Institute For Excellence in Writing Review

Long, long ago, at a home school convention far, far away we first heard of Andrew Pudewa and Institute For Excellence in Writing. Homeschooling friends that came with us to the convention attended his workshop and bought the program. I spent an entire school year hearing about how wonderful the program was, but the cost still turned me off. During the course of that school year our son had loaded several of the convention speakers sessions onto his Ipod. Our son went crazy over Andrew Pudewa! But I thought there is NO WAY I am spending that kind of money on a writing program when we have tons of notebook paper, pens and pencils right here in our own home for FREE!
 Guess where our writing program had advanced to BEFORE starting The Old Schoolhouse Review Crews review of Institute For Excellence in Writing with Teaching Writing with Structure and Style Set (TWSS) and Student Writing Intensive Level A Set (SWI)?

Yes, exactly we were still at square one, having days, weeks and years of a student staring at a blank piece of notebook paper. My son would stare in wonderment at the blank paper wondering how on earth to take notes. Even though I thoroughly explained how to take notes (jot down the most important stuff! How hard is that?) It was a struggle for my son to fluff up a story that needed a few more lines, to write creatively or to write an essay. I knew how to do all these things, but I just was not teaching it in a way that was clicking with my son.

 

For this review we received the Teaching Writing: Structure & Style (TWSS) DVD Seminar and Practicum Workbook

We also got the Student Writing Intensive-Preparing Students to Write with Structure & Style Student Seminar Materials Level A set for grades 3-5. There are 3 levels. Level A grades 3-5, Level B grades 6-8 and Level C grades 9-12. The nice thing is that you just need to buy the student materials for each level, the teacher materials stay the same.

What this home school Momma liked about IEW

1. I really liked the parent/teacher training. I have know a few people that did not do well with this program, I am now seeing why, they did not buy the Teaching Writing: Structure and Style. They were just trying to use the student materials.
2. I love how he chats about practicing musical instruments…lol…boy did that catch my son off guard! LOL.
3. Often times I wondered what was going on in our media room where my son watches the DVD’s, there was constant laughter coming from in there when he was watching Andrew.
4. He is so funny in how he chit chats with the kids while he is teaching them, I think sometimes I get WAY too serious when I am teaching.
5. After a few weeks of using Institute For Excellence in Writing with Teaching Writing with Structure and Style Set (TWSS) and Student Writing Intensive Level A Set (SWI),  my son started to put what he was learning to work. I had signed him up for a study skills and note taking class at the local college, after the first class the teacher wanted to talk to me...LOL…being the mom of a boy, I thought “Oh, no!” Well she was interested in where he had learned to take notes since he was the only student (grades 6-9) on the first day of class doing so without having been prompted. I was dumb founded, where did he learn to take notes? Well after finding out that he was using the outline system from IEW, I knew the material was taking hold and carrying over to outside school activities. SOLD!
6. That same week we attended a home school convention, I attended the IEW vendor workshop and purchased a few more items. I bought the Level C set and the book FIX-IT! Grammar and Editing Made Easy with Classics.
7. Love the “Dress Ups” that is such a great way to remind the kids to dress up their papers.
8. Teachers notes are AWESOME!
9. Andrew is so funny with how he read the stories and makes noises and such mayhem…lol. Definitely a boy thing!
10. The course schedule is so nice, I like something that I can cross off what we have done. It’s also nice to be able to look ahead at upcoming lessons.
11. There are so many take a ways for me that will help me in teaching other subjects. Just the outlining format will help with research papers, history assignments etc.
12. I liked the Handouts, I put them in page protectors and used a magnet to hang them up on our dry erase board to use as a reminder. I made notes, drew arrows and pointed out many things from the Handouts.

What this home school Momma did not like about IEW:

1. Andrew was easy to hear, but the adults in the training DVD’s and the students in the Student Writing Intensive DVD’s that were answering questions were off mic and it was rather annoying to me that you could hardly hear them. This might be a minor annoyance to some but I have worked in radio/TV for many years and it drives me bananas to hear something like that.
2. I was a bit overwhelmed at how long the DVD’s were, DO NOT wait until just before school starts to make your purchase of Institute For Excellence in Writing with Teaching Writing with Structure and Style Set (TWSS) and Student Writing Intensive Level A Set (SWI). You will want some time to look over the materials and watch the Teaching Writing: Structure and Style DVD’s. Don’’t fret though, there are Easy Start Instructions included in the student materials, but I highly recommend watching the teaching DVD’s first.
3. I did not like how he had said that grammar books can be dangerous, that could cause kids to become negative towards grammar books. He does go on to talk more about this, but I think it should be discussed in a different fashion when working with impressionable children.
4. I wonder if the Adverb and Prepositions sheets might become a crutch over time?

What this home school student liked about IEW:

1. I liked his humor.
2. Andrew relates well to boys and that is VERY helpful in writing because most boys don‘t like to write.
3. I like how the DVD stops at certain spots, because sometimes I don’t know where the remote is and it’s helpful to not lose my place on the DVD.
4. I like how he talked to the kids about everyday things such as practicing musical instruments.
5. I liked how he addressed those watching at home. It seemed like I was right there with the other kids.
6. Easy to follow along.
7. I liked how he talked about writing wild and crazy things in letters to friends and how we don’t always have to be formal in a letter.
8. The stories were fun.
9. I liked how he made words come to life in the writing, they were more colorful.
10. In the middle of this review I was enrolled in a note taking and study skills class at our local community college, the first day I started taking notes when class started. The instructor stopped teaching and commented on what I was doing. I told her I was taking notes, she walked around the classroom at that time and pointed out how some students were doodling, some were staring off into space, one was sleeping and I was the only one taking notes. She was very impressed, she even talked to my mom after class and complimented me in front of her. She was really surprised to find out that I was home schooled, I guess home schooled kids should not know how to take notes? LOL.
11. Later in the week we went to the state home schooling conference and I asked my mom if I could buy the Portable Walls which is the Handy fold-outs with writing models and word lists on it. She let me!
12. I like the way that Mr. Pudewa is so animated when he read the stories.
13. My favorite story was The Boy Who Cried Wolf, I like the way Mr. Pudewa got goofy in the way he read it.

What this home school Student did not like about IEW:

1. I can’t think of any thing that I did not like.

Institute For Excellence in Writing will give your student the ability to take notes, write stories, summarize using main ideas, write reports. Oh, I almost forgot, how to have fun with and fine tune creative writing skills. Another exciting thing that I found out through having the privilege of taking part in this review is that a friend of mine's son uses Institute For Excellence in Writing at his private Christian high school. I thought that was pretty cool that even brick and mortar schools use IEW. Please be sure to check out the rest of the http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/ website for many more great products for your homeschool. If you have a chance to attend an IEW vendor workshop at your local homeschool convention go for it! I attended one this spring and learned so much about IEW.

 

 

My son has truly been blessed through this review, it's helped him stop struggling so much with writing, though he still has to gain more confidence before posting any of his work on my blog. We have a few more lessons to get through on Level A, we plan to skip Level B and move right on to Level C which I bought at convention.

Exciting New Book Review Coming Soon!!!

Looking for a good fall read?

Dr. Walt Larimore has a new release coming out in October!!!

I’m so excited to be part of the launch team and to get a sneak peek at Dr. Walt Larimore's latest book #TheBestMedicine - it releases 10/6/20 but is available for preorder NOW. You can find more info at drwalt.com **#amreading #christiandoctors #medicalstories #smalltownstories

Stop back by to hear more about this exciting new release!

Picaboo Homeschool Yearbook Review

As members of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew (TOS) we have been privileged to make a homeschool yearbook through Picaboo Yearbooks. (Pronounced PeekABoo).

I'm grinning from ear to ear! I have to say that this was so much fun to make! It might make #1 in our top reviews of the TOS year! Here is the Moe disclaimer for this product. WATCH THE TUTORIAL BEFORE TRYING TO MAKE YOUR YEARBOOK! Have I ever told you that you need to read or watch the instructions for a product before using it? lol...yes I attempted to click around on the Picaboo Yearbooks website and I failed miserably. lol

I have made many photo books in my time using other companies, but I‘ve never thought to make a homeschool yearbook before being given this review opportunity! WOW, the possibilities are endless for the homeschool family! With Picaboo Yearbooks for homeschoolers! there are autograph pages, QR CODES Add video to your printed yearbook pages, and the real plus for us homeschooler is that there is no minimum number of books to order. You can also do an eYearbook for people to view on line. You can even sell your book on your own yearbook store front, customers pay for books and shipping costs directly to the store front. No collecting $$ for the books. Each person that purchases a yearbook from your store front can custom design the cover of their yearbook. PRETTY NEAT! Think fundraiser!! Businesses can even use Picaboo Yearbooks to make customized directories. These can be shipped to schools or individual homes. You get to pick either matte or gloss laminate for the cover. The yearbook that we created for the TOS review contained 20 pages, were 8 1/2 x 11 sized and the cost was $9.49 per book. Additional pages are 22¢ per page and additional personalized pages are 99¢ per page. Shipping cost is $8.99. Here is a link to the ordering page. Click here and then scroll down to the softcover yearbook.

Easy to use design tools--no minimum order--3-week turnaround--free tools & support


(pages from our actual yearbook we made) We added some of our favorite sayings from our school year.

After figuring out the software and making our first Picaboo Yearbook I think that I could probably whip out another yearbook in about an hour if I had my pictures picked out ahead of time. That was the most time consuming part was trying to decided what pictures to use. Since we were doing this as a TOS review we had a set time frame to get our yearbook made. For the normal user like you, pictures can be gathered year round and then added to the yearbook.
 

This is a stock photo from Picaboo Yearbooks and not from our actual yearbook

What this homeschool Momma liked about Picaboo Yearbooks:

1) Love the idea of making a homeschool year book, we did one for junior high. 
2) Once I got the hang of it, I LOVED it.
3) I liked the features of being able to place pictures wherever I wanted on the page, turn them, tilt them etc.
4) This would be INCREDIBLE for co-op groups or homeschool groups to make yearbooks.
5) I liked how you could organized your photos, it made the pages flow a better than trying to remember what you had on which page.
6) Great inexpensive way for schools to create yearbooks.
7) Love how the books come in hardbound or soft cover.
8) Other parties can add photos, so you can have more than 1 person working on the book at a time. GREAT for yearbook clubs.
9) Looks like it would be easy to import many student photos at one time and the program has the ability to sort the photos by grade.
10) You get to pick the number of pages for your book.
11) Great fundraiser ideas for schools, churches, and other groups.
12) The Live Chat that is GREAT! I had to use it for a question and they were very friendly.
13) AWESOME PRICE!
　
What this homeschool Momma did not like about Picaboo Yearbooks:

1) There is a learning curve with this program. WATCH THE TUTORIAL BEFORE TRYING TO MAKE YOUR YEARBOOK!
My student picked up right away on how it all worked, but I needed a bit of a tutorial on it…lol. I have used other photo book makers with no trouble, but this one threw me for a curve…lol. I finally figured it all out and it is actually VERY easy to use. After making our book, I think I could probably whip one out in about an hour if I had my pictures picked out ahead of time. 
2) I wish that the softcover yearbook would open up flat, it does not want to stay open.


Pictures from our actual yearbook and the white page is an autograph page.

What this homeschool student liked about Picaboo Yearbooks:

1) VERY easy to use, I figured it out right away and stared adding pictures. Watch the tutorial videos, they will show you exactly what to do. And be sure to lock your pictures when you are done with each section.
2) LOVED that background choices, sticker options, fonts and colors that I could pick from.
3) I liked how I could move the pictures around easily.
4) I liked how I could change things if I did not like how it looked, after I previewed them.
5) There are some pretty cool stickers, but we decided not to use any (can’t wait to see how the other TOS reviewers used them).

What this homeschool student did not like about Picaboo Yearbooks:

1) I did not realize that I could add a title to my yearbook cover.
2) I did not like the automatic page photo inserter (not sure what to call it) it would cut off part of the pictures and it was easy to miss.

You might wonder what on eart making a yearbook has to do with homeschooling? How to teach yearbook as an elective class. We like history and our school year is historical (yes, sometimes it’s even hysterical as you can see from our Picaboo Yearbooks!) Yearbooks work on art, grammar, spelling, creative writing, organization and many other skills. I think that kids of any age could use this if they know how to use the computer. I would guess ages 10 and up.  We will be making another yearbook for our next school years. I plan to make a yearbook folder on my computer to add miscellaneous picture for our next time we make one.

　

Home School In The Woods Lap-Pak Review

Please note that prices and offers may change after this blog post has been published.
We are SUPER CHARGED with excitement to share with you The 20th Century in America Lap-Pak for grades 3rd-8th from Home School In The Woods.

Hard at work? Or hardly working because this is so much FUN?

 We received a download version to review for The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew. Home School In The Woods also offers a CD versions too. You can find it here at 20th Century in America Lap-Pak.
　

Completed Home School In The Woods Lap-Pak for ages 3rd-8th grade is seen above and below is a list of what is included.

The 20th Century in America Lap-Pak comes with the following areas of study:

Newspapers & TV Media
Sports
Persons of importance
Conflicts around the world
Politics
Medical
Space travel
Art history
Architecture
Writers & books
Musical movements
Transportation
Historical events
Missionaries
Disasters
The Stock Market Crash
Science and Inventions
Food Trends of the 20^th Century
Clothing styles
Jargon of the 20^th Century
Timeline
WarsThe 20th Century in America Lap-Pak also comes with a booklet to make that contains more information about the history of the 20^th Century.





What this homeschool Momma did not like:

I failed to read the TEXT ASSIGNMENTS & PROJECT DIRECTIONS SHEET. I just jumped in and started printing everything off. Big goof! Some pages needed to be printed on colored paper and some needed to be printed back to back. My goof, but I think for us rushed home schooled Momma’s it would be great if on the main page we were told to read the TEXT ASSIGNMENTS & PROJECT DIRECTIONS SHEET. LOL...chalk this up to operator error and nothing against Home School In The Woods. I'm must showing that I am a real life person and do goof up!

I think this would be hard for younger kids to follow all the detailed instructions by themselves, so younger kids would need a lot of supervision with this, BUT I think it would be a great learning experience and lots of fun to work on together.

What this homeschool Momma liked:

I found that this Lap-Pak contained projects that work on the following skill sets including art, drawing and creative writing. This Lap-Pak allows the student to delve into fun topics all the while learning historical facts. Use of research skills and math skills (using measurements to make sure that the pieces went together correctly) were also used.

Our student got totally lost in this Lap-Pak, he would spent hours working on it. He was coloring, cutting, gluing, taping and putting brads on. I was so impressed by the work that he was doing. Following each direction to a T.

This was so cool! We used overhead projector transparencies to make windows for these.

 Our 12 year old 7^th grade student was able to work totally on his own with this.

Our student was thrilled with this Lap-Pak and wants to tackle The Civil War one next.

Our student did have some difficulty figuring out the photocopying of the back to back/back to front of pages, but I am putting that down under the “What I liked” section, because he learned how to use the copier and flip the pages over to photocopy on the backside. So I was very pleased that he learned some real life skills through this review. How many of us homeschool moms struggle with “which side do I put up in the paper tray, when we are making photo copies. (waving hand in the air)

This record player is the neatest thing! It spins and has different saying that show up.

What this homeschool student liked:"It was really a fun project.” “I liked the section on “Dining Through The Decades“, the recipes were fun and I liked learning about the different foods such as the Dagwood Sandwich.

Instructions were very detailed and easy to follow. I was able to complete the Lap-Pak during the review. Everything was explained step-by-step.

I really liked how the project shapes for each area corresponded with each area I was studying. For example, the “Medical Advances” used a syringe that you cut out and put together. You then pull the plunger up and a new medical advancement shows up in the window.

Fun way to learn history.

“I liked the fact that there was more to do than in an ordinary lap-book. I think that this Lap-Pak was made for older kids and was a lot of fun to do.

I want to review the Civil War Lap Pak next!

I plan to use this with my 4-H project this year too.

LOVED IT LOVED IT LOVED IT!

What this homeschool student did not likeI wish that there was an easier way to figure out how to photo copy the pages from front to back, I goofed several times and ran out of colored paper. I started to get frustrated and then finally figured it out. YEAH!



The Home School In The Woods Lap-Paks are fun and a great learning tool for your homeschool. There are several to choose from and lots of fun learning to be had by all ages. We are thankful to Home School In The Woods for allowing us this great learning opportunity to review The 20th Century in America Lap-Pak.

Apologia Young Explorer Series Science Book Review

Are you looking for an easy science curriculum for your 4th-6th grader?
We had seen Apologia in the vendor hall and heard them speak at our homeschool convention. We sort of drooled over the Apologia curriculum, but in keeping with tradition we continued with our ‘boxed curriculum’ that we always used. “Why change?” Well let me tell you, once the Young Explorer Series Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology showed up in the mail, it was like Christmas at our house, ripping and tearing of the mailing bag, paper flying all over! Our son was just going crazy over the color pictures, upcoming fun experiments and the activity pages in the Anatomy Notebooking Journal.

Young Explorer Series Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology (hardcover) by Jeannie Fulbright and Brooke Ryan, M.D. Grades 4-6.

The student textbook is hardcover and looks as thought it would hold up well for use by more than one student. 

Young Explorer Series Anatomy Notebooking Journal for Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology (spiral bound) by Jeannie Fulbright. Grades 3-6.

The Journal is spiral bound with a soft cover and it has yet to tear by the spiral, most of our spiral bound textbooks/workbooks from other companies seem to fray quickly and eventually tear at the first few spirals. 



Even though our student is in the 7^th grade, I felt that this would be a good fit for him since science has always been a struggle for my normally sharp student. The boxed curriculum that we had been using pretty much focused on memorizing terms and answering questions: BORING! Apologia Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology teaches from a different angle. “This K-6 science curriculum uses the Charlotte Mason methodology to give young students an introduction to the incredible human body.” 

 Things that our student liked about Apologia Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology:

1) The book is hardcover “I can toss it in my book bag to take in the car and it does not get all bent up.”

2) I like the full color photos and crisp pages.

3) “You always get to do something fun in the Try This section. ” 

 4) The course website book extras were GREAT!!! “I had fun going to these websites to read more about what I was learning in each lesson.”

Things that our student did not like about Apologia Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology:

1) "NOTHING, I LOVED IT AND CAN'T WAIT FOR TOMORROW'S LESSON!"

What this Momma did not like about Young Explorer Series Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology:

1) I thought that the MP3 audio would be great, until I found that it would only play in our computer. The MP3 does state that “you must play it in an MP3-compatible CD player or on a computer”. I was thinking that it would have been great to take it on car trips or for our student to be able to listen to it in his room on a CD player.

2) I did not care for some of the printing fonts used in the Anatomy Notebooking Journal, I thought that they were very hard for me to read. And might be especially hard for younger children that are not yet seasoned readers. The fonts used on many of the pages are bubbly or squiggly shaded fonts that are really hard on the eyes, otherwise the rest of the type is fine throughout the journal.  I get that the digestive system is squiggly because it's the intestines, but for a struggling reader, this might be hard to read. They are very cute and fun though. 

Things that this homeschooling Momma liked about Apologia Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology:

1) Penmanship, it always seems like such a chore in the homeschool, read just about any homeschooling blog or website and you will see Mothers chatting about handwriting. The Anatomy Notebooking Journal incorporates copy work right in to their lessons. It’s all blended together in the learning process and as an added blessing the copy work consists of Bible memory verses!!

2) I like the answer key being in the back of the textbook, it’s nice not to have an extra book (answer key) to hunt for when grading work. The lesson planning guide is included in the Anatomy Notebooking Journal, yet again one less thing to have to hunt for :O)

3) Love, Love, Love the different skin tones of the paper dolls to pick from in the Personal Person project.

4) The section of the student textbook called “How To Use This Book: A step-by-step guide and the Items Needed to Complete Each Lesson were WONDERFUL!!! There was no hunting for supplies or starting a lesson only to find out that there is an experiment that day needing XYZ that you don’t have on hand to complete. It’s all right there in the front of the book listed by lesson. How easy is that for a busy homeschooling Momma!!

5) I like how the Apologia website offers sample pages of all the textbooks so you can look through them before buying. Very nice feature.

6) I had to have surgery during this review and ended up with a post-op infection, and was hospitalized for 13 days, many days of laying and doing nothing on pain meds. My son was able to move forward all by himself in the material, that was a huge blessing and he learned a lot. I was very impressed with his drawings of the human cell, normally he hates drawing in science and would whine and carry on if he had to draw anything besides a Star Wars action guy! lol. But he really had a fun time with the Anatomy Notebooking Journal.

Looking back at our years of struggling with science, I wish we had decided to use Apologia Educational Ministries, INC long ago!! Our son would like to go back and do the other Apologia science books: Zoology, Astronomy, Botany, Flying Creation and Swimming Creation. So I think we will be spending our summers under a shade tree or at the beach with some new Apologia science books. 

What do you use for science? Why do you like it?

 

A TOS Review of At Home In Dogwood Mudhole book

First off let me say that working on this last review is a sad experience for our family, it's the last review that we are doing for The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew. I will give an update on our reasons for retiring from the Review Crew in another post. Nothing bad, just life changes for us.

Now on to the review of At Home In Dogwood Mudhole: Volume One, Nothing That Eats, by Franklin Sanders. I got the softcover version that retails for $22.95, some of the other TOS Review Crew received the Kindle version that retails for $16.95. The age range for this book would be teen-adult.

I started reading the book and just could not get into it. LOL...by a long shot. So I handed it off to the homeschool husband and to the homeschool young man. They both loved it.

The book is set from 1995-2002, written by Franklin Sanders owner of the Moneychanger, a gold and silver bouillon seller. The book is a collection of monthly newsletters for the Moneychanger.

The guys thought the book was kinda like a snapshot of all the little adventures that they had setting up their farmstead. It was written like a journal, seemed like the author picked a topic and just started writing about it. Seemed like a grouping of letters written and then published in a book.

Homeschool husband is pretty cheap so he would not have spent $22.95 on the book, but he would have checked it out for free from the library. He did admit that he got $22.95 in entertainment value from reading the book. It was so good that he took it to work everyday to read on break.

Alright ladies start thinking about getting your hubby this as a Christmas gift!

My homeschool husband who went to college for English liked the way that he phrased stuff (I think that this is the reason I did not like the book). Just flipping through the table of contents you come across interesting chapter titles such as "Combustion Engines Are The Work Of The Devil", "One Disaster At A Time" (here homeschooling husband thought he had coined that last term!) LOL and "Demon Cow".

Homeschool husband says "They were Y2K preppers, They were like "I hope things don't go bad, but we will prepare just in case." Their extra food did not go to waste, they fed it to the pigs (stinky rice story that GROSSED me out when homeschool husband and young man described it. They wanted to get back to the land and the farm, they had been away from it all for about two generations. So they had made a lot of mistakes, killed a lot of animals (we have experience in this, we had lost about a dozen meat birds by accident. It happens to the best of us!). Husband thought that family was religious conservatives and they help found a church that had been meeting during the book. Homeschool husband loved the MRE's mixed with rice, as the author seemed to be a chef for pigs. lol.

Being a Southerner and a Civil War history buff, it’s obvious that his sympathies lie with the south in general. His story telling was able to open a window into his thought and feelings surrounding being a southerner.

The homeschool young man says "I like the chapter 'Shootout at Elmwood'."

Being that my son is a Civil War Re-enactor he was THRILLED to read that the author and members of the Sanders family are also Civil War Re-enactors. Although the author and his family are Confederates, the homeschool young man will not hold that against them :O) Homeschool young man also liked that fact that the author mentioned hotels and restaurants that he liked in the book, along with phone and addresses.

The Sanders family also does cemetery walks with Franklin Sanders acting General Nathan Bedford Forrest. A Lieutenant general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War (July 13, 1821 – October 29, 1877). Yet another plus from the homeschooling husband too!

Things my guys were not thrilled with was the IRS scandal and the fact that the author ended up in jail a few times.
 

If you like reading At Home In Dogwood Mudhole, volume one, Nothing That Eats, then you might like volume two Best Thing We Ever Did and volume 3 has yet to be finished but is called The Sage Of Dogwood Mudhole also by Franklin Sanders. There is a free shipping code just for TOS readers! Enter in TOSFREE in the discount field when ordering. How great is that??

So all in all my guys thought that At Home In Dogwood Mudhole would make a great birthday or Christmas gift of the man in your life. I am sure that some ladies might enjoy the read, but I sure did not.

Come see what my fellow TOS Crew Reviews thought of the book.
 

 

Doorposts Bible Study Review

We were so excited to get to be a part of this review! My son had such an awesome learning experience while participating in the review for Doorposts "Because You Are Strong" A study of Godly Strength for Young Men by Daniel Forster. The softcover book retails for $14.00 but is currently on sale on the Doorposts website for $12.00. It's a steal even at the full price!
WOW!! What an awesome devotional book. I almost hesitate to call it a devotional. When I think of a devotional book, I tend to think of, oh maybe 2 or 3 paragraphs, a few thought provoking questions to ponder and a one sentence Bible verse that ties it all in. This is so not what Because You Are Strong: A Study of Godly Strength for Young Men is all about.

Doorposts is a name that our family has come to trust over the years. We have lots of their items that we have used over the years with great success and let me be the first to tell you (before you read what the other TOS Reviewers had to say.) this devotional for young men is
unbelievable, it's full of meat and potatoes and not just milk and honey. It digs down deep and makes the boys think and contemplate on what is being taught. Don't get me wrong, your son does NOT have to be a seminary student to understand the material presented in the Because You Are Strong: A Study of Godly Strength for Young Men, it's all done in an easy to read and understandable format.

On a side note the author of the book Daniel Forster is a homeschool graduate and also manager of Doorposts. Forster is married and has three children. My son thought that was pretty cool.

What this Homeschool Momma liked about Doorposts "Because You Are Strong" A study of Godly Strength for Young Men by Daniel Forster.

1) Well for one thing I can tell that this was written by a former homeschool boy in that there is ample room for writing. LOL...you know how our homeschool boys like to write? lol...lots of room to write, cross out, write some more. Love that. Usually there is like 1 tiny little line to write on smooshed in between sentences and the boys write in there and we can't read it! LOVE THIS!

2) I liked how this study was full of meat and potatoes and not just a few lines to read, a question and a single Bible verse like many devotion books of today, but thinking of the quality of Doorposts I knew it would be good.

3) I liked how this held my sons attention, I did not have to get after him to have his daily devotions. Which for a Christian homeschool momma that is a blessing.

4) The Bible study tools were incredible; we now have a desktop full of great Bible study tools at the click of a mouse.

5) I teach Sunday School to 1-3 graders at church and have shared many of the Bible websites with the kids as many of them like to play online. I thought these would be great for them to have some wholesome websites to play around on and learn about God's word.

6) Easy to use for boys ages 12 and up.

7) I enjoyed the History of the Strong's Concordance, I had no idea that there was any real history behind that book! So the old homeschool Momma learned something new!

8) Math skills! You all know that I like to pull in all areas of schooling when we are working on something. Well I see math skills in this book! They have some graphing activities...YIPPE!!!

9) Teaches Bible study methods which is a skill our young men will use for the rest of their lives and pass on to the next generation (our Grandchildren).

10) The book goes over literary style in the Bible, I am lacking in knowledged in this area and gleaned a lot from this. Teaches about context, cross referencing, biographical sketches, summary and application of the materials.

What this Homeschool Momma did not like about Doorposts "Because You Are Strong" A study of Godly Strength for Young Men by Daniel Forster.

1) I honestly could not come up with a single thing, well with the exception of there are no pictures in the book or cartoon images. Which that is not a dislike exactly, it's a personal preference on my part. I like to see pictures or cute cartoons.

What this Homeschool young man liked about Doorposts "Because You Are Strong" A study of Godly Strength for Young Men by Daniel Forster.

LOL...Where do I begin? There was so much going on in daily each lesson that I'm not sure where to begin so I will just start firing things off.

1) The Bible Study websites, I had so much fun digging around in those and I learned a lot by looking at the different maps and commentaries. We have a commentary in paperback, but it was neat to have one online that I could look at and cross reference as I worked through the book.

2) I looked forward to each day to find out what new thing I was going to learn.

3) I liked how I could do more than 1 study per day, seems like the every day ordinary old devotional you are suppose to stop and then start on the next day with a new devotional. Because You Are Strong: A Study of Godly Strength for Young Men continued from day to day for several days. So everything ties in together.

4) My favorite chapters of the book were A Topical Study on the Omnipotence of God and A Character Study of Sampson.

5) LOVED the Bible programs and Mobile Apps. I'm still having fun with these even after the review.

6) I liked the word studies and the "For additional study" sections of the book. They helped me to get a better understanding of the topics I was studying.

What this Homeschool young man did not like about Doorposts "Because You Are Strong" A study of Godly Strength for Young Men by Daniel Forster.

1) NOTHING!

I think a few things you might want to have on hand (you can get these for FREE online if you GOOGLE them.
Because You Are Strong: A Study of Godly Strength for Young Men author recommends using a Nave's Topical Bible and Strong's Exhaustive Concordance.
I would add the following items.
2 Bibles with different translations
Study Bible
dictionary
topical Bible
Bible dictionary
commentary (the book recommends Matthew Henry's, but we were fine using one we had on hand already)
thesaurus

So all in all we are saying this one is a KEEPER!! We would expect nothing less from Doorposts!!

Review of Joyce Herzog's Budding Authors & 6 Weeks to Understanding Grammar

Joyce Herzog is an accomplished author and speaker of many resources for homeschoolers. I've seen her speak a number of times at homeschool conventions on a variety of topics. She is a real gem to say the least. We were given copies of the Budding Authors series to review for The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew. Now let me start out by saying that I am so use to using Turn Key Operation homeschooling materials, this left me a bit out there. I like to see Day 1 we do this, Day 2 we do that. We are not in Kansas anymore Toto...lol. But this material was very easy to follow despite my worries and fears...lol. We used this material with our 12 year old 7th grader.
The first book is Step Into Writing Budding Authors in the Budding Authors series and is $10.00. The second book Step On Into Writing Budding Authors in the Budding Authors series is also $10.00. Both stressed the importance of using your best penmanship, punctuation and work spacing. Your students daily work should take around 10 minutes at most. This book is suppose to contain dictionary pages, which I did not find in the book. I really liked the idea of C,P,S, paper. Each page has a section off to the side marked with those letters. Once the child is done writing, they know to check for C=Capitalization, P=Punctuation and S=Spelling. Even though we did not use this book (it was too easy for our 7th grader) I plan to implement the use of the C,P,S, system since it's easy for our son to forget to go back and look over his work.

I really liked the quote in the book "Do not expect your learner to correct and concentrate on all skills at once!" Oh, as homeschool mommas we all need to hear that sometimes, don't we? Many times we expect way too much from our kiddo's in the area of picking up on concepts and them putting them to use.

These first two books are set up with copy work, dictation (love that, helps kids to learn to listen), experience story in which the parent and child discuss the picture that is on the writing page. The child tells you the story and you write it out in their own words in the first book, the second book you do the same thing except the child writes out the story.

We started out with book number three Adventures In Writing Budding Authors in the Budding Authors series which is $10.00. This book concentrates on "Writing short stories in a single paragraph." Again each page has a picture to look at to get an idea and then there are word boxes to help the student write the story. Later on there are blank word boxes for the child to get key word ideas down first before writing the story.

We also got book number four Then and Now Budding Authors in the Budding Authors series which is $12.00. Your student will learn to "Write comparisons in two paragraphs." This book has a note to the reader with a touching story of how the book came into being. This book teaches what a good paragraph is, ordering of ideas, using 3x5 index cards to get ideas down and in order. Your student will learn thinking, organizing and writing skills through the use of this book.

We did not get to the Writing U.S. History Budding Authors in the Budding Authors series yet, but plan to work through it this summer. This book is $15.00 and gives a quick overview of how to take notes on 3x5 index cards and work on researching topics and writing them. There is a letter to the student (I think that this helps the student to feel important and take ownership of the material) giving details of how this book is laid out and what is expected of the student. After glancing through this book I can now see where our former curriculum went wrong! It was not detailed enough and expected way too much from the student too soon.

We are very pleased to be able to use these materials from Joyce Herzog and I totally recommend these to any homeschooler, but especially to those that have struggling writers, they can become budding authors through using Joyce Herzog's materials.

We were also given a copy of 6 Weeks to Understanding Grammar to review. WOW!!! What a little book this is! It's like a Cliff Notes book for grammar. We loved this! The only thing that I found a problem with was that on page 12 there is a partial sentence and the rest of the paragraph is missing. I think that this little book would be a great study companion for the SAT/ACT testing. It's definitely worth the $12 for your student!

 

The Joyce Herzog website has a lot of great links and explanations about her books on it. If you even have the chance to hear Joyce Herzog speak do it. I've come away with so much from her talks.

 

We did not find anything in this review that we did not like. We had fun and our son learned how to write and form well read paragraphs. Thanks TOS Review Crew for another fun learning experience.

Progeny Press Review of The Hobbit & Treasure Island Interactive PDF Study Guides.

As members of The Old Schoolhouse Magazines Review Crew we have been privileged to receive The Hobbit Interactive Study Guide instant download for grades 8th-12th as well as the Treasure Island Study Guide grades 7th-10th from Progeny Press.

 Prices: $21.99 Printed Booklet, $18.99 CD, $18.99 Instant Download The book The Hobbit can be purchased from Progeny Press for just $8.99 for paperback. There are a few extras that are needed to do a complete study, but they are items that most of us already have on hand on our bookshelves such as: a good dictionary, Bible, topical Bible, concordance, encyclopedias, Internet access and a thesaurus.

The Hobbit Interactive Study Guide is for 8th-12th grade students, our 7th grade student was able to use this product from Progeny Press with no problems.

I will be the first to admit that I have always been under the impression that The Hobbit was not a book for Christians to read, well grab a snack & drink and come join me in finding out just how wrong this assumption was on my part.

 

"Looking for more than activity sheets or a who-did-what series of questions? Want to dig into the essence of the novel? This study guide provides easy-to-use, reproducible lessons on literary terms, comprehension and analysis, critical thinking, related scriptural principles, vocabulary, and activities, plus a complete answer key." From the Progeny Press Website.

 

What the student liked about the The Hobbit Interactive PDF Study Guide.

 

1) I liked how the study guide gave background information about the author, I always like to know more about who wrote the book.

2) It made literature and language fun.

3) I was able to save my answers in the PDF files.

4) I can't wait to go over this study guide with some friends who have also read The Hobbit.

5) I did not have to hand write my answers. YEAH for me!

 

What the student did not like about the The Hobbit Interactive PDF Study Guide.

 

1) I wish that I had more time to complete the review, we had a short amount of time to use this product and I can't wait to complete the projects that are included in the study guide.

 

 What this homeschool Momma liked about the The Hobbit Interactive PDF Study Guide.

1) I loved how it used the Bible to explain things.

2) The Note to Instructor section was great! Extra teaching helps are always appreciated.
3) By using the Progeny Press Interactive Study Guides you can award 1/4 credit hour on your students high school transcripts. I really like knowing this because it can sometimes be hard to figure out just how much a course is worth.
3) This study guide it full of thought provoking questions.
4) WONDERFUL answer key! Sometimes having a GREAT answer key can make the world of difference in teaching. It helps me to explain concepts better as well as takes the guessing game out of, "Do they really understand this material?"
5) The Interactive PDF was great, I did not have to hear any complaining about having to write...lol. What homeschool Momma of a 7th grade boy loves to NOT have to hear that? lol
6) I liked the features like Parallelism, Dig Deeper Activities and Character Sketches.
7) It incorporates music too.
8) Teaches riddles and proverbs for critical thinking.
9) This was not an overwhelming study, we did a section per week.

What this homeschool Momma did not like about the The Hobbit Interactive PDF Study Guide.

1) NOTHING! Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner, we have another great product here!


 We were also give a copy of the Progeny Press Treasure Island Study Guide which retails for  Price: $18.99 Printed Booklet, $16.99 CD, $16.99 Instant Download. Again we were given the instant download version. The Treasure Island paperback book can be purchased from Progeny Press for $8.00. This is for grade 7th-10th. There are a few extras that are needed to do a complete study, but they are items that most of us already have on hand on our bookshelves such as: a good dictionary, Bible, topical Bible, concordance, encyclopedias, Internet access and a thesaurus.  

What the student liked about the Progeny Press Treasure Island Study Guide

 

1) FUN FUN FUN!! I liked how the PDF study guide brought the book to life.

2) The pre-reading activities were fun too, I liked researching the different types of ships.

3) I learned some new words that I did not know before and I really liked how I could place my mouse over a word & right click, then click on "look up" to find the meaning of words.

 

What the student did not like about the Progeny Press Treasure Island Study Guide

 

1) Nothing!

   

 

What this homeschool Momma liked about the Progeny Press Treasure Island Study Guide

1) Pretty much the same as above for The Hobbit study guide.

2) I really like how the questions made the student use thinking skills and did not just have yes and no answers. It made the learning experience richer.

3) Opened up dialog that I did not have to lead.

4) This engaged my husband as he loves literature, so it opened up some chatter between father and son.

 

What this homeschool Momma did not like about the Progeny Press Treasure Island Study Guide

 

1) Again nothing! I had read this book as a child and never did I get this much thought provoking information from that time.

 

I highly recommend the Interactive PDF Study Guides from Progeny Press.