Home School Navigator {Review}

Language Arts is an important part of our homeschool.   There is nothing more important than being able to use language to take in information about the world around us and then communicate our own ideas to others effectively. Although I wasn't actively looking for a new language arts program to use I am always interested in learning about new programs and resources to see if they might help in our school.  The Home School Review Crew offered us an opportunity to try Home School Navigator for the purpose of a review so Rachel and I have been working through it together.  She received a one year subscription to Home School Navigator Reading and Language Arts curriculum which includes access to their Interactive Notebooks.

Home School Navigator is a online comprehensive language arts program for building strong readers and writers.  It is written for homeschool families and it can be used with multiple students.  There are 6 levels named for different colors.  Each level consists of 36 weeks of material to cover one year of instruction. At first I wasn't sure which level to choose for Rachel.  She is finishing third grade and she is a good reader.  I looked over the Home School Navigator Scope and Sequence for the various levels and decided that Level Blue would be a good fit for her.  However, the subscription provides access for her to use the entire 6 years of coursework so it would be no problem if we started using the Blue level and then decided that it wasn't the best fit for her.  Since we have access to the entire program, we could just move her up a level or down a level to best fit her needs.
Home School Navigator curriculum teaches Literature/Comprehension, Reading Skills Strategy, Writing Skills, Grammar, Phonics, Poetry, and Vocabulary.  The first thing I fell in love with in this program is the organization.  Every day is planned out for you.  Your child may not cover each subject every day but if you follow the lesson plans then all of the subjects will be covered over the week.  

I like to print out the lesson plans.  I just have to have printed versions so I can make notes and make check marks when a lesson is complete.  However, the online version presents the same lesson plans for each day and at the end of the week you just click the box to mark it complete.  This way it will keep track of your progress online.

The curriculum is very rich and covers a lot of material.  However, you can choose which subjects and/or activities you want your child to complete.  It is completely flexible and I love that because you can really customize it to meet your particular child's needs.

There are a lot of books to read throughout the program.  To save money, you might be able to find a lot of them at your local library but the creators of Home School Navigator have also made video read alouds so your child can just listen and watch as the story is being read to them.  We already had the book Rapunzel so Rachel wanted to read along with the video.

The weekly vocabulary lists are short so it doesn't get overwhelming.  There are games to make learning fun.  On this week, Rachel learned words with the prefix "pre" and then had to sort and match the definitions with the vocabulary words.

Rachel's favorite part of the program is the literature that she is reading. Her current Independent Reading selection is "The Invention of Hugo Cabret". 

I just love this book and it was fun watching Rachel discover how fun it is to read a story that is mostly just pictures.

The Interactive Notebooks that are included with the curriculum make for a fun way to review what has been read, study the traits of the characters, analyze the story, look up vocabulary words, and more.  It is recommended that you get a binder or even a composition notebook for your child to use for this notebook.  We already had several blank composition notebooks on hand so Rachel chose one of those.  Then she wanted to make a nice cover for it so this is what hers looks like.

The Interactive Notebook pages are printable pages that correspond with chapters in the assigned reading.  There are little flaps to be cut out and glued into the pages of the notebook.

Some are vocabulary words where Rachel had to look up the definition in the dictionary then write it on the booklet.

Somehow just adding flaps and little booklets makes the work more fun.  She never would have enjoyed this so much if I just handed her a regular worksheet to complete.

The Home School Navigator Reading and Language Arts Curriculum is available as an annual online subscription for just $97/year.  If you aren't ready to dive into the full program yet, you might want to start with just trying a few of the interactive notebooks which can be purchased separately for $8.00 each.  

If you would like to see what some other homeschool families had to say about Home School Navigator, just click on the banner below.

Anne of Green Gables

For a fun read aloud in our homeschool, we have been reading Anne of Green Gables (*affiliate link). The book was written in 1908 by L.M. Montgomery.  It is a children's classic but I had never read it.  We all enjoyed it.  It is about an 11 year old little orphan girl who seems to have a knack for getting herself into trouble.  We took several months to finish it.  I read aloud to them and at the end of each chapter they would take turns narrating to me what had happened and then tell me their thoughts on the story.  Unfortunately, we didn't have time in our schedule to read it on a regular basis like I would have liked.  We would have gotten through it more quickly if I had but that's ok.  It worked out perfectly because we finished it up just as the Artisan Center Theater was producing their Anne of Green Gables play!

As a special treat, we were able to get tickets for a weekend performance so Daddy was able to come with us.  He doesn't usually get to come on homeschool field trips with us so this made it especially fun.

The performance was great!  I may have gotten teary a time or two.  Afterwards Rachel was excited to get to meet the girl who played Anne.

We are working on picking out our next read aloud book.  There are just so many great books I want them to read!!!  We love reading aloud together.  It's a great way to experience the story together and we enjoy being able to discuss it and share in the excitement together.  For a great resource for inspiration for reading aloud with your family and even some great booklists, check out Sarah MacKenzie's Read Aloud Revival site.  

*This post contains an affiliate link to Amazon.  If you purchase the Anne of Green Gables book through this link I will get a very small payment that just goes to pay for this blog.  It will not affect the cost you pay for the book.

Printables for Your Homeschool - Super Teacher Worksheets Review

As a homeschool mom, I have found that it helps to add a variety of learning tools to our school day.  Our regular curriculum is wonderful but the kids love it when I change things up a bit and add something new and different.  Rachel especially likes hands-on activities and worksheets.  

As a member of the Home School Review Crew, we were given a one year individual membership to their online subscription to review Super Teacher Worksheets in our homeschool.  The printable worksheets cover a wide variety of subjects including math, reading, writing, phonics, literature, handwriting, grammar, spelling, science, history, geography and MORE!  They also have many worksheets available in Spanish.

Rachel is working on the Insect badge for her American Heritage Girls troop.  For the requirements, she needed to learn details about one particular insect.  She chose to learn about the monarch butterfly.  I was excited to see that Super Teacher Worksheets had several nature science items to help her out.  In their science section, I found an article that was all about monarch butterflies and it had some wonderful colored pictures as well. 

Rachel read aloud the article to me and then completed the corresponding worksheets.  Just having the article to print out for her to read was great because I didn't have to go searching all over the internet or make a trip to the library.  The worksheets helped to get her thinking about what she had read and served as a good review for her.

I also printed off the Butterfly Life Cycle booklet.  Rachel loved this!  She colored the pictures, cut out the pages, and stapled the booklet together.  She wanted me to make a video of her reading aloud her booklet so here she is...


As you can see, Super Teacher Worksheets is more than just fill in the blank kind of worksheets.  They have several cute booklets that kids can make.  They also have worksheets that have pieces that the child can cut out and use in matching games.  We also found this really fun QR code reader worksheet.  Rachel had never seen QR codes before so I explained that she would use the QR code reader on my ipad to scan the code on the worksheet.

The QR code took her to a specific list of three words to choose from to answer the problem on the worksheet.  In this case, the worksheet asked her to write the word that is a synonym for the word "fast".  When she scanned the QR code, the following list popped up.

Rachel absolutely loved this.  She now loves QR codes and she wants all of her work to use them in some way!

Over the summer, we studied US states and capitals.  There are a lot of games and printables on Super Teacher Worksheets that I used as a review for her.  Her favorite one was the "Cootie Catcher".  Do you remember playing with these as a child?

She would pick a color then move the paper puzzle back and forth for the number of letters in the name of the color.  When she stopped, she could pick a state and she had to name the capital.  She picked Idaho and then opened up the pocket to see "Boise".  How fun is that for reviewing states and capitals!

We will be going to see the play Mr. Popper's Penguins next week so we are reading the book now.  I just realized that the Chapter Book section of Super Teacher Worksheets has lots of great printables for this book.  They include bookmarks, vocabulary words, word search, and more all related specifically to Mr. Popper's Penguins.  Resources like this make my job as teacher so much easier!

Finally, there are also some fun things to find at Super Teacher Worksheets.  We played this Halloween Bingo game over and over the other day.  I think the addition of candy for game pieces may have made it even more fun.

I have really enjoyed having Super Teacher Worksheets to turn to for supplements in our school day.  An individual membership costs only $19.95 for a full year.  This gives you complete access to all of their great printables.

If you would like to read other Super Teacher Worksheets reviews from other Home School Review Crew members, please just click on the banner below:

Poetry Tea Time - Eclipse Theme

My kids love our Poetry Tea Time, mostly because of the tea and treats but they enjoy the poetry readings once we get into it.  I try to have these formal tea times about once a month.  I usually have poems that follow a theme and sometimes I have themed snacks too.  This month we had an eclipse themed tea party!

For our treats, we HAD to have Moon Pies!

We also made some turkey and cheese stuffed crescent rolls.  Get it?  Crescent as in how the sun appears as the moon is passing in front of it during an eclipse. Also, Rachel found some fondant I had in the pantry.  If you aren't familiar with fondant, think of it as moldable icing or edible play-doh.  She decided to make little colorful moons complete with rocky and cratered landscapes.  I stand by my original thought which was, "This is just an excuse to eat icing!"

For tea, we each picked our own flavor.  I really enjoy Mountain Rose Herbs organic teas.  Their blends are so delightful!  And they have many options for caffeine-free herbal teas for my bouncy kids who do not need caffeine.

I've learned that my tea pot doesn't have much use at our tea parties because no two people want the same tea.  So I bought a couple of these individual strainers by Yoassi on Amazon.  I love them.  You just put a teaspoon of tea leaves in the strainer, put it in your cup, cover with hot water, and steep.  They have a very fine mesh so you don't get a lot of tea leaves in your cup, it stands upright in your cup, and once your pull out the tea strainer, the little lid can be used as a dish to hold the strainer so it doesn't drip on the table.

Ok, enough about our tea accoutrement.  On to the poetry!

Although this wasn't actually a poem, it was perfect for our tea time.  I read to them an excerpt from Old Stories From British History (published 1894).  The book is public domain and I found on Internet Archive here -- https://archive.org/stream/oldstoriesfromb03powegoog#page/n18/mode/2up

At the website, you should be able to scroll through the pages to find what we read.  It's at the beginning of the book. Lesson 2, pages 4-6 talks about how people used to make up stories to explain what an eclipse was before they understood the actual scientific reason for them.  My kids loved it.  I might have to read more of these stories to them.  They really seemed to enjoy them.

We also read aloud a poem called "Eclipse" by Lillian Harris.  Then I pulled out a book of poems by Robert Louis Stevenson.  He has several poems that kind of fit with our theme such as "Summer Sun", "Escape at Bedtime" (about stars and constellations), "Night and Day", and "My Shadow".

Next month's tea time will be in October so of course a scary theme will be fitting for Halloween.  We will read poetry from Edgar Allen Poe and have some creepy treats for our tea time.

Grade 8 Lightning Lit Set by Hewitt Homeschooling {Review}

My children and I love to read great books that delight and engage us.  And though we do a lot of reading in our homeschool, composition is not as easy to get through.  Nicholas will be starting 8th grade in the fall so regardless of whether he wants to or not, we have to find a way to get more thoughtful writing done.  The Homeschool Review Crew offered me an opportunity to try out Grade 8 Lightning Lit & Comp: Preparing for High School Composition Skills by Responding to Great Literature and we jumped right in.

Hewitt Homeshooling produces the Lightning Lit & Comp sets for grades 1 through 8.  The sets include a Student Guide, Workbook and a Teacher's Guide.  With each year's set, there are designated books that will be read and you can buy those from Hewitt Homeschooling or purchase them elsewhere.  The Grade 8 Lightning Lit Set that we reviewed includes the Student Guide, Workbook, Teacher's Guide and 7 literary works: Treasure Island, A Day of Pleasure, A Christmas Carol, The Hobbit, My Family and Other Animals, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages.

Nicholas has been working on Lightning Lit about 3 times a week. So far he has gone through "A Crazy Tale" by G.K. Chesterton from Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages and Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.  He has enjoyed the readings and the Lightning Lit guides have helped to add enrichment to his comprehension and helped me to sneak in literary lessons into our book discussions.

The Grade 8 Student Guide is broken up into chapters based on each assigned book or reading.  Each chapter in the Student Guide begins with a background of the author and notes about what to look for during reading.  There is a list of vocabulary words from the reading that the student might not be familiar with.  Nicholas always read over this list before doing his reading assignment.  Next there are comprehension questions.  These can be used in different ways but we used these as discussion starting points during our review at the end of each week.  The Student Guide then presents a great Literary Lesson that pertains to the book and these include topics like setting, vivid imagery in poetry, character development, conflict, symbolism, and more.  Then there are Mini-Lessons which may or may not be related to the assigned readings.  Some Mini-Lesson topics include Taking Notes, Citing Sources in a Paper, Sentence Structure, Writing a Conclusion, and more.  Finally, the Student Guide chapters each end in Writing Exercises for the student.  These are intended to be completed after the reading assignment and after completing the Workbook exercises.  Nicholas completed 1-2 writing exercises for each assigned reading.

The Grade 8 Workbook is consumable so your student will be writing in this.  It contains a group of exercises for each assigned book or reading that corresponds with the Literary Lessons in the Student Guide.  For example, for Treasure Island, the Literary Lesson was on Setting.  The Workbook exercises are mostly geared towards analyzing setting.  There are even some fun activities to practice describing setting as the student uses all five senses to describe the setting in different rooms of their own house.  The Workbook also includes some fun activities based on the assigned reading like crossword puzzles and word searches.

The Grade 8 Teacher's Guide begins with an easy-to-understand overview of the program and weekly lesson plans.  Then for each reading assignment, it provides answers to the comprehension questions given in the Student Guide.  I usually try to read the same books that Nicholas is reading or we may even read them together as a read aloud.  But sometimes, I have too many other things going on and I don't get to it.  It is great to have these answers to the comprehension questions laid out for me to help with our discussions.  The Teacher's Guide also provides more information on the lessons, as well as answers for the workbook pages.

If you are interested in reading reviews on Lightning Lit & Comp for other grades, please just click on the link below to see what other Homeschool Review Members have to say:

Poetry Tea Time: Easter and Daffodils

I want to be more intentional about including fine arts in our homeschool.  It's easy to let those things slide when the schedule gets busy.  But I've been working on integrating more famous composers, paintings and sculptures, and of course, poetry into our school week.

Poetry is so beautiful.  It speaks to the soul and can touch us in a way that regular prose and literature just can not do. 

We have started having Poetry Tea Time and so far the kids are loving it.  The idea is to have a special time each week to enjoy "the finer things".  We play some soft classical music in the background and have a nice snack with some hot herbal tea (or maybe lemonade).  We take turns reading poetry aloud or reciting poetry that we've memorized.  If there is a painting or art piece that corresponds with our poetry selection then we will talk about that as well.

Today we had an Easter and Daffodils themed tea setting. 

Rachel loves tea parties and snacks so she was giddy to get started!

Part of the reason for having a formal tea party setting is that it is also a good way to sneak in some lessons on manners and etiquette to my children.  I was proud to see Nicholas pouring Rachel's tea for her.  He's growing up to be a fine young gentleman. 

This tea was delicious!  It's called Honeybush tea from Mountain Rose Herbs.  It's organic and it contains berries, roses, and honey.  Yum!

We had our tea party close to lunch time so I made it a little heartier than usual.  Deviled eggs...because you must have eggs if you want an Easter-themed snack.  I also had some tortillas rolled up with ham or roast beef. The deli section at the grocery made this quick and easy for me but sometimes the kids like to take the time to bake cookies or get creative with their own snacks. 

Of course, hot cross buns are perfect for an Easter-themed tea party.

We enjoyed a few chocolate eggs for our dessert.

I usually don't add anything to my hot tea but I showed the kids how to add cream and sugar to theirs. 

To make it a little more fancy than usual I put cute little sugar cubes in the sugar bowl.  I took this random picture of the kids and then realized that Nicholas was sneaking a plain sugar cube!  Oh my!

I watched Nicholas drink his tea.  He picked it up just a little bit and then leaned his body over to drink it.  THIS is part of the etiquette training that my kids need!

I showed him how to drink tea while sitting up straight and bringing the cup to his mouth!  You can tell from his eyes that he appreciated this training....

Easter is just a few days away and one of the poems I wanted to read to the children was about daffodils so I found some beautiful daffodils for the table.  They bright color and soft petals just make me happy!

I read my poem aloud and I had them take turns narrating back to me what it was about.  We talked about some vocabulary words as well as rhyme, rhythm, and personification.

Then I talked about the author, William Wordsworth, and read a few more of his poems.

Then the kids picked out some poems to read aloud.  One of the poems Nicholas read was Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll.

We ended our Poetry Tea Time with some recitation.  Nicholas learned Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost many years ago after his grandmother read it to him.  I asked him if I could make this video so she could see that he still knows the poem even after all these years.

We don't usually have such a formal tea time and we don't usually have a particular theme but this one was a little more formal because of Easter.  I think we all enjoyed the fancier setting so we just might continue to do it this way.  It's just a small way to make appreciating poetry a little more fun.

If you have talked to me much about homeschool and language arts, you know that I enjoy learning from Andrew Pudewa so I thought I'd share his most recent podcast which just happens to be all about poetry -

IEW Podcast 89: How to Enjoy Poetry: Listen, Speak, Read, Write!

Maybe grab a cup of tea to enjoy while you listen and learn.