The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & The Great Republic Set ~ Review

American history has always been one of my favorite subjects. I hope to pass the love of history onto my children. There is so much we can learn through studying history. After all, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 1:9

Eli has been studying The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic Set from Memoria Press. We also received the 200 Questions About American History set for him to work through. This set is designed to be used during the junior high/middle school years as a one year study of American history.


We have been slow and steady in working through the course since much of the review period has involved the very busy spring season. Our goal was for him to complete one lesson per week, as this is a one year course with 32 lessons. He has stayed pretty close to that having completed the first 5 lessons and has started on the 6th during the the six week review period.

What is Covered in The Story of the Thirteen Colonies and The Great Republic?

The Story of the Thirteen Colonies and The Great Republic was written by H.A. Guerber and edited by Memoria Press. There are a wealth of topics and important figures from history covered in the book. From the Native Americans to the Norse sailors to the sailors that bravely discovered the New Land. The history of the United States is covered all the way to the Spanish-American War and the Treaty of Paris in 1898.

Eli and I have been reading the The Story of the Thirteen Colonies and The Great Republic together. It has been a great review for me; while he’s been learning a lot of new to him and interesting facts. After reading through the book, he then works through the associated questions in both the The Story of the Thirteen Colonies and The Great Republic student guide and the 200 Questions About American History.

The Student Book is set up with four components to each lesson:

  • Facts to Know
  • Vocabulary
  • Comprehension Questions
  • Enrichment

We found that it is best to read one chapter from the book and then answer the cooresponding questions. This helps him to better remember where the answer was in the reading material and also makes it so there isn’t so much workbook writing all at once. He can divide the written work out between a few days.

200 Questions About American History Set

The 200 Questions About American History set includes the student book, teacher guide and 200 question flashcards. Memoria Press “compiled a list of 200 questions that everyone should know about American history.” I confess though that I had to look up some of the answers to part of the questions. I guess it’s been a while since I heard some of the names such as Amerigo Vespucci and Vasco da Gama.

What Did We Think?

I really like how thorough Memoria Press courses are, while being flexible enough to adapt to various schedules. I also like that we can purchase additional student guides so that the younger kids can also work through the same courses in the upcoming years.

This course is structured much like other courses we have reviewed from Memoria Press, such as The Book of Trees Set and Famous Men of Rome Set. You can also read other reviews we’ve done of Memoria Press products; Traditional Spelling 1, Illiad & Odyssey, and First Start Reading,

Memoria Press Products that the Homeschool Review Crew have been reviewing:

Simply Classical Writing Book One: Step-by-Step Sentences (Bible Story Edition) and Simply Classical Writing Book Two: Step-by-Step Sentences (Bible Story Edition) with Teacher Key, Skill level about 1st-3rd grade

Simply Classical Spelling Book One: Step-by-Step Words and Simply Classical Spelling Book Two: Step-by-Step Words, Skill level about 1st-3rd grade

The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic Set and 200 Questions About American History set, grades 5-8

The Wars of the Jews set, grades 9+

Connect with Memoria Press on these Social Media Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/memoriapress/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MemoriaPress
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/memoriapress/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/memoriapress
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/memoriapress/

Be sure to read reviews from other members of the Homeschool Review Crew by clicking on the banner below!

Classical Writing & Spelling, American History & Jewish Wars {Memoria Press Reviews}

Blessings,

Jennifer


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Encouraging Hearts & Home 6.6.19

Welcome to Encouraging

Hearts & Home!

The Encouraging Hearts & Home Bloggers

Join your Encouraging Hearts & Home Co-Hosts each week for encouragement and support for your heart & your home. We hope to provide a space that builds each other up and lends a helping hand along the way. With all the negativity in the world, let’s shine a positive light!

Linda at Apron Strings & Other Things

Amy at A Nest in the Rocks

***Each week, our co-hosts will each choose our favorite links, along with the most clicked link, and pin them to our Encouraging Hearts & Home Pinterest board. 

HOW TO LINK UP

  • Use the form below to share your posts this week, and maybe you’ll discover some new ideas from all the fabulous links!
  • Please share only your family friendly posts with us!
  • Please only link up images that you have the rights to use.
  • By linking up, you agree that if your blog post is selected to be featured on any of our hosts’ blogs, we can use an image from your post with a link back to your post.

Other nice things you can do

  • Follow and/or subscribe to your host’s blog.
  • Visit a few other bloggers and show them your support. We all love getting comments, and who knows what inspiration you may find? Be sure to share the love–that’s what a blog hop is all about!
  • If you are interested in co-hosting, contact anne@mylearningtable.com

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
Posted in Encouraging Hearts & Homes | Leave a comment

Life With Dog Movie ~ Review

We recently enjoyed a family fun night watching Life With Dog from Mill Creek Entertainment. Life With Dog is not rated, and has a running time of 106 minutes. Starring Marilu Henner, Corbin Bernsen, and Chelsey Crisp. Life With Dog was written and directed by Corbin Bernsen.

Joe Bigler and he daughter Zoey are left to grieve the tragic death of wife/mother, Alice. After a bicycle/vehicle hit and run, Alice was left for dead. Zoey relies on her Christian faith to help her grieve, but Joe doesn’t share the faith of his daughter or late wife. Instead, he becomes a bitter man who is spinning out of control.

One day while watering his late wife’s flowers a dog shows up. Dog, the unwanted, uninvited guest, refuses to leave despite Joe’s many attempts to run him off. After time Joe begins to soften his heart toward Dog. Meanwhile, Joe’s neighborhood is being bought up by big companies turning the old homes into work/live spaces. Joe’s suspisions lead him to believe that one of these companies even plotted Alice’s death. When one of the companies sends a young man door to door to inquire about purchasing more properties, Joe ends up threatening him at gun point.

After a trip to the police station, Zoey finally convinces her dad that he needs help. He agrees that he will meet with someone to talk. When she shows up with the pastor, Joe is resistant to talk at first, but then does open up some about his unanswered prayers to spare his wife’s life.

Joe continues to spiral downhill with charges of aggrevated assault. Then to add insult to injury for Joe, his bond is paid by the pastor. Will he make a finally make a turn around? What role with Dog play in Joe’s recovery? I’ll leave that for you to find out. 🙂

What Did We Think of Life With Dog?

The themes were older than some of the kids. The younger kids response to what did you think, involved responses like it was ok. I think Life With Dog is more of a movie for teenagers and adults. Brock and I really enjoyed watching the movie. It certainly had me guessing how it might end.

Life With Dog is now available to purchase at your local Wal-Mart. The purchase of the Life With Dog DVD includes the Digital version of the movie.

Connect with Mill Creek Entertainment on these Social Media Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MillCreekEnt
Twitter: https://twitter.com/millcreekent
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/millcreekent

I encourage you to read other review of Life With Dog by clicking on the Homeschool Review Crew Banner below.

Life With Dog {Mill Creek Entertainment Reviews}

Blessings,

Jennifer

Posted in Family, Homeschool Review Crew | Leave a comment

Supercharged Science ~ Review

Let me tell you about a super cool review product we’ve been working through over the past several weeks, Supercharged Science! We received a full year of access to e-Science Homeschool Science Curriculum for all levels, K-12. You read that right, one course that all my kids can learn from!! I don’t know of very many science curriculums that are designed for all ages; and I definitely don’t know of any other curriculums that are this open and go and are thorough.

Aurora Lipper is mechanical engineer, private pilot, and one of the youngest instructors to ever teach in the engineering department at Cal Poly State University. You can read much more about her here.

Ways to Use e-Science Homeschool Science Curriculum

The course can be utilitized in two distinct ways by Topics or Grade Level. We chose to study by topics, that was a good fit for our family. I like this approach because several of the kids can watch the videos and particpate in the experiements/activities together despite being very different ages/grades.

There are 24 different units in e-science:

  • Unit 1: Mechanics
  • Unit 2: Motion
  • Unit 3: Matter
  • Unit 4: Energy 1
  • Unit 5: Energy 2
  • Unit 6: Sound
  • Unit 7: Astrophysics
  • Unit 8: Chemistry 1
  • Unit 9: Light
  • Unit 10: Electricity
  • Unit 11: Magnetism
  • Unit 12: Alternative Energy
  • Unit 13: Thermodynamics
  • Unit 14: Electronics
  • Unit 15: Chemistry 2
  • Unit 16: Life Science
  • Unit 17: Life Science 2
  • Unit 18: Biology 1
  • Unit 19: Biology 2
  • Unit 20: Earth Science
  • Unit 21: Advanced Physics
  • Unit 22: Advanced Chemistry
  • Unit 23: Advanced Biology
  • Unit 24: Mathemagic

What Did We Think?

After watching the introductory video, we started with Unit 1: Mechanics. One thing I noticed right off was that the website was a little cumbersome to navigate. It wasn’t horrrible but it wasn’t super easy either. However, last week I got an email from Supercharged Science inviting me to check out their new website. Although it is not live yet, I can tell you it is significantly easier to navigate! This is a wonderful upgrade!! It will have same content but the navigation is much better.

I really like that I can click on a link to get a shopping list for the experiements/activities in each Unit. Most of the items are easy to source but I didn’t always have evertything on hand. For instance, while “o” shaped cereal is certainly common, my kids seem to like to snack on cereal so we don’t always have some available, but that’s an easy fix. LOL

In Mechanics the kids learned about force, gravity and friction. I videoed them in slow motion doing one of the gravity experiments. Eli and Rebekah each dropped two balls. (She had ping pong ball and a bouncy ball, he had a ping pong ball and a soccer ball.) It was fun to hear the kids say which ball they thought would fall faster. Quinton was absolutely certain the soccer ball would fall fastest. Check out the video to see what happened.

Aurora truly enjoys science, which is quite obvious by the excitement she shares in her videos. She is also very knowledgable but her approach is such that anyone can learn from her!

We decided to bounce around to different topics/units based on the interests of the kids. I want them to really enjoy what they are learning and if they get some say in the order of the topics they seem to especially retain the lessons. Since Eli has really enjoyed learning about electricity in 4-H and at home, we have been working through the unit on Electricity.

I have been looking ahead of the kids and have been checking out the alternative energy units. I can hardly wait to get started on the alternative energy units with them, especially Eli, who is very interested in solar and wind energy. Hopefully, we can apply our growing knowledge about alternative energy to our farm!

Connect with Supercharged Science on these Social Media Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/superchargedsci/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/aurora_lipper
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/superchargedsci/supercharged-science/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/auroram42/videos

Be sure to read the reviews from other members of the Homeschool Review Crew to learn more about the way they used Supercharged Science.

e-Science Homeschool Science Curriculum {Supercharged Science Reviews}

Blessings,

Jennifer

Posted in Homeschool Review Crew, STEM education | Leave a comment

Encouraging Hearts & Home 5.30.19

Welcome to Encouraging

Hearts & Home!

The Encouraging Hearts & Home Bloggers

Join your Encouraging Hearts & Home Co-Hosts each week for encouragement and support for your heart & your home. We hope to provide a space that builds each other up and lends a helping hand along the way. With all the negativity in the world, let’s shine a positive light!

Linda at Apron Strings & Other Things

Amy at A Nest in the Rocks

***Each week, our co-hosts will each choose our favorite links, along with the most clicked link, and pin them to our Encouraging Hearts & Home Pinterest board. 

HOW TO LINK UP

  • Use the form below to share your posts this week, and maybe you’ll discover some new ideas from all the fabulous links!
  • Please share only your family friendly posts with us!
  • Please only link up images that you have the rights to use.
  • By linking up, you agree that if your blog post is selected to be featured on any of our hosts’ blogs, we can use an image from your post with a link back to your post.

Other nice things you can do

  • Follow and/or subscribe to your host’s blog.
  • Visit a few other bloggers and show them your support. We all love getting comments, and who knows what inspiration you may find? Be sure to share the love–that’s what a blog hop is all about!
  • If you are interested in co-hosting, contact anne@mylearningtable.com

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
Posted in Encouraging Hearts & Homes | Leave a comment