Moving Beyond the Page ("Tornado" and Amazing Weather)

This early summer I received a great set of packages from Moving Beyond the Page. Readers of my blog may recall a review I wrote for Moving Beyond the Page last July using materials with my middle-schooler (Tuck Everlasting and Matter). This time the material was geared towards my youngest, who *just* turned 7 (so on the lowest end of the age range for these titles):  Language Arts Package: Online ~ Tornado and Science Package~ Amazing Weather.

Both online and printed packages contain all the physical books required to complete the lessons, and the science package included an individual boiling point thermometer. The main difference is in how the manuals/worksheets are accessed.

Depending on your family's circumstances, you may be more interested in one version over the other...

The "online" version: 

• has teacher's notes and pdf files that are accessed online. This "Subscription" portion of the curriculum is available for 3 months from the first time it is activated. 
• incurs no shipping charges (Particularly useful for those overseas and in AK, HI).
• allows multiple copies of the pdf worksheets to be printed for use within the family.

Here is a screenshot of the Table of Contents for our Online Literature Unit that I took partway through our study~ you can see that it keeps track of the lessons that have been finished as well as telling you how many days each one should take, and quick links to all of the pdfs. 

A neat feature of the online version is "Idea Share" which is linked to from the individual lesson pages~ This is a space for educators to add web links, craft ideas, etc to specific lessons... a nice collaboration option. This is also where you'll find discussion questions and links to the pdfs that are specific to the lesson if you haven't already downloaded them from the Table of Contents page. 

Youngest did some story-journaling as part of the literature lessons, as well as filling out worksheets that helped him write a paragraph. Below is a portion of his "Hamburger Organizer" and the first page of his story narration (journaling): 

The "printed" version: 

• costs around $4 more, plus shipping
• you receive a hard copy of the teacher's notes and student worksheets, bound in the same book.
• no deadline for use.
• no reproduction of worksheets allowed, even within the family.

Here is a look at a portion of the teacher's pages from the printed version (Science Unit): 

And a completed page from the workbook: 

Here is one of his experiments from the weather unit... making a weathervane (note: now he wants to make a dog weathervane out of wood... sounds like we need a scroll saw ;)  ): 

More thoughts about these units from Moving Beyond the Page:

For a "young" seven, who isn't really into writing, there is a LOT of writing to be done~ I had him do some himself, and narrate some to me, so that I wouldn't tax him too much, and keep this a fun project, as seen in the photos with his journal and paragraph organizer. The topics are introduced well, and are easy to follow and implement. 

I like both the online and the printed versions for different features~ 

• The ability to print up more than one copy of a worksheet from the online version is sometimes a good thing, particularly if your child wants to "do-over" because something was "messed up." 
• I like the "Clean" feel of the online version, and the automatic "Check-off" when we finish a lesson. 

The materials that accompany the teacher guides and worksheets are very high quality~ great books and hands-on equipment. The story kept my son engaged, and willing to do the correlating activities when we were finished reading each chapter.

Full disclosure and a note about Amazing Weather~ a good portion of the daily activities includes monitoring the weather at various point in the day, and for many days in a row. For most families, this would be a snap, but we are a little less structured around here (particularly in the summer), so checking temps at 8am just wasn't happening... ;) Just thought I should let you know, in case you have a hard time with "Every day" things like that too. ;) 

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: Moving Beyond the Page
• Product/Price: 
• Language Arts Package: Online ~ Tornado  ($20.91)
• Science Package~ Amazing Weather ($36.97)
• Ages: 7-9 

Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Review Crew and see what others had to say. As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~