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 

                     

Us in Wonderland

The Mad Hatter and March Hare

We've never been "into" halloween - but, we have always been "INTO" dressing up!  This year was no exception...

With the craziness of our travel schedule, it kinda snuck up on me. But, Lydia to the rescue!  She planned and executed one of our best themes ever... "Us in Wonderland" (a take on Alice in Wonderland)

 

The White Rabbit and Cheshire Cat

We didn't really plan to go anywhere - even trick or treating was out... it was simply for the fun of dressing up and goofing off!

Oh... did I forget - Don and I got in on the fun too!  The Queen of Hearts and her King!

The Queen of Hearts and her King!

Since we were dressed up, we decided to take the characters out to dinner at a family favorite, Red Robin. This turned out to be one of the most wonderful memories.  We met a darling waitress and her sister, heard about their lives and made some new friends!

The kids surprised me with chipping in significantly to leave the biggest tip I've ever left, and they learned how easy it is to be a blessing!  

 I've never been prouder!  Way to take back halloween and use it for the Lord

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