Thomas Jefferson Education {TOS Crew Review}

We received a subscription to This Week in History, from A Thomas Jefferson Education, to review for the TOS Crew.  This Week in History was created by Rachel DeMille to inspire children to learn and explore thru history!

Our subscription gives us a weekly email that shares tons of information about what has happened on that particular day in history {This information can also be found via their website, with a paid subscription}. 

This Week in History is filled with daily facts, math, science, language skills, current events, geography and arts, all of this being tied to history. 

For instance, with This Week in History we learned about The Leaning Tower of Pisa.  Here are some of the suggested activities and things we learned:

Facts about the Tower of Pisa:
I never knew that the Tower of Pisa was a bell tower!
Did you know it took over 200 years to construct the Tower of Pisa?

Hands on Activities:
Make a tower out of Legos, Lincoln Logs, blocks, pancakes, or what ever you have.  Then answer these questions -

• How tall can you make it before it falls?
• Why does it fall?
• Does it lean? Why or why not?
• Do you have materials that are less inclined to fall or lean? Why are they different?
• Can you make a 3-D model of the Campanile of Pisa?

Ideas for writing or discussion:

• Do you know of other campaniles? Are there any examples in your community or somewhere not too far away?
• What is the purpose of a campanile?
• Does your home have some system for calling the family together?  (in our house, Mom whistles!)
• Does your community have a system for calling people together for important events or circumstances?
• Ask an elderly friend or family member if they have memories of bells, sirens, horns or other sounds in their community, and what those meant for them.
• Is there a landmark in your area – some building, mountain or other feature – that is especially memorable or iconic?
• What is the history of your local icon?
• What is a cathedral?
• Is there a cathedral near your home?

We also learned about the State of Missouri, Annie Oakley, Silly Putty, Tim Tebow, T- Rex Sue and Meteor Showers {and this isn't even the complete list!}

This Week in History is jam packed with facts, learning activities, links, and pictures.  I thought that this was a great starting point to get kids interested in something that they could further study if they wanted to. 

You can view a sample week here!

The goals of This Week in History are to:

• relieve fear, stress and burnout
• energizes your kidschool
• fill in the gaps
• cultivate cultural literacy
• facilitate state or provincial compliance
• correlate resources for co-ops, classrooms and family learning
• harness the power of technology in a classical leadership education
• harmonize with Unschooling, Charlotte Mason, Montessori, Trivium/Quadrivium, IEW, eclectic, etc.
• deliver new ideas and areas of learning to you and your child
• instigate discussions and projects that expand wisdom and understanding
• connect the subject areas–from music to math, from geography to world religions, from hobbies to science projects, etc.
• motivate you and your students to greater excellence
• deliver Face to Face with Greatness
• empower you to mentor your students in the classics
• enliven the 7 Keys of Great Teaching
• activate Phases of Learning

This Week in History is available for $9.99 per month.

Check out what others on the TOS Crew have to say about Thomas Jefferson Education!

Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Crew, I received this product, at no cost to me, in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are mine.

Our School Room

This week is the second week of the Not Back to School Blog Hop.   This is the week we get to check out everyone's school rooms or learning areas.  This is probably my favorite week because I love getting new ideas from other moms.

Here is a picture of our school room....

This side is on the left side of the room and houses all of our schoolish things.

This is the right side of the room.  It is our playroom area. 

For a more detailed look at our learning areas you can red this recent post of mine from a week weeks ago.  Here I have posted several more pictures.

Math Made Easy - Multiplication {TOS Crew}

We have tried several things to help Computer Girl {my 4th grader} get all of those multiplication facts memorized and until now we had not quite succeeded.

Recently, we were given the Math Made Easy - Multiplication program, created by Glenda Brown James, to review for the TOS Crew.  The goal of Math Made Easy is for students to master math facts in six weeks, with out using their fingers!

This program consists of a workbook that includes the following:

• Lesson Plans
• Pre Test
• 6 Weeks of Daily Activity Sheets
• Post Test
• Games
• Flashcards

We started using the Math Made Easy workbook about 5 weeks ago and she is doing fabulous!  I like the concept with this program.  It is a little different than memorizing your 1 tables, 2 tables, 3 tables and so on.  Instead, the student first learns that 0 times any number is always 0 and the 1 times tables. 

Next, the student learns 6 new multiplication facts per week.  These facts are learned by using fun worksheets as well as flash cards. 

Computer Girl has enjoyed working with this program and has seen how she has progressed.  She does her worksheets independently, I check them and go over any mistakes and then we do her flashcards together. 
There are a few games that were included in the program but we really just stuck the the basics.  She didn't seem very interested in them to be honest and did fine with out them.  I did feel like there was a lack of information on one of the games, I really wasn't quite sure what to do with it.

In my opinion, I feel this is a simple, yet effective supplement to get those multiplication facts memorized. 

The Math Made Easy - Multiplication workbook is available for $24.95.  This seems to be a good purchase especially since the author does allow copying with in your family so they can be used with several children.

Math Made Easy also has an Addition workbook available for younger students.

Please check out what other members of the TOS Crew have to say about Math Made Easy!

 

Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Crew, I received this product, at no cost to me, in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are mine.

Back to Homeschool Blog Hop - Our School/ Play Room

My little guy was sick yesterday, so I am a day late on my post...

I thought the best way to do this post would be in pictures.  Lots of pictures.  I know that when I am looking for new ideas for our learning spaces, the best way for me to get ideas is by pictures.  I am going to show you our school room, as well as the other learning spaces in our home.  So here we go...

We have been blessed to have a school/play room right off of the kitchen.  Funny thing is that we rarely school in there, at least not together.  The kids do independent studies in here and they also play in there.

This is the school side of the room.  Trust me, it is only this neat and tidy because everyone is in bed {smile}.  I do, for my own sanity, try to have it organized nicely and train the kids to put things in their place when they are finished with them.  Some of them are still in training.

A couple of years ago, we invested in two of the Expedit shelving units from Ikea.  B E S T -  P U R C H A S E - E V E R ! ! !  The unit on on the left house our history, chapter, geography and art books.  The other unit holds our picture books, early readers, Bible based, math and phonics stuff.  I try to organize these together in the different cubies. 

The small shelve to the right, you know the one with the fancy ivy stencil on it {what was I thinking!} is for science books. 

The table was a $10 yardsale find.  I painted the top of it with chalk board paint.  The kids really like it.  One time we even traced Alpha Boy on there and then added organs for health. 

That awesomely ugly and uncomfortable couch was freeeee on Craigslist.  It kinda grows on ya after a while. 

This is the play room side of the room.  Again, I try to keep things sorted, for the most part anyway.

Those small containers, the ones with the pink and green lids were from the dollar store.  They hold magnetos, finger puppets, little people, plastic animals, Laurie Pegs and Numbers, etc.  These are handy to grab for Little Bits to do at the table or on the floor while I am working with an older child. 

There is the piano and our turtle.  Hey, anybody want a turtle?  They are really low maintenance.

I used to have a clothes line going across this back wall, but I took it down.  Little Bits and I just started making these letters from No Time For Flashcards.  I needed a spot to hang them so I just clipped them to the curtain.  I am just going to go all the way across the back wall with them.

We start our day with B&B (Bible & Breakfast) here.  I read the Bible and have my coffee while the kids eat, then we go over our memory verses.  This is where I am usually helping the kids with their independent studies, like math and language arts.  All of our art projects seem to happen here too.

The message board on the left side of the wall is an old window.  I placed scrapbook paper on the backside and write and the window panes with dry erase marker.  It has been nice to day a spot there for emergency numbers, menu plans, memory verses, blog posts, etc. 

While I was at it with that table, I went ahead and painted this little wall in our foyer.  Sometimes I will throw up a tic tac toe board, mark a spot and go on about my day.  Someone usually spots it and joins in the game. 

We have used this for math problems, hangman, spelling lists and just for fun.  I would have done this in the school room but that room has a lot of windows and limited wall space.  For those of you that are wondering what the answer to hangman is, it's JESUS SAVES!

This is our family room.  We do the majority of our reading for history, science and fun. 

That large coffee table is older than me, and was given to me by my grandma before she died. I love it and we use it every day! It is big enough for the kids to spread out and color and draw while I read. The two baskets under the table house paper and how to draw books.

I put an old map under the glass in the coffee table there last year, this has been really helpful and well used. Like when we read that Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, we can quickly locate it.

I got tired of lugging legos back and forth during the day so I took an old plastic drawer to store them in the family room.  Some of the kids will play with these while I am reading.  The clean up is much easier now.

This is where the kids use the computer for Teaching Textbooks and learning games.

This used to be where I would sit and scrapbook and stamp my nights away.  Now it is just a place to store the arts supplies for the kids : ) 

As you can see, even with a dedicated school room, we are pretty spread out. 

Back to Homeschool Blog Hop - Homeschool Planning

I had to laugh when I typed up the title to my post, because I always feel like I am planning.  My little OCD mind is always planning and tweaking things, or so it seems. 

Even though I always feel like I am planning, I do a major planning session in the summer prior to starting school.  It looks something like this...

First, I search and pray. 
I ask myself if the current path we have been on is working.  If not, why or what is the problem?
I think about the children and their different learning styles.
I figure out what kind of budget I have to work with. 
Since a lot of what we do revolves around our history program, I figure out what time period we will be studying.  I use this as a starting point for our main curriculum. 

Once I have it all figured out {as if that is possible} I start going over our curriculum to get a feel for our year.  Using all in one type curriculum, like Trail Guide to Learning and My Father's World, really take a lot of the guess work and planning time out of the equation.  Both of these programs are pretty much have the year laid out for you, unless you plan on tweaking something. 

I have tried planning out our whole year and writing every thing out in my little planner.  Can I just say, for the record, I only did this one time.  Praise the Lord I know better than to use pen in a homeschool planner {smile}.  Since I learned my lesson on that one, I now only plan one week at a time. 

Usually, I take some time on Sunday evening to fill out my planner and go over our material for the week.  I try to make sure I am prepared and have all our papers printed out for the week.  Planning on a weekly basis has been a much better plan for us, it allows for plans to change and life to happen.

Do you plan for the whole year at once or as you go?