2020 has been a different and stressful year in so many ways. Many events canceled or switched to Zoom and other digital platforms. However, there are still many blessings and good times. I am sure that 2020 will stand out in my children’s minds. However, I hope that above, or at least beside, the memories of a pandemic and political tension they remember the fun family memories. Some of our family traditions we have kept and others we had to modify. We went through some challenging times, but the slow down also gave us more time to relax and enjoy time at home as a family.

This fall some things have begun going back to normal, while others remain different or closed. However, we have tried to stay engaged with making memories as a family. Our state fair was canceled which was a big disappointment to the whole family. We normally go for at least one and often several days each year to show animals, do living history, and check out all of the fun exhibits and food. However, we were very thankful the children were able to go up to the fairgrounds and show their turkeys. Afterwards, we were blessed to be able to enjoy some take out fair food! I had my favorite roasted corn, a chicken kabob, and funnel cake. My son even got to try a gator kabob.

We were also able to take some fun family hikes, drink plenty of hot apple cider, and try out lots of apple recipes after we purchased 2 bushels of fresh apples from a North Carolina farm. We even had the chance to make some new memories by going to a local pumpkin patch with some good friends.

Even if it is as simple as roasting marshmallows in the back yard (or making oven s’mores) or drinking hot apple cider while listening to music or reading books, take the time this fall to make some fun memories. These memories can help our children learn that we can have fun even in the midst of challenging times. While they may prayerfully never deal with another pandemic, there will always be hard times and challenges. I hope we can help them learn how to handle challenges with grace and perseverance.

What fun activities are your doing with your family this fall? How does it look different than normal?

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.

Deals and Freebies

Evan-Moor is doing a BOGO sale on their Skill Sharpner Books next week from November 2nd through November 6th!

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

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.

Somewhere over the last two years, our family seems to have become a music family. I have never been a musician but always enjoyed listening to music. However, over the last couple of years my children have started playing instruments and become very interested in listening to a wide variety of music. They listen while we ride, while they do schoolwork, my son even bought headphones to listen while he cuts the grass.  We have a variety of CDs and there are several local Christian stations they can listen to, however, my older children really wanted a bit more variety. I wanted to encourage that variety while also making sure that the music they listened to was appropriate and also did not have inappropriate advertising.  I was excited to review Smart Kidz Radio and see how it would work for our family.

When we received our subscription to the Smart Kidz Radio: Member’s On-Demand Radio Program Library, I was not sure if it would have good content for my fourteen-year-old son since it is geared towards students in elementary and middle school. However, we decided that everyone would give it a try and see what they thought. Turns out that all three of my children that tried it, enjoyed it.

Each of them logged in from their computers or devices. From there they could pick which programs they wanted to listen to. There were stories, classical music, music from various cultures, music from specific decades, sing and learn programs, living skills, learning Spanish, and even some Bible and Inspirational songs.

For my six-year-old audio book lover, his favorite part was the stories. He was able to listen to a variety of stories including Fairy Tales, Nursery Tales, and another program titled Grandpa Tyler’s Storytime. His favorite was Peter Pan but he enjoyed listening to many of them.

For my twelve-year-old daughter, America’s Heritage in Song-Smart Kidz Boyz Choir and Golden Oldies 50s were her favorites. She enjoyed the diversity and said, “I liked the big selection of songs and audio books as well as the fact that it is clean for young listeners.” If she could have changed anything, she would have liked to have the lyrics shown on the screen.

My fourteen-year-old son is the one with the most eclectic music tastes and also the one who spends them most time listening to music. He appreciated that there was a lot of different types of music and his favorite was the Country Classics Show. He says, “I would recommend it for nearly anyone who likes different types of music or stories.” While I don’t think this will ever be his only source of music, we both appreciated the chance for him to try a variety of music in a safe format.

In addition, to providing families with a good variety of music and stories, Smart Kidz Radio has a foundation that “will financially support programs that give opportunities to young people to make a difference by following their career dreams and use their talents to make the world a better place.” They donate 20 % of membership fees to the Smart Kidz Foundation. 

Overall, I think Smart Kidz Radio is a great program for a family that wants to encourage musical interests, enjoy a variety of music, and want to have a safe place to explore different styles of music. I love that there is so much variety and educational content, but also a variety of fun songs. Make sure to click on the graphic below to see what programs the other Review Crew members enjoyed and how they used it with their families.

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**Some of the links in the post are affiliate links, please see the disclosure below for more information. **

I grew up protestant but honestly, never really learned about Reformation Day until I was an adult and teaching my children.  While we still do not make a big celebration of it in our family, I think it is important for our children to understand the importance of what happened on that day and how it affects us today.

What is Reformation Day?

Reformation Day, is October 31st and it celebrates the day that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany in 1517. This event turned out to be the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.  The changes that were made in the church starting with that day, still effect us today.

From experience, I know that it can feel like a huge and complicated topic. The idea of teaching it can feel overwhelming if it was not something you grew up celebrating. However, I have found some great resources that will allow you to learn about Reformation Day in a relaxed family atmosphere.

Reformation Day Resources on SchoolhouseTeachers.com

First, I went looking to see what resources were already included in my SchoolhouseTeachers.com membership. I love being able to use something that it already included in what we have purchased. They have a variety of resources including several videos, more in-depth history lessons, and even a link to a fun student workbook with coloring books and fun activity pages. The video that I plan to watch this year is the Torchlighter video on Martin Luther. There are also some great videos about William Tyndale included. 

If you have older students, there is a three hour documentary titled This Changed Everything, which covers the Reformation much more in-depth and delves into some challenging questions about the division and the ramifications of that day.

Other Reformation Day Resources

In addition to the resources at SchoolhouseTeachers.com, I had an opportunity to read and review the book, Letters From Katie Luther. This book tells the life of Martin Luther’s wife and through that his story. It is a fictionalized account told through letters with her friend but includes a great deal of history and factual information. It is a great way to get a child more interested in the story of his life. You can read my full review here or check out the book on Amazon.

The Who, What, Why Book series has several books that are great for a Reformation Day study including Who Was Martin Luther and Why Did the Reformation Happen?

Documentaries and Parties

I also found several documentaries on Martin Luther that are included with Prime Video. These documentaries mostly appear to be for older students and adults.  As For Me and My Homestead and This Pilgrim Life both have ideas for a Reformation Day party.

Does your family learn about or celebrate Reformation Day? What ideas do you have for celebrating and what are your favorite resources?

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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.

Deals and Freebies

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

Journey Homeschool Academy has opened up enrollment in their science courses this week only!

Evan-Moor is doing a BOGO sale on their Skill Sharpner Books next week from November 2nd through November 6th!

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.

Memorizing math facts has never been a favorite of my children. However, I know that being familiar with those basic facts can make upper level math much easier. So, I am always looking for ways to help them get more familiar with math facts without using flashcards. One thing my children all enjoy is board games. We have a cabinet full and they are happy to play anytime I offer. I was excited when we were offered the opportunity to review Math Sprint  – The Mental Math Game from Byron’s Games.

This spring we were able to review their geography game Continent Race and knew that they had quality materials. My children were a bit on the younger and older side for Math Sprint  – The Mental Math Game but they all agreed they wanted to give it a try.

When Math Sprint  – The Mental Math Game arrived, one of the first things I noticed was the bright colorful box. It was very inviting and made the children excited to give it a try. The game included a brightly colored game board, playing pieces, and 258 playing cards. They also included 10 blank cards and a dry erase marker so that you can add your own questions.

As I looked over the instruction sheet, I was pleasantly surprised at how many different ways they had included to modify game play to the students which were playing. Of the 258 playing cards, 92 were addition and subtraction and 106 were multiplication and division. There were also 30 wild cards and 30 challenge cards. If you were playing with younger children you could simply remove the multiplication and division cards for simpler play. If you had students that needed to focus on multiplication and division, you could play with just those cards.  In addition, there were three different lengths of play. They had the 100m, 200m, and 400m dash. You could shorten or lengthen the play for everyone or have older children play a longer race and younger children a shorter race to level the playing field. You can also play as individuals or teams.

The game is designed to improve mental math. Play is fairly simple in that the coach reads one of the two math questions on the card they draw and then the first person or team to answer correctly gets to move forward two spaces on the ‘track’ which is printed on the game board. Whomever finishes their race first is the winner. There are also spaces on the track which have the children get up and do some movement exercises.

When we played we typically let my 12 and 14 year-old children each play as individuals and an adult would team up with my 6 year-old. This allowed him the chance to answer the ones that he knew but also get some help since his brother and sister were naturally faster with the math. They were also often kind enough to slow down a bit on the easier questions to give him a chance at success.  Depending on the length of race you chose a game would typically take about 15-30 minutes to play.

Overall, my children still don’t love math facts but they enjoyed Math Sprint  – The Mental Math Game. I loved that it was flexible enough for us to play together and that they could work on an important skill while they played. If you want to make learning those math facts more fun, I highly recommend this game. You can play it with as few as two players or up to eight teams of players so it is very flexible and could even be used in a co-op or classroom setting. I look forward to seeing what game the folks at Byron’s Games come up with next.  Make sure to check out what the other Review Crew families thought by clicking on the graphic below.

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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.

*Links are referral links, see disclosure below*

6/17/22 Update:

We are continuing to use Thinkwell and love the program! We have started using their regular student courses that we work through at our own pace and adding in live office hours during the months he needs extra help! You can use the links in this post to get 15% off your purchase of a Thinkwell course!

Math has been a bit of a challenge in our homeschool for the last several years. As my son has reached high school level math, he needed more and more help. The increasingly complex maths, which I hadn’t really used in quite a while, were a big challenge to jump back into. So, I couldn’t always remember how to help him. My husband is a huge help in this area, but couldn’t always stop work to help during our normal school time, and more and more often he was having to do extensive review to be able to help out. It was also causing some friction in our relationship because while my son does well in math, he does not enjoy it. Based on those struggles, I was very happy to try out THINKWELL’S INSTRUCTOR-LED GEOMETRY from Thinkwell Homeschool.

My son was not planning to start geometry until the spring semester, so I allowed him to decide if he wanted to take the review. However, he recognized the math struggles we had been having and was excited to try out this instructor-led course. The basic set-up for this course is that each week he receives an e-mail with links and instructions. The lessons are done via a pre-recorded video and he completes work using Thinkwell’s website, which is then automatically graded. When a question in the practice is answered incorrectly, the student is shown detailed instructions for getting the correct answer. I appreciated this rapid and specific feedback. My son also specifically liked that the videos were broken down into shorter chunks and not one long video.

There are also some additional worksheets and practice work that he can complete if he is struggling. Where this program is different than many online programs, is the instructor office hours feature. Each week he has two opportunities to log in via zoom and get help directly from his instructor.

The course has set weeks for work with scheduled holidays and breaks, however, as long as you have finished within one week after the scheduled end date there is no penalty for working at a different pace. This was a benefit to us because we had already scheduled a different fall break.

Geometry seems to be easier for my son than algebra, so he has not needed help from his instructor. However, he has logged into the office hours just to make sure he understood the process. It was very simple to log in and the instructor was happy to explain the process and talk about what to expect. He is completing his week’s work in about 3 hours, spread over several days. This may get a bit longer as the difficulty of the work increases.

As a parent, I appreciate that other than checking in to make sure my son was completing his work, I could be very hands-off. It’s a complete course bundle, necessitating very little parent involvement. Each week I received a copy of the e-mail that shared what the assignments were and I could go in to check on his quiz and test grades, which does allow for nearly immediate feedback. We are working on week six of the course and are scheduled to get his first progress report e-mailed to us next week.

Overall, due to the direct availability of the instructor, these courses are more expensive than most of the courses that our family uses. However, we felt that it was a great program and my son is doing math without any fighting or struggle! For a student that needs some extra help or support, a busy working parent, or a parent that doesn’t feel comfortable helping with upper-level math courses this can be a great program. In addition to the THINKWELL’S INSTRUCTOR-LED GEOMETRY course, other Review Crew members reviewed THINKWELL’S INSTRUCTOR-LED ALGEBRA 1 and THINKWELL’S INSTRUCTOR-LED ALGEBRA 2. Be sure to click on the graphic below to check out the other Review Crew reviews.

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.

This post contains affiliate links, see the disclaimer below for more information.

Most of the product reviews I share with you are products that were new to me at the beginning of the review period; however, our family has been using the Musik at Home Membership for almost a year!  Since we found it, we have really enjoyed the Musik at Home Membership and I am excited to share more about it with you.

The main courses are broken down by age level. The Musik at Home Membership has the Family Music for Babies and Toddlers course for ages Infant to 24 months, Family Music for Mixed Ages (Ages 1-5), Family Music for Preschoolers (Ages 3-5), and Family Music for Ages 4-7.  Each course has 6-9 full length classes (about 15-25 minutes long) as well as some bonus two to three minute activities. In addition, there are short one to three minute videos of each activity that are broken down by type of activity. For example, the activities that use rhythm instruments, dancing activities, singing games, etc.  Also, coming on October 23, is a Christmas music course. We love Christmas music in our house and I am super excited to try that one with my boys.

These courses are very low prep for the parent. We keep a small container of supplies (scarves, rhythm sticks, and shakers) beside the television so that anytime we want to do a class they are ready. Then all I have to do is turn on the videos and follow her directions. I started using only supplies we had in the house and it was fine, but I did later purchase a set of rhythm sticks for that portion (though pencils or sticks from outside will work).

Each class contains multiple different activities that help to keep young children engaged. There are songs to sing, dances and movements to follow, call and repeat activities and more. We did some classes from the babies and Toddlers course with my two year old and enjoyed them, but the family favorite was the Family Music for Mixed Ages. I would often do those with both the two-year-old and the six-year-old. They had more of the musical instrument components which were definitely the favorite part for my six-year-old. 

Most of the time, I use our Musik at Home Membership as a chance for me to slow down and focus on my younger children. We get to sing and dance together and enjoy the time. This is the way the program was designed to work and it works well. However, mom to mom, I need to admit that sometimes when life is crazy I just turn on one of the classes and let them enjoy it all on their own. While they get more out of it when we do it together, it is also a great way to keep them safely occupied for a few minutes while I get dinner going, send a few e-mails, or sit down and breath after a long day.

Overall, we really enjoy our Musik at Home Membership. I love that it gives me an easy way to connect and engage with my toddler. It gets us moving and helps him begin to learn about music. I recommend this program for any parent of young children (babies through early elementary school) that wants to teach their child more about music or wants a fun way they can connect and learn together. While we focused on the classes for children that were toddlers and older, other families focused on other courses. Make sure to check out the other reviews from the Review Crew by clicking on the graphic below.

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.

Amazon’s Prime Day was moved from the summer to October this year! I actually really like it this way because I am much more prepared to get my Christmas shopping done. There are lots of great deals on educational toys, microscopes, school supplies, and electronics to help in your homeschool! I will share some of the best deals I see below (and I will try to add new deals throughout the next two days as I find them). Please share any other deals or items you are looking for in the comments. I am blessed by your choice to purchase through my affiliate links and your support of the blog.

Links are affiliate links, see disclaimer below for more information.

Kids Kindle Fire

Prime Channel Deals 99 cents for 2 months (includes Noggin, Up Family and Faith, PBS Documentaries, and more)

STEM Toys ( Lego, Tinker Toys, Magna-Tiles, Science Kits)

Aqua Magic Mat (great way to keep the little ones occupied during school time)

Trekking the Parks (National Park Board Game)

Active Play Products ( Sand and Water Tables, Stepping Logs, and More)

Math Manipulative Clings ( Base Ten, Ten Frames, Fractions, Shapes, and More)

Hands-On Math Manipulatives ( Clocks, Shapes, Base Ten Blocks, Fractions, etc)

School Specialty School Supplies  ( Lined Paper, Railroad Board, composition books, and more)

Classroom Furniture (Bean bag seating)

Microscopes

$50 off of a year of Audible Premium

Discounts on Kindle Unlimited

Get an extra $10 Promotional Credit when buy a $40 Gift Card

Board Games (included our family favorite: Ticket to Ride)

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.

I have been meal planning for years and I love how much it relieves the stress of figuring out what to each each day. However, lunch has been a struggle. It was always hard to come up with good healthy ideas that were simple and easy so that I could throw them together when we were finished with school for the morning.

I decided to make my life a bit simpler and go with a daily theme that would help with planning but give us some flexibility. I will also adjust as needed for field trips and other days away from the house. This just gives me a good basis to start with each week.

Monday: Soup or Salad

I love that soups can often be made ahead of time or thrown into the crockpot that morning. It is also easy to make a batch big enough to have leftovers as needed. Salads are great especially when it is hot because they don’t heat up the kitchen. These simple but filling meals will help us get a good start to the week. These are just a few ideas and recipes that you can use to get you started.

• Healthy Salad Ideas
• Chicken and Rice
• Vegetable Beef
• Lasagna Soup
• Chicken Gnocchi Soup ( See the resource library for my daughter’s recipe)

Tuesday:  Mexican (Taco Tuesday)

• Tacos
• Nachos
• Bean Burritos
• Carnitas Bowls (Super simple recipe: Take 1 plain ham steak or boneless chicken and put into a crockpot, dump one jar or Trader Joes Salsa Verde and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6. Serve over rice, lettuce, or tortilla chips. )

Wednesday: Loaded Mac and Cheese

Mac and Cheese is always a hit but we like to mix it up to add variety and vegetables. The noodles are quick, easy, and inexpensive,  and a little bit of meat or veggies keeps it interesting. My personal favorite is pizza mac using mozzarella cheese and chopped up pepperoni. The children always appreciate hot dog mac. You can add whatever meat and veggies you have on hand to give it a twist.  I’ve shared some of our favorites below to get you started.

• ham and broccoli
• mozzarella and pepperoni
• bacon
• ground beef and tomatoes
• hot dog mac

Thursday: Cold Plate/Sandwich

We do not eat a lot of sandwiches because of a sensitivity to dough conditioners but sometimes a salad or cold plate lunch is the easiest choice. I love that I can make the pimento cheese, chicken salad, or egg salad ahead of time and have it ready to go in the fridge. I can serve it as a sandwich, lettuce wrap, or on a plate with crackers.

• Pimento Cheese
• Chicken Salad
• Egg Salad
• Grilled Cheese
• Bagel or English Muffin Pizzas

Friday: Leftovers or Frozen Meals

By the end of the week, there are almost always leftovers from various meals that need to be used. Most weeks I can just pull out the various containers and everyone can choose from the leftovers. This makes it easy for me, keeps the fridge from being overrun, and helps us be less wasteful. However, if we get to a Friday and do not have leftovers, I always try to keep a couple of frozen meals from Trader Joes in the freezer. They are my fall back plan when I need a quick meal without a lot of prep.

We have been using this plan for a couple of weeks now and it seems to have really helped me keep the meal plan simple but varied. I am sure we will make some adjustments as time goes on, but I am enjoying this format. What are some of your favorite lunches? Do you like to have themes?

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.

I recently had the opportunity to review a bundle of MathArt and Science courses from NatureGlo’s eScience.  This NatureGlo’s eScience MathArt & Science Course Bundle contained a variety of online courses on different MathArt  and science topics. The courses were created by Gloria Brooks and are video based with additional links and activities to help the students go deeper into each topic. The courses are presented from a neutral worldview. 

Topics included rockhounding (which I want to try), herps, invertebrates, mammals, sharks, marine biology, MathArt, polygons, snowflakes, Leonardo da Vinci, botany, and bubbleology (my son’s favorite). I know that I am not the only one who wondered what the term ‘MathArt ‘ meant. The description that Gloria Brooks shared was “MathArt introduction is a unique journey exploring the mathematical connections there are with math, nature, science, art, and architecture.” The courses covered common patterns and geometric shapes in nature, concentric rings, hexagons, etc.

As we looked at the variety of courses offered, I allowed my children to choose which courses they wanted to try. We did three different courses (as well as looking at parts of some others) during our time reviewing this program. The three programs we focused on were the Tide Pool Communities, Bubbleology, and Exploring he Giant Redwood Trees. We look forward to continuing to use some of the other programs this year as time allows.

Each NatureGlo’s eScience includes a main video lesson, a slideshow which is used in the main lesson, a study guide the students can complete, and additional information and activities. For example, there may be several shorter videos with more information, suggested experiments, and web links to other related resources.

They started with bubbleology because my six-year-old son thought it sounded like a lot of fun. He loves bubbles and was excited to get to spend his science time that week studying them. They enjoyed the lesson and were excited to learn some new tricks about creating stronger and better bubbles. There was even a section on how to make shaped bubbles.

Next, they decided on Exploring the Giant Redwood Trees. We had learned a little about the Redwood trees in our geography program last semester and a visit to the Redwood Forest is on our family bucket list. They enjoyed this course and particularly liked the extra videos which included a video of people climbing the trees.

They chose Tide Pool Communities because our family really enjoys spending time at the beach and playing in the tide pools. One of the things that my twelve-year-old daughter noticed and appreciated about this course was that the creatures found in the tide pools in the course were different than those we normally find locally.

Once we were logged in with our courses purchased the website and courses were easy to navigate. However, when we clicked on the link before logging in, I noticed that the website was a bit confusing to navigate. I would have expected the courses to be a challenge to navigate based on the website, but in reality my twelve-year-old did not have any problem navigating through the courses and completed the required activities. The membership portion of the website was much more user friendly than the main site.

My son and daughter both enjoyed the courses. They liked the variety of information and being able to choose topics that were of interest to them. They did learn that the beginning of each main video went over the same ‘housekeeping’ type of information that explained each course. After the first couple of videos, I told them that they could skip to where the lesson actually started. This saved us about ten to fifteen minutes for each lesson. However, we understood the need to include it since it could be the first course for other people.

Overall, while I found the initial website to be a bit of a challenge to navigate, the e-courses were lots of fun and very educational. For our family, they work well as a supplemental program that helps my children learn more about areas of interest. For homeschoolers that take a more child directed or relaxed approach they could easily be your entire science curriculum. Be sure to check out all of the other Crew Reviews to see which courses they tried and how the program worked for their families.

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I received this product free in exchange for my honest review. Some links in this post may be affiliate links. Please see the disclosure below for more information.

When my oldest two children were in preschool, I would make lots of cute activities and lessons for us to do together. It was a fun creative outlet for me and I wanted to make sure I was creating a learning rich environment for them. Fast forward a few years and I have a high school student, a middle school student, a first grader, and a two-year-old. Now that I am juggling all of those plates, finding time to create fun activities for my two-year-old felt out of reach, but I still wanted to provide him with that same learning rich environment.

Children learn through play so I knew that I didn’t need an academic lesson plan, but some ideas for intentional play. I was blessed with the opportunity to review several “Explore with Books” units from MyFullHeartShop. These units solved my problem of not having time to plan by having everything laid out for me, and allowed me to use my time engaging with my son.

I reviewed the digital version of the units, which meant that I received a PDF that included all of the instructions and activities. I could then choose which ones I wanted to complete, gather a few simple materials, and enjoy learning with my son. The instructions were not hard and I only spent about 20 minutes gathering materials and getting things set up for a week of activities. However, if even that feels overwhelming right now , you can buy a physical kit that is shipped to your door with everything you need ready to go.

We chose to focus first on the unit that went along with the book, Corduroy. I have always loved that book and was excited to share it with my two-year-old (and my six-year-old that listened along with us). Once we had read the book there were a variety of activities to choose from.

There was a bear sorting activity, texture activities, fine motor skills, counting, and even colors. Each of the five days had a main activity as well as an additional activity that you could complete. Our favorite activity with the Corduroy book was a series of texture cards. My son enjoyed playing with them and we were able to use different adjectives to describe them.

Overall, I really appreciated that these kits made it easier for me to spend less time planning and more time engaging with my son. I also loved that it was flexible and the activities only took a few minutes because like most toddlers, my two-year-old does not have a long attention span. In addition to this Corduroy kit, MyFullHeartShop has a great selection of different kits and files to help you engage in intentional play with your young children. There are kits that focus on birds, colors, fine motor skills and more. There are options regarding digital files and ready to go kits that are shipped to your door. Check out all of the fun kits and share with me how you like to engage your young children in fun educational play.

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.

Deals and Freebies

If you are looking for ways to keep your young children learning but active, join the FREE Learning Without Worksheets Challenge. Starts on October 5th but sign-ups are open now!

Tired, stressed, overwhelmed? Check out the virtual Real Refreshment Retreat! with Rachael Carman October 9th and 10th. Sign-up today!

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