is not the best fit for Micah. Not any fault of his own, but I think we would have done better with the Grade 1 set. I think he would have had a better experience starting mid way through the Grade 1 book. Another thing is that we don’t follow Common Core Standards. Having to solve a problem using several different ways was tiresome for Micah and me at times. Most days he could get through a lesson in 20-25 minutes.
Be sure to check out what my CrewMates thought of this homeschool math curriculum by clicking the banner below to read the thoughts on grades 1-4.

Grade 1 to 4 ThemeVille Math (ThemeVille Math Reviews)

Company ~ ThemeVille Math

Product ~ Grade 2

Format ~ Softcover workbook

Price ~ Worktext, $29.85, Solution, $14.85

Ages ~ 2nd graders

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Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Homeschool Easy ~ 1st Grade Entire School Year Curriculum ~ a TOS review

Howdy friends! If you are new to homeschooling, today I have a great homeschool curriculum to share with you. Are you looking for a complete packaged curriculum that doesn’t implement the Common Core? If so, be sure to check out or need a complete package, you'll want to check out the Entire School Year Curriculum sets from Homeschool Easy.

We received the 1st Grade Entire School Year Curriculum and I have been using it with my son, Micah who is 6. This easy-to-use curriculum gets the job done without the extra fluff! Your children will learn all subjects including math the way you were taught, straight forward and to the point.
Through daily worksheets your child with work through the 32 weeks of curriculum material covering the 6 core subjects of: ~ Grammar: focuses on beginning English grammar ~ History: includes links to videos with a focus on basic American history and geography, art projects included too  ~ Math: Common Core free. Includes flash cards to focus on traditional number sense ~ Reading: daily reading lists, books with corresponding comprehension sheets, flash cards, puzzle games, word search, and other materials to learn 1st grade level words. ~ Science: hands-on science related art projects and videos to cover basic science knowledge ~ Writing: beginning writing process Internet access is needed to access the curriculum materials and video lessons. You will also need access to a printer to print out the worksheets.
I love how organized this curriculum is! Every subject is tucked away into folders and subfolders. Finding exactly what you need is easy because everything is clearly labeled by week.

During this unprecedented time when parents are faced with what to do for their children education this year, Homeschool Easy is here to provide an affordable solution. For just $100.00 you can gain access to this consumable curriculum. You get access to an entire year of curriculum that not only is comprehensive but will save you the parent time and undue stress of what exactly you are supposed to teach your child.

For our review period I have spent time focusing on Micah’s reading. He, like his sisters excels in math, so while we did look over it, we didn’t spend too much time on this component. His reading has come a long way and he is reading even more fluently within the past 6 weeks. While he is not a huge worksheet fan I have tried to remedy that by printing the reading lists on vibrant colorful paper.

Overall, this program has been a great fit for us and we will continue to use it throughout the year. It is engaging and complete if you are looking for an all in one curriculum. Homeschool Easy also has complete grade level curriculum up through 5th grade so be sure to check out the other levels offered too. And don’t just take my word for it! Click the banner below to read some of the review of my 45 CrewMates and see what they thought of the 1st Grade Entire School Year curriculum and the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, an 5th grade programs as well.