TOS

Review: Branch Out World

August 13, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Paddington Bear…. doesn’t that bear just make you smile? Today, for my review, I have a unit study, from Branch Out World, that will help you dig deeper into the world of Paddington Bear and the places he has been. Fly with me from the deep, dark forests of Peru to the city lights of London. Along the way we’ll discover art, architecture, story-telling, language arts and more.

Who is Branch Out World?

Branch Out World is brain child of a homeschooling family located in the United Kingdom. Having a deep love of books, they wanted to share that love with others and to that end have created literature-based unit studies as well as lapbooks. They are geared to be used by the whole family. Their unit studies have a UK link, the lapbooks are more globally oriented.

What do you Get?

I received a 69 page PDF of Paddington Bear, a literature based unit study. It’s connected to the picture book of Paddington Bear.

You could, if you wanted get through all five days, it’s quite doable, or you could spread it over a longer period. 🙂 A weekly schedule is included, explaining the how and what of each day’s planned activities.

In this literature study you will find lapbook elements such as the one below, along with lists showing what supplies you’ll need every day.

A sample day (I’m choosing day three) has the following options to do with your students.

Learn about the artist
Picture study based on page 31 in the picture book
Learn about architectural features. We went to youtube and looked up specific examples online. Later we went for a walk and talked about the different features we learned about in the houses we saw. This was fun to do!
Principles of Design – overlapping… my son declined to do this project, but we did talk about how shadows would be different depending on where the fruit was placed and that helps show depth and placement.
Principles of Design – Emphasis. My son did this project using a huge spider in the foreground. I’ve a picture of it below.

As you can see, lots to do on any given day. Depending on your student this could take 1/2 an hour or a couple of hours. You could easily expand the projects or shorten them down to just the basics.

All the information and lapbook elements are found at the end of the study.

How We Used Paddington Bear:

I offered to get the book for my 13 year old to read and he turned me down flat. We had the option of watching the book being read, but mostly we just sat down and looked through the options for extended learning. He dove right into learning about the Spectacled bear… telling me all about what he learned about them, showing me one of the videos he watched, and showing me on our globe where they live.

He also grabbed onto the idea of learning some architectural terms, and even drew a picture showing emphasis. It was so interesting watching what elements he gravitated toward and knowing that this study would please so many students. You certainly don’t have to do everything in the lesson plan, you can pick what your students are most interested in (or what you deem most important) and learn about the world at large through a great picture book about Paddington. I have to admit to being a bit annoyed with myself, I had a couple of different elements put together and I can’t find them AND I failed to get a picture of them. I only have the picture of this one element….the drawing for emphasis.

My Thoughts:

I have to admit, my son is a bit beyond the Paddington years, so we picked up this review so that I could look at it for those that DO like Paddington. I was impressed. A good variety of activities and interesting topics to look at. Even my non-Paddington son found things of interest. If you are a lover of all things Paddington OR doing a larger unit study on bears and want to have a literary tie in, this book will provide a good way to do that. 🙂

I was browsing through the Picture Book Explorers series and saw the Mousehole Cat. That sounds like a fun book to read and then explore. What one would intrigue you?

Paddington Bear
Branch Out World
Picture Book Explorers series
69 pages, PDF, 5-10 years old.
lit-based unit studies, topic pack, home education resources, homeschool resources

65 members of the Homeschool Review Crew had a chance to utilize this study. Please read our reviews.

Social Media Links:

Facebook: @BranchOutWorld
Pinterest: @belzibow
Instagram: @belzibow
Twitter: @belzibow

Home School in the Woods – WW2

July 31, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

My son wants to learn about the great wars in the coming year, therefore we were very excited to get a chance to review World War II from the selection of Time Travelers in U.S. History series offered by Home School in the Woods. For the past bit, between bouts of readying our guest room and learning other important keeping up a house skills, my son has been watching copious Youtube videos and diving deep into World War II. Come join us in our studies won’t you?

Who is Home School in the Woods?

The Pak family in essence. Taking a dislike of history and finding a way to teach it in a meaningful, delight-filled way. Their goal is to make history fun and interactive. I urge you to check out the entirety of their Time Travelers series, as well as newest release Ancient Rome which completes their Project Passport series.

What do you get?

A WHOLE lot of PDF’s! OH MY! I actually just ordered them printed off for me at my local Staples. For $35 printed, and delivered, I couldn’t beat the time saver, and personal printing costs to me in the middle of a busy season. Just look at the binder full of paper!

I found the materials come in two formats. If you unzip the folder you can open the entire file in HTML format which walks you through all the information start to finish. Or you can follow the same format I did and simply open all the files. Print off exactly what you need, put it all in a binder so it’s all set up and ready to go and then just work your way through it. You do not have to print off everything, some of the files are simply how to use, how to print off etc. I should mention that different colours of paper were called for in the printing instructions. I chose to ignore those colour changes as I didn’t need “Why this colour mom? Can’t we print it in this colour instead?” All white is simply easier in my household. 🙂

It is SO worth looking through the intro files, teacher keys etc. You’ll find a treasure trove of information. In fact one of the pages I really appreciated having was the additional resources page listed in the intro file. Books, movies, audios, music, and websites. Just a phenomenal well done list which will save me OODLES of time (as long as I can find the materials!) 🙂

When I put things in the binder I put the Lesson reading, followed by the project list, then the copy work (for most weeks), and the weekly project. I really appreciated that they build time into the unit study for catch up weeks. Some of the weekly projects are fairly large, so instead of putting them in a page protector I gave them their own files… like the timelime and a later couple of lessons.

This study follows the events from the Close of WW1 and beginnings of the Nazi party through to the end of the war and what happened afterwards. There are almost 100 figures to add to the ten-page timeline.

A Brief Look:

My son and I put together this brief overview for you.

How we used it:

We didn’t work through our WW2 study at a fast pace. Interspersed into our summer are several birthdays, I’ve had a few “under the weather days”, caring for a house that is our own now, and a major heat wave.. speed wasn’t in our purview. Taking our time working through lessons allowed us to more fully discuss ideas and watch videos that went along with the lessons. We’ve been inspired to take a few rabbit trails as well. I love rabbit trails don’t you? They are so much fun!

Taking time to set it all up properly in the beginning was the best thing I could have done. Having the binder ready to go actually made my boy grin. “Look Mom! Look how much I can learn about the war!” My son could work through it independently beyond checking in with me to see what his work load should be.

There are 25 lessons in all. We are looking forward to these upcoming lessons: Pearl Harbour, Hitler’s Fortress, VE day and Iwo Jima and the Atomic bomb. It is SO interesting listening to my boy. “I didn’t know that!” “Mom, did you know ________________”. The questions of “I don’t understand this part, can you help me?” “Can we look this up on youtube? I want to know more.” Those questions a homeschooling parent lives for eh?

I now know FAR MORE about Hitler, his youth, and how he rose to power from a variety of viewpoints then I ever thought I would. 🙂 And think…. come January I’ll get to learn it all over again. This Time Traveler unit study will become the spine of our World War II studies. We’ll diverge now again to pick up speeches and study them, to focus on Canadian men and women of the war, and to throw in a bit more geography, art projects and to follow rabbit trails.

My son’s opinion:

I like it. I am learning so much and I want to know even more. It makes me think of different things I can watch on youtube, and how everything connects. It’s good and I can do most of it on my own, sometimes mom helps though.

My thoughts:

My lad likes it, it’s well laid out. It provides ample opportunity for rabbit trails and discussion. It’s written at a language easily accessed by middle school and above students. It provides an easy spine for when we start our official studies of World War II in January. It will be very easy to adapt it, or perhaps adapt is not the right word, the way it is laid out it will be very easy to add additional materials or extend a lesson further. Together with The War to End all Wars Game, this history study will suit our needs nicely.

World War II
Time Travelers U.S. History Series
Home School in the Woods
PDF and HTML files received.

Also has a CD option. Pricing options here.
History, interactive, hands on
Hands-on history, history studies, best history studies, world history studies, american history studies, history timelines, history curriculum, notebooking pages

Some 90 of us on the crew took a look at a variety of products from Home School in the Woods. I invite you to go read the reviews. Perhaps the next one you come across will be just what you are looking for! I know this review is what we needed in our household.

Social Media Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/homeschoolinthewoods
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HSintheWoods
G+: https://plus.google.com/+Homeschoolinthewoods
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hsinthewoods/

Review: Northwest Treasures

July 24, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Northwest Treasures is a company that is new to me. Their focus is on geology with an emphasis on seeing the Christian faith (or the bible) in the study of geology, they have a number of courses that they do. Over the past while we’ve been able to watch their Dinosaurs and the Bible series and my son has been captivated. We also had a chance to watch their Mystery of Geology Video.

Taking the Mystery Out of Geology Video

An approximately 20 minute video of slides with terms interspersed with full colour images, overlaid with audio teaching. We have a three month access to this online video available on Vimeo.

“I learned about that while I was learning about Ancient Greece” Pause video… lad explains the rock cycle to me. I loved how he was able to connect the pieces. Having my lad explain things is wonderful.

A number of geologically important terms were defined. Science, History, Philosophy, Uniformitarianism, Evolution, Creationism, Bible, Geology, Rock Cycle, Rock Types, Tectonics and Orogeny, Geological Time Scale and Fossilization.

Laughter from the lad at times. I found speaker stressed defining what is or is not science. He defined terms well and used good definitions to show flaws in how secular geologists think.

Son’s reaction: “It was okay”, which from the lad is praise indeed. He is often quick to point out what he doesn’t like about something and he didn’t point anything out to me.

Dinosaurs and the Bible

We spent the bulk of our time with Dinosaurs and the bible. Six lessons, which we get to use for six months, giving us ample opportunity to listen to them again.

Each video comes with a worksheet. It took me a fair while to figure out where the worksheets were located. When you have a list of the videos you can click on them to pull up a description of what the video is about, on the description will be a link to the video worksheet, this downloads as a PDF from Dropbox. You only have to download the answer sheet once.

The Lessons are as follows:

How we got our Modern view of Dinosaurs – running time 18.26
The Classification of Dinosaurs – running time 18.24
Dinosaurs and the Bible, the Great Dinosaur Rush – running time 16.55
The Extinction of Dinosaurs – running time 16.23
Dinosaurs and the Ice Age – running time 17.51
Fossils, Age and Soft Tissue – running time 21.38

How did we use it?

We’ve had access for the past four weeks, and today my son, when I mentioned that the review was due today, said “MOM! We have to make sure we finish watching all the videos!” He knows I’m apt to forget about finishing a review once it is off my radar, this one he wanted to make sure he finished. A good thing that eh?

Previous to today, our normal routine was on Wednesday at supper I’d put a video in and we’d discuss it over our meal. Gave us a time to chat while dad’s away at work. I’d simply cast it to the TV and we’d have our bowl of chili or a sandwich and watch. I’d have the PDF open so I could stop it and ask questions as we went through the lesson.

We had the option to print off the PDF files (one for each lesson) but chose to just keep the file open and talk through the answers and take any rabbit trails as we went along. Each lesson averaged 10 questions.

I did the same thing with the final exam. Just asked questions, the lad came over a couple of times to read the multiple choice answers when he didn’t’ know the answer off the top of his head.

We did take a couple of rabbit trails. The lad was curious about Lyell, so we did a bit more research on him. We talked about who Darwin was as well. Isn’t it nice when a program is so enjoyed by a lad that he actually WANTS to learn more? It’s a good thing that!

The course is laid out with a series of slides with Patrick Nurre teaching in the background. The lessons are laid out on Vimeo and I’ve learned to let them buffer before starting to play. They are geared for grades 5 and up, and play time averages about 20 minutes. Picture quality is good and audio is excellent as long as I let it buffer.

My Thoughts:

Well done, learned a lot. I loved having the PDF’s for questions/answers. One thing I wished for was that occasionally he would put a cut out of himself talking in the corner of the video, adding a more personal touch. I would also love to see a PDF that has blanks in it so as you go through the video you can write things down. Or even a PDF listing the main points so notes could easily be taken. There is SO MUCH information contained in these videos that it’s hard to remember it all.

I found it fascinating to learn that dinosaurs have been pictured on rocks and such. This was new information to me. Kinda speaks to dinosaurs being around with people eh?

My Son’s Thoughts:

“I like it, I enjoyed it. I liked everything about it. The lesson on the ice age really interesting.”

In addition to the online classes, Northwest Treasures also offers physical courses such as the high school level Northwest Treasures Curriculum Project or for younger students the Geology for “Little Eyes” series.

Dinosaurs and the Bible – six lessons
Taking the Mystery out of Geology – 20 minute Video
Northwest Treasures
ages 5+
Geology, Online, Science, History, Geology Class
Video series on Vimeo (on demand)
Purchasing information can be found here.

If you have a membership to SchoolhouseTeachers.com Patrick Nurre has a geology course on there called Rocks and Minerals. It is just as interesting as the Dinosaurs course. Check out the course, see if you like it, and then sign up for courses from Northwest Treasures. 🙂

75 members of the crew reviewed various programs from Northwest Treasures:

Dinosaurs of the Bible
Volcanoes for Little Eyes
Geology and Apologetics
Fossils, Dinosaurs and Cave Men
Rocks and Minerals for Little Eyes

These programs are just a sampling of the variety of materials offered by Patrick Nurre and the Group at Northwest Treasures. I urge you to check out their kits such as their Fossil Identification Kit (which intrigue me) as well as their other offerings. Click here or on the image below.

Social Media Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GeologybyNorthwestTreasures/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/northwesttreasu/boards/

Vacation Bible School Week

July 23, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

I ran out of time last week to do this post, so I figured today was as good as any day right? It’s summertime and though my tendency would be to homeschool all year round, sometimes there are bigger things to do you know? This past week that was Vacation Bible School. A church that we occasionally attend was hosting a vacation bible school and needed folks to help out. To my son’s horror I signed him up! 🙂

Much to his surprise he completely enjoyed himself. We ended up with the preschoolers which wasn’t my first pick but when more littles are signed in then you anticipate… one pitches in.

My son (who has had zero exposure to littles) learned the following:

Preschoolers can be a tough crowd. Missing mom or siblings is hard.
Preschoolers are FAST! They swarmed him one while playing chase. BOY, the stories he had to tell Dad when we got home.
Doing crafts with preschoolers is fun! They need help, they take suggestions and they will let you help!
Learning new songs and keeping an eye on littles that just want to run off and play, isn’t for the faint of heart.
Cards from a preschooler can make you smile.

I learned, that I can still make unhappy littles, just a wee bit happier by being a silly goob. 🙂 That even if the preschool crowd isn’t my favourite age of younglins to work with, I can still have fun with them, and help them, and just perhaps let them see Jesus, even just a little bit. By the end of the week my quiet shy laddie (preschooler that is) rewarded me with a card and two stickers on my nose. A good thing that eh?

Not only did we do Vacation Bible School but the lad and I worked on cleaning construction dust from the house, each day taking a different part of the house to work on. It’s sticky, icky dust that is a pain to clean. It is good at teaching us patience AND it’s another incentive to get rid of anything I don’t know how to clean well or don’t want to even TRY to clean. 🙂 (you can’t sense my frustration at all can you!).

In between it all we did some schooling. Working on the dinosaurs review (coming soon by the by) and starting our WW2 study from Home School in the Woods. (2 or 3 weeks from what I recall). But not a whole lot since you know.. life happens right?

OH and Friday we went to the beach. The water was freezing and rain was threatening but we had a lot of fun, met some nice people, and managed to get back a bit later than intended but I still sold my two bunnies (the purchaser made a run to the LCBO while waiting for us to return).

All in all it was a great week. We learned much, sang a lot, touched lives, and got some cleaning done. This week promises to not be quite as busy YAY! and hopefully we’ll get a better handle on how to feed my hubby with his new schedule (prayers for that would be appreciated), and get the guest room all completed. I want it done. JUST DONE! Here’s to making more progress eh? 🙂

Review: Code for Teens

July 16, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Coding is such an important part of the world today. My 13 year old son has a keen interest in learning to code. Last year he took an engineering course, and through that learned how vital knowing how to use electronics and how to code really is in today’s world. He’s been learning some coding with Minecraft but is just itching to take his knowledge farther, enter in Code for Teens: The Awesome Beginner’s Guide to Programming (Volume 1). This program is brought to us by Moritz team at Code for Teens.

What do you get?

Originally we were supposed to get a physical book to use, but since we live in Canada we ended up with a PDF. This makes it very travelable as we can put it on any device and read as we go.

This File is 116 pages, with 10 chapters, along with a glossary, answer key, a section for parents, and introduction. Each chapter includes a quiz, key concepts list, drills and a review of the chapter preceeding it.

In case you are curious, you can see a sample chapter here.

Chapters include the following:
1: Hello World!
2: Time to Operate
3: Comment on the String Section:
4: Have Some Functions
5: Shall I Compare?
6: Logically Operational
7: Projects Galore
8; Hip Hip Array!
9: Loop a Round
10: Make a Hangman Game

I loved how in the introduction the authors take the time to talk about how important learning to code is. Software engineering (computer coding) is “one of the fastest growing industries in the world. ….Perhaps it
should be mentioned that programmers are in extremely high demand, and this leads to excellent pay, comfortable work environments, flexible hours, greater job satisfaction, long-term career security,” etc. But really…the answer is simple: Superpowers.

And so we learn how coding well is a superpower that leads to better jobs in the future. Learning JavaScript is important because “it is the most common programming language of them all and is used in over 90% of all websites! JavaScript makes websites move and respond to what a user touches and types. And it’s also a useful tool for games and mobile apps! With more and more businesses going online and people browsing on their phones, JavaScript is becoming more valuable every year.” With these words my lad felt even more inspired!

How did we use it?

Code for Teens is designed to be a self-paced course. The alternating reading and text gives students an immediate chance to practice what they are learning. The repetition helps them with areas they struggle in, and the practicum helps them retain that knowledge well. The lad loved to hear that there would be more than one way to answer any problem given, as it gave him the confidence to experiment.

The lad worked through one lesson per week. Opening up the PDF file in a browser tab, working through the learning portion, then doing the quizzes and drills on a separate days. We aren’t in a rush to get through the book as it’s summer and other learning comes first.. like learning how to paint, spackle, cut down trees, ministry work (like VBS, foodbank), visiting friends etc. The lad doesn’t fight sitting down to do work through his lessons three days per week. He has repeatedly told me how much he enjoys going through this book and all the things he likes about it.

It’s good you know?

Our Thoughts:

My son predominately used this on his own. I only helped when he was getting set up, and for grading his tests. Other than initially struggling with the NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION over every page, this JavaScript computer training program is working really well for the lad.

Since he was the one using it, I will let him make his own comments

Likes:

I like how he walks through everything and repeats it several times. That way if I didn’t understand it the first time, the next time I will and everything else just becomes review so I understand it better and remember.

I like the DIY bits where you need to figure out your own how to do something using what you’ve been taught.

Wants:

Challenges to take the code you have been taught and figure out how to make it shorter or easier to write. I did this! See this example.

Let number = 0;
number ++;
Number %3;
Up arrow, enter

Rather than writing it out like 4 % 3; enter. 5 % 3; enter etc.

Dislikes:

The parent section was really boring.

His recommendation:

If you want to learn JavaScript, buy this book, as it has worked really well for me so far.

Code For Teens: The Awesome Beginner’s Guide to Programming (Volume 1)
Code for Teens.
Coding, JavaScript, teens,
Code For Teens, programming, computer programming,

Geared for teens. Great for adults as well.
Pricing information found here

Code for Teens has been reviewed by 65 members of the crew of a variety of ages. Please click below to read what their comments are.

Code for teens can also be found on facebook.

Review: The Master and His Apprentices

June 27, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

When my son was young we would read through encyclopedias of history…you know those huge books you can buy that make excellent coffee table books, or that are just fun to flip through to gain a brief vision of history? Reading a variety of these books gave us an excellent overview of historical record. The Master and His Apprentices produced a book called The Master and His Apprentices: Art History from a Christian Perspective is a book JUST LIKE THAT. Historical overviews are wonderful.

My Impression and Realization

I have to admit, when I first started reading through this tome I wasn’t wildly impressed as it wasn’t what we had expected. I THOUGHT I was going to get a book about the history of art. So I imagined seeing images of art from throughout history, divided into time zones. That’s not what this resource is, this book is a history book! I know, I’m strange, takes me a bit to clue in sometimes, but once I figured out that The Master and His Apprentices was not a book about the history of art, it’s a history book with a focus on art. It’s a history book that uses art as a focus, but in essence, it’s a history book and just like any other history book it has it’s own focus (seeing God in action throughout history) and it’s own way of dividing up historical periods. We LOVE history books… especially history encyclopedias. Seeing history from a different vantage point is awesome. I now can say I LIKE THIS BOOK! It’s history with a solid dash of art (no nudity for those concerned). You will discover well-researched chapters that will describe various aspects of culture such as architecture, sculptures, mosaics, paintings, frescos, and other such art forms for each era discussed.

Art History Book

The first two chapters are devoted to understanding that all of creation starts from a biblical perspective. God’s creativity is what inspires the creativity of people. Therefore author Gina Ferguson walks us through the days of creation and all that we have to be thankful for. The rest of the chapters are devoted to different time periods. Gina has taught bible, art and history throughout her life.

Chapter 3: Ancient Near East
Chapter 4: Egyptian
Chapter 5: Aegean
Chapter 6: Early Greek
Chapter 7: Etruscan
Chapter 8: Roman
Chapter 9: Early Christian and Byzantine
Chapter 10: Medieval and Islamic
Chapter 11: Romanesque
Chapter 12: Gothic
Chapter 13: Proto-Renaissance
Chapter 14: Early Italian Renaissance
Chapter 15: High Italian Renaissance
Chapter 16: Northern Renaissance
Chapter 17: Baroque
Chapter 18: Rococo to Today
Chapter 19: Global Highlights

Like all histories, authors choose what they will focus on, and author Gina Ferguson is no different. Up until the Baroque period the history is explained well, after that the history is lighter. It makes sense right? If you were to include all of history thoroughly this 380 page book would be very large indeed. Ergo one focuses where one chooses and leave the rest for another book. 🙂

One of the things that is great about history books is the ability to pick a time period that are you interested in. You can read it start to finish or do what we did. We each had different interests and ended up discussing them together.

Now this history book is like any other… it gives you a good grounding in it’s perspective. Art started with the creation of the World, and God directs art in all it’s form throughout history. With that perspective comes marvellous full colour images that show the breadth of God’s creative touch.

As you delve more into how civilization developed you actually start to see some of the artistic forms that developed, like this, a melding of worldview into artistic expression.

I liked that we had the ability to pick and choose what we wanted to learn about. Now if we were using this as a full curriculum (and gain a full credit for history) I’d be minded to work through it from start to finish, but that’s not my focus right now with my lad. It’s called dive in, see what interests you and learn something new. It’s good to keep learning eh?

Each chapter provides an overview of the culture and period, followed by a discussion of the artwork and architecture developed during that time period. As the history is discussed, the religious beliefs and cultural background are brought up, showing that religion and culture define one’s worldview and that is reflected in the art that is produced. A timeline is included so you can see how it all fits together. One of the things I loved was the focusing on specific artists. It was great to be able to focus in on one person

Our attention was focusing using the worksheets that helped us think through ideas. We didn’t actually print them off, we did what we always do, we talked and splattered our thoughts about with each other.

Just what do you get?

I received digital downloads of the textbook at 380 pages and the teacher’s guide at 116 pages. You could choose to print off the pages (which I was tempted to do so but somehow just haven’t done that). The PDF’s are sent print ready making it easy to print off if desired. This is a highschool level course that could be used for a full credit or as supplementary material for other studies. I also received a PDF called “Print and Use” outlining how to print off the textbook and workbook in the most user friendly fashion.

End result:

I like a good history book. Reading history from different perspectives deepens our understanding of it. This book portrays a good amount of art in it (no nudes or other objectionable art) and gives a good look at various artists. Faith plays a big role in this book, understanding worldview and how religion plays into how we perceive the world and therefore make depictions of it. If faith is something you care to avoid, this would not be the book for you. If understanding how worldview and faith affects how you view the world, then this history will broaden your understanding.

The Master and His Apprentices
The Master and His Apprentices: Art History from a Christian Perspective
For pricing information go here. Available as physical or digital copies.
Art, History, digital, High-school, Christian art, biblical art history

The teachers guide: contains instructions for using this curriculum in classroom or homeschool settings, an attendance chart and grade sheet, a course outline, glossary of art term, expectations of student in regards to exams and papers, questions and answers for worksheets and the exams, along with helpful tips and reminders.

The textbook can be used over and over but the teacher’s guide with the worksheets is considered a consumable product, to use with additional students extra copies are merely $2 each.

Social Media Links:

Facebook and Pinterest.

Review: Silverdale Press

June 19, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Rhetoric anyone? Do you know how to write a skillful, artistic and persuasive speech? Introducing Persuasive Writing & Classical Rhetoric: Practicing the Habits of Great Writers by Silverdale Press LLC. Learning to think persuasively with great speeches from the past. Come read our review.

You see that boy in my opening image? That would be my son. He’s just about to explain to me what he thinks of John F. Kennedy’s speech about the space program. This time of discussion has been a blessing in our household over the past few weeks. Silverdale Press’s, Persuasive Writing & Classical Rhetoric program has been a boon to our household.

Who is Silverdale Press?

Silverdale Press was founded by Joshua and Jill Hummer. Their aim is to help middle and high school students cultivate knowledge and improve their skill sets. In that quest they aim to teach the ways of great leaders, writers, thinkers, and citizens.

How is the course set up?

I received four PDF’s from Silverdale Press

Rhetoric Answer Book
Rhetoric Lesson Book
Rhetoric Reader
Rhetoric Workbook

The Lesson Book sets out a schedule to follow weekly. There are 36 lessons divided into five sections. Each lesson is designed to be completed in one week. The five sections are introduction, invention, arrangement, style, and conclusion.

Each lesson in the workbook spelled out each of these steps specifically. The lessons include topics such as Stasis theory, emotional appeals, taking notes and developing a reading list. People studied vary from John Locke to John F. Kennedy to E.B. White.

Setting reading goals had my son doing something he normally doesn’t do (though I’ve been trying to encourage for the past two years) but having it as part of a lesson seems to have spurred him on. “Mom, I have a list of books that I want to read though they aren’t the type that Kennedy would read. I want to read “The Hobbit” “Harry Potter” and “Lord of the Rings”. ” Did you catch that? NOT ones that Kennedy would read (see… he remembers!!!!!) AND he came up with a list of books that he wants to read for himself. I totally call that a win!

What books would you put on this list?

There are massive amounts of pages in these ebooks, The lesson book 235, workbook 202, answer book 65, and reader 111. You can choose to print it all off or print off only what you need to. At this point, I’ve been printing the speeches and the review questions only.

Each week finishes off with an essay challenge based on a major point of the speech reviewed. “Give me ______ or give me death”. “We Choose to ________” By the end of the 36 week study you’ll have received lessons in what real writers do, how to pitch your work and handling rejection. The aim is to produce better writers, and writers want to be published. 🙂

How did we use it?

This is a high-school level course and my son is a rising eight grade student. This meant I adapted the program to suit our needs.

The first lesson we broke over two weeks. Taking time to thoroughly discuss the speech we were given. We learned new words, figured out what rhetoric was, and just talked. We talked while feeding our rabbits, and going for a walk, this wasn’t a sit down and think about it lesson…this was an on-going discussion for us. Part of the requirements was to write an 500 word essay. I simply told my lad, write an essay based on the prompt. I’ll write one too and then we’ll talk about each others essays. Admittedly this was HARD for my lad. Coming up with something to write about (even with a prompt) and then figuring out how to write the essay… tough job. I walked him through how I was writing my essay and from that he was able to put something together but wasn’t happy with it and actually wanted to totally rewrite it.

Surgery happened. The essay got put to the wayside. I started to work my way through lesson two, discovering something wonderful. My lad didn’t want me to work through it on my own. He wanted to continue to chat with me. Since he wasn’t allowed (Doctor’s orders) to do school for two weeks I put it on hold. For the past two weeks we’ve been talking about Kennedy’s space speech. All this discussion and coming up with ideas. It’s been a hoot. Could you imagine a world with all self-driven cars?

I’m not requiring an essay from him at this point. We’ve decided that for now, we will just discuss the speeches, we’ll learn new terminology and do the lessons, but mom will write an essay, and the lad will critique and together we’ll make it the best we can. The lad will talk about an idea he has, and the arguments he would use to persuade his audience of its merits. For instance the lesson on Patrick Henry had him discussing with parents the merits of a good video game and how it doesn’t rot your brain.

Our plans are to work our way through each lesson (taking a couple of weeks to do so) over the next year or so.. and then when the lad is in grade 10 we’ll do the course again, this time with an essay requirement being part of it. When we do so, I will make full use of the answer key which provides correct answers and a rubric for the essays.

Our Recommendation:

This highschool level class has been a lot of fun to work through with my seventh grade student. We are far from done, but we are looking forward to our next lessons. My son wanted me to assure parents with grade seven and eight students to not be afraid to get this course. It’s alot of fun to talk about ideas, and to try to figure out ways to make an essay or speech more persuasive. Silverdale Press has produced a stellar program with their Persuasive Writing & Classical Rhetoric class. It’s been very good to be about practicing the habits of great writers. As a parent I liked how they organized all their workbooks and setting out a good way to approach it. It helped me to break down a bit more for my lad. The side benefit is that I am learning as well. This is an excellent course for parents wanting to increase their skills as well.

Persuasive Writing & Classical Rhetoric: Practicing the Habits of Great Writers
Silverdale Press LLC

Ages 14-18
Homeschool High school, homeschool writing curriculum,
Digital, Ebook, PDF
Rhetoric, Persuasive writing, Speech

Homeschool Review Crew Reviews:

The crew reviewed two products from Silverdale Press

Persuasive Writing & Classical Rhetoric: Practicing the Habits of Great Writers – ages 14-18
White House Holidays Unit Studies – ages 5-18

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