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Homeschool Curriculum Review

Ancient Egypt Unit Study Part 2 – Best Hands-on Homeschool Ideas

April 22, 2015 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

One reason I chose to use Ancient Egypt Passport Project from Home School in the Woods is because of the amount of hands-on history that it has. Also, look at my page Best Homeschool Unit Studies for more unit studies.

Today, I am sharing Ancient Egypt Unit Study Part 2 because I want to be sure you to get see wayyy more pictures before I finish this study.

Ancient Egypt is a great civilization to study for Ancient History. Your kids will love this hands-on Ancient Egypt history study with many activities for multiple ages to choose from. CLICK HERE!

I know I am not using it like suggested meaning you pick and choose what you like to do. That would be too balanced for me.

I tend to be over board when it comes to history and we like sampling a little bit of it all. Don’t do like me.

We are trying to squeeze in every bit of the activities because we can’t wait to make the next activity and also I am visually obsessed so I wanted to be sure you get tons of pictures for this unit study.

Today, we played with paper dolls.

Ancient Egypt Unit Study Part 2 - Best Hands-on Homeschool Ideas

Okay, don’t tell Tiny I said that because it was almost an outright mutiny when I showed him what we were going to do next.

Tiny was almost not going to do these fun Egyptian Figures, but it ended up being such a cool project I am glad we did them.

Homeschool History and Crafts Obsessed

Ancient Egypt Unit Study Part 2 - Best Hands-on Homeschool Ideas

Not only did we enjoy the coloring, but he enjoyed reading about what Egyptians, both adults and kids wore back then.

Ancient Egypt Unit Study Part 2 - Best Hands-on Homeschool Ideas

The coolest part is that after using an exacto knife on the paper figures, the clothing can be changed out by sticking tabs from the pieces into the holes or slits cut on the figures.

After a bit of time, he really got into changing out the pieces.

Ancient Egypt Unit Study Part 2 - Best Hands-on Homeschool Ideas

One thing that is so unique was that there were templates to use to cut out actual fabric that can be glued onto the figures.

Ancient Egypt Unit Study Part 2 - Best Hands-on Homeschool Ideas

I thought how fun it would be if you had a girl but that was Tiny’s limit. 

He wasn’t going to make templates out of material.The finished looking project is a fun way to learn about time period clothing.

Ancient Egypt Unit Study Part 2 - Best Hands-on Homeschool Ideas

He was pleased with his finished product.

Not only is all the reading you need included with this unit study, which I like because you know the only books I can get here in Ecuador are in Spanish, but then the review of the material is illustrated in different ways like these pop out books.

Ancient Egypt Unit Study Part 2 - Best Hands-on Homeschool Ideas

We read about the social system in Ancient Egypt.

Then Tiny glued the text on each mini pop out book to show each level in the social system.

Ancient Egypt Unit Study Part 2 - Best Hands-on Homeschool Ideas

Let’s just face it, interacting with mini pop up books are certainly way more fun to handle and review material.

Ancient Egypt Unit Study Part 2 - Best Hands-on Homeschool Ideas

After he made the minibooks, I helped him glue them on the page showing he social pyramid.

Ancient Egypt Unit Study Part 2 - Best Hands-on Homeschool Ideas

Tell me which kid wouldn’t prefer to review material from a page like this instead of a worksheet?Then one more project I wanted to show you was the pocket made for souvenirs.

The pages are instructions for dressing up like an Egyptian boy or girl.There are more projects we are working on as we make our way through this hands-on unit study.

Have you ever tried any of the history unit studies from Home School in the Woods? Do you have any favorites?

Ancient Egypt is a great civilization to study for Ancient History. Your kids will love this hands-on Ancient Egypt history study with many activities for multiple ages to choose from.

Look at the other parts we did:

  • Ancient Egypt Unit Study Part 1
  • Ancient Egypt Unit Study Part 2
  • Ancient Egypt Unit Study Part 3

    Hugs and love ya,

    Leave a CommentFiled Under: Homeschool Curriculum Review Tagged With: ancient civilizations, ancient egypt, ancientegypt, hands on history, hands-on activities, handson, handsonhomeschooling, history, history resources, historycostumes, historyspine, homeschoolhistory

    Ancient Egypt Unit Study – Trip through Ancient History

    April 2, 2015 | Leave a Comment
    This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

    I have a fun ancient Egypt unit study that I did in three posts. Also, look at my page Best Homeschool Unit Studies for more unit studies.

    I am so tickled and excited about starting our Ancient Egypt Passport Project from Home School in the Woods that I can’t wait until the review to share all what we are doing.

    We will be using this curriculum over the next month or so and you know I am so visual that I have to share a ton of pictures with you before I do a final review.  I know you like pictures too.

    Take a trip through history and discover cultures at another era of time with hands-on projects and activities that drive the lessons home in a fun way! You’ll love this Ancient Egypt Hands-on Homeschool Unit Study. CLICK HERE to get it!

    One of the reasons I was so giddy to get my hands on this was because of all the activities and projects.  We couldn’t wait to get started.

    My initial thought on this is that it does require a good amount of time for set up.  I have never been afraid of a bit of hard work in the beginning for a nice payoff in the long run.

    Too, once we made the passport and luggage (so stinkin’ fun) we can use it for all the other project passport studies.

    ANCIENT EGYPT ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS

    • Fun And Easy Nile River Project Ideas To Spark Your Creativity

    One thing I want to be sure you know when you start using this is to read carefully all the notes provided.

    They are worth the time reading so that you don’t make mistakes in printing. 

    For example, I appreciated the very fine point of printing “actual size” and not shrinking the pages because the measurements will be off on all projects.

    Just be sure you read all the details and take your time.

    Hands-On History Ancient Egypt

    So the first couple of lessons, which are called Stops (there are 25 Stops total), is where a lot of the prep work is done. We have done 3 STOPS and stopped so that we could catch up on some of the fun projects.

    Ancient Egypt Unit Study 3 @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

    We started by making the fun passport first.

    Ancient Egypt Unit Study 5 @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

    All the templates you need to make each printable is with this download. It is the total package. 

    Tiny wanted to use a photo for his passport where he was wearing his Ecuadorean hat. He is proud of that native hat.

    He actually thought this was cool to make because when we got our passports for coming here to Ecuador, he learned a lot about visas and passports.Ancient Egypt Unit Study 6 @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

    Then next we worked on making the timeline called “Snapshots Moments in History”. This baby has 8 pages plus 4 pages of timeline figures and extra pages for decorating. 

    Ancient Egypt Unit Study - Trip through Ancient History

    You can choose to do the pages notebook style or accordion style.

    Ancient Egypt Unit Study 1 @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus
    Ancient Egypt Unit Study 2 @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

    Since we love lapbooks, we decided to go ahead and do the timeline accordion style.

    It took a bit of time to cut each page and tape it, but now we have the timeline for the whole project and will be gluing our timeline figures as we go along at each Stop.

    Homeschool History Based Activity Study

    Ancient Egypt Unit Study 4 @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

    Then this luggage idea, complete with luggage tag is so creative.

    Ancient Egypt Unit Study 7 @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

    Just a heads up, my luggage looks a bit different than what the instructions said.  You will be able to create yours like the model one shown in the download because you probably live near a Wal-mart.

    Since everything is not easy to find here in Ecuador, I had to help Tiny create something just a bit different.

    First, I couldn’t find a file folder with pockets and brads. I went to 7 stores and they just don’t have that here in Ecuador.

    So we made our own pockets and instead of using the brads like the instructions said, we used a file fastener.

    If you make it and you live near civilization, it won’t take you near as long as it did for us to make our luggage.

    We loved making it though and Tiny even wanted to glue some luggage stickers that we found on the internet onto the outside. It came out so cute.

    Inside we store the travel log pages, which Tiny will write on at the end of our journey.

    History Based Activity Study Ancient Egypt

    We can store other items in the pockets too.

    Ancient Egypt Unit Study 8 @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

    Then lastly we made our beginning scrap book called Scrapbook of Sights.

    The instructions called for a clear outside pocket and a 3 ring binder.  Guess what?

    They don’t have clear outside pocket binders here and there are only 2 ring binders used here in Ecuador like the picture shown above.  Again, your final product will look a bit different than mine does here.

    This wasn’t such a big deal though because we just glued the cover page onto the outside and can use a 2 ring binder.

    This binder is for storing the map we did about Upper and Lower Egypt and it will store our timeline as we add “snapshots” of our trip.

    Too, we listened to our first audio as we headed down the Nile River.

    I really like this part to this curriculum because out of all of my boys, Tiny is the strongest audio learner and he just curled up beside as we listened to this audio tour complete with sound effects. So much fun.

    You see, there is no way I will be able to get this all in one blog post because there is way too many wonderful things to tell you about this project.

    I will update you as we move along through a few more Stops and do more of the projects.

    Do you have plans for an upcoming unit study on Ancient Egypt?

     

    Take a trip through history and discover cultures at another era of time with hands-on projects and activities that drive the lessons home in a fun way! You’ll love this Ancient Egypt Hands-on Homeschool Unit Study. CLICK HERE to get it!

    You’ll love the other parts to this unit study:

    • Ancient Egypt Homeschool Unit Study – Hands-on and FUN!
    • Ancient Egypt Unit Study Part 2

    Hugs and love ya,

    Leave a CommentFiled Under: Homeschool Curriculum Review Tagged With: ancient civilizations, ancient egypt, ancientegypt, hands on history, hands-on, hands-on activities, handson, handsonhomeschooling, history, history resources, historyspine, homeschoolhistory

    Paradigm Accelerated World History Curriculum

    February 17, 2015 | 6 Comments
    This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

    This is a sponsored post and that means I received the curriculum free and was compensated for my time.  What it does not mean is that I have to write a positive review or have to accept any reviews that I don’t want to. All opinions are my own or those of my family and you know I will always tell you what is on my mind. You can click here to read more about all that legal stuff.

    Since moving here to South America, I have been focused on sharing and using more digital courses. Too, with this being the last year for Mr. Awesome, he wanted a no fluff approach to world history.

    Though Mr. Awesome shares my love of hands-on history, he would rather not lounge around in all the details of history like Mr. Senior 2013 did.

    Strange kid I know to not share my love of savoring history and geography at every waking minute, but my goal in high school is for Mr. Awesome to pursue high school courses in a way to help him accomplish goals he has set.

    So when I heard about Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum, I was delighted to do a review of World History because I wanted Mr. Awesome to move along at his pace and not mine.

    A nice plus about the PAC homeschool curriculum is that it comes in both a digital format and printed book.  Mr. Awesome liked having both options but almost always prefers to read in a digital format.

    Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum – Back to Basics

    When I first got the curriculum and we looked it over together, it almost felt too light on content.

    However, going through it longer, we liked that it was just the back to basics in world history that Mr. Awesome wanted.

    There were other things I liked about it too.

    In the course description it certainly takes the guess work out of creating your own high school curriculum because it gives not only a course description but gives you the amount of credit hours.

    It is easy to create your own unique high school transcript too with Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum because you have both credit hours and course description.

    Too, during the high school years, is the time to prepare your teen for the type of educational approach that will take place either in college or a vocational school, which is really a textbook format.

    It is hard to maintain your homeschool approach that has worked so well for you up to this time and balance that with preparing your teen for a more formal approach.

    I don’t want to have to give up my unit study approach with a love for living books in high school.

    I want to feel I have a choice when we want to pursue a unit study approach and add in what I need to prepare Mr. Awesome more formally for the next steps in his life.

    Using PAC and integrating it with the themes we discussed over these past months has been very doable because of the set up the curriculum.

    At this grade level, independence should be encouraged and required and the curriculum is set up in a straightforward and easy format.

    Homeschool World History Digital Course

    Look at some of these details that make this formal approach pretty easy to navigate even for the most unorganized teen.

    There are 3 parts to the world history curriculum.

     

    World History Text @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

    One part has 6 booklets or chapters, which is the student text.

    I actually think this part of having only 6 chapters is a great way to encourage a teen that may feel behind or overwhelmed with a lot of information.

    The part I like as teacher mom who wants this kid to have a well rounded out view of world history is that each chapter contains the following 15 topics:

    • Agriculture Architecture, Art, Fashion and Furniture
    • Communication
    • Discoveries & Explorations
    • Dominant Personalities
    • Literature, Music & Education
    • Family & Home
    • Food
    • Government & Economics
    • Industry
    • Energy
    • Military
    • Religion
    • Sports & Recreation
    • Transportation

    Can you think of anything else to include in a world history course?

    Student Activity Books @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus-1

    The second part is the Activity book.

    This is where the student reviews the text by filling in the answers by multiple choice, filling in the blanks, defining vocabulary and labeling small portions of the map.

    You know my fondness for quotes too.

    So one part I really like is that each chapter ends with a character building quote called Life Principle.  Your teen then copies this life principle in the student activity book.

    Then, like a high school course should be, it also encourages independent self-checking by the student using the teacher’s resource kit.

    Teacher Resource Kit - PAC @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

    The teacher’s resource kit is the third component to this set.

    Though I glanced at this tool in the beginning, it was mostly Mr. Awesome who used it to check his work.

    The teacher’s resource kit has the answers for each chapter’s activities, quizzes and test.

    There are a few extra forms in the teacher’s resource kit, which are formulated more for use by private schools.

    However, there is one form that I see being particularly helpful to homeschoolers, which is the High School Transcript Planner.

    PAC – World History in Broad Strokes

    Another important reason I wanted to review this was because I was looking for a high school program that could cover world history in broad strokes too.

    I know that not every child of mine is going to want to linger over all the details of world history.

    You know we have used a program at the elementary level that had broad strokes and it was such a huge success for my kids.

    Since I can’t be selective about the details when it comes to history because I love them all, having the world history program from PAC, which is a framework for world history, keeps Mr. Awesome from being weighed down with nonessential details.

    Though we covered as much of the booklets in chronological order as we could, one of the advantages for me in using this with our unit studies is that we can pick and choose which booklet we want to do because each one covers a certain time span.

    For example, Chapter 1 covers from 5000 to 1200 BC and Chapter 6 covers from 1800 to 2011.

    I have changed my mind from when we first got this curriculum because it has been a good fit for Mr. Awesome who wants to move along faster in world history.

    Genghis Khan

    Too, covering such broad strokes has allowed him to match or parallel the same material or theme we are doing in our unit studies.

    Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum World History Curriculum @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

    For example, Mr. Awesome was able to read Chapter 4, which included Marco Polo while I did that unit study with Tiny.

    Certainly, with the booklets you do not have to cover history in chronological order, which is the part I love because I can still use this program and cover unit studies in the order we want to.

    PAC would be a good fit for a teen who wants to move on with world history at his pace and still review major turning points in history.

    If a teen has failed to get a good picture of significant events because he has been weighed down with unnecessary details, this curriculum would bring a blessed relief.

    Written in a conversational tone, with black and white images and with timelines, PAC makes a workbook approach a lot more appealing.

    There is just one thing I want you to know about too that I wish were a bit different.

    The box with the printed curriculum arrived fine but the curriculum had dog eared and wrinkled pages.

    I wish the booklets were packed with a bit more care and conscientiousness because first impressions do mean a lot.  Maybe this was just an oversight, I don’t know.

    When you pay for a high school level course, you want it in excellent condition.

    Overall though Mr. Awesome was very happy with this straight to the point no frills world history curriculum and I was delighted that we used this curriculum.

    I am looking over other parts of this curriculum to complete some of  the other requirements for high school for Mr. Awesome.
    Look at the details I gathered up and put here for you in one spot.

    Product Facts a Glance

    Company Name: Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum

    Website: PACWORKS

    Product Name: World History

    Age: High School

    Credit Hours: 1 credit.

    Format: In both digital and print.

    Note: PAC is in the process of incorporating QR codes into all their courses, allowing the students to access extra content via smartphone. As of now, the only course with this technology is biology.

    Price in printed format:  $111.35

    Price in digital format (remember you need all 3 components): World History Text $24.00, World History Activities $18.00 and World History TRK $5.69

    Note: PAC has informed me that they are updating their website to make it easier to recognize the digital downloads. A lot of people get confused because the digital downloads serve 2 purposes.

    One is just to make the print curriculum available to their customers at a cheaper price by providing them with a digital download option.

    The other is to use in unison with a  third-party text-to-speech software for students with reading disabilities, such as dyslexia, which they call Audio Enhanced Learning.

    Essentially, they are one and the same, but some people get thrown off by the title, which is what they are changing to make it more recognizable.

    The digital downloads are titled “Digital Downloads (Audio Enhanced Learning)”.

    Discounts you’ll love:

    20% Discount

    PAC offers a 20% discount to active military, ministers, missionaries, farmers, ranchers, and first responders (police, firemen, EMS, EMT, etc.).

    40% Discount

    PAC offers a 40% discount to single parents.
    PAC also offers a 40% discount for homeschool support groups who make a combined purchase of $1000.00 or more retail.

    Follow them:

    Facebook

    Twitter

    Pinterest

    YouTube

    Hugs and you know I love ya,

    All product information is correct and accurate as of the date of this review.

    6 CommentsFiled Under: Homeschool Curriculum Review, Sponsored Posts Tagged With: curriculum

    Homeschool Writing Program For Middle and High School Students

    August 8, 2014 | 8 Comments
    This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

    I often hear that the fun in school stops at the middle and high school grades, but I have not found that to be true. Being selective in our choices for homeschool writing programs has been one way that we have avoided middle and high school monotony.  Also, look at my page homeschool middle school and how to homeschool high school page for more fun tips.

    So when I heard about Fortuigence, which is an online writing course, I was thrilled to try it.

    However, knowing that I will be moving in just a few weeks though, I invited Jasmine as a guest blogger from Ponder the Path to review Fortuigence/Writing Rock Star for us, because I just didn’t want to pass up the opportunity for you to know about this wonderful homeschool writing program. 

    Before you read her helpful review below though, I wanted to let you know what makes a curriculum wonderful to me.

    Homeschool Writing Program

    (Jasmine was given a free copy of Essay Rock Star.  She was compensated for her time.  Her opinions and my opinions are our own and for sure I will always tell you what is on my mind, because it does not mean any company will get a rave review.  However, if I accept a review it’s because I am excited to tell you about the curriculum.  This post also contains affiliate links.  Read my full disclosures here.)

    As I homeschool longer I get more vocal about avoiding companies that invade the homeschooling market because we are a large educational niche for some companies

     Not all, but a lot of companies are not really bringing any real value or help to our children or to us as the teachers. 

    Neither do they understand the paramount role parents have as teachers.  So I try to actively seek out companies like Writing Rockstars whose students are mostly all homeschoolers, value our role as educator and create their products specifically to suit our needs.

    I think you’ll see what I mean when you read Jasmine’s review.

    Homeschool Writing Program For Middle and High School Students

    What do GMO’s, (genetically modified organisms) rock stars, and mind maps have in common?

    All three were part of a recent homeschool writing curriculum my daughter worked on this summer!  Maddie will be entering the 7th grade this fall and had never done any formal writing before. 

    When the opportunity came up for her to try Essay Rock Star she was excited to take her first online course.

    Choosing an Online Writing Course

    After choosing one of the four Essay Rock Star classes, Maddie was signed up with her own account.

    This may not seem like a big deal to most, but to a 12 year old girl this was a big deal. 

    She was able to log in to her class on her own and receive emails directly from Ms. I, as her teacher is affectionately called.

    I decided it would be best if Maddie took the Essay Rock Star: Expository Essay class. 

    In this class, Maddie learned to write an essay that explained a specific subject or topic. 

    Maddie had heard me talk about GMO’s before and knew basically what they were. She wanted to find out more about them and thought that they would make an interesting topic for her essay.

    Other Essay Rock Star classes include: The Personal Statement, The Persuasive Essay and The Textual Analysis.

    Working Through the Essay Rock Star Writing Lessons

    When Maddie first started the course, I sat down with her and walked her through the “classroom”. We went over how to work through the class, where to turn in assignments, and how to complete the lessons.

    Each of the 7 lessons has a video for the student to watch. 

    In the video, Ms. I walks the student through each step in the writing process. After watching the video, the student then reads through the lesson or can choose to listen to the audio version (great for different types of learners!).

    There are several learning aids included in each lesson that the student can either save or print out and put in a notebook. These items are great to keep on hand for future student writing assignments. 

    Some of the ones that we thought were particularly helpful were: “How to Write a Strong Introduction and Conclusion” and the “Revision Checklist”.

    organizing writing content

    After watching the video, reading the lesson, and printing or saving any of the extra learning tools, Maddie would work through each step of the writing process. 

    For instance, one of the first steps is the brainstorming process. 

    Ms. I shared a great tool for brainstorming called mind mapping.  She shared a link to Bubbl.us which is an online software tool that allows you to create pictorial mind maps and save them as images.

    This was one of the funnest parts for Maddie, as she could visually see how her ideas fit together.

    And the software allows you to move ideas around and create or delete ideas as needed. 

    You can get very detailed with your mind map, or just create the main points for your essay. We will definitely continue to use this tool in our writing assignments.

    Personalized Writing Lessons

    One thing that stuck out to me as Maddie went through the writing process, was the willingness of Ms. I to work with her students right where they were and teach them in a personalized way. 

    For instance, Maddie had decided to write her paper on GMO’s. 

    She did some research for her essay.  Because she had outside sources she had used for the information in her essay, Ms. I showed her how to cite her sources at the end of the paper.

    This was not in the original lesson, but was taught when it was needed.

    Maddie learned so much in the process of the course and it offered me a break in teaching. 

    It also gave Maddie a different learning perspective.  

    She enjoyed the independence of learning on her own and receiving feedback for each lesson. 

    Writing Program for Middle and High School

    She now has the knowledge to work through each step and complete an expository essay on her own.

    I look forward to seeing her build on the foundational skills she learned in this writing class. This has been a rewarding experience and has helped her enjoy learning to write!

    You’ll also love these other tips:

    • 3 Ways to Choose the BEST Writing Curriculum (for a Growing Homeschool Family)
    • Online Homeschool High School Poetry (No Teaching Involved)
    • How to Rock Creative Writing When Homeschooling (when you don’t feel like THAT creative mom)
    • Modern U.S. and World History High School Literature
    • A to Z List: Middle and High School Homeschool Electives
    • Cursive Matters; Handwriting Style Doesn’t + Free Resources
    • Should I be Teaching Spelling to my Homeschooled High Schooler?
    • 5 Creative Ways to Boost Handwriting in Older Kids
    Product Facts At A Glance

    Product Name: Essay Rock Star: Expository Essay. In this course, students learn to write an expository essay. The expository essay is the most common essay form that is often assigned in high school, college, and in the workplace. The purpose of an expository essay is to explain or inform an audience objectively about a specific subject.

    Website: Fortuigence.Com

    Type of Product:  Individual essay courses and a longer course with multiple essays.  Each essay takes approximately 4 weeks to complete.  The courses are a combination of pdf and video content.  Ms. I provides personalized feedback throughout the process!  I like the fact too that your child can receive high school credit even during the middle grades.

    Age: Middle School to High School, but can be used by an advanced writer.  The 1:1 tips also makes it a great curriculum for writers who dread the process.

    Jasmine

      Air Force wife, homeschooling mom, herbalist in training, quilter, soapmaker, all around homesteader…yup, that about sums it up!  You can find Jasmine at Ponder the Path.

    Homeschool Writing Program

    8 CommentsFiled Under: Homeschool Curriculum Review Tagged With: composition, high school, high school literature, homeschool highschool, homeschoolhighschool, language arts, languagearts, middleschool, onlinewriting, product review, review, teachingwriting, writing

    Homeschool Curriculum Keepers Part 1

    July 27, 2014 | Leave a Comment
    This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

    It’s true. The longer you homeschool the more picky you become about what your homeschool curriculum keepers are for a year.  I find that sometimes I need less and other years I want an abundance.

    This year will be the less is more motto.  Knowing that we will be moving by the end of August (yikes) from place to place, room to room, country to country and hotel room to hotel room, I tried to narrow down what I was going use this year for Tiny.

    One thing I did was to go ahead and bite the bullet and put Mr. Awesome in an online high school program.  He will not be doing all online but it helps me to focus on Tiny because I need to take more physical books for him.  I have tried to reduce to as many eBooks as I can too, but I don’t want to be floundering around trying to find a printer either when we need a lesson plan.

    I will be taking physical books in our suitcases.  Here are two things for my minimalist plan so far and I am thinking it may be my only list this year.

    My first curriculum keeper is Horizons Math. I linked to one grade level so you can see it.

    I have used many different math programs.  Here are some that I can remember: Calvert Math, Teaching Textbooks, Rod and Staff math, Modern Curriculum Press math, Key to . . . Series, Saxon, Math U See and Singapore Math.  Guess what? I have loved each one of them because they each had a purpose matched with a need for one of my sons.

    Horizons is my choice of math medicine for Tiny.  It has been a good fit for him.  As I have learned, math does not have to have boring black and white pages to be rigorous.  Horizons has colorful pages along with detailed boxes that explains each lesson.  The lesson explanations in the student workbook are very helpful and the teacher’s manual contains not only the answer but some helpful tips.  It is not a comprehensive teacher’s manual though which I don’t need now.  I prefer programs to be comprehensive in the student’s book though as they grow older because it promotes more independent learning.   Horizons Math does this, which I like because it gives the helpful explanations built into the workbook instead of relying on the teacher’s manual.  Because the workbook has good detail along with the worksheets, there is no hard back or large bulky textbook either. It is a 2 book series and soft bound.  It has been a delight to teach math with this series and I don’t say that lightly because you know I run from math.

    However, my boys love math so I stick around to teach it.

    I have used lots of wonderful language arts programs too.  Classical writing, Bob Jones, Calvert, Rod and Staff, Write Shop, Five in a Row, Institute for Excellence in Writing, English for the Thoughtful Child, Jump In, Writing With Ease and Learning Language Arts Through Literature are some I can remember.  Again, I have loved just about everyone because they each had an option matched to a need at the time.

    My next choice for this year, which is Growing with Grammar, I have to thank my close sweet friend Cynthia for a gentle nudge in that direction. I linked to one grade level for you too.

    Cynthia is one of my dearest friends and she always understands the way I enjoying teaching and knows what a change it has been as we have been getting ready to move.  Sometimes you need a nudge from a friend to get that moment of clarity as to which program will be beneficial at a certain time.  Using Growing with Grammar this coming year is a return to one of my previous luvs in my early years of homeschooling.

    This past year has been a struggle for us because some days as I was packing, I needed Tiny to be more independent in doing his work.  When a lesson plan is all tied together, it’s hard to move ahead on the lesson plan until you have it all done.  Most years, I have wanted curriculum that is more tied together or related because it does make sense. We love Bob Jones and it worked good for us up to this time.  This past year it was not an advantage for us though because Tiny could not scoot ahead when I needed him to or when he needed to.

    Also, learning can come in waves and trickles at time. There is a time when your child spikes in some areas and wants to stay on grade level in other parts of language arts.  We had one of those years.  Because I need something that he can work on more independently without holding up the whole lesson plan waiting on me and more importantly so he can move on when needed and stay on one level when he needs more review, Growing with Grammar is the answer.  It is just a fantastic program anyway.
    Growing with Grammar allows you to separate the components of language arts to tailor make your curriculum.  So you can pick the grade level of each component.

    By the way, Growing with Grammar is secular and I never have a problem with secular curriculum as long as it doesn’t bash the Bible.  Growing with Grammar is really just religiously neutral and that is a nice perk if you want to teach your worldview.  Again, the most important reasons I have chosen it though are because the lessons are compact, short, straightforward, easy to understand and the writing process is broken down into manageable bites with review at each step.  This is what Tiny needs this year.

    I know these two key curriculum resources are going with us and I have a few more pieces to squeeze into the suitcase that we have to have.  I’ll tell you about them in the next part.

    Have you started narrowing down your curriculum choices for this next year?

    Hugs and love ya,

    2012Tinasignature 5 Days of Clever DIY Hacks for Your Homeschool Spaces Day 5 Things the Teacher Luvs

    **A Tisket, A Tasket, A Back to School Basket Giveaway **

    Leave a CommentFiled Under: Homeschool Curriculum Review Tagged With: homeschoolcurriculum

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