A Stable Beginning: June 2020

Thursday, June 18, 2020

Exploring the U.S. Life-Saving Service 1878-1915: 17 Student Workshops with 120 Activities ~ a TOS review

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with FTC Regulations.

A few weeks ago we were given the chance to review Rebecca Locklear's Exploring the U.S. Life-Saving Service 1878-1915: 17 Student Workshops with 120 Activities. My children have all been involved with Scouts at some point in their lives and this curriculum has given us a first hand look at the early Coast Guard history.

Exploring the U.S. Life-Saving Service 1878-1912 is written by fellow homeschool mom, Rebecca Locklear. Her great-grandfather, Skipper Eldredge, was one of the Life Savers for over 15 years so she was able to hear of the harrowing stories from him. With a hands-on approach to learning you will find over 120 activities to keep your 4th-12th graders busy learning.

Personally, I never knew who the U.S. Life-Saving Service was before receiving this book. These hard-working men were the ones out on the waters risking their lives to save ships before the Coast Guard was officially formed.

This 117 page curriculum comes in both print and digital formats. For this review we received the digital copy. Throughout this unit your student will be able to participate in hundreds of English and history activities from post-Civil War to World War I including:

~ Games

~ Cooking

~ Music

~ Drama

~ Science

~ Research

~ Art

~ Stories

This curriculum focuses on the rescues made in the upper east water ways. The men that joined this Life-Saving group were pushed to the max as far as stamina and abilities. Getting along, trusting your fellow life-savers, and surviving was the main goal and as one of the men put it: “The Blue Book says we have togo out [to rescue people]. It doesn’t say a thing about coming back.”

This curriculum is full of details of just what it was like to be apart of this Life-Saving group. I love all of the black and white photos that are inside that give us a first hand look at daily life. While I read the stories aloud we frequently would stop and go down some rabbit trail and explore a topic more. My son, who is 6, was especially interested in the pictures of all the ships. While my girls enjoyed the sections on the baking. We enjoy seafood in our house so learning just what it took to get a meal during this time was interesting as well. We are not huge fans of Molasses or gingerbread, but learning the way in which it was made back in the day was interesting.

Overall, this curriculum has been a great treasure to explore. I can see us coming back to this curriculum when my son gets older to use apart of his history program or during our summer learning studies. Do yourself a favor and head on over to Rebecca Locklear's website and sign up for her emails so you can stay up to date on all of the happenings. But, don’t just take my word for it. Be sure to take a look at what my CrewMates thought of this book and the other curriculum, The Mayflower at Cape Cod - Stories, activities, and research that connect 1620 with life today, that was also reviewed. I have already placed a digital copy my wish list in Teacher’s Pay Teachers for when we get to that era of history in a few years.

Company ~ Rebecca Locklear

Product ~ Exploring the U.S. Life-Saving Service 1878-1915: 17 Student Workshops with 120 Activities

Format ~ PDF download

Price ~ $10.95 digital PDF download

Ages ~ 4th-12th graders

Social Media Links:

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http://astablebeginning.com

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Wordless Wednesday

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HelpTeaching Pro Subscription ~ a TOS review

Have you ever felt like you need a little helping hand in your school day where you just needed someone else to do the leg work? Are you a new homeschooler diving in because of upcoming Covid-19 restrictions? Whether you are a seasoned homeschooler or a newbie alike, everyone has one of those days where you just need a hand and that’s where HelpTeaching.com comes in!

My two youngest children, McKenzie and Micah, have been using some of the online lessons included in the HelpTeaching Pro subscription from HelpTeaching.com for the last several weeks. The Help Teaching Pro Subscription makes it so easy for me to give them both the extra practice with any subject from art to history.

McKenzie and Micah like to do worksheets. I especially like to have quality worksheets to fill their time, and not just busywork. I have been using the ProSubscription to print fun elementary printables for my two elementary kids, who are officially in 5th and 1st grades.

Help Teaching actually has two parts to their program, a free and a paid service. As I said, we have been reviewing the Pro subscription which includes:

~ unlimited custom tests and worksheets

~ up to 100 Questions for custom tests & worksheets

~ ad-free

~ access to the library of custom questions and images

~ downloadable PDF’s for tests and worksheets

~ self-paced video lessons for Middle and High schoolers

~ an online test room to administer tests

~ ELA &Math content aligned to the Common Core

With unlimited printable drills, quizzes, and tests for elementary through high school levels this is a great tool to you on your homeschool journey. This plan also offers easy to use tools to create custom worksheets and assessments for even more detailed practice.

A neat feature of HelpTeaching is the Test Maker. This part of the program allow you the option to make tests in multiple choice, fill in the blank, true/false, or open ended questions in a variety of subjects. A helpful question library is included or you can come up with your own. I didn’t find that I needed tests for my elementary kids, but I can see how this would be a real asset for is a real help for the middle, and high school years.

I am looking forward to continuing to use this program as we head into our school year especially when we are traveling to take my University girl back to school in August. I plan to print off worksheets for my kids to do while in the car so we can keep up our schooling as we travel. Hopefully it will make traveling by car easier.

Whether you have an elementary student or a high schooler there are plenty of valuable resources on this site to get into. Having the option to make my own lesson worksheets means I am able to focus on just the areas my individual child need for extra attention. Love it! I recommend you check out HelpTeaching.com and see if it would be a good fit for your homeschool. Be sure to click the banner below and check out what 29 of my CrewMates think of this product too.

Company ~ HelpTeaching.com

Product ~ HelpTeaching Pro Subscription

Format ~ online

Price ~ $49.99 a year

Ages ~ K-12th graders

Social Media Links:

Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Instagram ~ Pinterest ~ YouTube

http://astablebeginning.com

Friday, June 12, 2020

Who Is This Kid? Colleges Want to Know! from The Critical Thinking Co. ~ a TOS review

Do you have a favorite homeschool company that you always seem to navigate back to? I am a huge fan of The Critical Thinking Co.™ so I was thrilled when we were picked to receive one of their newer products, Who Is This Kid? Colleges Want to Know!, that is geared towards your high schoolers. Mikayla has been using curriculum from The Critical Thinking Co.™ since she was in 3rd grade so it’s only fitting that they help us as we navigate her last year as she embarks on her college applications.

The Critical Thinking Co.™ is a family-owned business that has been “empowering the mind” for more than 50 years. They sell critical thinking products/supplements that cover reading, writing, mathematics, science, and history. Instead of rote drilling and memorization, students are encouraged to “carefully analyze what they are learning.” The Critical Thinking Co.™ s on a mission to develop the critical thinking skills in all children. The Who Is This Kid? Colleges Want to Know! book is available in either book form or Windows PC download.

I specifically requested a digital copy of the Who Is This Kid? Colleges Want to Know! book that includes 150 pages! I find that this format works best for our family, especially since I have three younger children who will also be able to utilize this workbook. I especially appreciate the generous copywrite TThe Critical Thinking Co.™provides in letting the purchaser make as many copies of the pages within the eBook as necessary for their family. This is extremely helpful to me as I try to provide quality learning materials for my family. This product is also available as a paperback, and carries the same “family” copywrite provisions if you have multiple children to use this book.

This book helps guide your student to stellar college applications by guiding them through the writing exercise to help them stand out among a sea of applicants. The book is broken down into 5 sections:

1 ~ Student Self-Assessment : will help your student take a deep look within and find out who they are as a person and a student.

2 ~ Searching the Colleges - Building Your College List: offers help to researching different colleges and what they offer.

3 ~ Communications: this is the section that deals with writing essays and contacting schools

4 ~ College Admissions Calendar: helps you discover the best time to apply to schools.

5 ~ Glossary: to help you fully understand the terms within the book.

Mikayla has already been doing many of the steps provided in this book because she has been in the recruiting process for college gymnastics since the 10th grade. I really wish we had this book two years ago as she was beginning this process of contacting schools. However, this book has given us the grounding and the ability to focus on her essay. Even in the midst of Covid-19 and many of the schools she is being recruited by are making the essay optional or waiving it altogether I still plan on having her submit one so they can know her as a person outside of her gymnastics ability.

We have always loved all the curriculum we have used from The Critical Thinking Co.™ so it was a no brainer for me to jump on this review. We both are very pleased with Who Is This Kid? Colleges Want to Know! and highly recommend you check it out. Even though Mikayla is soon to be my third graduate, this book has given us a lot of insight into the whole college process. I am excited to also be able to use this book with my younger children and plan to have Montana start the self-assessment process at the beginning of 10th grade because she has big plans to secure an appointment to West Point or to Army ROTC so she can pursue her dream of being a veterinarian.

Be sure to check out what my CrewMates thought of this book, Who Is This Kid? Colleges Want to Know!, and the other products being reviewed. There are 65 reviewers reviewing the following products:

Creative Problem Solving Level 1 (Grades PreK-2)

Dare to Compare Math: Beginning (Grades 2-3)

Mastering Logic & Math Problem Solving (Grades 6-9)

Creative Problem Solving, Dare to Compare Math, Mastering Logic & Math and Who Is This Kid? Colleges Want to Know! {The Critical Thinking Co.™ Reviews}

Company ~ The Critical Thinking Co.™

Product ~ Who Is This Kid? Colleges Want to Know!

Format ~ online eBook (Windows-Only)

Price ~ $13.99

Ages ~ 9th-12th graders

Social Media Links:

Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Instagram ~ Pinterest ~ YouTube

http://astablebeginning.com

Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Math Shed and Spelling Shed from Ed Shed ~ a TOS review

Do you like to add digital learning to your daily learning in your homeschool? If so, let me tell you about Math Shed and Spelling Shed.

The Educational Shed (Ed Shed) company created Math Shed and Spelling Shed as an online subscription to help 1st-5th graders practice math and spelling skills. The Ed Shed company focuses on helping students have a strong foundation in reading and math skills. We received 12 months of access to both Math Shed and Spelling Shed for McKenzie and Micah, who are rising 5th and 1st graders. Typically the subscription gives you access for up to five students, so it is great for large families. To set the kids up was really simple. I just created and account for each of them with a user name and password and they were set to explore. Let me tell you a little about each program.

Math Shed is an online game to help your student drill math facts. allows your student to practice their math facts in several different game categories. The choices are Number Bonds, Times Tables, Add & Subtract, Powers of 10, and more. When you choose a game you get the choice of three levels of play Easy, Medium, or Hard. During the Times Tables game you get to choose which fact families to focus on and whether or not you want to do multiplication or division.

Spelling Shed covers both spelling and vocabulary instruction in game format with a cute bee theme. You have the ability to choose your own words to study or to utilize the 4,000 words within the program. Spelling Shed is broken into Stages of learning. There are 5 Stages, Stage 1 @ 2, Stage 3, Stage 4& 5. As with the Math Shed you have the option to choose Easy, Medium, Hard, or Extreme level of work. There are also bonus games within Spelling Shed to continue the spelling fun.

Throughout the program your student can earn “honey pots” that can be used to purchase items for their own personal avatar. Both of my kids enjoyed creating their own avatars to use with their login. The Teacher’s Hub is the spot for the teacher to track progress as well as where you will find 36 weeks of spelling curriculum for grades K-5 as well as power point presentations. There are worksheets and other helpful lesson plans to help you the teacher plan out the curriculum. Upon looking these over, I found them to be geared towards a classroom setting, but with a little adaptation they could easily be used within a homeschool setting.

I like this program and I can see us continuing to utlitlze it’s content through the end of our subscription. My kids played the games on our school iPad and I like that it is portable for our on the go learning. The set up is not too overly distracting and the theme of each game is appealing to the eye. McKenzie seemed to enjoy it more because she could do more within both programs. Micah had difficulty using the Spelling Shed just because his knowledge of words is not there yet, but he did enjoy the Math Shed and the games.

If you are interested in trying out these products from Ed Shed they have a 30-day free trial period. You do not need to enter credit card information and if you enjoy it, the annual subscription price is just $24.95. 80 of my CrewMates have linked up their thoughts on both programs so be sure to check out what they think of Math Shed and Spelling Shed by clicking the banner below.

Spelling Shed & Math Shed {Education Shed Reviews}

Company ~ Ed Shed

Product ~ Math Shed and Spelling Shed

Format ~ online

Price ~ $24.95 annual subscription

Ages ~ 1st - 5th graders

Social Media Links:

Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Instagram ~ YouTube

http://astablebeginning.com

Wordless Wednesday

Friday, June 5, 2020

Art of the Ancients, Vol. 2 from ARTistic Pursuits Inc. ~ a TOS review

Happy Friday! Today I am excited to share with you another fabulous product from ARTistic Pursuits Inc. If you are just jumping into your homeschooling journey then let me tell you about this homeschool art curriculum where your kids can let their creativity shine.

We are not strangers to the art curriculum that ARTistic Pursuits Inc produces, we have been users for many years. Today, I am sharing with you the Art of the Ancients, Volume 2 that is geared for K-3rd graders. Oftentimes I struggle to incorporate art into our week even though I know how important it is to let kids express themselves. However, the K-3rd Grade Level, Volumes 1-8 from ARTistic Pursuits Inc. makes art instruction easy for this Mama!

My son, Micah, loves to get creative! ARTistic Pursuits offers a wonderful Art program for many different grade levels all the way from Preschool through High School. We still have a few of the older editions of the other books that my older girls have used in the past, but for this review I focused mainly on my Micah who just turned 6 because we will be beginning our study of Ancient history in August. Getting a jumpstart over the last few weeks has been great.

Art for the Ancients is the 2nd volume of eight in the new four-year course for students in Kindergarten through 3rd grade. The course takes your child through a sequential trip through history through child friendly stories and through studying master artists.

The eight books in this series include:

Art for Children, Building a Visual Vocabulary (Vol. 1)

Art of the Ancients (Vol. 2)

Art of the Middle Ages (Vol. 3)

Artists that Shaped the Italian Renaissance (Vol. 4)

Art of the Northern Countries, Renaissance to Realism (Vol. 5)

Art of the Impressionists (Vol. 6)

Art of the Modern Age (Vol. 7)

Art in America (Vol. 8)

Art of the Ancients, K-3 Vol. 2 is a beautiful hardcover textbook filled with 18 projects that focuses on chalk pastels and clay forms. Each of the books in the set comes with six video lessons showing exactly how to use the materials and tools. The videos are short, roughly 10 minutes in length and will hold your child’s attention and get them excited to do art.

Throughout the 18 lessons your child will learn of the art found in caves as well as the classical art of the Roman Empire. Learning to create and see art from these ancient cultures allows the child to see this beautiful world around us. You’ll need to purchase a few high quality art supplies to get you started. They include:

~ a hard or soft pastel set ~ 5 pound self hardening clay, gray ~ wire clay cutter

Micah has enjoyed working with this program. Having just finished Kindergarten he is just now starting to get into “doing school” and being a big kid like his sisters. This program gives me the confidence to teach him art. Following along with the DVD and reading the stories in the book make this an easy program to use because ARTistic Pursuits Inc has done all the work for me with this curriculum. Simply follow along and then set your child off to create their masterpiece.

ARTistic Pursuits has met all of my expectations and then some! This art program has taken the struggle to incorporate art into our week away. They will always be my go to curriculum when it comes to Art for my children because of the ease of lessons and the open and go format of the books. It’s no wonder they have won so many awards. These books are fabulous and we will continue to use them in our homeschool for many years to come!

Be sure to check out what my Cremates think of this volume and the other products being reviewed. There are 63 other reviews listed when you click the banner below detailing a range of products offered so be sure to stop by.

Art Through The Ages & Art for Children {Artistic Pursuits Inc. Reviews}

Company ~ ARTistic Pursuits Inc.

Product ~ Art of the Ancients

Format ~ hardcover book with two dvd's

Price ~ $39.99

Ages ~ K - 3rd grade

Social Media Links:

Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Instagram

http://astablebeginning.com

Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Page a Day Math: Addition Starter Kit ~ a TOS review

Happy Wednesday friends! I not sure about your home, but we are officially done with our 2019-2020 school year! Beginning this week we have transitioned to our summer learning studies. I always like the kids to keep their minds active in reading and math over the summer to prevent the “Summer Slide” and because Math fact fluency is such an important skill for laying the foundation for higher math, I was excited to try the Addition Starter Kit from Page a Day Math with my son, Micah.

Page a Day Math is a Math Fact Fluency System designed to help learners, young and old, memorize the all important math facts. Physical kits sell for $79.95, while digital kits sell for $29.95. This program provides a solid foundation with step-by-step practice and is supplemental to any math curriculum. Learning math facts becomes a fun task when you get to learn with the Math Squad… a fun loving group of dogs who offer encouragement throughout the 10 books in the kit. We received a physical Addition & Counting math kit as well as access to the digital files of the other sets.

Our Math kit contains 10 practice books, each with 14 days of daily practice dedicated to one math operation per book. Each of your children will need their own physical kit, or you can opt to choose the digital edition which can be used multiple times. The size is perfect for little hands as they are learning to navigate proper pencil usage. The format of the page is easy, just three simple steps:

Complete ~ Correct ~ Repeat

After completing just one lesson, your little learner will be able to work independently each day.

In addition, each of the math kits includes a set of bonuses:
Flash Cards – available in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Assessments – assessments give you an idea where to start. Progress Tracker – a visual tracker Handwriting Books – Mix and match with all sorts of handwriting options

I was so excited to see this vendor on the list at the beginning of the year! As I suspected this is a great program for my newly turned 6 year old boy! It’s short and sweet and he knows exactly what he needs to do to complete the page. I like that this program includes copyworb exercises also. Your child will be physically writing the math facts out in addition to using flashcards. For Micah, I had him say the problem out loud as he was writing it to further submit the concept.

Micah enjoys using this math fluency program! He doesn’t complain and his addition fact fluency has sky-rocketed over the course of the last few weeks. I am excited to add in the subtraction facts in the next few weeks in addition to his addition facts. During the summer, we will most likely alternate weeks of finishing up addition while adding in subtraction.

My son loves practicing his addition facts with the Addition Starter Kit from Page a Day Math! Don’t just take my word for it, be sure to check out what 51 of my CrewMates thought of this supplemental math fluency program by clicking the banner below!