Deanna

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A Day in Paris (without leaving home!)

Posted on October 17, 2015 by Deanna

This past week we took a “Fall Break” to celebrate finishing our first 12-week term, but we did have some learning fun one day. Out of the blue, Arianna asked to watch Madeline, and I told her I would only put on the video if we could read the book first.

So began our “day in Paris.” The illustrations in Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans show many wonderful landmarks of the city, and I wanted my children to be able to recognize them as real places rather than just pictures in books, so I set out to see how many ways I could expose them to Paris in one day. Since it was a spur of the moment decision, I was limited to what we already had (or could access from home).

After reading Madeline I made the boys find Paris on the globe and drilled them on the country and continent in which they’d find it. Then while they all watched the original “Madeline Special,” I printed out Paper City Paris on cardstock and started cutting out the pieces. I wanted to keep the little blurbs about each piece, so I cut those out as well and glued them to the back of each one.

They were fascinated by something new to play with and enjoyed “driving” the little paper car through the Arc de Triomphe and under the Eiffel Tower. The three older kids played with the set as we watched Travel With Kids: Paris.

Then at lunch we practiced using “S’il vous plaît” and “merci,” and watched Ben and Jessa’s “European Honeymoon” on 19 Kids and Counting. (The BBC has a fun site to help them explore the language a little more.)

After naps, the kids flipped through other books we have about Paris, including more books about Madeline, another Five in a Row book, The Giraffe That Walked to Paris, and a book about Notre-Dame de Paris (good for the pictures).

Ian’s been begging me to to take him to Paris ever since we first “rowed” Madeline years ago. I’m afraid our day didn’t lessen his desire, especially when he heard about the sewers. Someday I’ll have to have him read Les Miserables. Then he’ll really be itching to go!

Resource Links At a Glance

Books

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Posted in FIAR

Little Boy DVD (Crew Review)

Posted on October 13, 2015 by Deanna

A few months ago, I shared about FishFlix.com, a company devoted to providing quality Christian entertainment while helping support ministries in Turkey. They recently gave us a chance to review another DVD, Little Boy, and once again we were truly blessed by their generosity.

About Little Boy

Little Boy takes place on the home front during World War II. 7-year old Pepper Busbee is unusually short, and he is looked down on by pretty much everyone in his small town of O’Hare, California. The other kids bully him, and the adults all seem to just ignore him, and everyone calls him by the disparaging nickname “Little Boy.” The one bright spot in his life, however, is his relationship with his father. They call each other “partner,” and his dad continually lifts him up, calling him a hero. They even develop a motto: “Do you believe you can do this?” With his dad’s encouragement, Pepper believes he can do pretty much anything.

When his father leaves to fight in the war, Pepper says a teary good-bye to his only friend. His dad is later reported missing in action, believed to have been taken prisoner. Inspired by his hero, a magician, and a sermon at church on the power of faith, Pepper seeks to “move mountains” to bring his father home. “How can I get bigger faith?” The priest, in response, gives him an ancient list of tasks to complete, including loving his enemy. Pepper reaches out to a Japanese man who has recently been released from an internment camp. He and his brother had formerly been quite hostile and abusive to the man, but eventually he and Pepper become friends. Hashimoto teaches him the story of a samurai who believed that “Nothing was more powerful than the will… the will to face one’s fear and act.” Pepper finally misses his father so much he can’t take it anymore, and his determination and faith do indeed move mountains. (I don’t want to give away the ending, but it’s definitely worth watching!)

Our Experience

Little Boy is rated PG-13, so I watched this film with just my husband. While I will definitely wait until my boys are older, it’s a movie I do want to share with them later on. It could be a great discussion starter on a number of topics: bullying, prejudice, loving your enemy, faith, heroism, World War II, the atomic bomb…

There was no profanity or sexual content aside from some mild flirting, but there were several scenes with violence, both on the battlefield and back at home. The scenes I found most disturbing were those depicting prejudice against Hashimoto. “If I could, I’d smash every Jap with my bare hands!” yells Pepper at one point before the two become friends. His hatred is encouraged by his older brother, and it’s hard to watch such a young boy spewing such vitriol.

Overall, however, I found Pepper’s character endearing, and I found myself in tears several times as my heart ached for him, probably because he’s right around my son Ian’s age and I would hate seeing him face similar trials. The film itself is a well-written, powerful glimpse into the emotions of a young boy facing unusually difficult circumstances. I highly recommend it for families with older children, and I know it’s a film our family will be revisiting in the future as our children mature.

I’m so thankful to FishFlix.com for the opportunity to review Little Boy, and I look forward to checking out some of their other family-friendly DVDs. To read what other Crew Members thought of Little Boy, as well as several other titles, click the banner below to get to their reviews.

Posted in Homeschool Resources, Product reviews

Wrapping Up Week 12 (2015-16)

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Deanna

We are one third of the way through our school year! This week wrapped up our first 12-week term, and we celebrated by starting our fall break a little early and heading to a local indoor playground on Friday to stay out of the triple digit heat that’s stealing autumn’s glory. We still have the boys’ writing class next Tuesday, but other than that we’ll be taking next week off from our usual school subjects.

This week in our Preschool

This week we were able to do more of what I had planned on for this year as far as preschool time with Arianna. I got out our autumn books and we spent time enjoying activities related on The Little Scarecrow Boy by Margaret Wise Brown (see my last post for more details).

(In the story, the little scarecrow boy practices making scary faces. Hence the tongue.)

Science

We finished reading the last few lessons in Our Weather & Water, then spent some time discussing coral reefs and examining some pieces of coral with a magnifying glass.

Then we watched The Magic School Bus Goes to Mussel Beach to wrap up this unit. It feels so good to have completed something! The book is now back on the shelf waiting to be pulled out again next time around if I decide to stick with a four year science cycle. (That’s my plan at least for the elementary years, and we’ll be in those for at least another decade or so.)

Read Alouds

We continued reading King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green to supplement our history of the Middle Ages, and finished Mary Poppins, by P.L. Travers for our fun reading this week.

Independent Learning

I’m really thankful that we gave Teaching Textbooks Math 3 a try this year. Both boys are thriving on it, and it’s freed me up to spend more time with the little ones while they work through their lessons, though I’m usually watching on the big TV screen out of the corner of my eye. I like it so much I went ahead and purchased Math 4 for when they finish up these lessons.

The one frustration I’ve had with the program, however, is that it doesn’t emphasize the importance of adding the ones column first when doing multiple digit addition (or subtraction). At first it didn’t matter that Ian was starting with the numbers on the left because he didn’t have to carry (or borrow), but once he started getting into bigger numbers it obviously became an issue. I’ve been trying to encourage him to write down the problems but he has been really resistant. This week, however, I stumbled upon an idea that he really liked, and now he doesn’t complain at all about it. I folded the paper up into sixteenths, intending just to help him make good use of the whole sheet, but he preferred leaving it folded up like a little book, and he got such a kick out of it that suddenly his stubbornness melted away and he enthusiastically jotted down each problem in his little “notebook.” Whatever makes things fun, right?

Upcoming Reviews

We’re got a whole bunch of reviews to watch for in the next few weeks:

several resources from Institute for Excellence in Writing
Little Boy (movie on DVD)
The Nutcracker CD from Maestro Classics
The Ultimate Homeschool Planner from Apologia
Brinkman Adventures, Season 3 (audio drama)
Rabbits, Rabbits Everywhere: A Fibonacci Tale by Ann McCallum
Goodnight, Manger by Laura Sassi, illustrated by Jane Chapman
Grapevine Studies: Old Testament 1
When Lightening Struck! The Story of Martin Luther by Danika Cooley

Posted in Weekly Wrap Up

The Little Scarecrow Boy

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Deanna

This week I broke out our autumn book collection, and Arianna and I spent time having fun with The Little Scarecrow Boy by Margaret Wise Brown.

She remembered this book from last year and loved it even more this time around, so I decided to spend a little extra time with it. She’s been really into coloring lately, so I printed out a coloring page from Kids Soup. (The site also has other fun ideas, including some cute scarecrow poems.)

We also enjoyed some of the poems from Teaching Heart, though I wasn’t up to most of the fun activities they shared.

But most of all she loved making scary faces like the Little Scarecrow Boy.

Arianna occasionally asks for school work when the boys are busy, so this week I pulled out my fall/harvest file for some pages to stick in her activity notebook. I printed these out a few years ago (probably for Ian) and we reuse the pages every year by putting them in sheet protectors and using dry erase markers. The kids love when I put together personalized activity books for them, changing it for seasons and holidays. This week Arianna did most of the pages in the Fall Fun Learning Pack from Homeschool Creations, and a couple from the Scarecrow Tot Pack from 1plus1plus1equals1 (though she’ll be more ready for most of those next year).

If we weren’t squeezing in preschool between me working with the older boys, we could probably spend a whole week doing fun scarecrow activities. Our other favorite scarecrow book is The Scarecrow’s Hat by Ken Brown. All my children loved predicting what would happen next in this book, and they got a great kick out of the satisfying ending.

If you’re interested in putting together your own week of scarecrow fun, check out all the pages I’ve mentioned for more poems, activities, and other ideas, as well as these sites:

Posted in Preschool

Wrapping Up Week 11 (2015-16)

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Deanna

I love that we’ve gotten into such a good groove this year that every week feels productive. I think it’s mostly due to the fact that the boys are working independently on so much, freeing me to stay on top of the household and the little ones for a good portion of the day. Of course, a big part of it is that I have SO much more energy now that I’m no longer pregnant. Maybe I’m odd, but I find life with a newborn far less tiring than pregnancy.

This week in our Preschool

Arianna and Nico had a fun week doing purposeful activities while the boys did their schoolwork each morning. I’ve set up this little table for them on the far side of our school room, and it’s close enough that they feel like they’re with us, yet separate enough that they’re not a distraction. This week they kept busy playing with unifix cubes, painting with watercolors, and doing lots of coloring.

I also gave Arianna a few simple alphabet dot-to-dots, and she was quite tickled to be doing “real” school work.

We finished the week doing nature study with Daddy, spending a few hours at a local nature center. Nicholas loved discovering acorns, and especially liked the ones with “hats” that he could take off. All the boys had fun collecting them, and Ian was fascinated when I told him about how the Native Americans ground them to use the flour for cooking. We’ll have to go back and gather more to try out a recipe or two.

Read Alouds

For history we continued reading King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table. I’m really glad we’re going through these. I’ve read many modern variations of the Arthur stories, and reading an older one is helping me figure out a lot. Ian’s enjoying them as well.

For fun, we continued James Howe’s “Bunnicula and Friends” series with Return to Howliday Inn. We also started Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers, in an attempt to get through most of the books from Ambleside Online “free reads” for Year 2.

Writing

The boys are really enjoying the writing class they’re a part of this year. We’re going through Fables, Myths and Fairy Tales: Writing Lessons in Structure & Style from the Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW). The book itself is geared toward 3rd-5th grade, but since many of the kids in the class are younger, we’re going through it at a pace the boys can follow pretty well (though I let Elijah dictate a lot to me since he’s still working on learning to actually write).

I think Ian’s favorite part is just being there with his friends and getting to feel like he’s in “real school.” He loves participating in class, but he’d be perfectly happy to skip the homework. Elijah, however, loves the whole idea of writing the stories, and ever since we introduced adjectives, he’s been getting great delight from finding the perfect words to use as he retells the stories.

To help the boys remember the various parts of speech I let Ian pick out a book of Mad Libs, and we’re having fun practicing our nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs (plus more!)with DC Comics Super Hero Mad Libs.

Independent Learning

The boys are continuing to go through their Spanish lessons from Middlebury Interactive Languages, and Ian just finished the tenth week of lessons in his Veritas Press history course. Both courses have been a big hit, and I’m thankful that they’re working independently and learning so much!

Language Skills

I’m currently requiring the boys to spend time on Reading Eggs twice a week, but I’ve been giving them a lot of freedom as to what they did each time. This past week Elijah got started on Reading Eggspress, and I realized that both of the boys would really benefit from the reading comprehension lessons, so now I’m having them go through at least one of those each week.

Math

Elijah started working through Teaching Textbooks Math 3 this week, and so far he’s doing well. The only problem it’s created is that both boys now have to use the one computer it’s installed on to do their math lessons, so I have to make sure they each have something else to work on when the other one is on the computer.

Upcoming Reviews

We’re enjoying several products right now, so watch for these reviews in the next few weeks:

several resources from Institute for Excellence in Writing
Little Boy (movie on DVD)
The Nutcracker CD from Maestro Classics
The Ultimate Homeschool Planner from Apologia
Brinkman Adventures, Season 3 (audio drama)
Rabbits, Rabbits Everywhere: A Fibonacci Tale by Ann McCallum
Goodnight, Manger by Laura Sassi, illustrated by Jane Chapman
Grapevine Studies: Old Testament 1
When Lightening Struck! The Story of Martin Luther by Danika Cooley

Posted in Weekly Wrap Up

Book of Astronomy (Crew Review)

Posted on October 1, 2015 by Deanna

Growing up, my brother was the one interested in space, and I’m only now beginning to realize how much I missed out on by not listening to him more. For the past couple months, our whole family has been learning together as we go through the Book of Astronomy Set from Memoria Press, a company known for its classical Christian education materials. This set is a great way for elementary students to learn about the constellations and the solar system.

About The Book of Astronomy Set

Logic, Greek Myths and Astronomy Memoria Press Review

The Book of Astronomy Set consists of a Student Book and a Teacher’s Guide, which contains the full text of the Student Book with the answers written in, blackline masters for creating overhead transparencies, and tests for the end of each unit plus a final exam.

There are four units in the book. Unit 1 is the longest because it contains introductory material that will be needed to go on. Then it covers the constellations found in the summer-fall sky, and the summer-fall zodiac. Unit 2 covers what can be seen in winter, and Unit 3 covers spring. Finally, Unit 4 takes a look at the solar system, covering the planets, dwarf planets, and major moons. At the end of each unit there are “Exercises,” where the student answers questions about specific facts presented in the previous lessons, and draws and labels the constellations. There are also further exercises at the end of the book that cover information from all four units.

The first assignment is to memorize the 15 brightest stars in the universe. We memorized the list by singing the names to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, and both boys had it down within a couple days. In true Classical style, that memorization work was an essential foundation for the rest of the course.

Workbook page I love the way the lessons build upon each other. For example, when the first constellation (Lyra) is introduced, the students write out the names of the 15 brightest stars (which they learned earlier), as well as listing Lyra next to Vega, since it’s part of that constellation. Each time a new constellation is learned (both the Roman and English names), the student adds it to the list, rewriting all the stars and constellations learned so far. Through this continual repetition, the students become masters of the material and can not only say the names of the stars and constellations (I was really thankful for the pronunciation guide at the back of the book!) but spell them properly as well.

Because many of the constellations were identified back in ancient times, it is helpful to have some familiarity with Greek mythology. The book actually includes page references for D’Aulaires’ Greek Myths, so we were able to spend some time reading about Hercules and other important characters whose names popped up as we went through the Book of Astronomy. (Other Crew members received the Memoria Press study guide to go along with D’Aulaires’ Greek Myths, so check out their reviews by clicking on the banner below if you want to find out more about that product.)

Our Experience

The Book of Astronomy is designed for 3rd grade and up, but I was pretty sure Ian (8) would be able to handle it even though he’s just finishing up 2nd grade. After looking at the materials I decided to invite Elijah (6) along for the ride as well, so I bought a second student book for him. I think both of the boys had more fun because they were going through it together.

I especially appreciated the continual practice drawing the constellations. It made it that much easier for the boys to start finding the real thing when we’d get a clear night and search the skies for ourselves. We talked about how knowing the stars has helped people find their way for thousands of years, and we ended up starting a unit study on the Underground Railroad after learning about the Drink Gourd/Big Dipper and how it helped guide slaves to freedom. One night when I was out, the boys spotted the Big Dipper and were so upset that I wasn’t there to see it with them!

Going through the Book of Astronomy has given my boys a new appreciation for the night sky. I loved watching Elijah and my father looking up at the stars one night, pointing out what they could see. Grandpa was pretty impressed when the 6-year old said, “That’s a first magnitude star!” It won’t be long before he’s telling him the name of it as well, for I intend to keep going until we have finished this whole course. I’m so impressed with how much the boys and I have learned so far, and I’m looking forward to what’s still to come.

I’m really glad I went ahead and included Elijah. Both boys take great pride in filling in their Student Books, and I think these are going to be wonderful references for the boys to turn to for many years to come.

Posted in Homeschool Resources, Product reviews

Revisiting Middlebury Interactive Languages (Crew Review)

Posted on September 30, 2015 by Deanna

Foreign language is the only subject I feel completely unqualified for teaching my children at home. It’s really hard to teach something you don’t know, especially when your pupils are quicker at learning it than you! I’ve tried a few different ways of teaching Spanish, and one of my favorites is an online course from Middlebury Interactive Languages. Last year Ian went through the first semester of Elementary Spanish 1: Grades K-2, and we recently got to review the second semester as well.

About Middlebury Interactive Languages

Middlebury Interactive Languages offers a wide range of online classes for various ages, giving students a chance to study Spanish, French, Chinese, or German (not every language is available at every level–see chart below).

Students can complete the course one of two ways: independently or interacting with a state-certified teacher fluent in the language. (The second option costs more but is necessary for the student to receive official credit for the class from Middlebury Interactive Languages.) The courses are designed to cover one semester (the K-2 course contain 35 lessons per semester), but students using the independent option can work at their own pace and have up to six months to complete the lessons.

About Elementary Spanish 1: Grades K-2

Elementary Spanish 1: Grades K-2 is an engaging way for young students to interact with the language. Each lesson consists of several activities that involve listening to traditional stories from Spanish-speaking countries, matching vocabulary words and pictures, and recording themselves speaking the words they are learning. (You do need a microphone for this feature, but it doesn’t have to be anything fancy. Our’s laptop’s built-in mic worked perfectly.)

The first semester (which Ian completed last year) has lessons grouped into 6 units:

Greetings
Numbers
Family
Colors
School
Review

Ian is now about halfway through the second semester, which includes the following units:

Body
Animals
Calendar
Food
Descriptions
Review

The units do not build upon one another. They’re essentially just ways to build vocabulary related to different topics.

Our Experience

Although these courses are designed for one student, we usually have our school computer displaying on our family room television, allowing all the children to follow along and learn. All of them really enjoy the program and often want to repeat the stories over and over. I appreciate that the stories are told completely in Spanish, even though there’s no way children going through this course will understand every word. They learn to recognize the key vocabulary words as they go through the lessons. English translations are available for all the stories, and Ian always asks me to read them after the first time he hears the story in Spanish. Other than that, he is able to complete the lessons completely on his own.

The one thing I think would improve the program would be more chance to use the words and phrases the students have already learned. It’s a great way to build vocabulary, but I don’t feel like Ian had to retain anything except when he came to the final review unit.

Overall the entire program is a hit, but Ian’s favorite part is definitely the speaking portion. There’s just something fascinating for kids about recording their own voices and hearing them played back, especially when they’re speaking new words in a foreign language! I love listening to them pick up the nuances of Spanish pronunciation. I think this is such an important part of learning a new language, and it’s something impossible for a non-native speaker like myself to teach them.

If you want want to find out more about the different languages and grade levels in other courses from Middlebury Interactive Languages, check out their website and then read some of the other Crew reviews by clicking on the banner below!

Posted in Homeschool Resources, Product reviews

Wrapping Up Week 10 (2015-16)

Posted on September 27, 2015 by Deanna

I love the feeling of a week well done. We were still finishing up school at 4:00 Friday afternoon (unexpected circumstances wiped out most of Thursday), but we got through everything I had hoped to complete, and the boys were still working with a good attitude right up to the very end. That right there just made my week. Everything they accomplished was just icing on the cake.

Preschool

After last week’s emphasis on blocks, we moved on to play dough this week. All the kids found a spot at the table at some point during the week, but Elijah and Arianna put in the most hours for sure.

Arianna really wanted to spend time on Reading Eggs this week, and to my surprise she specifically requested to do lessons she’d already done. Since I’ve been concerned that she was flying through lessons without really absorbing what was being taught, I decided to reset her lessons all the way back to the beginning. She really liked going through them again with the extra boost of confidence that comes from knowing what to expect. I felt a little bad at erasing the progress she had made, but I think it was the right decision.

Science

Our lessons this week in Our Weather & Water (from God’s Design for Heaven and Earth) had to do with exploring the ocean. This is a topic that has fascinated Ian in the past, so much of it was review. Elijah joined us in reading the lessons, and then all the kids enjoyed watching Bill Nye the Science Guy: Ocean Exploration. We also talked again about Dr. Robert Ballard, probably best known for finding the wreck of Titanic, who is one of the world’s leading ocean explorers. He happens to be an old friend of my dad’s, so we’ve enjoyed following his work over the years and checking in with his Nautilus Live website to see what’s currently being explored and studied.

Read Alouds

We’ve continued doing a lot of reading over the last couple weeks. Ian’s Veritas Press Self-Paced History Course had him scheduled to read The Minstrel in the Tower by Gloria Skurzynski over the past two weeks, but he enjoyed it so much we flew through it in a couple days. Then we moved on to some of my own historical literature selections.

We started with The Little Duke by Charlotte Mary Yonge. I was unfamiliar with this classic, but it is one of the books scheduled for Ambleside Online Year 2 and it fit with the time period so I thought we’d give it a try. Ian surprised me with how much he enjoyed the book, and we finished it early as well, moving on to King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green. We only got through the first part of the first chapter this week, but that was a perfect intro and led us to watch The Sword in the Stone for family movie night, which all the kids enjoyed.

For fun reading, we continued in James Howe’s Bunnicula and Friends series with The Celery Stalks at Midnight and Nighty-Nightmare.

Independent Learning

Both boys continue daily drills on xtramath.org, and this week Elijah finished up the first grade lessons on CTCMath.com. I debated several options for what to do with him at this point.

Stick with CTCMath and move on to 2nd grade?
Go back to lessons and practice book pages from MEP?
Take a “break” by switching to Life of Fred?
or let him do what Ian’s doing for 2nd grade and dive into Teaching Textbooks Math 3?

I narrowed it down to the first and last options just because the other two would require more from me than I can consistently give in this season and then asked him what he would prefer. He decided to join Ian on Teaching Textbooks. Since that’s my long-term curriculum plan at this point anyway I decided there wasn’t much point in trying to put it off just because technically he’s only in Kindergarten. I doubt he’ll have any trouble based on what Ian’s done so far, but if at some point it gets too hard we still have other options.

Upcoming Reviews

We’ve got a lot products we’re checking out right now, so watch for these reviews coming soon:

2nd semester of Elementary (K-2) Spanish from Middlebury Interactive Languages
several resources from Institute for Excellence in Writing
Little Boy (movie on DVD)
The Nutcracker CD from Maestro Classics
The Ultimate Homeschool Planner from Apologia
Brinkman Adventures, Season 3 (audio drama)
Rabbits, Rabbits Everywhere: A Fibonacci Tale by Ann McCallum
Goodnight, Manger by Laura Sassi, illustrated by Jane Chapman
Grapevine Studies: Old Testament 1

Posted in Weekly Wrap Up

Family Games from USAopoly (Crew Review)

Posted on September 26, 2015 by Deanna

“Daddy, will you play a game with me?” It’s Elijah’s nightly request. So when we were given the opportunity to review two games from USAopoly, he was probably the most excited out of all of our game-loving family. Tapple: Fast Word Fun for Everyone and Wonky:The Crazy Cubes Card Game are welcome additions to our growing collection of games we can enjoy together.

Tapple: Fast Word Fun for Everyone

Tapple is exercise for the brain! The object is to think of words in a given category that begin with each of the letters on the game board. Each player has ten seconds (the timer is part of the game board and requires two AA batteries) to think of a word that starts with a letter that has not been used yet, then push down that letter and hit the timer to start the next person’s turn. If you can’t think of something in that category before the timer goes off, you’re out. The categories (with two levels of difficulty) are listed on cards that fit neatly into the bottom of the game board when the game’s not being played.

Tapple Details

Ages 8+ (our older boys, 5 and 7, also enjoyed playing)
2-8 players
10-20 minutes to play (or as long as you want to keep going!)

Our Tapple Experience

My boys both loved Tapple so much they wanted to take it to a family party, where we taught our cousins, Grandma, and Auntie how to play. It was a great way to bring all ages together for some fun rather than everyone going off on their own.

The box says no spelling required, and for the most part that’s true. We had a few incidents where one of the kids tried to use words for the wrong letters (like pressing down the “s” key for “celery”), but other than that the only real limitation is vocabulary. That’s where my boys tended to get tripped up and the “ages 8+” guideline makes sense. We all enjoyed the game so much, however, that we just modified the rules a bit when playing with only them.

Wonky: The Crazy Cubes Card Game

Wonky is a fun building game that might drive a perfectionist crazy. It consists of nine wooden cubes (each with three flat sides and three slightly curved sides) and a set of 54 “strategy cards” that instruct you as to which block to try to stack next. If the tower falls on your turn, you have to draw three more cards. Players win by being the first one to use all their cards (or successfully stacking the ninth block).

Wonky Details

Ages 8+
2+ players

Our Wonky Experience

playing Wonky Again, even though my boys were below the suggested age level, they both enjoyed Wonky and requested it multiple times. They had a little trouble stacking the blocks, but since that’s the whole point of the game it didn’t really bother them. I was probably the most frustrated player. My goal wasn’t so much to win as to build the tower, so I could only take the game for so long as time after time the boys knocked it down and stacked blocks so it would fall for the next person (which is actually a good way to win). Eventually I just got the game out on my own one time to try building the tower (which I never managed to do)! No one else seemed to struggle with that aspect, however, so this perfectionistic mama decided to just let this be a game for the rest of the family.

About USAopoly

USAopoly has been creating popular board games since 1994, including both original games and special editions of classic board games. If your family likes games as much as ours, be sure to visit the USAopoly website to check out more of what they have to offer. And if you want to know what other Crew families thought of Tapple and Wonky, click the banner below to read more reviews!

Posted in Homeschool Resources, Parenting Resources

Christopher Columbus from YWAM Publishing (Crew Book Review)

Posted on September 21, 2015 by Deanna

In recent years it seems like Christopher Columbus has been presented more as a villain than a hero in the history lessons taught in American schools. When viewed through a modern lens, it is easy to condemn those who lived in the past, but I think Columbus is an important historical figure for my children to know about, so I was excited to have a chance to review Christopher Columbus: Across the Ocean Sea and the corresponding Unit Study Curriculum Guide, part of the Heroes of History series from YWAM Publishing.

About the Book

In the 208-page softcover book (also available in various e-book formats), Janet and Geoff Benge tell the story of Columbus’ life all the way from his childhood in Genoa through his death. An early interest in sailing and later experience in mapmaking birth in him a desire to set out across the Pacific to find a way around the globe to the East. After an unsuccessful attempt to find support with the King of Portugal, Columbus eventually manages to convince the King and Queen of Spain to finance his mission. After crossing the ocean, he spends many years exploring the islands he discovers, but faces many trials and disappointments due to the political situations on both side of the Pacific.

About the Unit Study Curriculum Guide

The Unit Study Curriculum Guide is currently available on CD-ROM and requires a flash player to run. The disk contains three main parts:

brief biography of Christopher Columbus
unit study
about the authors (with video interviews)

There are also separate overviews with ideas for using the entire Heroes of History series in classroom, homeschool, and group settings. The 17-page homeschool overview was obviously created by someone familiar with the differences between classrooms and home education. I appreciated the organizational chart provided to help families read through several books in the series on either a 1-year or 2-year track in studying American history. (They suggest choosing one book from each time period, but it would be easy to read through more than that, especially on the 2-year track.) I also really liked that they broke down suggestions into “Parent-Directed Study” and “Student-Directed Study,” allowing the study guide to be helpful for a wide range of homeschooling styles.

The 80-page unit study itself is an incredibly rich resource, full of ideas for using the book as a launching pad for lessons in multiple subjects, such as history, geography, writing, reading comprehension, public speaking, drama, and art. There are far more ideas than you could ever use, so you and your children can pick which ones will work best with their interests and learning styles. Here’s glimpse at some of what’s included:

Key quotes (great for copywork)
Questions to go along with each chapter
Suggestions for projects, essay and creative writing prompts, etc.
Field trip ideas
Ideas for further study (related themes to explore, lists of books, videos, specific National Geographic articles, websites)
Reproducibles (fact sheet, maps, timeline with events for students to fill in)

Our Experience

I have been familiar with the Christian Heroes Then & Now series that is also put out by YWAM Publishing, so I had some idea of what to expect from Christopher Columbus: Across the Ocean Sea. The book itself is still a bit beyond Ian’s reading level, but it worked well as a read aloud. Some days we read a whole chapter, and other days I only read part of a chapter, but Ian had no trouble following the story, and we stopped a lot to pull out the globe to find the places about which we were reading.

Honestly, I like Columbus a little less after reading this book. While he is not portrayed as villainous as many modern historians would have us view him, neither does he seem a likely candidate for a series about “Heroes of History.” However, because of its balanced approach, I think the book is a great starting point for discussions about respecting people, how to share the gospel cross-culturally, how people in different time periods viewed things differently, and so much more. While reading about the treatment of the natives Columbus and his countrymen encountered, it is easy to jump to judgment and issue a blanket condemnation. At times Columbus’ attitude and his pride are less than admirable. Yet at the same time, I think it’s important to help my children understand that people in his day didn’t always think the same way we do, and there is still much about Columbus’ adventurous spirit, determination, and persistence that can set a powerful example for those of us reading his story.

Because of Nathaniel’s unexpected early arrival, we weren’t able to do much more than just read through the book and study locations on the globe. However I did spend some time exploring the study guide CD-ROM, and I was beyond impressed with the thoroughness of the unit study and the wide variety of suggestions. I’ve seen these study guides at conventions, but I never realized what a treasure they are! When we get to this time period in our history studies I could easily go a bit crazy incorporating some the ideas included here. I will definitely keep these books and unit studies in mind over the next few years, because they are a rich resource that will help my children absorb details about the time period being studied in a fun, engaging way. Members of the Crew reviewed many different titles from the Heroes of History and other YWAM series, so to find out more, click the banner below to read their reviews!