The Giving Manger from WorthyKids: A TOS Crew Review

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

The Giving Manger from WorthyKids

Our family loves traditions, and advent!  The Giving Manger from WorthyKids is a wonderful new advent tradition for the entire family!  This 32 page, hardcover book comes packaged with a wooden manger, straw and a "baby Jesus".  

The story, written by Allison Hottinger, mom of 5 children,  centers around Matthew 25:40 - and focuses on giving acts of service, instead of receiving presents, as our "gift" for this season.  What a timely message!  

The book tells the story of a young father that decides to lead his family to give gifts of service each day of advent, instead of presents.  The story details that the children, while disappointed at first, come to understand the joy found in giving to each other. The family places a single piece of straw into the manager for each "gift", making a soft bed. On Christmas Day, they place the Baby Jesus in the manager, "full of love".

The illustrations by Emily King are delightful cut-paper style collage pictures.  I love that she left the faces blank, so you can imagine yourself.

The book includes several pages of "Manager Moments" with suggested service activities for children, teens and families.   The activities are all aimed to create a heart to give, instead of receive.

"Manager Memories" are a couple of lined pages for you to record your families memories from the year, creating a family keepsake.

I love filling our home with Christmas books, beginning in Advent.  The Giving Manger  is sure to become a family classic!

Find WorthyKids on Social Media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WorthyKidsBooks
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/worthykidsbooks/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegivingmanger/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/worthykids/



Hashtags: #hsreviews #TheGivingManger #adventtraditions       

See what other members of the Crew thought here

                       

Redwall Study Guide & Frankenstein Study Guide from Progeny Press: A TOS Crew Review

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

Redwall Study Guide & Frankenstein Study Guide from Progeny Press

We have been long time fans of Progeny Press and their Interactive Study Guides! Check out our past reviews from 2016 - 2017- 2018- 2019 - 2020.!  

One of the things I most admire is the wide variety of selections for ALL grades. The guides are very easy to use, everything you need (just add the book) is clearly laid out for you. This year we are focusing on Redwall Study Guide (Grades 5–10) & Frankenstein Study Guide (Grades 10-12).

Both of these guides can be used with your high school students. They take about 8-10 weeks to complete and can count for 1/4 of a full high school credit. Completing four guides in one year gives a student a full high school credit. They have dozens of great titles to choose from at every grade level!

We love the format of these easy-to-use guides. They come as downloadable PDF with the ability to either print what you need, or use the interactive feature that allows you to type directly into the document. They are reusable for each of your students.

Each guide follows a similar design with a short Synopsis of the book, an About the Author and Background Information section to help you introduce the literature to your student.

Fun Pre-Reading Activities help set the stage and Final Projects help wrap up the study.  The Optional Essays and Projects and Related Resources let you expand the learning.

Each guide uses a variety of activities to teach the literature, chapter by chapter. The guides are designed for students to be able to work independently, and can be used with multiple students at the same time.



The Redwall Study Guide is a 73 page Interactive Guide designed for grades 5-10.  This fantasy story absolutely captivated my entire family, especially my boys!  The world of Redwall Abbey with unforgettable characters like Martin, Matthias, Cornflower, and one of the best villains ever... Cluny, the Scourge,  has become a family favorite! 

 

The Study guide teaches literature chapter-by-chapter with:

 

• Vocabulary Activities - with a variety of approaches including matching, fill-in-the-blanks, working synonyms & antonyms, crossword puzzles
• Comprehension and Thinking Questions - to check for understanding, and to teach a variety of literary techniques and devices
• Dig Deeper questions - to get students to connect literature and the Bible
• Class Discussions
• Chapter Activities - hands on ways to incorporate the book like cooking, crafts or additional writing activities

We love the variety included in each Progeny Press Guide!

The77 page Frankenstein Study Guide is another great choice for your high school students. 

                                                         

By reading this classic story, they are learning much more than just simple literary analysis, they are understanding history, science, morality and their significance today.

 I love that Progeny Press Guides are all written from a decidedly Christian worldview!  Several character qualities are explored in this guide, including: Motivation, hubris/pride, friendship, death, guilt/sin, human goodness, responsibility for our actions, revenge, man's nature, purpose, responsibility, God and His creation, ambition, moral framework.

The Questions, Anaylsis and Dig Deeper sections really get your student to think and compare literature to their lives.  These make EXCELLENT discussion topics at the dinner table as well!


Full Answer Keys are included with each guide as well (a great bonus for busy moms that may not have had the time to read along with her high schoolers...)

Progeny Press Interactive Guides have been a staple in our homeschool across all grades, we have appreciated their high quality year after after. We highly recommend them!

Check out several other titles the Crew is reviewing:

• Wagon Wheels Study Guide
• Cricket in Times Square Study Guide

Find Progeny Press on Social Media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/progenypress
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/progenypress
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/progenypress
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/progenypress

Hashtags: #hsreviews #homeschool #literature #reading #comprehension #unitstudies #progenypress

See what other members of the Crew thought here 

                     

Biochemistry / Microbiology from Greg Landry's Homeschool Science: A TOS Crew Review

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

Self-paced 7th-12th grade half-semester classes : Biochemistry / Microbiology from Greg Landry's Homeschool Science

Biochemistry / Microbiology from Greg Landry's Homeschool Science is a great option for your self-paced learners!  Designed for grades 7-12th, it is a self-paced 0.5 semester credit. Students can complete 2 of these course in one year to earn a 1.0 credit. 

Five courses are available: 

- Biochemistry / Microbiology
- Embryology / Endocrinology
- Earth & Space Science
- Study Skills / Measurement / Lab Reports / Graphing

These courses are self-paced,  students watch Greg Landry, a 20 year homeschool veteran and former college professor, teach from recorded videos. Students get access for 9 months, plenty of time to work at their own pace. Each video is around 30 minutes.

A colorful PDF Student Guide is designed to be downloaded and printed for student work and notes. We chose Biochemistry / Microbiology.  One thing I truly appreciate is letting students follow their interests, even in upper level sciences!

Biochemistry / Microbiology covers carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, DNA, vitamins, hormones, viruses, bacteria, epidemics, antibiotics, pathogen cultures, top 10 pathogen diseases.

This course is accessed through Canvas, a popular college course platform.  My tester has been using this for dual credit college courses, so it was easy to get started.  Once the student logins, they simply click on the course and pick up where they left off.

Greg Landry teaches from a decidedly Christian worldview, and begins videos with prayer!  I appreciate that so much, we have a beautiful opportunity to teach our children how God and science work together - I strongly encourage you to NOT compromise in high school science by allowing secular science to creep into your curriculum.  Your subscription includes the ability to email him with any questions, he's quick to respond and easy to work with.

The Videos move a tad slow for my tester (he's used to quickly paced videos from our current science program) but, they are a great way to practice listening and note taking skills that will be valuable for future college classes.  He shares personal stories as he teaches, and his southern accent is easy to listen to.

I loved the first lesson focused on taking notes, sketching, and learning skills.  This was a valuable reminder on how note taking works, and what is effective for building recall.  I think we frequently skip over teaching our students "how" to learn while we focus on filling them with facts.

The 48 page PDF can easily be printed and kept in a notebook, this is how we used it.  One caution - you will want a color printer!  My favorite is the Epson EcoTank, you can print for pennies, even in color.

I really want my students to be self-learners, so turning them loose with a program like this lines up perfectly.  My tester is doing another science program, so we used this one as a supplement (because he loves science).  

The information is clearly presented, and the workload is manageable, even with a full schedule.  The topics are covered rather quickly, so it makes a great overview, or could be used for review as well.

Overall, he really enjoyed this course, and is interested in others as well.  The course is pretty pricey at $120 for 1/2 credit, which may make it difficult to add for most families.

Be sure to check out some fun Science Freebies for Homeschool Moms on their site and the other courses the Crew is looking at:

Virtual, interactive homeschool laboratory

• biology / anatomy and physiology
• chemistry
• physics

Self-paced 4th-7th grade one-semester classes

• Young Scientist Anatomy & Physiology
• Young Scientist Biology
• Young Scientist Chemistry
• Young Scientist Physics
• Young Scientist Earth & Space Science

Find Greg Landry's Homeschool Science on Social Media:

Hashtags: #hsreviews #homeschoolscience #scienceresources #scienceexperiments #scienceiscool #homeschoolchemistry #homeschoolbiology #homeschoolscienceexperiment

See what other members of the Crew thought here

                    

Premium Subscription from LightSail for Homeschoolers: A TOS Crew Review

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

Premium Subscription  from LightSail for Homeschoolers

Premium Subscription 

from LightSail for Homeschoolers is an online subscription to help build 

reading, writing, vocabulary, and fluency skills for grades PreK-12.

LightSail for Homeschoolers Library gives you access to over:

• 12,000 books - including 3,500 classics and many faith-based titles 

• Over 50,000 World Book Encyclopedia Articles with Maps, Atlases & Timelines

• Lerner Sports Encyclopedia

• Audio Books - over 13,000 titles including - standard audiobooks, audiobooks with text highlighting by word, and audiobooks with text highlighting by sentence

• 360 degree Images

• Videos

• Augmented Reality

• Livestreams 

It's truly a complete digital library that you can access anytime (with no overdue fees!) In addition, this program is designed specifically for homeschoolers with lessons in reading, writing, vocabulary, and fluency skills built in.

The ability to track reading minutes, use bookmarks, highlight quotations, and create memory lists are just a few more nifty features designed with homeschooling in mind.

Students are given an assessment as they begin to accurately determine their Lexile reading level.  This helps determine the books and assignments.  "Power Texts" are at the student's reading level, and are the tool for helping increase reading, writing, vocabulary, and fluency skills with educational features like fill-in-the-blank assessments to check reading comprehension, a full dictionary, read-aloud ability, related content while tracking reading minutes and offering incentives.

All student reading is overseen through the parental control features that let parents monitor and control content, assessments, media, features, chats, and more.

We are HUGE book lovers and were excited to see what LightSail has to offer.  With multiple children using this program, it was easy to find tons of great content, they can even read the same titles, and participate in a family chat or answer challenge questions.

Since we do love a good book with actual pages to turn, while cuddled up together, and my kiddos are all proficient readers - we focused mainly on all the great ways to use Lightsail, other than tracking reading minutes and building literacy skills, which this program is great at with an adaptive platform that customizes to your child's reading level! 

They have an entire library of interesting things to discover.  Like the World Book maps and timelines to go with our history studies.

The 360 degree images that really wowed us - visiting the Sistine Chapel or the inside of the airplane cockpit!

The Lightsail library is interconnected, so frequently related images, books, and articles are just a click away.

Their Video section is jam-packed too!  You can check out videos from a wide range of subjects, but our favorite has to be the Ted Ed talks...or maybe the Livestreams...

Who doesn't love a good Unit Study to spice things up?  Lightsail has over 150 to choose from - fully integrated with books, encyclopedia articles, videos, or any other multimedia content designed by homeschool moms, for homeschool moms.

The Library collections are impressive, you can pick from dozens of genres and thousands of titles.  Handy search features help you find books customized to your child's reading level as well.  I appreciate that they also have faith-based titles and an impressive collection of classics (especially after seeing some of the "Most Popular" reads... making me thankful for the ability to control the reading material options for my children!)

There is SO MUCH to this program, I feel like we will be unpacking all the treasures for a good time to come.  Best of all... it's easy to take on the go with you.  

Find LightSail for Homeschoolers on Social Media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LightSailEd
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lightsailed/

Hashtags: #hsreviews #homeschool #homeschooling #reading #ebooks #edtech #elearning

See what other members of the Crew thought here