The Sonrise Stable series of books (presently there are four books in the series) is the heartwarming, continuing story of an extended homeschooling family. Mixing adventure, life lessons, and realistic horse experiences, the series is a must for readers who enjoy family values, the Christian faith, and, of course, horses!

As mentioned, there are four books in series (a fifth one is slated)–a synopsis of the four books follows:

Book 1: Sonrise Stable: Rosie and Scamper

While learning to ride at Sonrise Stable, eight-year-old Rosie dreams of the horse shows she will win with her pony, Jet. Two years later, nothing is exactly the way Rosie planned it—she’s riding a new pony, Scamper, and learning that life isn’t always easy. But it’s as Rosie reaches out to the new girl next door that she truly begins to see that God works all things together for good in our lives.

Book 2: Sonrise Stable: Carrie and Bandit

Carrie can’t believe it—she has a horse of her own and is only weeks away from being adopted by the most loving family she’s ever known. But Bandit is harder to manage than she first imagined—and the adoption might not go as smoothly as she thought either. When a bad decision jeopardizes everything, Carrie learns what it means to be forgiven and truly loved.

Book 3: Sonrise Stable: Clothed With Thunder

After sitting through a 4-H demonstration on the evolution of the horse, Rosie and Carrie are determined to present the arguments for creation at the club’s next meeting. The demonstration proves harder to put together than they imagined as everyone offers the girls their opinions. The lessons Rosie learns about creation extend into her life in surprising ways as she faces her old adversary, Billy King, who cheated her out of her first trophy with her pony, Scamper.

Book 4: Sonrise Stable: Tender Mercies

When Rosie, Carrie, and Grandma are asked to help out at Last Chance Corral, a nursemare foal rescue, Rosie is shocked when she experiences firsthand how cruel some people can be to animals. During the week at Last Chance, the girls learn that the God who knows when a sparrow falls to the ground works through the kindness of others to provide for the animals He created. For the foals, and the girls, Last Chance Corral is a life-changing experience.

In addition to the books, the Sonrise site also sells very attractive horse-related jewelry. The various pieces range in style and price—and all are attractive.  A piece of horse-related jewelry with the four books, makes the PERFECT gift (very appealing) for the young homeschooling girl (or tween) in your life. When the books and the bracelet we chose (the red stretchy bracelet—very cute) arrived at our office, there were MANY “oohs and ahhs” (as my father use to say)—everyone appreciated the overall look—and really, everyone wanted a set of their own!

Oak Meadow School offers homeschooling curriculum and an accredited online distance school for grades K-12.  Their curriculum and programs are strong academically, and provide the flexibility that homeschoolers expect.  Their curriculum and programs accommodate visual, auditory, and physical learning styles, providing opportunities for all children to learn easily, and successfully.

We asked for, and received, the Fifth Grade program.  When it arrived (yes, arrived—real books, craft projects and more), we were pleasantly surprised (and downright amazed!) by the quality, and the quantity of the materials we received.

Specifically, we received—

• Texts covering the subjects of English/U.S. History, Math and Science.
• A Teacher’s Manual, as well as the Answer Keys for reviews and tests.
• Nine soft cover books, including such titles as Johnny Tremain, Harriet Tubman, If You Sailed on the Mayflower, Little House on the Prairie, and more.
• A large craft kit, containing colored pencils, embroidery thread, a loom kit, sketch pad, paint brushes, and more (The craft kit is not included in the curriculum package but can be purchased separately—and we did receive it).

In all?  27 items!

The English and Social Studies text is all one book.  It combines geography, literature, and early American history, and challenges students to draw parallels across the subjects. The Science text encourages students to engage in investigations and experiments that cultivate essential scientific skills such as forming hypotheses, conducting observations, and taking field notes. The lessons emphasize the scientific method, conservation ecology, meteorology, anatomy, and astronomy.  They also lay the groundwork for more extensive scientific studies in the upper grades. The Math curriculum presents a substantial review of all four basic processes and fraction concepts, with an emphasis on word problems and practical problem solving. Students strengthen their foundational skills in preparation for moving into more advanced computational skills.

Interested in viewing a sample lesson plan?  You may do so by clicking here .

Families may purchase Oak Meadow materials to use independently, or choose to enroll in Oak Meadow’s distance learning school in order to receive the support of an experienced teacher as well as official school records.

Oak Meadow is accredited through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools/Council of Accreditation and School Improvement (SACS/CASI). Through this accreditation, Oak Meadow is also recognized by several other regional accrediting agencies, including the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, the Northwest Association of Accredited Schools, and the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.

Accreditation, thorough curriculum, you as the teacher….or assistance from an experienced teacher if you want one….really, Oak Meadow covers all the bases!

Woody’s World, book written by E.Renee Heiss, book illustrated by Chelsea Sekanic

Book published by Character Publishing

Ages 8 and Up

124 pages

Approx. price $18

Woody’s World is a charming, thought-provoking book about the adventures of a creative twelve-year-old boy during The Great Depression. The book chronicles his fun, fool-hardy life prior to the stock market crash, through the following year, as he grows from a boy who tends to get into trouble, to a determined, hard-working young man—a true entrepreneur, who is able to partially support his family.

Because this book was written about a different time, there are numerous historical/cultural talking points. Read the book with your child and take the time to stop and discuss various subjects as they arise.  On the positive side—it was a time when kids played outside safely for hours on end, without needing to tell their parents where they were, and a time when close-knit communities kept an eye out for each of their young members. Unfortunately, it was also a time when it was the norm for children to receive corporal punishment, and a time when African Americans were called negative names due to their race.

Woody’s World is the recipient of the 2013 Children’s Literary Classics Seal of Approval—and a great book to read with your children.

Entelechy Education

Ages 5-10

$3.99-$14.95, Free Learning Guides

STEM is the acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. A common definition for STEM is…

“…an interdisciplinary approach to learning where rigorous academic concepts are coupled with real-world lessons as students apply science, technology, engineering and mathematics in contexts that make connections between school, community, work and the global enterprise enabling the development of STEM literacy and with it the ability to compete in the new economy.”  Tsupros, N., R. Kohler, and J. Hallinen, 2009. STEM education: A project to identify the missing components, Intermediate Unit 1 and Carnegie Mellon, Pennsylvania

Entelechy Education, LLC takes STEM one step further, with STEM-C™ education – a unique combination of STEM and character education.

This integration occurs in a three book series written by Renee Heiss and Gary A. Stewart and illustrated by Fay Cofrancesco. Each book presents a single-concept STEM topic, combined with a character education topic.

For instance, in the book, Where’s Green?, the EnteleTrons™ help align the seven colors of the rainbow, while exploring the visible spectrum in a prism. Through character interaction, the EnteleTrons™ show everyone the value of cooperation within a group.

In Oxygen Finds Friends, the characters help atoms and molecules come together to form new compounds. Through character interaction, the EnteleTrons™ help young readers understand tolerance of others’ differences.

In the book What’s the Matter? the three primary states of matter understand their role in the water cycle, also exploring temperature and insulation. Through character interaction, the EnteleTrons™ help young readers accept the changes that occur in their lives.

As an additional aid, a free and downloadable learning guide accompanies each title. The guides are cross curricular and support core standards. The EnteleKeyLearning Guides™ offer activities, simple experiments, and discussion questions. The company also offers a free downloadable guide of Creative Options for Writing Assignments in Elementary Science using the EnteleTrons™ Series of Books. The outside STEM resources listed on the site are also helpful.

There are three levels of books–Basic (Where’s Green?), Intermediate (What’s the Matter?), and Advanced (Oxygen Finds Friends). Start with the Basic and move into the other two as your children are ready.

This is a great series–scientific and wholesome–really, what more could you want?

Fun–and fun learning is forever learning!

Ann Simpson

Time4Writing.com

Ages Elementary—High School, Writing Resource

$99 per Writing Class

Time4Writing provides 8-week online writing courses, with one-on-one feedback and interaction with a certified teacher.  Classes are offered at the beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels for students in the elementary through high school grades.  If you’re not sure which class is right for your child, Time4Writing provides an online Course Placement Tool to assist in the decision making process.

The elementary online writing courses start at the pre-writing level with a beginner course on grammar usage. Other elementary writing courses cover topics such as the parts of speech, punctuation, subject and predicates, sentence structure, sentence types and different types of paragraphs. An advanced elementary writing course introduces the essay, teaches about expository, persuasive and narrative variations and culminates with a five paragraph essay. Both parents and students appreciate the help of a certified online writing tutor as assignments are graded and feedback is provided.

The middle school online writing courses start at the beginner level with a basic writing mechanics course, which focuses on writing fundamentals such as sentences vs. fragments, subjects and predicates, subject-verb agreement and capitalization. Intermediate courses include writing enhancements, paragraph writing and a middle school essay writing course that is designed to strengthen the student’s ability to write a well-structured essay. The advanced middle school writing course teaches students to find their voice and create essays that match style and media. Online writing courses for middle school students led by certified teachers ensure that students are as proficient constructing a solid paragraph as they are crafting a well-balanced essay.

The high school online writing courses allow students to strengthen their writing skills at a level that recognizes their maturity. Beginner level courses include “Grammar, Usage and Mechanics” and “High School Paragraphs,” which focus on sentence structure, proper punctuation, capitalization, subject-verb agreement, paragraph structure, types of paragraphs and proofreading. Intermediate courses include paragraph and essay writing courses that develop skills and introduce students to the essay writing process from the pre-writing to revision stage. The essay writing for the SAT course is designed for students who want to strengthen their essay writing skills in order to achieve higher SAT scores.

With all the above courses, students complete their work online through an easy to use interface and submit their completed assignments to an assigned teacher who then grades and provides feedback through the students’ online account.  Students can send messages to their assigned teacher in order to ask questions about assignments or to discuss progress. Parents receive mid-course and end of course reports. At the successful completion of the course, students receive a completion certificate.

Want to see how it works?  View their two-minute tour.

In addition to the courses, Time4Writing provides free writing tips and additional resources on their site.  Plus, Time4Writing offers a satisfaction guarantee, which allows you to cancel or switch courses at any time if you are not satisfied with the product within the first 14 days. The courses cost $99 each.

Because Time4Writing is an online course, it is convenient for the ultra- busy homeschooling student and parent. Time4Writing  is great for the child who likes to work at his/her own pace (make sure they can do so within the allotted time).

Homeschool.com had a recent college graduate with weak writing skills, take the SAT Essay Writing class—and her writing skills improved!   Because of this, we believe the high school courses are appropriate for college-aged students, and parents too!

Writing can be fun–and as we all know, fun learning is forever learning!

Ann Simpson

MrNussbaum

 Ages 3-12

 FREE

The website MrNussbaum.com, is an educational website geared to young students, their parents, and teachers. There is a free and a premium version of the site–the good news is that homeschoolers will find the free option to their liking–a premium membership is not necessary.

Homeschoolers can easily use MrNussbaum.com for–

• Supplementing their homeschooling endeavors. MrNussbaum.com activities are perfectly suited for homeschoolers and serve as useful and fun remediation, enrichment, practice, and assessment.
• Setting goals. Parents can record scores their children get on games and quizzes and challenge them to reach a certain score by a specific time.
• Fun. MrNussbaum.com is so fun, that kids don’t realize they’re learning or practicing.
• Rewards. Homeschoolers can use the site as a reward for work well done.

The site was developed with the idea that crucial concepts, themes, ideas, and facts taught in the home can be enhanced over the internet through interactivity. MrNussbaum.com offers dozens of interactive games specifically designed to pinpoint one or several essential concepts taught in the elementary grades, and dozens of research themes designed to make the process of gathering information interactive and enjoyable.

By the way, there really is a Mr. Nussbaum — and I have to admit, I am not smarter than Mr. Nussbaum (this is actually a challenge on his site)! Perhaps you, or your kids are!

The site certainly has a lot to offer–a ton of information (do you know Idaho’s state bird?), MANY educational games (Math games, Science games, games in Spanish, etc.), free printables (Math, Reading, Scavenger Hunts, etc.), free videos, plus, much MORE. Almost all of the free games can be played on iPads/mobile devices .

Really, why wouldn’t you check it out? It’s free and fun–and fun learning is forever learning!

Ann Simpson

Bible Bookcase

 All Ages

 $29.95

The Bible Bookcase by EMG is not a bookcase at all, but an innovative puzzle-like game designed to teach the books of the Bible. In fact, with the Bible Bookcase, learning all sixty-six books of the Bible in sequential order becomes fun and easy! And your kids can’t make a mistake! Due to their patent-pending design, your children cannot place a book where it does not belong!

The Bible Bookcase is a perfect tool for:

• Kids and Grandkids ( of all ages )
• Christian and Homeschool Fun
• Social/Christian Fellowship Gatherings
• Sunday School Classes

The overall dimensions of the book case (with base installed and sign on top) — H: 14.5″ x W: 12.0″ x D: 3.0″. This is a wooden toy of high quality, and can be displayed in any child’s room or family room–it’s decorator quality!

The Bible Bookcase–it’s a high quality, fun puzzle-game for the entire family!

Note: The books are wooden puzzle/game pieces–not actual books that can be opened and read–but this does not detract from the product in any way. It’s really lovely, attractive — and educational too.

Time4Learning

 Ages 3—Teens

  $19.95 for the first child and $14.95 for each additional child

Time4Learning offers online, standards-based curriculum in Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies for Pre-K–8^th grade students. Time4Learning can be used with different student types, learning styles and teaching methods and it can be used for homeschool, afterschool and/or summer use–as a primarily stand-alone or supplementary tool.

After using the product for about two weeks–I have to say (write) — the benefits of Time4Learnng are MANY–

• 1,000+ student-paced multimedia activities (so much for the kids to do)
• The scope and sequence is both thorough and challenging (including Language Arts–Phonics – Reading)
• Multi-media lessons are educational AND entertaining (fun, quirky characters)
• Interactive, project-based activities–kids really enjoy them
• Printable worksheets are a plus (change of pace is always good)
• A student-paced approach
• Access to 3 grade levels of lessons (this is a HUGE). Children can move up or down a grade level in any of their subjects, so the program is easy to adapt
• Students can review and repeat activities at will–great for the more difficult lessons
• If a student wants to skip ahead to the quiz, s/he can do so (again, very important)
• Every student has a Time4Learning portfolio and the Parent Admin page allows you, the parent, to view your student’s records.
• Since kids can personalize their home page in regards to color, it was easy as a parent to know exactly whose page I was on–just by the color alone!
• Immediate feedback–which is great for correcting errors and misconceptions
• An automated system that grades lessons and keeps reports and portfolios
• Lesson plans & teaching tools for parents (parents can preview lessons–and brush up when needed (when was the last time you multiplied fractions?)
• The parent’s forum allows parents to connect and ask questions of one another–which is a very nice bonus
• Time4Learning offers a list of spelling words and a reading list by grade–a nice extra
• I also enjoyed the opportunity to see students’ artwork
• A fun assortment of educational games can be found on the site–and you as the parent can determine how much time can be spent in/on “the playground”
• Easy site navigation–your kids will have it down in no time! And the Time4Learning Getting Started Guide is particularly useful for new members.

Time4Learning is certainly affordable–the monthly membership is $19.95 for the first child and $14.95 for each additional child–and it comes with a two week money back guarantee. Since Time4Learning is web based (their program is most compatible with the Firefox browser), there is no software to download, no CDs and nothing additional to purchase–no hidden costs or fees.

I was curious as to whether other parents like Time4Learning as much as I do–and from reviews/comments on the Internet–they do! In fact, many parents comment that they limit the time their kids can be on Time4Learning — as their kids really like Time4Learning and want to be on it all the time! Kids loving a curriculum so much, that’s all they want to do! What more could you ask for!

Ann Simpson

Did you know that Homeschool.com has a Product Review section on our site?  We do!  It’s listed under Free Stuff, along with Free Printables, Travel Guides, and more.

I recently reviewed a number of new products for Homeschool.com, and I will be highlighting/blogging about each product over the next week.

Today’s product–the FREE website Schoolplus.

Schoolplus.com

Ages 3-8

Free–$40 in the future

Schoolplus.com is a site that believes learning can be fun. The resources, exercises and games on the site teach young children (preschool–grade 3, and perhaps a little older) the basic educational skills they need to achieve academically. The resources also teach a child that learning can be fun.

The academic categories (categories of fun) on Schoolplus.com include Math, Language, Brain Teasers, and Miscellaneous. Exercises within the categories can be used by children either alone or under the supervision of a parent/teacher.

Regarding the actual games/exercises–

• One of my favorite easy games was the memory game (the memory game has always been one of my favorites since childhood). Instead of just matching items, students match numbers with numbered items (ie., the number 3 with three light bulbs).
• The Mouse Trap is great fun–there certainly is a strategy for winning. Hint–think big–and then narrow the trap down–and make use of the barriers that open with the game.
• With many of the games, parents can play against their children. Kids like trying to beat their parents’ scores!  This also works with siblings.
• When you click on an activity, you might notice that some come with instructions–while others do not. Even without instructions, it’s easy to figure out how an activity works/how it can be beneficial for your child. Sometimes when I clicked on an activity that didn’t include instructions, my first reaction was “Huh?”, but it was quickly followed by “Oh, I like that!”
• Every time you click on a game/exercise, it causes another tab on your computer to open. Parents can open several games for their children — perhaps 3 that train multiplication skills for example — and then leave the kids to work through them all rather than having to open a new game every few minutes.  Even though I’m partial to my back button–I see the benefits of this.
• The crossword and word search generator programs (located in the ‘Other’ category from the main top menu bar) are customizable –which of course is nice–especially for homeschoolers.
• The graphics on all the games/exercises are very attractive and appealing to children.

At the moment parents can sign up and use the site for free. Schoolplus.com plans to become a subscription site around August of 2013. Notification will be sent to parents to inform them the subscription system is about to begin. There won’t be any surprises–you won’t be obligated to join at that time.  The annual subscription fee for private users will be $40/year for unlimited use of the site–it will certainly be a good value.

Why not try it out now while it’s free–and see if it’s something your kids like/use? It’s certainly a fun site — your little ones will enjoy it–and they’ll learn at the same time. You can’t beat that!

And as always, fun learning is forever learning!

Ann Simpson

My Mother kept a garden,
a garden of the heart,
She planted all the good things
that gave my life it’s start.
She turned me to the sunshine
and encouraged me to dream,
Fostering and nurturing
the seeds of self-esteem…
And when the winds and rain came,
she protected me enough-
But not too much because she knew
I’d need to stand up strong and tough.
Her constant good example
always taught me right from wrong-
Markers for my pathway
that will last a lifetime long.
I am my Mother’s garden.
I am her legacy-
And I hope today she feels the love
reflected back from me

Author Unknown