The Master and His Apprentices (Art History) Review

I am excited to share with you my family’s new favorite art history resource. The Master and His Apprentices: Art History from a Christian Perspective is a full art history course that would satisfy requirements for a high school elective credit if it was completed as written. However, my children are in middle and elementary school and so we took a different route for this review and used it as a supplement. We love incorporating a bit of art into our history studies. The layout of this program makes that so simple.

Honestly, art history is not a strong subject for me. It was not something that was covered much at all during my educational experience (I did get a little in a fine arts course in college). This can sometimes make it difficult to include in my children’s studies without doing a lot of research and work. I love that this art history book by The Master and His Apprentices made it so easy for me to find what I needed. the chronological layout makes it a perfect fit for using it to supplement our history program.

Capture3

The textbook starts all the way back at creation and shares about God as the master artist and his creations. Then it moves into art in ancient cultures and moves forward chronologically through modern times.

As we have been studying more modern history we skipped towards the end of the book and focused on chapter 18, Rococo to Today. I would read the information aloud and then show the children the art work on our television screen (hooked to our computer). We then talked through some of the discussion questions and just a general conversation about the art work. Since we were not using it as a high school course but rather a supplement we did not complete the exams or suggested papers.

Important Highlights From the Website

Written from a Christian perspective

Contain NO nudity or other objectionable material

Satisfies requirements for a full high school elective credit

Helps readers create a “visual” timeline of biblical and world events

I was really pleased to have a resource that had so much wonderful art from so many different cultures and time periods. That was made even better by not having to be concerned about whether the art work was appropriate for the children. This was truly the first resource I’ve ever found that was so comprehensive in the coverage of art work while not including any nudity or other inappropriate material.

The pictures were beautiful and included such a variety of art work. I loved that in addition to paintings, sculptures, and other traditional art they included lots of architecture and other pieces that were created as more than just artistic works.

Capture4

In the fall, we will be studying ancient history and I’m so excited to be able to use this to tie art into our studies. In addition to be separated chronologically they have it separated by culture. This means that when we read about Ancient Egypt, I can show them art work from Ancient Egypt, and the same for Greece, Rome, etc. I think it will be so powerful to be able to show them examples of canopic jars when we talk about mummies, statues and mosaics from ancient Greece, and Roman Architecture. I really enjoyed how they tied in Biblical events and references throughout the book.

The textbook includes several resources that really added to the ability to use this book as a supplemental resource. There was a great breakdown of art work from various geographic regions. This would be a great way to study art from one area over the course of time. Then they had a lengthy index that would make finding information or art very easy. There was also a section explaining various art terms. There was so much history included in this art history book that it could probably function as a complete world history course with a little bit of supplementation.

The teachers manual included a sample syllabus that could be used to make it a full high school class. The syllabus and included worksheets and exams would make it a very easy to implement class, even for those people like myself that do not have a strong art background. They have separate instructions for using this in a classroom (or co-op) setting and at home, answer keys for the worksheets and exams, and art history paper instructions.

I am looking forward to using The Master and His Apprentices: Art History from a Christian Perspective to supplement our history studies for the next several years and possibly using it as a full course for my children once they reach high school. The worksheets in the teachers guide are considered consumable and for use by only one child. However, they only charge an additional $2 for each additional child making this a great resource to use with multiple children. While the hardback version of this book would be out of our price range (through probably a reasonable price given the number of full color pictures) the digital version is very reasonably priced, especially for a resource that I can use for years to come.

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

How We Celebrate Independence Day!

“It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews [shows], Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations [fireworks] from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.” John Adams

The 4th of July, or Independence Day, is a fun-filled and educational holiday in our home. On or around the 4th of July, we are blessed to be able to celebrate with family and friends (some of whom live in other states and only come to visit once a year).

We enjoy a great local festival and parade, lots of good food, some lazy time on the river, and hours spent catching up with old friends. However, we also want to make sure that our children understand the significance of this holiday.

Learning Through Teaching History

Our local historical site and the first permanent capitol of North Carolina, Tryon Palace, offers a day full of fun and education on the ‘Glorious Fourth’. As volunteers with Tryon Palace, we will spend a portion of our day assisting in teaching others about the history and significance of July 4th.

My husband is involved with their Continental Line unit, and my children will demonstrate how to load and fire a cannon (using a child-sized model), play colonial games, and answer questions about colonial and revolutionary times from a child’s perspective.

They also get to hear a great recitation of the Deceleration of Independence and talk with other historical interpreters as they revisit that day in history. For our family, this is the perfect balance of fun and education. Many towns and historical sites have fun Independence Day activities, and I encourage you to try to find one near you.

In addition to an educational program, there are many fun activities you can do leading up to Independence Day. I’ve included some resources below that can get you started on a great study of the history behind this celebration and some fun, hands-on art activities. We would love to hear how you celebrate July 4th.

Independence Day Resources

(May include Affiliate Links)

Liberty’s Kids DVD

American Landmarks Art Course (including the Washington Monument with Fireworks!)

7 Layer Flag Dip (my daughter is making this one for us this year)

What is the Declaration of Independence

The Fourth of July Story

Independence National Historical Park (some great online resources for those that can’t visit)

Fourth of July Scavenger Hunt

How Fireworks Get Their Color

Videos and Activities on Declaration of Independence

Fireworks with a Fork (I’m so excited to try this one with the 4 year old)

Declaration of Independence Worksheet

Resource Library

Deals and Freebies

Schoolhouse Teachers is also offering a great sale!

Journey Homeschool Academy is offering 40% off their printed products this week!

Tuttle Twins American History Books are on sale in honor of Independence Day.

Homeschool Complete (Review) is offering my readers a 5% discount with code SWAG.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

Silverdale Press LLC White House Holidays Unit Studies Review

20180618_112600 — Voting Rights Posters! (yes I saw the typo 😉 )

When I signed up to review the White House Holidays Unit Studies by Silverdale Press LLC my plan had been to incorporate parts of several of the studies into our existing history program. I figured that I could condense them down and work through several applicable ones.

However, while I personally looked over several of them, we only did one complete one as a family. Not because we didn’t enjoy them but because I felt like they were so good that we didn’t want to skip around and miss out on valuable content. I wanted to take the time to review the entire unit study and let it sink in.

How Did The Unit Studies Work?

These unit studies are broken down by holiday, but I made my choice based on the fact that we were studying the civil rights movement as a key part of our history last month. I had planned to use several resources and supplement them with parts of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Study. When we received the unit studies, I realized that I would not need to supplement our studies with anything other than our family discussions.

Martin-Luther-Kind-Jr-Unit-Study

In our home, we typically do history studies twice a week. As civil rights was only one component of the era we were studying, we decided to devote one day each week to the unit study and complete our studies of the other events of that time period on the second day.

While this was a Martin Luther King Jr. unit study, it also talked about other people involved in the civil rights movement. The name White House Holidays Unit Studies also focused on how Martin Luther King Jr. interacted and worked with the men who were president during his time as a civil rights activist.

How We Used the Study

Each week I would read one of the lessons aloud to my children. This would inevitably bring about family discussions about this very difficult time in our nation’s history. Once I had read and discussed any questions the children had, we would complete the various activities that were included for that week.

A timeline continued throughout the study and each week that would add the events that had been discussed to the timeline. There was also a map where they could mark the various cities where the event occurred. There was a printable map included at the end of the study, which is sufficient, but after a couple of weeks, my children decided that it was more fun to find them on our big wall map.

20180618_112516

Activities for All Ages

In addition to the timeline and maps each week, there were various activities broken up by age. Some activities are for grades K-6, and some for 7-12. I went through each week and chose the best fit for our family. The children’s favorite activity, and possibly one of the most eye-opening activities, was completing a quiz that was used as a barrier to keep blacks from registering to vote. They were surprised at how difficult the quiz was and how unimportant and random many of the questions were. Honestly, I was surprised. By most standards, I am a very educated voter, and there were questions on that test that I could not answer.

Other activities included listening to freedom songs, making protest posters, analyzing speeches, and participating in a service project. There were craft activities for those children that learn well in that modality, writing activities that could easily count towards your language arts program, and other relevant and engaging activities.

Videos

Each lesson also included links to various video clips. We watched a couple each week to help the children better understand what we had read and discussed that week. My son was particularly enthralled with one of the clips, which featured the President on the phone with Martin Luther King Jr. We had just recently traveled to the Eisenhower National Historic Site as we studied through that era in history. So my children were very excited to make the connections of the Civil Rights movement with President Eisenhower.

Other Studies

In addition to the Martin Luther King Jr. study, they have studies for Labor Day, Valentine’s Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and one coming soon about George Washington. These studies could be done as your curriculum for a week leading up to the holiday or spread out over a month as we did. You could pick and choose a few of the activities or go all in and complete all of the options. We chose to use a study that correlated with our history studies that were in progress, but they could easily stand alone. They can be done around the holiday, but this one also worked fine for a different time of year. I look forward to doing the Labor Day study in September as we start our new school year.

Which White House Holidays Unit Study sounds most interesting to you? Please let me know in the comments, and use the link below to check out reviews of other studies by our wonderful Crew!

Resource Library

Field Trip Friday: Gettysburg National Battlefield Park

20180429_121234

During our whirlwind mid-Atlantic trip we made our way as far north as Pennsylvania before heading back home to North Carolina. We made a lot of stops and saw some really neat places. We all enjoyed the trip but everyone had their own favorites. For my husband and twelve year old son, Gettysburg National Battlefield Park was certainly one of the highlights. This was a ‘bucket list’ item that we were all grateful to have the chance to visit.

Due to our schedule we only had about half a day to visit Gettysburg. If you are interested in history you could easily spend two days at the park in order to get the full experience. To make the most of our time we chose to purchase the guided tour on CD. We wanted the benefit of the guided information but the flexibility of being in our own vehicle on our own schedule. With a four year old and a baby we sometimes need to stop more frequently than a regular tour would allow. Having the tour CD also gave us the opportunity to listen to parts of the story later even if we did not have time to see the entire park that morning.

The CDs told the story of the Battle of Gettysburg as well as the Gettysburg Address. They gave us directions to follow and told the story of each location as we drove. There were various stops along the way to get a closer view of some of the monuments and other important locations. There were three different tour options depending on the amount of time you had for your tour. The stories and the sound effects were riveting and well done. It made it easy to imagine that you were there watching the battle those many years ago.

For those that prefer an actual guide to the CDs they offer both bus tours and guided tours where you pay a tour guide to ride in your personal vehicle as you tour through the park.

On the day we were there it was unseasonably cool but sunny. We had the opportunity to talk with a reenacting group that had set up a camp near one of the monuments. This allows for the children to see what they would have been wearing, eating, and even the sleeping conditions. They also offer various walking tours and demonstrations throughout the park at different times and dates. You can check the calendar prior to arriving or check at the ranger desk inside the visitors center for that day’s schedule.

Since we decided to spend the afternoon at the Eisenhower National Historic Site we did not get a chance to watch the movie or tour the museum that are inside of the visitors center. You can enter the visitors center for free (this is where you will get your National Park Passport stamp if you participate in that program) to enjoy the restaurants, gift shop, restrooms, and information desks. However, admission to the museum and movie areas are ticketed. If your children wish to participate in the Junior Ranger program you will also want to stop here when you first arrive to get the free Junior Ranger booklet for them to work on as you complete your tour.

If we are able to make it back in the future I look forward to visiting the museum. You can find more information about the museum portion of Gettysburg on the Gettysburg Foundation website.

We felt that this was a wonderful field trip. There is so much to see and learn at Gettysburg and it has an important place in American History. I truly recommend it to anyone that can make the trip. If you cannot make an actual trip to Gettysburg, there are many videos and pictures on the website. They even have a virtual tour of the National Cemetery.

Where: 1195 Baltimore Pike Gettysburg, PA 17325

Hours of Operation:

Park Grounds and Roads

April 1 – October 31: The park is open daily from 6 am – 10 pm
November 1 – March 31: The park is open daily from 6 am – 7pm

Museum and Visitor Center

April 1 – October 31: 8 am – 6 pm
November 1 – March 31: 9 am – 5 pm

Costs: Visitors Center and Grounds are Free. The museum and other features have varying ticket prices. There are also paid tours available.

Homeschool Discount: There are group rates available for the museum and film.

Website: https://www.nps.gov/gett/index.htm

Food:

There is a restaurant and snack bar back at the Gettysburg Visitors Center. There are also places for picnics.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Deals and Freebies!!

Peter Rabbit Collection Audiobook for only .48 cents! (at the time of posting always check prices)

The Last Archer (Green Ember Series) is only $.99 (prices subject to change)

The Black Star of Kingston (Green Ember Series) is FREE (again always check Amazon changes prices frequently)

FREE: Check out this great new FREE resource for classical and Charlotte Mason education! Classical Christian Education & Charlotte Mason. Great for folks already homeschooling or if you have friends that are looking into it!

FREE Poetry Pack from Write Shop! 20 Printable Activities and Worksheets, including: Practice exercises, brainstorming worksheets, poem planning worksheets, word banks, and colorful lined writing pages

Resource Library

The Good and The Beautiful: A Guest Review

I am pleased to bring you this guest review from my friend and fellow home school mom Crystal Levin. She has been homeschooling for 12 years and has children ranging from 16 years old to 4 months. She brings a wealth of knowledge and experience and I’m excited to have her share about the new curriculum she is using this year.

The Good and The Beautiful

34984486_1969332629758121_5536622124862537728_n

I have been promising this review for a while but with life and new babies it just got pushed back. However it’s because of the new baby that I even tried this curriculum. I am a homeschool mom to 8 wonderful children, but I had noticed that even I was dreading school. When that happens I know it’s time to reevaluate what we are doing. Enter The Good and The Beautiful. This curriculum is fairly new to the homeschool scene and made all kinds of promises. I have to tell you they were promises that I loved. It combines grammar, Art study, handwriting, spelling, literature, and geography into ONE. All of this and and zero prep, it was really too good to be true. I decided that at the price point I didn’t have too much to lose so I bought Pre K, Kindergarten and Level 5.

34909194_1969332146424836_147188417564770304_n

34894276_1969336196424431_4848237144755404800_n

The quality of the materials is amazing. The pages are a heavier paper and it is in full color, something that’s important to my girls. It truly is zero prep, I open the book and read the lesson with my girls and we are done. Each lesson is packed with ONLY important information. I cannot tell you how much that means to me, I do not need 20 worksheets on the A sound but give me a card to review for a min or so before the lesson and I’m good. The Pre K and K is just what you’d expect there is phonics work and poetry memorization along with letter formation practice and practice using each new sound you learn. Pre K also goes over numbers and even starts Art Study. The phonics cards are laminated and numbered and each lesson tells you what you need. The Pre K even has hands on activities that use house hold items such as pennies or cotton balls. The best part, It only takes me about 10 to 20min per kid for the pre K and K and in that time I feel like they have had a full, meaningful lesson with zero fillers.

35051641_1969329176425133_7836845620340981760_n

35066181_1969327373091980_455875465249292288_n

34691027_1969328193091898_7347957026409938944_n

Now once you get to the upper level it’s a bit different. Each child has a check list that tells them what they are to do for the day. The book TELLS the child how their week will be structured. They do poetry memorization every other day and alternate days between grammar flash cards and geography flash cards. As the parent I spend about 5 min reviewing these with my student (I have 2 in level 5 at the moment) Next you do sentence dictation. Each day you read 5 sentences to your student, they write them down and you check, any words misspelled they correct and then write 5 times. This takes maybe 5 or 6 min depending on your student. Then my favorite part is the shared reading. You and your student take turns reading to each other. Each day it’s about 2 ½ pages. Once that’s done the student completes the work in their book and you are done. The student then does independent reading in their reading book for the time you decide. In our family it’s 10min.

Every aspect of this curriculum is very well laid out. Everything has been planned for you and it is wholesome. It truly lives up to its name, The Good and the Beautiful. They don’t just stop at grammar however they also do Science, History and Math as well as Art. They also have a Nature Notebook and Creative Writing Note book. Right now we are also using their science and my daughter wanted the Creative Writing Notebook.

34985088_1969334876424563_5652595351480172544_n

35051972_1969335236424527_8753379546679476224_n

I love how easy the creative writing notebook is for her to use. It starts out by giving you the tools to write. It has you describe colors and sounds, textures and colors. Once you have done that it starts building your creative writing skills. It has made a nice addition to her school work and is something she actually ASKS to do and as a mom it doesn’t get much better than that!

35102627_1969335723091145_4134518798269022208_n

35134125_1969336016424449_2412160934601555968_n

34863457_1969339063090811_2077962773316239360_n

Science is set up as unit studies and takes about 8min of prep. You have to look at the material list for the experiments (all house hold items) and maybe print off a sheet for your children. I took about an hour and laminated all the vocabulary cards and put together all the mini books so I wouldn’t have to do that later. Each lesson is easy to follow. You review words that you need to know, do an experiment if applicable and read. There are options to find other books on the topic you are studying as well as how to go beyond the basic lesson for your older students. With the Water Unit there is the option to buy a book pack and I did. I cannot tell you how much I love the curriculum I have used so far. It has truly helped me simplify my homeschool while still having a solid quality curriculum. This is a Charlotte Mason style curriculum and so it reflects the values found in the Charlotte Mason style of homeschooling.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

So, how much will you spend on this? Not very much at all, I find this is a very affordable curriculum. You can either purchase the PDF which is very inexpensive or buy the physical curriculum. I chose to buy the physical because after look at printing costs and the expense of my time I would much rather buy it all done. Their website is very well laid out and the folks that monitor their Facebook page are very responsive. I will continue using this curriculum with my children. We are all using the Science and so far 4 are using the literature. I have another child who uses her own thing. I have been using this for a few months now and so far I’m really happy!!

Free Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for our free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library

There are a few great Kindle deals going on right now!

The Last Archer (Green Ember Series) is only $.99 (prices subject to change)

The Black Star of Kingston (Green Ember Series) is FREE (again always check Amazon changes prices frequently)

Memoria Press Classical Composition I: Fable Review

Finding a writing program for my twelve year old is one of the biggest challenges I face in our homeschool. I had heard great things about Memoria Press and I was excited to review their Classical Composition I: Fable Set. This set includes a teachers manual, instructional DVD, and a consumable student book. The book has twenty lessons, each featuring a different fable, and we were completing a lesson over the course of two weeks. Depending on your child you could move faster or slower than we did.

For each lesson my son would watch the video instruction and then complete a series of eight assignments. During the instruction the fable was read aloud and they discussed the vocabulary and various components of the fable. Those assignments included looking for examples of the three plot components of recognition, reversal, and suffering. Then they would look into variations using synonyms to vary sentences from the fable associated with that lesson. Then they summarize the fable by creating an outline. I loved that in the instructional video they went step by step through the outline for the first lesson to show them how to create an outline and give them a good example moving forward.

Next, they are asked to do a written narration of the fable. They include a scoring guide for the written narration if you choose to score those. Depending on your child you may also want to start with a verbal narration and then do the written narration.

Then they move into a set of two paraphrases. The first paraphrase they are asked to use three different figures of description. For example in lesson 2 they are asked to use anemographia, dendrographia, and ethopoeia in the first paraphrase. Depending on the lesson they are asked to write the second paraphrase either by reduction, leaving out all extra details, or by starting at a place other than the beginning of the story.

Next the student completes the Variations Part 2 component. This is again using synonyms to vary sentences from the fable. This helps them work on using creativity but still keep the meaning of the original sentence.

Finally, the students finish the lesson with a final draft of one of their two paraphrases. They take the paraphrase that they wrote and find any mistakes or omissions. Then they write a final draft of that paraphrase. This is the culmination of what they have learned in the lesson and helps prepare them to write other papers in the future.

I loved the video instruction for this course. By having it on video it took the pressure off of me as the writing instructor and allowed my son to do some of this independently. I still worked closely with him since writing is a struggle for him. The instruction was easy to follow and included examples to show the student what was expected. Since it was broken into the various components it was easy to watch just the instruction we needed for that day.

This is a very thorough and classical education style writing program. It is well written and easily implemented. That said, my son did not like the program. He found it to be too repetitive and a little overwhelming. He struggles with writing and while this program would probably help improve his writing, it was a struggle to get him to complete the lessons because he disliked the repetition of narrating, multiple paraphrases, and a final draft of the same story. While it was not the right fit for my son, the technique is sound educationally and would benefit many students who want to improve their writing.

If you are looking for a classical style writing program that is well presented and easy to implement then I recommend the Classical Composition I: Fable Set. If your family like ours is used to a more relaxed ‘Charlotte Mason’ approach to writing, this will be very different and may be a little overwhelming to your student. Memoria Press has many wonderful products and our Crew has reviewed a variety of them so click the link below to read more reviews.

Resource Library

Field Trip Friday: Eisenhower National Historic Site

The Gettysburg battlefield site is huge, so with this in mind, we almost didn’t go to the adjoining Eisenhower Farm. In hindsight, we’re glad to have taken a couple of hours and made the short bus ride.

The Eisenhower National Historic Site is the only home that Dwight Eisenhower ever owned. The home and farm are adjacent to the Gettysburg National Park and can only be accessed by shuttle bus from the Gettysburg Visitors Center.

When we stepped off of the shuttle there was a Park Ranger waiting to tell us about the home and begin our tour. This was a guided tour through the only house that Dwight Eisenhower ever owned. When asked later my 12 year old son said that was the fact that impressed him most from the tour. It was a lovely house but not grand or magnificent. It felt very family oriented and ‘down to earth’. The decorating style was very typical of the 50s and reminded me very much of my grandmothers home. There were lovely porcelain figurines in the formal living room and pink tile in one of the bathrooms. My daughter was surprised to learn that he only had one television set (though we also only have one in our home).

Once you completed the tour of the home you were free to do a self guided tour of the grounds and visit the gift shop. We did not have a lot of time and were unable to see most of the farm but the areas that we saw were beautiful. My son really appreciated that he had his own skeet range. At the gift shop and visitors center you can watch a short film about Eisenhower, see some displays about his career and get the materials to complete a Junior Secret Service agent badge program. This is a cute program similar to the Junior Park Ranger program that is available at many sites. Each child gets a free workbook and upon completion of a set number of activities receives a badge and certificate.

This was a great way to start our study of the Cold War. The guide in the house even told us a story of how Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had actually visited with Eisenhower and his three ‘secret weapons’ (his grandkids) at the home. My children found that story so interesting that it was the part most retold to people when they asked about our visit.

We were only able to spend about two hours at the Eisenhower National Historic Site but if I were planning a trip and had the time available I’d say you really need 3 or 4 hours to see everything and get the most out of the trip. It is free for fourth graders and their families with the ‘Every Kid in a Park’ pass but otherwise costs $9 for adults and $5 for children.

If this sounds interesting but you can’t make it to Pennsylvania to see it in person they also offer this free virtual tour for kids. There is also an online version of the Junior Secret Service Program.

Where: 1195 Baltimore Street Gettysburg, PA 17325 (This site is adjacent to Gettysburg National park and only accessible via a shuttle from Gettysburg National Park)

Hours of Operation:

MAY 1 – MAY 25
The Eiesenhower Shuttle Bus will depart from the Gettysburg National Military Park bus station at 10 am, 11 am, 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm, 4 pm.MAY 26 – OCTOBER 28:
9:00 am – 4:00 pm
The Eiesenhower Shuttle Bus will depart from the Gettysburg National Military Park bus station every hour.

Costs:

Tickets:
Adults (ages 13+): $9.00
Youth (ages 6-12): $5.00
Kids (ages 5 and under): Free

Group Rates:
Groups of 16+ (ages 6-12): $5.00 per person
Groups of 16+ (ages 13+): $7.00 per person

Homeschool Discount: Included with your 4th graders Free National Parks Pass

Website: https://www.nps.gov/eise/index.htm

Food:

There are drinks available for sale in the gift shop on site and there is a restaurant and snack bar back at the Gettysburg Visitors Center.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Deals and Freebies!!

Peter Rabbit Collection Audiobook for only .48 cents! (at the time of posting always check prices)

LAST DAY for enrolling in the annual You Are An Artist Clubhouse Subscription! Suumer Art Camp starts today!

Resource Library

Field Trip Friday: Strasburg Railroad and the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania

20180430_114649 — Windy Day at Strasburg!

All aboard!! What little boy isn’t obsessed with trains? I think most children want to be a train conductor at some point in their lives and mine are no exception. They were thrilled to learn that they were getting a ride on a vintage carriage pulled by a real steam engine. This trip is a great experience for anyone young or old that is interested in trains. I’m actually talking about two different places today because they fit together wonderfully and are across the street from each other. They even offer a discount on combined tickets.

While we enjoyed both parts of this trip, the ride on the steam engine was far and away the most exciting and memorable. You purchase your tickets and board the train for a 45 minute ride through beautiful Amish farmland. The children loved hearing the sounds of the train and feeling it jolt into motion. Then they looked for cattle and other animals as we rode past various farms. This is a short line train that goes down to the end of its route, the engine moves around to the back of the train (which then becomes the front) and makes the return trip on the same track. The seats on the train were even designed so that the seat backs could switch positions when the train turned around. You can make the trip as a round trip in about 45 minutes or you can get off at a picnic area and enjoy some time playing and eating before catching a later train back to the station. They advertise this as the ONLY scheduled steam passenger serve in the world. Unfortunately the day we went it was unseasonably chilly and we decided to skip the picnic. This ride was one of the highlights of our eight day vacation.

After enjoying the train ride, we walked over to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. This is a very large museum with dozens of train cars and engines on display. They had train cars for different purposes as well as from different time periods. Some of the cars you could only look at from the outside but a few were open for interior tours. There were even dishes and other artifacts from older trains. In addition, there was a room where the children could work with model trains to solve a problem and younger children could play with toy trains. There is an introductory movie that will tell you more about the history of the railroads. They also had a lovely little gift shop with a wide variety of books, toys, and souvenirs.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Where: Strasburg Rail Road 301 Gap Road, Ronks, PA 17572

Hours of Operation: There hours vary greatly. This link will show you a calendar and the train times for each day: https://www.strasburgrailroad.com/ride/operating-schedule/

Costs: Price varies widely depending on type of ride, day, etc

Homeschool Discount: Group discounts available

Website: https://www.strasburgrailroad.com/

Food:

There is a restaurant available at the train station. There is also a grassy field that is great for a picnic or a picnic area available on the train ride. You can also ride on a meal car and purchase food on the train for an additional fee.

Where: Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania 300 Gap Road • PA Route 741

Hours of Operation:

November through March:
Tuesday-Saturday, 9am-5pm
Sunday, Noon-5pm

April through October:
Monday-Saturday, 9am-5pm
Sunday, Noon-5pm

Costs: $8-$10 (also available as a combo ticket with train ride)

Homeschool Discount: Group Discounts Available

Website: https://rrmuseumpa.org/visit/

Food: There is a restaurant available at the train station. There is also a grassy field that is great for a picnic or a picnic area available on the train ride. You can also ride on a meal car and purchase food on the train for an additional fee.

Deals and Freebies!!

Don’t forget to enter our AWESOME Write Shop Giveaway!

Peter Rabbit Collection Audiobook for only .48 cents! (at the time of posting always check prices)

You ARE an Artist Clubhouse Memberships are open this week!

Last Chance! Sale Ends May 31st Did you know that SchoolhouseTeachers.com is having a sale? Not just any sale, but one that can open up a world of opportunity for your children for only $99! Plus, you get a FREE collectable tote bag and a print issue of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine mailed to your door when you sign up for our annual membership! That is one year of access to over 380 different courses, not to mention the resources and videos and World Book content. Hurry over and sign up at SchoolhouseTeachers.com before the sale ends on May 31! And don’t forget your coupon: YEARLYOPTION.”

Resource Library

Home School Navigator Review

Sometimes a review turns up a program that solves a problem you didn’t know you had. When I took the opportunity to review the Home School Navigator Reading and Language Arts Curriculum by Home School Navigator and their novel studies with interactive notebooks, I was mostly interested in the interactive notebooks as a way to expand our current novel studies. However, I found that my daughter was really thriving with the program and plan to continue to use it next year.

Home School Navigator is an elementary English Language Arts program that incorporates the various components of English Language Arts including read alouds, literature, writing/grammar, word study/vocabulary, and independent reading. They also incorporate computer skills into some of the lessons. Both my 4th grade daughter and 6th grade son used this product. It is designed with the highest level at 5th grade but I felt that the interactive notebooks would be a good fit for him.

Homeschool Navigator 1

When you log-in to home school navigator you choose which level your child will complete. You have one month in which to try out the various levels before you are locked into a single level. Once you choose a level to start you go into month one, week one, day one. At that page there are introductory videos for both the parent and student explaining the program. For my students I printed out the daily overview sheets and marked through anything that I did not require them to complete. Then gave them the five daily sheets so that they could use them to guide their work throughout the week.

homeschool navigator 3

I loved that Home School Navigator linked to videos of each read aloud book! This really helps limit the add on cost of ‘one more book’. It also allowed my children to complete this program much more independently. The one thing I would have changed about this part is that the videos were on YouTube. The videos were fine but we are always careful with YouTube because you never know what commercials will come up or what videos will play next.

homeschool navigator 2

For my son I had him do a few of the other activities each day but mostly he did the interactive notebook and independent reading of Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. I chose this book because it tied in well with our history program for the month and I thought it would be a great way to make those connections. The interactive notebook included bubble maps, vocabulary words, comprehension questions, and other literary components designed to be completed in a lapbook style. I thought it was very thorough without being overly repetitious. My son enjoyed the book and did well with the questions, though he did say that he would prefer to just answer the questions and not cut out all of the pieces and make the notebook. If he were younger and going to continue with the program, I would simply have him write the answers in his notebook. My daughter however, was disappointed that she did not get to complete an interactive notebook and is excited to have them as part of her work next year.

My daughter started in the first month of the 4th grade program even though she is almost finished with 4th grade because I wanted to get a good idea of how the program worked from the beginning. She completed most of the activities for each week except that I did not always make her complete the writing and computer skills portions. I had to help her with navigation on the first day and then (aside from overriding the parental controls that we use on the computer to allow YouTube) she was able to complete the lessons independently. The days varied to some extent but most days took her about 30–45 minutes to complete the online and written work. In addition, she was assigned 30 minutes of independent reading most days.

She enjoyed the weekly vocabulary work. For her level she was working on prefixes. Her one complaint was that the books were not longer, but I think that the addition of the novel studies and interactive notebooks which come in the following month will solve that issue. There are also poetry extension activities included in some of the lessons. We did not complete those during this review but are excited to do them as a part of our continued use of the program.

I think this program does a good job of offering a comprehensive language arts program that can be tailored to the needs of your family, or individual learner. If you are just looking for a reading program you can only use the reading components or you can mix and match components to suit your needs. This can even be decided on a daily or weekly basis, for example you may decide to skip writing on a particularly busy week or a week when your child is writing for another subject. It is laid out in such a way as to make it easy for an older elementary child to complete independently. Another benefit is the ability to use the record keeping component, especially for those families in states where such records are mandatory.

If you have an elementary aged child, I encourage you to take a look at the Home School Navigator Reading and Language Arts Curriculum Home School Navigator. Their interactive notebooks are an included part of the comprehensive program and can also be purchased individually in their store. I am looking forward to using this program next year with my daughter as she completes the 5th grade level program.

Resource Library

Read Aloud Family Chapter 2

Whether we are visiting Podo’s Garden in Aerwair, a snowy hovel in Narnia or Ramona Quimby’s Cellar on Klickitat Street, a little spark is lit. We all know it only takes a spark to start a wildfire.

What do a walrus and an ant have to do with reading aloud? I won’t spoil the story in case you haven’t read this chapter in Read Aloud Family but it was a great reminder that we need to be able to notice the little things. We don’t need to miss those small important moments waiting for something big. To often I’m missing the ants waiting for the walrus. I don’t take the chance to look at the flowers with my son, to watch bubbles blowing through the air, or to take that five minutes to read a chapter in our book together.

In the interest of transparency, sibling relationships is something that we’ve been really trying to work on in our house. I love the part about how those stories we read become something that they shared and help to create deep friendship between siblings. I can already see how some of the books we have read have given my children a common language and inside jokes that bring them closer together. For example, my husband likes to joke around and use his Aslan voice to get their attention, calling out ” Oh Children’.” Every time we go to hotel that has a wardrobe in the room it is the first place they run to, climbing in for an adventure to Narnia. We are still working on those relationships, but I love the idea that my time reading aloud can benefit those relationships and help to draw them closer.

Stories are comfort food. Stories are inside jokes. Stories are ant moments. They bond us together even when life is hard. When we pull a child on our lap and break open the pages of a book, we’re taking them by the hand and walking them into a quiet garden in the center of a noisy polluted city.

Life can get so busy and our days so full of the urgent things in life: dishes, laundry, bills, cleaning, work, school, etc. We can get disconnected from the ones we love and care about most. Reading aloud is an easy way to bring us all together, to leave the business behind and enjoy some moments together. It doesn’t take a lot of preparation or money, just a few moments and a good book.

When my head hits the pillow each night I want to know that I have done the one most important thing: I have fostered warm, happy memories and created lifelong bonds with my kids– even when the rest of life feels hard.

This chapter hit home and stepped on my toes a little bit. Too often I get busy and I’m rushing around and I miss the little things the important things. I’m going forward with a renewed determination to enjoy the everyday moments and be focused on the here and now. I want to know that I spent each day doing what was most important even if what is most important are the little things. I leave you with this quote from chapter 2, “success in parenting my kids means showing up and giving my best to what matters most right now. Which means, of course, that I have to know what matters most right now.”

Resource Library

Deals and Freebies!!

“Psst! Did you know that SchoolhouseTeachers.com is having a sale? Not just any sale, but one that can open up a world of opportunity for your children for only $99! Plus, you get a FREE collectable tote bag and a print issue of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine mailed to your door when you sign up for our annual membership! That is one year of access to over 380 different courses, not to mention the resources and videos and World Book content. Hurry over and sign up at SchoolhouseTeachers.com before the sale ends on May 31! And don’t forget your coupon: YEARLYOPTION.”