YWAM Publishing Heroes of History - Alan Shepard Review

YWAM Publishing offered us several choices from their Heroes of History series of books and we chose to review Heroes of History-Alan Shepard.  You know we love space!  YWAM Publishing also sent us a digital Study Guide to go along with our book.  The Heroes of History biography series brings to life remarkable true stories of fascinating men and women who shaped and changed the course of history!

Heroes of History - Alan Shepard Higher and Faster

 A look at the back cover of our book.

I love that these books are extremely flexible!  You can use them as family read-alouds or read alone titles.  You can also integrate them as supplements for numerous subjects or use it as a stand-alone curriculum.  They can be used for both group and individual study.  I had A (9th grade) read this book (18 chapters) on her own and complete the Unity Study 2 part of the Study Guide as well.  She was super engaged and really enjoyed reading about Alan Shepard's life.  She enjoyed reading about his progression in the Navy, how he became a pilot, and ultimately an astronaut.  A filled out a fact sheet about Alan Shepard and made a timeline of important events from history and Alan Shepard's life as directed in the study.

A's fact sheet and timeline

All the kids

I am currently reading this book aloud to the other kiddos at a slower pace.  A likes listening in and participating in the discussion questions (I love that).  It's also great to ask her if there was anything that she missed when she read the book by herself.  We are also taking our time working through activities and ideas suggested in our study guide.  I am picking and choosing ones for our family to complete.

The study guide contains guides for using this book in small groups, classroom and homeschool environments.

I want you to know that this study guide is chock-full of ideas for using this book in various curriculum areas including history, geography, essay writing, creative writing, reading comprehension, public speaking, drama, and art.  I really like that the guide also reflects a wide range of learning styles!

One of the ideas suggested in the guide is to create a display corner.  It gives ideas and suggestions on how to create your own.  Here is the one the kids and I have been working on.

Our Display Corner

The guide also contains chapter questions.  There are six questions for each chapter of the book.  There is a vocabulary question, factual question, two comprehension questions, and two open-ended questions seeking an opinion or interpretation.  The first three questions are geared toward younger students while the last three are geared for older students and considered more challenging.  Answers to the first four questions can be found in the Appendix of your guide.  Since I have a wide range of kids I ask all six questions.  I enjoy hearing what they all think.

We have not been using this for writing but there are great ideas for essay questions if you need them.  I would highly recommend this book if you are wanting to learn more about Alan Shepard or if your family is interested in space history like mine.  We are learning so much about Shepard's life and the journey that led him to be the first American in space (almost the first person in space).

We own several of YWAM Publishing's Christian Heroes: Then Now books and they are fabulous!  There are currently 29 biographies in the Heroes of History Complete set including Ben Carson, Billy Graham, and Louis Zamperini to name a few.  I'm super interested in reading Ben Carson's story next.

Be sure to click on the banner below to visit the Homeschool Review Crew blog to read more reviews of YWAM Publishing.

I am looking forward to finishing this book with all the kids as well as the study guide.  I love hearing their input and thoughts about Alan Shepard's life and the Space Age in general.

 

IEW Fix It! Grammar The Nose Tree Review

I am excited to share with you our review of The Nose Tree [Book 1] part of the Fix It! Grammar program for Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW).  The complete Fix It! Grammar program consists of six books:  The Nose Tree (Book 1), Robin Hood (Book 2), Frog Prince, or Just Deserts (Book 3), Little Mermaid (Book 4), Chanticleer (Book 5), and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Book 6).  Since every book in the Fix It! Grammar program is foundational to the book after it, we chose to start with The Nose Tree (Book 1).  There is a placement test that you can take if you are trying to decide on an appropriate level for your student; however, if you are trying to decide between levels after taking the placement test, it is recommended that you start with the lower level.

Fix It! Grammar The Nose Tree (Book 1) - Teacher Manual and Student Book (both spiral-bound)

I love that the Teacher's Manual includes information to download the Student Book (and a few other resources) so that I could print additional student books for other students in my home!  I decided to use this program with A, B, C and D since I had permission to print student books for all of them.

Fix It! Grammar

Using Fix It! Grammar

The kids each have a spiral notebook (to rewrite the passages and keep a vocabulary dictionary) and a pocket folder (to hold lesson sheets) to use with this program.

This program is set up so that students hunt for and correct errors in daily passages that will eventually tell a full story.  Each day they look up the definition for a bold word and record it in their spiral notebook.  They correct the daily passage (so far a sentence each day) and then write the corrected sentence in their spiral notebook.  They learn how to annotate and fix mistakes.  At the end of the program, they will have the entire story written in their notebook!

  

Here you can see D's spiral notebook.

The first book can be used with students 3rd-12th grade.  It is recommended that students use it 4 days a week and takes ~ 15 minutes a day.  It is a 33 week program.  I love that students are encouraged to immediately apply their new grammar knowledge in context.  If you are working through the first book with older students, you can set your pace quicker so that you can move on the the next book.  I have done the first 5 weeks with all the kids together but I am about to start double timing my lessons with A and B to cover the material faster with them.

A working in her spiral

A peek inside the Student Book, a completed week 5

If using a student book you will not need a pocket folder to hold the lessons.  The student book also contains weekly grammar cards that are a great tool for remembering all the concepts that have been taught.  Students can use them for easy reference as needed.

I like that this curriculum has short and concise daily exercises that really help students develop and understand the editing process better.  My children are really enjoy it.  They are thriving with this program and they are eager to know and write the full story.  It's fun to hear them guess about where the story is going and how it might end.

A peek inside the Teacher's Manual

The Teacher Manual has everything you need for this program.  It lays out the weeks nicely and walks you through how to teach this program.  You will introduce a new concept each week and model for your students how to label the sentences and make the corrections.  Week one focuses on nouns while week 2 focuses on articles of speech, etc.  Dress-ups are introduced in week 5.  It is amazing to see how much material is covered in 33 weeks.  This program really makes teaching grammar easy.  I love the grammar glossary included in the back of the Teacher Manual and Student Book.

Be sure to click on the banner below to visit the Homeschool Review Crew blog to read more reviews of IEW Fix It! Grammar.


I am really looking forward to completing this program with the kids.  I also plan to use it in the future with my younger children because I think it really gives a great foundation for grammar.

 

Bluebonnets and Orangebonnets

Texas Bluebonnets

If you live in Texas you can't help but notice the amazing wildflowers this year.  The bluebonnets have been especially nice in our area as well as the "orangebonnets" as G calls them but I have always known them as Indian paintbrushes.  I just had to stop and let G get a few pictures with them. 

 The Orangebonnets

 G posing with the wildflowers

 Trying to smile in the bright sun

 G's eyes are open more here in the shade.

 Relaxing

I have a few pictures from last week of the kids with bluebonnets but I'm hoping to get a few more as it was super bright that day.

 D in the bluebonnets

 F in the bluebonnets

All the kids

I wonder if people in other states take pictures with their wildflowers.  Texans are pretty much known for it! 

Rhythm & Writing Review

I want to share with you a super fun handwriting program for kids that I have been using with F, Rhythm & Writing with The Get Write Crew  from Rhythm & Writing.  This program uses music and lyrics to help kids remember the correct letter formations!  We were sent a physical book with dry erase overlay along with a lyric video subscription.

F with his book

The Get Write Crew includes Big Country bear who plays the guitar, Hip-Hop frog the lyricist, Jazzy Faith bunny who sings vocals and plays keyboards, and Mo' Rock monkey who plays the drums.  This program uses catchy phrases to help kids remember how to properly write their letters.

More about Big Country and Jazzy Faith

More about Hip-Hop and Mo' Rock

One of the first things to do with this program is to take the pre-assessment.  It is located in the workbook itself but you can also complete a simple form online and they will email you a link to print a copy of the pre-assessment.  The pre-assessment is designed so that you can determine which letters your child is having difficulty with and then you can either focus on the episodes that include the letters of difficulty or work through the entire program.

 Here is F's pre-assessment page

I was impressed with F's pre-assessment.  You can see that his capital N needs a little work.  I chose to let F pick which letters and videos he wanted to work on, making it really fun for him.  So he is working through the workbook and we are using the website (Instructional Videos) as a supplement.  F is using a transparency sheet in his workbook with a dry-erase marker so he can redo the pages over and over as he wishes.  It is recommended to paper clip a transparency onto the workbook sheets to practice until the student is ready to write in the book.  You can repeat each episode or lesson until the student has mastery or is close to mastery.  F loves the lyric videos and doesn't get tired of practicing his handwriting.

 F watching some of the fun videos (E and G joined in the fun)

 Listening to the videos

 Listening to the videos

The catchy tunes include visual letter formation instruction as well.

Parents and teachers will need to read the stories in the workbook to students who can't read.  The videos can be watched by the students and require less parent-involvement but I enjoyed keeping an ear out and listening to what F was learning.  You can show your student the videos and then move to the stories in the workbook or vice versa - there is a lot of flexibility!

Watching the video on K

The story about K from the workbook.

 Working through the workbook page for K

Almost done

 F with his completed K workbook page.

Watching the video for the letter c.

 F working on c's.

Story from workbook about L, t, and i.

 F working on L's.

Watching the Video for g

You can see his happy face in this photo!

Working through the g page in his workbook.

After all the episodes are completed, your student can complete the post-assessment at the end of the workbook to see all of their progress!  We haven't finished the program yet but I am looking forward to comparing F's post-assessment with his pre-assessment.

Example of the letter review

Right before the post-assessment there is also a great letter review for all the uppercase letters followed by all the lowercase letters.  This is a great way to check for skill level and mastery.

The goal of this program is to really teach kids how to properly form letters at a young age.  Improper letter formation can cause children to write slower, their hands tire easily, and they have trouble learning cursive.  The lyric videos with catchy phrases and repetition for children help them remember how to form letters correctly while having fun.

Be sure to click on the banner below to visit the Homeschool Review Crew blog to read more reviews of Rhythm & Writing.

I look forward to finishing this program with F and seeing all the improvement he makes!