Homeschool Review Crew

Writing has always been a subject I’ve enjoyed teaching. For the most part, as homeschoolers, we’ve taken advantage of authentic writing experiences and audiences and kept journals of all kinds. I’ve noticed, however, that while my kids are really good content writers, there are a few areas that they could make stronger – and that’s why I’m excited for the opportunity to review Jump In, 2nd Edition by Writing with Sharon Watson.

The first thing I noticed about this curriculum is the format of the pages. Most textbooks for kids in Grades 5-8 pack a lot of information on the pages. There isn’t as much white space as there is for younger students, and clip art or other fun elements are at a minimum. Jump In, 2nd Edition is quite different. The elements on the pages aren’t always in straight lines, and there’s lots of white space on the pages that the kids write on. I love that! It feels friendlier and is much less intimidating this way.

Perhaps that’s because this curriculum is targeted (in part) for reluctant writers. It’s not designed only for them, as the other half of the tagline states that it’s for eager readers, but I think that page layout is important. As an elementary teacher and the mom of a kid who gets very intimidated by tiny lines and busy pages, these are beautiful. (Of course, that does mean that there are more pages to print, but to me that’s a happy trade for a comfortable kid who’s not stressed by the lessons.)

Writing isn’t the favorite subject of My Little Man, although he does well, but he was okay working through this curriculum because of the bite-sized pieces and how approachable each page appeared. The random alignments and bits of clipart and graphics really adds to the appearance of the pages.

My Big Helper, on the other hand, is a fantastic writer and she loves it. She’s hoping to write a novel this summer based on research that she did this past school year! She was still intent on each lesson, often going beyond what was required for it. I love that this curriculum allows for that kind of personalization!

Another thing I liked about this curriculum is that it jumped right in with opinion writing. That’s one of the areas I wanted my kids to practice, and it was nice to hit that first, right off the bat. The types of writing that can be rather formulaic, at least in the beginning, are at the front of the book. That kinds of writing that require more creativity and constructs that take place over a longer piece of writing are towards the end. We don’t often teach it that way in school, but it makes sense to me, and it’s working for us so far.

The lessons are broken down into very manageable bits, and they’re very kid-friendly. I’ve been asking my kids to read certain pages and making the assignment, and they go, do it, and then bring me their work. They’re able to do it all very independently, and I can break the lessons into chunks that works for each of them easily – because they both have a different amount of work they’re able to handle at one time when it comes to writing. This made it all very easy for me and comfortable for them.

The lessons continue in much the same vein. They’re a great mix of technical information in kid-friendly formats. Almost every page has some sort of interactive part, whether you’re jotting notes, underlining key information, or making a list to contribute your own thoughts to the lesson. The students aren’t being asked to write paragraphs or essays this frequently – just adding or interacting with the information in ways that will help it stick. I think this is key.

Moving onward throughout the book, there are lessons about some common types of writing that all students need to understand. From persuasive writing and newspaper articles to fairy tales and poetry, Jump In, 2nd Edition teaches kids the basic skills they need to be confident writers at a wide range of types of writing. Best of all, though, it’s all done in a way that makes the student comfortable and confident.

I’m looking forward to having My Little Man continue with this curriculum next school year. I love the comprehensiveness of it, but also that it gives him solid skills to add to his toolbelt.

If you have a writer who could use a bit of polish or confidence, give Jump In, 2nd Edition a try – but don’t take my word for it. Read more reviews on the Homeschool Review Crew’s roundup by clicking on the graphic below.

We’ve been studying art more than usual over the past few months as we’ve read The Frame-Up with our book clubs. (Click on the title to find out how we interacted with the book.) We really had fun with this and knew that we wanted art to continue to play a larger-than-normal part in our studies, but I wasn’t sure how to make that happen. That’s why I was excited for the opportunity to review the Famous Artists Online Unit Study (Vol. 1) from Techie Homeschool Mom.

When we first started to homeschool, I loved teaching both kids every subject. Because their reading abilities varied, we sat at the school table, reading, coloring, painting, and otherwise working on a variety of projects and work together. My Big Helper and My Little Man studied all of the same things with differentiation primarily coming in varied expectations and book selections for reading work.

Now, however, My Little Man is in middle school and is a much more independent worker. He’s learning time management skills and can do more on his own.

My Big Helper will be in high school next year, and she’s been mapping out her own daily schedule for two years now.

With that new independence comes the ability for each of them to choose more about what and how they want to learn, and they both love technology.

That’s one aspect of the Famous Artists Online Unit Study (Vol. 1) that is so great. Both kids enjoy using technology, and they learned new skills to complete the required elements of this class. They really liked learning how to take notes, do simple research, and construct a final Emaze project from what they learned.

Because their work habits are so different, however, they completed these tasks in very different ways. My Little Man sat down, read the lesson, did his research, and headed off to complete the next thing on his list. He was excited about what he learned, and he eagerly yelled for me to come and listen to the information he was finding, but he’s not one to linger over learning projects.

My Big Helper, on the other hand, absolutely loved being able to turn the information she learned into an online presentation. She would spend hours trying to get fonts and pictures lined up perfectly, not because it was difficult, but because design is her thing, and she wanted to do her best. Those hours weren’t required, of course, but she wanted to go above and beyond what was absolutely necessary, and I love that she found the projects so much fun.

Famous Artists Unit Study (Vol. 1) features ten famous artists, each one famous for a different style of art. We chose to study one artist each week, and as there are five parts to each study, that worked out very well for us.

On Day One of each study, the student is asked to watch a video describing the art movement in which the artist studied. S/He then takes notes into a Google doc to be used later in the week.

On Day Two, the student listens to an audio file or watches a video (or a series of them) about the life of the artist being studied. S/He is asked to choose four facts about that artist’s life to add to the doc started the day before.

The third day is always about a piece of art for which that artist is famous. The student learns more about that piece and adds to the doc. On this day, like the other days, the students can comment in the teaching file, on Instagram, and in Pinterest to add their own comments and feelings to the body of work being collected by the participants.

On Day Four, the student is given directions to create his/her own unique piece of art in the style of the artist being studied. My kids both really liked this one, and I enjoyed the hands-on element that this added to this digital study.

The fifth day’s work always took my kids the longest, but they definitely put more time and effort into this day than the others. Emaze is a website that allows students to create presentations that are much like PowerPoint presentations, but instead of being created on your computer with specific software, Emaze remains completely online. I like not having to take up memory space for special programs! Both kids worked really hard on their presentations, but they were able to tailor them to their own specific personalities, and that made the work really fun. You can see one of My Little Man’s Emaze projects below.

All in all, we’ve really enjoyed taking this class with Techie Homeschool Mom. I love that we can start and take breaks when we need to, because when you purchase classes from Techie Homeschool Mom, you have access across all of your devices forever. Isn’t that great? We’ll be traveling some in the weeks ahead, so we won’t be able to do our regular schoolwork each day, but we can pick up right where we leave off in this study.

Techie Homeschool Mom has a wide variety of courses available. They include classes about holidays, government, history, science, biographies, art, and more. If you’re interested in multiple classes, she sells some as bundles which reduces the cost.

We’ll definitely consider more courses from Techie Homeschool Mom, but don’t take my word for it. Click the graphic below to read more reviews from the Homeschool Review Crew.