Homeschool Review Crew

Learn How to Draw with ARTistic Pursuits – Review

August 1, 2022 by Amy Leave a Comment

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

I love doing art with my kids. Some of my favorite homeschool memories are of us all crowded around a table, listening to an audiobook and trying out new art techniques or doing something creative. We enjoy watching those ‘this is how you recreate this piece of art’ videos, and that’s why I was excited to try the Drawing with Graded Graphite Pencils, Art Core 3 by ARTistic Pursuits.

Read my full review of the Drawing with Graded Graphite Pencils course by ARTistic Pursuits here.

Drawing with Graded Graphite Pencils consists of online video-based classes which you can watch at your own pace and a textbook. During the video, a new concept about drawing is taught, and then you watch the teacher describe the process for what she’s drawing, why she chose it, and how she does it. Then instructions are given for students to choose a similar concept to draw to practice the skills taught.

The videos are professionally made and very well done. Each one opens with a little intro featuring someone else, and then the actual lesson begins. The videos are all around ten minutes long – enough to provide actionable tips and not so long that you get totally bored watching someone else do art. (The videos are actually sped up at times with voiceover done so that the drawing and instruction can happen in a timely manner. This was a nice feature.)

The required materials are simple and few, and that made them easy to acquire at an inexpensive price – both things I like! We actually had two sets of drawing pencils, and so My Little Man and I tackled these videos together.

Read my full review of the Drawing with Graded Graphite Pencils course by ARTistic Pursuits here.

I’ve had drawing lessons before, and I love playing around with light and shadows, texture and shape … but My Little Man prefers lines. While we’ve done lots of art, and we have done formal lessons before, this course goes much deeper into that than we’ve done in years – and that was a bit stressful for My Little Man. Maybe if we’d done the class that came before this, it would’ve been less of a thing – but that’s on me. I went by his age, and he did fine with it.

At first, we were both a bit lost when it came time for us to begin our own piece. We had the instructions, but for some reason I wasn’t expecting the free-draw aspect of it – though that totally makes sense. We had fun searching for images and putting together still life collections that met the requirements, and then since My Little Man is a fan of classical music, we turned up Pandora and got to work!

Some of our pieces came out much better than we expected, and we were happily surprised. Others were much harder, and it took time to figure out what was off. At that point I really missed having an in-person teacher – or at least one we could correspond with for feedback – but we definitely improved over the course of our work with this class.

There are nine video lessons in the course – but there are 36 lessons, and that’s where the textbook comes in. The video lessons are called units and there’s four lessons for each one in the textbook. This is where you learn about classic art pieces that feature the skill or technique you learned about in the video and where you receive more instruction about using it yourself.

There’s a whole video at the beginning of the course about how to use the textbook – but for some reason I struggled with this one. It’s pretty simple, really, but I didn’t get it at first, and so we jumped right in. I really like the added instruction and the connection with famous art pieces that the book adds. Take the time that you need at the beginning to get it all straight – it’s worth it.

ARTistic Pursuits recommends that this course be a one-semester class, where you met twice per week. I think that’s very realistic. That has you completing two units per month, roughly, and spending maybe an hour or so on art at each meeting – depending on how ‘into’ it your student is.

So if you’re looking for drawing lessons that progress though ages and stages, consider the drawing lessons offered by ARTistic Pursuits. This particular class is recommended for middle school kiddos, but there’s one for upper elementary and one for high school, so it could make a great series for art lovers.

Don’t take my word for it, though – click on the banner below to read other reviews from the Homeschool Review Crew.

Become a Grammar Expert with Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum

May 23, 2022 by Amy Leave a Comment

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

We love to learn grammar by taking apart excellent sentences from the books that we read and by examining each other’s writing to fix mistakes and make it better. My kids have at times asked for harder, more direct grammar instruction, though, and that’s why we are excited for the opportunity to review English 1 Language Skills (9th grade) from Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum.

Read on for my full review of English 1 Language Skills (Grade 9) from Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum.

PAC offers different types of curriculum, but the English 1 Language Skills piece that we’ve been using is a complete language arts curriculum. It’s available in both digital and physical formats, and we received both. My Little Man chose to use the physical version.

When I first opened the box, it felt overwhelming – but just for a few moments. This kit has several pieces: the ‘textbook,’ the activity book where the student actually writes answers and completes work, and answer keys for the teacher. These ‘books’ are all softcover, and to things simple, the books are printed in smaller, softcover pieces instead of massive workbooks or textbooks. What looks like many pieces at first is merely a series of small workbooks the student moves through. These smaller books are easier to use and easy to carry around, which we both enjoyed.

The answer keys were actually shrink-wrapped, hole-punched pages, so I pulled out an empty binder and had them ready to go in a matter of minutes. I like how easy that process was!

The student books are clearly labeled on the front as being ‘text’ or ‘activity’ and with the number of each. The curriculum is also clearly structured: Book One of each type contains Chapter One, and that is broken down into 15 lessons with a quiz after every five lessons. After the end of all fifteen lessons, the student takes a test and then moves into Chapter Two.

Each lesson begins with a short story about a historical figure. The lesson includes a character lesson, something short and quotable that is to be memorized, vocabulary words, and then moves into the grammar instruction. After reading all of this from the textbook, the student switches to the activity book to complete the exercises for that lesson.

On the left: part of a reading selection that sparks the grammar lesson. On the right: the first page of those grammar activities.

My Little Man loves the finite piece of this. He loves knowing exactly what he’s expected to do each day and exactly when he’ll be finished. He likes the similar structure of the lessons and that familiarity this breeds of how it all works. He also enjoyed reading the stories and worked well with the clear directions.

On the other hand, the grammar was tricky at times. Perhaps there are components for middle school, and so by jumping into the middle we missed things. A few times we felt as if more instruction was needed. While I love the simplicity of merely comparing the answers to those in the answer key, if My Little Man needed help, I sometimes needed it, too. I’m pretty good with grammar, and I was always able to figure it out, but simpler, clearer explanations would have been great.

PAC’s website claims that one of their goals is to prepare students for a post-secondary work with strong communication skills, and I can see that one would clearly excel with grammar after using this curriculum. The lessons are extremely detailed, and the scope and sequence moves through a variety of grammar types and structures, moving beyond simple word choice to sentence and paragraph construction. Completion of this class is worth one credit, and you’ll certainly get your money’s worth of grammar instruction by the end.

I would personally hesitate to call this a complete English language arts curriculum, though, simply because the reading components all appear to be the short selections that are part of the lessons. While they do take a variety of formats and I appreciate the way that they’ve been chosen to highlight positive character traits, I want my students to do much more reading for me than what is included here. We’ll continue to use this alongside of our other reading and analytical work, and I think it’s perfect for that.

Don’t take my word for it, though. See what the other members of the Homeschool Review Crew have to say!

Make History Fun with Prisoner of War by Whatsoever Stories

May 9, 2022 by Amy Leave a Comment

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

I absolutely love books that can be more than just a story. If I can extend it to include educational lessons, make it a family read aloud, or do something else fun with it, then that’s a book I want on my shelf. That’s why I was excited for the opportunity to review Prisoner of War, authored Kinsey M. Rockett of Whatsoever Stories.

Read on for my full review of Prisoner of War by Whatsoever Stories.

Prisoner of War is based on World War II history – the history of prisoners of war, of escape attempts. of Allied pilots, of the German Luftwaffe. Rockett has done her homework and knows her history well – and that’s the most important thing for a historical fiction novel. With clear writing and a conversational tone, Rockett conveys her story well.

I like the concept of the story. Soldiers going in to stage a mass rescue of POWs? That’s an exciting premise with great potential for historical and character-building lessons. It could appeal to a really wide age range of students.

This book is intended for students ages twelve and up. At fifteen, My Little Man – who’s no longer so little – is well within that range, but he’s long been a student of various wars and is a serious lover of classic fiction (meaning that he can handle the most intense and obscure language and sentence structure). That high school student of mine devoured this story but found it to be a bit cheesy. I think he may have meant preachy – there are longish passages of scripture, which are a bit unusual. He was full of enthusiasm for the message, though, saying that the book has a clear and very Christian message. I think it would make a great family read aloud – I can see it being used to introduce various World War II concepts to a variety of ages. This would also make it easy to discuss both the Christian message and the historical concepts together.

Prisoner of War is a large paperback book with a full-color cover that’s just shy of 400 pages. The font and clear spacing keeps the reader turning pages, though, and this organization structure makes it easy to read. While he is a great reader, he finished this book in two short reading sessions!

The book also includes a few special features that really add value to it as an educational tool. The author has written a note in the back that’s several pages long and details items of historical note that served as inspiration for the author. There’s also a glossary that defines terms used in book, including aeronautical, mechanical, historical, and German terminology. A historical note precedes the story itself, setting the stage for the story by outlining the major events of the war up to 1943.

Read on for my full review of Prisoner of War by Whatsoever stories.

The author is another unique aspect of this book. Rockett is a young homeschool graduate, so this wasn’t penned by the traditional middle-aged author writing for a big publisher. Instead, Rockett is pursuing her interest in creative writing and history by writing stories that bring various aspects of World War II to life. I love seeing people follow their dreams!

I think Prisoner of War would make a great family read aloud for people studying heroes in general or World War II specifically. It’s based on much real history and the author has done much research to inform her writing. Don’t take my word for it, though – read more reviews from the Homeschool Review Crew by clicking here.

All the Curriculum You Need In One Place at SchoolhouseTeachers.com

March 2, 2022 by Amy Leave a Comment

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

As a mom, I love being with my kids as we homeschool. As a teacher, I love being able to craft lessons that fit their strengths and needs – but even this teacher doesn’t like planning ALL the lessons, and that’s where the beauty of SchoolhouseTeachers.com a division of The Old Schoolhouse® comes in.

Read on to see what SchoolhouseTeachers.com has to offer.

SchoolhouseTeachers.com is a comprehensive website that has everything you need to homeschool. Lessons are designed by experts in each field, and everything needed to teach a child from preschool through twelfth grade is included – with more courses being added all the time.

That’s one element of SchoolhouseTeachers.com that we really like. While there’s a ton of courses available, it’s fun to see what’s being added each month. We’re counting on courses from this website to fulfill our foreign language requirements, and this is being built, too: they’re adding a Korean course this year! How cool is that? Korean is a language that’s not offered in our local public schools, nor is it taught within 60 miles of us even privately, but to be able to learn this language at home, in a way that fits into our routine and schedule, is a huge blessing. Other languages included in SchoolhouseTeachers.com are ASL, several levels of Spanish, Latin, French, and even Latvian.

Other new courses are also being added in 2022, and I’m liking this selection for my kids. With both of them now in high school, we’re specifically looking for classes that match their long-term interests. My Big Helper is interested in psychology to help her craft the characters for the books she writes, and that’s coming. Calculus is coming, as well, and since my Little Man is going to run out of math in his regular curriculum before he runs out of school years with me, that’s another huge bonus, because this mommy isn’t teaching upper-level math anytime soon.

There are now full curriculum boxes for high school at SchoolhouseTeachers.com!

Of course, not everyone likes planning all the lessons, and if you’d rather have it all put together for you, SchoolhouseTeachers.com has a fabulous new option for that. They’ve curated Curriculum Boxes that include everything that a prepackaged all-in-one curriculum would have, and it’s available as a digital download with your subscription: you get a course guide, supply lists, weekly and daily checklists to help you stay on track, and more. This looks like a great option for those of you who want to have the prep work done for you. Even so, if you find that you think most of it is a great fit for your student but you want to switch out a class or two, that’s easily done within the SchoolhouseTeachers.com framework. Having everything prepared and available for you – and not just for one child but for your entire family – is a great deal. These curriculum boxes are currently available for students in Grades K – 12, but boxes for Pre-K and parents are on the way.

SchoolhouseTeachers.com has other parental materials, as well, like recordkeeping forms, calendars, planners, and more. There’s even a special page just for parents, with parental courses, articles, an e-book library, unit studies, and other things.

Another of our favorite ways to use SchoolhouseTeachers.com is as a supplement. Not necessarily for whole classes, though that’s a fabulous option, of course; but we’ve gone into courses and pulled out the specific lesson, skill, or strategy that we want to learn and used just that part. I can’t give out the credit for completing the course when we do that, but often pulling these pieces allows my kids to learn in a way different from our usual and they get to do something fun with our regular studies. For example, when we were doing a year-long study of the Temple in our middle-grade youth group at church a few years ago, My Big Helper did an architecture lesson about it. She loved it and it was a very in-depth lesson – she ended up taking her work to church to show her classmates later. It was perfect!

With a SchoolhouseTeachers.com Ultimate Membership, you’ll have everything you need for the entire family.

SchoolhouseTeachers.com is a subscription website, so when you sign up, you have access to everything – and there’s a lot. With loads of online books, complete curriculums for every grade level, materials for parents, over 400 streaming materials, and new online live classes and showcases, you’ll find everything that you need for the whole family right here.

My family loves having SchoolhouseTeachers.com as an option – but don’t take our word for it! Read other reviews by the Homeschool Review Crew by clicking on the graphic below.

An Affordable Homeschool Online Option for All Grades with SchoolhouseTeachers.com

How to Teach A Biology Lab without Dead Things

October 27, 2021 by Amy Leave a Comment

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

I like teaching science when we can watch machines and take nature walks and observe the animals in the park and the zoo – but when it comes time to break out the gears and the chemicals, I’m out. I don’t like having to think through those things, and I don’t even want to follow the directions in a well-written book. I want someone else to do it for me – and that’s where the Virtual, Interactive Homeschool Laboratory from Greg Landry’s Homeschool Science comes in.

Here’s my review of Greg Landry’s Homeschool Science: Interactive Biology Lab.

When I first heard about a virtual lab, I couldn’t picture it. How could doing something online take the place of learning how a real lab works? For hands-on learners, maybe it’s a hard thing – but for those of us who do not want dead animals in my kitchen – or on my property at all – it’s definitely a great prospect.

In the interest of full disclosure, I think my son would be okay with doing an in-person dissection, even though he’s a total softy. When it comes right down to it, he’s learned to man-up, so to speak, and I think he could look at the process objectively and scientifically. Me, on the other hand? I never had to do dissection labs in school, and I have a total aversion to dead things, so even though a biology lab consists of lots of other labs in addition to the traditional dissections, I’d much rather avoid the whole lot.

These are the labs in Greg Landry’s Homeschool Science: Interactive Biology Lab.

Greg Landry’s Virtual, Interactive Homeschool Laboratory consists of eleven labs. Each lab session has a video to watch beforehand, where Greg gives instructions and explains what you’re going to do. There are also a few videos to watch before getting started that explain how the lab area works and how to do a lab report.

Here’s what Greg Landry’s Virtual Biology Lab space looks like.

The lab area is awesome! Students log into a site that looks like someone animated a lab. Drawers are labeled, tools are available, and directions are listed on the left side of the screen. The directions are super detailed, too – you begin by turning on the lights in the lab! The next step is to put on your lab coat and goggles, and the images reflect all of these things. I love that detail – he’s keeping the kids conscious of safety and teaching them how to use real lab procedures even though there’s nothing dangerous about doing these labs digitally.

Working through the lab itself is pretty cool. Basically, you follow all of the directions on the left side of the screen in the lab itself on the right. You manipulate all of the materials by clicking and dragging them from place to place. For example, you can open a drawer by clicking on it, and then you move any of the items inside that drawer by dragging them to an workspace on the lab counter. When you’re finished with it, you can put it away by clicking on that object’s ‘put away’ button. Isn’t that cool? You can manipulate all of the objects that way, so that the lab is always fully prepared for whichever lab you choose to do. You’ll never set fire to it, forget to turn off your Bunsen burner, and you never have to worry about anyone doing anything gross to the frogs! This is totally my kind of biology lab.

The videos leading into each experiment feel pretty detailed. Greg Landry takes the time to share about the big principles, of science and of life, in these videos. He teaches needed math skills and sets up the student for what is needed to know. These are huge bonuses in a digital class, I think.

Students are expected to complete a lab report for each experiment. This is where we began to have issues with this program. While there is a detailed video about how to complete a lab report, and while I’m quite comfortable helping with that nice paper-based component, there isn’t a template contained anywhere in this course that I can find. As this was really My Little Man’s first attempt at this type of lab report, I would have preferred to have at least one template – but preferably several – digital templates that he could download and fill in. I feel that this would have helped him learn how to make this look professional and understand the basic structure and expectations of a lab report. Without a template, there is nothing in this course for visual learners to see what a lab report should look like – and if I didn’t have years of science classes under my belt, it would have been confusing for me, too. We could have created our own template and listened to the video a few times to get all of the pieces he suggested right, which is doable but would have taken a chunk of time – and we were crunched. Instead, I found a template with directions elsewhere and My Little Man used that. This worked wasn’t a big deal for us, but if I were a paying customer instead of merely a reviewer, I’d prefer to have everything I need available in the class.

The only other issue we had was in the preparation for the experiment itself. As a high school student, when we did an experiment, it was clear why we were doing this – what we were trying to learn or determine. For some of these experiments, that doesn’t appear to be clear. For example, the very first lab seems to exist solely for students to learn how to measure and use the lab. That’s fine, but I’m not sure how I’d personally word the hypothesis, if I were the one actually doing the lab, and do you then include the data charts just because? This part seemed a bit extraneous. When it comes to the frog dissection lab, however, it’s clear that the point of the lab is for the student to examine the internal organs and learn their purpose. As you work through the lab, handy dandy text boxes even pop up to help with this! I do love that part – but I think it should be clear why you’re doing the experiment in the first place, even if that is just a sharing of a hypothesis or overall question.

We’re working through these labs slowly as we’re using them to supplement another biology course. I think this is a great way to get lab credit, though, especially without the weird smells, mess, or stress! Don’t take my word for it, though – click on the banner below to read other reviews from the Homeschool Review Crew.

Self Paced Online Homeschool Science Labs

Are you interested in other resources for teaching high school science at home? Check out my review for How to Get Out of Teaching High School Science here.

Do You Know How to Navigate Your Bible?

October 11, 2021 by Amy Leave a Comment

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

Do you know how to navigate your Bible? Do your kids?

So many of us use digital formats to read scripture, and while that’s handy in many ways, we still need to know many things about scripture: where to find specific stories and verses, the foundational information of each book, who the key people and messages are, and more. That’s where the Bible Breakdowns from Teach Sunday School come in handy.

Knowing your Bible is really important. It’s one thing to win a speed competition, when you can flip to any called-out verse faster than anyone else in the room; but can you understand what you read? Do you also know how to put it in historical context, to know who’s saying it and why and to whom? Do you know what that verse or passage is really about?

Bible Breakdowns can put you on the path to this kind of understanding. They’re kind of like cheat sheets to help you get started by having bibliographic and statistical information about the books of the Bible. They’re available for both the Old and the New Testaments. In most cases, there’s a page for each book of the Bible, but some books have more stories or ‘breakdowns’ needed and so are split across more pages.

Overall, the pages are colorful and color coded. I’d definitely recommend printing these in full color – it makes this elementary teacher very happy! That color coding makes it easier to identify the context of different stories and the information contained, though, so … go for the color.

The top block of information is a brief summary of the book. It contains the most important and basic stuff to know – what was happening historically, who wrote the book, etc. Similarly, the information at the very bottom is a ranking of the top most popular verses in that book. I’m not sure how these were determined, but it is interesting to see.

The information in the middle is most important. Middle top is the stats: How many chapters, what type of book is it, when was it written, etc. This is all great stuff to know, but I’d really love to see this go just a bit deeper. Some of the words used are certainly used by Biblical scholars but not typically by kids, and having them defined or explained could be helpful. Adding another reference sheet to the resource explaining what ‘Pauline’ or ‘Synoptic’ is could be helpful. The date when the book was believed to be written is here, also, and a simple, colorful timeline across the top or bottom of the page could add clarity to that. Whether it included all books in that part of the Bible or only that specific one, I think it would help children piece together Biblical history and see how it fits together.

The middle bottom block is where the bulk of the information is found. I really though that this would be the chunk we’d use the most, but I was mistaken about that. This section breaks down the entire book by passage and lists the subject; so, the stories are listed by title, etc. This could be really useful if you know a certain story is in a given book but you can’t remember where, or if you are skimming the page to find something that looks interesting to read. Other than that, we really didn’t use this part much, but my kids are both teens who know their Bibles well. Perhaps if we’d had these when they were younger, they would have used this section much more.

Overall, I think that these Bible Breakdowns could be a great resource for a Sunday School class, youth group, or children’s Bible study. I think they would make a great resource for families who are purposeful about teaching their children how to navigate and understand their Bibles. Our pages look great printed and in a folder, and having this resource in the area where you store your Bible study materials will be both handy and useful. A really good study Bible is going to have most of this information as a front page for every book, but study Bibles for kids are usually too simplistic or broken down to have all of this. Being able to print it and have it handy for those kids who are ready to use this information would be very convenient.

If you’re looking for materials to help teach children Bible study basics, these Bible Breakdowns from Teach Sunday School may interest you – but don’t take my word for it. Click on the graphic below to read other reviews from the Homeschool Review Crew.

Boob-by-Book Bible Study Printable Breakdowns

Want to know more about resources from Teach Sunday School? Read my full review of their Summary Sheets of the Bible here.

How to Teach Your Students to Separate Truth from Fallacy

August 18, 2021 by Amy Leave a Comment

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

Do you ever worry about how your children will fare out in the real world? How they’ll know truth from fiction, reality from warped perspectives, and differentiate between what’s an opinion and what’s a sales pitch? This ability plays a role in everything from understanding the news to the weekly sermon to buying a car or house. It affects your choices in small and big ways in every way, every day of your life.

Learn how to separate truth from fallacy with the Fallacy Detective. Read my full review here.

That’s why I’m loving The Fallacy Detective from Hans Bluedorn! This fantastic book will teach your students to do all of the above in really fun ways.

Isn’t the cover of The Fallacy Detective fun?

I have the workbook edition, and it’s a softcover book slightly bigger than a mass market paperback. The inside pages are grayscale and consist of 38 lessons. Each lesson is short – usually not more than three pages or so – and contains very straightforward, direct information. Most lessons include a short comic, breaking apart the text, both illustrating the point and adding an element of fun to it.

Each lesson also includes an ‘exercise.’ Most of the time this consists of a short series of multiple-choice questions. The others are short answer. For all of the questions within a certain lesson, the point is for the student to identify to the strategy being taught within that specific lesson. This provides for immediate assessment and feedback. If your student doesn’t understand the lesson, you’ll be able to tell at this point.

The Fallacy Detective can be used as one-half to one high school credit. I think this is a really fun way to learn important skills and earn valuable credit! You could do this multiple ways:

If you have only one student, s/he could read the lesson and do the exercises independently. The teacher could check the written work in the book, and with good understanding, that could be all that is needed.

However, the exercises were intended to be discussed, so you could tackle this course another way. If you still only have one student, you could enter the conversation as the teacher. Allow your student to read the lesson independently and tackle the exercises, but then have a joint discussion about them.

Of course, if you have multiple students, even better! They could still read the lesson independently or read it together. Then, after a few minutes to review the exercises, hold a class or family discussion about each one. This will allow you not only to see who understands the concepts well but will also allow everyone to consider new perspectives.

You could even make this bigger than your family. If you have enough students, this would make a wonderful class for a co-op or learning group. Meeting once per week for an hour’s discussion would easily give you the required time to earn a half credit, and if you added homework and reading time, a credit should be very doable.

As we’re having a bit of a wonky summer and our schedule is out of whack, we’ve done a mixture of several of the above. My kids have been reading independently. Sometimes we discuss it together, sometimes they do the work on their own. I love the flexibility that this program provides!

Having studied Aristotle a bit in school, I love that many of the concepts within this book are based on his work. He had a huge body of work, so The Fallacy Detective concentrates on just logical fallacies.

Check out the Table of Contents for The Fallacy Detective.

This includes things like red herrings, avoiding the question, circular reasoning, generalizations, and analagies. These are all really important things to learn, and I love how clearly they’re presented. My favorite chapter, though, is the last one.

The last chapter is all about propaganda. While we’ve talked about this as a family and in book club, I appreciate how clearly and logically this series of lessons progresses. There are many practical applications for the information in this section, and I’m thankful that it’s included.

I’ve really enjoyed our work with The Fallacy Detective, and my students are going to continue with it to earn their credit. It’s a great and fun way to learn necessary skills while simultaneously working to complete high school requirements. Don’t take my word for it, though – click on the graphic below to read other reviews from the Homeschool Review Crew.

Hans Bluedorn Brings us Fallacy Detective and Archer & Zowie

How to Create a Comprehensive Record To Get Your Student into College

August 11, 2021 by Amy 2 Comments

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

Are you homeschooling through high school? I’ve been excited for years about the opportunities that are available during this season – but the idea of creating transcripts and other records is scary to me. After all, these things are really important for getting into college, right? – and both my kids want to go! That’s why I’m excited for the opportunity to review the Comprehensive Record Solution from The HomeScholar LLC.

The Comprehensive Record Solution Resource from The HomeScholar will show you how to create the necessary documents to apply for colleges and scholarships.

The Comprehensive Record Solution is perfect for families with students who plan to attend college. It includes information about all of the records that one might possibly need to submit to a school for consideration, no matter what type of school or record that might be. While The HomeScholar LLC also offers courses and information about specific types of records, (transcripts, for example), the Comprehensive Record Solution goes far beyond only the transcript and includes many others.

My Little Man is beginning his freshman year of high school next month, and for him, the timing of this resource is perfect. I’ll be able to use these resources to start his high school career off with a bang in terms of administration – because, really, unless you’re a guidance counselor, who of us really knows how to do all of this?

My Big Helper, though, is a junior in high school – and begins college classes next week as a dual-enrolled student. That means that I’ve now been stressing and researching my way through all of this paperwork and these records for several years now – and it’s totally not my thing.

The very best part of this, to me, is that everything is in one place. I don’t have to go looking for reputable sites that can teach me about which tests are the best fit for my students or when to take them. I don’t need to find out where to go for templates or transcripts or what to call classes. Everything is in this resource – and I love that!

Those templates? They’re my next favorite thing. I love that it’s all laid out for me, ready for me to personalize. There are even hints about what to change, what could be optional or left out, and how to do the whole thing – printed right into each document! Does it get any better than that? Because, seriously, there are many places that claim to offer templates – but in reality, what you get is a downloadable, printable-but-not-editable document that has a URL but is basically blank. No help there – but these? These are real documents that are downloadable in three digital formats so that you have access to one that works for you. When you download them? They’re completely editable with all of those hints and hacks to help you make the most professional record possible. That means streamlined, easier work for me, and as the parent/mom/curriculum specialist/principal/guidance counselor/district superintendent, I need all the help I can get.

When you click through to your purchased resource, your Comprehensive Record screen looks like this – easy to navigate!

Another great thing? There are four modules, divided into sections, each with linked, pre-recorded videos that share information you need. They’re easy to access, and the software that hosts it all is easy to navigate. Again – easy. Something I definitely need in this stage of my life, and I appreciate that I can concentrate on learning and using the information and not on figuring out a new website or management system.

The videos vary in length. Some are short introductions, others are much longer and more comprehensive, but all are clear and detailed. While they’re not recordings of Lee Binz, the owner, live and on screen, they are recordings of Powerpoint-like presentations as she does voiceovers. There are pictures, lists, and notes. The format is very simple but effective.

I wish that I had known about this resource two years ago as My Big Helper headed into her freshman year. I’m thankful to know about it now, though, and I’ll be going back to create aallllll of these resources and to continue to watch videos, click through to links for more information, and download more templates and forms and workbooks so that I can make the best and most comprehensive record for my kids as possible – so they can present their high school education in the best light possible for future review.

Don’t take my word for it, though – click on the graphic below to read reviews from other members of the Homeschool Review Crew.

Homeschool High School to College with The HomeScholar

How to Get Out of Teaching High School Science

July 29, 2021 by Amy Leave a Comment

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

I have two teens in high school right now – one who needs science credits and is wants to be done with them, and another who loves science and, as someone who wants to go into a science-related field, will need a lot of them. Except … science is not my favorite subject to teach.

How to Get Out of Teaching High School Science with Greg Landry

That’s why we were excited for the opportunity to review the Earth and Space Science Class from Greg Landry’s Homeschool Science. As My Little Man is just beginning high school and My Big Helper is registered for classes at the local community college this semester, I gave My Little Man the option of choosing the class – and it didn’t surprise me when he chose this one. He loves the earth, rocks, and space, and since it’s not likely that he’ll take a standard class about these topics in the coming years, this is the perfect choice for him.

I’ve known people who have taken Greg Landry classes over the years. They’ve always sounded tough and rigorous but perfect for being able to hand off science to another teacher. I’ve gotten the impression that they are wonderful for students who love science and are interested in that field – or for college-bound students who want solid science credits on their transcripts.

Our experience is the same. The Earth and Space Science Class is a one-semester class intended for students in Grades 7-12. The classes are held on Canvas, a learning management system that I’ve used before. It’s quite easy to set up an account and use, and navigation is simple.

Greg Landry’s Earth and Space Science class structure

Earth and Space Science is a video-based class consisting of an introductory video followed by seven classes. The lessons are roughly 30 – 40 minutes in length. The first class is actually a lesson about how to take notes in a format created by Landry himself. It’s a combination of traditional notetaking and the newer Sketchnotes, and I like the concept – so much that I’m requiring My Big Helper to watch it, as well, for additional information before beginning her college classes next month.

A notetaking handout from Greg Landry’s Earth and Space class

A PDF of downloadable handouts comes with the class and is found in Canvas. These handouts are used in the lessons themselves and are available in vibrant, full-color and black-and-white versions. As a teacher, I love the excitement of the color versions. I love how appealing they are to the eye and I know that if I were taking the class, those colors would help me remember the information. As a parent, I appreciate the black-and-white versions and the ability to print them at home or less expensively at our local print shop. The simplicity of the layout would lend itself well to coloring, highlighting, or marking, as well, making it possible to add some color excitement to even the monochromatic version.

A sample of a ‘homework’ assignment from Greg Landry’s Earth and Space class

I especially love the simplicity of the class – even more because that’s not at all what I expected. The handouts each have simple follow-up assignments that My Little Man was able to complete in minutes. They require him to understand the information given and show it in a basic way. It’s a no-frills, clear way to be sure that he’s comprehending and able to use the information. I have little patience for assignments that are lengthy, massive, and time-consuming when a simple one will do – and those don’t work well for My Little Man, either.

Landry does recommend a simple, verbal summary or question-and-answer session for each lesson in lieu of a chapter test or final. This, again, keeps things short and sweet – perfect for us.

Each lesson begins with prayer and covers basic information related to the topic. Landry makes the material easy to understand and the class is very doable. I’m excited to find how workable this structure is for the way that My Little Man learns – it’s a great fit for him. As he can do it completely independently, it’s a great fit for me, too: no more high school science for me!

Earth and Space Science with Greg Landry’s Homeschool Science

I don’t know how different from his full-length classes this shorter structure might be, but based on how much we like this one, I’d be willing to check it out. If you’re in need of science credits for your middle- or high-school students and you don’t want to teach them yourself, I’d definitely recommend giving Greg Landry’s classes a try.

Of course, you don’t have to take my word for it. Click on the banner below to read other reviews from the Homeschool Review Crew.

Online College Prep Science Classes with Greg Landry

What science classes are your kids taking this year?

Do You Know How to Make Ginger Ale?

July 28, 2021 by Amy Leave a Comment

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

I have never thought about how soda or beer or ale gets made. It’s just always been one of those things that you buy, you know? But then the opportunity arose to review a Starter Kit from Fermentools, and I got curious to see if it was something that I could do.

Do you know how to make ginger ale with Fermentools?

Honestly, though, fermenting seems to be typically for veggies. I know that you can ferment cabbage to become sauerkraut, and coming from a very Germanic community, I’m quite familiar with that particular dish – and I’ve never liked it.

Because of that, I was really only interested in learning how to ferment drinks. I’ve heard of kefir, kombucha, and the like, but I’ve never had them; I have enough friends who love them, though, to be curious. Recent health challenges have also caused changes in the way that I eat and drink, making me more willing to try these than ever before.

After my starter kit from Fermentools arrived, though, and we dug into the website a bit, we were happily surprised at all of the things that you can ferment. I think some of my extended family members would really enjoy using this! Because you can ferment other types of veggies, too, in all sorts of combinations, the possibilities seem endless.

My husband even asked me to make pickles – shocker! I was happy to try that, though, given the huge piles of cucumbers we’ve been storing in the fridge – but then our circumstances changed.

A family member spent several weeks in the hospital, causing major upheaval in sorts of ways here at home. After that – and after the funeral ended – it has taken time to regroup, catch up on things, and be able to focus again – and I’m still working on that last part. So when I dug back into those recipes, I found that they sounded much more complicated than they had originally. Had I not looked closely enough? – or is it just that my brain is still too foggy to figure out something new? I’m not sure; but either way, I couldn’t handle the pickle idea as the recipes seemed much more complicated than expected.

Here’s what you need to make ginger ale with a Fermentools starter kit.

With my Big Helper’s … um … help, we returned to the beverage idea and decided to make ginger ale. I was still a bit hesitant about the whole thing, especially since I didn’t have a jar big enough for the whole batch, but we decided to wing it with the biggest jar that we had and make the best of it.

My Big Helper figured out how to assemble our Fermentools supplies.

The process turned out to be much easier than I thought it would be after trying to muddle through the recipe – though, honestly, this was probably because My Big Helper pulled out the starter kit and figured out how to use the whole thing. I prepped the liquid and then turned it over to her, and she turned into the brewmaster who did the rest.

Letting the Ginger Ale brew …. with a starter kit from Fermentools

We let the ginger ale ferment for three days, in the hopes of maximizing bubbles without brewing any additional alcohol, and I think this was a good fit for us. I wouldn’t have minded having a few more bubbles, as there weren’t many, but the recipe said that you could also add seltzer water. We didn’t bother with that, as it was fine the way that it was.

I haven’t had ginger ale since I was a kid, and I have a feeling that this was pretty different. I really didn’t taste any ginger – it tasted like a mildly bubbly form of lemonade instead. Maybe I should have chopped up the ginger? At any rate, we enjoyed the lemony taste, and it was sweeter than expected – another pleasant surprise.

None of us loved it, though – totally a personal preference thing. I know that the probiotics are a huge health benefit, but it’s not worth pushing to me right now. There’s just too much on my plate, soI don’t think we’ll try the other beverages just yet.

I do think that the chow-chows and other fermented veggie mixtures have potential. Maybe I’ll be ready to tackle one of those before summer’s abundance ends.

To do that, I think you make a simple brine with the salt that comes in the starter kit. Then, pour it over the veggies, assemble the jar, and wait. I like that the salt has a handy-dandy measurement chart on it – that makes the process much easier.

I wish that more of the recipes on the website were this simple, though. Maybe if they had a rating system, like easy, medium, or difficult? A simple printed recipe book full of ideas to get you started would be a great addition to the starter kit. There are so many recipes on the website that it was hard to know where to start – and then when we found something that sounded interesting, we often found that we didn’t have the supplies or knowledge or experience to test it out. Maybe if my brain was more it’s usual adventurous self, we would’ve tried more – but even then, I would’ve appreciated a bit of direction since this was a totally new process for me.

Making Ginger Ale with Fermentools

If you’re a fan of pickled or fermented things and are itchy to try making them yourself, the starter kit from Fermentools is a great option. Don’t take my word for it, though – click on the banner below to read more reviews from the Homeschool Review Crew.

Fermenting Food Made Easy with Fermentools