Exploring The US Life-Saving Service 1878-1915 (Review)

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.

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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!

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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.

Critical Thinking Co (Review)

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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.™.

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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.

Math Shed and Spelling Shed (Review)

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.

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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.

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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.

Page a Day Math (Review)

This post contains affiliate links. See below for more information.

My son finished up his kindergarten math book in April and we were both excited and grateful for a break. I didn’t want to start a new curriculum until the fall, but I knew that he needed to have some practice and review to keep everything fresh. Page a Day Math was a perfect fit for being simple, short, and easy to use. We received the PreK Math Starter Kit, Addition and Counting Kit, and Subtraction Starter Kit to review.

I looked over all of them and decided to have my son start with the Addition and Counting Kit. As the name of the company says, you simply do one page a day. These pages are relatively short and only took him five to ten minutes to complete. For the addition, each page started with a new addition fact, and shows that fact as counting, tracing, and copying. Then each page has addition facts for them to practice, starting with several repetitions of the fact of the day and then mixed review of the facts that were previously covered. The numbers are done in a box that has been marked off into a four square grid to help with proper number formation.

One thing I noticed and appreciated about this program is that it is split into manageable chunks. In addition to each day’s work being one page (front and back), the worksheets are split into books that each cover fourteen days. We reviewed this program in a digital format and I could choose to print the whole book or just the pages I needed for each day. However, if you were using it in a physical book format the shorter books may help keep it from feeling overwhelming to a young child and give them a sense of accomplishment by being able to quickly complete a book. There is also a progress tracker which allows them to mark off each book when they have completed it so that they can track their progress through the kit.

There are ten books in the addition kit (not including bonuses), taking you all the way from 0+1 to 10 + 10. The subtraction kit works the same way but goes through subtracting twelve. We have not gotten there yet, but intend to work our way through it once we finish the addition kit. The books feature cute pictures of funny dogs that my son enjoyed.

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In addition to the books and progress chart, there are a variety of bonuses included in each kit. There are assessment pages that help you check for fluency, flash cards for extra practice, and even handwriting sheets. Some of the handwriting sheets practice print and some cursive.

All in all, I thought this was a great way to keep my son’s math progress for slipping away, without feeling like a burden during the ‘lazy days of summer’. We will continue to use them 3 or 4 days a week throughout the summer to continue to build fluency with his basic facts. I think this program is great for anyone who is looking for a simple way to increase math fact fluency in children. I did not review them, but Page a Day Math also offers multiplication and division kits that various crew members reviewed. I highly encourage you to click on the graphic below and check out the other reviews.

This post contains affiliate or referral 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.

Avoid Summer Slide with Evan-Moor Daily Summer Activities Workbook K-1 (Review)

Balancing four children, ranging in age from two to thirteen can be a challenge some days, especially when you add in homeschooling. I want to be sure that I am giving all of my children the time and education that they deserve and for me that often means utilizing resources that can help simplify our homeschool.

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

I personally believe that kindergarten work should be short and allow for lots of time for play, reading, and life skills. I also know that retention will be better if we keep doing at least a little reading and math through the summer. I love how the Evan-Moor K-1 Daily Summer Activities book gives me age appropriate activities that reinforce key skills in just a few simple minutes a day and help us avoid the ‘summer slide’.

The K and 1 Daily Summer Activities book is designed to be used during the summer between kindergarten and first grade. We started using it as a supplement to some of the work our six-year-old was already doing to see if it was a good fit for him as we are finishing up kindergarten and preparing for summer.

I really liked the fact that it is very open and go, there was no preparation needed on my part and each page or activity took just a few minutes to complete. This book includes activities that cover reading, math, spelling, critical thinking, and geography skills. There are ten weeks worth of activities. Each week has five days of activities with two pages per day. There is a sheet at the beginning of each week with stars representing the different pages. The student can color in the stars as they complete each page. This is great motivation for young students. Each week also has a space to draw something fun they do each day and to track their reading time each day.

There is also a great chart at the beginning of the book that shows which skills are covered each week. In addition to showing you what skills are being covered through the summer, this gives you the opportunity to skip around and focus on skills that your child may need reinforced or skip activities that your child isn’t yet ready to complete.

In addition to the skills chart, there is a great book list with suggestions for books to read together and ideas for learning excursions and other ways to encourage your student and set them up for success.

Each day’s activities only took a few minutes to complete which is perfect for keeping students engaged and on track through the summer, but still allowing plenty of time for fun and recreation. Each page has a couple of different activities, from tracing letters, simple math facts, drawing, following directions, and matching sounds. There are even some fun mazes and dot to dot activities to keep things interesting.

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At the back of the book there is an answer key for parents. While I did not really need the answer key for this level, this feature will come in handy at the older levels when I don’t’ want to have to try to figure the math out in my head. It is also helpful if there is ever a question about an activity. There is also a page full of stickers that you can use to reward your child for a job well done.

Overall, my son really enjoyed this workbook and the quick review. I loved having the review for so many subjects all together in one easy to use resource. I think this book is an easy way to keep children on track and ready to go when instruction starts back in the fall. While he did the K and 1 level, they also have a book for the summer between PreK and K and levels that go up as high as the summer between 7th and 8th grades. They are available directly from Evan-Moor or on Amazon and only cost $12.99 (Amazon price may vary). Be sure to check them out and let me know what you think.

Disclaimer:
I received a FREE copy of this product through from Evan Moor in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

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.

Make-A-State Activity-Pak Home School in the Woods(Review)

For history this year, out family decided to focus on state history. We had covered world history in a four-year cycle and completed a year of American history and we wanted to go more into detail about North Carolina. When I had the opportunity to review the Make-A-State Activity-Pak from Home School in the Woods, I knew it would be the perfect way to round out all we had been learning and give them a fun way to present what they knew.

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The Make-A-State Activity-Pak is a large lapbooking set that includes geography, history, timelines, and landmark components for each state. We chose to just focus on North Carolina because that tied in best with our studies but you could even use it to work through each state if you were covering the entire United States. The project is recommended for grades 3-8 but I think you could use it with younger children if you were giving them more assistance or working on it as a family project.

I printed out all of the different components for each of my two older children (12 and 13) and gave them the instructions. The components are each included as an individual PDF so you are able to chose to print as many of them as you wish to use and leave out any that do not apply to your study. They then had the task of doing the research, filling out the lapbook components, and putting them together in a cohesive way. The instructions included details about how to put them together but I allowed mine to follow the instructions or chose another format that worked for them. My son slightly modified the lapbook layout but stayed fairly close to the original design, but my daughter put most of her components on a poster.

When they finished, they each presented their work to the rest of the family and explained what they had learned. Some of the material was review, but my son said he learned a lot about the way the state government is structured and how many electoral votes North Carolina is allotted. He was also excited about drawing the state seal. My daughter said she really enjoyed the part of learning about the state symbols and finding out that milk is our state drink. She also said that she enjoyed coloring the pieces and making everything look pretty.

There is also a bonus game included in this set to help students learn to recognize and name the shapes, as well as learn other important information like the date the state was admitted to the union.

In addition to the Make-A-State Activity-Pak, Home School in the Woods has a wide variety of products covering both world and US History. She even has a lapbook to cover the US Elections which is very timely this year. I am considering using that in the fall as we gear up for the Presidential election. You can also check out my reviews of Get Your Kicks on Route 66, Time Travelers , and Project Passport: Ancient Egypt (Review). Her blog also has some wonderful articles to help you as you teach and learn history, like this one on Charlotte Mason and Hands-On History.

Be sure to check out the Home School in the Woods website for more information about all of the wonderful products and don’t forget to click on the graphic below to check out the reviews from other Review Crew members which cover a variety of different products from Home School in the Woods.

YWAM: Benjamin Franklin ( Review)

We have been blessed this month with an opportunity to review Benjamin Franklin: Live Wire which is a part of the Heroes of History series by YWAM Publishing. Through previous reviews and lots of family reading, we were already very familiar with this series. I did not have to ask my son if he wanted to participate in this review, just which title he wanted to try. There are so many great titles that it was a tough decision, but he finally decided on Benjamin Franklin.

The Heroes of History series are all biographies of heroes that had a historical impact and told from a Christian perspective. Some of these go back to the founding of our country, men such as William Bradford and Captain John Smith. Others are more modern day heroes like Ben Carson and Billy Graham.

Benjamin Franklin: Live Wire told the story of the life of Benjamin Franklin. The book shared stories from his childhood through his adult life including his inventions and political contributions. My son said his favorite part was when they were talking about Benjamin Franklin’s younger years, after he moved to Philadelphia, when he was working with the post office and helping with the fire service.

In addition to the book, we received a PDF study guide which included 83 pages of ideas and activities. You could use this to make the book into a complete unit study or you can pick and choose activities to make it fit your needs. There are discussion questions for each chapter, writing prompts, creative writing activities, hands on projects, and arts and crafts. The guide also included a timeline activity, basic information sheet, and several maps. We chose to select a variety of activities to expand on his learning through the book but did not attempt to complete all of it since he was also continuing his other studies.

I started by having my son complete the basic information sheet, timeline and a couple of the maps to help him show me what he had learned while reading the book. I also had him answer a small selection of the discussion questions. Then, he was to choose two activities from the wide variety in the study guide.

First, he chose to make a movie about Benjamin Franklin. He decided to use Stop-Motion animation for the movie. It was short and a bit silly (he is a thirteen-year-old boy), but it showed some of what he learned and he had a great time being creative.

Next, he decided to write a one act play about Benjamin Franklin and the Stamp Act. Again, I saw both a good understanding of the content and the silliness of a thirteen-year-old boy. It was a great way to allow him to express himself, share his knowledge, and yet not feel bogged down by a formal paper or book report.

The books work great as a family read aloud, independent reading, or complete unit studies when combined with the study guides. For our family, I prefer to use most of the books as read alouds or personal reading, but add in the study guide for a unit study once or twice a year.

If this book interest you, you might also want to check out my reviews of one of a couple of the other books in the series: Alan Shepard and Orville Wright. You can also click the graphic below to check out the variety of reviews by other Crew members. There are so many great choices to choose from. Which one would you like to try?

David C Cook Action Bible Anytime Devotions (Review)

In addition to our family Bible time, I encourage each of my children that can read independently, to have a personal Bible study/devotional time each day. My daughter was excited to get a chance to try out the The Action Bible Anytime Devotions by David C Cook as we reviewed it over the last few weeks.

The first thing I noticed when the book arrived was the colorful illustrations on the cover and for each devotional. The interior pages are full of bright colorful illustrations that help draw a child into the stories.

The book consists of 90 devotionals, each one about two pages long. The devotionals each includes a Bible verse, a short story/devotional thought, and several action points. The devotionals each conclude with a “Take it Further” section, which gives references to which scriptures you can read for the full story that was discussed in the devotional. If you have the Action Bible, this section also refers you to the appropriate story in that Bible version. The scriptures that are quoted with-in the book use the New International Version.

The action points include prayers, things to ponder and consider throughout the day, and ways that you can share what you are learning, help others, and put into action the things you learned in the devotional.

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The devotionals are divided into several different categories: love, strength, courage, faith, service, trust, hope and kindness. These categories are labeled both on the devotion itself and in the table of contents. If a child was struggling in a particular area, this could be a great way to choose devotions to target that area.

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For example, one devotional was titled, ” When You Feel Ignored” and was in the courage category. This devotional used 1 Timothy 4:12 as the key verse. It discussed how it can be hard when people say you are too young to do things, but Timothy was young and was a strong leader. It encourages the child to become a leader as well. The action points for this devotional included making good choices to ” choose to show God’s love, share your faith, and live a pure life with your body”, a prayer asking God for strength, and an opportunity to talk to your friends about the good choices you want to make. The “take it further” section recommends reading Deuteronomy 31:6, Joshua 1:9, and 1 Chronicles 28:20 for more Biblical insight into courage.

This devotional was recommended for ages 8-12, however, my twelve-year-old daughter felt like it was a bit too young and basic for her. She thought it would be better suited for ages 6-10. She thought that the devotionals were well written but that she was not growing like she would like to because it was mostly covering the basics. This may vary depending on how much exposure a child has had to the Bible and devotionals.

All in all, this was a well written but very basic devotional book. It is a great starter devotional for an elementary child or an older child that is just learning or resistant to reading longer devotionals. The pictures are amazing and very engaging, but it may be to easy or basic for an older student who has a strong Bible background. Be sure to check out The Action Bible Anytime Devotions for more information and don’t forget to click on the graphic below to check out the reviews from other Review Crew members to see what they thought.

Byron’s Games (Review)

My children adore playing card and board games! They play with each other, they play with friends, and their favorite is having family game nights. Sometimes we play games that are just for fun, but I really like being able to play games that also sneak in a little educational component in the process. Byron’s Games has created a wonderful card game called Continent Race that combines fun with education.

Continent Race is recommended for ages 7+ but with some help younger children can also enjoy the game. The day it arrived in the mail my children were ready to play and the five-year-old was determined not to be left out. The game is ideal for students that can read but because the cards are color coded, my five-year-old was able to participate with a little help from me or one of his siblings.

From the time we opened the package until we were playing the game was probably less than 10 minutes. They were very excited to play and it was very simple to set up and understand. There were two options for play, one being a simpler version for younger children. Since my five-year-old was playing we started with that level. However, my 12 and 13-year olds enjoyed both levels of play.

The game included:

1 World Map
5 Continent Lists with Maps
205 Country Cards
3 Antarctica Wild Cards

One thing that I really appreciated about the game is that it can be played with only two players or it can be played with multiple players. This meant that we could use it for a family game or my older children could play on their own when they had a few minutes of free time.

The idea behind the game is that each card has a country and flag on it. The cards are different colors based on the continent where the country is located. The goal is to collect groups of countries from the various continents. Then you have to located the countries on the map. This is a great way to get familiar with the geographical location of a variety of countries in a fun and competitive format.

Each round of this game lasted only about 15 minutes which makes it perfect when you only have a short amount of time between activities. You could also continue playing if you had a longer block of time. I also appreciated that it came in a nice reusable box that makes it easy to keep the contents together and would allow you to travel with the game. We are traveling out of state soon for a missions trip and the children are planning to take this game with them for night time entertainment.

We enjoyed playing Continent Race and I liked knowing that it as helping my children become more familiar with geography and global awareness. I think that the game is best for ages 7+ independently but you can certainly include younger children that can sort colors, with a bit of help. Be sure to check out the website for more information and don’t forget to click on the graphic below to check out the reviews of the Continent Race and Connections Stationery Kit by Byron’s Games from other Review Crew members.

Conjurske: Venturing with God in Congo (Review)

When it comes to teenagers reading, some would say that any reading is good reading. However, there is a vast difference in the content and quality of different books. I am always on the lookout for quality books that my children and teens will enjoy reading but will also help them to grow personally or spiritually. That is why I was very excited to have the opportunity to have my thirteen year old review Venturing with God in Congo by Conjurske Publications.

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Venturing with God in Congo is the memoirs of Darrell Champlin and the ten years that he spent in the 1950s and 60s as a missionary to the Congo. The beginning of the book gives you background information, a pronunciation guide for the words that are in Lingala, a timeline of major events, a map of the Congo and autobiographical sketches from Darrell Champlin and his wife Louise. There is also a family tree which is helpful for understanding the connections of various people involved in the stories.

The rest of the book is a collection of the many wonderful and life changing adventures of Darrell and Louise Champlin while they were ministering in the Congo as well as some background about Lousie’s parents and their ministry to the Congo.

The book is a nicely made hardback book that is just under 300 pages. The cover is well done (even though the snake on the cover makes me cringe) and engaging to teens, especially boys. Even though the book is longer, most of the chapters or stories are only four or five pages long. I think this would help make this book engaging teens that aren’t as engaged in reading because they could read it in shorter sections.

When I asked my son to share his thoughts he said:

“In the book he talked about his adventures teaching the Bible all over the area he lived in the Congo. I also liked the stories about his adventures with the animals that lived in the jungle around him. One of my favorite stories was when he went elephant hunting and shot the elephant without the permit and his rifle was taken until he was able to convince them that it was to save the crops the big elephant was destroying.”

My son rated this book a 9.5 out of 10 and recommended it for ages 11-14. He felt like it was a fairly easy read that he finished in under a week (it is worth noting that he enjoys reading). If you are looking for a quality book that will engage your teen while encouraging them in their Christian walk, I recommend looking into Venturing with God in Congo Be sure to check out the website for more information and don’t forget to click on the graphic below to check out the reviews from other Review Crew members.