October 16, 2014 · 2:28 pm

Apologia Educational Ministries (iWitness) . . . A T.O.S. Review

Our family has really loved using material from Apologia Educational Ministries ever since first being introduced to one of the science resources after a friend had used one and told me my boys would love it. They did, too!

This particular set of books which I am writing about today though, is different. As a member of the Review Crew, I received three books in the iWitness series:

1. iWitness Biblical Archaeology

iWitness Biblical Archaeology gives an awesome look at archaeological finds which prove many things that we as believers already knew (by faith) to be true. Many people and places which are referred to in the Bible, were not really shown in “historical” texts, because there was no “proof”, but many finds over time have more than proven the truth of their having existed.

2. New Testament iWitness

New Testament iWitness takes the reader along as it investigates things such as “Who wrote the New Testament?” “How do we know?” “How was it handed down?”, among other fascinating things. This book follows the history of and formation of the canon, while the reader sorts through the information given.

3. Old Testament iWitness

Old Testament iWitness goes into discussion of the differences between the Old Testament and the Hebrew Bible. It asks questions such as “Who wrote these ancient books?” “how were they collected?” “Is it mythology or history?” As with the other two books mentioned above, the reader is led through looking at evidence for him or herself, and gaining a great deal of knowledge in the process!

These books are written and designed by Doug Powell, who purposely does not write from his own opinion. He gives facts, actual photos, archaeological proof, and then we are expected to think for ourselves and come to our own belief. While they are very well put together for all ages, the suggested reading level is age 11 and up.

The first thing I want to tell you about is my initial impression when the books arrived. These are extremely sturdy paperback size books, but there the similarity ends. these books have very thick and sturdy pages, which means they will last, and continue to be a good resource on our shelf for many years to come. The other thing that caught my eye immediately was the layout of the pages. As an avid scrap-booker and paper crafter, the scrap-book style layout of all the pages was really pleasing to my eye. There is a nicely done combination of pictures and text. The text is all arranged on separate pieces which look like pieces of scroll or parchment. Over all, the look and feel of each of these books is, in my opinion, of very high quality.

Both “The Artist” and I have been reading through them, beginning with iWitness Biblical Archaeology. I must tell you that this is the book which turned out to be a favorite, although we enjoy all of them. 🙂 However, I have always wanted to learn more about archaeological finds which prove the things I know to be true because of my faith in God’s Word.

“The Artist” and I had different “favorite” parts, though. He says his favorite was when the archaeology book gave information about the Mesha Stele or Moabite Stone. It discusses how one group attempted to destroy it, rather than have the Turks get it, but that the original discoverers managed to find enough of it to reconstruct much of the stone, giving valuable information regarding people and places within the Old Testament.

“My” favorite part was the recounting of the story of the flood of Noah’s time, as related by different cultures throughout time. I had always heard that different cultures had their own passed down stories of the flood, and iWitness Biblical Archaeology talks about several of them. It then also shows the similarities and differences between Genesis and these stories. For me, it is just one more reason that I believe there is no real excuse for claiming God does not exist.

In Old Testament iWitness, I was interested in the sections about the manuscripts and how they were copied, along with how the books were arranged and included.

In New Testament iWitness, I was again interested in the methods of copying, along with differences in copies, and why certain books were rejected.

The bottom line is that we really enjoyed these books, and we definitely recommend them. They can be purchased at the cost of $14.00 each from Apologia, and I must say that I feel they are well worth the cost.

You may also check out Apologia Educational Ministries via social media:

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/apologiaworld
Twitter – https://twitter.com/apologiaworld
Google+ – https://plus.google.com/105053356034237782125/posts
Pinterest – http://www.pinterest.com/apologia/

99 other crew members also reviewed these iWitness books. Please click the banner below to read about what they thought!
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October 7, 2014 · 4:26 pm

A Sad Good-Bye . . .

With the permission of my dear friend Robin Burns, I am writing this post about her son, Tyler Burns. Tyler died yesterday morning, having saved the lives of some friends. You may read more about what happened here:

http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2014/10/07/news/19local_10-07-14.txt#.VDRglLl0yT4

What I want to do here, though, is tell you what Tyler and his family were to our life. When we first moved to Pt. Huron, MI, Tyler’s mom Robin was my very first friend there, and Ty and my two older boys, “The Batman” and “The Artist” grew up together. They played together. We watched each others kids when needed. Our boys attended each others birthday parties.

Here is a picture from “The Batman’s 13th birthday party. Tyler is the second boy over from the “Batman”, watching the gifts being opened.
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And here he attended “The Artist’s” 9th birthday party:
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Which was just one month later. Ty is at the far end of the table, in front of the china cabinet, to the left as you face the cabinet.

Tyler was one of my favorite playmates for my sons. But several years before we moved to NM, Ty’s family moved to WY, and of course, we missed them so much.

It is so hard to believe now, that we will never see Tyler again, until we reach heaven, but so good to know for certain, that we WILL see him there. I know that he accepted Jesus Christ as his Saviour when he was a young boy, and that we will see him again.

Please pray, as my family is doing, for the Burns family as they go through this terrible suffering and loss.

Tyler

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September 30, 2014 · 3:24 pm

Fix It! Grammar . . . A T.O.S. Review

In all of the years of working on the education of my kids here at home, we have never, ever actually used a formal grammar program. Or, for that matter, ANY written grammar program, to be honest! I have basically practiced an informal method of correcting their spoken grammar as a part of our daily life, something I will continue doing, as I believe it works quite well for SPOKEN grammar. However, “The Artist”, who was the student reviewing a fiction writing course last year, really wants to go back to it, and to learn to be better at writing stories, so I thought that the opportunity to review Fix It! Grammar: The Nose Tree [Teacher Manual] (Book 1), along with Fix It! Grammar: The Nose Tree [Student Book](Book 1), would perhaps be a good thing for him. I took a look at how it worked and decided to give it a chance.

This grammar program is from the very well known Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW).

IEW is a company I personally have never really taken the opportunity to really check out, because I was afraid it would be too difficult for my special needs guys. However, I am extremely glad we were blessed with the opportunity to review Fix It! Grammar, because it really works, in just minutes a day!

Here is the basic concept . . .
Method: modeling proper grammar within stories. Instead of being taught a grammar rule, and then being forced to practice it with a bunch of exercises, followed by the next grammar rule, over and over (Lather, rinse, repeat, so to speak) in Fix It! Grammar, the grammar rules are taught as they are needed, within the context of a story that builds upon itself until, at the end of the lesson book, the student has written correctly, the entire fairy tale used at that level.

The Process: 15 minutes per day. The level we received is giving us 33 weeks of grammar instruction and practice, in only 15 minutes per day, and 4 days per week.

This program is incredibly easy to set up and to work through! If you have the student book, then your student will need a note book divided into two sections, which are Rewrite and Vocabulary.

On day one of each week, your student will read and correct ONE sentence. Yes, one. He or she will read the sentence, look up the bolded word in a dictionary and write the best definition which fits within the context of the sentence, and write that into the vocabulary section of their note book. This will be built on each day until at the end, they have their own vocabulary dictionary to refer to. Then, he or she will copy the sentence for that day into the rewrite section of their note book, using double spacing.

On days two through four, the student will use the abbreviations at the top of the page, as well as the provided grammar flash cards to help them remember how to mark the section. As with day one, the student does their “rewrite” in the notebook, writing with double spacing. They are to use their best handwriting, so this is also a nice addition to the day in giving them that particular practice!

While we received both the Teacher book and the Student book (both are very nice, spiral bound books), If you prefer, you CAN just purchase the teacher book at the cost of $19.00. The teacher book comes with a license allowing you to download the student book and print as many copies as needed for use within your own homeschool family. The Student book, available for $15.00, is well worth it though, depending on how much it costs for you to print, and whether or not you have more than one child. I happen to have four boys, so knowing that I can print it as needed when each of them is ready for this, makes this a bargain for me.

A placement test is provided if you are unsure where to begin your student, however, like many people, I chose to begin with book one, so as to create a good foundation upon which we can build with the levels which follow. There is also a webinar available to introduce you to Fix It! Grammar, along with how this program differs from traditional methods of teaching grammar.

Fix It! Grammar is intended for 3rd grade and up, but as I said, I personally think that if you, like us, have not done a formal grammar program, it’s best to begin at the beginning.

What did we think of it? Well, I find it incredibly easy to use! “The Artist” really does not enjoy being MADE to write, although he enjoys writing on his own time, so this was the perfect choice for him. I mean, really? One sentence per day? Even my lazy writer who constantly complains about his hand cramping from too much writing, is fine with this! He really doesn’t mind giving up 15 minutes out of his day, and when he is finished, he will have completely written the entire fairy tale himself, with correct grammar! The only real problem we have is keeping him from reading ahead to see the rest of the story, lol!

You will find IEW on the following social media:

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Bottom Line? Not only do I very highly recommend Fix It! Grammar from IEW, I think we will be continuing with it level by level. It is a very painless way to learn written grammar, and frankly, I like that. There is no reason education HAS to be dreary, if there is a better way, and this is definitely a better way, in my opinion.

Other Review Crew members have been reviewing this and other levels of Fix It! Grammar, so please click on the banner below to find out what they thought!
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September 22, 2014 · 2:22 pm

More Tangling!

Earlier this month, I took another class, this one on making Zendalas. Similar to zentangles, but round. We learned some new tangles, and used some we had already learned. Here are the ones I did in class, where we each did a traditional black pen on a white zendala tile:

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and one on a black zendala tile with white jelly roll pen, followed by highlighting in our chosen color of sparkly gel pen:

phone dump 20140909 283.

I’m very pleased with mine, I thought they turned out well! Here is a link to dentangles, the blog run by one of our teachers, so that you can see the class zendalas for that day!

Definitely check out all of her blog, she has some great content! 🙂

One final thing, it’s been very busy here for the past few months, between moving, and attempting to get my own health back on track, but I am feeling some better, so I promise, no more long breaks between non-review posts. I’ll be trying to write at least every few days, I have a ton of photos to show you what we’ve been up to this summer! 🙂

As always, I’d love it if you joined me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”! Just go to the top of the blog and enter your email into the “sign me up button, and you’ll never miss an update! Also, it would be great if you went to our Facebook page and gave it a “like”. I’d sure appreciate it if you did! 🙂

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September 9, 2014 · 4:52 pm

Under Drake’s Flag (Heirloom Audio Productions) . . . A T. O. S. Review

Growing up, I often heard my dad telling us children about my grandmother listening to the original soap operas on the radio, and about programs on the radio that appealed to the children and families of that time. I had never listened to an audio drama, so I thought this would be an interesting review, especially since my own children have always had the visual along with the audio (what with watching their movies, as opposed to listening, you know). In fact, they are SO used to looking at the screen, I wasn’t sure how well this would be received, but I knew *I* wanted to hear it, so I went for it, LOL! This audio production is written to ages 6 – adult, and I thought that to be pretty accurate.

Heirloom Audio Productions is where you may purchase this wonderful 2 CD boxed set of the Audio Drama “Under Drake’s Flag“. It is available as an “instant access” mp3 version for $20.00, which also includes the following bonuses:

1. The complete Under Drake’s Flag eStudy Guide and Discussion Starter.

2. A beautiful, printable copy of Drake’s Prayer.

If you prefer, you may purchase the 2 CD boxed set at $29.95 plus $6.95, which includes the following bonuses:

1. The “instant access” download of Under Drake’s Flag valued at $20.00.

2. The complete Under Drake’s Flag E-Study Guide and Discussion Starter. 30 pages of Under Drake’s Flag discussion points, history-learning guides and story-related Bible study, valued at $20.00.

3. The Under Drake’s Flag Soundtrack MP3 download, valued at $20.00.

4. A beautiful, printable copy of Drake’s Prayer, valued at $10.00.

The add on bonuses in the CD boxed set add up to $70.00, making this a very good deal, in my opinion!

Now, down to the review! We ended up choosing to listen to the complete story, rather than breaking it up into chapters. After all, when we watch movies, we don’t break them up, either! Plus, to be honest, I was concerned about losing their interest. I didn’t need to worry though, because they listened pretty well! “The Artist” and “Mr. Loquacious” really paid more attention that “The Batman” and “The Puzzler”, and were much better able to answer the comprehension questions in the mini study guide which is included in the boxed set. There is a much expanded study guide as a download, but at this time, it wasn’t a good fit for my boys.

Both guides have comprehension questions for each chapter: “Listening well”, “Thinking Further” questions, and “defining words”. There is also a Bible study section with sections such as “Godly Character”, “True Manhood”, and “Confessing Christ”, each of which is related to parts of the story, and has corresponding Bible verses to use in your study. Drake’s prayer is also printed inside the CD holder, and it is a beautiful prayer.

After explaining to the boys that this would be like “listening” to a movie instead of “watching” a movie, we popped the first CD into our DVD player and settled in. I had told them they could either draw pictures relating to the story while listening, or write down interesting things they heard, but surprisingly, none of them did, they just flopped onto the floor and listened! Even their dad and I enjoyed it, although we were both very tired and not feeling at our best, and so we dozed off a couple of times.

I liked the way the audio drama was written. It begins with two boys, Ned and Gerald, who are British boys in school, working on a report about Sir Francis Drake. Gerald is CLEARLY more interested in the history, while Ned just wants to skip doing it and go to a cricket match. They happen upon a man they are invited to call “Mr. George”, who offers to tell them a story about Sir Francis Drake, in which there just happen to be two boys named Ned and Gerald. We are to understand that Mr. George is G. A. Henty, who lived and wrote about history, writing 122 books which became essential reading in English schools. He promises that if the boys become bored, he will stop if they tell him, so they may go to the cricket match. In the end, they become so caught up in the adventures of the Ned and Gerald in the story, and how they adventured the seas with and without Sir Francis Drake, that they don’t ever ask him to stop telling them the story!

In “Mr. George’s story, we hear about how Ned first comes to Drake’s attention by saving a man who is in the water, Drake promises that should he ever return to Ned’s village, he will offer him a place on his ship, something Ned wants very much, even though his mother is opposed, having lost her husband to the sea. Eventually, though, Drake does return, and offers Ned a position. His mother, knowing what is right for him, gives him his father’s dagger and her blessing.

Ned and Gerald have many adventures, helping to fight against the Spanish Armada, saving a Spanish young lady from drowning, facing the Spanish Inquisition, and more, all the while learning from Drake about being good men with Christian principles. We are hopeful that heirloom Audio Productions will soon release even more wonderful audio dramas such as this one, as we thoroughly enjoyed it!

I highly recommend this audio production!

Check out Under Drake’s Flag on Facebook, too!

99 other Review Crew members also reviewed this product. To read about what they thought of it, please click on the banner below!
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August 26, 2014 · 3:55 pm

UberSmart Software . . . A T.O.S. Review

My boys and I have had the opportunity for the past few weeks to work with UberSmart Math Facts.

This little program, created by a homeschool dad whose wife wanted their children to have help with learning their math facts. It is available from UberSmart Software It is written primarily for students from K – 6, or anyone older (even adults) who need, or would like a refresher on the basic math facts, and can be purchased for $24.95.

I was intrigued enough at how simple this little program is for learning math facts, that I really wanted to give it a try with my kids. As it turns out, it really is a basic little program, which you download to your computer (which must have one of the following: Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8), and you ARE permitted to put it onto multiple computers, which can be of some help if you have several children, and more than one computer.

The UberSmart Math Facts program works just like your traditional set of flash cards, but electronically, on your computer. First, learn, in which your student tries to answer the problem and then hit the answer key to check your answer. Another section, practice, allows him/her to click on the answer they think is correct, and they may also choose test when they are ready, which causes the program to give them a timed session with a certain number of cards.

Depending on whether or not you allow online activity, your student may also choose compete, allowing them to compete against others around the world in a timed session. We haven’t done this one.

This program also has a “report” and a “maintain” tab for the parent. If you like to have printable reports to keep for your records, or if you need them in a portfolio to turn in to your state, UberSmart Math Facts gives you the ability to have them. You can also maintain things like how long you want a student to have on timed activities. The default (4.5 seconds) is too, too fast for all but one of my boys, but you can adjust it, as I said.

Here are some of the different ways you can have the program set up, depending upon the age or ability of your child.

Traditional flash card format:

Keyboarding (practice typing the digits in quickly):

Dot cards:

There are other possibilities as well, such as showing the dots and numbers together.

I wanted to try UberSmart Math Facts because I feel that my boys can use a LOT of help when it comes with the memorizing of math facts, in particular “The Batman”.

I, personally, like this program. My kids, not so much. They thought it was boring, because they have, in the past, used math fact programs that were more like a video game, and they love video games, of course! They love the flash, excitement, and “leveling up”. However, since I can SEE some improvement, I’ll continue using it. We most often use it in the “practice” mode, because it is very hard for some of my boys to actually memorize the facts and have them stick. As with many things, we need to sort of tweak educational materials for our special needs kids, and given that we CAN continue under “practice” until such time as they are ready

A number of other crew members also were given the opportunity to review UberSmart Math Facts, Please, do click the banner below to see what they thought of this program!
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August 18, 2014 · 4:06 pm

Piano Recital!

So, a little over a week ago, “The Artist”, “The Batman” and I participated in our first piano recital since moving to New Mexico. It was held at Mesa Baptist Church, where we have been members since shortly after moving to this state.

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For having been out of lessons ever since we left Michigan, I really don’t think we did too badly!

Here is “The Batman” performing his piece . . .

Next up, we have “The Artist” . . .

And then finally, me!

Here are all of the students with our teacher, Mrs. Aubrey Grantham. She did a wonderful job getting us to this point, and I’m looking forward to learning much, much more from her!

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As always, I’d love it if you would join me on all of “My Journeys through Life”. Just go and enter your email into the “sign me up” button at the top of the blog, and never miss an update! And if you do enjoy “My Journeys”, please go to our Facebook page and give it a “like”. I’d sure appreciate it if you did! 🙂

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July 22, 2014 · 5:20 pm

HomeSchoolPiano . . . A T.O.S. Review

Our two oldest boys and I take “in person” piano lessons, but our younger boys are really not ready yet. Add to that the cost of in person lessons, and it just hasn’t been a possibility so far, so when I was given the chance to review online piano instructions from HomeSchoolPiano, I was very thankful!

We were given HomeSchoolPiano – Complete Set of Books, which is The Complete Beginner Piano program. This includes the following:

•Unlimited lifetime access to HomeSchoolPiano.com
•Tracking and quizzes for up to 5 students
•Unlimited lesson streaming to any device
•Unlimited music downloads
•Unlimited video lesson downloads
•Downloadable Jam Track CD

HomeSchoolPiano – Complete Set of Books is available for purchase at the one time price of $299.00, or you can buy it with 3 monthly payments of $99.97 each. This program is designed for anyone, children and adults, so you can learn right along with your children! 🙂

This is not an instructional program wherein you must log in at certain times, or miss a class. Your lessons are available at any time, day or night. Also, you can view them on your computer, tablet, or even your phone! No fancy equipment is required, you can use a regular piano, or a keyboard with at least 49 keys.

You may be interested in finding out about the 6-step learning cycle, as well as signing up for a free lesson to discover if this would be a good fit for you and/or your children.

The instructional books are pdf downloads. You can choose to print any given book out all at once, or do as we are doing and printing out a page at a time right now. That is because “Mr. Loquacious” is in “Core Piano”, which so far, has been mostly online instruction. Right now, he is the only one of our kids doing the lessons because we have been in the process of moving, and have not had the time for more than one to be taking them. He is enjoying them though, and his twin is wanting to begin as well. 🙂

Core piano is for absolute beginners, which “Mr. Loquacious” is. Core Piano covers basics such as the musical alphabet, finding the individual keys across the keyboard (find the c’s, find the d’s etc”), skipping over keys in thirds, correct posture, and the five-finger scale, among other things.

Here is “Mr. Loquacious”, watching one of the lessons, before going to the piano to practice.
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I have since realized that we should be rigging up a way to put my laptop or tablet right at the keyboard so that he can do things right when he is being instructed. This is definitely something we will do, as soon as I get things in order in our new home!

Meanwhile, here is “Mr. Loquacious”, practicing on our keyboard.
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We really like the way the video lessons are set up. We can see the teacher, Willie Myette in the lower corner of the screen. Then, above that, going across the scree, are two keyboards. One is a bird’s eye view of Willie’s hands as he is playing, so we can see and understand what he is doing, and the other is a digital keyboard, on which the keys are highlighted each time he plays it, enabling the student to learn where the keys are that he should be playing.

As I told you above, “Mr. Loquacious is working in Core Piano at this time, but I’m happy that he will be able to move on to the other levels eventually. They are:

Book 1: a second beginner book which teaches how to read music, play simple music, and even create one’s own music.

Book 2: This book is for the more advanced beginner to intermediate level, and will start to teach more advanced techniques.

Book 3: This is for the intermediate student, and begins to teach more challenging aspects of playing the piano.

This has turned out to be a great addition to our educational library! As I said above, both “Mr. Loquacious” and “The Puzzler” have expressed interest in learning to play the piano, but have simply not been ready. With this program, they can go at their own pace, even when it means doing the same lesson over and over until they “get” it, which is where “Mr. Loquacious” happens to be right now. He is a bit stuck at the five-finger scale, but he is plugging away at it. 🙂

I do recommend this program to the homeschooling family, because if you have multiple children, it is very cost-effective. I also recommend it because it isn’t a subscription that you have to renew every year, it is a life time program, which really extends the cost effectiveness, in my opinion.

To follow HomeSchoolPiano via social media, check them out at the following:

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July 8, 2014 · 7:55 pm

What’s New?

I know I have not been writing as much as I usually do lately. We are in the process of moving, and on top of that, I’ve been under the weather.

We’ve spent the past two days doing our move in inventory check-list for the new house, and there’s a lot that needs to be taken care of. But, once that all is done, I think it will be a good place.

Our two oldest, “The Batman” and “The Artist” were off to teen camp with our church yesterday, and will be gone until sometime Friday afternoon. The best part is that unlike Winter Retreat, I did NOT have to get them to the church so early in the morning that it was still dark! 🙂 This time, they had to be there at 11:45 a.m., a much more decent hour, lol!

I will try harder to keep up to date on our move and everything else, as time and internet connection permits, but we’ll be disconnecting stuff next week, so it’s all in what my phone hot spot can handle. 🙂

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July 8, 2014 · 7:43 pm

Moving Beyond The Page . . . A T. O. S. Review

My kids and I have been given the opportunity again to review curricula from Moving Beyond The Page.

We were asked to choose a language arts package and either a science or social studies package. These are available as stand alone units, but have also been developed so that you may choose a language arts package, and easily find a coordinating science or social studies unit. I chose to go with a coordinating set. Our language arts was an online package with the curriculum online and the story books shipped to us, while our science package was a physical set, with everything shipped to us.

This year, we chose the Language Arts Package – Tornado, and received the online package.
unit_26[1]

This package costs $20.91, and includes the online curriculum, along with two books which were shipped to us in the package containing our science set. The two books for the Tornado unit are:
How The Turtle Got His Shell (a Little Golden Book)
Tornado by Betsy Byars.

We also received the Science Package – Amazing Weather, available for $36.97.
unit_248[1]

This set was shipped to us, and included the spiral bound curriculum (with the workbook pages bound into it), and the following books:
“On the Same Day In March” by Marilyn Singer and Frane Lessac
“Weather” by Lorri Mack.
“Weather” is a DK book, which is a wonderful series of books. I scoop them up whenever I can, because my boys LOVE them!

We also received an individual boiling point thermometer.

I did receive a note in my package that the Weather” book was on back order with the book publisher, but that they had a used copy they were sending me so as not to delay my shipment. I must tell you though, if they had not told me this, I would not have known, it looked like a brand new book.

Our two units are designed for students in the 7 – 9-year-old range, but I would say that would be gifted children in that range, myself.

The Language Arts Unit-Tornado Unit covers a story about a friendship between a boy and his dog, and the student will also learn about the effects of weather on farm life.

When you first activate your online unit, you will see links to the following:

list of reading and materials
student activity pages available as a pdf download
Reading and questions pages
Summary of skills
How to use Moving Beyond The Page
Review Sheet

You will also see links to each of the lessons. In the case of our unit, “Tornado”, there are 9 lessons, along with a final project:

Lesson 1: Weather on the Farm (2 Days)

Lesson 2: The Storm (2 Days)

Lesson 3: The Tornado

Lesson 4: A Card Trick

Lesson 5: Turtles (2 Days)

Lesson 6: The Best Pet Award

Lesson 7: Conflict

Lesson 8: The End of the Storm (2 Days)

Lesson 9: Plot

Final Project: Think-Tac-Toe

Finally, at the bottom of the page, you will see links for spelling and vocabulary.

When you go into the unit, for example our “Tornado” unit, and click on a lesson (I will use lesson one as an example), you will see the intro page. Here it told me about the questions we were going to explore, what facts and definitions we would be looking at, the cross-curricula skills we would be covering, the materials we would be using, and an introductory activity to use with the student. This was pretty much the norm for each lesson. The table of contents also told me whether a given lesson would cover more than one day.

As most of you know, I am a huge fan of doing educational material as a group whenever possible, and as we did last year, this is what I chose to do again. It is easier to do this with the online curriculum, because you are permitted to print out copies for each child. However, one thing that I really, really wish (and had hoped!) that had been changed since last year is the 90 day limit to finish your unit once you activate it. The whole reason I have come around to purchasing online/downloadable curricula is for the opportunity to use it in the future.

Because of the special needs issues in our family, we chose to do this primarily as an oral unit. We read and discussed the reading materials, and did the drawing, coloring and mapping, but whenever there was much writing to do, we did it orally so that everyone was equally involved. They are still not at the point of thoroughly understanding the structure of a story (although “The Artist” is getting there”, but still, they did seem to enjoy this unit. They liked the stories, and they always enjoy the discussions that come up as a result of reading and doing things as a group.

Now, on to our Science Unit – Amazing Weather. As I said above, we were shipped the spiral bound teacher’s guide/student workbook. I personally would prefer that the student pages come in a separate book.

When I first opened the curriculum, I saw the table of contents, and then a section on how to use Moving Beyond The Page. An integrated approach is used, so that even if you are using this as a stand alone unit, it is still going to hit things like art, drama, or music. The student will also be reading quality literature, which means that even though it is a science unit, it is including language arts. This unit also includes vocabulary, and it is important to use it while going through this study. The student doesn’t have to memorize it all, but should be able to understand and use the words correctly.

Again using lesson one as an example, I found a “Getting Started” section. This section summarizes what we did with the following headings:

Big Ideas (how does the environment affect living things?, and Why does the weather change?)

Facts and Definitions (for example, what a meteorologist is)

Skills (describing weather in various ways, identifying and using common tools to measure weather, and gathering information using simple equipment)

A materials list, which included what student pages to use

An introduction suggestion to use with the student

A list of the activities for this lesson

Required reading for this lesson, along with the comprehension questions for that reading

A wrapping it up section and a life application assignment.

Of course, my kids (as usual!) enjoyed the reading. The writing? Not so much, lol! So again, we did a lot of the unit orally, with group discussion.

We live in New Mexico, where there has been a severe drought for several years, so our weather during this study had VERY little variation, but it was still interesting nonetheless.

To sum all of this up, I want you to know that I really do like Moving Beyond The Page. I probably would not purchase it though, because of the “cons”.

With the online version, I can read the teacher material right from my tablet or laptop, and print out as many copies of the student pages as I need. However, I have access for only 90 days, which as I stated in my previous review, feels a lot more like a rental than a purchase, given that as far as I can see, there is no way to print out the teacher materials. With the physical unit, I have everything in hand, but am not allowed to make extra copies of the student pages. I would very much like to see one of these cons change.

The pros, for me, are that we CAN do these units as a group! With the varying levels of ability that my kids have, we are still able to spark very good discussions with these units, and it often surprises me just how much some of them have really learned!:-)

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