Heritage History~TOS Review

As a homeschool family we own a lot of books both in physical and e-book format. I try to purchase physical books whenever possible but with hubby out of work for a year and a move to a much smaller space that has been cut back this year. Not to mention I am beginning to run out of book shelves. I was so grateful to be chosen to review Heritage History’s Classical Curriculum-Young Reader’s Library.

From the Website:

“The Heritage Classical Curriculum is the easiest, least expensive, and most enjoyable way to learn traditional history. Our "living books" reading program uses narrative histories that were popular with young people of earlier generations and features books of interest to students of all ages.

Write Shop ~ TOS Review

I love to write and so does my husband. I write poetry, short stories, pretty much whatever comes to mind while my dearest writes things of a more technical nature. This has not been the case with our 2 oldest sons.
While the 16 y/o will at least put pencil to paper and write something when required, the 9 y/o will balk and whine. Not a happy school day when that happens let me tell you. To his credit he has dysgraphia which makes writing painful and difficult for him. To combat this we began with minimal writing for him, focusing on penmanship and how to get the letters to flow. Slowly we have increased his workload to include more writing.

Judah Bible Curriculum ~ TOS Review

One of the places we really struggle in our day to day school life and outside of school as well, is remembering to work on and implement Godly character. I think this is probably the most important thing we as homeschoolers should be working on but for some reason it is always the first thing to let slip when things get crazy. We recently decided to cut back and simplify to really focus on this.

Homeschool Library Builder ~ TOS Review

I am so happy to have been introduced to a wonderful homeschool resource recently. Homeschool Library Builder is a company that helps homeschoolers build their libraries at a very affordable price. Run by two homeschool families, HSLB has an amazing free membership that enables you to earn free books with their book rewards program, newsletters with lesson plans and monthly specials, sell your products in their marketplace, and help support Compassion International.

AIMS Fabulous Fractions~TOS Review

The latest item I have been reviewing is one that many can relate to. Having a child struggle with math and/or science can put us moms in a hard place. That is why I was so glad to get a chance to review Fabulous Fractions from AIMS Hands on Math and Science. Fractions just seem to be a really difficult concept for most people including myself. This activity book is really useful in helping your child “see” the relationships in fractions.

TruthQuest History ~ TOS Review

We love history here at Miskatonic Prep. Well, all right maybe that is a slight exaggeration (or just wishful thinking on my part), but we do thoroughly enjoy learning about history. We use Charlotte Mason’s methodology of living books so much of our studying is done in the context of sitting down with a good book.

Amazing Animals by Design ~ TOS Review

Good books that teach my young children about our Lord are always a much needed resource at our home. I am just never sure how over their heads my explanations are, plus I can not convey in words what illustrations can in cute, adorable, and beautiful artwork. Fellow TOS Crew member Debra Haagen, created just such a book when she penned Amazing Animals By Design. You can check out her author site, Debra Haagen, to learn more about her.

Action Alert ~ TOS Review

As a mother I am always aware of the dangers of the internet for my children. I know most of the things my children view are innocent enough but with social media becoming so prevalent in our society it is nearly impossible to keep everything clean. Our family sets rules that keep our children off the internet until they are of an age where they can self monitor what is appropriate and not. We train them in Biblical principles so they know what constitutes sin in this area. Even this vigilance is not going to always keep them safe from everything, however. Action Alert internet safety is one way to keep a constant watch over our children.

Progeny Press Study Guides ~ TOS Review

I am an avid reader but my children, while they enjoy reading to an extent, do not share my passion. In an attempt to help them get the most out of the literature we chose last year we decided to take a couple weeks to really focus on 1 or 2 books. I had decided to use Progeny Press Study Guides. This year I was given a chance to use one of their high school guides and to check out their new interactive PDF formats. All of the study guides are now available in this new format which allows the student to type in the answers directly in the PDF document.

Art of Argument~TOS Review

I have to say I never thought I would be teaching Logic to my high schooler when we began thinking about homeschooling. Lately, however, my wise husband and I have been discussing our children’s need to be able to clearly and effectively get their point across. Things like Speech, Debate, and Logic have been tossed around. When I got the opportunity to review a Logic course from Classical Academic Press I was grateful.

TOS Review ~ Creek Edge Press Earth & Space Science Task Cards

Do you ever have those moments where the day is just what you imagined homeschooling was going to be like. You know way back before reality set in. I have to admit I do, but it is not the norm around our chaotic, happy, loud, messy house. Often we are struggling to get everything finished on time and trying to maintain sanity amid multiple meltdowns over various things from any one (or more of the children). I have recently experienced many more of these perfect homeschool days, however. You wouldn’t think that, considering I just had a baby 2 weeks ago and my dear husband is training with the military in another state, but Creek Edge Press has made it possible. I am so grateful for this resource since it has most likely saved my family from extinction.

K5 Learning ~ TOS Review

I am always looking for a way to allow my kids to have fun while learning. They are huge into video games and so online learning websites really appeal to us. We had a chance to review K5Learning, an online math and reading enrichment program for k-5th grade.

There are 4 components to the program:

Reading Eggs ~ TOS Review

I recently began trying to teach my 3 y/o daughter her alphabet and it really has been hit or miss. She never wants to stick with one letter long and tends to not want to work on the activities I set out. So far it is all play and we are ok with that but I want to begin a more structured lesson with her. It has been a struggle with her resistant and me frustrated. Lucky for me I was given the chance to check out Reading Eggs.

All About Reading Level 1~TOS Review

The one thing I always worry about with each of my children and being a homeschool mom is whether or not I will do an adequate job teaching them to read, and read well. I tend to be a perfectionist and scripted lessons are ideal so I can adjust what I need to, yet still feel I have a solid grasp on what I am teaching since I have no teaching experience other than what I learned in college ages ago. All About Reading Level 1 fits this so well for me.

TOS Review ~ Beeyoutiful Skin Care

 

I have to tell you about something that has been a true life saver for me. You see I just gave birth to my fourth child and have some pretty sore back muscles. I received a product from Beeyoutiful health and skin care called Ow!-Ease which is meant to relieve the pain of bruising, strains and similar ailments.

Apologia Who Am I~TOS Review

Last year I was blessed to be able to review the first volume of Apologia Press’s new line of worldview curriculum, What We Believe series . You may read that review by clicking here Who Is God. This year when I had the chance to review the second volume I was thrilled to say the least. Who Am I is everything I expected and more. This time I received not only the textbook but also the MP3 audio CD, coloring book, and journal. I am blown away by the company’s generosity.

A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks ~ Early Learning Review

Recently my daughter has been asking to do school which has me thrilled beyond belief. My problem is that she is not yet 3 and I firmly believe structured school time for her is better late than early. I am familiar with lapbooks and having done a few with my boys decided to pull their old ones out for her to look at. She was hooked and began asking for her own books.

I found some free ones online and while they were ok I really wanted one that could become her Pre-K book. I looked for something that had colors, numbers, letters, shapes, basically one we could do a bit at a time and it would last us a long time. I was having trouble so I asked my trusty fellow homeschool moms and was directed to a new-to-me-resource, A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks.

We Choose Virtues~TOS Review

One of the important reasons we decided to homeschool was to combat all the bad attitudes/behavior our children were bringing home from traditional school. I began realizing even my youngest at the time in kindergarten was coming home with nastiness in his heart. It only took a short while for us to implement a study on Christian virtues.

While this is something I have always planned myself I often wondered if there was a really good curriculum out there that would be already planned out for me. It turns out there is some wonderful plans out, one of which I recently had the pleasure of checking out myself.

Maestro Classics ~ TOS Review

Have you ever tried incorporating classical music into your children’s school? It is something we try to add in each year and each year it just kind of gets put on the back burner. It just seems like we lose steam trying to pull together resources on the time period, composer, and pieces. If you are finding this to be the case with your attempts I am so excited to tell you about an amazing resource that takes all the work out of learning classical music.

Home School Spanish ~ TOS Review

We were contemplating our choices for next years foreign language studies since my teen will be doing his first of two high school credits. He has tossed around the idea of either Japanese or Spanish, so we were blessed to have an opportunity to review a very good Spanish curriculum geared especially to home schoolers called R.E.A.L. Home School Spanish.

I have always wanted to learn Spanish myself but never thought I could teach it unless I did. R.E.A.L. Home School Spanish is a very simple approach to learning a foreign language. In fact R.E.A.L. stands for RELAX, ENJOY, ASPIRE, LEARN SPANISH. sounded like something I could do but would it be enough for my teen.