I only have 9 more pages to go to finish my 2016 family album! I’ll have some finishing touches and proof reading to do before I actually print, but I’m very excited! My goal was to complete 2 full albums last year and I did it! Okay, so it is into March of 2017, but I still feel great about it.
Probably one of the most difficult subjects for me to make sure happens in our homeschool is art. We absolutely value the arts and I have a daughter who dreams of being an art teacher overseas at an international school, so I should make this a priority. The trouble comes with logistics, cost, and ability. I’m not artistic enough to be able to teach my girls how to more than cut, paste, and color. Art classes can be very pricey. Needless to say my girls were jumping with joy when they learned we were going to review a new art curriculum, especially Rose!
When my daughters saw this young artist and her amazing creation they couldn’t believe it! If this was an example of what they would create they were absolutely on board with trying out Creating a Masterpiece. We had the opportunity to review the monthly plan which is great for families who may want to plan for certain parts of the year to focus on art lessons. The value of these lessons is well worth the cost. They are well done and have enabled my daughters to create beautiful works of art.
Our experience with this art curriculum was spectacular. The girls understood the instructor clearly and were eager to work on their projects. Our first project was a beginner charcoal piece.
I enjoyed sitting back and watching my girls create. We haven’t done any art with charcoal so this was a completely new medium for them. This is my oldest daughter’s yaht. She would like to try this one more time as this was her first experience with charcoal. One thing I’m very pleased about with her is how she has matured and is willing to grow through what she sees as mistakes. I appreciated how the instructor emphasizes that erasers are fine, no two pictures need to look the same, and you can always include things you didn’t originally intend in the final picture. The girls each made the most of their own projects and had fun dressing them up so they were unique.
Here are their final products!
Order: Rose (11), Beth (9), Grace (7) One of the other projects we worked on was a chalk pastel painting. I joined in for this project and learned so very much! For instance, I did not realize that chalk pastels contain no actual chalk, but are pure paint pigment in a dry form. I have to admit, I struggle with art because I feel inadequate, but my daughters absolutely love when I join in their creativity. I genuinely enjoyed creating this picture. This was a level 1 lesson, so it was a bit more detailed.
OrderTop: Rose (11), MommyBottom: Grace (7), Beth (9) We completed each of these in a day although they can be completed over the course of several days. My daughters tend to like to work to completion if possible. For these beginning levels this is absolutely doable. Some of the more complex projects definitely need more than one day.One of the very unique aspects of this curriculum is having all levels and all types of art mediums available with one subscription. Families with kids who want to try different things have the opportunity to allow this freedom! Also the wide variety of supplies used is amazing! You can choose projects which you already own or venture into the unknown. Young students and adults will enjoy these projects and might just be surprised with their results.
Painting, sculpting, carving, wood burning, mosaics…I have never seen a curriculum with so much available at such an affordable price. This is the perfect fit for large families and families with kids who have multiple levels of artistic abilities. It’s also a perfect fit for children who want to try a new artistic medium they may have never tried before. I highly recommend giving this curriculum a try and fully expect you and your kids to love every minute! Read more from my Crewmates!
We are big-time readers in this house. I know the book-shelf conundrum is always an issue for homeschoolers, but it was an issue for me before we started homeschooling! My girls can often be found reading in their spare time and literature is never a struggle. We are always on the lookout for quality, age-appropriate fiction titles. Sadly modern fiction is often lacking the values we wish to instill in our daughters and often crosses into content or language we find inappropriate. I was so very excited to introduce my girls to the Circle C Stepping Stones series by Susan K Marlow from Kregel Publications.
Beth and Grace read each one of the two books in the series so far, Andi Saddles Up and Andi Under the Big Top. They loved both stories and are now swapping books so they can read the other. Andi is growing up in 1880’s in California on her family’s ranch, the Circle C. These sweet chapter books show how Andi deals with friendships, trials, and misconceptions all in a way which is age-appropriate to the audience. There are 6 books planned in this series and I have no doubt we will be collecting all of them. 
Beth said her favorite part was the Andi is the same age as her! She is 9 and I think it is great that she has books written to her and about a girl like her. She also liked that Andi lives on a ranch and is about horses. Beth, like most girls, would love to own a horse so I think she enjoyed putting herself into Andi’s place. She also wants to be a veterinarian so her love of animals is reflected as well!
Grace says her favorite part was that it was about the circus. She is 7 and so Andi is slightly older than her, but she is the youngest in the family, which Grace can relate to very well! She also thought it was neat that she had her very own horse. She loves chapter books, but being young still appreciates that there were illustrations within the pages.
Another really great feature is that each book has a study guide, coloring pages, and a lap book! The book itself is great, but if you would like to build a unit around it, you can do so easily.
Grace really liked the vocabulary section as she loves learning new words and exploring the English language in general. Beth really liked creating and naming her own horse. I know they were really engaged in these stories because during their playtime after reading they played ranch with their toys. The best literature always engages creativity and imagination! This new series fits snugly within the other Circle C series which follows Andi from young girlhood through womanhood. The concept for these books is spectacular. There are a lot of books about young girls and growing up, but this is the first series I’ve come across which writes about the same easy-to-love character at appropriate reading levels which reflect her age and take her through all of her growing up years! This is the first of the books I’ve been exposed to. Now I’m very excited to get the next series for my oldest daughter. You can read more reviews from my Crewmates below!
Home School Adventure Co. is one of my go-to companies for solid biblical teaching resources which are affordable. Their unique content is always refreshing and a nice break when we want something different from our usual resources. The opportunity to review Walking with the Waodani was a great one for our family. Although we have not been called to full-time overseas mission work we are passionate about missions and passionate about teaching our children about those who have come before and trail-blazed through unbelievable difficulties, leading the way for what we call modern missions today. 
This unique study highlights the Waodani people now. I love this perspective because we get to hear about a first-hand account of a young man, Russel Green, and his journey to visit Ecuador and learn where the sacrifice of missionaries who walked the land before had taken this native tribe. While the target audience for this study is middle school, all of my children participated and they all enjoyed it! The girls and I worked alongside each other, but in addition to being an excellent collective-learning family study, I think it would also be appropriate for independent learners to complete on their own.
We have previously learned about the missionaries martyred in 1956 and a little about their families who then went back to the tribes to tell them about the love of Christ. It had been a while though so we watched an animated retelling of this story. Because of the violent nature of what happened I felt it best to prepare my youngest as gently as possible. She still struggles with nightmares at times and while we do not want to soften the sacrifices made, this was a good way to introduce our learning time. I remember the first time I heard the story of Operation Auca when I was in college. I had just finished reading one of Elizabeth Elliot’s books. I learned what happened to her husband, Jim, and his colleagues, and was deeply moved by the desire of their widows and children to come back to the place where their husband’s were martyred to tell them about Jesus. These examples of faith are exactly who our children need to learn about during their studies as they are young.
I love that this study shows the Waodani people currently and tells how many have come to find salvation through Christ. This study isn’t only about this people group! We also learned a lot about Ecuador geographically, economically, and socially. The images in this study are absolutely stunning! I printed the work pages for my girls and we used my iPad to look at all the pictures. They are vibrant and enticing. More than once my girls asked if we could visit Ecuador just because the pictures were so beautiful!
Agriculture, food, and animal life are also taught. I absolutely love how seamlessly all of this information is woven into the story of Operation Auca as well as the eventual salvation and growth of the church there. This is such an incredibly rich study with so much information! The information led my girls to ask more questions about the region and we did even more research on things that peaked their interest. There were a few, “Ew!” moments as they discovered what the indigenous people of the land ate, but it was a wonderful opportunity to talk about respecting other cultures and how missionaries must often sacrifice comforts and desires in order to take the gospel to unreached peoples. Rose, my oldest daughter has a strong desire to serve overseas as a teacher. When I first told her what we were going to be studying her eyes lit up and she revealed a huge smile! While I know God may shape and even change this dream, we try to encourage her even now by giving her opportunities to learn about missions. This study was an absolute joy for her and she couldn’t have been more eager. If you desire to include missions study in your homeschool this is a great unit study with which to begin!
You can read more from my Crewmates below!
I only finished a couple of layouts this week, but a couple is more than none! These are from a short trip we made to South Carolina this fall for a conference my husband attended. It was great fun! I’ve been learning how to play around with the lighting in Photoshop the last several week and it is transforming my pictures! I appear to be a much better photographer. I’ve always been decent at getting a natural shot, but the light settings on my point and shoot camera remain a mystery. Below my layouts are some before and afters of photos that show how taking a minute or two to fiddle with the light settings in Photoshop can really change your image quality!
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