The Kingdom Code Journal #1

You may have seen my review of The Kingdom Code a few weeks ago. We are really loving the program and I am very excited to announce that I will be partnering with them to share more about our Journey Through The Code. I will be posting a Journal entry approximately once a week (skipping vacations/holidays) sharing what we have learned and covered in each lesson.

When we sat down to do lesson one, we first got everything set up and ready to use. The kit came with instructions and we used three ring binders that we already had on hand to get Matthew’s notebooks set up with the proper forms and documents behind each tab. Then we sat down and read through the lesson together.

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Lesson one discussed the full armor of God, financial responsibility, and different types of service jobs. Younger students also had an opportunity to practice counting money. While I skipped this part with my son because he is already very proficient, it is great practice in an important life skill for those that are still learning about money.

Key to the Lesson ” In God’s armor, I will be financially responsible and build treasure.”

We also made a chart of different businesses and categorized them as businesses that sell goods or those which provide a service. This program is primarily designed to help students start and run a service-based business so it is important that they have a good understanding of the difference before they start their business in the next lessons. It is easiest to use this program with a service-based business, but I do think you can adapt it for a goods-based business if your child has a strong preference for a particular business.

In addition to the activities that we chose to complete, they also offered lesson reinforcement through the use of a song, building activity, or money games. I really appreciated that they included a variety of bonus activities to help meet varying interests and learning styles.

Stay tuned next week for lesson two of The Kingdom Code and don’t forget that you can get 10% of this program using Coupon Code: 10TKC08! If you have any questions about our journey let me know in the comments and I will be sure to try and address them in our next installment.

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W is for Winnie the Pooh and Wind in the Willows

I tried to choose just one but, there were several W books that just had to be mentioned. The Winnie the Pooh cartoons bring back fond memories of my own childhood; when I would go to my aunt’s house (we did not have satellite television at my home growing up) it was one of my very favorite television shows. Even though I did not read the books until I was an adult reading with my children. I just loved Pooh Bear and reading the books aloud to my children has been such a great experience. The characters are so much fun but also quietly teach such wonderful life lessons of love, friendship, loyalty, and selflessness. If you want to know more about how the stories got started you might also want to check out Finding Winnie, or if you want a family movie night A bear named Winnie.

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Wind in the Willows is another classic book that I had never read until I read it aloud to my children. It is a fun story that had them asking for more each time I read a few chapters. The stories of Rat and Mole will warm your heart and make you laugh and no one can forget the irascible Mr. Toad. I will note that as this book is a British book so there is a use of a word that we consider inappropriate in this house unless it is actually referring to the animal (a**). Depending on your children you can explain that it was considered acceptable there or you can skip it or mark it out as you see fit. Author Kenneth Grahame does a great job with descriptive language that paints a picture of the story in your mind.

Finally, I need to mention the Who Was Series (Among our Favorite Series). These short biographies are a great way for young readers to get more information on a variety of important people including historical figures, scientists, authors, and even a few famous athletes.

Have you read any of these W books? Tell me what books come to mind when you think of the letter W.

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Deals and Freebies

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.

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Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

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Our Kindergarten Curriculum

One of the most popular homeschooling questions I receive is, “What is the best curriculum for….?” I will be the first to tell you that there is no one right answer to that question. There are many factors that go into choosing the best curriculum for your child. However, I always like to share what we are using in case it helps someone find a program that works well for their family.

My son turned five in April and is beginning his kindergarten year this fall. Earlier this summer, when I was working on goals with my older two children, he wanted to set his own goals. I suggested learning to read or to write his name. He, however, had other ideas. He let me know that he wanted to learn to cook pancakes and fish, climb trees, and more about Jesus. While I don’t think this is all we will learn in kindergarten, I did think they were worthy goals and a great insight into the mind of a five-year-old boy. I’ll leave the tree climbing lessons to his siblings but I do plan to teach him to cook pancakes and fish (though not together) and I am always happy to teach my children more about Jesus.

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All About Reading's new color edition review

In addition to his goals, I have planned out some fun curriculum for us to use to cover additional academic subjects. We do believe in a relaxed approach to kindergarten and what I have planned should take us about an hour a day not counting field trips, nature walks, and his fifteen-minute violin lesson. Since he is not yet showing any interest and has been resistant to learning letters and reading, we will be waiting to start formal phonics until at least January. I will re-evaluate his readiness in January and possibly start All About Reading or work some more in The Learning Dynamics Reading Program. I am also going to have him continue to use his Starfall subscription a couple times a week to continue his exposure to letters and phonics.

I will be using Five in A Row as our primary curriculum with him this year. This program is a great way to encourage an enjoyment of good children’s books and incorporate other areas of learning. Using this program, we will read the book of the week five times (once each school day) and complete various activities coordinating with the book. Five in a Row includes activities for social studies, math, language arts, art, and science. Each week I will choose from the variety of activities to engage and challenge him.

While Five in a Row includes some math, it is not a sequential math program. I believe that math in the early years should mostly be hands on and as real life as possible, but I like to have slightly more structured program. Therefore, I am using a Calendar Math set and the Building a Foundation with Kindergarten Math course from Schoolhouse Teachers to create a math program for him. He loves doing math and is looking forward to getting started. He has really enjoyed using the Pattern Block Pack from The Crafty Classroom so I will also use those a couple times a week for independent work.

For science, we will be doing a mostly nature focused science study in addition to some of the science activities in Five in a Row. I am going to use a primary journal so that he can draw pictures of what we find in nature and then dictate a sentence about it for me to write at the bottom. We will use our Peterson’s field guides and other resources to learn more about the things he finds. I am also planning to get him caterpillars in the spring so that he can learn about the life cycle of the butterfly.

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We will be studying North Carolina History as a family. At the kindergarten level this will mostly be listening to me read aloud, having family discussions, lots of field trips, and some fun coloring pages. We also already to historical interpreting as a family, so he has lots of exposure to history and has developed a love for the revolutionary era. I believe that this will be a great introduction to the study of history for him.

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For art, he will continue to work on lessons from You Are An Artist Chalk Pastels. He has been doing the preschool lessons, but as he gets more comfortable I will have him do some of the regular lessons that are a little more challenging. He enjoys these lessons with ‘Nana’ so much and just last week as we were coloring a picture he told me that my picture was “almost as good as Nana’s.” For music, he takes violin lessons from Practice Monkeys. We love this gentle and convenient approach to music lessons and looks forward to them each day.

In addition to these programs, he will be joining us for Bible study each day and our morning time which will include read alouds, music appreciation, missionary studies, and more. Of course, there will also be lots of free play, field trips, and hands on adventures to keep the real life learning going. Over the next couple of weeks, I will be sharing more about what we are using for our morning time as well as the programs I am using for my older children.

What are your favorite kindergarten resources?

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Deals and Freebies

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)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

Apologia General Science (Review)

For years I have trusted Apologia with our family science curriculum and have been blessed with children that love science. However, I knew that as my son entered eighth grade this year I wanted him to start being more independent with his science in preparation for high school. This review of the new Exploring Creation with General Science, 3rd Edition by Apologia came at the perfect time and I couldn’t wait to give it a try.

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I received the Textbook, Student Notebook, and Solutions and Test book for this curriculum. The curriculum was designed for junior high students and recommended for seventh grade. However, we are choosing to use it as an eighth-grade course and I think it works well for either grade. The course begins with an overview of the history of science and various scientist. It moves on to learning about the scientific method and documenting results as well as scientific analysis and history. After that overview it begins to teach about specific areas of science including astronomy, geology and paleontology, meteorology and oceanography, chemistry, life science, and more. I felt like it was a great overview course to help prepare for the more specific high school level courses.

I was a little concerned about how the transition to independence would go with my son because he was so accustomed to doing science together and his ADHD can make organization a bit of a struggle. However, I was very pleased to see how well they laid out this program and the features that were put into place to help students transition to independent learning. While we had a bit of a learning curve the first couple of days from him not wanting to take the time to read the directions, with-in the first week he had gotten the hang of the lay-out and was completing his lessons independently.

The front pages of the student notebook are written to the parent and give grading suggestions and experiment rubrics. Next comes a schedule that lays out what a student should be doing each day in order to complete the course in 33 four-day weeks. While we will probably adjust that schedule somewhat to fit our needs, I really appreciated having it all laid out and easy for my son to follow. At the beginning of each day’s work in the notebook there is a checklist of the activities to complete for that day. For a student that can get sidetracked or forget about multiple steps this can be really helpful in keeping them on track.

The notebook is very well set up and designed to help a student learn how to take good notes, use graphic organizers, learn related vocabulary and prepare for the end of module tests. There is a study guide at the end of each module for the student to complete and use as they study for the end of module test. In the back of the notebook, there are lab report forms for each lab that is included in the text book. These forms help walk the student through the entire process and then help them learn to write more formal lab reports to prepare for high school.

The test book includes a test for each module (except the last module on modern day scientists which does not include a test). The first two tests are designed to be open book tests and get the students accustomed to the testing process. The later tests are designed to be done without the assistance of the book after studying the chapter and review materials. The tests are reasonably short, ranging from 6-13 questions, and mostly multiple choice or matching questions.

Our experience with this program has been wonderful. I loved how easy it was to get my son started and help transition him to independence. He loved the variety of experiments that are included in every module (and I appreciated that they were simple enough that he could use mostly items from around our home to complete them). We finished up the first two modules of this program and are looking forward to finishing the curriculum during this upcoming school year. I think this program will prepare him well for his high school level sciences.

I encourage you to check out Exploring Creation with General Science, 3rd Edition., if you are looking for a creation based general science for your middle grades student. If you are not yet to the middle grades years you can check out my review of one of their elementary programs from last year. Don’t forget to click on the banner below and read the reviews from other Crew Members.

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V is for a Variety of Children’s Books

When I first started trying to think of books with “V” I was really struggling, but then I found four different ones in our collection that I felt were worth sharing. I decided to share all four of them so that you have a variety of “V” books to choose from this week.

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The first two books, staples in our children’s collection, are by Eric Carle. The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Very Quiet Cricket are wonderful children’s books that we have enjoyed reading many times over the years. The pictures are adorable and descriptions are fantastic. You can almost hear the insects with the descriptions in The Very Quiet Cricket as the sounds are described using terms such as, ” hummed a bumblebee” and “screeched a cicada.” It would be a great book to add to a study of insects. I love The Very Hungry Caterpillar so much that I plan to do a week long unit study on the book with my kindergartner this year. We can eat some of the yummy food that it talks about, get caterpillars to watch as they go through metamorphosis and turn into butterflies, and learn the days of the week.

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Velveteen Rabbit is one of those classic children’s stories that I think every child should hear at least once. While it has some really sad parts, it is a wonderful fairy tale about the power of love. If you are not familiar with this title, it is the story of a well loved stuffed rabbit that had to be thrown out after the child who loved him had been very sick. The magic of that love allowed him to become a real rabbit.

Victoria House is one that I had not read until recently. I found it in the clearance section on a recent bookstore visit and picked it up for $1. Written by Janice Shefelman, it is the story of a beautiful old house that had been abandoned and was going to be torn down. Fortunately, an architect saw it and fell in love with the home. They had the house moved into the city, moved into it, and turned it into a happy home once more. It was a cute story with lovely illustrations. I also felt that it was a great reminder of the value of older things in today’s ‘throw away’ culture.

Have you read any of these V books? Tell me what books come to mind when you think of the letter V.

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Deals and Freebies

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)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

Crafty Classroom Pattern Block Pack (Review)

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Pattern blocks are one of my favorite educational toys for young children because they have so many uses and are lots of fun. That made choosing to review Pattern Block Activity Bundle by Crafty Classroom an easy choice. I knew it was a great chance to ‘sneak’ a little learning in with my five-year-old son. He loves to play games and build things but is not yet ready for a lot of work book style learning.

I loved that my son was counting, matching shapes, practicing letters and numbers, and even improving his fine motor skills and he thought he was just playing a game. There are hundreds of different patterns included in this 731 page digital download and each one has several different levels. You can print one out in color where they just match the shapes onto the mat, a black and white version where they are finding the shapes to fit into the blocks, and blank ones that require them to decide which shapes would best fill in the space.

I mostly used the black and white ones because I felt like the colored ones were too easy for my son but he would have gotten frustrated with the blank ones. I love that as he works with them and gets better, I can switch over to the blank ones to keep him challenged.

For each pattern he would pick out the shapes he needed and put them in the right spots on the template. Then he would count how many of each shape were used and write that down at the bottom of the page. I let him write on the page but if you had multiple kids using them or wanted to reuse the same template multiple times you could put them in a page protector and use dry erase markers.

I brought these out several times a week over the last month or so and let him pick from a selection that I had printed out. The first day he did almost all of the numbers but most days he would simply do one or two of the pages and then move on to something else. I would also get them out whenever he asked for them and he enjoyed showing other people (grandparents, etc) his new ‘game’.

This set is very versatile and would be perfect for independent play, letter and number review, or as a scheduled part of your curriculum. Once we start our regular school days in September, I am looking forward to being able to use these a couple of times a week for an independent activity that he can do while I work with my older students. She also includes a variety of pages that can be used as extension activities with the patterns, having them draw and write about the pattern, do graphing, tally marks, or addition related to the patterns, and even a dice game with to use with the pattern blocks.

We really enjoyed this Pattern Block Activity Bundle from Crafty Classroom and look forward to continuing to use it throughout the year. In addition to this pattern block packet, Crew Members have reviewed a variety of other products and I highly encourage you to click on the Crew Review graphic below and check out their reviews.

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U is for the Under the Sea

When my five year-old son was about two he received a copy of the Usborne Lift and Look book, Under the Sea. He absolutely loved it and would have me read it over and over. On each page, you lift various flaps trying to find a small fish aptly called, “little fish.” He would lift the flaps and get quite excited and clap each time he found little fish. He had me read it and ‘read’ it himself over and over again until it fell apart. Thankfully, Usborne has a discount replacement system and I was able to get a new one that he continued reading. We are now enjoying sharing this book with his little brother who is 16 months old.

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Under the Sea is a fun book that is great for the toddler and preschool years, especially if you have a little one that loves fish and sea life. It encourages their observational skills, helps with fine motor (opening the flaps), and is enjoyable to read together. It is also a great book for young children to ‘read’ independently because they can enjoy looking at the pictures and finding little fish under the flaps even without being able to actually read the words.

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Have you read Under the Sea or any of the Usborne Lift the Flap books? Tell me what books come to mind when you think of the letter U.

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Deals and Freebies

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)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

The Heart Changer (Review)

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In a house full of readers, it is always an exciting day when a book arrives in the mail. My eleven-year-old daughter was very pleased to find out that she had the privilege of reading and reviewing The Heart Changer by Jarm Del Boccio, Author before anyone else in the house.

We received the paperback version of this book; it has an engaging cover that draws the reader into the book. It was a relatively short book at only 111 pages including the epilogue. My daughter read it over the course of about a week and once she was finished I sat down one evening to begin reading it and read the entire book in one sitting.

I felt that this story helped bring a part of the Bible to life through the eyes of a young girl who plays a major role in the healing of Naaman but is not named with-in the Biblical text. This is the story of the servant girl, called Miriam in the book, who tells Naaman about the prophet Elisha and how he can help cure him of his leprosy through the power of God. The Biblical story focused on the power of God and the obedience of Naaman but this book tells the story from the perspective of the servant girl. I loved how it made me look at it in a whole new light and think about how important the obedience of this unnamed servant girl was to the way the story unfolded.

Another thing I really appreciated about this story is that at the end of the book the author explains which part of the book are Biblical and which parts she used her imagination to expand upon the story.

Reading Biblical events in this format makes it really easy to connect to the characters and get a better understanding of what happened and how it affected the people involved. I really enjoyed the opportunity to read this book and I’m so glad that my daughter was also able to read it and discuss it with me.

The author has also included a free downloadable study guide on her website that gives some great discussion questions. It also shares more information about the author and why she chose to write this book. The questions were written in such a way as to help the reader not only think about Miriam and her story, but also to delve deeper into what they learned and how it could affect their own lives.

There are also some great ideas for researching and understanding more about the setting for the story of Naaman. Understanding what it meant to have leprosy in those times and the story of why Israel was taken captive. Finally, the guide finishes with some devotional suggestions to help you take what you learned even further.

I felt like the The Heart Changer was a great book especially for young girls (8-12) and would also be a good book for a mother/daughter to read together or as a family read aloud. It had a compelling story that makes you really think further about a real event from the Bible and how the lessons learned apply to our lives today. Be sure to click on the graphic below and check out the other Crew Reviews.

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Learning Dynamics Reading Program (Review)

I recently had the opportunity to review the Learning Dynamics Reading Program by Learning Dynamics with my five-year-old son. His birthday was in the spring so he just turned five and will be considered a kindergartner in our homeschool for the 2019-2020 school year. He had no prior reading instruction and was very excited to try and learn to read.

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The program arrived in mail all nicely packaged in a cute storage box that makes it easy to keep together. The package is a really nice perk because it is easy for parts and pieces to go missing in our house. The kit included a lesson manual, a CD with songs to go with the lessons, a student workbook, flashcards, and character letter reward punch-outs for each letter. It also had over 50 full-color books for beginning readers.

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The program is designed with short lessons to match the typically short attention spans of young readers. The program is designed for students ages 4-7 that are learning to read. It can also be used to teach older students who are struggling to learn but may feel a bit ‘childish’ even though it could be effective.

20190515_170224 — Even baby brother wanted to help with the unboxing!

When the program arrived, my son was very excited to try it so we got started right away. It was very ‘open and go’ and only took me a couple of minutes to know what to do and get him started. The lessons are short and only took about 10 minutes to complete. This works well with the typically short attention span of young students.

IMG_20190516_121211_396 — Student Workbook Page, Character card, and Teachers Manual

First, you introduce the letter that the student is learning in that lesson and the sound, then you read a short story about the character that goes along with that letter. Next, the student listens to the song for the letter and then completes a short worksheet about the letter in which they circle the pictures that start with the letter and put an “X “over the ones that do not. The student can also trace and practice writing the letter on that page. Then the student listens to the song once more while pointing to the pictures that match the items in the song. Finally, you review the letter name and sound.

Once the student has mastered the first five letters, the program introduces blending so that students can begin to make words. After lesson nine, the student is introduced to the first book. My son’s favorite part was the character that went with each letter. For example, H was for Henrietta Horse who wore a happy hat. He would have me show him the punch-out of Henrietta and read her story several times.

If a child is ready to learn to read, this program could move them very quickly through learning letters, blending sounds, and into reading. There is no busy work or monotonous repetition and so it is easy for them to stay engaged in each lesson. However, if your child is not yet developmentally ready to read this program may move too fast for them and not be enough practice to allow for mastery. In the case of my son, he enjoyed the program but could not remember the various letters and sounds from lesson to lesson which made it hard for him to progress forward. I plan to put the program away for a few months, then reevaluate his readiness in January and possibly try the program again. The age at which a child is ready to read varies greatly from child to child and could significantly affect how well your child would progress using this program.

If you have a child that is ready to learn to read or struggling with their reading and you want a short and simple approach to teaching them, Learning Dynamics Reading Program might just be the program for you. It is low teacher prep, easy to understand, and engaging for students. In addition, I am pleased to offer my readers 10% off of your purchase of this program when you click on this link and use the code: SCHOOLINSWAG . I encourage you to click on the Crew Reviews graphic below to check out the experiences that other crew members had with this program.

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T is for the Tuttle Twins and Trixie Belden

I was having a hard time deciding between these two sets of books so I decided to share both of them with you today. While not as common as some of the books I have shared before, I think they would be great additions to your reading list and personal libraries. The Trixie Belden books are a series my mom introduced me to as a child and now, I am excited to be passing them along to my own daughter. The Tuttle Twins are a much newer series that I purchased for my son for Christmas last year.

T is for Tuttle

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The Trixie Belden series was one of my favorites as a child. It was a series by Julie Campbell and Kathryn Kenny about a fun young lady named Trixie Belden who was always solving mysteries. This series written from 1948 to 1986 was full of good wholesome stories that made reading a pleasure. If you have a child that likes a good detective story or dreams of solving mysteries this is a great fit. They are similar to the older Nancy Drew books and a perfect fit for the 8-12 year old crowd.

The Tuttle Twins is a newer series that teaches children the principles of freedom. It is a great way to teach your elementary age children about economics and limited government. These books teach about entrepreneurship, free trade, the Golden Rule, banking and even the dangers of socialism. These books teach complex concepts in ways that make them easier for students to understand and without the liberal bias that is often found in books about these principles.

Instead of being taught in a textbook, these books are written in a story format with beautiful illustrations by Elijah Stanfield. Each book contains a glossary and discussion questions at the end as well information about a book for adults on a similar principle. You can purchase them as a set from the Tuttle Twins website (they are having a 35% off sale right now) and get a free set of PDF workbooks to accompany them. You can also check them out on Amazon if you would rather purchase the books individually. These can be used as a read aloud, independent reading, or with the workbooks as a civics curriculum.

Have you read any of the Trixie Belden or Tuttle Twins books? Tell me what books come to mind when you think of the letter T

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