Hands-on Homeschool Language Arts curriculum: review & giveaway

Guest Hollow Language Arts | Homeschool language arts curriculum | Beowulf's Grammar

We’ve recently finished the entire Nessy phonics program, and I’ve been on the search for a grammar and writing program that fits the parameters of my son’s personality and dyslexia struggles. His learning style is humor, (and no, you won’t see that on any learning style list, but trust me—it’s a thing). That was one of the key successes with Nessy for him; the humorous videos helped him to finally remember the phonograms we’d been struggling to learn for a while. For grammar and writing, he needed something visual, humorous, and creative—a hands-on homeschool language arts curriculum that was fun.

Finding Guest Hollow’s Language Arts program was like having someone read my mind. Her Beowulf’s Grammar activities and lesson plans are full of picture books, drawing lessons, finger puppets, and projects tailor-made for my son.

(Disclaimer: I received elements of this program for free in exchange for an honest review. I was not compensated for a positive review. All opinions are my own.)

ADHD & Dyslexia Summer Reading Recommendation

I was compensated for my time reviewing this product, 
writing this review, and hosting the giveaway. 
I was not compensated for my opinions, and all opinions are my own.

 

summer reading list | help for ADHD | help for dyslexiaHomeschooling a child with learning disabilities is no small task, but perhaps the hardest part of it is facing down all those fears that what I’m doing won’t be enough, or that I might even make our struggles worse. Part of my strategy for facing these fears is knowledge: I read a lot. Each summer, I spend a portion of my summer reading on “professional development,” just a couple of books that help me to understand my kids (and husband) better. Specifically, that means I’ve always got at least a couple of books on my ADHD-dyslexia summer reading list. This year, one of those books was Helping your Child with Language-Based Learning Disabilities by Daniel Franklin.

Honestly, this book easily made it into the list of my top five on the topic. It’s encouraging, positive, and filled with great info! Best of all, I love that his approach focuses so much on relationship.

Homeschool Math Help with CTCMath: a review

CTCMath review | homeschool math help

Math is not our best subject here, though we’ve settled into some solutions for our family. I am keenly aware of our deficits and learning gaps in math, so when the opportunity came to give CTCMath a try, I excitedly jumped at the opportunity for some homeschool math help.

I was thrilled with both how easy it was to use and how excited my kids were to do math!

Tapestry of Grace DE or Stages: a review

Tapestry of Grace Stages comparison and review

I have used the Tapestry of Grace curriculum with my family for nearly seven years and own all four years of the DE or Digital Edition of the program. We love it! I love the richness and depth of the Tapestry of Grace curriculum, and the ability to customize a weekly plan that fits our family and our life. So when their new Stages product came out, I was curious. What was different from what I currently had? Which product should I recommend to others interested in starting Tapestry? Would having my plans and teacher notes divided into the separate Stages or learning levels solve some of the confusion I sometimes ran into when planning?

Our experience with Heart of Dakota (pros and cons)

Heart of Dakota review | pros and cons | homeschool curriculum review

This past year, I decided to break from the curriculum we’d been using from the very beginning and try a few new things. I was trying to find relief during a particularly busy stage of life, and trying to wrap my head around my son’s 7th grade year and his changing academic needs. So we took a detour from Tapestry of Grace and tried Heart of Dakota for a few months.

All in all, we used Heart of Dakota (three different guides) for about 14-18 weeks, one child going a little further than the others. I dropped my youngest’s guide first: the pace was just too slow. Months into the program, and our Pilgrims still hadn’t left Holland. Compared to what we were used to (Story of the World and Tapestry), it felt like a snail’s pace, and my voracious first grader wanted more. So did I.

I hung on a little longer with the older two, trying to adapt the guide and make changes that fit us best. But the Heart of Dakota guides really aren’t made for the kind of customizing I was wanting. The changes made the guide confusing; it was just too restrictive for our style. So here’s a little more about Heart of Dakota, and why we ended up right back where we started—with Tapestry of Grace.

5 Surprising Benefits of Teaching Typing Early

benefits of teaching typing early | homeschooling dyslexia dysgraphia | Kidztype

For each of my kids, I’ve started teaching typing early, as soon as they’ve got the basic idea of letters making words and words making sentences. Why so early? Shouldn’t I just focus on reading and writing?

Teaching typing is my stealth-mom way of sneaking in a few reinforcing lessons to all that I’m teaching them in reading and writing; it’s kind of like sneaking the veggies into the pasta sauce. Here are the 5 surprising benefits I’m sneaking into their day by teaching typing early.

 

5 Surprising Benefits of Teaching Typing Early

Our Top 5 Homeschool Curriculum Favorites of 2017-18

homeschool curriculum favorites

Do you ever feel as though you’ve hit a wall in your homeschool? Have you ever had to go back to the drawing board on just about every homeschool curriculum decision you’ve made? This past year has been one of those years for me. Even long-standing favorites that I’ve used forever ground to a shocking halt. Over and over again, I found myself back to the drawing board to research new homeschool curriculum. But all of those homeschool challenges and upsets led us to several of our new homeschool curriculum favorites, resources that both my kids and I have loved. 

Our Top 5 Homeschool Curriculum Favorites for 2017-18 school year