Homeschool Legacy ~ Review

I love history and I try to help my children have a love for learning about our land. Over the past three weeks, we have been using the Once- a- Week Micro-Study Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims from Homeschool Legacy to learn more about Thanksgiving.

What is Homeschool Legacy? 
Homeschool Legacy is a company that produces once-a-week studies and micro-studies. Their goal is to instill a love of learning in your children. The once-a-week studies are written particularly for all homeschool families, but they also help children who are in different programs to earn merit badges. The once-a-week studies were created to help families bring glory to God. The Gibson family started this business after researching the many different ways to homeschool. They felt that the best choice was a unit study to give families a break from the textbook.

What is a micro-study?
Some of the differences between a unit study and a micro study are listed below:

• A micro-study only has you reading from one classic or read aloud during the study
• They are still designed to be used one day a week over a period of time, but they can also be completed in a week if you choose
• They are digital products with educational links throughout the study
• Micro-studies are designed for children in grades 1-8
• They do not include weekly library lists

What is Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims micro-study?
The Thanksgiving micro-study is a six week study of Thanksgiving. Over the course of the six weeks, you and your children learn many things about the Pilgrims, the Constitution, the Mayflower Compact, Plymouth, and the Puritans. The micro-study is designed to be used 30 minutes for three days a week. There are a few books listed (or you can use your own) and there are also some recipes to make. There is also several helpful links to click on throughout the study to learn how the pilgrims talked, learn about your First Amendment rights, take a virtual tour of the Mayflower, and a link to slow cooker Indian pudding.

How we used the Thanksgiving micro-study:
Since we already had a couple of books about Thanksgiving, we used our own instead of the ones listed. (The one pictured above is one of the books we used.) We have gone through three weeks of the study. I am using it with all four of my children (grades K, 6th, 8th, and 9th). So, my choice of books were a little young for my older two, but they still listened to me read the book. My older children did most of the work while my K-5er helped with the easier stuff and listened to the history parts. I was hoping to make it to week four before I had to write our review so we could make the Indian pudding recipe. (I will try to come back and update after we make the pudding early next week).

What we thought:
My children liked being able to take a break from their textbook history to study about Thanksgiving. They learned some things that they did not learn from their textbook about the Pilgrims. They are looking forward to making the pudding and finishing out the study the week before Thanksgiving. Week six of this study is about Christmas and I would like to continue our study by purchasing the once-a-week unit study Christmas Comes To America.

You can see a sample week of the Thanksgiving study (and actually any of their studies).

Be sure to click below and read what other members of the Homeschool Review Crew though about Homeschool Legacy (there are several different studies that were reviewed).

If You Were Me and Lived In... ~ Book Review

*This post contains affiliate links*

There are two things that I really love and those two things are American History and books. So, I was excited when the opportunity came up to review books on American History. Also, my 8th grade son is studying U.S. History this year, so I knew these would be great books for him to read. This review of If You Were Me and Lived In...The American West (Volume 7) and If You Were Me and Lived In...Colonial America (An Introduction to Civilizations Throughout Time) (Volume 4) is brought to you by Carole P. Roman and Awaywegomedia.com. They also generously included If You Were Me and Lived In...Ancient China: The Han Dynasty and If You Were Me and Lived In...Viking Europe.

About Carole P. Roman:
Carole is the author of several children's books which includes the Captain No Beard Series, If You Were Me and Lived In...Country Series, If You Were Me and Lived In...Ancient Time Series, and several more books. She began her writing as a dare from her son. As a former teacher, she combines her teaching and her love of exploration and interest in the world around us in her books.

If You Were Me and Lived In...The American West is a story that takes place in 1843 of a journey on the Oregon Trail. The book is written as if a twelve year old child were telling the story.  The story tells about the difficult journey West and how little supplies your mother had packed. The book also lists several Indian tribes you would have met along the way. Your family made it and your father built a house and in the spring you planted the fields. And the books also tells about one room schoolhouses and small towns in the West. The illustrations (by Paula Tabor) in the book are also great. They help bring the story to life. The story is forty-two pages long with the words on the left side and pictures on the right. This book is a fairly easy read for children and also lists some famous people from the American West and has a glossary of words.

If You Were Me and Lived In...Colonial America is the story of what it would have been like to come over to America on the Mayflower. The story gives some history prior to 1620 about life in England. This story tells about the hard winter the Pilgrims faced when they got to Plymouth. It tells how they overcame that and was prosperous the following year. It also mentions the Indian tribe that helped the Pilgrims. The book also describes how the children lived in Plymouth by helping with the farming and being taught at home. This book is 52 pages long and is full of information. There are also two pages at the end that lists some famous people and also a glossary. The illustrations (by Sarah Wright) were well done also.

I had my son who is studying U.S. History read through these books. He enjoyed reading through them, even though he is 13 years old. He learned a few things that he did not know. Since my other kids like books, my 6th grade daughter read through these books and my 5 year old enjoyed looking through the pictures. These books have a lot of fun facts and are an easy read. They make learning history more fun.

We also received If You Were Me and Lived In...Ancient China and If You Were Me and Lived In...Viking Europe, but we did not use those at this time. They are quite a bit longer (68 pages) and go more in depth about the time period. I will use these with my children when they are learning ancient history. I read through them and they have a lot of information that is very useful.

Overall, we all love these books by Carole P. Roman. We have reviewed several of her other books and they have all been great. Click here for another review .We love them!

The Cat of Bubastes ~ Review

Guess what? You may have heard our excitement when we we were again picked for an audio drama review. Heirloom Audio Productions has done it again! Their new release, The Cat of Bubastes, is another one of our favorite audio dramas. This is the sixth drama realease of G.A. Henty's books by Heirloom Audio Productions.

Most audio productions that we have listened to have been books by G.A.Henty. They help bring the book to life. By listening to a book made into an audio adventure, my children have become more interested in reading the actual book.

About G. A. Henty ~
Born in 1832, Henty became an exceptional English author and war correspondent. His stories are historical and adventurous. They became popular in the late nineteenth century and are still widely read today.

About The Cat of Bubastes ~
This story is about a young prince, Amuba, in ancient Egypt around the time period of 1250 B.C. During a battle with the Egyptians which leaves his father, the King of Rebu, dead, Amuba is captured and taken to be a servant and companion for Chebron, the son of Ameres, the high priest of Osiris. These two boys get caught up in a mystery after uncovering evidence of a murder plot. Eventually, they have to run away after accidentally causing the death of the successor to the Cat of Bubastes, the most sacred animal in Egypt. 

Included with the 2-CD set, are some digital bonuses. The bonuses I received are as follows:

• Cat of Bubastes MP3 Set
• Cat of Bubastes e-book
• Official MP3 Soundtrack
• Printable Cast Poster
• Study Guide and Discussion
• Inspirational Verse Poster
• Behind the Scenes Video

The e-study guide and discussion booklet is 47 pages long filled with a lot of information. There are three main parts to the study guide: listening well, thinking further, and defining word.

• The Listening Well ask questions about what your child remembers while listening to the story
• The Thinking Further questions are a little bit more difficult where your child needs to think a bit more about the answers
• The Defining Word section are words to look up that require a dictionary to broaden your child's vocabulary

One of my favorite parts of the study guide are the little tid bits that are posted on several pages. In this study guide they are called "Expand Your Learning" that you can see in the sample above. I also love that they include a three page Bible Study at the end of the guide. 

What did we think of The Cat of Bubastes?

Another 5 star production of The Extraordinary Adventures of G.A.Henty! Again, we loved this production and loved how the book comes to life. We love the humor, the suspense, and the adventure. We usually listen the first time without using the study guide, but we go back and re-listen to the story while using the study guide. We always get hooked on the first listen and don't worry about the time. The kids just want to know what is going to happen next and will listen to the two hours in one sitting. They love these and hope that Heirloom Audio Productions will produce more audio dramas. 

Ultimate Phonics Reading Program ~ Review

I was given the opportunity to review the Ultimate Phonics Reading Program from Spencer Learning for my kindergarten daughter.

Ultimate Phonics is a complete no frills program that helps people of any age with learning to read or to become better readers. This program comes with 262 lessons that start with the basic letter sounds and moves through with introductions of special sounds and sight words. The program introduces over 4,000 words and over 2,000 sentences. The program also introduces apostrophes and word endings. With each lesson, you are able to choose from six page types that are organized into four parts which are as follows: Idea/Pattern page, Word List page, Words page, and Sentence page. Each lesson will focus on a specific letter pattern and sound combination and every lesson builds on the previous lesson.

Ultimate phonics is designed to be easy to use for any age. It can be used as a stand alone phonics program or as a supplement. To get the best results from ultimate phonics, it is best to do the lessons in order if using as a stand alone phonics. When using as a supplement, it is okay to skip around to different lessons. Each lesson is fairly short and does not take much time to complete each day.

Each lesson is easy to navigate by using the green arrow to go through each page of the lesson. The bottom left tells the student what page they are on and how many pages total there are in a lesson. To find a certain lesson just click on the word find at the top and type in what you are looking for. This program is easy enough for even a five year old to use.

I have been using another phonics program with my kindergarten daughter and I tried to use this as a supplement with her. Our main phonics program (we are only about 50 lessons in) moves quite a bit slower than this program and she was not ready to use both of the programs. She would get confused when we went over the main program and then try to use this program also. Our main phonics program has not yet introduced the special sounds yet and I think that is what confused her. I feel that if she had already completed kindergarten this would be a great program for her to use. When we do get to the special sounds in her main phonics, I will be using this more with her to see if it helps her any. She also did not like how plain it was. She told me it was boring. I think for some children the no frills, no cartoon type pictures would help them to better focus. Overall, I feel this program would work as a main phonics for the kindergarten age and as supplement for 1st grade and above. Since I had already started another phonics program, I didn't want her to get confused, so she worked on many of the beginning lessons several times. I'm looking forward to when we start introducing the special sounds in our phonics program to see how Ultimate Phonics will help her as she progresses in her reading throughout her kindergarten year.

The Pray-ers ~ Book Review

For the past several weeks, I have had the opportunity to read a powerful book on the importance of prayer in our lives. The Pray-ers / Book 1 Troubles is the first novel of a planned trilogy published by CTM Publishing Atlanta that is written by Mark S. Mirza.

About the Author:
Mark S. Mirza is founder of Common Threads Ministry which helps people with prayer. He was also the men's prayer leader at Dr. Charles Stanley's church in Atlanta. He states that prayer doesn't come easy and we all have to work at it. He wrote this novel for others because he says when he finishes a book, he wants to say he learned something from the book.

About The Pray-ers / Book 1 Troubles:
In this book, we are introduced to three main characters, each living in a different time period, Epaphras, Alexander Rich, and Dale Riley.

Epaphras lived during the Bible times in the 1st century. He was a colleague of the Apostle Paul. Although he is not mentioned much in the Bible, he was a passionate pray-er who sought God's help.

Alexander Rich lives in Georgia at the time of the Civil War. He is focused on helping his church flock to keep their eyes on God.

Dale Riley is a track and cross country coach at Macon Poly Technic University. He is also the leader of a men's ministry. He must remain focused on God through his daily life.

We are also introduced to several demons and angels throughout the story. Before reading the book, the preface should be read also, as this is where Mr. Mirza explains what we need to know about his writings of the angels and demons. There is also some notes in the back of the book with the angels and demons name pronunciations.



What I thought:
This book was very deep and at first hard to get into. It took a lot out of me each time I sat down to read it. But, there are several things I did learn from this book. The main thing is that we are facing a spiritual warfare everyday. We need to pray about everything everyday. Another thing I liked about the book is the use of footnotes throughout the book. It is helpful to be able to look up the scripture that is being referenced when needed. I had planned for myself to read this book and then to let my teen (14 and 13) boys read the book, but I think this book is geared more for young adults (18) and up. Overall, I did enjoy reading this book and it was helpful to me at this time in my life. I plan on reading book 2 when it is published.

HelpTeaching.com ~ Review

I sometimes like to supplement our work with printables during the year. For the last several weeks, I have been using some worksheets from the Help Teaching Pro Subscription from HelpTeaching.com.

I used the website with my kindergarten daughter, but there are lessons, worksheets, and more for up to grade 12. There are several sections/parts to the website that are helpful for any age.

There are many sections on the website that I will give an overview on. The first section is the tests and worksheets section. This is where you will find worksheets on English/Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Seasonal and Holiday, Early Education, Arts and Music, Study Skills and Strategies, Graphic Organizer, and Physical Education. Since I was using this with my K5'er, there were some sections that did not have any worksheets for her age group. I did use many of the printables from the math and early education section. And as the holidays get closer, I will be using some of the worksheets from the holidays section as well.

The next section is the lessons section. There are several new lessons in this section for pre-k and K. Each letter of the alphabet is available as a lesson where they watch a short video that lists the sound of the letter and several words that start with that letter. After they watch the video, the child can then answer some questions about the letter (online). Some other lessons for the pre-k and k level, are sight words and other vocabulary words. Some of the lessons also have printable worksheets that accompany them for the child to work on after the lesson.

Another part of the lessons section that we liked is the read alouds. There are several books that are read aloud via a video and also have a printable worksheet that accompanies the read alouds.

There is also a games section where you can go in and make up a printable game worksheet. They have a bingo generator, word search generator, and words bingo card generator. You are able to put in any value you would like for your game.

The last section on HelpTeaching.com is the test section. There are three options given to you and they are as follows:

1. Create a test: with a Help Teaching Pro Subscription you are able to have up to 100 questions on the test
2. Use the library to find questions
3. Create a quick test: type in a keyword and it will generate some questions

Lastly, there is also an option to have the child take an online test. With the pro subscription, you have unlimited access to online tests and quizzes.

What we thought of HelpTeaching.com:

At first it was hard for me to find worksheets for my daughter to work on, but when I started digging through all of the content I was able to find several for her. She needs help with her numbers, so math was my main focus during the review period. As new seasons and holidays approach, I will begin using several of the worksheets in that category. Another part that we enjoyed that I mentioned above, is the read aloud section. There are a few short books at the kindergarten level to choose from that also have worksheets to go along with the story. Overall, we have enjoyed using the worksheet and lesson parts of HelpTeaching.com. It is a great way to supplement.

FlipStir Puzzle ~ Review

I loved to put puzzles together when I was younger. My children also like to put puzzles together. We having been having fun over the past month with our Solar System FlipStir Puzzle from Enlivenze LLC.

So, what is a FlipStir Puzzle? It is a ten piece puzzle that is contained inside of a tube with a stick in which to help you solve the puzzle.

When we received the puzzle, we all took a turn to try to put it together. There is a picture on the bottom of the tube that helps you as you are putting it together. On our first try, none of us could get the pieces in place. The FlipStir we received is a level two puzzle. The reason it is a level two is because the pieces are wavy. There are some level one puzzles that have straight lines and are easier to put together. I loved that we were able to review the solar system puzzle, because my 6th grade daughter is studying astronomy this year in science and I thought this would add some fun.

It did take several tries before I was finally able to solve the puzzle, but, with a lot of patience, I did it and have put it together a couple more times. My kids have not yet tried again, but I will get them to try it again. It is a lot of fun once you get the hang of it. I love that the pieces are contained and they won't get lost.

I would actually like to buy some of the other puzzles that are available- maybe as a Christmas gift.

Foreign Languages For Kids By Kids ~ Review

My youngest son, who just started 8th grade, has been asking me for a while if he could learn Spanish. I had been looking at different curriculum trying to find a good one for a middle school aged child. The opportunity came up to review the Starter Set 1 from Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids. I had planned to use this for my 8th grade son as an introductory Spanish curriculum before he starts high school next year. But, all of my kids (ages 5, 10, 13, and 14) have really enjoyed this curriculum and they have learned something.

What is Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids?
Kit Strauss, who was having a difficult time finding a good, quality foreign language program for her three sons, created the program. The program was created as a fun and easy way to learn Spanish. This program is designed for children as young as three all the way up to adults.

What is included in Starter Set 1?
The starter set comes with everything you need to get started on your journey to learning Spanish. The set includes the following;

• DVD with videos for levels 1-3
• Three parent - teacher guides (gives a detailed lesson plan, with a suggested viewing schedule, and a variety of fun activities to do - supplemental and hands on activities to choose from)
• Flash cards and game cards for each level
• Student workbooks for levels 1-3 (contains activities, culture facts, and answer key)
• Stickers for levels 1-3

How we used Starter Set 1:
We are working through each level in order. The first level, Basketballs aren't for Breakfast, was fairly easy for my son and he learned many Spanish words in this level. He has started the next level, The Little Magic House, but it has been a little bit harder (as expected) and he has taken a slower approach with the level. Since he is in 8th grade, I've given  him the choice of how fast or slow he wants to work through each level. He has chosen to go slower through level 2 and has even re-done some of the lessons. We have been going through the the workbooks orally after watching the appropriate video. Doing the workbook orally has helped to be able to go through the lesson again and re-do the workbook pages. We spend around 20-30 minutes each day going through the lessons.

What we thought of Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids:
We have all enjoyed it very much. I though my 8th grade son might think it was childish, but he has enjoyed it very much. He will just start talking in Spanish phrases at random times. I know he has been able to learn so much and will be ready to start high school Spanish next year. My other children also love watching the videos and my 5 year old has picked up on many Spanish words. She will also start saying Spanish phrases at random times. They love watching and interacting with the kids on the videos. We definitely give this program 5 stars!

Beric The Briton ~ Review

You all know from my past reviews that my children and I love audio dramas. I love when audio dramas come up for review and pray that we get picked to review them. We especially love audio dramas produced by Heirloom Audio Productions. Their newest drama is Beric The Briton.

To be honest, I had never heard of G.A. Henty before I started listening to the Heirloom Audio Productions of his books. I never would have thought to introduce his works to my children if it had not been for the dramas.

About G.A. Henty:
Born in 1832, Henty became an exceptional English author and war correspondent. His stories are historical and adventurous. They became popular in the late nineteenth century and are still widely read today.

About Beric The Briton:
This story takes place around 60 AD during the Roman invasion of Britain. Beric is a young man at this time. He fights with the Iceni tribe which is led by Queen Boadicea. Even though he defeats the Romans, he is eventually captured and sent to Rome. There he is trained to become a gladiator. He gains fame when he defeats a lion with bare hands and is then sent to serve in Nero's palace. He does eventually get back home to Britain after Nero dies, but he is not as welcomed as he thought he would be.

Beric The Briton audio drama is recommended for children age six and up. There is over 2 hours of listening time which is a great way to have fun while learning some history. The cast of Beric The Briton includes some well known actors such as Brian Blessed, Tom Cox, Cathy Sara, and John Rhys-Davies.

Not only do you get to listen to a great story, but you are able to expand on the story with the included 48 page digital study guide. Your children learn historical facts from listening to the story and also from answering the questions provided in the study guide. They are also able to learn the meaning of different words throughout the story. And while reading through the study guide, I found a recipe for Roman Noodle Bake. Sounds good.

I also like how they incorporate the Bible in the study guide by offering several Bible Studies.

Some of the other digital freebies I received are as follows:

• Beric The Briton MP3 Set
• Beric The Briton E-Book
• Official MP3 Soundtrack
• Printable Cast Poster
• Inspirational Verse Poster
• Behind the scenes video

What we thought of Beric The Briton:

We loved it! This series is so well produced and it really does bring history to life. This is the fourth Heirloom drama we have listened to and we look forward to hearing more audio dramas produced by Heirloom Audio Productions. We try to spread out our listening time, but we always seem to get hooked and just have to listen to more. We did manage to spread out our listening this time to a few days. We did not use the study guide at this time, but if we listen again, I will probably go through some of the guide with my older children. 

5 Stars for Beric The Briton!

ArtAchieve ~ Review

Having children who love art, but not being able to draw anything myself, I am always on the lookout for good art programs for our homeschool. For the past few weeks, we have been using the Entire Level I from ArtAchieve.

What is ArtAchieve?
ArtAchieve is a series of online courses that was developed by John Hofland. The project was created when John and his wife were homeschooling their children. He had a career in arts and language arts and has visited over 30 countries which helped in the development of the program.

What is included in Entire Level I?
There are eleven lessons included in level I. The first two lessons are free on the website for any one to try out before buying. The lessons include:

• Simple Lines (free)
• The Czech Cat (free)
• The Hungarian Insects
• The Haitian Gecko
• The Dragonfly from Ecuador
• The Chinese Dragon
• The Owl from Bali
• The Kitenge Tree Wall Hanging from Tanzania
• The Plate from Nepal
• Four Suns with Four Faces
• The Sheep from Wales

Not only do you learn how to draw in the lessons you also get a history lesson. For example, in The Hungarian Insects lesson, we were given some background about these insects in Hungary. We were also given facts about insects.

You are given the choice to watch a video of the lesson or to go through a power point of the lesson. We chose to use the power point for each lesson. Each lesson starts off with learning about the country or object you are drawing.

Then, it tells you what supplies are needed and gives some relaxation tips. For the warm up, you print off a warm up page to become familiar with the lines in the drawing.

After doing the warm up, the slides go through each step to create your masterpiece. When you are finished drawing, you are to add color to your drawings.

The supplies needed for level I are simple. A fine point permanent marker, markers, watercolors, oil pastels, and liquid acrylic paint to name a few. You can click here and then click on each lesson to see the needed supplies. Each lesson takes about 60 minutes to complete from start to finish. The videos last about 25 minutes. It can be more or less depending on how fast or slow you want to go through the lesson.

A sample of our drawings:

What we thought about ArtAchieve:
We loved it.  We loved learning the background behind each drawing. We loved learning the facts about the insects and geckos. And, we loved our drawings and how simple and easy these lessons are to follow.

Several things I like about this art program:

• I, the teacher, do not have to know how to draw. In fact, I did the drawings with my kids and I think my drawings came out good. See my gecko below on the right.

• It really is a relaxing experience. My kids did not become frustrated with not knowing how to do the drawing. They loved the step by step directions.
• It is planned out. You only need to buy the supplies before hand. 
• Your child can work independently.
• You are given a 1 year license for each lesson you purchase. You can go through the lesson as many times in a year as you want and create it differently each time.

We definitely give this art course a 5 star rating!

Laurelwood Books ~ Review

My youngest is just starting her kindergarten year . She needs some practice with writing manuscript and Patriotic Penmanship, Kindergarten (manuscript) from Laurelwood Books has been a great summer project for her. She already loves school and she needed something during our time off to keep her occupied.

The Patriotic Penmanship is a complete series of books that are available for kindergarten all the way through high school. It starts out with writing manuscript in the lower grades and eventually transitions over to cursive in the upper elementary grades. There is a transition book available to help your child transition from manuscript to cursive.

Laurelwood Books offers new and used curriculum on their site. They also offer many workbooks and readers written by Mary Ellen Tedrow. The Schoolhouse Crew was able to review her books ranging from penmanship to Latin to  state facts.

There are many things I liked about this penmanship book which I will list below:

~ There are twenty four lessons. Each lesson is designed to be covered over one weeks time. You are able to use this by itself for one school year. I think it can also be used as a supplement with another writing program. This is what I will start doing now that we have started back to regular school lessons. There are actually no lesson numbers, so the child can do as little or as much as they (or you) want.

~ This book starts by introducing the vowels before the consonants. Since other programs also introduce letters this way, it helps the child especially if you are using this book as a supplement. It does introduce the consonants in alphabetical order. Since I am using this as a supplement and my daughters curriculum does not introduce the consonants in ABC order, I can just skip to the letter we are working on that week. This book has a lot of flexibility which I really like.

~ As the consonants are introduced, it also has the child write the blend (consonant, vowel) before moving onto writing full words.

~ There are mostly short vowel words in the book for the child to copy. My daughter is not reading yet, but writing the short words has not been a problem.

~ Each letter or blend has a full row of tracing and a full row of writing their own. The words are only traced once and written once. I like that the words are only traced once and written once, because, from experience, the child can get frustrated with having to trace and write the words multiple times. (Or is that only my children?)

~ There are also Bible verses throughout the lessons.

During the review period, since we were not using our regular school curriculum, I had my daughter work on this book about three times each week. There were some days that she would only finish 1 row and other days where she would do 3 or 4 rows. She and I both liked this book. It's not colorful like other books, but it didn't matter to my daughter. I actually think it helped her to focus better without all of the colors. We will continue using this book and possibly others in the series over the years.