Essential Skills Advantage {TOS Review}

Silas has a blast the past few weeks playing games {and learning!} on Essential Skills Advantage! We received a one-year subscription to the Complete Home Learning Suite to use and review with Silas, my 5 {almost 6} year old son.

Essential Skills Advantage is a supplemental online curriculum for Kindergarten through 6th grade. ESA offers the following subjects:

• Reading {K-6}
• Spelling {1-6}
• Language and Grammar {3-6}
• Math {K-6}
• Geography {3-6}
• Science {K-3}

ESA teaches the "essential skills" your child will need to excel in learning, whether homeschooling or public schooling. ESA uses fun games and engaging learning activities that your child enjoy! ESA also offers progress and performance tracking and measurement - you can see your child's highest scores, average scores, number of attempts and time spent on the program. You can also use this with multiple children, and it tracks each child's progress. Completion certificates and detailed report cards are also available to print.

The Complete Home Learning Suite is very affordable, at only $7.99 a month. Adding additional children is only 99 cents extra a month! {There is a coupon code at the bottom of this post for 75% off!} This is very affordable for large families. The Complete Home Learning Suite includes every program that ESA offers and the Marks and Report Cards Manager.

Silas just "completed" Kindergarten and will be doing a mix of Kindergarten and 1st grade homeschool materials next year. He is not reading {yet}, but is learning to blend sounds to make short words. He still struggles with phonics, remembering what letters make what sounds. I was hoping that ESA would help him with this, and it is!

Silas enjoys getting on ESA and "playing games". His favorite games are the Memory Games - there is a fun picture under the 'cards'!

The activities are easy enough for Silas to do by himself, although he does need to work with his mouse control! He is left-handed, so he had some difficulty {as did I} learning how to move the mouse and click with the correct finger.

The instructions are given in a man's voice, which is clear and easy to hear. There is an "ear" icon your child can click on if he needs to hear the instructions again. When your child completes the activity, he receives a star! Silas loved seeing the big yellow star at the end of the games!

Each subject has multiple sub-subjects. For example, the Kindergarten Phonics portion has 3 options: Learn the Letters, Phonemic Awareness and Consonants. The Complete Reading Kindergarten portion has these topics to choose from: Readiness Skills, Sight Words, and Stories. Below each topic, the number of lessons is shown, as well as a small bar showing the progress in each.

Silas mainly worked under the Kindergarten Phonics category. He enjoyed matching uppercase and lowercase letters, playing Memory, and building words. He also worked in the Kindergarten Math category, learning and working with numbers 1-20.

I really love Essential Skills Advantage and plan to add my daughter, Mercie, who is going into 3rd grade, onto the account. This is saying a lot for me, because we don't use online curriculum or games in our house! This program is fantastic, though, and Silas has learned and cemented many skills he will need to begin 1st grade. We did not encounter any issues or problems with ESA the entire time we used this program. ESA is a fun supplement to any child's education.

 

Box Days!

To a homeschooling Mom, box days are the best days! Boxes have started arriving at our house the past few weeks, and I'm so excited to get started on everything! Here are a few of the goodies we will be using this year.

 

Two things we are adding this year that we haven't done in previous years are Spanish and Typing. The Rosetta Stone Homeschool Edition Levels 1-5 are on sale right now on Christianbook.com for $189! That's over 60% off the normal price of $479. I was so excited, because I want my kids to know Spanish! I think I'm also going to use it. The Typing Instructor is a fun way to learn typing, and the oldest 3 will use this program. I also got it from Christianbook.com for around $17.

 

 

Mercie and Silas will be using Winter Promise's The World Around Me science curriculum this year. I love the living books and hands-on approach to science that it offers. Mercie and Silas both respond well to living books and love to get hands-on with anything! Here are all but one of the books we will be using:

 

 

 

Mercie and Silas will both be using Story of the World, Volume 1 for history. I went through the book and created lesson plans. It was so much fun picking out activities and books for us to do with the lessons! I am slowly buying books from Amazon, about 4 a week, to go with SOTW. I plan to use the library, too, to create a book basket each week, but I love adding living books to our library, so I picked the ones I knew my kids would love and created a book list. I check off each book as I receive it in the mail.

 

 

We have gotten even more curriculum in, but this is all I'm posting for now!

 

I'm so ready to begin the school year!

 

52 Lists: My Favorite Snacks

I do love to snack! This list was super easy for me, even though maybe a little *embarrassing* at the amount of junk food! I narrowed it down to my top 3!

There is NOTHING like Blue Bell Cookies 'n Cream Ice Cream! It is by far my favorite ice cream in the world, although I do like homemade ice cream with crushed Oreos.

 

These Chew Dipps Granola Bars are delicious! I could seriously eat an entire box in a week!


I love the taste of these classic Lays! Especially dipped in cheese dip!

What are your favorite snacks?

Linking up with Chasing Slow:
 

 

 

Weekly Checklist {Free Printable!}

In an effort to help my older children become more independent in their schoolwork, I have created a simple Weekly Checklist for them. This Checklist includes each of their daily subjects, a habits checklist, a reading log, and a place to record their weekly memory verse. They will keep a copy in their binders each week, check off every item on the list, and when they are done, show it to me. I will check their work and give it back to them. This ensures they don't "forget" to do math or typing practice. It also gives them a central location to keep their memory verse and their reading logs. I want to start keeping track of every book they read, especially my older two kids.

I made this file in Excel and turned it into a pdf. If you think this would be helpful for your family, feel free to edit it and print it out! I kept it simple black and white, no color or graphics. I like colors and graphics, but since I'm printing 36 of these three times, I wanted as little ink as possible!

Here is the link to download. And here is a preview!

Busy Days

I haven't posted much lately other than reviews for the Schoolhouse Review Crew. There's a reason for this: We have been busy.

We got home to Louisiana about two weeks ago, and we have not stopped yet! We came home to five new kittens from one of our cats, Bella. The kids were over the moon excited, and have each claimed one for themselves! They are named Jasmine, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Aurora and Tiger. We couldn't get Eli to name him a Disney Princess name since his is a male kitten! One is calico {like the mama cat}, one is orange, one is white with orange spots, and two are pure white with light blue eyes - so adorable! The kids are planning to take them ALL to North Dakota with us...they are in the process of trying to convince Rod to let them!

Eli and Silas are back in karate, and Eli is taking a rank test next Wednesday to move up to an orange belt. He is currently an advanced yellow belt. Silas will be taking a rank test to receive another green stripe on his white belt.

Mikaela has been busy, too. They had a church lock-in last weekend, she is helping out at Vacation Bible School this week, and has been helping her daddy in the field, building fences for our horses and cows. She also went to her first dance last week, with a boy that is only a friend, but a good friend. She had a lot of fun!

Mercie went to her best friend's dance recital and had a sleepover with her that night. She decided that she didn't want to do karate anymore, and that's fine with me.

The older four are going to Vacation Bible School this week - Mikaela is helping out, but Eli, Mercie and Silas are enjoying it so far! It's not at our church, but at a church that isn't too far from us. In fact, we go to their VBS every summer we happen to be home at the right time. Our church's VBS always falls when we are gone - like this year.

Rod and I are in the process of tearing out the booth in our travel trailer and building bunk beds there for the boys. We haven't stayed in our travel trailer in several years, but have been renting houses wherever we go. However, where we will be in North Dakota, there isn't much to rent! So we have dusted off the travel trailer and are getting it ready to go.

Dusted off is not the right word...deep-cleaning and remodeling are the right words! It's a 40 foot long travel trailer with 2 big slide outs, a bunk room and 2 bathrooms. I plan to give the girls the bunk room, because it only has two bunks, and we are building bunks where the dining room booth was. I am going to hang a curtain to give them some privacy!

I have been racking my brain for storage solutions in the camper - we have a LOT of books and homeschool materials that I just cannot leave behind.

So, we have been busy since we've been home, but I plan to start posting normally again very soon.

Sunya - Addition & Subtraction Game {TOS Review}

My kids and I have been playing a really fun {and educational!} game the past few weeks. It's called Sunya - The Magic and Wonder of Math and Science Adding & Subtracting, ages 7+, by Sunya Publishing. We were chosen to review this game, and we have enjoyed it!

Sunya {the "u" is pronounced as "oo", like in the word book}, is from an ancient language called Sanskrit and means "being empty or without any quantity". Technically, that is the point of the game - to be the first player to be without any cards in his or her hand.

WHAT WE RECEIVED:

We received a Game Book, 60 custom playing cards, 30 math and science fact and riddle cards, and a number line {to assist in the adding and subtracting for younger children} to use and review.

The Game Book is essentially the instruction manual. It is a 25 page book including an Introduction, Hindu-Arabic Numeral System, Home and School, Sunya Adding and Subtraction, Math Activities for Young Children, and Math and Science Facts and Riddles.

HOW TO PLAY:

The instructions seem very complicated at first. However, when we started playing, we found it to be quite simple. There are instructions for a Basic Game, Game II, and Game III. Each game increases in difficulty. My children and I played the Basic Game for the most part.

The object of the game is to make simple number sentences with your cards, following the game rules. The first player to use all of his cards yells out "sunya" and wins.

The set-up is easy: The dealer makes a simple number sentence using any cards he wishes. For example, 2 +7 = 9. The dealer deals each player 4 cards and places the rest face-down as a draw pile. One of the best rules is that seeing another player's cards does not matter. This is so helpful for my younger children who want to play, but can't hold the cards up correctly {without them falling and spilling}.

The players take turns making new number sentences using 1, 2, or 3 of their cards. For example, using the sentence 2 + 7 = 9, if I had a 3 and 5 card, I could make the sentence 2 + 3 = 5, playing the 3 over the 7 and the 5 over the 9. Or if I had a 1, 2, and 3 card, I could make the new number sentence 1 + 2 = 3.

 The math and science fact and riddle cards are also really fun! My 10 year old son had a blast asking us the riddles and we enjoyed trying to answer them! I don't think there's a game to play with them but they are still fun!

There are several rules you must follow when creating the number sentences that make the game more challenging and competitive for older kids. You can also modify the rules so your younger children can enjoy playing, too.

WHAT WE THOUGHT:

Sunya is a fun game to play! My children and I enjoyed playing this, and I was pleased that they were getting addition and subtraction practice. There is also a multiplication and division version that I would love to get for my older kids. The game cards are well-made and the Game Book is easy to understand with a nice-sized and readable font. This would be a fun way to reinforce those math facts over the summer!

Check out Sunya's website!

 

 

 

Introductory Science {TOS Review}

Mercie, my 8 year old, has been using Science Shepherd's Introductory Science program the past few month. Science Shepherd sent us the Introductory Science Student Workbook A, Answer Key, and a full-year of access to the Daily Video Lessons to review.

Introductory Science is a full-year curriculum for students ages 6-11. It is to be used 5 days a week for 35 weeks. The topics covered are:

• Science Skills and Technology
• Meteorology
• Geology
• Oceanography
• Plants
• Astronomy
• Underwater Creatures
• Flying Creatures
• Land Creatures
• Human Beings
• Be Healthy
• Ecology and Natural Resources
• Matter
• Energy
• Motion
• Magnets

HOW INTRODUCTORY SCIENCE WORKS:

Your child will log on to the website each day to watch a short, 2-5 minute video. Then, your child will answer questions in the Student Workbook. There are two levels to the workbook - Level A and Level B. Level A is for children 6-8, while Level B is for children 9-11. Some days, there is also an activity to do, such as a word search, matching activity, or drawing. Other days, there is a Video Activity. Your child will watch an additional, short video that explains the activity, and then she will complete the activity.

An example of an activity is a classification activity. Mercie had to color flowers different colors, cut them out, and then classify them by color and the number of petals. She enjoyed this activity.

An example of a Video Activity is making a bird feeder using a pinecone, peanut butter, and bird seed. A bonus activity is to record the birds that are observed at the bird feeder.

WHAT WE THOUGHT OF INTRODUCTORY SCIENCE:

Science Shepherd has done a really good job creating this curriculum. The Student Workbook is very well-done. The font is a very readable, very large size, with plenty of room to write answers. There is a good mix of circling the answer, writing the answer, and matching the answers. The puzzles in the Student Workbook are the correct skill level for my daughter, which is wonderful. She tends to get overwhelmed when puzzles and worksheets are too difficult for her, yet she gets bored when they are too easy. This was the perfect balance.

The Daily On Demand Videos are where my daughter lost interest. For one thing, the videos feature a man sitting behind a desk and speaking. The videos are extremely quiet, and even with our volume turned up to 100, we could barely hear him. I even tried on my mom's computer, and we had the same problem, so I know it wasn't my computer. Also, the videos were very boring for my daughter. The man featured wasn't very interesting. There were some beautiful, colorful pictures presented in the video, and my daughter did enjoy looking at those, but she did not want to watch the videos. She kept saying she wanted to do the Workbook, but not watch the video. I had to explain to her that she had to watch the video to learn the information presented in the workbook.

Introductory Science would be a wonderful curriculum for any child that enjoys video lessons. The Introductory Science Video Course is available for $35, and the Student Workbooks are $12 and $15 {for Levels A and B, respectively}.

 

Writing a Preschool Curriculum

I have been writing my own preschool curriculum for my almost 4 year old to use this year. Why am I writing my own? I've been asking myself that same question every time I decide to start over or change something up or when I can't find exactly what book I'm looking for. However, I am writing my own curriculum for many reasons.

1. SKILL LEVEL. I cannot find a preschool program that matches Titus's skill level correctly. He is a very smart almost-4 year old, but we have not worked on alphabet letters or numbers yet. He can sing the alphabet song perfectly and count into the teens, but we haven't worked on fine motor skills such as writing yet. I want him to be challenged, but not to the point of frustration.
2. LITERATURE SELECTIONS. I have many wonderful books that I want to read and explore with Titus. I find that choosing a literature based curriculum limits me to what books to read {Before Five in a Row or Peak With Books, for example}.
3. HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES. Again, there are many hands-on activities I am just itching to do with Titus. He is very hands-on! But I find myself not liking or wanting to do many that I see in preschool curriculum. I know what will work for him, and what he wouldn't enjoy versus what he enjoy.

I am using this old book that I had as my theme guidelines, although I have to adjust a little bit.

I am planning one letter a week, with two books that match the "theme" of the week. For example, on letter B, our theme is balloons. Our two books are "Curious George and the Hot Air Balloon" and "The Blue Balloon". He will make balloon prints on a letter B, make a coffee filter hot air balloon, play a balloon matching game, make a collage with "B"s cut from magazines, and use our pattern blocks and Cuisenaire rods with their accompanying cards and activity book {among other things}.

We are also going to be using the Rod and Staff preschool workbooks and Developing the Early Learner workbooks.

I'm having a lot of fun writing and planning this curriculum! I plan to share this with my readers when it is completed!

52 Lists: Summer Goals

We are taking about a month break from schooling while we are home in Louisiana. We will be headed to North Dakota the first of June, and we will start school back the second week of June. We like schooling through the summer!

The list I'm supposed to make this week is my summer goals. So, here goes!

• be more active with my kids by playing games such as tag, hide and seek, basketball, baseball, and kickball
• grill as much as possible - it's so healthy, yummy and keeps from heating up the kitchen
• make homemade ice cream - my kids love it
• nature study - drawing and writing in our journals, going on nature walks, bird-watching
• fresh fruits and vegetables - it's so fun stopping at produce stands on the side of the road, and I have a feeling there will be some in ND
• sprinklers, slip-and-slides, and water balloons
• 3 birthday parties for my boys - 2 in June and 1 in July
• plenty of library visits - the one in ND should be in walking distance from where we will be staying
• arts and crafts - I'm really trying to do more of these with my kids
• try new recipes - sometimes I feel like I cook the same things over and over; I'd like to try one new recipe a week {at the least}
• finish homeschool planning - I'm pretty well finished, but I still have my preschooler's curriculum to finish writing and planning {I'm having TOO much fun with it}

What are your summer goals?

Linking up with:

52 Lists: The Things I Want to Be Known For

This list isn't that hard to write for me because I think about this quite often. I always want to be remembered by my children and husband as:

• a faithful wife
• an encouraging voice
• a gentle and quiet spirit
• a wise advisor
• a loving mother
• always ready to have fun
• willing to try new things
• unashamed of my faith
• a creative teacher

I want my children especially to see me:

• reading my Bible daily
• engaged in prayer daily
• ready to share my faith with others
• unashamed of my beliefs and being different from the world
• seeking after God's heart

Linking up with Chasing Slow:

ARTistic Pursuits {TOS Review}

Mercie and Silas recently had the opportunity to review the ARTistic Pursuits Inc. Early Elementary Book One for grades K-3. Mercie {2nd grade} and Silas {Kindergarten} have never had any formal art instruction, so I was very excited to use this book with them!

WHAT IS ARTISTIC PURSUITS?

 

ARTistic Pursuits is an art curriculum that involves children in the art process by observing, engaging, and creating. There are different levels of ARTistic Pursuits:

• Early Elementary {grades K-3}
• Elementary {grades 4-5}
• Middle School {grades 6-8}
• High School {grades 9-12}
• Sculpture

We used the Early Elementary Book. There are 36 Lessons in this book, which is great for a once a week art lesson. There are 3 sections in this book: What Artists Do, What Artists See, and Where We Find Art. I will briefly describe each section.

What Artists Do: This first section talks about how to use different materials, such as watercolor crayons, pastels and pencils, and the variety of subjects an artist works from, such as landscapes, people and still life. There are 14 lessons in this first section.

What Artists See: This section discusses the different elements of art - two and three dimensional work like shape, form, lines, and colors. There are 7 lessons in this section that give your child the opportunity to work with paper, color mixing, drawing, cutting, gluing, and folding.

Where We Find Art: This last section of the book talks about where art is found, like caves cathedrals. Fifteen lessons in this section cover pottery, clay modeling, bookbinding, and mosaics.

Each lesson is 2-3 pages long. The first part of the lesson is the introduction. You will present this information to your child by reading the lesson and discussing it. There is also a famous work of art for your child to look at and observe. There are questions to springboard your child's creativity and observation skills. Finally, there is a project for your child to complete. Each project page has instructions, a list of the materials, a real example of a child's work and visual instructions.

In this book, there are 4 "Material Groups". The groups are "Group #1 Drawing", "Group #2 Painting", "Group #3 Paper Art" and "Group #4 Clay". There is a list of supplies for each "Material Group". Most of the supplies are inexpensive, but some are not. The watercolor crayons, for example, were nearly $40 on Amazon. I purchased them for $24.99 on Amazon when I found them for a better price. {I checked Amazon daily for a week.} It is worth the price, though, because I purchased a cheaper set of watercolor crayons, and they were all broken the same day.

WHAT DO WE THINK OF ARTISTIC PURSUITS?

We used several lessons for this review period, but I am going to save the rest for when we start our new school year in July. I plan to purchase the supplies for all 4 Material Groups, place them each in a plastic shoe-box, and label them Group 1, Group 2, Group 3 and Group 4. This will make it much easier for me to glance at the lesson and grab the correct box!

Mercie and Silas have enjoyed working through the lessons in this book. They are truly engaged when I present the lesson and fully participate in observing the beautiful painting and artwork in the book. They loved answering questions about the art and even making their own observations!

Their favorite part of this program is, of course, the projects! This was our first experience with watercolor crayons, and the kids had a blast working with them! They were pleasantly surprised with the end results of their own artwork.

{Silas - age 5}

{Mercie - age 8}

{Mercie - age 8}

I am very impressed with ARTistic Pursuits Inc, and I highly recommend this art curriculum for any family looking to add art to their homeschool days! At $47.95, it's a great deal for an entire year of art lessons! It's a beautiful book, printed on heavy paper, one-sided only {which, for some reason, I loved}. The colors are bright and don't leave out any details of the artwork in the book. My children loved looking at the real-life examples of children's artwork, which include their names and ages.

Check out ARTistic Pursuits on Facebook!

 

Our Family's Biggest Homeschool Blessings

Homeschooling has truly blessed our family in many different ways. Some of these blessings were unexpected, while some of them were totally expected and anticipated.

1.) The ability to travel with my husband: We started homeschooling before my husband started pipelining, but homeschooling has allowed us the freedom and flexibility to travel with him. His jobs last anywhere from 2 months to 8 or 9 months at a time. If we weren't homeschooling, we would either have the kids in school, moving around from school to school as we moved around, or we would not be able to travel with him.

2.) Sibling relationships: My children are around each other literally all the time. They don't always get along perfectly, but they know so much about each other from hanging out constantly, and they are truly best friends. I know this is because we homeschool and also because we travel with my husband, so are "alone" quite a bit {meaning, no friends and family to visiti with}.

3.) I have learned so much: I have learned more {and remembered more} in the years I've been homeschooling than in all of the years I attended public school! I enjoy learning and teaching my children, and I really enjoy being able to answer questions on Jeopardy! When my husband asks, "How do you know that?" I can say "Homeschooling!".

4.) Being on the School House Review Crew: This has been an unexpected blessing, and I am so thankful for all of the wonderful resources and curriculum I have been introduced to. I have reviewed several things that I have always wanted {Math-U-See, Logic of English, and more} and discovered how much I love them. It is a blessing being a member of the Crew!

5.) Seeing spiritual growth in my children: I can see firsthand how my children are growing in their walks with the Lord, correct any behaviors that don't line up with our beliefs, and answer any questions my children have about religion. I want them to be able to find their own relationship with God, but I do like being able to assist them as needed.

Click below to see some of the other Crew member's homeschool blessings! {This link won't be live until May 13th.}

Zeezok: Music Appreciation Book 1 {TOS Review}

Our family utilizes many Charlotte Mason principals and methods in our homeschool - one of which is composer and music study. I have struggled in this area of enrichment study because I don't know much about music or composers {as sad as that is to admit}. When we were given the opportunity to review Music Appreciation Book One for the Elementary Grades by Zeezok Publishing LLC, I was over the moon ecstatic!

WHAT WE WERE SENT:

Zeezok Publishing LLC sent my family the entire Music Appreciation Book 1: For The Elementary Grades.This collection includes a Student Activity book, music discs, Lapbook CD, and seven composer biographies. The composer biographies included in this collection are Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Paganini, and Schubert.

HOW WE USED IT:

We started this program by studying George Frederic Handel. We read his biography, "Handel at the Court of Kings". The biographies are the heart of this curriculum, and I am very impressed with how well-done they are! They are true, living books with black and white illustrations and music written by the composer throughout. I read the biography aloud to all of my children as part of our Morning Time. This book had 4 chapters, and we read one chapter a week. The chapters are rather long, so we took 2-4 days to complete each chapter. Even though they were long, they were very interesting and told in a very story-like narrative with humor and historical facts scattered throughout the book. My children enjoyed listening to it very much!

The Student Activity Book is a wonderful resource! This includes many hands-on activities for each composer - geography, history, recipes, instrument study, vocabulary, musical facts, timelines, character trait study, and more! This Student Book is aimed toward every kind of learner - visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and active learners. There is a Weekly Lesson Outline for each composer, and each composer study is to last 4 weeks. This Outline is very flexible, and just lists the chapter{s} to read, activities to complete in the student activity book, music to listen to {with disc and track numbers}, and when to complete the lapbook. I liked this outline, because I could glance at what we needed to do each week and fit it in to whatever days were available for us. Since I had five children using this program, and one student activity book, we completed many of the activities orally. It worked just fine this way!

There is also a Lapbook CD providing lapbook templates for each of the seven composers. I had a very difficult time printing the lapbook templates for Handel, but I was very pleased when I finally got it to print! The lapbook is full-color with templates covering the composer, geography, character, and musical concepts. I decided against each of my children making their own lapbook, so my oldest daughter and I put this one together ourselves. We then showed it to the other kids and let them look at all of the components and read the information. It was much easier this way!

The Music Appreciation CDs provide all of the supplemental music that correspond with the weekly lessons on the composer. These CDs contain the music listed in the biographies, plus an additional 35 professionally recorded pieces. My children really enjoyed listening to this beautiful music, and so did I!

WHAT WE THOUGHT:

I really love this program! It is very Charlotte Mason friendly, in my opinion. The biographies are beautiful, living books. The music CD is an excellent resource to have and listen to. The lapbook was fun for my daughter and I to put together. The Student Activity book is a beautiful, colorful book with real pictures and is full of information and facts! We learned so much from this Music Appreciation for the Elementary Grades! It doesn't take long each day to use this program - I would say 20-30 minutes. We will be continuing this curriculum for our school year next year. My son wants to study Mozart next!

This entire collection is $169.99, which is a great price considering everything you are receiving. If you are looking to add composer study to your homeschool day, check out Zeezok Publishing LLC's Music Appreciation Book 1: For The Elementary Grades!