SchoolhouseTeachers.com Review 2021

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

*This review contains affiliate links, please see disclosure below for more information.*

I have been had an Ultimate Pre-K-12 Annual Membership to SchoolhouseTeachers.com for several years now and I am always amazed at how much variety they offer. I am always finding new courses and resources that I had not noticed before. In today’s review, I want to focus on some of the resources that we are using this year and some of the great updates and additions Schoolhouse Teachers.com has put into place over the last year.

Holidays

First, we have been really enjoying the Holiday and Seasonal content. This year we used the Christmas Corner resources to find several videos that we watched as a family and some fun Christmas themed lessons as well. I am looking forward to using it throughout the year for an easy way to incorporate each holiday into our schoolwork. For example, there are some great Valentine’s Day lessons to use in February, including games, history piece, music and literature. The music lesson, themed around the song “My Funny Valentine”, looks like a lot of fun and I think we will incorporate that with my students. I know that my first grader will enjoy some of the heart themed everyday games like Hearts Word Builder and Hearts Addition to help reinforce his math and reading skills.

High School

Second, I love being able to give my high schooler so many different options. We discuss the credits that he needs to complete and he gets to help me decide which courses he wants to use for those credits. Coming up in this second semester we are both excited about the Drive Thru History: Ancient History. We already know that we love the Drive Thru History series and being able to use it for a high school credit is a great fit. The videos are so much fun that we plan to watch Dave, in his Holy Land (Range) Rover, as a family and then just have my high school student do the quizzes and writing assignments to get his credit.

We are also looking at several different Bible courses and trying to decide which one will be best. I am leaning towards the video-based Creation Apologetics course. It includes video and a written study guide. I would allow him to watch the videos and complete the study guide independently and then we could discuss what he was learning. However, there are several other great courses, so I plan to let him look over the first couple lessons of each course and then decide which one he wants to complete for the semester.

Literature

Finally, we are adding Christian Values in J.R.R. Tolkien to our literature plans. We had been doing a self created study of the Inklings but I decided we needed a little more structure and this was the perfect fit. Created by a professor at Patrick Henry College this course will give my son a better idea of what to expect as he prepares for literature courses at the collegiate level. This course is very rigorous and will challenge him to grow and think. As a high school freshman I think it might be a little too challenging, so we are going to adapt the class a bit to help him make that transition. For example, instead of answering all of the discussion questions in a written format, we are going to meet weekly and discuss them orally. He will still be completing the papers and other written assignments.

Music Lessons

All of my children enjoy musical performance, but my daughter absolutely loves playing her violin. She is in regular lessons, but we found the Beginning Violin course on SchoolhouseTeachers.com. While she is too advanced for some of the lessons, she found several that had songs that she wanted to learn to play. So she will be using lessons that she selects as extra violin practice. However, if you had a student that was not already playing the violin, they could start at the beginning and learn to play without outside lessons.

Conclusions

The Ultimate Pre-K-12 Annual Membership includes over 400 courses for a huge variety of subjects. You can use it for all of your homeschooling needs or just pick a few courses to add to what you are already doing. The price point is very affordable and includes all of the courses for any children in your home. In addition, there are tons of great printables and other resources to help you with organization and home management tasks. There are even files with recipes. I highly recommend that all homeschooling families check out the Ultimate Pre-K-12 Annual Membership at SchoolhouseTeachers.com. Don’t forget to click on the graphic below to see what courses the other Review Crew members used.

SchoolhouseTeachers.com - Every Subject - Every Grade - Every Student {SchoolhouseTeachers.com Reviews 2021}

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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.

Simplifying the Urgent to Focus on the Important

As a homeschool mom, it can be hard to ‘balance’ everything and feel like you are doing a good job of being a mother, homemaker, and teacher. It can feel like the urgent tasks of running a home can take away from the important tasks of raising and teaching our children. Most of us have seen the Eisenhower Matrix that helps split things into Urgent/Not Urgent and Important/Not Important. However, it can still be hard to make that all work.

When there is no toilet paper because you haven’t been to the store and the toddler just dropped the last roll into the toilet or little bellies are hungry and asking for lunch, it is hard to focus on teaching math or doing your daily read aloud. One of Eisenhower’s components was to delegate the urgent but non-important stuff. However, as a mom it can often feel like there is no one to whom you can delegate.

Planning

Over the years, I have struggled with this balance and honestly still struggle. However, I have found a few solutions that help take things off of my plate. First, when your brain is overwhelmed with various tasks, do take the time to write them all out. This can help you function better as you are no longer focused on all the things you need to remember to get done.

Second, it really does help to prioritize what needs to be done and decide if there are things you can take off your plate or delegate. You might decide that you do not need to bake 10 different types of homemade cookies this year or you need to break down and use a box mix in order to maintain sanity.

Delegation

When thinking about delegating we often think about the workforce or other adults that can take on tasks. However, in the life of a mom delegating can look a bit different. It might mean teaching the children to take over some of the chores. For example, I almost never unload our dishwasher because my children rotate through that job.

Sometime, delegation looks like using the tools and resources that you have available to simplify or put things on auto-pilot. I may not have the servant girls that the Proverbs 31 wife had, but I do have tools that I can put to work to make my life easier.

Shopping

Before children, I loved shopping of any kind. I could stroll through the grocery store or spend an hour browsing the craft supply store. Four children later shopping takes time and a lot of mental energy. However, I have found that I can make my life easier by using some online tools. First, I do my grocery shopping online and do curbside pickup. This allows me to keep a running cart all week that I can add things to as I remember, I shop through the sales and even compare the sales with my Ibotta discounts to make sure I’m getting a good deal.

Second, Amazon Subscribe and Save is your friend. There are things that we need every month or on some other consistent basis. With Subscribe and Save, I can save money and know that it is going to be here without me having to continue to think about it. We use it for our laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, toilet paper, tooth paste and more. My husband even has our air filters on subscribe and save. We can set those to only get them during the months he is planning to change the filters. It is also a great way to get good deals on fun snacks and treats. My children love to see the boxes come in and check to see if they are getting beef jerky or kids Zevias that month.

Finally, I love that by using Misfits Market I can have fresh produce delivered to my door! It helps encourage me to use more produce in our meals which is obviously good from a health standpoint and makes it super simple. We get a box every other week but you can also choose weekly delivery. They send me a reminder several days before the box is scheduled to ship so that I can go in and pick out which produce I want in that weeks box. I get lots of our normal staples, but also a chance to try some things we might not otherwise try. It is organic produce at discounted prices. If this sounds like it would be a blessing to your family, you can get 25% off your first box by going to Misfit Market and using code: COOKWME-IW0OPU.

Meal Preparation

Meal planning made a huge difference in our home. I always hated that feeling of 5 pm when the kids were starting to get grumpy and I had no dinner plan. Scrambling to try to get something thawed and cooked while entertaining a toddler that was just ‘done’ does not contribute to good mental health. By meal planning all of our meals for the week, I can make sure I order what we need from the grocery store, thaw and prep ahead what I can, and don’t have to make extra decisions on stressful days.

Another big delegation for meal preparation is teaching children to cook. It can take some time and energy upfront, but it pays huge dividends in the end. My older two children both cook several meals for the family each week. We are currently helping the six-year old learn how to cook. He loves helping and can hardly wait to be able to cook a meal on his own.

Next, utilize the tools in your kitchen that can make the job easier. If dinner time is busy or challenging, do the prep work in the morning to free yourself up before dinner. I love using my crockpot and throwing dinner in there in the morning and knowing it will be ready at night. I also utilize my Instantpot almost daily for making things quick and easy. I can put a roast and veggies in the crockpot in the morning and then when it is almost time for dinner I can do rice in the Instantpot. Another big favorite in our home is meatloaf and mashed potatoes cooked in the Instantpot.

Household Chores

The two major ways I simplify and delegate household chores are teaching the children to take on some of those responsibilities and creating routines. Deep cleaning the bathroom can feel like a giant task, but remembering to wipe down the counters and do a quick swipe of the toilet each morning only takes a couple minutes and really helps keep things clean.

Assigning a child to help with dishes or sweep the floors, teaches them responsibility and can help free up your time to work on other important work, like teaching a child to read, story time with the toddler, or a heart to heart with your teen.

Homeschooling

Sometimes as homeschooling moms we feel a lot of pressure to teach our children everything they need to know. I love being my children’s primary teacher, but I also appreciate that I do not have to know everything or teach everything.

Sometimes, I choose to delegate a subject to someone else. This might mean my husband takes on some teaching at night (I know this isn’t an option in every family), or I might use technology to help me out. For example, I do not have the musical knowledge to teach my children how to play their instruments. Therefore, we use Practice Monkeys and have someone teach them virtually. As my son is doing high school math, we have found that using an online program works well for him and takes a big responsibility of my plate. Other families choose to delegate by using co-ops and having students learn various subjects in those groups while they teach other subjects.

Remember, that while you are responsible for making sure your children are given a good education, you do not always have to be the one to teach each lesson. It is okay to utilize some of the resources that are available to you to simplify and help you focus on the areas that are important to you.

Overall, I know it can be hard to balance everything and the urgency of many household tasks can easily overtake the importance of other tasks. I hope that these tips can help you to ‘delegate’ some of those urgent things in order to focus on the important tasks that only you can do for your family. If you have other ideas for helping deal with the urgent, please share them in the comments.

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Deals and Freebies

If you have not tried SchoolhouseTeachers.com, you don’t want to miss this sale!

Register now to get daily reminders for IEW’s 12 days of Christmas that begin Dec. 26th. Each day you get a new FREE gift from them! I look forward to these goodies each year.

Fast Transcripts (Review)

This review was sponsored by Fast Transcripts, however, the opinions shared are my own.

When we started homeschooling, almost nine years ago, it was supposed to be temporary. We were going to homeschool until both children (we only had two at the time) were in school. Then I would go back to work at a private school which they could attend. However, it did not take long for us to figure out that homeschooling was not just a short term solution and now we plan to homeschool all four children through high school.

My oldest is a freshman in high school and there are lots of exciting things about having a high school student, but it also comes with its own set of worries and concerns. Among my biggest concerns were algebra (it had been a long time) and transcripts.

Fast Transcripts Program

Today, I get the privilege of sharing with you about a program that can help you with transcripts. I know how important transcripts can be in the college entrance and scholarship process, so it was important to me to make sure that my son’s were done well. It is perfectly legal to create your own, but if you want a little help making sure that it is set up correct, doing the calculations, formatting in a way admissions teams are used to, and even determining names for courses, Fast Transcripts can help.

Fast Transcripts is a subscription based program that has two different options. The first plan is $7.95 per month and allows you to put all your information into the system and get a professional transcript and their transcript audit process. They also have a complete package for $14.95 a month which includes the transcript and audit with the added benefit of expert advice, a final review, and phone-in support.

When I went in to begin my son’s transcript I found the program to be very simple to use. I filled in his basic information and then there was a tab for each year. Under each year I could fill in the course title, grade, and credits. There was also an explanation given for how to denote honors or AP courses if you wanted a weighted GPA.

Grading Scales and Options

There is a spot for you to choose the grading scale that you used and a miscellaneous area for you to make any needed notations about the courses. There is a side bar that shows what courses would be expected from a general high school student as well as college prep. That chart also gives suggestions as to possible courses to fill those requirements.

When your transcript is complete you have several options. You can download it and print and send it to whichever colleges your student is applying. However, you can also use their system to send a secure watermark or digital transcript directly from their Homeschool Clearinghouse to 4,397 colleges & universities. I feel like this is a great way to make sure that your transcript looks professional and is treated fairly by admissions officials.

Questions and Conclusions

When I was reviewing this product and thinking about how I would use it with my children, one of the questions that I had was what happens when my subscription is done. I had this fear that I would cancel the subscription when we thought we were finished with the transcript and then something would happen and I would need it again. Not to worry, all data is saved, so if you cancel your membership and then something happens and you need that data again, simply renew your membership and the data will be there waiting for you.

Overall, I think this is a great resource for those with high school students. It is reasonably priced and takes the guess work out of transcripts. I appreciate that they have both the basic plan and a plan that offers more personalized help. If you have been concerned about creating your child’s transcript or wanted something that looked professional, make sure to check out Fast Transcripts.

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Turning the Page: Book Ideas for 2021

The theme of this week’s Review Crew blog posts is “Turning the Page”. My first thought was of course that we are about to enter a new year. I thought about how the New Year often feels like a fresh start and a new chapter. However, I decided to share with you my reading goals and plans for the New Year as I turn the pages of some new books.

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Over the last several years I have created goals to get myself reading more books. I have always loved reading, but with young children, homeschooling, and running a business it had quit being a priority. I was still reading to the children, but not spending much time reading for pleasure. I have worked to change that over the last few years and have now rediscovered the joy of reading for pleasure.

Over the last couple years I was reading mostly non-fiction and adding in a bit of fun summer fiction. This year due to the pandemic, I started my fiction reading in the spring and just kept reading. I found that it was a great way to ‘get away from it all’ without actually having to go anywhere. Since we weren’t running from one place to another with meetings, lessons, etc., I had a bit of extra time to indulge my reading habit.

Sisterchicks

I lost track of the number of books I read in 2020 but I did want to share a few with you that I really enjoyed. First, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the Sisterchicks series by Robin Jones Gunn. They were engaging, funny, light hearted, but yet still left me with powerful reminders. I also re-read some of the Christy Miller series by Gunn with my daughter and read the Christy and Todd Married Years and Baby Years books. This was a great way to bond with my daughter and pick up a book series I had started when I was in high school. (These books are clean and come from a Christian worldview, however, they do tackle some mature life topics and so in general I’d recommend them for high school and up.)

Dee Henderson

Once I finished up the Sisterchicks books I decided to revisit another author that I had enjoyed, Dee Henderson. I began with the book Jennifer which was a prequel to her O’Malley series. I had read the O’Malley series years ago but decided after reading Jennifer to go back through and read the rest of the series again. That series combines crimes and mystery, a bit of romance, and the Christian life into an enjoyable series.

Amish Inn Mysteries

My husband and I had the wonderful opportunity to spend a few days away at a beautiful bed and breakfast in the mountains of North Carolina as a belated anniversary get-away. While we were there, I discovered the Amish Inn Mysteries. I read the first one while we were there and knew that my daughter would also love the series. Once we were home I purchased several of them for us to read and then my husband graciously gifted me with most of the rest of the series for my birthday. (My husband knows me well, books and chocolate are my love language.) I have been reading through those books, passing them along to my daughter, and then she passes them on to my mother to read. They all involve the main character, Liz, who is the new owner of a bed and breakfast in the community of Pleasant Creek, home of a thriving Amish community. In each book she somehow gets involved in a new mystery. While they can be a bit predictable, they are fun and easy reading. The stories are clean and I love that I have another fun series that I can share with my daughter.

2021 List

As we move into 2021, I have been thinking about my reading goals for the year. I have decided to make a goal of reading 52 books this year. I am still working through which books I want to read but I know I want to include a variety of books including non-fiction, fiction, and inspirational. I will also share more about the non-fiction books that I read in 2020 in a future blog post.

I know that I plan to continue to read through the Amish Inn Mysteries with my daughter. I also want to get Will They Stand by Ken Ham, Dumbing Us Down by John Gatto, Lessons at Blackberry Inn, and In the Land of the Blue Burqas. I also want to read My Grandfather’s Son by Clarence Thomas. After the holidays, I plan to go through the books I have that I have not yet read and add a few of those to my list for the year. Does anyone else have that problem, a big stack of books that you need to read and yet finding other new and interesting ones to read all the time?

Do you set reading goals? What is your goal for this year? Did you read anything in 2020 that you would recommend? What books are on your to-be read list this year? I hope that you get to take some time and ‘turn the pages’ of some great books this year. Make sure to click the link below and see what the other Crew members have to say about “Turning the Page”.

Review Crew Turning the Page

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Deals and Freebies

If you have not tried SchoolhouseTeachers.com, you don’t want to miss this sale!

Register now to get daily reminders for IEW’s 12 days of Christmas that begin Dec. 26th. Each day you get a new FREE gift from them! I look forward to these goodies each year.

Peppermint Fun and Unit Study

I love peppermint and can eat it any time of year; however, Christmas, which falls conveniently at the beginning of “minter,” is my season to enjoy the memorable, sweet spice of peppermint. Just the smell of it puts me in a festive mood. I like to eat candy canes or even put them in my hot cocoa for a special treat. Peppermint even works great in cookies!

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This year I decided I wanted to create several thematic one-day units to do with my children during this season. Units that were fun but still educational and would bring us together as a family. One of our themes is peppermint. We already enjoy several activities that involve peppermint, so I simply had to gather them together for a day of fun.

Movies

First, we love the movie “The Candy Maker’s Christmas” and watch it annually with our SchoolhouseTeachers.com membership. The Legend of the Candy Cane (included free with Amazon Prime) is another great option. You could use the movies to start the conversation about peppermint and candy canes, or my personal choice is to finish up the day with a movie and a peppermint-themed snack!

Snacks

When I think about peppermint snacks, my first thought is peppermint hot cocoa. It is a family favorite and so easy. Simply make some hot cocoa and add in peppermint candy or candy canes. You could even sub in peppermint extract, but my children love to watch the candy cane melt into the hot cocoa. You can make the cocoa from scratch or simply use packets. Whatever works best for your family.

If you want to try something different or add a little food to the snack, you could make sugar cookies and use crushed peppermint candy for sprinkles. My husband’s grandmother would always have the young ones smash candy canes in a plastic bag as an ice cream topping. You could also try one of these fun peppermint snack ideas. The whoopie pies look very tempting. Of course, you could always cut out candy cane-shaped cookies and decorate them with red and white icing.

Art Study

We always like to take the opportunity to add a little art to our unit studies. I love this fun mittens and mug lesson by Nana at You Are An Artist. It would be a great lead into the hot chocolate and peppermint. These quilled candy canes are great for older children and could even be given as a gift. This thumbprint candy cane would be fun for younger children.

Music

Music is probably not the first thing you think of when you think of peppermint, but if you wanted to add a bit of music to your study, the nutcracker is a perfect choice. The Russian dance of the Candy Canes is a great way to combine peppermint with music and dance. As we study through some of the Nutcracker this year, we are using Maestro Classic’s The Nutcracker. Played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and narrated by Jim Weiss. Mrs. Mary over at SQUILT music also has a great Nutcracker study if you want to learn more.

Books about Peppermint

No unit study in our home is complete without books! There are many options, but I am looking forward to using Christmas in the Big Woods and Christmas Remembered. Christmas Remembered is a book of Christmas memories written by Tomie DePaola. One of those stories is A Candy Cane Christmas. Christmas in the Big Woods is a picture book based on the Christmas story from Little House in the Big Woods.

I hope you can find some enjoyable ideas for your family.

Pick the fun ones, and remember you don’t have to do everything.

I would love to hear what ideas you have for a peppermint-themed day and see pictures of your fun projects.

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Deals and Freebies

If you have not tried SchoolhouseTeachers.com, you don’t want to miss this sale!

Deals and Freebies

One of my favorite Amazon sales, just in time for Christmas shopping! Buy 2 Get 1 Free Books!

Tuttle Twins has a great Veteran’s Day sale happening now!

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

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!

Celebrating with Songs

This week the Review Crew is talking about celebrating with songs. As I thought about that topic, I thought about the many ways that songs are incorporated into our celebrations. One of the most obvious and one that easily crosses genres, taste, and social groups is Happy Birthday. This popular song is sung in many languages and versions around the world to celebrate birthdays.

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When Do We Use Songs

Then I think about songs that remind me of various celebrations. I may be dating myself a bit, but I remember the song “Friends Are Friends Forever” from my graduation, the wedding march played on my wedding day, and of course this time of year all of the Christmas Carols that celebrate the birth of Christ.

Sometimes those songs find meaning in your celebrations by accident. It might be a song that happened to be playing when you found out you were going to have your first child, or the night you got engaged. It might be a song you remember from your first date.

Other times, such as with Happy Birthday or Christmas carols, they are songs that were intentionally written to celebrate momentous occasions, songs where the words allow us to express the joyful emotions inside of us. Whether you are singing, playing an instrument, or just listening to someone else sing, they can evoke many emotions and make connections in your mind as you celebrate.

How Do We Use Songs

What songs do you use to celebrate? Do you like to sing or do you prefer to listen to others as they sing?

I had written several hymn studies and other musical appreciation posts that I will link in the resources below if you are looking to add some songs to your December celebrations. Do not forget to click on the link below and check out all of the wonderful posts from other Review Crew members and see how they celebrate with songs.

Celebrating with Songs Resources

We Three Kings Hymn Study and Copywork

December Hymn Study: O Holy Night

Christmas Music Appreciation Resources

Celebrating with Songs Link Up

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Deals and Freebies

If you have not tried SchoolhouseTeachers.com, you don’t want to miss this sale!

Christmas Ornaments and Memories

I have seen many beautiful Christmas trees over the years. Some are done in ornaments all the same color, others in a theme, and then there are trees like the one in our home that are a hodgepodge of all kinds of ornaments. This week the review crew is sharing about ornaments and I thought I would share of a few of my favorites from our tree. We have a huge collection or ornaments and can not put them all out each year because they would overwhelm the tree.

We love to collect ornaments from places we travel, ornaments for special occasions, ornaments made by the children, and ornaments given as gifts. Our trees certainly won’t win any decorating awards, but they do spark strong memories and fun conversations each year.

A Few of Our Favorites

My six year old colored this one and even though it was not actually supposed to be an ornament decided it would be perfect for the tree.

This one was gifted to my son by my aunt! It will grace our tree until he has a tree of his own.

I love personalized sand dollar ornaments. This one represents the sweet pups we had when we were dating and first married.

A gift to us when I was pregnant with my oldest!

A precious gift for the first Christmas after we were married.

One of many ornaments we have that help us remember the real reason we celebrate.

No matter what kind of tree you have, I hope that it brings you joy and happiness during this season. I would love to hear about your favorite ornaments or how you like to decorate. Be sure to click below to check out all of the other fun ornament posts from the Review Crew this week. Some tell about their ornaments and others will even share ideas for making ornaments.

Review Crew Link UP

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Deals and Freebies

Need a good way to organize all of these great printables and have access to them when you need them? Try a free Dropbox Plan.

Amazon Prime 30 day FREE trial. If you do not yet have Amazon Prime this is a great time to try it for free for 30 days! Get your Christmas shopping done with free shipping, enjoy Christmas music and more.

The Green Ember is only $2.99 on Kindle or Free with a KindleUnlimited Trial

$10 Sign-Up Bonus for Ibotta and they are doing some major savings and rebates starting today. Great way to save money on the things you are already buying.

Two Free Audio Books with an Audible Trial and if you aren’t sure what to start with I’d suggest checking out the Green Ember or The Penderwicks for good family choices.

One of my favorite Amazon sales, just in time for Christmas shopping! Buy 2 Get 1 Free Books!

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

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!

Christmas Music Appreciation Resources

Christmas is the perfect season for adding music appreciation to your home school. There are so many wonderful hymns and songs that accompany this season, and it is a great way to mix learning with Christmas fun. There are so many wonderful resources, but I wanted to share the resources that we are using in our home for music appreciation this Christmas season.

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links; see below for more information*

Hymn Studies

Hymn studies form the backbone of our Christmas music studies. I have created free hymn studies and accompanying copywork for various hymns, including Silent Night, We Three Kings, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Morning, O Holy Night, and Away in a Manger.

These studies give you the background of the hymn, share a variety of versions of the different hymns, and often include activities that can be done with the hymns.

In addition, they are often paired with chalk pastel painting lessons with Nana at You Are an Artist. You can find all of her wonderful Christmas music lessons in her Christmas Lessons and Hymn Lessons courses.

Another great option for a hymn study for Christmas is the Names of Jesus Advent devotions by Proverbial Homemaker, which includes a study of All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name. This set includes coloring pages, devotions, journaling pages, and more.

Composer Studies

If you want to focus on a particular composer, Handel is a great option for the Christmas season. You can listen to Handel’s Messiah on Prime Music or if you want a more narrated version of his music, check out My Name is Handel by Maestro Classics. This will give you the story of his life and narrated versions of several of his major compositions. One of our favorite series about musicians also has a biography about Handel, Handel at the Court of Kings.

Nutcracker Resources

If you are looking for something other than hymns, the Nutcracker is a great way to include music, ballet, and theater altogether. We are using the Maestro Nutcracker this year to introduce this to my six-year-old.

My older children have been to several local performances of this ballet and are familiar with the music and storyline. I have also found this free virtual performance that we can watch together since most of our local in-person performances have been canceled.

Another great resource for various Christmas Carols, the Nutcracker, and Handel is the SQUILT Christmas Carols and Nutcracker Resources. Whether you want to keep it really short a simple with the daily calendar or you want more in-depth resources, there are some amazing resources.

If you are just getting started and want to keep it really simple, the calendar gives you clickable links for a different piece of music to listen to each day of the month. This is a great way to get started and include a few minutes of music into your day. If you are ready for something more in-depth, the Christmas Carols package or the Nutcracker Resources will help you listen to the music and learn more about it. They also include fun activities to go along with the selections.

Music Performance

In addition to our music appreciation studies, my children are working on various Christmas songs in their music performance work as well.

The wonderful teachers at Practice Monkeys have them working on Christmas music during classes this month, and in addition, they have decided to work on a variety of songs together.

You can hear my daughter playing We Three Kings in the video above, and check out additional songs as we upload them to that YouTube Channel later this month.

Don’t Forget

Finally, I want to remind you that you don’t need to do all of these things.

Keep it manageable, and whenever possible, have something new replace something else.

For elementary and middle school, we do the math and sometimes phonics from our curriculum during December, but otherwise, most of our studies are Christmas-themed. When I tried to add all of the wonderful Christmas resources to our day, I was overwhelmed, but when they were done instead of other things, it was much more fun and manageable.

What are your favorite ways to incorporate music appreciation into your homeschool? What resources would you find helpful?

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.

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Deals and Freebies

Need a good way to organize all of these great printables and have access to them when you need them? Try a free Dropbox Plan.

The Green Ember is only $2.99 on Kindle or Free with a KindleUnlimited Trial

$10 Sign-Up Bonus for Ibotta and they are doing some major savings and rebates starting today. Great way to save money on the things you are already buying.

Two Free Audio Books with an Audible Trial and if you aren’t sure what to start with I’d suggest checking out the Green Ember or The Penderwicks for good family choices.

One of my favorite Amazon sales, just in time for Christmas shopping! Buy 2 Get 1 Free Books!

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

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!

Pearl Harbor Remembered

I remember September 11, 2001 pretty vividly. I was student teaching at a small rural school in North Carolina. Parents started showing up to check their children out, a lot of them. The local sheriff’s department showed up and parked at the front door, not in the parking lot, but at the door. Sometime late morning the principal came to the door and asked to speak to the regular teacher in the hall, when she came back in her face was ashen.

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I expect that 79 years ago when Sunday afternoon football games were interrupted (around 2:30pm EST) on the radio with a news bulletin that people reacted much the same way.

“Alright now, listen carefully. The island of Oahu is being attacked by enemy planes. The center of this attack is Pearl Harbor, but the planes are attacking airfields as well. We are under attack. There seems to be no doubt about it. Do not go out on the streets. Keep under cover and keep calm. Some of you may think that this is just another military maneuver. This is not a maneuver. This is the real McCoy!”

Webley Edwards, KGMB, Honolulu

Of course the nature of news was very different. It would take some days before photos from Pearl Harbor made the front page of eastern news papers-several more before movie reel news footage made the big screen. The temper and outrage of the nation must have been palpable everywhere, much like after 9/11. Men and boys flooded recruiters, signing up for service. American changed, overnight, and forever. You can take a few minutes and listen to Franklin D Roosevelt’s address on December 8^th here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufoUtoQLGQY

Ideas for Honoring Pearl Harbor

Today we took time to remember Pearl Harbor, and like many of our homeschool adventures we used food to help reinforce that experience. The US Pacific Fleet, in partnering with the National Park Services host the annual Pearl Harbor Day memorial service on the USS Arizona Memorial. This year they offered it virtually, live streaming the event starting at 1255am EST, 755am local, matching the Japanese attack time 79 years earlier. Before watching we ate a traditional Navy meal, Creamed Sliced Beef on Toast.

Sailors, always want to exaggerate and create a lingo of their own, have a more colorful name for this dish. Which reminds me of a funny story: several years ago, my eldest son, probably nine at the time, wanted to read Boys of the Battleship, a series of stories about the men who served on the USS North Carolina, a World War II battleship that saw extensive combat in the Pacific. One morning at breakfast he asks if we can have, “s*** on a shingle” sometime. You see, my husband had gone ahead of him and done a little editing in the book to omit the occasional foul word, apparently he missed this one…embarrassed mom moment. To make it worse, my mother-in-law was visiting at the time. We all laughed about it later, but it became a motivating factor for my husband to write Heroes Next Door.

If you want to try navy’s original recipe, you can find it and see a cool little cooking demonstration here: https://www.navyhistory.org/2016/04/chow-creamed-sliced-beef-on-toast-s-o-s/. We adapted a little, and used fresh milk instead of powdered of mechanical cow milk. Never heard of a mechanical cow? That’s a post for another day. To round out our meal we used the following recipes: limas, page 289, baked apples page 88, Creamed Sliced Dried Beef, page 148.

Final Thoughts

I pray that my children never have to experience a December 7, or September 11 type event. I do believe it is very important to remember that those kinds of things do happen and that we should take time to understand how those events have shaped the world around us. How do you honor and remember those important historical dates in your homeschool?

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

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We Three Kings Hymn Study and Copywork

“O star of wonder, star of light,
star with royal beauty bright,
westward leading, still proceeding,
guide us to thy perfect light.”

We Three Kings…. is a well known Christmas carol written by John H. Hopkins Jr. (son of the Episcopalian bishop, and not to be confused with Johns Hopkins a contemporary entrepreneur) in 1857. It was originally written as a song for his nieces’ and nephews’, Christmas pageant and was not actually published for the first time until 1863.

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, see disclosure at the bottom of the page for more information.*

This song is great for the advent season, but our family also enjoys it after Christmas as a song to celebrate Three Kings Day or el Dia de los Reyes which is celebrated on January 6th. This is a day set aside to celebrate when the magi, Kings, or Wise Men came to visit the Christ child. You can find out more from our post about Three Kings Day or Twelfth Night Celebrations

We do not know for sure how many kings came to visit the Christ child, but we know that they brought three gifts with them. This hymn tells the story of the magi and the second, third, and fourth verses tell more about the three gifts that the magi brought to the Christ child. The hymn is based on Matthew 2:1-12.

“Because the wealth of USA Appalachian and other folk carols was yet to be discovered, this carol for almost a century was regarded by hymnal editors as the sole USA contribution to the repertory of English language carols .” United Methodist Hymnal editor Carlton R. Young

My daughter enjoyed learning this song on her violin and I hope that you enjoy this video that she prepared. I have also included free copywork and a free hymn study worksheet to accompany this study. They can be downloaded from the list of resources at the end of this post.

If you wanted to do some nature study related this hymn, you could easily incorporate a study of camels, especially if you plan for a Wednesday, or you could look further into the gifts that the wise men brought. I would particularly recommend the study of frankincense or myrrh. There is a lot of meaning behind the gifts. The spices are used today for healing purposes, but hold other significance and uses in the first century.

Also, Nana over at You Are An Artist has a beautiful chalk pastel painting lesson in her hymns course. My children enjoyed this lesson and made beautiful paintings. In addition, they were able to send them to family members to bring them a bit of Christmas cheer. If you are already a clubhouse member you can find the lesson here. If you are not yet a member, this is a great time to give it a try. There are so many wonderful Christmas lessons as well as a variety of hymns. Find out more here.

What is your favorite Christmas hymn? What other hymns would you like to study?