Homeschool Review Crew

Product Review—Dyslexia Gold

July 2, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Sometimes, we end up being assigned a review that I’m not very excited about. Dyslexia Gold was one of those—but I may end up being thankful for it, anyway. When I filled out the form to indicate my interest in a lifetime subscription for the Dyslexia Gold Full Bundle, I gave it a fairly low interest level, but said that I would be willing to do the review if they needed people. I suspect that Mr. Sweetie has a mild level of dyslexia, so I hoped that if we used this program it would help him. The biggest reason for my hesitation is the fact that it is hard for us to fit computer work into our homeschooling day!

Mr. Sweetie has been playing games on Dyslexia Gold most school days since the middle of April. There are four categories of games, Engaging Eyes, Fluency Builder, Spelling Tutor and Times Table Tutor. I told him to do Engaging Eyes every second time, and choose one of the others for the days in between. Engaging Eyes is supposed to help children’s eyes learn to track better, which is what I suspect to be his biggest struggle with reading. Before he started, I downloaded a couple of stories from his grade level and marked the errors as he read while I timed him. His reading speed at that time was 52 words per minute, with 8 errors per minute. I had him read the same story again yesterday, and his reading speed was 61 words per minute, with only 5 errors per minute. When he was tested by the Dyslexia Gold website, his reading speed on April 14 was 66 words per minute, but by May 27, when they tested him again with a different story, it was 71. So, it looks to me as though this program might be working! Also, I noticed yesterday that he sat down and read a story to Little Miss without any prompting. I am going to have him continue to use this program for awhile, and see if it helps.

Engaging Eyes has several different games to help children be able to read better. The one Mr. Sweetie has used the most is Target Practice. He wears 3-D glasses for this one, which were sent to us in the mail. They make red and blue circles converge and appear to be at different levels, and then he uses keyboard arrows to aim at them and move the “gun” up or down. Whack an Alien teaches children’s eyes to move quickly. Speed Fix flashes several sets of letters, and you are supposed to click if you have seen an “a” in the set. Eye Tracking has letters appearing across the screen, and you’re supposed to click when you see a certain one.

Fluency Builder is mostly a phonics program. It doesn’t seem to have been very helpful here, as I have already put Mr. Sweetie through a couple of intensive phonics programs. Spelling Tutor had him write a sentence on paper, then check it. If he missed a word he had to practice it several times. This didn’t seem very helpful to him, either. The Times Table Tutor, however, I believe, will be quite helpful. Mr. Sweetie is having trouble learning his multiplication facts, and this is a good way to practice them. The main point is to get faster, which is what he needs. I’m planning to have him do this frequently, too. (This photo is of Mr. Sweetie doing Fluency Builder.)

When you log on to Dyslexia Gold, you are given the choice of the four types of games. There is also a tab on that page for reports. That’s where I found Mr. Sweetie’s reading speed from the two times the website tested him. It also tells what level he has reached with each game and how often he has used it.

I don’t know if I can say this program is worth paying money for; I’ll have to have Mr. Sweetie use it longer to know that. I do know he doesn’t complain about doing it, and even seems to enjoy it, which is more than I can say for most of his schoolwork! If you suspect eye problems to be at the root of your child’s reading difficulties, this might be a good program to check into, however.

Dyslexia Gold Full Bundle {Dyslexia Gold Reviews}

Product Review—Pathway to Liberty

May 8, 2019 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

I’ve always been quite interested in studying history, and for the past several years have been enjoying looking over various history curricula to compare them. I’m always looking for the perfect history course, and have pretty well come to the conclusion that I’ll never find exactly what I’m looking for. I keep looking, though, because it’s interesting to see what people put together. When the opportunity came up to review a course offered by Pathway to Liberty Homeschool Curriculum, I decided I would like to check out one of their levels. I chose Year One, Universal History of Pathway to Liberty’s History Curriculum, the first of four years that take students of all ages through the entire scope of world history. I chose this level because one of the first books studied in this level is one that I have been wanting to study with my children, and also because, when I’m comparing history courses, I like to look at the beginning of time.

Universal History starts with Genesis 1. After studying the first 11 chapters of Genesis in some depth, we will move on to studying the ancient civilizations. After studying Abraham, a couple of weeks are devoted to Egypt, and then the main focus is the history of the Old Testament, spending a little time with Babylonia and Persia as they enter Biblical history. A couple of weeks of the history of Greece wrap up the year.

So far, we have gotten through the first four weeks of this course. I requested two of the four levels, so I have Mr. Diligence doing Level Two and Mr. Sweetie and Mr. Imagination doing Level One. Level One is intended for K5-3^rd grade. Mr. Sweetie is in 4^th grade, but struggles enough with writing that I decided the lower level would be best for him. Level Two is for 4th-6^th grade; Mr. Diligence is in 8^th grade, but he, too, struggles enough with academics that I thought the lower level would be a better fit for him. (Levels Three and Four are for grades 7-9 and 10-12, respectively; they do the same reading and watch the same YouTube videos as Level Two, but do more in-depth research and writing.) Levels One and Two are quite different, but at the same time they correlate well with each other. For the first three weeks, Level One was a study of the days of creation and the character of God. Meanwhile, in Level Two, Mr. Diligence watched a video on YouTube each week and we began working our way through Ruth Beechick’s Genesis: Finding Our Roots, which I had been wanting to study ever since I borrowed it from a friend a few years ago. In Week Four, we all started studying Noah, and the younger ones are studying In the Days of Noah with me (I make Mr. Diligence sit in on reading that one, too!). One thing Level One includes that the older ones don’t is coloring pictures for nearly every lesson. My boys didn’t want to do them, but Little Miss loved coloring several. She also loved helping to make this poster of the days of Creation. I’ve wanted to do something like this for a long time, but it’s something that I don’t get done without something pushing for it to happen, like this review.

I have really enjoyed this study, so much so that I plan to go through the rest of the course that we were given. The boys grumble about taking time to do it, but they are learning and enjoying what they learn all the same. One thing we picked up on when we were reading the Book of Adam, from the 2nd-4^th chapters of Genesis, was that the tone of the writing is that of an eyewitness. I was reading chapter 2 aloud, and Mr. Intellectual challenged me on what he heard; he was sure I had misread something. When he looked it up in the Bible, however, we were all rather excited as we talked about the rivers of the Garden of Eden. The wording could hardly have been anything other than an eyewitness account—read it for yourself if you’re dubious. Then, of course, as we worked our way through Beechick’s book, we came to that same conclusion.

The videos we have watched so far on Pathway to Liberty’s YouTube channel have been good. The first few didn’t really stand out, but the one we watched for Week Four about Noah and the world that perished, which we watched all together one evening as a family, was absolutely fascinating. The younger children probably didn’t get much out of it, but we stopped it to discuss points with the older ones a couple of times. I’m looking forward to seeing what comes up in the future!

This curriculum is available either as hard copies or digital. I received the digital copies, which means I can print as many as I want for my children. I three-hole punched the paper, then tied the books together with yarn, which is working well.

One part of this course we have done some, but not as much as recommended, is word studies. The recommendation is to choose five words every day to find definitions for from the Webster’s Dictionary 1828. We have done a few, but not that many. We also haven’t done the writing assignments recommended. We could go to a lot more depth with this study. It could easily replace a lot of Language Arts, tying it together with history, which would be great. I just don’t have the energy for that right now!

My conclusion about this history course? So far, it is very good. It looks like the entire year that we were given is going to be great. Looking ahead farther, I would guess that I, personally, would not do well with the slant of the year in which American History is studied; having moved away from the United States I don’t share the same view of US history that it looks like this author has. However, I do greatly appreciate the way she ties history into the Biblical framework. The study we did in Level One about the character of God was absolutely great. I will admit that it was hard to figure out what answers she was wanting for some of the questions; if I hadn’t had the answer key handy for the first three weeks of that level, I would have had no idea how to answer some of the questions.

Be sure to read some of the reviews that other people have written! All four years of this curriculum have been use and reviewed by various families, so there will be a lot of different points-of-view. If you’re looking for a Bible-based history course, this may be one you want to check into.

Universal History, The Middle Ages, US History & World History Curriculum {Pathway to Liberty Homeschool Curriculum Reviews}

Product Review—CrossWired Science

April 17, 2019 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

I wasn’t overly excited about reviewing CrossWired Science when the opportunity was presented, but we watched all the sample videos before I made the final decision, with input from my four school boys. We all agreed that the videos were fascinating—and one of them answered a question I had vaguely wondered about before (how do animals get their Vitamin D?). We decided to request this online program for review and give it a try. Am I ever glad we did! I am loving it! The children are enjoying it, as well, some more than others.

We have been given access to both of the global topics that CrossWired Science has come out with so far, Sound, and Fluid Dynamics. So far, we have mainly focused on Fluid Dynamics, since the majority vote from the boys was for that one, although I would like to go through Sound as well. It has been fascinating to learn about how air and water work. We have watched videos on a number of subjects that all have to do with air and water movement. For example, one was about Dog Slobs & Cats. It showed, in great detail, how both animals lap water and why dogs make a mess while cats are tidier (although our cat manages to splash milk all around her dish, somehow). After we watched that, Mr. Imagination checked out our cats’ tongues to confirm that they have the texture that the video said they did. Other videos talked about dolphins, boxfish, penguins, nose aerodynamics (now we know why our cats are so lazy!), carburretors, and the alulas on bird wings (another lifelong mystery cleared up for me), among other topics. Each video has a worksheet with questions from the video, as well as a true/false online quiz. We have not done any of these worksheets, because they were not available when we started the course, but have done the quizzes. There were a few discrepancies between the quizzes and the videos; this is a brand-new course and is a work in progress, so I expect to see these problems resolved soon. (It’s very good already, but once these issues we noticed are corrected, I believe this site will be great.)

Besides the videos, there are many other suggested activities. There are a lot of options for experiments. I somehow neglected to get any pictures of my boys trying out the matchhead rockets, but they spent several days playing around with them. They had loads of fun building and shooting off these miniature rockets, and Mr. Intellectual discovered a new-to-us YouTube channel full of fun experiments (I think it includes a fair number of explosions, which he loves!). They also tried out the paper airplanes and figured out how to make a loop of paper fly very well across the room.

One page suggests many books to read. We have a few of them, so we added them into our read-aloud day. I was happy to be reminded to read The Great Dinosaur Mystery and Dry Bones and Other Fossils with my boys. The wide range of books that are recommended would make a great library. They suggest several biographies by Janet & Geoff Benge, one of which (Alan Shepard) we read in the past year. They also recommend Creation magazine, so I told Mr. Intellectual to spend his science time one day summarizing what he had been telling us about from the most recent issue the day before.

Right now, we’re working our way through the Gold Dig section. This is six pages about bones. The first page had a video and a quiz; we’re currently on the next page, which talks about all sorts of subtopics having to do with bones—just look at this outline!

There is a worksheet which goes along with this. Each day, I’m reading through about three sections of this page with Mr. Diligence, Mr. Sweetie, and Mr. Imagination, and we answer the questions that go along with those sections. It takes about 15 minutes to do that much, and that’s about all the time they can handle doing something like this, since we usually don’t get to it till after lunch and they are ready to run outside! Mr. Intellectual is doing this part by himself, since he is a strong reader. One thing we really enjoyed about this page was a photo of the International Space Station. What we really loved was that New Zealand, and the top part of our island, was in the background! It’s a very clear photo, and we could almost see where we used to live!

I’m also looking forward to learning about sound. So far, all we have done there is to watch one video, which was about the larynx and the vocal cords. It looks like the Global Topic on Sound is laid out similarly to the one we’re working on. All the Digging Deeper pages have something to do with sound, in humans as well as the animal world. We had started the year using the same series of science textbooks we’ve been using and loving for the past several years, but I’m thinking we’re going to finish what we want to use in CrossWired Science before we go back and finish that book. There is so much to love in this course! We’re enjoying the variety of ways to learn about the topic, and we love the way it points to the Creator. One thing we’ve noticed is that the videos don’t actually mention God, but what we read on the screen does. The videos do talk about how things are designed to work the way they do, very definitely giving glory to God if you think about it a little. I am very slow to buy an online program for school, but this is one that is worth the price they ask for it, even for us. I like it and am very glad we were put on the review.

If you are interested in trying out this fascinating website, here is a coupon code that will take $5 off every order—no matter how many times it is used: loh12.

One thing I had a bit of trouble figuring out is how to schedule CrossWired Science. There is so much information here, in a variety of styles, but it’s not laid out in lessons, although I have heard that there is a suggested schedule somewhere on the website—I haven’t found it myself. The intention is that a student will choose what appeals to him, and work through most or all of each project (Fluid Dynamics is one project) in any order. The way it’s set up, you click a button labeled “Finish Quiz” at the bottom of each page, and then you can tell by looking at a bar at the top of each page how many more pages there are to complete. All ages can do this course together. Of course, older children will go more in-depth than younger ones, but even Little Miss, who is four, enjoys the videos. Also, there are two levels. We’re using the First-Timer course, but for those who have been through it once as a younger child, they can do it again using the Second-Timer course. I haven’t looked at it yet, so I can’t say how it is different. Here are screenshots of the menu on the Lesson Page. You can see that they have made it easy to tell which lessons are completed.

Each project is intended to be a full Science curriculum for a month or two. The plan is to have enough projects up to provide six years of Science! I’ll be very interested in following the progress of this course to see how it develops. Of course, not only can it be used as a stand-alone curriculum, it could also be used as a supplement to any other science curriculum. Be sure to click on the banner below to see what the rest of the 80 reviewers have to say—I’ll be checking out some of those reviews, because I’m curious to know what others think of this!

Sound, and Fluid Dynamics {CrossWired Science Reviews}

Product Review—Brinkman Adventures Season 6

October 11, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We have been listening to the Brinkman Adventures audio dramas ever since the first season was released. We’ve enjoyed some episodes more than others, of course; some have been absolutely great, and others were not quite so interesting but still good. When we saw that Season 6: Underground Rising was available for review, all of us hoped we could get it, and we started listening to it right away.

The first two episodes are about the Dutch Underground during World War II. The stories were quite interesting, and the fact that they are true stories from the producer’s grandparents makes them especially interesting. The 3^rd episode, Twice Born Fly, was a fun story about when the father of the family found himself in prison in quite bizarre circumstances. I was expecting the punch line that came, but it was still a really fun story, with a great message. The 5^th and 6^th episodes, about the Free Burma Rangers, were very exciting. We were nearly on the edge of our seats at times during these stories. Probably our favorite episode, however, was the 4^th one, I Wonder Why? This tells the story of a family who moved to India to run an orphanage and experienced some amazing miracles—as well as some very difficult times. I think we appreciated it so much because we could relate to some parts of the story. The children of the family went through culture shock, and had many struggles learning to love those around them, as well as learning to adjust to a completely different way of life. The way they changed through the story was really special.

In the episodes about the Dutch Underground, there were stories we quite appreciated, as well as aspects that bothered us somewhat. My favorite part of that story was the scene where the Nazis burst in on a meeting of the Underground. It was New Year’s, so one of the women had made oliebollen, or oil balls, and those treats saved the day. We have a friend who came from Holland, and she makes oil balls every year; we get treated with them when we join her family on New Year’s Eve. That part of the episode was more meaningful to us because of our friend. We also appreciated the attitude of the Underground workers that they wanted to help deliver those who were being taken to death. It meant putting their own lives in danger, but they were willing to do that for the sake of others.

On the other hand, the attitude expressed by one young man that, “Life on the sidelines is very boring,” rather bothered me. When he left the sidelines and joined in the fight, he started doing things that go against the teachings of Jesus. I know many Christians believe that war is different, but we take the Sermon on the Mount literally, and don’t believe it is right to use violence at any time. There was also the issue of stealing ration cards—is it right to steal, even in wartime? I know this was a very difficult time, and I’m not sure what I would do if I were there—this makes a good topic for discussion! Another problem we had with these episodes was the very thick Dutch accent one of the narrators has. It was authentic, and I enjoy the producer’s quest for authenticity, but we quickly lost the younger half of the family as we listened to this story, and they didn’t want to hear any more episodes, sadly, although I believe everyone ended up listening to Twice Born Fly.

The two episodes about the Free Burma Rangers were fascinating, and very exciting. I didn’t know anything about them before, but what we learned, from the audio drama and from the Real Stories page on the Brinkman Adventures website, is amazing. The dedication these men have to help people who are being attacked is wonderful. On the other hand, as I mentioned above, are Jesus’ commands to not kill suspended in war time? I did appreciate what one person stated in Episode 6, that Jesus said we are to love our enemies.

We really enjoyed the Real Stories page. All the children crowded around to see as I looked at the pictures and read the stories on that page. It really adds to the audio version to have this page available and be able to see photographs of the people and events that are featured. At the end of the section for each episode there are a couple of paragraphs to help apply the lessons to our lives. We ended up skipping through those the evening we looked at the page, because it was bedtime and we just wanted to see the pictures—maybe sometime we’ll go back through and get more out of the stories and discussion suggestions.

If you are a family, like us, who enjoy listening to stories, check out the Brinkman Adventures. As I said, we have really enjoyed most of their productions. The first season was definitely our favorite, but some of the other seasons have been very good, as well. And, if you are interested in trying them out, they are offering a coupon right now. The code is FALL10 and is good for 10% off all their products. It is live from October 10-31, so go to their website and try out some great audio dramas for your family!

A total of 70 people are reviewing this digital product, so please click on the banner below to read other people’s perspectives!

Product Review—Picta Dicta Natural World from Roman Roads Media

September 13, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Have you ever thought it would be interesting to learn some Latin? We really haven’t done much of anything towards learning a second language; we dabbled a bit in Spanish and German, but with two boys who struggled majorly with just English, other languages haven’t been a priority. However, when Roman Roads Media asked for reviewers for their Picta Dicta online courses, Mr. Intellectual expressed interest in it. We were given a subscription to Picta Dicta Natural World, and I have been using it a little myself, too.

When I set up an account, when we were first given access to Picta Dicta, I added myself as a student as well as being the administrator, and then signed up Mr. Intellectual with our other license. As part of creating the accounts, we had to choose which level to use. There are six levels to choose from: Basic, English, Reader I, Reader II, Express, and Teacher. Basic and English both focus on English words, and everything is read to the child. Reader I and Reader II introduce the Latin words for the same words that are introduced in the first two; I’m not sure what the difference is between them. Teacher appears to only have the introductory pictures for each word, without any activities. It is very easy to switch from one level to another by simply logging in to the administrator account and editing the student’s settings.

Both Mr. Intellectual and I chose to use the Express level. It teaches everything that is in the other levels, but faster. Words are introduced, with a story about each word to help you remember it.

After you have been introduced to about six words, you are given one of the words.

On the next screen there are pictures and a phrase about six words, some that you have learned and a few others that you will learn soon, and you have to choose the correct one.

After going through all of them, you are introduced to a few more words, until you have learned all the words for that topic. For example, in the first topic, Basic Animals, you learn the Latin words for cow, horse, donkey, goat, sheep, cat, dog, lamb, kid, boar, stag, bull, bear, and wolf. You get to match the spoken/written word to the picture, then the picture to the written word, and finally, learn to spell the words. If you make a mistake, you are given more chances with the same word until you get it right. The program is totally self-paced.

So what do we think about this program? I find it fun! Quite often, when I’m working on it, one or another of the littler ones (ages 8, 6, and 3) come along and help me out. They occasionally get something right that I was going to get wrong! It’s a game, where you try to match the right words and pictures. The spelling parts are more difficult, but otherwise it’s pretty easy. There is a small incentive built in, as you can see from my account, here. You get stars for completed lessons, based on how many questions you answered correctly. A perfect score earns you five stars—looks like I should redo a few!

It’s good to have at least a little grasp of Latin, as so many English words come from languages that came from Latin. Mr. Intellectual mentioned the other day after he worked on Picta Dicta that he had learned the Latin word for head, which was caput. He figured out that must be where capital comes from, as in the head city of a region. He was pretty excited about that. So, if you are needing to know Latin, or have someone who enjoys words, this program would be a great introduction. By going through it, you will not only learn many words having to do with animals, but also fruits and vegetables, anatomy, land forms and terrain, parts of trees and plants, water…and that’s just the first few topics! Over 400 nouns are taught in this program. I appreciate learning how to properly pronounce these words; when you read a lot but don’t hear words, it’s hard to know how to say them. Oh, one more thing I noticed: A number of words were very similar to the Spanish words for the same animal. Learning Latin might be a good base for going on with another of the Romance languages, such as French, Spanish or Italian.

Please click on the image below if you want to learn more about this course; some of the other reviewers have given a lot more detail!

Product Review—GrammarPlanet

September 6, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Who likes grammar? I didn’t when I was in school! It’s still not my favorite subject, by any means, but at least I’m starting to understand it better now. However, trying to teach my boys the parts of speech? Difficult to say the least! So, when GrammarPlanet was offered for review, I tentatively asked for it even though it wasn’t developed enough yet to even be able to find out how it worked. I almost hoped we wouldn’t get chosen for this review team, but we were, so Mr. Intellectual and Mr. Diligence have been using it, and so have I, as I try to stay a lesson or two ahead of them.

Every lesson has a video, in which the part of speech taught in this lesson is introduced. These videos are crucial; if you don’t watch them, you will not understand what you need to.

There are also printable notes for each lesson. These are very important, as well; we often refer to them while working through the lesson. After watching the video, the student moves on to the practice sentences. At a minimum you will have ten sentences; each time you make a mistake the program will automatically add one more sentence for you. If you make five errors, you will be locked out of the program until your teacher unlocks it—that gives the teacher (me, in our case!) a chance to see what is going on. I have ended up sitting beside Mr. Diligence each time he works with this, because he takes more time and is more careful with supervision. I can help him figure out what he’s getting wrong that way. The set of sentences in each lesson tells a more or less interesting story. One story was about the steepest residential street in the world, which is in Dunedin—a friend of ours had told our boys about this street (he worked on a house on it once), so they could really relate to it while doing the lesson! Each sentence is to be parsed—you are to identify the part of speech of each word. For the first lesson, you only have to identify common nouns; the second lesson adds proper nouns. The third lesson introduces adjectives and articles, and then pronouns are introduced in Lesson 4. After that it gets more complicated, as possessive pronouns and the prepositions are introduced. Lesson 6 begins requiring students to diagram sentences—and there are answer keys for each one!

And here is an answer key for a random sentence:

When we started using GrammarPlanet, I told my boys that they had to use it until I wrote the review, and then they could quit. Well, as we worked through it and the bugs were worked out of this brand-new program, I saw how well it was working, and last week I informed them that I had changed my mind. I want them to continue using it. The recommendation is to only spend 10-15 minutes per day with this program, to give it time to really soak into a student’s mind, so we’re going to do that. It meshes quite well with the grammar Mr. Diligent is already doing, and reinforces it. I’ve ended up glad to have been put on the team!

I have never used or even looked at Analytical Grammar, but I’m told that GrammarPlanet is set up the same way, only online. It is free for anyone to use; if you want an ad-free version there is a one-time fee to remove the ads. When you set up an account, your student’s progress will be saved, and you can look back at their history any time. (This is very helpful sometimes, when you need to figure out why a word is marked as it is!)

Book Review—God Schooling by Julie Polanco

August 17, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

It’s interesting, and encouraging, to read a book about homeschooling occasionally. I found God Schooling: How God Intended Children to Learn, by Julie Polanco, quite interesting, as well as convicting. I’m still not sure what I’m doing with what I read here, though!

God Schooling is focused on natural learning, or unschooling. In the author’s experience, using a curriculum destroyed her children’s love of learning and her relationship with them—or at least caused damage in those areas. She admits that there is a place for using a curriculum—but cautions against allowing it to become a religion. Mainly, she encourages parents to seek God about their children’s education and to let the children decide how and what they will learn. All the way through this book, parents are encouraged to share their passions with their children. Involve your children in your life, and let them learn by doing things with you.

One quote, on page 14, that really stood out to me was, “We need to guard our relationships against losing our children to the enemy because of our zealous attitudes about academics.” This was in the context of not offending our children. She also points out here that character development is much, much more important than academic learning.

One chapter that I am still mulling over is the one about motivation. Julie believes that we should neither reward nor punish children for either doing or not doing their lessons. She points out that if we want to learn something we will learn it easily and quickly.

Several chapters are devoted to ideas for teaching various age groups of children. She talks about children under eight and their needs, as well as how their brains develop through those years. The next chapter discusses ages eight through twelve. She encourages having your children do things to serve others, and do meaningful work, either for the family or developing their own business. Then, there is a chapter about teens. One fact I found fascinating, although it wasn’t altogether new, was that, until the 1920s, there was no such thing as today’s teenager—young people of this age were working productively, not hanging around getting in trouble as so many do since child labor was banned in America in 1938. This chapter shares a lot of tips for getting into college from an unschooling childhood. There are many creative ways to put together a high school transcript! Julie shares many examples, in each of these three chapters, from her experiences with her children, to illustrate how God has worked in their lives in the matter of education.

I’ve never totally subscribed to this method of homeschooling; we’ve always used at least a math curriculum and some level of structure for the other subjects as well. However, I have seen my children teach themselves things they wanted to know so I know that what Julie is talking about will work for a lot of things. Esther decided once that she wanted to learn to write. She studied everything she could get her hands on about writing. Recently, Mr. Intellectual, who incidentally loves working through curriculum, was assigned a research report in the writing course he is using. He chose a subject he is passionate about, and has thoroughly enjoyed studying it and writing about his conclusions.

I was definitely challenged by this book, and have realized again that I need to spend much time in prayer for my children and their learning. If you are interesting in homeschooling, God Schooling:How God Intended Children to Learn would be a good book to read. It is encouraging for any parent concerned for his or her children’s future.

Please check out some other reviews of this book by clicking on the image below. Eighty people are reviewing it, so you’ll get quite a range of opinions and viewpoints!

Product Review—Timeline of the American Revolution

August 2, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I have used timeline figures printed by Home School in the Woods for many years. Back in Michigan, I put a butcher-paper timeline all around our living room, up at the ceiling. I wanted to show 6,000 years of world history, with 1 foot per 100 years, so it was 60 feet long. Yes, we had a large living room! As we read books for history, we would put up the stickers we got with pictures on them of the people and events we were studying. I threw that timeline away when we moved, though, because it was getting old and brittle and wasn’t worth transporting overseas. I made a new one out of cloth, and hung it around the top of the hallway in a house we lived in for four years. We added many more timeline figures to that one—but now it’s been packed away for four years because we moved to a very small house and haven’t had room for it since. I do like the idea of timelines, though, so when I got to choose an item to review from Home School in the Woods, I chose the Timeline of the American Revolution from their À La Carte Timelines collection. In our study of American history this year, we haven’t quite made it to the Revolution, so we put the timeline together and we will be referring to it as we work our way through those years.

I really like this timeline. It not only has the dates, it also has all the events they drew pictures of printed on the timeline in light gray, so it is very easy to glue the pieces on. I printed it on ordinary paper, trimmed one side of each sheet, and glued the pages together. Then, I accordion-folded it to make it compact. It’s about the length of our kitchen table when it’s spread out. Over the past several weeks, I’ve been having my three youngest boys coloring the four pages of very nice pictures when they have time, and this week, I had them cut out all the pictures. We glued them in place and talked about some of the events as we went. Mr. Sweetie finished the last few pictures this morning, and located some of the people I read about in the story I was reading at the moment, about a Quaker woman in Pennsylvania in the 1700s. I really like this timeline, and the ease of using it. I’m looking forward to trying out more timelines from them in the future.

Home School in the Woods has many other product lines, as well. They specialize in hands-on history projects in various formats, many of which look quite fascinating to me. They have just released a new product which sounds fun, Project Passport: Ancient Rome, which completes their Project Passport World History Study. I have a feeling my boys wouldn’t enjoy a project like this, but maybe someday Little Miss will and I’ll get the chance to try it out myself! The lapbooks look like a good way to organize what children are learning from history, as well. If you need something to make learning history more fun, definitely check out this company. They have some great products!

Product Review—Northwest Treasures

July 26, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Many members of our family are quite interested in geology, especially in the context of Creation and the Flood. When I had the opportunity to sign up to review a course offered by Northwest Treasures, several of us thought it would be useful. There are six video classes in Geology and Apologetics, the course we chose, and each class lasts from 10 to 20 minutes. Each of them is a lecture by Patrick Nurre, illustrated with a slideshow of photographs and quotes. Only four of us ended up watching the entire series—Gayle and I, Esther, and Mr. Intellectual. Simon watched for awhile, and Mr. Imagination was in and out through several of them (a delay tactic to avoid bedtime!), but the other boys were not interested and we didn’t require them to watch.

Lesson One, Knowing the Scriptures in the Secular Geological Age, gives an introduction to what apologetics is. The Greek word Apologia, from which the word Apologetics comes, is defined, and Mr. Nurre talks about why we need apologetics. The foundation we must lay is to know the Scriptures thoroughly. We appreciated this encouragement, and took the time to read the list of Scripture references he gave in the middle of the talk, but we also believe, as a result of personal experience, that knowledge of the Bible alone is not enough in this particular area. We also need to have real facts from the physical world around us in order to be convinced of the authenticity and truthfulness of the Bible.

Lesson Two, Clarifying the Conflict Between Science and the Bible, explores and defines philosophy, history, and science, and their relationship. We have found these definitions useful already as we discuss various topics.

Lesson Three is titled The Genealogies and Chronologies of Genesis, Are They Accurate and Reliable? Genesis 5 gives a record of the names and lifespans of the 11 patriarchs from Adam to Noah’s sons. It begins with talking about the book, the record of Adam’s family. Mr. Nurre points out that because there is no place in the genealogy for a gap, we can trust the age of the earth as shown in Genesis rather than modern scientists’ statement that the earth is 4.6 billion years old.

Lesson Four talks about Evolutionary Gaps in the Fossil Record, How Serious Are They? Mr. Nurre asks, “Is uniformitarianism science?” One little gem that stood out to us is that rocks are dated based on dates assigned in the 1800s, nearly 100 years before radiometric dating was developed. He also points out the “abundant lack” of transitional forms of fossil animals.

Lesson Five is titled Dinosaur-to-Bird Evolution, the Story that Never Seems to Die. Mr. Nurre discusses Archeopteryx quite a lot. He shows two chronologies purporting to show the evolution of birds—and inserts the dates assigned to these fossils by geologists. The result is fascinating, and shows that these chronologies are a pure fabrication! This was by far our favorite lesson, and as we discussed it, we came to the conclusion that the reason we liked it so well was that he told us where the chronologies he showed came from. The lack of citations or a bibliography in the other lessons made them a lot less meaningful to us.

Lesson Six, Time and Chronology in the Secular Geological Age, shows how the geologic column was developed. I found it fascinating that the rock layers we all know about were named for the geographical locations in which they were found. They were not found stacked up, as the charts show; rather, because of the “need” for proving evolution, and as a result of the development of the evolutionary theory the layers were stacked up based on the fossils found in them.

Each of these lessons ends with four questions for discussion. We didn’t find the questions particularly helpful, because we were already discussing the lessons in some depth. They could be good springboards, however.

Taking the Mystery Out of Geology is a 20-minute bonus video that was included with our review. This is a very informative introduction to geology, and includes definitions of 13 terms used in geology, starting with Science and History. This video points out that geology is the foundation of what we believe about origins and about the earth. It is also done in slideshow format, with Patrick Nurre talking throughout.

We were disappointed by these lessons, and didn’t feel like they were what we expected. The trailer promised that this course would help us to resolve conflicts and defend our faith. As long as someone already believes that the Bible is true, the information in this series will encourage them and help to shore up their faith, but if we are trying to convince unbelievers or skeptics of the truth of the Bible, the information given here will not be of much help. We have had a number of encounters with unbelievers recently who consider the Bible to be merely a mythical story. Gayle, himself, has been confused in the past about which is true—modern science or the Bible. Because of his experience, and the people he has talked to recently, he feels that we really need evidence from the physical world, not merely from the Bible, to help prove our faith. There is a lot of evidence that has surfaced in recent years that backs up the Bible, which will go a long way toward convincing unbelievers. Some of this was presented in the course, but not enough to be very helpful to us.

I appreciated that the Bible is upheld as the standard of truth. However, as Esther pointed out, no hard proof of the Bible’s trustworthiness was presented; she felt like we were being told to blindly believe it. Also, as I mentioned above, the lack of citations detracted from the information that was presented. If we can’t confirm the facts given, how can we be sure they are true? So, as much as I want to love this course, I can’t truthfully say I do. It could potentially be very good, but we didn’t find it either very interesting or helpful. That may be our problem, since we have spent a lot of time already studying geology and palaeontology; I’m sure some people would get a lot out of this course. On the other hand, some of the other courses offered by Northwest Treasures look helpful. Rock Identification Made Easy looks especially useful; my little ones often ask me what type of rock they have, but I don’t know enough about rocks to answer!

Online Geology Classes{Northwest Treasures Reviews}

Book Review: Love, Honor and Virtue

July 24, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Warning: This post may make some people as uncomfortable to read as I was when writing it. I have read a number of blog posts over the past few years on Raising Real Men. They have always been encouraging and convicting. With so many boys in our house, I need help to teach them in the way they should go. Because of all these boys, and some struggles we have faced with them already, I was eager to review Love, Honor, and Virtue: Gaining or Regaining a Biblical Attitude Toward Sexuality, from Great Waters Press. I was not disappointed in this book. It is very helpful to me as a mother, and I hope it will be a helpful tool in discipling our boys. I have started to read it aloud to the older three boys after the younger ones are in bed on Sunday nights, and they seemed to appreciate what they have heard so far, although I still haven’t decided if I’m going to read them the chapter that tells the details about human reproduction!

I hardly know where to start. This is a great book! Hal and Melanie don’t pull any punches—they tell it like it is. They begin by establishing the fact that God created sex and He also created gender. He made you a boy or a girl from conception (you don’t decide at some point what you are), and He created marriage. One point I really liked in the introduction was that in the Bible there are two stages of life—childhood and adulthood. Young men are just that—men—even though they are young. They face men’s temptations.

In chapter two, the authors describe the physical changes that occur in both boys and girls as they go through puberty, and, briefly but in enough detail to satisfy children’s curiosity, how sex works—but then they go on to describe how a baby develops, is born, and how the mother’s body works to nourish the new life, before and after birth. These details are included to impress on young men how the sexual act is not just about a moment of pleasure; rather, there are far-reaching consequences when it is indulged in outside of marriage.

There is a fairly thorough discussion about how God calls us to purity, leaving no room for allowing even lustful thoughts in our minds. Lust is defined, and so is pornography. The authors point out many reasons, both from the Christian and the secular perspective, why pornography is very damaging. Sexting and masturbation are also covered in some depth.

Now, what is a young man to do with all these things he has to face, and battle against? There is an entire chapter devoted to fighting temptation! Yes, this is a hard battle to win, and the authors acknowledge that, but victory is possible, and they give many tips to help a young man who is struggling. Actually, the points they give would help anyone in any battle. And what if when you fall? There is a chapter which deals with that, too! When you begin fighting against sin in your life, there will be times that you give in to temptation and fall into sin again. Don’t give up! Turn to God in repentance, and start over again. This chapter is very encouraging.

The last chapter gives many pointers about how to find the mate God has for you. The authors’ story of how they met and married is also included—what a great story! I definitely want my daughters, as well as my sons, to read this chapter.

I really appreciate this book. Anyone who has sons approaching their teen years should read it. I am thankful that this book has come into our family at this time, although I’ll admit the subject is very uncomfortable to read and talk about. However, I also know that we need to discuss these issues, for the sake of our sons and their futures. When problems are brought out into the open, they can be dealt with, and Love, Honor and Virtue is a great tool to help us, as parents who feel like we’re floundering, to help our young men. Another book from the same authors, which I would also love to read, is No Longer Little: Parenting Tweens With Grace and Hope. This looks very helpful, as well; sometimes I think I don’t know how to parent my older children, and most of the time I’m sure I am totally clueless!