I would find it hard to believe that any woman would actually say, "I want to be a horrible wife. In fact, I want to be the worse wife ever." Nobody goes into marriage thinking of how they are going to be a bad wife. We all go into this adventure with good intentions of being the best wife that we can be. But, what if we need help?
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
The Bible is a great resource to know how to be a better wife and what it means to be a wife. Click below if you would like to print these out for yourself or for a friend. Put them in your car, on your mirror, or in your Bible. Memorize them so that God's Word is in your heart.
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FREE Kindle Books for Your School!
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/FREE-Kindle-Books-for-Your-Schoolhttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/FREE-Kindle-Books-for-Your-SchoolTue, 03 Sep 2019 11:25:00 +0000
Does your family read a lot of books? Do you use, or want to use, books in your schooling? Does your family have a Kindle or the Kindle app? I recently remembered about this wonderful resource that we already have access to.
Our family doesn't have any Kindles, but we have iPads which we can get the Free Kindle app on. There are millions of books available on Kindle ~ many of which are FREE! Yep! You heard that right ~ FREE!
When my kids need a specific book for a class that they are taking, I look here first to see how much it is on the Kindle. A lot of them are free or very low cost. I love having books on the Kindle because they don't take up space in our bookcase and we can keep them for everyone to read. No due dates - No late fees - No paper cuts!
I wanted to show to what Kindle is offering by giving you some examples of some of the FREE books that are available to you, today!
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
** Please remember that these books were FREE when this post was written. Make sure that you are double checking the prices before you "buy". **
Young Elementary Grades
Animal Books
Books About the Solar System
Public Domain Books - Classics, G.A. Henty, etc...
This is just touching the surface of what's available on the Kindle for Free. I will be letting you all know about other books that I find that are free or cheap throughout the year. This is a great resource for any homechooling family!
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Britfield & The Lost Crown Review
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Britfield-The-Lost-Crownhttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Britfield-The-Lost-CrownWed, 28 Aug 2019 17:06:53 +0000
I'm sort of a mystery wrapped in an enigma. I am a mom, homeschool parent, and an ESL teacher. I love books. I love to look at books. I love the feel and the look of books. I love to buy books. I love to go to the library with our boys. The problem? I'm not a big reader. Strange, right? I love books, but I just can't get into them most of the time and I lose interest quickly. Not so with this book. "Britfield & The Lost Crown", by C. R. Stewart, kept my interest the entire time.
I was really surprised that I enjoyed it that much. Not to say that I thought that it was a bad book at all! It just really isn't meant to be an adult book. It's meant for elementary age children. They even have an 83 page study guide to go along with the book. But, more about that later.
When we were offered the chance to review this book, I just wasn't sure whether our boys would enjoy it or not. They both have other books that they are reading for school, so this one would be an extra. I thought that it looked interesting enough, so I decided to get it and read it myself. That way, I could decide if it would work for either of our older boys, 10 and 15. I am so glad that I read this book. As I said earlier, I never lost interest while reading this book. I was actually irritated when I had to stop reading in order to tend to the baby, cook dinner, or even worse, clean! All joking aside, I did just want to sit there and keep reading. Unfortunately, life with a newborn doesn't allow that kind of life. I did however, use the time that I needed to feed him as the perfect time to read.
This book is about a boy named Tom. He lives in an orphanage in England. He, along with his fellow orphans, plan an elaborate rescue attempt to save Tom's friend, Sarah, from solitary confinement in the orphanage. They escape from the orphanage, but their adventures don't stop there. They find a hot air balloon and fly across England, stopping at Oxford, Windsor Castle, and other places in England. This book kept me guessing about what was going to come next in their adventures and if these poor kids were ever going to get a break.
There is so much historical and geographical detail in this book. I was impressed by how much information is in this book! It gives great detail of what things look, smell, sound, taste, and feel like. I felt like I was watching a movie, except the movie was in my mind. The way that the author uses words really made be feel like I was there. I have a funny story to tell about this. It's kind of embarrassing, but it will prove my point about how real this book seems. One night, when my husband and I were chatting after he got home, I almost started talking to him about the people in the book as though they were real and that those things really happened. Have you ever done that? I have with a tv show, where I'm thinking about it even after I've watched it as though it was real. That was how it was with this book. I rooted Tom and Sarah on along their entire adventure. I was sad when something bad happened to them and cheered for them when someone was kind and helped them.
As I stated before, there is an 83 page study guide that goes with this book! After reading it myself, I think that my 10 year old will really enjoy this book. The study guide will really help him get more out of the book and understand some of the words used. For each chapter, there are vocabulary word activities, comprehension questions, a personal application section called "Going Deeper", and finally a way to find out more information using technology called "Learn More with Technology". They really have thought of everything in order to get themes out of this information packed adventure book. They even placed maps at the beginning of the actual book for reference was you're reading. Very cool!
If you're wondering what level this book would be for, look at the page sample below. I can usually get an idea if it would work for my boys by looking at how big the font is.
It is a 383 page book with pretty good sized font. Like I said, I think this would be good for my 10 year old. He is a really good reader and would enjoy the story line. The size of the book would be overwhelming for him. I would definitely assign certain chapters at a time, so that it is more manageable for him to handle.
I really enjoyed reading "Britfield & The Lost Crown"! It will be fun to share this story with our middle son. I can't wait until their next book comes out so that I can find out what happens to Tom and Sarah!
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12 Months of Reading Logs, Journals, and Bookmarks
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/12-Months-of-Reading-Logs-Journals-and-Bookmarkshttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/12-Months-of-Reading-Logs-Journals-and-BookmarksMon, 26 Aug 2019 11:17:00 +0000
We have created an entire year's worth that is FREE and PRINTABLE reading logs, journals, and bookmarks. As you are preparing for the school year, we thought that it would be easier for you to have access to all of them in one place. You can print all of them now, or just save this post so that you can print them throughout the year.
Check them out below!
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
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7 Reasons Why I'll Buy Cards at the Dollar Tree
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/7-Reasons-Why-Ill-Buy-Cards-at-the-Dollar-Treehttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/7-Reasons-Why-Ill-Buy-Cards-at-the-Dollar-TreeSun, 25 Aug 2019 20:55:58 +0000
Can you believe how expensive cards have gotten? Before Father's Day, my boys and I were at the store and we decided to get their dad and grandpa cards. I guess I'm just a cheapskate because spending $7 or more on a card seems a little ridiculous.
** I was compensated for this post. This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.**
I was reminded that the Dollar Tree has cards. Over 6,800 Dollar Tree stores nationwide are celebrating 1 year of carrying Expressions from Hallmark, which are $1 each, and Heartline a Hallmark Company, 2 for $1 greeting cards. These aren't just any cheap cards. These are directly from Hallmark! So you know that these are quality cards that you would be proud to give to those that you care about.
Here are 7 reasons why I really like these cards:
1) They are from Hallmark. Enough said.
2) They have different colored envelopes.
3) Some of the cards are textured.
4) The cards are a great size that will only cost you 1 stamp to send.
5) Some of the cards have Bible verses on them.
6) There are such a wide variety of cards for all occasions: sympathy, birthday, thanks, thinking of you, etc.
7) They cost $1 or less. This gives anyone the opportunity to show those that they care about how they feel by giving a card.
These cards are exclusively at Dollar Tree. Since the Dollar Tree is celebrating, they want to give 20 people a wonderful prize! Click HERE for a chance to win a box FULL of greeting cards and note cards + a $100 Dollar Tree Gift Card!
For more information about these great cards from Hallmark at the Dollar Tree, Click HERE.
We have always had Bible study as a part of our schooling. We feel that it is important to be teaching our children about the Bible as well as math and science.
We have created a lot of those materials here for you all to use in your home or church. So we decided to gather all of our Bible Resources in one place to make it easier for you to find what we have. Just glance on down and click on the ones that you like!
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
In Arizona, we don't have to keep track of the days that we homeschool, but I still like to. That's why I made this 2019/2020 calendar.
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
I thought that you all might be able to use it as well. Sometimes I just need a year at a glance and this always comes in handy. I keep it right inside of my homeschooling binder for the year so that it's easily accessible.
Here are ways that this simple printout can come in handy:
* A year-at-a-glance calendar
* Attendance Tracker - Print one out for each of your children. Write one line through the date for a half day and an "x" if a full day of schooling.
* Keep track of breaks - This allows me to schedule out our breaks throughout the year. We usually school for 6-7 weeks at a time and then we take a week off.
* Keep track of holidays and special days - Just circle the date when there is a holiday to remind you of a holiday that you want to remember is coming up.
I'm sure that you all can think of many other uses for this simple calendar. I would love to hear how you use it. Email us at info@www.homeschool4life.org and let us know!
Click on the picture below to print it out!
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Everything for the Homeschool Family
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Everything-for-the-Homeschool-Familyhttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Everything-for-the-Homeschool-FamilyMon, 12 Aug 2019 10:30:00 +0000
Homeschooling is a family affair. Whether Mom teaches all of the subjects or not, everyone in the family is involved in some way or another. Homeschooling is a lifestyle that needs its own help and encouragement.
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
Through the past few years, we have made some pretty great resources for the homeschooling family. We have tried to gather them here below so that you can see them all in one place!
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Memoria Press 5th Grade Literature Guide Set Review
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Memoria-Press-5th-Grade-Literature-Guides-Reviewhttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Memoria-Press-5th-Grade-Literature-Guides-ReviewWed, 07 Aug 2019 11:53:00 +0000
We have had the pleasure of using other materials from Memoria Press. We like their materials as they are high quality and they have a high educational level. Their curriculum is not "fluff". It is curriculum that will make your children work and think hard. That's why we were excited to review their 5th Grade Literature Guide Set. This set includes the Student Study Guide and Teacher Guide for "Lassie Come-Home", "Heidi", and "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe".
I saw these and I just knew that they would be perfect for our up and coming 5th grader to use for Reading next year! He will be reading actual books, not portions of books like a reading book in the public school uses. I love that! Even when I was teaching in the public school system, we rarely used our reading books. I felt that it was a waste of time. I went over to the library, checked out a class set of books, and that's what we used to practice our reading skills.
Memoria Press obviously feels the same way as that's what they have done here with these literature guides. The 5th grade literature guides are on the books of "Lassie Come-Home" by Eric Knight, "Heidi" the Puffin Classics Edition, and "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" by C.S. Lewis. I was especially excited for him to read "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" because his brother read them at this age and he really liked them, too! These books are classics! I would never have thought to have our son read Lassie or Heidi, but I am excited for him to read these beloved stories.
We started with "Lassie Come-Home". I wasn't sure how he would feel about this book. He wondered what it was about and I told him that it was a dog that helped people. I actually have never read the book or even seen the TV show. We started reading it together. I always like to start new curriculum and books together, so that we get a good feeling for how it all goes together. He read some of the chapters by himself and others we read together. He had a difficult time reading it as it has dialogue with people that have various English accents.
Since we are not doing "full school" right now, we worked longer each day on this. We went through all of the workbook and a full chapter each day. Once school starts again, after the baby comes and we take about a month off, we will slow down the pace. I plan on going through the Reading Notes and completing the Vocabulary on one day. Then, depending on the length of the chapter, taking 1-2 days reading the chapter. After that, we will take a day to complete the Comprehension Questions and the rest of the workbook parts for that chapter. So, it will take approximately a week to complete a chapter. This will be a much better pace for him, so that he can do more of it independently.
I really like the Student Study Guides. I was impressed with the work needed to complete these. They are close to what I would have put in them. I love when someone else does the work for me and I don't have to change or adapt it to fit our needs. Each chapter has 2 side by side pages for the student to complete.
Reading Notes - It started with words that they have given the definition for. We just read through these together and discussed together. We did this before the chapter was read.
Vocabulary - Bolded words are written in phrases or sentences in which they appear in the story. We talked about these together. If he knew the word and could come up with his own definition, then I let him write that down. If he didn't know it, then he had to look it up in the dictionary and then write the definition. This was great for him to practice his dictionary skills. We did this before the chapter was read.
Comprehension Questions - We read through these before the chapter was read so that he knew what to look for as he was reading or listening. After the reading was done, then we went back and discussed these. I ended up writing these answers down so that his thinking was not halted by his writing skills.
Quotations - They have a quotation from that chapter of the book.
Discussion Questions - We worked through these together. These are a little more in-depth questions about the chapter.
Enrichment - There are a few enrichment activities to do with each chapter. Some are: copy a paragraph from the chapter, look at a map of the area talked about in the chapter, look deeper into the accents spoken, make a handkerchief, or look up something in the encyclopedia. We did not do all of these. We just completed the ones that I thought he would get the most out of.
At the end of the Student Study book, in the Appendix, there are more resources that compliment the study of the book. These include: a biographical sketch of the author, Eric Knight, information on the industrial revolution, various maps, literary tools that discuss plot, characterization, setting, and theme, poems, information about Greyfriars Bobby and Tea Time, as well as a couple of coloring pages of flowers.
In the Teacher's Guide, it has the same information as the Student Study guide. They have added the answers to the Discussion Questions and Quizzes and Tests with their answers.
I like that all of the books have the same set up for their Student Study Guides. This means that once he's comfortable with how to work through each chapter, he can just continue on with Heidi and The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe. That will take less time when he has to switch to a new book. These books are so wonderful and we can't wait to get to them this year.
I am so excited for him to be able to read these wonderful books and work through the 5th Grade Literature Guide Set from Memoria Press. They have done all of the work for me! This will make it so easy for him for this next school year. He will be working on his fluency, but as well as his comprehension through these great Student Study Guides.
This is the time of year that I am scouring in the internet for helpful resouces for our schooling. I look for educational, but cheap, resources that will just add to making the boys' schooling just that much better or easier. Sometimes it's a printable that they will be able to use. Other times it's a new idea for a game or activity that sparks excitement.
For that reason, we have gathered all of our educational resources in one place to make it easier for you, dear homeschool parent or teacher. We know how your precious your time is. Just peruse the items below and click on any that seem interesting or helpful for you!
We are always looking for ideas that would help you, our beloved readers. So if you have any ideas on resources for your schooling, please email us at .
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
Be on the look out for a post with all of our
Bible resources!
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Library and Educational Services LLC Review
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Library-and-Education-Resources-LLC-Reviewhttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Library-and-Education-Resources-LLC-ReviewMon, 05 Aug 2019 12:54:00 +0000
We love books! In fact, an entire section of Homeschool 4 Life is dedicated to reading books on video for younger children. When I heard about Library and Educational Services LLC, I was really excited to go on their website to check out what they have.
We were able to choose a book from the "Who Was...?" series, one CD from the Lifehouse Theater CDs series, and then $60 in other books from their Reinforced Hardcover Library Binding Nonfiction books. Wow! Was I excited!
Our 10 year old chose "Who Was Dr. Seuss?" and "Trapped In Aesop's Fables" Lifehouse Theater CD. I wasn't too surprised when he chose Dr. Seuss. He has always loved Dr. Seuss books and now he can actually learn about one of his favorite authors. We read this one as a read aloud. I read some of it to him and his grandparents read some more of it to him. I just wanted him to enjoy the book and having some together time. It starts out by telling about what Theodore Seuss Geisel was like as a child. I didn't know that he was a German American whose father made beer. Their family was effected by prohibition and the war. It goes on to tell about how he was inspired to write the books that made him so famous. Great book! We really want to get our hands on some of the other "Who Was...?" books!
He wasn't too sure about "Trapped in Aesop's Fables", but I thought that he would like it. He likes the stories of the "Ant and the Grasshopper" and "The Tortoise and the Hare", so he decided to pick this one. Our 10 year old really liked listening to this. It lasted about 1 hour and he wanted to listen to it in one sitting. I gave him the option of splitting it up into smaller sections, but he just wanted to keep going. That tells me that he really liked it. I enjoyed listening to it as well. I liked how the boy, Henry, actually was a part of the stories. I thought that he would just watch the story. He was the grasshopper in "The Ant and the Grasshopper", the hare in "The Tortoise and the Hare", the boy in "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", the gander in "The Goose and the Golden Eggs", and the father in "The Milkmaid and Her Pail". He has to find out the life lesson in each story before he could go back home. Our son kept saying, "I really like these stories!" When we finished listening to it, he asked if there were more CDs of Aesop's fables. I had to tell him that there were not, but there were other CDs that he could get. I can see him listening to this again and again in the future. There are great sound effects! We really felt like we were there.
I really like their website. They have it well organized that it was easy to find books in the grades of our boys. The books are also categorized by homeschool resources, CDs, Bibles, for kids, teens, etc. We were able to get books for both of our boys for less than $60. Unbelievable? Just check out what we got and the money that we saved.
For our high schooler, I chose The Rosen Comprehensive Dictionary - Set of 4. It's list price is $150.80. Library and Educational Services sells it for $37.70. That's a savings of $113.10! Crazy! These are a set of 4 dictionaries the he will be able use throughout his high school classes of Physics, Biology, Chemistry, and Math. When he comes to a word that he doesn't understand in one of his classes, he will be able to look it up in one of these dictionaries. He was a little nervous when he saw them at first, because he thought that he had to read through all of them. I told him that they were dictionaries for him to go with his other classes and it calmed down his fears a little. These will be great resources for him!
I let our 10 year old look through the website to find books that he would like to have. We just clicked on the 5th grade section of the website and he was able to look through all that they had available for his level. He wanted animal books and so he focused on those books. He chose the "Animals of the Night" - Set of 3. This came with "Big Cats After Dark", "Owls After Dark", and Raccoons After Dark". This set's list price is $56.85. Library and Educational Services sells it for $17.05, for a savings of $39.80! When he saw these books, his first reaction was "Wow! These are hard back books! I love hard back books!" These really are great quality books!
I wanted to see what they have available in the Homeschool Resources section of the website. Their Chemistry: Master's Class Science looks interesting. It is lab-based as well as Christian based. It's list price is $39.90, but LES sells it for $27.99 for the student book. Our high schooler needs to take Chemistry and this could be a great textbook for him to go through. That's another thing that I like about these books. Library and Educational Services LLC go through each book that they sell to make sure that it doesn't contradict the Bible. Wonderful! Family friendly books at great prices. This is such a wonderful resource for families!
I will definitely be using Library and Educational Services LLC the next time we need books for classes or just for fun! There are so many books to choose from and you can't beat the savings! Perfect for any family!
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Home School in the Woods Timeline Figures Review
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Home-School-in-the-Woods-Timeline-Figures-Reviewhttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Home-School-in-the-Woods-Timeline-Figures-ReviewFri, 02 Aug 2019 15:01:23 +0000
I love charts, pictures, graphs, number lines, bullet points, and anything that shows information in a precise and easy to read fashion. This especially includes timelines. I love how a timeline can show you so much information in such a simple way. I like looking at how events and people coincided in history. It makes everything come to life reminding me that history isn't just stories that we read about in books. It actually happened. This was someone's life! That's why I was so excited to be able to review the Timeline Collection: A Collection of Historical Timeline Figures from Home School in the Woods.
These figures are wonderful! There are so many to choose from. There are figures from American history, Bible history, and world history. I think that it is so interesting to know what was happening in the world when America was going through something. It really puts life in perspective.
The figures are organized in many different ways. You can choose from the multiple lists that have be put together. Here are just a few of the lists: America, Bonus (which ranges from Hans Christian Anderson to the Ku Klux Klux to the Samurai Warriors), Creation to Christ, Resurrection to Revolution, Napoleon to Now, Ancient China, Composers, Early Church, Scientists, Religious Figures, Wars, and so many more!
Since we are in our summer break right now, I just wanted our 10 year old to get a feel for these figures and to learn about some of these historical people. I printed out the main lists and simply had him pick a few each day. I printed them out and he got to coloring. He chose a great assortment of character that he wanted to learn more about. He started with some Bible characters (Saul and David), went to learn about some of the wars (WWI & WW2), as well as some American figures (Roger Williams and Ethan Allen). He colored these and then put them in a folder to hold on to until later.
When we were finished going through multiple pictures, he put them in chronological order. We were able to discuss B.C. and A.D. He realized that King David had a date of c. 1055 B.C. while Saul had a date of c. 1100 B.C. This was puzzling to him because he knew that King Saul came before King David. This gave us the opportunity to talk about how the bigger the number in B.C. the earlier in history it was. I love when a product opens the lines of communication to questions and other learning!
This project was great for our 10 year old kinesthetic learner. He didn't just have to read about these historical figures. He was able to choose them, color them, and then put them into a book. Home School in the Woods talks about how to teach different learning styles in their blog. Click HERE to find out more!
He finished putting the pictures in order, added some construction paper, stapled it, and added a title to the front. Then Grandma wanted him to read all of the information to her. He wasn't too happy about this, but this was a wonderful opportunity for more conversation and learning.
Here's what our 10 year old had to say about it:
It is a really good product that I think a lot of his will like. I really liked it because I could color on them and it taught me about stuff that happened in the past.
I like the flexibility of this product. You can use it for whatever purpose that you have. You can print them in different sizes as well as with or without words. We will be using the smaller size without the words with the Mystery of History Book 1 this upcoming school year. These figures go right along with this curriculum. As I was skimming through the list of lessons from the Mystery of History Book 1, Home School in the Woods Timeline Figures has the people that we need to make our own timeline of the book! I think there were only about a few lessons that I didn't see the picture for. That saves me a TON of time! Time is precious right now, with a newborn, and I can use all the help that I can get!
We will be using the Timeline Collection: A Collection of Historical Timeline Figures from Home School in the Woods this entire school year as we work to make a timeline for history. These figures are great!
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Back to School Resources
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Back-to-School-Resourceshttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Back-to-School-ResourcesMon, 29 Jul 2019 08:02:00 +0000
Have you been thinking about starting school again soon? Here in Arizona, the public school kids go back in early August. I love seeing all of the school supplies in the stores, but that gets me thinking about what to do for school this upcoming school year. It's not like I haven't been thinking about it for a while now, but this really gets me to put lists together and make my decisions concrete.
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
If you need some inspiration for going back to school, we have tried to gather all of our Back to School Resources into one place to make it easier for you! Check it all out below!
Yep! You heard it right. We have FREE CURRICULUM on our site.
We have Bible curriculum and History curriculum.
Go check it all out below!
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
This 12 Month Basic Bible curriculum would be great to use for your Bible curriculum next year at home or at church. It spans multiple ages and grades and is a hands-on curriculum!
This series is also great for home or church. It would be a season of learning about the wonderful parables of Jesus.
These history viewing guides go right along with the 40 Liberty's Kids videos. There are viewing guides for younger and older elementary children.
While I was still pregnant, I started searching apps on my phone that have to do with babies. I found Baby Tracker, for FREE, and I am so glad that I did!
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, they will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
First of all, I get nothing out of advertising this wonderful iPhone App. I just thought that it would be useful for our community of readers and wanted to let you all know about it.
We just had our third baby and I have to tell you, it's difficult to keep track of all of his feedings and diaper changing. I took him to his first doctor appointment and they wanted to know how he is eating and how many wet & dirty diapers that he had. I was so happy that I had been tracking everything on this App. I only needed to pull out my phone and check the log. So easy!
Here are some of the features of Baby Tracker:
This is the first screen showing the options: feeding/diapering/sleep/pumping/other.
There's a log of all of the activity that you've entered so far.
You can change the colors, font, unit of measurement, etc. to fit your needs!
Another thing that I like about this App is that it has timers on it. For our little one, because he is a preemie, we have to make sure to feed him at least every 3 hours. I just set me timer on the App and it sends me a notification on my iPhone and iWatch to let me know when the 3 hours is up.
I just love this App. It makes it so easy to keep track of how much he's eating, when he's eating, and how many diapers he's had. With lack of sleep, my body changing back, and the rush of hormones, this App helps me to track all of the essentials for our new baby.
The best part? It's FREE! Go to the App Store on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 10.0 or later. This is definitely an essential!
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Preparing Your Hospital Bag...Keeping It Simple
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Preparing-Your-Hospital-BagKeeping-It-Simplehttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Preparing-Your-Hospital-BagKeeping-It-SimpleMon, 15 Jul 2019 11:12:00 +0000
It's been 10 years since the last time I have had a baby, so I kind of forgot what to bring to the hospital with us when it's time to deliver our precious bundle. I went on Pinterest to find a list that I could go off of. That was a mistake.
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
I love Pinterest, don't get me wrong. You can find just about anything that you want on there. The problem is...there is just too much stuff on there sometimes. It's very overwhelming sometimes, you know? I just wanted to find a simple list to help me think about what to bring to the hospital when our son is born.
There is no simple list, that I have found. There were a few that were close, but I still thought that there were too many items on their lists. I mean, someone actually said to limit your bags to 3 or less bags. 3 bags? How long do they plan on staying in the hospital, 2 weeks? That's fine for them, but I plan on staying as little time in the hospital as possible. One reason is that we are self-pay and the longer that we stay, the bigger the price tag. The other reason, and probably the most important, is I would just rather be at home. I can't sleep in the hospital, my husband can't sleep, they keep coming in every 30 minutes to check on something, and it's just not as comfortable as our own home. I always just feel much better when we get our new baby home and we can just relax there.
Of course, if we NEED to stay longer, we obviously will. We always make sure that the baby is fine to go home and that I am good to go as well. We are planning on 2 days at the most, if everything goes well and I don't need a C-section. We also live about 10 minutes away, so my husband can always go home to shower and change, if necessary.
I was able to pack everything that we will need for myself, my husband, and our bundle of joy into 1 bag, with room to spare. I put everything in Ziploc bags with labels to make it easier to find and for my sanity to make sure that we got everything.
Here is my list of items that are in our 1 hospital bag. .
tissues, face wipes, contact case, and contact solution)
I wasn't going to bring a dress to wear home, but then I figured, in case my water broke on the way, I would want a clean outfit to wear. I chose a dress because it was long and loose so that I could just throw it on and go home.
I made a separate bag for things that we need to grab right before we go to the hospital.
This will include:
my glasses w/ case
laptop w/ charger
phones w/ chargers
We are having the baby in the summer, in Arizona, so we don't need to think about any sort of warm clothing or blankets. Depending on where you live, you will need to think about the weather and what you and your family will need for that.
Let us know what you needed in your hospital bag!
Email us at info@www.homeschool4life.org!
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What We're Doing About...Gestational Diabetes and Hypertension
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/What-Were-Doing-AboutGestational-Diabetes-and-Hypertensionhttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/What-Were-Doing-AboutGestational-Diabetes-and-HypertensionMon, 08 Jul 2019 11:55:00 +0000
Gestational diabetes and hypertension can be serious problems during a pregnancy, if not taken care of or treated properly. I wanted to just let you all know what we are doing about these in this pregnancy so maybe it will help one of you going through the same thing!
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
**Please remember that I am not a doctor.
I am just sharing what we have worked out with our doctor.
Please consult your doctor for the best treatment for your situation.**
Gestational diabetes is basically having diabetes, but only because you are pregnant. When you are pregnant, the placenta gives off a hormone that can block your body from getting the insulin that it needs in order to deal with the sugar in your body. Usually, after you have the baby, the diabetes goes away as well. They will check you at your 6 week visit just to make sure, though.
I took the one hour glucose test that our doctor had ordered. It actually was better than our other two pregnancies, 10 and 15 years ago. They have improved the drink. Be thankful! My doctor said that I didn't have to fast for that one and the lab confirmed that as well. I get very sick when I fast, so I was thankful for that! Well, guess what? I didn't pass the test, so my doctor wanted me to take the 3 hour test where I would have to fast. I physically can't do that, so my husband and I decided to just act like I have it.
We bought a blood glucose reader and started testing my blood regularly throughout the day. I tested it when I woke up and then an hour after each meal. I cut out all candy, chocolate, and soda right away from my diet. I make sure that I each more protein and veggies in my meals. I cut the carbs and reduced the fruit. We made a spreadsheet to log all of the readings as well as what I was eating. At first, it was trial on error. For me, I can't have any carbs or fruit at dinner because my morning readings were too high. Our doctor was fine with what we were doing and she can tell, from my readings, that I do have gestational diabetes. Our doctor says that my morning (fasting) number should be below 95 and the hour after each meal needs to be below 130. I am able to control it with what I eat, so I shouldn't need any medication.
The supplies that I needed to buy is the blood sugar glucose meter, ultra-thin lancets, blood testing strips, and the lancing device. These are also available for a pretty reasonable price at Walmart.
Hypertension is having high blood pressure. I get nervous going to the doctor, so my blood pressure was raised for 3 times in a row. Any time the first number is above 140, they say that is high. They diagnosed me with hypertension. The funny thing (not really funny, but you know), when they would take my blood pressure again before I left, it always dropped dramatically.
My husband and I didn't think that I had high blood pressure because the only time that it seemed high was when I was nervous about the doctor. We decided to buy our own blood pressure cuff (around $30 at Target) and I started testing my blood pressure when I was testing my blood sugar. I started to log my time so that I would have a record of when I tested and what the numbers were. They were never even close to the 140 that I would have in the doctor's office. I brought in the log for the doctor to see. Again, my blood pressure was high when the nurse took it. I logged another two weeks of blood pressure readings after that. Again, they were never close to 140. My doctor took our records and decided that I didn't have hypertension because I never had it high unless it was the first reading that the nurse took at the beginning of the appointment.
So, gestational diabetes and hypertension don't have to be the end of the world. Do I miss chocolate and soda. Yep! But the health of my baby is more important than a few indulgences. Having our own testing supplies at home gives me the peace of mind knowing that I am doing the best that I can to make sure that our baby has the best chance.
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A Budget Friendly Way to Prepare For a Newborn
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/A-Budget-Friendly-Way-to-Prepare-For-a-Newbornhttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/A-Budget-Friendly-Way-to-Prepare-For-a-NewbornMon, 01 Jul 2019 17:59:30 +0000
As you may already know, I am pregnant with our third child. I am currently in my last trimester and we are all excited to meet our little bundle of joy! It has been 10 years since our last baby (Surprise!) and so we have nothing left from the other boys. We have been trying to think through everything that we will need in order to be ready for him to arrive.
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
Here are the areas of items that we will need:
Clothing
Diapering
Bathing
Feeding
Sleeping/Sitting/Laying Down
Safety
We are on a tight budget (isn't everyone?) and so we are trying to do this as inexpensively as we can. I will share what we will be getting, or have already gotten, so maybe this will give you some ideas.
Clothing
2nd Hand Store
We went to a 2nd hand store, called Other Mothers, for clothing. Think about it, how much do babies wear clothing? Not for very long. We got so many onesies, pants, hats, blankets, sleepers, bibs, and washcloths there! They were between $.50 - $3 each! Not bad! I just took them home and washed them and they are good as new. Actually, they looked brand new at the store even.
Diapering
Sams Club Auctions
Have you heard about the auctions at Sams Club? If you're a member, you can bid on certain items that they put on there. My mom got a huge box of diapers from there at a discount!
Sams Club/Walmart - diapers & wipes
We will be getting our wipes and diapers from Sams Club (we don't have a Costco membership). Getting the big boxes of diapers and wipes will save money because you are buying in bulk! Those little packages of diapers and wipes are really expensive and add up over time. We like the generic brands, so that saves us even more $$$!
Bathing
Walmart - "bathtub"
This one is a little different, but I really want to try it. You know those infant bath tubs that EVERYONE gets? Yeah, I REALLY don't like them. They really didn't make it easy to bathe our other boys, so we are going a different route this time. We got a NEW plastic dishpan. Yes, you heard me right, a dishpan. It's small and won't hold a lot of water...Perfect! It was less than $2 and we can use it for other things after the baby is done with it. I love multi-purpose items! I also like that it's a lot smaller in size so it won't get too much in the way in the bathroom. We have two other boys using that bathroom and they need to be able to get in there also.
For our 2nd baby, we received beautifully handmade hooded towels for him and his older brother, who was 5 at the time. They were made out of real towels and were so wonderful to use. They are bigger and more absorbant than the "baby towels" that are on the market. So, for this baby, I enlisted the help of my personal seamstress, a.k.a. my mom. We went to Walmart and got regular towels. It took one bath towel and one hand towel. I found some posts on Pinterest and she found some videos on YouTube and went to work. I think that it turned out beautifully and I can't wait to use it! There was some left-over from the hand towels and so she made those into a couple of washcloths. Genius!
Walmart - soap
We like to use the Equate brand of shampoo/soap for babies. We get a huge bottle for less than $3. That bottle seems to last forever! Awesome!
Feeding
Sams Club / Walmart - formula
We will be breast feeding and formula feeding, so we will be needing some formula. We like to get the big containers from Sams Club as they save money. Walmart also has great prices.
Walmart - bottles
10 years ago, there weren't many fancy bottles out on the market. Now it seems that is all that is out there. We just need regular bottles. I found a 12 pack of bottles on Walmart.com for $11.99. That's $1 a bottle. Not bad! Now, I know some babies have trouble with the regular bottles and need something else. We will use whatever is best for our baby. We will start with these regular bottles and then go from there. I always get the full 8oz bottles because I can put 4oz in it at the beginning and more as the baby grows. I don't see the need in getting two sizes of bottles.
Walmart / 2nd Hand Stores - bibs
I really like the all cloth bibs as they seem to be more absorbant. The ones with the "somewhat" cloth on the front and plastic on the back let the liquid roll on down and wet the baby's pants. We found a couple at the 2nd hand store and my mom found some others at Walmart.
Walmart - burp cloths
Here's another thing that we do that's different. I really don't use normal burp clothes. They just don't seem wide enough or thick enough. We use cloth diapers, instead. You can get a 6pk for about $10. Not too bad!
Walmart - high chair
We like to use the high chairs that you attach to a chair at the table. This comes in handy with eating at the table without having another piece of furniture to maneuver around. It will be great when we are homeschooling and the baby can sit with us at the table having a snack or playing with toys. These run around $50, but we can use it for years!
Sleeping, Sitting, and Laying Down
Walmart - crib
Our babies always go to bed in their own crib, starting with the first night we come home from the hospital. We love this crib from Walmart because it has a drawer underneath! I love the added storage space for blankets and sheets. It's great to use the usually unused space underneath the crib. It's one of the most expensive item on our list, but for $168, I think that it's still a great buy! We also are getting the crib mattress from Walmart as well.
Walmart - crib sheets
Walmart has cute crib sheets and they won't break the bank. They start at less than $9 for a 2pk.
Walmart - bouncy chair
I am not a fan of the rocking bassinett that seem to be so popular nowadays. We love the bouncy chair for having a place for our boys to lay down/sit up during those first few months. They are only around $20 and for how much use we get out of it, it's well worth it.
Safety / Transportation
Dollar Tree outlet plugs
I found a set of 12 outlet plugs for $1 at the Dollar Tree! Love it!
Walmart - car seat/stroller
We chose a car seat/stroller combo so that we can cart our little one around easily and safely. Then the stroller can be used for the next few years. This is most expensive item on our list, but we are getting two things together, so it makes me feel a little better. Just remember! Never buy a used car seat. Your baby's life is worth the little extra money that you will put into a new car seat.
So most of our items are from a second hand store (Other Mothers) and Walmart. You don't have to break the bank to prepare for your new little bundle of joy.
If I've forgotten anything, please let me know. Just email us at info@www.homeschool4life.org and we'd love to help if we can!
Our younger loves to play games on his iPad. I mean, what kid doesn't? He also needs help with math. Math just doesn't make sense to him and he has struggled recently with it. I was so excited that we were given the chance to review Matific Galaxy for these reasons! It's a fun online math game that he plays on his iPad. Win - Win! Do you want to know a secret? It's not like pulling teeth to get him to do it, either. Win - Win - Win!
There are 7 levels for Matific Galaxy, Kindergarten through 6th grade. I highly suggest getting the Full K-6 package so that way your child can move around in the levels to meet their ability. Our son started with the 5th grade and soon realized that he was not quite there yet. We moved him to the 4th grade level and that was more his speed, but he was still having trouble understanding some of the concepts. We decided that he can work through the 3rd grade level and that has been just great for him. I am trying to build his confidence in math and having him constantly struggle is not the way to do it.
It may seem like he's behind a lot in math, but we have always believed in teaching our children where they are, not where they should be. He's improved in his math skills and understanding just by using Matific Galaxy. I am so thankful for that. I'm sure that he will make great strides in his math skills this year, but working with me in school and continuing to practice his skills with the game.
Here's what he had to say about:
I think that it's a great idea to have multiple grades, instead of just one grade. It helps me because it can be like I'm reviewing it, which helps me even more. I really liked they also put little characters in the game, which makes it more exciting. There are a lot of challenges in each section so that it's not all the same.
I have already talked about the multiple grades and how important those are. Every curriculum is different and just because you're doing a certain grade level in one curriculum, doesn't mean that it will match up with another curriculum. He also mentioned about the different challenges. This I really like. In each section, the skills are mixed up. You don't spend three weeks on addition or fractions. The skills are interspersed umongst the levels and this helps to keep the interest level up high. This especially helps when a child has trouble with a topic and they don't have to dread doing the math game because they can't do it.
The Parent's Zone is great as well! It gives you information about what your child has been working on. It tells you what they have been and not been working on. You also will know what your child is doing well at and what they need to improve on. I love this "bird's eye view" of how he's doing with the program.
As with any new program, especially online programs and games, there is a "learning curve" to be able to work it. For some of the problems, he needed help to figure out how to use the game to solve it. Look at the example below. We had to figure out how to get the bubbles to go inside of each other.
With this activity, we had to figure out how to cut the square, turn the pieces, and then make a triangle.
We really like Matific Galaxy. I'm so glad that we received the one year Full K-6 gradepackage. There are a multitude of math activities which kept our son's attention. He was fine doing it for an hour or more a day. I am thankful that this is something that he can continue to work on and move up through the levels.
Go and see what the other reviewers thought about Matific Galaxy!
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Household Chore Ideas for Different Age Groups
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Household-Chore-Ideas-for-Different-Age-Groupshttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Household-Chore-Ideas-for-Different-Age-GroupsMon, 24 Jun 2019 11:29:00 +0000
Everyone's home needs to be cleaned. We have always believed that if you live in the home, you need to contribute to taking care of it. Once they are old enough to play with toys, they are taught how to put them away. A young child who is sitting can put the toys back into the bucket. Of course, it's a game and that's great. You are, however, teaching them how to tidy up their messes.
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
As our children grow older, they are continually taught new skills that they are able to handle. Cooking, cleaning the bathroom, doing their laundry, changing the air filter, etc. are all skills they will need to know when they leave our home, so we are teaching them how to do them while they are still in our home.
So what can our children do at different age groups? Well, I've put together a small list of household chores that you could teach your children at different ages. Please remember that all children are different and it's important to know what your chidlren can do.
Babies 0 - 1 year old
* toys back in bucket
Toddlers 1 - 4 years old
* Empty small trash cans
* Fold washcloths
* Put laundry in hamper
* Put dishes in sink
* Pass out napkins for a meal/snack
* Clean up their room (with help)
* Scrub toilet bowl
Young Elementary Kindergarten - 3rd Grade
* Sweep
* Help bake/cook
* Dust
* Fold hand towels
* Do own laundry (with help at first)
* Change batteries in remotes, toys, etc.
* Straighten pillows, blankets, etc.
* Help take care of pet
* Scrub bathtub
Older Elementary 4th Grade - 6th Grade
* Mop
* Take kitchen trash to dumpster
* Pull dumpsters to street for garbage pick up
* Learn to bake (may need help with oven)
* Fold bath towels
* Vacuum
* Clean sink & counters
Middle School 7th - 8th Grade
* Change air filter
* Clean entire bathroom
High School
* Should be able to do most things around the home
As you can see, chidlren of all ages can be helping out around the home. When your children are smaller, have them join you in whatever you are doing. They can be Mommy and Daddy's helper. As with anything, you can't just tell your children to do something without first teaching them how to do it.
Would it be easier to just do all of these things yourself? Sometimes. Is that doing your children any favors? NOPE! It is good for your children to learn how to take care of a home, so they will know what to do when they have their own.
This is just a general list of what children could handle at these ages. Of course, you know your children and situation best, so please make your best judgment on what they should be helping with.
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Writing with Sharon Watson Review
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Writing-with-Sharon-Watson-Reviewhttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Writing-with-Sharon-Watson-ReviewWed, 19 Jun 2019 19:39:51 +0000
How many of you have a difficult time teaching and grading writing? Anyone? Anyone? Is it just me? I hope not. I have always found that teaching and grading writing are very difficult for me to do as a homeschooling mom. To me, writing can be very subjective, so it is difficult to put a grade on it. There are so many styles of writing that it is hard to teach the specifics of each of them. I was very thankful for the opportunity to review Jump In, 2nd Edition by Writing with Sharon Watson.
As you may notice from the picture above, this is technically a middle school curriculum. Well, I have a high schooler and he did well with it. He has always been a reluctant writer up until recently. We have worked hard with him to get him to write without have a meltdown or completely giving up. We were chatting one day and he said that he would like to learn how to do different types of writing. I knew that I needed help with that one so I started to research some. The very next day, we were given the chance to review this writing curriculum and it looked perfect for him!
And you know what? It is! We love it! It is so well written. It breaks everything into various skills needed. Each skill is precise and explains the skills extremely well. Here's what our oldest had to say about it:
Overall it helpful. It definitely had some good information for any writer. It'll be helpful for when I have to write a paper. I personally liked that it wasn't overbearing, where it gives you so much stuff to do without much learning involved. It seemed to be a good amount of writing and reading combined.
I completely agree with his assessment. It wasn't overwhelming, which I am extremely thankful for. We just got him to the point of enjoying to write, that I didn't want this to hinder that enthusiasm. He actually is thinking of being a writer some day! Wow! What a change!
There are so many different types of writing that he will be learning through this book. The book starts with a "Get Your Feet Wet" section. This is just an overview of writing and it got him to think of how he writes best. Wonderful! Then he learned about opinion writing. Here are the other types that he will be learning: persuasion, cause and effect, a newspaper article, a how-to, a report, a biography, compare and contrast, a book report, a book response, description, narration, and poetry.
We received the digital format so I just printed out each section for him at a time. As I said before, each section is broken up into skills. He would complete one skill a day about three times a week. This seemed to be a good pace for him as it wasn't too fast and overwhelming and not too much to do in a day. We might go more than three days a week, though, when we start this up again after the baby is born. He is doing more writing in his History, English and Bible classes, so I don't want to overwhelm him with writing where he will get burnt out.
Each skill was laid out and then at the end of the section, he would have an assignment. It was clearly laid out and he knew what was expected of him. There was even a checklist for him to go through when he was finished to make sure that he completed all of the steps. Wonderful!
I am excited to start the "10 Minute Writing Plunges" that start in September. There are writing challenges for 4 days a week. Then the 5th day can be used to write more about one of the topics from that week. I think that this will really help his writing juices to flow! These are not graded, which he will be happy about.
In the Poetry section of the book, he will get to write new lyrics for a song. He will really like this one, as he already does this sometimes.
The Teacher's Guide is so full of information! I usually don't like using the Teacher's Guide with curriculum, but this one was so different! It doesn't just give you the answers to the student's book. They actually help you grade writing! How glorious! I find grading writing assignments even harder than teaching them. She has a grading sheet for each and every writing assignment in the book. I couldn't believe it! I tend to grade the mechanics of writing, but this helped me to zone in for what to look for in this specific type of writing. What a life saver! I really liked that it gave me space to write a comment for if he didn't receive the full point value for a specific section.
There are also examples of what an A, B, C, and D paper looks like. She gives the few reasons why a student should receive an F on a writing paper. I read through these and her reasons why she would give them that grade. This was very insightful for me to know what to look for in a paper.
Do you want to know what my favorite thing about this curriculum is? It wasn't difficult to get him to do it. I would just say for him to work on his writing and he would simply say, "Ok. That's easy." You don't know how long I've waited for him to say that!
I am excited that we found a writing curriculum that will teach the basics of writing so that it is easy to understand and not overwhelming for our reluctant writers. We will definitely be completing the rest of the Jump In, 2nd Edition by Writing with Sharon Watson. I am so thankful for help with teaching and grading writing!
Don't just take my word for it, though!
Go see what the other reviewers thought about it!
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Summer Reading For Younger Children
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Summer-Reading-For-Younger-Childrenhttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Summer-Reading-For-Younger-ChildrenMon, 17 Jun 2019 11:18:00 +0000
Summer is in full swing now and, for most of us, it's hot outside. We live in Arizona, so it's extra hot! We are in full blown 100s now. That means that my kids want to stay inside even more than usual.
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
What they would like to do is play techonology all day every day, but that drives this mom crazy. We have limited their technology use and are incorporating more reading time. My kids aren't book lovers so I actually have to tell them to read for a certain amount of time each day. That's fine because they are 10 and (almost) 15 and can both read very well.
What can we do, though, about our younger children who just aren't reading yet? That's where Grandma's Reading Corner comes to the rescue. We have over 270 posts about books that Grandma has read on our YouTube channel for your kids to watch and learn from.
There are Eric Carle books, Dr. Seuss books, character books, and seasonal books. There are books learning books that teach your children the letters, sounds, numbers, money, and character traits. We have character books like Daniel Tiger, Amelia Bedelia, Pigeon, Biscuit, and Clifford.
Just visit our Books, Books, Books!!! tab at the top of our site to find what we have in store for your young children to watch! There are so many books to choose from!
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Seeing The Results of Your Parenting
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Seeing-The-Results-of-Your-Parentinghttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Seeing-The-Results-of-Your-ParentingWed, 12 Jun 2019 20:17:13 +0000
Parenting is difficult. Sometimes we ask, "Is all of this work worth it? Am I making a difference? Are they learning anything?" There are many days that I feel as though I am talking to the wall.
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
But, then there are those days where everything seems to be coming together. As you may know, I am about in my 8th month of this pregnancy. We have an almost 15 year old and a 10 year old. Throughout this pregnancy, I have decreasing in my ability to do things physically. I can't lift heavy items and I get tired more easily (who wouldn't with a "basketball" shaped front). Out boys have stepped up and helped out more and more throughout this time.
Our boys are pretty helpful around the house. We have been teaching them how to do things around the home from when they could first hold a toy and put it back into the bucket it belongs in. They do their own laundry, help clean the house, fix simple things, pull and spray the weeds, change the air filter, and help make meals, among other things. These skills have come in very handy over the last few months.
I don't like to ask for help because I just can't do something. There are days that I am extra sore and they have even carried my laundry baskets to the laundry room for me and started my laundry. They have made an eggs and sausage breakfast for the family many times. Our dishwasher has been on the fritz for the past month and they have been washing, drying, and putting dishes away. Our oldest usually does the dishwasher, but there's been more to it with it being broken. They help me groery shop by lifting, putting the items in the basket, and then they do the complete checkout process themselves, other than paying, of course.
These skills are all necessary for them to know what to do when they leave our home and get a place fo their own. That's the reason that we started teaching them early on. I am now seeing the fruit of all of that labor. They have been completely understanding about me not being able to do certain things and they willingly help out.
So, my encouragement to you all is to keep going. Keep teaching your children life skills, not just what's in the books.
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The Old Schoolhouse® Homeschool Planner Review
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/The-Old-SchoolhouseC2AE-Homeschool-Planner-Reviewhttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/The-Old-SchoolhouseC2AE-Homeschool-Planner-ReviewFri, 07 Jun 2019 14:50:51 +0000
Doctor visits, home repairs, birthdays, summer camp, extracurricular activities, etc. The boys have Yu Gi Oh games on the first two Sundays, Grandma and Grandpa are moving, and the dishwasher repairman is coming when? Trying to keep everything straight and not miss out on anything can make any parent go crazy. Let alone a homeschooling family. Add in all of the curriculum, lessons, activities, and materials that need to be taken care of and kept track of for homeschooling each and every one of our children. There has to be a way to keep everything organized. The Old Schoolhouse® has a planner called Hey, Mama! Homeschool Planner for 2019/20 Year written by Gena Suarez for ust this reason.
I seem to go back and forth between a computer or technology based planner and a paper and pencil one. There is just something about writing everything down on paper that helps keep it straight in my mind. I my second trimester of this pregnancy I found that my mind was a jumbled mess and I was really struggling to keep everything right. That's when we were offered a chance to review the Hey, Mama! Homeschool Planner. It came just at the right time!
It starts in July of 2019 and runs through June of 2020. I quickly went through and added in birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays because those are the easy ones to forget until the last minute. I also wrote in the weeks that I am pregnant to be able to keep track of those dates a little easier as well. Then I took some time to check out all of the other wonderful pages in this planner.
It's probably silly, but I think that my favorite part, other than the month to month calendar, is the year at a glance calendars of 2019, 2020, and 2021! I find that I need to count weeks, find out what day a birthday is on, or look to see how many paychecks we will get in a given month. These year at a glance calendars are priceless in my opinion.
Another large portion of this planner is the week at a glance homeschooling planner. This is made for up to five children. I have only two children that I will be homeschooling this year, with a newborn on the side. I know that having the availability for up to five children will really help some larger families. These pages are basically like a regular school planner. It gives a place for you to keep track of the day to day lessons for each child. There are enough weeks to fill a regular school year, so you don't even need to make copies. Great thinking!
Towards the back of the planner, there are planning pages for each of your children. These include a blank note taking page, curriculum planning, books read this year, yearly goals, first semester goals, and second semester goals. Does your state require you to keep track of how many days that you homeschool? Mine doesn't, but I like to keep track anyways just for my own information. They have added in an attendance page for each child as well!
Not only does this planner give you all that you'll need for this homeschool year's planning, there are devotionals sprinkled throughout it. This Old Schoolhouse is all about encouraging the homeschool family and they have that included even in their planner. There are devotionals about field trips, being anxious, squabbling kids, perserverance, and more!
There is one thing that I wanted to make you all aware of. The month at a glance calendar for November has a problem with the dates. After I found the problem (after I had already written birthdays in there) I simply scratched out the wrong dates and wrote in the correct ones. No biggie.
I am grateful for this beautiful Hey, Mama! Homeschool Planner for 2019/20 Year by The Old Schoolhouse®. I am looking forward to using it this year to keep myself more organized with our homeschooling.
Go and see what the other reviewers thought!
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Everything for Dad!
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Everything-for-Dadhttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Everything-for-DadMon, 03 Jun 2019 11:22:00 +0000
Dads are wonderful and so needed in our homeschools. We need to show them how much they mean to us!
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
Father's Day is almost here and we have some great ideas for you to use! Check them out below.
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Summer's Here! Activities for Summer
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Summers-Here-Activities-for-Summerhttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Summers-Here-Activities-for-SummerThu, 30 May 2019 11:21:00 +0000
Memorial Day has passed and now thoughts move on to the summer. The sun is out and the weather gets hot. What are we to do?
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
We, personally, don't take the entire summer off. We need some sort of routine and regularity so we continue to work on some schooling through the summer. We do take about a month off for a mental break, but this year is a little different.
As we are nearing the end of the third pregnancy, we will be doing things different this year. We will be continuing homeschool until the baby comes in late July or early August. That's when we will be taking at least a month off to enjoy and get used to having a newborn in the house. We won't be doing full homeschool, though. With our 4th grader, we will continue math practice and reading comprehension. With our high schooler, he will be working on writing and coding. These are all necessary skills and are important for them to work on. I am enjoying the easier schedule as my energy and focus isn't the greatest right now.
Each year seems to be different, doesn't it. That's why I love the flexibility of homeschooling. It allows us to live our lives all while giving our children the education that they need. What does your family do during the summer? Do you do anything different during the summer?
Look at some of these other posts that we have written about various summer activites and ideas. There are many families that move during the summer and so we are including these posts as well. We have moved quite a few times and we are sharing some of our ideas to keep homeschooling during a move or a break. I hope you are able to use some of them!
I love Science as well as the activities and experiments. I think it is so much fun to see and experience something happening rather than just reading it in a book. I don't, however, love the time and energy that it takes in order to put together those activities and experiments. That's why I was very excited to check out e-Science Homeschool Science Curriculum by Supercharged Science. They really bring Science to life!
In order to get all of his high school credits, our high schooler needs 3 years of lab sciences. Biology and Chemistry are required, but we are able to choose the third. Supercharged Science says that student should take Physics before Biology or Chemistry. I'm not sure that I totally agree with this because the math is so much higher than what he knows. He has also already taken Biology, so we are already out of order. I looked through the materials needed for Chemistry and we are not in a place, financially, to be able to afford all that needs to be bought for that class. Our 14 year old has chosen Physics.
Physics? Really? Are we at that point in high school already? Yikes! To be honest, I never took physics in high school. I know that I took biology and chemistry, but I don't remember what the third year of science was. I just know that it wasn't physics. Our 14 year old has always been interested in the science behind physics, so this wasn't a surprise that he thought that this would be a good class to take to see if he wants to take it any further.
So, we jumped right in to the Advanced Physics course. It was a little daunting and overwhelming, at first, for both of us to look through. There is a lot of information that he will need to get through. Through this course, he will be learning about kinematics, Newton's laws, momentum, work, energy, and power, circular motion, thermodynamics, static electricity, current electricity, waves, sound waves, light waves, reflection, and refraction.
Aurora Lipper is the "professor" and she walks your child through the course. The good thing is that there are many videos to watch where she completes experiments or works out equations to help show you how to do it. Here is a note from the site:
NOTE: There are 500+ videos embedded in the 50 sections that make up the 14 chapters listed below. Plan to spend about one week per 1-2 sections. You can do as many of the labs as you have equipment for (there are a lot to choose from!).
I completely agree that there are a lot of experiments! I love that there is choice in what experiments he completes. He started with the first chapter (obviously) which is "One-Dimensional Kinematics". Ok, what?! I didn't even know what that was, but he understood it after reading the information.
I have to confess, I thought that the entire curriculum, or at least most of it, were videos to watch. From what we have seen so far, there is still a lot of reading to complete. Our high schooler liked this because he would rather read the book than watch a video or do an experiement. I know that if I was going through it, I would rather watch a video. I'm glad that there's both that compliment each other.
He was in the "Velocity" portion of the unit and he came to an experiment that I made him do. He wasn't too happy, but I reminded him that he needed lab sciences, not just reading sciences. The funny thing is, his 4th grade brother needed to do an experiment in his science that was really close to this one. Of course, it wasn't as in depth as the physics exeriment, but close though. It was wonderful to be able to go outside and they both were able to complete their experiements!
He had to roll a ball down a ramp (our driveway) and measure how far it went after 1 second, 2 seconds, and 3 seconds. His brother was the catcher and the person to mark the driveway. He measured the distance and wrote it down on his lab paper.
He had to complete each one 3 times, record their times, find the averages, and then make a graph.
He soon realized that there is a lot of math in science. Yep. There sure is. That's why I'm appreciative of the videos that are there to walk us through the math problems. She says to write them down as she's doing them, but as you can see in this picture, he didn't want to do that.
I asked him if he understood what she was doing and he said something like, "I guess I understand most of it." That wasn't too convincing, so I made him watch it again on the next day and this time he had to take notes. When another video came up, he said, "I suppose you want me to write this one down, too?" You guess it, mister! He is just much more engaged with the lesson when he takes notes.
Here is what he had to say about Supercharged Science:
"It was good and had a lot of information in it. It was a little difficult to understand, but with time it should become easier. It was hard to figure out how to go through it, which lessons come before which, and where the lessons are."
This is a very difficult course. He will need some guidance through it in order to understand all that is being presented. That means that I will need to learn it as well, since I never learned this stuff before. The videos say that we can just let her teach the students, but he didn't understand some of the information already, so I need to be prepared to be able to jump in and help. Supercharged Science has areas in the lessons to ask questions and they do get back to you quickly, but I would rather be able to understand what he's doing and offer a guiding hand, if needed (and I'm pretty sure that it will be needed).
Each unit has a "shopping list" of items needed for the experiments. I would love if they had one list to print out that was broken up into each section of experiment. That way, I don't have to click on each chapter and print out their individual lists (which don't print out with chapter titles so I had to go back and make sure that I labeled them correctly) and I can look ahead at which experiments that we will be doing per section and only get those materials.
Overall, I am happy with e-Science Homeschool Science Curriculum by Supercharged Science. The site is a little difficult to maneuver, but I know that they are in the process of updating their site, so hopefully it will be easier to find where we need to go. Another thing is, when we stop in the middle of a section, there is no way to get back directly to where we stopped other than to go to the beginning of the section and click the forward arrow button until we find the right page. He got good at writing down exactly where he stopped so we could find it again. The cost is not very budget friendly, but I understand why it's that way. You get SO much information, lessons, and experiments. You have the choice of purchasing K-8 or 9-12 curriculum. It just isn't something that we would be able to afford for our two boys. We will be checking out what they have for our soon-to-be 5th grader for next school year!
See what the other reviewers thought about it!
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A House for Hermit Crab Book & Video
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/A-House-for-Hermit-Crab-Book-Videohttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/A-House-for-Hermit-Crab-Book-VideoThu, 23 May 2019 23:15:37 +0000
Eric Carle books are great! They have wonderful pictures and memorable characters. We already have some of them on our site.
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
Here's another Eric Carle for all of you! This one is about a hermit crab who wants to find the home just right for him.
Come and listen to Grandma read about all of the friends that he finds along the way!
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Christian Focus ~ Big Bible Science Review
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http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Christian-Focus-Big-Bible-Science-Reviewhttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Christian-Focus-Big-Bible-Science-ReviewWed, 22 May 2019 17:07:00 +0000
Can you name the three laws of motion by Isaac Newton? Would you believe me that our 10 year old can? Well he can. Is he a genius? I mean he's smart, but I would have to say, "no". We were given the opportunity to review Big Bible Science by Christian Focus and by doing some of the experiments in that book, he learned the three laws of motion. Cool!
Whenever I ask our 10 year old (I can't believe he just turned 10!) what he wants to learn, he always says, "science". When I mention the word, "science", his eyes light up. So, you can imagine his excitement when I talked with him about reviewed Big Bible Science by Christian Focus. His first question was, "Are there projects?" I old him that there are A LOT of experiments. Then, his next question was, "What does God have to do with science?" Legitimate question, I thought. So, I thought this would be a great book to show him that God made science and that we are just now discovering all that God has put in place.
He loves to do hands-on projects and activities. Science is his favorite, but he also likes crafts and games. The problem that I have with hands-on activities, especially right now that I'm in my third trimester of our third pregnancy, is that they take a lot of time to plan and prepare for. I'm tired and I just don't think that far in advance in order to make sure that we have all of the supplies. Also, a lot of the time, with science especially, there are weird ingredients or materials taht are either too expensive or they are just difficult to find. That's one of the many things that I like about Big Bible Science. The materials are not hard to find. Most of the items are normal things that you may have around the house. I LOVE that!
We did some of these experiments at his grandparents home and some at home. I read the book to him and engaged him in conversation as we went along.
Another thing that I love about Big Bible Science is that it shows the correlation between science and the Bible. It doesn't just tell a Bible story and then have an experiment. Each lesson starts out with a discussion about the topic. The topic is introduced and questions are usually asked to get the kids thinking. Then they relate the science topic to the Bible. For example, for the first law of motion (anything that stays in motion or at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force) was related to being a follower of Jesus. "How?" you ask. When people are not followers of Jesus, they are the people "at rest" or "in motion". These people do not change. Jesus is the "outside force". He is the reason that people change. When people decide to follow Jesus, they "change course". I thought that was a pretty ingenious way to relate Jesus to the first law of motion. They go on to tell the story of Zacchaeus and how his life was changed by Jesus.
I appreciate how many experiements and activities that there are for each lesson. We ended up not doing them all, due to time and materials, but we did as many as were needed for him to understand the concept for that lesson. I also liked that there were mini biographies in the back of the book so that we could learn more about some of the great scientists of the world.
I really like this book and we will continue to use it for his science. There were a couple of things that I did not like, however. One would be that they left out the need for baptism in order to be forgiven of your sins. Acts 2:38 (NASB) says, "Peter [said] to them, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the holy Spirit."
Another thing that was not the greatest about this book was that it was coming apart from the cover with a day or two. Now, take into consideration that I live in Arizona and it was hot in the mailbox. We haven't, though, had other books do this and they were in the mailbox as well (at different times). So take this one with a grain of salt.
We really like this book and he is thrilled that it has so many activities and experiments. When he is finished with this book, he will have learned about gravity, the three laws of motion, friction, static electricity, acids and bases, combustion reactions, plant requirements, lunar craters, water cycle, the angle of the sun's rays, animal classification, the nervous system, muscles, bones, the repiratory system, the circulatory system, the digestive system, and the urinary system. I am excited for him to learn about all of these wonderful concepts. He wouldn't be learning all of these wonderful science concepts with Big Bible Science by Christian Focus.
Go and see what others thought about this book and others that were reviewed!
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The Very Lonely Firefly Book & Video
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http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/The-Very-Lonely-Firefly-Book-Videohttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/The-Very-Lonely-Firefly-Book-VideoWed, 15 May 2019 19:22:17 +0000
I really like Eric Carle books because they bring feelings to life. In The Very Lonely Firefly, the firefly just wants to find its friends.
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
Come and listen to see what it finds on its journey.
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The Critical Thinking Co. Review
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/The-Critical-Thinking-Co-Reviewhttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/The-Critical-Thinking-Co-ReviewFri, 10 May 2019 16:12:48 +0000
Having a high schooler has made me think about things a little differently. I have to look to his future schooling, not only with me here at home, but in college as well. This make me think of scholarships and entrance exams. That's where the Vocabulary Virtuoso PSAT-SAT Book 1 from The Critical Thinking Co. has been a big help!
Vocabulary is important, not only to do well on the PSAT and SAT, but for college, writing, and life! As I have mentioned before, our oldest - a high schooler, is currently writing a short fantasy book. This is a hug surprise for us because he hated writing when he was younger. It was a fight to get him to write even a sentence. He would spend more time thinking about how to shorten the sentence than just writing it. Him writing a fantasy book is an adventure that he has started all on his own and we are so happy about it!
When we were given the opportunity to review the Vocabulary Virtuoso Book 1, I went to him to see what he thought. I have found that things work out better if we have a conversation about them, rather than just telling him that he's doing it. This way he at least as some say in the matter. Now, what I say is final, but I'd like him to see why I want him to do certain things. This book was one of those that I wanted him to do. I knew that it would open his eyes to the numerous words that are in the English language. We all get in a rut of using the same words all of the time and never expanding our vocabulary. He is no different. He actually takes it as far as thinking that he knows it all and that's where this book has really helped.
Vocabulary Virtuoso Book 1 is set up with four lists of words and then a review. So for every four "weeks" or sections of words, there is a review for those four lists. After the list of words, there are 6 parts to complete with that list (A-F). Here is what they are:
List of Words
This gives the word, a pronunciation of the word, any other forms of the word, part of speech, definition, and a sample sentence using that word.
A - Complete the sentence when synonyms are given
B - Complete the sentence
C - Story Challenge - They have to finish the story by using the words.
D. Find the synonym of the underlined word.
E. Write the word that best defines the given word
F. Finish the sentence in your own words to show that you understand the meaning of the underlined word.
The Review is a 3 page section that goes over the words from the previous 4 lessons. As you can tell, he didn't complete the crossword puzzle in this review. I was about to talk with him about it when I noticed that there wasn't a clue for that one. I guess I had to let him slide, LOL.
Would you like to know what our 14 year old high schooler thought? Here's his thoughts about it:
"The book is very difficult for people who aren't the best with words, but it is definitely good at teaching all of the different words. I already knew some words, but I didn't know others. I learned them eventually by completing all of the activities that I had to do with the words. The cover of the book is deceiving because it looked like a little kids books and that I thought that it was going to be undermining my ability. Then I opened the books and quickly realized that it is not for little kids. It is actually a very detailed book. It showed me words that I have never seen or heard before. It also showed me how confusing the English language is. It's our language, so I need to learn it. It's better to know something and not use it than to not learn something and need it."
This makes me happy! I'm so glad that he sees that necessity of having a higher level vocabulary. I am very happy with Vocabulary Virtuoso PSAT-SAT Book 1 from The Critical Thinking Co. We will continue going through this in order to build up his base of words. We might even purchase Vocabulary Virtuoso PSAT-SAT Book 2when we're done with this one!
Check out the other books that our reviewers were able to use!
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Everything for Mom!
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Everything-for-Momhttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Everything-for-MomWed, 08 May 2019 22:34:58 +0000
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
We have gathered all of our activities, ideas, and encouragement for moms in one easy to find place --- HERE!
We have help for the homeschool mom, the pregnant mom, and every mom! There are some Mother's Day activities as well!
Just click on the pictures below to see more!
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Magic Tree House: Hour of the Olympics Notebooking Pages
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Magic-Tree-House-Hour-of-the-Olympics-Notebooking-Pageshttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Magic-Tree-House-Hour-of-the-Olympics-Notebooking-PagesThu, 02 May 2019 22:32:09 +0000
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
I was first introduced to the Magic Tree House books when I was teaching in the public schools. These are great books. They follow the adventures of Jack and Annie as they travel around history by using a magic tree house that they found in the woods behind their home.
We recently went through a unit study about ancient Greece and this book was suggested to read along with it. I remembered that I had made this packet of notebooking pages when our oldest and I read through the book when he was younger. This packet includes dictionary work, some drawings, and comprehension questions about each chapter in the book.
I thought that it would be helpful for you all as well!
Just click on the picture below!
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12 Gates Publishing Review ~ The Hamelin Stoop Series
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/12-Gates-Publishing-Review-The-Hamelin-Stoop-Serieshttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/12-Gates-Publishing-Review-The-Hamelin-Stoop-SeriesThu, 02 May 2019 14:40:47 +0000
My 15 year old high schooler is in the middle of writing his own fantasy book, so when I heard that we would be given the chance to read The Hamelin Stoop Series by 12 Gates Publishing, I thought that it would a great opportunity for him to read them.
We were given the first two books in the (possible) 6-7 book series. The first book is called "The Eagle, The Cave, and the Footbridge". The second book is called "The Lost Princess and the Jewel of Periluna".
I wanted our 15 year old to contribute heavily to this review. He is going to answer a few questions about the books, so that you will have a good idea about them and if they are a good fit for your family.
The author seemed very knowledgable about the time period in which these books took place, the 1950's. He talked about a children's home and the milk man.
My first opinion of the books were not very good. The first book, "The Eagle, The Cave, and the Footbridge", started out very slow and it was difficult to get into the book. There were a lot of details about every day life. Then, I realized that they were taking the perspective of "What if the hero didn't do the really hard thing and succeed?" The character, Hamelin Stoop, was 8 years old when he had to cross the giant footbridge in order to get to the other dimension or plain of existence. It would be difficult for an 8 year old to cross this big footbridge that was falling apart. Every day life continued for him until he was older. He was told not come back again until he was called. His dreams were shattered. He was finally called and he was able to cross the footbridge.
Then in the second book, "The Lost Princess and the Jewel of Periluna", he almost died by crossing through the waters of life and death the wrong way. He saw many creatures that tried to kill him. On the way to the hospitable woman, he first meets Lars in the Forest of Fears. He is trying to find a magic crystal that will keep everyone alive in their underground city. They meet Eraina, who is a princess from a different kingdom. She is trying to find her sister so that they, and their father, can become the ultimate rulers of everything. After fighting off some wolves and being tired from everything, they finally got to the hospitable woman. After letting them stay for the night, she gave them each a gift. Lars received special shoes that would give him speed and balance. Eraina received a scarf that, if tightened around her face, would let her see farther. Hamelin received a sword that can only be unsed once, but would kill anything in its path.
My expectations of these books were skewed. This caused me to view the books in a way that was different from how they were written. Once I fixed my expectations, the books were more enjoyable. I feel like these books are well suited for about 8-12 year olds. The chapters are short and they would be able to identify with the characters.
I am glad that our high schooler was able to read The Hamelin Stoop Series by 12 Gates Publishing. It gave him the opportunity to see another way to write fantasy books. I think that our younger son will like these books. I'm looking forward to see what the other books in the series will be.
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
We did it! We have 100 subscribers on our YouTube channel! A BIG "Thank You" for all of you who have subscribed to our YouTube Channel!
This is huge for us! If you haven't checked out our YouTube channel ~ go there now and see what we've got for you all!
One of the perks of having 100 subscribers is that we now have any easier URL for you all to connect with us! It's https://www.youtube.com/c/Homeschool4Life
Just click this link and don't forget to subscribe!
We thought that we would share some of the "numbers" on our YouTube Channel:
* Over 370 videos
* Almost 155,000 minutes watched
* Over 100,000 videos viewed
Here are our most popular videos:
Favorite Videos ~ for the lifetime of our channel:
#1 ~ Bubble Guppies: Bug Parade
#2 ~ Bubble Guppies: The Big Magic Show
#3 ~ Welcome to the Neighborhood: Daniel Tiger
#4 ~ The Legend of the Christmas Stocking
#5 ~ Santa Claus is Coming to Town
#6 ~ Berenstain Bears: Kindness Counts
#7 ~ One Vote, Two Votes, I Vote, You Vote
#8 ~ The Legend of the Candy Cane
#9 ~ Let's Meet a Police Officer
#10 ~ Help Me Be Good: A Book About Disobeying
There are so many more videos for you to see! us to let us know which is YOUR favorite!
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Techie Homeschool Mom - Ancient Greece Online Unit Study Review
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Techie-Homeschool-Mom---Ancient-Greece-Online-Unit-Studyhttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Techie-Homeschool-Mom---Ancient-Greece-Online-Unit-StudyWed, 24 Apr 2019 16:26:38 +0000
It's interesting how children from the same family can be so different. I enjoy studying children, especially our own, in order to figure out the best way to reach and teach them. Our oldest is a little more "traditional" than our younger son. He doesn't really like to do much school online. He would rather just read a book about something. "Fluff" doesn't appeal to him. Now, on the other hand, our younger son loves doing school online. He likes activites and doing the extra "fluff" in the lessons. It helps him to understand the material better. That's why I thought that he would like the Ancient Greece Online Unit Study by Techie Homeschool Mom. Guess what? I was right!
He had the choice between ancient Greece, Egypt, or Rome, famous artists, famous inventors, and the solar system. He chose ancient Greece as we have already studied the solar system and inventors. I wasn't too surprised at his choice because his brother has been studying Greek for his high school foreign language and has always been very interested in Greek mythology. It was now our younger son's time to learn all about Greece.
Getting everything going was a little tricky at first, but that was because we had never taken an online course. It was all new to our son as well as to me. We especially had trouble with the Emaze portion of the study. For a project throughout the unit study, our son was to make a "time journal" of all that he learned about Greece. It was a wonderful idea to summarize what he was learning and he enjoyed doing it, when it worked. I had a very difficult time setting up our account and there were days that we couldn't get in to his time journal in order to complete it. Other than "technical difficulties", it was a great activity for him to complete.
The ligistics of actually completing the unit study was diverse. We started the entire study together. I walked him through how to log in, go to where he was in the study, and then we went through each step together. As time went on, he gradually took the reins (so to speak) and worked more and more on his own. Towards the end, he was completely doing everything on his own as I did other things, like teaching his brother. I really liked that he felt confident in his abilities and the structure of how the unit study was set up to work on it independently. That's a big plus for Techie Homeschool Mom! It was very well organized and systematic.
He learned so many things about ancient Greece! It started out with an introduction to just simply talk about the unit study and the technical portions of how it works. It moved on to learning about where Greece is and some basics about ancient Greece. He really liked the activity of using Google maps to find the distance of where we live to where Greece is. This led to our older son soming over to check it out, too! Great! Then they wanted to play around some more with Google maps to "spy" on our home and their grandparents' home. I love when one learning activity leads to others without me pushing it there.
Throughout his "travels" through ancient Greece he learned about Greek city-states, daily life in ancient Greece, city life, Greek art and architecture, ancient Greek innovations, Greek warfare, and Greek mythology. It was funny when he was learning about Greek art. This was a portion that he was doing by himself and he decided to do it in our backyard that day. All of a sudden, I see him looking at something. I asked him what he was doing and he said that he was looking at our pottery because it kind of looked like Greek pottery. He noted some of the aspects of Greek pottery and how our pot fit some of those characteristics. It's wonderful when they can directly apply what they are learning. It makes this mom feel good about what they are doing and that they are actually learning!
Being an online unit study served to be beneficial for the diverse aspects of learning. There were articles to read, articles to listen to, and videos to watch. He learned to click the links of where he needed to go to find the next piece of information. All of the learning and activities weren't all online, though. One of them was to read a book about Greece. Some ideas were given, but we could choose any book that had to do with Greece. I liked this aspect of the unit study. He wasn't online for everything. We chose "Magic Tree House: Hour of the Olympics". Another "offline" activity was to make some Greek clothing. We tried our best with the materials that we had on hand.
Overall, this was a great introduction to the world of online classes for us, even though we had some technical difficulties. Our son learned using the Ancient Greece Online Unit Study by Techie Homeschool Mom. This makes us hopeful to complete some other classes online in the future.
Go and read what others thought!
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Tomb and Cross ABC Match Game
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Tomb-and-Cross-ABC-Match-Gamehttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Tomb-and-Cross-ABC-Match-GameSat, 20 Apr 2019 21:39:14 +0000
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
Here's another Easter activity that I've had made, but never got the post up and sent to you all. I've been sick and the week flew by. Anyways, here's a great activity that can be used in multiple ways.
* Match the upper and lower case letters
* Use the letters for spelling
* Use the letters to write a message
Just click on the picture below to print!
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He Is Not Here Picture Puzzle
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/He-Is-Not-Here-Picture-Puzzlehttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/He-Is-Not-Here-Picture-PuzzleSat, 20 Apr 2019 21:28:34 +0000
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
I'm sorry that this is so late, but I got sick this week and put things a little behind schedule. Luckily this takes hardly any prep so you can still use it for Easter this year.
Just click on the picture below and you have an activity.
Technology is not really my "thing". I mean, I like technology, when it works. My husband is so great with all of the new gadgets and software that comes out. I seem to stick with what works until it doesn't work any more or he tells me about something new that would make my life easier. Our two sons have taken up after their father, especially the oldest. He actually wants to get a college degree in Computer Science so that he can possibly be a software engineer. That is why we were happy to be able review the Stop Motion Animation Kit from Stopmotion Explosion.
My husband and I felt like this would give him a good basis for computer animation. We were right. There are many tips and tricks on how to make a good movie. Then that movie is turned into an animation. Our oldest is 14 and so I wanted him to take the reins on this review. This was the first product that I have basically just given him the supplies and said, "Go!" He read through the book, played with the software, and made a couple of movies with it. We sat down together to write this review. I asked him to give a brief summary of each chapter so that you, our lovely readers, will know all about this wonderful product.
Here are his words:
The History of Filming
This taught me that it was not easy to figure out how to make motion pictures. They started out as still paintings. Then people drew lots of pictures that were very similar, put them in order, and spun them around at fast speeds and that gave the illusion that the picture was moving.
Animation Actors
This talks about the different things that you can use to animate. It can get kind of expensive, but you can animate with pretty much anything.
Creating Stories
This cahpter gives some tips for writers that have issues about writing. For example, you can just retell ideas from comic books, books, movies, video games, etc. Another tip is to be descriptive on what you want to do in the movie.
Building Sets
It explains that you don't have one type of building materials, like Legos, for examples. You can use daily items from around your home to help build the set. You can have a blue towel for a tidal wave or a crumpled up piece of paper for a tree.
Camera
This teaches about different types of cameras. If you want better pictures, it could get kind of expensive and difficult to get the right one. You need to keep the camera steady at all times. A stand can be built out of Legos or you can get a stand that holds your camera in place. The camera that we received with the kit was very useful and it had great quality. It was able to capture everything very well.
Lighting
This is key in any good movie because if you don't have the perfect lighting then your movie won't seem as good. It will seem sloppy and that it was made by an amateur. You want to have the right lights otherwise it can mess with your picture. Laser pointers work for certain lights as well.
Composition
Composition is the arrangement of the items in the view of the camera. This puts the focus on some parts more than others.
Animating
Animating for stopmotion can be an especially long process because of how slow you have to take it. You have to go bit by bit with each movement. Each movement is very slow. Facial expressions are very important to remember when animating.
Flight
This chapter talks about how to make things look like they are flying in the movie. This was a more difficult chapter for me to understand and follow.
The Art of War
The difference in this area of filming is that you have to move multiple parts and characters very slowly. Paper or cotton balls can be used to make an explosion.
Sound
There were a lot of technical stuff involved in this section. It was difficult for me to understand what I needed to do. I would need to get some help from someone who knows a lot about this area of movie making or at least knows more about computers and technology.
Video Editing
This tells you that if you want to edit out something in your movie, you just need to delete the picture or pictures that you want out. I had to do this in my video. It was good to know that I could move pictures around if I wanted things in a different order or I could add in pictures if I forgot something.
Files and Formats
This had more technical information that I would need to get help for. I am not too knowledgable about computer technology yet, but I would like to learn.
Frame Conversion
This helps you fix up your pictures to make sure that they are the way that you want them to be. This tells you about how to get your video ready to be viewed in another application outside of Stopmotion.
Sharing Your Animations
This chapter shows different sites that you can upload your video to. It also tells you how to make DVDs or hook up your computer to your TV so that others can watch your movie.
Animating with DSLRs
This tells you about the highest quality of cameras that you can get for an amateur movie maker. It shows you all of the different lens and the ways to use them.
What Next?
This chapter gives you ideas on how to upgrade what you have already done. You can get people to help you with your movie as well.
Animating is not an easy thing to do. It takes a while and it can be difficult. For people who like it, it can be a very enjoyable experience for them. This helped me to understand about angles and lighting for movies in the future.
I thought that he had some great thoughts about each chapter and that he did well for his first review. Once he was done, I uploaded the videos to YouTube. I have to tell you that this was difficult for me as I'm not very tech-savvy either. I muttled my way through it by using the help desk as shown in the Stopmotion Explosion Quick Start Guide as well as the book chapter called "Frame Conversion". These two helped me be able to convert the pictures into a movie so that I could download the video into iMovie so that I could then export them to YouTube. It was easier than I thought, once I figured it out and once my computer let me download a free software that was needed.
He made two videos so far. The first video was just so that he could get used to the program and how to make it work. He was able to do any subject matter that he chose. Check this one out below:
Then he made a second video after going through the book. You can tell that he added a backdrop, word bubbles, as well as played with lighting. It was great to see how he incorporated what he learned from the book into his video. For this video, he used it as a project for his American History class that he is taking. Check it out below:
Overall, I really liked this product for our oldest. I liked how he was able to be creative and show his personality through his videos. The program was easy to use and the camera is high quality. My husband (the "tech guy") was impressed with the camera. I would encourage your family to look into the Stop Motion Animation Kit by Stopmotion Explosion if you have someone who likes technology or movies.
We started homeschooling our oldest at the end of his kindergarten year. I remember being freaked out about high school. I was told that it can be totally different than the rest of the homeschooling years. I watched other moms, who had older children, be stressed out because they were trying to decide whether to continue homeschooling for high school or to send their children to public school.
Our oldest is in high school now and I am so glad that we didn't think twice about keeping him home and homeschooling him through high school. There are a few things that I have to do to make sure that he is getting the education that he needs in order to continue on to college. One of those things is making a transcript. I started a transcript for him before he started high school because I wanted to make sure that he was taking all of the classes that he needed to take. This is my first time making a transcript, or having a high schooler, so I was happy to get a copy of Everyday Education's Transcripts Made Easy: The Homeschooler's Guide to High-School Paperwork. It has given me the confidence to know that we are on the right track with high school.
Don't think that this book is just about transcripts. I mean, it all leads back to what needs to be put on a transcript, but it went way beyond what I thought was going to be in there. I figured that it would let us know some details about what to include on a transcript and maybe some formatting suggestions. I wasn't sure what all would be in the 138 page book. You guys! There is so much in this little book.
The book is split up into 6 sections: Meet the Transcript, Plan with the End in Mind, Keep Simple Records, Grades, Credit, and the GPA, Create the Transcript, and References, Resources, and Reproducibles. I'd like to highlight each section of the book so that you know how much great information is in this book.
Meet the Transcript
This is what I thought that the whole book was going to be about. It is the nuts and bolts of the transcript. This section gives the basics of the transcript: what needs to be on it, who's going to see it, and what the parts of the transcipt are.
Plan with the End in Mind
I have to be honest, I think that this was my favorite part of the book. This gave information on what to study in high school along with a sample of requirements. Of course, you have to check with your own state and where your child is planning on going to college to know for sure what they need to study in high school. This just gets you going in the right direction. Along with what to study, there is how to study. This isn't a study skills book. This gives homeschool families ideas on how to schedule high school. This always helps me think outside of the box sometimes as I get stuck in a routine that doesn't work. This books gives homeschool families the freedom that they need with ideas on how to make high school work in their family.
Keep Simple Records
I don't usually keep samples of my kids' work, but after reading this, I am going to start. You don't need to keep everything, or even a lot of things. Just samples to prove their work. This section also gives help if you have a special needs child. Fantastic!
Grades, Credit, and the GPA
This section is just what it's title suggests. It helps with grading, which is something that I was wondering about. We are a "do it until you master it" kind of family. I don't really give grades. This helped me to understand how our style can fit into a transcript. Very useful information!
Create the Transcript
This is where the details about formatting comes into play. She has even given samples and blank transcripts for us to fill in and/or follow. Suggestions on issuing an official transcript is even given. Wonderful!
References, Resources, and Reproducibles
This is where you will find blank forms and samples of what she had been talking about throughout the book. There are some wonderful resources given in this book!
Everyday Education's Transcripts Made Easy: The Homeschooler's Guide to High-School Paperworkfar exceeded my expectations! It really does give you a boatload of information in order to make keeping track of what your high schooler needs in order to complete high school. I have even bookmarked websites that were talked about that I want to make sure that I can check out more later as I need them. There is even one about curriculum about how to start your own business - something that our oldest is a little interested in and I am extremely interested in. This book will be a resource for our family for years to come.
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. *
We have made a printable ISpy just in time for Easter.
Just click on the picture below and print as many copies as you need!
We were given another chance to review one of YWAM Publishing's great history books. In the past, we have read the C.S. Lewis book as well as the Milton Hershey book. We really liked both of those books and so we wanted to give another one a try. Heroes of History - Davy Crockett: Ever Westward did not disappoint.
Listen what our 4th grader had to say:
I think that it's a really good book. I liked the part where Davy Crockett helps in a war. He also got to help Andrew Jackson.
I have to be honest and show a little of my ignorance in this manner. I didn't realize that Davy Crockett was a real person. I mean, I remember hearing about the Davy Crockett Disney show and that he wore a coonskin cap. I just thought all of that was made up. Low and behold, Davy Crockett even went to Congress.
Here are some of the things that we learned about the life of Davy Crockett:
* He had four older brothers named John, Jim, Bill, and Wilson
* He had a little sister named Betsy
* He was "hired out" at the age of 12 to work for a man named Mr. Siler
* He was married twice because his first wife died unexpectantly
* He joined the militia
* He knew Andrew Jackson
* He and his family moved around many times
* He was elected to the Tennessee State Legislature and U.S. House of Representatives
* He was born in 1786 and died in the Battle of the Alamo in 1836
I really like how YWAM Publishing writes these books. They are informative as history books (more so actually), but written as a story book. Perfect combination. History is a story and should be told that way. I love how the historical information and facts are flawlessly woven throughout the storyline. You actually feel as if you are there with these real people living their lives with them. Wonderful!
Our 4th grader and I took turns in using this as a read aloud or him reading a chapter by himself. The chapters were a little long for his taste and attention level, so sometimes we would split a chapter up to make it more manageable for him.
Here we are reading together. I had my feet up on a chair reading while he was sitting eating ice cream. Nothing wrong with that!
YWAM puts together Study Guides to go along with their books. I also really like these. This adds another dimension to the book, as if reading it wasn't enough. We would read a chapter and then talk about the questions from the Study Guide. I also really liked the timeline and the David Crockett Fact Sheet. These made him really listen and look for dates and specific information as we read. I would be reading along and he would stop me because he heard a piece of information that he needed to write down on one of the pages. Great!
Here he is filling in some of the information on the David Crockett Fact Sheet.
He heard a date that he needed to write down on the timeline.
I know that I have already said this, but we really love YWAM Publishing books. Heroes of History - Davy Crockett: Ever Westward was literally brought to life for me and our 4th grader. We would love to read about Thomas Edison or Abraham Lincoln next!
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
We have so many Easter books and resources, that we thought that it would be a good idea to put them altogether in one place. That way, it'll be easy for you to find what you are looking for. Just click on the pictures below to find out more information about each one.
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Printable Contraction List
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Contraction-Listhttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Contraction-ListThu, 28 Mar 2019 20:47:24 +0000
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
Contractions can be a tricky thing for children to understand. It's difficult to know which letters to take out and replace with the apostrophe.
I have put together this printable list with all of the main contractions. This is a great page to put into your child's resource binder. I hope it helps your children as it has helped ours.
Just click on the picture below to print it out for your family.
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
Are you trying to teach your children to write in cursive? Here is a wonderful resource for you, then.
Print this out, laminate it and your children can write on it using a dry erase marker. This way they can use it over and over.
You could also print it out and put it in your child's resource binder for reference as they are writing.
Just click on the picture below to print it out!
if you want to see more resources like this. We'd love to make more for you all. Just let us know what you need!
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Tied 2 Teaching - STEM Activities, Full Year of Challenges with Close Reading Review
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/2019/03/22/Tied-2-Teaching---STEM-Activities-Full-Year-of-Challenges-with-Close-Reading-Reviewhttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/2019/03/22/Tied-2-Teaching---STEM-Activities-Full-Year-of-Challenges-with-Close-Reading-ReviewFri, 22 Mar 2019 17:20:51 +0000
Have I ever told you that our 9 year old likes to do projects. He is a Lego building, paper crafting, hands on learner that loves to do projects. He asks me if he has any projects for school and I usually have to tell him, "No, I'm sorry dear." When I heard about the STEM Activities, Full Year of Challenges with Close Reading by Tied 2 Teaching, I knew that this would be just the thing for him. I was right.
With more than 70 challenges (hands on-projects) to choose from, if you do one a week, it will last you for more than a year. There are challenges for holidays throughout the year like Christmas and Valentine's Day. They didn't forget about other special days like the 100th day of school and Groundhog Day. There are challenges to design a bug, a super hero, or treasure chest. He loved that he had so many choices! I didn't care which ones that he did, so I gave him the freedom to choose which ones that sounded interesting. He thought that was so great!
When we received the activities, I downloaded them all to my computer so that I didn't need to be online to use them. Then our 9 year old and I scanned through them so that he could see all of his choices. He was excited to see so many of them that he will be able to choose from. He ended up choosing "Design a Droid", "Design a New Hat for a Cat", "Design a House of Cards", and "Design a Building Block Structure".
These Stem activities are both parent and child friendly. What I mean by that is that there is something educational about these challenges as well as an element of fun. The educational portion of these challenges are the worksheets and reading that go along with them. These are not just activities to get your child to build something. There are pages to work through to plan what they will make. Then there are pages to complete after they are done with the project.
I love that there is a story to read that goes with each challenge. He read "Do Robots Wonder?", "Who Invented the Hat?", "Do You Like to Play Cards?", and "How Tall is the Eiffel Tower?" These stories really helped him, and me, see that there is science and learning in all that we do. You know how sometimes you get in a rut and just do the same things all of the time. These activities really opened my eyes to remember that learning is all around us. These stories and planning pages helped me to see that when he is doing an activity, he is learning valuable lessons. These activites are made for 3-6th graders. Since he is at the lower end of this age range, we discussed most of the pages together instead of having him write everything. I didn't want his writing and spelling abilities to disrupt his thinking and reasoning skills.
I was not surprised that he chose the "Design a Droid" challenge first because he loves the droids in Star Wars. He was able to use anything in the house to build his droid so he went searching around to see what he could find. Well, we had just emptied a tissue box and then he found some index cards. I think that he made a pretty great droid. He says that it is something like a vacuum bot, but it also has a memory card so that it can be a secret spy and send messenges.
Next, he chose to make "Design a Building Block Structure". He was able to use his Legos for this and he was thrilled about that. To be honest, this one had him stumped for a few days. I wanted to give him time to think through what he needed to do before I jumped in to guide. He started to make the base of the tower. He is used to us saying, "make sure that it has a firm foundation" and "give the pieces support" that he was making this thing to last for centuries. I finally had to jump in and remind him that he was building the tallest tower, not the strongest. I know in the picture it shows that he was touching it, but in order to complete the challenge, the tower had to stand up on its own. It did, I just didn't reallize I didn't get a picture without him touching the top.
Then came the "Design a New Hat for a Cat" challenge. Ok, so he wanted to wear the hat, and we don't have a cat, but he liked completing this challenge as well. One day, when we went over to Grandma's house, they made it together. Grandma was very proud of how they got the paper to go around in a circle and attach to the paper plate. Way to go, Grandma!
Finally was the "Design a House of Cards" challenge. He thought that this was going to be a walk in the park and that it wouldn't take long. He soon realized that it is much harder than it looks. He first started with a regular deck of cards. He found these to be slippery and difficult to work with. He decided to use his Yu-Gi-Oh cards which are not slippery and are thicker. These seemed to be easier for hikm to use, but it still took him some time to get a second layer on there. This was a great lesson in patience and persistence.
Here's what he had to say about these activities:
I really liked that you can just use your own household items and things that are laying around the house. I think that they need to keep adding more projects to do in the future.
We really enjoyed these STEM Activities, Full Year of Challenges with Close Reading by Tied 2 Teaching. We will continue to use these throughout the year. These will especially be useful when the baby comes! He can still do projects, but I know that there is some guided learning in there as well.
To find out what the other reviewers thought, click HERE!
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Drive Thru History - Acts to Revelation Review
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Drive-Thru-History---Acts-to-Revelationhttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Drive-Thru-History---Acts-to-RevelationWed, 20 Mar 2019 15:55:45 +0000
We have always loved history. My high school history teachers got me interested in history becuase they taught it as a story and not just a bunch of people's names and dates. That's why we have loved Drive Thru History® in the past. We just knew that we would love their new series called Drive Thru History® "Acts to Revelation". Dave Stotts teaches in a story-like method. It's easy to follow along and understand what happened. He connects the Gospels to this series and continues the story where most stop (at the resurrection of Jesus). This helps us understand how the church actually got started and how it thrived.
When we received the DVDs in the mail both of our boys were sick. We sat and watched a few episodes and I didn't feel bad for watching tv for school. The boys were actually learning history, bible, geography, art, and foreign language (hebrew and greek translated) together. This goes along with our high schooler's World History and Bible credits that he is earning! (Bonus!)
Both of our boys really liked watching this series. I didn't have to force them to watch. We usually watched them first thing in the morning as we were eating breakfast. Some mornings we would watch one, but others we would watch two or three. It just depended on what else we had going that day and the amount of time that we had. There were never any moans or groans about watching more than one episode. They enjoy Dave Stotts and how he is both goofy and serious. It really is a great combination to keep them entertained, but also educated.
We have a 9 year old and a 14 year old. They both were able to enjoy these videos and learn from them. I love when we can do one thing, both of them learn, and I don't have to do anything to adapt the curriculum in order to meet where either of them are. That doesn't happen very often.
Here are some of what our 9 year old liked about them:
* He commented on the graphics that were placed within the video
* He liked to find the cities talked about in the episodes on the map in the case of the dvds. We had found older videos that were given to us by a friend a long time ago. They are now in his room so that he can watch them in his free time because he has enjoyed watching these.
* He said, "I hope he does the rest of Bible because he explains the Bible well."
Here is what our 14 year old liked:
* He liked that because of all of the history that he (Dave Stotts) shows, it proves how accurate the Bible is. (Great observation!)
Here is what I liked about it:
* He talks about the old cities and what they are like now
* He reads from the Bible during the episodes to give proof of what they are saying by giving the Bible verse account
* There are suggested readings before episodes
* Dave Stotts shares his favorite verses throughout the episodes. This makes it very personal.
* We can actually see where these places are that we have read about in the Bible. It makes it real!
* Josephus is mentioned. When my husband was a preacher, he quoted him quite often in his sermons to talk about the history or "tradition" of the time".
My parents came over to visit one day when we were in the middle of an episode. They sat down with us to finish watching it. They really liked it and even learned things themselves, even though they have gone to church and read the Bible for their entire lives. They are actually going to borrow the DVDs now that we have watched them all. They want to watch the entire series as well.
There are 18 episodes in this series and all of them are under 30 minutes long. Included with the DVDs is a study guide. This is full of questions to discuss, the answers, as well as maps and pictures that go along with episodes. It is a wonderful resource for families to be able to take the episodes a little further than just watching. Here are some notes from each episode so that you know what each of them are about:
1 - The Gospel Shared at Pentecost
* connects Luke with the beginning of Acts
* see where the disciples preached the good news at Solomon's colonnade
2 - The Church Grows in Jerusalem
* Peter, in the name of Jesus, heals the man outside the gate Beautiful & then stands up to the Jewish leaders
* stoning of Steven & Saul starts to destroy the church
* the Damascus Gate is called the St. Steven's gate because he was stoned near there
3 - The Gospel Spreads to the Gentiles
* Philip, Simon the sorcerer, and the ethiopian
* Roman mile is shorter than a regular mile
* the port in Jaffa was where timber for Solomon's temple was brought in & Jonah got on the boat
* Peter brings Tabitha back to life
* Cornelius and his family baptized
4 - Saul of Tarsus and the The Road of Damascus
* Tarsus is one of the greatest learning cities of the time, like Athens and Alexandria
* Tarsus was Marc Antony's capital city & Cleopatria met him there to start their secret coalition
* Damascus is in Syria & they are having trouble with Isis
5 - Paul's First Missionary Journey - The Island of Cyprus
* Syrian-Antioch was where the believers were first called Christians "Christianos" (Greek for follower of Christ)
* island of Cyprus is 40th tourist destination
* Barnabus was born in & led the church in Cyrprus and he also was killed there
6 - The Journey Continues - Pamphylia, Galatia & Asia Minor
* Paul, Barnabus, and John Mark continue their travels together
* John Mark soon leaves, but Paul & Barnabus continue
* "run the race" in 1 Corinthians made real sense because of the races that were run at that time
* in Iconium there were statues - one of Jonah and the great fish, which was a secret symbol for the christians to represent Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection
7 - The Jerusalem Council & Paul's Second Missionary Journey
* there was an argument among the Jewish council about whether the Gentile believers should have to follow the Mosaic law of the Jews
* Paul and Barnabus argued that they should be completely accepted into the church without the Mosaic law because it was completed with the death and resurrection of Jesus
* James, Jesus' half brother, was the leader of the church in Jerusalem
* Paul and Silas travel together while Barnabus takes John Mark with him
* Timothy is introduced as a resident of Lystra & he went with Paul as his student
8- The Second Journey Continues - Philippi the Thessalonica
* Neopolis was a port city where Brutus and Casius murdered Julius Caesar then conquered by, soon to be, emperor Augustus
* Philip II and Alexander the Great conquered it and called it Philippi
* we saw an ancient public bathroom
* Lydia purple dye "business" was on an inscription of stone about purple dyers proves Luke's historical account
* Paul writes Philippians to the people of Philippi
9 - A Road Trip to Athens
* Bereans eagerly listened to Paul, but also examined the scriptures themselves - good lesson for us all
* we see Mount Olympus
* Dave dressed in Spartan armor
* Mars Hill was a judicial area and place for people to meet and discuss ideas
10 - Ancient Corinth
* polished metal "mirrors" gave a distorted view & Paul used this to talk about how we will someday see our true selves
* Corinth Canal was 4 miles through the isthmus of Corinth. In 1893, with the invention of dynamite, it was finished because there was a lot of rock to cut through
* Eruastus the Treasurer inscribed in stone and in the Biblical account
11 - Paul's Third Missionary Journey - Ephesus
* many Jews lived in Ephesus
* library of Kelsus held 12,000 scrolls and the tomb of Kelsus (it was the 3rd largest in ancient world)
* Paul was still selling tent to pay for his missionary work
* magic and astrology were normal life then
* Artemis and her followers were all over the city of Ephesus
12 - Paul's Final Trip to Jerusalem & Caesarea
* Paul kept starting riots in Jerusalem when he would defend his actions & the Roman soldiers kept having to protect him from the Jewish crowd
* a graphic of military levels as well as a Roman uniform
* first man made harbor
* Paul is then sent away from Judea
13 - Adventures at Sea - the Island of Malta
* see the kind of ship that Paul was on to Rome
* see what Paul went through in the wreck by Malta
* people that lived on the island spoke a language that was close to ancient Hebrew so Paul would have been able to carry on a conversation with them
14 - A Final Journey to Rome
* driving on a 2,000 year old road
* Rome had the most citizens for a long time
* explained where Paul lived for his house arrest while he was waiting for his trial
15 - The Martyrdom of Paul & Peter
* warning about some violence before episode
* Nero's fire
* Circus Maximus held 150,000 used for games and races, but was also for killing christians
* they think that they have actually found Peter's tomb
* ancient prison where Paul would spend his last days
16 - John and Island of Patmos
* boat ride was goofy and the boys loved it
* Patmos was an island that was like a "prison island", but it had a town and other things as well going on
* see the cave where John received the visions for Revelation
17 - The Seven Churches of Revelation
* see the places of the 7 churches in Revelation
* the Pergamum temple was completely transported to Berlin, Germany
* Thyratira is the home of Lydia
18 - The Book Closes on the New Testament Period
* Laodicia had a water system that was luke warm to drink. This fits with what John said to them about not being hot or cold
* known for their eye care and had an oinment that John referred to
* 2013 was the 700th anniversary of the Edict of Milan making Christianity legal
* Colossae has never been excavated
* three bombs hit a church on Malta during a church service - two of them reflected off of the dome and one pierced the top and landed inside of the church during service and none of them exploded
* recap of each of the 27 books of the New Testament and where they were written on the map
I don't know if you could tell, but we really liked the Drive Thru History® "Acts to Revelation" series by Drive Thru History®. This is something that we want to keep and watch again. It has so much information that you don't get all of it the first time you watch it. As the boys get older, and as our littlest bundle of joy grows up, these will be a wonderful resource for our family!
Go and check out what the other reviewers thought!
Just click on the picture below!
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Spring Books
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Spring-Bookshttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Spring-BooksFri, 15 Mar 2019 20:51:32 +0000
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
Spring is just around the corner and we have some wonderful books for your family and homeschool.
Just click on the pictures below to find out more information about each of them!
Enjoy!
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6 Fun & Easy Bible Games
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Grandma Edie and Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/6-Fun-Easy-Bible-Gameshttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/6-Fun-Easy-Bible-GamesFri, 08 Mar 2019 19:17:53 +0000
** This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. There are also links on this page that if you simply click on them, that will benefit our family with no purchase necessary. Thank you for supporting our blog. **
Have you heard of our 12 Month Basic Bible Printable Curriculum? It's an awesome curriculum that works with your children from kindergarten through 6th grade. Go and check it out by clicking on the picture below!
We have put together 6 videos of the Bible games that are included in this curriculum. We thought that you might want to see them in action!
Fruit of the Spirit Ring Toss
Love of Jesus BINGO
Old Testament Cup Game
Books of the Bible Sort Game
Books of the Bible Walk
Books of the Bible Buckets
We hope that you and your family have a blessed and fun time learning about the Bible while playing these games!
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Victus Study Skills System Review
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Felicia Mollohan
http://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Victus-Study-Skills-System-Reviewhttp://www.homeschool4life.org/single-post/Victus-Study-Skills-System-ReviewWed, 06 Mar 2019 15:01:42 +0000
Study skills are one of those things that are very important, but we don't spend much time working on. I know that myself, with our two boys, have taught them some study skills throughout our studies, but we haven't sat down and focused on them. Victus Study Skills System has been helpful to open the eyes of our boys and helped them to see that learning these things are not a waste of time, but they will actually save them time in the future. They have many products available for each age of student you may have at home. We mostly used the Level 2 Elementary Student Workbook, Level 3 Student Workbook, Student Planner, and the Teacher Edition.
Our high schooler didn't think much of the study skills program at the beginning. He actually had a pretty bad attitude about it because he saw it as extra. You see, we have been very careful to not add too many "extras" to his high school agenda because it can get overwhelming for him. High school has a lot of classes and work that is involved with it and adding in other things, "just because", isn't the greatest idea for him. He is wanting to complete high school in 3 years, instead of 4, and so his workload is heavier than most.
I learned that I learn better through listening and viewing than by doing. I will continue to discuss my work in order to understand it better.
High Schooler
My husband and I had to actually sit him down to talk with him about how learning study skills will actually help him with his other work. I like the Victus Study Skills System because it is a short program where the information is compact and easy to work through. There isn't a ton of exercises and practice pages in order to learn the material. We were able to discuss many of the topics in the program to help him, and our younger son, see how these techniques can be helpful in their school work, as well as in their life.
Victus Study Skills has 10 lessons split into 3 sections. Section One is "Where am I now?". Section Two is "Where do I want to be?". Section Three is "How do I get there?" Each lesson is supposed to take 30 minutes for a total of 5 hours for the entire program.
We probably spent the most time in the first section. We had some great conversations about where they think they are in their study and work habits. I liked the Study Habits checklist. This really brought to light how they are studying now.
I think that it's really helpful for kids who are disorganized and want to study better. I learned that it's better to keep a clean study environment so that you are free of distractions and you can work harder. I plan to keep a better learning environment, especially on my school shelf where my supplies are.
(4th grader)
I really liked the Learning Strength chart. I think this was all of our favorite part of the entire program. It was very personal for each of them and helpful them see themselves differently. I have always been fascinated with the multiple intelligences and their scores affirmed where I already knew that they were. Our oldest had the highest score as an "auditory learner" with his second being a "visual learner". He likes/needs to talk about information so that he can process it. He has always been this way, even in Kindergarten where he would get in trouble for trying to discuss the learning with his teacher. Our younger son's highest score was as a "kinesthetic learner" with his second as being a "visual learner". It was wonderful how the program gave ideas for how to study better with each learning style. It didn't just tell them what they were, but how to use that to better their learning.
It was an eye-opener for our high schooler where his priorities lie. He was ashamed to put a number down for his priorities because they didn't line up with where he wants them to be. This opened the door for another conversation about life priorities and how they can be changed.
I used the Student Planner with our high schooler. We will continue to use this as a great tool to keep him organized and more independent. It was useful to him so that he could get more out of his day, which is something that he was struggling with doing. He feels guilty because he doesn't get done what he wants to or thinks that he should.
Victus Study Skills System is geared towards the public school. We had to do some adaptation for some of the checklists to make it relevant for our boys. In the Teacher Edition, it does walk you through each lesson. I would have liked to see it give more specific information about what to talk about. At some points, it says something like, find information about ... and then discuss it with your students. I feel as though all of the information should be there already along with some points to discuss with my kids. This would make it more teacher friendly.
Overall, I feel as though this is a great product, especially for the price. The Victus Study Skills System is not an expensive program and you can just buy the levels that you need for your children. I have seen how the skills that they have learned in this program filter through their other schoolwork as well as life. I appreciate programs like that!
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