In my younger days, one of the many things that I wanted to be when I grew up was a forest ranger. I loved spending time in the outdoors just sitting and listening to nature sounds or exploring the woods. This led to reading encyclopedia articles about trees and nature. My sister saw my interest and one year sent me a subscription to a popular kid's nature magazine. I loved it! I read it cover to cover. Little did I know, however, that this magazine was very secular and, therefore, had a very secular world view. Thankfully, back in those days, this magazine didn't overtly emphasize these values. Nevertheless, occasionally something would be subtly added, so much so that I vowed, later in life, that I would never subscribe to this particular magazine for my children. I have searched high and low for a comparable Christian nature magazine that I could order for them but could never find one - until Nature Friend Magazine came along.
The TOS Homeschool Crew was sent the August and September editions of Nature Friend Magazine and it's separate study guide for free in order to review it on our blogs. This beautifully illustrated and well written magazine was everything that I could have ever wanted. The main magazine has wonderful articles that range from discussing insects, birds, reptiles or some type of mammal to talking about astronomy or doing an interesting experiment. Everything is written from a Christian creationist world view. They do not shy away from their beliefs!
But, fantastic pictures and great articles are only half of the magazine. It also includes fun puzzles that emphasize the things that are featured in the magazine. One of my favorites is the "Invisibles" picture puzzle. That's where smaller pictures are hidden in a large picture. Another similar monthly feature is the scavenger hunt where you have to find a small item that is hidden four or five times among the smaller pictures throughout the magazine. In various issues of Nature Friend you might find a crossword puzzle, a word find, or acrostic as well. There is even a "You Can Draw" section for your budding artist! This section gives step by step instructions on how to draw something from nature. They then invite you to send in your drawing to possibly be featured in an a future issue.
But, as if the regular magazine were not enough, they also offer a monthly "Study Guide" for a separate cost that is inserted into the monthly regular edition of the magazine. The eight page study guide has puzzles and exercises to reinforce what is featured in the regular magazine. It also has extra features that are perfect for a homeschooled student or one that is just fascinated with nature. "The Photo Critique" gives hints on taking great nature photographs, and "A Study In Nature A Lesson In Writing" encourages you to explore the outdoors and write about what you see, feel, hear, and smell. Again, everything is wonderfully written from a Godly point of view.
Although Nature Friend is a fascinating magazine by itself, we used it as a supplement to Joshua's science lessons. Since Joshua is studying reptiles right now, he loved the article about the snapping turtle caught in a fence, and, because we are avid bird watchers, the articles on owls and the story of the Weaverbird interested him. John Allen is also an avid fan of nature and loved perusing the magazines and reading the articles. Both of them love doing puzzles and the ones from Nature Friends were no exception. Joshua loves the picture searches and John Allen enjoys the more challenging puzzles.
According to the Nature Friend web page, the goal of the magazine is "Helping Children Explore the Wonder's of God's Creation". Here is what they say about the beginnings of the publication:
Nature Friend magazine, begun in 1983, was first published by the Stanley Brubaker family of Goshen, Indiana. It was born out of Mr. Brubaker's desire to encourage children to believe in God as their Creator and to seek out, recognize, and appreciate His handiwork.
This is one magazine that I hope to continue to subscribe to for a long time to come. Both the regular Nature Friend Magazine and the extra study guide are published 12 months out of the year. A year's subscription to the magazine is $36.00 while two year's is $68.00. The extra Study Guide is $24.00 for one year or $48.00 for two years. If you are unsure of the study guide, you can order it for one or two months before committing to a longer period.
Still not convinced? Go to the Nature Friend website by clicking here, or on any one of the highlighted areas above. The website has samples of the articles, puzzles and many other features from the magazine. You can view a few sample issues online or order the most current issue for $5.00. If you decide to subscribe, the $5.00 will be taken off of the subscription price. So, there really is nothing to lose. Don't wait, check out their website today! And, as usual, happy homeschooling!
Ok, maybe EDUDPS (Educational Diagnostic Prescriptive Services) can't turn your child into a spelling champ, or get them a perfect score on a college entrance test, or make them a millionaire author. But, EDUDPS has two programs that could sure help - Roots and Fruits, and Write With the Best - Vols. 1 & 2.
John Allen really liked Roots and Fruits. It's a very simple program that helps kids of all ages (even down to kindergarten!) increase their vocabulary by learning Greek and Latin roots and prefixes in just 15 minutes a day. On day one you introduce one or two roots or prefixes. One week we tried the roots amb/ambul - Latin for walk and aqua/aque - Latin for water. I simply wrote the roots and two vocabulary words for each root in large letters on a piece of paper that was to be posted on a wall the whole week. John Allen then had to look up the words, give two or three definitions, tell the parts of speech and identify whether the root was Latin or Greek. The next three days he reviewed the roots, meanings and vocabulary words, used them in sentences and completed one or two fun activities or games. On Friday we evaluated (again, using fun games) as to whether or not he knew the roots, meanings, and the vocabulary words and if he could properly use them in a sentence. All roots (over 670 of them), vocabulary words (1700+) and games are included in the book. But you may be asking, "Why do they even need to learn Greek and Latin roots. Read the next two examples to find out why.
Have you ever watched as a spelling bee champ asked what the root of a spelling word was. There is a reason for them asking. You see, someone may not know how to spell ambulance, but if they know that the root is the Latin word ambul - meaning: to walk then they will at least know that it starts with a-m-b-u-l!
At the same time a high school student may be taking the vocabulary part of the SAT. They've come to the word hypnagogic but they have no idea what it means. But, they learned that the root hypno means sleep, so they chose the answer -that state between being awake and falling asleep.
Now you might be asking, "Well what about the million dollar book deal?" Remember, I said that EDUDPS may not be able to make you a million dollars. But, they can help you to be an outstanding writer! Another great EDUDPS product is Write With the Best.
The unique thing about Write With the Best is that it uses the writings of great, classic authors to teach you how to improve your writing skills! Write With the Best does that by using a simple, systematic approach that includes exciting activities. Each unit discusses a specific genre of writing such as descriptive writing, writing a dialogue or writing a short story and takes about two weeks to complete. Day one you simply read over a passage using that specific genre. In the following days, you discuss what makes that passage so interesting, identify parts of speech - especially discriptive adjectives and adverbs, and practice writing a good paragraph in the same genre. You then analyze your paragraph in the same ways that you did the original author's writings. It is all very different than any writing program than I have seen, but really seems to work! Now I know that most of your children are not going to grow up to become authors, but consider the following scenario as a reason why they need to learn how to write good paragraphs.
Let's take our friend who is still laboring over the SAT. He has aced the vocabulary section, but now he is on the essay section. While many students may dread this, our high school friend has no problem. He has learned how to write a good paragraph so he is ready to excell at the essay questions as well.
The author of these two books, Jill J. Dixon, has a Master's of Education and has taught for over 20 years in the classroom and in a homeschool setting. It is her experience with underachieving students that led her to write these two curriculums and begin EDUDPS along with her husband.
I want to attest that I found that these two books were both a new and very refreshing ways to teach these subjects that can sometimes be boring and tedious. They are also very reasonably priced. Roots and Fruits sells for $14.98 for the ebook, $17.48 for an unbound printed copy, or $19.98 for a comb bound printed copy. Write With the Best-Vol. 1 is currently $19.95 for the ebook, $22.45 for the unbound and $24.95 for a three-ring binder printed edition. BUT, for a limited time only, all of their ebooks are 25% OFF. For this curriculum, I think that is a great value! EDUDPS sells many other helpful educational tools and evaluations and their website even has free downloads and free samples of their curriculum to evaluate. But, as usual, don't take my word for it, to check out the EDUDPS website yourself, just click here or on any one of the highlighted sections above. You can also check out some of the other TOS Crew members reviews by clicking here. This is one of those products that you don't have to be a homeschooler to use and benefit from. Any student could use a little help in these areas. As I have said many times, we may not all be homeschoolers, but we all educate our children in some ways at home. So, with that, I'll say - happy schooling!
Ok folks. That's just a catchy title to get you to read my post...or is it? For those of you who don't know what a lapbook is, let me fill you in. A lapbook is basically made up of two or three file folders put together. These file folders contain minibooks that center around one topic or theme. The whole thing can be held in your lap. Hence the name "Lapbook".
Still confused? Don't worry, you'll figure it out as we go along. I was confused as well until I saw a few. I thought that they were ingenious ideas and looked like fun to make, so I tried a couple last year with John Allen and Joshua. We attempted to make lapbooks based on the Olympics. I found John Allen's for free on the internet, and then did a simplified version for Joshua. The experience was OK. John Allen especially liked doing it, and Joshua humored me without too much complaint. We were open to trying it again, but had a couple of roadblocks. First off, once I made one, I realized that there was no way that I could be creative enough to do one on my own. Secondly, since we really couldn't afford to buy one of the great kits that various companies had for sale, another lapbook would have to wait until, well, one just fell into our laps (did I just say that ?) My impression was, OK, that was fun, but really, "Lapbooks, schmapbooks! Who needs 'em?".
Enter A Journey Through Learning. Boy am I glad that they decided to allow the TOS Homeschool Crew to review some of their products. I found out, in answer to my question, that we needed lapbooks. When you have one of those kids (like my son, Joshua) who's a visual, auditory, kinesthetic, hands on, learner, you find out that lapbooks are just the thing for them. I wasn't convinced with the first one that we did last year, but after using one of A Journey Through Learning's lapbooks, I am now more convinced than ever.
A Journey Through Learning was gracious enough to send us not one, not two, not even three or four, but five lapbooks to choose from to review. We only had to use one or two for this review and then we could keep the rest for later. Joshua and I chose to review their Reptiles Lapbook because it went along perfectly with another item that we are reviewing on the crew that you will hear about at a later date.
When you buy one of A Journey Through Learning's Lapbooks, they send you a full kit. Everything you need to do that particular lapbook is there - the study guide, the printed out templates, and, in some cases, even the file folders. They do, however, give you a couple of choices. You can use their outline and templates as starting points and do most of the research using books or the internet. Or, you can use their study guide which provides all of the information that you need. We chose the latter. Joshua isn't at the stage to do most of the research himself, and I need the structure of knowing what exactly to do and when to do it.
So far, we have learned about the three different types of reptiles and studied lizards, turtles, snakes and crocodiles including what they eat, how they defend themselves, how they look and more. We aren't quite done with our lapbook yet, so pictures of our completed lapbook will come later, but here is how the finished lapbook should look.
A Journey Through Learning has much more than science lapbooks. They also have history/social studies, holiday/seasonal, Bible/family, and preschool lapbooks. For those of you who might like to create your own lapbooks, they sell templates and organizers. For those of you who may not be into lapbooks at all, they also sell Unit Studies, copywork pages and notebooking pages. Their prices are quite reasonable as well. The lapbook that you see above, can be purchased one of three ways - Instant Download - $13.00, CD - $12.00 and Printed - $21.00. With the printed, you also get three colored folders, similar to the ones seen in the pictures. Other items vary in price.
Lapbooks may not be for everyone, but, so far they have worked for at least one of my unique learners. If you've not tried one yourself, A Journey Through Learning is a great place to start. For those of you who may not homeschool, why not look for one in a subject area that your child enjoys, especially if your child is a crafty type. They are great for home hobby projects and they would make perfect Christmas gifts! Remember, we are all home educators even if we aren't home schoolers. Have fun!
A couple of weeks ago I introduced you all to the new YouTube videos that our mission BCM International has put together. The first one that I posted was a ministry that is near and dear to our hearts, children's ministry. Another core ministry of BCM and also one that we are very involved with is evangelism. I hope this video gives you another insight as to what BCM is all about. As usual, if you have any questions about BCM or about our personal ministry here in Tennessee, please feel free to leave a comment or send us an email.
You Are What You Eat! Mood: hungry Topic: Homeschool Product Review
Over the past few years, while trying to raise a family, I've come to one conclusion. It's hard to keep three hungry boys fed! It's even harder to make sure they eat healthy. AND, when you do find healthy foods, it's even harder to convince them to eat them or to explain why they should eat them.
Enter Nutrition 101:Choose Life! Nutrition 101 was a real life saver in this area. I must admit that when I first saw Nutrition 101 I was not convinced. I pre-read the first couple of chapters, and thought that there was no way that my 13 year old, John Allen, was going to understand this, let alone Joshua, my 8 year old asperger's child. Boy was I wrong. They both loved it.
Published by Growing Healthy Homes and written by four, well educated (one with a doctorate) homeschooled moms, Nutrition 101 is a Christian health/nutrition curriculum that is divided into two sections. The first half is a six unit study on good nutrition. Each unit is divided into four chapters and cover two or three of the 12 bodily systems and how proper or improper eating habits effect those systems. Each chapter takes about a week to cover so the entire study should take you about 24 weeks.
They layout of each unit is very well done. Each unit begins with a couple of paragraphs that explain what you will be studying for the next few weeks. Then the fun begins. The first unit is "The Brain and Nervous System" with the first chapter being "The Brain". Each chapter begins with an explanation of that system of the body and why good nutrition is important. It includes foods that are high in the vitamins and minerals that are beneficial for that particular system. Each chapter concludes with discussion questions and age separated activities that reinforce what you have learned. The really fun part of the chapter, however, is the "Power Recipe". The Power Recipe uses ingredients that have the vitamins and minerals talked about in that chapter. After reading the chapter and discussion questions on Monday, you do activities, shopping or gathering ingredients for the recipe, or, the best part, preparing the recipe the rest of the week. On Friday you have a family discussion as to what your favorite part of the week was. All recipes are fairly kid friendly but require an adult to work along side the child. Our first week we made Guacamole and it was an experience. I wouldn't say that we are ready to open a Mexican restaurant, but it was palatable.
Each week is fairly similar with a new system or part of a system explained, new activities, and a different recipe to be prepared. We've had a blast with the chapters that we have covered so far but I have had to break much of the information down so that Joshua could understand. My only real complaint, however, is the recipes. They are simple, delicious and fun to make, but frequently require ingredients that aren't the usual things that you have in your pantry. If you are on a limited budget (who isn't these days ), then you may find it difficult to justify buying avocados or flax seed oil (just two of the examples) for a special food. There are alternate recipes contained at the end of the unit that you could use, but they still often require unusual food items.
The six units cover the following systems in each:
Unit 1 - The Brain and Nervous System
Unit 2 - The Digestive System
Unit 3 - The Respiratory, Olfactory, Auditory and Visual Systems
Unit 4 - The Skeletal and Muscular
Unit 5 - The Cardiovascular and Immune Systems
Unit 6 - The Endocrine System and Emotions
That first section is a whopping 299 pages, but that is only about two thirds of the book! The other third is the 29 (twenty nine) appendices! The appendices contain everything from vitamin and mineral charts to sections on molds and toxins. All in all, this book is a huge 448 pages!
If you would have told me at the beginning what a gem Nutrition 101 was, I wouldn't have believed you. I had my doubts about the level it was written on and how interested my children would be. But, my children do love it! They enjoy getting together as a family and discussing the parts of the body and what foods are good or not good for them. They have even brought up different things after the chapter is over, like when we are at a grocery store! I found that amazing.
I think this curriculum is a great one to have in your home. The appendices are worth having by themselves. Nutrition 101: Choose Life is available in a CD Rom or book format. The CD Rom is priced at $79.95 with the book selling for $99.95. There is also a combo pack available that includes both the book and CD Rom for $129.95. I know that for some that may be priced out of your budget, but you need to consider that this is more than just a book, it is a complete health curriculum that will be used not just once, but over and over again.
Let me also give a brief personal testimony. Nutrition 101 has been very beneficial to us as a family with special needs children. Many childhood and adult illnesses can be helped - if not completely healed - by special diets. We have been searching for a diet that would help not only Joshua, our asperger's child, but also his younger brother, Jacob, who is beginning to exhibit many of the same behaviors. We have joined organizations that push special diets and bought cookbooks until we are blue in the face (and broke in the pocketbook). Many of the membership costs and material fees for such organizations can be much more expensive than the price of Nutrition 101.
The following YouTube video has other user testimonies as well as the reasons behind writing Nutrition 101.
If you are still unsure, read some of the reviews written by the other Homeschool Crew members by clicking here, or look over the Growing Healthy Homes website by clicking here or on any one of the highlighted links above. As usual, happy homeschooling, but in this case also, happy eating!
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But, fantastic pictures and great articles are only half of the magazine. It also includes fun puzzles that emphasize the things that are featured in the magazine. One of my favorites is the "Invisibles" picture puzzle. That's where smaller pictures are hidden in a large picture. Another similar monthly feature is the scavenger hunt where you have to find a small item that is hidden four or five times among the smaller pictures throughout the magazine. In various issues of Nature Friend you might find a crossword puzzle, a word find, or acrostic as well. There is even a "You Can Draw" section for your budding artist! This section gives step by step instructions on how to draw something from nature. They then invite you to send in your drawing to possibly be featured in an a future issue. 
?) My impression was, OK, that was fun, but really, "Lapbooks, schmapbooks! Who needs 'em?". 
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), then you may find it difficult to justify buying avocados or flax seed oil (just two of the examples) for a special food. There are alternate recipes contained at the end of the unit that you could use, but they still often require unusual food items.
