A Documentary leads to read aloud fun.

We recently received a fun documentary from Legacy Documentaries to review and enjoy. Almanzo Wilder: Life before Laura retails for $21.95 plus shipping and is loaded with tons of  photos and reenactment footage based on the book Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The DVD can be enjoyed by any age that is able to either watch a video or listen to the dialogue.
This video reminded me of a childhood crush. When  I was young and watched Little House on the Prairie I had a huge crush on Dean Butler who played Almanzo on the television series, so much so that I decided one year I had to dress up as Laura for Halloween in hopes that he would ride into town with his horse.
Back to the subject at hand...  The Documentary led to us reading Farmer Boy as a fun read aloud taking the stories in the documentary to the next level and discussing the difference in farm life then and now.  My boys haven't seen the whole series nor have we read all the books, so this was something new for the boys.
Lately my boys have become obsessed with horses so they enjoyed all the horse references really caught their attention.

Catch a glimpse of this DVD in the trailer below.


Legacy Documentaries has created  2 documentaries tied to the Laura Ingalls Wilder books as well as a CD of music inspired by the era. The DVD we reviewed is a high quality program with clear sound and vivid cinematography. We watched the DVD three times and amazingly enough saw something new each time. The details in the history of the Wilder homestead  in upstate New York really engaged my boys. I love finding something that engages my fun memories and my boys' attention at the same time.

The Schoolhouse Review Crew reviewed two videos from Legacy Documentaries and share their thoughts on the DVDs, you can read their thoughts and experiences  by clicking on the button below.

Looking for a little BrainFood, check out this fun Mammals DVD

 We recently received a fun DVD from BrainFood Learning to review and share our thoughts here.  The boys selected The Fascinating World of Mammals as their first choice. The day we received it in the mail, the boys immediately put it in the DVD.
The DVD retails for $14.99 on BrainFood's website and is for all ages which made it fun when Papa arrived for a visit and watched it along with the boys. (at that viewing we covered ages 7-82, not too bad for a educational DVD)
The boys enjoyed watching the DVD even though much of it was review from previous unit studies and along with our various studies of the creation story. Each of the boys did a very good job with the quizzing in the movie. It was a nice break for Mommy, as I was able to work in the kitchen (fixing lunch and cleaning up breakfast) while the boys and their Papa enjoyed some very relaxed school time.  The easy going style of the review questions on screen and the vivid cinematography kept the boys attention so well, they even watched the credits go by.

BrainFood Learning was started by parents looking for educational programs that would keep the attention of little ones and when they didn't find it, they decided to create the content themselves. As a parent I really appreciate that aspect as well as the style of the videos. Seeing the animals in their native habitat helped my boys see the animals as real, I can't really explain it , but with the various cartoon movies portrayal of animals, my boys often times forget that animals are part of God's amazing creation and have their own homes and families.
BrainFood Learning is also a Pacific Northwest company out of Bellevue, Washington, I love when my kids get excited about a program and it is what I consider local.

Another feature of the DVD that I really appreciated, a lesson plan, while I didn't incorporate the extra goodies into their summer viewings, I am creating a notebook with these activities as an option on our Science shelf.  There are 3 lesson plan pdfs to download on their website (free is even better), 1 set for each of the 3 Fascinating World of DVDs. We are also heading to the zoo for a summer concert series but will also be looking for some of the mammals seen in the video and talk about their habitats in the wild versus in captivity.

Below is a short preview (including the credits that caught my boys' eyes) so you can check out this wonderful DVD. After watching the preview again, myself, I am considering offering it as an option for our Auntie School sessions if the little boys would like, maybe let them play with some of the animal toys I have stashed while we watch it together.


Other crew mates reviewed this DVD along with 2 other DVDs from BrainFood including  Fascinating World of Insects  and Fascinating World of Birds. Your can check out previews of their DVDs on their YouTube Channel and be sure to check out what the rest of the crew thought by clicking on the graphic below.

Teaching the teacher and then teaching the student with IEW

Institute for Excellence in Writing

Five years ago I attended a small homeschool conference in Spokane, Washington as a vendor representative, this led to a chance meeting that would leave a lasting impression. I met Andrew Pudewa and talked with him about writing and teaching writing. Moving forward to 2013 and working with the Schoolhouse review crew, I was over joyed to see IEW appear on our vendor list and was even more excited when we were chosen to review these two products. 

Teaching the teacher with Teaching Structure and Style

Are you ready to learn as the teacher? Teaching Writing the Structure and Style is a 10 DVD set (6 DVDs are the teacher's course work, 1 DVD of tips and tricks , and 3 DVD of Student Sample workshops 1 for each level A,B, and C) along with the binder full of source material, seminar materials, chart, and tools for teaching the program to your students. 

The day it arrived I watched the first 2 DVDs that afternoon and evening and started the activities in the binder. My husband even watched bits and pieces with me, finally deciding that he wanted to watch the student version with the boys instead.   The series retails for $169.00 and is more than worth the investment. I love the videos and the way Mr. P (as my boys have started calling him) breaks down each of the steps. There is still a lot of flexibility with the program, I know that some areas are going to take longer for the boys and some things they are going to get right out of the gate. 

I love getting the history of the program, it made me think of a Chemistry class I took in high School. We didn't learn a lot of chemistry but since it was an advanced class the instructor felt we needed to learn things that would get us through college and beyond (testing techniques, note taking techniques, and how to mark in a textbook for study purposes), oddly enough I still have that chemistry book (the school district was going to throw them out at the end of the year and our teacher managed to swing us keeping them).

Understanding the tricks to teaching our students and even a group of students the foundations for thinking was a huge break through for me. It isn't about writing a research paper where we hand them an idea , give them a few books to reference, and send them on their way; it is about teaching them to think and understand the why of the assignment.

Teaching our children to think, will lead them to much greater things then if we are to teach them how to rewrite what has already be rewritten.  

The boys loved the fact that Mommy had to spend some serious time working through TWSS before I could introduce them to the program. They think it is fun to watch Mommy learn something new. As I worked through the DVDs my goal was not only to do the work but to also make notes for myself as the teacher to use as we worked through the program with the boys. Knowing that I would be presenting the program to not only the 2 little boys but also my husband meant I would need to have a strong grasp of all the aspects,so with post it notes in hand and my pencil I made a variety of notes to myself as I worked through the various units. 

Units 1 and 2 introduced me to a new way of note taking as well as retelling from notes rather than having the source still with me. 

Unit 3 really gave me a way to look at creative writing differently and story telling in a simpler way.  

Unit 4 reminded me of all the copious notes I use to take and how I struggled to sort through them when it came time to use them, I am grateful for this system to teach the boys how to take notes without overwhelming themselves later.

Unit 5 I have to say at first I wasn't sure about unit 5, but as I worked through it and thought on it more, I gained more understanding of writing from pictures. I also love the handling of the "verbs of being" . Teaching  children at a young age how to use concrete verbs sets the foundation early on. Relearning this concept in college is not the way to do it.

Unit 6 Since my boys are younger I only spent a brief amount of time on this and will be revisiting it as we continue on our writing journey. Unit 6 is a continuation of unit 4.

Unit 7 This unit inspired me to change how I will be teaching creative writing in the fall to our co-op class of 3rd graders. I love the list of ideas for Creative Writing Assignments in this unit.

Unit 8 Essay writing, definitely a topic I never thought I would revisit after college, but here I am getting ready to teach my boys how to write an essay, yikes! Thankfully I can depend on IEW and TWSS to help me through the process.

Unit 9 Critiques like reviews of products and books is something I feel pretty solid in but am still grateful for the lists and technique.

I love the tips section of the binder, page after page of helpful little bits to add to the whole experience teaching the boys. Finally the binder ends with an Appendix, where I found great tips for lesson planning and expectations for covering all 9 units and not getting stuck on units 1 and 2, I will most likely make a copy of the Lesson Plan page to include in the boys' planners or at least Mom's planner for August through December.

Teaching the student with Student Writing Intensive

Now that Mom managed to learn the Structure and Style method, shall we introduce it to the boys?

Student Writing Intensive level A is a 5 DVD bundle with binder full of reproducibles and dividers. The DVD box holds the 4 student DVDs plus an Overview of Structure and Style DVD. The overview DVD is just that an overview of the methods taught in Structure and Style. Level A is appropriate for grades 3-5 or children writing and reading at around those levels and retails for $109.00.  The SWII program comes with  Teacher's Notes for each lesson that include the time stamp for various lessons on the DVDs. The time stamp notes helped immensely as we never left the DVDs in the player and sometimes watched the DVDs on the computer rather than the TV. 

Since I plan on having our youngest go back through the program again next year,  I had Cameron put the tabs and copies of certain pages into a separate binder.  The 5 tabs in the binder make it easy for the student to find materials needed: Models/ Sources and Checklists, Outlines and Compositions, Structural Models, Style Charts, and finally "Banned" Words. Not all of the accompanying pages fit under those categories so I store them in the striped binder. The Teacher's notes and the student handouts store nicely out of the way of a child who frustrates easily when it comes to writing. When Nathan starts the program I think I will use the SWII notebook and move the extras to my TWSS binder as there is still plenty of room in it.

Watching the DVD lessons with Cameron , actually Nathan and Daddy watched too was a relaxed fun way to get through each lesson, a note to self though: We need a functioning remote for the DVD player so pausing and replaying is easier. 

As we worked our way through units 1 and 2 and Cameron improved with those tasks, we decided to change things up a bit to inspire him as we worked through unit 3. Cameron loves Star Wars and has several easy readers and graded readers related to Star Wars. We used the various stories to have him summarize the stories, after 3 or 4 stories we decided to skip ahead a bit and have him write his own Star Wars story using the structure and style techniques he had learned. I had him write the Story Sequence including the Setting, the Plot, and the Climax. I added a word list for him to create so he would already have his -ly words. He included several "Who/Which" clauses as well. Thankfully he enjoyed the rabbit trail project. The program inspired him so much he has actually asked to continue using IEW products for writing including Following Narnia. Nathan is eager to start the program more seriously so he can try out the Rocket, Radar, and Robots book. I hope I don't overwhelm them but I really want to add the history series to our history shelf . 

Institute for Excellence in Writing even inspired my husband to relearn writing technique, trying his hand as retelling a story from a key word outline. He got right in the thick of it with the boys and followed all the rules, skipping lines, using a pen, drawing a single  line through words he wanted to change, and writing quickly but neatly. Some days it is a good thing having three students. 

You can find out more about these and other programs by visiting IEW on the web,, on Facebook, and Twitter

The Schoolhouse Review Crew reviewed these 2 products as well as Teaching the Classics. The various reviews can be read by clicking the button below.

Essentials in Writing: a DVD based Grammar and Writing program

I love writing so it has been a struggle for me to have a child that hates writing as much as my 4th grader does. He is a wonderful storyteller and has a wonderful grasp of language usage but when faced with putting the sentences together he freezes. Thankfully we received Essentials in Writing to try with him. We decided to stay with the 4th grade level and see how it goes. 
I wanted to make sure Cameron had a firm understanding of the grammar elements so I had him watch the first 4   lesson videos before moving on to the sentences and writing lessons.  We found a couple of issues so we spent some extra time on those issues before moving further. I would rather slow the pace and master the concept then move ahead and struggle more later on.
Having the worksheets as a downloaded .pdf file made it possible to actually print an extra copy of the pages we had trouble with to work on a second time. 


The DVDs played easily on our computer and made it simple to navigate as we moved around the lessons. Having 5 lessons show on the screen at a time kept Cameron from getting over whelmed. I did have Daddy watch a couple lessons with Cameron for a second parent interaction. Daddy had trouble watching and listening to the video as he is a sound engineer and the levels which the video was recorded at made for an off sounding environment. Since Mommy and Cameron don't have issue with the sound as much as Daddy we did ok with it. Although I have to admit there were elements of the lecture style that didn't sit well with me, but Cameron enjoyed the DVDs as much as a child who isn't a fan of writing can. He didn't argue or put up too much attitude when told his writing was next. 

The DVD set with .pdf download retails for $40 and if printing is an issue for you, they also sell a printed copy of the workbook for $20.00

Here is a sample of 4th grade  program. You can also download a copy of the Table of Contents and samples of the worksheets from the same page. 

While we will continue to use this program for the time being, I'm not 100 % sold on the format. I'm still trying to find the perfect program for my 4th grader, we will combine elements of this program with our Montessori style learning to hopefully cover it all in a way he can retain it.  We are always adapting our classroom / homeschool to fit their learning styles. 

The Schoolhouse Review Crew reviewed a variety of the grades that Essentials in Writing has available. You can see what others on the Crew thought by reading their posts HERE