Bow of Bronze - Homeschool Blogger

Formal Family Pictures

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:28:00 -0500

It has been about 10 years since our last formal family picture. Tonight we all got dressed up and drove one hour to our church to have another one made. Then they wanted $170 for 8 5 x7s. That's more then $40 per sheet! We just cannot afford that! Of course, now I have to get everyone all dressed up again and drive an hour in the other direction to Penneys. With my coupon at Penneys, I can get 52 portraits for $7.95. Or, I can pay $3.95 per sheet. Either way, $170 nets me a ton more photos. The problem is, we probably won't get around to doing it. I thought maybe if I posted about it on my blog I would have some accountability to actually getting the job done.

Product Review -- How I Homeschool Ebook by TOS

Wed, 3 Jun 2009 22:06:00 -0500

Product Review
How I Homeschool
by The Old Schoolhouse

Everybody who homeschools has their own style, and yet it all comes out okay. This is the message I got from The Old Schoolhouse' newest e-book titled How I Homeschool. That's a pretty encouraging book if you are looking for some affirmation on your homeschool journey. (And aren't we all?)

In this book, 12 homeschoolers describe a day in their life. Some of these ladies get up at 5:30, some of them get up some time between 8 and 9 a.m. Some of them work for extra pay at home, some do not. Some of the ladies use the classical method, some unschool, some love Charlotte Mason.

What I found most fascinating about this book was the number of times the women mentioned being called to homeschool even before they had school-aged children, or any children at all, or in one case before they were even married! I found this fascinating because it mirrors my own story. I first heard about homeschooling in 1994, a full 4 years before my first child was born. I thought it was a great idea; but God had a little convincing to do with my husband!

At any rate, if you are looking for some encouraging insights into the homeschool lives of other real moms this will be a great read.

Product Review -- Homeschool in the Woods -- New Testament Project Pack

Thu, 28 May 2009 22:06:00 -0500

Product Review
Homeschool In The Woods
New Testament Activity Pack
by Amy Pak

I have had my eye on these activity packs for a while, so I was perfectly delighted to receive this beautiful set for review. You can already tell I am not pulling my punches on this one right? If you like lapbooking with your children, and even if you don't but you enjoy special and easy projects occasionally -- you are going to love the activity packs from Homeschool In The Woods.

What's Included? This particular pack has 17 projects including projects that cover Christ's Lineage, Birth, Miracles, Parables, The Last Supper. Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension, The Beatitudes, The Fruits of the Spirit, The Armor of God, Prophecies fulfilled by Christ, The Twelve Disciples, The Pentacost, Paul's Missionary Journeys, Paul's Letters, and a New Testament News (paper) activity. 15 of the 17 projects are part of a lapbook. The downloadable version of this product is $18.95.

What I like: I have come to expect excellence from Homeschool In The Woods through using her timeline figures; and this product is no exception. I was excited to find that many of the lapbook pieces could be used independently during our Resurrection study. I will likely pull out the Christmas pieces in the same way, and use the other pieces as we study those particular sections. The drawings are fantastic. i believe I have seen or used lapbooks from every vendor currently marketing them and I have to say Homeschool in the Woods is my favorite lapbook vendor!

What I Don't Like: My chief and only frustration was the fact that this set was not in one big organized pdf. Instead, the set is broken down into smaller pdfs which are easier to download and yet harder to find what you need quickly. This is probably just a personality thing for me but I prefer to have one big file to scroll through.

Product Review -- One2Believe Noah's Ark

Wed, 20 May 2009 16:07:00 -0500

Product Review
One2Believe Noah's Ark

I completed a review of the One2Believe Nativity back in November, and after my negative reaction to the set I was quite surprised when they sent me another set to review! I will admit that I liked the Noah's Ark set significantly more -- mostly because there was no weirdly shaped baby Jesus in this one :).

I did think the figures in the Noah's Ark set were cute -- especially the animals. However, the quality just does not compare to Shleich animals! My children do enjoy playing with this set and I feel I ought to mention that. I have several frustrations with One2Believe. One is the lack of quality material for the figures. Another frustration is the little tiny books that come with the product ore inaccurate. Specifically with the Noah's Ark set, my children were greatly disappointed that the ark itself did not open so that Noah and the animals could not go in.

What's my bottom line? For my money, I would rather purchase the Fisher Price Noah's Ark set (which we have) or the HABA Noah's Ark set (which we also have) or just collect Schleich animals and have Daddy build a boat!

Product Review -- Bible Story Songs (Moses)

Wed, 20 May 2009 15:35:00 -0500

Product Review
Bible Story Songs

As I write this review, I am very torn between two polarizing views of this product. Let me explain. On the one hand, I really appreciated the content of this recording. Summarization of the Scripture story of Moses is interspersed with lively songs which fill in the details of his life. I found the content to be accurate and compelling. I felt that this content is needed -- families need these kinds of methods to fill their children's minds with Scripture. I was impressed with the depth of content available from Bible Story Songs on-line and I am sure that sheer amount of work that has gone in to the planning, composition and performance of these songs is tremendous.

On the other hand, as a trained musician, with over ten years of private voice lessons, a Bachelor of Arts in vocal performance and over ten years of teaching experience I was not impressed by the quality of the music on this cd. First of all, the recording quality is clearly amateur. The pianist is amazing, however the piano tone is lacking and the piano does not translate well to the recording. Secondly, the vocalists for several of the soloists are not just amateur, in some cases it was actually difficult for myself and my children to listen. Thirdly, while the choral parts were fairly well done, the children often sing with slightly closed soft palates -- giving a falsely mature sound sort've like putting a hand over the top of the sound and pushing down or squeezing the sound. And, I found I could often hear just an adult voice mixed in, however it wasn't consistently present, didn't blend or stand out and compliment -- and seemed very accidental.

What's my bottom line? While my children will enjoy this recording from time to time; I will not be putting these projects onto my priority list for actually spending our precious homeschool budget money.

Product Review -- Schleich Animals

Fri, 15 May 2009 14:16:00 -0500

Product Review
Schleich Action Figures

A few years ago, my Dad started bringing home these funny little farm animals from the John Deere Tractor Store. He brought home a pig, and a chicken or two and before long he had a sizeable collection of these little plastic, perfectly real looking farm animals to go with his toy John Deer Tractors and an old toy barn. Of course, when we arrived for a visit at Papaw's house -- these were the first thing that my children found and just about all they played with. It wasn't long before little farm animals started showing up in their packages at birthdays and Christmas -- to go with the little John Deere tractors and wagons they each owned . In the meantime, I had purchased my children several small, cheaply made packages of plastic animals from Wal-mart, the Dollar store and Toys R Us. It wasn't long before I noticed that the animals my Dad bought were of significantly higher quality and appearance! Those cheap animals got legs broken off, paint rubbed off, or just generally looked horrible. The Schleich animals kept their paint and legs in tact and looked realistic! After a while, I started noticing these little animals at Target and was a little startled at the price tag -- some were as much as $6 for one animal. However, I found I could add one or two animals to my cart each time I visited Target and really stock up when they ran clearance. Before long, we had a nice farm collection from my Dad and a nice zoo collection from Target and the old cheap animals had gone the way of cheap toys. We even bought my husband Daniel a Lion, Lioness and four Lion cubs for Father's Day one year -- and guess what he got for his birthday this year? Twin lion cubs that look totally alike and yet completely different from the older four cubs! He keeps them on his desk at work.

I wish now that I have had my sixth child that each toy we had invested in would be of top quality and higher price. I have found whether it is wooden blocks, plastic animals, or legos -- only the best quality will make it through more then two children. I am so glad we have a nice collection of Schliech animals for Peter and Joshua to grow into! My children love to play with these and make up entire animal stories with kings and queens or act out whatever story we are reading with the animals. It's pretty amazing how much fun these little animals can be!

I know this is a bit different then my typical review -- as you can probably tell -- when the TOS Review Crew was told we would be receiving Schleich animals to review there was much rejoicing in my house. When the package arrived, I had to go to great lengths to even see the animals we received. Not surprisingly, they were gorgeous. Take my advice and buy one or two at a time and ignore those cheap bags that tempt you from the competition.

Product Review -- Heads Up Catalog and Products

Wed, 13 May 2009 17:21:00 -0500

Heads Up Now

What Is It? Heads Up is a small company catering to the homeschooling community and special needs. Since I have a little girl who has some special needs, I was especially interested in perusing their on-line catalog. I found many speech related resources that were exactly the kind of thing I've been looking for. I filled my cart with over $100 worth of products the first time I visited! The specific products I received were a variety of colored films to help those with visual problems read correctly.

What I Like: The color films come in six different colors, so that the parent can buy any of the products she needs in the specific color that helps the child. They have large overlays, small overlays, bookmark type single line overlays, and double line overlays. They are durable and good quality. The price is extremely reasonable.

What I Don't Like: If you have a need for these products, I can't think of a single thing I don't like.

My Bottom Line: I will definitely be keeping an eye on this company and ordering from them when I have funds. If you have a special needs child, check them out!

Product Review -- Christian Studies II by Memoria Press

Wed, 13 May 2009 08:29:00 -0500

Product Review
Christian Studies
by Cheryl and Leigh Lowe
Published by Memoria Press

What is it? Christian Studies II is a fairly in-depth Bible study for elementary students, designed to start in approximately third grade. The study material is based on The Golden Children's Bible. Each week, students complete five lessons designed to take 15-20 minutes each. On the first day, students read the selected reading for the week and discuss it with Mom or Dad if desired. The second day, students study and drill the Facts to Know section which includes information about people, places and things mentioned in the story. Essentially, these are vocabulary words and can be used as spelling words if desired. The next section is a weekly memory verse and a few questions to go with the verse covered on the third day, although it is recommended that you start learning the memory verse on day one. The fourth day the student answers several comprehension questions. Finally, on the last day students complete any mapwork, a picture review with their teacher (going through the pictures in the Bible and answering questions about each one...), completing any research projects and reciting any memory work required. Each level includes approximately 25 lessons plus five comprehensive review lessons and covers approximately 1/3 of the Bible. Maps, Timelines, and Tests are included.

What I like: Christian Studies as a series offers an in-depth study of the Bible which can be done independently for the most part. I personally never touched the teacher's guide last year in level one, however in looking it over for this review I can see the benefit of using the picture review each week and the extra suggested readings included which connect the day's reading with other related passages of Scripture. I'm really excited about the volumes of information my children are learning and memorizing as they use Christian Studies.

What I don't like: At times I am frustrated with Golden Children's Bible and prefer to use the actual text of a Bible. However, reading Joshua 1-6 in the Golden Children's Bible is much more attainable for my 10 year old then actually reading the full text of Joshua 1-6 from her Bible. Overall, it is a really good story Bible.

My Bottom Line: This is my preferred Bible curriculum for the upper grades.

Product Review -- Bridge to the Latin Road

Thu, 7 May 2009 10:45:00 -0500

Bridge to the Latin Road
By Barbara Beers

A Product Review

What is it? You might be fooled, as I was, by the title of this series. When I agreed to review this set, I expected that I was receiving an elementary level Latin program. Instead, what I received was a complete elementary level grammar program (3-6th grades) with an very basic introduction to Latin included. The book is divided into three sets of exercises. The first set of exercises teaches material such as noun, pronoun, subject, predicate, etc. The second set of exercises teaches sentence diagramming. The last set of exercises teaches Latin derivatives and Latin vocabulary by breaking English words into prefixes, suffixes and root words. The root words are all Latin vocabulary words! Each of these sections are covered several times throughout each week; so the student is learning a part of speech, learning how to diagram that part of speech, and learning something about Latin vocabulary. The idea behind this curriculum is the Latin Centered Curriculum, in which everything taught ties back to Latin.

What I Like? For our family, we had already invested in First Language Lessons for learning grammar. However, If you are planning to use a classical curriculum with your children, this program is excellent and certainly worth considering equally with First Language Lessons -- especially because it is covering two subjects in one. I love the way Latin vocabulary is introduced with over 400 English vocabulary words. I also find the focus on diagramming sentences refreshing! I have always loved diagramming sentences (don't shoot me!) and I have been so frustrated to see a move away from this in most grammar programs. The training and discipline that diagramming provides makes it so easy to rearrange sentences and vary the sentence structure in your essays later on. Certainly, I found that advanced diagramming techniques improved my writing skills.

What I Don't Like? I find the marking system with different colored pencils, used to teach parts of speech in the first set of exercises to be a bit cumbersome. It feels like busy work to me, even though my students like it. If you are familiar with Kay Arthur's Precept Upon Precept Bible studies, it is a similar system. Circling the noun, double underlining the verbs etc. Specific colors are used as well. I believe this would work great for a visual student, but as the teacher I was a bit overwhelmed. I am also a little put off by the price. $139 for the Bridge level is designed for only one year of study in Latin and Grammar. Lastly, I was not impressed by the accompanying videos which claim to teach both the teacher and the student. No way was my daughter going to watch those videos!

What's My Bottom Line? I believe the logic learned from a careful study of Latin is invaluable; and I certainly agree that a Latin Centered Curriculum is an excellent choice. This curriculum kills to birds with one stone, giving students a solid grasp of grammar concepts while also introducing a large number of Latin/English vocabulary words. In spite of the price, Bridge to the Latin Road is a serious contender for grammar instruction to our family. It was a privilege to review and use this product!

Product Review -- Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day -- Jeannie Fulbright of Apologia

Thu, 9 Apr 2009 22:02:00 -0500

Product Review
Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day
by Jeannie Fulbright

I wasn't sure if we were going to like this book. Seriously, so many people rave about this series of elementary level science books published by Apologia. Yet, when we tried Astronomy and my children were 7 and 5, we were sorely disappointed. Now that I have had the opportunity to work through a second book, with much older children at ages 10 and 8, I have a completely different opinion of the Jeannie's material and I am so thankful for this opportunity!

What's Included: Each book in this elementary science series published by Apologia has about 12 or 13 chapters designed to be completed over one year. I have found that by working each day, we can complete a chapter of Flying Creatures in one week. The books include notebooking questions and projects or experiments in each chapter. Each book focuses on a different area of science and treats that subject in depth.

What I Like: I appreciate the lively tone of these books, as the author "talks" to the student. Mrs. Fulbright does an excellent job of communicating and is clearly passionate about science from a creationist point of view. I really love the extra hands-on projects and experiments and notebooking prompts. We had a lot of fun creating a birdfeeder in chapter 2 and still keep them full and track the birds we see at them. (Both children created one!) Projects such as this are helping keep the interest of my daughter, who was pretty skeptical about this new book before the first project came up. The cost is very affordable at $24.95 per book as well.

What I don't like: I have heard these books referred to as "living books" and I don't think I would go quite that far. They still have a textbook feel to them from my persective, but given the subject I have come to suspect that is necessary. I think this is why my daughter struggles to get into the book without the projects to tie her interest.

My bottom line: This will not be the last book we use by Jeannie Fulbright! This series is very valuable to me because it teaches science from a creationist perspective in an engaging way. I believe using this series with only younger students is not a good idea.