Help Teaching Pro Subscription Review

When I agreed to review the one year subscription to Help Teaching Pro by HelpTeaching.com I was expecting to use it with my older two children (ages 10 and 11). However, as we got into the review I found that it also had some great printables for my younger son who turned four during the review period.

For my four year old, I printed off lots of worksheets. He loves to ‘do school’ when my older children are doing school and while we do lots of hands on activities he likes to have a few worksheets that he can complete. There were some wonderful worksheets for working on various preschool concepts. We focused mainly on the numbers and shapes worksheets with him because that is something he enjoys learning more about and had recently been working on. They were short and simple which I think is important when you are dealing with preschoolers and he enjoyed completing them. As I look at planning for next year I intend to continue to use these types of worksheets to supplement our hands on activities.

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The older children were more interested in the lessons that are offered as a part of this subscription. There are lessons on a wide variety of topics and subjects but we chose to focus mainly on the various prefix and suffix lessons. These were short video lessons with a quiz that could be taken after the lesson. We worked through them together and the children seemed to enjoy them.

We are also using some of the ready to use math worksheets for review of concepts that they were struggling with this year in math as we prepare for our end of year testing. I have found that printing the worksheets and having the children complete them is best for my students, but they do have the option of online completion which may be a great tool for other families. With that option you can schedule it for a certain day and time and make it timed or untimed.

There are lessons for math, English language arts, science, and social studies. In addition to those categories, the printable worksheets also include seasonal activities, art, music, physical education/health, and vocational education, There are even sections of graphic organizers and study skills.

They have a test maker option that I think could be a great time saver if you are creating tests. You can either use questions from their test bank based on grade level, subject, and topic or you can add your own questions. There is also a worksheet component to this feature that allows you to create math worksheets and games. In the games section you could make a word search using whatever selection of words you want to use. This is a great review for spelling or vocabulary words.

I think there is a wealth of information and resources in this subscription. I do wish that the lesson options were a bit more comprehensive as I think some subjects and ages are covered much better than others. However, there are many great printable worksheets and you can even generate your own tests and worksheets. For most families this is not going to be a complete curriculum but a great supplement. I think Help Teaching Pro would be most helpful to families that were looking for more practice or review or those looking for resources in creating their own lessons.

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.

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Apologia Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology Review

I am excited to share my review of Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology by Apologia with you today, but first I want to give you a little back story. When I first started homeschooling almost six years ago I started with a ‘box’ curriculum. I figured out pretty quickly that it was not working for us and started creating my own science curriculum. Part of our studies that year included a study of the planets and a family member suggested that I check out Apologia’s Astronomy book as a resource. The children loved it and we ended up using it for the entire semester instead of just the month that we had planned on spending on astronomy. We have been using Apologia ever since. We have enjoyed each book that we tried and Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology is no exception.

Apologia sent us the text, Junior Notebooking Journal, Notebooking Journal, and the MP3 CD. When it came in the mail, the children were thrilled to be able to ‘un-box’ their new goodies. My husband has more of a science background than I do and enjoys anatomy so we decided to do this science in the evenings as a family to allow him the opportunity to participate. We all gathered in the living room and my husband would read aloud a section or two of the text and then we would discuss what he had read.

As we went through we did many of the “try this” activities that are included. These are one of my many favorite parts of the curriculum because they provide hands on activities that are quick and easy and often need little to no advance preparation. For example, in the second lesson where we were learning about bones of them simply had the children hit a table with their hands and then hit the table with a cushion between their hands and the table. This helped to demonstrate the cushioning effect of cartilage between the bones.

There are also more in depth experiments at the end of the lessons and in the Notebooking Journals. The first lesson focuses on cells and the end project was making an edible cell using Jell-O and candy. That was certainly a hit with my kids. There are looking forward to some of the other experiments such as testing for Vitamin C and making a stethoscope.

While we did the reading and experiments together, the children worked through their notebooking journals on their own. My 6th grader used the regular Notebooking Journal and my daughter who is 4th/5th grade used the Junior Notebooking Journal. There are some activities and pages that are very similar but the Notebooking Journal is more involved. For example, in lesson one some of the pages are the same but the Junior Notebooking Journal has several coloring pages (which work great for keeping little hands busy while I read) and an extra ‘lapbooking’ style page. The Notebooking Journal has a crossword puzzle and review questions that are not in the Junior Notebooking Journal.

Did I tell you how much I love having the CD that goes along with this text? There are so many wonderful ways to incorporate it in our lessons. Sometimes we use the CDs to listen on the road. This is a great way to get some school done even on those busy days when we aren’t home. Also, my son loves to listen to audio books before bed and he can just put it into his CD player and listen to it, giving him a nice review of what we have learned so far. Since we do science together I have not used it to help a struggling reader, but I know several families that will allow the child to listen to the CD while they follow along in the book. The CD is the book read aloud word for word so this is a great support for struggling readers.

In case you couldn’t tell, we absolutely recommend this product. The science is in-depth and thorough but full of fun and easy hands on projects to make it all stick. You do need to know that it is written from a Christian creationist standpoint. This is a big positive for us and we love how it explains the role of the creator in the science, but we know that some people may wish for a different view point. While you are checking out Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology you can also take a look at the books in this elementary series.

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Princess Cut: A Family Movie Review

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Am I the only one that has a hard time finding movies that are appropriate for our whole family but still interesting for the adults? So I was thankful to have the opportunity to review Princess Cut by Watchman Pictures. While I may be the one ‘officially’ reviewing this movie, we watching it together as a family movie night. The children were thrilled because we went all out and bought pizza to eat while we gathered in the living room to watch the movie.

As we started to watch the movie the first thing that caught the attention of the children was that it took place in our home state at a location that was very near a town where we have visited. The movie portrays a Christian young woman and her journey towards finding real love. Without spoiling too much of the plot, I can say that there are a few twists and turns in her journey that really surprised my children. She had setbacks but as any good romance movie should, it had a happy ending. One thing that stood out to me was how well it portrayed her relationship with her parents and how they were there to help guide her on this journey. It did not make it out to be a perfect relationship where no one made mistakes, but it showed how they could forgive and move forward after mistakes were made. I look ahead into my own daughter’s future and hope that we can one day (many years from now) help her along her own journey to finding real love.

The one ‘flaw’ that I noticed in the movie was that the timeline seemed a bit rushed. The entire course of the movie took place in less than one full crop season but lots of major decisions and relationships took place during that short amount of time. My children at 10 and 11 did not notice, but had they been a bit older we would have had a conversation about how they shortened things for the sake of the movie but in life those processes would take place over months or maybe even years. This certainly did not ruin the movie for us but is something that may be worth a conversation with your teenagers after watching the movie.

So what did everyone think? My 10 year old daughter said, ” I thought is was a good movie but I wish it had shown the wedding.” Before we started watching the movie, my eleven year old son grabbed a blanket and said he was going to use it to cover his eyes if they started any of that ‘kissing’ stuff as he does not much like ‘romantic’ movies. However, when I asked him after the movie what he thought he said that it was a good movie and he liked all of the surprising twists and events. My husband, who prefers historical films, watches these types of movies with me because he loves me. His thoughts were that is was like, a “Hallmark movie with Christian values”.

All in all, our family really enjoyed watching this movie. It was appropriate for the entire family without being boring for the adults. We felt that it shared values that are important to our family in a way that did not come across as ‘preachy’ or dull. I can wholeheartedly recommend Princess Cut to anyone looking for a fun romance with Christian values.

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.

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Zirrly Super Beads: A Low Mess, Low Stress Craft Review!

A fun craft that my ten year old can do independently and the three year old can do with a little help from the ten year old that also doesn’t leave my house full of glitter or paint? Sign me up! I recently had the opportunity to review Zirrly Super Beads and I was impressed. This was my first experience with Zirrly and I discovered that they have lots of different craft and art products. They came at a great time because we had just had our fourth child and I needed a few activities to keep the older children busy while I was focused on the baby. We have done other bead kits that required ironing but these attach with only water. We received the Super Beads Bird Set.

I had my ten year old daughter try it out first. I read over the directions with her but she was able to complete the first project without any additional assistance from me. Once she had gotten the hang of it with that first set, I had her help her three (almost four) year old brother with the second bird. He needed help getting it set up and staying on task but he was able to do most of the work himself. It was a great way for him to work on his fine motor skills and have fun with his sister. They completed the third bird in the kit together as well.

The process is very simple, you put your template under the plastic grid that is sent with the kit and then place the beads on top based on the colored template. Once the beads are in place you mist them with water, using the spray bottle included in the kit. Wait at least an hour and then you can carefully remove your object from the board and you have your finished product. The instructions said that if it broke you could fix it by placing it back and respraying it. My daughter wanted to be sure that was true, so she took the extra beads and made a random shape. She let it dry, removed it and promptly broke it apart. She then placed it back and resprayed it. Just as they had stated it went back together with no problems.

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One tip we found to keep things together and make it a little easier was to put the beads you are working with into a small bowl or muffin tin. This kept them from rolling onto the floor and made it easier for little fingers to grasp them.

The beads are small so I would not recommend trying to use it with a small child that still puts things in their mouths, but otherwise it is a great project for many ages. It is an independent project for most children that can read the instructions and a great family project for preschoolers. In addition to the Super Beads Bird Set they have several other sets including a 3D Jungle Animals set and a 3D Car and Truck Set. Don’t forget to click below to check out all of the other reviews of the various sets.

CursiveLogic Review

My daughter has been interested in learning to write cursive for several years. She has worked a bit on her own in several cursive programs but nothing really stuck and it was not something that made it onto the list of things that we require and work together on during our school time. But that is a discussion for another time! I recently had the opportunity to review the CursiveLogic program. She was very excited to try out the new program. We received the CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack as well as the Art of Cursive coloring book.

Part of the CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack is their instructional webinar. You can purchase the book without the webinar, but I highly recommend the webinar. It really walks you through their program and how it works making it so much easier to understand and explain. I went through the instructional webinar on my own at first to get a better understanding of the program before I introduced it to my daughter. The webinar is designed to ‘train the trainer’ and teach you as the parent or teacher how to teach cursive using their program. However, I felt that my daughter was mature enough to sit with me and watch the instructional webinar and then with some guidance from me begin working on the program. This worked very well for our family as it freed up some of my time to work on other things but still gave her the support she needed to be successful.

We watched the first section of the webinar together, I talked through it with her and then she was able to complete the first week’s assignments. I also noticed her practicing those first letters in her free time during the week. She even took the photograph below to show her dad how much she had learned after the first day or two. The program uses an innovative approach of teaching letters in a chain from the very beginning instead of stand alone letters. They also use some catchy phrases to help remember the letter formation and by the end of the first week they are writing real words. They learn a new letter string each week for four weeks to complete the lower case alphabet. After that first week we would watch a bit of the video each week and then she would complete the lessons for that week. There were four days lessons for each week. She was able to learn the entire lower case alphabet in one month including putting them together to make words! She starts on capital letters next week.

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Whether cursive is an important focus for your homeschool or just something one of your children wants to learn this is a great program. For younger students (they recommend the program for ages seven and above) you will need to spend more time walking them through the process and teaching them how to make the letter strings but older children can work more independently with the help of the webinar and some guidance. My daughter has enjoyed the program thus far and is looking forward to the work she is starting in capital letters. She also has the Art of Cursive coloring book sitting on her dresser just waiting until she finishes the program so that I’ll let her start the coloring book. The coloring book is not a necessary component to the program but is a great addition to reinforce the skills once they have been taught or for the parent to use to freshen up on the cursive and enjoy the stress relief of coloring.

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If you are looking for a thorough but easy to use cursive program that allows for an early feeling of success, I highly recommend this program. The webinar makes it very easy to teach and the workbook gives enough practice to help achieve mastery without being tedious. Check out the CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack for your home or co-op and use code CREW2018 for a 20% discount through March 31, 2018.

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Pencil Grip Magic Stix Markers

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You may be thinking, why is she reviewing markers? I mean a marker is a marker right? Well Magic Stix Washable Markers from The Pencil Grip, Inc. are a bit different from most other markers that we have used. The first thing I noticed was the nice plastic case that they came in. The markers are all laid out in it so you can see the colors and so far the case has held up well to the wear and tear of my children using them. Next, I know I’m not the only mom that has found markers without caps all dried up and unusable. While I do work with the children to remember to put caps on them, it still happens and ruins otherwise good markers. So when I heard that these markers were guaranteed to not dry out even without their cap for at least seven days I was interested in checking this out.

My daughter picked out a color to help me test the seven day guarantee and because she knows that typically a marker would dry out she picked a color that she wasn’t as fond of (brown) so that if it did dry out she would still have her favorite colors. At the end of the test (which actually ended up being eight days because life was a little crazy on day seven) the marker was still just a dark and sharp as it had been on day one.

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One thing that stood out to me when the children were using them to make some Valentine’s Day projects is that the colors were very bright and vivid. Some markers give dull or muted colors but these were some of the brightest we have used especially considering they are washable and non-toxic. I will note that if the paper is very thin there was a little bit of ‘bleed through’ so if you have important papers underneath or ‘valuable’ surfaces you may want to be careful. However, it wiped off of the kitchen table without any problems and didn’t bleed through the thicker paper. Due to the ‘bleed through’ issue we did decide that in our family these were great markers for my 10 and 11 year olds but probably not the best choice for the three year old.

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Each year we try to send Valentines to some widows that we know to help brighten what might otherwise be a sad day. This year my daughter used the Magic Stix Washable Markers to color the Valentines and they turned out beautifully. Next, my daughter did a beautiful Easter picture that we had printed on card stock. The colors turned out wonderfully and we are using it as one of the decorations in our home.

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When we first received our set they stayed at my desk so that I could try them out, test one, and see what I thought. The children had to ask to use them (which they did and were able to quite often). They are excited that now that I have finished my review they can keep them in the art cabinet to use anytime they want. We may get an extra set so that each of the older children can have their own set at their desks.

As an added bonus, The Pencil Grip, Inc. has agreed to give away another set of these wonderful markers to one lucky reader! Enter below for your chance to win a new set mailed to you! This giveaway is for US addresses only!

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History Through Story: Wulf the Saxon

We had the opportunity to review Heirloom Audio Productions Christian radio drama, Wulf the Saxon this month. This is a remarkable historical tale by GA Henty. I remember sitting through history classes and wishing I was somewhere else. The information seemed boring and pointless. Much of what I’m sure I was taught, and based on my good grades apparently learned for at least a time, I have long since forgotten. When I started homeschooling my children I was determined that they would have a different experience with history. As an adult I realized the value in understanding history and wanted to make it something my children could internalize and remember. We use a variety of resources from living history events to living books to teach history in our home.

We have found that the Heirloom Audio CDs are a great way to include even more history that is fun and engaging. Wulf the Saxon is the newest Heirloom Production and it does not disappoint. It is an engaging and well-told story of how King Harold Godwinson came to power and then lost the throne. It tells of the Norman conquest of Britain while featuring a friend and comrade of Harold, Wulf of Steyning. Henty primarily wrote for a late Victorian British reader, so the perspective can be distinctly British, but he is a masterful storyteller.

British school children are as familiar with October 14, 1066 as American’s are with July 4, 1776. It is one of the seminal dates in British history. Henty uses this historical landmark to tell his tale, weaving in the Saxon Chronicles and the Bayeux Tapestry as source material magnificently. Interestingly, and in opposition to many, or maybe most, other British writers, Henty’s protagonist are Saxon. While Wulf the Saxon isn’t the ‘happily ever after’ that you see in many stories since King Harold dies, it does end with the marriage of Wulf to his love. My eleven year old son thought this was very interesting and asked, “It is a really good story but why do the heroes always end up married?”

We love including all sorts of audio in our homeschool. We most often listen in the car. This makes road trips a much more pleasant experience for the whole family, while also allowing us to continue learning. My children also enjoy listening to audio while they are doing chores and at bedtime. One thing we love about all of the Heirloom products is that they are done not in a bland reading but in radio theater style. There are voice actors reading each part of the story and great sound effects. You really feel like you are dining in the great hall, engaged in mortal combat, or sailing the English Chanel.

You can purchase the Wulf the Saxon CD set independently but they also offer the Live the Adventure Club that includes downloads and bonus materials for the adventures. They have many of GA Henty’s historical novels done in the same engaging radio theater style. While we do not have any issues allowing all of our children to listen to the adventures, I’ve found for comprehension and historical understanding they are best for about ages 9 through adult. My three year old listens along with us but he does not really understand the story lines. My oldest son enjoys the stories so much that he listens to them over and over again at night on his CD player after we have finished listening to them as a family. I love that they bring quality entertainment and education together with values we are already working to instill in our family. I encourage you to check out Wulf the Saxon and all of the Heirloom Audio Productions. If you have a favorite Henty story or Heirloom production please share that with me in the comments.

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