Diplomas for Homeschooled Students, a.k.a. The Diploma That Made Me Cry

(Hannah Dear, don’t read this. You’ll find out soon enough.)

Did you hear the screaming? It was me. I was asked to review a diploma from HomeschoolDiploma.com, and I was so excited that I broke through my normally calm exterior (ahem) and got just a leeeeeetle bit loud. Their newest release is the Exclusive High School Diploma, which is beautiful, but I ordered one that was more suited to us, the Personalized High School Diploma. While I received a free diploma (technically, Hannah did), I did purchase a few items as well. All opinions are my own, unless someone effectively whispered their own opinions in my ear while I was sleeping–it could happen.

I’m almost embarrassed by how over-the-top excited I am about the diploma our Hannah Marie received from HomeschoolDiploma.com. 

First, let me yammer a bit. We are often asked how our kids will get a high school diploma if they don’t go to a real school, and if they don’t go to a real school and don’t get a diploma, how will they ever get a job?! I think this is hilarious, because nobody has ever seen my high school diploma, and I have had more than my fair share of jobs.

It isn’t the diploma you need; it’s the education.

That said, a diploma is a nice–very nice–way to represent a major achievement, in this case, the completion of homeschool high school. True, you can make your own, which was our plan, but I’m off-the-wall happy that we went with this beauty from HomeschoolDiploma.com.

Homeschool Diploma from HomeschoolDiploma.com

Why?

First, it’s finished. I would still be tweaking and researching and rewriting and tearing out my nose hairs over the whole thing. True story.

Second, look at it! It’s beautiful and very, very professional. I’m proud to give it to our Hannah.

Homeschool Diploma from HomeschoolDiploma.com

We haven’t signed it yet, because I’m scared, but they do have a direction sheet for how to sign it, and there is a replacement diploma available at a fraction of the cost when if we mess this up.

What is the diploma-buying experience like?

There are several basic diplomas to choose from, and you build from there. You simply answer one question after another until you have a unique masterpiece. It’s all simple and self-explanatory, but there are info pop-ups available if you have questions. (I had questions–shocker!)

You can add honors stickers, seals, signatures, handwritten lettering, and all sorts of different alterations that make each diploma truly unique.

You can even create your own family’s embossing seal–very special! That is an excellent option if you do want to make your own diploma.

My favorite part of the one we chose (Personalized High School Diploma) is the choice wording. Since we are more concerned with preparing our children with a solid faith and real life skills than we are with knowing who was 15th in line to the throne of England, I felt this wording was perfect! I got choked up. (I know–I have issues.)

Homeschool Diplomas from HomeschoolDiplomas.com

We even were able to add her confirmation verse.

And the owner of the company–she is a gem! I can’t remember why I was chatting with her, but she was helpful, informative, and as enthused as I am, the poor dear.

It’s not just diplomas!

We also ordered a mortar board (funny hat, as my kids describe it) and a tassel. You can order back dates like we did since Hannah technically graduated in 2015, and we had a baby instead of a party. They are the same quality you get from the “real” schools where they get “real” mortar boards and “real” diplomas that nobody ever sees.

Here it is modeled by the lovely and scholarly Emily Rose:

Graduation Gear from HomeschoolDiplomas.com

Actually, the hat itself was a better quality than our high school and college caps. The tassel is the thin kind–I prefer the thick kind, but the cost of the tassel versus the cost of the education that gave me the thick tassel and lots of debt–well, I’ll take the thinner tassel

The announcements are very high quality, and the wording is beautiful!

Homeschool Graduation Announcements from HomeschoolDiploma.com

We are truly very pleased with our diploma from HomeschoolDiplomas.com. I can’t recommend them highly enough.

Additional thoughts for my fellow roadschoolers:

I have only heard of this happening one time, but a fellow full-time RV family was asked to prove that their children were homeschooled before being able to stay in an RV park. Really? Yes, really. In America?! Yes, America. Crazy I know. I don’t know what else out there is like that. Perhaps some jobs or RV parks or other places of repute actually will want to see a diploma…I dunno. Crazy world, crazy people, crazy requirements.

Anyway, HomeschoolDiplomas.com offers a duplicate version of the diploma you can keep in your important papers safe, as well as the wallet-sized laminated diploma seen here, which is what we bought. For a few dollars more, it gives you peace of mind against all the crazies. That and a Colt 22.

Wallet-sized laminated diploma from HomeschoolDiplomas.com

Go here to read reviews from homeschoolers who don’t get quite so emotional over a pretty piece of paper:

Exclusive High School Diploma Review

Crew Disclaimer

Homeschool Copywork — Handwriting, Character Building, Spelling, and More

My family received a complementary Lifetime Membership to Homeschool Copywork in exchange for this review. Normally, I’m not one for lifetime memberships, because I assume that automatically puts you on a hit list. Seriously, you know that if you win $5000 a week for life from Publisher’s Clearing House, you’re toast as soon as their budget gets tight. But in this case, we jumped on it. Homeschool Copywork doesn’t seem like the kind of place to have a hitman on the pay roster.

In fact, Homeschool Copywork is quite the opposite. Their site is a beautiful combination of copywork ebooks touching on a variety of topics for all age groups.

There are several different levels of handwriting in the ebooks. Your youngest writers can trace over the dashed letters. Older children can try various forms of printing as well as cursive. There really is something for each age level.

Homeschool Copywork Lifetime Membership Review

What I love about copywork is that it replaces the boring subjects, such as spelling and handwriting. Instead of writing “Abe ate Abel’s apples,” children are writing beautiful Scripture, quotes, historical facts, and other highly interesting phrases that stick with them throughout their lives. That’s so much better than Aa Aa Aa or spelling lists!

Here is a very brief sampling of the many available books:

  • animal alphabet
  • character building
  • Vincent Van Gogh and Monet
  • Beethoven and other composers
  • the armor of God (which is what Elijah is working through)
  • poetry of Emily Dickinson, Lewis Caroll, E.B. Browning, and others
  • hymns, such as Oh Love That Will Not Let Me Go and Be Thou My Vision
  • holiday topics, such as Thanksgiving and Christmas
  • historical topics and quotes, such as the Wright Brothers and John Audubon
  • coloring pages
  • notebooking pages

There are many, many more!

Homeschool Copywork Review of Lifetime Membership

Some contain beautiful artwork for coloring which makes it even more fun to display the children’s copywork.

Elijah is currently working through this beauty:

Homeschool Copywork Review

He writes it on notebook paper, but you can print the ebook page or use handwriting paper, depending on your preference and paper availability. We use what we have…because we have it…so we use it.

Homeschool Copywork -- Review of the Lifetime Membership

Additional thoughts for my fellow roadschoolers:

Now normally with downloadable products, I’m griping about data limits and poor internet access. In this case, I haven’t a single gripe. The books download quickly without any hitches and use minimal data.

Obviously, there are no weight issues, as the books are ebooks and are lighter than air.

The one issue you may find is with printing. Ideally, especially for the younger set, you would print the sections of the ebooks you want for each child. We didn’t do that, although we will when the four-year-old is ready to participate, so she can trace the letters.

This is how we use it:

Homeschool Copywork Review of Lifetime Membership

We choose the page they would copy and display it on the computer screen, and they copy it onto regular paper. It’s not as much fun, and we still have to have paper on hand, but it does save on printing costs and the annoying printer set-up issues that you have when you have 10 people living in a 30-foot trailer and you have to store your printer in the Cave of Wonders (or someplace equally as inaccessible).

Homeschool Copywork -- Review of the Lifetime Membership

That boy needs better lighting. We’ll get right on that.

Seriously, I can see no reason why this wouldn’t work for travelers. Can you?

To find out what stationary homeschoolers have to say about Homeschool Copywork, click here or on the banner below:
Homeschool Copywork Review

Crew Disclaimer

Analyzing Literature Without Losing the Love {A Review}

It is my legal duty to tell my readers that Memoria Press sent us the four student books and four teacher guides in their Fourth Grade Literature Guide Set to review, and I always perform my legal duty to the letter…except the time I showed up for jury duty with a new baby in my arms. All opinions here belong to me and my children–Memoria Press did not influence our decision.
Memoria Press Literature Guides Review

Most of my readers know that I was an English major in college. What you may not know is that by the time I was finished with college, I rarely read books anymore. The joy of reading had been stifled by too much literary dissection and over-the-top analysis. The natural process of thinking through an author’s work and making friends with writers and characters had been replaced with trying to figure out what a professor thought the author intended to say and making friends with a syllabus.

For that reason, the majority of what my children read is not laid out on the operation table to be cut into layer by layer. It is allowed to dance in their brains and on their tongues as they share their own interpretations without my attempting to get what want out of a reading.

Memoria Press Literature Guides Review

That is why, despite my degree, this literature guide set from Memoria Press is, as far as I can recall, the first I have ever used with my kids. My opinion? I love it! My kids’ opinion? They love it! Let’s talk about why.

  1. The book selection is challenging, but not impossible by any means. The selection for fourth grade includes Homer Price by McCloskey (an old friend to most reading families or anyone who has fallen in love with the ducks in Boston), The Cricket in Times Square by Seldon, Dangerous Journey: The Story of Pilgrim’s Progress arranged by Hunkin, and Blue Fairy Book by Lang (the book we started with because we already had it on Kindle).
  2. Together, the series touches on different styles of literature. Some students may not taste certain genres unless required to, and might never otherwise learn that they love it.
  3. The discussion questions are not tedious or boring. We work through most of the questions out loud, and the kids are super enthusiastic. They do the quizzes on paper, and are just as enthused.
  4. The questions guide them to think through character traits, but so far have avoided being preachy.
  5. The Bible is brought into a few of the lessons, particularly in Dangerous Journey.
  6. The vocabulary words are fun for the kids, because, overall, they are useful words the kids are now noticing or using in their everyday lives. Also, the new words per lesson are minimal–not overwhelming by any means. There are, of course, a few wonky words they will never use again, such as Genus Mephitis from Homer Price, which doesn’t pop up over pizza too often.
  7. Character, plat, setting, an other literary devices are discussed in the guides here and there, more so in The Cricket in Times Square. The kids learn the literary words without being chased down by a literary bear with a chainsaw…if you catch my drift.
  8. The books in the series complement each other, but are separate studies, so parents can begin wherever they like.
  9. Not only is it good for children to read slightly above their grade levels, but to listen as well. Sometimes I read the story aloud; other times the kids read it to themselves. The program is flexible enough to be used however it works best for the family.
  10. The appendices in three of the four guides add just a little bit extra to make the book that much more interesting, but not so much that you start drooling while reading.
  11. The study guides introduce brief writing assignments–not torturous. My first grader loved them.
  12. It’s age and grade flexible. While this is a fourth grade set, most of my kids listened in and the fourth and first graders actively participated. The other grades look equally as flexible, because the literature selections are timeless.

Memoria Press Literature Guides Review


While I most definitely will continue giving my children a selection of books to read that will require no formal written or spoken analysis, and especially no worksheets, I will also continue to work through the rest of the Fourth Grade Literature Guide Set from Memoria Press. It’s that well done, and it doesn’t kill the joy.

Additional thoughts for my fellow roadschoolers:

With the availability of Kindles, you all know that our libraries can come with us–praise God for that! I’m old school and prefer a book in one hand and popcorn in the other, but I’m still ecstatic about how the Kindle has expanded the roadschoolers library. The Memoria Press Teacher’s Guide and Student’s Guide are both quite slim and will likewise not take up much room on the shelf. Three of the four sets can be stowed until needed while keeping the fourth at hand.

A Lit Program Even I Love

While it’s ideal for each child to have her own student book, if you have eight kids and a limited amount of space, you can adapt as we do and as described above.

The flexibility of the program has made it simple for us to have our literary discussions and sometimes readings in the van as we drive. The quizzes and lessons are short enough that they’re not going to get in the way of hiking through Bryce Canyon.

I see no reason why this one shouldn’t make the roadschool cut! 

Read what other reviewers have to say right here:

CREW REVIEW IMAGE

disclaimer_zps7f3b646c

Demme Learning’s Math-U-See Has Gone Digital!

Please know that I was given a free year’s access to the digital pack for level Delta from Demme Learning’s Math-U-See in exchange for my and my son’s fair and unbiased review. (We did buy the student books with our own money…not stolen money.) This is indeed a fair and unbiased review. As you know, I can be swayed with cookies, but rest easy, reader friends–my son is a man of integrity. Stand strong, Boy!

Over the past 15 years of homeschooling, we have had six children use Demme Learning’s Math-U-See, and number seven is on the horizon.

We are big Math-U-See fans, and this is why:

  1. I am a disorganized, inconsistent, unstructured mess of a mama sometimes. But that’s okay…I mean, for math, because Mr. Demme teaches my kids (and me) on video. If I don’t get out of bed for three months, they can still progress in their math. (That would be super boring for me, although I’d get a lot of reading done.)
  2. As the name implies, the students can see not only how to do math, but why they do what they do. The manipulatives are part of that, as is Mr. Demme’s break-down of the process.
  3. Each level ensures mastery before moving to another topic.
  4. Each lesson reviews previous skills.
  5. There is no drill and kill–math should not be fatal.

Recently Demme Learning came out with their digital packs. Instead of a physical teacher’s guide and a DVD, you have access to video streaming, digital manipulatives, the lesson summary, and the solutions all online for one year.

So instead of my son Elijah’s Delta level Math-U-See supplies looking like this:

Demme Learning Math U See Review

…he has this:

Demme Learning Math U See Review

Phenomenal cosmic math concepts…itty bitty living space.

Here’s what I love about the digital packs:

My son does not need to be sitting in front of the television. If we are in the van, he can watch his math video on the library Kindle Fire. He loves that he doesn’t need to wait for his turn with the DVD player. My husband loves that the math lesson can be a little quieter than when it’s on the tele.

Second, the digital streaming doesn’t get scratched, broken, lost, left in Arizona and not discovered until we’re in Colorado, stepped on, or need to be put away.

Third, last year I had six students in Math-U-See. (We graduated two last summer.) That was a lot of teacher’s books, I tell ya! They took up a lot of space that could have been used for literature or history–my favorite subjects. (Do you remember we live in a trailer?)

Fourth, the digital packs aren’t ever going to be outdated. There isn’t an older version and a newer version; you never wonder if your student text will line up with the teacher’s guide. It’s all good.

Fifth, you don’t have to wait for shipping–you finish, you re-order, you click a few times and you’re on the next level, which is a pretty big deal for me, the perpetual procrastinator…or percrastinator. Re-ordering is as easy as pi. That was a little math joke there. 

Sixth, the work is still done on paper. There’s just something about paper and pencil that makes me happy…that and cookies and pie with an e.

Here’s what I don’t love about the digital packs:

I have eight students, and, quite honestly, I don’t want to be buying access year after year. I can’t pass them down, and I am totally into hand-me-downs.

I’m old school. I don’t like staring at screens; it messes with my eyes and makes me miss nature. I just want a book already. But you know what? My son is across-the-board-school. He likes screens and books, so, while I am a middle-aged, change-resistant Lutheran, he is totally hip to the digital version and even prefers it. 

Additional thoughts for my fellow roadschoolers:

The ongoing space issue:

We have been traveling for four years with our enormous bucket of Math-U-See blocks. It’s not enormous in a house, but in a 30-foot Passport travel trailer, anything bigger than a two-slot toaster is outrageous. The manipulative solution Demme Learning offers online is far and away more space-saving than the box of blocks. 

I (the old-school, change-resistant Lutheran), of course, prefer the blocks to the digital version, because I am not a fan of learning curves anymore and I like to hold things in my hands…like cookies and pie and babies. My son prefers the physical blocks as well. But here’s the thing–when he turns the computer off, the blocks are put away. You think Legos hurt on a trip to the bathroom at night? Try stepping on math manipulatives! Old school or not, those babies hurt.

Also, whine though I might about the learning curve, there’s a quick and easy manipulatives demo on the digital access page, so take that fellow Lutherans. We can handle change…maybe.

Demme Learning's Math-U-See Digital Pacs --space savers and very convenient

The ongoing internet issue:

As with all online curricula, there is the issue of internet connection. The digital packs do require you to stream videos, which we can only do when we have a strong internet connection or enough data left at the end of the month. (Yeah, we data budget.) My son has been flying through his lessons, so he’s been watching a video every day or two, but when he gets to the harder lessons, it will be more like once a week or so, making the access issue less significant.

The online manipulatives are not a big data hog, so he can use them for his assignments and practice whenever we are connected with no issue…although I think he may have recreated the Danish attacks on Wessex last week instead of working on his division. As with all online activity, supervise supervise supervise. Of course, he can also do his assignments without the manipulatives if there is no connection at all.

An unexpected bonus:

Just an aside, when he doesn’t have a connection, he tries to figure out the lesson himself, and then watches the video later. He owns the subject more when he struggles to think it through instead of being guided. It’s a Japanese concept that works with some of my kids. Of course, sometimes he ends up watching two or three videos at a time this way when we’re connected, but whoop diddly do, right?

Go here to read reviews from homeschoolers who fall a little closer to “normal” on the normalcy spectrum than we do:

Demme Learning's Math-U-See Review
Crew Disclaimer

A Homeschool Writing Program Anyone Can Love!

Notice: I was granted a free one-year membership to Here to Help Learning where I am currently using Paragraph Writing: Flight 1 of their Homeschool Writing Program with my first and fourth graders in exchange for this fair and unbiased review. Also, I am an affiliate of this program, so if you purchase through my links, I receive a commission which, honestly, I reinvest in homeschooling. Contrary to what I say, I don’t blow it all on cookie ingredients…but wouldn’t that be fun!

Those of you who read my article in the Texas Home School Coalition Review entitled “How a Family of Writing Class Slackers Raises Top-Notch Writers may be surprised to know that for the past several weeks I have been using a bonafide writing curriculum with two of my children (three if you count the little four-year-old tagalong…who can’t write, but has brilliant ideas about glass slippers and what kind of underwear penguins wear). It is called Here To Help Learning.

What kind of program would tempt us away from our slacker approach, you ask? I’m tempted to say, “Go try it yourself and stop bothering me,” because it’s that much fun and can’t really be described by mere mortals, of which I am one, but that’s rude, and I was raised better than that, thank you, Mom.

You are going to find numerous normal homeschoolers describing it to you at the Review Crew, and you can also head to the website for a full description and samples of the program, so I’m going to keep the technical description brief. What I really want to dwell on is my perception as 1) a professional writer, and 2) a roadschooler.

A brief description:

  1. Here to Help Learning is a video program that teaches the writing process.
  2. It incorporates workbook pages, games, and assignments to practice the new skills.
  3. You the parent/administrator are involved in the process as a guide, but not as the instructor.
  4. It’s a Christian program, but it won’t slap you in the face if you’re not a Christian.

One of our new favorite writing programs and a free language guide for you!

Now, my thoughts as a writer who raises writers:

Thought one: Non-writers can “teach.” 

Most people cannot write. Many are afraid of even trying. Others think they can, but they can’t. It’s painful…like when I croon off-key to my musician husband. As the head writing tutor at my college umpteen gazillion years ago (exaggeration is bad writing form), I and my team were required to read papers from every single freshman in the school, as well as students who were recommended to our center by other profs. I vividly recall the agony of reading paper after paper after paper from people who thought they were good enough to skate in and out of the center, but who stunk like skunk roadkill sandwiched between two rotting fish fermenting in the bottom of your diaper bag on a summer day. Really. Their writing stunk–there, I said it. There were three freshmen whose papers needed minimal help, if any; I married one of them. (Just so you know, I used to stink, too, and sometimes still do, so there’s hope.)

Here to Help Learning offers writing instruction on video, so you yourself don’t have to actually know how to be a writer. Isn’t that great?! Anything you need to know you learn right alongside your kids…although it is helpful if you can spell better than they can. Let me reiterate this, because it is very important: you do not need to be a writer to teach your children to write…although a princess crown always helps.

One of our new favorite homeschool writing programs and a free language guide just for you!

Thought two: You all learn the process.

The instructor, Mrs. Mora, teaches the entire paragraph and essay writing process in a logical progression from the start. She reviews the previously learned steps until it becomes second nature. As a writer, I no longer follow this writing process in a step-by-step manner, since it’s more mushed together like casserole, but it’s important to master the skills before going the casserole route.

In other words, the kids are learning how to write, not just how to get through an assignment.

(Please note that they are not, as far as I have discovered, learning how to write a sentence. This is for the paragraph and essay levels, or roughly anywhere within 1st through 6th grade (and I would say beyond as needed). I have had to do some technical explanation of a complete sentence to properly play the sentence game, and my tagalong still thinks anything that mentions princesses, cookies, or kittens is totally a complete thought and therefore a complete sentence. Don’t bother teaching four-year-olds the technical side of grammar. Now is a good time to mention that this is not a grammar program. Don’t get confused. They do, however, offer this language guide as a freebie, which you can get right now.)

Free Quick Reference Guide to Punctuation & Grammar from One of Our Favorite Writing Courses!

Thought three: It’s fun!

This class isn’t boring or corny, like previous courses we’ve dabbled in. Okay, so maybe it’s potentially corny at times, but in an amusing way that doesn’t speak down to the kids. (My 19-year-old disagrees, but she’s 19 and not in the target learning audience.) I honestly thought the talking dog would register pretty high on the annoyance meter, but after the first 30 seconds, I was totally into him. Even most of my older kids thought he was a hoot, and they’re a tough crowd.

One of our new favorite writing programs and a free language guide for you.

Mrs. Mora herself is hee-haw hilarious! I don’t know what it is about her quirky self, but she totally resonates with our quirky selves. We had to re-watch her flight prep videos just for fun. If you’re not quirky, you may disagree. Seriously, I wish I had a fourth grade teacher as engaging as she is. (No offense, Mr. Fett. You were great, and you taught me a mean game of Sheepshead.)

Here to Help Learning Review

The course takes the “ugh” out of learning writing. The main reason I didn’t use a writing program for years is because I didn’t want my kids to hate writing. I wanted them to love it like I love it! Some of the writing programs we tried made my kids groan. The authors either tried too hard to be hip (and failed) or the programs were menial and pathetically boring…even for me. It’s not that I think everything in life needs to be fun–just clean the stinkin’ bathroom already–but it does help if something as intimidating as staring down a blank sheet of paper can be made exciting. (Personally, I think a blank piece of paper is an invitation to a feast, but apparently that’s just me.)

With Here to Help Learning’s Flight Lessons, my kids have been begging to do their writing. They’ve been begging for a decent internet connection so they can watch the next video. They’ve been begging me to print the papers (you have the highly desirable option of buying the workbook) and setting up binders for them…which I didn’t, because I’m a meanie…and because roadschoolers have space and weight limitations that you foundation schoolers only think you understand. The begging is annoying, but it’s great how much they enjoy their writing lessons and how enthusiastically they pull out paper and pencil to write.

Additional thoughts for my fellow roadschoolers:

Thought one: Internet connection versus DVDs

This is a program whose usefulness on the road depends on your situation and whether you opt for physical or digital products. We went the digital route. For us, being in a new spot every couple of days (and sometimes every day), we do not know what sort of internet connection we will have. Also, video streaming, as you know, uses up our limited data, so we have to wait for a freebie connection. This means lesson days are hit and miss, which is no biggie for us, since we’re adaptable. On the other hand, you don’t watch a video every day in this program, so you just have to exercise those amazing logistical skills full-timers acquire to make it work–also no biggie. Still, if you’ve paid for a one-year membership, you don’t want to miss so much that it isn’t worth it. Of course, at $6.99 a month for access to the entire six years worth of instruction, it isn’t too big a hit.

That said, most of you don’t move around as much as we do, so your connectability is less of an issue. Of course, if you buy the DVDs, you don’t have to worry about the internet connection.

One of our new favorite writing programs and a free language guide for you! 

Thought two: Printing versus buying workbooks

You can either purchase workbooks or download and print worksheets from the site. We did neither. RVers understand about weight and space limitations and the necessity to adjust to both. We managed to do this program with very little printing–okay, we didn’t print anything, but don’t tell Mrs. Mora! We may well have benefitted more if we had, and my son sure would have preferred that, but we work within our limitations–simplify, simplify.

How did we do it? We skipped some aspects, such as the rewards coupons (cookies are lighter and require no additional storage space–ahem). Also, instead of printing images and papers for them to write on, we looked at the images on the video while it was paused, and we wrote everything down on reg’lar ol’ paper. Not as exciting, but it’s cheaper, it saves space and weight, and it’s how we roll. Honestly, the amount of space required for the workbook is so negligible that it would have worked better for us having a workbook for each child or one workbook to look at and looseleaf papers to write on. I would do that if I were slightly more sane, which, sadly, I’m not.

Thought three: Time

I somehow thought that on the road I’d have all sorts of extra time for book-larnin’. Turns out I was oh-so-wrong. There’s too much life and road happening (don’t ask me how road happens). This program does not require prep work or teaching time. Do I get a cookie for sharing that vital information with you?

My final thought:

If you can handle the internet access and printing issues, or if you purchase the DVDs and workbooks instead of relying on online access, or if you are not as printer-phobic as I am, this will work beautifully for your roadschooling writing class needs. Those postcards to Grandma are going to get pretty exciting!

I have to say one more thing. We’ve been talking about pride quite a bit in our family, trying to differentiate between being proud of yourself and being proud of yourself. Beth Mora does that beautifully in the first video lesson. Right there I was sold.

What my kids and I love about Here to Help Writing Curriculum (and a free language guide for you)

Here’s what more normal homeschoolers have to say about Here to Help Learning:

Here to Help Learning Review
Crew Disclaimer

Zonderkidz Faith Builders Bible — Perfect Lego Lovers Easter Basket Gift

I received the Faith Builders Bible from Zonderkidz in exchange for a fair review. I don’t think it’s possible for me to give a fair review on anything related to Legos and the Bible, however, because I think they’re both awesome. My son agrees. Still, all opinions are my own…and my son’s.

Do you have or know a child?

Yes. Continue. No. Go make pie.

Does said child like Legos or any other creative building toy?

Yes. Continue. No. Go make pie.

Do you want to find new and fun ways for that child to “own” Scripture?

Yes. Continue. Let’s just assume you’ve all said yes at this point, partly because I’m out of pie links.

You need to take a look at the Zonderkidz Faith Builders Bible. When I say “need,” I mean your life will continue without it, but not quite at the same level of awesomeness.
Faith Builders Bible {Zonderkidz Review}

Meet Elijah.

A Boy and His Mom Review The Faith Builders Bible

He’s 10. You’ve watched him grow up here at The Simple Homemaker and over at The Travel Bags. He is a Lego maniac. He’s also a Bible maniac. We’ve had to limit the number of Bibles and Legos he could have, since we live in such a small space.

This was Elijah’s face when we received the Faith Builders Bible:

Faith Builders Bible -- A Review by a Homeschool Mom and Her Son

This will be your child’s face also if you share this lovely Bible with them, say, in an Easter basket later this month.

What’s to love about the Faith Builders Bible?

You know, honestly, it’s a Bible. There’s nothing new or different about the Scripture itself, which is part of the beauty of Scripture–the truths are timeless, never changing unless we dolts change it ourselves. What the Faith Builders Bible does is add a new way of involving the child with a Bible story or truth on a hands-on, intimate level.

How does it involve the child?

Throughout the Bible are two-sided glossy pages depicting a Bible scene built entirely out of Legos…or Lego knock-offs, but let’s let laziness dictate and call them Legos. They’re super fun to look at, and I find my kids spending long stretches of time investigating one picture. (It’s also rather addicting to study the images closely and find things like Princess Leia’s head and Luke Skywalker’s torso, but I somehow don’t think that was the point of the project.)

Faith Builders Bible {Zonderkidz Review}
Even more fun and beneficial is recreating the Bible scenes. Because we have an extremely limited Lego collection on the road, our constructions end up almost entirely grey (Elijah mostly has Star Wars sets in the trailer), but that’s not the point. The point is this:

By reading the story and spending several minutes to an hour creating scenes from the Bible, the kids are truly integrating the story into their lives. They’re dwelling on it and making it their own.

Hmmm…that sounds familiar.

Psalm 119:15: “I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.”

Meditate from the Hebrew hagah means to muse, which is definitely what my children are doing when they spend time carefully replicating the details of the story and telling it with their blocks. It’s a beautiful thing, even in shades of Star Wars gray.

What do the children think?

Straight from the mouth of Elijah:

“I think it’s really cool. but it needs more pictures.”

(See my “cons” below.)

He also said this:

“It would be a lot more awesome if it came with a little pack of Legos and instructions to build one of the stories.”

While I partly agree, further thought made me realize that we have become an instruction-oriented society. When my brothers were small, they created Lego worlds out of the unique and often twisted recesses of their minds, not out of a put-brick-A-on-brick-B instruction guide…and they’re brilliant (totally because of the lack of Lego instruction manuals, I’m sure)!

It has been a wonderful and much-needed stretch for Elijah to not have the proper tools and instruction to replicate these creations, but to have to adapt…because we certainly don’t have any practice adapting. Ahem. Ten people…cough cough…30-foot travel trailer…cough cough…six daughters…cough…one bathroom….

That said, this gives me a fantastic idea for filling an Easter basket: some mini-figures, some pieces that aren’t gray, the Faith Builders Bible, and lots of chocolate. Done.

How can roadschoolers or homeschoolers use this?

Here are some ways we’ve used or scheduled to use the Builder’s Bible in our homeschool/roadschool/life:

  1. Memorize, discuss, and apply I Thessalonians 5:11–Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up.
  2. Study Creation and have your children “create” whatever they want as if they were making the world–no criticism, no rules…except no eating Legos.
  3. Make animals for the ark.
  4. Discuss and build a mansion in heaven based on the verse II Corinthians 5:1.
  5. Tackle any Bible story and recreate it with Legos.
  6. Have the child re-tell the Bible story to an older sibling or parent or teach the Bible story to a youngling.
  7. Read a Bible story, share the related picture, pour out a pile of Legos, and trust your children–the rest will take care of itself.
  8. Memorize the “building block verse” that comes with each picture page; use it for recitations and copywork.
  9. Display a story each week, either those pictured that you recreate or others. Keep it set up in a prominent place to encourage the “musing.”
  10. Memorize the books of the Bible using the fun technique in the beginning of the book.
  11. Memorize the verses and build the creations in the front of The Faith Builders Bible (see the image below). My kids had a blast with that…but I didn’t take pictures–sorry.

Faith Builders Bible {Zonderkidz Review}

What are the added bonuses?

Besides the Lego pages, the Faith Builders Bible has these:

  • a glossary (or, as they call it, a dictionary),
  • an index of “great Bible stories,”
  • a presentation page, and
  • an explanation of the translation…which may only be exciting for geeks like me.

Are there any cons?

There are no cons, per se, but if I were to have made this Bible, I would have changed a few things.

First, I would have offered just a teeny bit more guidance, because, let’s face it, we are an instruction-oriented world. I would have had two or three “how to make this cool thing” pages to show how to make, say, a cross, a manger, and a tomb…or maybe that adorable sheep they have in the front pages.

Second, I would have provided a list of suggested uses in the front of the book, like my list above, but about four pages long. But that’s because I’m bossy. Grin.

Third, I may (or may not) have expanded on the “try this” ideas. Some of the pages encourage the kids to build something specific, but most don’t, which is completely fine. While we are a creative family, sometimes I just want someone to tell me what to tell them to do…and right now I want someone to fix that convoluted sentence and this wishy washy suggestion for me. This isn’t really a con.

Fourth, I always want more of a good thing–more pictures, more scenes, more stories illustrated, more cookies. This isn’t really a con either. Two cons just seemed so half-hearted, you know.

What about the translation?

The Faith Builders Bible is the New International Readers Version translation, which the notes explain went back to the original Greek and Hebrew for accuracy. My kids (and I…silently) were annoyed by what they (and I…silently) perceived as “dumbing down,” but the book specifically states that it is intended for new readers or people new to the English language.

With that in mind, the kids (and I…vocally) gave it two thumbs up as an ideal choice for a first Bible…although they’re still diehard 1984 NIV fans and think all kids should read big words.

Overall…

The whole family gives the Zonderkidz Faith Builders Bible two thumbs way, way up. It is one book that will not be purged from our trailer.

Go buy the Bible and fill some baskets. I’m outta here…I have chocolate on the brain and have to hunt some down before I dive into those Easter bunnies I shouldn’t have snagged early. You know I jest.

By the way, here’s what other folks have to say about the Faith Builders Bible:

Faith Builders Bible {Zonderkidz Review}
Crew Disclaimer

Teach Your Kids About the Election Process {Homeschool Review}

Just so you know: I was given a free download of HISTORY Through the Ages Hands-on History Lap-Pak: U.S. Elections by the amazing Home School in the Woods to review. All opinions are my own–okay, that’s a lie. Some of the opinions are actually my kids’, but rest assured that they’re not easily influenced…except by chocolate. 

U.S. Elections History Lap-Pak Review
Anyone who knows my roadschooling/life approach knows I am totally into simple. Simple to me involves no printing, photocopying, or gathering of supplies. It means not following directions for numerous little projects. It means not having activities to store for later use and assembly. After all, the ten of us (twelve if you count the furbies) occupy 240 square feet of living space (360 if you count our van)!

That right there is why I do not do lapbooks. Still, when we were given the chance to study the election process by reviewing HISTORY Through the Ages Hands-on History Lap-Pak: U.S. Elections from Home School in the Woods, I bit. After all, two of our girls are voting in their first election this year, and our younger children are asking a lot of questions. I wanted to do the election study with my first, fourth, seventh, and ninth graders and my preschool tag-along in place of our regular U.S, history and government studies, even though it meant suffering through what I was certain would be a home-cluttering, time-sucking lapbook process.

Grimace.

Hold that thought.

Before I get into the lapbooking process and projects, I want to talk about the information that comes with the elections lapbook, because, ultimately, it’s about the learning experience. Right? Right. The “text” is fantastic! The information is succinct, interesting, and informative. It’s well-written and respectful, accessible, but not dumbed down. It is also not politically biased…although I am, so don’t expect that same courtesy here. Wink.

After overhearing a few of our classes, my 17-year-old college freshman said, “Hey, I’m picking up a few things I didn’t know!” Ditto here!

My lapbook was available through digital download, but you can also get the disc. The text can then be printed on regular paper and popped in a binder or printed according to easy-to-follow-even-if-you-were-up-all-night-with-a-baby directions and formed into little booklets. We made the booklets by copying the pages on different colors (because everyone has a favorite) and sewing the binding together with darning needles and embroidery floss…even the four-year-old. We popped holes in the book for her to sew through, and she did the rest on her own with a little tying help from a big sister.

I was pleasantly pleased with the depth of the election study, and I highly recommend it for your grade-schoolers. You get that, right? But the question for our lifestyle (roadschoolers, space-challenged, budget-conscious, clutter-phobic) is the feasibility of lapbooking.

I was right–lapbooking involves printing, copying, many papers, projects in progress, storing papers, organizing papers, gluing, taping, cutting. Grimace. I hate printing! I hate papers!

And my kids?

They…they…well…

They loved it! They loved all the projects. They loved participating in the short, but informative lessons and being set loose on the reinforcing projects. They loved all of it!

And they learned! They learned a lot, and they did their work without being told. I loved that. And, to be honest, I didn’t really mind the papers. The directions were comprehensible; the activities were fun; the papers didn’t haunt my dreams in the night. I know–humble pie. I truly enjoyed our elections lapbook project with my side of pie.

Here is how we handled the lapbooks in our limited space:

    • I bit the bullet and jumped in with both feet–wow, double cliche! All papers were printed at once, copied in quadruplicate, separated by lesson, and marked with post-it notes so I could grab the pages I needed for the lesson quickly and easily. I kept them all together with a binding clip in my school briefcase. (It’s not really a briefcase, but that sounds nice and official, doesn’t it?)
    • With each lesson the projects (sometimes multiple, since we discussed lessons without their corresponding projects on driving days and tackled the projects on stationary days) were passed out and put in that child’s paper binding clip. The kids kept those inside their binders, schoolbags, or organizer boxes, depending on their preferences.
    • Completed projects were kept in a gallon-size Ziploc bag…technically a Great Value bag, but who wants to get technical?
    • Because we don’t have all the supplies most families do, and can’t really buy them due to budget and storage constraints, we didn’t do the projects exactly as described, but, to quote every other homeschooler on the planet who has, at times, not followed directions, “Isn’t that the beauty of homeschooling?”
    • Projects were attached to three-hole-punched card stock and kept in the kids’ binders. Why such a “normal” approach? Because we have very little shelf space, and it is “rummaged” every day. To keep the lapbook pages nice and accessible, they need to be protected. Therefore, binders.

By the way, this is what a completed lapbook is supposed to look like…had we followed the directions:

U.S. Elections History Lap-Pak Review
Am I a convert to lapbooks? Yes and no. I will not be using them on a consistent basis, because the kids do need to spread out to do their projects, and there is too much paper involved and space required for our travel trailer livin’. (This would probably be more feasible for a more organized mama or someone in a house that doesn’t move.) On the other hand, I am definitely going to start including them more often, especially the well written lapbooks from Home School in the Woods.

U.S. Elections History Lap-Pak Review

Why?

  1. The kids really learned!
  2. They love doing the projects.
  3. love that they can do projects relatively independently and reinforce what they learned in the lesson in a fun manner.
  4. I love the creativity exhibited.
  5. While there was a considerable amount of initial prep, there wasn’t a huge amount of work on a daily basis.
  6. It’s a great shift in the dynamic of the week. We rushed the study for the review purposes, but if we were to have spread this out over a few months, it would have been a perfect speed, and would have offered something different and fun to do each week, especially leading up to the November elections. It really wasn’t overwhelming the way we did it, but it would have been perfect slowed down a bit.

20160204_103832

I highly recommend the elections lapbook from Home School in the Woods for your grade schoolers. If paper-phobic me can do it…you’re good.

(By the way, while I included my ninth grader, she mostly participated in the discussions, and only assisted in the lapbook projects when our preschool tag-along wanted her help. She also is doing a follow-up study of Uncle Eric’s book Are You Liberal, Conservative, or Confused?)

For ideas from more traditional homeschoolers, check out what these other Schoolhouse Review Crew reviewers have to say:

U.S. Elections History Lap-Pak Review

Do you do lapbooks? How do you handle them?

Crew Disclaimer