Virtual Homeschool Coop Assignment #3 | How do you use a Reading List in Your Homeschool? | #VHC

This response is my part of the Virtual Homeschool Coop Channel Collaboration. You can find out more at www.virtualhomeschoolcoop.com. The goal of the Virtual Homeschool Coop is to build the homeschool community of knowledge with collaborations to give voice to all experiences in homeschooling.

We have been all over the map when it comes to book lists in our homeschool. When I first began I wanted to make sure we added in some of the classics but as my children grew that was not their idea. First and foremost I wanted each of them to have a love for books. So, if it was Captain Underpants that caught there attention then so be it. Amelia Bedelia was another all time favorite along with Mrs. Piggle Wiggle in the beginning.

How and where do you get your book list? How big is it and how do you assign reading?

Through elementary years, we pretty much purchased the books on the Sonlight reading list per grade. I used them as a guide and often bought the reading guides to go along with them to have the comprehension questions handy.

During the middle school and high school years I pulled books from the Classical Conversations book list for the challenge years. Our curriculum, My Father's World, also includes/included wonderful books as well. Their read aloud books are some of my all time favorite books.  We especially love the series of books from YWAM publishing. Be warned if you choose these though - I ended up in tears while reading almost every one!

All of the above book lists I would normally follow the guide which told you how much to read of each book in order to finish by the end of the school year.

We also add in interest led books to our curriculum. Some of my children's favorites over the years are the Magic Treehouse Series, the Narnia Series, the Lord of the Rings series, the Little House on the Prairie Series, and the Anne of Greene Gables series. For these books, we go at a much more relaxed pace because they are reading these on top of their other lists. If they wanted to read more, they were certainly allowed to do so but we usually stuck with 1 chapter per day.

Do you reward and give incentives to read?

As far as rewards go, we always participated in the Pizza Hut BOOK IT program until each one aged out of it. I really wish it went past 6th grade because all my children would still do it if it did! Who doesn't love free pizza?!? I guess I should have continued it myself but I didn't. We also always participated in our library's summer rewards programs too.

Book Adventure is a place we used for a little while where you can offer rewards for reading.

Do you quiz for comprehension?

As I mentioned earlier, when we used Sonlight we did quiz for comprehension. As I began to just pull the books from the list and not buy the guides I would google comprehension quizzes per book and usually had pretty good success. I have also purchased an annual membership to abcteach.com and used their comprehension guides. 

So what does reading look like your homeschool?

If you would like to join the Coop, go here to learn more. No voice is too small!

Review of The Pray-ers/Book 1 "Troubles" | #prayersnovel

I have recently finished devouring a new Christian historical fiction book, The Pray-ers / Book 1 Troubles, written by Mark S. Mirza and published by CTM Publishing Atlanta. Most of the time when I read, I stick to nonfiction but historical fiction has always been a genre I have found interesting as well. When you add in Christian historical fiction, I am intrigued.

Author, Mark S. Mirza, had a few goals in mind when writing The Pray-ers / Book 1 Troubles:

1)for the reader to experience prayer for themselves through his characters and

2) for the reader to enjoy their reading experience. 

I can say that from my perspective as a reader both of those goals were completely met!  I found it hard to put the book down once I began reading it.  That is always the sign of a great book to me.  

The Pray-ers / Book 1 Troubles is a paperback book with 372 pages and 45 chapters. It is also available as a Kindle book.   In the beginning of the book, you will find a preface explaining why the author wrote the book along with his reasonings on not capitalizing the names of demons, footnote explanations, and more. At the back of the book was one of my favorite parts as each character is listed including a little detail about them along with the era they represent. My favorite part of the character descriptions were the pronunciation keys to their names because many of them are not common names. 

The book takes place in three different eras of church history - First Century, Nineteenth Century, and the Current Era. Each era has its own hero story line to follow. Each chapter of the book tells which era you will be reading about as the book pivots back and forth between eras. The characters are connected as the current era hero, Dr. Dale Riley, is the great-great-grandson of the 19th century hero, Alexander Rich. Each of the era heroes also has the same guardian angel, Hael, looking after them.

As the story lines of each character unfolds, you find a common theme among them. They each face their own share of uncomfortable situations to deal with and you follow along as each one pours their heart out to God. You are not just told that they prayed about the situation, but you read their actual prayers over and over. Scattered all through out the book are Scripture footnotes showing the why of what the characters believe. Those are great references for any believer and I loved the way the author wrote them in to flow so well with the story lines. There are a lot of historical and Biblical facts in each story line as well. Sometimes I found it hard to separate the fact from the fiction! I loved when Mr. Mirza would give a footnote of a real event that coincided with the story such as the name of one of the character's horses being his own horse's name.

This was a great read while waiting for my children to finish basketball practice. I found the time reading so refreshing for the soul. My normal spot was at the park sitting in the van.

Here are just a few of the main characters and some of their story lines (there is a lot more for you to find out on your own):

First Century - Thales is the hero of this era. His uncle is Epaphras whom Paul spoke about in Colossians 4:12 as one who prays earnestly. Thales ( a fictitious character) learns prayer under his uncle and deals with his own feelings of falling in love with the granddaughter of the Jewish High Priest, Caiaphas.

Nineteenth Century - Alexander Rich is the hero of this era. He is a preacher in the south dealing with racism, a congregation full of accusations and gossipers, and his own feelings of love. One of his childhood friends is D.L. Moody so they often exchange letters through out the book.

Current Era - Dr. Dale Riley is the hero of this era. He is a track coach at a university who also leads a men's prayer meeting. One of his students runs into a problem with one of her papers when she gives a Christian answer that her antagonistic professor, Isabela Gonzalez, doesn't like. There lives intertwine as Professor Gonzalez is diagnosed with cancer and seeks council from Dale's praying wife, Margie.

Over and over again, the book gives prayer examples and I found myself picking up some great inspiration for my own prayer life. It was like having my own prayer mentor right by side showing me how to pray more fervently and using Scripture as my prayer. One part that really stood out to me was when was when Dr. Dale Riley was leading his men's prayer group and he gave them advice on what to do when they begin to pray and all of a sudden it seems the enemy starts throwing distractions to you at every angle. He told them to get out a piece of paper and right down what kept coming to their minds and that would help them to take the distraction off their brain. He also taught them that praying in silence is okay. Often we think of awkwardness when all is silent but sometimes that is when we hear God the best.

Here is a snapshot of the type of dialogue you will find. In this sample, you see the angel smiling, the demon (name in lower case) in an uproar because the saint is on his knees in prayer. You can also see a sample of the Scripture footnotes.

This is not a book for younger children unless you are wanting to discuss abortion, atheism, cancer, death, rape, or sex. I did not feel that the book had any inappropriate content and I do plan to let my 15 year old son read the book next. These are things that our children will be dealing with all around them if they haven't already. In the book, characters will deal with strongholds and you will see walls beginning to break down as you reach the end which is always a rejoicing and exciting time. However, you will not see their complete transformation (I'm guessing there will be one coming!) or find any definitive answers. As you read to the end, you are only left with more questions and cliffhangers as to what will happen next in their lives. You do know that they will continue to battle with spiritual warfare as you are told the sequel, The Pray-ers / Book 2 Spiritual Warfare is expected out by Christmas 2016.

I did find a few editing errors as I read but overall I would highly recommend this book to teens and adults. It is a fun and enjoyable read as well as an inspiration to a better prayer life.  The Scripture footnotes alone are a valuable resource to have at your fingertips!

Find out more by visiting Facebook and Twitter.

 

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 Essential Skills Advantage

My daughter has been using the Complete Home Learning Suite from Essential Skills Advantage (ESA) to review some of her studies for the past school year.

The Complete Home Learning Suite is a supplemental online subscription recommended for grades K-6 with thousands of lessons in Reading, Geography, Language & Grammar, Math, and Science. Science lessons are only available for grades K-3 and Geography is only available for grades 4-6. There are several options for payment including monthly, bi-annually, and annually. Prices also vary depending upon the number of students you plan to use the subscription. See ESA's pricing page for more information.

When I first looked over the Complete Home Learning Suite, I thought it would be a great review for my daughter of the states and capitals she has worked on this year. She is actually in 7th grade but we found this to be a wonderful program that she could do independently for review. 

 
Once you set up your student/students, you can require a password for them to log in with or just skip that and let them log in automatically. Students can easily jump from subjects using the subject tab as well as choose different grade levels if necessary.  I think that's a very appealing feature because not all students are on the same grade level for every subject. 

Above you are seeing what Geography lessons are available for 6th grade.  My daughter focused on American Geography. Once you click on the American Geography lessons, you will find even more lessons broken down by different activities such as...
State Names - 42 activities State Captials - 47 activities Other Major Cities - 14 activities Bodies of Water - 7 activities Physical Regions - 5 activities Biomes - 5 activities Timezones - 7 activities Natural Landmarks - 8 activities Human Landmarks - 8 activities
Activities in each lesson vary but some of the activities you will do include learning the names, spelling the names, and finding the location on a map.  Below are a few of the activities included in the American Geography portion.    

Here you are simply learning where the state is geographically, how to spell it, it's nickname and population.

For this activity, a state is highlighted and you pick the correct one from the states listed.

This activity gives the students clues about where the state is located and they pick the correct state from the right. 

This activity highlights the state and gives its name scrambled.  The student has to unscramble the letters to correctly spell the state.  

The parent and student have charts available recording the students progress, as well as certificates that can be printed out upon completion if you would like. The reports include time spent, average grade, and activities completed per section.  There is also a report card feature available.

Sarah also completed a few activities in other subject areas as well.  Activities vary by subject but include word finds, multiple choice answers, fill in the blank, dragging and dropping, sorting, etc. Some basic keyboard skills will be necessary for students to complete the lessons.  However, we found the program extremely easy to navigate. 
Here is a grammar activity where the student had to color all the abstract nouns.  First you needed to click on the color and then click on the noun.  By clicking on the little hammer at the bottom, students could be reminded of the rule for abstract nouns and given a few examples in case they became stuck or could not remember the rule. 

Overall, ESA has been a perfect resource for our summer learning activities.  It's simple, not overwhelming, and doesn't take much time to complete yet keeps students' knowledge fresh.   Sarah said her favorite subject area was reading but she felt she needed the most review in the vocabulary and math sections.  She also enjoyed reviewing the grammar lessons.  

You can find out more about ESA on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Review of Heroes of History - Ronald Reagan

It is no secret, we are huge fans of YWAM Publishing! About 95% of our read aloud books are picked from their lineup of wonderful books which include Heroes of History and Christian Heroes: Then & Now. So, when the chance to review the book, Heroes of History- Ronald Reagan and the Digital Unit Study became available, we were ecstatic!

YWAM Publishing offers many styles of books focusing on the topics of ministry, education, evangelism, discipleship, and prayer.

This year is our year of American History. We cycle through the history years so this is our 2nd time studying US History. Can you believe that we were in the 1980's just as this book became available to us? We couldn't have asked for more perfect timing!

Ronald Reagan: Destiny at His Side shares interesting facts of Ronald Reagan's life such as acquiring the nickname "Dutch" and how that came about.  This 224 page paperback book takes you through his childhood, adolescent years, college days, Hollywood days, all the way to his political career, death, and burial.  Journey back in time as you visit Dutch's early days of struggling through poverty, his father's alcohol addiction, illness, and small town life.  Through all the hardships, he continued to press on and never gave up trying to chase his dreams.  Even an assassination attempt couldn't stop him! He always had a passion for sports and drama and this book takes you through his life as he explores those passions.  We loved following along his career paths from lifeguard, to radio announcer, to Hollywood actor, to Army officer, to politics.
As always, after we finished reading we were left with so much more knowledge of our 40th President of the United States.  We clearly saw how all the events in his life molded him to be such an effective communicator.     

Although, we mainly use these are read aloud books to supplement our history and Bible lessons there is so much more you can add in when you add in the Unit Study Guide. The study guide includes many ideas to enhance your studies incorporating the subjects of history, art, geography, reading comprehension, creative and essay writing, drama, public speaking, and so much more. 

 
We orally answered the chapter questions after finishing each chapter. All answers are included as well in case you would like your student to read the book on his/her own. The questions include vocabulary, facts, comprehension, and opinion questions. Here is a sampling of the style of questions. I really loved that they included the page numbers for the vocabulary as well so if needed the student could go back to find the word in the context of the sentence.

There are also lots of fun ideas for various projects included. I chose to have my children work on a power point presentation.

 

We would highly recommend any of the books published by YWAM Publishing whether you are looking to supplement your current curriculum or use these as a starting point for a complete unit study! These books are truly our favorites! You can check out another review we did on Milton Hershey.

The paperback book of Ronald Reagan is currently on sale for $7.50 and if can also be purchased in several different formats making it a great on the go resource too! The formats include regular Audiobook CD, Audiobook MP3 download, Nook edition (e-book), Kindle edition (e-book), and regular e-book download. Visit here for all the different options.

I love this map that includes the heroes available in chronological order as well as where they were born and died.

To discover more on what YWAM Publishing has to offer, visit them on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. They also have a Blog.

Be sure to click the banner below to find out about the other books offered from YWAM Publishing that my fellow crewmates had the opportunity to review.

Review of Logic of English

Today's review has been such an eye opening experience for both my daughter and myself!  I have gained so much knowledge about the English language and how it works from using Essentials 2nd Edition from Logic of English.  

Essentials 2nd Edition is a complete curriculum teaching phonics, spelling, basic reading skills, grammar, basic composition, punctuation rules, and vocabulary. 

When the box came, it was huge and heavy!  When I opened it, I understood why. 

Essentials 2nd Edition currently sells for $198 and comes with many components including:

• Essentials Teacher's Guide, 2nd ed., Volume 1
• Essentials Student Workbook, 2nd ed., Volume 1
• Spelling Journal
• Basic Phonogram Flash Cards
• Spelling Rule Flash Cards
• Advanced Phonogram Flash Cards
• Grammar Flash Cards
• Morpheme Flash Cards, Set 1
• Phonogram Game Cards - Bookface
• Phonogram Game Cards - Cursive or Manuscript (I chose cursive)
• Phonogram Game Tiles
• Phonogram and Spelling Rule Quick Reference
• Spelling Analysis Card

The complete Essentials curriculum is broken down into two semesters - Volume 1 and Volume 2.  Volume 1 includes Lessons 1-15 and Volume 2 includes Lessons 16-30. Volume 2 is not currently available but scheduled for release in January 2017.

I spent some time familiarizing myself with the components of the curriculum and watching many videos available from Logic of English's YouTube Channel which is a great resource when you are getting started! 
Each volume includes 3 levels of instruction labeled A, B, and C.  The Teacher's Guide is a massive hard bound book full of details for each level. The Student Workbook and Spelling Journal also contain everything you need for all three levels but are consumable and intended for one student.  If you are working with more than one student, you will need an additional Student Workbook and Spelling Journal but only one Teacher's Guide is needed.  Also, a younger student who completes Level A could use the same curriculum to complete the other 2 higher levels. Each student also needs a set of Phonogram Game Tiles and two contrasting Phonogram Game Cards for every four students.
We began with the placement test which sent us to begin with Lesson 1, Level B.  There are some critical PreLessons that you may need to start with but the placement test will help you to know where to begin.
Each lesson is broken down into daily assignments:
Day 1: You will introduce the new phonograms, spelling rules, and explore sounds.
Day 2: You will introduce the new spelling list by level, students place any new words in their spelling journals.  Review games for the phonograms are often added on this day too.  The Spelling Analysis page which contains the new spelling list is phenomenal. It breaks each word up by syllable, gives sample sentences using the word, different parts of speech applicable to the word, how to spell the word breaking each part up using phonograms already learned, and gives the relative spelling rule.  Words are selected based on what is being taught in the lesson rather than just a random list of spelling words.
Day 3: You will use the words in context - review concepts, complete a spelling game, learn new grammar concepts and dictation.  Dictation includes new words as well as words taught from previous lessons.
Day 4: Learn new vocabulary, another dictation, composition, and the optional Essentials Reader.
Day 5: This day includes an assessment where you will check your student's understanding. 

You can certainly slow the program down if needed to fit your child's needs but we found the suggested schedule to be just right for us.  

The Teacher's Guide is very colorful and gives lots of tips and instructions for the teacher.  Each lesson contains an overview of what will be taught during the lesson and which Phonogram Flash Cards, Spelling Rule Flash Cards, Grammar Flash Cards, and vocabulary will be taught.  

Each day in the teacher manual is clearly marked to keep you on track and gives you directions on what to say to your child to teach the new concepts including what to write on the white board, sample words, etc. You are also given the supplies you will need to collect for the day and many teacher tips are found all throughout the lessons. Lessons labeled "All" are taught to all levels.  Fun games are completed throughout the lessons as well as the workbook style pages included. 

Finding a way to store everything so I could have it at arm's length was difficult but I finally came up with a solution that is working for now.  I placed all the components in a plastic box including the student spelling journal and workbook.  The Teachers guide is placed just to the right.  I placed the phonogram cards, spelling rules, and grammar rules cards learned so far in the front with the ones still to be learned in the back to pull from.  Each card is has it's own color ring that also matches the teacher's guide so I simply stacked them rotating each stack - one vertical, one horizontal per category.  It's hard to tell here but that's how they are!  I've also thought of adding labels to stick out for each category.

Here we are playing one of the games.  The loser ends up with the dragon card - guess who lost?

Here Sarah is practicing writing her spelling words with her eyes closed.  She loved this simple technique and we were both impressed with how well we did!

Here is Sarah completing one of the Student Workbook pages.  She is marking the parts of speech for each word.

We also received the optional Optional Essentials Reader Set that can be purchased separately to accompany this curriculum. We received the PDF download of this set which includes The Student Reader, The Teacher Guide, and The Student Activity Book. The wonderful part about the reader is it reviews words and concepts taught in the Essentials lessons. The Optional Essentials Reader can be purchased alone or you can add on the teacher's guide and student activity book designed to enhance the student further by adding in more comprehension, copywork, dictation, note taking skills, key word outlines, tips and strategies for vocabulary, and even extra curricular activities such as research papers on the subjects read about. The goal is to expose the student with the concepts and words learned as much as possible for better comprehension and fluency.
Sarah, age 12 has asked to continue with this program and I can see light bulbs going off for her as a this new approach to letters having sounds and meanings helps her understand the why behind some of the words we use in the English language.  It's not only her though, I have found myself having my own aha moments too!
This is a massive program with loads of detailed information at your fingertips for yourself and your student.  There is so much to learn and to teach with this program that it's hard to put it all in writing for this review! You will definitely want to visit their website, Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest to find out more about this wonderful program!  You can also find more sample pages here.  If you have any questions, just let me know and I'll try to answer them or find the answers for you.