5 Days of Homeschool 101 | Day 1 | Curriculum

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Welcome to a fun week of homeschool sharing!  I love peeking inside other homeschools and finding new curriculum.  I must confess that I am totally a curriculum junkie!!  It is so weird planning for our upcoming school year as I am only planning for 2 instead of 3 this year!  You can read about about our first homeschool graduate and maybe pick up a few graduation tips of your own.

Curriculum - that word can bring up lots of feelings.  If you're just starting out, you may be completely overwhelmed and my advice to those of you who are is to start with what you already know.  Do you know your child's learning style? Do you know they excel in a certain subject?  Do they struggle in a certain subject?  My advice would be to spend more time researching curriculum for the areas of struggle.  Honestly, if a student doesn't struggle with a subject then most curriculum should be okay to use with them unless it totally goes against their learning style.  My favorite place to start when researching any curriculum is with the Schoolhouse Review Crew.  I know I'm on the crew but even when we took a break, I would check out their reviews before ordering anything.  

Since we're heading into our 9th year of homeschooling, I do feel like we've finally found our groove so picking and choosing does seem a little easier.  However, as mentioned before I am a curriculum junkie so it's still not completely easy!

This year in our homeschool we will have a 10th grader and a 8th grader.  Here are some of our curriculum choices for the upcoming school year.

10th Grade Curriculum


Bible - included in Notgrass and A.C.E.
Government & Economics - Notgrass Exploring Government,  Notgrass Exploring Economics and Everyday Economics
Finance - Dave Ramsey Foundations and Money Matters
Geometry - Teaching Textbooks
Spanish II - Rosetta Stone
English II - A.C.E. Paces & Heroes of History
Biology - Apologia

8th Grade Curriculum


Bible, History, & Geography - My Father's World ECC
Pre-Algebra - Teaching Textbooks
General Science - Apologia
Reading - Finish Little House Series and Begin Anne of Green Gables Series
Grammar, Spelling, and English - Logic of English 

Here is a little sneak peak inside some of our choices.

Those are our curriculum picks for the upcoming school year which I am trying really hard to have ready to begin next Monday!

Be sure to check out my fellow crewmates and what they have to say about homeschool curriculum. 

Review of Daily 6-Trait Writing Grade 6

It is well known that the way you get better at anything is through frequent practice. Writing has never been a strong subject area in our homeschool so having a resource to break down the writing process into bite size chunks is a must for us. Evan-Moor's Daily 6-Trait Writing from Timberdoodle has fit that description completely.

The Daily 6-Trait Writing book comes with 125 daily lessons in a 160 page paperback workbook. The six traits of writing are content, organization, word choice, sentence fluency, voice, and conventions. You will spend 5 weeks in each of the first five traits with the conventions (correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation) taught in each lesson. The workbook comes in perforated pages making it easy to photocopy but we just used the book as is since I will not have another child who will use it.

If you have concerns about your student looking at the teacher key, you may want to photocopy it. Course work is available on a Monday-Friday schedule but can easily be adapted to a 4 day school week. This workbook is for 6th graders but there are also workbooks available for K-5. There are 4 worksheets to complete each week which are broken into daily assignments and they take around 15-20 minutes to complete. On the 5th day, the student is given a writing prompt. Prompts correspond to the lessons learned for the week.

The teachers guide is also in the workbook at the beginning of each lesson and guides the parent/teacher in what to say to help the child brainstorm the lessons taught. So if you are at a loss for how to teach writing to your student, these pages will walk you through the process completely.

The concept is pretty simple. The use of daily writing in small increments has helped Sarah gain confidence in her writing. Each week builds upon the previous week so there is built in review as well. This workbook currently sells for $26.99 for a full year of writing curriculum. You can use it to supplement your current writing curriculum but I think it would be great on its own as well.   You can also see sample pages. 

**I received a free copy of this product through Timberdoodle in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

Review of The Glass Castle

Shiloh Run Press is coming out with a a new middle grade fiction series and we had the opportunity to read and review the first book, The Glass Castle by Trisha White Priebe and Jerry B. Jenkins.

Fiction is not normally my favorite genre when reading books even read alouds but the cover and excerpt of this one had me intrigued from the beginning. Since we're on summer break with lighter learning going on, I thought it might be exciting to veer from the usual as well.


Book Details

This book has durable hard covers with beautiful imagery of the setting on the covers. It is broken down into 41 chapters and contains 256 pages. The chapters are quick to read and the font size is pretty large. The inside has no pictures. The Glass Castle is currently on sale for $11.24 here. You can also read the first five chapters here.

This book is considered middle grade fiction so the recommended ages are 10-14.  

Storyline and Characters

From the very beginning pages, this book takes you on a mysterious adventure.  In the opening chpater, Avery, who is one of the main characters, is kidnapped on her thirteenth birthday!  She also has her three year old brother with her and has no idea what has happened to him.  The story continues to unfold as she is taken to a castle where she founds out that she isn't the only thirteen year old in the kingdom to be kidnapped.  Ironically, the castle is being run entirely by the thirteen year old teenagers who are all also orphans.  Avery's mother had disappeared mysteriously herself one day and her father was left behind in their house when she was kidnapped or so she thought.  As a child, Avery's mother had told her stories about this very castle and now those stories were coming true so she digs down deep in her memories to try to help all the children escape.  Her mother had often told her of an underground tunnel system so she continues to pry, investigate, and snoop to find answers to the many questions she has about the castle.  Where were the underground tunnels located? How could she gain access to them?  Is her brother alive?  Will she find her mother?  Her father?  Will she be able to help all the children escape?

Avery is quickly befriended as soon as she enters the castle by Kate, who is full of mystery herself and seems to know many answers to the castle questions Avery has, yet she doesn't ever reveal all that she fully knows. There is a background simple romance story that also develops in the book between Avery and Tuck.  Tuck is obviously the leader among the kids and is even elected their king in a kid replica of the real king's wedding.  Can you guess who he chooses as his queen?  Yes, Avery. For the children's ages, we thought this was a bit much and could have been left at a friendship level. However, this is not an over the top romance in any way.

While all of this is playing out in the kids side of the castle, the adult king has his own share of drama to deal with.  His story unfolds to the reader through the vents as the children have found how to spy on him.  The king is sick and rumor has it that thirteen years ago, his previous wife died after childbirth and so did their child. The king is now being pressured to marry a new queen, Angelina, because she is threatening him with "secrets".  We don't know what those secrets are but we do find out that she wants to be the sole heir of the kingdom and there just may be an heir to the king already living...among the children of the castle!

The Glass Castle is full of adventure, pain, mystery, and suspense which leaves its readers hanging on to every word.  We read this book in its entirety in three days and wish we had the next one already!  I have already added it to my buy list.  

The book also contains spiritual elements scattered throughout the pages. There are mentions of prayer, God being in control, The Bible, and chapel meetings.

Warning:  This is a series of books so if you are looking to find all the answers by the end of this one, you will be sadly mistaken as I was.  You will definitely need to read the next book in the series as you are left dangling from a cliff at the end of this one!  Maybe that's why I never liked fiction.

I read this book aloud to my 12 year old daughter who was just as enthralled with the storyline as I was. She too was disappointed that we didn't find out much when we finished the book but it was a great way to leave you wanting more. Here are some of our favorite quotes:

• "Even royalty knows that God exists among the humble."
• "You never know what burdens people are carrying," Avery's mother had always told her. "Be nice to everyone."
• "Silly Avery.  We don't worship to reflect on ourselves. We worship to reflect on God."

The Glass Castle by Trisha White Priebe and Jerry B. Jenkins, is a fantastic Christian fiction for kids book, from Shiloh Run Press. We would both highly recommend it.

Review of Writers In Residence #hsreviews #middleschoolwriting

We have been searching for a writing curriculum for my 7th grader so we were excited to learn about Writers in Residence published by Apologia Educational Ministries.

This curriculum is an extensive Language Arts curriculum with a writing focus written by Debra Bell. Ms. Bell is certified in English education and has taught writing composition and literature to students of all ages for thirty years and AP English to high schoolers for a decade. You may recognize some of her books - The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling, The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling Teens, and The Ultimate Homeschooling Planning system (see our review of one of the planners).

We reviewed the complete set of Writers in Residence which includes an over 500 page all-in-one student text and workbook in spiral binding. It also includes the 144 page Answer Key. The set sells for $89 or you can purchase each item individually. This is the first volume also known as the Apprentice level and it is the only volume available at this time. The suggested grade level for volume 1 is 4th through 8th grades. Upon completion, there will be a total of four volumes.
The How To Use section has 18 pages worth of information to help you understand the philosophy behind the curriculum, how it is set up, and how to teach it.

The answer key provides the teacher with answers to questions that are fill in the blank or have a limited range of answers but not to the open ended questions or writing assignments. However, there are are sample student writing texts included in the student text and workbook.

This course is broken into 6 units that contain 24 modules. If you follow the suggested 4 day schedule this amounts to 32 weeks of lessons.

Each unit contains repeated elements through out the curriculum. Some of those include checklists rubrics for the student and teacher, expert samples of writing from published authors, student samples of writing assignments, expert strategies to aid in writing, graphic organizers, vocabulary terms with a glossary in the back of the book, word collection chart to add words that a student may struggle to spell, mastery tests to review terms taught, and so much more!

Writers in Residence is written to the student and designed for the student to complete independently but parent review and feedback is a necessary portion of this curriculum. Younger students may need even more assistance. Students are taught new concepts and given the opportunity to practice their new skills with their own writing exercises as well as using the samples from experienced authors.

Some of the language arts skills taught are parts of speech, sentence structure, capitalization, punctuation, and prepositional phrases. Some of the writing skills taught are complete sentences, creative writing, research writing, short story, and opinion essay.

The curriculum uses the six traits writing model that students will refer to over and over again during their writing process. The six traits are ideas, organization, sentence structure, voice, conventions, and word choice.

All concepts are taught with a Biblical worldview including why we are to even write in the first place.

In Our Homeschool
I used this with my daughter, Sarah, who is currently in 7th grade. She lacks confidence in her writing abilities so we've been on the search to find a curriculum to help boost her confidence. We used the suggested 4 day schedule.

One of Sarah's favorite assignments was putting her story in order using sentences she had been working on through the modules of Unit 1. She wrote each sentence on a slip of paper and then placed them in the order she wanted for her story. This was a great visual activity for her to make sure her sentence structure made sense.

We found this to be a pretty rigorous curriculum for Sarah. We decided after a few lessons, to answer some of the questions orally because she was feeling pretty frustrated about it taking her a while to finish. Early on in the how to section, I had read this may be needed for younger students so I adapted it to fit us too. She did complete all the writing assignment sections, however. The checklist rubrics included were very thorough and helped her to makes sure she completed her assignments.

I also found the teacher rubrics to be very helpful when we discussed her finished papers too.  They helped give me ideas for feedback and opened discussions about improvements and successes.

In order to learn to write, you must practice by writing! I loved the way this curriculum connected language arts concepts with writing because they do go hand in hand yet most of the time they are taught separately.

Check out this 75 page sample to help you decide if this will be a good fit for your student.

We love Apologia Educational Ministries and everything we have ever reviewed or purchased from their company. They offer curriculum in Bible, Science, encouragement, planners, and much more! You can also find them on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.

Lining The Shelves - Yearly Planning Underway!

We've picked the date for our "official" return back to school - August 11th!  We're still working a few things here and there this summer and more importantly cleaning off the shelves and room for the new!

Sarah has been such a big help to me this school year and LOVES to organize so it's been fun.  We're not finished but we're making progress.

Here's a sneak peak at our 9th grade curriculum this year.  I decided not to go with My Father's World Ancient History and Literature this year but we're using some of their resources.  We're going to use Notgrass History as our alone spine this year.  Stephen is getting excited too!

Here's the 5th cycle of My Father's World - 1850 to Modern.  Sarah will be completing it mostly alone this year.  So, here's a sneak peak at 7th grade.

I'm still working on Jonathan's, who will be a Senior this year!!!!  Oh my, where do these years go? He has a pretty light load and is continuing to work 35 hours a week. He's still unsure what he wants to do after graduation but he knows it doesn't involve school.  :) 

Here is a closer look at the read aloud books included with My Father's World that I will read to all.  We love our read aloud time!

A little yearly planning in the works - looks like a bunch of jumbles but I know what it means!

Review of Standard Deviants Accelerate Homeschool Courses

One of the most asked questions I hear lately is - What do I do with my middle and high schooler?  As homeschooling continues to grow, so do the options and choices we have. The product in this review has some subject areas available for younger grades of 3 + but the majority of the subjects are for grades 6+ including some AP courses.

Standard Deviants Accelerate offers an easy to use online curriculum called Standard Deviants Accelerate Homeschool Courses.  The subjects offered are...

Arithmetic 
Fundamental Math 
Earth Science 
Nutrition
Algebra
Biology
Chemistry
English Composition
U.S. History
AP Biology
AP Chemistry
AP U.S. Government & Politics 
AP U.S. History 
AP English Composition

The subjects are taught using video lessons, review activities, quizzes, vocabulary, writing assignments, and tests. Each course is broken down into chapters and lessons. Each chapter begins with a chapter introduction and ends with a chapter review. Each lesson in the chapter contains a video to watch, a vocabulary section with definitions and pronunciations, diagram section with word back for labeling the diagram, quiz section with multiple choice answers, and a written answer section. Each subject available above follows the same format which makes it really simple for your child to feel comfortable tackling each subject on their own.

Information To Remember

• This is an online curriculum so it is available 24/7
• You will need an Internet connection to access the curriculum.
• This will work on iPad, laptop, or any device that has access to the internet.
• These courses are great supplements to any curriculum that you are already using.

How we used SDA in our homeschool

I let Jonathan (my 10th headed to 11th grader) try this review out since it was focused on higher grades.  I let him choose the course he wanted to try out and he chose Nutrition.  I also looked over the History, Biology, and AP courses myself.  For this review, we will focus on the Nutrition course and what was offered.

As with all the subject areas, you begin your lesson with a pre-assessment and introduction to the chapter.  Here is how the nutrition chapters are broken down.  Remember that each chapter is then broken down into 3-6 lessons and contains a chapter introduction and chapter review as well.

• Intro To Nutrition: Cells and Macronutrients
• What Your Body Does With Food
• Food Spectrum
• Micronutrients:  Vitamins, Minerals, and Water
• Preventing Nutritional Disorders
• Eating in Context
• Where Does Your Food Come From?
• The Savvy Eater

The videos included with each lesson were hard for us to describe.  They are extremely silly and goofy but filled with facts and information at the same time!  At first, Jonathan had his doubts that he would ever say that he liked this course.  However, almost daily he also couldn't wait to show us (his 2 siblings and myself) the craziness of the videos.  Now, he has also asked to do the U.S. History course when he finishes the one he is currently doing!  I think at first glance, both he and myself, had that deer in the headlight look and wondered how on earth any knowledge could ever come from such silliness.  I want to be clear that the videos are not dumbed down silly because they are full of facts. They just contain a fun and different twist on presenting the material.  In the beginning, Jonathan did a lesson each day and actually did not do well on the quizzes.  If you do not get an answer correct on the quiz, it will give you the correct answer and give you a link to the video at exactly the point where the information was presented.  I thought that was a great feature!  Instead of having to watch the entire video again, you could just click that link and find the answer quickly.  In the end, Jonathan began to pay attention more to the facts given, take notes, and he began to do better on the quizzes as well.

Direct quotes from Jonathan - "This course is crazy and goofy but in a good way and please add more of the hippie girl."  

The homeschool pricing for Standard Deviants Accelerate is available in several ways.  For one course and one student, you can pay the annual price of $99 or monthly for $24.95.  The AP courses are available for $14.95 monthly.

Currently, Standard Deviants Accelerate is offering a wonderful deal for homeschooling families to try out their online curriculum.  Until November 15th, you can sign up to try all 14 of their subjects for 1 parent and up to 4 students for FREE for 6 months!  Click below to find out more!  This is the absolute best way for you to try these courses out and see what you think.  This is great for families with students in grades 3 and above.



Social Media Links for Standard Deviants Accelerate

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SDAccelerate

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SDAccelerate
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/SDAccelerate/
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+Sdaccelerate