SchoolhouseTeachers.com Ultimate PreK-12 Annual Membership Review #ComplimentaryProductReceived

Disclaimer: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. Affiliate links are in this posting. Thanks for supporting my blog.

My family had the privilege of trying the Ultimate PreK-12 Annual Membership from SchoolhouseTeachers.com for this review to use in conjunction with our own curriculum at home. This is a Homeschool Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

SchoolhouseTeachers.com is a wonderful homeschooling website for wholesome Christian worldview based courses which saves time, resources, and money. They are self-paced and flexible for you and your children and once you start the membership you have all their Christian homeschool curriculum right at your fingertips. They have courses in many subject, including: Bible, Language Arts, Math, History, Geography, Social Studies, Science, Art, Computer, Drama/Speech, Languages, Music, Health/Fitness, Electives, Unit Studies, Literacy Center, Preschool, Learning Center. The curriculum is very flexible. You can build your own curriculum or use the information found in the Scope & Sequence to put a subject or grade together. Parents can easily build a customized curriculum that matches the specific needs of their children. This is an online membership with downloadable, printable elements as well as online classes and video components. Interactive courses are also being added as well so that the parent or guardian doesn't have to directly teach the student. All updates and enhancements to courses are included in the membership, so as more interactive courses become available, they are automatically added to your membership. Once you have your membership you can browse by grade: learning together, elementary, middle school, and high school or by subject.

Subjects Included in Membership

 

There are also School Boxes at no extra cost. These are like boxed curriculum, but are in digital format in SchoolhouseTeachers for your convenience. They come with your membership and include all you need to teach your student at home. Included is a curriculum guide for each subject that correlates with the Scope and Sequence, weekly checklists to keep you on track, daily checklists that guide you and your student through each activity, direct links to the SchoolhouseTeachers courses and resources you need by the week, all the additional suggested materials for the year listed in one place, and links to additional SchoolhouseTeachers resources for those days you want to spend more time on a topic your kids love.

 

SchoolhouseTeachers School Boxes

 

Under resources you can also find back issues of the The Old Schoolhouse Trade Magazine in digital format. With your subscription you will be able to read so many awesome articles on homeschooling. I love that they have this as well because I can read articles that I might have missed in the previous years.

There is also a Literacy Center that helps teach your child how to read in 101 simple steps. The Literacy Center covers pre-reading and reading from a preschool-2nd grade level and reading comprehension through a 3rd-4th grade level. In this center they have downloadable books for Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grades. There are also other series and classics as well to read. 

The Focused Learning Centers are also included in the membership. These are resources available when your student needs help in a particular area. They have resources for math, reading, special needs, foreign language, high school, college planning, or science.

A SchoolhouseTeachers membership is one price for the entire family with courses for all ages. From preschool through the last high school year, SchoolhouseTeachers has it covered, and the price is locked-in for as long as you keep your membership!
 

How We Used This and Our Thoughts: 

During our review period we checked out SchoolhouseTeachers and their "Christmas Corner" since Christmas was coming up. You can find it under the resources tab in the Holiday and Seasonal Content. We downloaded the Finding Christ in Christmas Activities PDF. It was basically a advent calendar for the month of December. Each day had an activity and a related scripture. All activities focused around Christ and his teachings about love for others. December 30th was make a food pine cone for the birds and we found out that we were doing this for both these lessons and a lesson in the "Let's Do Science Outside" that we were also going through this year. In the "Christmas Corner they also had Christmas themed videos for both kids and the rest of the family and other Christmas themed lessons that spanned subjects, for example: learning about the animals of the nativity, building a gingerbread house, copywork and lapbooking, learning about what Christmas was like in the renaissance, and learning to play Joy to the World on a violin, etc.

 

SchoolhouseTeachers Let's Do Science Outside Overview

 

We checked out the 4th grade science out because my daughter, Zari, loves science and this would be age appropriate for her. We looked at all the curriculum and settled on the "Let's Do Science Outside" lessons. We had previously done the "Let's Do Art Outside" lessons last year and thought this would be fun to do as well. The "Let's Do Science" has a lesson plan and 20+ lessons that you can download and print in PDF format. The Lesson Plan is a PDF and has the class length, schedule, resources needed, instructions, lessons completed (you check the box by each lesson as soon as they are finished), and a table with date, lesson, materials required, and notes that you can fill in yourself. Each activity has fun things to do with science outside. We love being outdoors in nature and doing lessons outside is a big plus because it gets the wiggles out and lets minds explore. I thought that overall the lessons all looked like fun and so we picked one to do that my daughter was interested in doing. She picked the one called "Natural Pine Cone Bird Feeder". Since it is winter birds need the extra food and fat that these give them. We had a lot of great pine cones from an evergreen tree that drop them in our backyard, so she went out and found a good one to use. We didn't have lard like it said in the recipe to use so instead we used peanut butter because that is a great alternative. She had a lot of fun with this lesson and definitely will want to do more of the lessons when it isn't as wet outside.

 

Zari Making the Natural Pine Cone Bird Seed Feeder.

 

Lessons of Let's Do Science Outside... 

1. Make Your Own Wormery
2. Making a Wormery Step-by-Step Instructions 
3. What to Feed Worms in Your Wormery 
4. All About the Worms in Your Wormery 
5. Wormery Sequencing Sheets
6. Build a Boat 
7. Butterfly Life Cycle Windsock Craft
8. Carrot Family
9. Design Your Own Flower Activity
10. Design Your Own Flower Activity - My Flower Design Sheet
11. Five Sense Scavenger Hunt 
12. Flower Finder Mini Book
13. Hotel Fit for Some Bugs Activity
14. Hotel Fit for Some Bugs Activity Recording Sheet
15. Hotel Fit for Some Bugs Activity (Advanced)
16. Leaf Perimeter Problem
17. Make Your Own Butterfly Garden 
18. Make Your Own Butterfly Garden Activity - Butterfly Checklist
19. Make Your Own Butterfly Garden Activity-Butterfly Shape Cut Outs
20. Make Your Own Worm Hotel Activity with Questions
21. Making Bubbles
22. Natural Pine Cone Bird Feeder
23. Nature Walk Bug Hunt
24. Nature Walk Observation Checklist
25. Nature Walk Plants and Flowers Hunt
26. Sycamore Seed Helicopter Activity
27. Sycamore Seed Helicopter Fantastic Flight Challenge 
28. Tree ID Activity
29. Tree Tally Chart
    

 

There is also a great video library that you get access to with the membership of SchoolhouseTeachers. This has 450+ videos across several academic areas, as well as kids’ entertainment, marriage and parenting, apologetics, Bible study, and holidays. There are some videos in this library that are hosted on RightNow Media. You will need to have an account with RightNow Media in order to view these videos. These videos are noted by the orange banner in the upper right hand corner of the image. The videos that are strictly North American are noted by the red banner in the upper right hand corner of the image. There are videos that are only included in the Ultimate membership and these are noted by the blue banner in the upper right hand corner of the image. Some of the videos in the library are parts of the many classes on the SchoolhouseTeachers site. The video page is a library with all the videos rounded up in one place so that you can find them easily and all together. If you click on the images then it goes directly to the lessons they go with or the streaming video on their site. We absolutely love the Drive Thru History videos and Violin and Guitar lesson videos.

I love that with this membership you have the flexibility and ability to build a customized complete curriculum. You can create a schedule for each of your children using their Schedule Builder. You can choose a weekly schedule or a 9 week schedule. The scope and sequence will help you build you schedule and know what needs to be taught depending upon the grade or subject. You can build a whole curriculum for your child or pick and choose courses to use as a supplement to your child's education.

There are so many pockets on the SchoolhouseTeachers that I have not even gotten a chance to see yet and they keep on adding more things. I definitely haven't mentioned everything. I am going to love exploring more and expanding both mine and my children's learning. I know I can count on SchoolhouseTeachers to have wholesome Christian based lessons which save me time, resources, and money.

Follow Them on Social Media:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SchoolhouseTeachers/ and https://www.facebook.com/SchoolhouseTeachers 
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOSMag/ 
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tosmagazine/ 
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/tosmag/    
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7i0BRyoTPYT3chTcj52UmA
• Hashtags: #hsreviews #schoolhouseteachers #homechool #onlineclasses #allinonecurriculum #homeschoolonline #homeschoolcurriculum #onlineteaching #digitallearning

BUY IT
There are currently two membership options:

• Ultimate Membership – PreK – 12th Grade – Access to Every Course
• Standard Membership – PreK – 8th Grade – Access to Hundreds of Courses.

Save on the Ultimate PreK-12 Annual Membership now and get access to every course available PreK – 12th! Until the end of January you can join SchoolhouseTeachers.com for $139/year by using discount coupon code: START139 or $16/month using the discount coupon code: START16

Read other homeschool curriculum reviews for SchoolhouseTeachers.com...

SchoolhouseTeachers.com Ultimate PreK-12 Annual Membership Review #ComplimentaryProductReceived

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. Affiliate links are in this posting. Thanks for supporting my blog.

My family had the privilege of once again having the opportunity to have a subscription to the Ultimate PreK-12 Annual Membership from SchoolhouseTeachers.com for this review to use in conjunction with our own curriculum at home. This is a Homeschool Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

SchoolhouseTeachers.com is a wonderful homeschooling website for wholesome Christian worldview based courses which saves time, resources, and money. They are self-paced and flexible for you and your children and once you start the membership you have all their Christian homeschool curriculum right at your fingertips. They have courses in many subject, including: Bible, Language Arts, Math, History, Geography, Social Studies, Science, Art, Computer, Drama/Speech, Languages, Music, Health/Fitness, Electives, Unit Studies, Literacy Center, Preschool, Learning Center. The curriculum is very flexible. You can build your own curriculum or use the information found in the Scope & Sequence to put a subject or grade together. Parents can easily build a customized curriculum that matches the specific needs of their children. This is an online membership with downloadable, printable elements as well as online classes and video components. Interactive courses are also being added as well so that the parent or guardian doesn't have to directly teach the student. All updates and enhancements to courses are included in the membership, so as more interactive courses become available, they are automatically added to your membership. Once you have your membership you can browse by grade: learning together, elementary, middle school, and high school or by subject.

Subjects Included in Membership

Also, ALL of Molly Green’s digital content has been added to the SchoolhouseTeachers.com membership. I love Molly Green! With your subscription you will have access to back issues of her magazine, canning and gardening planners, eBooks on homesteading, and tons more!

There is also a Literacy Center that helps teach your child how to read in 101 simple steps. The Literacy Center covers pre-reading and reading from a preschool-2nd grade level and reading comprehension through a 3rd-4th grade level. In this center they have downloadable books for Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grades. There are also other series and classics as well to read. 

The Focused Learning Centers are also included in the membership. These are resources available when your student needs help in a particular area. They have resources for math, reading, special needs, foreign language, high school, college planning, or science.

A SchoolhouseTeachers.com membership is one price for the entire family with courses for all ages. From preschool through the last high school year, SchoolhouseTeachers.com has it covered, and the price is locked-in for as long as you keep your membership!

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:
We checked out the 3rd grade art because my daughter, Zari, loves art and this would be age appropriate for her. We looked at all the curriculum and settled on the "Let's Do Art Outside" lessons. It has a lesson plan and 20 lessons that you can download and print if you like in PDF format. The Lesson Plan is a PDF and has the class length, schedule, resources needed, instructions, lessons completed (you check the box by each lesson as soon as they are finished), and a table with date, lesson, materials required, and notes that you can fill in yourself. Each activity has an introduction, materials list, discussion questions, instructions, ways to support, ways to extend the lesson, and curriculum connections. We love being outdoors in nature and doing lessons outside is a big plus because it gets the wiggles out and lets minds explore. I thought that overall the lessons all looked like fun and so we picked one to do that my daughter was interested in trying. She picked the one called "Painted Pebbles". We went searching for a good specimen rock to paint on and she decided to paint a ladybug on it. This particular lesson was inspired by the Twinkl original story, ‘Treasures in the Garden’. This is an ebook located on a separate site that in order to access we had to create a separate account. I didn't really care to do this, but since it was free I did so we could experience the whole lesson. Then when I did it really wasn't free at all and I couldn't access the ebook unless I paid for a premium subscription which I didn't want to do. I basically only did the free parts of the lesson because of this. I really wish that the membership covered all the parts of the lesson. She still had a lot of fun with what we could do and definitely will want to do more of the lessons when it isn't as wet outside.

Zari with her Ladybug rock she painted for the lesson, "Painted Pebbles".

Lessons of Let's Do Art Outside...

1. Acorn Art
2. Build a Bird’s Nest
3. Eco Printing
4. Flour Handprint Art
5. How to Make a Leaf Owl
6. How to Make a Leaf Squirrel
7. Journey Sticks
8. Little Acorns Story
9. Little Acorns Nature Stamping
10. Little Acorns Sorting and Comparing
11. Little Acorns Woodland Watcher Art
12. Painted Pebbles
13. Playdough Leaf Prints
14. Rainbow Wind Chines
15. Teaching Ideas
16. Teaching Ideas-DIY Natural Paintbrushes
17. Teaching Ideas-DIY Natural Paintbrushes-Painting Leaves
18. Teaching Ideas-Land Art Challenge Cards
19. Teaching Ideas-Stick Frames
20. Yarn Bombing Activity

Let's Do Art Outside overview page

There is also a great video library that you get access to with the membership of SchoolhouseTeachers.com. This has 450+ videos across several academic areas, as well as kids’ entertainment, marriage and parenting, apologetics, Bible study, and holidays. There are some videos in this library that are hosted on RightNow Media. You will need to have an account with RightNow Media in order to view these videos. These videos are noted by the orange banner in the upper right hand corner of the image. The videos that are strictly North American are noted by the red banner in the upper right hand corner of the image. There are videos that are only included in the Ultimate membership and these are noted by the blue banner in the upper right hand corner of the image. Some of the videos in the library are parts of the many classes on the SchoolhouseTeachers.com site. The video page is a library with all the videos rounded up in one place so that you can find them easily and all together. If you click on the images then it goes directly to the lessons they go with or the streaming video on their site. We absolutely love the Drive Thru History videos and Violin and Guitar lesson videos.

I love that with this membership you have the flexibility and ability to build a customized complete curriculum. You can create a schedule for each of your children using their Schedule Builder. You can choose a weekly schedule or a 9 week schedule. The scope and sequence will help you build you schedule and know what needs to be taught depending upon the grade or subject. You can build a whole curriculum for your child or pick and choose courses to use as a supplement to your child's education.

There are so many pockets on the SchoolhouseTeachers.com that I have not even gotten a chance to see yet and they keep on adding more things. I definitely haven't mentioned everything. I am going to love exploring more and expanding both mine and my children's learning. I know I can count on SchoolhouseTeachers.com to have wholesome Christian based lessons which save me time, resources, and money.

Follow Them on Social Media:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SchoolhouseTeachers/  
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOSMag/ 
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/tosmag/ TAG your pins:  @tosmag
• Hashtags: #hsreviews #schoolhouseteachers #homechool #onlineclasses #allinonecurriculum #homeschoolonline #homeschoolcurriculum #onlineteaching #digitallearning

BUY IT
There are currently two membership options:

• Ultimate Membership – PreK – 12th Grade – Access to Every Course
• Standard Membership – PreK – 8th Grade – Access to Hundreds of Courses.

Save on the Ultimate PreK-12 Annual Membership now and get access to every course available PreK – 12th! Until the end of January you can join SchoolhouseTeachers.com for $99/year by using discount coupon code: ONLY99 or $12/month using the discount coupon code: ONLY12

Read other homeschool curriculum reviews for SchoolhouseTeachers.com...

SchoolhouseTeachers.com Sale for New Members!

I was provided with this promotional information and offer to share with my readers. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family. Affiliate links may be in this posting. Thanks for supporting my blog.

SchoolhouseTeachers.com is a wonderful homeschooling website for wholesome Christian based courses which saves time, resources, and money. They are self-paced and flexible for you and your children and once you start the membership you have all their Christian homeschool curriculum right at your fingertips. They have courses in many subject, including: Bible, Language Arts, Math, History, Geography, Social Studies, Science, Art, Computer, Drama/Speech, Languages, Music, Health/Fitness, Electives, Unit Studies, Literacy Center, Preschool, Learning Center.

Subjects Included in Membership

Also, ALL of Molly Green’s digital content has been added to the SchoolhouseTeachers.com membership. I love Molly Green! With your subscription you will have access to back issues of her magazine, canning and gardening planners, eBooks on homesteading, and tons more!

A SchoolhouseTeachers.com membership is one price for the entire family with courses for all ages. From preschool through the last high school year, SchoolhouseTeachers.com has it covered, and the price is locked-in for as long as you keep your membership!

BE SOCIAL

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SchoolhouseTeachers/  
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOSMag/ 
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/tosmag/     TAG your pins:   @tosmag    
• Google+:  https://plus.google.com/118111005169451277551/posts

BUY IT

New members can save on SchoolhouseTeachers.com! Just pick a full year subscription and type in the code at checkout.

Coupon Codes to Save Money...

• $90/yr (reg. $179/yr), Coupon Code: CREWFOLLOWER
• 1st month $1 $14.95/mo after), Ends 2/28/19,Coupon Code: ONEDOLLAR
• $111/yr (+ free spiral-bound planner), Ends 2/28/19, Coupon Code: ONES

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I was provided this promotion information to share with my readers. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for posting this promo. Affiliate links may be in this posting. Thanks for supporting my blog. 

SchoolhouseTeachers.com Sale for New Members!

I was provided with this promotional information and offer to share with my readers. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family. Affiliate links may be in this posting. Thanks for supporting my blog.

SchoolhouseTeachers.com is a wonderful homeschooling website for wholesome Christian based courses which saves time, resources, and money. They are self-paced and flexible for you and your children and once you start the membership you have all their Christian homeschool curriculum right at your fingertips. They have courses in many subject, including: Bible, Language Arts, Math, History, Geography, Social Studies, Science, Art, Computer, Drama/Speech, Languages, Music, Health/Fitness, Electives, Unit Studies, Literacy Center, Preschool, Learning Center.

Subjects Included in Membership

Also, ALL of Molly Green’s digital content has now been added to the SchoolhouseTeachers.com membership. I love Molly Green! With your subscription you will have access to back issues of her magazine, canning and gardening planners, eBooks on homesteading, and tons more!

A SchoolhouseTeachers.com membership is one price for the entire family with courses for all ages. From preschool through the last high school year, SchoolhouseTeachers.com has it covered, and the price is locked-in for as long as you keep your membership!

BE SOCIAL

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SchoolhouseTeachers/  
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOSMag/ 
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/tosmag/     TAG your pins:   @tosmag    
• Google+:  https://plus.google.com/118111005169451277551/posts

BUY IT

New members can save on SchoolhouseTeachers.com now until the 31st of January! Just pick a full year or monthly subscription and type in the code at checkout.

Coupon Codes to Save Money...

• $90/yr (reg. $179/yr) Coupon Code: NEWYEAR18
• $9.95/MO (REG. $19.95/MO) Coupon Code: MONTHNEWYEAR18

Click on the banner above and save!

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I was provided this promotion information to share with my readers. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for posting this promo. Affiliate links may be in this posting. Thanks for supporting my blog.

Funtastic Unit Studies Science Unit Studies For Homeschoolers and Teachers Review

Funtastic Unit Studies Science Unit Studies For Homeschoolers and Teachers.

My family had the privilege of trying the Funtastic Unit Studies Science Unit Studies For Homeschoolers and Teachers for this review to use in conjunction with our own homeschool curriculum. This is a Schoolhouse Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

If you have been following my blog for a while now you know that my family loves science and unit studies. We love learning about the world around us and think that hands-on projects and lessons are great for learning because we seem to learn a whole lot more by experimenting: asking lots of questions, researching, hypothesizing, testing, troubleshooting, and analyzing. Unit Studies help us focus on one particular theme/topic in our studies for our homeschool. These themes/topics are approached from several different angles. There is so much more visual, auditory, tactile kinesthetic, hands-on, and project oriented learning within Unit Studies and this is precisely why we love them so much!

Potato People for "Our Senses" unit study.

Science Unit Studies For Homeschoolers and Teachers by Funtastic Unit Studies is a wonderful full size softcover book that gives homeschooling parents and teachers the keys to a well rounded science curriculum. There are a total of 20 different science unit studies in this book. It is separated into two age groups. The first half is for ages 4-7 and the second and last half is for ages 8-13. The whole book is about 200 pages and has answers to tests and worksheets at the end so you can grade everything easier.

It is good to read each unit before you start so you can have everything ready. Some preparation and supply gathering will need to be done ahead of time for the activities. Each chapter starts off with a list of materials needed to do the unit. These materials are stuff that most people will have already around the house or that you can get fairly easily, inexpensively other places. Some units; however, require additional materials you might not have like specific media or a scientific instrument. There are also instructions in each unit with how to prepare all of the activities in each part with the listed materials.

Salt and Sugar difference activity for taste.

The units have roughly 4-8 parts. They start off with and an introduction to the unit. Each part usually has something to read to the student and activities to do.You can skip around with these lessons. These lessons don't have to be taught in any particular order, although it is probably better to do so. At the end of each unit for ages 8-13 also has a test for the student to see what they have learned. Each unit takes about two weeks or less to finish. They have simple diagrams to illustrate concepts that will be learned with the units.

What is Covered in the Table of Contents...

The unit studies for Ages 4-7:

• Chapter 1: Our Senses
• Chapter 2: The Human Body
• Chapter 3: Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life
• Chapter 4: Animals
• Chapter 5: Insects and Their Kin
• Chapter 6: Fun with Magnets
• Chapter 7: Stars and Planets
• Chapter 8: Health
• Chapter 9: Beginning Plants
• Chapter 10: Animal Ecology

The unit studies for Ages 8-13:

• Chapter 11: Insects
• Chapter 12: Microscopes and Invisible Creatures
• Chapter 13: Atoms and Molecules
• Chapter 14: Matter
• Chapter 15: Chemistry Fun
• Chapter 16: Weather
• Chapter 17: Force and Motion
• Chapter 18: Simple Machines
• Chapter 19: Light and Color
• Chapter 20: Plants II

Answers to Tests and Worksheets

Glass Bottle Water Orchestra

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:

My girls are perfect age for the 4-7 units since they are 4 and 7. My boys are good ages for the 8-13 units since they are 13 and 14. I did the very first unit about senses with my girls for this review because my boys were off at camp and other activities with their friends for the summer. Jaedan who is my 13 year old did participate in the making of the potato people at the beginning of the unit.

The senses unit study is divided into seven parts. We worked on about 3 and a half parts per week in order of how they were arranged in the book.

We had some trouble finding some of the items because my home is just not as well stocked as I thought it was. For example I didn't have any baby food jars because I don't have any babies in the house any more. I used to keep them for craft projects, but when I moved I got rid of them. I have been purging a lot lately too and found that some of the items I got rid of might have actually been useful for some of the activities. Other items I was having a hard time finding in my home since the move (probably still in a box somewhere). Also, this book seems a bit dated because it asks for a "tape recorder"...I am not sure who has these any more. At any rate, my supply of things needed was lacking. I had to substitute some things with others we did have because of my budget. We ended up using brown bottles instead of clear for the glass soda bottles for making the water music. We tried to do the activities with what we had though and managed to pull it off reasonably well.

My kids enjoyed the activities and even though I felt a little disorganized because of my lack of supplies we had fun doing them together. While doing this unit my younger children learned a little more about their senses. Making the potato people was their favorite activity. These science unit studies for homeschool are well laid out in this book and we are excited to do more of them this upcoming school year. I recommend these great science ideas for teachers and homeschoolers because they are fun and educational. 

Freebies:

Here's a link to a page that has two free pdf units from the book:
http://funtasticunitstudies.com/science-unit-studies-book/

And here's a link that has some other, unrelated, freebies:
http://funtasticunitstudies.com/lessons-and-activities/

BUY IT
The new edition of the Funtastic Unit Studies Science Unit Studies For Homeschoolers and Teachers  sells for $16.95.

Read other reviews for Funtastic Unit Studies Science Unit Studies For Homeschoolers and Teachers...

SmartKidz Media Library for Homeschoolers Review

My family had the privilege of trying SmartKidz Media SmartKidz Media Library for Homeschoolers for this review to use in conjunction with our own homeschool curriculum. This is a Schoolhouse Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

SmartKidz Media SmartKidz Media Library for Homeschoolers is a subscription based online streaming digital media learning library that hosts family-friendly educational programs for your family to watch, listen to and interact with. This is perfectly made for homeschoolers as the name suggests and since it is family-friendly it is all safe and appropriate content that you can let your child watch without having to worry. The site covers a broad spectrum of different subjects with an emphasis on the animal kingdom, history, science, social studies, world cultures, the fine arts, sports, and health. SmartKidz Media can be used on any device: TV, PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Tablet, mobile phone, and Roku. It has cloud storage so SmartKidz Media can be streamed any where, at any time. The library is ever growing and expanding. They have over 1000 educational videos, flash animated eBooks, fine arts music, interactive study guides, etc. They will be adding even more titles over the summer.

Menu bar tabs are across the top for easy navigation. Some have a pull down menu as well.

Navigation through the site is easy and straightforward. After you log in you will be brought to the main landing page. The main landing page looks like a bunch of images of media titles in a horizontal line that you can scroll through with the arrows on either side. If you mouse over any one of these images it will give you a synopsis of the video and how long it is, with an option to click it and "Watch Now". On the main landing page you can see different menu bar tabs across the top of the page under two sections: Family Media and Reading & Learning Center. If you mouse over a tab under the Family Media section it will bring up a pull down menu with links to all the different titles within that specific group.

Synopsis of programs are revealed when they are moused over.

There are two groups of menu tabs under Family Media: World of Discovery, and Music & Fine Arts. You can go to these individually or just stay on the main landing page to have access to all of them all on the same page. In the World of Discovery groups we have subjects in: Animals & Wildlife, Action Sports (coming soon), Documentaries & Culture, Health & Fitness, History, Lifestyles & Cuisine, Science, Travel & Adventure. In the Music & Fine Arts groups we have subjects in: Fine Arts, Classical Music, Cultural Music, Jazz & Blues Classics, and Relaxation Music.

Besides the Family Media section there are tabs at the top of the main landing page to go to the Reading and Learning Center section. This section has videos, flash-animated eBooks, interactive study guides, music, games & activities, and printable media. The tabs in the menu bar under this section are: Mighty E-Book Collection (flash animated eBooks that your child can read along to), Baby Signs Program (baby sign language videos and songs to help teach the pre-verbal to communicate), My Animal Family (video storybooks about animals that teaches values and respect), Quick Find Study Guides (clickable study guides for learning definitions, rules, and examples in language arts, math, science, social studies, accounting, and foreign language), Learning Special Needs (teaches personal, social, and coping skills to special needs in "Hear the Book" & "Interactive" media and printable supplementary teaching materials in PDF format), Living Skills Program (coming soon: teaches children how to live responsibly), Ready Set Sing (Karaoke and sing-along songs for kids), and Fun Zone (educational games and activities).

Part of the Quick Find Study Guides.

How We Are Using SmartKidz Media:

I received a full year subscription to SmartKidz Media Library for Homeschoolers. In exploring the site we found all sorts of neat things to watch, listen to, play, and read about. We used this subscription as a supplement with our homeschool curriculum. We don't normally homeschool in the summer, but we do like to unschool and this is perfect for this too. I have found it invaluable to our learning because of the vastness of it all. There are so many subjects and topics covered that we can pretty much find something to go with what we are studying for the week.

SmartKidz Media Library for Homeschoolers is great for the whole family, but I have found that it has a lot of programs that are typically geared towards ages 2-8 years. My teenage boys (13 and 14) were a bit bored with some of the media offered because they thought that it was juvenile. My younger girls aged 4 and 7 were excited about it all.

We skipped around on the main landing page first. We watched Animal Journeys series and learned about migration of different animals and the Mysteries from Ancient Times series to explore some fascinating archeological mysteries. These videos are roughly 5-30 minutes long. Some of the health and fitness ones are longer than 30 minutes. They have fitness videos that are for adults, pregnant women, mamas with babies, and kids. I want to check out the Pilates videos in the future. We also had fun listening to and dancing to some of their Cultural Music and Relaxation Music selections. I loved the music from India and the Nature Impressions: Celtic Journey the most. The music is great to listen to while I am cooking or doing laundry. Teela and Zari did some puzzles and games in the game section too. There is so much to see and listen to in this library that we couldn't get to it all, but we plan on doing more of it this summer.

BUY IT
Purchase a $10 a Month (Membership is billed monthly) or pay $99 a year (Best Value! Prepay for the entire year and save $20)! Each membership plan includes a 14 day free trial before billing begins.

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Read other reviews for the SmartKidz Media...

SchoolhouseTeachers.com Review

For those of you who are new to my blog, I would like to tell you a tiny bit about my children and my homeschooling methods. I have two older boys. Delbin is 14 and Jaedan is 12. I also have two girls. Teela is 6 and Zari is 4. I am a huge fan of hands-on learning, Charlotte Mason, unit studies, Classical, Waldorf, and Montessori. We are kind of a geeky family with a huge love of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). We also love reading, history, art, and music. We love nature, the great outdoors, and to go on educational/fun field trips together. I homeschool with an eclectic flair. I take my homeschooling methods and curriculum from many sources. I am now a new member of the Schoolhouse Review Crew this year. I am meeting some wonderful new people that homeschool as well. I am grateful to be on the team. As part of the perks of being a member, I get the opportunity to test out and share with you some great homeschool products, curricula and websites.

The first review is of an online school of sorts called SchoolhouseTeachers.com. I was given a Yearly Membership so I have some time to explore it a bit. I have had only 2 weeks to delve into it so far. So for now, I would love to go over the basics about it, what my family and I like about it thus far, and why you definitely should be checking it out for yourself.

I have poked about in the SchoolhouseTeachers.com website now that my family has a subscription and basically have come to the conclusion that I can only skim the surface for this review because of the vastness of what they are offering. The SchoolhouseTeachers.com website has literally over 100 courses! This online learning is wonderful because once you start the membership you have all their Christian homeschool curriculum right at your fingertips. You don't have to search the whole of online to track down wholesome classes for your homeschooler.

Once I got my subscription and logged in I could see that the website is fairly easy to navigate. This internet-based homeschool is organized and arranged by: teachers, age group (Pre-K/Elem, Middle/High School, Family/For Parents), and dailies. They also have a section for resources and course offerings. The courses range from core classes to electives and go from preschool to high school age...although I saw a few I would love to try myself. I believe that there is something for all ages and grades, really. Some of the classes are only a few weeks long, but others can take a lot longer. Many of the lessons are printable, downloadable, and have elements in them, like videos, that interact with your learner.

Like I mentioned above my family loves hands-on learning, so we decided to try some Science Experiments from Jason Lindsey of Hooked On Science that are in the lessons section of the SchoolhouseTeachers.com website. We could have picked others from the archives, but we had all the ingredients for the two listed in December, so we picked those to try. We did the Orange Flash one and the Pinecone Hygrometer one. There we learned why oranges are flammable and how to predict the weather with pinecones. It was really fun and we learned some neat science.

Pinecone Hygrometer science experiment

Jaedan and Delbin demonstrating the "Orange Flash".

Here is a short video of my kids doing the Orange Flash. Because there was fire involved I was close by to douse the flame if something happened, but my boys were very professional and they did very well with it. I was the one shooting and narrating the video. Sorry about the low quality, I am a bit new to doing videos so bear with me. I hope you enjoy it...

The dailies are short lessons that you can do daily with your children. There are a lot of different schoolhouse dailies to choose from. We found games, history, copy-work, art, science, spelling, grammar, writing, etc. while we were looking through this section. My girls did an ABC With ME: History lesson in the dailies section. This has a history lesson for every letter of the alphabet. We learned about Abraham Lincoln for A and they colored a printed picture of him from the lesson. The lesson linked to other pages that had pictures and descriptions of places and other things that had some significance to Honest Abe. All my children liked seeing these places in photographs and learning about them. It would have been neat to see them in person, but this was the next best thing.

Daily: ABC With Me: History

Zari wanted to do something on her own online and since she is preschool age we quickly found something fun in the Resource section of the site. We picked through and found the EZ Storybooks from EZTales. These are interactive stories that are put to animation and narration. A lot of these stories underline the words as they are said and she can click the words again with the mouse to hear them repeat. This is great for early readers that are just starting out like my Zari. What is also very nice about it is that she gets practice clicking the mouse and using the computer as well.

EZ Storybooks on SchoolhouseTeachers.com

WHAT WE WOULD LOVE TO DO NEXT:
There are a lot of other lessons and dailies that I would love to try out over the span of the year with my kids. These all interest us to some degree. Take a look and see some of the lessons we would love to do next.

In Electives:
A lot of electives look like fun. I would love to do the Beginning Sewing: Historical Costumes classes with my kids because we all love to cosplay and learning how to sew some neat costumes would be fun. Since we live on a farm and are just starting to learn the ropes the Homesteading classes would be of interest to me and my family. Nature/Outdoor studies sound right up our ally too since we all love being outside.  I would love my boys to take the Whole Foods Cooking class because they need to have some practice in cooking more and since they love to cook I think they would really enjoy the lessons.

In  Foreign Language:
My boys have both had an interest in learning Spanish so I am pleased to see a Spanish course in this section. My husband brought home a Spanish program to learn once, but it was a disappointment because of the over use of the word beer and many references to drinking. I know this will definitely not be a problem for the lessons on SchoolhouseTeachers.com because of how they are family oriented and Christian based. I would also love to encourage my boys to take the Hands-on Hebrew courses along with me.

In Music/Voice:
Once I get a new full size violin I would love to brush up on my technique because it has been a while since I played. I also would love to check out the guitar lessons since I have a guitar and have been wanting to learn to play it.

In Reading Writing, & Spelling:
The Literature Kits look wonderful! They start the course focusing on The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and have hands on activities, recipes, history, geography, Bible, language arts, science, etc. in an all encompassing course. In the Dailies section we want to try the Ditch the Desk lessons. These are hands on and have a little bit of everything: reading, writing, arithmetic, science, and more to broaden our connection with the world. Pre-K Activities: Read and Play would be so much fun for Zari and I to do together. It is also listed in the Dailies section and has a list of stories to read to your preschooler along with activities games, and printouts to do with them that go with the story.

There are so many pockets on the SchoolhouseTeachers.com that I have not even gotten a chance to unearth yet in the two weeks I have had it so far. I definitely haven't mentioned everything. I am going to love exploring more and expanding both mine and my children's learning. I know I can count on SchoolhouseTeachers.com to have wholesome Christian based lessons which save me time, resources, and money.

Watch the video and see more about SchoolhouseTeachers.com:



SO WHAT DOES THIS COST?
Normally SchoolhouseTeachers.com is $12.95 per month for a monthly membership or $139 per year.

Right now through Christmas Day (at 11:59pm ET) SchoolhouseTeachers.com is having a sale!! Save 40% off the regular price! This is only $7.77 per month!! Or save up to $74 on their regular price by choosing a yearly membership for ONLY $64.26 per year! Don't delay because this sale won't be around for long. Just click the image below to save now!


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Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SchoolhouseTeachers/
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/tosmag/schoolhouseteacherscom/

Build-A-Bear Workshop Rainbow Dreams Butterfly Review and $25 Gift Card Giveaway

Build-A-Bear Workshop Rainbow Dreams Butterfly

We received this product free from Build-A-Bear Workshop to facilitate this review and an opportunity to giveaway a $25 Bear Buck$ gift card to Build-A-Bear Workshop for free as well.

Build-A-Bear Workshop Rainbow of Fun Collection

The Rainbow of Fun Collection which includes a Rainbow Dreams Butterfly, Rainbow Glitter Bear and Rainbow Style Zebra are new to Build-A-Bear Workshop since April 21st. They are only here while quantities last and their outfits and accessories are sold separately. Making these stuffed critters are so much fun!

My girls with their new Build-A-Bear Workshop Rainbow Dreams Butterfly

The Rainbow Dreams Butterfly is an adorable pink plush butterfly with rainbow wings. Mine also came with the Rainbow Sequin Dress, Lavender Flats and Lavender Sequin Bow Headband. Her headband, dress, shoes and wings all are removable. I thought this was neat that the plush toy came as a caterpillar with her wings off inside her box. She can metamorphosis into the butterfly easily and the wings are quite sturdy. Her jeweled dress sparkles in the sunlight because of the many sequins all over it. Her bow is also sparkly and, as my girls found out, can also be worn by them. She also came with a Build-A-Bear Workshop box, birth certificate, cardboard hanger for the dress, cardboard insert for the shoes, and coupon.

Homeschool learning with Build-A-Bear Workshop about: rainbows, prisms and butterflies.

Spring is here and what better way to celebrate it than to do it with rainbows! Being a homeschooling mom I got out our prism makers and we had a mini lesson about prisms, light, color spectrum, refraction, and how rainbows are made. Rainbows are perfect to learn about right now in the Pacific Northwest because we have a lot of spring showers with the sun shining. The perfect conditions to make rainbows happen all the time here. My kids have observed a lot of really cool rainbows while we have been living here.

We also incorporated the learning about butterflies with our new Build-A-Bear Workshop friend. We learned about Monarch Butterflies specifically and read the book, Monarch Butterfly by Gail Gibbons (a favorite author of mine for use in homeschool). We learned about their life cycle, metamorphosis, body parts, what plant they love to eat, behavior, and migration. We also learned how to raise a Monarch. My kids were very excited and now want to find a caterpillar to observe it changing into the pupa/chrysalis stage and the whole cycle of it changing into a butterfly.

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“Like” them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter!

BUY IT
You can find a Build-A-Bear Workshop store near you and make a special plush toy or you can purchase one off of the Build-A-Bear Workshop website.

WIN IT
Prize: $25 Bear Buck$ gift card to Build-A-Bear Workshop to experience the magic of creating your own furry friend.

I am trying out Rafflecopter on my blog. Please click on this post link if you do not see the script for it below. Also, if there is anything that is wrong with it let me know by emailing me: finamoon AT gmail DOT com I will try my best at fixing it. Thanks for being awesome readers!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I received this product free to facilitate this review and post. Many thanks to Build-A-Bear for providing this prize for the giveaway for free as well. Winners are picked randomly on rafflecopter. Opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation or altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review and giveaway. Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.