Are you looking for something new and engaging than the traditional episodes of Adventures in Odyssey?!? Some of my favorite and extremely different Adventures in Odyssey stories are the Passages episodes. They center around an alternative world, called Marus. Individuals from our world find themselves transported unexpectedly into a world they’ve never known, yet seems strangely familiar.
Passages: Fletcher’s Rebellion, Part 1 of 2 A woman named Alice tells an incredible story about how she and Tom Riley’s son, Timmy, traveled to another world called Marus.
We are first introduced to the Passages stories in the first two episodes of Album 34, In Your Wildest Dreams. Another extremely unique aspect of this episode is that we hear more about Tom Riley’s son, Timmy, who drowned when he was young saving another young man’s life. It is a sad story that is sometimes referenced, but until these episodes we have not really encountered Timmy.
As you listen to the story you will begin to recognized hints and shadows of stories you have heard before from Scripture. In many ways they are similar to the tales from Narnia in this. God is referred to as The Unseen One. Events, although not categorically exact, echo those from biblically historical accounts. It definitely gives a new perspective and appreciation for things you may have known for years.
Fletcher’s Rebellion parallels the story of Gideon. As you listen with your kids encourage them to try and guess what Bible passage this reflects. Help them to pick out clues and see what they notice is different.
Enter a world where ancient history comes to life . . . and faith in God becomes the adventure of a lifetime! Introducing Passages, the legendary audio series from the creators of Adventures in Odyssey. One minute, Anna and Kyle are exploring a creepy old house outside Odyssey. The next, they’re transported to the mysterious land of Marus–and caught in the middle of a dangerous conflict between a brave army general and a powerful king. Will their newfound powers be strong enough to save the rightful heir to the throne . . . and return them safely home?
The album Passages: Darien’s Rise is our next encounter with this strange world of Marus. This episode opens with Jack Allen bringing an old manuscript he found in a trunk from an estate sale to Mr. Whitaker. He asks Whit to read it and to let him know what he thinks afterwards.
Kyle and Anna, two children not previously mentioned in Odyssey, are transported to Marus through an abandoned house. Once there they are immediately thrown into a perilous adventure, once again in parallel with biblical history. Darien is a parallel to David from the Old Testament. This is a longer storyline as it takes up an entire album of 9 episodes. I loved the characters and once again the ability to pick out little bits that helped to identify which story is being represented.
If these two sagas interest you, there are also 2 collections called Passages: The Marus Manuscripts, each containing 3 books about Marus. While these stories are not Odyssey-centric, they are true to the nature of Adventures in Odyssey and might be very appealing to middle schoolers and older.
Disclaimer: In exchange for promoting The Adventures in Odyssey Club I receive a membership to The Adventures in Odyssey Club. I am not required to write a positive review. All opinions are my own.
Grace is reading Little Women while Penny keeps watch.
Our routine is smooth Our flow is back Now all I ask Is we stay on track
Sometimes a little poetry is cathartic. This week was good. There were bumps…there always are…and we press on. If anything I’m the one feeling a little off these days. Maybe it’s the state of our country and world…maybe it’s the political angst…maybe it’s the fact that I’m realizing how soon my nest will be empty. The last decade brought us into this homeschooling adventure. This next decade will bring a totally different season. I’m honestly not comfortable with this idea yet, but I have time and try not to dwell too much in these things.
Many of our activities have (safely) started back. I hate having to add that commentary. I feel we will be heavily chastised if I do not. I find myself adding phrases like …while socially distanced… and …while wearing masks… to almost everything these days just so there are no rushed assumptions. But I digress…
Many of our activities have started back and this has been a huge boost to smoothing out any of the routine bumps that were still there. The girls have missed face-to-face interactions and to have even a few return is a solid win. Here are updates on each of the gals.
Beth studying Awana.
At 13 Beth has become a most studious young lady. Her favorite place to work is often in our bedroom sprawled across our bed. Many times I will enter the room to put something away to find her with work all around and listening to a musical soundtrack. These days she’s enjoying Esther from Sight and Sound Theaters or The Sound of Music.
She is zipping through Algebra 1. We are using No Nonsense Algebra from Math Essentials. It is excellent, no frills, and a great fit for her. She also studied pre-algebra from the same company.
For literature she is using the 8th grade curriculum I wrote for Schoolhouse Teachers.com {aff. link} a couple of years ago. It is good for me to see this in action and I’m so pleased with the outcome for her. She’s covering a variety of genre this year and seems to be enjoying the pacing. To round out this subject she’s working on Caught Ya! grammar, All About Spelling, and Writing Strands.
History with Heart of Dakota is the best preparation for independent learning I have ever encountered. I love the notebooking, research, living history, map studies, and more. Although I have deviated from a few things from the curricula as the girls got older to fit their personal needs better, I cannot say enough good things about this company!
Finally is science. Beth is continuing to take a science class with our local homeschool learning center. While it is online this year, it’s still such solid content. She’s had the biggest adjustment here this year as she’s moved up into junior division and the workload is significantly more. Learning to balance her time in this has been challenging, but so very rewarding!
Grace studying math with lots of books as her cushions!
Grace is showing much maturity this year. She’s 11 and working on studies much deeper than many her age. With this year came an increase in work-load which was a lot for her to handle. I was tempted to back off a little bit in the first few weeks, but I’m glad I didn’t for her sake. I knew it wasn’t too much, but for her it was the greater amount of time. I just chose to sit with her while she worked and encourage her to stay focused. Now she is zipping away through most of it, has learned to budge her time, as well as the benefits of working ahead if she has extra time.
She is working through Math Mammoth and will be fully prepared for pre-algebra at the end of the material. She understands the concepts and is learning to slow down a bit and pay attention to what word problems are asking. She is also enjoying Life of Fred as a supplement 2 days a week. That is what she is working on in the picture above. Many families use this as their core. I like a more traditional approach and use it as a supplement, giving my girls a different way to look at mathematics.
In elementary school I have my girls read quality literature without a lot of extra instruction. Right now she is reading Little Women as an abridged classic. I also really advocate introducing kids to abridged classic stories all through elementary school so they are excited about the story when they approach it later on in schooling in it’s full rendition. I have an entire shelf dedicated to abridged classics and they titles from Dickens, Shakespeare, Austen, Melville, and more. This has proven to be an excellent approach for the older girls so I’m continuing it with Grace. She rounding out this subject with Rod and Staff Grammar (We LOVE the simplicity and traditional structure!), All About Spelling, and Writing Strands.
Heart of Dakota’s Creation to Christ has been the most challenging for Grace as it’s workload intensifies from previous guides. She’s also using notebooking, learning research and map skills, and studying harder things. Just like her older sisters the adjustment and challenge is worth it! I’ve not been great at doing the art studies with my kids through this guide, so starting next week we will all 4 be working on the water color tutorials. I am hoping this is a good way to pass the cold winter days coming, knowing we may be facing more activities closing down again.
Just like Beth, Grace is studying science at our local learning center. Her teacher raises the bar in quality remote learning. She has such an excitement about learning and it’s a beautiful thing to watch!
Rose learning The Grinch for recital.
Rose loves music. She (as her sisters) have studied piano since they were 3 or 4…it makes it easy when you live with your piano teacher! I have 19 other students, but these three are my favorite. She is also self-taught on the ukulele and is working to learn how to play the mandolin. Beth is learning to play the glockenspiel (mallet bells) and Grace has dabbled in hand drumming and guitar. It’s fun to see them really embrace learning music.
This year has been a very different learning structure for Rose. Just like everyone else she’s our oldest experimental child so I wasn’t certain how our plan would work out, but so far it’s going very nicely! At the beginning of the year we sat down and talked about her goals and what classes she would need to meet those goals, namely begin dual enrollment next year.
For literature she is using another curriculum, American Literature, I wrote for Schoolhouse Teachers.com {aff. link}. Again, seeing this in action in our home has left me feeling very good about the job I did in creating it. The structure is to study American lit through the lens of history. I spent intensive amounts of time studying American history alongside American literature to see how one impacted the other. I’m very pleased so far with how much she is grasping. Rose is using Jenson’s Grammar, All About Spelling, and Writing Strands.
Math…oh math. Math has been the most intense for Rose all through schooling. This year she asked to study both Geometry and Algebra 2. We were given Algebra 2 from Teaching Textbooks as a hand-me-down (What a blessing, right?!?!) and we are using Geometry from Schoolhouse Teachers.com {aff. link}.
Chemistry has been a raging success with Mater Books. I’m so very pleased with the strong material without being overwhelmingly complicated. There is a significant emphasis on observational science rather than theoretical and a grounding in how these observations continually point us back to the Creator. Rose is also studying World Religions from Master Books with which we have also been very pleased.
More Schoolhouse Teachers.com {aff. link} courses are rounding out the year with Economics and Government. Rose is reading excellent material by Thomas Sowell. I had never heard of this man before, but I’m impressed over and over again with his common sense approach to economics.
Final Thoughts on the Week…
As we begin the approach the holidays I am grateful for our little family and extended family and friends. This year has not been what anyone wanted, but the Lord is good and faithful. I encourage you to not dwell too very long on the losses, but instead focus on the blessings and ways we can thank the Lord, even if the year has brought pain.
I remember how curious my daughters were when they were in the early elementary years. Why is the sky blue? Why can’t I see the wind? Why…why…why… One of my favorite aspects of homeschooling is being able to dig deep and find the answers to some of their questions, to inspire them to want to ask why! They are still curious and ask lots of questions, but often do their own research instead of seeking me out. So how do you foster these inquisitive little minds early on and engage them so they stay curious? Masterbooks has a new title, Adventures in the Physical World: Level 2, that provides short lesson (20 minutes), just 3 days a week that will engage and delight your young learner!
I think the cover is just gorgeous! The inside is just as beautiful, filled with bright colors, but not so much as to cause distraction. Rather the vibrant illustrations and photographs are strategically placed to induce curiosity and delight. I very much appreciate the straight-forward schedule as well as the weekly list of supplies needed. They should be easy to find around the house, but having it all collected in one place is fantastic! Anything to make a homeschool mom’s life easier is a win in my book!
A wide range of science topics is covered including chemistry, physics, geology, astronomy, meteorology, and more! I like how each area allows young learners to dip their toes into the world of curiosities around them. This is quite appropriate for younger elementary students who are ready to start engaging with the world in a scientific manner.
As with all titles from MasterBooks you can be assured that this is grounded in the truth of God’s Word. One of the early units on Kinetic energy encourages children to point out examples of kinetic energy in the retelling of Noah building the ark. What a cool way to look at scientific principals built into creation from the start!
While my own kids have grown past this level of science, I highly recommend this title to those with kids in kindergarten, 1st, or 2nd grade. This definitely requires a bit more writing than earlier titles, so make sure your student it ready for that aspect!
Disclaimer: I received a digital copy of Adventures in the Physical World: Level 2 from New Leaf Publishing in exchange for an honest review. The opinions here are my own. I was not required to write a positive review.
Our family has used MasterBooks resources for a good portion of our homeschooling. From preschool through high school we have so many titles rich in history, science, and biblical truth. Their latest geography title, Passport to America, is a new favorite!
Grace is using the companion title, Passport to the World, as a part of her world geography studies this year. I was excited to see a book focusing on each of the states presented as well!
This lively and colorful book packs a ton of information on each state in just two pages. I really like that each license plate is shown as well as a number of interesting facts. In addition to the state flags, birds, and other symbols you will learn about land features and a food specific to each state. I was pleased to see 5-Way Skyline Chili featured in Ohio! One of my favorite memories of visiting my aunt and cousins there was eating chili over spaghetti. It may seem odd to my friends here in the south, but boy is it delicious!
I also was happy to see the opening pages featuring the story of America featured the indigenous people groups who lived here. I want my children to learn factual history and recognize that history features everything from Creation, not just when European explorers first landed here.
On the final page is an encouragement for children to pray for each state as they study it. Students are encouraged to find out something happening in that state and to pray for the people who live there. What an amazing find. I have not seen another books, even from Christian companies, encourage prayer in this way.
If you are looking for an excellent guide for your curious kid, planning your next road trip or launching a study of the United States, Passport to America is an excellent tool!
Disclaimer: I received a digital copy of Passport to America from New Leaf Publishing in exchange for an honest review. The opinions here are my own. I was not required to write a positive review.
This week was really good. I’m so thankful we are finally in our routine. I’m also really glad we started in early August so we could take the time we needed to really get ourselves into a groove. It takes time every year, but this year was longer. Our 6-weeks-of-school, 1-week-off pattern is working out beautifully this year!
Beth: 8th grade
Part of our daily schedule is music practice. All of the girls started by the time they were 4-years-old with piano lessons…but then that is what happens when your mom is your piano teacher! My kids are 3 of my 22 piano students and I love watching them grow. Sometimes it would be easier for someone else to teach them, but most of the time it’s a beautiful blessing. You can see the camera on the piano. I’m teaching the majority of my lessons virtually and that camera is for my hands for demonstration. This year is so weird in so many ways.
Rose: 10th Grade
Rose worked very hard and saved up money this year to help pay for a Chromebook. As she’s progressing in high school we all realized it would be helpful for her to have her own device. The younger two still share a laptop…which I also have to share for teaching piano lessons now. One of my favorite courses she is taking this year is an apologetics course on World Religions from Master Books. It is so wide-ranging and a great way for her to understand the various belief systems and how they differ from the truth found in Scripture. She’s enjoying it as well which is important.
My kids are pretty easy learners. What I mean by that is they rarely complain about a particular curriculum. They do sometimes complain about the amount or ask for a day off, but they generally just accept the curriculum I put in front of them. I try to pick the best I can and if I get something that isn’t a good fit, I listen to them and we look for something better if possible. Sometimes it isn’t possible, but I do try. Don’t get me wrong, we are not curriculum hoppers! I just try to assess my kids’ learning styles and pick something that will fit that. I love to reuse curriculum, but sometimes that isn’t what is best for the next kiddo. Math is a great example of that. Each of my girls is using a different curriculum brand for math and that is perfectly okay!!! Tailoring their education to meet specific needs may be the best aspect of homeschooling.
Grace: 5th Grade
Grace is doing almost exclusively 6th grade work except for math where she is right on grade level. She is one of those kids with a late fall birthday and was absolutely ready to start learning earlier than the traditional-school guidelines. I really love this flexibility in learning.
One of her big changes this year was using notebooking pages with Heart of Dakota. I love that the company is now offering them for younger guides as well, but we were one guide ahead as each new notebooking set came out! If you are just starting out with Heart of Dakota I would strongly recommend doing the notebooking with the younger guides. It’s a beautiful way to prepare them for the higher ones. It was a big jump for Grace, but she’s doing so well now! She loves the timeline she’s creating as well as the research she does.
There is a little peek at our learning week. We also celebrated Grace’s 11th birthday on Sunday!!!! It is so hard to realize she really is growing up. She’s so full of energy and love and is still full of sweet innocence. She’s such a bright light in our family and we had so much fun celebrating her!
I was able to get some scrapbooking in as well! Here is my favorite page I completed. You can click to see all 6 of my completed pages for the week! I feel like I’m back on track!
The first Saturday of October was Digital Scrapbook Day!!! There were lots of fun celebrations all around internet-land. I really didn’t get to participate much as we had a full day of work at our church mulching and afternoon preparing to celebrate Grace’s birthday on Sunday. I did get a little bit of scrapping in throughout the week and that day though!
The central setting within Odyssey for all of the Adventures in Odyssey episodes is Whit’s End. John Avery Whitaker calls it an ice cream shop and discovery emporium. It’s filled with delicious confections (like the Wod-Fam-Choc-Sod or Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream) as well as numerous inventions.
I could recount the amazingly rich history of Whit’s End, but it’s more fun to listen! Here is a list of Whit’s End centered episodes in historical order. If I missed one comment so I can add it in!
Episode # 5-7 The Underground Railroad, Part 1-3 A stranger tells Jack the story of the Ross family, and their courageous run for freedom to escape slavery.
Album 1, Episode # 11 Recollections Whit’s best friend, Tom Riley, tells Connie the story of how Whit’s End was created amid tragic circumstances.
Adventure Club Season 7: Episodes 1 & 3 It’s all hands on deck when a series of clues appears to connect Whit’s End with a survivor of the Titanic.
Album 2, Episode # 9-10 The Case of the Secret Room, Part 1 & 2 The discovery of a secret room in Whit’s End leads Mr. Whittaker to a baffling case of robbery and murder.
Album 20, Episode # 5 -6 It Began with a Rabbit’s Foot and It Ended with a Handshake Whit tells Lucy Cunningham-Schultz about the creation of the Bible Room, and the discussion leads Katrina Shanks to a very important decision.
The Blackgaard Chronicles, Episodes #1-6 When Dr. Regis Blackgaard arrives in Odyssey with plans to build an amusement house for kids, chaos and danger aren’t far behind. What is this schemer really up to?
Album 6, Episode # 13 The Treasure of LeMonde! Robyn and Connie find a hidden attic at Whit’s End and stumble upon a forgotten mystery involving an old pipe organ, a greedy professor and “the greatest treasure.”
Album 12, Episode # 2 The Curse An “Indian Medicine Man” puts an ancient curse on Whit – and it seems to come true!
Album 18, Episode # 7 & 8 The Mysterious Stranger, Part 1 & 2 Whit is pulled into a perplexing mystery when a strange man arrives at Whit’s End and claims to have lived there as a small boy.
Album 23, Episode # 9 A Victim of Circumstance When Rodney steps through a skylight at Whit’s End and breaks his leg, the Rathbones take Jason Whittaker to court.
The Blackgaard Chronicles, Episodes #17-28 When Dr. Regis Blackgaard arrives in Odyssey with plans to build an amusement house for kids, chaos and danger aren’t far behind. What is this schemer really up to?
Episode # 12 The Treasure Room Aubrey and Lisa are determined to find out what Whit keeps in a new secret room at Whit’s End.
Album 33, Episode # 3-4 Blackgaard’s Revenge, Part 1 & 2 A virus implanted in the Imagination Station with Dr. Blackgaard’s personality surfaces and must be destroyed before it takes hold over Aubrey.
Album 34, Episode # 6 Idol Minds When Whit leaves town for a while, Eugene creates a Whit robot to keep the kids happy.
Album 36, Episode # 1 The W.E. To compete with the new Novacom Kids’ Center, Whit experiments with a massive overhaul to Whit’s End and its attractions.
Album 45, Episode # 9 Tales of a Small-Town Thug Everyone at Whit’s End is in an uproar when a former Bones of Rath gang member writes a scathing book about Odyssey.
Album 50 Episode # 1 A Capsule Comes to Town Connie narrates a documentary about the people and places in Odyssey against the backdrop of a search for a missing time capsule.
Episode # 7 The Forgotten Deed The plan to bury the new time capsule in the basement of Whit’s End causes a “separation of church and state” conflict that jeopardizes the future of the shop.
Disclaimer: In exchange for promoting The Adventures in Odyssey Club I receive a membership to The Adventures in Odyssey Club. I am not required to write a positive review. All opinions are my own.
If you have been following my blog for a while I hope you notice a difference! I have been displeased with my old blog platform for a while now. I took a break from posting until I was able to get things set up on this new site.
In the meantime we have finally settled into a good routine. It took until about our 5th week to get there. We usually don’t have quite such a long settling in period, but isn’t everything about this year abnormal? Lots of hugs, encouragement, and perseverance have gotten us to our week of break. We run our schooling on a 6 weeks on, 1 week off schedule. This week was very relaxed and low key. I have found that when we do this, we tend to have a better flow to your year and less tendencies to burn out.
Rose takes loves working in her bed. Usually our dog, Penny, joins her!
Rose: 10th Grade -15 years old Rose has really taken this year seriously as we are preparing for some form of dual enrollment for her last 2 years of high school. She choose to take two maths this year, Algebra 2 and Geometry. Math is not her favorite subject, so I have been so pleased to see her persevering through both diligently. Chemistry from Master Books has been a beautiful course as well. In addition she is taking apologetics, French, American Literature (a course I wrote for Schoolhouse Teachers), and Civics (economics and government).
Beth having a little sweet treat while working on literature.
Beth: 8th Grade – 13 years old Beth is now taking a middle school science course which comes with quite a bit more work! She took some time adjusting to the workload and how to manage her time, but is now really in a good place. She is working through Revival to Revolution from Heart of Dakota. We love this curriculum so much. It is deeply rich in historical accuracy as well as encouraging kids to research and learn for themselves. She is over half way through Algebra since we started in the summer. Academically she is moving along at a steady, rather fast pace and I’m pleased to see her push herself even when her work is beginning to get more difficult.
We love All About Spelling!
Grace: 5th Grade – 11 years old (Almost!) Most of Grace’s work is a year ahead grade-level or more. This year her work-load really increased as she moved into Creation to Christ from Heart of Dakota. It took more time for her to adjust to the added time as well as the notebooking aspect, but now she is completely on top of things and ready to go! She is also taking a science class this year and having such a fun time. She’s also found she really enjoys painting, especially with acrylics. She has painted some beautiful art for gifts for family and friends.
We had a great time at the beach at the end of August! It was our first real “outing” since everything shut down in March.
Everyone Together We are still working on foreign language together although I’ve been awful at consistency. It’s key to anything new and I keep pushing forward even if slowly! We use Talkbox.Mom and HIGHLY recommend this program. You can read my full review of that program here. We are also dabbling in Shakespeare and I’m looking for some field trip opportunities now that there are a few things opening up in our area. The beach was the first real field trip we’ve taken in ages.
Some pages I completed during quarantine and never got around to posting…
Now that have the new site up and running hopefully you will see more postings! I’ve struggled to get the old platform to function well and this transition was a long time coming. Comment below and tell me something fun you’ve done this past month!
One of my goals for this fall is to get back to regularly working on scrapbooking our family’s memories. Now that I feel like I have a better handle on our new schedule I’m attempting to meet this goal! I am thrilled to have 3 layouts finished this week! I want to set a goal of 5 per week or 3 layouts and some preservation of older family photos.
Well we started back school this week! It went really well and we accomplished so much that I forgot to take any pictures until after we were done on Friday!
Monday was a bit slow as Grace has moved up into the Hearts for Him Through Time series from Heart of Dakota and Rose is working though a very different set of courses this year as she prepares for dual enrollment next year, Lord willing.
Here is a run down of most of our week. This week we will add spelling, grammar, and writing as last week I needed the extra time to help the girls adjust to a few new things. *Confession: everything is posed because I really just forgot all about pictures!*
Rose is doing a combination of courses from Master Books and Schoolhouse Teachers to fill in a few gaps for classes before we move into a dual enrollment setting. So far she is really enjoying them!
Beth is completing Revival to Revolution this year with Heart of Dakota. She was in the groove this week and finished first every day. She’s one to get up early, even before me sometimes, and start on school right away so I’m not surprised. Her routine is also pretty much the same regarding school so no real learning curve for her.
Grace is having the bigger learning curve of my three this year. Heart of Dakota is amazing and I particularly love the Hearts for Him Through Time series that she is just venturing into. She is totally soaring, but understanding all of the independent work is just taking some time.
We’ve schooled with Heart of Dakota from the beginning of our journey and I could not be more pleased. I know the Lord led us to this curriculum because I really didn’t search around a lot. At the time we began with Rose, she was about 2 and a half. I just wanted something structured to tell me how to help her learn through play. Beth was just an infant, we had made a move, and I felt like I wasn’t giving my little girl who soaked up learning everything that was best for her. I stumbled upon Heart of Dakota in a catalog as they sold through 3rd party companies back then. I read the description and immediately knew this was it! I even had several of the books that were recommended already. Now here we are, 13 years later and it is beautiful!
gracefilledwriter.com 