Annual Membership Plan by My School Year Homeschool Record Keeping Review

Planners and schedules are a hit or miss for me. I try to use them faithfully but always fall off the bandwagon. I do tend to write things down a lot and that has been my preferred way to track what I need to do. The problem with that, for me, is organization. I have notes everywhere to include planners and am constantly reminding my two girls to complete their work or inquiring if they did complete their work. This is why I was interested in reviewing the Annual Membership Plan by My School Year Homeschool Record Keeping. It's a planner and a calendar all in one. 

First, I'll discuss these two features. The Calendar provides a resource to track and handle appointments, errands, extra curricular activities and much more. It's also versatile in that the user can change the layout as well as color code each child's schedule. Another bonus is it can be exported and printed and is mobile. The user can even sign up for daily or weekly updates that are automatically sent to either the user's e-mail or the student's or even both. Here is an example screen shot of the calendar for today:

The Planbook provides a quick resource to stay on top of current, upcoming and overdue lessons, quizzes, tests, and projects. Lessons are marked completed or can be rescheduled or changed.

The Planbook is where the classes and details are added for each student. Once classes are added, assignments are then added. The versatility is a key to the entire program in that one can choose all the specific details for each lesson allowing the very basic information to more detailed to include dates, times and more.

Below provides a look of the lessons that I entered for one of my students. From this screen, I can edit one or all, mark done and grade.

There are many features within every functionality of the lessons. Once a lesson has been entered for the student, the user can enter a preset date to be completed by and the amount of time that it took to complete are both optional. Grade options are very versatile and do not constraint the user from providing a canned approach to each lesson and/or student. For example, types include assignment to experiment to not graded and much more.

There is always a cancel feature so the user functionality is really nice if you want to spend time exploring or if a mistake was made. 

Within the Planbook, there are options to change the course, school days, class time, grading settings and more. It's easy to add new courses as update current ones assigned.

Another feature I like is what is called Create-A-Plan. This has four options:

1. Quick Split which will divide the material into evenly distributed lessons. This is good for books which is why I used it for her reading assignment.
2. Quick Split Advanced is for more complex assignments with naming patterns.
3. Rapid Repeat is for pre-selected lessons such as household chores or other repeating tasks.
4. Rapid Repeat Advanced provides more flexibility with the steps or increments.

For my example on the Quick Split, I'm going to utilize her reading assignments. I can set the start date of the term or utilize "today." What is also nice is you can share the details across students thus saving time in having to keep re-entering information.

After completing the specifics, the lessons are generated for the student.

There are many other great features with drop down menus for each student allowing quick access to topics such as Attendance, Awards, Standardized Tests and much more.

The next features include the Homeroom and Reports. Homeroom provides the user a quick look as to each student's progress. This view is only a sampling of the page that is shown but provides a great look at to the complexity of what is provided. It's sort of the one stop shop for looking at where your child is with their lessons and the term they are in. 

Reports are a really nice feature since it allows the user to create lesson plans, course descriptions, transcripts, report cards and more. Here is an example of a transcript which to me, looks really professional:

The Teacher's Aid Homework Helper provides all the assistance needed to get started and continue with the tools to aid in success.  It also provides alerts to bring items that need attention to the user as well as the ability to see when assignments are completed.

Other key features to note:

• 100% mobile friendly - also uses QR codes
• Generate lessons on iPads
• Generate and download transcripts on phones
• Creation of unlimited students

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I only covered a portion of what is offered with the Annual Membership Plan by My School Year Homeschool Record Keeping. It's really a great resource to have for the homeschool parent.

Check out what others on the Homeschool Review Crew, a division of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, thought by clicking on the (photo) link below: 

Our Review of Eighth Grade Literature Guide Set by Memoria Press

One of the reasons I chose to homeschool is I want to be able to teach from a classical Christian education standpoint. I've been homeschooling for many years and have tried a variety of different homeschool curriculum even before joining the Crew which is how I have been introduced to Memoria Press. I was delighted to participate in the review for the Eighth Grade Literature Guide Set. This was an amazing comprehensive curriculum that provided some of the classics with accompanied literature guides such as Wind in the Willows Literature Guide, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Literature Guide, Treasure Island Literature Guide, and As You Like It Literature Guide. The premise behind the literature study guides is that they train the students to become active readers. Fortunately for me, my girls already love to read.

The curriculum, four literature guides with four corresponding novels to include teachers guides, works by utilizing spelling, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing skills. Each lesson contains a work study that helps to build the student's vocabulary. The comprehension questions helps to build a student's comfort and confidence in understanding what they read and the important part of what they read. This is vital for educational tests from my experience as they tend to always ask those type of questions. The composition gears them to write clearly and concise. The expectation is the child/student will complete each novel in approximately six or seven weeks.

For my review, I will cover Treasure Island a bit more thorough than the others with examples. Other items, such as Contents, Introductions, etc., that are the same across all Literature Guides, will be reviewed first. 

Teacher Guide

Teacher's Guide begins with a clear table of contents that helps to navigate quickly across chapters, discussion question keys, quizzes and final test with keys as well as an appendix of terms specific to the literature classic that Guide corresponds to. The Teacher's Guide provides helpful information on utilizing the Literature Guides with older or younger students. This is an active course for the teacher/parent to help the student progress through each lesson which I really enjoyed learning more along side my daughter. 

Student Study Guide

The Student Study Guide has the same table of contents and information on beginning the Literature Guide. There is an introduction of the author, Robert Louis Stevenson, that was very interesting and provided a nice beginning for answering the assignments.

The Guide contains one or more chapters per set of questions that appear across all the Literature Guides that include:

• Reading Notes includes important aspects of the novel such as Jim Hawkins, the narrator of the story or the Captain Billy Bones who was the old seaman.
• Vocabulary words are words or phrases obtained from the novel that will require the student to write out the meaning. The instructional states to encourage the student to say one synonym for each word as well.
• Comprehension Questions are either written or can be completed orally if one would be better suited for your child/student. The task of writing helps to prepare the child/student to learn and think as well as write concisely.
• Quotation and Discussion Questions can be utilized orally or written in the Student Study Guide. It provides an opportunity to encourage the child/student to think higher about the topic at hand. 
• Enrichment activities include composition, copywork, dictation, research, mapping, drawing, poetry, and more.
• Unit Review and Tests.

Treasure Island Literature Guide

The 89 page Student Guide provides lessons for the novel's 36 chapters. For Chapters 1 and 2 of Treasure Island, my daughter began working on the Student Study Guide questions after reading.

For Chapter 3, she continued working on her own which was nice she was able to complete her work with little supervision. We did discuss the answers and we worked on the Discussion questions orally.

There is an appendix to this Student Guide that provides a quick reference to the vocabulary words and other great information like parts of a ship and sails. The extra information that corresponds with the novel is a nice feature.

She tends to switch from room to room and floor to desk when completing her school work. She's gearing up to take the first quiz and did a good job.

The Wind in the Willows Literature Guide

The 53 page Student Guide covered the novel's 12 chapters. I just started this one with my other daughter as it seemed like a good place to start with her. Treasure Island seemed to be a little more difficult than The Wind in the Willows is what guided my decision. The novels chosen are lesser known to this generation and I think it's a great way to expand their breadth of literary works and writing styles. The questions and format is similar to Treasure Island's Literature Guide. Here is a sample from one of her pages and prior to sitting down and discussing her answers:

As was the Treasure Island assignments, Memoria Press does an excellent job with thought-provoking questions requiring the child/student to think and not just jot down what they remembered.

She is a budding author and tends to like literature programs where she can increase her knowledge and skill. She said she liked how the questions made her think deeper. Unfortunately, I didn't get to dive deeper into this classic as she decided late in the review cycle to want to try it out.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Literature Guide and 
As You Like It Literature Guide are set up like the other two Literature Guides with the question and other lesson activities. I plan to utilize all four with my one daughter and will also purchase extra Student Guides for each one so my other daughter can complete the course. I am a huge fan of Memoria Press and always look forward to their next course or curriculum we try.

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Overall, I highly recommend Memoria Press and the Eighth Grade Literature Guide Set.

Check out what others on the Homeschool Review Crew, a division of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, thought by clicking on the (photo) link below:

Library and Educational Services LLC Homeschool Review

I post often about topics pertaining to history which ties into this review as we are a family of readers. My father told me often how he used to read when he was a child and continued to read as an adult. I admit that I didn't read as many books as I should but I did and continue to read. I love knowledge and have instilled that into my children. I was anxious and very eager to review Library and Educational Services LLC. If you have not heard of them, they are a family company that provide services to schools, churches, libraries, and resellers. They are perfect for the homeschooling family, church groups and teachers given the breadth of books and subjects they offer. 

For our review, we selected Who Were the Brothers Grimm?, Lifehouse Theater Pride and Prejudice CD, and the Primary Sources of Famous People in American History - Set of 11 from the Reinforced Hardcover Library Binding Nonfiction books.

The Details:

Who Were the Brothers Grimm?

My youngest loves the Who Was ... series to the extent that they've appeared on past Christmas wish lists. She picked Who Were the Brothers Grimm? If you aren't familiar with the book series, they aren't long in length and are filled with black and white illustrations. They provide an entertaining amount of information that covers the main facts about each person(s) they cover. Every time she reads one, I hear with such delight all the facts she learned about the person in question. She absolutely loves each one that she's read to date.

Her short review:

"I liked how it informed the reader on what it was like during their time and provided so much information on the brothers."

The words are of a good font and the books aren't too long to read. She's read many of the books in one sitting due to how captivated she becomes reading them.

Every Who Was ... Who Were .. has a timeline of the person's life compared to a world timeline of major events.

 

Lifehouse Theater Pride and Prejudice CD

This was one of my favorites mostly because I've read the book and watched many renditions of the movies. At 73 minutes in length, it's great for trips in the car or some time to sit around to listen and let the imagination conjure up images of how each character looks. Is Elizabeth the beautiful one or is it Jane? Is Mr. Darcy as dashing as you expect or just a prude? It's fun going through the audio and asking my girls what they think. The actors portraying each character is superbly done and makes me think I'm watching one of the actual movies.

There is a curriculum guide available too that includes a timeline of Jane's life, content and review questions as well as interesting facts, quotes by Jane Austen and a further discussion set of questions. I didn't have them write them out rather I utilized it as an open discussion session to make it more fun. One of the questions challenged them to provide some of their goals and accomplishments that they would like to achieve which was fun to hear their answers.

Primary Sources of Famous People in American History - Set of 11 from the Reinforced Hardcover Library Binding Nonfiction Books

The Primary Sources of Famous People in American History - Set of 11 from the Reinforced Hardcover Library Binding Nonfiction books included the following 11 books:

1. John Sutter California Pioneer
2. Wild Bill Hickok Legend of the Wild West
3. Wyatt Earp Lawmen of the American West
4. Cynthia Ann Parker Comanche Captive
5. Cochise Apache Chief
6. Sitting Bull Sioux War Chief
7. Francisca Alvarez The Angel of Goliad
8. John Paul Jones American Naval Hero
9. Abigail Adams Famous First Lady
10. Benjamin Franklin Early American Genius
11. George Washington Father of the Nation

Each book contained a Contents section broken into chapters for faster reference. They contained both color and black and white images as well as black and white illustrations to include maps and diagrams. Each one is very informative and written in a basic style to be read easily by children. 

Benjamin Franklin, for example, started with when and where he was born, and continued with his life and journey to make him one of America's early geniuses. It's followed by a timeline of his life, a glossary, websites to refer to, source for photos, and an index.

Another example is from John Sutter California Pioneer. Like the other books, they are 32 pages in length and full of engaging facts about the person. Each book provides just a brief but excellent overview of the highlights of their lives. It's a great series to have for any library with children. They did enjoy reading them and were able to finish a book a day when we had days designated for reading. I often would read and either before or after them and led open discussions to reinforce the important facts of each individual.

Library and Educational Services LLC also has a nice selection of DVDs, CDs, Bibles and more too. There are gifts and crafts and much much more! As former military, they ship worldwide to include military bases which is very pleasing. Every item we reviewed I loved and they did too. Although they did not find every one of the biographies from the Primary Sources of Famous People in American History as exciting as some, they still learned a lot and I definitely want to expand our library.

For a limited time, they have the Who Was? What Was? and Where is? books on sale!

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Check out what others on the Homeschool Review Crew, a division of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, thought by clicking on the (photo) link below:

Time Travelers: The American Revolution by Home School In The Woods Review

We had an opportunity to review Time Travelers: The American Revolution by Home School In The Woods. It contains 25 historic lessons that can cover anywhere from 5-10 weeks of educational learning and fun and is part of the Time Travelers U.S. History Studies collection. This interested me because I am constantly researching my family history and had many ancestors who were present and fighting during the American Revolution. Sadly, there isn't more taught about this time period that really cemented our country into such a formidable nation.

The program includes tools to help teach to include the Teacher Helps which are most helpful to be printed before teaching the lessons. They provide everything as well as a one-page summary of supplies needed for the respective lesson. The Project Pages provides an opportunity to review ahead of time to ensure you have everything needed in advance. One of the things I liked about the projects is there are more than one to choose from allowing flexibility to meet my child's interests or what I have on hand to complete. Project Days are included in the schedule to give the child more time to complete as needed.

The lesson plan provides everything needed to plan the course and the lessons are broken into such topics as Colonial beginnings, the French and Indian War, issues that caused the war with England, the Continental Congress, George Washington and much more. It is recommended for  grades 3-8 and is compatible with Mac and PC. Downloading and accessing the course was very easy.

From there, we only had to click on start and the window for the course opens and provides the following menu:

• Acknowledgements/Copyrights and Usage/Bibliography
• Introduction
• Tips to Consider Before Starting
• Teacher Helps
• Text Lessons, Project Pages, and Project Masters: (grouped by lessons)
• Lessons 1-5
• Lessons 6-10
• Lessons 11-15
• Lessons 16-20
• Lessons 21-25
• Other Resources:
• All Master Pages
• Gallery of Project Photos
• Lap Book™ Instructions

The lessons are set up in a variety of ways:

• "Twaddle Free" projects are focused on penmanship, creative writing, composition, critical thinking, vocabulary and the use of a little imagination which is essential in my opinion.
• Fifty Lap Book™ consists of notebooking and cooking projects ... yes, cooking!  How much fun this was! There are also games and other activities that were a hit with my children. 
• Optional opportunities to expand the learning adventure with suggested videos, books and more.

Flexibility is the name of the game with the course and as noted above, projects can be chosen as not all have to be done. Also, the lessons can be completed over more than one day or however is best for your child's needs. The Time Travelers U.S. History Studies collection and Project Passport World History Studies can be adapted up or down grade levels per the website. After reviewing our Time Travelers, I agree it can be utilized for younger or older students. I didn't review Project Passport World History Studies or Timeline Collection: A Collection of Historical Timeline Figures, but both look extremely interesting. Further down in this review, you will have the opportunity to click and review what others within the Crew thought of each of the various options available.

As you get started, it's a good idea to have supplies on hand as there is a lot of printing and paper projects. Some of the suggested items include white paper, colored printing paper, white card stock, colored card stock, glue, tape, double sided tape, acetate, colored pencils and three binders. The Tips to Consider section details much more with the course.

It's also a little confusing if you don't read the information provided so I'd highly recommend doing so. The keys to the program for the pages are broken down and are very thorough. 

As we started with Lesson 1, Colonial Beginnings, one of the things that I really liked were the penmanship quotes. Not only is copy-work important in that it helps to reinforce what is learned by rewriting, but it also helps to teach correct grammar usage. Every quote for the penmanship lessons also provide the option to print three types of paper for the copy-work exercise that is most suitable to your child. The first option is the text present and the child traces over the pre-written quote. The second option are dashed lines to record the copy-work. The final option is standard lined paper. 

As the course details, you can choose which projects to complete as well as which lessons you want to teach. Lesson 1 provided us the opportunity to build a Jamestown Replica. Although she did not finish it, we did have fun starting it.

There were many other learning activities that accompanied the lesson but for the purposes of this review, I'm going to jump to lesson 6.

When we reached lesson 6, it was all about the troubles in Boston. The project below referenced an anti-tea poem that was published before the American Revolution in American newspapers.

Home School In The Woods has a variety of hands-on products ranging from timelines, maps, lapbooks to history lessons. The unique approach is learning through activites which I find is a fun way to learn and we definitely liked Time Travelers: The American Revolution. They include so much in the activities and if you check out the blog, there is even interesting posts such as Adding Interest to History with Recipes. Another fun post is Imagination + History = Dress Up! Dressing up has been always been fun for my children and particularly my youngest. Thanks to my love of Jane Austen awhile back, I introduced her to more about her and gave her a period piece dress which she adored.

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Check out what others on the Homeschool Review Crew, a division of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, thought by clicking on the (photo) link below: