Homeschool in the Woods - Olde World Style United States & World Maps

While many of my crew mates had heard of Homeschool In the Woods, I was a newcomer to the amazing resources available to homeschoolers through this company. Our family was asked to review the Olde World Style United States & World Maps for the Crew. I am absolutely blown away at the quality and depth of these maps. As many of my readers know, I'm all about printing in black & white to save on color ink, so these maps were absolutely perfect for my family. We have been studying the United States as a whole and next year will be studying each state individually, so these maps will absolutely be instrumental in supplementing our lessons.


I highly recommend these for any homeschool family as I have been looking for something like this for quite some time and now have all of the maps together in one convenient place.


You can order these sets individually in a download from the Homeschool in the Woods website for $18.95 each or you can order them together in a Combo-Pak download for $28.95.

And they are now available CD! Each set on CD is $19.95 or you can get both sets on one CD as a combo for $29.95
VISIT THE WEBSITE FOR MORE INFORMATION

These maps were provided to our family as part of the Old Schoolhouse Crew review team. The opinions expressed here are mine, after our family has had a chance to review the materials.

Super Star Speech - Review of Inventor Game

My family loves playing games and is always looking for educational games to help suppliment the boys education. We were so excited when we were asked to review Super Star Games for the Old Schoolhouse Crew. I will be doing seperate blogs for each of the games that we tried in order to give the boys more time to enjoy each game and to see the growth in their memory and retention of facts from each of the games.

The first game we are reviewing is The Inventors Game. This game was outstanding and the best part was that it was simple enough that even my five year old was able to play. I had so much fun with my eight year old playing this game. Rather than doing two piles like the game suggested, we did a huge memory game with the invention (with the inventors name) and the inventors and then tried to match them. It was so fun watching Jonathan get excited when he knew what invention went with an inventor and where it was on the floor. My five year old isn't quite ready for the game since he is just starting to read, but since we used the invention cards with the inventors name, he was able to "match" and remember the matching name.

I highly recommend this game as it is perfect for teaching your children about inventors and their amazing inventions. It also created quite a dialog with each other as we were discussing some of the inventors that were new to us.

The downloads for the games are only $3.50 and do not have a lot of pages for printing. I also like the graphics and that it was very easy to print them in black and white since we do not use our color cartridge.

VISIT THE SUPER STAR GAMES SITE

This game was provided to our family for the purpose of reviewing it for The Old Schoolhouse Review team the opinions are mine after having a chance to review the product with my children.

Zezok Publishing - Stephen Foster/Edward McDowell

Often when one thinks of famous composers, they think of Beethoven, Chopin, and Handel. We do not realize that even in America's history, we have some amazing composers that wrote songs that we have sang over and over and never even thought of the person that wrote them.

The Crew was asked to review several different composers and when I received a set about Stephen Foster and Edwards McDowell, I have to admit I had no idea what they had composed or who they were. Once I started reviewing the materials, I was excited to learn that these two were American composers.

Stephen Foster grew up in the South and started showing interest in music at the age of two years old. One of the things that I loved about his story was that he played the flute like I do. He wrote songs such as Camptown Races and Oh Susanna.

Edward McDowell grew up in the North and also showed a profound interest in music at a very young age. He was taught and mentored by some of the most famous musicians of the time. He wrote songs such as Duet from Hamlet and Ophelia and Visit of the Bears.

I received two storybooks and review guides for each of them. I also received a CD with music from the two composers as well. I love the way that the author tells each of the young men's stories. The books are so captivating and put you right into the time period.

The set of two books, two study guides and CD is $35.80. You can purchase the items separately, but I would strongly recommend getting the entire group as you will not be disappointed.

See the Great Musicians Series at the Zeezok Publishing Website

This product was provided to my family as part of my membership in The Old Schoolhouse Crew review team. The opinions expressed in this review are mine after our family has had a chance to review this product together.

Maestro Classics - Review of The Tortoise and the Hare

As a enormous fan of classical music, I was absolutely thrilled to receive this CD to review for Maestro Classics. Each member of the Crew was given various titles to review. Our family reviewed The Tortoise and the Hare. This is one of my favorite fables and so it was great to have it animated with music by the London Philharmonic Orchestra!! It reminded me of the joy and excitement I had the first time that I had heard Peter and the Wolf animated in the same manner. I think my favorite part of the CD is where Stephen Simon talks about how an instrument and tune was picked for each character in the story. It made listening to the story even more fun as the children were listening for the various animals and their tunes. I would recommend this CD for any family!

They have several titles available:

• The Tortoise and the Hare (the title we reviewed)
• Peter and the Wolf (a favorite of mine)
• The Story of Swan Lake (would be perfect for the little girl in your family)
• The Sorcerer's Apprentice (a classic that would be perfect for any family)
• Casey at the Bat (would love to hear this one with all the boys in my house)
• Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel (love the book would be perfect for any boy!)
• Juanita the Spanish Lobster
• Juanita la langosta española (the above title in Spanish)
  

Each CD is $16.98 a very great price for something that your family will want to listen to over and over again. Even better you can get THREE CD's for $45.00 using the coupon code MAESTRO 45. I highly recommend any of the above titles for your family. If you travel a lot like we do, this is the perfect thing to plug into the DVD or CD player for the children to listen to.

VISIT THE WEBSITE TODAY!!

Our family was given this CD to review as part of our participation in The Old Schoolhouse review team. The opinions are mine after reviewing this product with my family.

American Heritage Foundation

We received a CD from the American Heritage Foundation which had an abundance of history materials for homeschoolers from Kindergarten all the way up to High School. I was absolutely amazed with the content and worksheets on this CD and my boys loved playing with the cutout words to learn the Pledge of Allegiance. We used the elementary version of the curriculum. I took time to also review the middle and highschool versions as well and have to say that I was very impressed. The most impressive part of this curriculum....is that it is FREE!!

Visit The American Heritage Foundation Website Here

ABC Teach - A Homeschool Worksheet Heaven!!

When you are a homeschooler it's sometimes hard to find a worksheet for unit studies or to supplement your children's curriculum. You spend hours searching the internet trying to find that perfect worksheet or diagram to fit the lesson. ABC Teach is the perfect website for moms like me who want a one stop shop to find all the worksheets that we need.

While I have been using the FREE worksheets from the website for years, I had an opportunity to try out a full membership as a part of my participation in The Old Schoolhouse Crew review team. I was absolutely amazed at how many worksheets and resources were available at my fingertips!!

There are worksheets for every grade level and subject. I even found worksheets for reading books that we were doing this year which was extremely helpful as I was not going to have to sit down and write out my own worksheets. The ABC Tools section is even more helpful as you can use their customized worksheet generators to make your own personalized worksheets.

A yearly membership to this site is $40.00. A big savings from having to buy several workbooks to supplement your child's education.

VISIT THE WEBSITE

Bright Ideas Press - Mystery of History II

If you ever wanted to find a history curriculum that takes the Bible and Christian history and melds it with historical facts and information, The Mystery of History Series is perfect for you!

Last year we went through The Mystery of History I by Linda Lacour Hobar. This book covered Creation through the Resurrection and my three sons absolutely loved it. We made clay animal creations and learned so much about cultural and Biblical history.

This year as part of The Old Schoolhouse Crew, we had the opportunity to review The Mystery of History II which covers The Early Church up to the Middle Ages. While I loved the first volume, this one was even more exciting for our family as we learned what happened to the Christian world after Jesus was resurrected into Heaven.

In this volume your family will learn about the beginnings of Islam, the Crusades, and the Dark Ages. They will travel the globe learning about the history and culture of various civilizations during this time period.

The nice thing about this particular curriculum is that it works as an individual or group history curriculum. Activities are divided into three different grade levels. At the beginning of each section the students take a Pre-Test to see what they know about the upcoming lesson. It was neat to see what my children have picked up from watching the History Channel and from their previous history classes.

The supplementary section in this particular volume was absolutely outstanding. There were so many activities, worksheets, maps and other materials to enhance the lessons. The one thing I like about this curriculum is how the activities draw the children into the lesson and allow them to take what they have read and explore the lesson even more.

Volume II is currently offered on the Bright Ideas website for $49.95. There are currently three different volumes in this series and there are numerous options for resources and supplemental books and CDs available for purchase as well. I strongly recommend this to any family that would like to explore World History in a fun and exciting manner that will have your children running to the table for History class.

Find more about The Mystery of History Here!!

The Mystery of History was given to our family to review as part of being a member of The Old Schoolhouse Crew. The opinions expressed here are my own after my family has had a chance to review this product together. To get more perspectives of this curriculum, please click on the Crew button at the top left of this blog to see what other members thought.

Amazing Bible World History Timeline

Ever wanted to see a timeline of the earth from time of Adam to the present? You can with the Amazing Bible World History Timeline from Bible Maps and Charts, LLC.

This was sent to our family as part of The Old Schoolhouse Crew review team. My husband I think was the most excited to see this timeline as he is an avid history buff. I love the way that everything is laid out on the chart so that you can visually see our Biblical history. I love the size and colorfulness of the map. Even my five year old was fascinated with this amazing Bible resource.

The map comes to you safely shipped to you for only $29.97 plus $6.00 shipping and handling. We plan to frame ours and display it in our family room. You also get two free digital downloads with the purchase of this map and if you would like to purchase a second one for a friend or for a gift to your church, you can purchase two for $49.97 and still only pay $6.00 for shipping and handling.

Click Here to get your copy of this amazing Bible history reference for your family.

These books were provided at no cost to our family as a part of being a member of the review team for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Crew. The opinions are mine after reviewing the products with my children and husband.

Riding Along With the Iditarod

When I was in college, I had the priviledge of meeting Jeff King one of the most well known mushers in Iditarod history. I worked for Cabela's Jeff King's sponsor and we followed the race every day to see where he was and what position he was in. When I became a homeschooling mom, we again took on that tradition and my son and I both picked our mushers and checked the website to see who's dog sled team was ahead of the others. There is so much to learn from studying the Iditarod, and today I came across an amazing resource that I can use with all three of my homeschoolers next year during Iditarod racing time.

The Old Schoolhouse Following the Iditarod We-E Book is the perfect resource for a unit study on Dog Sledding and the Iditarod. Author Dena Wood gives you all the resources and ideas to put together and fun and exciting unit study for your homeschooling family. In addition to lots of facts, history and resources, there are even pre-made worksheets ready for printing to enhance the study even more. It is the perfect way for a family to have fun together and to learn about a very interesting and dangerous sport that involves planning, practice and a lot of heart.


WeE-Books has all kinds of e-books for homeschooling families to download for the low price of $1.95. Please click on the graphic below to visit the website or click on the graphic at the top of this review to get started on planning your Iditarod/Dog Sledding unit.