Schoolhouseteachers.com…Point, click, teach!

As a brand new member of The Schoolhouse Review Crew, I’ve been very excited this past two weeks to have been using materials from the Schoolhouse Teachers website, which is owned and operated by The Old Schoolhouse Magazine</

This site is absolutely wonderful! There is just so very much there that you can use, at whatever level your children happen to be, from Pre-K/Elementary right on through High School. All four of my children have special needs, and we’ve found plenty to keep us busy for a LONG time.

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Dring our review period, we chose a two week literature lapbook based around the short story ” Christmas In The Barn”, by F. Arnstein. This lapbook unit was created by Kimm Bellotto, along with several other lapbooks just waiting to be dug into on Schoolhouse Teachers during the next year.

Christmas in the Barn is a charming little story about a boy named Johnny, who discovers that his parents, unbeknownst to each other, have each ordered a Christmas tree to be delivered. Johnny comes up with a clever idea of how to use the extra tree. My children enjoyed the story, and it was fun having part one available, but then having to wait until the next week for part two, although they didn’t think the wait was so fun at first, LOL! Each week there were five different activities for them to do. In part one, the activities covered the following concepts:

1. art (completing an illustration for the part of the story that talks about how Johnny wondered why there were two trees)
2. language (a small concept booklet in which they were to think of two different similes that described Johnny’s cat)
3. creative thinking ( making a divided book in which they listed three different ideas of things they might do if their parents bought an extra Christmas tree and gave it to them)
4. listing and predicting (a two door book, under one flap they listed all the items Johnny got from the cook, and under the other flap they wrote what they thought he might be going to do with the items)
5. Narration (they each made a small book in which they wrote a summary of part one.

Working on booklets for their lapbooks

This past Monday was the day part two came out on the website. I went ahead and printed everything out, however, I was at the hospital all of that day with my husband, who was having spinal surgery, so we didn’t actually work on part two until Tuesday. We read part two of the story before leaving to pick up my husband from the hospital, and worked on the activities after getting him home and settled. In part two, the remaining activities covered:

6. art (complete a picture of the Christmas tree by drawing Johnny decorating it for his animal friends)
7. thinking skills ( a four door booklet listing treats they might put on or under a tree for a duck, a monkey, a mouse and a seal)
8. creative writing (write an additional ending to the story telling what they think happened after the original story was finished)
9. narration (a three door booklet telling about three traditions our family has each Christmas)
10. creative thinking (a booklet about a new tradition they would add to our family celebration)

My boys very much enjoyed making their lapbooks, and are asking for more. I was very happy to be able to tell them there are several more on Schoolhouse Teachers just waiting for us to dig into after the holidays!

The finished product!

We also played with some of the daily games, which you’ll find under the dailies link, and one of the “this Day in History activities, which is at the same link.

my twins, playing the consonant vowel consonant word game

I enjoyed the ease of downloading this month’s free E-Book, Homeschool Dialogs to my ipad for accessibility anytime and anywhere I would have time to read it. It’s a good read, filled with conversations with some of the most respected leaders in homeschooling. Here are just a few of the people interviewed in this book: John Taylor Gatto, Lisa Whelchel, “Little Bear” Wheeler, and many more.

Reading my free e-book!

The e-books can also be downloaded to a kindle or your computer.

There is a group of teachers on the site for a wealth of weekly and monthly lessons:

Geography: Terri Johnson of Knowledge Quest
History: Diana Waring of Diana Waring Presents
Home Economics: Malia Russell of Homemaking911.com
Technology: lesson plans on Google Earth from Andy Harris

and many more, including subjects such as filmmaking, High School Math, Economics, Chemistry, and Helps for Struggling Readers. All of this and more is available at Schoolhouse Teachers

In addition to all of this, there are also available each and every yearly planner put out by The Old Shoolhouse Magazine, Monthly bonus e-books, Supplemental back issues of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, video recordings of several Schoolhouse EXPO’s,a monthly menu list of recipes contributed by other homeschoolers just like us, and oh, so much more!

You can join Schoolhouse Teachers with a one month trial for just $1.00. After that, it’s just $5.95 per month for “ready to go, unlimited classes and lesson plans made convenient for your family’s homeschool day”, which I feel is very affordable, and well worth the price.

I know my children and I will be able to use so much of what is on Schoolhouse Teachers!

I received a free one year membership to Schoolhouse Teachers through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

To read what others thought of this product, please go to http://schoolhousereviewcrew.com/schoolhouseteachersreview/