Week in Review: October 9-13

Grace-Filled Writer
We had a FULL week! One of our dear friends from when you lived in Florida came to stay with us for a few days. Mrs. Kate is a folk singer who is also a pastor’s wife in our denomination. While she was here my dear Rose was able to work for her as her roadie! She had a great time and learned so very much. We were able to be there for a couple of the shows and that was a great experience too. Our week was crazily off schedule, but we still got through all of our work. 
 

Grace – 2nd grade: Bigger Hearts for His Glory Unit10

I know every week I say how easy Grace is to teach. She just really is! She loves to learn. Her latest “favorite” (according to her) is grammar! We are just using the standard Rod and Staff. I’ve used it with all three girls and it is incredibly solid. There aren’t frills, but that has never been a problem. We usually complete 2/3 of the lesson orally as suggested by Heart of Dakota. This is the key to its success I think. Too much writing and you just kill the lesson. They only have a small portion to actually write. For my older girls this is usually 5-10 sentences diagrammed. Now, current trends say that diagramming has zero value. I completely disagree! Current trends also say learning math facts shouldn’t be about memorization and I disagree there as well. And so we have an example of why homeschooling is beautiful for us. We don’t have to follow the trends! 
She continued with her history study of Benjamin Franklin this week. I’m pleased with how her oral narration is coming along. Of course this is my daughter who loves to talk so I’m not really all that surprised she is able to narrate beautifully. Her reading comprehension is off the charts so this is a super easy area for her. Handwriting is the only area she seems to dread. Although she never complains I can tell it is her least favorite part. We are plugging away at cursive anyway!
Rose – 7th Grade: Revival to Revolution Unit 2
 
This is what Rose was doing most of the day! She worked with Mrs. Kate at both preschool and senior shows and had a blast. I love that she is so comfortable with people of all ages. I’m not going to say this is because of homeschooling because I think it is much more from being a part of a multi-generational church that is small enough for her to get to know everyone. We also worship all together as families. These factors give her opportunity to build relationships with people of all ages, stations of life, and ethnic backgrounds. Homeschooling did, however, allow her the flexibility to do this where traditional schooling would not have. 
My girl also learned that she can work ahead if she wants. The history and literature portions were the easiest to complete ahead of time. She then asked if she could work ahead other times. I told her of course and she lit up! She is beginning this guide with early American per-revolutionary history, one of her favorite periods to study. This is also fun because Grace is studying the same period. 
She also got through all of her other language arts and mathematics work for the week! 
 Beth – 5th Grade: Creation to Christ Unit 16 
 Beth had a great non-complaining week! Perhaps simply being back on track wit our schedule is enough to keep her complaint free. We have been practicing better responses and that has helped. 
She is studying ancient cultures still and is doing very well. I think she will enjoy the next guides more having seen Rose go through them. She has particularly enjoyed that I’m scheduling foreign language studies. they all three work on sign language (pictured here) and a language of their choice. She has chosen French and is using DuoLingo. I can’t rave enough about how great that program is! 
Mathematics continues to be a breeze and she sails through her studies without any trouble. She has the mind of an engineer although she doesn’t really have any interest in it. I found out this week that in Sunday school class they used straws to see how high of a tower they could build while studying the Tower of Babel and she was able to build the tallest! Their class is mixed of all ages and several of the kids are older than her so that impressed me quite a bit. It’s a skill in which she succeeds, but since she doesn’t find it interesting it is hard to know how to nurture it. This is something I’m going to be considering.

Preserving Memories: Week of October 9

Grace-Filled Writer

 Layouts from this week! Still plugging away at 2009. Oh my good how precious these little girls are!!! The days are long, but the years are short….
 

 Template: Retired from Just Jaimee
Kit: Retired from Chelle’s Creations
 Template: Monthly Freebie from Sahlin Studio
Kit: Retired from Chelle’s Creations
 Kit: Retired from Chelle’s Creations

 This is from Beth’s first big clogging performance just a few weeks ago! 

Brinkman Adventures Season 4 from Brinkman Adventures: A TOS Crew Review

Grace-Filled Writer

Brinkman Adventures  Our girls love to listen to audio drama. They almost always listen to one when they go to bed at night and many times in the car, even on short drives. We just pickup where we were the next time we hop into the car. They will even choose to listen to wonderful audios during their free time. We have never heard any of the Brinkman Adventures but they were so excited to have a new series and thoroughly enjoyed listening to Brinkman Adventures Season 4!
 Brinkman Adventures  These modern, and true, missionary stories are brought to life through the Brinkman family. The family approaches life with a biblical worldview. It is always nice when a source of entertainment will reflect our own family’s worldview. My younger two girls especially enjoyed their adventures. Beth, age 10, wanted to listen to them over and over!  

Twelve episodes are included in this season. The girls listened to all of them within just a couple of days! There are a variety of mission fields represented and also a variety of types of mission work. The girls liked the story, “Remember Nhu,” which dealt with child slavery in Cambodia. I very much appreciated that while the story highlighted a wonderful ministry to help girls escape from sexual slavery, the story only referred to the horrors as “slavery.” My girls are not aware of this particular evil in he world and I liked that they were able to experience this story of redemption and hope without having to bear the weight of the atrocities of child sex slavery.

While the girls often listened at  bedtime, we also enjoyed them in the car! One of my favorite episodes was “The War of the Racoons.” While this particular show was not based on an actual situation it was quite humorous and kept us laughing! I also liked the way the story portrayed repentance and restoration. There were also some interesting themes about marriage and relationships. While we are not in that season with our girls yet, it was nice to have a more biblical viewpoint on relationships presented as opposed to what the world presents.  

 The episodes are about twenty-five minutes long. This is a great length for trips around town. We usually are able to listen to one on the way to and from wherever we are running our errands. It was the perfect length for a one-way trip to their science class on Wednesday mornings! The girls really enjoyed these stories. They have asked if we can listen to more. In addition to the Brinkman Adventures there is another series called The Time Chroniclers which looks intriguing!  Don’t forget to check out what my Crewmates have to say! Brinkman Adventures Season 4Crew Disclaimer

Family Membership from CTCMath: A TOS Crew Review

Grace-Filled Writer

CTCMath Math seems to always be that one subject that I find myself questioning if I’ve chosen the right curriculum. If you have a math-minded kid this is usually not an issue. My experience is they will thrive with any curriculum as long as it is challenging enough. It’s a completely different story with those kids who are less mathematically inclined that the struggle begins. I have heard rave reviews about CTCMath online. We had the opportunity to review the Family Membership and right now homeschoolers can get 60% off + 6 bonus months. This is an amazing deal if you are looking for an online program! Also there is a wonderful free trial available. (Hurry! Both of these offers end November 15!)   

CTCMath All three of my daughters used CTC Math.Grace – 3rd GradeBeth – 5th GradeRose – Basic Math and PreAlgebra (7th grade) I appreciated very much that this is perfectly suited to customize to each student. Grace has a late birthday so while she is “officially” in 2nd grade she is much more advanced in her studies and is ready for 3rd grade work. Beth is also advanced although not a full grade-level ahead. Rose has always felt a struggle with math. I personally feel it is simply a mental block because it isn’t enjoyable for her, but even so she needs some shoring up in certain areas. Having the opportunity to adjust their mathematics studies to their personal needs is spectacular. With most other online programs I’ve used my girls are assigned a certain grade level and must work through in an orderly pace. This is not necessarily bad, but for us the customization abilities have been a great benefit. 

Beth prefers to use pencil and paper when making calculations, but that is only option with this program as there is allowance for traditional borrowing and carrying. This is also a unique feature I have not seen before in an online program. Grace and Rose preferred to do everything on the screen and knowing they would be able to continue as they had been taught was wonderful! 
I had the girls take assessments of each section and then only assigned their weak areas for assignments. This was great because some of the concepts were already mastered. I very much appreciated they did not have to work through extra. I know it never hurts to review concepts, but I like knowing they can move at their own pace. This is especially helpful in the beginnings of the grade when there will always be a minimal amount of review.
The girls did their work all together this one day so I could get some nice photos of them in progress. Usually they did their work at different times and in different locations. The living room couch was a favorite for Grace and Rose while the living room floor was the preferred location for Beth! This is one benefit to online at-your-own pace programs. I really wasn’t involved in the learning process at all. That can be both good and bad. When they are getting things wrong and I need to explain if I haven’t first watched the video my explanations may be more confusing. On the one hand I liked having someone else teach the concepts because sometimes I struggle with that. On the other hand I’m not sure if I’m ready to completely hand over the teaching of mathematics. I’m still considering that. 
My one frustration was in learning how to work with the program from a teacher perspective. My girls had no trouble at all once I was able to get their assignments in the “task” sections. I felt rather confused at the start. I easily setup the girl’s individual accounts, but after that I wasn’t sure what to do. I would have liked to have some instruction and guidelines for where to start for assessment or if it is expected just to begin at the start of the grade-level. I like step-by-step instructions for the beginning of any program and that seemed to be lacking. Still, this was my only downside. My girls loved the program! 
How about you? Have you had experience with CTC Math? I’d love to hear about it! 
Take a look at what my Crewmates have to say! 
  

CTCMath Online Math Tutoring {Reviews} Crew Disclaimer

Week in Review: October 2-6

Grace-Filled Writer

I missed last week’s peek into our week, but it was a good week! It was just very busy. So here what this last week looked like!

With our new schoolroom setup I work with the girls in the living room or the kitchen. This is working really well and we have even done his with spelling! We still love All About Spelling and picked back up with it this week. I did the lesson with the girls individually then I dictated their words to them all together. We’ve been doing it this way for a couple of years and I have them trained pretty well to cue me to repeat a word and let me know when they are ready for the next one all with silent indicators. 
Grace – 2nd grade: Bigger Hearts for His Glory Unit 9
I am enjoying the guides with Grace so much more than the first two times around. I know exactly what to expect and because her sisters are more independent I can more fully enjoy the activities! This week she began learning about Benjamin Franklin. She learned about his childhood and life as a young man. One of the things she learned was how he and some other boys made a wharf in the water to make it easier to go fishing. This is her working on that. She had a lot of fun and made a beautiful little wharf! 
Rose – 7th Grade: Revival to Revolution Unit 1
 Yay for the start of a new guide! Rose is always excited when we begin a new guide and this is getting into one of her favorite periods of history. She is so good at staying on task now and studying on her own. Rose is usually very excited to share about what she is reading with whomever will listen. This week she settled in by beginning to read about George Washington. It’s really fun to see her growing into such a diligent young lady in school but also in other areas. She loved having fresh notebooking pages to use and shifted from using permanent markers to colored pencils this year for her timeline. 
Beth – 5th Grade: Creation to Christ Unit 15

I was so encouraged this week! Beth’s complaining has settled down significantly! There is no reason I can pinpoint or anything we have changed. I’m really just praising the Lord for the change! Heart issues are the biggest stumbling block to a successful school day. She’s doing well with her studies and is enjoying our addition of foreign language. I’m assigning them time each day with DuoLingo and a couple of days with Signing Time. She also really likes that I’ve added daily reading from a biography of their choice. We have a wonderful selection of these on a shelf and I just ask they read one chapter a day.
Really good week! This coming week will be interesting and we have quite a bit of

Preserving Memories: Week of October 1

Grace-Filled Writer
Fall seems extremely busy this year. I’m still getting a couple of pages each week, but not as many as I was over the summer. I had fun using these new templates from Miss Fish Designs! I was hoping to get to celebrate Digital Scrapbook Day yesterday, but I just had too much other work to do. I’m still planning to splurge just a little on some fun new kits and will celebrate this coming week!

Template: Autumn Template Grab Bag

Kit: The First Thanksgiving Full Kit by Trixie Scraps Designs

Template: Everyday Diamonds Templates by Miss Fish Templates

Kit: Egg Hunt Digital Scrapbook Kit and Egg Hunt Add On Mini Kit from Just So Scrappy

Individual Membership from Super Teacher Worksheets: A TOS Crew Review

Grace-Filled Writer

Super Teacher Worksheets One of the biggest needs in the homeschool community is resources to fill gaps. Any teacher, homeschool or traditional, will tell you there is no perfect curriculum which will teach absolutely everything in a way which is perfectly suited for every student. There are also times when the first round of teaching a topic doesn’t quite stick. Because of this I’m always on the lookout for good resources to help fill in the gaps. I was intrigued to try out the Individual Membership from Super Teacher Worksheets to see how it would work for our family.  

Super Teacher Worksheets

  The website is laid out in a very logical and easy to use manner. Every elementary subject is covered including Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies, Science, as well as several electives and fun puzzle activities. I spent a lot of time researching through this site and there isn’t a single area I could find which was neglected! I utilized the language arts worksheets the most. I liked the writing prompt worksheets for all three of my daughters. The ideas were interesting and it was a nice way to provide a journal type writing assignment which is very different from what we usually do. I liked that I can pick very easily from the topics available.  

I really like this prompt in particular: “How old were you four years ago? Describe some things you can do now that you could not do then.” I really liked the amount of space on the page and the thoughtful topic. Beth seemed to like the writing assignment as well and talked to me for a while about how different she is than she was 4 years ago. The mark of a good writing prompt is one which engages students beyond merely checking an assignment off their to-do list.  

For Grace I used the spelling lists as cursive practice. She has learned her alphabet in cursive and can copy something already in cursive very well. This was a great way to have her start remembering how to form the letters and words herself. This was a great format and she did quite well with this. Grace said she liked it and was excited to see a bonus word at the bottom!    Overall I feel like this site is a bit more useful for a different audience than myself personally. We have a pretty structured curriculum and I only rarely supplement with other material. For those who unschool or feel themselves to be more eclectic in style I think this would be a very helpful source. I also see this as a highly valuable tool for full-time school teachers and substitutes because of the need to filler material for during the day. I do recommend this as far as quality and content. There are so many options available and it is high quality in content. I also felt the grade levels for each assignment were very appropriate. If you are looking for a supplement to fill in gaps or as a worksheet resource for concepts you are teaching this is an excellent site in which to invest. Check out what my Crewmates have to say! Super Teacher WorksheetsCrew Disclaimer

The Secret of the Hidden Scrolls Books1 & 2 from WorthyKids/Ideals: A TOS Crew Review

Grace-Filled Writer

WorthyKids My eager reader Grace was very excited when she found out she would have two new books to read! Grace is eager about just about everything, but this was extra exciting because it was a sequel. She is a big fan of book series because it means she gets to read more adventures with the stories she loves. The first two books in the The Secret of the Hidden Scrolls series from WorthyKids/Ideals completely captivated her!  

The Secret of the Hidden ScrollsThe Secret of the Hidden Scrolls 
Two Children, siblings Mary and Peter discover scrolls in a pot in their uncle’s house. The ones with a red wax seal transports them to ancient biblical times. The first book takes the children to Creation week and the second to the time of Noah as he is building the ark. The children have to decipher what the ancient scrolls have written on them because they are in a language they cannot understand. Once they discover the words the seal turns from wax into metal and are then transported back to their own time.
These very short adventure books are excellent choices for kids just beginning to read chapter books. The stories are engaging and adventurous, but with words which aren’t too difficult for young readers. The short length is also great because they will not feel overwhelmed by them. Each chapter is only a few pages long with nice, larger sized lettering. Each entire book is only about 100 pages total and there are still pictures which was a big deal to my girls when they were just starting chapter books. 

There are quite a few chapter book series out there for young readers, but only a few emulate the values we desire our children to emulate such as integrity, honesty, and respect. Even fewer deal with the Bible at all and especially in a way which is presented as truth. I consider these to fit into the genre of historical fiction because the biblical side is presented in a factual way. 
Since we started our full-schedule of school I assigned each of these books over the course of one week. She was assigned a chapter a day…but often read ahead. This is such a great indication of just how good the books are. My girls always read without complaint, even when they don’t always love the book. I can tell whenever they love the book because they come to me after their assigned reading time and say, “I’m sorry Mommy…I read ahead.” I think it’s so funny that Grace apologized every time because I never mind!  

Here is what Grace (7) has to say about the books:
I really like them! I want to know if they are going to make any more because I like that its about them going back in time and how they try to figure out the mystery words. I also like that they get to meet people from the Bible. I also like that it’s hard to figure out the words. I like that in the second book they had to guess the sentences because time was running out. I also like that it’s really adventurous. 
Now that you know what Grace thinks, don’t forget to see what my Crewmates have to say! 

The Secret of the Hidden Scrolls. {WorthyKids/Ideals Reviews}Crew Disclaimer

Captain Bayley’s Heir from Heirloom Audio Productions: A TOS Crew Review

Grace-Filled Writer

Heirloom Audio Productions   Quality entertainment we consider “safe” for our girls to enjoy is hard to come by these days. We feel the need to screen just about every form of media they encounter be it visual, audio, or in written form. There are only a handful of companies which we trust to always provide this safe entertainment we seek for our family. Although our first experience with Heirloom Audio Productions was only a few months ago, this wonderful company is absolutely at the top of that list. We anxiously awaited the arrival of Captain Bayley’s Heir and were not at all disappointed!  Captain Bayley's Heir  This wonderful story begins in London with the story of Frank, a school-boy accused of a dishonest act which he did not actually do. Fear leads him to feel trapped in his circumstances with the only opportunity to redeem his good reputation being to feel to America. His life in America is very different from that in London. His desire is to make his fortune, believing that will be the only way to earn back his reputation. Throughout the story Frank is faced with the reality that his life matters and that God’s grace will abound. The ending was surprise to me and I love that his family finds him and they are reunited in the end as well as the fact that Frank’s name was indeed cleared of the accusations!  We listened to this wonderful story on our way to and from a field trip to the zoo. The 90 minute journey there and back went by very quickly with this as our entertainment! All five of us completely enjoyed the story. We listen to a lot of audio drama while driving, but not many that are this long and it captivated our attention thoroughly. Many of the voice talents were recognizable from other audio dramas and movies or television. The acting was superb and I absolutely love the background music! In addition to the audio is the opportunity to participate in the Live the Adventure Club. There are sooooo many amazing resources with this! The study guide is an amazing tool which can be used to make this part of your school-day and be incredibly educational. There are questions to help your children listen well and deeper, more thought provoking questions to help them with inference and predictions while listening. These are great skills which will translate into reading assignments as well. The vocabulary list is really helpful since these are older stories with rich words rarely used these days in modern conversation and writing. Also some of the historical references which may be unfamiliar are covered, like cobblestone.  

  I really like that the guide explored the historical context of Manifest Destiny, the idea that the settlement of western America was predestined because of the country’s political and economic power. I really appreciate an honest discussion of this with our kids and the fact that the drama also delves into an understanding that the tribal nations native to this country were not to blame for all of the bloodiness of the past. Honest discussions about what really happened between Americans and the tribes is needed rather than imbalanced teaching. Having my girls listen to entertainment that strives to be fair and true to history is very important to us.   As I mentioned before I loved the background music. I’m a huge fan of sounds tracks and one of the cool things about the Live the Adventure Club is that you can listen to the soundtrack! There are also three study guide options which are simple to follow, yet very deep and will provide a great spring-board for discussion.  Don’t forget to check out what my Crewmates had to say!  Captain Bayley's Heir {Heirloom Audio Productions Reviews}Crew Disclaimer