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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

We are always excited about the chance to review new books and add to our family library. That excitement is magnified when the books are coming from an author we already know and enjoy! We were very excited to have the opportunity to review four  wonderful paperback children’s books from Carole P. Roman’s assorted series. We had already reviewed a selection of her books last year, so we knew we were in for a treat!

We were blessed to be able to choose four of Carole P. Roman‘s wonderful titles, the only challenge was narrowing down which four books we wanted to choose. My first selection was the easiest, I chose If You Were Me and Lived on… Mars. My son is really interested in astronauts and space so this was a perfect fit for him. This book was full of fun and colorful illustrations. The story gave him great information about Mars but also a good perspective of what it might be like if we had a colony on Mars. It shared how in addition to the special things needed for space, it talked about how everyday activities like basketball would be different on Mars.

Next, I went with If You Were Me and Lived In… Colonial America because

that is one of our favorite eras in history. This book focused on the Pilgrims which was an interesting perspective for us. We spend a lot of time studying and participating in living history events related to Colonial North Carolina. It was a great opportunity for my children to compare and contrast the two areas.

My final two selections were If You Were Me And Lived In… Italy and If You Were Me and Lived in… Israel.  These books gave lots of great information about the geography and culture of each country.  My children really enjoyed the parts about foods in the different countries as well as learning a few words in the language of each country. There was information about schooling, daily life, and important places in the country.

Each of these paperback books included beautiful full color illustrations that were a combination of mostly drawings with a few photographs in the books about a specific country. The drawings featured children and made the books very attractive to my children. In the back of each book, was a pronunciation guide that helped with words that might not be familiar to a young reader.

Each of the books is written from the point of view of a child in that time period or from that location. I think this really helps students to relate to the books and be engaged with the story. For example, in the Colonial America book the little boy spoke about the chores that he did, the clothes he wore, how he was educated, and even his friends.

In addition to the titles that we reviewed; Carole P. Roman has a plethora of other titles. Many are educational titles similar to the ones we reviewed but there are also fun fiction stories. I highly suggest checking out the variety of titles to see what would appeal to your family. Which title would you like to read? You can also check out the titles we reviewed last year: Carole P. Roman Book Review. Be sure to check out the website for more information and click on the graphic below to check out the reviews from other Review Crew members.

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

I have fond memories of reading the Boxcar Children books as a child and I have shared those memories and those books with my older two children. I was delighted to have the opportunity to review the The Boxcar Children Early Reader Set  by Albert Whitman & Company  with my five-year old son who had not yet known the delight of the Boxcar Children stories.

The Boxcar Children Early Reader Set  that I received contained four hardcover books that each told a different tale from the Boxcar Children series. There are currently six books total in the early reader series, with two more books scheduled to be published this year.

When my son first opened the package, I noticed that the books were very bright and colorful which immediately drew him into them. As a mom, I also noticed that the hardbound books appeared to be very well made and sturdy. In a house with three boys (including a toddler) that can be very important to the longevity of a book.

Our set included:

The Boxcar Children

Mystery Ranch

The Yellow House Mystery

Surprise Island

We got started reading the same night that the books arrived, curling up together on the recliner to enjoy The Boxcar Children and how they first arrived at their home in the boxcar and eventually found their grandfather. We both enjoyed the fun story and the wonderful illustrations. The books are very colorful and engaging.  Since he is not yet reading, I read each of the stories aloud to him. However, these are Time to Read Level 2 books, so if you had a beginning reader that was reading but not yet fluently enough for chapter books, they may could read them themselves with a bit of help.

My son’s favorite of the series is Surprise Island and he has requested that we purchase the rest of the books. He is even planning on earning some money to help with the purchase. In addition to me reading the books with him, my older children enjoyed reading them aloud to him as well. Since he has heard them several times, he can now use the pictures and his memory of the story to ‘read’ the book himself by telling the story that goes along with the pictures.

I am not always a fan of abridged versions of books, but I love the way these shared the fun and wonderful stories and adventures of the Boxcar Children. I think they will encourage my son to want to read the full chapter books when he is a little bit older and able to read. If you had a fluent but reluctant reader, these books might help spark interest in reading the full-length books.

I am so glad we had the chance to check out these wonderful books and add them to our family library. Reading them with my son was lots of fun and made me look forward to the day when we could read the full-length books together. I will be keeping these books to read with my youngest son in a couple of years as well. Be sure to check out the website for more information about the The Boxcar Children Early Reader Set and click on the graphic below to check out the reviews from other Review Crew members .

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.

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

Learning how to read is certainly among the most important skills that I want my children to learn in our homeschool. Once they know how to read, they can spend a lifetime reading for both pleasure and education. We recently had the opportunity to review the PRIDE Reading Program Beginning Consonant Level Kit from the PRIDE Reading Program with my five-year-old kindergartner.

The first component to the program is an instructor training course. This online course walks you through each type of activity that you will be doing with your student to ensure that you understand the various directions and are ready to instruct your student. This course takes about 2-3 hours to complete and covers all levels of the program.

The PRIDE Reading Program is based on the Orton-Gillingham methodology and is a very structured approach to literacy.  For the PRIDE Reading Program Beginning Consonant Level Kit each lesson is focused on a beginning consonant and has three sessions, an introduction, a practice, and a reinforcement session. We chose to complete one full lesson each week, thus doing reading three days a week and learning a new letter each week.

Each week consisted of basically the same activities, but with the new letter and a review of the letters that had already been covered.  Each session included five or six short activities revolving around the letter. The sessions are laid out step by step on the computer for the teacher to read and work through with the student. Once you have completed that session you mark it complete and can move on to the next session.

On the days where my son was being cooperative and working hard, it took about 10-15 minutes to complete a session. Some days he loved the program and some days he resisted it and it took about 30 minutes to complete the lesson.

The activities in each session were varied and multi-sensory, including sky writing, tracing, repeating, giving each sound a motion, and listening for the letter sounds.  The step by step nature of the program made it very easy for a child to feel successful and make slow but steady progress. There is a lot of repetition which will work well to encourage mastery for those that are struggling with reading, but it may feel like too much repetition for a child that is not struggling. In that situation, I would suggest covering the information at a faster pace.

My son has been resistant to reading instruction, but I could tell that he was making progress and find him identifying the sounds he recognizes in words as we go about our day to day lives. For example, he came up to me repeating a word yesterday so that I could hear the /k/ sound for C.

If you are looking for a systematic Orton-Gillingham methodology approach to reading, this may be a great fit for your family. It is simple to use, takes only a few minutes a day, and is through enough to help ensure that a child fully grasps and retains the information presented. This program is perfect for someone that is looking for a step by step scripted approach to phonics. Be sure to check out the website for more information about the PRIDE Reading Program and click on the graphic below to check out the reviews from other Review Crew members who reviewed a variety of different levels of the program.

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.

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.

Part of our homeschool vision is raising children who know and love the Lord and share that knowledge with the world. I was excited to be able to try the The Unbreakable Faith Course  from Pilgrim’s Rock, LLC as a way to help my son achieve that goal.

The Unbreakable Faith Course  is an apologetics course that is done online and accompanied by two books: The Box and God the Reason.  The course can be used for high school credit and is recommended for ages 15+.  Since my son is a little younger than the recommended age, I decided that we would work through the first part of the course materials together. This allowed me to get a better feel for his ability to be successful in the course and make sure that the content lined up with our personal beliefs.

We both started by reading The Box. This short and fairly easy read is required reading for part one of the course. The book gives an example of apologetics through the lens of a man who helps his atheist neighbor understand the truth about God.  It was an easy read that took me less than two hours to complete. It was a bit over simplistic on its own but gave a good starting point for understanding apologetics.

Next, we moved on to reading the first chapters of God the Reason (this book was required reading for the course but broken up into chapters with chapters 1-2 being required for Part 1).  This book was considerably more complex and denser than The Box and went much deeper into a solid understanding of apologetics. My son is a strong reader but he needed help understanding the complex content of the book.

Once we had completed the required reading, we watched the online videos that accompanied the course. These videos were done in a narrated PowerPoint style. The videos all started with hymns, which I really enjoyed. There was a lot of great information in the videos, however, my son found them to be a bit dry and would have preferred a more engaging style. He did however, retain the information from the videos, so they were effective.

Once we had completed the required reading and watched the videos for Part 1, my son took the computer graded quiz for that section.  This was a timed, 25 question quiz. He missed a couple of answers but did very well overall and seemed to retain the information that was presented.  I really appreciated that the program showed him which answers he got incorrect and explained the correct answer.

We then were able to move onto Part 2 which included more reading from God the Reason and additional videos.  There are six parts which each part including reading, videos, and a quiz to check for understanding.

Overall, I think this apologetics course has a lot of really great information. I do believe that their age recommendation for 15+ is accurate for any student that is taking the course independently. I will have my son finish the course but we will work together so that I can ensure that he understands the complex concepts that are included in the course.  Be sure to find out more about the course at Pilgrim’s Rock, LLC  and click on the graphic below to check out the reviews from other Review Crew members.

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.