Are you looking to add some excitement to vocabulary building? Have you ever heard of Mrs. Wordsmith? Well if you haven’t heard about Mrs. Wordsmith what better way to introduce you to this company than telling you about their new app Word Tag.
Mrs. Wordsmith is an award-winning company based originally in the UK. The company was founded in 2015 by Sofia Fenuchell who wanted to create educational materials that actually worked and kids would love it. Using quality animations and game design to improve how kids learned vocabulary, Mrs. Worthsmith was born. Mrs. Wordsmith since their early beginning the company has grown and developed a full line of products for kids ages 4-13. The company has created books, games, curriculums, tons of free resources. We own several of the curriculums, books, and vocabulary sets. Mrs. Wordsmith’s newest addition to their line of literacy and vocabulary materials is the Word Tag app.
We were invited in July to join the team as a tester and my son has loved playing the Word Tag app. The company has taken video games to an entirely new level with fun vocabulary-building adventures. My son loves Hip-Hop culture so the game won him over instantly with the graffiti. The game takes place in Los Angeles, kids will go on a quest of collecting spray cans and spraying words while trying to avoid the street cleaners. Kids will complete daily activities at their paces, challenges, and pop quizzes.
With a methodology designed to teach challenging vocabulary, Word Tag boosts reading comprehension, advances creative and academic writing, and improves exam performance.
Mrs. Wordsmith
Word Tag 3D adventure is visually appealing to players and it encourages them to keep playing and learning new words. The kids are constantly reviewing the words they have learned. Kids will learn up to 1,000 words. Words a present in context to help reinforce their learning. The more words your student’s master more levels open for them to play. Players can earn more coins and unlock materials from the pop quizzes. I love how the words show the kids the definitions, parts of speech, and synonyms. The vocabulary the kids learn is Tier 2 academic words that are frequently used on SSSA. ISEE, SAT, STAR, and MAP exams. Word Tag also will increase your students reading levels.
Word Tag also allows students to connect with other players and their friends if they are using Word Tag to share the gameplay and compete with each other. Word Tag takes your student’s safety seriously and incorporated a safe social player. The program is adaptive and you will have access to player reports. The company also provides a parent guide that includes a sample word list and learning objectives.
I love Word Tag for all the reasons above I mentioned. I am familiar with the company and its products, so their brand is one I trust with my child. Now my son is crazy about Word Tag he was super excited when the Mall level opened for him and he has been playing non-stop. He said the graphics are cool and it is fun to learn the new words. The other great thing is he sees characters from Mrs. Wordsmith’sStoryteller’s Illustrated Dictionary, How to Write a Story, and Reading Comprehension Vocabulary.
If you don’t know who the Heritage Mom is I am super excited to be able to tell you about this wonderful blogger, mom, homeschooler, philanthropist, and Charlotte Mason guru. Okay so I had had the pleasure of meeting Amber O’Neal Johnston and once a member of her Heritage Homeschoolers group in Georgia and I can honestly tell you she is one of the sweetest and kindest people I have met during my homeschooling journey.
When Heritage Mom offered to have the Squad review 3 of her culture guides, I knew had to be part of this opportunity. Let me keep it real I own about 90 % of her culture guides already and we are still working our way through Amazing Africa. We own Schomburg, Heart and Soul, Harlem Ressianance Stomp, and now the Civil Rights Heritage culture guide. All of the culture guides are excellent, Heritage Mom gives you everything you need to use these guidesto teach African and African American history.
The Civil Rights Movement guide is divided into 10 topics of study starting the journey in the 1950s and ending with Civil Rights today. The guide is meant for grades 4-6 but you can review the suggested living books and materials you can stretch to 2nd grade. Civil Rights Movement is 36 weekly lessons now you can stretch to the entire 36 weeks or you can do more lessons a week. We are averaging 3 lessons a week in Amazing Africa, but after looking through the Civil Rights Movement guide we will spend a little more time on our lessons because is one of my son’s favorite areas of history to study. Anyone who says they were able to unpack any of her culture guides in 8 weeks, I can honestly say they didn’t give these carefully planned guides the respect they deserve.
The Civil Rights Heritage Pack is a survey of the brave men and women who risked their reputation, livelihoods, and often their very lives to press towards what they knew to be right.
Heritage Mom
The Civil Rights Movement includes two core books, you need to select one of these books to use with the guide, both reasonably priced. She also includes bonus books and recommends not substituting the core books because those books are impeded throughout the guide. She also has movie suggestions that hyperlinked and inserted disclaimers to prescreen them to make sure they are appropriate for your family. There are additional books used in the lesson plan, they are a nice mixture I love she included picture books and chapter books. Now that my son is reading more chapter books I miss those days of really great picture books. I found all the books listed in the lesson plan at my local library. There are also additional books for older or advanced children but these books are not scheduled in the lesson plans.
The lesson plans are easy to follow, with clickable links that take you to videos and she tells you what book you will be using and pages to read. There are 4 weeks of plans one page. The culture guides are meant to be just that guides, if you are looking for a long-drawn-out lesson plan with tons of writing and worksheets you aren’t going to find it in this guide. Amber O’Neal is a Charlotte Mason-inspired homeschooler and her guides are written in that way of homeschooling. These guides are literature-based and meant to allow you and your student to explore and go down rabbit holes.
Out of respect for her and all her hard work you won’t see pictures of pictures of her hard work in this review. You can literally go on her social media and you will feel the admiration so many people have for these creative works. Each guide of the Heritage Mom packs are filled with so much potential you can stretch these materials for years to come.
We were sent Spelling You See Level C Wild Tales for us to check out and look at spelling from a different approach. We currently use a curriculum we have used for the last 2 years, but my son isn’t 100% in love with it, So when the opportunity to review Spelling You See Level C Wild Tales was presented I decided this would be a good chance to look over a new program.
When my son first started down our path of homeschooling we used Demme Learning Math U See Primer and Spelling U See A. He did extremely well with both programs and we were happy, but he needed a little more of a challenge when it came to both areas as we entered 1st grade. Spelling You See uses the five development stages of spelling:
Preliterate
Phonetic
Skills Development
Word Extenstions
Derivational Constancy
Wild Tales provides opportunities for students to study words in the context of factual passages about animals.
Spelling You See
Spelling U See is different from other spelling programs, there are no list, grade levels, or extensive prepping of lessons. We were sent Spelling You See Level C Wild Tales it picks up from where Level B ends, so it is really important that you check out the placement assessment on Spelling You See if you haven’t done the previous levels. The Spelling You See Level C Wild Tales comes with an instructor guide, 2 student workbooks, and erasable Crayola color pencils. There are 36 lessons students will work on:
Vowel, Consonant, Bossy R Chunks
Tricky Y
Silent Letters
Various Combinations.
You can check out a full scope sequence on the website. The lessons are simple for students the Spelling You See Level C Wild Tales takes the students on an adventure with nonfiction passages about animals. The program does require parent involvement and your student needs to read the passages, day 1-3 students will do copy work (only 10 mins ). You should tell your student to stop writing and then chunk their words with you and that’s it for the day. Day 4 is No Rules day students draw something related to that week’s passage and write at least one sentence about the weekly passage. On day 5 it is dictation day you will dictate to the student the passage of the week and help them when prompted.
Chunking – provides hands-on experience with the many irregular letter patterns in English. Copywork – requires the brain to pay attention to details in print. Dictation – gives the student the opportunity to recall the proper letter patterns from memory.
Spelling You See
Our Review
Spelling You See Level C Wild Tales is a stress-free way to teach spelling, you don’t feel pressured to have your student memorize these ridiculously long lists of words and busywork. Students are able to use their phonetic knowledge and learn to spell. The really nice part is that once the 10 mins are over we are done. In observing our current curriculum I noticed how stressed he was doing word lists, activities and having to move on to the next list. In my heart I felt like is he just moving from the list to list and not really retaining all of the words? There were so many activities he needed to get through during the weekly lessons that we started stretching the lessons to 2 weeks.
Spelling You See Level C Wild Tales just makes things so much easier and it just flows better for us and our new path with homeschooling. We did the sample lessons of Spelling You See Level C Wild Tales first before we dove into the entire book and he said he liked the way it works and that it seem easier and he didn’t feel anxious to get things done in a hurry. I do think we need the Spelling You See Level D Americana, but we will work on the Spelling You See Level C Wild Tales as a review, possibly making the change to Spelling You See Level D Americana in the Spring. We aren’t in a rush so we will take our time and I will move at his pace. I do wish the upper level themes would be different topics for the passages, I did look over levels D – G. My son is able to read all of the passages with no problems and he is familiar with all the different areas of phonics and targeted areas of spelling.
Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.
I Know It is a great way to make math practice fun for your students! We were sent a 1 year subscription to I Know It online digital math supplemental program.
I Know It is a math supplemental program meant to support your current math curriculum. I Know It is for grades K-5 grade there are over 600 math lessons that will challenge your student to review their skills or practice some new one.
I Know It is excellent way to get your students away from traditional book work and doing something interactive. Math is a skill that requires ongoing practice and if your student is like mine he needs to keep his skills fresh. I Know It comes with a full parent dashboard that allows you to set your students grade level, assign lessons and track their progress.
One of the things appreciate with I Know It is being able to look for the skills I want my son to practice instead of having to follow a sequence. My toggles between 4th/5ht grade math so I am able to select skills in both area and assign him. In the progress tracker you can see a lessons complete detail of your students work and how they are doing and what they need to work on. Assigning lesson are super easy, I really like dislike programs that make it so complicated when trying to assign lessons. I Know It makes it easy you just select the grade level and click the check mark in the grade level and your done. Students can follow the sequence of the platform or do the assignments.
Working the lessons in I Know It are simple and to the point, I appreciate at how the program mixes things up as they are presented. The multiplication exercises my son worked on combined word problems, arrays, number sentences, graphs, and pictures. He was able to see all of the ways to solve multiplactions equations, which is very helpful because it is important that he can see all these forms and be able to solve. The cute little character that encourages the kids does all kinds of cool dances and animations. When a student answers a question wrong they are given the correct answer and how it is solved.
I Know It is great online platform for grades K-5 grade it is not a complete curriculum , its meant to be supplementary. This is a great program for practicing skills, and to use on breaks if you would like your student to have practice when they arent doing school lessons. I do wish the kids could log in individually instead of through the main log in, I am hoping the company adds this feature. You can adjust features such as the animations, holiday themes, hints allowed, and students ability to explore on their own.
At the time of this review the cost of I Know It is $45 for a family membership for up to 4 children and $7.50 for each additional child. Be sure to check out the other crew’s reviews of I Know It by clicking the banner below.
Complimentary product received from Know Yourself.
I love putting together unit studies, it is just something about gathering all the materials that just makes homeschooling so much fun. My son enjoys our unit studies and he learns so much, but we all know putting together unit studies requires a lot of time and research. Science unit studies are our favorite but it requires a lot of books and external resources. This year I wanted to finally really tackle a solid unit on the human body so while I was researching over the summer I came across the Know YourselfSystems of the Body Adventure Series and that’s when then the fun began.
After browsing the Know Yourself website I realized, that I actually owned one of their Dr. Bonyfide books, but then it happened I previewed the Systems of the Body Adventure Series Book 1 Five Sense and it was a done deal I had to have the entire bundle. I purchased the digital version of the bundle and I was confident I found the answer to my human body unit with just a click of the mouse.
About Know Yourself
The company was created in 2013 by a mom with two girls, she wanted to teach her daughters about the human body and anatomy but have fun doing it. Nancy Howe and her team have created an award-winning books series and have partnered with many companies such as Timberdoodle, Rainbow Resources, and Christian Book just to name a few. If you noticed all 3 of those companies are top-tier and respected homeschool merchants so you know these books have to be quality.
Inspire children to be grounded in the awesomeness of their own self-worth and equip them to make healthy decisions about their minds and bodies. Through a deep sense of self, children are able to better relate to others and contribute to a society with more compassion, love and respect.
Know Yourself
Know Yourself is built on 3 principles as listed on their website:
Self-literacy: A journey to a better self through knowledge of the body and mind that ultimately results in happier, healthier, and less fearful SUPER-AWESOME human beings.
Self-worth: Knowing that your value on this Earth is as great as any other human being on this Earth.
Self-advocacy: Find your voice. Ask questions and speak your truth.
Representation: Acknowledge and represent the diversity of the community that we live in and build appreciation for various human intelligence and learning styles.
The company is committed to providing solid foundations while identifying the need to be inclusive and include all diverse characters so your child will see themselves as they learn.
Dr. Bonyfide Series
Now that you know a little about the company let’s talk about the first set of books f Dr. Bonyfide. There are 4 workbooks in the Dr. Bonyfide :
Bones of the Hand, Arm, and Shoulder: Book 1
Bones of the Foot, Leg, and Pelvis: Book 2
Bones of the Rib Cage and Spine: Book 3
Bones of the Head, Face, and Neck: Book 4
In each book, students will explore the human skeletal system using 3D x-ray glasses, puzzles, activities, and readings. All of the books are interactive and feature Dr. Bonyfide and his friends. The Dr. Bonyfide series provide students with real pictures and the anatomically correct names for the skeletal system and provides fun ways to help the students remember the names of the body parts. Just to give you the heads up all the friends your kids will meet in the Dr. Bonyfide series you will see them again in the Systems of the Body Adventure Series.
Systems of the Body Adventure Series
If your student loves graphic novels they are going to love the Systems of the Body Adventure Series. There are 12 workbooks in this fabulous series and your students will meet the Loops Crew. Each one of these books includes a graphic novel storyline complete with a ton of activities and takes you and your student on a worldwide adventure to learn about the body systems.
We love both series of workbooks, when the company reached out to partner I was thrilled my son was super thrilled we would receive a complete set. Know Yourself combines my son’s 2 favorite things graphic novels and science therefore he is hooked. I literally have to hide the books from him because he will read them all. The company sent us the last 4 books just in time for this review and he saw book 10 has the Loops Crew traveling to Tenochtitlan he grabbed and ran with it. So I am guessing that this is the book we are doing for this month along with our Mesoamerica unit study.
In the month of October, we decided to Adventure 2: The Skeletal System (Russia), talk about a breath of fresh air. The workbook has everything we need for a complete unit study. I just needed to check the supply list at the beginning of the book and we were ready. The great thing about the Systems of the Body Adventure Series books they are broken into 4 parts, each part tells you exactly what the student will be learning and the estimated time for each part. In all honesty, there is NO WAY you can get through an entire book in 1 month there is way too much information to cover. You want your kids to enjoy what they are learning and take their time. My recommendation is to do 2 parts a month and spend your time immersed in the geography culture of the book. The recipes included are easy to follow and require limited adult supervision. The book also includes the answer key and review section.
Dr. Bonyfide and Systems of the Body Adventure Series gives you everything you need for a human body and anatomy system unit study. The books are for children ages 8 years and up and can be done independently. I personally really like the books and I really want to be a part of the learning alongside him because I am the first to admit that I don’t know a lot of detail about the human body systems.
The books have cut back on my human unit study planning by 95% and it also included things I would have never included in my own study. You can purchase the books individually or by bundle. The Systems of the Body Adventure Series is available as a digital download and you can use them on a device. Reasonable price, great customer service, and fast free shipping. To save on your purchase be sure to include our referral code: DESHAUN .
This year I was confident in my choices for grammar and writing until mid-August when I started to notice my son was less than enthused about his lessons. Observing his lack of enthusiasm I started to think we may need a change. We have used the same curriculum for the last 2 years and he has a pretty solid foundation in grammar, but writing is still a work in progress. I was thrilled when the opportunity to review Brave Writer ArrowAmari and the Night Brothers was made available to our family. So here we are taking the leap and using Brave Writer Arrow and we are loving it.
About Brave Writer
Brave Writer uses a Charlotte Mason-inspired approach to teach grammar and writing. The goal is to continue to strengthen the parent and child bond by creating a safe environment to learn and work at their own pace. Brave Writer programs are designed to be the complete opposite of the traditional learning style of grammar and writing. Brave Writer supports the whole child and lets them be in control of the process with the parent gently leading them. Brave Writer program believes students go through different stages of writing and each stage deserves respect and students should only progress when they are ready for the next stage. The growth stage of writers are :
The growth stages start at ages 5-18 years old and students will work on mechanics and literature through online classes or using one of the product packets such as Arrow.
Arrow is a digital year-long writing and grammar program for students ages 11-12. Families can purchase the entire year’s bundle and each month you will receive the Literature Arrow guide or you can purchase individually. With your purchase, you will receive the Arrow guidelines and the literature guide. The Arrow guideline teaches you how to present the literature guide. Arrow literature guides cover spelling, literary elements, writing activity, punctuation, and grammar, each monthly lesson is paired with a novel. Each week the lesson directly correlates with the novel. The monthly lessons are divided into 4 weeks, which include vocabulary, dictation, and grammar. The guides also come with discussion questions, a planner, a skills tracker, and book party ideas. There are 10 Arrow guides for a complete school year older guides are available to purchase, but new books are added every year.
We teach both parents and kids how to build a partnership in writing that leads to both creative expression and academic success, all while preserving the parent-child bond.
Brave Writer
Our Review
Amari and the Night Brothers have been on our list to read since it was released so I was super excited to have a literature, grammar, and writing guide to pair with it. At first look, I knew I had to sit down and prepare for working with a non-traditional way of teaching grammar and writing. The biggest issue had was letting go of my thinking of how grammar and writing are taught. Once I was able to release this way of thinking it made the transition easier. My son and I decided we would both read and listen to the book. I really enjoyed the cultural context section it gives background information on the novel, this little information was really nice and helped us better connect to the book because we are actually living 20 mins away from the Atlanta area.
Arrow is really the complete opposite of a traditional grammar and wiring curriculum, I was expecting to see some worksheet practice sheets and a huge writing assignment for this novel. I was blown away because what expected was not what I received. The Arrow guide gives you a quick start that instructs you to read the Arrow Guidelines. The Arrow Guidelines are key to understanding how to implement the Arrow program, not reading these will confuse you about the literature Guide. The guide also gives you sample routines and it is where you will find the Arrow Skills Trackers and Our Week With Arrow.
The Spin and Spiral told me exactly what we were going to be covering in this month’s literature guide. I pulled a couple of extra supplements, just in case. I was blown away by how Brave Writer uses a novel to teach grammar, in a million years I would have never thought to pull passages out of a book and examine the grammar components. My son was introduced to writing and literary elements such as how to indent, first-person narratives, and dialogue, and much more over the 4 weeks. The grammar areas are highlighted in what Brave Writer calls Spotlights, we found the grammar sections a welcomed review of concepts he has covered previously. What I did appreciate is that I was able to identify some areas of his grammar that he needed more practice on.
Students will tackle:
Proper Nouns
Commas
Conjunctions
Idioms
Pronouns
Parallel Structure and much more
What I like about Brave Writer is that my son and I were having meaningful conversations about the book and we talked about grammar in a new way that he was really thriving and loving. He asked several times mom can we do Brave Writer over his current language arts curricula. I begin to see both of our frustration and stress levels come all the way down while using Arrow. We went from fighting over getting his lesson done to letting us just talk, drink tea, and enjoy each as we learn.
Dication for us is something new we haven’t done much of this type of writing before so we took things very slow and I assured him that we weren’t in a rush and we are both learning how to do things. I did the first dication for him just to show him how. We did 1-2 sentences at a time so he didn’t feel overwhelmed moving forward. We did modify a few things to make it work for us, we used highlighters to highlight the grammar and literary elements in the literature guide. My son didn’t want to mark up his book and I was okay with this. I also printed my son his own the literature guide, I used mine on my tablet but I did have the Arrow guidelines printed out for myself.
Parent Involvement
By now you may realize that parent involvement is a necessity for the Brave Writer Arrow curriculum. The program does require the parent to be their child’s partner in this process. That brings me to the Brave Writer Partnerships in Writing growing writers stage one of the most overlooked stages according to the Brave Writer website. “Your child shows growing proficiency in handwriting, reading, and spelling, but still finds the hard work of transcription tiring if asked to write for more than a few minutes.” We didn’t receive this to review, but after using the Amari and the Night Brothers Arrow, I feel that this is something we will need in order for us to continue forward with the Arrow curriculum.
We really like Brave Writer ArrowAmari and the Night Brothers, my son has requested to do this over his current language arts curricula. We have put what we were using on the shelf and have moved on to the November 2021 Brave Writer Arrow Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids. I will be looking into Partnerships in Writing for us as well. It has been so nice to have a great month of learning and enjoying our time together making memories. At the time of this review for the full program is $129 or $14.95 per literature guide (includes Arrow guidelines). To learn more about Brave Writer programs please click the banner below to read more of the Melanated Gold Review Squad reviews.
History is one of our favorite areas to study. In our home, we have an enormous collection of gentle true literature. I am very meticulous about selecting history curricula that are reflective of truth and give an inclusive view of history. We were sent the new Early American Intermediate Pack from Beautiful Feet Books to look over as a possible history resource.
Early American Intermediate Pack Grades 4-6th
About Beautiful Feet Books
Beautiful Feet’s Books uses a Charlotte Mason approach to history through literature-based learning that inspires the child to naturally create a healthy environment for wonder and exploring.
We are no strangers to Beautiful Feet Books we spent some time when my son was in 1st grade using their Around the World with Picture Books Part 1. My son still has fond memories of learning about the terra cotta soldiers from that unit. We also enjoyed the book Ruby’s Wish and a few other books. With this being said we are familiar with how Beautiful Feet curriculums work.
TheCurriculum
Early American Intermediate Pack takes students on the journey of the nation’s founding. The lessons begin with the Indigenous people and travel through history to the civil war. There are 129 lessons, with the suggested timeline of 3-4 lessons a week for a year’s worth of history. Areas of study are the following:
Indigenous Culture
The Vikings
The Age of Discovery
Colonial Settlements
Revolution
Slavery & Emancipation
Civil War
In the pack, you will receive 23 books, a teacher guide, a notebook, and a timeline. You will also need to download the New Early American History for Intermediate Picture Packet from the free downloads on the company’s website. The curriculum gives parents and their students an abundance of resources. Students will have the opportunity to try recipes, crafts, and character-building (Biblical) activities. The rabbit trails section in the lesson planner books offers nice ideas and books. Overall you will receive an adequate curriculum for teaching early American history.
Our Review
At first, glance looking over the 23 books received I separated the books into 3 different piles approve, maybe, and questionable. Books that I approve went right on our shelf, maybe books went into a bin and questionable went straight to my desk for further research. History is a lot to unpack and getting it just right for what will work in our home takes some planning and research.
Some of the books I did take issue with I wasn’t fond of some of the images of Indigenous people, one book showed them being unclothed, overweight, and unkempt. The books that were sent were decent choices I would have liked to have seen 2 of the books that were in the rabbit trails included in the pack (Before Columbus and Turtle Island). I felt these two books would have given a better insight into the Indigenous culture. I was a little deterred from the curriculum starting with 3 lessons on the Indigenous people and then the next 10 lessons were dedicated to the Vikings with a sprinkle of the Indigenous people being within those lessons. There was no mention of the Moors or Africans already being in what is now America.
The books that were included in the rabbit trails resources were books that reflected a more truthful look at time periods covered in the Early American Intermediate Pack. The landing of the pilgrim story tells the same story as the Pilgrim’s landing on American soil to escape religious freedom from Europe. This story is misinformation when in reality the Pilgrims did not come from Europe they actually came from Holland where they were free to live and practice their religion as they pleased and the only reason why they left is that they didn’t like that the Holland culture was influencing their children. There were other issues I found with these lessons.
While the Early American Intermediate Pack does include some culturally diverse books to lend to the lessons, the book suggestions inside of the teacher guides would have given the curriculum pack a better view of history. The core book A Child’s First Book of American History offers some gentle truths but I would not let this book be the be-all for teaching American History it would be a starting point to research the time periods discussed. I still feel like this curriculum is told from a European viewpoint of history with some dabbles of diversity. A few of the books are meant to be comical such as the Jean Fritz books Shh! We’re Writing the Constitution and Where Do You Think You’re Going, Christopher Columbus? . The Viking book my sons and I found it hard to get through and we had to look for another resource.
Overall the curriculum will give you a guideline to start with American history but you will need to do some research to make sure it is accurate. The rabbit trail resources inside the teacher’s guide I would use more so than the ones that were sent in the pack. At the time of this review, the Early American Intermediate Pack is $245.95 plus taxes and shipping.
Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.
We added the Progeny Press guide to our Language Arts studies for our Black Pioneers study in December, we were excited to receive the Wagon Wheels Study Guide this time to review. Wagon Wheels Study Guide is a digital download that includes the student activity sheets and a separate answer key. The study guide is recommended for grades 1-3rd grade but my 4th grader will be fine doing this.
The book Wagon Wheels is for students in grades 2nd – 4th, you could possibly stretch the book to 5th grade for its historical content. The story takes place during the time after the civil war when freedmen and their children migrate west to Kansas in search of settling in Nicomdemus Town, land provided from the Homestead Act of 1862. The Muldie boys cross the plains and lose their mother along the way. The three boys and their father reach the town and build themselves a dugout and brace for the harsh winter. The Muldie family encounters the Osage Nation and they rescue them from hungry and they are able to survive. The dad must leave to find work and the Muldie boys (11, 8, and 3) are left to fend for themselves and the support of the community to continue their new life. The book is based upon the memoirs of Lulu Sadler Craig.
Wagon Wheels Book
Student Guide
Wagon Wheels Study Guide provides brief background information on the Homestead Act of 1862 as well as the synopsis of the book the Wagon Wheels. Students are also given before and after they read activities, vocabulary, grammar, and literary terms to work on. The study guide also provides an external link to other activities to stretch the study guide. In the study guide, you will find 4 questions that do have Bible scriptures attached to them but I didn’t feel as if they were indoctrinating.
The reading comprehensions are divided into 2 chapters sections and the questions require in-depth reflection. Students will answer 7-10 questions in each section. For a 1st grader, the writing may be a bit much, so you can do those questions verbally and they would do fine. Some of the activities include crossword puzzles and drawing, and cooking.
I personally read the book Wagon Wheels for this review and went over the study guide sheets and questions myself. We plan to study Black Pioneers in December so I didn’t let my son do the activities or read the story. I looked over everything and this will definitely be part of our study and I will come back and update my review. I would have liked to see more book resources in the back of the guide about black pioneers, cowboys, Osage Nation.
Be sure to click the banner below to check out the other crew’s reviews of Progeny Press study guides.
Our mission is to inspire children through science, sparking lifelong imagination and curiosity.
Loop Lab
Inside the box we recieved:
beaker, flask, and funnel (reusable)
corn starch, small bottle of peroxide, liquid glue
wooden stirrer, mesh material
balloon, rubberband, yeast
gloves
instruction book
lab coat
The kit came with a complete guide book that walked my student through all of the experiments, written instructions for measuring, and illustrations for every step. Upon first opening, the box my son first guess looking that the materials he said we are going to be making oobleck. He was seriously surprised when he got into the guidebook and saw all 3 experiments.
The Gross Science is box 1 in the series of the current 6 boxes now available for ages 8+. The experiments are quick and easy to follow, and my son was able to do them on his own. I check all the experiments beforehand to see if he needed any extra supplies, the only thing I had to add was zip lock bag, dish liquid, water, bowl, an egg, and a bin to catch any mess.
Inside the experiment books, students will find the safety steps, mess factors, and what they need. Each experiment also includes a think green, safe disposals, and clean-up checklist. At the end of the experiments you will find the How does it work description along with vocabulary. You will also notice the experiments encourage the kids to observe and then get messy. In the back of the book, you will also see the vocabulary words again along with their definitions, I had my son copy these in his science notebook and write down a little about the experiment. There is also a hidden objects search for kids to search the Gross Science Mad Science Loop Lab box and a Certificate of Awesomeness.
Foaming Fountain Experiment #1
Gross Science Mad Science Loop Lab box is a fun way to bring a little STEM into your home, they make great boxes for rainy days or if you are needing to add a little more hands-on science into your homeschool. Mad Science Loop Lab boxes are available to purchase on monthly, 3 months, and 6-month subscriptions. The cost starts at $32.99 plus $4.99 for shipping. I would love to try out the other 5 boxes, my son enjoyed doing the Gross Science box.
Complimentary product received through the Melanated Gold Review Squad, in exchange for my honest review.
Have you ever encountered a curriculum that just made you feel at peace? I have tried several different curricula over the course of the last 5.5 years and they all seemed to lack a real connection to homeschooling. I always felt something was missing and then I felt rushed and that I had to finish it or I had somehow failed my child. Three years ago a friend of mine told me about Blossom and Root and I was hooked. I am so honored to review Blossom and RootLevel 5 Language Arts,Science Wonders of Worlds Beyond, Part One: Oceanography, and Art. I will update this review when Wonders of Worlds Beyond, Part Two: Astronomy and Nature Journal releases. Blossom and Root takes your student on a wonderful journey of learning.
Blossom and Root Level 5 is a digital download that also includes clickable links. I personally printed out the lab and student notebooks. The parent guides I uploaded to my notability app on my iPad for quick access. I combined them and use heavy card stock for the covers and the backing. I used my fast draft option and double-sided printing.
Language Arts
Blossom and Root Level 5 doesn’t disappoint. Level 5 language arts covers 36 weeks of lessons that are literature-based and include areas q writing, poetry, social studies, vocabulary, and geography. The chapter book selections for the weeks are diverse and a mixture of classic books and new releases. I was able to find every one of the books at the library, Thriftbooks, Amazon, and eBay. The poetry section is optional but the books suggested were also easily accessible and reasonably priced and the required book list isn’t ridiculously long. Kristina (creator of Blossom & Root) and her team have thought of everything including a completely optional books list for you and divided them up by weeks (THANK YOU). There is also a general supply list that is very basic you will pretty much have about 80% of the items already in your home. you can find a full scope and sequence on Blossom and Root.
Each week has 5 days of lessons, there are helpful tips to that help you decide the best way to navigate the lessons :
Transitional (students who are ready for some independent but not completely)
Independent ( students who can work independently and guide themselves)
Adult-Led (student still need adult guidance)
Year 5 Language Arts
Science
Blossom & Root Level 5 Science Wonders are Worlds Beyond, Part One: Oceanography and Wonders of Worlds Beyond, Part Two: Astronomy (releases November 1st, 2021). The Blossom and Root Level 5 Science Wonder is a relaxed and hands-on approach. Parents can do the traditional 36 weeks of lessons with the first 24 lessons being Oceans and the second part of the lessons being Astronomy. Parents also have the option to do approach the science wonders with a relaxed schedule and work are their own pace stretch out the lessons as long as you want. Science wonders are meant to be parent-led, prefer this way of learning science because I learn so much and we have great conversations.
Science Wonders follow these three steps:
Step One – Wonder (introduction to the wonder)
Step Two – Explore (exploring the topic with activities/ experiments etc..)
Step Three – Record (allowing your child to record their journey)
My favorite part of doing this science is the permission “to go off the grid” going off the grid is something we do all the time and enjoy the learning process so much better and I can see the light and excitement in his eyes. My son is always so eager to show with his dad at dinner time everything he has learned for the day and going down a rabbit hole is the best way I know he is really learning and enjoying his journey. Let’s talk books for Worlds Beyond, Part One: Oceanography surprisingly I had 2 of the books listed as recommendations and I need 2 of the spine book Dk Smithsonian Oceans!, which happen to have already been sitting in my amazon cart. Once again the book list for optional books and the spines are easily accessible and when you need them is listed with the corresponding wonder. Each Wonder has an oceanography topic, an optional profile of a scientist or influential person to the topic, and a few have rabbit hole ideas. The Worlds Beyond, Part One: Oceanography parent guide also includes lesson ideas for minimalist, book basket, visual learners. The laboratory guide also includes activities for outdoor learners, table-crowd, and crafts and project families.
Year 5 Part One : Oceanography
Secret Notebook, Geography, Art
The Secret Notebook is a child led project and it is just that a secret. The only part I play in the secret notebook is taking him to the store letting him pick the notebook and printing the Secret Notebook. Even though I have the guide in both of our sections I glimpse over the supplies for each week and just set them out for him on Fridays and he takes over from there I only help when asked. I love this part of Blossom and Root, it gives him such pride to work on something all on his own. The Exploring the States notebook which is optional, but I do recommend is also 36 weeks that students will research important geographic information about the states including map work. Nine Profiles in Art is 36 weeks of 9 artists with a 10th artist as optional. Each artist is studied for 3 weeks, a supply list and optional book list are also included. The student will do a picture studying, exploring the artist, and exploring with art doing a piece of artwork.
Year 5 Secret Notebook, Exploring the States, and Nine Profiles in Art
Last Thoughts
I am looking forward to working our way through Blossom and Root Level 5, I love the relaxed feel of the curriculum. The language arts are perfect for the pace I would like to go and review areas we have already covered in other curricula. Do you need to supplement if you need to absolutely and I love having that option no curriculum has it all? The science is adaptable to use family-style with kids in grades 1st through 6th grade. I don’t feel hurried to get things done using Blossom and Root. Kristina Gardner has done an exceptional job of understanding the homeschooled child and parent. The curriculum is diverse and secular and she has put notes/ tips throughout the pages. Blossom and Root will always have a place in our homeschool, only wish I found her sooner.
Be sure to check out the other Melanated Gold Review Squad reviews of Blossom and Root by clicking the banner below!
Little Learner and Mom 