Moving Beyond the Page; art, history, geography, and literature

We love unit studies and combining subjects so we were very excited to review Moving Beyond the Page with the Schoolhouse Review Crew.  Selecting just the right units to do when you are moving outside your current plan can be tricky, however Cameron took inspiration from a recent review we did featuring Impressionist Art  as part of Art Cards and decided he wanted to study more Art. I chose Charlotte of Giverney, a literature based study and Europe a complementary Social Studies unit  for him.
The literature unit we received as an online unit but received the books to complete the unit as well.
While Cameron wasn't sure about so much reading, he did find the stories entertaining and was able to make the artistic connection to the stories. The unit came with spelling lists that we soon found out were above his spelling level, that is the beauty of homeschooling, I can now work on our weak areas in spelling.
We received the title book as well as an art book kit based on the works of Monet where, Cameron is able to try his hand at some of the inspiration.
The title story is written as a journal, as I read the book to Cameron and we looked over the pictures it really started to come alive for both of us.
There are 7 lessons and a final project related to the story, however combined with the spelling/ vocabulary words and the complimentary Europe unit we combined it is actually an in depth unit study.
Charlotte of Giverny Moving Beyond the page is targeted at 8-10 year olds and retails for $29.83 in the format I received.

The Europe Social Studies unit we received in print form came with the unit plus 2 story books and also had the same target age range of 8-10 years old. I liked the variety of activities in this unit, however the print quality of the student maps was very disappointing. I actually pulled out other black line masters of similar maps to have Cameron use. I want him to be proud of his work and set the expectation for neatness, when the maps he is writing on are blurry at best, it makes it hard to expect him to write neatly.  Other than the print quality, the content of the program is reasonable. The Europe unit in print with 2 story books retails for $32.89. Since we are working toward studies on the middle ages next year, elements of this unit study including the story books will resurface next spring and then as we work toward early modern history the we can revisit the artistic literature unit with both boys , by that time we should be able to review the spelling lists without any troubles.

I am going through the list of units that Moving Beyond the Page carries and seeing if I can work anymore in to our goals for the next year or so and have found a couple that would make fun units to have for breaks in our Classical plans. I am looking forward to reading the reviews from the rest of the Schoolhouse Review Crew as we all selected different units, I would highly recommend reading more of these reviews to see which ones might fit into your homeschool.

Spelling Lists, Definitions, and Games oh My #hsreviews

Vocabulary/ Spelling City has all this and more

Are you looking for a flexible resource for spelling and vocabulary needs? I think I have found the answer to my search with SpellingCity.com 

Reviewing 2 different vocabulary programs at the same time was unique but since they are targeted at different groups and use differing formats I was able to get bits and pieces for both and will continue to use them both. 

That said, as a Mom of 2 elementary aged boys I was really needing something that would work with their various activities, units, books, etc.. So when I came across SpellingCity I was overjoyed at the flexibilty of the program. 

We don't do structured spelling but we do a lot of reading and writing activities. My goal for this year is to make lists of words we have spelling wrong and work on those words for "spelling", but also have a list of "new" words we find when reading a book or working on a new unit, with the ultimate goal being a personalized vocabulary book. 

Vocabulary Spelling City allows us to do just that while making the words into games and activities and giving me the option to create flashcards and writing practice sheets.

For only $29.99 a year for a homeschoolers Premium Subscription, a family with up to 5 children can customize word lists or search the existing lists to find the perfect list for their child. 

There is even a collection of Literature word lists sorted by grade level. 

  Each student can have a personalized log on so their lists and acitivities are personalized. As the teacher you can also create your own lists and save them. 

I am already creating word lists we will be using for some of our upcoming books and units and will be saving them. 

I love the sentence practice activities and flash cards options. I can print in manuscript or cursive depending on which of the boys I am working with or I can save the list and activities to his account so they are waiting for him.

Many of the games (actually I think almost all of the games) can be turned into a printable which is incredible handy since our computer is not near the school work area currently and I don't have the boys set up for internet access on the laptop yet.  There is so much flexibility with this program and for less than $30.00 for a full year access this is a HUGE value.

Don't take my word for it, check out what the rest of the Crew thought about this program 

disclaimer: as a member of the Schoolhouse Review crew I received this product free to review and share my opinion 

Have you tried Spelling City? Share your thoughts in a comment.

Review: Excellence in Literature #hsreviews

I will start off by saying this course is way above my boys' heads but I did not review this with them in mind. I actually reviewed it with my high school co-op students in mind.
I have to admit I love literature. I managed to fill my schedule in college with as many literature classes as I could possibly handle then added a few more just for fun, so I looked at
Excellence in Literature :: English I: Introduction to Literature with a college prep attitude.  I also see the flexibility of this program as a huge plus. While overall writing is a key element along with the reading of great literature, a group of students can easily hold discussions of the pieces rather than just writing essays about each piece. 


Excellence in Literature is available in both print and e-book format.  
Book 1 is available for $29 (plus S/H $4.95) in print or  $27.00 in e-book format.  


The book is 132 pages and is packed full of information to guide students through not only the literature but the historical context of the pieces and the art of writing and discussing the literature. There is also an honors element added to the book with additional works to read and discuss. 


Another great tool when planning lessons with in this program is the fact that many of these classics are available as downloads (e-books and audio books).  While I was going through the lessons I read some excerpts to my boys as I love reading classic literature to my boys while they play. 


The selections work into many homeschool methods but fit very well into the Charlotte Mason style of learning.  You can also read the author's blog , were she has a variety of articles to help with Excellence in Literature as well as homeschooling in general. 

 Another great tool is the Excellence in Literature Facebook Page with discussions about various works as well as the program it self. 
One last bonus, Check out the publisher's home page for bonus features and their newsletter sign up



 Check out what the rest of the TOS Crew thinks of this awesome program HERE


***I received an e-book copy of this book as part of the Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew in exchange for my opinion of the book****

Before Five in a Row Review: Children's Literature for Homeschool

You can never spend too much time with your children and even better yet you can never teach them too much.  Before Five in a Row takes on both of those ideas in a fun creative way.  Full of fun activities that are tied to children’s books BFIAR is a great book of activities for new homeschoolers as well as seasoned ones. What a great way to instill the joy of learning in your children and make it fun while you are at it. 

Before Five in a Row is filled with 24 mini units based on stories that children love. It is set up for children ages 2-4 but the activities can be adapted to be used with older children.  We had fun with several of the activities and my boys are 6 and almost 9.   I love the idea of teachable moments and this book helps parents see those teachable in everyday activities. 

My boys especially loved that some of their favorite stories are featured in this book: Goodnight Moon, Caps for Sale, Prayers for Children, and Runaway Bunny are books my boys love even as they grow older.  

The book is available to purchase exclusively at Rainbow Resources for a price of $35.00. While it may seem like a lot if you consider that you are getting over 20 units that is a really good price and actually works out to be less than $1.75 per unit study.. You really can't beat that... Most of the books are available to purchase through Rainbow Resources (they actually have a bundle deal of books that includes 19 of the books)  you can also find many of these books at your local library. 

If you have younger kids and you are looking for a great program for them that will instill a love of books and learning then Before Five in a Row is a great resource. I would also recommend it to preschool teachers as a great tool for groups.