Exploramania: GyMathtics DVD

AS part of the CREW we received the DVD GyMathtics for review.

Exploramania uses exercise mixed with learning for a fun multi sensory approach.
The Gymathtics DVD is a 30 minute exercise routine that incorporates math facts and learning into the routine. It includes four sections:

Shape Stretches Warm Up: Stretch your mind and body with line, circle, and polygon stretches.

Counting Calisthenics: Aerobic movements work your heart as fun counting concepts work your brain.

Pattern Power: Growing and repeating pattern exercise combination's challenge minds and strengthen muscles.

Well-Being Wind Down: Relaxing stretches cool down the body and open the mind to think about healthy lifestyle choices including the Nice Wave Stretch and Big Dream Stretch.

My youngest ones 2, 5, 8, and 10 really enjoyed this DVD! They were challenged with the exercises and they are still enjoying the program! I love hearing them repeat the math concepts long after the DVD has been put away!

Here is a video that shows it best.



The GyMathtics DVD sells for $24.99 And it is well worth it!

If you would like to see what other CREW members have to say please click HERE.

AVKO Membership

AVKO is a non profit organization that was founded by Don McCabe. AVKO specialises in helping with the teaching of reading, spelling, writing and typing especially those with dyslexia. AVKO creates materials and books using a multi-sensory approach, combining the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic approaches. By using all of the sensory styles AVKO products can teach to any type of learner.

As a CREW member I received a membership to the AVKO site for review. Membership opens up a lot of resources especially for those using the sequential spelling program, which AVKO also sells. I did not receive this program, just the membership, and we currently do not use this spelling program. This site contains a great deal of helpful information like the book STARTING AT SQUARE ONE which will:

• Teach your K-1 students reading, spelling, handwriting, and keyboarding (optional) as the alphabet is taught.
• Lay the foundation for your student's literacy: phonemic awareness and word attack skills are learned from the very beginning of the reading process.
• Teach your older students the phonemic awareness and word attack skills that they never fully learned while first learning to read and spell.
• Use the completely decodable words as the letters are taught for additional practice in
  
• handwriting, reading, and spelling.

Other benefits to an AVKO membership include:

• Discounts on AVKO printed materials
• Hundreds of dollars worth of FREE e-books (PDF)
  • The Patterns of English Spelling (All 10 Volumes) with Word Families in Sentence Context
  • To Teach a Dyslexic
  • Starting at Square One
  • The Teaching of Reading & Spelling: a Continuum from Kindergarten through College.
  • The Reading Teacher's List of Over 5,500 Basic Spelling Words
• Access to the Member Only section
• AVKO Newsletter with freebies, discounts, resources, and promotions
• Access to Don McCabe's most popular workshop recordings in MP3 format.
• Supplemental Curriculum Materials including word games, worksheets, activities, and more!
• Access to Pretests and Placement Tests
• Access to the Answer Keys for the Unscramblers and Family Reunion exercises of the Engaging Language Kits

I would most likely not purchase the AVKO membership. this website might be of greater value to those families that need additional, support, information, and resources for their special needs learners, or those that may be using the sequential spelling program. It is definitely a good value for all that you receive, it simply does not meet any needs in our household.
The cost for a one year membership to the AVKO website is $25.00.

If you would like to see what other CREW members had to say please click HERE.

American Heritage Education Foundation

American Heritage: An Adventure in Liberty is a FREE American history curriculum offered by the American Heritage Education foundation. I received a copy for review for the CREW.

The American Heritage CD contains lesson plans for K-12, divided into 3 levels, elementary, middle school and high school. These lessons are based around the themes of freedom, unity, progress, and responsibility. Each of the lessons focuses on an event, person, icon or document to demonstrate one of the themes. This is a supplemental curriculum so it has a lot of games, activities and worksheets, but not a lot of information. These lesson plans were written more toward a classroom setting so the activities are really not practical to a home school. Though a homeschool could easily use the worksheets and puzzles. Also since this is written to public school teachers there is a section at the end of each level that discuss how to teach religious expression in a public school!

We homeschool to be able to give our children a history that is God centered, so these lesson plans were not the best fit for us.

If you are interested at seeing this curriculum you can get the CD or an instant download at their website for FREE.

If you would like to see what other CREW members have to say please click HERE.

A Journey Through Learning

First, do you know what lapbook is? A Journey Through Learning explains it as
A lapbook is a FUN, HANDS-ON and CREATIVE way for your child to record information that he/she has learned about a certain subject. First, you create the folder part of your lapbook. This part is made from colored folders that are folded in a special way and glued together. Mini-booklets are then cut out, constructed and glued inside of the folders. Kids really like that!
At this house that is true my kids really do love doing lapbooks, so we were excited to be able to review these lapbooks from A Journey Through Learning, A team of homeschooling moms Nancy and Paula who create a wide assortment of lapbooks and unit studies. After some debate we chose to work on the Desert and The Parables of the King.

These lapbook guides contain every thing you need to finish your lapbook. The guide contains the lesson and after each lesson are 1 or more mini-booklets to fill out with the information you have just learned. These booklets are in color with great clip art on them. Each booklet page tells you exactly were your mini- booklet is to be glued into the lapbook, no guessing how to make all those booklets fit!
The back section of these lapbooks is MY favorite part there is a page of suggested additional reading, to encourage your child to learn more about what they are studying. A page that they can list their reading, narration forms, and NICK a page to help your child organize notes, and in Parables a biography report form about Jesus. We are working on trying to take notes with my younger kids and the forms have made this fun for them.

From when we started these lapbooks to now, (we are not all the way finished as we have taken extra time to do them). I have to say these lapbooks are easy to use, full of information, and my kids like them alot! They are learning about deserts and that has made our study of Ancient Egypt more interesting. The Parables of the King is keeping our morning Bible time hands on and creative. The kids are learning about the parables and deserts, the important key here is learning AND enjoying the process.

A Journey Through Learning has a wonderful variety of lapbooks to choose from.
Instant download $13, On CD for $14 and the printed version for $21

If you would like to see what other crew members have to say about the lapbooks they chose to do, please click here.

Title: Subscribe to The Old Schoolhouse™ Magazine for only $7.95!

Homeschooling is a Labor of Love, and the Old Schoolhouse™ Magazine is celebrating your hard work as a parent by putting their one-year print subscriptions on sale! For a very limited time, you can subscribe or renew for $7.95! (US only). International customers can subscribe to the digital edition for only 7.95!

You can buy a gift sub for friends, too! To gift a subscription:
1. Go to the one-year subscription page (uS only)
2. Scroll to the bottom of the page.
3. Enter the name, address, email, and phone information for each recipient
4. click "Add this to my cart".
5. The information will display in your cart and simply proceeed to check out.

There are only 2000 of these available, and they are going quickly! Your subscription begins with their Fall Issue.

If you live in an international location, you can subscribe to their digital edition for only $7.95! It's the same great content as their print magazine, except it is instant and interactive!

Here are the two links:
http://www.theoldschoolhousestore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=175_176_181&products_id=12261

http://www.theoldschoolhousestore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=175_178_185&products_id=2330

Sense and Sensibility Review

Sense and Sensibility is a company that sells original vintage patterns by Jennie Chancey. Jennie is a homeschooling mom who has been designing vintage dresses since she was 14.

For my Homeschool Crew I had the privilege of reviewing the Edwardian E-Pattern and E-class bundle . Ok I was a bit nervous about this as sewing brings back some bad memories of my 8th grade home Economics teacher telling me how bad I was at this sewing thing! I have done some sewing since then with more "horror stories" than good ones :) But I really love sewing and these pattern at Sense and Sensibility are beautiful, so I dove in with anticipation as after all this bundle had a class.

First the download of the pattern, it is 25 pieces five across and 5 down. You lay them out on the floor (or large surface). I did have a bit of difficulty in lining these printed pattern pages as the printing does not go to the edge of the page. they must be trimmed and the lines, lined up taping as you go. My perfectionist tendency arose here, but really this is not a problem, the pattern when cut out worked perfectly.

The best part of this bundle for me was the E-class. Jennie talks you through with a power point showing pictures of her sewing. Plus she has videos of some of the trickier things. These videos are awesome! I watched them till I "got it" then so easy to go back to the class and follow along. I was able to finish the apron with no problems and was so excited and happy I made a second and am also working on a 3rd one for my little grand daughter! This class will also teach you how to make your own double fold bias binding so you can natch your binding to the apron material. the instructions are very good, but my girls really wanted to choose a colored binding with the material they had picked out.

The Sense and sensibility patterns are beautiful and the classes are so well done that they took away my fear of sewing. I have a success. My girls love their aprons and already want more than one! I am going to try a dress next!

To order this E-bundle for $24.95 go to Sense and Sensibility here. Enjoy your sewing experience and have a beautiful apron to prove it.

If you would like to see more reviews of Sense and Sensibility visit the Homeschool Crew Reviews here.


Hanna and Isabel in their Edwardian Aprons. I used the contrasting
binding.

Grapevine Studies

Old Testament Basics
A program designed for multiple age groups
By: Grapevine Studies

I have chosen TOG as our main curriculum, but I wanted to have a bible time program that I would be able to use with all of my children at once. This can be a bit of a challenge when you have a house full of children ranging from the ages of 5 to 17! My answer came via a crew review, and my Godsend called Grapevine Studies. As their website says: "A bible study that engages the intellect, while stimulating the imagination!"
This is an amazingly easy to teach curriculum that uses stick figures. All of my kids find this simple and enjoyable. (even the older kids!)
I am currently using The old Testament basics, which utilizes the teaching method of catechism.
Questions & Answers to learn the facts of the Old Testament. Each lesson begins with a question, then a bible verse reading and finally the drawing of stick figures on our whiteboard to illustrate the answer. The first few lessons the kids just watched and followed along as I used the stick figures to "write out" the answers. Now the children have begun using the stick figures themselves and they are naturally embellishing them, to help them to remember the questions and the answers. The girls find their stick figures are rendered with dresses and long hair, and when the boys step up, their representations are rich with background information and details. The littlest ones color in everything! The best thing about this program is they are getting it! They are learning the material and they know it and own it.
All of the questions in the Old Testament Basics center on biblical facts, not doctrinal issues. The Old Testament Basics contains 225 questions for students and the Teacher's guide contains both the the questions and answers complete with stick figure drawings. It is great fun and we are really enjoying it! The cost of this program is $24.95.
For an additional $15.95 there is a Student Workbook that contains: The Bible verses, questions and even a place for your students to draw out their answers.


Biblical Feasts and Holy Days
13 Lessons

The Biblical Feasts and Holy Days study is a great way to explore the original 7 Levitical feasts, the Sabbath & Purim. I love the study of the feasts. We are really learning and gaining a better understanding of these original biblical holy days. This is one of the best resources I have seen to learn more about the Feasts and Holy days.
The Teacher's book is available for $19.95 and the Student book costs $11.95

Homeschool Lounge Open House

Hi, Thanks for stopping by to read my THL open house 2009! My name is Cynthia I am a mother of 13 children and Grandmother of 2 with another grandchild to join us soon!
I just discovered the Homeschool lounge! It's a fun place to connect with other homeschooling mom's. This month they are having an open house so I am joining in the fun!
We call our school Ark Covenant Academy because our home is the ark that our children can run to from the trials of the world. Not that our home is perfect or overly peaceful or even free of trials, But we do love each other. Of course "the ark" is quite full when every one is home too, as there are19 of us! Our home is still full even with our oldest children out on their own.
This year for school the twins and my grandson (all who are 5 years old) will be joining in the mix this year! This means I will be teaching and learning with 9 children, both a blessing and a challenge. We are using a classical/Charlotte Mason approach and lean toward the eclectic. But this year we have chosen Tapestry of Grace volume 1 as our core curriculum.
I am really excited and have been planning up a storm and putting together our student notebooks. I love using lapbooks and notebooking pages to get our learning into the hands-on mode. The children are responding to the lessons and I find they retain the information easier, and enjoy the learning process using this method, because its FUN.
This year I really want to have a special time of encouragement with my daughters and spend some time going through some of the books I have collected over the years. Here are a few that I recommend and will be using:The Women God Designed, Raising Maidens of Virtue, Before You Meet Prince Charming and Beautiful Girlhood .I really want my girls to know that being a strong women of God is truly a blessing and a path worthy of following .I am amazed at the number of books that I have gathered together over these last few years. Life is busy in this household and sometimes "girltime" takes the back burner, Soooooo this year I am making time for just being together with my girls and learning about Godly womanhood, modesty and courtship with purpose!
I have not forgotten my little men either. We will be using Boyhood and Beyond with them. God desires strong Godly servant leaders in our boys.
We will also be using various curriculum that I review for the homeschool crew. We are blessed with a wonderful of curriculum to review this year, and we are all so excited! Please bookmark this blog and check it out from time to time so you can see how we are doing and pick up what I hope will be some valuable insights on all of the wonderful curriculum we will be experiencing!
I am still very busy with planning and organizing but we will be starting school next week. My ideas, schedules and plans do not always mesh with the reality of life! So I have to remind myself to stay flexible and make adjustments, after all, we are all "works in progress!"

The Home school Lounge has some awesome prizes for the open house. My choices are:
#1 Rainbow Resource $50 gift certificate
#2 Currclick $50 gift certificate
#3 Families with a Purpose $25 gift certificate

Classical Education

planning and more planning! that's what I have been up to. I love the idea of having everything all ready for several weeks in advance ( I gave up the idea of being 9 or more weeks planned out ) I am aiming for 4-6 weeks ahead. I am making student notebooks this year, they will have all their assignments, workbook pages coloring pages anything they will need to complete their week. I got the idea from The Counter- Culture blog. In Tapestry of Grace the idea is to help the children to become independent by keeping their own school planners so they know exactly what they need to do each week. I am really looking forward to helping my children learn to be responsible for their learning, not to speak about how much this will help me as I delve into the learning to read with three 5 year old boys!
I have also been really blessed and encouraged in reading The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise. I love the classical education method, how I wish I had known about this back when we started to home school 20+ years ago. This book has helped me to have a direction in all our schooling, not for just now but our years ahead as well. I have been inspired, given hope and excitement again for teaching my children. I was beginning to feel that I had forgotten how to bring the joy of learning into our days. I was also feeling a lack of direction and the "how" to keep doing this and do it well and right. YES even after home schooling for 20 years I found myself floundering, questioning how I could keep going as we were. I felt that I was not "doing enough". I have been in this place before and the only answer: SEEK MY FATHER GOD'S FACE. That is what I have been doing crying out to Father and asking him to show me the way for our family. He lead me to Tapestry of Grace and then to The well Trained Mind. He has supplied us with our way and the tools to follow that way. I am once again excited

Character Formation

I am heavily into planning our school for this next semester, we are using a new to us program: Tapestry of Grace. I was re -reading some notes from Marcia Somerville the author of TOG ,and she made a statement that really stood out to me
" Character formation is both
the foundation for learning
and the ultimate purpose for learning"
In all my planning of my childrens academics, the most important thing to remember is who they are inside. I wish for all my children to have the character of Christ. To think like Him, to act out of a heart like His in all they do. That means KNOWING Him. We can not imitate someone we do not know, or fallow someone when we are not watching.

Tapestry Of Grace

It has been so long since I posted, I have been so caught up in my school planning and so excited about our new curriculum! We have chosen to use Tapestry of Grace redesigned year 1.(TOG) I have been reading and making up student notebooks because I want this to work, with as little new start up confusion (what the seasoned users call the "fog") as possible. TOG is such an awesome curriculum and the ability to teach all my kids together is exactly what I was looking for. I love the classical approach along with the Charlotte Mason ideals mixed in. My kids love reading books that go along with what they are studying and TOG has a great selection of them, so much so that I must remember to go through the buffet of books and pick a few and not load our plates with more than we can handle and cause both my kids and I to become discouraged with goals that are not reasonable. Let alone the fact that I want them to enjoy learning this year.

HomeWork: Juggling Home, Work, and School...

Ok many of us have thought of working from home or seriously considering it, the question is can we stay home, keep our homes and homeschool? Oh and have some sanity. :) Well this E- book is for you! This E-book: HomeWork: Juggling Home, Work, and School Without Loosing Your Balence, is a compilation of several families who are working from home AND homeschooling. The question asked was how do you you do it all? the answer... We don't!! these are their stories each one different with insight into their own ups and downs. None of them "do it all" they depend on family , their family. Each story is unique and a window into that families life. Giving their take on how it works for them, what didn't, what they have gained, what they had to let go. Much, much, more than this you will see what it takes to run this course. You will see how they keep house, do school and run their business. There are links to all the business and to the families so you can contact them or go "look-see" on the internet and I love this..how fun to see what others have accomplished with what God has given them.

I love this book packed full of advice, hints and personal stories. My older teens have been asking how they can earn some extra income, and I have printed this book for them each to read, so we can discuss a home business as seen through these "windows" of others families.

The Fall Harvest: Where is The Fruit?

I have been going through a time of reflection, a time of changes. As I ponder this season of my life with 5 grown children and 3 teens, 3 elementary age and 2 preschoolers I wonder what I have done right and what I have done wrong, what should we continue and what needs to be different. My heart longs to see all my children walking with the Lord and to see fruit in their lives. This second WeE- book: The Fall Harvest: Where is The Fruit? by Deborah Wuehler left me feeling like I had just had a wonderful conversation with someone who understood my desires to see that harvest of God's goodness in my children's lives. She talks of this through the example of a garden, of soil preparation and watering. Deborah gives some wonderful thoughtful steps on how to prepare and water the soil of our children's hearts. This little booklet has reminded me that I need to be consistent in planting the seeds of God's love and goodness in these little ( and not so little) lives still at home. She reminds us to not let busyness -laziness keep us from an intentional deliberate plan to soak our children in the word...it wont happen by accident!

This e-booklet is a wonderful reminder to all Mothers of HOW to be purposeful in our training. This E-book will be joining the Time Flies While History is Written booklet on my night stand :)