Schleich Action Figures

How cool are these?



I keep getting sent the coolest toys to review for you, which is nice, but also kinda frustrating because they’re about 14 years too late.








My boys would have LOVED these when they were little! I spent at least 12 years toting around some sort of miniature motor vehicle or animal replica in my purse. My boys loved cars and animals.

They didn’t have little animal replicas like this when my boys were little. Not that I can remember anyway. These things are so realistic! They are also just heavy enough to be sturdy, but not so heavy that you couldn’t manage to carry a few around in your purse for your emergency entertainment needs.

Schleich makes some really great stuff! They offer a lot more than just animals. You can go here to see what else they offer. I mean look at the Knights! How adorable!



Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go play with my new toys arrange the animal replicas in a nice display.


Happy Homeschooling!

Beautifully Made

I was sent a set of books, entitled Beautifully Made, written by the founders of Generations of Virtue. It is a set of three books about a girls changing body. I so appreciated how this set of books was described on the website that I have copied and pasted it here. I don’t think I can improve upon this description…

Written by the founders of Generations of Virtue (various women and teenagers), this set of books is specifically designed to help guide girls and their mothers through the passage from girlhood to womanhood. These books focus on a girl's first period and what a beautiful and wonderful time that is. The message of this series is that women are blessed with God's gift to be able to give life. Our culture has made a women's period out to be a burden, but our desire was to write something that really celebrated the period and emphasized the positive aspects of womanhood--not the negatives. Both mother and daughter can go through the first two books together. These books are sensitively designed with young girls in mind: they only focus on a girl's body changes and do not go into boys and their changes.

These books are just that. They are not sensationalized or gimmickie, they are simple and yet very deep. I personally found them very helpful. I have two daughters who, despite my best efforts to find a way to freeze time, are growing up quickly. I am so very grateful to have these books sitting on my shelf waiting for the time when they will be needed.

The price for this set is 18.99. I think it’s worth every dime.

I was only sent this set of books from Generations of Virtue, but in doing my research for this review I found many other things on their website that I have my eye on, things specific for boys and girls. What a great resource Generations of Virtue is!

Happy Homeschooling!

Tell Me More Spanish

I was sent Tell Me More Spanish curriculum to review. Turns out it is not currently available and we on the crew were some of the first to get to use it. I LOVE that! You will be able to purchase it in April.

When I got the box in the mail I was surprised. This is not an inexpensive curriculum and I guess I expected there to be more to it. It’s just a box with a CD Rom and a headset in it. I was under impressed. But once I got into it, my impression changed.

Tell Me More Spanish is quite a course! It covers 4 levels; Complete Beginner, Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. You can create different accounts for each of your children and yourself, that way you can all work at your own pace.

This curriculum also has voice recognition software. That is where the head set and microphone come in. This is huge because it helps you get your accent and pronunciation correct. You don’t get that from a written curriculum.

There are tests available to help you track your students progress and 24/7 adviser if you need help with how to use the software via an online chat feature.

There is just so much in that one little CD Rom I hardly know where to start. You can set it up one of three ways; Free-to-Roam, Guided, or Dynamic. Personally, I think it best to set it up in the Free-to-Roam mode at first and let your students play with it. Then choose either the Guided or Dynamic from there.

This course is a little pricy at 319.99 but you are getting several levels that can be used with several students.

Overall, I think TellMeMore is a wonderful program that my family will be using for years to come.

Happy Homeschooling!

Noah's Ark

One 2 Believe is a company making Christian themed toys. Earlier in the year they sent me the Nativity set, which I loved. Recently they also sent me Noah’s Ark.

Noah’s Ark has Noah, of course, and 14 of his animal friends and his ark.

One 2 Believe makes a high quality toy that is sure to last many, many hours of play. There is nothing that warms a mother’s heart more than seeing her child reenact the stories from the Bible they have been learning. It helps them cement in their brains these very important Bible stories.

One 2 Believe has many other items to choose from, you can see more here.

To check out Noah and his Ark, go here.

To see what others are saying about One 2 Believe’s Noah’s Ark, go here.

My only complaint about this toy is that I did not have it years ago when my kids were smaller!

Happy Homeschooling!

Homeschool In The Woods

Lap Books

Two words that strike fear into my heart. Anything in the arts and crafts field makes me feel frightned. My poor children.

We’ve never done a lap book before. My sister in law makes lap books with her children. They are a thing to behold. Looking at them makes me twitchy.

When I received The New Testament Lap Book to review I was a little apprehensive. Spatially, I am not terribly adept, so I really appreciated the clear directions and the pictures. The pictures were very helpful.

Sadly, I still did not always understand exactly what I was supposed to be doing, but I’m pretty sure that was just me because my 9 and 11 year old daughters had no such trouble figuring out what to do.

Overall, this seemed like a high quality, well thought out product. I cannot compare it to other Lap Books because whenever someone said ‘lapbook’ in the past, I ran the other way. This was our first.

We are not finished with the Lap Book, we have a few more projects to go and then it will need to be assembled. Perhaps when we finish I will post pictures. Who am I kidding? When we finish it I will post pictures and shot from the rooftops that a lap book was created here at the Hilltop Academy. It will be a monumental occasion!

Homeschool in the Woods has several other products available, including many timeline products that I have used in the past. I have always been impressed with the quality of their products and the Lap Book is no exception.

You can go here to see what others are saying about the Lap book.

You can go here to see what other products Homeschool in the Woods has to offer.

Happy Homeschooling!

Spellquizzer

Spellquizzer is exactly what it sounds like, a program you can use to quiz your child on spelling. At first, when I opened it I was unimpressed. It is just a small little box that asked me to create a list. Hummm, okay. I started to create a list (without reading any of the directions. Brilliant, I know) but after a few minutes I figured it out. Somehow, this cool program knows how to make my computer record my voice. This is really impressive because I don’t even know how to make my computer record my voice.

Here is how it works. You open it, type in the word then hit the ‘record’ button. I would then say, “Very. It is very cold. Very” Then hit the ‘Stop Recording’ button and then the ‘add word’ button. Done!

You do this for all the words (or, you could have your student do it, which would be good practice). Once I had my lists created, I had my kids go in, find their list and then spend 10 or 15 minutes on it day. It was quick and easy and didn’t need me AT ALL except for the initial set up.

Another way this program can be used is instead of recording your voice; you can type in the definition of the word. Or (some of the ladies on the Crew came up with this and I think it’s a brilliant idea!) you could use this for vocabulary words. One of my children is doing a science program with many vocabulary words and they are tricky to spell. I have him type them into the program and work on them throughout the week just as he would his spelling words.

Honestly, for a program that I can download instantly, at a reasonable $30 I think it is a great deal. I get to keep it and use it for years, for various students and I can save my lists from one child to the other. That I really like as well.

Overall, I think I really like this program.

You can go here to read more reviews.

You can go here to try a demo or buy the program.

Happy Homeschooling!

ARTistic Pursuits

Let me begin by telling you if you are an artist, you might want to just click on over here to the TOS Crew and read some of the other reviews because I am a total artistic novice. This review is being written by a mom who failed Arts and Crafts. However, I will do my best to give you my impression of this curriculum.

ARTistic Pursuits is an art curriculum created by a homeschooling mom, for homeschooling families. I really appreciate this and feel that not only am I supporting another homeschooler, but only another homeschooler would understand the unique needs of the homeschooled student.

When I received the book in the mail I opened it and got a little twitchy. I am not artistic. I cannot state that strongly enough. The thing is…I have a daughter that is.

So I did what any homeschooling mom would do. I delegated. I handed the book off to my 11 year old daughter and let her loose.

She really liked it. She read over several lessons and even came to me to show me some of the ways the author showed you various art techniques in actual paintings. She did not do many of the activities as she is currently working on something for her art class, but she did ask if I would be willing to allow her to work on this curriculum this summer.

Um, really? I think a hearty yes was the answer!

So while I don’t know much about art or art curriculum, I do know that my daughter wanted to work on this in her spare time. Is there a better endorsement?

Now, if you want to find out about this yourself go here. There is a great deal of information on the website for you to find out more about this curriculum. Also, and this I thinks speaks volumes, if you order it and you look at it and decide it’s not for you, you can send it back and get a refund.

Remember that thing called customer service? I think I’ve found it.

Happy Homeschooling!

Five in a Row

I’m just going to say it right up front. This review is not going to be unbiased. I love Five in a Row and have been using it for years and I think you, whoever you are or whatever age your students are, should go out and buy it. Now.

When my boys were little we used another well known literature based curriculum. I was a first time homeschooler and thought in order to have a successful day we had to check off every box. My poor boys.

I was a little more laid back when it came time to homeschool the girls, and we did not check off every box anymore. But I felt guilty for not getting it all done.
I had a friend tell me about Five in a Row (FIAR) when the boys were younger so when I saw a copy of Volume 1 at a homeschool convention I picked it up and glanced at it. I am sad to say my reaction was “eh, nothing special. Just a bunch of writing to the teacher. How do I translate this into a school day? Where are the little boxes for me to check off?”

When it was time to school the girls I ran into Jane and Steve Lambert at the homeschool convention and had the opportunity to ask them. How does this work. How do I take this seemingly innocuous little teachers book and translate it into a school day?

What I heard changed the way we homeschool. FIAR is not a check-off-the-boxes kind of curriculum. It is relational. It is gentle.

I started with Volume 1 book 1, which was Ping. (It’s hard to break from doing things in order!) I still remember that week fondly. (Actually we did Ping for two weeks because we were having so much fun!) We read the book 3 times that week (you’re supposed to read it 5 times and we did work up to that eventually). We used sentences from the book for copywork which is a combination of handwriting practice and language arts practice. We read about China in age appropriate library books. We found China on a map. We learned why the Yangtze River is yellow. We talked about lying and how it’s always better to fess up and face the consequences. We learned all about the anatomy of ducks. We went to a duck pond and fed the ducks.

I still cannot believe how simply I was able to teach my then 4 and 5 year old daughters so very much with just one book, a little planning using the FIAR guide and a lot of conversation.

I know I’ve gone on and on about how much we loved FIAR and we did. But I was actually sent Beyond Five in a Row Volume 2 to review for you. BYFIAR is very much like FIAR, except if it is for, say it with me now…students who are beyond Five in a Row! It is the same concept, the same gentle, conversational teaching approach only with more age appropriate chapter books.

There are 4 chapter books in each volume of BYFIAR; two fiction and two nonfiction. In Vol 2 covers the books Sarah Plain and Tall and Skylark and The Story of George Washington Carver and Helen Keller. The beauty of BYFIAR is its flexibility. Some weeks you’ll get nearly a chapter a day done, including reading the chapter and doing the various activities from the manual. Other weeks there will be so many wonderful opportunities for further research and learning that you will spend a week on one chapter.

Honestly I could go on for pages regaling you with the benefits of using FIAR in your homeschool but I think I’ll stop there.

If you are at all interested in FIAR, I highly recommend you go the the website and the forums. Register at the forums and you will be able to see the archives were other FIAR moms have given their ideas and suggestions for each book.

Here are the things currently offered by FIAR. At this time, even though we on the forums have nagged incessantly, there is no high school program from the Lamberts.

The following links tell you about more about each product. You can go here to purchase.

Before Five in a Row – Preschool

Five in a Row Volumes 1-4 ages 4 to 8.

Beyond Five in a Row volumes 1-3 ages 8 to 12.

Above and Beyond FIAR ages 12 and up.

Digital Produces – Lapbooks corresponding with the books and various nature studies and whatnot.


Happy Homeschooling!