Tag: curriculum review

Curriculum Reviews, Homeschooling

Creating an American History Lapbook with Sonlight

Gina @ Oaxacaborn
Sonlight history lapbook review 
Disclosure: Sonlight provided me with a lapbook kit and compensated me financially for this post. I have used many Sonlight products in our homeschool prior to reviewing this product. All opinions — and photographs! ;) — are my own, and I was not required to write a positive review.

I tend to struggle with keeping engaged when it comes to American history. I’m so much more of a globetrotter in my preferred reading material! But Sonlight’s American history literature selections are impressive. (I rave about them here.)

In addition to reading through Sonlight’s extensive US history booklists this year, my twelve-year-old has also spent hours pouring over Sonlight’s incredible US history lapbooking kits.

Continue reading “Creating an American History Lapbook with Sonlight” →
Curriculum Reviews, Homeschooling

A-Z Magnatab: A Hands-on Activity for Teaching Preschoolers Letters

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

It’s been so fascinating watching as Lochlan (age 3.5) begins to be enamored with the alphabet. Aveline was obsessed with letters from an early age, but since I knew her journey wasn’t typical, I didn’t expect Lochlan to be the same. I assumed he wouldn’t show much interest on his own, and imagined I’d teach him his letters at five or six, especially since — as everyone keeps reminding me — “He’s a boy!“

But I also believe in honoring the marvelously individual child God created, truly seeing their unique individuality, and following their cues.

Continue reading “A-Z Magnatab: A Hands-on Activity for Teaching Preschoolers Letters” →
Curriculum Reviews, Homeschooling

Teaching Chinese Brush Painting in your Homeschool

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

Mandarin Chinese has been a foundational part of Aveline’s educational experience for years. In fact, six out of seven days of the week involve some sort of Chinese learning, and she’s spent spent every Saturday at Chinese school for the past 9 years. (Josiah, her faithful chauffeur, is a saint. And Aveline is incredibly devoted and focused, because she’s the only one in our family who speaks Chinese.)

Continue reading “Teaching Chinese Brush Painting in your Homeschool” →
Curriculum Reviews, Homeschooling

Illusion Cubes: Create Your Own Optical Illusions

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

Aveline likes to circle wishlist items in the Timberdoodle catalog (seriously; who needs Toys R Us?) She’s a mathy kid with an artistic twist — a fan of tessellations, logic puzzles, intricate geometric art, and Mondrian’s blocky masterpieces — so Illusion Cubes immediately intrigued her.

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Curriculum Reviews, Homeschooling

8 Reasons You Need IQ Six Pro, A Popular Logic Game

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

Phew, a new year! Are you ready? Flipping the calendar page this year has been crazy. Our January has been an absolute blur, and not in a good way. (Go away, germs. You’re no longer welcome here.) With everyone at my house being in various states of illness and quite frankly disrepair, independent activities for each person have been a lifesaver.

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Curriculum Reviews, Homeschooling

Fischertechnik E-Tronic Review: Easy STEM Elective for Middle/High School

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

STEM education has been firmly in the spotlight for a long time now, with no signs of wavering. Learning materials promising to infuse science, technology, engineering and math into your homeschool are everywhere. But without actually opening the box and trying the products, it can be hard to know if pre-packaged STEM projects are truly worthwhile, or if they’re just really expensive toys masquerading as educational. Let’s take a look at one popular STEM toy and see if it’s worth the hype.

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Curriculum Reviews, Homeschooling

Review of Veritas Press Self-Paced History Courses

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

Veritas Press Self-Paced History Review

Now through JUNE 28, 2022, get $100 off any self-paced course (omnibus, Bible, or history) when you use code INDEPENDENT.

If some part of homeschooling isn’t working for you, change it!

Depending on when you started school, Thanksgiving break marks about twelve or fifteen weeks into the academic year. By now, you’ve been at this long enough to grasp a sense of what curriculum is working well for you — and what isn’t. Enough time has passed for you to take a healthy assessment of your real homeschool situation, as opposed to your ideal homeschool situation. If things aren’t running as smoothly as you had hoped, don’t despair! It’s early enough in the school year to make changes.

Homeschooling, like parenting, is a strange beast. It requires humility and flexibility — but it also requires confidence and assertiveness. Like Kenny Rogers sang, “You’ve got to know when to hold ’em / Know when to fold ’em / Know when to walk away…” (Probably not a song that shows up in many homeschool morning times, I’m guessing.)

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Curriculum Reviews, Homeschooling

Using an American History Timeline to Teach History Analytically

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

Teaching History Analytically with an American History TimelineI’m on a perpetual quest to find accurate US history curriculums for kids — but you already knew this about me, right? Compared to objective subjects like math and science, I find history to be particularly challenging to teach properly. While it’s easy for me to seek out the right curriculum — or YouTube video — to help me explain a mathematical concept, it’s much more difficult to offer an accurate commentary on historical events and indeed, people’s own lives.

History is a complex tapestry. There are threads of war, famine, discovery, and conquest, all woven together with the threads of individual people. But people’s lives are complicated. Too many history curriculums offer snap judgments  — telling students exactly what to think — but there’s always more to understand. Biographies are an important key in unraveling historical mystery, because they reveal context, cultural backdrop, and personal motivations. Yet no matter how many rich, enlightening biographies we read, history remains a sequential course of study. Years are chronological. To tie all these separate events and people together and deepen our understanding of what really happened — and how all these different parts are connected — we need to lay out these puzzle pieces in a logical, sequential, pattern.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received free digital and print copies of The Giant American History Timeline from Sunflower Education, and was compensated for my time in exchange for writing and publishing this post. All opinions are my own, and I was not required to write a positive review. 

Continue reading “Using an American History Timeline to Teach History Analytically” →