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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Best of the Best ~ 2016 Crew Awards

After taking 2015 off from The Crew, we happily rejoined this year.  It has been a whirlwind of amazing homeschool products.  Many were return vendors we know and love and there were lots of fresh, new companies joining us, too.  Some curricula were on my "short list" for "some day" and some were wonderful surprises.  We used and reviewed just over forty products for The Homeschool Review Crew, plus some single reviews for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, which you'll also, eventually, get to read about here.

Last week, The Crew reviewers and their kiddos were all invited to vote for our favorite reviews of the 2016 run.  I have to say, this is probably one of the absolute hardest parts of being on The Crew.  You get to vote for *just one* thing in each category. It's incredibly difficult, sometimes, to narrow it down.


My personal *blog* requirements are a bit more lenient in that I allow us to choose several items in categories I want to use.  To simplify, I used subjects for the categories or I could go on and list nearly every review we did here. So, here goes.  Here are Redhanded Homeschool's High Fives for the 2016 Homeschool Review Crew.  All links will take you to my original reviews.

Malachi's High Five
Familyman Ministries' The Familyman's Christmas Treasury
We all like these stories so much.  Almost every time we get in the car, they ask me to play Cootie McKay, Captain Chaos, or The Stranger.

Xavier's High Five ("Obviously.")
Stopmotion Explosion's Stopmotion Animation Kit
We've all liked this and have made it a bit of a hobby.  I'm even teaching the kids at co-op a class based on the information I learned from SME and other kits, and videos we've been using.

Merrick's High Five
Talking Fingers, Inc.'s Read, Write, & Type
Who doesn't like teaching pesky Vexor a lesson for bad behavior?  And there's the bonus of learning to read, write, and type as you go.

My High Fives for Moms
MyFreezEasy
Love, love, love this one!  I've tried freezer cooking before, but it was always overwhelming to me.  Not anymore!

SchoolhouseTeachers.com
While on the surface, SchoolhouseTeachers.com is for classes, there are also tons of resources for moms and the whole family.

Most of the following products are favorites that we have finished, kept using through the year, or will be using in the future.

Language Arts
LOE Foundations A 
Merrick used several reading and writing programs this year and he (and BooBear, his teddy) really enjoyed this one.

IEW's Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization
"Ooey gooey was a worm..."  We all had a blast studying and memorizing poetry this year.  This program will be with us for years to come.

Progeny Press' The Sword in the Tree e-guide
This was a really good study based on a book that really held their attention.

Can Do Cubes from jollyliteracy.com
While Merrick liked using these with Jolly Phonics, the beauty of these cubes is that they can be used with any program.  All of my kids like manipulatives.  Why not have them in LA also?

Language Arts ~ Honorable Mention 
I have one honorable mention again this year.  This is a *great* writing program, but we just weren't able to finish it for various reasons.  I almost held a co-op class in my home using Here to Help Learning, but we had a bunch of balls in the air at that time and I couldn't figure out a good time to do it.  I'd be so happy to use it again sometime, though. 

Math
CTCMath
I love this math times 1000!  Malachi especially does well with it.  He worked tirelessly this summer to get his scores up in multiplication, working the section over and over.  I was so proud of him, but more importantly, he was proud of his own achievements.  We use CTCMath almost every day.

Math ~ Honorable Mention
It's a game.  It's math.  It's Sunya the Magic and Wonder of Math and Science Adding & Subtracting.  This is a fun card game (with a really long name) for memorizing math facts and comes in multiplication and division as well.  We should use it more often.  And get Merrick playing it with us.

Science
Apologia's Exploring Creation with Astronomy 2nd edition
We had a great time using this edition with Merrick (and Xav who can't get enough science).  I'd used the first edition with Mal and Xav years ago.  We have loved each Apologia science we've used.

Social Studies 
Heirloom Audio 
We love every. single. one. of Heirloom Audio's Henty titles we've heard.  Most we received through The Crew, but we've also listened to a few I purchased.  I love the downloads that come with the CDs including the study guide which turns the stories into a nice historical unit.

Extra-Curricular  
Zeezok Publishing's Music Appreciation 
Not only is this an AMAZING music appreciation curriculum, it also has a lot of historical information in it as well as a focus on positive character traits.

Memoria Press' Traditional Logic hurt my brain.  I obviously don't have a high schooler, so I worked on this course my own self.  It's a great program.

Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids Spanish Starter Set
This was such a fun video Spanish class.  The boys love that it takes place on a day in the life of three brothers.

Middlebury Interactive Languages Elementary Chinese 1
This is the third course we've used from Middlebury and our first foray into Chinese.  It's a great program and I liked that it also taught some characters and had special paper to download for writing practice. 

Just For Fun  
The Pencil Grip's Kwik Stix 
We bigfatpuffyheart Kwik Stix tempera paint.  They were easy to use and worked great on paper, cardboard, wood, and canvas.

Enlivenze FlipStir
Enclosed puzzles with no loose pieces.  What's not to love?  They're fun and challenging.

Special Category - Best Gift
CrossTimber Name Meaning Gifts
I had to include CrossTimber, but it isn't curriculum or a puzzle, so...  New category invented.  Check.  Hey, it's my blog and these are my favorites.  I'm not sure if the best part about CrossTimber is that they can make something meaningful for *any* name, or seeing how happy you can make someone with one of their Name Meaning Gifts.

You can see how the official voting of The Homeschool Review Crew went on the blog.

MyFreezEasy A Homeschool Crew Review

This post contains affiliate links.

MyFreezEasy was developed by Erin Chase of $5 Dinners.  I've been following her off and on for several years.  Micah has wanted me to get involved in freezer cooking and meal planning for a long time.  I've tried a few times, but I am way too slow and busy to do one of those marathon cooking sessions that leaves you with a month of meals in the freezer, but takes all day long.  With MyFreezEasy.com Freezer Meal Plan Membership I can have ten meals in the freezer in a couple of hours. 

Premium membership allows access to all eight meal plans each month.  By making two full meals of each of the five recipes, I'm able to fill up my freezer in a very short time.  I can also swap out any meals from a growing database of archived meals.  Many of the recipes are or can be made dairy or gluten free.  In fact, one of the meal plans is all gluten free meals.  The eight plans available are

• traditional,
• gluten free,
• all pork,
• all chicken,
• all ground beef,
• clean eats,
• slow cooker, 
• and the 20 meals plan.

The 20 meals plan is just what you'd imagine.  You still make two of each meal, but it includes ten recipes.  The all meat plans are exactly that.  Purchase whichever meats are on sale and save money on your grocery budget.  I've shopped several times for meals since joining MyFreezEasy, and sometimes it feels like I've over spent.  I never exceeded my budget for the month and still have many, many more meals put away.  It definitely has brought value to my shopping.

After selecting my meals, or just downloading one of the plans with no alterations, I now have a document which includes complete recipes for preparing a meal for that night or for freezing all the meals, shopping lists arranged by store location (dairy, meat, produce, etc) or by recipe.  The list even includes the type of containers needed to store the meals in the freezer.  I also can quickly locate sheets that tell me what to set aside for each recipe on prep day.  On prep day, there is another sheet that tells me what to cook, chop, or open before meal assembly.  The last page(s) have each meal laid out with exactly what goes in the freezer bags or foil pans for each individual meal.

All of these instructions are for making two meals of four servings each.  Serving quantities can be adjusted before you download the paperwork.  I actually leave the servings at four, but divide the meals in half, or less often, thirds.  That way I still have the quantities on my shopping list for 8 servings, but I'm putting smaller amounts into each container and I end up with even more meals in the freezer.  Even with putting the equivalent of two servings in each bag or pan, we've found it is more than enough for the two of us for dinner and someone inevitably gets a lunch out of it.

The grocery list is very handy, as long as you don't print it and leave it on the table when you head to the store.  Not that I ever did that!

Some meals are as simple and fast as throwing a few things together; a can of this, a bag of frozen something, and jar of another thing, and throw some cheese on top.  Some recipes require more involved cooking.  All of them have been delicious.  If you have a little one who can use a can opener or shred cheese for you, MyFreezEasy is a great way to spend quality time in the kitchen as well as get some meals in the freezer.  I received compliments on every meal I've made, whether it was just Micah, family we've had over, or meals we've passed on to others.

Left: Enchiladas before cooking. Right: Black bean chili with corn muffins.

I made a few newbie errors the first time I used MyFreezEasy.  I ended up spending about two and a half hours on a plan I created.  I am meticulous anyway, so that makes me slow. Then I was intentionally using smaller pans for more, small meals. So rather than half in here and half in there, I was weighing every ingredient and pulling out the calculator. Also, because four of the meals were basically hamburger and onions, I cooked EIGHT pounds in a big pan. So then I had to figure the weight of the meat after cooking per recipe to divide into various sized containers. Some meals I made for a friend and some for us. Her meals were bigger than mine because she has a larger family. I was ridiculous about it.

I want to stick to a meal plan that Erin has created, following it exactly, and then the video will coincide with exactly what I'm cooking. I swear I have never used so much pseudo-algebra in my kitchen before!  The other times I've cooked using MyFreezEasy, I reeled myself in a bit and it was much smoother.  Definitely sticking with wholes or halves and not getting all worked up about being so precise!


Things I would like to see on MyFreezEasy:

1. Nutrition information.  This one could be trickier because everyone is going to actually put together some recipes a bit differently. 
2. Some "lighter" options, or at least mark any recipes that could be considered lighter.  I don't do "diet foods" because I prefer food that tastes good.  I rarely substitute light, low fat, or reduced calorie items.  So, I'd really appreciate knowing up front if a meal is a bit healthier than others. 

I did have two missing ingredients on one of the customized meal plans when I sorted the shopping list by store section.

The recipes I made included

• Chicken and Ranch Macaroni - I do not normally put a crumb topping on pasta.  I've just never really cared for it, but this dish was so good and the topping was really lovely.  I didn't actually have a packet of ranch dressing, so I used a bit of Buffalo Chicken and Bleu Cheese dip mix.
• Five Ingredient Chili - I never actually got to try this one because I passed it on to friends.
• Bacon and Bleu Cheeseburgers in lettuce wraps - These were amazing in a lettuce wrap or hamburger buns.  The recipe called for serving the burgers with bleu cheese crumbles, but I realized I would need to buy a container of the crumbles each time I served them... and I *may* have made 14 - 1/4 pound burgers!  So I actually put the bleu cheese inside the hamburgers as I made them.  I just formed them like a bowl and wrapped them around the cheese.  Now I only need to make sure I have rolls or lettuce when I want to serve them and I don't have crumbles going to waste in the back of the fridge.
• Lazy Lasagna Bake - While this could use a bit more sauce, it wasn't dry.  The flavor was so good!  I had never used cottage cheese in lasagna, so I used half cottage cheese and half ricotta.
• Beef and Black Bean Chili - I added a cup of water because my slow cooker gets pretty hot.
• Ravioli Bake - Another hit, and the kids even tried this one.  WIN!
• Black Bean and Corn Enchiladas - This meal was absolutely gorgeous in the bowl and I couldn't resist taking a photo of it which disappeared along with Xavier's first day on the bus photos, somewhere in cyberland.  Just imagine a big white bowl full of black beans, corn, red peppers, green chiles...  It was *very* tasty.

As I made up my list, I kept wanting to write, "This was a favorite," but I would have typed that almost every single time.  I love trying new recipes, but I'm always leery of duds.  This recipes are tested by Erin in her own home and if they aren't great, they don't make it onto MyFreezEasy.

I loved

• Being able to adjust servings for a recipe. 
• Having a downloadable/printable grocery list.
• Seeing videos that walk me through meal prep for the Traditional Meal Plan each month.
• Chatting with other meal prep women in the Facebook group.
• Being able to pull a meal out of the freezer or throw an extra together to bless a friend.
• Removing the freezer fillers (old milk jugs filled with ice) one by one as the space was filled with food.

I got so excited each time I pulled out a jug of ice to make room for ready-made meals.

There's a video near the bottom of the FAQ Page you might like to see.

I hope you know by now that if I rave about something, it's because I *really* like it.  And. yes.  I'm definitely enjoying the satisfaction of having meals put away for us.  I enjoy cooking, but making the same stuff all the time had gotten old.  (I still prepare all the kids' favorites, regularly), but Micah and I get to enjoy something new with a lot of variety.  I can see this becoming a long term way of cooking regularly.  MyFreezEasy has been convenient (now that I have my "meticulous gene" under control!) and a money saver.

There are both monthly and annual memberships.  Make a selection and get started putting up food for those busy days where everyone has appointments and you won't be home to prepare dinner.  You'll save money by not getting take out.  Again.  And the meals are healthier.  You know exactly what's in them because you made them.  Spend the time in the kitchen making memories with your helpers.

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Recipe - Green Beans

I'd never heard of southern green beans, but I was surfing the web for a yummy green bean recipe when I came across this one on allrecipes.com.  Southern green beans also, apparently, are made with potatoes and BACON.  I can handle that!

Since the full, actual recipe is at the link above, I won't put it here.  I can tell you that I cooked the beans a bit longer.  Micah doesn't like them too crisp.  Also, I like very crisp bacon.  I didn't add it back in while things were cooking because I didn't want it to get soggy.  I cooked most everything else just like the recipe suggested and then added the bacon back in at the last minute.  I'm a little leery of vinegar for some reason.  I was never one to eat it on fries or potato chips.  However, it really gives this dish a nice flavor.

Southern Green Beans is a keeper, for sure.

Recipe - Pieless Apples

I was tinkering in the kitchen the other day, when I decided to cook up some apple pie filling.  I wasn't trying to quite make the syrupy, drippy, thick, yummy kind.  Though that is tempting now that I think about it.  I decided to use a granny smith.  I cored it and sliced it into 16 pieces.  I didn't bother to peel it.  I melted a tsp of butter in a small pan and let the apples cook a few minutes.  Then I mixed about 1 tsp of granulated sugar, a tsp of cinnamon, and a 1/4 tsp of nutmeg.  I stirred that in the pan and let it bubble away while the apples continued cooking.  I added a little water (a couple TBSP) as needed just to keep things from burning and speed up the apples.

Verdict
It tasted pretty good, but I determined it would need a bit more sugar.  I intended to use two tsp of sugar next time.  What I actually ended up doing was using a sweeter apple and brown sugar.  Use the basic instructions above with the following ingredients and let the apple get pretty cooked.

1 tsp butter
1 apple (pink lady or other somewhat firm sweet variety)
2 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
water as needed

Serves two.  Seriously.  It does.  Xav ate half of one, so it had to serve two.

This would be so good with granola, oats, or ice cream.

Recipe - Creamy Banana Bread

The ripe bananas have been sitting on the counter calling to me for a few days.  I finally got around to making banana bread and we've all been scarfing down this amazing bread all afternoon.  We can't seem to stop eating it!  Merrick was my assistant cook.  He "reads" the recipe to me as well as any three year old can and he dumps the food I measure into the mixing bowl.

I used my usual plain old banana bread recipe, but I decided a few spices would be fun.  I added a bit of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and a tiny shake of ground clove.  Of course, I didn't measure any, but it really was just a taste of each.  That's just how I cook, if no one has an exact recipe.  I also add chocolate chunks because I don't love nuts in baked goods.  Then the party started.  I found this recipe and made the cream cheese filling for it.  The egg in the cream cheese kind of threw me off.  To me, cream cheese is mostly for bagels.  Who mixes it with raw eggs and bakes it?  Very smart people, let me tell you!

First, I used the small and medium Pampered Chef scoop thingies to make muffins.  One medium scoop of batter, one small scoop of filling, topped off with about half of a medium scoop of batter.  Then I still had plenty for a large loaf of bread.  I did the same thing in the loaf pan; batter, filling, batter.

Four out of five loved it.  Malachi refused to even try it.  His loss and the more there is for us!  Now I think I've eaten too much to exercise tonight!