Category Archives: The Old Schoolhouse Crew Reviews

Preschoolers and Peace Review

I am a homeschool mom of six kids. We have teens all the way down to toddlers in our home. It is a fun and rewarding job, but it can also be an exhausting job at the same time.

Preschoolers and Peace Review

There is a new book out to help homeschool families that we were asked to review by Preschoolers and Peace called Preschoolers and Peace: Homeschooling Older Ones With Success While Loving Little Ones At Your Feet.

Preschoolers and Peace Review

Homeschooling Older Ones With Success While Loving Little Ones At Your Feet

Homeschooling Older Ones With Success While Loving Little Ones At Your Feet is a downloadable e-Book. This e-Book is a wonderful investment at a great deal! It would make a great resource for you, and to give as a gift to other homeschool moms. For just $2.99 you can download this wonderful 47 page e-Book filled with practical advice for homeschool moms.

The author, Kendra Fletcher, is a Christian homeschooling mom of eight children. She has a lot of helpful advice to share about what helps her be successful in homeschooling in a large family of different ages.

What a Homeschooling Mom Needs
Preparing Yourself to Homeschool Older Kids With Little Ones Underfoot
Planning Around Preschoolers
How Do I Keep Them Busy?
What Does a 2-Year-Old’s Day Look Like?
How Do I Get Any Preschooling Done?
How Not to Just Kill Time
Circle Time: Or How We Pull the Little Ones In
Preschool Boys
When All of Your Kiddos Are Preschoolers
Preschool Chores
Planning for Preschool
When Mama is Worn Out (or Pregnant)
Meal Planning 101
Encouragement
Resources

How I Used This:

E-books are great! I downloaded my e-book and saved it to my computer. I can read my book from my computer, or other reading device if desired. Later I hope to print it and have it bound and put it on my book shelf. It is a handy reference full of great ideas.

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Part of the reason homeschooling can be exhausting, is that it can be challenging at times to manage the needs of so many different learning levels at the same time. Some days it doesn’t feel like I accomplished our goals, because the younger children need a lot of attention, somedays they have ouchies that need attention, or on any given day, any two of them are involved in sibling squabbles, and I feel like I just serve as the babysitter or referee. What I wouldn’t give somedays to know the secret to get it all done and meet everyone’s needs in the process!

Kendra Fletcher is a mom who has been there! She knows many of the same challenges I face on a daily basis. She offers lots of great advice, starting with the most important, putting God first in the little things as well as the bigger things. She encourages me as a mom, and my kids too, to start the day with prayer. That one piece of the puzzle in your day can change everything in creating a peaceful atmosphere in our home.

Another great tip she shares is how to help younger kids start the day off successfully. She suggests they accomplish the same five things every morning: get dressed, make bed, brush teeth, tidy their room, and spend time praying. She suggests using a schedule for multiple ages including mom, as a tool and shows you how to set one up. This schedule shows an overview of what everyone is doing when during the day and is an easy reference at a glance to keep you on track.

She also gives many suggestions for various kinds of busy sensory activities younger children can do that build their skills but at the same time keep them busy so Mom and older siblings can get more done.

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Here are just a few of the toddler / preschool age activities we have used simultaneously in our home while homeschooling older kids include:
Circle Time (we include all the kids together)
Age appropriate chores (easy for little ones to do)
Sensory Activities (we use homemade Sensory Bins)
Quiet Busy Activities (we use homemade Activity Bags)
Duplo Legos
Coloring
Sorting objects and shapes
Books
Water Color Paints
Playing with leftover empty boxes

AND many, many, more great ideas are suggested in her e-Book.

Kendra has already helped her oldest two children graduate from homeschooling and go onto college. With raising and homeschooling eight kids, she knows the challenges mom’s face dealing with the needs of multiple ages and her book is a great resource. I would encourage you to get a copy while it is available at this great price of $2.99 and give a copy to a friend too.

Be sure to check out the media links for Preschoolers and Peace for all the latest news and updates:

Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Google+
You Tube

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Fix It Grammar Review

Grammar (the process of learning and using correct grammatical rules in language) is in my opinion, one of those subjects that can be either difficult to learn or fun to learn depending on the method being used to teach it. How do you motivate students to learn grammatical rules?

IEW

Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) is a company that specializes in teaching grammatical rules in fun and creative ways to students of all ages.   We reviewed IEW’s Fix It Grammar: The Nose Tree (Book 1) Teacher’s Manual and Fix It Grammar: The Nose Tree (Book 1) Student Workbook curriculum.

IEW

IEW has a large body of curriculum options to fit many different levels of learning. The grade / skill levels IEW curriculum options include:

Level Primary (Grades K–2)
Level A (Grades 3-5)
Level B (Grades 6-8)
Level C (Grades 9–12)
Special Needs
English Language Learners
College Students
Teacher Helps

There is no way I could tell you about all of the various creative curriculum options at IEW, so I encourage you to stop over to their website and take a look around.

FIX IT GRAMMAR

We were recently sent IEW’s Fix It Grammar curriculum for grades 3 through 12 to review.

FixItGrammar

Fix It Grammar teaches a grammar mastery method that includes six progressive levels of learning grammatical skills. Each level has its own spiral bound student workbook and spiral bound teaching manual. Each level builds upon the skills learned and practiced in the previous level.

It is recommended to spend 15 minutes a day and complete 1 lesson a week, for 33 weeks, to complete a year’s worth of lessons. The great thing about homeschooling is that it is a personal approach to education and you can work through lessons faster or slower depending on what you and your student needs.  You can take a free placement test to see what Fix It Grammar level your student should begin at.

NoseTree

We received Fix It Grammar:The Nose Tree (Book 1) Teacher Manual 229 pages spiral bound, retails $19.00; and also Fix It Grammar: The Nose Tree (Book 1) Student Manual 126 pages spiral bound, retails for $15.00.

Inside the student workbook, each lesson is progressive builds on the skills learned in the previous lesson. The student workbook is a complete year of grammar curriculum divided into 33 lessons, 132 vocabulary words, glossary of grammar, and flash cards. My son is working on one lesson per week.

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At the top of each page in the workbook it is labeled as week 1, week 2, week 3 and so on. Every two pages that face each other comprise a weeks worth of lessons. For each lesson, there is a Learn It section, and a Fix It section, Discuss It section, and Copy It section. In the Learn It section you learn a grammatical rule that you will put into practice during the week. There are corresponding punch out flashcards in the back of the book that contain each grammatical rule and your student is encouraged to use them to help remember what rules they have learned. In the Fix It section, there is reading of a few sentences, Vocabulary words to look up, and sentences that are to be fixed in the workbook. In the Copy It section your student will re-write the corrected sentences in their own notebook.

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I had my son work in his student workbook for 15 to 20 minutes a day. He could have easily done more work on this curriculum some days, because he actually liked learing with it and he was motivated to complete the writing exercises. This totally surprised me because the only time he likes to use written words seems to be when he is typing on the computer. He states “I don’t like learning grammar rules because they are a bottomless pit with no end. ENGLISH is nuts! Why do I have to learn this?” Now, he says “I like this, it isn’t hard to do, and makes sense. I like that I am accomplishing something instead of just random facts or rules.” I know he is not alone in feeling this way. I think it becomes more boring to learn grammatical rules as kids get a little older. I am not sure why, but I just bet that you could stroll through almost any American middle school, highschool, or college Language and Arts / English classroom, and most of those students in class are bored to tears or are struggling to write and re-write their essays! So this is very positive that he likes the Fix It Grammar curriculum. The fact that he is progressively learning to re-write a story and will have a correctly written masterpiece when he is through is the motivation. He hates to fail. He is excited just knowing if he follows the step by step activities, he can’t fail, but will succeed.

I recommend IEW curriculum products for homeschool families. The list of curriculum options available is wonderful and covers many creative fun ways to get your kids interested in writing and writing well. I have a big wish list of their products I hope to obtain in our homeschool. This is our second IEW curriculum product to use in our homeschool, and I believe it is a great addition to our homeschool learning curriculum.

MEDIA LINKS

Check out IEW media links for all the latest news and updates.

Webinar: http://iew.com/events-classes/webinars/intro-to-fix-it-grammar

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/excellenceinwriting

Twitter: https://twitter.com/iew

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/iewriting

Google+: https://plus.google.com/+Iewriting/posts

Tube: https://www.youtube.com/user/iewtv

Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/iewtv

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My Student Logbook Review

Are your kids ready to tackle this school year with more independence and determination than ever before? Then give your kids their own My Student Logbook to use.

My Student Logbook Review

We were blessed to be asked to review the My Student Logbook with one of our kids, just in time for this new homeschool year. I am very excited to share this review with you.  It is the first professionally created logbook for homeschool kids our family has used and it is working out great.

My Student Logbook Review

My Student Logbook
A full school year record management system for kids.
For 2nd grade – 12th grade
Retails $15.00

 

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We received a nice spiral-bound paperback logbook that has a clear see through outer cover on the front and a black vinyl cover on the back.   They have many cover options to choose from to make the logbook more personal, and we were given the option to choose any cover we wanted for our review. My son chose the “Planets” cover option for the logbook we received. You can see the planets cover through the see through outer cover which helps keep it nice and offers some additional durability.

My Student Logbook Review

This is the first year I have required my oldest son to keep his own daily logbook / journal for his schoolwork.  I usually hang a list of our schoolwork, chores, and daily routine up on the wall in our schoolroom, and then I give each child a copy to put into their binder. But I don’t make the kids check anything off each day.  Over the years, we have tried check off lists in the past and the kids usually keep up with them for about a week or two and then stop updating them. So it was just easier for my own sanity to do away with that requirement and whatever we get done in a day we do and what we don’t get done then we work on the next day, and I try not to stress over it.  This really helped me keep peace in the home.

My Student Logbook Review

However, my oldest son turned fourteen this summer, and has a whole new maturity about him. When our new homeschool year began this fall, he was ready to tackle this school year with more independence and determination than ever before. Having his own personalized daily logbook, with check off lists and management pages, has helped him be accountable to his goals. What a blessing it was to be asked to review the My Student Logbook! It has been a perfect fit for him. He has now kept up with keeping his logbook updated each day since we started back to school. I am really proud of him.

My Student Logbook

I went through the logbook ahead of time and wrote down each of his classes and his daily chores on the form. Then all he has to do is put a check mark, or a page number (or verse number if it is bible study) on the check off grid. He can fold over the page and use the same origional list with a new check of grid for each week without having to re-write the original list if desired, or if there is a change then he can write out a new list to keep track of. He can keep track of all of his work in one central place. Each day, he opens his student logbook and keeps it near him when he is working on his schoolwork. Then he is able to mark off the work he completes. I have been learning about my own personal time management too through a wonderful personal daily planner for moms, and this too helped me encourage my son in his personal quest to be organized and keep his logbook updated each day.

You child can use this logbook as a scrapbook of their entire year and add it to their academic portfolio when the year is over, or take it a step further and use the recorded information to create professional looking highschool transcripts too.  In addition to the schoolwork/chores log (you can choose pre-dated or un-dated logs for your book),  there are several additional pages in the back for kids to keep track of all of their additional records they have for the year:  “All About Me” favorites (food, places, things, interests, holidays), Prayers, Goals, Memorized Bible Verses, Books Read Log, Events/Field Trips/Presentations/Activities, Test Records, and Year Highlights. The My Student Logbook is available as a spiral bound booked shipped to you, or as a PDF downloadable e-book you can print and bind yourself. Check the website for more information about various versions, covers, and prices.

Check out this video for more information about how to use the My Student Logbook.  There are many helpful tips and be sure to check out their other videos (see the YouTube media link below) for ideas on using the logbook to create highschool transcripts and more.

Be sure to check out My Student Logbook social media links for all the latest updates and news.
FACEBOOK
YOUTUBE

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Happy Kids Songs Review

We have been having fun finishing out the end of summer and getting started back to school with a review of Happy Kids Songs.

Happy Kids Songs Review
 

 

Sometimes my younger kids are impulsive and not so happy. Happy Kids Songs has a lot to say about our attitude and how we treat each other. This is a great tool for parents to teach younger kids about behavior and focussing on the right things. This product is geared for kids 4-8 years old, but I had my 2, 5, 7, 9, and 11 year olds do the activities and had the 14 year old assist as a teacher’s helper. He helped me set up a play list on the computer and print off worksheets and organized the craft materials. This way I was able to include all 6 of my kids in using this product. We all can use some lessons in how to be happy, no matter what age.

Happy Kids Songs was created by Dr. Mac who is the song writer of the wonderful TV program for kids called Jay Jay and the Jet Plane from PBS Kids. He is a talented song writer, accomplished musician, child psychologist, school consultant and has won numerous awards for his talents and skills. He has won the iParenting award, Teacher’s Choice award, The National Parenting Center’s Seal Of Approval award, and many more.

Happy Kids Songs currently has 8 Volumes to choose from. Each Volume contains 5 songs, and retails for $4.95. The lyrics to each songs help your kids develop good character trates, treat others the way they want to be treated, and become happy people. For this review, we received three Volumes as a download, pdf lyrics and worksheet for each song (download), and a physical workbook /songbook was mailed to us for this review.

Vol. 1  Friends And Sharing
Retails $4.95

 

Happy Kids Songs Review
Songs include:
Sailing on the Seven Cs; Everybody Wants to Find a Friend; Sharing Friends; Happy as Happy Can Be; Together

There are a few YouTube Videos of some of the songs being made, some interviews with Dr Mac, and a couple of music videos too. Here is a video of the song Together from Volume 1 Friends and Sharing:

Volume 6 Happiness and Attitude
Retails for $4.95

Happy Kids Songs Review
Songs include:
Shake It Out and Dance; Who Knows What’s a Kudo?; I Don’t Understand; Be Good to Yourself; Better Together

Volume 7 Manners and Character
Retails $4.95

Happy Kids Songs Review
Songs Include:
H-O-N-E-S-T-Y; The Magic Word; Quirks; The Golden Rule; Six Little Kids

Songbook / Workbook Happy Kids Songs Workbook: Hands On Activites To Build Character, Social & Emotional Skills
Retails for $12.56

Happy Kids Songs Review
The workbook has over 100 lessons.  It includes all the lyrics and worksheets, coloring pages, and lesson plans and activity ideas for all 40 songs in the Happy Kids Songs 8 Volumes.

Our family has enjoyed sitting together at the table and listening to the songs, learning the lyrics, coloring pages and completing corresponding activities (word puzzles, coloring pages, arts and crafts).

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We downloaded the songs to our computer to listen to at home, and also burned them on a CD so we can take them on the road in the van too.

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The workbook has all of the song lyrics organized by Volume at the front half of the book with a corresponding worksheet. In the second half of the book, it has lesson plans also organized by Volume.

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For me, the workbook was indispensible and very easy to implement. You just find the lessons for the Volume you are listening too, learn the lyrics, do the activity sheets, and optional activities and arts and crafts.

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The kids really enjoyed making crafts while listening to the songs. Here they are making a friend puppet.

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Happy Kids Songs products are great! Kids enjoy using them. The songs are catchy and easy to remember. They are handy for adults because they have everything organized in the workbook and come with a license to re-produce the lyrics and coloring pages and worksheets, and you can use them in your family or group settings with multiple students. This makes them a great option for Sunday School, clubs, and Homeschool Coops too.

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Be sure to follow Happy Kids Songs on their social media links for all the latest news and updates.

Facebook
Twitter
Youtube
Blog
And be sure to sign up for the monthly news letter and receive a free song of the month and other special information. Samples of songs and more are also available on their web site.

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Mathletics Review

What’s that you say?  Math?  During the summer?  Yes we did!

logo for Mathletics

Why should we step away from math for the summer months just to get behind?  No Way!  The kids love Math practice when they use Mathletics by 3P Learning.

So do you want to know what all the excitement is about?  Would you like to see your kids excited about Math practice too?

mathletics

Mathletics

Ages/Grades:  Kindergarten through Twelfth Grade. 

Online Math Subscription: is able to be used anytime day or night any day of the week.

It is recommended to use Mathletics three days a week for twenty minutes each sitting. 

Retails: $ 59.00

Contains over 1200 different learning activities; interactive games, learning achievement certificates, incentives, weekly reports sent to the parent, a parent dashboard,  printable workbooks, and more.

student desk

 

Our Experience:

My third and fifth grade kids have been using Mathletics online learning program this summer.  We were given two individual subscriptions for the purpose of writing an honest  review of our experience.  They use the program three days a week for skills practice as a supplement to their daily Math curriculum.

Third Grade:

joseph student center

I was really happy to receive this program.  We had planned to continue our Math study all summer, but I hoped the kids wouldn’t get tired of it.   Why should we step away from Math for the summer months just to get behind?  Kids forget how to do Math really quickly when they take a long break.  It just didn’t seem worth it this year.

Fifth Grade:

John student center

If we were doing book work all summer, practicing Math skills would have been boring!  Yeah, that is how I remember Math, just boring books filled with numbers, and almost as soon as I learned what to do with those numbers, I would soon forget too.  But my kids are not forgetting what they have learned and even more exciting is that they are getting really good scores while they play (ahem), practice their Math.  They can practice alone and they can also compete with other players in a multiplayer format.  They can earn certificates and virtual gold too.  Mathletics offers three printable certificates levels your student can achieve too.

Joseph

Thanks to Mathletics, we are doing awesome online math challenges, and it makes learning math FUN, and that makes all the difference!

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The kids literally fight for (oh a wait that sounds bad), beg for (no that’s not the word), look forward to their computer time online with their Mathletics.  They want to use the computer! They are not bored.  They don’t care that it is MATH!!! They want to do it. Seriously, where were these great learning programs when I was a kid?

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The kids really are enjoying it.  I am looking forward to Mathletics helping them improve their Math skills.  Mathletics has won educational awards and has numerous studies showing how well kids who practice with their program improve their Math skills.

I am so thankful we will have this supplemental program to practice Math in a fun way for the upcoming school year too.  This is a real blessing and I am greatful that such a great program exists and we get to use it.  Yeah!

Be sure to follow Mathletics social media links to learn all the latest news and updates.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mathleticsglobal   
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mathletics_usa 

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Be sure to check out what others on The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew had to say about using Mathletics in their home.

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Flourish Book Review

What does it mean to flourish?  Webster’s dictionary says that flourish means: to thrive; to grow well and be healthy; to achieve or be successful; to hold up and show something in a proud way; to be excited about accomplishment; a fancy or dramatic way of doing something; to be influential; to increase and prosper.(source)

Wow, don’t you want to flourish (be healthy and thrive) in your life?  Flourish in your faith and life long walk with God? Flourish In your marriage?  Flourish in your parenting and your homeschool?

Logo
 

I was blessed to receive an encouraging self-help book / life manual called Flourish, Balance For Homeschool Moms written by Mary Jo Tate and published by Apologia Educational Ministries through the TOS Crew to review this summer.

Flourish cover
Flourish
290 pages
Soft-cover
Retails for $15.00

This book is written for homeschool moms, but homeschool dads (perhaps work from home dads) might enjoy it and glean wisdom from it too. It is full of wisdom and helps you learn how to balance and flourish in your life as a homeschool mom, in family life, and flourish running a home business if you have one.

 

WHAT IS IN THIS BOOK?

I am so glad you asked, ha ha!  There are 16 chapters full of suggestions that cover just about everything a homeschool mom faces.   Then at the end of each chapter is a section called TAKE ACTION.   This is a question and answer section that helps you focus on the main points discussed in each chapter, and figure out how you will apply the wisdom you gleaned into your own life, and helps you make a plan for positive change.  That is 16 opportunities to write out a plan for positive change!

Then at the back of the book there is a BIG LIST  (appendix A) of recommended resources to help you on your journey. Next is a BIG RESOURCE (appendix B) of helpful forms, charts, and goal planning pages. Some of these forms you will want to use everyday or every week so you will want to keep them handy.  When you buy the book, you can get a link to a downloadable version of the forms to print off and keep in a binder or hang on a bulletin board if you wish.  At the very back of the book, the author lists more about her website and contacting her for one on one coaching if you wish to do so.

Chapters and discussions in the book include:

An Invitation To Flourish – Desire to succeed in your family, in homeschooling, and running a home business
Change Your Mind To Change Your Time – Life management not time management
The Freedom Toolbox – focus, reflect, educate, eliminate, discipline, organize, multitask
Where Did My Time Go? – time logs, assessment, costs of opportunities, schedule, wise choices
Aim High: Setting Goals – brain storm, write them down, share
What Do I Do Next?: Seven Essential Planning Tools – dream, goals, plans for monthly, weekly, daily tasks, to do or not
We Interrupt This Program – perceptions, phone, email, test, balance, boundaries, God is always in control
It’s Time For An Attitude Adjustment – no guilt, no fear, no perfection, no whinning, no resentment, no self pity
Oxygen Mask and Monkey Bread Days
Training Your Children – responsibility, independence, initiative, service
Making Memories – family traditions, one on one time, explore, enjoy, preserve memories
Managing the Home – housekeeping, attitude, organize, edit, meal plan
All of Life Is Learning – homeschool, expectations, encourage, system for success, beyond academia
Solo Act: Flourshing as a Single Mom – rest in God, strong family identity, unity, balance, self care
Home Business – why, options, outsource and delegation, income, time, marketing, customer care, team, records
Moving Ahead – evaluate success and need for change, make needed changes

 

What Did I Think?

I would recommend this book for ALL MOMS!  It is “hands on”, and is a self help manual with keys for success.

This would be a great book to read at anytime, to save your sanity and get organized, but especially a good read over the summer (or any break) when planning for your upcoming homeschool year.  Knowledge you will glean, and the hands on practice in goal setting, organizing, journaling, menu planning and more is invaluable.

Do yourself a favor and get this book.  This book will help you avoid a ton of mistakes that will potentially drain your time and energy and cause you to burn out.  You can avoid burnout if you have the knowledge of how to plan and how to FLOURISH in your hands from the start.  This book would also make a great gift to give away to friends and family too. This book would make a great study for a mom’s group too.

The basics to set up a flourishing life boils down to the process.  This book will help you through the process of putting God first, establishing strong family relationships, creating acheivable goals, evaluating priorities, setting and maintaining boundaries, taking opportunities, wise use of resources, and managing your time to be the best you can be.

I definitely want to flourish in every area of my life! I don’t want to burn out, and miss out on living a life filled with joy and purpose.  What about you?  Are you ready to flourish?

Mary Jo Tate

mary

Mary Jo Tate is an author, speaker, business owner, and homeschool mom of 4 boys.  She understands the challenges homeschool moms face.  She has learned to flourish in her own life and has a lot of wisdom to share.  You can follow Mary Jo Tate on her social media links to keep up with all the latest news and updates:

Blog: http://www.flourishathome.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FlourishAtHome
Twitter: https://twitter.com/maryjotate

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Moving Beyond The Page Curriculum Review

Did you know that the first robot was invented in 1921? Did you know first knitting machine was invented in 1589, and the first golf balls were invented in 1400? Or did you know that the first computer game was invented in 1962, and the first artificial heart and liver was invented in 2001, or that the first DVD’s were invented in 1995? Can you believe the world-wide web was invented in 1990, or the iPhone was invented in 2007? I was really surprised to learn the actual dates of many inventions of everyday things we take for granted. They are so much a part of our everyday lives that we kind of forget the bigger picture that some where in time, someone invented them. That is some of the cool stuff my son is learning in his Moving Beyond The Page Language Arts and Science curriculum.

Moving Beyond The Page Logo

With Moving Beyond The Page you can order a complete age range curriculum for the whole year (ten Language Arts, ten Science, and ten Social Studies), or for a semester (five courses each in LA, Science, and Social Studies), or individual courses.

ages

Individual courses are made up of about 10 to 12 lessons and a final project, and each individual course takes about three to four weeks to complete if you work on them three or four days a week.

Semester and Lesson

Though the word “curriculum” is used, Moving Beyond The Page has a unique approach to education. They use RESEARCH-based educational STRATEGIES to CONNECT various subjects together through a common theme using literature, like a unit study approach, and connect information with real life, hands on, experience.

In my opinion, the cross curricular unit study approach is a wonderful method of learning, teaching, and retaining information.  I think every family can benefit from this method, because it makes these connections between information and real life, and helps a person be well rounded in their understanding.  It is not just a bunch of knowledge to be remembered, it is knowledge that manifests into real experience.

How Will Using Moving Beyond The Page Benefit Your Homeschool?

    • Help your child see connections in life.  Woven in the unit study approach are connections that your student will make between subjects of science and engineering, social and cultural studies, history, geography, language arts, and more.
    • The goal of this approach to education is to turn each child into a problem solver, an innovator, and challenge them through activities that involve critical and creative thinking.
    • The curriculum encourages real-world applications. It uses project-based instruction, and empowers each child in a way that meets his or her needs.
    • It supports various different learning styles, ages, and different skill levels.
    • It bridges and closes the gaps in each students learning as they meet and exceed state and national standards at each learning level.

We were sent 2 INDIVIDUAL COURSES from Moving Beyond The Page:

Science Package:Technological Design for ages 11-13 and retails for $31.94  This course contains a physical spiral bound consumable workbook, and a softcover textbook.  There are online options for the consumable workbook too, be sure you have a high-speed internet, Adobe reader software, and a printer if choosing the online version. Check the web site for pricing options:

Technological Design    Leonardo Da Vinci

This course covers:

  • What Is Technology?
  • Technological Innovator
  • Meaningful Technological Designs
  • Necessity vs. Luxury
  • Necessity Is the Mother of Invention
  • Da Vinci’s Inventions
  • Contemporary Design Approaches
  • Engineering
  • Modeling an Idea
  • Final Project: Final Exam and Model Bridge

Language Arts Package: Einstein Adds A New Dimension for ages 12-14 and retails for $39.98  This course contains an online printable workbook, and a large physical hardback cover textbook.  Be sure you have a high-speed internet, Adobe reader software, and a printer if choosing the online version. There is also a spiral bound softcover physical workbook option too, check out the web site for pricing options.

Einstein Workbook    Einstein Adds A New Dimension

This course covers the life of a famous scientist, Albert Einstein, and his contributions to science and the world through a Language Arts curriculum.  In this course, the student covers:

  • Expository Writing
  • Descriptive Writing
  • The Curies’ Discoveries
  • Process Writing
  • Envisioning Fission
  • Cause and Effect Writing
  • Relativity
  • Comparison and Contrast Writing
  • Avoiding Plagiarism
  • Problem and Solution Writing
  • Citing Sources
  • Final Project: Research Paper
  • Engineering
  • Modeling an Idea
  • Final Project: Final Exam and Model Bridge

 

How We Used This Curriculum

These courses are one part of a larger package of curriculum and are expected to take a student three to four weeks to complete.  The suggested syllabus has the student working in each subject area about an hour a day.

Einstein Adds A New Dimension

I found the Einstein Adds A New Dimension curriculum to be so fascinating!  The text-book is a 465 page full color textbook jam-packed with information and photos.  It is a learning buffet!  I have never seen a text-book quite like it before, except in college.  It is like Science 101 in college, and takes you on a journey of how science came to be, how it has changed, what is theory, what is proven, and how Albert Einstein had a significant role in science and our understanding of everything.  I can easily see this text being used in a science 101 course.

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My son was so interested in the textbook, he hardly ever sat it down.  Every time I turned around he was deep into the reading.  The workbook created by Moving Beyond The Page to correlate with the text, takes an informational text about science and scientists, and gives it a whole new twist in looking at it from a Language Arts perspective and learing hands on about writing, research, science, and engineering.  It challenges you to see the difference in theory and fact, and how to build a convincing argument in favor or against different scientific research.  This course receives a high score from my 13 year old!

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My son loved the Technological Design course and learning about inventions made by Leonardo Da Vinci.

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He is fascinated with science and design.  He wants to learn how things work and then build on that  knowledge to go even further.  He is a true engineer at heart.

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He found it fascinating that Leonardo Da Vinci was passionate about a wide variety of things including arts, theater and plays, engineering, inventions, practical jokes with family and friends, and so much more.

Mask

He made masks out of milk jugs.  He changed things a little bit from the manual to fit the supplies we had on hand and also his interests.  His sister also asked him to make a mask for her so he enlisted the help of his brother and they made a special butterfly mask per the colors she requested. He planed to turn his mask into a black cat.  He went outside and drew several cat faces using our kittens as his model and they all looked great.  He cut out his mask from a milk jug and then covered it in black paper and completed the eyes and ears, but got stumped at one point on making the mouth and decided to turn it into a Knight’s face mask instead.

structure

Both the Textbook and Workbook are hands on manuals filled with projects to do.  There are so many different projects to choose from your child will always look forward to their studies.

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I think my son’s favorite chapter about Leonardo Da Vinci Inventions was Leonardo’s War Inventions.  He took old ideas and tweaked them.  He problem solved.  He figured out a way to save lives on the “home team” and cause more devastation to the opposing team by reducing the human risk of injury, and making many weapons automated, or mechanized, or robotic if you will.   Leonardo “re-invented” many weapons of war.  He is most famous for the Trebuchet (automated catapult), the Armored Tank, a portable Safety Bridge, and his version of a Cannon.  The final project in the curriculum is to design and build a model bridge out of craft sticks that can support 5 lbs and this represents a full size bridge that can be positioned over a ravine for safe crossing and make a presentation about it describing the technological process involved. He has not made it to the end of the curriculum yet, but I am sure he will as excited as his is about each project he makes.

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He plans to build the Trebuchet project from the book later this week.  He built a Trebuchet from a pre-designed kit two years ago and loved playing with it and shooting clay balls all around the house.  For his birthday he bought a Leonardo De Vinci Catapult kit and decided to pare it up with this curriculum.  My son had a blast building this from the kit and likes it even better than the Trebuchet kit he built-in the past, because it is made from good quality wood and is large and sturdy.  Here is a picture of him with his Leonardo Da Vinci Catapult project.  He sanded each piece smooth before cutting to length, assembling, gluing pegs (wooden nails), etc. the various parts together.  This project has more power and shoots a lot further than his previous Trebuchet and he loves it!

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I definitely recommend Moving Beyond The Page curriculum.  There are tons of cross curricular subjects and they are all fascinating and hands on.  I am putting the whole year curriculum on my homeschool wish list!  I hope you will check them out and see how they can meet the needs of your family and homeschool.

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