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Nature Blocks from Lake Shore Learning: Review

April 1, 2013 Grace-Filled Writer

I love giving my girls toys which are unique and promote imaginative play. I’m also rather partial to toys which are of a simple nature encouraging more ingenuity and less button pushing! Anything reminiscent of the toys of yesterday immediately draw me in. Nature Blocks from Lakeshore Learning fit all of these ideals!

As soon as I opened the package my girls nearly grabbed the box out of my hands! The box of 36 blocks are beautifully crafted and resemble trees. Their smooth texture and natural wood-grain appearance make them so attractive. My girls have played with similar blocks at our local children’s museum and remarked how they liked these better because they stacked more easily. I loved that they could easily play with these on carpet. Other building block sets we have don’t stack well on the carpet and frustrate my daughters since they don’t typically want to play in the kitchen where there is a smooth surface.

The girls enjoyed making buildings out of the pieces. As much as I love these I honestly didn’t know how long they would captivate the girls’ attention. The answer? I had to drag them away! The only problem was no one wanted to take down their creations which in turn meant no one could build anything new!

Rose enjoyed building structures for her Colonial Settler and Native American figurines. She built forests, houses, bridges, and much more over and over.

Beth liked trying to make animals. The unique shapes really allowed her imagination to run wild! She told me this was a giraffe.

Grace just liked to build anything she could! She did prefer to use the hearth for a building medium. She had an easier time stabilizing the base of her creations here.

This past week Grace wasn’t feeling well enough to focus much on her lessons. A cold, cough, and slight fever made for one cranky little girl! Typically this is a problem because she doesn’t feel like trying on her lessons but doesn’t want to miss out on learning. This week I had no problem because she spent at least 45 minutes each day playing with the Nature Blocks! For a three-year-old anything that occupies for longer than 15 minutes is a winner!

In addition to the simply fun of building, these also provided an opportunity to show Rose and Beth tree rings. The circles very clearly show tree rings and provide a nice, kid-sized, hands-on learning tool for science!

Check out these and more fun learning toys at Lakeshore Learning!

Disclaimer

I received Nature Blocks in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. No other compensation was received.

A Journey Through Learning Astronomy and Space

March 30, 2013 Grace-Filled Writer

I really love our regular curriculum and so do my girls, but every once in a while we need a change of pace! I especially like unit studies because it gives my girls a chance to explore their own interests. It also is nice to deviate from the normal every once in a while to keep things exciting. A Journey Through Learning provides a creative way for the learning process. Through their lapbooks and unit studies students of all ages can explore subjects that interest them and create a scrap-book style resource for use of review at a later date. The Review Crew had an opportunity to review the following products in a variety of age ranges:
LapbooksLetters, Numbers and Shapes (ages 3-5)
The Earth (grades 1-4)
Knights and Castles (grades 2-7)Unit Study
Astronomy and Space (grades 2-7)
Unlike most studies I’ve seen online there are several ways these can be purchased. Purchasing the downloadable versions ($13.00) is the easiest for me, but this is not the most convenient for everyone. The lapbooks are also available in a CD ($14.00), a printed version ($20.00) and an assembled version ($29.00). The unit studies also come in a a CD ($14.00) and a printed version ($21.00). I showed the different options we were given for review to Rose who immediately jumped at the chance to study more about Astronomy! My lover of science couldn’t wait to start learning as much as she could. This study is laid out very simply. The instruction pages are clear and enable both parent and student to begin immediately with little preparation.

Included is a list of books and other resources to enhance the study are included. Rose opted to focus on one book for further study called The Astronomy Book. It has a biblical focus which fits in with our family’s beliefs. The nice thing about unit studies is you can choose which resources best reflects your individual family’s values and beliefs as well as choosing appropriate reading levels if you are teaching different ages. Another beauty of unit studies is that multiple ages can study together.

Each topic within the unit has a light page of reading which give interesting facts and information. Following this is a page for students to write down what they learned from what they just read. Rose particularly liked learning about the various planets. I have the order of the planets hanging in our schoolroom and she enjoyed finding out more about them.

Another section she thoroughly enjoyed was the study of the moon. She liked coloring in the phases of the moon although at first she flipped them all around. We fixed that easily enough and I really feel that she may know them better now. Isn’t there a saying that we learn more from our mistakes?

By far Rose’s favorite part was making a diorama of space. She started by painting the inside of a shoebox black. She decided to leave the lid attached to make a title for it. Rose loves being creative with her studies. This was a perfect project for my budding artist!

Included in the study is a page of decorations for the diorama which represent various objects in space which we studied. Rose was so sweet to let her little sister, Beth, help her decorate! I let them use some glitter glue to color the items before cutting them out. I asked if she wanted to color them before adding the glitter, but glitter was enough!

Here is her finished project!

We finished our unit off with a trip to our local children’s museum. It has a very nice display of space travel. Many artifacts, including the craft which Enos, one of the chimps who flew to space before man traveled, orbited the earth. This was such a fun way to close off our study!

If you are in the market for a unit study or lapbook this is a great company to explore. Take a look at the history of who they are. I love that it was two moms, just like me, who had a vision for something and worked hard through trials and adversity.

Don’t forget to check out the reviews from the rest of the Crew!

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Field Trip: Bennett Place

March 27, 2013 Grace-Filled Writer

My dad gave me my love for history. He told me stories that made history alive and gave me the desire to find out more. I had good teachers a long the way, but none could compare to the knowledge my dad gave me. When he called and told me he was going to be participating in a Civil War reenactment at Bennett Place, a Civil War historical site, I immediately made plans for the us all to go!

This particular reenactment revolved around camp-life for the soldiers. Although I would be interested in seeing a battlefield reenactment one day I don’t feel the girls are at an appropriate age for this. The girls thought the tent my dad slept in the night before looked like a lot of fun! I’m not sure I agree, but it was interesting nonetheless.

A good friend of my dad’s is the one who set this up for him. He frequently attends reenactment events. He helps provide period entertainment for the events on his banjo. Beth especially enjoyed this part of the day!

The girls also enjoyed the gentleman who brought toys from this period. They played all sorts of games. Some we already own and others were new. All were fun!

I enjoyed learning a colonial dance…much to my husband’s enjoyment! I don’t typically participate in a lot of the fun because I’m busy snapping pictures. When I was asked if I wanted to learn a colonial dance, my husband encouraged me to go have some fun, so I did!

Although this wasn’t a battle reenactment there was a drill demonstration. Beth and Grace did not like this part, so my sweet husband took photos for me while the younger girls and I stayed at a distance with their heads buried on either side of me.

The gunfire was loud, but it was a lot of fun to watch the drill! I think my dad did quite a good job for his first time doing this!

The girls had so much fun dressing in their old-fashioned dresses, learning about history, and just experiencing something new. Historical sites hold events throughout the year which can greatly enrich your homeschool. I didn’t plan it this way, but we began a unit on the Civil War this week. It is a great way to make history come alive for your kids!

Family Friendly: 10

Kid’s Engagement: 10

Likelihood to return: 10

Draw Write Now: Review and Giveaway!!!!

March 25, 2013 Grace-Filled Writer

One of my favorite past times from childhood was drawing pictures using coloring books. I would work for hours getting the dimensions just right. In our school we had a choice: Music or Art. You could not participate in both and I chose band over art. Still, drawing was a fun pastime of mine until I went away to college and other things seemed to take up my time. Rose especially has seemed to acquire my love of drawing. She has several notebooks of different categories where she draws everything from Angry Birds to real birds! When I told her we were going to get to review some drawing books she was over the moon!

The Draw Write Now series from Draw Your World is a clear instructional series which combines handwriting and drawing. These non-consumable books encourage looking at handwriting as art and combines the two skills seamlessly. Each lesson includes several sentences about what the child will draw and clear directions for how to draw the picture. The sentences are written in manuscript, but can easily be transcribed into cursive you like. They generously sent me a fun package to review including the eight-book series and a variety of pencil grips.

I used paper which had room for a picture at the top as well as handwriting lines at the bottom. I first had the girls practice their handwriting, then move on to the picture. My reason was that I knew they would become so engrossed in their pictures the handwriting would possibly be forgotten. I was very pleased with how quickly they completed their copywork and how neat it looked!

I knew Rose would enjoy this series, but I wasn’t sure about Beth. She likes to do things her own way and I’m having a hard time teaching her it’s not always okay to decorate her words with smiley faces and flowers! She has clear artistic tendencies, but getting her to conform to set standards is not easy. I actually love her decorated letters and words, but I also want her to know they aren’t always appropriate. I was shocked at how quickly her handwriting improved! She was incredibly focused on neatness and proportion of her letters for the first time.

Rose enjoyed drawing the pictures and also adding the background scenery. She made it her own and enjoyed coloring the scenes as well. She was so pleased with her work and I appreciated the simple instructions for her to follow. The books do not need to be completed in any particular order, but book 1 has the simplest pictures and instructions. Other topics in the series include a variety of science, historical, and geographical themes. These will be a lot of fun to include as we continue our studies throughout the years!

Although Grace is not really to the drawing or handwriting stage, the various pencil grips worked well for her. We tried several different ones and her favorite was the basic Pencil Grip. I love how it helps her know exactly how to hold the pencil so as she grows the grip will become second nature. From one who still doesn’t hold a pencil correctly this is a great product!

The girls tried out the other grips as well. Beth particularly liked the Twist ‘n Write. She uses this one frequently for a lot of her work! She likes to do things out-of-the-box by nature so I think that is why she is partial to this one!

Rose liked the idea of The Writing Claw, but said she felt like her fingers were too big to fit it. I think it was more a matter of too many years of not using a pencil grip. She did use one when she first started writing, but it has been about 3 years. I like how flexible this particular type was because it give the writer more individual control.

I also really loved the pencils! They were so easy to use and had such smooth flow for writing. I have relegated these for handwriting/drawing only because they are so nice and we tend to break a lot of pencils around here with learning how much pressure to apply and all that.

Here is an example of Rose’s artwork:

Rose – 7 years old

Here is an example of Beth’s artwork:

Beth – 5 years old

I am so proud of my girls, especially Beth. She always used to say, “I can’t draw pretty pictures!” Now she says, “Can I PLEASE draw using my drawing book?” What a beautiful change.

Are you ready for an incredibly giveaway now? Draw Your World has generously donated a $50 gift card to be used on their site! Enter several ways below.

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Disclaimer

I received the 8 book set of Draw Write Now and a pencil grip starter set in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. No other compensation was received.

Week in Review: March 18-22

March 23, 2013 Grace-Filled Writer

Spring has bloomed which usually means bad allergies for me, but I have a new medication this season and so far I’ve had a good start! We’ve even had the windows open some which has’t happened in a while. The girls have had fun playing outside. We are blessed to have neighbors on either side of us and across the street our kids’ age. They also all go to different schools and with our homeschooling the kids love opportunities to get together. Since our yard is the center they seem to often congregate within our fence. I love this. I love seeing what sometimes feels like half the neighborhood hanging out in our backyard!

We had a great week and lots of things to look forward to! Tomorrow we are going to see my dad in a Civil War reenactment which coincides perfectly well with our history lessons next week on the Civil War! No, my dad isn’t doing this just for our benefit and I didn’t plan it that way, but it is a certainly a lovely addition to our lessons. There will also be a really exciting giveaway coming Monday, so don’t forget to check back about that! Do you like this bird’s eye view of our schoolroom?

Little Hands to Heaven: Unit 16

Grace learned about Elijah and Elisha this week with our Bible readings. She wasn’t as excited about these stories and kept wanting to skip ahead to the New Testament! I understand how she feels sometimes, but I also know there is much to learn from the Old Testament. One of her activities was sorting out small pieces of food. She asked to eat the cheerios while she was sorting. This girl loves cheerios.

Our letter of the week, M, received a lot of attention! I started letting her trace letters as part of her letter-of-the-week work. She has become quite proficient at letter writing for those she already knows. She does extremely well with tracing and enjoyed these pages.

Something I’ve learned from having kids who are advanced in various abilities is that often their abilities will surpass their maturity. It means I have to have greater patience when she scribbles all over the M page rather than tracing nicely like she did the day before. Grace has amazing pencil control and dexterity for her age, but she still has to develop the maturity to exhibit it consistently.

We also had a failed soap making activity to go along with our story about Naaman washing in the Jordan River for healing, so we did something a little different. To learn about our awesome replacement activity click on the picture!

In her spare time, Grace has been learning piano! We have been reviewing an excellent computer-based piano teaching program for the Review Crew. Click the picture to take a look. Even though she is only 3 1/2, Grace has been learning and is thrilled to be having piano lessons alongside her sisters!

Little Hearts for His Glory: Unit 23

Beth learned about the Pilgrims, their relationship with the Native Americans, and the religious persecution which pushed them here. She is really enjoying the readings from History Stories for Children. She did tell me that it was really sad that so many of the pilgrims died. We learned that there were only 4 women still alive for the first Thanksgiving feast!

This week our word wall words started with N. My favorite word she chose was Neverland. I was surprised she thought of it! It was a little long for the space we had available, but she made it work.

Here Beth is chatting with her Daddy on the phone while she works on her handwriting. The girls enjoy taking a break and and chatting with him when they have a chance. All of a sudden Beth’s handwriting has gone from being random sizes to looking more uniform! She has always been one to want to do things her own way and it has taken some convincing that she should form her letters without smiley faces inside of them except on special occasions!

This week also brought three-digit addition. She jumped right into working on this while I was cleaning up from breakfast without any how-to instruction needed! I wish I had her mind for math. She definitely takes after her daddy. On the sixth problem she looked up at me and said giggling, “Oh! I almost missed that one!”

This week Beth learned that c says /s/ if it comes before an e, i, or y. Before any other letter c says /k/. I am amazed over and over again that there are so many wonderful rules for spelling! I am incredibly thankful to be learning them myself since spelling was always difficult for me. All About Spelling is hands-down the easiest and most thorough curriculum I have seen for spelling.

Bigger Hearts for His Glory: Unit 25

Rose learned a great deal about the gold-rush, Kit Carson, and much more! She enjoys the history readings as well and in preparation for more independent studies next year I have begun having her read her assignments on her own. Her narrations have improved so much from where they were at the beginning of the year. Ever since Christmas she has caught on to how to narrate. This was new to both of us this year so it has been a joy to watch her skill improve so much.

Her vocabulary page has also improved! After I took the picture went back and edited her mistakes, but then I forgot to snap another one! I don’t believe in ignoring kids’ mistakes in writing. After teaching junior high students who came through programs which felt it would stifle their creativity I can say it only seems to cripple them. By the time I got these kids I had to teach such basics as capitalizing I consistently that there wasn’t room to help them learn to craft their writing. With this experience in my background I make certain my girls correct their mistakes in writing. They don’t seem to mind and frequently Rose even thanks me for helping her!

Cursive continues to go well, but I’m trying to stress to her the need to be careful when she copies her words. She tends to forget letters in what I think it a rush to get finished. I am very pleased with how pretty her handwriting has become!

She particularly enjoyed one of her grammar lessons this week. It focused on making sure all the sentences in a paragraph pertain to the topic of the paragraph. The examples in the grammar book had random thoughts placed in the paragraphs and she got quite a giggle out of them!

We also started studying homophones for practice this week. We have talked about them before in the context of her writing, but haven’t formally practiced them. She enjoyed this activity a lot!

She typed up her writing assignment for the week about being healthy. She has moved on to two-paragraph expository writing. She sometimes still has trouble thinking through what to write, but the outline sheets (part of the curriculum) help her so much!

Finally she worked on memorizing more state locations and their abbreviations. She learned the 13 colonies plus a couple more the last time. This week she learned the rest of the states which were around when the Civil War began. If she couldn’t find the state I’d give her N-S-E-W directions. She did a great job!

We had another wonderful week! How was yours?

Fun Activity: Soap Clouds

March 22, 2013 Grace-Filled Writer

We had a failed activity this week. This is extremely rare with HOD activities. They usually go off without a hitch for me, but our soap making activity to go along with our story about Naaman washing in the Jordan River for healing failed miserably! Therefore we did something a little different.

We were supposed to take powdered laundry soap, a small amount of water, and form it into soap shape. That didn’t work…probably due to the fact that I only had homemade laundry soap and not just the regular kind! So we opted to make soap clouds in the microwave!

If you try this remember: 1. You must use Ivory soap. 2. Please keep a close eye on the microwave

1. Place a piece of wax paper or a microwave safe paper towel into the bottom of the microwave. DO NOT USE FOIL!

2. Place bar of IVORY soap into the microwave

3. Set the microwave for about 2 minutes, but stand close by to keep an eye on it!

Having fun watching! I wish I could have gotten a better picture because this is really cool!

This is the end result…

It is so weird! The soap will be warm surprised me by being easy to mold in this state!

So the girls pushed it into a heart shaped silicone mold and then used it for bath time. I added a few drops of water to the top of each heart to help it set better. So even though our original project didn’t work out quite right, this was really fun!

Adventus MusIQ Homeschool: Piano Software Review

March 20, 2013 Grace-Filled Writer

Music has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My parents tell me I asked to take lessons of all the typical girl interests: dance, gymnastics, horseback riding, and piano. They wisely asked me to choose one and I chose, much to their pleasure, piano. They of course told me they wanted me to do lessons for a year before deciding if I wanted to continue. It didn’t take long for me to fall in love with music and making music with the piano. I loved it so much, my parents would typically have to force me away to work on my homework. Believe me, this is not typical for music students. I should know this since I now teach piano.

Grace “practicing” before she could even walk!

Thanks to my parents providing me with lessons from the time I was 8, I now have 24 students in my home each week, two of whom are my own sweet girls! I love teaching, but I understand all too well the financial aspect of music lessons. There are often families who inquire after music lessons only to discover they are not financially able to move forward. Adventus has created and excellent, affordable alternative for students to begin piano lessons for families who cannot afford traditional instruction. MusicIQ Homeschool is perfect for use by anyone, even if you don’t have any musical background.

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There are seven level options which include software, lesson plans, activity, and theory sheets. Parents can choose a monthly subscription for $10.95 which allows access to all levels of the entire curriculum. For families who would prefer to pay one-time the younger beginning three levels (ages 4-10) are priced at $89.95. The level used for ages 10 and up is priced at $109.95. Two separate level of ear training are only $59.95 each. To give you an idea of how this compares to traditional lessons, one month of private piano instruction provided by me, in my own home costs $60. You can easily see the price comparison!

Families do need to own a midi piano (which can be purchased directly from Adventus along with the curriculum in a package) since you must connect the piano to your computer in order to use the software. This would be an investment made for piano instruction anyway if the family did not already own a piano. I can assure you that anyone who learns to play on a keyboard can easily make the transition to a traditional piano. Over half of my students play on midi keyboards and have no difficulty playing on the grand piano at our church for their recital. There is a difference in key weight, but it will not cause any problems moving from one to the other.

For some, 4 years old may seem quite young to start learning music formally. I have successfully taught several 4-year-olds. Both Beth and Rose began lessons when they were 4. I hadn’t planned to start teaching Grace yet…she is only three after all! I have been “teaching” her a lesson every Friday along with her sisters, but it has been mostly to appease her pleas and hadn’t amounted to much…until I opened Year 1 on my computer and took a look. Much to my surprise the beginning lessons were similar to what I had been teaching her on my own (low and high notes).

Grace was quickly drawn into the program. I love the immediate immersion for students into classical music and composers. One of the things which is difficult to include in traditional 30 minute music lessons is information about composers and their music. Various composers introduce each lesson and music by the composer is played at the beginning and end. The music is also used during the practice sessions. Another fun aspect is that music composition is encouraged from the very first lesson!

The reason Grace was so quickly able to succeed with these lessons is that the concepts area taught without using traditional musical scores. High notes are called bird notes and low notes are called whale notes. When she was asked to play bird notes, she learned to play notes above middle C. When asked to play a whale note she knows to play below middle C. The program encourages students for correct answers and correct for wrong ones, giving them an opportunity to fix it during the practice sessions. Placing a sticker on middle C is a trick I’ve used with all my beginning students, especially the youngest ones. I used this technique with Grace as well because it is difficult for young students to recognize the pattern of the black and white keys.

Even though my older daughters have been taking lessons for a while (Beth – 2 years and Rose – 4 years) there was still opportunity for learning through this program. Beth completed several lessons from Volume 2. She very much enjoyed Ms. Melody in the practice room!

Rose has surpassed the lessons offered in all three levels of the Children’s Music Journey in what I have taught her already, but the music games were an excellent review for her. She frequently asked to play the games which were an excellent reward for after her daily practice. Everything from interval identification to ear training to note recognition is covered in the games.

I also used this with a few of my students to review. I found the music note review to be very helpful both for assessment and practice. When I tell my students they need to review their note names I often feel they don’t really understand the necessity of this skill. After playing through the cookie factory game my students recognized exactly where they stood. The only thing I didn’t like was that the correct note was not identified when they answered incorrectly. I feel this would have been beneficial so they would have had a better chance to answer correctly the next time.

This is an excellent program for families who are looking to begin music instruction but may not know how long their child will keep interest or have financial constraints. I also think this is a good resource for a traditional music teacher to have in their toolbox. My students who had the opportunity to use this program genuinely had fun and learned at the same time!

To see this program in action watch the video below of my sweet Grace. Keep in mind she is only 3 1/2 years old! I’ll admit this is younger than the program is intended for, but considering she is daily surrounded by music instruction it isn’t surprising she is doing so well!

Don’t forget to read more reviews from my Crewmates!

Week in Review: March 11-15

March 18, 2013 Grace-Filled Writer

Since the adults in the house started off with the week with a horrible cold, we didn’t start off with our usual gusto. Thankfully none of the girls caught it, although we can’t figure out how! I did score some more bargains on books to go with next year’s curriculum. Click here or on the picture to read about how we found Heart of Dakota as our home curriculum.

We also have had a great time reviewing more products for the Review Crew! This week I posted my review for Touch Math. If you are looking for a multi-sensory math program this is one of the best I’ve ever seen. Click here or on the picture to read my review.

Even with taking Monday and Tuesday off from lessons, we still managed to squeeze in the entire unit for each of my girls and I didn’t even feel like I was rushed to do so!

Little Hands to Heaven: Unit 15

This week we focused on Solomon. Grace built Solomon’s Temple out of building blocks and insisted she needed to Bible story book to make sure she built it correctly. She even placed two half- circles together for the bowl shown in the picture! I was surprised at her attention to detail for this activity.

She also insisted on including water-slides (the blue blocks) at the temple as well as bringing a bus-load of people to it. I wasn’t certain if she understood the point. So I asked her what the people were doing. She looked at me very indignantly and said, “They are worshiping God!” I’m so glad she understood the meaning behind the story even if she wanted to add the water slides. Anyway, who wouldn’t want a water slide at church?

I really like how the Heart of Dakota Guides build math concepts for preschool into their week. This week Grace enjoyed matching socks. I had this activity already made up and pull them out to play with every once in a while. These are some wild socks I saved of her baby socks. She has a fun time putting them together.

Grace realized this week she couldn’t read. She never seemed bothered by this before, but she suddenly feels frustrated that she can’t read books. I started teaching her sisters around this age with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, but when I asked she said she didn’t want to learn yet. I don’t like to push my girls faster than they are ready, so I’m just going to wait until she asks about it. My other two daughters did great even at this young age, but they both begged me to learn. We’ll see how this plays out with Grace!

Little Hearts for His Glory: Unit 22

When Mommy isn’t feeling well school often moves to the living room. It’s nice we aren’t tied to the table all the time. Beth curled up with me on Wednesday and we caught up on her reading and history. This week she learned about Martin Luther. It dawned on me at some point during one of our readings that I was in college before I had even heard of Martin Luther, or at least retained the information I had heard. I thankful to be able teach my children history which includes church history. It is a blessing I do not want to take for granted.

Beth finished up her K-5 handwriting book a little early. My mom found a great 1st grade level handwriting book which also incorporates phonics. She’s now practicing whole words and there are still pictures for her to color. She also finished up her first grade readers this week. We will be working on the emerging readers found in Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory soon, but for now I’m just having her read from the books on our bookshelf. I don’t want to push her too far ahead, but reading and handwriting are two areas I’m happy to let her take the lead to pace herself!

Beth loves math…and loves to sing during math! She sometimes sings songs she knows and sometimes sings the addition facts she is practicing. She also tried out a funny new pencil which helps teach grip. She’s using it here and seemed to really enjoy how different it is!

Bigger Hearts for His Glory: Unit 24

My Rose can be so thoughtful while she works! She often prefers to skip breaks just to keep on working. This picture is not posed and shows just how thoughtful she can be. She is very anxious to start learning multiplication. Knowing my girl she’ll want to start in her 3rd grade math as soon as it arrives!

She enjoys doing her vocabulary with World Wise each week. Heart of Dakota begins teaching vocabulary each week from the history books, but she wanted to learn more about words and I like the more traditional format of Wordly Wise. She is learning about context clues and how to use words with more than one meaning correctly.

Rose studied about inventions like the telegraph and tires this week. She very much enjoyed writing out the alphabet in Morse Code and also writing a message using it. I appreciate how the history and geography activities engage my girls and give them a love for history.

We can’t wait until next week!

Choosing Curriculum

March 14, 2013 Grace-Filled Writer

It’s that time of year! Everyone who is already homeschooling is deciding whether they should stick with the curriculum they have chosen and those who are considering homeschool for next year are feeling overwhelmed with their options. Feelings of excitement, worry, anxiety, and confusion abound!

We were blessed to find our core curriculum home from the beginning with Heart of Dakota. I didn’t know much about homeschooling when I decided to look for a preschool program for my 2-year-old daughter and a quick search at Christianbook.com brought Little Hands to Heaven to the top of the list. I liked what I saw. My husband liked what he saw. I clicked a button, and we were on our way!

I have found out I am fairly unique to have discovered our curriculum home so early on in our journey. I didn’t know to search for opinions about the curriculum. I had never heard of a forum before. So how did I know this was the direction to head?

1. Prayer – As with every major decision in our family we prayed about what to do with our oldest daughter. My husband and I both strongly felt preschool was not a direction we wanted to head. The reasons for this are best left for another time! However prayer was an integral part of the decision as well as whether to go with a formal curriculum or not. I knew little of what was expected to be taught in preschool, but I knew if I had a plan I could follow it.

Lesson: Seriously pray about your curriculum decisions. God cares about every aspect of our lives including, maybe even especially, about the education of our children. It is great to ask for advice from others, but seeking God’s wisdom is best.

2. It Had What I Wanted – Since I was new to all of this I honestly didn’t know what I was looking for, but when I saw what was included I realized this curriculum had a list of everything I would have wanted: Bible, letter recognition, interaction, music, math, activity, clear instructions for the teacher, and all in one place! I was also pleased with what I saw for older children as well, even though at the time we had no intention to homeschool for grade school.

Lesson: Make a list of deal-breaker qualities you are looking for in a curriculum…the things which are so important to you that you cannot imagine teaching without them. For some this includes lots of hands-on material, for others it will mean computer based. The only thing I knew was it had to be Christ-centered. Also make a list of it-would-be-nice items.

3. It Fit Our Price Range – Compared to the other programs I saw at Christianbook.com this was very inexpensive. When I figured I would reuse it for any future kids, it seemed even more excellent. I budget $300 for the year because we have chosen a mostly non-consumable curriculum and I shop for used books to go along with our new guides. This is definitely on the low end of what many families spend and realistically I know it will increase as my daughters get older.

Lesson: Discuss with your spouse how much you can spend. This can keep your expectations within reality as well as keep you from overspending!

4. We Tried It…And It Worked – I loved how things went for preschool with my daughter. Even now all three of my girls are enjoying school…and so am I! In the back of my mind…even though I didn’t think I wanted to homeschool…I knew I’d come back to Heart of Dakota if homeschooling ever became our path. Once we did choose to homeschool most things went smoothly. The only areas I added to were those my daughter asked about at first. Then when it became clear my daughter needed rules for spelling and she was not doing well with the abstract thinking of our math program, I sought out something else did work – All About Spelling and Rod and Staff. I didn’t throw the entire program out just because an area or two weren’t working quite like they should.

Lesson: If it’s working, stay with it. If not, figure out why so you know what you are looking for in a new curriculum. Don’t simply change because you have heard about a new trendy curriculum or all of your friends are doing something different. Curriculum usually has individually specific scopes and sequences especially for history and science. Jumping around could potentially leave major gaps in your child’s education.

Also, give it a chance. Just because the first two or three weeks aren’t what you imagined doesn’t mean it is time to throw it out. It takes time to adjust to homeschooling and time to adjust to a new curriculum. Give yourself grace and time to make those adjustments and search out the reasons behind the days not going well. It may have nothing to do with the curriculum and have more to do with a rebellious child or disorganized day.

5. Go Forward With Confidence – Nothing will ruin a curriculum faster than a teacher who cannot confidently teach it. I felt completely inadequate in the beginning, but I didn’t let my daughter see those feelings. I needed her to feel confident in my ability to teach her because I wanted her to be confident she could learn. Sometimes I’m not completely sure about something…and I’ll tell her this…but I try to exhibit confidence in my ability to find the answer. Scripted lessons have been a huge part of building my confidence in teaching. Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and All About Spelling are both scripted and I feel very confident in both of those areas now!

Lesson: Whatever your choice is, move forward with confidence in your choice and your ability to teach it…even if you have to fake it! Rest in the knowledge that you do have the ability to teach and you’ll give your child confidence in what their ability to learn as well!

Touch Math: Preschool Review

March 11, 2013 Grace-Filled Writer

Grace is my youngest. She has only ever known home-learning. Even though my oldest had a year at kindergarten, her other sister was learning to read that year. There was no transition for Grace because it was simply normal. Maybe it’s because she’s the third or maybe it’s just personality, but I cannot seem to give this little girl enough learning to satisfy her! She has her own curriculum and daily work, just like her sisters, but it is never enough.

PreK photo 429809_10151403646419867_522359968_n_zps28782958.jpg

I was beyond ecstatic to review Touch Math’s Pre-K program with Grace. For $59.95 even the youngest learners are able to learn basic math. The printable pdf files are engaging, but not distracting with unnecessary graphics or colors which I often feel take away from the concepts. However, the manipulatives used with this program are brightly colored and engaging in a way that causes the child to want to use them!

Grace could not wait to get her hands on them! We received our package on a Friday afternoon. One glimpse of the beautiful numbers and number cards cause a period of jumping and cheering from my three-y-ear-old. The Texture Cards and 3D Numerals (Sold separately) kept her entertained by themselves for almost an hour with her Grandma the next day. She touched each number, practiced tracing them, counted whatever object or character was on the card, and overall simply enjoyed these thoroughly. The 3D Numerals were a great way to introduce each number. I was surprised to find out she already recognizes her numbers consistently and we had fun using these to identify numbers of objects on the worksheets as well as around the room. Included in the numeral box are pdf files on CD with activities and ideas for teaching. These manipulatives are intended to be used for more than one level.

Touch Math also sent us a set of Touch Shapes. These transparent, colorful shapes are so much fun! The multiple colors, shapes, and sizes provide varied levels of learning opportunities including sorting, size arrangement, and shape & color recognition.

Grace jumped right into these without hesitation! After I printed the worksheets I opted to slip them into protective covers which could be written on with dry-erase markers. This way I could reuse the lessons with her and save paper. Not to mention that she will jump at any opportunity to use markers!

In just a couple of days Grace understood the concept of equal. I hadn’t considered teaching her this since I had only seen the concept in Kindergarten level materials. Touch Math gives scripted lessons which really helps me out. Sometimes I have a hard time finding the words to say to teach a new concept to my young girls. When a curriculum gives me step-by-step directions, the guess work is gone. I may have to re-explain something, but it is much easier to have a starting point.

I really liked how the worksheets incorporated both written work and manipulatives. I like math programs which give both a hands-on and traditional writing approach. We used the 3D numerals and Touch Shapes the most. Grace loved everything about this and asks daily to do her math. We typically use 3-4 worksheets a day so we’re going to get through the program quickly. I have already reviewed some of the earlier pages and she loves doing them a second just as much!

I highly recommend this program for preschool math. It is not the cheapest one available, but it isn’t outrageously priced and it is far and above the best I have seen for math at this age. The manipulatives are colorful, but not distracting. The pages are simple and not overwhelming with the amount of work. The concepts are challenging for this level and preparing the children for more complex math ideas. You won’t be disappointed with this engaging preschool curriculum!

Don’t forget to check out the other reviews from my Crewmates!

Disclaimer

I received a free copy of this product through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. No other compensation was received.