This blog is my attempt to document our busy but BLESSED lives raising and educating our children for His glory. A child of God, wife to one, and mom to 6 fabulous kids. We are in our 17th year of homeschooling using a Classical ~ Literature based approach.

Come along for the good, the bad & the ugly.



Showing posts with label summer learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label summer learning. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Creative Writing for the Christian homeschool from Creative Word Studio ~ a TOS review

Disclaimer: I received a Complimentary 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.

Hooray! We have made it to the official last week of the 2020-2021 school year! Today I am excited to tell you about a new company called Creative Word Studio. McKenzie (rising 6th) and I have been working on the creative and fun process of writing with their book Sparkling Bits of Writing Book 1 instead of focusing on the traditional mechanics or grammar part of writing. 
Creative Word Studio was developed by Jennifer Yoder of western Ohio. They created this creative writing curriculum to make the creative writing process easier to teach in Christian homes and schools. Creative Word Studio has two books available and we were blessed to receive Book 1 of the series. 
Our book is a spiral bound workbook printed on heavy paper. Not cardstock, but heavy paper so that there is not too much shadowing or bleeding through onto the back. The front and back covers are also printed on a thick paper but are laminated to keep the workbook sturdy. Within the 75 lessons you will find black and white artwork sprinkled throughout the workbook. I like this feature because it does not detract from the lesson with brightly colored pictures.
Skills are broken down into easy to learn and understand lessons and there are no blank pages to scare the student out of writing. The book is broken down into three different types of writing lessons including:

Free writing ~ helps you get comfortable with writing on whatever subject you would like. The lessons typically have a writing prompt but you could write on any subject you choose. 

Reading Responses ~ help you analyze other people’s wiring while thinking critically. It’s a great way to help develop the important critical thinking skills in middle school. 

Mini-Writing ~ these are the fun writing lessons where you get to think out of the box and try something new. Some of the mini-writing pieces have a gold piece near the lesson number. These lessons are meant for the student to edit and polish to include a final draft. These can be graded if the parent chooses to do so.
   
This creative writing curriculum can be completed individually or in a class setting. A great feature of this curriculum is that grading is not necessary, however, it is suggested that the parent check the writing and offer feedback and encouragement throughout the writing process. A grading rubric is included as well as a list of writing tips in the back of the book to help the parent.
McKenzie had a great time working through this creative writing book! I think this is a great creative writing program that includes a variety of creative prompts and activities. She enjoyed many of the lessons she completed and is eager to continue using it. This is the perfect addition to our summer learning! 
Be sure to check out what my CrewMates thought of this Book and Sparkling Bits of Writing Book 2 that was also reviewed by clicking the banner below! Creative Word Studio Reviews 


 

 Format ~ spiral bound worktext 
 Price ~ $15.00 *free standard shipping until June 30th 
 Ages ~ 5th – 6th grade 


 © 2008 - 2021 A Stable Beginning. All rights reserved. All photographs, text, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the author. http://astablebeginning.com

Thursday, June 18, 2020

Exploring the U.S. Life-Saving Service 1878-1915: 17 Student Workshops with 120 Activities ~ 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.  

A few weeks ago we were given the chance to review Rebecca Locklear's Exploring the U.S. Life-Saving Service 1878-1915: 17 Student Workshops with 120 Activities. My children have all been involved with Scouts at some point in their lives and this curriculum has given us a first hand look at the early Coast Guard history.
Exploring the U.S. Life-Saving Service 1878-1912 is written by fellow homeschool mom, Rebecca Locklear. Her great-grandfather, Skipper Eldredge, was one of the Life Savers for over 15 years so she was able to hear of the harrowing stories from him. With a hands-on approach to learning you will find over 120 activities to keep your 4th-12th graders busy learning.

Personally, I never knew who the U.S. Life-Saving Service was before receiving this book. These hard-working men were the ones out on the waters risking their lives to save ships before the Coast Guard was officially formed.

This 117 page curriculum comes in both print and digital formats. For this review we received the digital copy. Throughout this unit your student will be able to participate in hundreds of English and history activities from post-Civil War to World War I including:
~ Games 
~ Cooking 
~ Music 
~ Drama 
~ Science 
~ Research 
~ Art 
~ Stories

This curriculum focuses on the rescues made in the upper east water ways. The men that joined this Life-Saving group were pushed to the max as far as stamina and abilities. Getting along, trusting your fellow life-savers, and surviving was the main goal and as one of the men put it: “The Blue Book says we have togo out [to rescue people]. It doesn’t say a thing about coming back.”



This curriculum is full of details of just what it was like to be apart of this Life-Saving group. I love all of the black and white photos that are inside that give us a first hand look at daily life. While I read the stories aloud we frequently would stop and go down some rabbit trail and explore a topic more. My son, who is 6, was especially interested in the pictures of all the ships. While my girls enjoyed the sections on the baking. We enjoy seafood in our house so learning just what it took to get a meal during this time was interesting as well. We are not huge fans of Molasses or gingerbread, but learning the way in which it was made back in the day was interesting.
Overall, this curriculum has been a great treasure to explore. I can see us coming back to this curriculum when my son gets older to use apart of his history program or during our summer learning studies. Do yourself a favor and head on over to Rebecca Locklear's website and sign up for her emails so you can stay up to date on all of the happenings. But, don’t just take my word for it. Be sure to take a look at what my CrewMates thought of this book and the other curriculum, The Mayflower at Cape Cod - Stories, activities, and research that connect 1620 with life today, that was also reviewed. I have already placed a digital copy my wish list in Teacher’s Pay Teachers for when we get to that era of history in a few years.
***

Company ~ Rebecca Locklear 
 Format ~ PDF download
 Price ~ $10.95 digital PDF download 
 Ages ~ 4th-12th graders
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 © 2008 - 2020 A Stable Beginning. All rights reserved. All photographs, text, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the author.  
   http://astablebeginning.com

Friday, June 5, 2020

Art of the Ancients, Vol. 2 from ARTistic Pursuits Inc. ~ 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.  
Happy Friday! Today I am excited to share with you another fabulous product from ARTistic Pursuits Inc. If you are just jumping into your homeschooling journey then let me tell you about this homeschool art curriculum where your kids can let their creativity shine.
We are not strangers to the art curriculum that ARTistic Pursuits Inc produces, we have been users for many years. Today, I am sharing with you the Art of the Ancients, Volume 2 that is geared for K-3rd graders. Oftentimes I struggle to incorporate art into our week even though I know how important it is to let kids express themselves. However, the K-3rd Grade Level, Volumes 1-8 from ARTistic Pursuits Inc. makes art instruction easy for this Mama!
My son, Micah, loves to get creative! ARTistic Pursuits offers a wonderful Art program for many different grade levels all the way from Preschool through High School.  We still have a few of the older editions of the other books that my older girls have used in the past, but for this review I focused mainly on my Micah who just turned 6 because we will be beginning our study of Ancient history in August. Getting a jumpstart over the last few weeks has been great.
Art for the Ancients is the 2nd volume of eight in the new four-year course for students in Kindergarten through 3rd grade. The course takes your child through a sequential trip through history through child friendly stories and through studying master artists.

 The eight books in this series include:  

Art for Children, Building a Visual Vocabulary (Vol. 1)  
Art of the Ancients (Vol. 2)  
Art of the Middle Ages (Vol. 3)  
Artists that Shaped the Italian Renaissance (Vol. 4)  
Art of the Northern Countries, Renaissance to Realism (Vol. 5)  
Art of the Impressionists (Vol. 6)  
Art of the Modern Age (Vol. 7)  
Art in America (Vol. 8)
Art of the Ancients, K-3 Vol. 2 is a beautiful hardcover textbook filled with 18 projects that focuses on chalk pastels and clay forms. Each of the books in the set comes with six video lessons showing exactly how to use the materials and tools. The videos are short, roughly 10 minutes in length and will hold your child’s attention and get them excited to do art.

Throughout the 18 lessons your child will learn of the art found in caves as well as the classical art of the Roman Empire. Learning to create and see art from these ancient cultures allows the child to see this beautiful world around us. You’ll need to purchase a few high quality art supplies to get you started. They include:
 ~ a hard or soft pastel set ~ 5 pound self hardening clay, gray ~ wire clay cutter
Micah has enjoyed working with this program. Having just finished Kindergarten he is just now starting to get into “doing school” and being a big kid like his sisters. This program gives me the confidence to teach him art. Following along with the DVD and reading the stories in the book make this an easy program to use because ARTistic Pursuits Inc has done all the work for me with this curriculum. Simply follow along and then set your child off to create their masterpiece.
ARTistic Pursuits has met all of my expectations and then some! This art program has taken the struggle to incorporate art into our week away.  They will always be my go to curriculum when it comes to Art for my children because of the ease of lessons and the open and go format of the books.  It’s no wonder they have won so many awards. These books are fabulous and we will continue to use them in our homeschool for many years to come!

Be sure to check out what my Cremates think of this volume and the other products being reviewed. There are 63 other reviews listed when you click the banner below detailing a range of products offered so be sure to stop by.
Art Through The Ages & Art for Children {Artistic Pursuits Inc. Reviews}
 Format ~ hardcover book with two dvd's
 Price ~ $39.99
Ages ~ K - 3rd grade

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 © 2008 - 2020 A Stable Beginning. All rights reserved. All photographs, text, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the author.    
 http://astablebeginning.com

Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Page a Day Math: Addition Starter Kit ~ 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.  

Happy Wednesday friends! I not sure about your home, but we are officially done with our 2019-2020 school year! Beginning this week we have transitioned to our summer learning studies. I always like the kids to keep their minds active in reading and math over the summer to prevent the “Summer Slide” and because Math fact fluency is such an important skill for laying the foundation for higher math, I was excited to try the Addition Starter Kit from Page a Day Math with my son, Micah.

Page a Day Math is a Math Fact Fluency System designed to help learners, young and old, memorize the all important math facts. Physical kits sell for $79.95, while digital kits sell for $29.95. This program provides a solid foundation with step-by-step practice and is supplemental to any math curriculum. Learning math facts becomes a fun task when you get to learn with the Math Squad… a fun loving group of dogs who offer encouragement throughout the 10 books in the kit. We received a physical Addition & Counting math kit as well as access to the digital files of the other sets.
Our Math kit contains 10 practice books, each with 14 days of daily practice dedicated to one math operation per book. Each of your children will need their own physical kit, or you can opt to choose the digital edition which can be used multiple times. The size is perfect for little hands as they are learning to navigate proper pencil usage. The format of the page is easy, just three simple steps:

 Complete ~ Correct ~ Repeat 

 After completing just one lesson, your little learner will be able to work independently each day.



In addition, each of the math kits includes a set of bonuses: 

Flash Cards – available in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. 
Assessments – assessments give you an idea where to start. 
Progress Tracker – a visual tracker 
Handwriting Books – Mix and match with all sorts of handwriting options
I was so excited to see this vendor on the list at the beginning of the year! As I suspected this is a great program for my newly turned 6 year old boy! It’s short and sweet and he knows exactly what he needs to do to complete the page. I like that this program includes copyworb exercises also. Your child will be physically writing the math facts out in addition to using flashcards. For Micah, I had him say the problem out loud as he was writing it to further submit the concept.
Micah enjoys using this math fluency program! He doesn’t complain and his addition fact fluency has sky-rocketed over the course of the last few weeks. I am excited to add in the subtraction facts in the next few weeks in addition to his addition facts. During the summer, we will most likely alternate weeks of finishing up addition while adding in subtraction.


My son loves practicing his addition facts with the Addition Starter Kit from Page a Day Math! Don’t just take my word for it, be sure to check out what 51 of my CrewMates thought of this supplemental math fluency program by clicking the banner below!
Daily Math & Handwriting (Print + Cursive) {Page a Day Math Reviews}
Company ~ Page a Day Math
 Format ~ physical box and digital downloads
 Price ~ $79.95 physical kit w/ bonuses, $29.95 digital download
Ages ~ elementary and up
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 © 2008 - 2020 A Stable Beginning. All rights reserved. All photographs, text, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the author.     
http://astablebeginning.com

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

MaxScholar: Reading Intervention Programs ~ a TOS review

We are in the thick of our summer learning studies and part of it includes daily reading time. I like to have our kiddos catch the reading bug at a young age. Light the fire young so to speak so I am a huge fan of free reading at our house for at least 20 minutes a day. While for most of my children this is not a “chore” a few do not enjoy reading time. That’s why I was excited to be able to review the Reading Intervention Programs from MaxScholar with McKenzie and Micah.

MaxScholar Reading Intervention Programs
MaxScholar was created to help students who have Dyslexia, learning disabilities, ADHD, processing problems, or for those who are just struggling to learn to read. The program is completely online and is based on the research methods of the Orton-Gillingham approach, the Lindamood-Bell Process©, and other phonics and reading comprehension strategies that offer systematic, multi-sensory learning.
Reading Intervention Programs {MaxScholar Reviews}
Mikayla, my 10th grader has used this program in the past to help with comprehension so I was excited when we were offered to review it again. This time around, McKenzie, my 3rd grader, and Micah, my JrK’er, each used the program. Like last time, we received full access for one year to the Reading Intervention Programs which include:

MaxPhonics ~ based of the Orton-Gillingham method this is a multi-sensory program that prepares 3 to 7 year old’s for reading.

MaxReading ~ improves reading comprehension and introduces students to the concepts of summarizing, highlighting, and outlining in 13 levels. There is a placement test to see the best level to start with.

MaxWords ~ build vocabulary through reading and word parts knowledge all the while learning word parts and improving spelling. Learn prefixes, suffixes, Greek & Latin word roots, spelling rules, and syllabification.

MaxVocab ~ a dictionary with thousands of entries, definitions, and games to build the students vocabulary.

MaxMusic ~ play fun learning games while strengthening reading skills and learning music.

MaxPlaces ~ explore the world and check for reading comprehension with multiple choice questions.

MaxBios ~ meet famous people from the past and present from all over the world with these biographies.


My son, Micah, who is 4 is in the beginning stages of reading and he spent the majority of his time working on mastering letter recognition. After taking the placement test he was started at the very beginning of the program. The placement put her just where I know that he needed to start as he only knows the letters of his given name. Using this online program 2-3 days a week with him has been an enjoyable experience for both of us. I am still learning his learning style but I feel he gravitates towards online learning programs. The only issue he had specifically with this program was when it was time to trace the letters. Using the mouse to do this was difficult for him. Then in the middle of the night, you know, when I do my best thinking and brainstorming I thought to have him use the program on his iPad. Yes, that made the tracing so much easier for him!



McKenzie used the program 2 times a week also and focused on reading and vocabulary. She was placed into Level 3 and I think the placement was just the right challenge for her. She has since progressed to Level 4. She doesn’t necessarily enjoy reading for pleasure at this time because she would rather be flipping upside down. However, it is necessary so she completes her lessons without much complaint. She has enjoyed playing the games within the program. I have no complaints with her playing the games either as she is learning in the process. She found the word search game to be challenging as it included words backwards and she was not use to that format. The Hangman game was her favorite game overall.




Overall, I am truly happy with both of my kids MaxScholar progress. It has served us well over the course of the last few weeks as a great supplement to our summer learning. The changes to the program include a more streamlined experience as well as the graphics have been updated. The site is easy to navigate even for my son. I think all the changes, bit and small have made the program streamlined and easy to use for kids and adults alike. Both McKenzie and Micah will continue to use this reading program through the end of our subscription.

Be sure to check out what my CrewMates thought of this program also by clicking the banner below!

Reading Intervention Programs {MaxScholar Reviews}
Company ~ MaxScholar 
 Format ~ online 
 Ages ~ 3 and up

MaxScholar
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© 2008 - 2018 A Stable Beginning. All rights reserved. All photographs, text, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the author.