History Cycle Year 1 Resources (Creation – Roman Empire)

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This year as Ian went through 1st grade we began our four year history cycle, covering the time from Creation through the Roman Empire.  At first I tried to settle on a “spine” to provide structure for our year, but eventually I decided that for this first time through it was more important to me to give Ian a general feel for each time period and people group we studied.  I ended up turning more to “living books” and videos that helped him get a sense of what was going on in each time and place. We also kept a notebook of the things we learned about (though I must admit we slacked on that as the months went by).

I’ve come across a lot of great resource lists for older students, but at times I found it challenging to find age-appropriate books and videos for a 1st grader, so I thought I’d look back over our year and put together a list of some of the things I discovered that work well for younger students.  (Includes affiliate links.)

History Cycle 1

Year-Long Resources We Drew From Selectively:

Primeval History (Including Creation, the Flood, Dinosaurs, and Early Civilizations)

Books

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Videos

Notebooking Resources

Ancient Egypt

Books

Videos

Other

God’s People/Ancient Israel

Books

Videos

  • Joseph: King of Dreams
  • Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat While the cover of the DVD touts it as the “classic family musical,” THIS IS ONE TO KEEP THE REMOTE HANDY ON!  We completely skipped the scene with Potiphar’s wife because the costumes were so inappropriate.  There were a few other scenes that had some questionable costuming as well but I let them pass because it wasn’t as obvious and Ian didn’t seem to notice.  It’s really too bad, because the music itself is very family friendly (with the exception of Potiphar’s wife saying, “Come and lie with me, love,” but since that’s pretty much what the Bible records, I’m not going to complain).
  • Wars of Humanity combo pack and Jericho: The Promise Fulfilled from Shatterpoint Entertainment

Ancient Greece

Books

Videos

Notebooking Resources

Greece Lapbook 1

Roman Empire

Books

Videos

  • Friends and Heroes (animated series; 3 seasons, covering early Christians in Alexandria, Jerusalem, and finally Rome, A.D. 69-71, including the siege and fall of Jerusalem;includes Bible stories in each episode)
  • The Perpetua Story (from the Torchlighters series, about an early Christian martyr)
  • Polycarp and Perpetua, (documentary about two early Christian martyrs, not necessarily written for children, but contained many dramatizations and kept Ian’s attention)

If I come across other resources that are good for this age, I’ll add them to the list.  If you have some favorites that eluded us, please tell us about them in the comments!

Posted in Homeschool Resources, Organization

Torchlighters: The John Wesley Story (DVD Review for the Crew)

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Looking for a place to find inspiring movies to entertain your family?  I recently learned about FishFlix.com, a company dedicated to providing families with quality Christian entertainment, when they offered us a chance to review the DVD Torchlighters: The John Wesley Story, part of a series about famous Christians throughout history.

FishFlix

About FishFlix.com

FishFlix.com was started by a Turkish Christian named Dr. Enis Sakirgil after he helped produce a film about the Apostle Paul as a way of letting western Christians know about the rich biblical history of his home country.  Turkey is one of the nations least reached with the gospel, so when Dr. Sakirgil and his family immigrated to the United States, he began selling the film (Apostle Paul and the Earliest Churches) online, as well as other Christian movies, as a way of helping a radio ministry back in Turkey.  FishFlix.com is currently based in Mora, Minnesota, and the company’s goal is to “glorify God though amazing customer service, quality Christian content, creating honorable jobs, and expanding the Kingdom of God in Turkey.”

FishFlix.com offers a wide selection of Christian and family-friendly movies of many different types, and all orders over $35 have free shipping.  By purchasing movies from FishFlix.com, you can help support their vision of ministry while providing quality entertainment for your family.

About Torchlighters: The John Wesley Story

john wesley_zpsuzhewumnMembers of the Schoolhouse Review Crew were offered several different DVD selections from FishFlix.com.  Our family was excited to receive Torchlighters: The John Wesley Story, part of a series from the Christian History Institute designed for children ages 8-12 (though my 3, 5, and 7-year olds have enjoyed all the episodes we’ve seen).  We have already used several of the Torchlighters videos about heroes of the faith as part of our school experience, but this was the first time my children had ever heard about John Wesley.

The 30 minute video starts with a dramatic scene in which young John Wesley is saved from a fire in his family home.  As his parents praise God for sparing their son, they tell John that God must have a very special purpose for his life. John grows up doing his best to prove himself worthy of his rescue that memorable night.

At university, he and his friends form a “Holy Club,”  supporting and encouraging one another in practicing prayer, fasting, Bible study, and other habits of righteousness.  He and his brother Charles even travel from England to America to preach the gospel, but they are frustrated by the lack of fruit from their labors. Eventually they are both led to a fuller understanding of God’s grace, and it radically transforms their lives and ministries.  When he is rejected from many churches after telling people that they are all sinners in need of God’s grace, he begins preaching in the fields, readily accepted by people who have no doubt as to their own wretchedness.  He even preaches to a mob trying to kill him.  Many people receive his message of God’s love, and the rest of his life is spent serving the Lord by spreading the good news of His love for all people.

In addition to the main video, the DVD also includes several helpful bonus features.  There is a 51 minute documentary about the beginning of the Methodist movement that arose from John Wesley’s ministry.  There are also study guides that you can access by opening the DVD-ROM on your computer.  (They are also available to download from the Torchlighters website.)  While these resources are a little beyond my children right now, they are definitely something we will revisit as they get older and we study church history in more depth.

Our Thoughts

The dramatic beginning captured my children’s attention right away.  I imagine some sensitive children might be bothered by the scenes involving the fire and the shipwreck, but for us it just added to the excitement of the story.

I loved the beautiful message of salvation by grace.  After years of righteous living, trying to prove himself worthy of God’s salvation as a child, John learns that he cannot earn his way into heaven.  I think that is such an important lesson for all of us, but especially for children who grow up in Christian homes who may be tempted to trust in their good behavior and righteous choices as proof of their salvation.  This is definitely a message I will want to revisit many times as my children grow up, and I’m thankful for this DVD as a way to help instill in my children an understanding that they can never earn God’s salvation but only receive it as a gift given freely in love.

I’m so glad to know about FishFlix.com, and we’ll certainly be looking to them in the future when seeking to purchase Christian DVDs.  I love that I can help support the spread of the kingdom of God in Turkey by purchasing through them, especially when it’s something our family would be buying anyway.  Be sure to click on the banner below to see what other Crew members thought of this DVD and many others available from FishFlix.com!

FishFlix.com Review
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Posted in Homeschool Resources, Product reviews

Reflections on My Word for 2015 (Blessed)

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Blessed buttonWell, we’re not quite halfway through 2015, but I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the word the Lord impressed upon me for this year: Blessed.

I am overwhelmed by God’s goodness to me.  Ten years ago I wouldn’t have dared to imagine that I would be living this life.  In the spring of 2005 I had just barely met Eric in a group at church, and while I was drawn to him, I didn’t think there was much chance of anything happening between us.  For years I had longed for marriage and children, but it felt like that was just a dream that would never be a reality for me.

Yet here I am, ten years later, married to the man of my dreams, blessed with four healthy children in our home, one in heaven, and another kicking in my womb.  I get to spend each day loving on them, teaching them about the Lord, and raising them up for His purpose.

Back in January, I mentioned some of my hopes for 2015:

Ever since we lost our fifth child early in my pregnancy last fall, I’ve been hoping we might still have another.  Yet even if 2015 closes without any new members of our family, I don’t want to forget that I am blessed.

I dream of moving to a house with a big yard so my kids can spend more time outside each day.  Yet even if we head into 2016 still in our mobile home, I am blessed.

While I certainly would still have been living a blessed life even if neither of those things came to pass, the Lord has continued to shower His abundance on us and both are going to be realities within the next few months.  I found out I was expecting just a few days after I wrote that, and we signed the final escrow papers on our new home yesterday.  Thank you, Lord.  I am amazed at your generous love.

I must confess I feel slightly overwhelmed in this season. Blessings do not necessarily make life easy.  Packing up our entire house to move while I’m five months pregnant and still trying to keep four other children out of trouble is a challenge.  Add to that the stress of trying to keep the house presentable enough to show to potential buyers, and I fall into bed absolutely exhausted every night.  I don’t want to forget, however, that all of it is because of God’s goodness.  No matter what trials and difficulties I may face, Father, help me always remember that I am …

Blessed

Posted in Personal

Knights and Nobles Unit Study (Crew Review)

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Homeschool Legacy
If you follow my blog regularly, you’re probably already aware that we spent our last four weeks of school going through a Knights and Nobles unit study.  It’s one of the “Once-A-Week Unit Studies” from Homeschool Legacy, and we were blessed with the chance to review it as a fun way to finish up our school year learning more about one of Ian’s favorite subjects.

 

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Ian pulled out lots of his favorite books to go along with our study.

 

About Homeschool Legacy’s Once-A-Week Unit Studies

The Once-A-Week Unit Studies are designed to provide a break during your typical homeschool week with a day to focus on the topic being studied.  Aside from the reading suggestions, which are intended to be used each day, all the activities can be done in a single day, providing a break from your regular curriculum to have fun learning about a specific topic.  The studies are even designed to help Boy Scouts and American Heritage girls meet the requirements for specific merit badges. (Boy Scouts can earn their Art Merit Badge by completing the activities in Knights and Nobles).

There is no prep work required apart from gathering materials and library books (and even the library lists are designed to be as easy to use as possible, arranged numerically by Dewey decimal numbers.)  Simply add the family read-aloud and some free read choices to your school week during the four days you work on your regular curriculum, and then on your chosen day, pick up the unit study and work through the activities, which cover Bible, history, literature, science, art, and various other subjects.  The whole family can work together on unit study day, as they are designed for grades 2-12 (and younger learners can easily tag along).

About Knights and Nobles

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Knights and Nobles is available as a paperback book or as a “Grab-N-Go” download from the Homeschool Legacy website.  I received the downloadable 40-page ebook that contains everything needed for a 4-week unit study (with an optional 5th week).

Each week focuses on a different aspect of life in the middle ages and includes a passage of Scripture for family devotions, as well as a novel for the family read aloud (and numerous suggestions for free reading related to the week’s topic).

Week 1: Castles

Learn about how castles (and cathedrals) were designed and built and have a family night playing games popular back in the middle ages.

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Week 2: Kings and Queens

This week covers topics like King Arthur, illuminated manuscripts, and the tradition behind “four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.”

Week 3: Knights

Archery, catapults, coats of arms, and chivalry are all discussed in this week on knights.

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Week 4: Life on a Manor

Learn about the different jobs people did to help keep a manor running and what life was like for those who lived there.

An optional fifth week involves preparing a traditional medieval feast.

Our Experience

Ian has always been fascinated by the subject of knights and castles, so we were really excited to get a chance to review this unit study, especially because we’ll be covering the middle ages next year in our history cycle.  Ian’s at the young end of the target age range, just finishing up first grade, so there were a few things we adapted to make it work for our family (like the design for the catapult), but for the most part we were able to follow the study as written.

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My favorite part of Knights and Nobles was the use of classic literature for the family read-alouds.  We did well with the first two weeks (The Door in the Wall by Marguerite De Angeli and The Sword in the Tree by Clyde Robert Bulla), but the others (The Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle and Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Gray Vining)  were much longer and seemed more appropriate for older students, so I didn’t even attempt them because I knew it would take us far more than a week to get through each of them.  Instead, we read other stories about King Arthur and used other free-read books throughout those weeks.

There were many helpful free-read suggestions given, and I just printed out the pages with the book lists to take with us to the library.  (I found some of the Dewey decimal numbers were slightly different at our library after looking for books I knew must be there but had to look up after not finding them under the given number.)  Even if we could find every specific book listed, just being in the right section led us to lots of books from which to choose.  I just made one trip to the library and got everything we needed right at the beginning.  Then I set out the books on each topic at the beginning of the week.

I really appreciated the suggestions for being intentional about including dad in what the family is learning.  It was hard not to draw him in, since so much of our family life revolved around the unit study during those four weeks.  We left our basket of related books out in the living room so he was asked to read from them almost every night. The unit study had great suggestions for family movie/game nights.  We even managed a family field trip to Medieval Times to watch knights competing in a tournament.  It got all of us excited about starting up our history lessons when we go back to school in a few months.

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If you want to see more about what Knights and Nobles looked like for our family, check out the last four Weekly Wrap-Ups from our 2014-15 school year.  Also, be sure visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew site to see what my fellow Crew members thought of this unit study and many of the others available from Homeschool Legacy.

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Wordsbright Review
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Posted in Homeschool Resources, Product reviews

S is for Smiling Sunrise (Crew Book Review)

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Sunrise Review
With so many alphabet books out there, how do you begin to pick which one to read with your preschooler?  S is for Smiling Sunrise by Vick Wadhwa, the first publication from WordsBright, seeks to stand out from the crowd with a unique approach to the ABCs.

About the Book

Rather than using a typical simple phonetic “A is for apple” approach, S is for Smiling Sunrise focuses on positive concepts of goodness, beauty and wonder.  Each letter has its own page in the hardcover book, complete with colorful, eye-catching illustrations and a rhyme to elaborate on the focus word.

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On the WordsBright website there is a free downloadable mp3 with the words of the entire book set to music (using the tune of the “Alphabet Song”).  The website also has two free teacher’s guides available to download with tips for using the book with children in Pre-K and K to 3.  The guide for younger children is fairly short but has helpful suggestions for using the book in a way that grows with your child.  The guide for older children is much more involved, with further explanation, discussion questions, vocabulary, and activity ideas related to each letter and its concept.  (For example, on “J is for Jewelry,” there are suggestions for exploring the idea of inner beauty versus outer beauty, the difference between dreams and goals, an activity of making a necklace or bracelet, etc.)

Our Experience

We try to choose books for our family that glorify God and help our children get to know Him better, and while S is for Smiling Sunrise never mentions God or spiritual matters specifically, many of the concepts it touches on lend themselves to discussions about how God is the ultimate source of beauty and goodness.  Arianna (age 3) loved reading through the book with me and often went back to it to flip through the pages and look at the pictures on her own.  Her attention span isn’t always capable of going through each page in its entirety, but we followed the suggestion in the teacher’s guide to just read the headline words at first.  If she’s really in a cuddly mood I can usually get through the rhymes on about half the letters, but it’s helpful to have the shorter option available.

Though the book is intended to be sung to the tune of the alphabet song, rhythmic purists such as myself might find that difficult.  The rhythm of the words varies from letter to letter, so if you want to be able to sing as you read, it’s really helpful to listen to the song ahead of time so you know which words to draw out or hurry through.  (In other words, it’s not as precise as an old hymn where there’s one syllable per note and even unfamiliar verses are easy to sing because they stick with that structure.)  Of course, you can just improvise and it will work equally well.  The musical side of me found this slightly frustrating as I tried to sing through the book, but I know most people aren’t so particular, so the song could be a fun tool for them.  Since some of the rhymes were a bit of a stretch as well, I opted to just read the words as prose without attempting to fit them into any sort of rhythm and enjoyed the book much more that way.

All in all I’d say S is for Smiling Sunrise is a cute book with admirable intentions and fun, colorful pictures that capture my little ones’ attention.

 

Wordsbright Review
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Posted in Book reviews, Homeschool Resources, Preschool

Happy Mother’s Day!

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Happy Mother’s Day!  You are a blessing to your family, and I pray God blesses you in a special way this weekend as you reflect on all it means to be a mom.

I was blessed to spend the morning celebrating motherhood with a bunch of special ladies at church, but this little one is my favorite.  I’m so thankful for my Arianna (and all my boys who spent the morning hiking with Daddy).

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Wrapping Up Week 36 (2014-15)

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weekly wrap-up
Hallelujah, we crossed the finish line for our school year!  Granted, we sort of crawled across on our hands and knees, but we made it.  I’m not even going to let myself feel guilty about the fact that our last week consisted only of Ian’s online math work (xtramath.org and Mathletics) and a few books to finish up our Knights and Nobles unit study from Homeschool Legacy, for two basic reasons.

  1. I’ve spent years in traditional elementary classrooms, both as a student and a teacher.  I guarantee that more learning happened this week in our home than gets accomplished in 99% of classrooms during the last week of school.
  2. Even when we’re officially on a break, plenty of learning happens simply because of the environment in our home.  For example, today (the first official day of summer break, and a Saturday to boot), Ian wanted to break out our Young Scientists Set and work on experiments from our final remaining kit.  I know there will be plenty of learning going on during our summer break, so who cares if we had a light last week of school, right?

I know most families still have a few (or several weeks) left, so take a deep breath and remember that the end is in sight!  (And when our family dives back into school in July, you can smile to yourself knowing that you’ve still got a few more weeks to relax.)

Here’s to the first day of our summer holiday!

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Upcoming Reviews

We’ll still be reviewing several products through our summer “break.”  Watch for these reviews in the next few weeks!

Posted in Homeschool Resources

Wrapping Up Week 35 (2014-15)

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weekly wrap-up
The end is so close we can taste it!  This week Ian finished up Level B of Spelling You See, so he gets to take a break until we start second grade in July.  Since he completed the first grade work in Mathletics already, I let him choose what he wanted to do for math each day, and he alternated between Mathletics and GPALOVEMATH.  He’ll work on 2nd grade lessons in both of those until I settle on what we’ll officially use next year.  The bulk of our week, however, was spent on the Knights and Nobles unit study from Homeschool Legacy.

“Knights and Nobles” Week 3: Knights

This week our focus was on knights, a subject that has long interested Ian.  He enjoyed everything we did this week as part of the unit study.

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Books

We already have so many books about knights, I didn’t bother trying to hunt down most of the free reads suggested in Knights and Nobles at the library.

The favorite book for both boys was Imagine You’re a Knight by Phillip Steele.  It has several projects included, such as constructing a knight’s helmet, and knight and horse paper dolls.  Ian had already completed the projects when Grandma first brought the book home from England last year, but there are little pockets to keep them in, so both he and Elijah enjoyed getting them out again and playing with them.  The book also is packed with information and fascinating illustrations.

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Other picture books we read this week were Young Lancelot by Robert D. San Souci and The Making of a Knight by Patrick O’Brien.  Our chapter book was The Sword in the Tree by Clyde Robert Bulla.  Ian and I took two weeks to read through it together, and we both really enjoyed the story.  I was unfamiliar with Bulla until I saw his books suggested on the Ambleside Online site as beginning chapter books.  While this book was easy enough for Ian to read, it was so well written that it didn’t feel awkward for me to read aloud (as I’ve noticed with other easy chapter books).  It was such a good story, Ian wanted to read more after we finished, so I encouraged him to start another book on his own.  (I put several of Bulla’s books on his Kindle.)

Videos

For a fun taste of the medieval period we watched Disney’s The Prince and the Pauper, and then later in the week we watched the rest of the episodes that are listed with it on Netflix (Pied Piper, Old King Cole, A Knight for a Day, and Ye Olden Days).  We also watched The Sword in the Stone now that we’d finished reading some Arthur stories.

Extras

At some point in the past I had bought a Knights Sticker Pack, so we pulled those out and the boys had fun creating sticker scenes (there were two sets in the pack).  Arianna had already used up one set of the similar Princess Sticker Pack, but thankfully we still had one more so she had some sticker fun as well.  It was a fun way to include the younger ones in our study.

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Watch for reviews on these products in the next few weeks!

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Berenstain Bears: God Bless Our Country by Mike Berenstain (Book Review)

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We got a little 4th of July preview this week with the chance to review The Berenstain Bears: God Bless Our Country by Mike Berenstain.  Evidently Bear Country is somewhere in the United States, because in this story Brother, Sister, and Honey Bear learned all about how the settlers of our country declared their independence on July 4 and a new nation was born.  Along with a little history lesson from Papa Bear, they celebrate the 4th of July with a parade, complete with patriotic decorations, marching veterans, and a fireworks display.

Mike Berenstain continues the series of books started by his parents with stories that teach valuable lessons for children.  While the original books focused on life lessons for a more general audience, the books by Mike Berenstain have a distinctly Christian perspective and focus more on lessons of faith.  Even in this patriotic book, God is given a prominent place.  Papa tells the cubs, “We believe that it was God’s will that our new country came to be,” and at the end of the book, the family gives thanks to God “for a land that’s free.”

While I haven’t always been as impressed with the newer Berenstain Bear books as the classic series, this book is definitely a keeper.  My kids loved the stickers that came with it, and I loved the simplicity of the story and its message.  There are discussion questions and activity suggestions at the end of the book to help impress the message even more upon your children’s hearts.  This book is a great addition to the patriotic section of our family library.

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Posted in Book reviews

Wrapping Up Week 34 (2014-15)

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weekly wrap-up
You know those weeks where it feels impossible to get anything done?  Yeah, that was our week.   Between a funeral, a dentist appointment, a field trip, and rehearsal for the year-end performance in our homeschool music program (on top of our usual ballet and swimming lessons), we didn’t make it through nearly as much as I had planned.  We were supposed to finish up with Spelling You See, but we’ll have to stretch it out one more week. Ian did finish the first grade lessons in Mathletics and moved on to second grade, and we read several books for our Knights and Nobles unit study from Homeschool Legacy.

“Knights and Nobles” Week 2: Kings and Queens

We had actually done some of the Week 2 activities from Knights and Nobles last week, which helped us not be completely behind when the chaos of our week took over.  During the school hours we squeezed in at home this week we mostly focused on books and videos.

Books

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51B3T3EY0KL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpgI wasn’t sure we could make it through the suggested family read aloud for this week, but I did want to cover some of the stories about King Arthur, so I searched the library for some easier alternatives.  We read Young Arthur by Robert D. San Souci.  Through this beautifully illustrated picture book, Ian learned about Arthur’s childhood, Merlin, the sword in the stone, and Excalibur.  Some of the story was familiar from watching Disney’s The Sword in the Stone, but it helped reinforce that these stories exist outside of that context.  We talked about how stories about Arthur have been told for centuries.

We also started The Sword in the Tree by Clyde Robert Bulla.  This chapter book is easy enough for Ian to read on his own, though it’s more than he usually tackles.  I chose to trade off reading with him so he doesn’t develop a distaste for it.  (This is actually a read-aloud scheduled for next week, but I wanted to take a little more time with it so we could go through it together.)

Videos

Everyone enjoyed watching the Reading Rainbow episode “Rumpelstiltskin,” in which LeVar visits a Renaissance Faire and learns about medieval life.

We didn’t get to the suggested family movie (A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court) during the week, but I’m hoping for a chance at some point this weekend (though we’ll be watching an animated version of the story instead just because we already have it).

Extras

The highlight of our week was definitely the field trip to Medieval Times with our homeschool group.  We left the two younger children at a friend’s house and took the older boys for a fun lunchtime performance, complete with a tournament between competing knights.  We don’t join a lot of field trips these days, but since this one happened to fall in the middle of our unit study, we couldn’t pass it up!

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Upcoming Reviews

We’ll still be we checking out new products even through our summer break, so watch for these reviews soon!

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