Five Days of Tips for Homeschool Parents: {High School} Helpful Links, Day 5 #tipsforhomeschoolparents

I am joining up with about 50 other bloggers from the Schoolhouse Review Crew to bring some helpful tips for homeschool parents. I am going to be sharing a ton of helpful links with you over the next several posts.

Unfortunately a lot of people decide not to homeschool high school. This is very unfortunate, in my opinion. Why would you put your kids in public school at the height of their life changes (physically and emotionally) especially if you have homeschooled them for any length of time. That just seems so very wrong to me. But, that is just my thoughts. So, with that, I will share some hopefully helpful high school homeschooling links.

Some main areas to think about are:

• Curriculum
• Grade Tracking & Transcript
• SAT / ACT Testing
• Dual Credit
• College Entrance

It would be good and helpful for you and your student to sit down before they start their ninth grade year and discuss what they might want to do after they graduate high school. This will help you get a plan of action for classes together. Also make sure to check your state laws regarding graduation requirements.

HSLDA has a lot of helpful information here.

Lee Binz with The Home Scholar will provide you with a wealth of helpful information!

What we chose to do with regards to curriculum was to go with BJU Press Distance Learning Online. This was a program that covered everything necessary while making sure to cover the classes I no longer felt qualified or able to teach. This is not something you have to do, this is something we chose to do.

Grade Tracking & Transcript

I have kept our grades in an excel file by grade. This works really well for me. Otherwise I did share in my post yesterday a couple of different online tracking options. I *think* they even offer a transcript area, but I can’t guarantee that.

I made my son’s transcript using Microsoft Word.

SAT and/or ACT Testing

Doing these will be helpful for scholarships should you be going this route. Our family personally decided to skip taking either of these tests because a lot of local community colleges (where our son will be starting college) require their own entrance exams anyway. So why put forth the time, cost and the effort for these tests?

A lot of homeschoolers DO choose to do them. You can find a local area offering the preparation and taking of the tests. You might even be able to find them at your local community college.

Although we didn’t choose to do either of these tests, we did do the CAP Test that is available through Christian Liberty Press for $25. We chose to do the online option and the test results were almost immediately sent to my email. This will tell you where your student falls grade-wise within each subject. You can take it yearly – or whenever you want.

Dual Credit

This is also something we didn’t do – mainly because we didn’t have the money. HOWEVER, with that said, a lot of colleges offer a significant discount for the classes taken as dual credit. This is definitely something I would suggest checking in to if your student intends on going to college.

FAFSA

This is government assistance for college. It is filled out online near the beginning of the year. You will want to fill it out after you do your taxes but as quickly as possible as the funds are available as first come, first served. Honestly I was surprised at how easy the process was! Here is their website: FAFSA.

College Entrance

As I’ve mentioned, we are going to be pursuing the local community college option to start. So that is the extent of my knowledge but from what I understand large colleges are very happy to accept homeschoolers. Our basic plan is to finish high school and then have him take the entrance exams and then take classes. Pretty simple.

College Plus is an online college a lot of homeschoolers choose to use as well.

Each day I will share ten other bloggers joining in on this series (each day will be 10 DIFFERENT bloggers) with a link to their blog. This will make it super easy for you to go visit and see what they are sharing (each blogger is sharing different tips!)…just click the links here:

Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break
Latonya @ Joy in the Ordinary
Laura @ Day by Day in Our World
Leah @ As We Walk Along the Road
Lisa @ Farm Fresh Adventures
Lori @ At Home: where life happens
Meg @ Adventures with Jude
Megan @ My Full Heart
Melanie (Wren) @ finchnwren
Melissa @ Mom’s Plans

Enjoy the journey!

Five Days of Tips for Homeschool Parents: {Organization} Helpful Links, Day 4 #tipsforhomeschoolparents

I am joining up with about 50 other bloggers from the Schoolhouse Review Crew to bring some helpful tips for homeschool parents. I am going to be sharing a ton of helpful links with you over the next several posts.

Monday I shared {Getting Started} Helpful Links, Tuesday I shared {Free Curriculum} Helpful Links and yesterday I shared {Curriculum} Helpful Links. Today we will look at some links that will help with homeschool organization! {In all honesty, I don’t think we EVER TRULY get this one down! But … we all seem to continue to try!}

There are some online programs available to help with schedules and tracking. I have tried them and personally don’t like them (our schedule moves around too much) but I know a lot of people do. The most popular ones I’ve heard of are HomeschoolTracker and Homeschool Skedtrack.

Personally, when it comes to keeping track of assignments, courses and grades – Excel works perfectly for my needs. But many people prefer a different method.

Personally, I like paper planners that I can touch. There are some popular ones:

Hey Mama! Homeschool Print Planner (it is also available in digital if you would rather it that way.)

Here are some FREE printable planner pages.

I’ve heard that many people like the A Simple Plan planner from Mardel.

There is also The Well Planned Day planners.

Homeschool Lesson Organization

Many people like the workbox system. Check out what See Jami Blog and Heart of Wisdom have to share. Or Penny shares about the crate system.

FlyLady is well-known in the homeschooling circles. She helps with HOME organization and cleaning.

Curriculum Choice has a post that covers MANY different homeschool organization tips.

Amy over at Raising Arrows shares Organizing the Large Family Homeschool but don’t let that fool ya – anyone can benefit from what she shares!

Homeschool.com has an interesting article with a lot of good information. This one even touches on Time Management.

Sonlight has a wealth of information in this post! WOW!

A big thing I want to share here is DO NOT GET OVERWHELMED with organization … it will all be okay!

As a side note: You can get FREE homeschool ID cards through Homeschool Buyers Co-Op.

Come back tomorrow as we close our our week of Tips for Homeschool Parents and I share {High School} Helpful Links.

Each day I will share ten other bloggers joining in on this series (each day will be 10 DIFFERENT bloggers – but this time it is only nine!) with a link to their blog. This will make it super easy for you to go visit and see what they are sharing (each blogger is sharing different tips!)…just click the links here:

Dawn @ Double O Farms
Debbie @ Debbie’s Homeschool Corner
Desiree @ Our Homeschool Notebook
Diana @ Busy Homeschool Days
Diana @ Homeschool Review
Elyse @ Oiralinde: Eternal Song
Emilee @ Pea of Sweetness
Erin @ For Him and My Family
Jen @ Chestnut Grove Academy

Enjoy the journey!

Five Days of Tips for Homeschool Parents: {Curriculum} Helpful Links, Day 3 #tipsforhomeschoolparents

I am joining up with about 50 other bloggers from the Schoolhouse Review Crew to bring some helpful tips for homeschool parents. I am going to be sharing a ton of helpful links with you over the next several posts.

Monday I shared {Getting Started} Helpful Links. Yesterday I shared {Free Curriculum} Helpful Links and now today we will discuss some of the most common, most loved paid curriculum. I am going to sort them by subject:

All Inclusive (meaning all subjects are covered)

BJU Press

ABeka

Alpha Omega

Answers in Genesis

My Father’s World

Christian Liberty Press

Five In A Row

Sonlight

Classical Conversations

Tapestry of Grace

Bible

Grapevine Studies

History

Notgrass History

Diana Waring

Language Arts

Growing with Grammar

Institute or Excellence in Writing

Logic of English

Sharon Watson

Math

Math-U-See

Teaching Textbooks

Life of Fred

Saxon

Science

Apologia

Supercharged Science

Magic School Bus (You can often find these on sale for 50% off.)

The 101 Series

Foreign Language

Visual Latin

Latin Alive

Mango Languages (This can often be found for free use at libraries.)

Like the free curriculum I shared yesterday, there are a TON of other curriculum out there, these are just the more popular ones (and most I have personal experience with). Ones I am comfortable recommending to others.

As an additional note, you can often find used homeschool items for sale. I do this most of the time. There are MANY, MANY, MANY Facebook groups. But the two others that I use the most are:

homeschoolclassifieds.com

VegSource.com (look for the homeschool currriculum area)

Tomorrow I will share {Organization} Helpful Links!

Each day I will share ten other bloggers joining in on this (each day will be 10 DIFFERENT bloggers) with a link to their blog. This will make it super easy for you to go visit and see what they are sharing (each blogger is sharing different tips!)…just click the links here:

Annette @ A Net In Time
Brandy @ Kingdom Academy Homeschool
Brenda @ Counting Pinecones
Carol @ Home Sweet Life
Cassandra @ A Glimpse of Normal
Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses
Cristi @ Through the Calm and Through the Storm
Crystal @ Crystal Starr
DaLynn @ Biblical Womanhood
Danielle @ Sensible Whimsy

Enjoy the journey!

Five Days of Tips for Homeschool Parents: {Free Curriculum} Helpful Links, Day 2

I am joining up with about 50 other bloggers from the Schoolhouse Review Crew to bring some helpful tips for homeschool parents. I am going to be sharing a ton of helpful links with you over the next several posts.

Yesterday I shared about {Getting Started} Helpful Links so click on it if you missed it and need it!

As you continue your research of homeschooling, I thought this would be a good time to share some FREE homeschooling curriculum resources:

First, you can check out my Links 2 Free Stuff area here on the blog!

Now I will share some others…

Easy Peasy

Check out Homeschool Buyers Co-Op’s post on Free Curriculum

Ambleside Online (Charlotte Mason style)

Khan Academy

IXL has SOME free helps: IXL

Math Is Fun

Math Mammoth has some free YouTube videos. We have used and like Math Mammoth.

HomeschoolMath.net

Daily Grammar

English Grammar 101

The Science Spot

One of the things we have done (and continue to do) is look at different reading sites (like My Father’s Word and Sonlight) and look at their reading lists and then see what we can get of those from the library. A free way to know you are getting good quality reading in! As homeschoolers, we could NOT live without our local library!

There are a TON more that have free printables and worksheets – almost too many to list – so I will let you do basic searches for fun stuff like that!

Tomorrow I will be sharing common paid curriculum links.

Each day I will share ten other bloggers joining in on this series (each day will be 10 DIFFERENT bloggers) with a link to their blog. This will make it super easy for you to go visit and see what they are sharing (each blogger is sharing different tips!)…just click the links here:

Melissa @ Grace Christian School
Michele @ Family, Faith and Fridays
Missica @ Through the Open Window
Monique @ Mountain of Grace Homeschooling
Rebekah @ There Will Be A $5 Charge For Whining
Renita @ Krazy Kuehner Days
Sarah @ Renaissance Mama
Sasha @ Such a Time as This
Tawnee @ Adventures in Homeschooling
Tiffany @ The Crafty Home
Tina @ Desperate Homeschoolers

Enjoy the journey!

Five Days of Tips for Homeschool Parents: {Getting Started} Helpful Links, Day 1

I am joining up with about 50 other bloggers from the Schoolhouse Review Crew to bring some helpful tips for homeschool parents. I am going to be sharing a ton of helpful links with you over the next several posts. This first post will be for those just starting out with homeschooling so if this is you – read on. If it isn’t, maybe you know someone who might find it helpful. If so, please share it with them! Our oldest son’s Tae Kwon Do instructor recently asked me about getting started with homeschooling. These are some links I thought she might find helpful – so I thought I’d share them here as well!

Today we will cover:

• Learning Styles (student)
• Teaching Styles (parent)
• Homeschooling Approaches

But first, check your homeschooling state laws at HSLDA.

Learning Style

If you are just thinking about homeschooling, or just starting homeschooling, you will want an idea of what your child/s learning style is. What is a “learning style”? Basically it is how they learn the best, or what their preferred way of learning is. Some kids learn best by hearing, others learn better by touching. Which is your child? Here are some links to help you with learning styles:

Weird, Unsocialize Homeschoolers shares How to Homeschool: Determine Your Child’s Learning Style

From Time4Learning: Learning Styles

Homeschool World: Discover Your Learning Style

Marianne at Abundant Life has this to say about Learning Styles and the Homeschool

Here is a “quiz” to help determine learning style.

Teaching Style

The next thing you want to consider is what kind of teaching style do YOU have? Yes, YOU! Here are some links to help you understand these a little more:

This one is a bit long but skip down about half way (if you want) and it will be worth the read! Homeschooling 911 shares What’s Your Teaching Style? (And Why It Matters).

Homeschool Approaches

Then there are homeschooling approaches…which will you be? Do you prefer textbooks? Or do you want to be as far from those as possible? Do you want to follow what your child has interest in? Here are some places to find help with what learning approaches are…

Homeschool.com has this to share: Homeschooling Approaches

Hearts at Home shares about Homeschool Teaching Methods.

Oklahoma Homeschool has an excellent article Homeschool Teaching Methods with some additional resources.

Eclectic Homeschooling has this neat quiz that might help you learn a little about your homeschool philosphy: What Kind of Homeschooler Are You?

Huge FREE Resource!

A really cool FREE resource for getting started with homeschooling is offered by The Old Schoolhouse Magazine and is called Homeschool Welcome Basket.

Each day I will share ten other bloggers joining in on this series (each day will be 10 DIFFERENT bloggers) with a link to their blog. This will make it super easy for you to go visit and see what they are sharing (each blogger is sharing different tips!)…just click the links here:

Jeniffer @ Thou Shall Not Whine
Jennifer @ A Peace of Mind
Jennifer @ Faithful Homestead
Joelle @ homeschooling for His Glory
Joesette @ Learning Curve
Kari @ Random Acts of Boyhood
Katie @ Katie’s Daily Life
Kemi @ Homemaking Organized
Kim @ Homestead Acres
Kylie @ Our Worldwide Classroom

Enjoy the journey!

*THIS* is what it is ALL about !!

Today was THE PERFECT example of what homeschooling should look like in my eyes !! P, our second grader, was working on handwriting and his assignment was to make large letters and then draw an animal on the letter that starts with that letter (s is for snail). This boy doesn’t really like to write or draw so I was surprised when we wanted to do it at all, let alone he wanted to do SEVERAL!

As he is trying to think of animals, or something, to put with the different letters, I mentioned that he might get out his dictionary and look up the letters and see what kind of ideas that would give him. (Keep in mind that I have been trying to get him to pull out this book and look at it for a couple months now.) So, he got it out and started looking up different letters and finding different things to draw. Next thing I know he is just looking through it finding different things and just enjoying learning.

At this point I’m starting to want to get refocused back to our regular work but decided to just “roll with it” and see where this went. I was really enjoying watching him enjoying learning. Next thing I know, he’s asking about using a Thesaurus (which he was recently introduced to in his English class). So we pulled that out and he started looking at that too!

Low and behold if the next thing I know – this child is writing a story! This child cannot stand to write more than three letters twice in his handwriting class! I’m not sure if my amazement is coming completely across or not – but this is UNHEARD OF for this child!

All I could do was stand there and smile – and thank the Lord for the opportunity to homeschool, to get to SEE these moments MYSELF. And I was thanking Him for keeping me from redirecting him and for just rolling with it. If I hadn’t, we would have missed SO MUCH!

Here is a picture of his story … and it is a pretty long one too! Such a happy, impressed mama here!

So, here are some words from a homeschooling mom in their eighth year of homeschooling — DO NOT lose sight of what is important. DO NOT be so focused on what “you’re supposed to be doing” that you forget to enjoy what you ARE doing. Let them learn IN THEIR OWN TIME and let them follow rabbit trails … you never know where they might lead! I am SO HAPPY I did today! To God be the glory!

Enjoy the journey!

Field Trip – Northwestern Territory Historic Center

We took our first field trip with our new homeschool group today. There were three groups that went and we were in the last of the three. We visited the Northwestern Territory Historic Center (NTHC) in Dixon, IL which isn’t TOO far from our new house. Although I wasn’t sure what the field trip would present, it wasn’t out of our price range (donation only) so I figured we couldn’t lose by going. I’m so glad we went!

Some of you may be more knowledgeable than me, but I didn’t find out until we moved here that Dixon, IL was President Reagan’s boyhood home town. This is something I think is really cool! With that…this is what is at the top of the stairs when you enter the NTHC…

Keep in mind that my son (to the right) is 6’4″…that gives you an idea of the size of this thing!

The building is actually an old three-story high school! The main floor has the office and gift shop. The second floor is the “meat” of the center…it is where you find the story and the manikins and the wall plaques full of all kinds of information to read.

This is where the next part of our journey began … it was a guided tour by a wonderfully knowledgeable older gentleman who apparently has donated quite a few items. (Was neat to hear him share his stories!)

They have a lot of these displays through out – to help show the change in clothing of the Indians as they traded. They had a neat thing where they put four items that were not available back in these times throughout the displays in an effort to keep the kids engaged – their job is to find those four items. It worked like a charm with our group!

It was neat to actually SEE some of the different items used long ago and hear what they were used for … man things were different back then! We are so spoiled these days!

The kids got to make a real rope using a rope making machine – I think we all really enjoyed that part!

They also had several dioramas which were really neat to look at. The one below was my favorite because they had a map with it – which is EXACTLY what P (our 2nd grader) is working on in his BJU Press Heritage Studies class!

And last but not least, I got to learn about the boogeyman. LOL (Which is kind of appropriate considering Halloween is tomorrow – which we don’t celebrate – but you get my point.)

The top floor is the original high school gymnasium … interesting that it was on the TOP level (where all the sound would go DOWN to the classrooms below).

The main purpose of this center is to share the story of how the local area had changed and grown over the years. Additionally, there were several rooms dedicated to information about Ronald Reagan. Overall our time there was just under two hours. We really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend this location to others in the area!

Enjoy the journey!

Schoolhouse Review ~ Out of the Box Games #hsreviews

We had the opportunity to review Snake Oil – Party Potion by Out of the Box Games. This game is recommended for ages 8 and up consisting of 3 – 6 players. Approximate game time is 20 – 30 minutes. It has a recommended sale price of $14.99.

So…first of all…let’s discuss the name “Snake Oil” so we can move beyond that small part. *grin* Yes, we all agree that this is a VERY UNUSUAL NAME for a kids game (or ANY game for that matter). So I’m sure you are wondering, as my family did, how they came up with such an interesting name. Although I am not completely sure how exactly the name came about, here is a little of what the company has to share about ‘The True History of Snake Oil’: It acutally did exist and was first introduced in the US in the 1860’s by Chinese laborers. It was rubbed on sore muscles. It is still used today by some herbalists. Then in 1917, a sample of Clark Stanley’s Snake Oil Liniment was tested and found to contain no actual snake oil. As a result of swindlers making false product claims and using misleading labels, the phrase “Snake Oil Salesman” was born. So, now that we have discussed that…let’s move on to the actual game (after you have read my entire review…the name will make more sense…so keep on reading…).

This game comes with a plastic three section card holder, 14 Customer Cards (28 Customers) and 112 Word Cards.

Game Set up: put out tray then everyone draws six of the “Word Cards”.

Step One: Choose one player to be “the customer”. Anyone can be the customer. They then choose one of the “customer cards” and look at both the front and the back and choose which of the two customers they want to be. (Some examples are: Waitress, Fisherman, Dog, Snowman, Robot, Wizard, Doctor.)

Step Two: All the other players choose two of their six cards as their item to “sell” to the customer. For us, we decided everyone needed to pick their two cards before anyone started selling. (The game just says that whoever is ready first can go.) This is the most hilarious part of the game! Our six year old LOVES games like this (and actually does quite well) so I knew this game would be a hit with him when I saw it came up for review). This is where you get to see people’s personalities shine (and it can be a “communication learning tool” for those who aren’t so good at sharing their thoughts with others).

Below is a sample of cards one of us had during one of the games we played.

Step Three: After all the players have pitched their item they are selling, the customer picks which one they liked the best. (Sometimes if we had a hard time deciding we would take one of each of the ones we liked the best and would just randomly pick one – that one then became the winner.) Whoever wins the sales pitch gets the customer card – this way you know who is winning.

Below is just a picture of us playing one of our games…it shows the tray and some of the cards.

Our family really enjoyed this game and the time and laughs it brought as we spent time together. Our only suggestion to the makers of this game would be to add more customer cards…which actually they do say you can combine this game with the regular (first) Snake Oil game they made (recommended for ages 10 and up) which would provide additional customer cards.

So I guess we can put “two and two” together and understand from this where the name Snake Oil comes from. Closure is good. *grin*

You can watch this short YouTube video which creatively explains how to play the game. (Which is actually where I got some of my pictures from.)

Out of the Box Games offers MANY other games as well, hop over and check out what all they have to offer!

If you are curious about how some of their games match Common Core Standards, click HERE.

Other ways to stay up with what is going on with Out of the Box Games:

Facebook 
Twitter 
YouTube 

Read more Out of the Box Games reviews from the Schoolhouse Review Crew!

Here’s praying you have fun learning!

 

 

 

Schoolhouse Review ~ IXL #hsreviews

We had the opportunity to review IXL an online Math and Language Arts Program. It covers grades PreK-12 for Math and grades 2-8 for Language Arts.

If you have been homeschooling for any length of time, you have probably already heard of IXL. They offer a free program (limited access that will only allow you to use it for a limited time) and they also offer a paid program (unlimited access to everything). We received one year of full access to the PAID program for both IXL Math and IXL Language Arts for this review.

IXL has made a pretty impressive online learning supplement! Their mission: passionate about creating and supporting the best educational technology possible; developing first-of-their-kind products used by millions of learners, from children to adults and deeply committed to solving the real-world challenges faced by students and teachers around the planet.

IXL offers visual representations, listening exercises and interactive activities so as to utilize both the right and left sides of the brain. The site has vibrant images and awards and certificates that are hidden throughout the site. There are hundreds of virtual awards that reflect kids’ favorite animals, foods, places, and hobbies. Within IXL math, each grade level has its own themed game board, filled with hidden prizes, so practicing math is like one big treasure hunt.

We spent the majority of our time reviewing the Kindergarten through Second Grade Math items but my older son did mess around with Algebra 1 a little and I did hop around in several different areas within the program.

With IXL you are only provided one login name and password. When you login you then pick which person is working on items at that time. You can also switch between users without having to login out and back in again. This is handy when you have several users. The program does not track where you left off or remind you of where to start and every user has access to all items. This could be confusing for younger learners but help from the teacher easily fixes it. (Since P is only six I sat with him the entire time he was working with this program, not only to be able to provide an accurate, knowledgeable review but also to help him navigate around.)

The one thing the program does offer for knowing where you have or have not been are little bars to the side of the options…they are darker if you have visited that area and “whited out” if you have not – as shown below.

There are many things we appreciated about this program. For example, in the picture below, the student actually MOVES the ruler so they can find out how long the given item is…we thought this was a very impressive, really fun, interactive way to learn about measuring…since that is how it would work in real life.

Notice the green “speaker boxes” to the left of the sentences above. These are where you can click and the sentences will be read out loud for the student. LOVE this! I am amazed at different online programs that do not offer this for lower elementary learning – so we really appreciated that IXL offers this. [Audio is available for all math items for grades PreK through Fifth.]

Every screen you are working in shows the chart on the right above. It shows problems solved, time elapsed and what their score is out of 100. One thing I would have liked is to have the option to change the number of problems necessary. My youngest felt an average of thirty problems per section was a bit much (but he’s my ‘never wants to sit in one spot for more than a couple seconds’ kid).

The picture below is from eighth grade language arts. I thought it was really neat and fun how I could actually highlight (the green part below) within the text they provided on the screen. Simple but interactive. Nice.

Below is another eighth grade language arts item. (You can tell what area you are in by looking at the top left of the screen…where the red box is.) In this one I was able to change the verbiage underneath the sign to say what the correct wording of the sign should be. Again simple – but very effective – interaction.

This program is meant to be used as a supplement or as a review. The reason it is considered a supplement or review item is that it doesn’t TEACH the concepts but only tells how something is done if a WRONG answer is submitted. We didn’t really understand that at first so things weren’t going very well for us initially. But once we realized that it is more for review – it changed everything and we really enjoyed working with it. As you can see below we weren’t sure what answer they wanted submitted so we received an incorrect answer. You can see that it shows the correct answer and then explains how that answer was obtained. My youngest found this frustrating but we were able to talk through why it does things like this so it wasn’t a huge thing for us.

The example below is from my oldest using Algebra 1.

There are such a huge amount of topics covered in every grade for both math and language arts that I would not be able to list them all here. Head over to their site and check them all out by clicking HERE.

In addition to learning, IXL also offers a “report” area which is found under the “Parent” account. Here are the report choices which offer pretty much everything you could be looking for.

Below is a sample report. Although they do offer a lot of reports, you have to select each thing for each report: student, grade, subject, etc. It is a little tedious but does provide the necessary information. For me, I would prefer a more simple way to receive a complete report of what each student worked on…something a little less detailed maybe…but that’s just me.

As you can see this is a very comprehensive online program that just about everyone can get something from.

Additionally, although we didn’t utilize them, they do offer online apps for the iPad, Android and Kindle.

Now…the cost breakdown:

• Math (PreK – 12) is $9.95 per month or $79 per year.
• Language Arts (Grades 2 – 8) is $9.95 per month or $79 per year.
• BOTH Math AND Language Arts is $15.95 per month or $129 per year.

Each additional child is $2.00 per month or $20 per year.

An interesting tidbit, I thought, they offer programs for the following countries: United States, Australia, Canada, Europe, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa and United Kingdom…that’s a pretty impressive list! If you have any questions about which edition is right for you, contact them at any time at orders@ixl.com.

Now hop over and Read more IXL reviews from the Schoolhouse Review Crew!

Here’s praying you have fun learning!

 

 

 

Book Review ~ Scripture Sleuth by Mat Halverson

We had the opportunity to review a set of Scripture Sleuth books by Mat Halverson. These books are recommended for ages 8 – 12 (grades 3-7) but can be enjoyed by pretty much everyone. I used these with my six year old son and his small Sunday School class. I read the stories to the class and had them try to help me solve them.

Personally I had never heard of these books, however, I posted something on Facebook about them and several people posted that they knew about them, and loved them!

These books are very different from anything I’ve ever experienced. They are short mystery stories that involve a young boy known as Concord. This boy solves every mystery with a verse from the Bible so he eventually becomes known as “The Concordance” (which isn’t often used in a positive manner).

Each story is independent of the others so it doesn’t matter which order you read the stories or the books. Since they are only six pages in length (on average) the information is shared quickly and to the point. They are fun to read and easy to follow.

We did enjoy these mysteries but I will say that they were difficult for us to solve without using the solutions in the backs of the books. However, one of the seven-year-old students in our Sunday School class was able to get them quickly so I am assuming it just depends on how your mind processes information.

I found these to be a really fun way to share Scripture with kids and a fun way to make the reader think about how the Scripture applies to the mystery. I will say though that these do NOT have Scripture apply in proper context of what they truely are in the Bible. {Spoiler Alert} Here is one of the solutions so that you can understand what I mean:

Joshua 10:13-14 describes a day when the sun stood still in the sky. The passage also says that such an event hasn’t happened again since then. Concord realized that if the sun is always moving across the sky, the statue’s shadow is always moving, too. When the Burley twins claimed it took them two hours to trace the statue’s shadow, Concord knew they had to be lying. The statue’s shadow would have moved too much during those two hours to be traced in one spot.

Overall we found these books enjoyable and would recommend them to others. These would also be a fun gift to give…with Christmas coming up soon!

Click HERE for a sample chapter!

The books cost $7.00 each as singles but the price gets less the more you buy at one time. Check out pricing HERE. The books range in pages from 85 – 113 with 12 mysteries in each one. Each mystery is approximately six pages.

Here’s praying you have fun learning!

 

 

 

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this free in exchange for a review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.