All About Homophones

All About Homophones is an ebook that teaches you, you guessed it, all about homophones. This is put out by the same company who created All About Spelling. Let me just say, this company is nothing if not thorough. This is a wonderful resource.

Personally, I like to teach these kinds of things in a more relational manor, as they come up. For instance, let’s say you’re reading Truman’s Aunt Farm, a Five in a Row book. You would find that the whole point to the book is a misunderstanding due to the whole Aunt/ant thing. While you are working on the Language Arts section you’ll notice in the Five in a Row manual that they talk a lot about homophones. This would be a great time to get out the All About Homophones book!

I really like that they have lists of homophones broken down into grade level, and they also have several worksheets and games broken down into grade level as well. Your child can make what they call ‘Graphic organizers’ which are basically pages your child makes with words, pictures, sentences and definitions of various homophones.

I am glad to have this ebook sitting on my virtual curriculum shelf to pull out when the homophone strikes.


The cost for this book is $29.95 for the hardcopy and $27.95 for the ebook.

Rooted and Grounded Bible Study

I was sent a copy of Rooted and Grounded by Deeper Roots Publications to review. Rooted and Grounded ‘is a Bible based study curriculum appropriate for upper level high school students in home school, Christian school, college, and adult discipleship.’

This is a very meaty study, covering topics such as Doctrine of Sanctification, A Pure and Holy Life, Principles of Relationship and Fellowship, Submission and Obedience to Authority, and Mystery of Prayer to name a few.

Don’t mistake this for a devotional. It is not. It is a Bible Class, heavy on the academics. But don’t let that scare you away. If you are looking for a Bible Study for your teen, especially one that you are planning on doing with your teen, this is an excellent choice.

I also think this would make a great co op class. There is much in this book that would lend itself to some wonderful discussions in a class or between parent and child. I’ve even talked to the leader of my adult Ladies Bible Study and we might possibly use this in the future.

I definitely give this an A+.

If you go to the site, you can request some sample pages to get an idea of how this study works and what is involved.

Deeper Roots Publications has Bible Studies available for all ages, by the way, but I’ve only seen (AND LIKED!) Rooted and Grounded.

Spears Art Studio

I’m going to be honest with you. Art is not my thing. I can, if pressed, draw a stick figure, and occasionally, it can be recognized as such.

The problem is, my children seem to be be artistically inclined, especially one of my daughters. When I was given Spears Art Studio to try out, I was equal parts anticipation and trepidation.

At first I encountered some technical difficulty, the CD Rom in my laptop died. Not at all related to the Art curriculum, except it is the reason this review is later than it should be!

Once I got everything up and running, I loaded in the CD Rom and was amazed. I have to say I LOVE the way this is laid out. There is an overview page, a scope and sequence page, an introduction page and then the art lessons are broken down by month. Inside January’s folder, you will find separate pages for how to complete the project (one per week) based on the age of your student using the same materials. So you can be teaching the same art concept to a 1st grader, a 3rd grader, and an 8th grader, but the project they are actually working on will be age appropriate. Not to mention the step by step instructions and the suggestions for appropriate art for the students to look to for examples.

I am really not very eloquent in the vocabulary of the art programs, so I don’t feel this review is doing this program justice. It is an entire year’s art curriculum, for students from K – 8th grade. (There is also a High school program, but I have not seen that one). If you scroll about halfway down this page you can see some samples of the monthly modules.

Personally, I feel like this is a winner. The price ($35 for the CD Rom) cannot be beat. I encourage you to pop on over to Spears Art Studio’s website and check it out for yourself. You might really like this art curriculum, even if you can barely draw a stick figure, or perhaps I should say especially if you can barely draw a stick figure!

By the way, if you want to read what some others who are reviewing this product thought of it, you can go here to read about 100 more reviews.

Online Writing Course

I have found a new tool to add to my language arts arsenal. This website, Time4Writing, offers writing courses for varying age ranges. The thing that makes it unique is that the courses are only 8 weeks long, and broken down into specific sections. Personally, I love this.

My 8th grade son needs some help in specific areas of his writing, but not all areas. I would find it a waste of time and money to sign him up for the entire 8th grade year because many of the things offered for 8th graders, he does not need. I signed him up for Beginning Essay’s and will probably have him take Advanced Essay after he has completed this class.

You can go here to see how it works (click on Login as Guest and it will take you to the demo page), the FAQ's page is also full of helpful information. Basically, the student signs up, sees the first assignment, does it, and sends it in to the teacher. The student then waits for feedback from the teacher before progressing.

The program is somewhat self paced, in that the student can do the assignments at their leisure throughout the week, but cannot go on ahead on most things until they have gotten feedback from the teacher on the last thing they turned in. While the program is not totally self paced, it does afford some leeway in exactly when the assignments are done.

I have found so far, the teacher to have positive comments and constructive criticism.

My 8th grader just started this week, and he has enjoyed it so far. (well, as much as an 8th grade boy can enjoy essay writing) and I am pleased as well.

You can go here to see what they offer, and their pricing structure.

I will write another review of this program at the end of the 8 weeks, telling you how the class went in total.

Writing Contest!

Exciting News from TOS!

Attention writers!
Grab your pencils and get those creative juices flowing!

The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine is hosting our second Storytime Writing Contest! We have two creative fiction categories: adults (16 and up 2,500 words or less) and children (15 and below 1,500 words or less). Deadline to enter is March 16, 2009. $7.95 fee per entry.

Grand prize winners in both the adult and child categories will receive prize packages valued at over $1,000, publication in the Summer 2009 issue of TOS, and publication in our Storytime 2009 Compilation E-Book. Eleven Honorable Mentions from each category will also be included in the E-Book in addition to receiving gifts from top homeschool companies.

We look forward to reading your entries!

For a detailed list of prizes, official contest rules, to meet our judges, and to upload your story, please visit: The Homeschool Magazine.

Need help teaching writing? We have over 200 writing products in the Schoolhouse Store!

(The above was cut and pasted from TOS Magazine. I thought some of you might be interested. Whatever we can do to get the kids writing, right!?)