Look what I received this week:

Isn't that great?   Last year I did 23 reviews for the crew most of which I liked, but not all that I continued to use.

I thought you might like to know which reviews we are continuing to use.

You will find my review for Middlebury Interactive Languages here.  My son continues to be interested in learning German.   He is also using Duolingo, both programs teach German but have a different method of teaching it.

I am not convinced that we will finish the course before our time runs out and we've had vacation and some health issues, meaning we've missed a few weeks and therefore will need to do some back tracking.

We have a science program that we like, but my lad has this interest in astronomy, enough so that he was looking information up on youtube.  :)   Therefore it's a natural thing that Apologia Astronomy is a favourite in this household.  Experiments and information, is there anything more a boy could ask for in a science program?

For bible we had two reviews that we did, Grapevine which exercises my son's creative talents, and Veritas Press.   Although we LOVE both products, the one my son ASKS to do is Veritas Press.  this make it the winner in this category.   I will often come in from chores and find him already hard at work.

We reviewed two games this year.
Sunya (a math game) and Flipstir (a logic game).

Of the two my son loved Sunya and often plays it with his gramma. He finds it an easy game to play, and likes the gramma enjoys playing it with him.  Between Sunya and Chess, math is covered when he goes and visits (and needs to do some school too).

I, on the other hand, had a distinct fondness for Flipstir.   I remember getting frustrated by it and having my international student come along and sort it out and even give a hint about solving it.   It was an excellent smile for us.

We reviewed a number of programs that are great supplementary programs, from doing copywork, to notebooking, to online multi-subject programs.   It's hard to make a choice, but I have to go with the one the we continue to use.   Homeschool Copywork.  A nice program, that is non-complicated to use,  has elements that delight my boy, scripture and quotes, all round a good product.

I am not going to comment on the various math programs we tried out.  There were elements to each that my lad liked, but until this fall math really wasn't his thing.  We have a math program that he likes and at this point he's unwilling to even think about a different math program.  :)  

I do have a couple of notable mentions Carole Roman books.   History books written in a story format.  HUGE hit with my lad and CrossTimber, who name meaning gifts are so well done and the service so excellent I'd be lax if I didn't mention them.

I hope you have enjoyed this look through the year, and we check out our favourites.   Good products and programs that we like in our home.

"Mom", queried my son "Can I learn German?"  This a day after I mentioned that we had a chance to do a review for Middlebury Interactive Languages.  Therefore, for the past few weeks, we've been studying German with the online language course Middle School German 1.

Middlebury is a company that has created online coursework that  teaches the student  through a course that is rich in sight, sound and written work. Each Middle School Course provides 90 days of content.   The material neither dry or boring, but filled with native speakers providing content in a variety of ways to meet the needs of different students.

Middle School German 1 is a foreign language study program geared for youth in grades 6-8, my son is just starting 6th grade.  We have been working with this course for three days (Tuesday - Thursday) every week and we are making progress.   :)   It helps that the German language is somewhat similar to Dutch which is the language of my parents.  I won't say that we are moving through the course quickly as they cover alot of material in one lesson, but joy oh joy... Middlebury is set up in such a way that we can go back over lessons until a lad feels more confident in his abilities.  :)

When you first go to the Middlebury course you land on the dashboard, which shows you, three things.  1. any announcements 2. where you are in the course 3. where you would be in the course if you followed their schedule.

I have to admit, when I first saw where the schedule would have us I kinda panicked, thinking that we were already behind and how in the world would we ever catch up, but then I realized that we could work through the course at our own speed and it would turn out just fine.  :)

We are currently in the middle of lesson six, each lesson has a number of interactive panels to help you learn what the lesson topic is.   This includes both listening, speaking and writing skills.   My son and I are working on this course together, so occasionally I will say "Doesn't ________________ mean _____________?"  Or I'll ask him, where are our German sheets?   Will they help us out?   It's funny though, as sometimes I will have no clue what they are talking about and the lad will say "Mom, he's asking how you are doing today".   (or something else).  So learning together is definitely aiding us.   Anyways, back to one our favourite parts of Middlebury...the abililty to move back and forth in the lesson.

If you look in the upper corner of the lesson photo you will notice a little button that says "browse activities".   If you click that you will come to this page.  The check marks show activities completed, the colour pages show work left to do.  You can skip around forward and back until you think you have a good grounding in the lesson taught.   We love this feature!   :)

As you work through the lessons, they have a rolling sidebar that shows your progress through the lesson.

My son likes this bar as he's learned we scroll up to five panels back and forth in the course of a day, so he uses this screen to count.

What can I say...like every child he likes to know when his lessons are over.

He is liking the learning of German, but he also finds it hard, much harder than he thought it would be. 

I've been suggesting that we will occasionally have meals where we will practice our German using flash cards... he thinks that might be fun but hard to do.    Good to put a challenge forward for the lad eh?

The crew reviewed materials the courses below.  Click in the image to see what other reviewers thought about these online language courses.

Spanish Courses
French Courses
German Courses
Chinese Courses

Social Media Links:
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/Middlebury-Interactive-Languages-141015515949753/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MiddInteractive   @middinteractive
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/middinteractive/

Did you know that, pretty soon It will be time for interested parties to contact the Homeschool Review Crew.

Yes, isn't it exciting?    Just think...you too could be part of this marvellous group of people working together, helping others find excellent curriculum, and/or warning of you potential issues that they see.  Great eh?

So let me tell you WHY you should join the crew.

1. Friendship.  I know.. friendship?   With a bunch of people you meet on-line??? But yes, friendship.  You get to know each other through our blogs and through conversations.   Commenting on each others' blogs and sharing time and ideas with each other... IT IS GREAT!

2. Support.   Have a concern about schooling your children?   Curious about a curriculum?  Want to know some of the ins and outs of how a curriculum works and no one in your real world circles has even heard about it?   Well the ladies (and Tim!) of the crew will be HAPPY to help you out.  Giving real life experiences and tweaks if needed.

3. Curriculum.   The curriculum is great.  I haven't met one yet that I can say was truly awful.  Not all have been a great fit, but they have all had redeeming value and I've met some true gems....curriculum that I will turn to time and again to help me educate my boy.   Get this point clear... the curriculum is FREE!!!!   :)

4. Writing.  You want to become a better blogger and gain some inspiration for your blog?   Well.. the crew will help you.  You can ask leadership to review a blog post before you submit, you can query other crew members for ideas on how to say an idea better, you can read what others have to say and so learn from how they write. 

5. Volunteer opportunities.  Did you know that the crew leadership can't do ALL the jobs on their own?  I know.. stunning revelation eh?   Behind the scenes there are groups of people working, helping us to become the best we can, making sure all the "T's" are crossed, and that the vendors get good exposure for the dollars they pay for our help.

6. Prayer and Praise.  We can rejoice over victories in health, schooling and life.  We can join prayer of the sorrow of family loss, moving, job changes, illness and more.

7. World travel .. without even having to leave your home.  The crew is all over the place, this year I think we have Australia, England, Canada, all parts of the USA, and a few I can't think of right now.

So what do you need to join the crew?

1. A blog and a willingness to write posts.
2. Current requirement is once a week write a post.
3. Willingness to write reviews.
4. Be interested in knowing what curriculum is out there.
5. Being active on social media in order to spread the news about our vendors and the great products they have.

For more information check out this post here or click on the graphic below

My most recent book to review is a Christian fiction book called The Pray-ers / Book 1 Troubles, published by CTM Publishing Atlanta and written by Mark S. Mirza.  This is a book that uses a fiction format to teach the importance of prayer. 

Published by CTM Publishing Atlanta, and written by Mark S. Mirza.  Mr. Mirza's heart is to teach people how extremely important prayer is, and to encourage people to pray more effectively.

To do so he looks into the lives of three Christians, who have learned to be effectual men of prayer.   These men span the centuries and have struggles in their lives like all believers do, the question is... will these struggles defeat them and drive them away from God, OR will these struggles deeper their faith and conversation with God.  

The whole point of The Troubles, is to help people understand the important of prayer, that many things affect our prayers and we should not be ignorant of them.  Author Mark S. Mirza has put together a fictional tale where he shows the action of Satan's minions in the lives of the saints.  What they can and CANNOT do, according to the will of the Lord God.    He does his best to not give more credit than is due to Satan's minions (demons) than he has to be not capitalizing their names.    Until you get used to the style it makes for some difficult reading, but once you are used to the names used, it just flows along.

The Christian lives followed are:

• Biblical Epaphras and his fictional nephew,
• Post-Civil War Georgia, the real itinerant preacher Alexander Rich
  
• Modern-day Georgia, Dr. Dale, a fictional descendant of Alexander Rich.
  

I have to admit, that I love fiction, I've read more than one book about the struggle between Satan and God, many of them fictionally based and they all bring one thing to bear, okay, a couple of things to bear...
1. Imagine the most self-centred person you know and multiply that by a million, add fear to that mixture and a loathing of God and you have a demon.   They gloat, they preen, and they revel in themselves.   When it comes to believers they are sneaky and backhanded, and happy to let us fool ourselves.
2. God helps his people through the power of faith in him and conversation with him.   Nothing more is needed.  Well faith in him based on the word of God.  :) 

This fictionalized account brings this all to bear for me in this book.

Mark S. Mirza frequently footnotes scripture so we can see where he gets his assertions from.  He has his own method of citing scripture, often pulling up just one section of a verse to highlight his point.   Mr. Mirza is the founder of Common Thread Ministries, which offers coaching and help to individuals and churches in prayer. He leads the men's prayer ministry at First Baptist Church in Atlanta, as well as being a speaker and teacher in the area of prayer.

Think about that for a moment... to learn to live life you like you breathing prayer.  That's the point of this book.   Live life as a Christian = breathing out prayer.

  Prayer is vital!   We see it in the lives of the believers throughout the book.  We have front row seats that how, without prayer we lose battles, battles that should not be lost.

My Thoughts:
I honestly have mixed feelings about this book, I really do.   I see prayer as relationship between God and his individual people (as well as with his people corporate).   I think it's really really important to for people to know what nullifies the prayers of God's people.   Praying without really believing that God will answer your prayer?  Well what's the point in asking God then?   Prayer while you are ACTIVELY living a lifestyle contrary to the word of God?   Well.. again.. you are openly defying God himself, and you expect him to answer you?   I do not see prayer as a list of "these are the rules".  And my hesitation with this book, is that some struggling believers might simply see a list of rules, a list of do's and don'ts, that they won't see the living relationship that each of these believers had with God.   The real relationship that made their prayers real and honest and answerable by God.

IF you are a weak believer and you are interested in reading this book, may I ask you to do this: Read it with a strong believer.  Read it with someone you can bounce ideas off of and talk and learn and grow.   If you are a strong believer, see that YOUR PRAYERS MATTER.  They do!   They nullify the work of the devil, they showcase the power of God and that my dear readers is what it's all about.  We serve a Lord God who has won the battle already!   Let's win the small battles by focusing on bringing God glory through our faithful prayers.

Social Media Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThePrayersNovel/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThePray_ers @ThePrayersNovel
Website: The Pray-ers.

Hashtags: #hsreviews #prayersnovel #christianfiction

Pricing information can be found here, you can purchase the paperback for $23.95, or the epub for $4.99.

The TOS Crew is renaming itself.  We will now be called the Homeschool Review Crew.   You can read about our exploits here.

For the past few weeks my son and I have been studying astronomy with Exploring Creation with Astronomy, 2nd Edition sent to us by Apologia Educational Ministries.  My son and I started doing this wonderful science program, meant for students in K-6 together, but gradually my son is starting to work independently.

Apologia was gracious enough to send me a complete set of the Exploring Creation with Astronomy, 2nd Edition.   That set includes:

• Student Text
• Notebooking Journal
• Jr. Notebooking Journal
• Audio CD
  

So we worked through lesson one, noting how closely the workbook follows the textbook.   We saw the full colour pictures, and noted how clearly then set out the activities in the textbook. 

We noted the lapbook elements, which admittedly aren't my son's highlight, but he asked if he could write the information without having to make them.  And I agree, the point was to remember the information, they were just trying to make it a more interesting way of doing it.    He did make the odd element thought.

I do need to tell you about the giggles and conversations we've had.   One of the activities called for us to have three people minimum and since we didn't have the third person we decided the cat Milo could be the sun.   Boy oh boy, talk about a confused cat.  :)   He kept turning his head and looking at us, especially since each time the earth revolved around the sun the cat got a pet.   But add in the earth also rotating as it revolved and oh my...the giggles that ensued.  

It made for fun times and good conversations, like why doesn't the earth get dizzy, what do you think keeps the earth from getting all wobbly?   All these questions keep a boy coming back for more you know?

In Lesson two my lad decided not to do the lapbook element (as in making it, but he did write out the required knowledge).  He started to get a good idea about how the lesson would progress, and he chose to combine two steps into one.   We made a pinhole camera so we could clearly see the sun, and one of the questions asked was, what happens if you make the hole bigger or smaller?  it called for using different pieces of tinfoil which my lad thought was wasteful.   So he made a modification.

It was rather funny though, one of the books my son really likes is the Warrior Cat series and at one point there was an eclipse which scared all the cats.   So as my lad was playing around with this pinhole viewer, he added an element where the sun was blocked....It was funny.  How did you feel mom, where you like the cats and all scared when you couldn't see the sun   Huh mom????   :)

The clear concise text, the ample room to write and questions that followed the text, all help my lad in his quest for more independence in his work.  

I suspect, that by the time we are at lesson seven my lad will be taking more control of how he works through this science curriculum.  Exploring Creation with Astronomy, 2nd Edition has proven to be a timely addition to our homeschooling this year and we will be finishing this book.  It'll be our science go to.  :)   It's working well to teach my lad that he can work independently.  He's thought about using the MP3 cd for the reading portion, but at this point doesn't see the need to do so.   It's great to have it, for days you don't feel like reading, or if you have a less than confident reader.

Various members of the crew have been working diligently with Exploring Creation with Astronomy, 2nd Edition by Apologia Educational Ministries.    There is also an additional science kit you can purchase to go along with this course.  It is not mandatory, it is just an exciting optional purchase to help complete experiments both in the book and in addition to it.  You can find that kit here.  To read what other TOS reviewers have to say, click the image below.

Social Media Links:
Facebook: https://facebook.com/apologiaworld
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/apologiaworld @apologiaworld
Pinterest  https://www.pinterest.com/apologia/
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/apologiaworld/

Hashtags: #hsreviews #apologia #astronomy #homeschoolscience

Hey! 
You know how it's good to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills?
You know how lovely it is when you can do so in a fun way?
Then let me introduce you Enlivenze LLC who has come out with FlipStir puzzles, a fun way to do logic and creatively thinking, in our home we used the Solar System puzzle.

Recently we went on vacation.  It was a five hour trip to our destination with two boys in the back seat.  They played minecraft for a while but it does start to wane after three hours.  This was followed by... what can we do?  Can we stop for a while?   So I pulled out my critical thinking puzzles on the tablet, my son's pet spider, and the FlipStir puzzle.   ALL were an instant hit.   Two boys talking over the tablet puzzles and working to solve them, then my lad watched his spider and his friend worked on the FlipStir Puzzle (Solar System).   This is a 10 piece 3D puzzle, contained in a plastic sleeve with a wand for helping to move the pieces about.   No pieces can get lost.

I have to admit, when I first got the puzzle I wondered...would I ever get it together?   But then my fine international student took a hand.  :)   It didn't take long before he showed me this:  (Well done eh?   He finished it in 10 minutes what it took me 10 just to get set up!)

I have to admit he made me laugh, When I asked him how he did it so quickly, he said "You must have patience of the French", giving me this big cheeky grin.  :)  "It is not so hard if you remember to go slow and carefully" he added as an encouragement.

I do need to tell you that my son is great at watching people do it, but has yet needed to work up the courage (and willingness) to do it for himself. He currently excels at offering advice to others though about what they should do.  :)  Hubby won't try it at all (but that's not a surprise as physical logic puzzles tend to annoy him), but I've happily worked away at it several times.  It gets easier the more we do it.

It has recently developed a squeak to it, which I am not sure why, but I've been wanting to dump a touch of cornstarch on it to see if that solves the issue.  it doesn't impede the game at all and means I am more aware of how I am moving the stick.. which perhaps is why it is occurring, to make the user more aware and therefore more careful, definitely adds an extra level of difficulty to the puzzle.  :)

The Game is not hard.  You shake up the puzzle to rearrange the pieces, then you use the stick to line them up and then to move the pieces from the wrong location into the right one.  You need to carefully shake the tube to help turn pieces around (while using the stick to keep the correct ones in places).   The wavy lines of this level two puzzle I found to be very helpful in getting them to stay in place nicely.

Selling for $24.95, this durable, self-contained puzzle (so you can't rearrange the stickers or lose any pieces) will last a long time.  The puzzle I received had the picture of the final image printed on the bottom in case you got it mixed up.   It has definitely served our family well as a travel game, boredom buster for international student, pain-distractor for an injured person, and an advice aid, helping my lad clearly articulate what he thinks the next move should be.  (You do need to state it more clearly then move the stick thingey over that world and turn it over) 

If you are looking for a game to help your child think critically, that might take a bit of encouragement to get them to do, looking at a long car trip and needing a distraction for them, or even have a child needing to articulate directions well...this self-contained puzzle game should do the trick!   (but that's just my opinion)   :)

Social Media Links:

Product Accounts
Facebook: www.facebook.com/flipstirpuzzle
Twitter: www.twitter.com/flipstir

Company Accounts
Facebook: www.facebook.com/enlivenze
Twitter: www.twitter.com/enlivenze

Imagine this... You have a child who is good at art, but is reaching that stage where he wants to try new things, but has a mother who isn't quite up different ways to do art and doesn't have the inspiration for it either?   Enter in The Entire Level I course of ArtAchieve... it has been a blessing to a lad and his mother.  :)

ArtAchieve: What is it?

• Inspired by art from all around the world
• help people like me teach art to my lad
• includes helpful links to make the art lesson broader, covering social studies, science and language arts
  
• it is an online art drawing program from children from kindergarten age up through to adults of any age.
  
• Lessons are presented in video and power-presentation formats
  

What is included in the Entire Level I course?

• Shading Rounded Objects (this is also a free lesson)
  
• The hungarian Insects
  
• The Haitian Gecko
  
• The dragonfly from Ecuador
  
• The Chinese Dragon
  
• The Owl from Bali
  
• The Kitenge Tree Wall Hanging from Tanzania
  
• The Plate from Nepal
  
• Four Suns with Four Faces
  
• The Sheep from Wales

Each Lesson has four sections to it.

   I really appreciated the layout of this on-line art curriculum, I loved that we could go as fast or as slowly as we wanted to.

We started out each lesson watching the video lesson.  This gave us an opportunity to just see what we were going to do and get the ideas into our heads.  We would talk about the new techniques we would be learning and make sure we had the needed supplies.

We'd research the topic of the lesson... geckos, suns in art, and dragonflies.   Seeing how people have used them in art and observing them in the wild (via video in the case of geckos).   We did science (studying geckos and dragonflies), Geography (learning about where the art inspiration came from, seeing where that was in the world), art (seeing how the sun has been used in various art forms) and more.  Art, interwoven into so many subject areas.  I can totally see this being used in a co-op situation if you have a screen big enough for all the children to view.

We worked out way slowly through each of the lessons using the power point presentation.   We really liked how we could go slide by slide, skip ahead, go back and double check what we are doing.   Using out touch screen laptop was very beneficial in this, helping us flip through the slides quickly.

And to be honest, I have to admit that I really liked that ability to slow down and go at our own pace, it fit into how we do school and life.  :)

Working on the four suns project was a great way to show my lad how two people can approach the same project with the same instructions and come out with a completely different project.  It taught him a bit about planning ahead, and when that doesn't pan out the way you thought it would, how to regroup and figure out how to make it work.   I LOVE the vibrancy in my son's four suns work (he didn't want me to show the finished work).  He is SO detail oriented... I think the final result turned out splendidly but all he sees is the bobble he made on the cool side...  In my eye the colours on his just pop out and say HEY, look at me!!

I have to admit, that there were areas that my son struggled with. This provided us with an opportunity to talk to John and discover that he's a very helpful and friendly fellow.

Rules for drawing stymied my lad:
Silence?   Playing Music?   MOM!!!!
Some of you don't know me or my boy well enough to know that we are chatterers.   We like to talk about all sorts of things while working, and most often it's not connected with the task at hand.   So the idea of playing music or working in silence was an anathema to us.   So we asked John why this was a recommendation. 
His words: Maybe a story is a helpful way to answer this. When I learned to play tennis, I was constantly saying things like, “Oh, no!” and “Come on! That was terrible!” as I swatted at the ball. A friend advised me to hum while I played, and for me that humming ushered in a big step of progress in my playing. Why? Because while I hummed (while I was caught up in the tune) I wasn’t able to engage in all the negative talk. The negative talk got in the way of being playful, thinking visually/spatially, and being aware of how the game was going. The negative talk turned play into work, and made me a poor player. Humming made me more playful; it made the game almost like a dance. As the game became more fun and playful, my skills advanced rapidly.
       Playing music during art can work in a similar fashion, if we let it. It also helps us make that mind shift from verbal/analytical thought to spatial thought. If it helps to hum along with the music, do so. If you prefer to simply hum, like I did in tennis, skip playing music, and simply hum.
My son couldn't work his head around humming and doing art, so we gave up on that idea, and has been learning that silence sometimes helps with concentration, but we still chatter.. it's part of who we are.  :)   

As you go through the lessons, John makes them as helpful as he can.  Providing lists of supplies needed, practice sheets for drawing and basic instructions for what to do with your paint is too thin, not the right shade and such like.   Many different techniques are included into each art work, from learning the cool and warm colours, shading, blending and much more.

Our most recent project, the dragonflies, we haven't finished yet.   My son is not convinced that adding water colours to the oil pastels will work well, so he's been testing it out on "bad drawings".   What colours he wants to use, how much, in what patterns and will it affect his dragonfly?   He's worked hard on it and isn't convinced it "isn't perfect" but is starting to think it "might be okay".   It's hard sometimes when you are a perfectionist and you're engaged in a medium for the first time.   It's been a great project for him though, as he's seeing how science and art go hand in hand... from learning about the object we're drawing, to finding ways to draw circles in decreasing sizes, mixing colours, figuring out thickness of paint and water and how to combine the two, and through it all...needing to breathe out his frustration and relax.

The relaxation techniques that he hated when we started have become a part of doing art now.  As John told us "it’s a way of helping us be more aware. First, we take time to be aware of our breathing, and that aids in slowing us down; it sets us up for being aware and taking time to look carefully when we get into the drawing, to notice how a color is working, etc."

We received a years access to the entire lesson I art drawing lessons from ArtAchieve. 

I fully anticipate completing the rest of the art projects. 

Over the next three weeks I anticipate finishing another project with our International Student who is visiting us from France.

It will be a great way to practice English and to have fun learning.  He's quite curious about the fact that we school at home as he's never heard of such a thing before. 

Did you know that you can purchase individual lessons?  I know awesome eh?   You can also try out sample lessons from each of the levels.  

The site is easy to navigate, so I recommend you visit them and check out the individual lessons.   Each bundle of lessons is priced differently ($27 and up), as are the individual lessons ($4 each and up).   All available for a full year.

99 people from the TOS crew have been reviewing three of the different levels the ArtAchieve offers. 

Entire Level I
Entire Level II
Entire Level III

Click on the banner below to learn more

Social Media Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Artachieve
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/artchieve  @artachieve
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/artachieve/
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+artachieve
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnahofland/

Are you an eclectic homeschooler who touches on a variety of subjects and often does homeschool your own way?   Well have I got a product for you from NotebookingPages.com, called the Lifetime Membership.  Journalling, note-taking, picture drawing... so many options to supplement your learning.

So what is notebooking you ask?
According to the Homeschool Mom: Notebooking is related to lapbooking, but notebooking is a bit simpler, with the information inserted into simple 3-ring binders ..... Notebooks are put together using maps, lab reports, scrapbook pages, worksheet pages, drawings, essays, timelines, and any other relevant work that your child creates.  (source)

There is SO much information on this site.  It's totally surprising.   So once you have your membership, you will have this for a dashboard:

As you can see, there are numerous categories you can choose from.   Within each category you will find a number of sub-categories.

Each of these categories opens into additional files.    One of the things that is rather cool is you can choose how you download the files to your computer.   In the mammals folder below you will see a "mammals zip file".   This holds the entire contents of this file.   But let's say you just want to look more in-depth at say...just the African buffalo, then you scroll down the page until you come to that file and it will open into a PDF so you can print it off.

As I scrolled through this list, reading off random ones to my son I came across Mouse.  My lad's ears perked up and he said "Can I write about them mom?"

If you look closely you will see this file comes with regular lined notebook pages as well as print line style.

You can choose to print off individual pages, or the entire unit.   I choose to print off the entire unit and let my lad look it over and choose what he wanted to do.  He can do this better with the pages in hand.  I honestly expected him to pick the print-lined sheets with a spot to draw a picture, but he surprised me.

You know, it's good to be surprised by a boy child.   It really is.  :)  

AND THAT my friends is why I can recommend NotebookingPages.com to you, the lifetime membership is worth it. 

With so many different options (over 600 pages) available to intrigue your child(ren), you might end up being surprised as well. We also worked on music, snakes, biographies and more, so much information it was hard to pick.  It will fill a gap, allow for creative expression, fill a need in a child to tell why he likes something, or just peek a child's interest to look into something more deeply.  

And that's a good thing, is it not?

You can learn more about NotebookingPages.com  and the Notebooking Pages Lifetime Membership by clicking on the image below.

In case you wonder if we covered other areas, check out these pages the lad did as well.  :)  Music, snakes, biographies and more.  Good stuff from a boy child who really isn't into copywork,but sometimes CHOOSES to be, and NotebookingPages.com has encouraged that in my lad and I am happy.

Games, people, characters, facts and bible....Tie it all together and you get Veritas Press Bible...my son's all-time favourite bible (or for that matter.. any type of learning other than hands-on science) program EVER.  Over the past several weeks my son has been happily reviewing Old Testament 2 by Veritas Press. This Self-Paced Bible online course contains the stories Judges to Kings.

I have to admit, my son got hooked on Veritas Press when we reviewed a history program for them a while back.   Since then we've purchased a couple of programs for use as well as the first of the bible series.  So to say we are fans is a bit of a understatement.  :)   Anyways, let me tell you WHY we like this program so much.

Clicking on a course opens it up showing what you see in the image below.   Every five lessons is a test covering that unit as well as a bit of the previous lessons.   This helps the student to retain information learned.   I have to admit, he's not doing as well in the Judges to Kings program as he is in the Genesis to Joshua program, but that is due to needing to know dates and as my son says "dates are boring mom".

We love this online bible course because it has interesting characters in the interactive video, the lessons are clear.  The set up is that it will quiz with six or so questions to see if you know anything about the subject matter to be talked about, and at the end of unit it will test you on everything presented in the material, plus questions from previous lessons.. focusing on the dates.

Games, activities, questions and answers... presented in different ways.  I won't tell you that every game is going to be hit, but there will be sufficient variety to maintain interest. The song is a great way to aid in remembering the order events happen in... he'll hum along when he is struggling to remember the order something happened in.

My son likes doing the maps since they allow him to keep trying until he gets it all right.  I like that it forces him to keep trying so he has to remember this important geography.   Currently we are reading through a book on Ancient Civilizations and when we are on Israel my son would pop up with "MOM!   That town is here and did you know _____________?"   As he spills out information he learned through Veritas Press.  I LOVE IT!   I love how he is learning all this stuff and remembers enough of it to tell me about it.  It's great!  :)

Our morning routine is get up, take care of the critters, catch up on tablet stuff and have breakfast.  My son has taken to modifying this routine in that he gets done taking care of his critters long before I do and he pops into the house to work on Veritas Press.  He loves doing it first thing because "Mom, it's fun and I learn stuff!".    This is a familiar scene for me....coming in to find my lad sitting in my chair listening and learning.

My laptop is a touch screen which apparently is THE BEST for playing the games.

I've offered to sit with my boy and learn with him, but he has nixed that.  "Mom, I like learning it.  Then I can tell you later and surprise you with what I know."   I do occasionally get called to help him with the odd game though but get told "DON"T answer the questions mom.... I want to!"    That speaks volumes to me about how much he likes this online bible curriculum.

My pastor hubby appreciates that they haven't sacrificed knowledge in the pursuit of a fun learning environment.  The bible stories and the history around them are presented clearly without fudging details.  Scripture references are always included.

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