Bible Songs

We have great memories of bible song CD's when we had 5 kiddos 6 years old and younger. We would play them in the car and then listen to them sing them over and over while playing. Very cute. As they are getting older the requests to listen to them has almost disappeared. Music is still very important in our home and we always have a radio or CD going in the car.

We were sent a new Bible Song CD from Bible Songs to try out. There are six double-length albums to choose from and we recieved The Bible CD. I put the CD on and immediately my 4, 6 and 8 year olds were drawn to the living room to listen. Plus it has been requested several times since. I love hearing the little tunes here and there during the day while they do different activities. Music is a great way to help with memorization and listening to this kind of a CD is a great way to hide the Word in their little hearts.

The songs are cute and fairly short making them easy to memorize, though lyrics are included. The CD is $9.99. I found the price very reasonable as the CD has 32 songs totalling close to an hour of listening. There are many other items available for purchase as well through Bible Songs. Check them out!

Knowledge Quest - Homeschooling ABC's

This is my first full year homeschooling all of my children. When given the opportunity to try out the Homeschooling ABC's class from Knowledge Quest starting last fall I was thrilled. The timing could not have been more perfect. It can be overwhelming when you first get started. What curriculum do I choose? How much is enough? How much is too little? Am I teaching everything that I should be? Where do I even start? All of these questions are normal and ones worth asking.

Terri Johnson at Knowledge Quest has created an online course called Homeschooling ABC's and it has 26 lessons. You receive an email once per week with a link to your lesson for the week for 6 months. At $10 per month you are only paying $2.30 per lesson. What a great deal! Really this has been a blessing to me as I try to figure out how schooling at home will look for us. It is really a step by step process, going through the basics of what you need to get started. There is even a lesson about what to do with your perschool and Kindergarten age children. This was very helpful to me as I have a busy 4 year old that I need to school around.

If you are person who is thinking about home educating, someone who has just begun or even someone who would like to get back to basics then this class is for you. I loved that I could take these lesson upstairs on my laptop and read them when my kids were in bed. Transitioning kids from public school to home educating can be difficult. They are used to a certain way of doing things and Terri walks you through helping you transition with your child. The classes address things such as buying and selling curriculum, discovering your child's learning style, staying organized, teaching multiple ages and much more.

I appreciated the advice and information that Terri provides in these lessons. There are very few things more important than your child's education. These lessons are a great way to set you and your children up for a successful homeschooling experience.

Write Shop StoryBuilders

Getting creative juices flowing where writing is concerned isn't always easy. Trying to get a learning child going and you can be looking at a struggle. We were given the opportunity to try out two different storybuilders from Write Shop, World of Sport and World of Animals.

At first I wasn't sure about the concept. They are e-books and so printing is required but after the initial figuring it out period, I am impressed. These are meant to be used as a warming up activity before a writing exercise. They originally had a program geared towards teens and parents but have recently introduced a program geared towards grades 1-3. This was perfect for us. There is nothing more important that learning how to write well. Most college courses require well written papers and I have been wanting to focus more on writing this year. This is a great icebreaker activity. It is also an activity that the student can do on their own while I am working with another one.

The storybuilder sets are available immediately by download. They are card decks meant to printed out and then used as a launching pad for writing projects. The process is meant to be fun and at $7.95 per set they are very affordable. With each deck comes instructions and ideas for how to use the cards. The card decks are split into four categories: characters, traits, setting and plot. You can combine sets if you wish or leave them seperate and give to more than one child at a time. There are so many ideas in each set, with almost 200 cards in each one, you will not be wanting for more choices.

I am loving this for my kids, particularly for my 6 year old. She is a beginning reader and emerging writer. She can choose a card from each category and write a story about what is on the cards. For instance her character would be a butterfly, the trait kindhearted, the setting behind a waterfall and the plot is learns to fly. This sets up the bones of a story that the child can now fill in with details. It is a great way to gently introduce your child to creative writing. I have a couple of older students that this works great for. Imaginative thinking is more of a challenge for them and little nudge goes a long way in getting them started.

Take a look at Write Shop to look at the sets available. I like this product very much and give it an A+ for content and value.