Circling Through This Life

Today's theme for the Back to School 5 Days of Homeschool Encouragement  is Work It In Wednesday! Today I want to share about how homeschooling isn't just form of education but a way of life.  One of my big goals for home education was to instill a love of life long learning in my children.  Just because it isn't a school day or we are on vacation doesn't mean that education doesn't happen. We live in a state that requires instructional hours.  Something equivalent to 5.5 "instructional" hours a day for 180 days.  Thankfully my state recognizes that home education can be more efficient than classroom education in a public school. We tended to do 'year round' schooling taking breaks as life thew its punches.  During the summer we did more "fun" school like hands on science but my favorite thing about "homeschool as a lifestyle" is that going on vacation didn't mean a break from learning.  It meant a break from forma...

I think the greatest lesson I have learned as a homeschooling mama is to be flexible.  Being flexible isn't easy for me.  I don't like change.  I like having my road maps (i.e. lessons plans laid out for me) but I learned to love the detours. Having a "game plan" or a "road map" at the beginning of the year, meant that I knew where I wanted to go even if we didn't finish in June.  We always schooled year around with doing more "hands on" and "fun" schooling during the summer so I gave up early on trying to squeeze 36 weeks or 1100 hours of education between September and June. In today's Take a Look Tuesday post which is part of the Back to School  5 Days of Homeschool Encouragement Blog Hop hosted by the Homeschool Review Crew I am going to share my general road map for studying American History for the 2018-2019 school year for Supergirl. If you're you're hopping over form another Crew member blog, let me br...

I was first introduced to Carole P. Roman in 2013 when we reviewed first 4 books available in the If You Were Me and Lived in . . . A Child's Introduction to Culture Around the World.  We fell in love with them.  I had the opportunity to review 3 more titles for The Old Schoolhouse Product Reviews and as a Crew Leader I've been adding to my collection. We love the Carole P. Roman books and collections so I want to share a few more titles from her culture series with you. These books are perfect when studying geography.  Geography is more than just learning where a country is on a map but also learning more about the people, customs, and culture of that country or region.  Our geography lessons go in fits and spurts but these If You Were Me and Lived in . . . books are my go to spines. We study geography in spurts alternating with spurts of history and science.  We do have a geography course that we are using and I chose If You Were Me and Lived in ...

Have you heard of Heirloom Audio Productions ? If you are a regular reader of my blog you may recognize the vendor name.  My family first encountered these fabulous audio dramas when we reviewed In Freedom's Cause .  I also reviewed Beric the Briton on my blog. We've also enjoyed several titles such as In the Reign of Terror and The Cat of Bubastes.  This time we received Captain Bayley's Heir . Confession time!  As much as I have loved Beric the Briton and Cat of Bubastes from Heirloom Audio Productions I wasn't too sure about Captain Bayley's Heir.  You see it is set in the Wild West of America and I'm not terribly fond of that time period.  Mostly because of all those old Western movies my dad would watch. But I was pleasantly surprised to find myself not only enjoying this new title but shocked when I discovered that it has become my favorite one! Here is a short summary of the story from Supergirl: The story is about Captan Bayley's Heir....

One of my favorite curriculum companies is Home School in the Woods .  I first encountered Amy Pak through her wonderful Timeline Figures that we used with our history program.  Through the Homeschool Review Crew, I've discovered that Home School in the Woods offers so much more than just figures we can use on a time line. Supergirl and I have been visiting and exploring Ancient Egypt with the HISTORY Through the Ages Project Passport World History Study: Ancient Egypt . I prepared for our journey by printing out the Travel Planner: Quick Stop Itinerary.  This 3 page document gives a brief overview of the 25 Stops we will make on our trip. Stop 1 and Stop 2 Lay the Foundation.  During these two lessons students will prepare their passport, luggage, and Scrapbook of Sights. The passport and luggage will be used for each Project Passport Study.  I'm kind of relieved that we will not have to make a new luggage folder for each study! During the first two ...

Do you love action? What about adventure? Do you like history?  Have you heard of Heirloom Audio Productions ? Heirloom Audio brings history to life with their radio theater adaptations of G.A. Henty novels. The latest adventure, Beric The Briton , has become a well loved CD here at my house! About Heirloom Audio Productions Heirloom Audio produces radio theater quality dramas. Each production is based on a G.A. Henty novel. These are not Henty novels read aloud. It isn't an audiobook; it is cinema for your ears.  These adaptations bring history to life by combining sound effects, music, and talented actors to voice the characters. Beric The Briton This is the story of a young chieftain named Beric who has an adventure that takes him to Rome during the reign of Nero in the time frame of Rome burning. Beric learns of Christus and the Christian faith.  He trains as a gladiator, fights a lion, serves Nero and becomes a Christian. Disk 1 of the 2 disk set...

It’s no secret that I love Institute for Excellence in Writing . Through IEW I have gained confidence in my own ability to write and in my ability to teach writing to my daughters. IEW put together a set of resources for members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew. They included Teaching with Games Set , Timeline of Classics , and A Word Write Now .  These items are not sold together but IEW gave me all three resources to use and review.   Teaching with Games Set Let’s talk about the DVD first. One of the things I love about IEW DVDs is the classical music that plays in the background when you view the menu. Is it wrong to confess that I left the DVD on menu mode for a while when I was home alone just to listen to the music? The DVD contains three discs: 2 DVDs and 1 CD_ROM.   Disc One covers Matching Card Games and “No-Prep” Games.  Disc Two includes Question Games, Math Facts Games, and “Make As You Teach” Games. The appendix is also available on Disc 2.  On Dis...

A few years ago we had the opportunity to review Mayan Mysteries , an online from Dig-It! Games and the girls had a blast. There was just one problem.  The girls completed the game but at that time there was no resolution. The mystery was not solved. When I told them that Mayan Mysteries had been updated and that it is now complete, they were eager to play it again. Because it had been a long time since she played it, Turtlegirl decided to start over from the beginning to “refresh [her] memory.”  She had the option of picking up with the updated point or starting over. Because Turtlegirl played the game I’m going to hand this over to her so she can describe the game and tell you what she thinks! ******************************************************************** I really enjoyed playing the game. I loved the "mini-games" that helped you learn about household Mayan objects or the Mayan math system. I really wish they had included more of the story during the sites you wo...

We have used a few of the Latin programs from Memoria Press , including Latina Christiana and First Form Latin , but we never included a focused study of Roman history. Studying the history of Rome is commonly part of a Latin course. We had the opportunity to review The Book of the Ancient Romans Set from Memoria Press which is just perfect to add to those Latin studies! Turtlegirl is my lover of all things Latin and when I discussed using The Book of Ancient Rome along with the Student Guide to flesh out her Latin Studies she was very excited. As soon as the box arrived she absconded with the book and disappeared. The Book of The Ancient Romans Set includes the the history book, a Student Guide and a Teacher guide. Originally written in the 1920s by Dorothy Mills, the history book went out of print.  Memoria Press has republished the book and produced the Student and Teacher Guides. This program could easily be a full year history course for middle school aged children. Th...

A few years ago I had the opportunity to review a Once-A-Week Unit study from Homeschool Legacy . I used it with all four girls and we loved it so when I saw Homeschool Legacy on the upcoming vendor list I got very very excited. They offered several choices but I knew that Supergirl would enjoy diving into the Middle Ages with the Knights & Nobles the most so I begged for that one.  You’ll want to be sure to check out all the Schoolhouse Review Crew posts to see all the different options we crew members had! Sharon Gibson , a veteran homeschool mom, founded Homeschool Legacy to provide Biblically centered educational materials. These materials provide fun and creative hands-on assignments and activities. On the Welcome page of the Study Guide she states “Once-a-Week Unit Studies are designed to help you inject fun and creative learning activities into your homeschool lifestyle.” The Once-a-Week Unit Studies are very flexible and at the same time very comprehensive so you ca...