Getting ready for March Madness, Irish Style...

When you have an Irish Step Dancer in the house...

March Madness has nothing to do with basketball

Everything to do with green

Hard Shoes

Ghillies

Poodle Socks

Fancy Hair

Sparkly Dresses

Dancing Out (a lot!)

and..... pretty nails! 

Blessings~

"Y" is for Yielding (Charlotte Mason Inspiration #31)

"Y" is for Yielding

Yielding tends to have the connotation of giving up, of being weak, but isn't it just the opposite side of the coin  (or perhaps the reflection of...) of Strength?

Sometimes giving up one's rights/giving up one's "way" creates a smoother path (consider the traffic circle or "merging" traffic...), and once in awhile, those in authority (parents, Employers, Government Officials, etc...) would do well to consider timely yielding of their own concerns for the good of the whole (or another individual).

Being "in charge" should not come from a position of selfishness and greed, but sadly our human tendencies often distort Servant of the People (or family) positions of "authority" into dictatorial power grabs...

Food for thought~

Blessings~

G.A. Henty's The Dragon and the Raven (Audio Drama Review)

My Middlest was quite excited to hear that the TOS Review Crew was being asked to review Heirloom Audio Productions latest audio drama: G. A. Henty's The Dragon and the Raven. He greatly enjoyed our previous reviews from Heirloom Audio Productions,
In Freedom's Cause (William Wallace's Scotland),  and With Lee in Virginia, and couldn't wait for it to arrive.

The Dragon and the Raven takes place in England, and tells the story of King Alfred the Great of England in the 9th Century. Heirloom Audio Productions once again created a fabulous, high quality audio drama that catches ones attention from the first note of the fantastic soundtrack. You can watch a trailer on the Heirloom Audio Productions webpage as well as a summary of the story, to get a taste for the music, the drama, and the first class acting. This is not a dry, if inspired reading of a classic story, but an exciting and gripping retelling in the finest audio drama tradition, voiced by some first-rate actors and actresses: John Rhys-Davies (The Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones), Helen George (Call the Midwife), Brian Blessed (Star Wars, Tarzan, King Lear), Sylvester McCoy (Dr. Who VII, The Hobbit), John Bell (The Hobbit), and Katherine Kellgren (An Award Winning Narrator).

Along with the Audio Drama itself (which is over 2 hours long), we received a free study guide in pdf format, the option to print a full color poster with a key verse, the Dragon and the Raven MP3 Soundtrack, G.A. Henty's original The Dragon and the Raven in a beautifully design and illustrated ebook, as well as some other behind the scenes material.

As I wanted to get a feel for the story myself, with my ever-present Youngest side-kick (who is still to sensitive/young for Henty's work, in my opinion) not actually "hearing" the story, I chose to check out the ebook version of the story while listening to the soundtrack in the background. I found that to be quite enjoyable, and the music was very pleasant to listen to for all of us. I am recommending to my eldest that she might be interested in doing the same, when she has some time on her hands.

The Study Guide is set up as a way for parents to talk about the lessons that can be learned through the story, or as assignments for older students to do on their own. The latter is how we chose to approach our time with The Dragon and the Raven, Middlest listening to the Audio Drama, and completing the Study Guide.

Just a side note here... My Middlest suggests that the age recommendation for the Henty Audio Dramas be moved up~ because he, as a 15 year old appreciates it, but finds it to be too "heavy" for his 8 year old brother. Individual family dynamics notwithstanding, he also makes the point that 12+ teens might think they are "too old/too cool" for the audio drama if they happen to see the age designation before they are snagged by the story.

On to the study guide. It starts with a little background history, and then moves into discussion. Each section includes Listening Well Questions, Thinking Deeper Questions, and Defining Words on nicely illustrated "parchment" pages. Following the discussion questions there are a few resources to learn more about Alfred the Great, and 3 Bible Studies based on the story. *Note from Middlest: He felt that the Listening Well Questions were general comprehension questions for all ages, The Thinking Deeper Questions required more thought, and could be answered on more than one level.

Middlest's main take-away from the whole story is that we need to have faith in God, that He sees the big picture, when our view is obscured and things aren't necessarily working out the way that we might think they should. Good and timely words to consider in this election year. :)

He just reached a part of the study guide this week that has a recipe for "Alfred Cakes" which sound like scones that we'd like to try... maybe tomorrow! If we do, I'll be sure to post a picture!

If you can't tell, my Middlest is quite enthusiastic about these audio dramas (One of his very favorite things is to listen to all of the accents). I am highly impressed with the quality of the productions and I think they are a great addition to any homeschool library.

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: Heirloom Audio Productions
• Product: The Dragon and the Raven
• Ages: Publisher says 6-Adult, Acorns of Gold recommends 10/12-Adult
• Price: 
• Download Version $19.97 
• Single Pack CD $29.97 plus S&H
• Family Four-Pack CDs $99.97 plus S&H

You can visit Heirloom Audio Productions on 

Facebook, Google+,  Instagram, and Twitter

The Dragon and the Raven has its own Facebook Page and there is also an Extraordinary Adventures of G.A. Henty Facebook Page.  

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~

Zonderkidz Faith Builders Bible (Lego building anyone?) (Review)

I don't know if you have a LEGO/brick-building enthusiast in your home, but I happen to have an 8 year old that LOVES his LEGO's. :) So when I was given the opportunity to review Zonderkidz's Faith Builders Bible, I jumped at the chance. :) 2025 UPDATE: Link to the Bible now goes to the e-book version ($2.99) as that is the only place I could find it 10 years later. 

Now, I realize that Legos really have nothing to do with the text of the Bible, and it might be a little outside the box to have a brick-focused Bible. However, it isn't quite as much of a jump as one might suppose (In fact, I have another upcoming review that reinforces this concept... you'll just have to wait and see)!

If you grew up in the church, did you ever make a Bible Story Diorama? Build the walls of Jericho out of blocks? Make clay creatures from the Garden of Eden, Noah's Ark, the Animals in the Stable at the Nativity? That was using what you had at hand to help illustrate Biblical truth. Well, Zonderkidz Faith Builders Bible encourages the same sort of "play" but using more modern materials, most likely LEGO bricks, although any modular bricks could be used.

Many Children's Bibles have a number of full color illustrations, and this one follows suit, with 24 pages featuring Brick build that illustrate a story and a "Building Block Verse." There are also occasional challenges (to either build with bricks, or read the text of the Bible to find an answer, or build on the story). What a fun way to create interest and engage your child's creativity as they read God's Word.

Because my son memorizes in NKJV, we did not use this Bible for memorization purposes, as it is the NIrV (New International readers Version, or NIV for new readers).
However, because it uses shorter words, and simpler sentences, it does make an ideal introduction to Bible reading for younger children. There are only two boys in my tiny Sunday School class, my youngest (who is 8 and reading fluently), and his friend (who just turned 5 and is only beginning to learn to read).  I decided it was a great Bible to bring to use with them on Sundays.

Showing the boys how it was possible to use LEGO bricks to illustrate Bible stories, I came up with small challenges that coordinated with our Bible Stories.

As you can see, although their quick "builds" weren't very detailed (due to lack of time, and quantity of blocks), they caught the boys' attention, and when asked about previous lessons, my son was able to remember the somewhat obscure location of the "Tree of Moreh" (where God led Abram, after he left Harran) because he had built a model of it. Score!

A few words about the Bible itself. As I mentioned, it *is* the NIrV, which I wouldn't personally use for a serious Bible Study. However, it isn't intended for that, but more as an introductory, easier to read version of the Bible for beginning readers, a step up from a "Bible storybook."

Some detailed photos of the Bible:

  

The text is 9pt, and fairly easy to read. Other elements besides the feature pages include a list of 92 Bible Stories to encourage children to find them in the Bible and read them for themselves, as well as a brief dictionary. The front-pages also include more detailed information about the NIrV, an alphabetical list of the Books of the Bible with their pages, and a "brick-built" visual of the books of the Bible in order and grouped by section. Nice!

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: Zonderkidz
• Product: Faith Builders Bible
• Ages: 6-10 years old
• Price: $24.99 list price

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Zonderkidz/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/zonderkidz

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~

Spring (? in February?) Homeschooling...Ice Chimes?

We've had some crazy weather this week (I think just about the whole country has), with balmy to frigid temperatures. What was crazy was the extremely fast change.

Check out this screenshot of the temperatures on Wednesday evening (midnight-ish).
We were at 58 degrees and just barely north of us it was 38 degrees.

Yowza! Strong winds and thunderstorms accompanied the 20 degree weather change, but they brought us a lovely afternoon. 

Middlest headed out in his Kayak to do some early fishing, now that the lake is *mostly* unfrozen. 

For Eldest, Youngest and I, this homeschool moment was brought to you by ENO (hammocks ~ and my yellow/blue one is on sale right now for $59.99) Childhood of Famous Americans, and Masterbooks Science's The Fossil Book.

It was very pleasant until the wind started to pick up again. Much of our time was spent enjoying our books (I had my kindle with me) to the sound of these "Ice Chimes."

It took me a while to figure out exactly what it was~ waves from the wind (and sometimes the boy in the kayak) were hitting the remaining border of ice, breaking off small chunks of ice which were then thrown agains the larger ice shelf, which resulted in this pleasant sound...

The wind did pick up as you can hear towards the end of the video, so we quickly packed our hammocks up, and headed home, right before another rainstorm swept through.
How was your weather this week??

Blessings,
Lis

HelpTeaching.com Pro Plan (Printable quizzes, lessons, and worksheet generators Review}

As part of the TOS Review Crew I was recently given a one-year subscription to HelpTeaching.com's Pro Plan, which gives me access to all of their resources for all ages.

HelpTeaching.com offers:

• Printable tests and worksheets covering a wide range of topics from PreK-12th grade~

• Arts
• Early Education
• English Language Arts
• Life Skills
• Math
• Physical Education
• Science
• Seasonal and Holidays
• Social Studies
• Study Skills/Strategies
• Common Core ELA
• Common Core Math
• Math Worksheet Generators
• Printable Game Generators
  
• Lessons in:
• English Language Arts
• Math
• Science
• Game Generators
• Bingo
• Word Bingo
• Wordsearch
• Test Maker that can be populated with their library of over 130,000 questions or your own questions for quizzes, tests, and worksheets. The ability to make and print your own tests/quizzes, is probably most useful for those who unschool or create their own curriculum, and are required to have portfolio materials to submit. The rest of us use materials that have quizzes and tests incorporated. ;) 
• Online Testing that allows you to schedule tests for each of your students
• A dedicated space for you to upload your own content for test and worksheets  

For the purposes of this review we were asked to focus on the materials for the upper grades. With the wide variety of resources, I was hoping that they would be useful for our homeschool. We had mixed results with the various resources.

I checked out a number of worksheets and realized that they are less informative worksheets than quizzes for material that we may or may not have covered. For the purposes of this site, I would suggest that "worksheet" = "quiz." I actually started to feel a little like a public school teacher, who is required to teach for the test, as I searched through the elective materials available, so I backed off from the worksheets for my older children, as they didn't actually coordinate with anything they were currently working on, so would have been an exercise in frustration. Again, I think these would be fantastic for someone who uses a boxed curriculum that coordinates, or who puts together their own materials, and uses the quizzes as a starting point, as they put together their own lessons.

I printed up some of the worksheets for my youngest, and we had good success there, as his materials are a little more straightforward.

I did assign some random lessons and tests for both of my older children, and we had mixed results there as well~
Eldest's first experience with a lesson/test was not stellar. Part of that was my fault. When I set her test up I didn't know to click that first check box, so she wasn't able to go back and forth from one question to another.

Although she expected to be able to, as there was a "back" button. Since she wasn't actually planning to "change" her answers, this wasn't really something either of us had considered, she was just skipping the ones she didn't know right off the bat, to do the ones she did... typical SAT test taking strategy that backfired here.

I also hadn't clicked the "Enable Practice Mode" check box, which it turns out would have been a good idea, so that she could retake the test. Because I didn't, she was locked out of being able to take it again, and complete the questions that she had skipped (thinking that she could return to them...). I tried to send it to her again (And deselect her brother), but it turns out that one can only add students, not delete them. I *was* able to send her the link, so that she could take it again, with the ability to go back and forth. 

Eldest: even though we ran into issues with the test on using Parallel Structure, she enjoyed the quotes from great literature, and the exercises required in the test. One of the questions that she did answer the first time through the test amused her, so she sent me a screenshot:

Note the greyed out "previous question" ... oops! 

Here is another bit, from the teacher end of things: Can you guess what she wrote about??? Her answer is the "Student answer" following the "Sample answer that is included to help the teacher assess the student writing.

Yes, our doggy had surgery, and at night is required to wear "The Cone of Shame and Destruction" :) Clearly, fodder for creativity... ;)

My sense is that the ELA resources (And math resources if they coordinate with what your students are studying), are probably the most intuitive to use. The Science resources really have to match up well with what you are studying to be extremely helpful, in my opinion.

For Middlest, my son went through a lesson on fish (because he loves fish/fishing, and reads about them/it all the time), and took the test, but the site never showed that he actually took the test, and his results never came through.
Middlest's input: "The tests aren't set up very well in conjunction with the lessons~ there were questions on the tests that weren't discussed in the lesson, so that was confusing and discouraging."
Here is a screenshot of a portion of the lesson, which included a video. Side note: he enjoyed the video, although he would like me to note that this is a secular company, so don't expect your science to have a Christian Worldview... ;)

It's important to note that the "Related worksheets" and "Related Lessons" only show up on the teacher side, not on the student side, so if you want them to do the related worksheets or lessons, you have to assign them. The "Additional Resources" DO show up on the student side. 

Final thoughts: 
All in all, I would say that this is a very useful site for those who enjoy making up their own worksheets, or creating a course based on ready-made worksheets. There are a few quirks that could be smoothed out (like the test results that disappeared into cyberspace, and making the test taking process more intuitive~ it wasn't clear that it wasn't possible to skip questions and come back to them~). We may try the scheduling aspect again, but to avoid frustrating my children for now, I have decided that we will print most quizzes/worksheets. It's great to have that option! :)

I think the English/Language Arts resources are very helpful, particularly when you are covering a specific topic (say, hyperbole), and you want to find a ready-made, printable worksheet.

For the younger set, the math worksheet generators, and the ELA worksheets could be used every day!

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company:  HelpTeaching.com
• Product: Pro Plan
• Ages: Resources for PreK-High School
• Price: $24.95 per year

You can visit HelpTeaching.com's Social Media Pages: 

Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, and Twitter  

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~

Don't know much about U.S. Elections? Lap-Pak from Home School in the Woods (Review)

Goodness, I just LOVE Amy Pak's Home School in the Woods products! Really, you don't hear me gush too often, but I'm telling you, she creates something really special!  If you've been reading my blog for a while, you may have seen other Home School in the Woods products that I have reviewed in the past, one as recently as this summer (Home School in the Woods: Project Passport World History Study: Ancient Egypt), as well as near the very beginning of my blogging with the New Testament Activity Pak in Spring 2009, and a couple in-between, Olde World Style Maps in winter 2010, and the Great Empires Review in spring 2013. This time we were sent a very timely and appropriate product for review, HISTORY Through the Ages Hands-on History Lap-Pak: U.S. Elections.

Eldest is all set to vote in the
Super Tuesday Primary!

For the purposes of our review (especially with this specific pak, given that it *is* an election year, and I have a new "Millennial Voter" in the house), we chose to do this study together, and everyone had a part. This was a great gap-filler/review for my olders, and introduction for my youngest into the political process.

This particular product was sent to us as a digital download. When you open the zip file up it should look something like this:

The easiest way to go about things is to click that "Start" file at the bottom. It will open up in a browser window that has everything laid out for you. You can see that I have the main page open, as well as the Full Page Text, the Project Directions, and the Lapbook Assembly Directions.

The Homes School in the Woods products do require a little organization on our end, but the end product is sooooo worth it! (And so much of the organizing has been done for us, we just need to put it into action!) All the way through, with almost every project, my 18 year old daughter kept exclaiming how neat each one was, and how almost each one surpassed the next. This truly is a product for all ages. :) 

Our Process I decided to print ALL the pieces ahead of time so that we wouldn't have to stop to print before each section. It took me about 45 minutes to an hour to collect the assorted papers/cardstock sheets, put them in the correct order, and to print them.

The text:

One can choose to:

• Use the audio MP3s (this is great if mom has lost her voice, or even just to give her a break... my kids greatly prefer when I read to them, so we listened to the audio enough to note that it is read by a very pleasant male voice)
• ***Read aloud (via the "Full Page Text")*** (This was our choice)
• Have the student independently read the printable booklet. (We didn't print it up ourselves, so I'm including a photo of the booklet for your information)

Projects for Lap-Pak:
When completing the projects, it is important to use and follow the project directions, as some answers are found there, and not in the text.

cooperative coloring project between 8 and 18 year olds

• Mom read the text out loud (With the exception of our brief foray into the well done audio).
• Eldest (who has an affinity for things paper-pieced) was in charge of the cutting/pasting/assembling of each project. She also helped out with some of the coloring, which ended up being a cooperative effort. 
• Middlest was mostly responsible for anything that required being hand-written, as well as being on the hook to help answer questions. He did a little bit of cutting, and coloring as well. 
• Youngest did the majority of the coloring, and was also involved in answering questions, "dictating" some of them to his older brother. ;)

A few things to note: There are 21 different labbook projects which correspond to the text. I didn't time it, but I would guess that if you do 2-3 projects/day it will take about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes (depending on your student, whether they are coloring in detail, or whether you simply print on colored paper, with no coloring), reading to finished project. You choose how much time to spend by how much you do each day.
*You should allow for 1-2 hours to assemble the lapbook once all the project pieces are assembled, and you will probably go through almost an entire roll of double stick tape. :) 

Finished Lapbook

Here are some more photos of our project with a few closer details (kids were camera shy as everyone is dealing with colds and feeling a little miserable, so you just get to see their handiwork):

As you can see, my 18 year old daughter had fun adding some detail to various parts of different projects~ stars, stripes, and fireworks, anyone? This was very enjoyable to do as a family project. As I mentioned before, it was definitely a good review/gap-filler for my older children, as well as a good introduction to the political process for our youngest. Now he understands more of what we're talking about as we've listened to some of the debates and have discussed the caucus and primaries that have taken place thus far. I highly recommend the U.S. Elections Lap-Pak for any homeschool. 

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: Home School in the Woods
• Product: HISTORY Through the Ages Hands-on History Lap-Pak: U.S. Elections
• Ages: Suggested ages 3rd-8th grade (Great for review through high school in my opinion) 
• Price: Download version $18.95, CD version $19.95

You can visit Home School in the Woods Social Media Pages: 

Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, and Twitter

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~