Thursday, June 13, 2019

Hewitt Homeschooling Resources Gr 7 Lightning Lit Set Review


My family had the privilege of trying the student guide, student workbook, and teacher's guide from the Gr 7 Lightning Lit Set produced by Hewitt Homeschooling Resources for this review to use in conjunction with our own curriculum. This is a Homeschool Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

Hewitt Homeschooling was founded in 1963/64 by Carl Hewitt and Dr. Raymond Moore. Their primary function has shifted from working with public education to now focusing on home education. Because of Dr. Raymond Moore's publications and books about home education this foundation became at the forefront of the homeschooling movement. They produce high quality curriculum that follows a balanced, flexible approach to homeschooling. Some of their products include: Lightening Literature, Unit Programs/Studies, My First Reports, Hewitt Readers, "Best" Literature, Math-It, Winston Grammar, State Chronicles, etc. They serve parents with students from kindergarten through high school.

The Gr 7 Lightning Lit Set is what we received and it is composed of the Lightning Lit: Grade 7 Teacher's Guide, Lightning Lit: Grade 7 Student's Guide and the Lightning Lit: Grade 7 Student Workbook. You can instead purchase the Grade 7 Lightning Literature & Composition Pack that has all the books that you will need for your student to read as well as what is also in just the set. These books, short stories, and poems are all reasonably and affordably priced if you purchase them on your own. Some are classics and others are new to us.


Students read in the following order:
  • “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” by Rudyard Kipling from Stories & Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children
  • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
  • Various poems from Stories & Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children
  • Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol
  • "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” a short story by Stephen Crane from Stories & Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children
  • The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
  • Various poems from Stories & Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children
  • All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot

The Lightning Lit: Grade 7 Teacher's Guide is easy to follow, clear, and thorough. It includes an introduction of how to use the guide and a weekly lesson planner at the beginning. It contains answer keys to the comprehension questions and the workbook pages as well.

A page out of the Student Guide.

The Lightning Lit: Grade 7 Student Guide is guide that contains for each chapter: an introduction for the student to read before starting, vocabulary, comprehension questions, a literary lesson, a mini-lesson, and writing exercises. If you follow this you will easily have a complete literature, grammar, and composition curriculum for the whole standard two semester, 36-week school year.

The Lightning Lit: Grade 7 Student Workbook is a consumable workbook that has all of the workbook pages that should be done for each chapter before the writing exercises in the student guide. There are seven types of workbook pages: [L] exercises relating to the major literary lessons, [M] exercises relating to the mini-lessons, [C] activities that allow the student to practice composition skills, [T] thinking skills pages, [G] exercises the review grammar and mechanics, [P] puzzles, and [E] extra-challenge pages. The first five are mandatory for the student to complete. The last two are optional.

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:
 
I used the Hewitt Homeschooling Resources Gr 7 Lightning Lit Set with my daughter Teela who has just finished up fifth grade and is 11 years old. She is a strong reader and so these books are fairly easy reading and comprehension for her. She; however, is not as good with the grammar or composition so I got this for her to strengthen those. We also love to do summer reading programs and this has just fit into our summer reading quite well so far.

Hewitt Homeschooling Resources Gr 7 Lightning Lit Set with my dad's passed down The Adventures of Tom Sawyer book.

I found that the book selection was very appropriate. I remember reading some of these as a child myself and enjoying them. We started with "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" and after that started The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. I was happy to have had some of the books in our library at home. The others I found online or will be checking out from our city library. Teela had not read either of these before, but I had. We found the whole of "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" online. My copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (and a copy of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) was actually given to my father at age 11 by his parents (It still has the inscription on the inside cover where it says this.) and passed down to me when I was young. I love that I get to share this part of my history with my daughter.

Part of the schedule of semester 1.

We worked on this 3 days a week instead of the 5 days a week that is recommended because it is summer. I had her read the short stories/books to herself. Then we followed the schedule that was given for doing the work. I really loved that the whole schedule was mapped out for us. This made it easier for us to know what we should be doing each week.

Teacher's Guide, Student Guide, Workbook Ch. 1 contents.

There was a lot of writing and other work though and frankly I think it was just too much for Teela especially since she was being distracted by summer things. Even though this is above her grade level I believe if she buckled down to do it, she could. Her favorite parts were the reading, discussion, crossword puzzles, and word searches.

Teela working on the Gr 7 Lightning Lit workbook pages.

Overall, I am pleased with the Hewitt Homeschooling Resources Gr 7 Lightning Lit Set. It is a great English homeschool curriculum that can be personalized and tailored to the student. We liked how it was laid out and the flow of the lessons. We will be reading the other books needed for this set at a later time when Teela isn't so distracted.

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The Lightning Literature & Composition Grade 3 Pack w Book of Poetry (comes with all the books, but one that is out of print) is $137.50. The Lightning Literature & Composition Grade 3 Set: Teachers Guide and Student Workbook is $71.01. Prices are accurate as of date of this post.

Read other homeschool curriculum reviews for Hewitt Homeschooling...
Lightning Literature, My First Reports, State History Notebook & Joy of Discovery {Hewitt Homeschooling Resources Reviews}

Lightning Literature, My First Reports, State History Notebook & Joy of Discovery {Hewitt Homeschooling Resources Reviews}

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Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Memoria Press The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic Set and 200 Questions About American History Set Review


My family had the privilege of trying the The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic Set and 200 Questions About American History Set from Memoria Press for this review to use in conjunction with our own curriculum. This is a Homeschool Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.


Memoria Press is a family-run publishing company that produces simple and easy-to-use classical Christian education materials for home and private schools. It was founded by a woman named Cheryl Lowe in 1994. They currently have preschool through ninth grade in most of their curriculum and some through twelfth grade. They also cover subjects in: Classical Core Curriculum, Latin, Classical Studies, Christian Studies, Logic & Rhetoric, Phonics & Early Reading, Penmanship, Literature & Poetry, American & Modern Studies, Writing & English Grammar, Science & Math, Greek, Modern Languages, Educational Resources, eBooks, Special-Needs, and Art & Music.

Memoria Press The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic Set.

The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic Set is an American history study for grades 5-8.  This set by H. A. Guerber was combined from the original two-volume set so that it can be studied a full year. Set includes: The Story of the Thirteen Colonies and the Great Republic text, The Story of the Thirteen Colonies and the Great Republic Student Guide, and The Story of the Thirteen Colonies and the Great Republic Teacher Guide.

The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic Text is a softcover historical reader that teaches the history of our country from Columbus to the Spanish-American war. It is 211 pages long and has 85 chapters. This edition of the text has been heavily edited to make it more concise and updated to the times.

The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic Student Guide is a workbook that includes includes important facts, vocabulary, and comprehension questions for each chapter, as well as enrichment activities such as map work, drawings, research, writing assignments, and more! It is 104 pages and covers 32 lessons. Appendix has maps, a 13 colonies chart to fill out, and important documents of the time.

The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic Teacher Guide is a answer key to the Student Guide workbook. It is 127 pages long and covers all 32 lessons. Appendix is the same with the 13 colonies chart filled out with answers. This also includes 4 tests for the student and then the keys for each.

Memoria Press 200 Questions About American History Set.

The 200 Questions About American History Set is a supplement to Guerber’s The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic. This is a compiled list of 200 questions that everyone should know about American history. The questions come directly from our newly edited Guerber book and from Story of the World Volume IV. This will help set the stage for grades 5-8 in preparation for a more difficult high school American history course. Set includes the: 200 Questions About American History Student Book, 200 Questions About American History Teacher Guide, and 200 Questions About American History Flashcards.

The 200 Questions About American History Student Book is a 25 page workbook for a student that is a great study guide for American history. It includes: drill questions, a timeline of America history, notable quotes from American history, and Presidents of the United States for the student to fill out. It also includes recommended texts and weekly schedule & guidelines for teachers at the beginning and notable songs and poems at the end.

The 200 Questions About American History Teacher Guide is a answer key to the Student Book workbook. It is 69 pages and covers all that the Student Book does. It also includes 7 tests for the student and their answer keys for the teacher.

The 200 Questions About American History Flashcards are a large stack of cards s to help with study and memorization of the American history questions and answers from the student book. These are 4 x 3 x 3 inches and pre-cut. There are a total of 203 flashcards. These flashcards are divided into sections: 150 Drill Questions, 30 Timeline Dates (When did it happen?), 20 Notable Quotes (Who said that?), and 44 U.S. Presidents (See if you can put them in order!).

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:

We love Memoria Press and their classical christian curriculum for our homeschooling! We have a bunch of their other studies and have found them all wonderful. We've been very blessed to have been able to also receive a number of their curriculum to review here.

We used this with my daughter Teela who is in 5th grade. The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic Set and 200 Questions About American History Set is perfect for her to learn about American history before starting the middle and high school grades. We did this on an average of three days per week. This classical christian homeschool curriculum is fantastic!

Teela working on The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic Text reader and Student Guide workbook.

Both Student Guides/Books) are consumable workbooks so only one student can use these. Each chapter in the text corresponds to the The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic Student Guide workbook. The 200 Questions About American History Student Book has page numbers to find the information easily in the text as well. I do want to mention that the 200 Questions About American History Set was originally made to be used with Guerber and Everything You Need to Know About American History Homework, which is now out of print. However, it has been modified to now go with The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic Set. There are a few revisions that might need corrected in the books and they have compiled a list of those on the website.

The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic text is well written and has short concise chapters of around 2-3 pages that are packed with information. In addition it has some hints for teachers in it as well. It suggests that the teacher first reads the chapter to the student and then the student reads it again for memorization purposes. It also suggests locating and marking places on the supplied maps that come up in the text should be done right away.

I found both teacher guides very convenient and thorough. I loved how they were laid out and how they had schedules and guidelines to help you, the teacher. I also had all the answers of the student books at my fingertips so I didn't have to seek them out myself. The tests are there too for easy access.

Teela working on the 200 Questions About American History Student Book and Flashcards.

The flashcards for the 200 Questions About American History are invaluable as well because they help with memorization, fixing the different history questions and their answers into the students mind. I love that I do not have to print or cut them myself. This is one reason why Memoria Press always goes above and beyond to help the teacher with having everything at their fingertips right away.

We highly recommend The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic Set and 200 Questions About American History Set by Memoria Press! It is a great American history curriculum. I look forward to using other curriculum books from Memoria Press with my children in the future.

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You can purchase The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic Set for $48 and 200 Questions About American History set for $27.90.

Read other homeschool curriculum reviews for Memoria Press...
Classical Writing & Spelling, American History & Jewish Wars {Memoria Press Reviews}

Classical Writing & Spelling, American History & Jewish Wars {Memoria Press Reviews}

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