Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

When the opportunity to review Exploring the U.S. Life-Saving Service 1878-1915: 17 Student Workshops with 120 Activities   by Rebecca Locklear came up, I immediately thought of my oldest son. I knew he was very interested in history and we had talked and learned about the US Life Saving Service in our study of the Wright Brothers a couple years ago.

When asked about this review he was very interested in giving it a try and the plan was for him to go through a couple of the units as an independent study.  However, when I received the e-book I realized that it was set up more as a teacher’s manual and would be a challenge for him as an independent study. Each section is set up with objectives, materials lists, introductory information, and a variety of activities and answers that relate to that topic. The units varied in difficulty, some of them being suitable for students as young as fourth or fifth grade and others being better suited for high school students.

The activities were varied and included such things as group discussions, matching games, recipes, art projects and more. The section that he was originally most interested in, Prepare to Stay Alive, was not really going to work well as an independent study. So we decided to start with the introduction and work together through some of the other units.

Throughout the different units you are able to learn about almost every aspect of the lives and work of the men in the U.S. Life-Saving Service. You find out about where they lived, the rescues they made, their hunting and fishing for food, the ships they used, and even information about staying alive in dangerous conditions. There were fun activities that discussed appropriate manners and had the children become familiar with how the social rules of the time would have worked. They had to determine whether it would have been appropriate for the men to wear their hats in various situations.

One of the facts that I learned, is that the men only had leave one day a week and that was often the only day they saw their families. While a few stations had family houses built next to them, for most of the men they stayed at the station and only went home on their one day of leave each week.

Our family loves to eat and incorporate food into our educational activities. We were excited to find information about what the men of the U.S. Life-Saving Service would have eaten and recipes that we could try. One of my son’s favorite activities was baking the gingerbread muffins after learning about how they used molasses. As a bonus, they made for a great breakfast that I didn’t have to cook!

Overall, while Exploring the U.S. Life-Saving Service 1878-1915: 17 Student Workshops with 120 Activities  didn’t work quite the way I had envisioned, I think it has a lot of great information and activities. It would be perfect for a co-op or family unit study.

You can find out more about this book, check out the authors other work, and get updates and information by clicking here and signing up for the e-mail newsletter.  I highly encourage you to click on the graphic below and check out all of the reviews of Exploring the U.S. Life-Saving Service 1878-1915: 17 Student Workshops with 120 Activities as well as The Mayflower at Cape Cod – Stories, activities, and research that connect 1620 with life today.

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

I started homeschooling when my oldest was in first grade and he will begin his ninth grade year in the fall. I remember teaching him to read and now he is reading the works of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Time has moved quickly and it is hard to believe that it is already time to be planning for college and his future. As we work towards coming up with a good four year plan and helping him prepare for college, I was excited to get the opportunity to review Who Is This Kid? Colleges Want to Know! from The Critical Thinking Co.™.

I received the e-book version of this book for this review and was able to print out the sections that my son was working through. We did just a few pages each week as we began to work out way through this journey and the discussions that arose from it.  The first section was helping the student work through thinking about themselves and learning how to describe themselves well for colleges and interviews. It was really interesting for me to see what characteristics my son thought describes him and what other family members had to say when they chose.

The next portion of the book helps students explore a variety of college options. It helps them find out more about colleges they might already be interested in as well as looking into other colleges that they may not have considered. The worksheets help them gather information and compare the various schools. This section also walks them through asking questions about the colleges, in person and virtual tours, and other aspects of finding the right college fit.

Part three walks them through college applications, essays, and interviews. Part four gives a calendar of monthly actions that should be taken by juniors and seniors as they work through the college admissions process. Finally, part five is a glossary of terms that students need to know during this process. It includes such terms as humanities, pass-fail, resident advisor and more.

We worked our way through part one and plan to continue to work our way through the book as we go through this process of getting him ready for college. I would recommend the book for any high school student, and ideally start it not later than your junior year in high school. However, if you have a rising senior it could still be beneficial.

Overall, I think this is a great resource for helping students learn more about the college admissions process, helping them learn more about themselves and find the right fit for a college.The less than $15 you pay for this book could easily save more than that in helping them find the right fit before they pay application fees and in increased scholarships because of well written applications and essays. In addition to this title, the Review Crew had the opportunity to review a wide variety of titles for various ages.  I highly encourage you to click on the graphic below and check out all of the different The Critical Thinking Co.™ products that the other reviewers tried with their families.

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

Learning is always more fun when you can turn it into a game. Math Shed and Spelling Shed do just that. These two computer programs turn math facts and spelling into a game. I received these products to review and over the last month my six-year-old son tried out Math Shed and my daughter used Spelling Shed .

When I received my subscription to review, I was able to go in and set up each child as a student. This allowed them each to work and get their own ‘honey pots’ or points if they scored well in the games. However, since each one was doing a different subject and they were working on the same laptop they ended up deciding to save one log-in in the laptop and use the same account to work from. Thus they were able to score more points quickly. Since I was not using the points for anything other than motivation for them, this worked well for us. However, if you wanted to track more data or have students competing against each other, they would each need to use their own log-in.

My daughter enjoyed the spelling program. When she went into Spelling Shed she could choose the level of the words and the level of difficulty of the game. In the lower levels on the easy setting, it would give you only the letters you needed for the word and you just had to put them in order. When you chose more difficult settings, it would give you lots of letters to choose from and you had to determine which letters were in the word and their order. As a parent I could have gone into the parent dashboard and assigned her certain spelling lists, however, I chose to allow it to just be random practice.

My son did most of the math, though my daughter also tried it out once or twice. There were a variety of different types of math problems to choose from including: number bonds, times tables, add & subtract, powers of 10, and negative numbers. Since my son had just finished up kindergarten level math, we chose to focus on addition and subtraction. When we went into that section, he could choose to focus on addition, subtraction, or both. He could also choose how high the numbers would go for the problems. We stayed with the 0-10 range and worked on those basic facts. From there you could choose the level of difficulty. He typically went with easy which gave him three answers to choose from. Each round of the game lasts for one minute and he had to answer as many questions and possible by clicking on the correct answer choice. This program reviews and reinforces concepts that have already been taught but does not have an instructional component.

Overall, my children found these games to be engaging and fun. I thought it provided practice with important skills and was a good way to get them engaged and enjoying schoolwork. If you wanted a program to give your child extra practice with math or spelling skills in a fun and engaging way,Math Shed and Spelling Shed might be a great fit. I highly encourage you to click on the graphic below and check out the other reviews to see how different families used these programs in their homes.