Category: Curriculum Reviews

Curriculum Review: Rod and Staff Reading, Grades 1-4

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Curriculum Review:  Rod and Staff Reading Program, Grades 1 – 4

Review by Dawnita F.

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We have used Rod & Staff Reading since the beginning of our homeschooling journey.  At first, it was simply the easiest choice.  There was little available in the mid 1990’s and we borrowed from another homeschooling family.  We have always loved the fact they teach Bible through fourth grade.  The stories are simple and Biblicaly correct.  The curriculum is Mennonite, so the pictures are sweet black and white drawings.  We giggle at the concept of Adam and Eve in little Amish looking outfits, but it is modest and sweet.  There are a few brief mentions of Sunday as the Sabbath and day of rest.  These are easily edited and give great opportunities to discuss the differences in churches and the origin of Sunday worship.

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The first year workbooks are a lot of fun.  There are three workbooks; phonics, reading workbook, and worksheets with fun cut and paste projects.  The phonics lessons are sound, simple, and easy to understand.  They begin going through the alphabet, sound by sound, beginning with vowels then work through blends and beyond.  The reading workbooks implement vocabulary, spelling, and reading comprehension.  The children also learn their colors and begin learning to recognize similarities, differences, and sorting.  The worksheets provide activities that can be displayed or shared with grandparents that help reinforce the Bible stories they are learning.

The second year workbooks make a big jump in demand in time, work, and attention.  We’ve only had two of our six children that did well with them.  Even then, we did a lot of it orally so as not to be spending too much time in seat-work.  Since I do have the teacher’s books, I sometimes will go through and look at what they would be doing if we had the workbooks and implement some of the questions in our discussion or ideas into our notebook time.  By the third year, we would rather our children be copying straight out of the Bible and looking up words directly from the dictionary.

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All in all, we have used Rod & Staff reading books 1st through 4th grade with all six of our children.  We do take breaks between books for Frog & Toad or little nature readers.  It’s a nice feeling to know our children are “reading through the Bible” each year as they are learning to read and becoming more literate.  By the time they finish the fourth grade book, they are prepared to read directly from the Bible with good comprehension and to read library books.

Thanks, Dawnita, for your review!  If you have used something in your homeschool and would like to review it here, please contact us at adventisthomeducator@gmail.com

Your turn!  Please rate this curriculum if you have used it in your homeschool and feel free to leave a comment so others can learn more about this product.

God Loves Me 28 Ways ~ Free Bible Study Lessons

Editor12 Comments
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Bible Adventures for Young Readers.

A Bible study set featuring 28 lessons covering the fundamental beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Free .pdf  files for you to download and save.

Don’t miss this wonderful resource!

HINT:  Be sure to scroll through the ENTIRE page linked above.  There are some great free  health audio downloads  and other free resource links too!

AHE Feature: Free Curriculum Guide Download

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There are so many educational resources available to homeschoolers, it is often hard to sift through them to find what fits your family.

curr guide

  AHE offers a FREE curriculum guide that can help.   Click on the image to go directly to the curriculum guide download page.

Phonics Fun

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Have you visited our Phonics Fun Pinterest Board?

Curriculum Review: Lessons in Responsibility for Girls, Level 3 from Pearables

~Melissa1 Comment

homeecpearables

Title: Lessons in Responsibility for Girls (Quiet Arts Series) Level 3 (Age 10 & up) from Pearables

Also published as: Home Economics for Home Schoolers

This book covers some a few aspects of health, how to choose and cook vegetables and fruits, various cooking methods, how to make dessert, breakfasts, bread, etc. It also covers how to iron and do basic sewing and how to use a commercial pattern, as well as hot to organize and clean your kitchen. It ends with two chapters on hospitality. It is in black and white and has quite a few drawings throughout. The thirty chapters are short and include recipes and practical activities. Each chapter includes a story about “Patience”, a home schooled girl who was learning home economics, which makes it even more interesting for children. This is a textbook, not a workbook.

I have used this book with my 8 and 10 year old daughters this year and they have really enjoyed it. It has prompted them to try recipes they would not have been excited about otherwise, and I like the Bible verse that they have for each topic that is printed under that chapter’s picture. I felt the content was solid, useful, and well-presented. We learned unexpected things like why people are overweight or underweight, vitamins, and much more. Many of the recipes needed to be adapted for a vegetarian/vegan diet. They did try to use healthful recipes, but I felt they could be much more healthful, so we often used our own recipes. There is a chapter on choosing healthy snacks, like popcorn, so I think we just thought of those as part of a meal.

All in all I would highly recommend this book, even for those who have already taught their kids some cooking and sewing, like I had. It definitely expanded our horizons. I wish we’d done the other two levels when they were younger, as we’ve enjoyed this one so much.
 
Review by Heather K.

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Curriculum Review: My Father’s World – Creation to the Greeks

~Melissa1 Comment

Curriculum: My Father’s World
Year: “Creation to the Greeks” Grades 2-8

My Father's World. Creation to the Greeks

I chose this curriculum this year because it it an integrated, Christian-based curriculum that covers science, history, social studies and Bible and can be used for children at various grade levels simultaneously. Also, I wanted our 3rd and 5th grade girls to study more in-depth into the old testament, which it covers. It is a 34-week curriculum with daily lesson plans that make it very easy to use. Various easily-obtainable and interesting books are required. Student notebook pages are provided. As you go along the children make a time-line of events (quite elementary), do various notebook pages and you read to them about ancient civilizations. My children really enjoyed learning about Egypt and the pyramids, mummies, etc. There are quite a few hands-one projects to do, and they don’t take very long each day. Jewish Feasts are studied in the first few months. There are plenty of hands-on activities that can be done in preparation to celebrate the feasts. The Sanctuary is also part of the curriculum and kids can make a paper model of it. Later Greek mythology is covered. They do use books like Aesop’s Fables, which we are specifically counseled to avoid, according to the Spirit of Prophecy, so we have not done that part. There are read-aloud books recommended, which did not seem to be up standard for our family, so we did not use those. They are optional. Music and art are included in the weekly program, but are also optional. They do teach Greek vocabulary words, which was interesting. There are lots of supplemental books (often available at the public library) suggested.

We have enjoyed having a curriculum where everything is laid out. A whole year on this time-period may be a bit much, but the curriculum is not heavy or full and so we have plenty of time to supplement with other topics and studies of our choice. I feel that the Bible lessons need to be supplemented. They do have the kids memorize scripture, but it is mostly passages we already know, like the ten commandments. For Bible they use “Victor Journey Through the Bible”, which is very good, but does not take long to cover. There is a story to read from the Bible itself almost every day. You have to use your own Language Arts and Math curriculum. It is not included with this curriculum.

Review by Heather K.

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ScriptureTyper.com; Website Review

~Melissa5 Comments

What it is:

ScriptureTyper.com is a website where you can practice typing speeds while memorizing scripture.  If you have a desire to increase the speed of your child’s typing ability, you can do this while memorizing scripture at the same time.  There are many options you can choose from to personalize the experience for you or your child.  You will need to create an account to save your progress and take advantage of the review options.

Go to ScriptureTyper.com

SDA Notes:

Because this program uses scripture and not spiritual thoughts, it is a safe place to have your child practice typing.  There should be no worries of tainted views on scripture.

My Thoughts:

My daughter was looking for some typing practice to increase her wpm in which she had a prerequisite for a college class.  Because we updated to Windows 8, our typing program was no longer working.  I looked online and found several typing programs, but the material being practiced wasn’t always something that I could say was edifying for her to dwell on.  I was pleased when another homeschool Mom shared this site with us as it fit everything my daughter needed to increase her skills and it also kept me happy as a Mom, to know that her thoughts would be dwelling on something that would also help her spiritual walk as well.

Review by Melissa B.

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