A Review of Writers in Residence Volume 1 by Apologia

 Writers in Residence from Apologia Educational Ministries is a writing focused program with language arts included that is very thorough and really gets your child to think about what and how he wants to write. We have been through many writing programs over the years trying to find the perfect one for a child who does not necessarily like to write and this one is really a great program to use.

How this curriculum works is that it is divided up into different steps for the child to work through. It has them engage in different exercises by remembering and writing down certain things like "When I Was Young I Remember..." where they write down as many things as they can remember about a certain childhood memory. It takes them through all the steps of coming up with an idea to write about, listing out things about that idea, and then forming that into a writing piece. It has all the phases that a writer would go through before turning in their final copy including revising, editing, and spelling that the parents help with.

The curriculum comes with a large student book and a smaller teacher's manual and is reasonably priced at $89. I love that the book is designed for students to use independently because my son is getting to the point where he needs to be doing that more and he really wants to be independent from his mother standing over his shoulder telling him what to do all the time. The book is filled with stories from real Christian authors who tell a little about themselves and how they became writers. I think this is one of my favorite parts of this curriculum. My son loves to read real stories about real Christian people using their talents and making a difference in the world. He was quite proud of the first revision of a story he brought me to read and I enjoyed seeing that the curriculum helped him to put his thoughts in order and form a pretty good first story. It's also neat to go through the book and read his memories and the things that he took away from certain events in our lives that have happened in the past. This curriculum is really awesome at helping them pull thoughts out of their minds and putting them onto paper properly.

Overall, this is a solid and very thorough writing program and I am excited to carry it into next year and finish volume one in the series. If you have any questions please leave a comment below and I will get back with your. Thank you!


    

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A Review of Homeschool Copywork's Lifetime Membership

I recently was given the chance to review the Lifetime Membership from Homeschool Copywork. Homeschool Copywork is a way for your child to practice their writing skills without just using a boring old piece of paper. My son hates to write, but if you give him a picture to color and distract him by reading him a book, he will sit there for a long time working on it.

If you're familiar with the classical/Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling then this curriculum is something you will want to look in to. If you are a notebooking family and like your children to do notebook pages you will find lots of these kinds of resources with Homeschool Copywork. Homeschool Copywork works with all ages of students from early elementary on up to high school.

For our review we picked to do the Character Building Copywork. My son is eleven and is at the age where character building is something that we need to be working on as he faces lots of upcoming changes in the next few years as he becomes a young man.

Here are a couple of pages of the copy work and coloring that my son did.

I love that scripture is included in so many of the topics that are available through Homeschool Copywork. Honestly, it could benefit me to do some copying of scripture and work on memorizing more of it. Even adults like to color and make pretty things.

Homeschool Copywork has three different levels of membership. They have a free membership that includes free resources. The one year full membership gives you full access to everything on the Homeschool Copywork website for a full year. The Lifetime Membership is what I was able to review and it gives you membership for a lifetime including all free resources and any bonuses that are added to the website.

The website covers all kinds of topics like the human body, Bible passages, science, holidays, composers, artists, famous documents and more. Your child will have the opportunity to practice writing along with grammar, spelling, and proper punctuation just by doing this curriculum on a daily basis. This is all printable material and can be used at your convenience throughout your homeschooling year.

Here are some titles to a few other subjects they offer for copy work.



We are very impressed with Homeschool Copywork and will continue to use it for our notebooking pages throughout the rest of our schooling. I recently discovered notebooking last year and this curriculum goes right along with that. I hope this helps you with any questions you may have on how Homeschool Copywork works and how it is perfect solution for a Charlotte Mason/Classical approach to homeschooling at a very affordable price.

Please comment below if you have any questions and I will be happy to answer them.

  

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A Review of Times Tales from the Trigger Memory Co.

 

Recently, I had the chance to review the digital version of Times Tales by The Trigger Memory Co. The digital download comes with everything you need to complete the lessons including printable PDF files. Trigger Memory Co. also gives you the option on their website to purchase a physical copy of the product at a slightly higher price if you would rather have a physical copy of the program. Time Tales is a program designed to help children memorize their upper times tables in a very short amount of time. The program tells the child a story and links numbers with the characters in the story.

I was anxious to see if this program would work with my son since we have had a hard time memorizing the upper times tables in the past. He was able to sit and watch the story and follow along with it well. Although, at almost twelve, I think it seemed a bit silly to him at times. He was able to explain the story and how the numbered characters worked together back to me, but when it came to the part where there was a time limit on his answers after the story, he did not do well. He has never been a child that can have a timer on him to perform. It causes him anxiety and it has since he was little. I made him go through with it anyway, but overall this program did not work for us. They want to you wait a week between the two programs and the second time around was no different than the first for him.


I think it's a really great program, and I believe it would work wonderful for a child that does not have anxiety when it comes to being timed for things. I am hoping that he will grow out of this someday, and I thought maybe he had, but that is not the case.

The PDF files came with printable flashcards and I plan to continue to use them to help him memorize his times tables better over the summer. I felt like he was able to take his multiplication test, that was provided in the PDF files, quicker than I have seen him do them before, so I think the story still sank in but it was the timed quiz after the story that didn't work for him.

I would not hesitate to try this program if your child is younger than almost twelve and just starting to memorize their times tables. If they don't have anxiety over being timed for their answers, it could be a great resource for you. It's one of those things where you have to know what would work with your child and what wouldn't. The actual product is not to blame for my son not liking it. Like I stated earlier, I think it could be an awesome resource for another child and to me, it makes perfect since how it would work to help with time tables memorization.

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A Review of the Sixth Grade Literature Guide Set by Memoria Press

 

I don't know about you all, but we are big readers here at the Little House on the 100 Farm and we have really enjoyed using the Sixth Grade Literature Guide Set from Memoria Press  over the last several weeks. I am a firm believer that if nothing else was available for homeschool curriculum besides good books and a math program, you could successfully homeschool your child with those two things. Good literature is where it's at, and Memoria Press gives you that.


The Sixth Grade Literature Guide Set covers Robin Hood, The Door in the Wall, King Arthur, and Adam of the Road which includes a student workbook and a teacher manual for each book. After receiving all four of the student's and teacher's manuals, we decided to start with Robin Hood.

During our daily school time, I read a chapter aloud to Evan while he fills out his workbook page. I suppose he is old enough to read it for himself and answer the questions, but I am such a book nerd that I love to still read to him so that I can hear the story too. As I am reading to him, he opens his workbook to the chapter we are covering and answers the questions. I like doing it this way because it really forces him to pay attention to what I am reading so that he can answer the questions correctly.

The student manual starts with 'Reading Notes' that covers some of the names and places you will be reading about in that chapter. After that, it has 'Vocabulary' words for the students to define. I like this part because it helped to expand his vocabulary while he tried to guess what each word meant within the context of the story. If he could not figure out the meaning of the word, he was able to practice the skill of looking up words in a dictionary all while learning some outdated words that are still used in a lot of classic books. (It was also fun for me to see if the words meant what I thought they meant) 'Comprehension Questions' follow the vocabulary section with questions asking about what is taking place in the story and then they provide a 'Quotations' section that the child must remember who said the quoted part and why. You end with 'Discussion Questions' to make sure your child really comprehends what was just read to them. They offer an 'Enrichment' section at the end of each chapter in the student workbook also that asks the students to act out a scene, draw a picture of what they read, or rewrite that part of the story in their own words.

I have been reading to my son since he was very young and this is the first time that I have had a workbook that goes along with what I am reading to him. I surprised myself by actually liking this, and I didn't get any complaints from him for having to write out answers either... which is odd. I think he gets so engrossed in the story and getting the answers right that he forgets that he is having to write. LOL!

Overall, I am very pleased with this curriculum, and I am going to continue to use this to finish out the rest of the books that the materials cover. I would not hesitate to recommend this literature curriculum to someone who is looking for one. I hope this review was helpful, and comment below if you have any questions.
 

    

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Agenda 2 Masters of Deceit DVD Review from FishFlix.com

 

 

I recently was able to sit down and watch an informational film that was sent to me from FishFlix.com. The movie is called Agenda 2 Masters of Deceit. It is a film that deals with some startling discoveries by Legislator Curtiss Bowers concerning a lot of the current issues that America is dealing with right now. Agenda 2 is a follow up to his first film titled Agenda, which was a quite a successful film.  I have never personally seen the first Agenda film, but Agenda 2 covers everything from corruption in the Evangelical Church to that fact that communism is still very much alive and well in today's world. The film covers disturbing issues with our politicians and how the majority of them have an agenda that doesn't necessarily align with what we the people would expect. I personally cannot say that I agree with a lot of what was said in this film because I am one that needs to research things myself before I can come to a conclusion, but there were definitely a few valid points in my opinion that are worth investigating. I think it would appeal to the large majority of people who feel that the government and people higher up in the government are corrupt and have alternative reasons for being in certain offices. You should watch it and see what you think and then we can discuss it. :)

Finding entertainment that is safe for your whole family can prove to be quite difficult these days. We had that in mind when we shut off our satellite connection two years ago. We now have no outside TV source coming into our home, and it has been rather enjoyable. Sure, there are some shows that I miss that did not have questionable content in them, but overall my budget and my mood are much better without it. I like to be able to choose what is coming into my home and not have someone choose it for me.

I think FishFlix.com can be the answer for how to still get good quality entertainment in your home without an outside source connected to your TV.  You can purchase Christian films at a reasonable price from FishFlix.com. They have a large assortment of choices and give you the opportunity to watch more uplifting movies if you are weary of today's choices.  It is good to know that there is a source to get movies from that my son and I can watch together and I don't have to screen them first to see if they are appropriate. They even provide some material in international languages along with material for homeschooling, Sunday School, and children's Bible study. They offer adult study guides and DVDs that can help grow your faith too.

If you are looking for a family friendly way to purchase movies that you know are safe for your children and grandchildren to watch, FishFlix.com is the place for you. All of the recently released popular Christian movies are available for purchase including War Room, Woodlawn, and God's Not Dead. I think the people have spoken recently with their attendance at the Christian movies that have been released at the theaters and how we have surprised Hollywood with putting our money where our mouth is for entertainment choices. I personally have sat in the theater for most of the recent Christian movies and felt the atmosphere of watching a film that unites us in the purpose of what we are called to do while we are here. Purchasing from FishFlix.com is a way to let the movie makers know what you want in a film and what you want your hard earned money to support. I hope you check them out and give them a chance to be your provider for today's Christian entertainment.


      

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A Review of Grapevine Studies - The Resurrection

 

We recently added the The Resurrection from Grapevine Studies to our daily homeschool routine, and we have enjoyed learning their process for Bible study. I had never heard of this company and their Bible studies before, so I was anxious to try it out with my son. We chose The Resurrection study since it is so close to Easter, and I thought it would be the perfect time to study our Lord's death and resurrection.





The Bible study works by reading a portion of scripture to your child and drawing stick figures on a chalkboard or whiteboard to represent the scene in scripture while your child then traces or draws for himself the same scene on his paper. For example, when Judas hands the money over to betray Christ, you draw a stick figure of Judas, the money, and a stick figure of the person receiving the money. Each stick figure and object that you draw is represented in a different color. Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit are all colored in purple and the disciples are all drawn in green. This is my favorite part about this study because I have been doing inductive study this same exact way for almost ten years now. Of course, I don't draw stick figures, but my Bible is marked with purple to represent  persons in the trinity, brown for sin, and so on. I did have to go on the website to find the colors that we needed to use that represented the different people and topics. I also was a bit confused on how to actually start the study and teach it correctly, but I went on their website to research it and found most of the answers I was looking for. They also include a weekly verse for your child to memorize in each section of the study.

I decided to do the traceable worksheets with my son because we were so new to the curriculum that I wanted it to be easy for use to grasp. The traceable pages are great and really help the child learn what is expected in their drawings. Looking back, I would have chosen the non-traceables for my son instead. This Bible study curriculum is solid on studying God's Word, and for younger children I think it would be very good to help them learn scripture at a deeper level. For my son, who is almost twelve, it was a bit too easy for him and he often traced ahead while I was reading. Using the non-traceable sheets may have prevented this, or not...(children apparently have a mind of their own...who knew.)

I definitely think I may try this curriculum again without the traceable sheets and maybe a higher grade level. Looking through the website I see that they have many options for older children. If I would have known about this curriculum when my son was younger, I would have definitely started him out on this. Like I said earlier, I love inductive study and marking in my Bible, and this curriculum is a beginner course for learning how to do that. This Bible study on The Resurrection and many others are available at Grapevine Studies. Their website offers a combination of physical and digital products. I hope you enjoyed this review, and if you have any questions, please comment below.

     

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A Review of Here to Help Learning Writing Program

 

This online digital writing program from Here to Help Learning has been a huge part of my son's homeschooling since day one of receiving it. I don't know any other way to start this post except by saying that my son absolutely LOVES this writing curriculum. Let me tell you... before we had the opportunity to review this curriculum, we spent a lot of hours over many other writing curriculums to just end the day in tears and frustrated with each other. You too? I'm so glad I am not alone. Getting a boy to write, at least my boy, has proved to be one of the most difficult challenges for me when it comes to homeschooling.

Right from the very first video, my son was engaged and ready to follow the instructions. He is eleven and he very much took ownership of all of the printing and organizing of his notebook. The program is designed to help your child write paragraphs and then move them up into writing essays. Age wise my son is at the essay writing stage, but because we have had so many problems in the past with writing and writing programs, I started him at the Flight 1 Paragraph level. There are 3 Flights total to the curriculum. Flight 1-3 for paragraph writing is designed for kids grades 1-3, and Flights 1-3 for essay writing are geared toward grades 4-6. As you can see though, you can start your child wherever you see fit to start them. Starting him out at the Flight 1 Paragraph he will then move to Flight 2 Paragraph followed by Flight 3 Paragraph. After this, he moves to Flight 1 Essay working all the way through Flight 3 Essay. There are 32 lessons in each Flight. The suggested time to work on this curriculum is twice a week, but my son loved it so much he did it almost everyday and asked to do it on Saturday. I am NOT joking.  It has a video that has your child put together a binder at the beginning of the course for them to keep their papers organized. The tabs in his notebook are titled - Notes, Writing Warm-Ups, Projects, Flying Solo, and Language Helps. It really is pretty much a hands-off course for parents. The instructions in the video will tell your child when to ask you for help and how you are to help them. You are to look at their writing and give them pointers as to what can be improved with it. At my son's age, I think he enjoys following someone else's instructions instead of listening to his mom. :)

My son recently had to participate in writing a speech for his 4H class and he said that this curriculum really helped him to put his thoughts together and write his speech. I really did not have to help him at all with the content of his speech. His father and I gave him some pointers, but overall he did the whole thing on his own.

Another thing that I love about the curriculum is the verse that they ask your child to memorize during the process of learning to write. It is from Colossians 3:17 and it says "Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." It's such a great verse for my young man to memorize about work ethic and who we really are working for!

I thought the best way to review this product was to interview the person using it! This is my son, Evan, and here he is telling you a bit about the program and how it works:

You can probably guess already that I am going to highly recommend this curriculum for your child, especially if they have issues with wanting to write. Here to Help Learning offers a free one day trial if you want to check it out, and they offer a monthly subscription for $6.99. You receive all three levels with this online subscription and can use it with multiple children. You can also purchase the individual levels of the paragraph and essay writing that includes a workbook and the instructional DVDs if you would rather not use an online program. I hope this review helps you if you are looking for a writing curriculum and have struggled like I have to find one that fits your child.

 

    

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Zonderkidz Faith Builders Bible Review

 

The day our Bible arrived from Zonderkidz

 

Working on the Ten Commandments

 

  

Every once in awhile you come across something and you're like, "YES", I need this! When we were given the chance to review the Faith Builders Bible from Zonderkidz, I knew I could not pass up this opportunity. Just seeing the building blocks on the front made me excited for my son.

I don't know about you and your kids, but my son is a huge Lego fanatic. He has so many Legos that I step on them regularly and spend way too much time picking them up off the floor throughout the week. I may "accidently" suck some in the vacuum cleaner occasionally....just don't tell him. I was excited to see they came up with the idea to publish a Bible using building blocks! It's genius, if you ask me.

The version they used for this Bible is the NIrV- New International Readers Version which is a simplified NIV. I am very happy with this version, and we have been using it for our homeschooling scripture readings. I feel like it flows well and is easy to understand for a child. I like how basic this version of the Bible is for younger kids. The text is all black and size of wording is easy to read. The Bible is hard covered which is nice for a boy as they tend to be bit rough on their belongings.



There are twenty-four full colored illustrated pages in it that demonstrate a few building block projects. My son had fun trying to copy a few of the easier projects in the Bible, but to be honest, the majority of the projects were really too hard to build just from sight for him. He is a kid that needs more direction and cannot just copy the pictures as shown. That being said, I still think it's an excellent Bible for a child to own and to relate to with the building blocks theme.

One of my favorite things about the Bible is the Bible dictionary that they have in the back. It's a nice feature for a child to have if they run across a word that they want to know the meaning of. It also has a list in the back of  "Great Bible Stories" and the page number of where to find them at.

I love how building blocks can go with so many things in scripture like how we BUILD our foundation on the Rock and Noah BUILDS an ark. The Bible has a "Builders Block Verse" on the illustrated pages that your child can work on memorizing too.

Overall, the Bible is worth the cost of $24.99 if you're looking for a Bible for a child, especially a boy who love Legos. I do wish that it had more instructions on how to build the projects in it and that there were more illustrated pictures to look at. I really like the version and plan to continue to use this Bible for our daily homeschooling scripture readings. I do think the building block theme is a great way to get a child engaged in reading the Bible. If you would like more information about this Bible you can visit Zondervan and check out the Faith Builders Bible.

  

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