The Cat of Bubastes

Our family is excited every time we review a new audio drama from Heirloom Audio Productions. They have easily become one of our favorite companies as their audio dramas are some of the best we've ever heard.

Our schooling is very literature-based. Our family loves read-alouds and will often sit together to read various novels for hours on end. I love reading my kids quality literature and sharing that time with them. Not only does it teach them life lessons, it also introduces them to new vocabulary. Along with that time spent together, we love to incorporate audio books and dramas into our days. Whether we're folding clothes, driving in the van, or just needing some downtime, audio books are perfect. The Cat of Bubastes has easily become the newest "favorite" in our house.

The Cat of Bubastes is a theater-quality production based on the novel with the same name, written by G.A.Henty. We've listened to many different audio books and dramas, and none has ever compared to the quality of those by Heirloom Audio Productions. If you close your eyes, you feel as if you're there in the story. Think of it as watching a movie, but with no picture. The music, the actors, the sound effects--they all make the story come to life. You hear the stone door opening and closing, the birds tweeting, an angry mob shouting, swords clanking, horses neighing, fire crackling, a crocodile grunting and you feel as if you are there in Ancient Egypt as one of the characters of the story. It is that realistic. The narrator, Brian Blessed, has a rich, powerful voice that makes the drama exciting to listen to. We were immediately pulled into the story.

The story takes place during the times of Ancient Egypt. It follows the life of Amuba, a prince whose father was killed in battle and had been taken captive by the Egyptians. He and his servant are bought by, Ameres, a high priest in the land. Ameres treats them both well and befriends them. Amuba and his son, Chebron, quickly become friends. Together, they learn to trust each other and they experience many obstacles. They learn of a murder plot, save an Israelite woman from a hungry crocodile, accidentally kill their "sacred" cat, and flee and then fight for their lives. They learn of the one true God and trust in Him. Along with the non-stop action and exciting adventures, there are plenty of morals and Biblical truths taught along the way.

The Cat of Bubastes single package costs $29.97 (+ shipping and handling). Along with the 2-CD set, you will receive 3 bonuses:

1. The Cat of Bubastes eStudy Guide (digital download) -- This complete guide is used to enhance your learning and complement your study. Each section, which correlates to the tracks on the CDs, is  filled with review questions (Listening Well), ideas to get you thinking deeper (Thinking Further), and vocabulary words (Defining Words). There is more information about G.A. Henty and Moses; multiple Bible studies that coordinate with the story, many pictures from the times, and much more historical information. 
2. Printable Copy of Bible Verse (digital download) -- "Oh Jehovah, there is none like Thee, neither is there any god besides Thee." I Chronicles 17:21. This inspirational verse can be printed and framed to remind you of God's omnipotence.  
3. The Cat of Bubastes Soundtrack (MP3 download) -- Our family loves soundtracks. This beautiful music was written by Emmy-winning composer John Campbell (creator of the original score for C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia, Adventures in Odyssey, and more). We've enjoyed listening to this moving music while doing school, cleaning house, and folding laundry.

There is also an option of a family four-pack. For $99.97 (+ shipping and handling), you get 4 copies of the 2-CD set and the bonuses listed above, along with additional bonuses: Live the Adventure E-Newsletter; G.A. Henty's original The Cat of Bubastes e-book with colorful graphics; professionally designed, printable promotional poster; and a behind-the-scenes documentary featuring the cast and crew.

 Here's what my kids had to say about the story:

"It was cool. I didn't want it to end!"

"It was kinda funny when the guy fell on his own knife and was killed."

"It was awesome!"

"I didn't expect the arrow to deflect off a branch and kill the cat."

"I thought Perrrrrmotep was funny."

The 2+ hour audio production is ideal for ages 6-adult, but our entire family enjoyed listening to it. My kids love learning about Ancient Egypt and seeing how it correlates to the events in the Bible. (Even Moses makes an appearance in The Cat of Bubastes.) We used the study guide questions to review the story and tackle difficult topics. The kids and I especially enjoyed the sections teaching about Egyptian slavery, language, diet, hieroglyphics, mummification, and pyramids. There's even information about the importance of dung beetles and crocodiles, and a recipe for ta'amia.  The kids laughed as we talked about King Snefru, because names were so different in Ancient Egypt. Of course, the little ones didn't quite understand everything, but it's never too early to introduce quality literature. This will be a story that we reference throughout the years. The Cat of Bubastes is a wonderful resource to have. 

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You can read more reviews of this production on the Homeschool Review Crew blog.

Things That Make Me Smile 8/12/16

Jake (10½), Alyssa (8), Zac (6½), Tyler (4), Nicholas (1½)

This week, the kiddos wrote songs for their music class, searched my brother's farm for buried treasures with a metal detector, and spent time with some out-of-town friends. 

1. Jake, sad: "Aw, a new jar of mayonnaise isn't as impressive as a new jar of peanut butter."

2. Tyler, looking at pictures from a few years ago: "That's the baby version of me." 

3. Tyler, watching the Olympic 50m freestyle: "I can swim faster than every people."
Me: "Really? Even though you don't know how to swim?"
Tyler: "Yep!"

4.

5. Tyler calling hymnals "singing Bibles."

6. Tyler, after I held up a shirt for him to wear: "Yes! Aw, that is so cute."

7. Alyssa, eating: "Nicky wants a bite from Jake now."
Jake, playing off of Rock, Paper, Scissors: "Cuteness doesn't beat stomach."
Me: "Love should beat stomach though."
Jake: "Love isn't in this battle." 

8. Zac, after talking about the longest verse (Esther 8:9) and the shortest verse (John 11:35): "What's the mediumest verse in the Bible?"

9. Me, getting ready to go to the store by myself: "Are you guys going to be good?"
Jake: "Is that a rhetorical question?"


What made you Smile this week?

CHSH-Teach Review

Homeschoolers are known for their abundance of printing. We go through paper and ink (and laminating sheets, of course!) like crazy. There are so many resources online to incorporate into your study. Whether you're needing letter formation practice for your kindergartner or a study of Emily Dickinson for your senior, you can find it. But while the resources are accessible, they're not always easy to find. Who has time to search for hours for a book to teach your little one step-by-step to draw flowers when you have children to school and a house to keep in order? That's when a subscription to the CHSH Download Club makes perfect sense.

Christian HomeSchool Hub, or CHSH-Teach.com, is a collection of materials to aid in your homeschooling journey. The site was created by Lynda Ackert, a Christian wife, mother, and educator of 20+ years. Because of her passion for teaching and creating educational materials, she began this homeschooling community online. Her motto is "Every child is a Masterpiece!"

CHSH-Teach.com offers many freebies on their site, like Abraham Lincoln worksheets and US states nomenclature cards, but the bulk of the resources are found their the download club. It boasts over 50,000 pages of educational material. Fifty thousand. That's a lot of homeshooling resources found in one place! Not only that, but the materials are organized in a way that makes it simple to find exactly what you need. Resources are divided by subject, grade, months, organization, and miscellaneous. 

There is a vast amount of topics that are included, but I will list a sampling.

• Bible -- verse memorization, flashcards, puzzles, games, sermon notes
• Languages -- Spanish, French, Italian, American Sign Language
• Arts, Music, & Crafts -- instruction, drawing, knitting, embroidery, quilting, carpentry
• Language Arts -- creative writing, handwriting reading, English, grammar, spelling
• Math -- numbers, time, money, fractions, Roman numerals, multiplication, charts, graphs
• Science -- experimentation, classification, biology, astronomy, chemistry, ornithology, botany   
• Social Studies -- map skills, geography, government, US presidents, time periods, civilizations
• Electives -- architecture, character studies, social issues, safety education, Jewish history
• Health -- dental health, digestive system, skeletal system, general health, brain/nervous system  
• Treasures from the Past -- McGuffey readers, literature, poetry, music, home economics
• Fun Pages -- coloring books, individual coloring pages, word searches, puzzles
• Lapbooking & Notebooking Units -- living things, people of the Bible, early America

Since CHSH-Teach.com is a whole community of homeschoolers coming together, it offers a wide range of not only topics of study, but styles, as well. There are full ebooks, individual worksheets, flashcards, forms, organizational tips, awards, and more. Individual members can upload content to offer to others. This, along with the forums and blog, keeps the community thriving.

I have found so many resources that I want to incorporate into our schooling this year. Because there are full books included in the download club, we can truly deepen our learning of some of the subjects. My oldest is interested in the Learn How to Play Guitar book. My daughter wants to read the American Girls Handy Book published in the late 1800s. The little ones will enjoy the nomenclature cards and flashcards for various subjects.

While I plan to include some of those full books into our days, the past month I've focused more on the individual pages. I print pages for the kiddos to complete during our annual vacation. I always prepare goody bags for each child to keep them busy and happy during the drive.  Each bag contains a folder with fun learning pages (hey, I've gotta be a good homeschool mom and include some learning, right?)

We've been learning Spanish, so I included some of those, like the months of the year, parts of the body, food, and animals. There is also a full Spanish curriculum with teacher's guide along with many other related pages. The kids always like Bible resources, so I printed games from that section. My oldest is interested in learning about the inner workings of the body, so I made sure to add pages that describe body systems. As always, I found some coloring pages to include, too.

The kiddos were excited to find the pages from CHSH-Teach.com. There was such a variety that it kept them busy and entertained. I, personally, appreciate the variety and ease of use. The site is very well organized and offers so many materials for teaching every grade. I anticipate making good use of our CHSH Download Club membership over the course of this year.


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You can see how other homeschool families used this subscription by reading the reviews on the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.

Things That Make Me Smile 8/5/16

 Jake (10½), Alyssa (8), Zac (6½), Tyler (4), Nicholas (1½)

Happy Friday! This week we experimented at Maker Faire Detroit, the kiddos had fun playing in rain, and we made many memories.

1. The kids and I were playing Go Squish, a Spanish Go Fish game from Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids.
Jake: "Alyssa, do you have Grande y Pequeña?"
Alyssa: "No, go squish."
Tyler: "That's because Mom has it!"

2. Tyler, randomly in the middle of church: "Good thing you don't have chest hair, Mom."

3. Me: "Who loves you?"
Nicky: "Daddy!"
Me: "Yes, but Mama! Mama loves you."
Nicky: "Mama. Da-ddyyyy!!!" 

4. Me: "Is everyone ready to go to Gramma's?"
Nicky: "Meeeeee!" 

5.

6. Me talking to Alyssa: ". . . So if it doesn't work then it's pointless."
Tyler: "So, you can't point if it's pointless?"

7. Alyssa, watching me cook: "You don't measure anything? And you always make the best food!"

8. Alyssa: "Can we do that again?"
Me: "Maybe."
Alyssa: "Yay! Maybe's not no."

9. Tyler, coloring: "Yellow and pink make orange. That's creepy."

10. Me, praying: ". . . Amen."
Tyler: "Nicky kept his eyes open!"
Me: "And how do you know that?"
Tyler: "I was peeking a little bit."

What made you Smile this week?

WAY Comes Home Review

I am a firm believe in making learning fun. Kids learn best through play. They need activity and hands-on experiences. HomeSchool Scholastics, an i4 Learning Company must believe the same, because their WAY Comes Home Kit is all about learning about health and wellness in a fun, active way.

The WAY (Wellness, Academics, & You) was designed specifically for elementary homeschool. The resources provided help you teach your child all aspects of health through physical activity and fitness, nutrition and healthy eating, health communications, emotion heath, social skills, and critical thinking skills.

The kit comes with everything you need for an entire unit of study for 3 different age groups.

• Parent's Guide --  This book contains everything you need to teach the material. It includes detailed lesson plans for each of the 3 levels, including step-by-step instructions, art projects, fun activities, additional resources, and more.
• Student Journals -- Journaling is a main aspect of the curriculum. It encourages creativity, critical thinking, and language development. The journals have sections for recording personal information, writing reflections, and charting progress. There are blank pages for writing and drawing pictures, but there are also many pages with activities like coloring, marking choices, and more.
• DVD -- The DVD has video clips that enhance the lessons and motivate the students. Each level has its own clips that match the themes. Each theme has an introductory video that allows the students to meet the characters and establish the personality of each program. There are also physical activity videos. Each "deskercise" segment allows is set up so you can be active and healthy while in your homeschool room, the living room, the kitchen, anywhere.
• WAY Comes Home to MyPlate -- The food pyramid has been replaced with a practical, life application-based icon called MyPlate. This booklet breaks down the components of MyPlate and explains them in an easy-to-understand way. It takes the five food groups--fruits, vegetables, grains, protein, dairy--explains their nutrition, benefits, examples, and amounts. Charts are included so you can see how much of each group is an appropriate serving for all age levels. 
• Vocab Cards & Illustrations -- Many flashcards are included. All pages are printed on card stock and provide dashed lines to show where to cut. The vocab cards feature various words to further your healthy journey, like fitness, nutrition, respect, endurance, consumtion, and more. Each word is printed in blank block letters so the student can color them as he chooses. There are also flashcards depicting good choice/poor choice, animals, transportation, and actions. The final illustrations are face masks that can be colored, cut, and attached to string to portray the characters from Health Safari level.
• Equipment Tools -- Various supplies are needed throughout the lessons. Common household things like scissors and crayons are not included, but instead the kit contains items that are harder to find. It includes a stethoscope, stamp pad, 2 foam balls, 3 small baskets, fulcrum balance scale, glitter, vinyl tape measure, eye chart, plastic eggs, and clear counter chips. 

The curriculum is written for 3 ages levels, each with its own theme. Because it was written for homeschoolers, there are tips and activities to expand each lesson to involve children of various ages. Each theme also has its own colors to make it easy to find the sections throughout the book.

• Health Safari -- This section is geared towards kids in kindergarten-1st grade. The theme follows Samantha and the Safari Land animals as they promote physical activity, healthful nutrition, and general wellness. The videos are animated. 
• Me Mysteries -- This level is for 2nd-3rd grades. The detective theme encourages the students to explore everyday health issues through communication skills, physical activity, healthful nutrition, and critical thinking skills. The videos feature kids.
• Innerspace Adventure -- This module is for the 4th-5th grades. The WAY TEAM helps them learn about personal health and wellness. Students will develop writing skills through journaling and focus on important health issues. These videos also feature kids.

My kiddos range in age from 10 years down to 4-years-old. Since we like to do as much schooling together as we can, I chose the Me Mysteries level to use because it's right in the middle range. This curriculum is jam-packed with information and tips. Each lesson is written in the same format: Parent Prep, Lesson at a Glance, Get Things Ready, WAY Vocab Words, What To Do, Art Attack, Weekends with WAY, Pray/Reflect, WAY More Resources, WAY More Fun.  

The kids and I have enjoyed learning about health through many fun activities. Adding clothespins to paper plates to show inner way and interactive way, exercising and charting our pulse rates, coloring a model of the human heart, balancing the calories we eat with the energy we use by placing marbles on a scale, being detectives and figuring out how germs are spread with the help of glitter are some of the ways we learned.I personally found the acting in the video segments cheesy and a little over-the-top, but the kids enjoyed them. I appreciate all the varying activities throughout the book. Even though we used just the one module for all the kids, we did implement some of the ideas of the other levels, like inspecting our thumbprints and noting cause and effect actions.

The kids' favorite part of the study was the physical activity videos. We had so much fun exercising and getting active! Even the toddler joined in on the fun and was dancing around trying to imitate both the kids on the screen and the kids in our house.

One "extra" that I think is pretty neat is the WAY More Fun sections. We liked reading through the facts and learning fascinating new things. Do you know why apples float, which direction Charles Dickens slept and why, eating which food will burn more calories than you consume, or which activity doubles the number of germs on your fingertips? You can learn all these and so many more with this book.

The WAY kit is great for teaching health and wellness for multiple ages. It's multi-sensory format appeals to every kind of learner and keep them engaged. There are many additional resources that will help you stretch out the learning activities and make this a full health curriculum for your family.
 

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If you'd like to see more fun through the WAY Comes Home kit, please read the reviews on the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.

Things That Make Me Smile 7/29/16

Jake (10½), Alyssa (8), Zac (6½), Tyler (4), Nicholas (1½)

Happy Friday! This week we made watermelon jelly, spent a lot of time in the kiddie pool, and made a new batch of play dough.

1. Jake, because the friend he wanted to play with wasn't home: "I'm so bor-"

Me: *face lights up*

Jake: "Nope. Nope, not bored."

Me: "Too bad. I have plenty of chores you could do."

2. Zac, heading to bed: "I'm pretty sure this is going to be one of my best days ever."

3. Jake, because Alyssa had spent the night at my parents' house: "Can I call Alyssa and talk to her for 5 hours?"
Me: "No."
Jake: "Can I talk to her until your phone dies?"
Me:"No."
Jake: "Can I talk to her until Gramma's phone dies?"
Me: "No."
Jake: "Can I talk to her for 5 minutes?"
Me: "Yes." 

4.

5. Tyler: "Zachy, do you have a little mouth?"

Zac: "Yeah. So do you."

Tyler: "Yeah, I have a little mouth, and you have a little mouth, but Mom has a big mouth!"

6. Listening to the kids sitting in bed at night, rating my cooking with stars.

7. Zac: "Can we do origami now?"

Me: "Yes."

Zac: "You're the best mom anyone could ever have." 

8. Tyler: "Mama, I have three words for you: I, love, you." 

9.

10. Alyssa wearing a fancy party dress and playing with a sword and shield.

11. Zac, whispering in the other room: "Come on! Mom always falls for it!" And then his little face peeked around the corner.

Me: "I always fall for what?"

Zac: "Uhhhhh . . . "

What made you Smile this week?

Can Do Cubes

This review goes hand-in-hand with the jollyliteracy.com and just2ducks LLC Jolly Phonics and Grammar review that I posted earlier this week. Like I said before, I loved teaching my first grade students in the classroom to read many years ago, and I love even more teaching my own kids at home now. To me, it's one of the most rewarding privileges of homeschooling the early years. Words are everywhere--books, signs, stores, mail, directions, recipes, letters. Whether it's for entertainment purposes or to increase knowledge, reading is an every-day skill. Literature is the foundation of our schooling, so reading well is vital in our family.

I taught my first 3 kids to read without the use of any curricula. My philosophy for little ones is that they learn best through play. I teach letters through manipulatives, puzzles, games, and typical conversations (saying things like, "Do you see that M on that sign?" and "Look! There's a T just like your name.") Once letters and sounds have been learned, we move to blending into words, using the same methods, adding in writing the words on paper or dry erase board. Any time you can get a little one involved in sensory learning, the lesson is fun, inviting, and productive. These Can Do Cubes are perfect for our style of learning.  

The Can Do Cubes set is used to teach synthetic phonics. The approach, as I described above, begins by teaching simple phonemes (sounds), blending them to make words, teaching complex phonemes, and blending those. The set contains many components to complement any synthetic phonics program.

• Stage 1 Cubes -- 27 1-inch cubes showing one spelling for each of the 44+ sounds that make up the simple alphabetic code.
• Stage 2 Cubes -- 30 individual 1-inch cubes along with 2 cubes connected with a string (to represent split digraph sounds) showing the spellings for the 175+ sounds of the complex alphabetic code.
• Handbook for Stage 1 -- Small spiral-bound book filled with information about reading, such as pre-reading activities, explanation of the alphabetic code, encoding, pronunciation chart, notes, and much more.
• Handbook for Stage 2 -- An identical book to the other, but filled with helpful instruction of the complex alphabetic code cubes, capital letters and punctuation, reading and spelling activities, phonemes charts, and more.
• Teaching Learning and "Sounding Out" DVD -- An interactive demonstration of pronunciation and sounding out of words presented by Debbie Hepplewhite, synthetics phonics consultant and creator of the Can Do Cubes set.
• Phonics Chart -- A large chart that explains phonemes, graphemes, and teaching points for each.
• Word Charts -- Two large charts that list by cube number the words that can be made.   
• Teacher's Guide and Template Book CD -- Includes online templates and worksheets in PDF for easy printing.

The cubes themselves are made of hardwood and laser-engraved. The Stage 1 cubes each have a small number at the bottom, indicating its placement of learning.  There are 8 different cubes: 6 of number 1 and 3 of numbers 2-8.  Each number cube is the same and contains all of the sounds for the number. For example, all 6 number 1 cubes have the letters s, a, t, i, p, n.

The Stage 2 cubes show the spelling variations for the 44 sounds. For example, one cube shows the different long a sounds: ai, ay, a, ey, eigh, ea. There are also cube for capital letters, punctuation, double letters, and split vowel digraphs. Each cube type is arranged in a way to make it easy to find.

The Can Do Cubes are listed in the order of the Jolly Phonics curriculum, so it made it easy for us to use the two resources together. My 4-year-old is at the beginning stages of reading and is just learning to blend sounds to make words. While he does enjoy sitting at the table and reading simple CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words, he much prefers to "play" with his blocks. The multi-sensory approach works very well for him.

There are many ways in which we use these cubes:

• I make a sound and he finds the matching letter.
• I say a word and he finds the letters to make it.
• I make a word and he reads it.
• I make a word and he finds the letters to copy it.
• I put 2 letters and leave a space for another. I say a word and he finds the missing letter.
• I make a word and he finds all the possible rhyming words.

The possibilities of learning with these cubes are really endless. You can say a word, have the student make it with the cubes, and then write it on paper. Or for even younger kids, you can have them find all the matching letters on the cubes. You could use them in a hangman type game or the child makes a word for you to read. If it involves letters, sounds, or reading, you can use these cubes to do it.

The materials are well-made and fit in the main box, making it easy to keep track of it all. The trays have pull tabs on the sides so you can easily get them out. Even my older kids have enjoyed the cubes, both by themselves and helping their learning-to-reading little brother. I love that the trays list which cubes belong where, especially for those times when the toddler like to dump everything out at once, ha.

If you have a student who is learning to read, struggling with spelling, or just needs a multi-sensory approach, we recommend the Can Do Cubes. 


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You can see how other homeschool families used these cubes by reading the reviews on the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.