Homeschooling for His Glory

It is curriculum buying season for many right now, and we, the team over at Year Round Homeschooling , decided to devote the month of July to curriculum round up. All through July we will be sharing with you round ups from  the many disciplines in homeschooling: Planners Kindergarten  Logic History Latin High School Music Bible Language Arts Reading Geography And more... I promise you there will be something for everyone and, if you are new to homeschooling this will be a great place to start, as you sift through the homeschool curriculum market. Do not miss it, it starts on July 1st!

With the explosion of the homeschool market, we are getting more and more cool products available to us as homeschoolers. One of our recent review products is one of these: SmartKidz Media Library for Homechoolers , put out by SmartKidz Media . SmartKidz Media Library, like its name suggests is a digital library of videos and more for homeschoolers. The creator's goal was to gather in one place a resource-packed full with educational videos to complement your home education. SmartKidz Media being an online resource, you will need an internet to enjoy their resource. They can be watched on multiple devices such as computers, tablets, Wii and PS3, as long as you can get a browser. These videos range between 11-25 minutes in length. This library is big. Let me tell you, there is a lot in there to explore. It is made up of videos, music, ebooks and games.  The content in the video media, which is referred to as the Family Media section, itself is huge. It includes: A

Math, oh Math! For some reason, this is a school subject that many dread and are always on the look out for curriculum to try. Here I am to tell you about one that my boys really like:  CTC Math . We got the chance to review CTC Math last year, and when it came up for review again, my boys were thrilled, as last year's subscription had already expired. We received a subscription to their  12 Month Family Plan  of their US Curriculum. What is CTC Math? CTC Math is an online Math curriculum that describes itself as an online Math Tutor. It is geared for kids from Kindergarten to High school. How it works: Being an online program, you will need a computer, or a tablet, as well as an internet connection to use it. Once you subscribed you are given a log in for each student using the program. The way the program works is that you watch a video with a teacher that explains to you the math concepts. Once you complete the video, you have a chance to do a set of exercises (us

Vocabulary is one of those school subjects that often gets neglected when it comes to Language Arts in Homeschooling. If you have never given thought to adding a vocabulary component to your curriculum line up, or have been looking for one, read on. We had the chance in the past month or so to try out of one those program:  WorldBuildOnline from Dynamic Literacy. What is WorldBuildOnline? WorldBuildOnline is an interactive online vocabulary program that seeks to teach your kids vocabulary by teaching them to recognize the suffixes, prefixes and roots of words, and from there figure out the meaning of words. Because it is an online program who need a computer and an internet connection. At the beginning of the review the boys were able to use it on the Ipad as well but halfway through, it started not working properly on it so they had to use the computer. Each child gets a separate login, as well as the teacher/parent. In the parent account, you can see each child's pro

It happened again. The boys are fighting in the bedroom over what audiobook to listen to tonight as they settle into bed. . .  This happens almost every night.. .  Let me give you the background. . . . I have a rising teen (11 year old) and a 9 year old. They love each other to death but they have two completely opposing personalities. One is like me, outgoing, loud and very energetic. The other one is quiet, pensive and introvert to the core. They play well together (mostly) until someone does not get what they want, or until someone feels that he is being cheated or manipulated.  This is my life with my adorable 2 boys. What is a mom to do? Call for reinforcement: the husband. After some talking, one thing emerged: it is all about selfishness . At the heart of every issues usually lies the desire to be made right by us. We do not want to be the one to give in, we do not want to be abused. Both my boys claimed themselves as being advocate of justice and fairness, but somehow tha

As part of the Schoolhouse Review crew I get to try out pretty cool curriculum. Lately we got one of those: DrumsWithWillie from Jazz Edge. I have both my boys involved in some type of musical instrument training. One is doing violin, and the other one piano. Both of them struggle with beats and rhythm, so when I saw this opportunity for learning how to play drums I jumped on it as a way to help one of them with their rhythm issues. I told my 9 year old he was gonna learn to play drums. In the past he showed interest, so I thought he might not mind. As it turned out, he was not that keen to be doing extra practice, but deep down wanted to learn, so got on with it We do not own a drum, so we used the one at church for his practices (we are often enough at church, that frequency was not so much an issue). So what is DrumsWithWillie ? DrumsWithWillie is an online video-based drum program. Being online it requires an internet connection. You can use it on any computer or t