Innovators Tribe ~ A Homeschool Crew Review

When Innovators Tribe showed up in the upcoming vendor list for the Crew, I sent Dad the link and asked if he thought Xav would be able to use the course in any meaningful way.  Xav's my STEM guy.  Well, minus the "M" - math.  He loves experiments and hands on work.  Thinking Like an Engineer looked like something right up his alley.  Dad said he thought Xav could do it, but he knew he would definitely LOVE the course.  Wayne Kroeplin's (Mr. K) courses are for grades 6-12 with some wiggle room.  My punks are in 5th and 6th grade, but math is a struggle.  *So far* math hasn't been an issue at all.  They haven't needed it for anything.  Not even to succeed in the challenges.  The best part about this class is that you are *encouraged* to invite everyone in the family to participate *together*.  This has given us some fun memories of supporting and working alongside each other.  (And believe me, those moments are few and far between.  We seem to be in a very competitive stage.)

Thinking Like an Engineer is a pre-recorded online course.  Pacing is decided by you and your family.  We took a pretty leisurely pace and generally watched one lesson or completed one challenge each week.  Certainly, your students could work at a faster pace.  I think a video/slide show lesson plus a challenge (or more!) in the same week is completely doable.  At one lesson and one challenge, you would spend about 2-3 hours on the course for the week.

Each unit has a "journal" to fill in with the information found in the videos, sort of a guided notetaking page.  The lessons also have assignments.  We've had various amounts of success with the journals and assignments.  One assignment is learning about an engineer that is involved *somewhere* with a topic in which the students are interested.  Well, Mal is only interested one kind of "engineer" and that's a *train* engineer.  I have directed him to transportation engineers and we've looked up how engineering is used in the design of trains and railways.  It isn't quite the same, but he was willing to learn a bit about it.  Xav was interested in engineering as it applies to Lego toys.  While we found listings for job openings in engineering for Lego, they were in a foreign language.  Most of what we found was about designing Lego sets.  So, the researching engineers part didn't go great for us, it was good practice at online researching and we did learn a bit.


The units include:

• Intro to Engineering
• Intro to 3D Design
• Engineering Rollercoasters
• Engineering Bridges
• Nano Engineering
• Thinking Like an Engineer - Course Conclusion

I thought I'd tell you about some of our favorite activities and challenges to give you a feel for the course.  Lesson 3 is called Engineering Clean Water.  While I watched the lesson and the associated outside videos, I remembered the PlayPump.  Does anyone else recall the water pump that was run by children playing on a Merry-Go-Round?  I always thought that was genius.  Unfortunately, when I looked it up recently, I found out it didn't end very well, for the most part.  Throughout the Thinking Like an Engineer course, we were encouraged to be innovators and try new things.  Even though the PlayPump doesn't work well in all situations, it was definitely innovative.

In lesson 4, you receive the 3D Design software that you will use to create bridges and roller coasters.  We aren't using this yet (so close), but I know Xav especially is going to love it.  He eats that kind of thing right up!

The challenges have been a blast!  Some times we don't handle failure very well, When we have worked on the challenges, there has been an "Oh, rats!" or three, but no one has been angry about starting over and rethinking the processes.  We have had so much fun completing these tasks together.

Our first hands on challenge was to try to construct towers using regular copy paper.  Well, the punks were a bit disappointed, because Mr. K said some students had built their towers a couple feet taller than they did.

His class also stacked more books than we did in the second challenge.  We used one sheet of paper and had two feet of masking tape for this challenge.  We tried fan folding, circles, and concentric circles.

This happened a lot.

 And this.

But through all the challenges we faced, we brainstormed our way through to make the best of the assignment and to figure out what we could do differently or better to improve our results.  Eventually, we got to this.

If I had made just three or maybe four rings, even though they were super tiny, I would have had more stability and been able to stack books higher.

Our third challenge was creating a crude water filter using information from an Environmental Protection Agency video.  We didn't complete that challenge here at home, because a class in our co-op recently did this.  (Hmmm... As co-op yearbook creator, I thought I had taken a picture of that lesson, but it appears I did not.) 

The one thing I really wished for was the "solution" to the challenges.  How did Mr. K's class get 200 POUNDS of books on the single sheet of paper?  HOW?  I need to know!  Maybe gEEk Dad can tell me.  The punks and I absolutely love the hands on quality of the coursework and they really like the videos.  They've learned a lot of information seemingly unrelated to engineering.  I think they especially liked the clean water challenge and we could tell that it was an important problem to Mr. K.

I also enrolled in the free Think Like an Innovator course.  I think the punks are going to like it, too!  Mr. K offers another course, Thinking Like an Architect, also for grades 6-12.  Some of my CrewMates reviewed that as well.  So please click below to read some of the other reviews.

Super Teacher Worksheets ~ A Homeschool Crew Review

Super Teacher Worksheets' supplemental printables added a nice variety of activities to our school day and enabled me to shake things up a bit for boys who are bored of the same old thing.  The Individual Membership, which is valid for one year of access to the entire website, allows family use of thousands of worksheets, with new ones added weekly.  I've used several of the free worksheets available on the Super Teacher website previously.  I knew I would be able to find things to enhance learning for all three punks.  There is just a little bit of everything to try on this site!

The section headings include

• Math
• Reading & Writing
• Phonics & Early Literacy
• Handwriting
• Grammar
• Spelling Lists
• Chapter Books
• Science
• Social Studies
• Holidays
• Puzzles & Brain Teasers
• Pre-K & Kindergarten
• Teacher's Helpers
• and Worksheet Generators

Most of the available content is for Kindergarten to 5th or 6th grade.  There are some sheets for older students as well.  Many of the lessons cover a grade range rather than one specific grade (i.e., 2nd-4th or 5th-7th)

I had some fun finding ways to use the Super Teacher worksheets.

• Anything that fit in with our studies in some area.
• Reading comprehension for books we had on hand or had recently read.
• Finding activities to accompany songs from Schoolhouse Rock.
• Using pages that dovetail with current events.

I worked with Merrick on CVC words and the D word wheel.  This one was pretty easy for him and he didn't even need help cutting out these circles.

He also had some fun building sentences for Grandpa.  This activity was a little difficult for him, but once he had figured out the bulk of the words, he seemed to really enjoy building sentences.  At first, he was serious, but after a while he became quite silly.  This one was definitely an enjoyable project.

Xav was excited to answer some questions I found on the book Bunnicula, which he has read several times.  I also printed some assignments for comparing a book with its movie, and a comprehension file for The Boxcar Children.

We would watch an episode of Schoolhouse Rock, which takes only a few short minutes.   After that, the boys would work on a printable which coincides with the song.  There are grammar worksheets galore, for various ages.  Merrick was excited to complete this fun activity.  All through it, he sang, "A noun is a person, place, or thingamabob."

At the beginning of our time as Super Teacher Worksheets members, I found hurricane printables to help the punks understand exactly what was happening in Texas, then Florida and Puerto Rico.

I used the calendar generator to create something I could use for morning time.  I used to have that nearly every day with the bigger littles, but until this year, Merrick has been left out of that sort of thing.  The generator offers a few different options.  You can have small numbers in the upper right corner of each day's box.  I did that, but I remembered after making them for September and October that I need to leave the boxes blank for Merrick to fill in himself each day.  The dropdown selector allows for that.  You can choose the full word for each day, or the abbreviated name.  Weekends can be shaded or not, and you can list US or Canadian holidays, or no holidays.  I entered US holidays, but there were a few that were not important to me.  It is as simple to delete a marked holiday as it is to enter new content into the calendar.  Even though while entering the data, it looked like the top line wouldn't fit, when I printed it I had three full rows of typing available in each square,.  Unfortunately, the top and sides of the calendar are right at the edge of the print area and the tip top of the month/year were cut off.  That might just be a setting issue, but I never did get to look into it.

Though I haven't used the Worksheet Generators yet, they look great.  I will definitely be diving into those in the near future.  The set up is similar to the calendar generator.  Using dropdown menus, you answer questions to create the worksheet format, number of questions, and other things.  The three types of worksheets are word search, fill in the blanks, and multiple choice.

I found a few things I couldn't use or didn't need that may be useful to some homeschoolers, but I'm guessing only public educators would have the required equipment or specific need.  A Promethean Whiteboard isn't something you would typically find in a home.  I admit to being curious *and* a bit disappointed that I couldn't access those files myself.

I also found an elementary level gradebook which can be used in Excel (or OpenOfficeCalc).  All you need to do is enter students' names and grades.  The cells are formatted to average everything for you.  Pretty nifty, actually.  A similar PDF gradebook is available in the Teaching Tools section for those who would rather just track grades.

I have a virtual "file cabinet" on the website which I *really* like.  If I find something I think I can use down the road while I'm looking for this week's worksheets, I simply put it in my file cabinet for later.  I can also save any worksheets that I generate in the file cabinet.  Each worksheet shows a blue bar under the description.  That bar has an icon to see the common core connections, a preview of the file, and your file cabinet.  Just one click files it away.

There is so very much available for a low yearly fee, especially if you have elementary children.  I was pleasantly surprised (and maybe a bit overwhelmed at first) with the *many* options on Super Teacher Worksheets.  I do wish that I could easily search for a specific grade, though.  Be sure to take a look at the assignments the rest of The Crew handed out to their children, by clicking the banner below.

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Heirloom Audio Captain Bayley's Heir ~ A Homeschool Crew Review

Heirloom Audio Productions has done it again!  I love to say that.  Their audio dramas are spectacular and we {bigfatpuffyheart} listening to them all.  Again and again.  This time, a young, British gentleman travels to America and experiences the gold rush and the old west.  In Captain Bayley's Heir, Frank is accused of a theft at school.  He is about to be publicly expelled and humiliated.  Unless he confesses.  Well, you know how kids are.  Be falsely accused of a crime and decide to go to America to clear your name!

This installment of The Extraordinary Adventures of G.A.Henty actually has a bit of a slow seeming start, as it isn't until track 8 when Frank finally heads to America.  When I say "slow start" I don't mean the beginning is boring, only that it seems somewhat unrelated to the whole traveling to America thing.  Only it wasn't unrelated.  We have to meet all those important characters in Frank's life and understand their relationships with him and the kind of young man he is.  And though the story is about Frank's coming of age in America, we never leave behind his British family and friends as they struggle to understand *why* Frank ran away and just *where* might he be. 

There seemed to be a lot of foreshadowing in this installment.  Maybe there always is and I just never noticed it before.  I kept thinking, "Ah-ha!  I knew it!"  It made me feel very smart.  Although, I didn't tell the boys certain things, sometimes when we'd pause the CD I'd mention something and ask them why they thought it was included in the story and what they thought it could mean in the future.  It was kind of fun to see them thinking through all those hints.

Of course, in a series of amazing coincidences, we do find out just *who* is Captain Bayley's heir.  This is where there was a bit of that foreshadowing, because you know all these seemingly unrelated incidents have to tie into the story in some way.  Once you figure it out, you just keep waiting for the players to finally piece it all together.

All through the audio, Frank would interact with new people and my "stranger danger" alarms would be triggered.  Someone had to be the antagonist, right?  Thankfully, most of the people he happened across were good people, even some godly people, and were helpful in ways that it seemed they were put together by providence.  At one point, Frank receives $200 for something helpful he did.  The boys were shocked to know that was nearly a year's pay for the employment he had at that time.  Aside from Frank, my favorite characters (and were they ever characters!), were the trio of Abe, Rube, and Dickens.  Abe becomes a wonderful good friend to Frank after he and his friends take him under their wings.  They teach him all he needs to know about survival in the west, and surviving the trip to get them there!  Their colloquialisms had us rolling!

Mal was very disappointed that they were in the old west, but there were no trains.  The timing for that was just a wee bit off, but he quickly decided he could enjoy the amazing adventure even without a steam locomotive!

There was relatively little death in Captain Bayley's Heir (mostly characters we don't actually know), which was a nice change after In the Reign of Terror!  But near the end, someone important is said to be dead and the punks and I were all wracked with grief.  I may have felt a flash of anger at Henty at that moment.

I promise it all turns out alright in the end!

Brian Blessed, as GA Henty, has become the voice of Heirloom Audio Productions for me.  Every time I read one of their Facebook posts, I "hear" it in that voice.  The cast, as always, is phenomenal.  There are always a few regulars in these Heirloom audio theater productions.  Some of the voices, I recognize in each drama.  Some actors portray more than one character and they are so incredibly talented, that I never confuse their characters by voice.

This particular Christian audio focuses very much on God's grace and forgiveness and we are treated to listening a bit to Amazing Grace a couple of times.  It is hands down one of my favorite hymns.  I always prefer it with bagpipes, but any singable version will do.  Now that I've heard it on a solo violin, though, bagpipes might have some serious competition.

The bonus content for Captain Bayey's Heir includes

• A study guide
• Captain Bayley's Heir e-book
• A printable cast poster
• The official soundtrack
• The quote poster, which this time features a line from the hymn "Amazing Grace."
• Desktop wallpaper download
• Access to the actual script on Live the Adventure Club.

The bonus material is part of the new Live the Adventure Club that Heirloom Audio Productions now offers.  While there is a fee to join this community, it includes three physical CDs each year, shipped to your home, as they are released.  The club is much more than that, though.  My Library at the Live the Adventure Club includes access to all the extras for each CD that I own, either through reviews or personal purchases.  I am also able to purchase access to the remaining two audio dramas at a discount right through that library, if I decide to do that.  I also have the ability to listen to the Old Time Radio Vault which houses hundreds of historical radio broadcasts.

A Constitution course, a recipe for Hangtown Fry that miners ate (they had me until oysters!), Kids' activities (coloring pages, crosswords, and more, all related to the audio dramas), inspiring stories and devotionals, and an active forum all round out the Live the Adventure Club content.

I highly recommend using the study guide as your children are able.  There is so much more to them than just the Listening Well comprehension segment for each track.  Some of the things we accomplished because of the study guide

• John Newton and Amazing Grace (Newton was a slave trader for decades, who many years after becoming a Christian, was greatly grieved by his prior career.)
• Important names from the Gold Rush era (These included John Sutter and Wells & Fargo.)
• How the men lived on the gold fields (Miners staked claims and lived in tents or shanties
• The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (Interestingly enough, it became federal law under Vermont's own Chester A Arthur.  Something we can all be proud of.  *eyeroll*)

Firstly, the study guide has a credits page, a bit about GA Henty for those who are unfamiliar, then the main study guide begins.  Generally, we listen through the entire recording over several sittings.  This usually happens in the car because the punks focus so much better than they do at home where there are so many distractions.  The next time we listen, we employ much of the study guide.  Each of the 20 tracks on Captain Bayley's Heir has a page or two spread.

The first section is Listening Well, which is the comprehension segment.  While older kids might have no trouble pausing the CD after each track and answering the questions, we still have a bit of trouble with this.  I often give the boys an idea of the topics they should be listening for before we listen to the track, then we pause it and answer the queries.  The Listening Well segment, is fact based and is mostly not up to interpretation.

Next is Thinking Further.  Here, some more abstract questions might be asked that require a deeper kind of thinking and making inferences.  The Vocabulary includes words like "incorrigible," "oblige," and "affirmation."  Normally, I have the punks put at least a couple words in their ongoing, personal dictionaries after looking them up.  This time I was much too slacky for vocabulary.  Nobody wants summer to end.  The randomly placed boxes for Expand Your Learning have some great topics to research or discuss: such as manifest destiny, money in Victorian England, and mining camps  There's also a great book list to learn more about Victorian England and the American West.

Usually, there is a recipe in the study guide, but there was none in Captain Bayley's Heir.  It's just as well, I guess.  None of the punks would eat beans and I have not found a cornbread recipe I really have liked, though I have eaten good cornbread.  I'm not sure campfire food would be a hit here!  *smile*

You can even read along with the script and complete the Listening Well section online as a graded quiz.

God's Grace was a major theme throughout Captain Bayley's Heir.  The first Bible study in this study guide focused narrowly on the topic of grace.  The second study was about becoming a Christian and the third directs children to honor their parents.  An abundance of verses is at the heart of each study, making it very sound.

The one thing about the study guide I do not like, and I say this every time, is that the pages are not black on white.  You will use a considerable amount of ink if you want to print it, because the pages are a dusty, kind of brownish color this time.  I prefer to have paper in hand, not try to juggle the computer while pausing and starting the CDs.  I might could try to think up a better way to handle it, but the CD player is in a different area from our school stuff.


The two compact disc set runs for about 2 hours and 40 minutes total.  The actors, sound effects, and musical score complement each other so perfectly.  Captain Bayley's Heir and the other Heirloom Audio Productions audio dramas are a super fun way to get in some history.  Malachi recently told a friend that history is his favorite subject.  I'm pretty sure that is, at least in part, due to Heirloom Audio Productions and the immersive style of audio dramas.

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Let's Go Geography ~ A Homeschool Crew Review

I've always admired kids who participate in "bees" for spelling, Bible, or geography.  In grade school, I was a decent speller, but I was not a spelling bee level speller.  And Bible or geography?  Not a chance!  Our world is getting smaller and smaller all the time and geographic literacy is more important than ever.  Unfortunately, most young Americans have very little knowledge of the world outside of their very small local area.  Many do not even know the United States well.

That's why a homeschool geography curriculum like Let’s Go Geography is such a valuable tool. 

I received a subscription to Year One of Let's Go Geography, created by Carol E. Henderson.  It is all online, but it is easy to download the PDFs to save on your computer for use wherever and when ever you like.  If you're worried about the space, you can just access the weekly curriculum right from the website by logging in and selecting Account from the navigation bar.  From there, you can manage your log in information, payments, and subscriptions.  A click on subscriptions takes you to a list of products available for use.  In my case, that is the geography passport and the year one membership.  The curriculum can be used by one teacher for an entire family or co-op classes.



This is year one of a planned three year curriculum for grades K-4th.  Each year will cover two US regions and 26 foreign countries, visiting each continent.  Obviously, there are more countries than that, but this curriculum will provide an excellent overview of the entire world.  This year, at least, the bigger punks are joining Merrick and me.  They haven't complained once in five weeks!  It's a great jumping off point for the older two (grades 5 and 6).

Year one can also be purchased in a two semester option.  This would work great for a semester of a co-op or year of a co-op that meets every other week.  You could even use this option to study geography in the summers.

With about an hour each week, the lessons consist of the following sections:

• Are You Ready? ~ This is a sort of cover page with the capital, largest city, language spoken, population, and area in miles.  The next page lists all the things you may need to complete the assignments (books to read, a craft, and a travel journal).  One nice thing is that the author lists the Dewey Decimal call number for books that would be appropriate for the country or region you are studying.  There are definitely books available in other sections, but these will get you off to a very good start. 

• Map It! ~ There is a link to a map (or maps) to print, instructions for coloring and labeling, and especially learning to read ("Explore") the map.  The punks did things like label oceans, identify neighboring countries, and marking capitals.
• The Flag ~ Several flags are on a page to print.  You will be directed to color (although the flags are actually outlined in color), cut out, and attach the flags either to the included continent's flag page or to the available "passport."
• The Music ~ This lists the lyrics of the national anthem and has a link to listen to it on youtube.
• Let's Explore ~ Trivia!  A few facts about the country or region, photos, and links to videos to "tour" the area.  Some links are especially for kids a bit older.  You'll find those on these pages, along with a reminder to check the printables section for notebooking pages.
• Create ~ Here's the craft!  Some kids, especially those in early elementary, live for this section (actually, Xav loved this part, too!).  There is also a coloring page of the area (also in the printables section).
• and Printables ~ Yippee!  The part mom likes.  *grin*  The notebooking pages, the coloring pages, and the extra flags.

The 36 weeks of lessons include four break weeks: weeks 9, 18, 27, and 36 (which actually doesn't count because the program finishes up on week 35, but if you schedule your school out into 36 weeks, you might need to know that).  There are three regional review weeks for North and South America (week 12), Europe and Africa (week 24), and Asia and Oceania (week 34).  Week 35 is a
Final Review week which includes games and the end of year project, which is a "memory suitcase."

We were going to take a look at week 12's review lesson this week, even though we're actually only on week six, but I have some miserable sickies right now and so I'll just tell you about it from looking at the lesson.  The sections are the same as the regular lesson, minus the music.  First, the map is for North and South America together.  A list of the countries that have been taught to that point are on the next page and students are advised to color and/or label each country as best they can from memory.

Better than that, though, they are now learning about maps.  This review section has activities about the compass rose, cardinal directions, and latitude and longitude.  There is a flag matching activity for each of the eight countries, some more trivia, and a match the country to a picture.  The answers are included for all the questions.  The printables section contains a coloring sheet of animals and a notebooking page for each *continent*.

I really appreciate the weekly email reminder which arrives in my inbox to tell me HEY!  Go download your pages, print the maps, and gather your supplies.  It doesn't actually say that, but it's a nice reminder, so in the every day hoopla, you don't let the geography go by the wayside.

The "color the flag" sections are outlined in color.  I'd rather they were black ink only so children can compare the actual flag and figure out how to color it.  Children in this age group are generally capable of doing that and I don't have a color printer, so that would be a great option.  I'd love to see all the flags for the year on one or two pages with the black line only or color options.  This would make it so easy to print the number of copies needed for each student.  Stickers would be a great alternate option, if you have someone who wouldn't want to color more than the maps.

Merrick is so excited to be doing school more often with the bigger punks this year.  He loves having his own pages to do the same things they are doing.  He's almost offended when I print him a coloring page and they get a notebooking page! 

Let's Go Geography has been a really fun way to study our world.  I'm looking forward to continuing this curriculum with all three punks.

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Heirloom Audio's In the Reign of Terror ~ A Homeschool Crew Review

We love the Heirloom Audio Productions audio theater here. I have all but two. For now. This time, we were whisked away to France during the French Revolution. In the Reign of Terror actually begins in America, with Mr. George in Arlington Cemetary. As usual, our boisterous story teller has found a willing listener to one of his many amazing tales. Young American Harry is about to be treated to the telling of young British Harry and his time abroad. We head to France along with Harry as he is sent to spend some time with a Marquee and his family.

Harry knows there is a troubling time ahead, as Paris is in turmoil, but his father is confidant that things will soon settle down. Through several harrowing minor adventures, Harry earns a place in the hearts of the Marquee's family members. But the real adventure hasn't even yet begun.

As I researched this G.A. Henty title, I was a little concerned about the amount of death that would be taking place in this story. My middle little punk is so tenderhearted and the French Revolution was a very dark time. The death is terrible and even some major characters lose their lives, but through it all, they are more likely a second hand mention, and we are not privy to the actual acts. That isn't to say there are no disturbing passages. No one skirts around the horrible ways many of the deaths happen, it just isn't highlighted. It is just mentioned in as sensitive a manner as possible. We've listened to In the Reign of Terror several times in the past few weeks. I've had to answer some questions with sad answers. Unfortunately, 1790s France isn't the only time in history with sad answers.

One thing I really liked was the juxtaposition of the French Revolution and America's Revolution (or War of Independence). Henty repeatedly contrasts the two events. While they took place closely together in time, the differences were startling. God was generally foremost in the hearts and thoughts of the colonists, while Europe was experiencing the Age of Enlightenment, in which man did not need a god to attain perfection. While researching more about the Enlightenment period, I saw the two revolutions lumped together, rather than different. I liked hearing and reading Henty's opinions on the relationships and differences. One thing I think was most important is that *in general* the American war was fought as soldiers against soldiers, while the French war was largely a people (the common people) pitted against a people (the wealthy nobility and the clergy). Age, guilty involvement, treatment of the poor in general were not taken into consideration.

Admittedly, most of my knowledge of the French Revolution and Reign of Terror actually comes from viewing The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982). Let's just say, funny as it is, it may have left some gaps in my knowledge. While I still don't know everything about this period, Henty and Heirloom Audio Productions has helped me round out that knowledge.

As always, the actors are stellar, the screen play is phoenomenal, and the sound track and audio effects stir something in our very hearts. Brian Blessed, as G.A. Henty (Mr. George) is so memorable and imposing. I confess, his story telling is one of my favorite parts of every one of Heirloom Audio's productions. When I read Heirloom Audio's Facebook updates, I read them in his booming voice. They might (or might not) have a tiny little 20 year old woman on their social media, but she sure sounds like Brian Blessed to me!

Some things about Heirloom Audio Productions have changed since I last wrote a review for them. The helpful study guide is no longer included as a download bonus when you purchase the CDs or MP3s. Those are now part of the Live the Adventure Club. The club is a subscription to the online service and the bonuses are included in that. With club membership, you receive several bonuses which include the study guide, lots of unique resources, a forum, and soundtracks and ebooks for the Heirloom Audio adventures you own. Club membership also includes THREE physical CDs sent out yearly. YIPPEE! More for listening on those long car rides.

Anyway, about that study guide. My one problem with the guide is that the beautiful pages are not printer friendly. I will say this every time I review it until there is a black ink on white paper only option. The guide is broken down into questions for each track of the audio. Each set of questions is divided into three types: Listening Well – a sort of comprehension section, Thinking Farther – which requires the student to consider motives of the characters and use other critical thinking skills, and The Defining Words – or vocabulary.  I really like the Thinking Further section, though it's the hardest part for my punks.  It asks questions like "The Bible forbids rulers and judges from taking bribes (cites verses)...  Do you think it is wrong to bribe an official in order to get real justice?  Explain your answer."

One thing we like about the study guides, which really make a nice unit, is that there is generally a recipe in them. The study guide for In the Reign of Terror has a brioche recipe. I want to make it! But it's summer. I will probably have to take the toaster oven out on the porch so I can bake some bread soon. Otherwise, it's going to have to wait a month or two.

The guide also includes short biographies of G.A. Henty, Robespierre, and Marie Antoinette, and further information about the Age of Enlightenment and the French Revolution. Expand Your Learning segments and photographs are inset on several pages throughout it. Further study suggestions are listed, including the book the script writers were asked to read. Bible studies follow, with the topics “When God Means Evil for Good,” “Resisting Tyranny,” and “True Manliness.”

Heirloom Audio Productions' CDs are well loved in our homeschool.  Check out the Live the Adventure Club and receive Captain Bayley's Heir.  Get to know some of the Heirloom Audio folks and chat with other parents.  You'll find unique resources and plenty of fun activities for your punks, too.




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Learn to R.E.A.D. Curriculum ~ A Homeschool Crew Review

If you are looking for some really great curriculum for early elementary, check out The Crafty Classroom.  Even if you don't *think* you are looking for curriculum for early elementary, you should check it out.  :D  I have been using the kindergarten Learn to R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook and R.E.A.D. Review Pack with Merrick the last few weeks.

I received two downloadable PDF files.

1. Learn to R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook is a 36 week kindergarten reading and language arts curriculum.  This file is *huge,* nearly 800 pages long.  $25

2. R.E.A.D. Review Pack A 92 page file contains 28, easy-to-assemble, printable early readers.  He learns new word families and sight words which coordinate perfectly with the R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook.  It can also be used to supplement any reading program.  $15

R.E.A.D. stands for Ready, Eager, Able, & Determined to read.  It is written by Lacey Falco M.S.Ed and Valerie McClintick.  Purchase enables a single family to print and use.  Classroom and co-op licenses are available.

How we used R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook


To set up this learn to read program, you will need a printer and paper, a notebook of some sort (3 ring, composition, manila folder, or something), scissors and coloring/writing utensils.  I gave Merrick a one subject spiral bound notebook for his notebooking projects.

You begin the program with a few pre-assessment activities.  These are quite easy to implement and are used to make sure the child knows the alphabet and the sounds each letter makes before trying to proceed.  Thirty one sounds are shown.

While the PDF always opened right where I left off, I wish the pages were numbered in the document *and* labeled at the bottom with the lesson/week and there was a table of contents to make hopping back and forth from the instructional area to the work pages *much* easier.

The curriculum uses a 4 day per week schedule for 36 weeks.  Each week, young readers learn one word family and several sight words.  In the first four weeks, Merrick studied the am, at, ab, and ag families, nine sight words, and learned about nouns, verbs, pronouns, and adjectives.  The fifth week is for review (using the R.E.A.D. Review Pack) and learning blends.  Then the five week cycle starts over.  Twice each week, there is a notebooking project.  Merrick recently decided he is all about lapbooking and he is all over these notebooking lessons.

In week one, while learning about nouns, Merrick amused himself by declaring, "a noun is a person, place, or thingamabob" over and over.  While he is notebooking away, I keep hearing, "Hey, Mom!"  He loves working in his "blue notebook."  Once, he told me the older gentleman with a cane in the People column of a noun activity looked like a man God had healed.  Some of the illustrations do sort of resemble the characters in his favorite Bible videos, so maybe that's where he got it.

Anyway, the curriculum overview shows a list of everything covered each week.  Then there is a daily schedule for the regular weeks and one for the weeks spent studying blends. Each shows what activities to do four days of the week.  I printed this because there are so many pages each week, I had a hard time keeping track of everything.

Every day there is a calendar and warm-up activity.  Merrick really likes this one.  You can laminate these pages and use them over and over.  I have put the sheet in a page protector.  I want to keep the calendar side to add to his end of year portfolio.  The page protector works well.  I pull out the sheet for the calendar to be completed right on the paper, then put the page back in the sheet protector so the parts that change daily can be written with dry erase and wiped off each time.  Either way works very well.  I have a lot of fond memories of having morning time with the bigger punks.  The flip side of the page is for practicing writing full names, completing a clock, marking the weather, and more.  Some great math activities occur there.

Some of the daily activities include mazes, dot-to-dots, playdoh mats, sound it out pages, dot painting with a Q-tip, games, and a slew of other pages.  Some involve coloring or cutting and gluing.  There are so many options for every week, I have no doubt there will be some favored pages for just about every child.

How we used R.E.A.D. Review Pack


For these beginning readers, you will need a printer and paper, scissors, stapler, and coloring utensils.

An instructional video shows easy printing and assembly of the booklets, but I did do them a bit differently.  First of all, I printed them double sided.  They are three pages long, which means the back of the second sheet I printed on was blank.  That meant there were three pages in the middle of the booklets that were blank left hand pages.  This didn't bother Merrick at all, but you might want to check with just one book to see if it bothers your child.

Secondly, the video shows how to stack the pages, cut, and assemble by starting at the top.  I found it easier to stack the pages the same, but to begin cutting at the bottom and stacking each section as I cut.  This way, they were already in the right order.  This probably didn't save a ton of time per book, but I was decidedly more confident that I had every book in the right order and saved a bit of time when making books in bigger batches (several weeks at a time).

Merrick caught on very quickly to reading the stories and reviewing his sight words for that section.  The first page of each booklet shows the word families being reviewed as well as a sight word section.  These sections change every 5 weeks, correlating with the R.E.A.D. notebook work being done.  The difficulty of the books progresses as the year goes on.

I swear, he thought Slam Bam! was one of the funniest stories he ever heard, and that exclamation point, just made it all the better.  BECAUSE EXCLAMATION POINTS MEAN YELLING!

I wasn't sure how I would like this curriculum.  I really prefer physical copies of books rather than downloads to print.  Maybe I'm lazy about it.  Or old fashioned.  Not sure.  But sometimes printing things is frustrating for me.  Things don't line up right when front/back printing, everything has gobs of color and I have a black ink only printer, stuff like that.  I did NOT have one single issue printing this curriculum.  Very few pages are in color, and most of those that are have a black and white option for printing.  I am so happy to be on this review.  Merrick absolutely loves working in his "blue notebook."  I couldn't have asked for a program that was a better fit for him.

What Merrick thought:

I like it.  The funnest part is my blue notebook.  I like coloring and cutting.  I *don't* like the girl part.  Only the boy part.  I cut the girl out.

So, he *ahem* doesn't like a page that asked if he was a girl or a boy because it had a girl on one side of the page.  Apparently, that's very offensive to a five year old boy.

After our experience with the R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook and R.E.A.D. Review Pack, I am really interested in The Crafty Classroom's 12 week How to Write a Paragraph, and the Periodic Table of the Elements Activity Pack.

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