This blog is my attempt to document our busy but BLESSED lives raising and educating our children for His glory. A child of God, wife to one, and mom to6 fabulous kids. We are in our 16th year of homeschooling using a Classical ~ Literature based approach. Come along for the good, the bad & the ugly.
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.
If you have a budding lawyer in your homeschool the Christian mock trial curriculum from Homeschool Court just might be the best curriculum you have been looking for. Homeschool Court sent our family their homeschool mock trial curriculum to try out for the last six weeks.
Deborah Morris Burton, the creator of Homeschool Court, is also a practicing lawyer in Maryland. She created her mock trial curriculum when one of her children expressed interest in the career she had before beginning to homeschool them. To help show them just what she did, she started creating fun mock trial classes to show her children and others the basic operations of the judicial system.
We received PDF copies of the:
~ Student Worktext: the book helps walk your student step-by-step through the entire course in nine chapters. Throughout the course the student will work on reading comprehension, logic, writing, and debate skills.
~ Teacher Manual: Includes the same text as the Student Worktext but also includes all of the answers. Discussion tips, suggested activities, and recommended extra resources are also included.
~ High School Supplement: This helps you extend the curriculum for 9th-12th graders by giving them a more in-depth study of what is included in the Student Worktext.
~ Three Case Summaries:
A Contested Will ~ did the child of the deceased forge the parents signature? Help determine the authenticity of the will.
School Prayer: a Supreme Court appeal case in which the student will engage in oral arguments to present their argument to the Justices.
Dog Bite at the Dog Show ~ a large Akita dog bites an attendee at a local dog show causing a serious injury. Who is at fault?
~ Teacher Case Summaries: All three of the Case Summaries are available separately with all the details needed to teach.
To use you will need to purchase the individual Student Worktext, Teacher Manual, Student Case Summary, and Teacher Case Summary for each case. The curriculum is geared towards students in 4-8th grades and as mentioned above available with a high school supplement for 9th – 12th graders. This high school supplement would also need to be purchased separately.
Throughout the course your student will learn the basics of the American judicial system through a Biblical Worldview. If the thought of debating or speaking publicly frightens your child, be comforted in the fact that not every student has to argue the case as the prosecutor or defense attorney. There are other jobs inside the courtroom trial such as the judge, witnesses, etc.
Overall, we have been pleased with this mock trial curriculum. My 8th and 5th grade daughters and I worked through the Dog Bite at the Dog Show Case summary because that is what interested them the most. As a court reporting student I love this curriculum! The Jury Charge alone is gold to me as I learn to perfect my craft and write on my steno machine. Once we got to the Jury Charge portion of the case, I had my girls take turns reading the Charge aloud. Since they both read at different speeds it was great practice for me to try to get the record written down.
We will be continuing on with this mock trial course over the course of the next few weeks. Be sure to check out what my 18 CrewMates though of this curriculum by clicking the banner below.
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.
Another Friday is upon us friends! I hope you have had a great week. Today I want to share with you a new product from LeapFrog®. I am sure you may already be familiar with the name LeapFrog®, the company that’s been paving the way in childhood learning since the ‘90’s, but did you know they now have the new interactive app called LeapFrog Academy®?
I am always looking for educational games for my children, so I was thrilled to receive a 1-year subscription to LeapFrog Academy® to use with my son, Micah. LeapFrog Academy® is an online, interactive learning app geared for children aged 3-6 years. The program covers activities for children in Preschool, Kindergarten, and 1st Grade levels. A great feature of this program is that you may have up to five child profiles under one subscription.
LeapFrog Academy® has over 2,000 games, activities, and eBooks in math, reading, science, problem-solving, and more. It truly is a go-to for your youngest learners. Since it is an app you can take the learning on-the-go, my favorite! Best of all, you as the parent don’t have to worry about any ads, or in-game purchases!
Setting up Micah’s account was easy. I simply created a profile for him and he helped me pick out his custom avatar.
Micah is 6 and finishing 1st grade. As he follows his in-game learning map he was able to play different games and learning activities within:
Learning Adventure ~ this area features guided learning to teach and review activities including counting, reading, puzzles, videos, games, and eBooks. Achievement certificates are available as they progress through the levels.
My World ~ this area allows for customization of the avatar. Your child can choose from different outfits, accessories, and pets.
Core Subjects and More ~ includes an extensive library of early fundamental learning activities. Through game play your student will learn letter recognition, phonics, shapes, colors, and numbers.
There’s also a password-protected parent dashboard allows you to keep up with the child’s profile. Changes to grade placement can be made here.
Micah found it easiest to play on the LeapFrog Academy® on our school iPad. He played at least 3 days a week, for about 20 minutes, sometimes longer. His favorite activities include playing the Ninja Banzai Beans Attack and the matching games. Because LeapFrog Academy® makes learning fun he never complained when it was time to play.
Overall, this is an excellent learning app that I have no problem letting Micah spend time playing on! The format of being an app works great for our on-the-go schedule. While we are not traveling as much for gymnastics because of the pandemic, this app is my go to when we do find ourselves on a road trip. Be sure to check out the extended 2-month free trial that LeapFrog Academy is offering and try it out before you commit to either a 6-month {$24.99}or 12-month {$39.99}subscription. Be sure to check out what 18 of my CrewMates thought of this app by clicking the banner below.
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.
Happy Friday friends! Earlier this year when we weren’t sure if Micah would have the chance to play baseball we began thinking of other sporting options he could pursue. He showed interest in learning Karate so we began researching places to join. Unfortunately, many of the local studios were not open again because of the pandemic. Thankfully, we were offered a chance to review the Family Mixed Martial Arts Videos Preschool Mixed Martial Arts from Family Mixed Martial Arts Videos.
Family Mixed Martial Arts was created by Niall Yamane from Alabama and is designed for children aged four to seven years old. His homeschool fitness course gives you access to his complete Mixed Martial Arts training. With your membership, your student will be taught self-defense, posture, good sportsmanship, respect, self-discipline, and independence all the while developing balance, coordination, and gross motor skills.
The Family Mixed Martial Arts programs sixteen lessons in the course are taught and demonstrated by the cheerful, Ms. Cheryl, and her child helper. Everything is thoroughly explained and demonstrated before your children are asked to perform any movements. Lessons on proper posture and form are included as well as warm-up drills, stretching, and lessons on character development.
The best part of this program is that you don’t need to have any fancy equipment to do the lessons in your home! Simply log on to the internet on your computer or smart TV and access your account and the 21 lesson videos. Props and accessories that are needed are easily substituted. For example on exercise calls for a Boogie Board. We personally do not own a Boogie Board, but a towel spread out on the floor is a suitable substitute for the exercise.
Each fifteen minute lesson within the program is broken down into smaller section chunks. These sections are short videos that are between two to five minutes in length. The format follows the same flow of a warm-up, Mixed Martial Art technique to be covered, a lesson on character building, review and game section, and finally a fun exercise to finish the lesson. The full course is directed towards the child but there is some parental involvement needed during some of the lessons. Nothing too strenuous, just the child needing a “parent partner” to help with a game.
Using this Family Mixed Martial Arts course was super easy with Micah! Typically, we would use these lessons before we started our school day to help him get his wiggles out. Since this is a mastery-based program we watched several of the lessons more than once and we completed the lessons at his pace focusing on overall physical fitness and building his self-confidence.
Micah did really well with this program, I am super pleased! I really liked how the program focused not just on fitness, but of building the character of the child. Reinforcing this valuable life skill makes this homeschool fitness program a huge success in my book. Family Mixed Martial Arts makes homeschool fitness easy with their Preschool Mixed Martial Arts, but don’t just take my word for it! Be sure to click the banner below and read the reviews and thoughts of my thirteen CrewMates who also had the chance to use the Family Mixed Martial Arts Videos Preschool Mixed Martial Arts.
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.
Hi there! Today I am excited to tell you about the homeschool spelling curriculum we have been using with Micah, my 6 year old, since January. It’s called Superstar Spelling from The Crafty Classroom and it has helped him to learn to spell his weekly spelling words in a fun way!
The Crafty Classroom is the brainchild of Valerie McClintick who produces top quality educational resources for math, reading, science, alphabet, Bible, writing, and more! All of her products are priced affordably so you are not going to break the bank getting quality curriculum material. We received a digital download PDF of the editable spelling curriculum designed for children in Kindergarten to grade 5.
The best feature of the Superstar Spelling Program is that it is editable! Meaning you can choose 20 of your own spelling words to input and the program will automatically generate a customized spelling list. The included worksheets pages cover the important spelling lessons including: Syllables ~ Vowels ~ ABC Order ~ Beginning Letters
This multi-sensory spelling program has a clear set routine so it takes the guess work out of what should be done each day. With over 30 differentiated activity pages across the five school days you will have plenty of hands-on spelling activities to choose from to help your student learn to spell. And for the busy moms with multiple ages, it is NO-Prep. Just type the list once and your words are generated in black and white for all the activity pages.
Using this with Micah was so easy! I simply downloaded the PDF curriculum and saved it to my MAC desktop. Then I opened it up in my Adobe Acrobat Reader DC to enable editing. Just an FYI, If you open the file in a browser or a different program you will not be able to edit. The PDF file gives you a link to download a free copy of Adobe Reader as well.
Then I simply typed in Micah’s wordlist into the correct numbered boxes. I really liked that the longer words would automatically resize to fit the space properly. There is space for 20 words for each list. The spelling curriculum we are using only includes 15 words each week for a 1st grader. It did cause a few problems on some of the activity pages by leaving blanks for those missing words. Not a huge deal on our end though! I simply took words from the previous week that he may have missed and plugged them in for extra review.
Because there are so many worksheet activities to choose from Micah just did one worksheet each day over the course of the review period. The Alphabetical order, Tic-Tac-Toe, and Gumball Dab & Spell activities were some of his favorites to complete.
I also printed a few of the worksheets for my 5th grader, McKenzie, who is not a strong speller. She enjoyed the hands-on aspect of the worksheets and did not feel they were too “babyish” for her. I definitely saw improvement in her spelling tests each week when she utilized using these worksheets.
Overall, this is another great Curriculum product from The Crafty Classroom! We have used several of the products offered by The Craft Classroom in our homeschool, either through review or ones we have purchased separately. This site is my first go-to when I am searching for anything from Alphabet, Bible, Fine Motor, Geography, Math, Reading, or Writing!
I think The Crafty Classroom offers quality, affordable, homeschool curriculum that won’t break the budget! But don’t just take my word for it, be sure to click the banner below to read the reviews from 24 of my CrewMates who reviewed the Superstar Spelling curriculum as well as the other two products reviewed, Fine Motor Alphabet Bundle and the Tracing Bundle.
Another Friday is upon us friends! I hope you have had a great week. Today I want to share with you a new product from LeapFrog®. I am sure you may already be familiar with the name LeapFrog®, the company that’s been paving the way in childhood learning since the ‘90’s, but did you know they now have the new interactive app called LeapFrog Academy®?
LeapFrog Academy® has over 2,000 games, activities, and eBooks in math, reading, science, problem-solving, and more. It truly is a go-to for your youngest learners. Since it is an app you can take the learning on-the-go, my favorite! Best of all, you as the parent don’t have to worry about any ads, or in-game purchases!
I think The Crafty Classroom offers quality, affordable, homeschool curriculum that won’t break the budget! But don’t just take my word for it, be sure to click the banner below to read the reviews from 24 of my CrewMates who reviewed the Superstar Spelling curriculum as well as the other two products reviewed, Fine Motor Alphabet Bundle and the Tracing Bundle.
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