The Curriculum Choice

10-20-30Go! Prayer, Reading, Chore System Review

Jen Dunlap — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 09:00:26 +0000

I know, another chore system. I thought the same thing. Why would this be any different than the other chore systems that we have tried and abandoned over the years?

Why even bother with a chore system at all?

I was willing to give 10-20-30Go! a try because summer was quickly approaching in our home. We were about to begin our summer schedule, and one of the areas that ends up getting ignored is the house. It’s nice, and needed, to have a more relaxed schedule for a few months, but a messy cluttered home tends to breed chaos and no one does well with chaos. I was determined that this summer we were all going to have a bit of a break AND keep the house running smoothly.

How 10-20-30Go! Works

Once the parent sets up the chores for each child, each child is responsible for completing the chores for the day as well as 10 minutes of prayer and 20 minutes of quiet reading time. I have opted to use the system for only my four oldest children. I keep the cards hanging near the chore chart, easy access and good reminder.

At the end of the week, if all the check marks are on the card, then the child is eligible for an allowance. Now this is one area where I did some tweaking. I know there is a big debate about whether or not to do an allowance, right now we choose not to give our children an allowance. The system, however, has still worked for us, very well in fact.

What Makes 10-20-30Go! Different?

One of the things I liked about 10-20-30Go! right from the beginning is their tag line: Families Functioning Faithfully. Who doesn’t wish that for all of our families? I know I do! I also like how prayer time and reading time are incorporated as part of the daily routine. For any home to faithfully function, our children need to know that prayer time is important. Not just family, group prayer, but individual prayer time as well.

Unlike most homeschooling families, I don’t have a home filled with voracious readers. Oh how I wish I did, but God has given me reluctant readers for now. Being accountable for 20 minutes of extra reading time has been good for my kids.

The Benefits of 10-20-30Go!

The benefits of 10-20-30Go! are easy:

The chore chart is easily accessible for all of the family members and easy for me to remember who has to do what. At breakfast I can remind each child what chores he or she is responsible for for that particular day.
The prayer chart is a good reminder for all of us, encouraging the children to pray for one another.
The accountability cards are easy to use, for both me and the children

How to Purchase 10-20-30Go!

For more information about the 10-20-30Go! system and to purchase a system of your own, please visit their website. You can also find them on Facebook and Twitter. Get ready to have your most organized summer yet!

~written by Jen

Download the The Ultimate Guide to Choosing Curriculum ebook today!

7 Sisters Innovative Homeschool Helps Review

Barb — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 09:00:23 +0000

by Barb

High school allows time for our children to pursue their interests, testing them out to see if that interest is something they would like to pursue in the future either on their own or in a formal college course. I received several Seven Sisters courses as a prize and I took the opportunity to pick things that my high school age son was interested in learning about and we hadn’t covered in our courses yet.

He picked Introduction to Psychology from a Christian Perspective and the Advanced Guide to Short Story Writing –Myth and Fantasy.

Introduction to Psychology from a Christian Perspective:

This is a downloadable product that I printed and spiral-bound for my son. We opted to use a block of six weeks for him to complete the course and he worked independently with the materials. This was a very straight forward course with easy to understand narrative and follow-up questions. The questions covered the material in the reading but there were extra suggestions for just about each chapter. These suggestions were the meat of the material and a way to personalize the learning. For instance, one chapter had him pick from a list of popular movies to watch and then write a response using the prompts provided. The chapter on sleep had him keep a sleep quality journal for a week and then analyze what he learned from the experience. This took the learning to a higher level and allowed for more thinking and writing to happen.

We would meet periodically and discuss his thoughts on his learning and since this is a subject I knew little about it was nice to hear how much he was gleaning from his independent study.

I would recommend this course of high school students who are interested in learning about psychology from a Christian perspective. It is well worth the $24.99.

Advanced Guide to Short Story Writing – Myth and Fantasy

My son is an avid reader and writer. This course allowed me to download and print the materials for a short unit on creative writing. There are five week’s of lessons included in the unit and at the end the student writes their own myth or fantasy using what they learned in the previous lessons. My son struggled with coming up with an idea but once he got started it fell together into a short story I could not put down. The course is meant to be used by the student independently and then there is a grading rubric for both the student and the parent to complete and then compare.

I think this course was a perfect fit for our needs and if you have a young writer looking to expand their skills into the myth and fantasy genre…this is a great mini-course of you to use with them. With a price tag of $6.99 you can’t go wrong.

There are many, many more courses available from Seven Sisters that you might like to look into for your family.

Seven Sisters have offered a generous giveaway for The Curriculum Choice readers – any 7 Sisters course of you choosing. Please use the Rafflecopter gadget below to enter to win this awesome giveaway!
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Written by Barb-Harmony Art Mom. I also blog at Harmony Art Mom and my business is found at Harmony Fine Arts. I would love for you to join us for the Outdoor Hour Challenges at Handbook of Nature Study.

Download the The Ultimate Guide to Choosing Curriculum ebook today!

Choosing Homeschool Curriculum for Multiple Ages

Tricia — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 09:00:45 +0000

by Tricia

Welcome back to Five Days of Choosing Curriculum! Every day this week we have been helping you with curriculum choices for specific age levels. Today is all about homeschool resources for multiple ages. Don’t miss our schedule at the end of the post. We hope you’ve enjoyed this week and will stop back by often.

Today’s post is sponsored by Apologia Ministries – a homeschool ministry we love! Please see our disclosure policy for full details. Plus, don’t miss the giveaway of a What We Believe Gift Pack at the end!!

Preschoolers, elementary and middle school children plus high school students too? Maybe you have a mix of ages or some that fall into each stage. A house full? Well, we’ve gathered the best reviews and tools from our Curriculum Choice archives plus encouraging posts from the blogs of our review team authors. All to help with the challenges – and blessings – of homeschooling multiple ages!

Our Homeschool Reviews for Multiple Ages

Here you will find an amazing list of resources from our wonderful authors – with informative reviews to help you as you choose your homeschool curriculum for multiple ages!

More Encouragement from Our Authors

Most of the Curriculum Choice authors have active blogs where they share all kinds of homeschooling advice and experiences. Below, you’ll find links to some of our reviews and curriculum choices as well as encouraging, practical posts from our authors.

Cindy West from Our Journey Westward has always loved when it worked out to teach all the kiddos the same thing at once! Most of the time, this has worked best for her family through unit studies and project-based learning. She shares both of those series of posts for you below.

Planning Unit Studies

Project-Based Learning

Tricia at Hodgepodge:

Tapestry of Grace – Have you found a curriculum you and your children absolutely love? One that is a perfect fit for everyone’s learning style? A nice match for the age range of your household? That, my friends, is how I feel about Tapestry of Grace.

Unit Studies reviews at Curriculum Choice – we’ve reviewed many of Amanda Bennett’s Unit Studies resources. We even have more resources on our Unit Studies Pinterest board.

Outdoor Hour Challenges – Oh, the wonderful things I’ve learned myself. Not only about God’s creation but about simply spending this precious time with my children. This. This is what was lacking in our day-to-day. In our homeschool. I’m not sure why I originally found it difficult to add nature study in on top of what we were already doing. Maybe it was the busyness of a growing family, needs of toddlers and the fumbling of fractions.

Harmony Fine Arts Plans for Art and Music Appreciation – (we use this together as a family) Are you like me? Do you long to enrich your homeschool with studies of composers and artists? Do you wish that someone would just do it all for you? You know, invest the time in research, find the online links, point you to the resources you need? It’s done. Yes, really. It’s all done for you. Barb-Harmony Art Mom has created just what you need. She, too, was like us.

10 Days of Lasagna Learning: Teaching Multiple Ages – at Hodgepodge we teach an age range of five children from four up to 15. For a long time I’ve called it Layers and Levels of Learning. That one-room schoolhouse type of learning. But Lasagna Learning describes it much more accurately.

Homeschooling Multiple Ages: Best of Hodgepodge – Of course most all of the homeschooling posts at Hodgepodge include some how tos on homeschooling multiple ages. However, these are the top posts you chose based on your reading and pinning! (including the 10 parts of our homeschool schedule, Homeschool Science for Multiple Ages, Writing Workshop for Multiple Ages, Nature Study with Multiple Ages, Bible study and more)

Answers in Genesis God’s Design for Science – we’ve so enjoyed this with all of our ages! Gone are the days of buying separate science curriculum for various levels. Focusing on different topics in multiple grades. For me, as homeschool parent, I no longer have to set aside time to “do science” with each child. Everyone is learning together. A unit study approach for the whole family.

Homeschool Math for Multiple Ages – we basically have two resources that have worked well for our students so far…But I am sharing how we actually get math done with all the grades plus the natural progression in our homeschool.

Loving Living Math – Cindy West’s Loving Living Math has given my family permission. Permission to learn and enjoy the real life stuff of math. See, I admit I am not a math type mom. But I do thrive on the practical. That’s why Loving Living Math speaks to me. I can see math all around us now.

Start, End and Mix Up Homeschool with Unit Studies – Guess what? We ended our school year with a trip to France! Guess what else? All homeschoolers can take a trip to France any time of year. A couple of weeks ago, we started off our themed learning with Amanda Bennett’s Passport France.

Art for All Ages! A Simple Start in Chalk Pastels - now you can have a master artist teach your whole family. Just add chalk pastels and paper for a whole year of tutorials!

Heidi at Home Schoolroom:

All Through the Ages, A Guide to Learning History Through Literature – This is an indispensable book for homeschoolers looking to study history using living books! You can choose a period of time and find wonderful book selections appropriate for grades 1-12. The books are organized chronologically and also by topic, such as biography, historical fiction, or books covering specific events.

Barb at Harmony Fine Arts:

How to Make an Overall Plan for the Year – Often I am asked by new homeschoolers about how to make an overall plan for the school year. They are looking for the nuts and bolts of putting lots of great ideas together because they tend to get overwhelmed by whole process. I shared the following ideas with a friend and I hope they help and encourage readers here at Curriculum Choice.

Planning Art for Multiple Ages (Co-Op and Home) – There are just a few steps to go through to make a simple and effective plan for your art appreciation: Set goals, plan manageable steps, build on art appreciation, and then celebrate your successes.

Mary at Homegrown Learners:

A brand new resource for music appreciation! SQUILT (Super Quiet UnInterrupted Listening Time) Volume 1: Baroque Composers is a fully internet linked music appreciation curriculum. It makes teaching the great classics of Baroque music EASY! Ten lessons are given, with specific listening cues and notebooking pages. It takes all of the guess work out of teaching music appreciation! The only supplies needed are an internet connection and basic notebooking supplies.

Homeschooling Gifted Kids…Really? by Cindy at Our Journey Westward and Shining Dawn Books: “we’ve been able to meet each of their needs perfectly. Not just academically, but emotionally, physically, socially, spiritually…each of my children is growing and thriving.”

Daniele at Domestic Serenity:

Apologia What We Believe Series – Who Am I? (Book 2) – Apologia is well known among homeschoolers for their science curriculum elementary through high school. Our family was recently introduced to another branch of what they offer – the What We Believe series. Four books focused on worldview training for ages 6-14, these were created to equip kids to understand truth and to tackle the various messages of our culture today. Apologia’s series takes a look at core beliefs of the Christian faith, and explains each one to children with a variety of stories, lessons and questions.

Daniele also offers her curriculum choices for:

Even More Resources for Multiple Ages!

Our Curriculum Choice review team features a topic monthly. You can see all that our authors have shared on electives, math, curriculum choices and more under Review Team Features.

Our Curriculum Choice Pinterest boards! reviews of all kinds from our archives and more.

We are joining up with our iHomeschool Network friends in a summer hopscotch! I hope you’ve enjoyed our Five Days of Choosing Homeschool Curriculum. Be sure to pin each post for future reference!

Five Days of Choosing Homeschool Curriculum

Monday – Choosing Preschool and Kindergarten Curriculum
Tuesday – Choosing Elementary Homeschool Curriculum
Wednesday – Choosing Middle School Curriculum
Thursday – Choosing High School Curriculum
Friday – Choosing Homeschool Curriculum for Multiple Ages

Apologia Ministries for All Ages

Apologia Educational Ministries publishes a K-12 Creation-based science curriculum, worldview resources for ages preschool through high school, practical and inspirational books about homeschooling, refreshing retreats for moms, and online classes from Apologia Academy. Apologia Educational Ministries, Inc., is a family-owned corporation whose mission is to help families learn, live, and defend the historic Christian faith.

Now for the giveaway!

One blessed Curriculum Choice reader will win his/her choice of the What We Believe Series! What We Believe Gift Pack includes a text book, Notebooking journal, coloring book, and MP3 CD. Winner’s choice of either Who Is God? or Who Am I?

The What We Believe series is an outstanding way to teach your child the essential beliefs of the Christian faith, but it’s so much more! With this student-directed, Bible-based curriculum, your child will learn to use scripture as a lens through which to view the world around them—to see everything the way God For younger students and those who learn best while their hands sees it. Featuring engaging stories, creative notebooking, and fun activities, this four-part series is presented in a conversational style that makes the study of God’s Word exciting and memorable.

*Be sure to connect with Apologia on Facebook for homeschool encouragement and more! Plus as one of the entry options below, you can be automatically entered to win a year of science by subscribing to Apologia’s e-newsletter!

Just follow the instructions in the rafflecopter widget below…
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Did you subscribe to Curriculum Choice so you won’t miss any future reviews? You’ll also receive a free download of the Ultimate Guide to Choosing Curriculum in your first email!

~Hosted by Tricia~ Homeschooling for over a dozen years now, Tricia faces a daily dose of chaos with five children from preschool to high school. She shares a mixture of art lessons, recipes and helpful homeschool habits at Hodgepodge. She and her husband, Steve (who writes app and technology reviews), are co-owners of Curriculum Choice.

Download the The Ultimate Guide to Choosing Curriculum ebook today!

Choosing High School Homeschool Curriculum

Tricia — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 09:00:50 +0000

by Tricia

If there is ever a place that a homeschool parent feels uneasy it’s heading into high school. I know I have been at that place. Nervous and excited all at the same time. But I am here to encourage you that it is an amazing blessing to be pouring into the lives of your young adults. The high school years are such an important time for our children!

But just how do you do it and with what resources? We are here to help!

Can You Homeschool High School? Yes, You Can!

Here’s an excerpt from an article by Gregg Harris in a Homeschool Legal Defense Association Court Report article, entitled Outgrowing the Greenhouse to spur you on in your homeschooling high school and parenting calling.

Plus, our authors here at the Curriculum Choice have many, many years of experience teaching high school between them. We’ve joined together to help you feel confident teaching high school, too! Our author, Betsy, even offers advice and resources for planning a high school track for the college bound.

Our High School Reviews

Below are some of the many high school reviews our Curriculum Choice authors have written. You’ll be amazed at all the resources available to you and your high schoolers!

More Encouragement from Our Authors

Most of the Curriculum Choice authors have active blogs where they share all kinds of homeschooling advice and experiences. Below, you’ll find links to helpful homeschooling high school posts from a few of our veteran homeschooling authors.

Cindy West from Our Journey Westward admits that she both loves and loathes high school. She loves that high school kids are ready for the real meat of academic subjects and can do much of their work independently. She loathes that high school tends to get a little more “bookish” and the learning naturally falls away from the family time it used to be. Cindy’s high school curriculum is still full of fun and life, though! She has chosen to share some of her plans off the beaten path.

Economics in the Homeschool

Teaching the Value of Purity

Homeschool Service Projects

In-Depth Nature Study for a High School Student

Co-op Class Ideas for Older Students

Homeschooling High School Science

Homeschooling Towards College

Betsy, Curriculum Choice author:

There are many different ways to homeschool high school. Some teens aim to complete their high school years at home, then go directly into the world of work. Others go to community college and earn dual credit or work towards an AA. Other teens are homeschooling high school and planning to apply to a four year college. My 17-year-old daughter is one of them. This has been a major factor in our curriculum choices in her high school years. Right now, we are in the midst of choosing courses for my daughter’s senior year. Below you will find a few tips for choosing curriculum when your teen is homeschooling towards college.

RESEARCHING COLLEGE REQUIREMENTS

Our first step in planning was to look at the admission requirements for the colleges that my daughter was interested in. This information was easy to find, just by looking at college websites, under entrance requirements. They typically would have a list of required courses, such as:

4 credits of Language Arts
3 credits of Math
2 credits of Social Studies, etc,

….or something like that. Each college is a little different. Once you have your list in hand, the next step is to find the textbooks, living books, and/or online courses, etc. that would fit with your college’s entrance requirements. One thing that made it easier was that most of the requirements were quite similar from college to college!

Next, I looked at my student’s learning style and tried to match my curriculum choices to her needs. I asked myself, did she do best with textbook, online, or a literature based approach, such as Charlotte Mason, or Classical, etc, then chose your courses accordingly. My teen was a big part of this process!

HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCES:

Most of our colleges required two lab sciences. We found many choices for science including Apologia, Abeka, Switch-On-Schoolhouse (SOS), etc. We made sure that our choice included a science lab component. We decided to look for a structured course that included regular test-taking. Getting used to test-taking would help my daughter to prepared for later test-taking in college!

Check out www.thecurriculumchoice.com for high school science reviews, such as Daniele’s Science Roots Vocabulary for High School Biology review, below.

HIGH SCHOOL MATH:

Most of our college choices required Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2 for their applicants. (Or the series that Saxon offers, which is equivalent). There are many other great math options as well, such as LifePacs, Switch-On-Schoolhouse, Math-You-See, Aleks, Abeka, etc. Some families choose Teaching Textbooks and love it as well! ALEKS is reviewed by Annie Kate. Look for the one that fits your student. We found that having a structured math course helped my daughter to also prepare for the SAT!

HIGH SCHOOL LANGUAGE ARTS:

When looking for a high school English program, most colleges want something that is strong in literature and composition. There are many options out there for your family. We chose a publisher called Oak Meadow, which offered Literature and Composition, American Lit, and English Lit. Please see my review of Oak Meadow Literature and Composition II. Its focus was on reading good literature, literary analysis and essay writing. We wanted to be sure that my daughter got lots of essay writing practice! This would help her later when she was writing her college essay! Oak Meadow works well with teens who are already comfortable with, and enjoy writing.

Many families love the Institute of Excellence in Writing, IEW, which has a more step by step, structured approach. Please also see the One Year Adventure Novel review on our site, great for a creative writing course. There are many other options as well, such as Robinson, Lifepacs, and SOS, and other reviews on our site.

SOCIAL STUDIES (SS):

Our college choices wanted three credits of SS, but did not specify which courses, so could choose from a wide variety of subjects, such as World History, US History, Geography, Economics, etc. As each college is different, I recommend checking with your college specifically. We decided to focus on History and Geography, and used resources from Oak Meadow, Rainbow Resources, etc. Please check out my review of Short Lessons in US History, and Economics (a great section on Cindy West’s Our Journey Westward site).

If you teen is aiming towards a four year college, my best advice would be to do the research first, and exploring the college websites of your choice. Each will show their admission requirements with just a click of the button. Be sure to also check for their homeschool admission policy. Most colleges will have that right on their website. Many homeschoolers decide to take some of their high school courses at community college to add to their homeschool transcript. There are many homeschool friendly colleges out there.

Whichever way homeschool high school, it has been shown that a homeschool education is a great way to prepare for a successful college career. And there are many families out there, homeschooling high school with you. There is, in fact, a yahoo group called Homeschool2College, which deals with this subject, supporting 1,000′s of homeschool families on their journeys.

For more information, or to ask a homeschooling high school question, please go to Jane Sproger on Facebook and send your questions in a private mesage. ~ Betsy Sproger, Curriculum Choice author and Homeschool Consultant

using Apologia Biology in our high school

Tricia at Hodgepodge:

Tapestry of Grace – Tapestry of Grace is a classical approach, Biblically-based, unit study curriculum for the whole family. Tapestry covers eight subjects. Everyone learning together – each child on their own learning and skill level.

Homeschooling High School at Hodgepodge – And since these two children are young adults, they choose where they work best. At the chalkboard desk, sitting in the big chair in the school room, stretched out on the family room couch, sitting and pondering on the backyard swing, gathered around the kitchen table or relishing the quiet of a bedroom.

Homeschooling High School Update – I have been nervous and excited about this high school adventure. And now, here we are half way through the year. How has it gone? What has it been like? Honestly, I haven’t noticed a huge difference except maybe in work load. Hers and mine. A widening of course work, experiments, writing assignments and a whole lot of books. Then there is the record keeping on my part.

Triple 1070 Biblical Finance Curriculum – Practical, life skills are so very needed in a high school education. But just how can you teach your young adults about finances without it being BORING? Triple 1070 offers a media rich adventure to Biblical Financial Empowerment. With this DVD-based curriculum, follow four young adults – of various ages, backgrounds and ideas about finance – on a practical learning experience. These young people travel across the country talking with financial experts, visiting banks, learning about job planning, taxes, avoiding debt, government, investments and much more.

Harmony Fine Arts Plans for Art and Music Appreciation – this type of enrichment is pure delight. It might just be what your homeschool needs too.

Visual Latin – Warning. The free lessons you may download and watch will have you hooked. Watch them with your children only if you want to hear…Laughter. Soon followed by, “Can we watch another?” Then after the second introductory lesson, “Can we watch just one more?” “…better to make students laugh than yawn.” ~ visuallatin.com

How Nature Study Mixes with High School Biology – Many thanks to prompts and encouragement from Handbook of Nature Study! And to Apologia for high school Biology studies.

Steve at Hodgepodge:

Apologia Biology Flashcard App – There is a section for each chapter in the Biology text. There are four drill modes included. Your student can choose from four different review types:

Word – When given a word, select the proper definition;
Definition – When given a definition, select the proper word;
Spell – When given the definition, spell the word;
Random – A randomized selection of the drill modes.

Lynda.com Online Training Library – Lynda.com is a subscription online training library. For $25.00 monthly, over one thousand courses can be viewed online.

Barb at Harmony Fine Arts:

Setting Goals for Homeschool High School - Shooting arrows when you can’t see the target is pointless. It is so much better to clearly see the bulls-eye before taking aim. Pointing your academic and spiritual arrows with skill takes effort and practice but it can be done.

Deciding on Resources for High School - Does it meet one of our yearly goals? This first question is one that I have learned to lean on more heavily as the years pass by.

Reflecting on Books and Curriculum for High School -It is not about books or curriculum. There is a place for books and curriculum within our family’s goals for high school but they are not really the focus any more.

Human Anatomy Models and Study Aids – With the models we could touch, see, and imagine how each part fits together after taking the models apart and then putting them back together again. The models sat on the desk near the computer so they were accessible during breaks in other work. The skeleton was always there, smiling at us as we typed on the computer keyboard.

Sonlight Ultra Microscope: Investing in High School Science – Most homeschoolers are very frugal and must make their homeschool budget stretch as far as possible. My family is no exception and I think long and hard about investing in curriculum and tools for our learning experiences. My two youngest boys are very science oriented and are naturally inquisitive about the world around them so purchasing a quality microscope made sense as we entered the middle school science years. Our family aims to get the most value for the dollar. So which microscope would we buy?

Annie Kate at Annie Kate’s Homeschool Reviews:

For the third time in this week’s Choosing Curriculum series, I want to mention the most important resource, Cathy Duffy’s guide, 101 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum, which helps you determine what curriculum suits your family. I recommend it to all new homeschooling families and use it regularly myself even after 17 years of homeschooling and 4 years of reviewing curriculum. The older version, 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum, is still useful, but does not mention some of the great new curricula available.

For academically minded students, I have not found a science program to beat Apologia even though this year we really needed to tweak it.

As a math supplement Math on DVD delivers the most value for your money.

We really enjoyed Dave Ramsey’s Foundations in Personal Finance Curriculum for high school. It’s full of information, funny, and memorable.

While it is not a curriculum, homeschooling parent of teens are advised to look at The Comprehensive Record Program to help them present their teen’s work in a way that university admissions officers will understand.

How to Raise Your High School Grades by Half a Point in One Semester – Teens need to think about thinking, studying, time management, and the future. There are all sorts of serious, sober, and expensive approaches to these topics. However, if your family has a sense of humor and likes outside-the-box ideas, Gary North’s free study course might work for you.

Apologia High School Science – These excellent, Creation-based courses are clear enough to be essentially self-teaching, even though they cover difficult material. In fact, as a scientist, I am impressed by the breadth and depth of these texts as well as their clarity.

Daniele at Domestic Serenity:

High School Four Year Planner by Well Planned Day – Setting out to homeschool high school for the first time, we found ourselves looking at lots of curriculum – from biology to language and vocabulary – everything was new to us. Along with academics came a need to organize daily assignments. High school is a necessary time to learn skills of keeping up with one’s work load a little more independently than before.

Civics Education: Pocket Law Firm App - Created by iCivics, Pocket Law Firm app turns the user into the owner of a law firm determined to defend the US Constitution. As the one in charge, you handle clients, helping to match their cases to just the right lawyer. Not so fast though – first, you need to have set up your firm correctly or to do so along the way.

Science Roots – Vocabulary for High School Biology – Science Roots was designed to be keyed with vocabulary encountered in Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Biology course. While it could be used with any biology study, the words are introduced in the same sequence as they are studied in chapters of Apologia’s book. A great plus since we’re using this program!

Even More High School Resources!

Be sure to also check out The Ultimate Guide to Choosing Homeschool Curriculum.
Our Curriculum Choice review team features a topic monthly. You can see all that our authors have shared on electives, math, curriculum choices and more under Review Team Features.
Our Curriculum Choice Pinterest boards! reviews of all kinds from our archives and more.
Curriculum Choice High School Pinterest board and Colleges and Universities Accepting Homeschoolers board (oh there are so many wonderful resources pinned here from our authors and around the web – you could spend hours!)
10 Steps – Preparing for College at Habits for a Happy Home
Homeschooling Through High School Five Day Series at Abundant Life

We are joining up with our iHomeschool Network friends in a summer hopscotch! Be sure to stop by the rest of the week for more on Choosing Curriculum. Tomorrow we will feature homeschool curriculum for multiple ages and we have a fabulous giveaway in store! Pin each post for future reference! (Each link below will be live on that day).

Five Days of Choosing Homeschool Curriculum

Monday – Choosing Preschool and Kindergarten Curriculum
Tuesday – Choosing Elementary Homeschool Curriculum
Wednesday – Choosing Middle School Curriculum
Thursday – Choosing High School Curriculum
Friday – Choosing Homeschool Curriculum for Multiple Ages

~Subscribe to Curriculum Choice via email (enter your email address in the top, right-hand corner) and receive our Ultimate Guide to Choosing Curriculum in your first email~

What wonderful homeschool resource have you found for high school? What questions do you have?

Download the The Ultimate Guide to Choosing Curriculum ebook today!

Choosing Middle School Homeschool Curriculum

Cindy — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 08:00:09 +0000

by Cindy

Welcome back to Five Days of Choosing Curriculum! Every day this week we will be helping you with curriculum choices for specific age levels. Today is all about middle school homeschool resources. Don’t miss our schedule at the end of the post. We invite you to stop by every day this week!

Today’s post is sponsored by Answers in Genesis Homeschool, a ministry we love! Please see our disclosure policy for full details. Plus, don’t miss the giveaway of a History Revealed curriculum pack (winner’s choice) at the end!!

Can You Homeschool Middle School? Yes, You Can!

The authors at the Curriculum Choice have many, many years of experience teaching middle school between them. They’ve joined together to help you feel confident teaching middle school, too!

Our Reviews

Below are some of the many middle school reviews our Curriculum Choice authors have written. You’ll enjoy learning more about the plethora of resources available to you as you teach 6th-8th graders!

All-American History

Art of the Argument Logic Curriculum

Beautiful Feet History of Classical Music

Bluestocking Press Middle School Economics Set

Complete-A-Sketch

Foxmind Games

History of Science Unit Study for Middle Grades

How to Write a Research Report

Institute for Excellence in Writing

Lyrical Life Science

MasterMath: Free Middle School Online Lessons

Physical Science Note Pack for Middle School from Hands of a Child

Positive Action for Christ

Take Five! for Language Arts

Time Engineers: Experience Math

Vocabulary Fun

More Encouragement from Our Authors

Most of the Curriculum Choice authors have active blogs where they share all kinds of homeschooling advice and experiences. Below, you’ll find links to helpful middle school posts from a couple of our veteran homeschooling authors.

Cindy West from Our Journey Westward loves teaching middle school! Sixth-eighth graders are ready to dive deeper academically, but still enjoy lessons that allow them to get dirty and have fun. Here are some of her “outside the box” curriculum ideas for middle school.

Apologia and Nature Study – How to integrate nature study and a popular science textbook in the upper grades.

Logic and Critical Thinking – Middle school children are the perfect age to dive deep into logic studies that will prepare them for so much in the future!

Project-Based Learning Series – Many kids want (or need) to learn on their own terms – whether delight directed, hands-on, gifted, struggling, etc. – project-based learning can be a great answer.

Dr. Seuss in Middle School – This fun character-building lesson uses a children’s book for some deep thinking.

Tricia from Hodgepodge shares some of her favorite middle school resources, too!

Harmony Fine Arts Plans for Art and Music Appreciation – (we use this together as a family – for all ages! But we’ve mostly enjoyed the middle school plans) Are you like me? Do you long to enrich your homeschool with studies of composers and artists? Do you wish that someone would just do it all for you? You know, invest the time in research, find the online links, point you to the resources you need? It’s done. Yes, really. It’s all done for you. Barb-Harmony Art Mom has created just what you need. She, too, was like us.

Lynda.com Online Training Library – Our eldest son is using the Lynda.com library to learn computer programming. The courses are engaging, and the lecturers really know their topics. One of the best things about Lynda.com is that 10% of the training catalog is available free. You can truly “try before you buy”.

GloBible App - They have created an engaging Bible study tool that will (and has) fascinated and captivated our Bible students. My 13-year-old son says “I love the Glo Bible”.

New Millennium Creative Writing for Tween Girls -Crafty. Creative. Busy. Reader. Writer. Tween. Do you have one of those too? Yes, I have a tween girl who thrives on creative projects. So when we had a chance to review the New Millenium Girls Creative Writing Bundle by Jan May, I knew it was for us.

Answers in Genesis: God’s Design for Science – For our middle schoolers too! Gone are the days of buying separate science curriculum for various levels. Focusing on different topics in multiple grades. For me, as homeschool parent, I no longer have to set aside time to “do science” with each child. Everyone is learning together. A unit study approach for the whole family. Four years worth of units for grades 1-8. Each with 3 units. Even more on Answers in Genesis God’s Design for Science in Homeschool Science for Multiple Ages.

Annie Kate:

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, the most important resource when choosing curriculum is Cathy Duffy’s guide, 101 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum, which helps you determine what curriculum suits your family. I recommend it to all new homeschooling families and use it regularly myself even after 17 years of homeschooling and 4 years of reviewing curriculum. The older version, 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum, is still useful, but does not mention some of the great new curricula available.

Even More Homeschool Resources!

Be sure to also check out The Ultimate Guide to Choosing Homeschool Curriculum.
Our Curriculum Choice review team features a topic monthly. You can see all that our authors have shared on electives, math, curriculum choices and more under Review Team Features.
Our Curriculum Choice Pinterest boards! reviews of all kinds from our archives and more.

We are joining up with our iHomeschool Network friends in a summer hopscotch! Be sure to stop by the rest of the week for more on Choosing Curriculum. Tomorrow we will feature high school curriculum! Pin each post for future reference! (Each link below will be live on that day).

Five Days of Choosing Homeschool Curriculum

Monday – Choosing Preschool and Kindergarten Curriculum
Tuesday – Choosing Elementary Homeschool Curriculum
Wednesday – Choosing Middle School Curriculum
Thursday – Choosing High School Curriculum
Friday – Choosing Homeschool Curriculum for Multiple Ages

Answers in Genesis loves homeschoolers! We are always excited to see families who are so dedicated to teaching Biblical Truth to their children that they would teach their children at home. We want to make sure you have our full support to do this. Not just in our wonderful resources in our store but through community in our all new Social Media outlets – Facebook – Twitter – Pinterest – Google+ and yes even Instagram! We have covered them all so that we can be there to support you – homeschool families. Join us!

Now for the giveaway!

Win a History Revealed full curriculum pack – winner’s choice ($99 value)! A fabulous way to teach your children History from a Biblical Worldview. Literally beginning with God creating the Earth your children will see our true history revealed right before their eyes. By adding the Activity Book you can easily encourage your younger children to follow along as well.

Just follow the instructions in the rafflecopter widget below…
a Rafflecopter giveaway

~Hosted by Cindy West, an eclectically Charlotte Mason mom of three from KY. She homeschools elementary, middle and high school students. You can find her writing about homeschooling at Our Journey Westward and learn about her creative homeschool curriculum at Shining Dawn Books.

Download the The Ultimate Guide to Choosing Curriculum ebook today!

Choosing Elementary Homeschool Curriculum

Stephanie — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 06:00:47 +0000

by Stephanie

Welcome back to Five Days of Choosing Curriculum! Every day this week we will be helping you with curriculum choices for specific age levels. Today is all about elementary resources. Don’t miss our schedule at the end of the post. We invite you to stop by every day this week!

Plus, today’s post is sponsored by Answers in Genesis Homeschool, a ministry we love! Please see our full disclosure policy for more details. And don’t miss the giveaway of a curriculum set (winner’s choice) of God’s Design for Science curriculum at the end!!

Our focus today is on choosing curriculum just for elementary ages. We all have different ways we choose our homeschool programs. Some of us focus on what goals and learning objectives we have for our children. Others focus more on methods and styles of learning because they makes our homeschooling compatible with our daily life and our children’s uniqueness. We hope that some of our suggestions can assist you in making choices for your elementary age students for the upcoming year. Be sure to also check out The Ultimate Guide to Choosing Homeschool Curriculum.

When I first started homeschooling I began with packaged curriculum to guide my way and I learned a great deal about homeschooling. But later I found out that no packaged curriculum was just right for our homeschool and that I needed to tailor my programs to fit my children’s needs and the flow of our family life. So I am going to recommend some posts I feel will help moms who are looking to design their own programs and put their own selections together.

5 Easy Steps to a Unit Study Approach- Want to design your own unit but not sure how to proceed? Use my very simple S.P.I.N.E method to get you started. Building a unit study yourself around good literature selections is perfect for a fun, delight directed homeschool approach. Don’t be burdened by lofty lesson plans, why not have the homeschool of your dreams!

Methods are everything. When I choose my curriculum I consider first and foremost my methods. This isn’t actually about what I choose but how I want to implement it. I have found that method are just as important and what I choose. I need to be consistent, have routines and follow through. I can’t say that I use any one method to homeschool my children. Over the years the methods have changes and I have used many of them resulting in a very integrated approach. Therefore, it’s fair to say a little something about the main methods I use and why.

Before you choose curriculum it’s good to consider three factors: Your teaching style, your child’s learning style and goals. Before you choose, think about whether you prefer a loaded plan or a light load. Do you prefer to have everything planned now or just a few things with which you can add more later? There is no right or wrong. You just need to go with what’s best for you.

A Child’s Introduction to Poetry I can happily recommend this book to you since it is so complete, well done, and simply a delightful way to enhance any language program with poetry study. It’s a great “spine” book for poetry lessons that you can branch off from. It is also perfect as a resource book on poetry: looking up authors, types of poetry, and their history. It’s a book that you can visit over the years as your children grow, picking the poems to study that will interest them (and you) over time.

Our Elementary Homeschool Reviews

Here you will find an amazing list of resources from our wonderful authors – with a sampling of informative reviews to help you as you choose your elementary homeschool curriculum! Here’s a selection from our archives…

More Encouragement from Our Authors

Cindy West from Our Journey Westward has so many, many favorite curriculum choices for elementary age children! Her main criteria for choosing 1st-5th grade curriculum? Meaningful, short lessons that don’t demand unnecessary busy-work, and lessons that allow her children as much hands-on understanding as possible (within reason.) To spare you a million or more links, she’s chosen to choose just a few of her very favorite posts about elementary curriculum choices.

Planning Unit Studies
Homeschooling with Field Trips
NaturExplorers Studies (Series of posts on how to add nature study. Cindy is the author of NaturExplorers.)
Loving Living Math (Series of posts for adding living math lessons. Cindy writes Loving Living Math, too.)
My Favorite Logic Resources
Primary and Intermediate Language Lessons

Tricia from Hodgepodge:

5th grade Kinesthetic Learner Curriculum and Organization – My 5th grader is a creative kinesthetic learner. She loves to make things. Do things. Move. Participate. Give her a display board for a biography report. Let her make a salt dough map. She loves to color while I read. Crafts, creations, busy. That’s her.

Answers in Genesis: God’s Design for Science – Gone are the days of buying separate science curriculum for various levels. Focusing on different topics in multiple grades. For me, as homeschool parent, I no longer have to set aside time to “do science” with each child. Everyone is learning together. A unit study approach for the whole family. Four years worth of units for grades 1-8. Each with 3 units. Even more on Answers in Genesis God’s Design for Science in Homeschool Science for Multiple Ages. (don’t miss the giveaway of a curriculum set ($89 value – winner’s choice) of this curriculum at the end of this post!)

Spelling Workout Review – When you stick with a curriculum throughout your homeschool years, I believe it speaks volumes to its success and ability to meet the needs of different learning styles. Spelling Workout is more than just spelling. Besides spelling practice, this series teaches…

Rod and Staff Grammar – We’re heading into our eighth year of Rod and Staff English! We’ve enjoyed all grades from 2nd to 9th. See also Annie Kate’s review of Rod and Staff Grammar.

Harmony Fine Arts Plans for Art and Music Appreciation – For this mama, using HFA plans is easy. I just click to open the plans, click to print what we might like to compliment our studies, click to print a coloring page for the younger ones.

Steve:

Rocket Math App – In Rocket Math, you build your own rockets from the ground up. As you build a rocket, you have to earn money for parts by doing math problems. There are over 90 colorful pieces and parts from which you can build your own unique rocket. Once your rocket is complete, you can put it on the launch pad and blast off into space. Tilting the device steers your rocket and a slider controls the thrust.

Sprout Labs Science App Reviews – (Butterfly, Plants, Recycle, Water) Like Butterfly HD and Plants HD, the Recycle HD and Water Cycle HD apps held the attention of our younger children. The older children enjoy them often as well. I can heartily recommend all of the Sprout Labs apps.

Stack the States – While learning about the 50 states by answering questions about them, this app requires critical thinking skills as well. Your brainpower is tested in your ability to stack your states successfully.

Jen:

This is such a fun age, most kids are such natural, eager learners that it doesn’t take much in the way of bells and whistles to keep kids interested. I like to keep curriculum fairly simple in the early years and have always taken a pretty relaxed approach. Here are some of our family favorites:

I can’t say enough good things about Five in a Row! Here is why we use Five in a Row and then how I planned for Five in a Row.

We also used and loved Paths of Exploration, it was a great fit for us when my older three children were in grads 3rd-5th. We had a fantastic year learning about Daniel Boone and Lewis & Clark.

I have had much success this year with All About Reading. I am using it with my younger three children and they have made great progress in their reading skills this year!

The complete Oak Meadow – First Grade curriculum package , including the Syllabus, which is full of weekly lesson plans.

Betsy:

Review of Oak Meadow – First Grade – “I was delighted when I found Oak Meadow – First Grade – full of hands on activities, beautiful art, and lots of resources. The Oak Meadow introduction spoke of developing the whole child: head, hands and heart.”

Spectrum Writing – 2nd grade – Many happy hours were spent creating stories, art, and don’t forget the illustrations! Every child’s story needs its pictures, and drawing them usually helps the child to decide what happens next.

Heidi:

Write Shop Jr. – We’re nearing the end of our year and I give WriteShop Junior D two thumbs up. I’m delighted with what my daughter has accomplished during the year and I’m also delighted that I can hold onto this program to use with her little brother later.

Annie Kate:

The most important resource when choosing curriculum is Cathy Duffy’s guide, 101 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum, which helps you determine what curriculum suits your family. I recommend it to all new homeschooling families and use it regularly myself even after 17 years of homeschooling and 4 years of reviewing curriculum. The older version, 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum, is still useful, but does not mention some of the great new curricula available.

Even More Elementary Resources!

Our Curriculum Choice review team features a topic monthly. You can see all that our authors have shared on electives, math, curriculum choices and more under Review Team Features, plus…
Language Arts resources, Math resources, special needs homeschooling, electives and extras, Visit our Homeschool Rooms, and our Carnival of Curriculum.
We invite you to explore all the reviews in our elementary archives.
Our Curriculum Choice Pinterest boards! reviews of all kinds from our archives and more.

We are joining up with our iHomeschool Network friends in a summer hopscotch! Be sure to stop by the rest of the week for more on Choosing Curriculum. Tomorrow we will feature middle school curriculum and we have a fabulous giveaway in store! Pin each post for future reference! (Each link below will be live on that day).

Five Days of Choosing Homeschool Curriculum

Monday – Choosing Preschool and Kindergarten Curriculum
Tuesday – Choosing Elementary Homeschool Curriculum
Wednesday – Choosing Middle School Curriculum
Thursday – Choosing High School Curriculum
Friday – Choosing Homeschool Curriculum for Multiple Ages

Now for the giveaway!

Win a curriculum set (winner’s choice) of God Design for Science curriculum – a $89 value! God’s Design for Science is for 1st through 8th graders. “We know of no other series of science textbooks that can educate grade-schoolers with so many fun lessons while at the same time affirming the truth of creation and the insufficiencies of the idea of evolution…

An entire 8-year elementary and middle-school science curriculum, the God’s Design science series…Covers life science, earth science, physical science, and chemistry & ecology. In the award-winning, full-color student curriculum the lessons are short, easy to teach, and take a hands-on approach using ordinary household items for experiments and activities. But easy does not mean lacking in substance; God’s Design textbooks and the all-new teacher supplements and CDs are comprehensive.

has a strong biblical worldview.
is multi-level (easy to use with multiple children and different ages).
is flexible and works with all learning styles.
requires minimal teacher preparation.
teaches critical thinking skills.
includes fun hands-on activities with every lesson.
is written by seasoned homeschoolers.

Just follow the instructions in the rafflecopter widget below…
a Rafflecopter giveaway

~Subscribe to Curriculum Choice via email (enter your email address in the top, right-hand corner) and receive our Ultimate Guide to Choosing Curriculum~

Hosted by Stephanie Harrington. Avid Gardener. Recipe Writer and Coffee Lover. She shares curriculum choices, prayerful reflections, recipe creations, military spouse adventures and Catholic music @ Harrington Harmonies and nature studies @ Nature Notebook. You can follow her on Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter.

Download the The Ultimate Guide to Choosing Curriculum ebook today!

Choosing Preschool and Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum

Heather Nieman — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 09:00:55 +0000

by Heather Nieman

Welcome to Five Days of Choosing Curriculum! Every day this week we will be helping you with curriculum choices for specific age levels. Today is all about preschool and kindergarten resources. Don’t miss our schedule at the end of the post. We invite you to stop by every day this week!

Preschool and Kindergarten – what fun ages! Play is learning and learning is play. Perhaps you’re looking for some ideas for your formal Tot School or perhaps you just want to make sure that your little ones will be ready for first grade when it comes along.

Our Preschool and Kindergarten Reviews

Here you will find an amazing list of resources from our wonderful authors – with informative reviews to help you as you choose your preschool and kindergarten homeschool curriculum! A sampling from our archives…

More Encouragement from Our Authors

Heather B. at Upside Down Homeschooling:

Mama’s Learning Corner Worksheet Packet – “Attention all homeschooling moms of students in Pre-K through second grades…I want to tell you about the BEST $9.00 you will spend on your homeschooling curriculum! Lauren, from Mama’s Learning Corner has created over 200 worksheets, printables and games in one convenient download.

Heather N. at Homeschooling on Faith and Coffee:

Kidzmet Personality Profile – Kidzmet is a tool that is all about helping parents and teachers determine their childrens’ learning style(s) and learn to speak their students’ preferred learning language.

All About Reading : Level 1 – All About Reading is a multi-sensory reading curriculum for all types of learners. All About Learning Press also offers a Pre-Reading Curriculum for your younger students. If you’re not sure where your child falls, you can determine which level would work best by taking a quick placement test, found here (about mid page).

We Choose Virtues – The We Choose Virtues Homeschool Kit is a fun and beautiful way to incorporate character training into your homeschool and daily inspire character that will last!

Cindy West from Our Journey Westward loves teaching hands-on, meaningful lessons in the early years. She uses some prepared curriculum for math and phonics, but focuses quite a lot on child-directed learning, living math, nature study and lots and lots of living literature. The following posts give you a peek into how she does some of these:

MATH:

Early Math Ideas
Standard Measurement with Playdough Yummy Shapes Bead Classification

NATURE STUDY:

Nature Study with a Preschooler or Toddler A Preschool Walk

DELIGHT-DIRECTED:

Science Notebooking with Microscopes Technology Project: Early Elementary

LITERATURE-BASED ABC’s:

Posts for each letter of the alphabet from A-W (She got tired and gave up before posting X, Y and Z.)

Tricia from Hodgepodge homeschools preschoolers, elementary, middle school and high school students:

How to Start a Homeschool Routine with Young Children – “Just making the routine all a natural part of your day. Here is a simple run down of what a typical morning might look like for our preschooler and first grader. An example…”

Preschool to First Grade Curriculum and Organization – “So, each day I start with the little ones first. Since there are some of you that might be looking for resources for the littlest of littlest crowd, I’ll share with you a few resources, besides just classic books, we use up until age four…”

Leading Little Ones to God review – “This book is intended to be a guide to parents who desire to teach their little ones about God. Parents are the child’s best teachers, and perhaps there is nothing more important in his or her spiritual development than quiet talks with Mother or Father about the great God who made us and loves us.”

Rod and Staff Preschool Activity Books – I highly recommend all of the preschool books published by Rod and Staff. They have brought much joy to our homeschool and offered the slow and steady practice my children needed for a good foundation for learning.

Slow and Steady Get Me Ready – age appropriate activities from birth to age 5. Weekly developmental activities. Just one activity a week.

Answers for Preschoolers – Stop, drop and roll; numbers, matching, science, music, math, cutting and pasting, coloring, calendar and pattern practice, weather and seasons, holidays, physical education, Bible verse memory work and Biblical world view. Definitely a “Complete multi-subject curriculum for preschoolers” ~ Answers in Genesis

Alphaphonics – Basic. Simple. Long-lasting. Used with all of our five children to learn how to read. The phonics book that has been the go-to teaching tool in our family. Alphaphonics by Sam Blumenfeld is a full, logical resource for teaching students of all ages to learn to read.

I Can’t Homeschool Because of the Little Ones - ” So, when are you going to enroll her in mother’s morning out?” That’s the question I heard most often when our eldest was just a little more than a year old. It’s also the question the Lord used to work on my heart about homeschooling.

App reviews by Steve at Hodgepodge:

Phonics and Reading with McGuffey App – Once the student is comfortable with the letter sounds for the current lesson, words are presented using the letters. Each word is correctly sounded out. Students are presented with the opportunity to build simple words with the letters and have those words sounded out for them. There are also drills, where the student is required to tap the correct word out of a number of possibilities on the screen after hearing it spoken.

Letter Writers Ocean App – The object of the game is to “draw” the letters correctly. The letters float beneath the ocean’s surface, and tapping on a letter causes it to float alone on the screen. A friendly fish guides your finger to the correct starting point. As you drag your finger along the letter’s lines, the friendly fish follows your finger–as long as you correctly follow the lines of the letter.

Daniele at Domestic Serenity:

Kindergarten Home Art Studio - In kindergarten, children work with oil pastels, watercolors, tempera paints, crayons, markers, construction paper and more. You can find more info and a sample video on kindergarten — also check out the variety of projects completed at this level!

The BIG BOOK OF ALPHA TALES includes a humorous story for each letter.

Betsy shares her thoughts on preschool and kindergarten plus reviews:

Learning to Love Learning – Always a priority in my homeschool, and that was especially true for our early years. When looking for homeschool helps and early curriculum, I wanted it to be hands on, fun, and easy to fit into our daily routines. These are some of the resources, activities, and curriculum that we used in our preschool and K years.

Language Arts – We focused on read alouds, and going to the library. My daughter loved the story times. Hearing stories aloud gives kids exposure to written language, which is very different from spoken language. Learning to love books and developing an interest in reading was what we were striving for. When my daughter was ready, we began Explode the Code primers, for a fun, easy to do phonics program. This usually starts in K, at around age 5. See my Explode the Code review (grade 3), for more info.

Big Book of Alpha Tales “Are you looking for a fun way to introduce the alphabet to your younger ones? Or do your children need something special to do while you work with their siblings? Scholastic offers a hands-on alphabet program called The Big Book of Alpha Tales. It includes an entertaining story for each letter of the alphabet.”

Sequencing Simple Stories “In this workbook, children practice putting the parts of simple stories together! Through cutting and gluing, they construct their stories, and build a concrete beginning, middle and end to each story. This helped my daughter to understand stories better, as all stories can be broken down to a beginning, middle and end. And this understanding helped her progressed in her reading!”

Evan Moor’s Building Spelling Skills “Gradually there were more correctly spelled words in her writing! And this learning happened naturally. There are many good spelling programs out there but for my family, we liked Building Spelling Skills.”

Reading Success Mini Books “My daughter not only enjoyed making her mini books, but also loved sharing them. She prided herself on her writing, and enjoyed reading it out loud all to her family – especially to her dad at dinner! This gave her a feeling of confidence in the sometimes difficult process of learning to read.”

Math – Preschool/K Math is all about exploring numbers, and playing with patterns. Making cookies, counting them, then subtracting them, yum! See my review of Numbers and Patterns Kindergarten: Playing and Learning with Manipulatives.

Our author, Amy Maze at Living and Loving at Home, is sharing Five Days of Classical Preschool. Be sure to visit her this week!

General Preschool Homeschool Helps

FREE HSLDA Membership for Parents of Preschool Age Children
How to Get Started Homeschooling Pinterest Board – a fabulous gathering of encouraging posts!
A Preschool and Kindergarten Pinterest board! reviews of all kinds from our archives and more.

Even More Homeschool Resources!

Be sure to also check out The Ultimate Guide to Choosing Homeschool Curriculum.
Our Choosing Curriculum Pinterest board
Our Curriculum Choice review team features a topic monthly. You can see all that our authors have shared on electives, math, curriculum choices and more under Review Team Features.

We are joining up with our iHomeschool Network friends in a summer hopscotch! Be sure to stop by the rest of the week for more on Choosing Curriculum. Tomorrow we will feature elementary curriculum and we have a fabulous giveaway in store! Pin each post for future reference! (Each link below will be live on that day).

Five Days of Choosing Homeschool Curriculum

Monday – Choosing Preschool and Kindergarten Curriculum
Tuesday – Choosing Elementary Homeschool Curriculum
Wednesday – Choosing Middle School Curriculum
Thursday – Choosing High School Curriculum
Friday – Choosing Homeschool Curriculum for Multiple Ages

~Subscribe to Curriculum Choice via email (enter your email address in the top, right-hand corner) and receive our Ultimate Guide to Choosing Curriculum~

How about you? What is your favorite curriculum and/or resources for this age and stage of homeschooling?

~Written by Heather N, Homeschooling on Faith and Coffee

Download the The Ultimate Guide to Choosing Curriculum ebook today!

How to Teach About Electricity for Ages 8-13 Review

Steve — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 09:00:27 +0000

by Steve

How to Teach About Electricity by Susan Kilbride aims to do what the description says: “to make teaching science easy for parents and teachers, and fun for kids.”

If you want to teach electricity using items you probably already have around the house, then this ebook is for you. Using regular household items, Susan Kilbride presents eight lessons on electricity and magnetism.

The simple circuits and experiments in this book can be performed easily by upper elementary and middle school age students. In addition to the experiments, there is a healthy dose of electrical theory. Susan even explains what happens at the sub-atomic level when electrical current flows through a wire using an illustration with marbles.

In this book there are lessons on:

Safety
Static Electricity
Electrical Currents
Switches
More Circuits
Short Circuits
Electricity and Magnetism

Did you know that you can use a clothespin and tongue depressor to switch electrical current? Use a piece of poster paper as a battery holder? These and other household items are used in the construction of the circuits in the book. Students are even taught how to draw schematic diagrams of the circuits used in the experiments.

With easily understood illustrations and fun experiments, your students will be learning basic electricity and magnetism in no time. When you get to the last experiment, you will want to learn more.

You can find this resource on Kindle: Teach Electricity

Free Science Units from Susan Kilbride!

Atoms & Molecules for ages 8-13

Plants for ages 4-7

~Steve keeps busy with five children and a job in information security. He has a second job as principal of the Hodgepodge homeschool and also writes for Habits for a Happy Home and Passionate Purposeful Parenting. You can find more of his technology reviews here at Curriculum Choice.

Download the The Ultimate Guide to Choosing Curriculum ebook today!

Language Arts Resources from Curriculum Choice Authors

Amy Maze — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 09:00:53 +0000

by Amy Maze

Our authors bring you all things language arts today! A selection from our personal blogs and some choice reviews from the archives. Have you browsed our Language Arts section? It’s full of reviews covering:

So pin and bookmark this post today to help you with your language arts decisions now and in the future!

Giveaway:

Since this month is all about Language Arts, I thought it would be a perfect time to have a Classical Copywork giveaway! Whether you are looking ahead to your language arts needs for the fall, or are looking for a simple way to help your children retain what they learned over the summer, copywork is a great answer! At Classical Copywork, we provide a great selection of copywork for children of all ages. Topics include Bible verses, poetry, history, selections from the McGuffey readers, etc. Hundreds of pages of copywork are put together into packs and available to you for just a could of dollars (about $1 per 50 pages of copywork). To celebrate language arts this month, I would like to offer you the chance to win a $10 credit to Classical Copywork! Make sure you enter at the bottom of this page after looking through everyone’s links!

Barb:

True Confessions: No Formal Latin in Our Homeschool: “We have not been able to complete a formal study of Latin. It is not because we didn’t several times give it an honest to goodness try, but I just did not have the energy to power through and make it work.” I invite you to read what we did instead.

Literature Terms-My Little Reminders: “As we go through our literature readings each week, I want to have a way to remember the terms and concepts that are on our “to do” list for the year…I take a set of 3″ by 5″ cards and write down the literary terms that I would like to cover for the year.”

Poetry for High Schoolers-Organized With Free Notebooking Pages: “Last year I shared Mr. A’s poetry study as we went along in a series I called Poetry for High Schoolers, sharing every six weeks how we had enjoyed each poet and then outlining our simple poetry analysis for each one. …Along the way, I decided to make a fresh set of notebooking pages for him to use with the lesson ideas.”

Cindy:

Living Grammar Packets: “Living Literature, Grammar, and Language Arts Packets is a series of 15 weekly language arts lessons centered around various twaddle-free fiction, non-fiction, and historical fiction picture books. Each week, the 3rd- to 4th-grade student is asked to read one of the books and complete a packet of language arts activities that relate to the book.”

Tricia:

Alphaphonics: A Primer for Beginning Readers “Basic. Simple. Long-lasting. Used with all of our five children to learn how to read. The phonics book that has been the go-to teaching tool in our family.” Alphaphonics by Sam Blumenfeld is a full, logical resource for teaching students of all ages to learn to read. “If you have never taught reading before in this sensible, systematic way, you will be pleasantly surprised.” ~Samuel L. Blumenfeld

Spelling Workout Review “When you stick with a curriculum throughout your homeschool years, I believe it speaks volumes to its success and ability to meet the needs of different learning styles. Spelling Workout is more than just spelling.”

New Millennium Girls Creative Writing for Tweens “As I helped and encouraged my daughter along I was impressed that these smaller lessons were building a habit of writing in a fun way. Building on some concepts she already knew. Introducing new concepts – with the promise of craft time to follow! My daughter had fun with writing.”

Rod and Staff English – (it’s now our eighth year!) “I was reminded again why we’ll be heading into our sixth year enjoying Rod and Staff English. Yesterday, third grader and I read…”

App reviews by Steve:

Betsy:

Language Arts has always been a favorite subject in our homeschool. We started with The Big Book of Alpha Tales, to introduce the ABCs. It was full of fun alphabet stories and poems to read aloud. After my daughter learned her letters, we began Explode the Code, which was full of easy to do phonics and early reading activities. It also introduced spelling in a gentle way. My daughter was soon writing her own sentences….and making her own story books! So, the next year, we began working in Spectrum Writing-second grade, choosing from a variety of age-appropriate writing activities, child-led. For literature during these early years, we checked out tons of books from the library, and also read the Pathway series. We and especially enjoyed Seeking True Values. This book was full of family friendly stories with a focus on character building!

Through the years, Language Arts is still our favorite thing to study. As a junior this year, my daughter is working in Oak Meadow Literature and Composition II. It not only covers literature and essay writing, it also teaches literary analysis! These are only a few of the great Language Arts reviews that are written by our talented author team at The Curriculum Choice. And there are so many ways to make your Language Arts learning fun and successful.

Explode the Code This program did not require any prep on my part. All I needed to do was read any new letter sounds out loud, or read her “listening sentences” for her to write down. And of course, celebrate the learning!
Spectrum Writing review – 2nd grade “Spectrum Writing for 2nd Grade served as a helpful foundation for our writing activities in the early elementary years. If you are looking for some new ideas to help your children gain confidence in their writing skills, I recommend Spectrum Writing.”

Spectrum Writing – 8 Review “Have you ever wondered how to help your young teens progress with their writing skills? And how to evaluate how they were doing?”

Big Book of Alpha Tales “Are you looking for a fun way to introduce the alphabet to your younger ones? Or do your children need something special to do while you work with their siblings? Scholastic offers a hands-on alphabet program called The Big Book of Alpha Tales. It includes an entertaining story for each letter of the alphabet.”
Sequencing Simple Stories “In this workbook, children practice putting the parts of simple stories together! Through cutting and gluing, they construct their stories, and build a concrete beginning, middle and end to each story. This helped my daughter to understand stories better, as all stories can be broken down to a beginning, middle and end. And this understanding helped her progressed in her reading!”
Evan Moor’s Building Spelling Skills “Gradually there were more correctly spelled words in her writing! And this learning happened naturally. There are many good spelling programs out there but for my family, we liked Building Spelling Skills.”
Reading Success Mini Books “My daughter not only enjoyed making her mini books, but also loved sharing them. She prided herself on her writing, and enjoyed reading it out loud all to her family – especially to her dad at dinner! This gave her a feeling of confidence in the sometimes difficult process of learning to read.”
Oak Meadow – Lit and Comp II “I love this curriculum, as the questions really helped my daughter to analyze the story/novel, and later to do her literary analysis essay.”

Ellen:

Daily Grammar “Throughout my children’s elementary years, we explored several different grammar curricula, and all have had their good points. This year, however, I came across a FREE curriculum that is thorough and easy to use and free. (Did I mention that already? Sorry. I really like the word free.)”

Spelling Power “Don’t let the “Big Orange Book” scare you, though! Once you delve into the curriculum, Spelling Power is very easy to use…”

Honey for a Child’s Heart “A superb resource that has directed me for years is Honey for a Child’s Heart: The Imaginative Use of Books in Family Life, by Gladys Hunt. Familiar to many homeschooling families, this excellent book makes a strong case for a life of literature.”

Poetry series at The Bluestocking Belle: Six Tips for Enjoying Poetry with Your Children, Poetry Push Back: Working Through Resistance in Young Children, Enjoying Poetry with Your Young Children: Online Resources, Poetry Pushback: Jolting Older Children Out of Apathy, Poetry Pushback: Bridging the Disconnect with Older Children,

Mary:

Make Spelling Fun with My Spelling Test App “Enter My Spelling Test, an app that makes studying for and taking spelling tests FUN!”

Designing a Poetry Unit with Read & Understand Poetry “Using Read & Understand Poetry as a guide is the perfect way to create a introductory poetry unit (which just might inspire your children to learn further on their own!)”

Daniele:

A print-rich environment is vital to a solid foundation of great reading, writing, vocabulary and spelling skills. Wondering how to build your library of good books? Building Incredible Booklists for Children offers many resources to help you out!

Shirley:

Vocabulary – Have you ever wondered how or even why to include vocabulary into your language arts program? For years I glanced over this as I really didn’t have a clue as to how or why to include it, finally the penny dropped ). I hope that this post helps you if you too are stuck with vocabulary!

Some Language Arts Helps! – In this post I have a list, links and short reviews of some great free online language arts games we have enjoyed over the years. Kindergarten, elementary and middle school is covered here.

Amy:

Help Your Child Capture the Story: 1st Grade Book Report Pages – “Print these FREE pages to help your young reader/writer record what they have read. Great tool to measure comprehensaion!

Trace and Build Letters – “help your preschooler begin to understand the shapes of each upper and lower case letter with these FREE trace and build letters!”

Teach Your Child to Write: A Beginner’s Writing Notebook - “Do you have a little one who is ready to begin learning how to write their letters? Take a look at this great, simple way to teach them!”

5 Days of Copywork - “All you every wanted to know about copywork!”

Annie Kate:

Our favorite writing resources for the elementary grades are Emma Serl’s Primary Language Lessons and Secondary Language Lessons, beautiful old books that follow Charlotte Mason’s principles in a classical way.

It’s also important for children to learn from real writers, by analysing and imitating. Creativity is good, but studying the great writers can teach them so many practical approaches to expressing themselves!

Most years we join NaNoWriMo, a crazy month of novel-writing that forces our children to think about dialogue, setting, conflict, plot, and character. What better way to consolidate what they have learned about literature?

We used many resources to learn to read, but I wish we had Alpha-Phonics at the time. It would have been such a blessing!

Once the children are teens they may think they know how to read, but there is a whole lot more to learn. How to Read a Book is probably one of the most important books our teens study.

Kendra:

The Word Spy – My kids adore this book! So much so that when we finished it they sat there quietly for a minute before screaming, “You have the next one, right?” Yes, my cheeky little boys I do indeed.

Copywork for Future Heroes – If you need help getting your copywork quotes together for your boy to copy this could be the product you are looking for! Copy them out, drop them in a jar and let your child pull one out to work on. Print it out as per the instructions in the ebook and you’re all set. No fuss No muss!

Spellwell – My top notch answer is going to be simple. I love that my child has gained confidence and power with his spelling. He’s gone from worrying that everything he spells will be wrong to asking occasionally. His spelling is not perfect, but it’s vastly better!

Even More Language Arts Resources!

Free Language Arts Resources Online compiled for you at The Homeschool Classroom
Our Curriculum Choice review team features a topic monthly. You can see all that our authors have shared on electives, math, curriculum choices and more under Review Team Features.
A Language Arts Pinterest board! reviews of all kinds from our archives and more.
Be sure to subscribe to Curriculum Choice. Our authors will be back next week with Five Days of Choosing Curriculum. We’ll be sharing all our best resources for preschool to high school and more!

Now for the giveaway! One $10 credit to Classical Copywork

a Rafflecopter giveaway

~hosted by Amy Maze, Living and Learning at Home

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Kindergarten Math Splash App Review

Julia — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 09:00:21 +0000

by Julia

Splash into Math Fun this Summer!

It’s time to dive into summer with Study Pad’s Kindergarten Math Splash! This adventurous App can be purchased for your little one for about $9.99, at the App store, and it is worth every cent. Our family recommends Kindergarten Math Splash for children entering kindergarten or for for graduating kindergarten children reviewing their math skills.

How Kindergarten Math Splash Works

Children open this entertaining App and parents add players, so that each child gains their own “jungle,” and list of math goals. Next, parents click on a red mushroom icon labeled “Parent,” to easily customize a syllabus for their children. The skills on the simple syllabus include number recognition, comparing numbers, addition and subtraction, numbers beyond ten, geometry and measurement. Skills can be customized for each child, or parents can leave the skills set to the on setting, for random play. Goals for each child can be customized by parents but we left our goals set to the original setting.

Each time students complete a goal they delight in choosing an animal for their “jungle.” The animal performs different actions, such as an elephant trumpeting his trunk or a giraffe moving her neck like an accordion. Students choose a dance style and home for the animal in their math jungle. The animals work like animated motivational stickers.

Accomplished daily goals increase students’ percentages as they progress toward mastering a particular skill. Progress is emailed to parents automatically. Parents can also take photos of their children’s jungles by clicking on a camera icon. We have taken advantage of “gifting” Math Splash to a cousin, by simply clicking on a gift icon. Students learn and enjoy and the App does the rest.

Kindergarten Math Splash is Cool

My four-year-old plays Math Splash with her first grade brothers. She says this about Math Splash, “I like all the animals ’cause they do funny things. I do not have a favorite. Can I play it now?” My first grade boys are proud that they already know the kindergarten skills and it is good review for them. The rewards of independence for older children and the adorable animals for young ones are beneficial to families.

Parents will appreciate Math Splash because it allows them to work with siblings or help with homework, while children review math skills. Rather than television or a video game, Math Splash teaches children valuable math skills. Playing an amusing game instead of completing another math worksheet is a plus, as well.

Finally, a note about the beginning stages of Math Splash: when parents choose the “Parent” set up, they must touch the red mushroom icon on their smart pads for at least two seconds. It took me awhile to understand how to move to the student syllabus. In the meantime, Elefunny, Netsy, Necky and Roary invite your four to six-year-olds to their jungle at Kindergarten Math Splash. They’re bound to have an uproarious time and learn math skills during their adventure!

~written by Julia

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Summer Reading

Shirley — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 09:00:26 +0000

by Shirley

Well summer is just about here, although you would be hard pressed to say so here in England. We have largely cool weather speckled with beautifully warm days – just to show us what ‘could-be’ ).

As the academic year begins to wind down here (I know that a lot of you in the USA are already on summer break), I am already dreaming of enjoying some warm summer days in Cornwall. Soaking in the deep blues of the ocean and walking through quaint seaside villages. All this dreaming has brought into focus some lovely read-alouds that we have enjoyed, and some that we hope to enjoy together. I thought that I would share a few favorites with you. So why not pull up a picnic blanket under the branches of a tree or on the warm sands of the beach this summer and enjoy the bonding experience of reading together.

We are currently reading Swallows and Amazons by English author, Arthur Ransome. This is the perfect summer read to share with your children. The story is set in more innocent times, when children experienced more freedom than they do today, when life seemed simpler and more carefree.

It’s summer in 1929, and John, Susan, Titty and Roger are holidaying on Holly Howe Farm near a lake in the Lake District of England with mother, nurse and baby Vicky. Father is at sea and cannot be with the family, but he clearly plays a strong role in their lives as each child loves to sail. The children are delighted when a telegram arrives from their father giving permission to go camping on their own on one of the small islands in the lake. Best of all, the children are allowed to borrow the small sailboat, Swallow, to get to their island and to sail on the lake. What adventures await?

The children soon find themselves under attack from the fierce Amazon Pirates, Nancy and Peggy Blackett, who live in their house on the shore of the lake. And so begins a summer of battles, alliances, exploration and discovery.

This is a brilliant story, one that appeals to the adventurer and imagination of both children and adults alike. Arthur Ransome’s descriptions of camping, swimming and summer days are vivid and suck you straight into this carefree world.

Swallows and Amazons is the first in a series of books written by Arthur Ransome, which I am thrilled about, as there is a promise of many more adventures to share with my girls. For me the sign of a good book is when my children are inspired to ‘live the story’. By chapter 5 my girls were wanting to make their own campfire just like John, Susan, Titty and Roger’s campfire. By the way, Swallow is a real sailing boat that tours the UK each year so fans can experience sailing ‘ just like in the books’.

Available from Amazon.com in Paperback or Kindle

Another favourite that we have discovered rather late in our homeschool journey – but have enjoyed all the same – is Choice Stories For Children.

This is a collection of around 40 stories written in the late 1800′s. Each story has an important lesson which encourages good character building. The stories are short and each one takes no more than 10 to 15 minutes to read. So if you are pressed for time but still want to squeeze in a bit of cuddle time together, this is the perfect fix. You can grab a copy at Christianbook.com

And now for a free Audiobook recommendation…

The House of Arden by Edith Nesbit. Not only were the children engrossed in this story – but so was I! Edred and Elfrida, together with their Aunt Edith, embark on a treasure hunt through time for the famous Arden family treasure. Typical of Edith Nesbit’s delightful stories, there is a strange creature – a Mouldiwarp – that helps the family in their quest. The thing with the treasure hunt is that they need to find the treasure before Edred’s tenth birthday – or it will never be theirs. This adds to the anticipation in the story and we found ourselves rooting for this family whose life cannot be described as easy.

I’m sure that you will agree with me, that having a few audiobooks lying around is a treasure! Whether you are staying at home or going to be spending a good chunk of time on the road this summer, make sure you arm yourselves with a few of these to keep the children entertained and those imaginations stimulated! You can download The House of Arden and many more for free at Librivox.

~ written by Shirley

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Virtual Art Museum Field Trip with Home Art Studio

Tricia — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 09:00:25 +0000

by Tricia

Today I have the privilege of introducing our June sponsor, Home Art Studio! We’ve been sharing this wonderful resource with you throughout this academic year. Please see our full disclosure policy. Plus, don’t miss the giveaway at the end of a full set of curriculum – all available grades!

As part of the wonderful Home Art Studio DVD curriculum we’ve enjoyed we recently went on a virtual art museum field trip. What a wonderful bonus on the 3rd grade DVD – to have your very own art teacher give you a tour of an art museum!

That is just one of the many bonus features and lessons you will find on Home Art Studio DVDs. But don’t take it just from me, I’m sharing many reviews today…

Home Art Studio Reviews at Curriculum Choice

Over the last months, many of our authors also had the pleasure of using Home Art Studio in their homes. In case you missed any of them, I’ll share them below:

Kindergarten – review by Daniele of Domestic Serenity: A Personal Art Teacher: “I really appreciated the videos show top-down shots of the projects as well. The camera varies from the teacher talking to the student, to looking over her shoulder, to top-down and back again!”

Second Grade – review by Heather at UpsideDown Homeschooling: “Even this “very art challenged” mother was able to draw a dog using Ms. Volin’s technique! I was impressed!! My daughters LOVE this program. Even my youngest who typically wants nothing to do with art is now asking to do art first thing in the morning!”

Third Grade – review by Tricia at Hodgepodge ‘Home Art Studio for Multiple Ages: “Would you appreciate a simple and easy way to add art to your days? Home Art Studio offers just that. With Home Art Studio, all I needed to do was clear the table, gather the supplies, put on the DVD – and the children came. I chose the third grade curriculum simply because the theme, Be Creative, appealed to us all.”

Fourth Grade review by Daniele of Domestic Serenity: “The projects are age-appropriate and extra information presented on general art or artists informative, but not overwhelming. Projects can done whenever you choose! DVDs can be purchased individually and supplies will be found at a local craft or art store. Since many supplies are used for a variety of grade levels, families can share from child to child.”

Fifth Grade review by Heather W. of Blog, She Wrote: “Infused with the directions on the art projects, are facts about the types of art and medium as Ms. Volin introduces a new concept.”

As you can see, many of the families of our review team have thoroughly enjoyed Home Art Studio!

Special Discount for Curriculum Choice Readers

Details are follows:

You can buy all 6 grade level DVDs or a mixture of 6 for the price of 5! Use code HAS6FOR5 only at www.jerrysartarama.com

Add all 6 dvd’s to the cart (or a mixture of 6)
· MUST enter coupon code: HAS6for5
· You will receive $25.00 off your order making one FREE
· Valid on the sku’s: V07219, V07229, V07357, V07558, V09316, V09318

Online only. Not valid in any retail store location.
Expires: June 30th

Now for the giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

~Homeschooling for a dozen years now, Tricia faces a daily dose of chaos with five children from preschool to high school. She shares a mixture of art lessons, recipes and helpful homeschool habits at Hodgepodge. She and her husband, Steve (who writes app and technology reviews), are co-owners of Curriculum Choice.

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Civics Education: Pocket Law Firm iPad App Review

Daniele — Fri, 31 May 2013 09:50:58 +0000

by Daniele

The first thing to note is this iPad app is FREE! – so it’s a low risk, delete-if-you-don’t-like-it investment.

Created by iCivics, Pocket Law Firm app turns the user into the owner of a law firm determined to defend the US Constitution. As the one in charge, you handle clients, helping to match their cases to just the right lawyer. Not so fast though – first, you need to have set up your firm correctly or to do so along the way.

Lawyers specialize in various amendments and it’s important for your law firm to have a variety.

While there are tips and a ‘cheat sheet’ for each amendment…it’s beneficial to learn which one is for freedom of expression, illegal search, double jeopardy, cruel and unusual punishment, and so on.

You don’t want to keep those clients waiting too long, or they’ll get upset and leave!

Pocket Law Firm includes gaming features such as earning points to make your waiting room more comfortable. Points are also used to hire extra lawyers and to give them the best working environment with new lamps and desks.

The cases range from serious to hilarious – here are a few examples:

“My friend auditioned for a show and made it in! I auditioned for the same show and didn’t get a part – I’m so upset and want to do something about it. Don’t I have a right to be a star?”

Um, no…you don’t. Send that client home.

“I want to be on a jury. Yesterday, my state governor announced that Asians can no longer serve on a jury. I am a US citizen and am 18 years old. Do I have a right be on a jury?”

Yes, you do! But now what?

Do I have a lawyer to match this client? Should they come back tomorrow or wait for a few minutes (because the lawyer is busy with another client)? By the way, which amendment is being violated here?

Do YOU know?*

Pocket Law Firm in Action:

With clients, lawyers, cases won and lost (if you don’t match them correctly) – it’s a full day at the office with Pocket Law Firm! Great for parents who need to sharpen their knowledge and middle school or high schoolers being introduced to the ins and outs of the US Constitution.

A fun, engaging, educational and FREE iPad app. Highly recommended!

*Psst…it’s the 14th – Equality Under the Law.

{post written by Daniele of Domestic Serenity}

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Triple 1070: Timeless Principles Made Accessible for Today’s Families

Tricia — Thu, 30 May 2013 09:30:49 +0000

by Tricia

A big thank you to our May sponsor, Triple 1070. What a value – all that we’ve learned already in our home! Thanks to the help of the DVD-based Triple 1070, we are building those strong, Biblical financial foundations in our children. Plus continuing our education as adults. This post contains affiliate links because we have used this curriculum in our home, thoroughly enjoyed it and believe in it!

01-The Land of Opportunity.mp4 from Triple1070 on Vimeo.

Now that our eldest two children have enjoyed this curriculum, I’m looking forward to introducing it to our younger three, as they grow into high school age.

But in addition to continuing to use and turn to Triple 1070 curriculum, I will follow Triple 1070 on Facebook because they share encouraging updates there, like the one above. (The top quote is from Triple 1070 on Twitter. You can also follow them on Pinterest!)

If you missed my full review of Triple 1070, be sure to read it to find out so much more about how it can work for your high schoolers! Plus explore the Triple 1070 website. You can even try out a sample lesson!

48 Hour SALE!!

The retail price is $136, but for the following 48 hours you can purchase the complete set for only $89. Head over now to get your Triple 1070 curriculum!

Many thanks to Triple 1070 for blessing our home – and for being such a wonderful resource for the homeschool community!

What questions do you have about Triple 1070?

~Written by Tricia, Hodgepodge

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Review: All About Learning Press – Level 1 Review

Heather Nieman — Wed, 29 May 2013 09:50:51 +0000

by Heather Nieman

FTC Disclosure: I received All About Reading – Level 1 in return for an honest review at The Curriculum Choice. I am proud to be an affiliate for All About Reading and the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you use my link and make a purchase I will receive a small commission.

All About Reading was one of those products that I had been itching to try for a while; so when it finally arrived in the mail thanks to the wonderful folks at All About Learning Press, I was actually a little nervous! I hoped and prayed that it would fit our family the way I had envisioned all those months!

I can tell you emphatically, it did. In fact, it went beyond my expectations.

Why I Wanted to Try All About Reading

Billy is almost six, but had picked up reading some words here and there on his own. I saw this great potential in him and wanted so much to fan that flame – without blowing it out! I wanted to give him the keys that could unlock reading for him and give him the gift of being able to read on his own.

Some of you know that our homeschool is delight-directed and that Billy is a kinesthetic learner – but that I am a born and bred classroom teacher. I wasn’t sure how a reading “curriculum” with planned lessons was going to work for Billy (I knew I would like it!), but I was reassured by the fact that All About Reading was made for every type of learner.

Let me tell you, All About Reading has been a perfect fit, for both of us.

How It Works – For Both of Us

The multi-sensory approach is exactly what Billy needs. There is CD software that will sound out the phonograms for you, letter and word cards to flip through, letter tiles to arrange and re-arrange, pages to color/games to play and even a sticker to put on your chart at the end of the lesson. If I need him to not touch, I let him color the activity page while we work through the lesson or find something else to occupy his hands. Sometimes I just let him hold the cards as he works his way through.

I absolutely love that the lessons are ready-to-go, easy to implement and mastery based. I even get my own “Teacher’s Manual” that walks me through each lesson (lightly-scripted, easy to customize!) and has some really helpful tips to let me know if we’re on the right track! I also love that All About Reading is based on the Orton-Gillingham method.

Billy’s biggest obstacle is simply that he wants to go fast. He will mis-read a word because he wants to get it out as quickly as possible. Yet, even when we need to go back and review a word he has trouble with, the techniques in All About Reading have helped me remind him to slow down, sound it out and construct the word. Each time he finally gets a word right – he beams. Most times just going through the process helps him remember and easily recall that word in the future.

Part of the All About Reading program are short stories collected in books that the child can read on his/her own. I was so happy to hear Billy read through a whole story all by himself for the first time – and he was so proud. I can see the sense of accomplishment on his face, and I know it is building excitement and increasing the joy of reading for him – exactly what I had prayed for.

At the end of each lesson, the program recommends that you spend 20 minutes reading a book, stories or poetry out loud to your child. I am so appreciative of this emphasis on reading great literature to our kids and getting them excited about the worlds great books can take us to. However, this is one area where we stray from the program a bit. After sitting through a whole lesson, Billy is done. We usually take a break and do our read-aloud time later.

What I Love

The best part about each lesson for me is watching him make the associations between the a word on paper, what it means and how it is used in a sentence. Many times we’ll build and read a word and then he will (on his own) make up a little sentence that uses that word. This tells me that the lessons in All About Reading are more than just an exercise to him, this is exactly what he needed to turn those abstract letters on the paper or screen into a language that he can understand.

And Billy LOVES the program! Most nights (we do our lessons after dinner) he asks me if it’s time for All About Reading yet. He looks forward to each lesson, and that’s delight-directed enough for me!

My Tips for You

Get everything set up the day BEFORE you do your first lesson. Billy saw me looking through the kit and, naturally, wanted to dive right in. Well, there are some things you need to do first to prepare the cards and tiles and it will be much easier to accomplish those tasks without an eager student asking if you’re “ready yet?”

If you choose to use the CD for the phonogram sounds, know that each letter button will play all phonogram sounds for that letter. I would prefer if you could select which sound you would like to hear for each letter, then I could let Billy use the program to hear and practice; right now hearing all the possible sounds is a little confusing for Billy.

If you can get a magnet board to use with the letter tiles, use it. I don’t have one set up because I know the tiles would “disappear” at the hands of little ones. If could have a board set up and ready to go, though, it would save me a bit of prep time before our lesson. Instead, each night I sort through our bag of letter tiles to find the ones I need; but at least I know where they are! Whichever way works for you, do it.

Go at your own pace. If you need to end a lesson early, do it. Go back to it the next day. If you want to go through 2 lessons in 1 day (sometimes easy to do) then do it! When your child has mastered the material, you move on. I love that about this program!

For more information and to take a free placement test, head over to All About Reading

~Written by Heather N, Homeschooling on Faith and Coffee

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The Story of the U.S.A. Books 1 & 2 by Franklin Escher, Jr.

Stephanie — Mon, 27 May 2013 08:30:02 +0000

by Stephanie

Story of the U.S.A. Book 1 & 2

Sometimes I am looking for a book that holds all my creativity and tendency to wander through the fields homeschooling together. Story of the U.S.A. Books 1 and 2 were just the framework I needed to keep our history program on track this year. We tend to take history exploration literally and wander by adding small unit studies and lots of historical fictions to read. Therefore we need a base program that touches a bit on major historical events in a chronological order to give us direction.

An overview of Story of the U.S.A. Book 1: Explorers and Settlers.

We began our year with the study of America’s beginning. Book 1 begins with native peoples and ends at the American Revolution.When we began we lived in Virginia so we spent a great deal of time on a Jamestown unit study, then Colonial America, and finally the American Revolution. We paused when we got to those chapters in the workbook and spent time building on the foundation this book provided as our “spine”.

After chapter comprehension exercises give The Story of the U.S.A. and familiar and likeable format for kids who want to know what to expect. The book contains fourteen chapters each with the following format:

Comprehension, T or F, multiple choice and fill in the blank and Discussion question are after every chapter.

Introduction with a “getting ready for” section which sums up what will be presented along with vocabulary terms.
Interesting illustrations, maps, or highlighted images with captions to explain or extend learning.
Concise 1-2 page instruction on the chapter topic.
Comprehension questions about the main ideas. (We did these verbally.)
True or False section.
Multiple choice questions.
Fill in the blank for vocabulary usage.
Discussion questions to build ideas from what was learned.
At the end of the book there is a final review.

An overview of Story of the U.S.A. Book 2: A Young Nation Solves it’s problems.

The second half of our year we used book 2. It covered the forming of our government, the Constitution, Lewis and Clark, the War of 1812, westward expansion, early industrial revolution, the Alamo and the Gold Rush up to the beginnings of the Civil War. The format is exactly the same as book 1. It was very appealing for both myself and my student to have an established method we could always depend on.

The illustrations and maps bring to life these forthright and concise lessons.

Why I recommend The Story of the U.S.A. for elementary students.

The very helpful thing about these books was that they were so easy for my child to follow. It was nice to have a text that he could read and understand independently. After he read the chapter and did the questions we would check his answers together to see if he comprehended everything and then we talked over the discussion questions. Since as homeschoolers we just don’t do a ton of written comprehension exercises, it brought a nice balance to our school day. It was also a real blessing on busy days. We could easily take a small workbook with us anywhere and he was able to complete a lesson a day with ease. This makes the books easy to finish in a short time if used as a sole curriculum or easy to add to if used with additional materials in the way we used them.

The Story of the USA workbooks were easy to fit in on busy days!

Where to buy The Story of the U.S.A. books.

The Story of the U.S.A. can be purchased through Educators Publishing Service for $13.50. The answer key is $7.65 if you should need it. There are 4 books in the series:

Explorers and Settlers
A Young Nation Solves Its Problems
America Becomes a Giant
Modern America

The publisher recommends them for grades 4-8. I found them at the right level for my 4th grader. Since there are 14 chapters for each book they could easily be completed in a year as a sole curriculum. Or you can have the best of both worlds and weave them throughout your history studies using only two books for the year. We do a lesson a day so it gave us lots of time to dig deeper and the tools to get started.

~Stephanie is a Catholic military spouse and mother to 3. She is wife of 21 years to her husband, Brian. Even with 13 moves in 17 years she finds time to write about faith and family @ Harrington Harmonies.

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Old Testament Days and Classical Kids Activity Books Review

Amy Maze — Fri, 24 May 2013 09:50:01 +0000

by Amy Maze

An activity of any kind is sure to bring life to your child’s studies. Often, we will be reading a book and I can just tell that my son doesn’t truly understand what I’m talking about. When material is new, it is understandable that there would be questions. We have been learning about ancient times this year, and that can be really difficult for young children. Of course they are great at memorizing facts and answering questions, but children just assume that everyone has been just like them, so conveying to them how other people lived can take a bit of work.

Two resources that we have used this year to help my children understand what life was really like thousands of years ago are Old Testament Days and Classical Kids. They are activity books that each have around 100 ideas/activities to do with your children pertaining to ancient times.

Old Testament Days covers approximately 2000BC – 400BC in the region known today as the Middle East. You will follow Abraham and his growing family as they travel from place to place, end up in Egypt, and then travel around some more. You will learn how the Israelites dressed and kept themselves clean, what they used to make music and fight in battles, what they ate and much more!

What I love is that these activities are easy to add in to whatever history curriculum you are using. If you are learning about a particular subject and feel like you children need a little help understanding (or could just benefit from a little fun reinforcement!) just pick an activity that relates and add it in! Many of the activities are preceded by a few paragraphs of information pertaining to it, which could even make it into a stand alone curriculum for a young child.

We have done many of these activities this year. Each time I get this book out, my kids get excited! They always look forward to doing these activities. Here are some of the ones that we have done this year:

Writing our names in hieroglyphics
Making a table like Abraham and Sara might have used
Cooking up Lentil Stew
Making a decorative anklet
Making an Egyptian Paddle Doll and Throwing Serpent
Making Unleavened Bread
Making the ten commandments out of clay
Making a doctor’s kit
Making a trumpet (like Joshua)
Building a salt-dough map of Israel
Washing our feet, face, and clothes like the Israelites
Making a borrow and arrow
Making a shield

We have just recently started using Classical Kids, which covers Ancient Greece and Rome. My two-year-old daughter was so excited when she saw the book for the first time. The two books look very similar, but have different coloring to them and she noticed that and said “You got us a new one!?!” We have read a few pages in this new book about the cities of Sparta and Athens, the theater, and Aesop. We even wrote our own fable just like Aesop did! We just entered into learning about the ancient Greeks, so we have so much more to do from this book. Here are some of the types of things that we are looking forward to doing this spring and summer:

Mimicking ancient Greek and Roman dress
Learning to cook like the Greeks and Romans
Learning about math like Pythagoras did
Learning about the night sky like the Greek astronomers did
Creating art like the ancient Greeks did
Making an abacus and counting in Roman Numerals
and much more!

If you are studying ancient history, I cannot recommend these handy activity books enough. They really make history come alive and are just a lot of fun! I know your kids will get excited whenever you bring out one of these books, just like mine do!

I was not compensated in any way for this review. I just wanted to share with you a great resource that my children and I have been enjoying this year!

~by Amy, Living and Learning at Home

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Practice and Test Spelling Words with The Spelling Bee App

Heidi — Wed, 22 May 2013 09:50:49 +0000

by Heidi

Tip Tach Tech knew how much I loved their math facts app Mathopolis, so they offered to let me try their new spelling app: The Spelling Bee. I had high hopes and wasn’t disappointed!

What can you do with The Spelling Bee?

With this app your child can play games with spelling words and be tested on them. You can add multiple players (I added up to nine just to test it out–and it’s easy to delete players and word lists as needed by clicking “Edit” in the upper right corner). After your child chooses their name they click the play button under their name to begin playing.

Their first choice will be which list to work with.

There are word lists included with the app. I want to note that the audio clips for a couple of the existing words we tried sounded a little off. For example: expository sounded like ex-plaws-itory. It didn’t bother me because the real power of this app (in my humble opinion) is the ability to make your own lists. You can even add multiple lists for the child to work on–in the screenshot above I added one called “Sample List.” After we added a list for my daughter she added her own list of plant names that she wanted to learn.

To make a list you simply type in the words and record a sound clip. I love that you can include it in a sentence if necessary–great for practicing homophones. We had my daughter work on principle versus principal using the app.

Once they choose which list to work on they have several options:

Alpha”Bee”tize is a very simple game of putting the words in alphabetical order (great practice for younger children).
Spelling Swarm plays the audio of the word, then your child has to click on letters moving across the screen to spell the word.

Honeycomb Scramble asks the child to unscramble the letters to spell the words from their lists. If the child clicks on “hint” it will play the audio clip for that word.

Study shows the list of words and a button to play the accompanying audio clip.

The last choice is Spelling Bee, and this is the test portion. It plays the audio clip and your child types in the word. At the end they are shown their score and can see their missed words–both the spelling they gave and the correct spelling.

For all the choices except study your child can earn a badge if they spell all the words correctly. Their badges for each list are displayed next to the list name.

Why We’ll Be Using the Spelling Bee Regularly

This app is going to revamp how we approach spelling in our homeschool. I am striving for more independence for my soon-to-be middle school daughter. With this app I only have to spend time entering the list once and she can practice the rest of the week and even take her test independently. Spending 99 cents to save time and increase her independence is a great deal!

Sometimes using technology leaves us unaware of how our children are doing, but The Spelling Bee makes it easy to keep track of your child’s progress. When you view their word lists it will show what badges have been earned (and remember, they must spell all the words correctly to earn the badge). The small list button on the lower right of the home screen displays when they took a spelling test, their score, and which words they missed.

This is much more fun than writing words over and over or staring at the list of words. In fact, it’s so fun that I can just throw in words that I notice her misspelling and she doesn’t mind the extra “work.” It will be the perfect tool for her younger brother to practice right as his level, too.

You can read more about The Spelling Bee on TipTachTech’s website and purchase it on iTunes.
Heidi homeschools her two children in Maine using an eclectic mix including Charlotte Mason’s ideas, quality literature and hands-on learning. She strives to show her children that learning is an exciting, life long adventure. She shares their experiences on her blog, Home Schoolroom.

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Review: Triple 1070 Biblical Personal Finance Curriculum

Tricia — Tue, 21 May 2013 09:00:09 +0000

by Tricia

I am very happy to introduce you to our May sponsor, Triple 1070. Don’t miss the giveaway at the end! This review contains affiliate links because we have used this curriculum in our home, thoroughly enjoyed it and believe in it! Please see our disclosure policy for more detail.
Practical, life skills are so very needed in a high school education. But just how can you teach your young adults about finances without it being BORING? Triple 1070 offers a media rich adventure to Biblical Financial Empowerment.

With this DVD-based curriculum, follow four young adults – of various ages, backgrounds and ideas about finance – on a practical learning experience. These young people travel across the country talking with financial experts, visiting banks, learning about job planning, taxes, avoiding debt, government, investments and much more.

What is Triple 1070?

Triple 1070 is a high school level course, 13 weeks long.

What does Triple 1070 mean?

This framework is a guideline: 10% charitable giving, 10% savings, 10% investment, 70% spending (what you have to live on). “Triple 1070 is about intentional stewardship — planning where you are going to use the money God has entrusted you with. It is not a law, but a general guideline on how to steward your resources to ensure that you take care of your own (1 Timothy 5:8) and allow God to bless others through you (Acts 20:35).”

52-Its time to fly!.mp4 from Triple1070 on Vimeo.

Take a few minutes to watch this video from Triple 1070.

What is included in the Triple 1070 curriculum set?

DVD-based curriculum – six DVDs that we watch to accompany the textbook.
Homeschool textbook – this resource is rich with knowledge and I can see it being a tool referenced often as my high schoolers continue into adulthood over these next, few, short years as our children work towards the steps of financial stability.
Homeschool daily workbook – I love how the exercises simulate a real-life situation and encourages the student to problem solve and plan.
View the 13 week course outline

What does Triple 1070 Teach?

Entrepreneurship
Banking, The Fed
Commercial banks
Credit management
A balance a checkbook
Financial strategies
Financial planning
Making it work in the real world
Personal net worth
Compound interest
The 10-10-10-70
What to do with your life
Not just a paycheck
Resumes & interviews
Invisible money
Ways to save big
History of taxes
Taxes in America
Higher education
Governmental budgeting
Life strategies
Trade schools
The creation of credit
What’s in a number
Consume, consume, consume
Ideas to buy a car
Living large/living low
What happens if you don’t pay your bills on time?
Giving works
Making the world a better place
What kind of mortgages are right for me?
What’s and why’s of insurance
America!
Investments

How We Use it in Our Home

With two young adults in our household (rising 9th and 10th graders), my husband and I knew that finances – especially Biblical financial empowerment – would be an important part of their education. Because we have multiple ages from preschool to high school in our homeschool, we have been watching the DVD series in the evenings after the younger children are in bed. This also allows my husband to be included in the studies. Since he is in charge of our family finances, he offers examples from our our family.

Here’s an example of what happened after we watched the session on Credit Cards and Interest. The speaker brought up the fact that he never buys a new car. So my daughter said, “well, how much does a new Ford Fiesta cost?” So my husband pulled up the site online and they added all the features she thought would be fun. Including the color car she wanted. Then we saw the price for that new car. We discussed how much less a car that was just a two years older would cost. We pulled up the family van and showed the children the current cost. How much we paid, etc. It’s these real life discussions prompted by Triple 1070 that I value most.

“One piece of information I could have had in high school – at least financially – it would have been the power of power of saving versus the power of debt. Saving a dollar versus spending a dollar. When you save the dollar, then you have interest on that and then compound interest. It’s an extremely powerful way to build wealth. Very few people realize that when you are in high school you can literally cinch the fact that you’ll be a millionaire by the time you retire just by socking away very few dollars every month – because of the power of compound interest and time.” basically by saving $1,000 a year ~ lesson on net worth by Dory Wiley, President of Commerce Street Capital, LLC

Where can you find Triple 1070 to Use with Your Young Adults?

Explore the Triple 1070 site.
$136 for a complete curriculum – for a high school level course. (and we’re enjoying it with two children in our home!)
Interested? You can even try a sample lesson.

In Summary

Triple 1070 is building Biblical financial foundations for a lifetime. “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” This curriculum is opening the doors to practical discussions, expanding our thinking and challenging us all with Biblical standards. How I wish I’d had this type of course when I was a high schooler!

Now for the giveaway!

Triple 1070 is offering a complete curriculum set to one blessed Curriculum Choice reader! This curriculum set is valued at $136 and includes:

Textbook
DVD series
Student Workbook
Exam booklet

Just follow the instructions in the rafflecopter widget below:
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A Fun Way to Learn About Words

Mary — Mon, 20 May 2013 09:50:50 +0000

by Mary

Don’t miss the giveaway at the end!

Do you know what PHOTOGRAMMETRY or THERMOPHILE mean?

How about ZOOMETRY or SYMPHILY?

Your children will be able to tell you quite easily what the definitions of these words are after spending time playing Rummy Roots.

This game is teaching my children all about English words through learning their Greek and Latin roots. It is a stress free game that is providing us hours of language learning.

About Rummy Roots

There are four different card games in one deck. Each game (or level) is designed to build upon the next and be stress-free! The game is recommended for ages 8 and up (a perfect age range, in my opinion).

Pre-Roots

This game is played just like Go-Fish. It helps students (and their parents!) learn the basic word roots. The most familiar roots are used and success is guaranteed after just a few short minutes of playing. A simple roots list is given so the youngest players can be successful. Alphabetizing skills are learned in this level.

Level 1

This level is played by combining two Greek or Latin words to form an English word. (“Autograph” is one example.) Learning how to use guide words in a dictionary is emphasized in this level. A larger dictionary is included for this part of the game.

Level 2

This level continues more root combinations, but adds the use of a “Stump” card. Players learn the definitions of two root combinations in this level.

Level 3

This level resembles more of a traditional “Rummy” game… and players will combine 3 root cards to make words (like “autobiography”) Things get harder and more challenging at this level.

How We are Using Rummy Roots in Our Homeschool

We have just been playing Pre-Roots for the past couple of months. My children have learned the 42 Greek and Latin Roots and their meanings quite well, and are enjoying playing “Go Fish” with the cards. For the age and level we are, this has been perfect.

The Pre-Rummy Roots Word List is very helpful. We can refer to the list to match up roots and their meanings.

I see their learning progressing, though, and soon we will start Level 1.

We play the game purely now for FUN – and a by product of that fun is LEARNING.

Why We Recommend Rummy Roots

My children’s understanding of the structure of words, and also the meaning of words has increased. They are able to dissect a word they don’t know, and get a general idea of its meaning through the roots they are learning.

This is such a valuable skill – one that serves them well in so many subject areas: history, science, language arts, and more.

*You can find out more about ordering directly from the Rummy Roots website. Games are $14.95 each. (I picked mine up at the last homeschool convention we attended!) Another game, More Roots, is also available for continued (and harder) play.

OH — and if you’re wondering:

Photogrammetry is making surveys or maps with the help of photographs, especially pictures taken from the air.
Thermophile are micro-organisms, such as bacteria or fungus that need high temperatures in order to grow.
Zoometry is measuring animal bodies by their size, number and proportions.
Symphily is a mutual friendship for the good of each other.

Now for the Giveaway!

Just follow the instructions on the rafflecopter widget below:
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~ Written by Mary of Homegrown Learners

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Accelerated Christian Education {A.C.E} – A Review

Shirley — Fri, 17 May 2013 09:50:43 +0000

by Shirley

The school year is approaching its end and it’s time to once again re-asses our homeschools. Are there things we need to change? Resources that have or have not worked? Perhaps you are moving into a different season in your homeschool. This is what we as a homeschooling family have recently gone through. Up to now we have used an eclectic Charlotte Mason approach. We used a bit of KONOS and lots of living books. For various reasons we needed to change the way we did things and after research and prayer we went with School of Tomorrow’s A.C.E or Accelerated Christian Education program. I have a couple of things to say on this program, I’ll start with what it’s all about.

PACE’s

A.C.E’s educational concepts are based on the following five basic laws of learning:

A child must be at a level where he can perform.
He must have reasonable goals.
His learning must be controlled, and he must be motivated.
His learning must be measurable.
His learning must be rewarded.

What is A.C.E. and What is Included?

A.C.E is a self-paced, self-study type curriculum. The children take ownership of their studies.
A.C.E is definitely a Christian curriculum science is taught from a creationist view and each PACE incorporates Scripture, Godly character building and wisdom principles.
Christian character is illustrated in each PACE through a cartoon strip where the main character Ace and his friends (who grow in age with the child through his/her PACES) are faced with every day dilemmas and illustrate how to deal with them in a godly and honorable way.
There are six subjects: English, Word Building, Maths, Social Studies, Science, and Creative Writing and Literature. In higher years there are additional electives that can be added to the program
Children work in workbooks called PACES. Each subject has 12 workbooks per year. So for instance, English will have 12 PACES/year, Maths will have 12 PACES/year etc.
The child sets his own goals (number of pages to be worked per PACE) each day. Depending on the child’s ability it is recommended that they do between 3 and 5 pages per PACE per day. (Younger children 3 working up to high school children 5)
A.C.E is a self-paced curriculum which allows the curriculum to be tailored to each child’s individual ability and level. So if the child struggles in one area it does not mean that he/she is kept ‘back’ in all areas but instead can move at a slower pace in that subject. If the child excels in an area he/she is able to move ahead at a quicker pace.
A.C.E is a mastery-based curriculum

Inside a PACE

A.C.E. Pros

The child is involved in setting his/her own daily goals and then setting out to achieve them – a vital skill for them to learn for working life
The work is all set out for you, you simply move from one work-book to another, progressing to the next work-book once a test has been passed. This is a huge time saver for me personally.
You are able to see immediately if there are any problem areas as these will show up in either the checkups {concise test on work just learned} of which there are around 3/PACE, or in the self-tests.
Each PACE reinforces a different biblical character trait as well as has a scripture verse for the child to learn. This builds up a valuable wealth of scripture in the child’s heart which in my opinion will stand him/her in good stead throughout life.
Each child can move at his/her own pace.

A.C.E. Cons

If you are averse to workbooks and feel they can be boring then this is not the program for you Both my daughters have not found this at all. They have loved the work, the method of learning and the brightly colored PACES
We find that the PACES can unnecessarily make everything a biblical issue. For us it is not an issue, we see it for what it is and discuss anything that we find a bit ‘in-your-face’.
You could easily fall into the trap of only working on the PACES and excluding those valuable extras like Nature Study, field trips etc. This is easily guarded against by sitting down and planning a couple of weeks ahead and scheduling in those ‘extras’.

Student Goal Cards

Some Personal Thoughts:

Coming from a Charlotte Mason point of view, I was initially very put off by A.C.E. It is completely opposite to how we have run our homeschool up to this point. However, I feel that the saying ‘Don’t let the tail wag the dog‘ applies rather aptly here. The curriculum is a tool that should be utilized and adapted to each individual homeschool. We have certainly added a Charlotte Mason twist onto this curriculum. Yes, we work on our PACES in the morning – but throughout the week manage to fit in our favorite CM activities that have become dear to us over the years. We still do our Nature Studies, read aloud together, find time for picture study, composer study and plan to cover a bit of Shakespeare in a workshop with some friends this summer. Field trips are planned in advance.

All these things help us maintain a balanced and holistic approach to our homeschooling rhythm. You can read some of my initial thoughts on using this curriculum in our homeschool here. As we have come into the A.C.E program in the high school years, I find that it’s system works well for my children. Looking back I still would have chosen the same route we have taken. I don’t think I would have chosen A.C.E for our primary years – only because the path we have already walked is paved with so many lovely memories with what we have used along the way )

A Very Important Point:

Do a Google search on A.C.E curriculum and you find plenty of people who have awful things to say about A.C.E. Words like ‘brainwashing’, ‘fundamentalists’, and ‘low academic standard’ jump out at you. I think that it is important to make the following points to try to give a balanced view as these comments, and in fact whole blogs devoted to being ‘anti-A.C.E’ campaigns, can unfairly frighten some people off. So my points:

Most of the people who are so vocal attended, at some point in their schooling, formal A.C.E schools in the 70′s and 80′s. I don’t run an A.C.E school. I run a home and raise children with love and grace.
Just about all of the people who call this program ‘fundamentalist’ or ‘brainwashing’ are not Christians. Most are in fact at the very opposite extreme.
With regard to academic standard – again most of these people are addressing issues in the curriculum from 20 years back. The curriculum is reviewed and updated regularly. These people are also referring to science being taught from a creationist point of view and not the more widely accepted secular worldview.
I think that it is also important to note that ALL curriculum can have mistakes in them, after all, they are written by fallible human beings. A.C.E is internationally recognized and accepted by major universities worldwide. I doubt that they would accept A.C.E graduates if they felt that the academic standard was not up to scratch.

So, if you are a structured person, don’t mind working with workbooks, and looking for a curriculum that maintains a high Biblical and academic education, then A.C.E could possibly be an option for you.

~written by Shirley Ann, Under An English Sky

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Logic Resources from The Critical Thinking Company – A Review

Annie Kate — Wed, 15 May 2013 09:50:36 +0000

by Annie Kate

My husband wants our kids to be able to think. He especially wants them to be able to think critically about all the information and ideas they are being fed every day. That’s why we emphasize logic in our homeschool.

We’ve used a wide variety of resources over the years. While we use other materials as well, the bulk of our logic studies involve books from The Critical Thinking Co. Our most-used resource is the Building Thinking Skills series, the most in-depth one is the James Madison Critical Thinking Course, the most fun of all is Red Herring Mysteries, and we also enjoyed Balance Benders Beginning.

Building Thinking Skills Series

The Building Thinking Skills Series by Sandra Parks and Howard Black is a wonderful introduction to informal logic and basic thinking skills. From describing shapes and things, it progresses to complicated verbal and figural analogies. Along the way, students work through exercises dealing with similarities, sequences of all sorts, and classifications. Each of these topics is introduced with figures and expanded with words.

Building Thinking Skills 2 (grades 4-6) is a great book to introduce informal logic. Since it’s basically all puzzles, it’s a wonderful one-on-one resource, great for cuddly couch time. I like waiting until my children are at least in grade 6 before starting this book so that it will be an enjoyable and easy introduction to logic.

Building Thinking Skills 3 Figural (grades 7-12+) has more advanced versions of the figural puzzles of the previous book. This book, too, is fun and can be done happily side-by-side on the couch or as a workbook activity.

Building Thinking Skills 3 Verbal (listed as grades 7-12+) is best done together on the couch. It assumes a reasonable vocabulary, significantly beyond that of most grade 7 students. Even in grade 9 we have had to give up on this course because it depends on nuances of various words that one very verbal child was not able to work with easily. Words being words, this book can lead to some great discussions of word meanings as well as the validity of the Instruction Guide’s choice compared with the validity of my teen’s choice. Learning to understand assumptions behind disputed answers was a completely unexpected logic bonus.

These three books are an enjoyable, low-key way to improve your children’s thinking skills and will benefit them throughout their lives as well as in their schooling.

The Instruction Guides are definitely geared to classroom use, and it is difficult to find the answers if that’s all you are looking for. But then, I rarely need the answers unless I’m too tired to think logically myself. They also include all sorts of teaching tips that I ignore, including how the skills being studied are useful. Are the Instruction Guides important? If you’re using Building Thinking Skills as a mom-kid time activity, you’ll be able to do them at the same time as your child and will only need the answer key on the days you’re feeling foggy, tired, or distracted. If you’re planning to hand the book to your children to do on their own, you’ll want the Instruction Guides to speed up marking.

James Madison Critical Thinking Course

Recently, I reviewed the James Madison Critical Thinking Course. It is a mystery-based introduction to real-life critical thinking and formal logic and is definitely for older teens or for younger ones who have been introduced to formal logic before. This is not an easy course; in fact it was designed for adults preparing for standard assessment tests. On the other hand, it is an excellent introduction to formal logic and does a great job of making an otherwise dry and difficult subject both interesting and accessible.

Balance Benders Beginning

Years ago we received a copy of Balance Benders Beginning (grades 2-6) to review. Although it was helpful (see my review here), my little ones did not enjoy it enough to want to spend a lot of time with it. With the older ones I can say, “This is what we’re doing for logic. Let’s begin.” But little ones need more motivation and they think learning logic is not nearly as important as gathering eggs, playing with dolls, or throwing sticks for the dogs. Probably, at that age, hands-on opportunities teach logic and critical thinking far more effectively than any book could. (We avoided the early Building Critical Thinking Skills books for the same reason.) All that being said, I was planning to use Balance Benders Beginning with my 10 year old this summer but, sadly, it has disappeared.

Red Herring Mysteries

Recently our family has begun to enjoy Red Herring Mysteries 1 (grades 4-6) by Thomas Camilli. It’s full of mysterious statements or situations and the goal is to understand the mystery by asking only yes/no questions. It’s a neat suppertime activity, and we all enjoy it even though most of us are beyond the stated age range. Even my husband was intrigued! I’m planning to take it along on our vacation this summer to help while away the 50 hours of driving.

To purchase or for more information, contact The Critical Thinking Company. You can also sign up for a free newsletter full of deals, resource suggestions, and interesting articles.

Disclosure: Our family purchased the Building Critical Thinking Skills books and A Case of Red Herrings. I received the James Madison Critical Thinking Course from The Critical Thinking Co. for the purposes of a review and was given Balance Benders Beginning years ago as a member of the TOS Review Crew.

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WonderMaps from Bright Ideas Press Review

Barb — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:30:06 +0000

by Barb

This post contains affiliate links because I believe in this curriculum. See full disclosure policy for more details.

WonderMaps from Bright Ideas Press is a must have product for map-loving families. It is a purchase that you make one time and then you can use it the entire length of your homeschooling years. You can print maps for each of your children with the click of a button. The WonderMaps product comes as a CD or an immediate download.

WonderMaps may be just what you are looking for to bump up your history, literature, and geography courses to the next level. The WonderMaps program will work with any method of homeschooling and with any curricula you currently use with all ages of children.

WonderMaps Tutorial Video

What makes WonderMaps so “wonder”ful?

You pick how detailed you want your map to be for your particular study by adding and subtracting layers of detail.
Using the WonderMaps program you can decide whether to print your map out in color, show city, river, state, and country boundaries, or detailed topographical information.
Each feature is a layer you choose before printing.
There are also historical maps and thematic maps that we used extensively in our homeschooling.
We found them to be a perfect fit for our Tapestry of Grace plans and our notebooking style of record keeping.

WonderMaps is Great for High School Too!

My high school age son used WonderMaps for his history and geography study. I think that he enjoyed this so much because he was in charge of picking and creating many of the maps he used in his notebooks. He still likes to draw his own maps but with WonderMaps he can quickly print and use a map without a lot of trouble.

Create Custom Geography Memorization Plans

I tried something new this year and created a geography notebook by printing many of the USA maps without labels. I numbered the pages according to the weeks of school and each week Mr. B could quickly turn to the week’s map and label it. I made multiple copies of each regional USA map from WonderMaps and Mr. B used them to memorize the fifty states and their capitols.

Teacher’s Guide with Other Resources

One important part of our high school geography course was to learn about the Five Themes of Geography. WonderMaps comes with a complete reference and activity guide to apply these important themes in your history and geography courses. WonderMaps makes it super easy!

How about 50 Bright Ideas for Using Outline Maps? It’s included!

There are no downsides to this product…at least none that our family has found in using it over the past two years. The price is $49.95 but if you consider that you will use this resource for the rest of your homeschooling years…it is a great investment. If your children are in the elementary years, you are going to have a long time to benefit from WonderMaps. This product is on my “best of” homeschooling products list…just wish I had some younger children to use it with from the beginning.

There are samples available: WonderMaps Sample file.

Now for the Giveaway! One Curriculum Choice reader will receive a WonderMaps CD from Bright Ideas Press valued at $49.95!
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Dyslexia 101: Truths, Myths and What Really Works – A Review

Jen Dunlap — Fri, 10 May 2013 09:50:24 +0000

by Jen Dunlap

It’s such a joyous occasion when our young children learn to read. Homeschool or not, learning to read is a life changing event. The whole world opens up like never before.

When our children struggle to learn a task that is basic and fundamental to their learning, it’s heartbreaking. As parents, as teachers, we tend to blame ourselves and start out on a quest for the perfect curriculum. We are often reluctant to admit that there is a problem.

Our own experience with a struggling reader lead us to do a great deal of research. One of the thoughts that perhaps crosses the mind of every parent with a struggling reader, is the possibility of dyslexia. I know we were wondering if our son had dyslexia. Dyslexia 101: Truths, Myths and What Really Works was a tremendously helpful starting point for us.

How Dyslexia 101 Will Help You and Your Child

What can you expect from the e-book?

- How Early Intervention Really Does Matter

- What Types of Testing is Available for Dyslexia

- Tips for Successfully Homeschooling Your Dyslexic Student

- At Home Reading Curricula

- Navigating the Public School System

- Even a List of Careers that Favor Dyslexics!

If you have a struggling reader, I highly recommend Dyslexia 101: Truths, Myths and What Really Works. Get the facts and the information you need to advocate for your child. Help your child on the road to reading confidently and fluently.

Where Can You Find Dyslexia 101?

Find Dyslexia 101 for $5.99 as a PDF download and for $4.99 for Amazon Kindle at Abundant Life (where you will find many more dyslexia resources by Marianne Sunderland.

Perhaps you have a child that has been diagnosed with Dyslexia? Dyslexia 101 will give you the encouragement and confidence to help your child navigate the world of reading.

~written by Jen, Forever For Always No Matter What

Download the The Ultimate Guide to Choosing Curriculum ebook today!

Traditional English Sentence Style Helps Prepare Students for College-Level Composition

Ellen — Wed, 08 May 2013 09:50:22 +0000

by Ellen

“Allegorical Figure of Grammar,” by Laurent de la Hyre

Ask a college English professor and chances are he or she will tell you that most incoming freshmen are woefully unprepared for college-level compositions. Why? Consider this commentary from Dr. Robert Einarsson, professor of English at Grant Macewan University in Edmonton, Alberta:

In the past, the carefully structured sentence was the medium for encapsulating and precision-stating our thoughts. Today, precision and structure seem to be less important than the ability to “wax eloquent” at the drop of a hat.

The teaching of English today reflects the same misplaced priority. Less and less grammar is taught, and more and more group discussion takes place. Precision becomes less important; spontaneous expression of opinion becomes all-in-all. Composition classes involve paragraphs, essays, and creative writing, but not the basic building block of expression, sentences. Students today receive little or no instruction in sentence structure and grammar, a situation that was unthinkable fifty years ago. For some thousands of years and more, grammar was the mainstay of intellectual education; but, on the authority of a handful of education experts today, it has now been all but deleted from the English curriculum.

In an effort to “stand against the current culture of language as quantity and flow,” Dr. Einarsson wrote a brief but thorough and engaging course. Traditional English Sentence Style presents a complete study of sentence structure via analysis and application. First, students analyze sentences for their structural components. They then apply what they have learned to excellent examples from authors such as Jane Austen, Francis Bacon, William Butler Yeats, and Abraham Lincoln.

Here’s a chapter breakdown of the workbook:

Chapter 1: Sentence Patterns
Chapter 2: The Prepositional Phrase and Other Phrase Types
Chapter 3: The Clause
Chapter 4: Independent and Dependent Clauses
Chapter 5: The Four-Fold Way to Punctuation

The text also includes some of Hugh Blair’s lectures on sentence structure, taken from his Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres.

In this course, upper-level student begin to consider sentence segments or “internal clusters” and how they relate to each other. Dr. Einarsson’s explanations are both thorough and clear. For example, I found helpful his use of formulaic expressions to represent phrases.

In teaching analysis, Dr. Einarsson employs a practical method of sentence diagramming that I find much more user-friendly than what I learned in school. His system of underlines and brackets sets apart sentence components without disassembling the sentence itself. In this way, students can more easily see how discrete parts work together to create elegant, balanced sentences. Answer keys are a very welcome addition for those of us directing our students.

I also appreciate that Dr. Einarsson selected excerpts from classic English works for student to analyze. In working closely with such examples, high schoolers have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with solid and polished writing styles. With this background in place, students are better able to develop their own writing styles.

Although the course is brief at only five chapters, the material is weighty. Students should take their time carefully studying each concept before moving on. You may decide to break chapters into shorter readings and discuss the material with your student.

As you’ve most likely noticed, Traditional English Sentence Style is not a rudimentary grammar course. This upper-level study of sentence-structure grammar presumes a working knowledge of parts of speech. Before assigning this course to your student, read it over yourself and consider his or her readiness level. You may decide to take some time reviewing grammar concepts as a prerequisite.

Traditional English Sentence Style is available for FREE as a PDF download on Dr. Einarsson’s website, Classiclanguagearts.net. There are also three free audio files of supporting lectures, which I have not reviewed.

Classiclanguagearts.net is a treasure trove of materials and resources for upper level English concepts. For example, I was taken with the Lexicon of Advanced Vocabulary, a downloadable PDF that discusses the question of too many synonyms in English (aside: I was pleased to find that he and I agree: synonyms provide differing shades of meaning). Three advanced crossword puzzles are part of the lesson.

The website also offers:

Several audio lectures
An inspiring list of recommended authors and books for upper level reading
Lectures on rhetoric and traditional poetry study

I highly recommend this invaluable course of study for high school students. After completing Traditional English Sentence Style, students will be much better prepared for college-level essays and research papers.

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