Category: Reviews & Giveaways

Reviews about products, books, and other great tools to simplify life.

Parenting Tweens with Grace and Hope {Book Review}

I just finished reading the newest book by a remarkable couple, Hal and Melanie Young of Great Waters Press. (If their names ring a bell, you likely know of them through their book Raising Real Men or from their speaking on the homeschool circuit.) Their brand new book is called No Longer Little: Parenting Tweens with Grace and Hope.

There are books a’plenty (and even a few good ones) for parenting the early years and “surviving” the “turbulent” teen years. (I use quotes because our teen years have been wonderful!) There’s little out there to cover the in-between years, however. No Longer Little fills the gap and helps parents graciously smooth the ruts and avoid the potholes on the road from little kid to young adult without destroying the relationship in the process.

Before I delve into a way-too-long chapter-by-chapter discussion of No Longer Little, I want to share my two favorite aspects of this book:

  1. Every couple of pages I found myself laughing out loud and saying, “Listen to this! This is totally he-or-she-who-shall-remain-nameless! It’s totally normal!“
  2. Using intelligent humor and encouragement, the Youngs frequently say, “Don’t freak out. There is hope.”

There is hope! And the Youngs know. They have eight children and they wrote this book from a knowledgeable place. I don’t like reading parenting books by a PhD with two young kids telling you how to raise your teens. Those books are riddled with philosophical cooties. The Youngs speak from the trenches with a clear view ahead and behind them. They have watched several of their children emerge from their tween years into Godly, mature adults. They also are still guiding a couple of their children through their in-between years, so they aren’t looking back from thirty years out remembering things with rose-colored or black-colored glasses.

I was going to simply share my notes about the book, but I made so many underlines and stars that I would have been retyping the entire book and landing myself a hefty plagiarism fine. I’ll have to pick and choose, which is hard, you know, like opening a box of chocolates and seeing quite a bit of caramels in there. To keep myself out of jail, I’m sharing just a few quotes and thoughts below.

Please note: This book is for parents of boys and girls, unlike the Young’s first book Raising Real Men. Don’t let their RRM label confuse you. ‘Kay? ‘Kay. 

No Longer Little by Hal and Melanie Young

Chapter 1: Getting Bigger

Our kids are not little anymore. I’ll wait while you sob for a few minutes. It’s okay. I understand. This chapter explains the immense changes that are going on in our sweet little monsters who aren’t so little anymore (even if they look like it on the outside). They are having trouble being sweet and don’t understand why. Here are a few highlights:

As and before a boy’s outward body changes, he goes through hormonal changes that affect him similarly to how a female cycle affects girls…only it lasts a couple years. The Youngs call it the Pre-Manhood Syndrome. So if your boy gets irrationally angry or, yes, weepy, that is normal! (Are you sighing in relief? I am!) Meanwhile, their bodies are changing, sometimes in ways that they don’t appreciate.

Girls go through changes also, and even earlier than boys. To make it worse, few if any girls look like the photoshopped images society shouts are what a “worthy” woman should look like. Boo to you, image-destroying society! The Young’s emphasize the importance of celebrating how the girl’s body meets God’s standard of beauty and, despite the difficulty of her bodily changes, the incredible miracle of her body’s ability to nurture new life.

Meanwhile, this is happening:

Both sexes have hormonal surges exceeding fifty times the normal, stable levels they have in adulthood. (p. 7)

That quote alone makes me fifty times more compassionate and patient toward my tweens. I mean, I sobbed my head off during Akeelah and the Bee yesterday, just because someone asked her to spell  a word and she got it right. Really?! Fifty times worse than that?! Poor kids.

Chapter 2: The Rollercoaster

Physical changes are just one side of the story. The inner turmoil is where the real fun begins. Some highlights:

The Youngs describe dealing with the emotional insanity (they may have not said that word) of the pre-teen years as living with “a flaming porcupine” (their words exactly). I laughed my head off.

Life with your flaming porcupine is a roller coaster of emotion, and the kids “invite” you to join in. The Young’s advice: “Don’t get on this ride.”

If you want to preserve your relationship with your child, you will need to keep your own feet (and heart and mind) on solid ground, in order to give them a point of stability they can cling to. (p. 16)

How? One way is to truly listen. Even though they are illogical and irrational and often lash out inappropriately and cause real harm, it’s important to know what’s on their mind. (Personally, I’ve seen a tremendous similarity between talking with my two-year-old and my twelve-year-old at times, but I want them both to feel heard.) There are still consequences to actions, but when they know they’re heard and loved, you’ll enter the teen years with a stronger bond.

(There’s so much great stuff in this chapter, I want to sleep with it under my pillow…like with my textbooks in college. Osmosis. It’s a thing.)

Chapter 3: Brains Turn to Mush

Can I just say that the title to this chapter made me feel infinitely better about some brain mushiness around here. Thank you, Youngs! Here’s a bit more you’ll want to hear:

Neurologists say that the hormones of puberty literally “unravel” and reshape the brain. So your child really is coming unravelled! I mean, literally! I love this laugh-out-loud, relatable quote:

During puberty, the part of the brain changing the most is the area that controls executive functions. There are tasks like problem solving, priority setting, short term memory, attention, and focus. This is the center of common sense and good judgment, the part which decides, “This thing–Good idea? Bad idea?” It’s the part which is plainly dormant when your twelve-year-old shouts, “Hey, Mom! Watch this!” (p. 30-31)

Where’s my great big laughing crying emoji?!

And the advice the Youngs give? Patience.

Because the lack of cognitive function takes a huge toll on their success in school, the Youngs also recommend you do what you can to “preserve their love of learning,” emphasizing what I’ve always said, that “learning is not the same as ‘school'” (p. 34). This chapter gives valuable advice for guiding your unraveled porcupine through these years without their labeling themselves a failure and giving up on their goals and education before emerging as butterfly-ish on the other side. (Particularly intriguing to me is the reason not to let your kids move too quickly through math–fascinating!) This is a valuable chapter indeed on many levels!

Chapter 4 Many a Conflict, Many a Doubt

Many of us parents have experienced that time when a child starts questioning his or her faith. Personally, I am happy to see this as I know they are making their faith their own and not just parroting my beliefs. The Youngs espouse the same view. At the same time, it’s a bit unnerving, especially if, as in the case of the Youngs, your nine-year-old decides he’s an atheist. (Spoiler alert: happy ending!) I have lots of notes in this chapter, but I’m only going to share some thoughts (jail, remember):

Doubts are normal, and they begin usually in the middle school years. If you, Mom and Dad, don’t answer those doubts without freaking out or telling them to “just trust Jesus,” they will seek their answers elsewhere. Google? The kid next door? Your weird atheist Uncle Larry living in a van down by the river (sorry to all you Larries out there, and I can talk like that, because we’re weird and live in a trailer in parking lots).

A quote to bank your parenting on:

We have a reasonable faith that can stand up to examination. We don’t need to be afraid of our chidlren’s honest questions. Instead, we should welcome them as an opportunity to help ground them in the truth. … [O]ur inability or unwillingness to deal with contrary ideas may cause more trouble than the original question. (p. 50-51)

This chapter offers encouragement, guidance, outside resources (many of which we already use and highly recommend), and ways to deal with the non-questioner as well. Valuable stuff, this! (Nasty little grammar habit I picked up in England, that.)

Chapter 5: The Awakening

If you read my review over at The Travel Bags about the Young’s 2017 release, Love, Honor, and Virtue: Gaining or Regaining a Biblical Attitude Toward Sexuality, this section will sound a bit redundant. Good. It’s important enough to be redundant! Here’s why:

Can I scare you a little? Over 90% of boys are exposed to porn by age 19. Girls? Nearly 60%. That’s a sucker-punch to the gut, isn’t it? What’s worse, a third of all children are first exposed by age ten. Ten! My world was Strawberry Shortcake and Cabbage Patch Kids at that age! The worst thing I was exposed to was watching some circus folks riding their horses standing up and trying it on my own horse when nobody was looking. The world you grew up in is not the world your kids live in. Sorry.

I know we all feel our children are too young to have their innocence “shattered” by hearing us talk about sex and the dangers of porn. Think about this:

The very good and powerful gift of sex has been stolen, abused, and sullied by sinful mankind. Our challenge is to protect our children from the misuse of sexuality and from sin, while preparing them for a healthy, joyful, marital relationship. (p. 60)

Our other challenge is to remain “the place to go” with all their awkward questions, so here again the Youngs give their valuable advice, “Don’t freak out!”

One thing that really struck me was that, while boys are drawn in by the visual sin of porn, girls are often lured into dark worlds and thought-sin (which leads down the road toward physical sin) through the written world of fan fiction. Fan fiction?! Fans often launch books based on a perfectly (or at least relatively) innocent book such as, say, Pride and Prejudice, using characters the readers already love, and add lurid scenes and inappropriately graphic details that play out in the reader’s head. I had no idea, because I’m not a fan of fan fiction simply due to the poor writing. I guess my literary snobbery saved me. No idea! What a world. Insert sad face.

This section is super important. Please don’t skip it or the advice just because you’re uncomfortable. Giving birth is uncomfortable and you didn’t skip that. Do the next right thing and prepare your kids for the attacks the world is waging against their purity.

Chapter 6: Social Struggles

My boys are outgoing and sociable, especially my first boy. That’s no small feat when you’re in a different place with different kids every few days for seven years! Yeah, he’s incredible! So when he started standing off from the other kids, I lost a little sleep. (Can you hear the Youngs: Don’t freak out!) This chapter was helpful:

First of all, social anxiety is normal! Hooray! My incredible boy is a normal mildly socially anxious flaming porcupine! (He approved this post, by the way.)

As their brains expand (unravel and reform), they start to think more abstractly, but their limited experience leaves everything looking a little Picasso-esque. Their version of reality is clouded by hormones and inexperience. To top it off, they haven’t moved past their egocentric adolescence (like many adults we know, sadly), and it’s your job to help them see reality and that others have feelings, too, all the while trying to understand them. I know–you need a raise.

The chapter addresses bullying (as the victim and the bully), the hormones running the body, the general socially uncouth nature of this age group, social media (and the importance of learning to use it–shocker, eh?), and the girl-boy friendship issue, including crushes. Good stuff in here!

Here’s some great advice that makes me chuckle and groan at the same time:

Love them even when they’re trying to be funny; relationship is important even when they’re making intestinal noises with their hands. (p. 81)

Yeah, I have to print that up and plaster it on every wall in my home. There are, after all, five teen and adult girls living with a twelve-year-old boy. (Love you, Kid!)

Oh, especially valuable in this chapter is the Young’s list for a Biblically balanced view of relationships.

Chapter 7: Media, Gaming, and Discernment

I wish the chapter on sexual immorality didn’t have to exist, and I also wish this one didn’t have to exist, despite my love of literature, black and white movies, and The Dick Van Dyke Show. The entertainment industry is a huge, potentially dangerous world that we can’t completely control for our children. The Youngs, of course, have some words of wisdom:

I know many of us are tempted to remove ourselves from the modern world of technology entirely. The peace we have when dry camping out west with no electricity and watching our kids play cards and my husband read a real living book–I love it! But that’s not the real world we live in, and it’s definitely not the world your children will be entering as adults.

[B]y the time they are adults, they will need to be able to discern good and bad media for themselves. We’ve got to teach them how to do that. We have to teach them discernment. (p. 95)

This chapter touches on movies, art, literature, and gaming. Some interesting thoughts arise in all of these. One I hear from parents time and time again is the mentally and physically addictive nature of gaming, followed by the child’s kickback when the issue is addressed; that reinforced my commitment to keep it at a mega-low level in our home.

Oh, I totally marked up this chapter! I want to share several other interesting thoughts about teaching our children to discern by viewing these things through God’s eyes, but you just have to read the book! Read the book!

Chapter 8: Conflict at Home

This is (another) favorite chapter! I think there are a couple paragraphs I didn’t mark up. Let’s jump in:

The lack of filters in children this age reminds me of the lack of filters in the very young and very old; yet, we don’t, for some reason, offer the same grace-due-to-age to this middle group, do we? In fact, it’s difficult, when the accusations are flying and the irrationality is at a high, to maintain a loving, patient attitude, but that’s our job as the adult in the situation–to act like an adult.

I can’t share all my thoughts here, because it would be a book all its own, so let’s ultra-summarize. The Youngs share guidance for maintaining and strengthening your relationship with your young ‘uns during this time period when they seem to be intentionally trying to destroy your relationships. They also offer advice for sibling squabbles that will help strengthen sibling relationships for the long term. Some advice about making time for the family to be together, despite busy schedules with older kids, is also valuable.

I love how they differentiate between the training of the early years (obey Mom and Dad) versus the middle years (let’s talk this through with Scripture and reason). It makes sense! It acknowledges the difference in development and reason and the necessity of parents to discipline accordingly–much different than modern books are preaching!

A highly useful tool in the fight-fair arsenal is the Young’s Rules of Engagement. Especially relevant to my life is “Have one fight at a time.” I starred that section several times.

Finally, a great reminder from the Youngs who, I might add, have become great friends with their Godly, responsible, mature adult children:

This is so hard! We’ve been there. (p. 124)

Chapter 9: Transitioning

This chapter is filled with evidence of young people who have filled their lives with purpose, contrary to today’s view of teens and pre-teens as drifting purposeless shadows of potential adults. How refreshing! (Especially when we’re often being told we need to lighten up and let our kids “be kids.” Rest assured, they get plenty of time to be kids while they’re practicing being adults.)

Teenagers, and maybe even pre-teens, are capable of taking on serious roles if they’re properly trained, properly supported, and properly supervised. … [V]ery young adults need to start somewhere–and now is the time to begin. (p. 132)

Chapter 10: Celebrating Growth

As our children grow older (sniff sniff for losing those chubby little snuggly years but hooray for the joy and delight of their teen and young adult years), we celebrate certain stages with simple remembrances. At ten, each child receives a necklace to celebrate their reaching the double digits. Sometimes we choose it for them, and sometimes we take them and choose together. At thirteen, they receive a camera of their own as a symbol that they are responsible enough to take care of that camera and to use it appropriately. Some of them even contribute some of the photography for the music mission at this point. The Youngs take it several steps further.

At thirteen for their boys and twelve for their girls (ages gleaned from the Jewish traditions of acknowledging the transition to adulthood), the Youngs hold a very meaningful and memorable ceremony involving several important and respected people in their children’s lives. This chapter elaborates on ceremony as a way of welcoming the young person to the adult world and calling them to the higher standard they are capable of.

I want to leave you with this quote from this chapter, which is really sad and scary and, dare I say, pathetic:

The time of adolescence now continues in to the early thirties, and “Twenty-five is the new fifteen.” Sadly, the level of maturity we used to see in teenagers is all that is expected of twenty-somethings today. That’s not what we want for our children. (p. 134)

Yeah, same here. No thanks.

Chapter 11: Producers and Consumers 

In this spend-it-because-you’ve-got-it or spend-it-before-you’ve-got-it economy, it’s important for kids to learn to be producers, and not just consumers. Let’s start this section off with a quote that I feel is crucial to our relationship with money and consumerism:

If all the wealth in the world is God’s, then the wealth we control is not by ownership, but by stewardship. … A faithful steward might have great liberty with the things in his care … but he always knows that he’s accountable to the true owner. (p. 152-153)

There is an infinite (okay, maybe not infinite) amount of valuable information in this chapter. I totally vandalized it with all my markings! One thing I want to share with you is this statistic that blew my kids out of the water!

Although 82% of parents did chores when they were growing up, only 28% require them of their own children.

My kids were appalled that other children aren’t learning to take care of themselves and their homes on a regular basis, because when they are out on their own in the real world, they will be struggling to do what our ten-year-old does without even thinking twice. (At least, she did before her brain started unraveling (see chapter 3).) If your young teens can’t manage a home, they’ve got some learning to do.

Teaching your kids to be good stewards of their time, efforts, talents, generosity, and money can be as simple as discussing it on a daily basis and including them as valuable assets in your family’s home, business, or mission. (Take a peek at the Young’s mission or our mission and you’ll see the kids front and center, or in the background keeping things humming, as valuable team members!) What a smooth transition to adult life they’ll have because they were given supervised adult responsibilities as soon as they were capable!

This chapter is well worth the read, even just for the story of Almanzo Wilder and the lemonade, and the story of the Young’s son’s ice cream. Sorry–no spoilers here! You have to, you guessed it, read the book.

Chapter 12: The Next Big Thing

After the turbulent tween years come the triumphant teen years. These years can be wonderful if you follow this advice from Hal and Melanie:

Protect your relationship with your tweens. (p. 186)

Be the patient, loving, truthful, stable, Godly, (sometimes superhuman) voice of reason when your socially anxious flaming porcupine’s brain is unraveled and he naturally sees it as all your fault. Yeah, during the time when you want them to move into the garage for two years, protect your relationship!

Then you can serve as a trusted guide in the high school years as you work together to determine the path that God has in mind for that child’s gifts and interests.

To offer a little more hope, the Young’s previously flaming porcupines turned out wonderfully!

Summary

I like that the Youngs immediately destroy the perception that they are the perfect family that doesn’t have problems with their children. Thank you, Youngs! They approach the issue of parenting tweens with grace and hope, yes, but also with reality, humor, and sometimes harsh truth directed lovingly at either the kids or the parents.

They speak in a humble manner, but with confident wisdom. And best of all, everything is based on Scripture with no man-made laws thrown in to confuse the issue. I would feel 100% confident handing this book to any parent on any side of today’s broad parenting spectrums, because who doesn’t need truth, grace, hope, encouragement, and guidance from Godly parents who have been there!

Thank you, Hal and Melanie, for being trusted advisors on this journey.

Hey, readers, if you want to read my much, much shorter review on the the Young’s 2017 release, Love, Honor, and Virtue: Gaining or Regaining a Biblical Attitude Toward Sexuality, click right here. Also, if you’d like some shorter reviews on No Longer Little, check out these reviews from other members of the Crew or click on the banner below:

Love, Honor, and Virtue AND No Longer Little {Great Waters Press Reviews}

I really enjoy following the Youngs on social media. Here are your options:

Now go read the book!

 

Memoria Press Classical Composition {Review}

Memoria Press has done it again. You know that, even though we’re primarily Charlotte Mason homeschoolers, we like to incorporate classical products from Memoria Press. Currently our 12-year-old son is working through the first two levels of Memoria Press Classical Composition by James A. Selby, namely Classical Composition I: Fable Set and Classical Composition II: Narrative Set.

I am going to try to make this review humor-free. Just the facts, ma’am. Just the facts.

Who is Memoria Press?

Memoria Press is one of the big names in classical curriculum. They offer complete studies that your students can follow from little onward that will encompass their entire education. They also provide “piecemeal” products if you want to add one or two topics to your current studies. (We have some of their literature products as well as their First and Second Form Latin.)

They also have several wonderful special needs products by a mother of adopted special needs twins who have done remarkably well and are now adults.

Talk about the Classical Composition.

Gladly!

Author James Selby’s goal in producing the Classical Composition line is to raise excellent, thoughtful writers in the same manner that many of the greats (thin Benjamin Franklin) were trained for over a thousand years. He puts it into an easy-to-use format that will not strain the brain of the parent-teacher who may have not been trained to write well.

The purpose is to teach children not only to write, but to reason well, two skills that academia has found lacking in college freshmen. Combining logic with imagination is another goal. Who wants boring reason? Not us! By the end of the program, a student will hopefully be able to communicate logically in an engaging style.

The 14-step path to . mastering writing is intended to begin in the fifth grade, but that is not necessary. If your students start later, (my son began in sixth grade), they simply move faster. As a sixth grader, my son began with Classical Composition I: Fables, and works through five lessons a week to finish a lesson a week. He will then advance to Classical Composition II: Narratives, and progress at the same speed. Next year he will slow to the regular pace. (See the tweak section below for some personal information on how we do this.)

Classical Composition I: Fable Set

The fable stage contains 20 lessons that each follow a similar structure. Each lesson is based on one of Aesop’s fables, engaging stories my kids are highly familiar with anyway, which makes the experience more comfortable and enjoyable.

Each lesson has the student reading the fable several times, recognizing various aspects of the story, writing variations, narrating, outlining, inverting sentences, writing more variations, and producing a final draft. Ultimately, the students are reading the fables and imitating them, imitation being one of the greatest ways to learn to write well.

The narrative stage works in a similar way. There are 20 lessons that each follow a pattern, this time based on a narrative. Students orally narrate the story. They then learn to identify components of writing evident in each narrative they read. Then, similar to the previous level, they outline, narrate, paraphrase, and work on variations and tweaks until they eventually present you with a polished final draft.

The narratives are interesting and brief, so your student can focus on developing skills rather than wading through a mire of confusion.

Classical Composition II: Narrative Set

Classical Composition is a Christian series. While it will work with anyone, there are Scriptural references. You also will not find questionable behaviors or concepts promoted in any way.

Looking at some of these pictures, you might find some of the concepts to be quite advanced. It’s true. You will definitely be learning alongside your children. That’s why I recommend watching the videos with your kids and being involved, at least at the beginning. It doesn’t need to be entirely hands-on with the parent, although being available and knowledgeable enough to help will be an asset. The teacher’s guide will help you with that.

Personally, I am not highly involved, but I do read up a bit on what my boy is learning, so that I can assist him as needed. So far, I’ve only helped him about three times. The rest he does on his own after watching the videos.

You tweak everything! What did you tweak here?

We don’t generally use formal writing curricula around here in the early years, and sometimes not at all. We’ve used curricula in the past that have made my word-lovers hate writing. That’s not where I wanted to go!

I know the importance of quality writing skills, and I know how rare they are. When I was a college writing tutor, every college freshman had to come through the Writing Center to be evaluated. There were three students (only one of them came straight out of high school–the other two were non-traditional) in my share of freshman class who had a solid grasp on writing…and I married one of them. (See how important good writing skills are?!) I couldn’t believe the junk I was reading! It was horrible!

I knew I wanted my kids to be “among the three,” but I didn’t want to destroy their love of writing with tedium, over-analysis, boredom, or the corniness that is so often part of courses for children. Oh my kids hate that! There is no corn in anything we’ve seen from Memoria so far, so we were good there, but what about tedium and over-analysis? A strictly classical education is an intensive study. That’s one of the reasons we switched to Charlotte Mason’s more gentle approach.

No problem! While I did find many of the questions and answers in the curriculum to be fairly subjective, learning to deal with “no right answer” is part of the writing and thinking process. It isn’t math…which is why some of us like writing so much. (Whoa, that was almost a joke.) IT’s difficult for the younger crowd to try and gasp what the author is getting at sometimes, and also to accept that there may not be one right answer. Learning that concept is crucial learning, but it takes a while to accept. I don’t want frustration to take over and be applied to the writing process while that learning is taking place.

So our tweaks? For the period of the review, we tried to stick with the advanced schedule as outlined by Memoria. Now that the review is over, however, we are going to slow down to maybe 3-4 lessons per week. We can do this in part because we school year round. Also, I don’t have any problem with Elijah doing 1.5 books in sixth grade and 1.5 in seventh and landing right back on track by eighth grade. Any time spent in these books will be beneficial.

Since Elijah currently wants to be a pastor, I want him to have solid writing skills. We’ve all sat through sermons which take you…nowhere. You arrive at the end wondering what on earth that story had to do with the point of the sermon, why he started randomly talking about women in the Bible when the focus was Moses, why there was all that fluff and no actual meaning, or what the whole sermon was even about! It’s a waste of time. I don’t want some of my son’s congregants bringing friends to church for the first time and having them walk out with fluff between their ears because my boy can’t write a decent sermon!

We’re going to continue on the Memoria Composition path until he at least finishes the first two levels. We’ll see where we go after that. But currently we are doing it at a slightly slower pace when necessary.

What does Elijah think?

“I think it’s fun, but challenging. I can still do it, though.”

He’s a pretty wordy guy, but not when I ask him for quotes.

Some technical details.

The sets sell for $85, currently two levels for $120, although I don’t know how long that special will last. For subsequent students, you will only need to replace the consumable student workbook, which is $19.95 as of this writing.

The set includes a teacher’s guide which includes answers (helpful for ideas, because some of the answers are very subjective), teacher helps, rubrics, and additional information throughout. It also includes a DVD teaching each lesson. Finally, there is the consumable student workbook.

If you want more information, you’re in the right place!

The Memoria Press products the Homeschool Review Crew has been using and writing about are listed below, so take a look at any of them that interest you. Memoria has numerous other products we like and have used (particularly their literature and Latin products in our house), so explore! Also, consider signing up for their magazine/catalog combo, which is an education in itself! Check out some of these other products:

New American Cursive:

Traditional Logic:

Classical Composition:

To read reviews on the above products from the Review Crew, click right here or on the image below.

If real life catalogs aren’t your thing, you can also follow Memoria on social media. They are everywhere! See:

Did I successfully publish an entire review without a single joke? Weird!

Arson, Counterfeit, Murder–Just Another Homeschool Day {Review}

I love it when people ask my son what he’s been doing in school, and he says something like, “I’m doing detective work. Something’s Fishy at Lake Iwannafisha,” and they think maybe their kids missed something in their regular school…or they think we’re nuts.

While both conclusions may or may not be true, Something’s Fishy at Lake Iwannafisha is a detective curriculum supplement from The Critical Thinking Co.™ that my 12-year-old son has been working through. He loves it! (If knowing that I can’t drag my 12-year-old boy away from his studies is enough for you, go look at Something’s Fishy at Lake Iwannafisha right here and skip this review!)

The Critical Thinking Co.™

Who is The Critical Thinking Co.™ ?

First of all, let’s call them CT, shall we? CT is exactly what their real name implies, a curriculum company which teaches your kids to do what about 3/4 of adults don’t do these days–think critically. (Wow, that was an intense social commentary I slipped in there, wasn’t it? Well…think about it…if you can.)

CT provides anything from a full grade-level curriculum to supplements to what gives every impression of being a game but turns out instead to be a “brain builder.” Some of their products are as simple as what my brothers and I did for fun as kids (brain teasers and logic puzzles), which made my college logic class a total joke to me–eeeeaaaasssssyyyyy! Others involves a semester- or year-long study in a certain subject (editing, algebra, etc.) or an in-depth course intended for the sole purpose of building thinking skills.

That’s my long-winded way of saying they have loads of goodies on all levels and in all subjects that will help strengthen your child’s critical thinking ability. We’ve been using their resources for well over a decade…and we thinks good. Wink.

I have a secret for you, but you can’t tell. I’ll put it in parenthesis to make it super secret. (I use their workbooks as Christmas presents. Shhhhh.)

The Critical Thinking Co.™

Why is critical thinking important?

I remember being in late grade school and high school and even college and beyond, wishing I could think these things through for myself instead of guessing or wondering what “They” said about a topic. I’ve since developed critical thinking skills, but I see all around me those who don’t. You do, too, if you think about.

Consider Facebook:

The President Trump haters (the Trump-Dumpers) will say something negative about him and his decisions no matter how much they actually agree with his policies. And they only realize they agree if President Trump is removed from the picture and they are presented with the information “Trump-free.” (This goes for any bias, but this is the openly obvious one at this point.) I’m not talking about just teens here; I’m talking about people in their 20s, 30s, 50s who are passing their non-thinking outbursts on to their children. Scariness!

Critical thinking involves moving past bias, past emotion, and past personal preferences to get to the nuts and bolts of a situation and assess the viability, logic, and reality of a decision or scenario.

In other words, you clear out the muck and assess the big picture. It’s a beautiful thing, and something our kids need to be able to do well. Of course, critical thinkers aren’t always super popular. My husband is a critical thinker, and sometimes when I want someone to support me in my momentary emotional irrationality, yeah, he’s not the guy. Wink wink. And ultimately I’m glad!

Something's Fishy at Lake Iwannafisha

So what’s going on at Lake Iwannafisha?

There has been a murder, and it is the detective’s job to solve it. Your child is the detective or your children are a team of detectives. You are the sergeant.

As the sergeant, you give your detective(s) a detective training guide (sort of a refresher for all those years of training they underwent). You also give them the police report from the murder. As the investigation progresses, the detectives will come to you with requests for further information, like the ballistics report or forensics report. They can also request to interview a witness.

Of course, they can’t actually interview a witness. Other detectives have already interviewed witnesses and have their interviews on file. If your detective asks to interview someone whose interview isn’t “on file” (in the book), you as the sergeant simply inform them that that person wasn’t considered a suspect, so there is no interview on file.

You are an active part of providing them with the information (hand them a photocopied or printed sheet of paper with the information, and another piece of paper where they can record their discoveries.) Apart from providing them with information (pieces of paper), you are not involved. You don’t offer hints. You don’t help. You let them use what should be their greatest tool–the brain.

They have to infer conclusions from the information they request from the sergeant. Beware: there will be loose ends…you know, like in real life.

If, of course, you don’t want your kids working with forensics, ballistics, arson, theft, counterfeiting, etc., you won’t be interested in this course. I mean, there are a couple of murders. My son has been enthralled! He just bemoaned to me yesterday that the suspect has probably escaped the country by now since I haven’t given him his ballistics report yet.

This product can last for two days, two weeks, even a month or two if you’re taking 15 minutes or so out of class every few days to work on it. Personally, I enjoyed my son’s enthusiastic immersion in the course for two days before the death of the copier. He could leave his papers spread out (because we’re visiting Grandma and she has a room where he holed up and investigated) and pinned to the wall…like a real investigation, he said.

It’s recommended for grades 5-12+. My detective is in 6th grade, and was quite capable while working on this project.

Apart from passing out papers after they are copied or printed, there is really little to no parental involvement. There is a section where you can pause and have a discussion. I…ahem…didn’t formally follow through with this section. I was in the middle of a war with a copy machine (see the next section below). Also, I tend to discuss things informally. However, this is great for those who like things more scripted and are more hands-on than I am. Also, it’s excellent for groups! If you use this in a classroom, oh my cows-on-a-stick (aka corn dogs), your students will love you forever! 

The best part was how my detective read the information and determined for himself what further information he needed to progress in his knowledge. There was no, “Now, detectives, what was the murder weapon? How do we know this? What should we do with that information? We should…investigate the…class…class…what should we investigate? It’s called…b-…b-…baaaa-…balistics.” Gagarociousness. My kids hate that! They come out of a Sunday school class and are like, “Ugh. We’re not two.”

Something’s Fishy totally acknowledges that they are totally not two. Awesomeness.

An interview with Detective Bagasao:

What did you think of Something Fishy at Lake Iwannafisha?

I thought it was awesome.

What did you like about it?

Everything.

Can you be more specific?

No. I liked everything.

Like…did you like having to use your brain and figure things out for yourself?

Yeah.

Ugh. Did you like that it was independent?

Yeah.

Ugh. You’re not giving me any good quotes.

What?! I liked the detective work–it was fun.

Ugh. Thanks. Go away.

There you have it. Straight from the mouth of he-who-will-not-be-an-interviewee-for-a-career. (Is that even a career option?)

And yes, I tell my kids to go away. Bad mom.

I wish Steve was eating donuts in that picture. I could make a great cliche joke.

Here’s my beef!

I usually have a beef, don’t I, and it’s often the same beef, isn’t it? This one is kind of a big deal…for me. (But there’s an ultra-positive, so if you read the beef, make sure you also read the prime rib below.)

I did not know when my son asked for this course that I would have to print or copy more than 2/3 of the book. When I found out that I would have to do this, I was pretty much the equivalent of a pouting two-year-old sitting in the corner not sharing his Scooby Doo toy and hiding his sister’s sippy cup. No, no, NO, NO, NOOOO!

I hate printing. And it costs money I don’t have. And our printer does, like a little bit at a time before essentially spitting in my face. So, you know, two pages, okay. Three pages, I’m going to whine. Anything more than that–that’s a deal breaker.

But the book was already in my hands when I learned this. But hallelujah! We were at my mom’s and she has this stellar copy machine, and so I copied pages straight from that as they were needed, and it was really great, and then it died! Halfway through the book, the copy machine just pppbbbbtttthhhhh…whirrrrrrrr…clink clank clunk…dead.

My detective wasn’t happy, as he was anxiously awaiting his ballistics report. So I thought of an alternative. If you have an honest kid, you can paperclip back the pages he can’t see yet, and let him access the pages he can have. Then he can write his conclusions in a notebook–simple-ish. But my detective preferred having pages he could spread out like on Perry Mason and Sherlock Holmes BBC edition with Jeremy Brett–classic! So, after two days of waiting for me to miraculously fix the copy machine (as if), he gave up.

So…the mystery remains unsolved. At the rate he was going, however, it would have been a two-day project at best. He was thoroughly engrossed and powering through it. And honestly, if he does his chores, math, and Bible every day, he can scrap everything else and immerse himself in one subject for two days if he wants to. Life is kind of like that around here anyway.

Here’s my…prime rib?

If you have a beef, which is a negative, there’s usually a positive side, too, right? And here it is. When I first received the book, I thought I handed it to him and he worked through it and done. No no! It is not a consumable book, as my beef already explained. So what does that mean?

It means this:

  1. His siblings can solve the mystery as well…and at their own paces.
  2. He can’t get hints and tips from looking at other pages in the book. He has to figure out for himself what information he needs to solve the mystery. That is brilliant! It’s so brilliant, that I don’t even mind copying.
  3. If you have a lot of kids and you want them all to do this, cut the binding and make friends at Kinkos. Or maybe your church will copy it for you? There is no Kinkos where we are right now. (If I could think of any job that would make me die every day, it would be working at a copying/printing place. Instant death.)

All in all, if you don’t mind running off copies or printing PDFs (which you can access through a link CT gives you), this program is absolutely brilliant! I am super happy with it and I would have gone through it again even knowing about the printing/copying. You know that really saying something for me. Oh technology, why do you hate me so? What have I ever done to you…I mean, besides breaking or temporarily disabling pretty much every tech device I’ve ever touched.

Summary: this program is more than worth the effort of copying and printing. And if you use the PDFs instead of copying, it’s not that difficult…unless your printer is possessed by the soul of Elvis, like ours is. Don’t even ask.

Speaking of tech issues, this picture would not rotate or crop. Evil picture.

A few technical details.

The book sells currently for $14.95. There is also a digital edition for the same price, but it only works on a Windows operating platform. Both give you access to printables, or you can use the book to copy what you need for your students. This is not a consumable workbook.

You want more information, don’t you?

The Critical Thinking Co.™ isone of those great companies that it really pays to follow. We follow them online, but most of our interaction is through their email list. They send weekly critical thinking puzzles for the kids (and the mom), plus there’s often a stellar sale or a clearance item that is perfect to occupy and grow minds while we travel or for screen-free weeks or for fun or, hey, for school as they’re intended. I mean, that’s probably a good use for their curricula also–school. I’m a thinker! Anyway, sign up for their emails online and give them a shot for a while. Make sure to subscribe to the free puzzles for your age groups. And you can also check out on social media below:

Other members of the Homeschool Review Crew reviewed the following items from The Critical Thinking Co.:

If you want to read other Crew reviews (less talk about copying, most likely) about the above or about Lake Iwannafisha, click right here on this little ol’ link or on the lovely banner below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apologia Anatomy–Brains, Hearts, and the God Who Made Them {Review}

There are a few things we’ve used in our homeschooling from the dawn of time (our homeschooling time, that is). Apologia is one of our mainstays. To be a mainstay for my family, you have to be fantastic, because I am a member of SGA–Second Guessers Anonymous. And Apologia, in our book, is fantastic–no second guessing there!

They sent us Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology for the purpose of this review, and to totally educate our elementary and middle school kiddos on the fine workings of the human body.

They sent us the following:

  • Textbook
  • Notebooking Journal
  • Junior Notebooking Journal
  • MP3 Audio CD

The components of the course.

The textbook is broken up into 14 lessons covering each of the main body systems, as well as an introduction to anatomy and physiology, a chapter on the senses, a chapter on growth and development, and a chapter on health and nutrition.

As is the case with all the Apologia Young Explorers books, they approach science in a Charlotte Mason style, which is ideal for us. Each chapter is broken up into short sections. There are pauses encouraging students to retell what they’ve learned (narrations) or to answer a few questions.

Each chapter also includes lab activities. The supplies can mostly be found at home, but you can also order a supplement including all the objects you will need for the activities organized according to chapter and activity.

A personal person project runs throughout the course. Your student builds a body adding each system as the student learns about it.

Because Apologia is an apologetics course, there are also Creator-focused sections such as Why Did God Create Me in Growth and Development, Creation Confirmation in the Digestive and Renal System, and Our Faithful Father in Immune and Lymphatic Systems.

The textbook is officially the only item you need to complete this course, making it budget friendly.

There is also an mp3 audio disc available. The recording is professional and easy to listen to. It includes the textbook read by Jeannie Fulbright, the author herself. (She’s an interesting person, so look her up on social media!)

Two notebooking journals are sold separately also. They are not necessary, but they are extremely helpful. There is a junior notebook which is recommended for kindergarten through second or third grade, and then another for third or fourth on up. Both are consumable and meant for one student. They contain copywork, coloring pages, puzzles, notebook pages, and lab record forms, among other things. Your child will use it for his personal person, his experiments, note-taking, making little bookslets, and refreshing his memory on all the wonderful things he’s learned.

A note about the immersion method.

The Apologia approach to science at the elementary and middle school levels is immersion. If you want to understand more about that, watch this video. They explain it better than I do. What I can tell you is how well the immersion method has worked for my family.

We have gone through most of the Apologia Young Explorer science courses, and my children come out of them with a thorough understanding of, interest in, and appreciation of the subject they studied for the year. I find it far superior to the little-bit-of-everything approach to science I grew up with, which doesn’t give you the opportunity to completely fall in love with a subject. I guess it doesn’t give you the chance to totally hate it either. Ha.

What did we do?

As with all the Apologia Young Explorer texts we use, I read aloud from the textbook to my current students, and usually someone younger who hangs around for the fun and the intriguing photos throughout the book. I may read an entire section (maybe 15 minutes max), but usually I read for no more than 5-7 minutes so that everything can sink in and I can hold the kids’ attention. (I have a kindergartener in the mix.)

I ask the questions when they pop up and will often ask for narrations on shorter sections. I almost always ask for a narration the next day as a review. We do this four or five days a week.

I do not use the audio disc because, first of all, it doesn’t play in our van, which is where we do our science readings–on our drives. Secondly, while the reading only takes 5-7 minutes, we discuss quite a bit as we go, often smack dab in the middle of a paragraph. That would be a little less natural with an audio recording, although the discussion could take place at the breaks. I also improvise as I read a bit, because it’s what I do–it certainly isn’t necessary, because the text is highly readable. Honestly, if the disc played in our van, I would probably use it.

As far as the experiments are concerned, we did not buy the supplement package due to budgeting and storage. (Remember, we live in a travel trailer–all ten of us.) We do some of the labs and experiments, but not all of them. We pick those which would help us understand the project best and use supplies we have on hand, like this mummifying experiment that the girls did on their own from chapter 1.

Well, maybe not quite as on their own as they would have liked.

Two-year-old assistants are exciting.

If we can’t do an experiment due to time, driving, or supplies, we have no problem going back and performing an experiment from a previous lesson when the supplies are available. It’s a great review.

We’ve also been known to get creative about supplies. For example, Elijah made this heart from chapter 8, and the only appropriate ingredient he had were the graham crackers.

That’s totally a heart!

The experiments definitely add to the program and aren’t burdensome, so I recommend doing at least one or two per chapter if not all of them.

My readers (third and sixth grade) are able to perform the majority of the experiments without help. My kindergartener is capable of being actively involved, but needs help with the reading and reaching things. She’s still tiny.

My third and sixth graders are using the regular journals. The third grader was originally going to use the junior journal, but decided it was a little too simple. She’s right on the border, so we purchased a regular journal. My kindergartener is using the junior journal, but it’s really too advanced for her. Basically, she dictates to me some of what she has learned and illustrates it. She also does the copywork and coloring. If you do get them, each child needs her own.

Again, the journals are not essential for the course, so if finances are an issue, don’t let the journal costs keep you from using the course. They do, however, add significantly to the course in my opinion. I like that the reading age kids can follow the guidelines within the journal and I don’t have to guide them through anything. Technically, they could read the textbook and do the labs and the notebooks entirely on their own, but I feel the benefit immensely from the discussion we have.

Just some thoughts on age.

We move more slowly than recommended through the course because we have a kindergartener in the mix. Otherwise, the recommended pace of two weeks per lesson is quite reasonable.

While I include all ages of my elementary school kids in my Apologia science studies, I would not begin with Anatomy and Physiology if my oldest was under, say, third grade. This is one of the more difficult topics, despite how well it is all explained. It seems easier for my littlest kids to grasp the concepts in astronomy and even botany. Still, I wouldn’t hesitate for a moment to include the younger set when I’m teaching this to older students. Just don’t expect them to grasp it all, and be ready to repeat it when they’re older. and can easily be completed in one full school year of solid learning.

 In summary

This is our second time working through Apologia Anatomy and Physiology. It is a program that strongly prepared our previous set of children for their high school level biology and other science studies, also through Apologia. Highly recommended–all 20 thumbs (and four paws) way way up.

You probably want to know what other people think about. You can read other Crew reviews right here or click on the banner below:

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Classical Christian Music Appreciation Course {Review}

Memoria Press is one of my top curriculum companies. Recently they offered us a chance to check out their Music Appreciation I book. I may have drooled a little.

If you are a full-fledged classical Christian educator, you’re probably already familiar with Memoria; if you aren’t, you should be, because you’ll fall in love with their complete grade level curricula sets. If you’re a different sort of educator who takes a classical bent toward some things, then check out their individual courses, such as, oh, this Music Appreciation course!

Let’s talk about that a bit. Actually, a lot.

Memoria Press Music Appreciation Course: What It Is

The Music Appreciation Course is a single book with two CDs. (The picture below shows the book open and closed–it’s the same book. I mean, they have two of the same book. You will get one book. You understand!) The book includes chronological lessons covering the history of western music. Lessons are broken up into several sections. Each lesson references a single portion of a work by a single composer. The works are available online, and the website links directly to them. This is the only internet access you will need.

Each lesson goes through the following:

  1. Listen to the selected peace. I wrote peace instead of piece, but you know what? Every time I play it, the van gets quiet and people really listen, and then they get loud as they start dancing and grooving and percussionating (real word) to the music. It’s very peaceful. And each peace-piece is extremely well performed and produced on an oral and visual level–no high school bands or home recordings (sorry high school bands and home recorders). All the selections are available on YouTube and iTunes. I don’t get iTunes on my not i-phone, so I can’t tell you the quality there.
  2. A brief history of the composer and the piece. This is brief, like a full page, but super interesting! It’s well-written and captivating, and I’m ultra picky.
  3. A little lesson (and I mean little) in some sort of music theory. It’s done little by little, topic by topic, and builds upon or repeats with a slight expansion of previous topics. It’s really quite interesting and accessible.
  4. Listening exercises to learn and use the new music theory knowledge. This is where the discs come in. They are not mp3s from my understanding, because my Flintstone van doesn’t play mp3s and it plays these discs. Each lesson is different, but essentially the disc plays a small section of a piece, like one theme, section, or line, to emphasize what was discussed in the music theory lesson. It is well done, although, ahem, my family of professional musicians wasn’t super excited about the Twinkle Twinkle singing and would have preferred a more soothing voice. That’s the only complaint so far! (I say this because audio and voice quality are curriculum winners or killers for people in the audio field, just like poor video production or artwork or writing will kill an item for someone in the video, art, or writing fields. You audio people are completely safe with this program so far…after Twinkle Twinkle in lesson 1.)
  5. Another little history lesson, but this is more music-based than composer-based.
  6. Review. The review is great. It’s sort of like this: Hey, did you catch this and that and that and this? I use it each week to review quickly some of the previous lessons, especially the music theory if there was something I didn’t think everyone was solid on.
  7. Extra practice. This is, uh, a little extra practice–sort of a “listen again for this” opportunity. It’s great to tie everything together. My kids often say, “Again!” After which I say, “I didn’t hear a please….” But we do it again anyway.

After four lessons there is a test. The tests are all together in the back of the book and so are the answers. I had my kids do the tests on a separate sheet of paper. I trust them with the answers right there, but someone spilled coffee on a bunch of paper, and it had to be used up. Truth.

Age Recommendations

Memoria Press–such a lovely name–recommends this for grades 3-5, which makes me feel like an dunce, because I’ve learned a ton through this program! My husband studied music theory in college and is a professional musician, so he knows most of the theory, although it’s a good review for him. I took piano lessons for four years and took the obligatory music class in high school which basically taught me how much I looooooaaaaaathe group projects and that Kansas is a state and a music group. Essentially what I think they’re saying is that children in grades 3-5 are ready for this information, and that it is a good age to start them.

That said, I am using this program exclusively in the van when the entire family, including Steve the husband and dad and professional musician, are awake. That means everyone from 2 to 21 and parents are all enjoying this course together. Some parts are review for some people, but we have all  learned something, and most of us have learned quite a bit…and we’re a musical family.

I would definitely say my kindergartener, who is 6, is too young to fully benefit from the program, but she is learning things, is being exposed to phenomenal music, is becoming more familiar with names of musical greats, and is listening to music in a different manner, even if she can’t pronounce ritornello. I wouldn’t hesitate (and obviously didn’t hesitate) to include younglings in the mix with the older kids.

My third grader is in the recommended age group and is the reason we accepted this course. She is completely enjoying the program and doing quite well in it. She is, however, highly interested in the subject and has a good head on her shoulders when she chooses to use it. If a child finds this frustrating at age 8 or 9, I would definitely hold off a year or two and come back to it later.

Outside of the age group on the older end, I have a sixth grader (12), freshman (15), junior (17), college senior (19), and a 21-year-old. They are all listening and learning, although the 21-year-old is an accomplished pianist and knows some of this already, but it’s great review. I wouldn’t hesitate for a second to use this with high schoolers. Not one second!

And then there’s the two-year-old.

Ha ha. Potato chip boy doesn’t like anything to be louder than he is, but he too is getting into the music. My favorite for him so far is one of the earlier lessons–Vivaldi’s winter–during which the children match the poem to the song so they can hear the music as stomping feet or chattering teeth or howling wind. Mine reenacted that…for a long time…and quite enthusiastically. That might explain the blown tire.

How We Make It Work

We do one lesson a week and only when everyone is available and only on driving weeks…which is most weeks, since we drive all the time! We follow the program exactly as written. First we listen to the piece. Then we read the history. That’s it for the day–maybe 10-15 minutes depending on the length of the piece. (We do a minute or two of review at the beginning, so make that 12-17 minutes if you want to be picky, and right now I’m feeling pretty picky.)

Next driving day we do an ever-so-brief (30 seconds) review and then study and practice the musical concept taught that day. This is about 20 minutes max.

Next driving day or the same day if people want more (usually same day), we go through the review and practice sections and listen to the piece again with our newfound knowledge. The entire lesson takes us no more than an hour, and usually less. The only reason it takes us up to an hour is because we listen again and again to some sections or pieces, either because we love them or because we want to practice some more.

(That picture is after they finished listening, because my camera and phone and listening device are one and the same, but this is what the participants look like sitting in the van. )

Every four weeks there is a test based on four lessons. For my large group, I pass around the book and let them take it on their own (10 minutes for most, although the third grader took about 30), or I ask questions aloud and have them write answers. There is a listen-and-identify section that we do together. The reviews we do before each lesson are mostly sufficient to prepare them for the tests, but they can also go back and review on their own if they’re so inclined. Also, once they’ve taken the test, I let them go back and use the book for any answers they didn’t know.

(She did more than one problem–I took the picture at the start of this examination because, confession time, I fall asleep a lot in the van. Plus I forget things.)

That’s it. It’s super simple. Everything is laid out beautifully, understandably, simply.

I know I say we’re a musical family, but personally I’m kind of a musical dunce. I teach my kids basic piano and make them sing hymns in harmony, but I don’t know stuff–you know, stuff. Even I can do this course. Sometimes I might have trouble finding a theme or detecting an instrument or something, but it’s all a matter of ear training, patience, and practice–there’s no rush! And if you don’t “get” something, it’s okay. You will still garner quite a bit of interesting information from this course.

There is a technological side to this course. When the technology brain cells were handed out, a bird ate mine. True story…maybe. But I don’t let that handicap stop me. Here’s what I did to make this work for us in the van. (Some of you are going to be like, “DUH! That’s so easy!” To you I say, “Show me the pastern and coronet on a horse, diagram the Preamble to the Constitution, make me some chocolate without sugar, and treat this diaper rash with no chemicals.” We all have our gifts.)

I made a shortcut on my phone to the website where all the videos are linked–I don’t remember how I did that, so ask YouTube instead of me. Each week when we want to listen, I simply tap the shortcut icon, select my selection, and BAM! It’s playing on my phone.

That’s a screenshot of my phone’s app page. I know–so many apps! And in Spanish! Ugh. See the shortcut in the upper righthand corner? Easier than pie.

To run it through the van speakers, I plugged my phone into the van’s input using my headphone cord so the van speakers are like my headphones…but louder and less private. I can’t take a picture of it, because, again, my camera is on my phone, and the music is playing on my phone, and my phone is hooked up, so here’s a picture of my van’s radio.

Wow, that was helpful.

That’s all the tech advice necessary, unless you don’t know how to play CDs. I won’t judge.

Our Final Assessment

I love this course and the offspring do as well. I’m setting aside what we were previously doing and continuing with this course until I’ve done the whole thing. Then I am hoarding it so I can do it again later when the younglings are old enough to gain more from it.

It is exactly what I was hoping it would be, except more interesting. Sometimes I want to do three lessons in a week! But I stuff a potato chip in my mouth and sit on my hands.

Memoria offers a free sample page right here, so check it out if this sounds like something that might interest your crew.

You know what though–I shouldn’t be surprised. We love everything we’ve ever gotten from Memoria Press.

More From Memoria and the Homeschool Review Crew

Other members of the Homeschool Review Crew reviewed numerous other publications:

And here’s my review on their Fourth Grade Literature Guide Set.

To read their reviews, click right here or on the banner below:

For information on their other great books, including sales and new publications, follow Memoria Press on social media:

 

Homeschool Diploma — A Personalized Diploma Experience {Review}

We’ve been homeschooling for so long that I’ve noticed an odd pattern emerging from people who ask us questions about our education lifestyle. One of the questions we hear, strangely enough, is “What about a diploma?!”

I used to say that we were going to make our own, which had people looking up the number for social services faster than you could say “burger and fries.” Thankfully, Homeschool Diploma has appeased our curious questioners with their array of diplomas, specifically their Standard High School Diploma and the Personalized High School Diploma.

High School Diploma with 7

All my longtime followers already heard me gush about Homeschool Diploma and how they made me cry happy tears a couple years back when we ordered a diploma for Hannah. You can read all about that right here. I don’t want to repeat myself, so I’m going to talk to you today about the numerous options you have for personalizing a diploma from Homeschool Diploma.

Homeschool Diploma offers numerous options, including the following:

I want to walk you through the numerous options involved in personalizing the high school diploma we created for Marissa. Wait, what?! Isn’t Marissa graduating from college in a few weeks? Yes, yes she is. Here’s what happened. At 16 she sort of morphed from high school into college and we never really celebrated. We just called her a high school dropout and that was that. Ha! So we ordered a high school diploma for her backdated to 2015 when she was sweet 16. Next week we’ll be giving it to her at her big high school graduation bash, which is just us at Red Robin using all the birthday money I’ve been saving up. Got that? Good.

Okay, onto the details that make the personalized diploma so special.

Size options

You can go for the standard 8.5×11, the more compact 6×8, or the totally portable wallet size.

Seal options

There are three standard gold seals to choose from, and several upgraded seals for an additional charge. You can focus on home education, Christian education, or one of the other options. You classical educators will be thrilled to know there’s even an option for you.

Names

The name of your graduate and school are up to you, of course. We are boring and used our daughter’s real name.

You can include your city and state if you wish. We use our country, since we’re a USA traveling roadschool.

Wording

This is one of my favorite parts. The wording options are quite extensive. You can choose a more state-like diploma, an honors diploma, a thanks to God option, or the Godly wisdom wording, which is my personal favorite and what we chose for both our graduates so far.

There are also options for single parent homes, double parent homes, or excluding the parents altogether if, you know, the lunches they packed for four years weren’t worthy of having their names on the diploma. Very possible!

Verse or Motto

You have the option of choosing a verse or motto for the diploma. There are a number of options or you can add your own. We have used our girls’ confirmation verses to make them even more meaningful, particularly since our girls have chosen their own confirmation verses.

Dates and Signature Lines

You can backdate, forward date, or present date your diploma. You can also choose how to label your signature lines. We did the simple Father and Mother, although I was considering King and Queen.

Paper and Lettering

There are two paper options, and this was super hard for me, because you can’t go wrong with either one, which makes it super hard for me. I know–weirdo!

The lettering options include hand-lettered calligraphy for an additional fee. We opted for printed…I think. I can’t remember.

Honors Seal

You can opt to add an honors seal in English or Latin. I always use the Latin because Latin is cool. Why? Because my high school Latin teacher said it was, and if Mr. Winter said it, you know it’s true.

Diploma Cover

You have choices of colors and seals or no seal at all.

You may also upgrade and add your graduate’s . name to the outside of the diploma, a nice little touch. We got the name on the outside for Marissa, but not for Hannah. Apparently we like Marissa better.

Add-ons

You may order an archive copy so you’ll have a copy for your records. This is also where you order the wallet-size copy. We got one for Hannah, but not for Marissa. Apparently we like Hannah better.

Cap and Gown and Tassel

You may add a cap, gown, and tassel, or just a tassel, or nothing at all. Hannah got a cap and tassel. Marissa only got a tassel. We really do like Hannah better!

If you need to back-date your tassel charm, that’s no problem at all! You have a seriously huge array of options for tassel colors and charms. We don’t have school colors, so I go with colors the girls like, which is not easy, so I think I’m choosing school colors before Elisabeth graduates next year.

Extras

You can add a ring for your grad, invitations, a darling little gold tassel for your diploma, a pen–so much stuff!

Shipping

You have the option of saying, “Oh, rats! I forgot to order a diploma for the gaduation ceremony that is taking place in two sleeps!” You can get it made and shipped super fast.

Customer Service

I have communicated with Homeschool Diploma a number of times over the past couple of years, and I always feel like I’m talking to an old friend–not the old that’s awkward to talk to because you stopped sending Christmas cards and they didn’t. I mean the old friend that you see after ten years and it’s like you never missed a beat, you know what I mean?

Now then, let me say again that you can go back and read my other review of our first diploma experience with Homeschool Diploma right here. You can also go see what other Homeschool Crew Review team members think of their diplomas, gowns, hats, and other fun goodies by clicking here or on the banner below:

You can also follow Homeschool Diploma on social media:

 

 

Three Ways to Maintain Your Focus on CHRISTmas {Great for Homeschoolers}

We can no longer deny that Christmas is here! Because it is!

Just an aside–if I were Abraham Lincoln, I would have set Thanksgiving a couple weeks earlier. It leaves more time for the Christmas cookies decorations to be out.

3 Ways to Focus on CHRISTmas {Great for Families and Homeschoolers}



There are a few things I want to highlight that help make the season bright around here–not that Jesus’ birth needs any brightening, but sometimes our focus needs adjusting and our lenses need cleaning if you catch my drift.

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Family Advent Guide: Truth in the Tinsel

Every year I tell you about this Advent program, Truth in the Tinsel: and Advent Experience for Little Hands. It’s a delightful Advent guide for the younger set, and even some of the older kids if they’re interested–my kids all participate to some extent. (I’d love to hear your suggestions for Advent activities for the older set!) My favorite part is that the readings are straight from the Bible–they’re short and sweet so the kids can all grasp them.

Truth in the Tinsel is wildly popular. There’s even a Facebook group for you to post your creations and so on and so forth–we don’t do that, because we are prefer our own group of faces. (That cheesy pun is my Christmas gift to you–no returns, no exchanges.) It’s also easily adaptable, because we adapt everything. (I really don’t like that about us, but it’s how we are.) Anyway, read my explanation of it here, see my interview with the creator of the program here, or check it out for yourself right here. If you buy through my links, you help support our Christian music mission.

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Charlotte Mason Homeschool Holiday: Rediscovering Christmas

Right about now we scrap normal homeschooling for something a little more Christmasy–okay a lot more Christmasy. Jim and Sheila Carroll’s Rediscovering Christmas is our go-to and I l-o-v-e it! Not like I love my husband and my kids, but if it baked cookies for me, it would rank pretty close. It’s not worksheets and flashcards. It’s real living books, beautiful images, moving music, and more.

It’s ideal for us because my children love to snuggle down and listen to me read Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (which inspired our Judah’s middle name, Ebenezer) and can spend an hour poring over books filled with Norman Rockwell’s paintings. They love to listen to the old stories and the old music and the old traditions and the beautiful old poems. They also like Phineas and Ferb, so it’s not like we’re stuck in the wrong generation or something. Wink wink.

Here’s what I especially love about this seven-week course that takes you from Thanksgiving through Epiphany (January 6): All the proceeds go to support the founders’ seven African schools. They walk the walk, people! Check them out. I get nothing if you buy this downloadable course, but the African students do. If you have questions that can’t be answered on the site, please email Sheila–she’s super helpful!

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Holiday Unit Study: Christmas Comes to America

Christmas Comes to America is a fun, Christ-centered unit study that lasts four weeks. It can be downloaded instantly or you can buy the print version. It is light, so you can still fit in all your other Christmas fun, and it requires very little parent prep. One thing I know after 18 years of homeschooling is that too much prep means it ain’t gonna happen. I like that it teaches the Old Testament prophecies and the New Testament fulfillments, talks about other cultures and traditions, and includes the arts. I also like that it directs you to quality books

We are testing it for the first time this year, so I can’t give you an in-depth analysis, but you can download a free sample week here so you can try before you buy. This is an affiliate link…and yes, I bought it, too.

How do you maintain focus through the holidays?

Thanks to Anna Fox for the gorgeous photo from a Dickens Christmas fair. (Screen and text mine.) Here’s a better view:

Three Ways to Focus on CHRISTmas {Great for Families and Homeschoolers}