CompuScholar Tech Essentials Timberdoodle Review

I’m old enough to remember when my teachers told us we wouldn’t always have a calculator in our pockets, and we were excited to spend an hour a week in a computer lab playing Oregon Trail and Reader Rabbit. In today’s world, not only do I carry a calculator in my pocket, but also a computer (my phone) that can perform tasks a computer lab computer could not.

My children are growing up in a world where computers are everywhere, and they have been using different forms of computers from a young age. However, as comfortable as they are with computers in their lives, they still need to be taught the skills to use them effectively.

CompuScholar Tech Essentials from Timberdoodle can help students understand how to use computers for a variety of school and personal tasks, from the basics of files and spreadsheets to basic programming.

CompuScholar Tech Essentials is a semester-long course, but students have access to it for a year and can complete it at their own pace.

What is Included in CompuScholar Tech Essentials?

Thirteen regular chapters with three supplemental chapters covering

File Management
Spreadsheets
Word Processing
Multimedia
Online Research
Presentations
Group Presentation Project
Coding Concepts
Program Flow
Algorithms
Software Projects (coding and designing your own program)
Digital Citizenship
Digital Safety
Operating Systems
Math Connections
Databases

How Does CompuScholar Tech Essentials Work?

Each chapter includes several lessons, each with a video, text, and a computer-graded quiz. In addition, each chapter includes several activities to give students a real-world, hands-on application of the skills. Finally, there is an exam at the end of each chapter. The videos are all very short, in the three to five-minute range, so that lessons do not take long to complete each day.

Students work through each chapter, and the computer grades most of the assignments. The teacher can log in through the teacher portal, review grades and assignments, and make any adjustments. Once a student submits an assignment, they cannot change it unless the teacher reopens it. However, they may retake quizzes as needed.

CompuScholar Parent Portal

The parent account for CompuScholar contains a great deal of helpful information. There are answer keys, the ability to change grades, hints for activities, a teacher guide with discussion questions, a syllabus, and an optional course schedule. Parents can go in and change grades or reset activities. They can view students’ progress and the gradebook through the parent portal.

Our Experience with CompuScholar Tech Essentials

My son has been slowly working his way through CompuScholar Tech Essentials. Since we were adding it to an already full course load, we decided to have him complete it on a year-long schedule. Our fall schedule includes some light weeks and several hectic ones due to his 4-H participation and competitions. The flexibility of this course worked really well for us because during his lighter weeks, he could work through several lessons, and it was no problem if he skipped them altogether during his busy weeks.

Overall, he is enjoying the course and feels more confident using his laptop and completing other school assignments on it. He did struggle with a couple of sections, but since I could go in and look at his grade and reset things, we were able to work through his confusion and allow him to continue working through it independently.

As a parent, I love that I can adjust grades as I see fit, work it into our schedule, and reset assignments. However, I also love that it is primarily self-grading and independent, so it does not take a lot of my attention for him to work through it.

Conclusions

Overall, CompuScholar’s Tech Essentials course is easy to use and covers a wide range of essential computer skills that help students use computers safely and efficiently for schoolwork, future jobs, and personal use. I highly recommend it for middle and possibly even high school students, particularly those who have used computers for entertainment but have not yet learned all of the skills needed for more “professional use”. You can find out more and purchase this course (and other CompuScholar courses) from Timberdoodle. It is also included in their 6th-grade curriculum kit.

Simply Draw with Bob Parsons

Simply Draw is an easy-to-use art curriculum from Timberdoodle that teaches students how to draw through simple, easy-to-understand lessons with clear illustrations and supporting video materials.

What is Simply Draw with Bob Parsons?

The 178-page book includes 77 lessons; approximately 20 of those lessons have accompanying videos. In addition, there are three extra video lessons to complete at the end of the curriculum.

In addition to the curriculum, students will need a few materials. They can get started with a couple of pens, pencils, and a good eraser. However, the curriculum also recommends some cardstock and cool grey markers. A good list of recommended pens and pencils is included in the first lesson.

What Lessons Are Included?

The lessons are short and take my son around fifteen minutes to read and complete. They start with the basics of drawing, including grip, posture, and drawing lines. The lessons become gradually more complex, so they are not overwhelming for the student.

Topics Covered:

Getting Started
Short Parallel Lines
Seeing Angles
Basic Shapes
Basic Drawing
Hands
Lettering
Stick Figures and Action
Textures and Patterns
Additional Lessons

Each lesson includes instruction given in short, simple statements with example pictures. The student has the opportunity to work through each step in the space provided, right there in the spiral-bound book, where they can still see the examples. The first few were basic lines, but then it moved on to having them use different techniques to shade pictures, including an apple, a rose, and Chuck Norris’s face. My son is a Chuck Norris fan, so this lesson was a big hit!

What We Loved About Simply Draw

Unlike some books that only teach students how to draw specific things, students can easily transfer the skills and techniques learned in this book to other drawings. Once students understand lines, angles, and basic shapes, they can begin putting those skills together to create different drawings.

I have noticed over the years that art, as with many other subjects, comes more easily to some students than others. Sometimes programs move too fast, and students get behind and feel like they cannot keep up. However, with Simply Draw, students can work through the book at their own pace. This program is easy to implement for both parent and student.

In addition to the instructions, there are many funny, comic-style drawings and silly sayings in the book that make it fun to work through and add an extra layer of enjoyment. For example, in the lesson with the cube, a man is “trapped” under it. He says, “When they said this job would be “smashing,” I thought they were British.

A Student Opinion

My eleven-year-old son loves art and has been doing a variety of painting and other art lessons for several years. However, he has really wanted to learn more about drawing and sketching. He loved taking this course and is excited to continue improving his drawing skills as he progresses through the rest of the course.

He said he enjoyed the program because it was easy to understand and that he felt it was improving his drawing skills.

Conclusions

Overall, Simply Draw is an easy-to-use program that only requires a few materials. It works well for students from elementary school through adulthood (it is best if they can read or have someone available to read to them). I’d highly recommend this program for students who want to learn to draw and sketch. Go to Timberdoodle to find out more and purchase your copy of Simply Draw with Bob Parsons.

Sixth Grade Curriculum Choices (2025)

*Some links are affiliate links; see full disclosure below*

My eleven-year-old is going into sixth grade! How is he already old enough for church youth group and moving up to the Navigators group in our Trail Life troop?

He also enjoys fishing, hiking, and all things science. This is his first year running cross country for the local homeschool team. He would love to be able to skip math, but alas, I feel math is an integral part of his education.

Reading:

Since his reading is solid and he loves to read, we are going to do a fun and easy (for Mom) Book Bingo for his literature this year. The book bingo will give him a lot of autonomy in his reading, but also make sure he is getting in a variety of different books.

We are also continuing to use the Family Book Clubs from Read Aloud Revival, which are always fun and engaging.

Finally, don’t tell him that it’s actually school work, but he is participating in a local book club where they read a book each month and gather together to discuss it. Last month, they read Robin Hood, and this month, they are reading Sense and Sensibility.

Spelling

We have been working on All About Spelling, and he will continue to work his way through that. He really struggled with spelling, but over the last couple of years, he has shown tremendous progress, and we are excited to continue. We discovered All About Spelling years ago when my oldest child was struggling with spelling, and it has been our family’s favorite ever since.

Writing

For writing, we will be finishing Master Books Handwriting A to Zoo to review some handwriting skills. He will also be doing the next level in First Language Lessons to work on some grammar.

I printed out a huge selection of fun journaling prompts, and he chooses one each day to write about in his journal to work on his creative writing. He will also be entering some essays into several contests, including those sponsored by our junior historians and the state fair, to work on those skills. Those real-life applications have been so beneficial in encouraging my children to write solid essays.

Math

He will be finishing Math for a Living Education this year. We both love the format; it worked very well for him. There is generally enough practice for him without it being too much busy work. If there are concepts where he struggles, we can add in some extra practice.

Science:

I needed to be realistic this year about the amount of time and focus I have available for schoolwork, while also managing a toddler and multiple speech and physical therapy appointments each week. Of course, it is also important to me that my children get the solid education that they deserve.

This is where Journey Homeschool Academy solved my problem. We are doing one of their elementary science courses (which is solid enough for a sixth grader) with both my second and sixth graders. The boys wanted to learn about Astronomy, and we are loving the Elementary Astronomy course so far.

The video-based content makes it easy for them to do while I’m focused on the toddler, but then we can do the hands-on activities together. The course has solid science content with a Christian worldview that is also easy for me to implement. It has been a win for all of us.

Additionally, we will conduct a nature study at least once a week (we often do it more frequently when the weather is favorable). Sometimes our nature study is as simple as going outside and observing. Still, we also love to use our Homeschool Nature Study subscription to take things a little further and help me find some great activities and ideas.

History:

We are jumping back into Story of the World Volume 3 this year. We love all the hands-on activities and recipes included in the workbook, and we have the audio version of the text that allows us to listen while riding to appointments during our busy weeks.

Art

This son is the one I refer to as my little artist. He loves to draw, paint, and create. We will continue to use our membership with You Are An Artist chalk pastels for his online art lessons and provide him with lots of time and materials to be creative.

He also requested the opportunity to learn more about drawing, and so he is going to be trying some lessons from Timberdoodle’s Simply Draw.

Morning Time:

Morning time is my favorite part of our school day. We will do our daily Bible study and watch World Watch for current events each day. In addition, we plan to do a rotation of fine arts studies, poetry, Tuttle Twins books, and more. You can find out more about the resources we are using this year at Morning Time Plans 2025.

We have a toddler in the house and seven standing appointments each week, so I am holding all of our plans in an open hand and praying for the best. We will do what we can, when we can, and trust that God will fill in the gaps.

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library, you will receive a link and password to access the library. We add new items to the library each month. You will also receive a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on our current posts.

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!

Tuttle Twins is having a big curriculum sale! You can also get great deals on books and their Academy.

New subscribers can get 3 months of World Watch for FREE! This is a great deal.

Family Time (aka Morning Time) 2025

Morning time has been one of the few constants in our homeschool. As my children have changed, our schedules have changed, and our goals have changed, we have adapted our homeschooling curriculum in many ways, but having a morning time has remained a constant.

There have been years when morning time more typically happened in the evening (we should rename it family time), but we tried to keep that time of learning together. We have incorporated a variety of subjects, and it looks a little different each year.

Still, two things have remained the same: we learn together as a family, and we incorporate some type of Bible study.

What is Changing in our Morning Time Routine?

Last year, I worked hard to make sure we were consistent each morning with our time, even if we kept it simple some mornings. This year, we are keeping many of the same things in our “morning time.” However, between some speech and physical therapy appointments and my daughter having an early morning dual enrollment class twice a week, the timing is going to be a bit different.

I still want to be consistent because this is one of the most essential parts of our school day, but instead of a consistent time each day, I am working on a consistent time for each day of the week.

So, for example, on Mondays and Wednesdays, we will do morning time just after breakfast, but on Thursdays, we will do our “morning time” after dinner, and on Tuesdays, it will be after lunch. The value in morning time comes from the content and family togetherness, not the time of day.

What Do We Include In Our Morning Time Studies?

Our two main priorities for morning time will remain our daily family Bible reading and World Watch. Over the years, we have used a wide variety of Bible curricula and enjoyed many of them, but often I found it hard to be consistent when using curricula and trying to make it work for all ages. However, several years ago, I read Help Your Kids Learn and Love the Bible, and realized I was over complicating things.

Our Bible Study

Now, as a family, we read one chapter a day from the Bible, going through an entire book. This keeps it simple and easy to maintain, even during busy seasons. We read (or listen to it on my phone app) the chapter and then discuss it.

My husband bought me an excellent set of commentaries that we pull out if we have questions or want to dig deeper into a verse. We have found this to be hugely impactful and easy to maintain.

World Watch

World Watch is our second priority. We even kept these two components throughout most of our summer break. If you are not familiar, World Watch is a student news program with a Christian perspective. It is ten minutes a day and covers a variety of both major news topics and fun interest stories.

It has opened the door for many conversations, helped my teens better understand what is happening in the world, and given us all more perspective. We have found that watching and discussing works well for our family, but I did want to mention that they now also have downloadable worksheets that you could add to your World Watch time if you felt your student needed that or to help you use it for high school credit.

In addition to our two main components, we will incorporate one additional subject each day. Those will include fine arts, hymn study, logic, poetry, books of the Bible, and any other topics that I want to fit in as a family.

Sometimes we may do the same subject each day for several weeks, and other times we may rotate daily depending on our needs. This allows us to cover a variety of topics without trying to add in too many different things in one day (which would make it unmanageable).

Our Morning Time Rotations

Fine Arts: We will be using the Fine Arts program from You Are An Artist. They have a variety of fine arts courses that focus on different eras and topics.

A few of the many fine arts options that are available!

Hymn Study: For hymn study, we will be using the studies that I have already written, as well as some new studies that I will be adding throughout the year.

Logic: We use the book, The Fallacy Detective, for our study of logic and logical fallacies. While I don’t particularly care if my children can remember the exact name of a fallacy, I appreciate how it helps them identify fallacies in different arguments. (And they have come to love calling them out by name.)

Poetry: For poetry, we love the Poetry for Young People series. It is a great way to learn a little more about a poet and their poetry through reading aloud.

We are entering this school year amid a hectic life season (we have six scheduled appointments each week for speech and physical therapy), and the routine is going to look a lot different. Still, I am excited to get back into a routine.

I pray that our morning time helps keep us focused and working together and provides an anchor in the busyness of this season.There are so many different options for morning time. I’d love to hear how you incorporate it into your homeschool and if you have any favorite resources.

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.

Find Christ-centered homeschool curriculum at SchoolhouseTeachers.com and set their hearts on the right path.

Tuttle Twins is having their BIG Back to School sale. They have up to 70% off book bundles and major discounts on their academy classes (which now has World History offerings). We love their books and their American History curriculum.

My Unsolicited Thoughts About Journey Homeschool Academy’s Elementary Astronomy

I’ve been telling you how much I love Journey Homeschool Academy for high school science ever since my son tried out biology several years ago. He went on to college sciences and said that he was well prepared because of his experience with Journey Homeschool Academy.

*links are affiliate links, see full disclosure below*

First, I love that the lessons use a Christian worldview. As a busy mom of five, I appreciated that at the high school level, they were designed for my students to complete independently with video instruction, lab guides, and online tests. It was so simple for me to set them and get them started. Finally, I appreciated that it was approachable, engaging, and rigorous.

What’s New in Our Journey Homeschool Academy Experience?

I am excited to try out one of their elementary courses this year. I have generally done teacher-directed science in the elementary years (mostly with Apologia and the geology course I created). However, in this particular season of life, I really wanted a science that could get done even when I needed to have my attention focused on a busy toddler or when I needed to be shuttling the baby to physical therapy or other appointments.

We will officially start Astronomy in September with our new school year. However, I have been checking out the video lessons and materials to get ready and to share more with you guys in case anyone else needs a helping hand with science this year.

The Basics of Elementary Astronomy with Journey Homeschool Academy

This elementary astronomy course has thirty lessons. Each lesson includes a video (around fifteen to twenty minutes long), a hands-on activity, memory cards (with a two to three-minute memory video), copy work, and suggested additional reading.

The videos cover the concept for the week and often share footage from a different location, like a virtual field trip. They are very reasonable in length and engaging, not just rote lectures.

A sample of the resources included in an elementary astronomy lesson.

The hands-on activities use primarily materials that would be found around most homes (especially homeschool homes, which tend to have a nice crafting collection). They are simple enough to complete but help reinforce the concept for the week.

The memory cards include a few of the most important facts from the week, and each week, a short two—to three-minute video discusses them.

There is copywork for each week in cursive or print form, and there is a quiz that you can use if you wish.

There is a lot of flexibility built into this curriculum, and you can use as many or as few of the resources as you choose and go at whatever pace you would like. Unlike the high school courses, you have lifetime access to this course.

Seven Things I love About Elementary Astronomy

I love that the video lessons are long enough to cover the material well but short enough to keep the attention of my active boys!
I love that they honor the Creator and give glory to God.
I love that it includes hands-on projects that are easy to complete.
I love that the course is only 30 weeks long, so we can easily complete it in a school year while still taking December off for Christmas schooling.
I can use it with multiple ages at one time.
It will give us another excuse to go outside and study God’s creation.
I love that I have lifetime access so we can go as slow or fast as we want, and I can use the course again in a few years with my youngest.

What Will I Add to Journey Homeschool Academy’s Elementary Astronomy?

This course easily stands on its own as a science course and would not need anything added. However, we love art in our house, and Nana over at You Are an Artist has some wonderful space-themed art lessons that will be the perfect complement to this course. You can purchase them separately as a course, or they are included in the art membership (which we love because we can choose whatever strikes our interest that day).

Overall, I am very excited about using elementary astronomy next year. It will simplify science instruction and help me ensure that it does not get pushed to the back burner. My children are excited about astronomy, a topic that I think the whole family can enjoy. Overall, I think the Journey Homeschool Academy elementary courses would be a great fit for families struggling to make time for science, wanting something easy to implement, or having a strong interest in astronomy.

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Resource Library

Focus Word 2025: Intentional

Last year, my focus word was Savor, and it was perfect for the stage I was in. We had highs and lows last year, but overall, it was a year of many beautiful changes.

We had baby number five on January 11th, 2024, we took an epic seven-week road trip in March and April, my oldest graduated from our homeschool in May and began college in August, my daughter got her driver’s license in January, began dual enrollment in August, and so much more.

Through it all, I tried to savor and enjoy the experiences and make memories with my family. It was a good year, but I want to focus more on being intentional this year. With the baby and so many things going on last year, I feel like I let some things slide (out of necessity). However, as we begin a new year, I feel like I am in a place to begin to be more intentional.

What Does Intentional Look Like For Me?

I am making conscious decisions about different areas of my life where I want to grow and spend time, and instead of just hoping to get to those things, I am making intentional plans but still holding those plans with an open hand.

Bible:

While we continued with our family Bible reading last year, I feel I was not intentional about spending personal time in the word. So, this year, I started a very simple Bible plan to read through the New Testament in a year. It should take me about ten minutes daily, which is doable even with the baby.

Family:

Making realistic but intentional plans to spend time with my husband and children. I know I can’t plan weekly date nights out at this stage of life, but we can plan to walk 4 or 5 days a week and do something special together once a month or so. I can’t take each of my kids out one-on-one each week.

Still, I can make sure to spend a few minutes checking in with them each week and be diligent about finding opportunities to spend one-on-one time, even if it’s just taking one of them with me to run errands or grabbing a quick treat together.

Hiking with My People..Savoring the Moment and Intentionally Focusing on my Health.

Health:

Complications from my pregnancy caused me to really focus on my health in 2023, and I was doing a great job eating well and getting in movement. However, the busyness of life with an infant and teenagers caught up with me last year, and I noticed I was not as intentional about making good choices.

So this year, I want to get back on track by being intentional about drinking more water, staying active each day, and getting plenty of protein. When I do those things, I feel better and have more energy for the other things on my list.

Social Media:

I believe that social media is a double-edged sword. I love being able to keep up with friends who aren’t physically close to me anymore; I enjoy learning from other homeschool moms and seeing encouraging posts and scriptures. However, it so easily becomes lost time.

When the baby was born, and I was up with him at night, I felt too tired to read, but I hated just sitting there, so I often would watch silly videos on Facebook. However, I really want to focus on intentionally using social media to keep up with the people in my life and to share and learn from other homeschoolers.

So, I will limit my time on social media (using an app on my phone) and be intentional about what content I view while using social media.

Blog:

Finally, I want to be more intentional about sharing ideas and resources on the blog. I was very quiet on the blog for the first half of 2024 because I needed to focus on the baby, my other children, and our travels. However, this year, I am intentionally putting work time back on my weekly calendar to be more consistent about sharing in this space.

My seventeen-year-old daughter will be babysitting a few hours each week in exchange for car insurance and gas, and I will be able to return to sharing new content with you each week.

I am looking forward to 2025 and continuing to savor the time with friends and family while also being more intentional about how I spend my time and making sure that my priorities are getting the attention they deserve.
I would love to hear your word of the year or your resolutions or tips on how you are intentional with your time.

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Resource Library

Deals and Freebies

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

Journey Homeschool Academy is offering sale if you need a new science program! We love their high school programs and plan to try their elementary astronomy next year.

This is a great resource for lots of amazing printable materials from pre-k to 12th grade and they are offering 40% of lifetime access.

Play Smart Preschool Workbooks: A Timberdoodle Review

Children, especially young children, learn through play and many hands-on activities. Often, this involves being very active, but sometimes, you need your child to be able to work more quietly or contained. Timberdoodle recently sent me a set of Play Smart workbooks for preschool-age students to review.

The Play Smart workbooks are a great combination of both hands-on learning and quiet play. The books are colorful and engaging, containing lots of stickers and activities.

Play Smart Brain Boosters (3+)

This book contains over 60 pages of picture puzzles, drawing projects, and number games for children ages three and up. In addition, it includes over 100 stickers and a wipe-clean activity mat that allows children to draw different ears on two animal pictures, wipe it clean, and start again.
The activities range in type and style. There are activities with correct answers and others that are more creative. For example, in some activities, the child matches shapes to pictures. In another activity, the child begins with the basic shape drawn and creates a picture of whatever they wish to draw.

Play Smart Skill Builders Challenging (Ages 2-3)

The activities in this book are a bit simpler than those in the brain booster book. There are lots of mazes and different tracing activities. This book also contains over 90 stickers and a wipe-clean activity board maze. Each page is colorful and engaging, with pictures of various animals, flowers, and scenery. The child simply needs a crayon or pencil to complete each activity page.

These would work well as a quiet activity for a parent and child to work on together. The activities promote fine motor skills, pattern recognition, and knowledge of colors and animals.

Play Smart Animal Picture Puzzlers (2+)

In this full-color workbook, children will work on tracing, drawing, sorting, and matching. They will trace lines in different pictures, including straight lines, curved lines, spirals, and loops. They will also work on counting and recognizing the numbers 1, 2, and 3.
In addition to the over 60 pages of single-use activities, there is a wipe-clean page at the end of the book that assists the student in learning how to write the numbers 1, 2, and 3.

Overall, these Play Smart Workbooks are a great quiet-time activity for preschool students. They promote fine motor skills, matching, patterns, and number recognition. They are bright and engaging and would work well for younger children to do with an adult. Older preschool students could work on activities independently for a few minutes. These are also perfect for those preschoolers who want to ‘do school’ like their older brothers and sisters.
You can learn more about it or purchase your set from Timberdoodle. They are also included in the Timberdoodle Preschool kit.

Tips for Using Free Homeschool Summits and Conferences

Each fall and spring, there is a small window of time when my email and social media become inundated with various free homeschooling conferences and summits. They all sound wonderful, with great topics, engaging speakers, and exciting ideas. However, I wondered how I would find time to actually teach my children if I did all of those workshops.

If you feel the same way, you might be tempted to click delete on those emails, scroll past the social media posts, and ignore all the conferences. While I totally understand that temptation, I think there is a third option. Instead of spending all your time in conferences or ignoring all the summits, you can choose the parts of the summits that will be most beneficial for you, but not try to do it all.

Choose One or Two Applicable Sessions Each Day

Generally, my favorite way to enjoy one of these events is to pick one (or maybe two) session from each day that I think would be most beneficial to me. Then, I work out a time each day to watch those sessions. This lets me benefit from the workshops without having it take all day.

For my schedule, that time is often just after lunch. The baby is napping, we have completed school for the day, and I can send the big kids outside to play while I listen and learn.

That time of day is often when I would be getting other household tasks or computer work done, but the encouragement and inspiration that I gain from the sessions make it time well spent. Other good options are taking a walk and listening, listening while cooking dinner or folding laundry has also worked for me in the past.

When I remember that homeschooling my children is a calling and an important job, it is easy to see that it is not wasted time but time used to gain valuable knowledge and inspiration.

Have a Teacher Workday

Sometimes, the best way to take advantage of a homeschool summit is to pick the day that the sessions you are most interested in and call it a teacher workday. Give your students the day off, make yourself a cup of hot tea or coffee and your favorite chocolate, grab a notebook, and settle in.

You can watch the sessions, take notes, and spend some time planning and implementing the things you learn in the sessions. In addition to some great ideas, a day like this can provide refreshment and help you be ready to jump back into the work of homeschooling.

Buy Yourself Some Extra Time

If you are going through the conference and really enjoying your sessions but feel like you want to watch them all, most of these summits and conferences offer you the opportunity to purchase the sessions for a small fee. Once you buy the conference or summit, you will have access for a year or a lifetime (depending on the conference). Then, if you need encouragement or help or have a little extra time, you can watch a session.

Upcoming Conferences and Summits

These are some of the conferences and summits that are coming up. Take a look at some of the wonderful speakers and see how you can use these to encourage you in your homeschooling journey.

Such a great opportunity for encouragement and resources.

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

New subscribers can get 3 months of World Watch for FREE! This is a great deal.

30 Days of FREE Audiobooks and Podcasts with Audible!

Gnome Sweet Gnome a Timberdoodle Review

Children learn so much through play, and I love it when I find tools that can help guide that learning while still being fun and enjoyable for the child. I recently had the opportunity to review the game Gnome Sweet Gnome from Timberdoodle.

Gnome Sweet Gnome is a game that children can play independently. It has several different skill levels, making it great for developing skills. It works on fine motor skills, critical thinking, comparing sizes, and color recognition and is great for preschool through kindergarten or first grade.

What is Gnome Sweet Gnome?

The game includes three different gnomes, each gnome is a different size and color. The Gnomes each come with a matching flower pot, each with a different depth. The different sizes and depths mean that when stacked in different combinations, you can see different amounts of the gnome. For example, if you put the smallest gnome in the deepest flower pot, you can only see the top of his hat.

There are forty-eight challenges included with the game (each challenge is a different picture that the child needs to recreate). The challenges vary from easy to expert levels. I loved that the challenges were all enclosed in a spiral-bound book. That means no loose cards that are easy to misplace.

How Do We Play Gnome Sweet Gnome?

The beginning challenges use only a few pieces, and the challenge card shows the color for all of the pieces used. Then, they get a little more challenging by using more pieces but still showing all of the colors. On the final levels of difficulty, some or all of the colors are grayed. Other than the easiest level, all the challenges have a solution picture on the back of the page so the child can check their work.

This game can be completed independently, or a parent could work with the child to check their work and help them problem-solve. Depending on their attention span and ability level, children can work through anywhere from one challenge to the whole book. Younger children can start with the easier levels, and as they get more practice and confidence, they can move up to the more challenging options.

Overall, we really enjoyed this game. My six-year-old wanted to check it out and went through all the levels in one sitting. Even though he had completed them all, he still wanted to play again on other occasions, so it was not a one-and-done activity.

This is also a great game to prepare students for the more challenging IQ Gears that we reviewed a few weeks ago for Timberdoodle. They work on similar skills at different levels.

Where Do I Find Gnome Sweet Gnome?

I highly recommend this game if you have a young child and want to work on fine motor skills (stacking), colors, or problem-solving. You can find out more and purchase Gnome Sweet Gnome at Timberdoodle. It is also included in their preschool kit.

Evan-Moor Skill Sharpeners Geography Grade K

Geography is a hugely diverse subject that can be taught in many ways. Some years, our family includes geography with our history, and at other times, we do independent geography. We have a big family trip coming up in honor of my oldest son’s graduation. With that in mind, I wanted to give my kindergartner a good overall exposure to geography to prepare him for the trip. That made the opportunity to review Evan-Moor’s Skill Sharpeners Geography from Timberdoodle an easy choice.

What Is Skill Sharpeners Geography?

The Skill Sharpeners Geography Grade K book is a consumable text designed to introduce kindergarten students to various geography concepts, including map skills, landforms, bodies of water, the globe, and weather in our world.

The book contains four units: Map Skills, Looking at the World, Landforms and Bodies of Water, and Weather in Our World. In addition, those four units are separated into two to five lessons per section.

Each lesson includes a couple of pages of introductory geography texts to teach the concept to the student. There are also ideas for talking to your child about the covered concepts. Next are written practice activities and a hands-on activity. Finally, at the end of each section, there is a certificate of completion to celebrate their hard work.

The written work is designed with kindergarten students in mind, including activities like coloring, tracing, connecting similar objects, crossing out wrong answers, or circling correct pictures.

The book contains full-color pictures to help non-readers understand the concepts (though the parent will need to do some reading and explanations).

How We Used Skill Sharpeners Geography Grade K

There are a variety of ways to use this book. In our family, we chose to do one lesson each week. This makes the book last about fifteen weeks, perfect for completing it in one semester with a little wiggle room for busy weeks.

My son enjoyed doing all of one lesson in a day; it usually took him about thirty minutes to complete an entire lesson. However, you could spread the lesson out and do one activity per day. If you want the book to last for a whole school year, you could spread the lessons over two weeks and add additional reading or activities.

The hands-on activities were often cutting and pasting, which my son enjoyed, but were also very simple for me to facilitate. The only additional materials required were scissors and a glue stick.

There is also an answer key at the back of the book in case there are any questions about correct answers (though generally, at this level, the answers were self-explanatory).

What We Thought/Conclusions

Overall, we were delighted with this book. I felt like the concepts covered gave my son a general understanding of the fundamental physical geography concepts. This will make it easier for him to learn more as we travel because he will have the basic vocabulary and understanding already mastered.

My son enjoyed the book and looked forward to that part of our weekly school time. He loved the pictures, and the activities were engaging. I appreciated that it kept things simple so that it was not overwhelming.

I would recommend this book to any student in Kindergarten (or even first and second grades) who needs a basic understanding of physical geography concepts. The book is engaging and easy to implement. Go to the Timberdoodle website to learn more and purchase your copy. You can also check out the other levels offered for older students and to continue their geography studies.

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Resource Library