"Second star to the right and straight on till morning"

Sunday, April 22, 2012

God's Great Covenant, New Testament 1! TOS Review

I recently received a new product from Classical Academic Press called God's Great Covenant, New Testament 1 the Gospels! This product is the third in a series of Bible curriculums intended for 4th grade and up. God's Great Covenant is a full 36 week Bible Curriculum that covers the entire life of Jesus through all four gospels. It also focuses on 4 names of Jesus(Son of Man, God's Servant, the Messiah, and the Son of God). One name is featured for each of the 4 units. There is also a large emphasis on Old Testament prophecies fulfilled by Jesus. The student book starts out with an introduction section that gives a brief overview of the old testament, and sets up the historical, political, and religious period.

Each chapter consists of Memory pages( Time lines,Prophecy, Definitions, and Verses.), Story Time(Lessons written in a very conversational tone for students to read on their own. There is also stories included.), Worksheets(there are review pages at the end of each chapter.), and Quizzes(there is one quiz for each chapter located in the back of the student book. You will also find many maps included within the lessons.

The Teacher's Edition contains everything that is found within the student book along with the answers. There is also specific notes directed to the teacher to further explain the story time sections. As far as I can tell Students can either read and do the work independently or parents could read along with them if desired.

You can see an example of the Teacher's Edition Pages below!

This Bible Curriculum is very thorough and would make a very in depth study of the gospel for upper elementary or Junior High students.We were unable to actually use God's Great Covenant because I do not have any students within this age range currently, but from what I have seen it looks very good.

If you are interested in learning more about it you can go to the Classical Academic Press website! They have samples available for viewing there as well.

As far as pricing goes you can get the Student Book for $26.95+SH, and the Teachers Edition for $29.95+SH. They also have a MP3 audio download available of the Story time sections that cost $9.95, or you can buy all 3 as a bundle for $56.95+SH.

Disclaimer:

God's Great Covenant, New Testament 1, student and teachers editions were given to me free of charge in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

To see what other crew members thought visit the Homeschool Crew blog!

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Christian Kids Explore, Earth and Space! TOS Review.

We were given the chance to review one of the science books in the Christian Kids Explore series from Bright Ideas Press, and I chose Earth and Space. Buster has been asking to learn about this topic for awhile and other than a few lessons here and there we have not had a chance to dive into it.

Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space is a 30 week long curriculum written by a homeschool mom. The book is broken down into 6 units, 24 lessons, and 6 reviews. The topics include:
Getting Started, which covers Earth's creation, facts about the earth and its structure.
The Lithosphere, Plates, Caves, Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and Rock Types.
The Hydrosphere, Water Cycle, Oceans, Groundwater, and Glaciers/Icebergs.
The Atmosphere, Introduction, Atmospheric Pressure, Humidity, and Air Composition.
Earth's Weather, Weather, Seasons, Clouds, Precipitation, Thunderstorms, Tornadoes, and Hurricanes.
Beyond Earth, Makeup of the Universe, The Sun, Earth's Moon, and The Eight Planets.

Each of these 6 units contains several lessons as well as a review lesson. The lessons contain in varying amounts, reading, vocabulary, review, activity's, hands on/experiments, notebooking, timeline, daily reading logs, write about it prompts, show what you know/quiz, coloring pages, memory verses, a list of all needed materials for each unit, and some reproducible worksheets found in the appendix.
In the back of the book you will also find a glossary, memorization lists for each unit, scripture memory cards, some supplemental activities, a list of supplemental books for each unit(non fiction and fiction), and an answer key.

Now I will admit when I first saw this textbook it looked pretty dull to me. It is completely black and white and other than the worksheets and coloring pages there are no pictures at all. In the introduction they suggest that you seek out extra books and pictures to add to the study. Due to several weeks of sickness we were only able to complete the first unit but I will share with you now what we thought of it.

Once I started reading the first unit to Buster and Sweetpea I very much enjoyed the lesson. Sweetpea was a bit squirmy with it at first, but I did all of the activities etc. that were suggested and she started to warm up to it. The activities began with using a map to learn the continents and oceans.

This activity you see above was a way for the kids to understand how the earth rotates and revolves around the sun. Sweetpea was in love once we did this. It is one thing to see it visually with a globe, and it is another to be the sun and the earth.

I was also prompted to use a ball of playdoh and a tooth pick to demonstrate the axis of the earth.

The hands on element for the first unit was to make a model of the inside of the earth. So after going over what each layer was called the kids colored each section a different color. Once the coloring was done the circles were stacked and glued to form this model of the earth. On the reverse side they were told to color it like the outside of the earth.

When we finished the unit I gave the kids the review quiz orally and they each did quite well with it.

I asked each of them what they thought of Christian Kids Explore earth and Space and if they would like to continue using it.

Buster said he gave it 4.5 stars and Yes he would like to finish it!

Sweetpea gave it a full 5 stars and said she would love to do it every day!

For me I enjoyed how it was written, the activity suggestions, and that it is creation based. We also decided that we will indeed finish the whole book before we jump into studying anatomy.

According to the Bright Ideas Website this series is intended for grades 3-6, but my K/1st grader very much enjoyed it also. She would not be able to do most of the written work, but it can be easily adapted. You can view samples of Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space here. As far as pricing goes this textbook will cost you $34.95+SH.

Disclaimer;

Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space was given to me free of charge in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

To read more about this and other science books from this series visit the Homeschool Crew blog!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

TruthQuest History, TOS Review!

"TruthQuest History is a deep and rich literature-based history study…but with a difference. You will not learn the story of mankind; you will learn the lovestory of mankind. You will not focus on the rise and fall of human civilizations; you will focus on the arrow-straight line of God's unchanging existence, power, love, truth, and plan for civilization. You will not simply 'meet the culture' or 'get the facts;' you will probe the truths of history so deeply that your students will be equipped to change their world!"

I recently received a PDF download from TruthQuest History called, "American History 1(Exploration-1800's)". This particular guide is meant to be used with children from grades 1-5 and is the first part of a 3 part series. TruthQuest also sells a complete set of chronological guides for grades 5-12.

TruthQuest guides are strictly for the study of history and have a small amount of writing thrown in. In this guide you and your student will go on a complete tour of early American history and learn about all of the big events and people. Tougher topics are covered lightly for this age level. There is also an extensive study of Native Americans within this guide. TruthQuest history is unashamedly Christian and has references to God throughout, although not all book suggestions are Christian.

Basically how this guides works is that it serves as a guide, but it is not exactly open and go per say. The PDF begins with an introduction to parents that explains how TruthQuest works, gives suggestions for some helpful books for parents to read in order to brush up on the topic, and also suggests some books that can be used throughout as spines. I noticed that many of these have a decidedly providential view. Within the guide are 52 topics with many subtopics. Basically parents choose any books they want in order to study each topic as they come to it. American History 1 contains a large list of possible books(nonfiction and historical fiction) many of which I own or have heard of before. Each topic begins with a 1-2 page introduction that is written in a very conversational tone, and then there are shorter paragraph long commentaries about some subtopics. Parents are to read the commentaries to the children before delving into the living books they have chosen for the topic. Also included are small boxes called ThinkWrite that offer ideas for writing prompts. At the end of each topic along with the book list there are activity suggestions that basically consist of coloring book suggestions, activity guide suggestions, some toy ideas, and cooking ideas. Each topic also has a short list of audio and film ideas.

Overall I felt like American History 1 gives a good overview of American history for the intended ages. These guides would be perfect for someone looking for: just History, a basic guideline(especially for the tweekers at heart), something very Christian, living books, and for combining large age groups. I don't think TruthQuest guides would appeal to someone looking for: open and go, hands on, secular, completely non providential, a completely pre-read book list(the author states very clearly that she has not pre-read all suggestions and that parents need to take care when choosing books), something that encompasses multiple subjects, or a more narrow age group focus.

If you are interested in any of TruthQuest's history guides be sure to visit their website to learn more and view samples. You can purchase American History 1 as a PDF for $19.95, or in print for $24.95. They also sell PDF for notebooking and timelines.

Disclaimer:

American History 1 was given to me free of charge from TruthQuest in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

Be sure to check out the Homeschool Crew blog to read more about this and other guides from TruthQuest.