With Lee in Virginia- TOS Review

"Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more, You should never do less."

~Robert E. Lee

Heirloom Audio Productions, company committed to audio adventures for Christian families, 

has published another fine audio theater production: 

With Lee in Virginia

Our family really enjoys radio theater and jumps at every chance we can get to hear quality audio drama. We became acquainted with Heirloom Audio Productions last year when we reviewed In Freedom's Cause, and were eager to be chosen for this review. This is a quality audio production with a fine cast including the following well known actors:

If you haven't discovered G.A. Henty yet, With Lee in Virginia is a great introduction.
This abridged edition follows the story of a 15 year old boy who grows up in the South, but whose sympathies lie on the side of justice. Our young protagonist meets many brave soldiers, is confronted with the ugliness of war and comes to understand the call of duty, even in the face of defeat. There are many character qualities to explore, ponder and talk about in this production as the solutions and answers are not simplistic. The characters struggle with the ugly reality of war and doing the right thing.

Included is a 52 page study guide. The graphics are beautiful, the content rich and includes sections on Listening Well, Thinking Further and Defining Words. Also included are two Bible studies; one on Duty and on title "Love Your Enemy." Good studies for today's troubled times! With Lee in Virginia 

The study guide makes  With Lee in Virginia  a terrific unit study based on  the Civil War, a terrific supplemental material for American History,  a character study,  a great co-op study or simply a well develop interest led study. We listened with interest during a couple of hot summer afternoons as a break from outside yard work; a terrific addition to the conclusion of our American History studies this year. While we didn't turn With Lee in Virginia into a formal study, one of the things I appreciate about good literature and great audio productions is that the kids have time to ponder what they read or listened to. We were discussing the war and character from this audio production long past the time it took to listen to it. 

In addition we also received:

All the Special Bonuses I received are available from 

Heirloom Audio Productions 

with purchase of the Family Four-Pack Package

• audio theater production (mp3)
• ebook of G.A. Henty’s original story with colorful graphics (pdf)
• soundtrack (mp3)
• study guide and discussion starter (pdf)

While it might be daunting to think about studying "war," we have found a lot of value in doing so, when we can find resources that are sanitized enough to make them age appropriate. War is never simplistic and rarely black and white or simply good vs. evil. Henty does a good job of writing about the character of the people involved, showing the complexities, nuances and incredibly difficult decisions life demands. This audio production captures that, addresses war as the horrific reality that it is while respecting the reader enough to allow them to draw their own conclusions. This is a great introduction to a war that torn our country apart and continues to define America today. 

Keep your eye on Heirloom Audio Productions for more fine products, produced with Christian families in mind! 

Find Heirloom Audio Productions on Social Media 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WithLeeInVirginia
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SimplyFun- TOS Review

 

SimplyFun publishes educational and fun games. We have a few tried and true games that we love and mainly stick with those. Last year we re-discovered how fun educational games were last year during Essentials, especially math games. As a result, I was excited to see how Shape Whiz could build our math acumen, while still providing good, clean fun. I was not disappointed! The goal of this game is simple- mastering geometric shapes and properties.

 

The games consists of two sets of cards:

       80 shape cards- some green and some blue. Each shape card is double sided- one side is the shape, super-imposed on a grid. The other side includes the properties of the shape- # of sides, # of angles, total perimeter, total area, # of parallel sets lines of symmetry, etc, with a total of 16 shapes presented in various sizes.  In other words, you get a whole lot of visual and geometric information on each double sided Shape Whiz card! With this deck you’ll receive blue cards and green cards. Use just one color for shorter, simpler games, and both colors for longer, more complex games.

      40 double sided whiz cards -these cards give the players geometric “clues”. The cards explain mathematical signs and symbols, area, angels, curves, polygons, and more to help you understand what the whiz card is asking. Perfect for kids who are struggling with mathematical relationships!

The game is easy to learn and can be played with 2-4 players. Each game can take 10 minutes or longer, depending on the number of player and if you are using the entire deck of 80 shape cards or not.

Each player is dealt 15 shape cards and puts four of their shape cards in front of them, with the “Whiz” cards in the middle. Taking turns, each player draws a “Whiz” card from the center and quickly looks for a match amongst their or an opponent’s cards.  Once a match has been located, the players all check to ensure that it is a correct match. If so, the matched cards are discarded. The first person to discard all of their 15 cards, wins.

This is a fun, effective and simple game to teach shapes, matching and math relationships. It’s also a great exercise in verbal speed, guess-timation and acuity. While the Shape Whiz marketed for children ages 10 and up I think children much younger could do extremely well with it.  Perfect for use at home, for game nights, in co-ops and for CC Essentials Math games!

Flower and I had a good time playing Shape Whiz- it is simple enough to use as a “filler” game for homeschool. You know, those time when you need to change it up a bit but something that doesn’t take so long that the kids think they are done for the day – a quick and fun diversion from everyday tasks.We'll be substituting Shape Whiz for our old stand-by's Mancala and Chinese Checkers this coming year to add some spice to our days!  

~Coupon Code~~

To receive 15% off your first order placed by July 31, 2015 use code: SHREVIEW

SimplyFun also gave the Crew the opportunity to review Expanders; so be sure to check it out along with several of SimplyFun's new arrivals!

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@Golden Grasses 2008-2013. All photographs, artwork and text are the property of the owner unless otherwise stated. Don't miss a thing! Subscribe to Golden Grasses and get our articles right to your inbox!

Project Passport World History- TOS Review

    I recently came across timeline notebooks that both Cub and Flower made years ago using the printable figures from Homeschool in the Woods CD that we've had and used for years. It is always interesting and exciting to me to catch up on what quality curriculum suppliers are doing, so we were very interesting in seeing what

 
Project Passport World History Study: Ancient Egypt was all about. We received a down loadable PDF file, though there is a CD version as well. Project Passport World History Study program is a hands-on, interactive project based program. The program consists of ideas- many wonderful ideas- to do with your children, including but not limited to reading, map-work, art projects, food; in other words so many projects and ideas that you’ll have to pick and choose between them all.

 

The program is designed around 25 “stops” that can be spread out from 12-24 weeks. Each stop is like the stop a tour bus in a foreign city might take. Each stop invites you to stop, look, listen, smell, taste and see. This is an experiential program and one designed to provide the teacher with as many resources, options and opportunities as possible. And truly, the opportunities presented in this program are almost endless. You can take as long or as short of time at each stop as you would like, using this as a quarter long, semester long or year-long program.

 

The Project Passport program is designed for students in grades 3-8 but it could easily included younger or older kids, especially if used in a large family or co-op type setting. For a detailed Scope and Sequence, go here.
  
ACTIVITIES INCLUDE:
 Creative Writing
 A "Dining Out Guide" of Recipes
 A File Folder Game
 A "Scrapbook of Sights" for storing notebook projects
 A Newspaper "The Kemet Chronicle"
 A "Snapshot Moments in History" Scrapbook Timeline
 "Postcards from Famous Folks"
 Souvenir Craft Cards with a dozen 3-D projects to make
 Over a dozen Lap Book Projects ...and much more!
“Much more” is really a huge understatement! There is a massive amount of information, projects, and ideas included! The hard part for the teacher is going to be to decide which activities to include and do and which to leave untouched! Because there is so much content, I found the best way to use the program was to print off the materials that you’ll want to use. Put these in a 3-ring binder so that it’s all ready to go when you sit down to engage in the program. You could print off material as you go, but if you are a big-picture person, such as myself, printing everything all at once so that you have it in front of you and can organize it into one notebook, will probably be most helpful. For me, the ability to see the content, organize it and choose what I wanted to focus on allowed us to delight in the material, rather than get bogged down in the volume of it!

 

The down-loads include an actual passport so the kids have the opportunity to experience what it would be like to log their journey via passport. If you decide to participate in other Project Passport World History studies:
Project Passport World History Study: Ancient Egypt 
Project Passport World History Study: The Middle Ages 
Project Passport World History Study: Renaissance & Reformation

your student will be able to add the passport they've already made. I love connections and this allows the students to see how all of history is intimately connected

This is an excellent hands-on scrap booking, note booking, project oriented program. The true beauty of this program is that you can focus on areas that appeal to your interest of learning, or your kids interests. For instance, my son doesn’t love activities per se, but he loves time lines and maps. For Cub we simply focused on the time lines and maps. He loves comparing ancient maps to current ones!

Flower, however, loves experiential, project based learning and the scrap booking aspect of this program greatly appealed to her. Because it’s summer and we have had a crazy schedule here since June I let her pick and choose what she wanted to focus on- we used the program as a bit of a smorgasbord. To me, that just shows how flexible this program is- you can use it as an in-depth full subject sequential study, utilize the sections that appeal to you, pick and choose specific areas of learning to focus on, go slow, fast, for a short or very extended period of time. Any way you use the Project Passport program will work successfully, because all of the components are built in! My favorite aspect of the program is how they incorporated every day life foods, games and activities- this is what make history come alive for kids- realizing that history is not just dates and places (thought those are very important aspects of good history) but it is comprised of people who ate, worked and played, just like they do.

 Terrific for homeschooling families, co-ops, academic class-days, and private schools. Great for unit studies, supplements for history, cultural and geographic studies. It's no wonder that Homeschool in the Woods is an award winning curriculum supplier and for good reason.

Project Passport World History Study: Ancient Egypt 

is one of highest quality in terms of conceptualization, delivery and content. 

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Tales from the Circle C Ranch- TOS Review

Circle C Adventures  by Susan K. Malow might sound familiar to you, as we reviewed Thick as Thieves by the same author at the end of March. This time, we had the opportunity to read  Tales from the Circle C Ranch.

Flower dove right in and didn't put the book down until she was finished with it. Upon completion, she picked up Thick as Thieves again and re-read it. Many happy sighs were heard as Flower read these books. They are perfect for tween girls (and big brothers who read them on the sly) who like excellent adventure writing and strong "G rated" values. 

This book allows us glimpses of Andi's childhood, spent in California in the 1800's. Flower found the writing interesting and thrilling. While this book consists of vignettes, the character development is what grabs you, pulls you in and you feel like you have become part of Andi's life. It's easy to relate to Andi's feelings and thoughts. The book ties everything to a relationship with God and living a life of faith- the family goes to church and scripture is used throughout the story. 

That being said, these stories are in no way pedantic, preachy or stuffy. The faith of Andi is blended throughout the story so that my tween daughter felt like it made sense. Andi's struggles and resolutions addressed some of Flower's feelings and struggles and offered kind and Godly resolutions to real life problems. In that, Malow allows the reader to transcend their own issues, relate to someone else and come to a resolution. That, my friends, is great writing. 

This story is true to the time period-"very historical," states my history loving daughter. The author writes about universal issues that young people face, regardless of the age in which they live. This series is very much like Laura Ingalls Wilder stories, with a different setting. 

Flower's over-all assessment of Tales from the Circle C Ranch? She is a total fan-girl and let me know that we needed to buy each and every book in the series as soon as possible! That is a huge endorsement from my history loving daughter.  Cub (aged 15) picked the books up on the sly, and read them too, so don't limit the books to girls only. They will have a wide-appeal and would be a perfect read-aloud! To view all of the books in the series, go to 

Circle C Adventures

There is also a lap-books available for your craft loving children: Andrea Carter's Tales from the Circle C Ranch Learning Lapbook, making this book  a terrific option for co-ops and class days as it covers topics related to California, life in the 1800's, and much more! 


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https://www.facebook.com/CircleCAdventures
http://twitter.com/SuzyScribbles 

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 @Golden Grasses 2008-2013. All photographs, artwork and text are the property of the owner unless otherwise stated. Don't miss a thing! Subscribe to Golden Grasses and get our articles right to your inbox!

Dynamic Literacy- Word Build Foundations- TOS Review

As you know, we are word lovers at Golden Grasses and spend a fair amount of time reading, writing, and sharing good words. Vocabulary is important to us, because it is foundational to clear communication, so we were excited to review Dynamic Literacy   Level 1 set  WordBuild: Foundations, Level 1. Dynamic Literacy  focuses on Greek and Latin word roots presenting them in a way that is engaging and fun. The core of the program is this:

Word =prefix + root + suffix. 

Easy, right? And effective, because it gives the students the ability to de-code words, regardless of whether they've seen them or heard them before. 

The Teacher's Manual is chock full of great information, building the teacher's confidence and ability to grasp the program with ease. The point of the program is to learn 25 Greek and Latin word families in short, do-able lessons. If you, as an adult are intimidated by Latin or Greek Roots, need to build your own vocabulary for language study or work, this is a fantastic program as it equips the teacher to know and understand roots, pre-fixes and suffixes and use them successfully. In fact, I'll be teaching Latin this fall and plan to work through the WordBuild: Foundations, Level 1 myself in preparation for that. 

Lessons follow three easy steps: 

Teach-- Complete---Discuss. 

Each Lesson includes Objectives, Materials and Differentiating Instruction (how to make it more or less difficult) as well as an estimated time for each lesson. 

The Student Activity Book is a slim volume and chock full of games. Fun games that are simple, effective, thought provoking and require the student to engage the material in a way that requires that student to engage and interact with the lessons. 

 Included in WordBuild: Foundations, Level 1 is a CD. The CD is not graphics driven with intense time pressure or sound, but a simple and effective tool to use in ones' pursuit of a great vocabulary. We "lost" a computer this year so screen time has been at a premium. Also, while my kids have a few computer games that they enjoy, they much prefer books for study, so it was no surprise to me that Flower preferred the workbook over the CD. That being said, the CD is a great tool to change things up, if you have multiple students in the same program, or just enjoy the ease of on-line learning. Classical music plays in the background, so your kids get the added benefit of gaining familiarity with beautiful music while they build a dynamic vocabulary! Definite win-win!

We have done various types of Language and root studies and found this program to be a terrific approach. Dynamic Literacy takes what could be a daunting/ boring subject (surely, I am not the only person who built their vocabulary by memorizing lists?!) and creates a fun, game oriented learning environment. The 15 minutes of regular study that this program requires flew by as Flower played games such as Root Squares, Magic Squares and Stair Steps. The program is simple enough that once the student understands it, they can take off at their own pace, which is exactly what Flower did.

This is a fun and very effective program. An excellent addition to your Language Arts program! 

Find  Dynamic Literacy Social Media:

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@Golden Grasses 2008-2013. All photographs, artwork and text are the property of the owner unless otherwise stated. Don't miss a thing! Subscribe to Golden Grasses and get our articles right to your inbox!

Apologia Field Trip Journal- TOS Review

We recently had the opportunity to review Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal published by 

Apologia Educational Ministries

The Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal is a fun, colorful, scrapbook-y looking spiral bound journal. It is bright and colorful with heavy-duty journal pages and a glossy card stock cover. Inside you will discover the Table of Contents, which are, not surprisingly, all field trip related: 

Preparing for a Field Trip, Field Trip Ideas, Places I've Explored, Field Trip Pages, etc. 

There are maps, grids, blank areas to draw, lined areas to write in and more. Flower completed a page about our recent trip to the East Coast under, 

"Story of My Day"

"We drove for 2 long days/ encountering 2 semi-accidents and almost crashing into one of them. The trees and mountains were nice to see although terrifying since dad was driving fast and furious. When we finally arrived at our hotel, one of the staff members had given our room away."

Something I never want to forget: Never eat seafood (Flower got violently sick after eating seafood. 

Ah, life through the eyes of a child. Dr. Dh and I had a great laugh over her perspective, and who would have known if she hadn't written it down? 

Following the tradition of all great explorers and journalists, from naturalists like Audubon, to beloved authors like Laura Ingalls Wilder, journaling is a time-tested method of recording one's every day experiences. Through them we gain valueable insights and discoveries, even about our own lives. 

If journaling isn't something that comes naturally to you, Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal is a great way to jump start the tradition. If it's something that does comes naturally to you, the Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal  makes a lovely, colorful keepsake to record ones travels. These would be fun to do with a co-op, for a child who is a reluctant writer, or one who loves to recorrd data and keep accurate records. For added fun gather together a whole pile of them, give them to everyone in the family and record a special trip or year's worth of field trips together. 

Flower will continue to add to hers as the upcoming months include more travel, camps and even more dissection in the fall! 

Another high quality product from the good folks at Apologia Educational Ministries. 

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@Golden Grasses 2008-2013. All photographs, artwork and text are the property of the owner unless otherwise stated. Don't miss a thing! Subscribe to Golden Grasses and get our articles right to your inbox!

The Book of Ancient Romans Set: Memoria Press TOS Review

Memoria Press is one of my all-time favorite curriculum suppliers! We've used most of the curriculum in their catalog over the last several years, I haven't found anything we don't love, and I give it the highest praise! If you are looking for quality, visually beautiful materials that get the job done, look no further. 
We recently had the opportunity to review  The Book of the Ancient Romans Set
and, of course, we LOVED it. We received The Book of the Ancient Romans Set, which includes The book of Ancient Romans, by Dorothy Mills, The Book of the Ancient Romans Student Guide and the The Book of the Ancient Romans Teacher's Guide.  Part of what I love about Memoria Press guides is that they are all formatted the same. In other words, everything from Christian Studies, Latin and Music to History has the same visual formatting. When I hand my kids a Memoria Press guide, they know exactly what to expect- Memory Work, Vocabulary, Study Questions, Maps, copy work, quotes; all laid out in an orderly, sequential manner- visually clean, easy to manage.  In addition, the questions in these guides are not rote, fill in the blank type of questions. They are questions designed to get the student thinking, processing, double checking facts and making connections. The kids own the material when they are through with it because they've thought about it, manipulated it, stored it. They understand the material when it's all said and done and remember it, because there are plenty of hooks given on which to hang the information. Cub is a history buff and just finished reading a 900 page tome on Ancient History. That did not stop him from delving right in to Dorothy Mills book. He's familiar with Mills, from other Memoria Press studies we've done. Mills writing style is easy-going and conversational. It is not difficult to enjoy, even while she is tackling a difficult subject. We did the study guide together, oratorically. I've done this with my boys for years, with other Memoria Press study guides. They enjoy the interaction, it has lead to some great discussions, I learn a ton, and neither of them love to actually write by hand. We find a comfortable spot together and settle in for some great discussion. The thing I really appreciate about the Teacher's Guides with Memoria Press is that they give you enough information in the answer key that, even though you may not have read the material yourself, you are empowered to have a decent discussion over the material. Of course, there's nothing like reading the source material yourself, but for those of us with too much to do,  it makes it possible for us to really partake in fun, engaging discussions over interesting materials with our kids. If I had to chose just one, of the many reasons why I love Memoria Press, that would be it.  My kids are doing some CLEP exams, and Memoria Press study guides are part of our strategy for preparing for tests like Western Civilizations. Memoria Press The Book of the Ancient Romans Set would also be wonderful to use in a co-op or class day setting, for adults who want to beef up their understanding of the Ancient World, or for, obviously, the homeschool classroom.  Memoria Press has set a high standard for others in the classical publishing world. If you are looking for excellent food for thought be sure to sign up for Memoria Press's Classical Teacher, which is one of the most informative Maglogs around, including articles from Memoria Press's founder Leigh Lowe, Logic author, Martin Cothran and many other leaders in the homeschool and classical education world.  As an interesting side-note, Ms. Lowe has been voted the "Most Admired Woman" in the education category of Today's Woman magazine, June 2014. If you haven't yet discovered all of the great things at Memoria Press, now's the time to do so! You'll be glad you did!  Follow Memoria Press on Social Media:
https://www.facebook.com/memoriapress     
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/>http://i1297.photobucket.com/albums/ag30/Lisa_Nehring/siggywithflower_zps2ffa66ba.png @Golden Grasses 2008-2013. All photographs, artwork and text are the property of the owner unless otherwise stated. Don't miss a thing! Subscribe to Golden Grasses and get our articles right to your inbox!