reviews Archives - Growing In Grace

Teaching the Classics review: Literary analysis for your homeschool (that you’ll actually enjoy)

May 21, 2018Tracy

As my children are getting older and my oldest is approaching junior high, I’ve been thinking a lot about literary analysis. I’ve been asking myself what I want to accomplish, and is it really necessary. While my oldest is very language-oriented and thrives on deep conversation about great books, my younger daughter with dyslexia struggles with reading, even the simple task of decoding words she’s never seen before. How on earth do I tackle character analysis and devices and themes with her?

But even with my oldest literature-loving son, I felt discouraged and overwhelmed when it came to teaching literature. Flipping through over 50 pages of teacher notes for history and literature in my former curriculum each week left me feeling completely incapable and, quite frankly, burned out. I knew I needed something different. So I scoured the internet, and I stumbled upon a company that brought everything back into focus and helped me to answer that nagging question of “why should I do literary analysis anyway?” Center for Lit has a number of resources for homeschool parents that makes studying literature not just possible but meaningful and enjoyable. One of those resources that I’ve been using and absolutely loving is Teaching the Classics.

Tips for Homeschooling Foreign Language with Dyslexia

April 17, 2018Tracy

When a child has dyslexia, there are all kinds of questions. Will she ever be able to read and write? Will he go to college? Can she learn the things my other children are learning? Can he learn a foreign language? Obviously, these answers are as individual as the children themselves, but overall, yes! Your dyslexic child CAN learn. It’s not that a dyslexic child can’t learn; it’s that the child will learn so much differently than a non-dyslexic child. Language skills are definitely a challenge, but they aren’t necessarily insurmountable. Homeschooling foreign language with your dyslexic child is a perfect example.

Both my daughter and my husband have dyslexia. My husband just earned his second masters degree. He can also speak Spanish and translate Greek and Hebrew. He works hard, and he’s learned what helps him to learn. So when my daughter wanted to learn Spanish, I said “absolutely!” I know my dyslexic child can learn a foreign language, but I also know that how she learns that language may look vastly different from how my other children learn it.

Tips for homeschooling foreign language with dyslexia

My daughter has wanted to learn Spanish for years, and we’ve tried a few different approaches for her. She’s tried language apps and activity books and games. For awhile, nothing seemed to work—until I started to rethink what I was doing. I knew that my daughter could learn a language; she’d learned to speak English without a problem. What I needed to do was incorporate the same method into our Spanish study. For the first time this year, we are starting to make some real progress. She’s learning Spanish! Here are a few tips we’ve learned on our journey as we homeschool foreign languages.

Keep it visual, not verbal. This may seem like an oxymoron, but it’s true. Dyslexics learn visually. They think in pictures, not words. So when you attempt to help a dyslexic child learn a foreign language (or even English), keep it visual. Use lots of pictures and videos. Use the language daily as you go about your day. Allow your child to associate the picture and the experience with the language he is learning.

Immerse your child. How do kids learn to speak their native language? Immersion! Homeschooling foreign language is the same way. Daily immerse your child in hands-on, repeated interaction with the language. Most often, dyslexic children learn by doing. Your child with learn a foreign language by living in the context of the language day in and day out. Label objects around the house. Role-play conversations. Have real conversations and play games by including the foreign language vocabulary within your normal English conversation.

Engage the senses. Include as many of your child’s senses as you possibly can. An important way to help your dyslexic child learn a foreign language is by allowing your child to encounter and experience that language—hearing it, seeing it, tasting it, smelling it, and touching it. Taste the eggs and say the foreign word for eggs. Smell the flower and use the new vocabulary for flower. Touch the floor or the ceiling or the door. Play hide-and-go-seek in Spanish or French or Russian or whatever language you’re learning.

Be patient. Allow time for your child to learn. We’ve learned this in so many other areas, haven’t we? We are patient with reading and grammar and comprehension. We understand that our child will have challenges and will have his or her own pace. Homeschooling foreign language with dyslexia is not impossible, if we are patient with the process. It doesn’t matter if the curriculum says it can be completed in a year; let him take two or three years. Allow your child to learn at the pace that is appropriate for him.

I received this product for free and was compensated for my time reviewing this product/service and writing this post. All opinions about the product, however, are my own own.

This post contains affiliate links. That means, when you click on the link and make a purchase, I receive a small compensation.

Why I love Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids®

This year, we’ve loved using Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids®. My daughter enjoys watching the funny, engaging Spanish videos of children doing the things she understands: eating breakfast, reading a book, playing a game, etc. The visually-based quizzes allow her to test what she’s learned with pictures and audio, without relying solely on her reading skills. And the variety of activities allows her to immerse herself without getting bored. Best of all, it’s self-paced, which has eliminated any pressure for her.

Typically, my daughter watches the lessons a couple of times a week with very little involvement from me. She works through activities and watches the videos over and over until she feels ready to move on to the next lesson. She and her brothers role play the videos they’ve watched, repeating the dialogue of the characters in the stories, playing the games the characters have played, and regularly practicing their Spanish vocabulary in a playful way throughout our day. She loves her Spanish lessons, and she’s thriving. (Her brothers love them, too!) Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids® has been ideal, because it incorporates all of these basic tips for helping a dyslexic child learn a foreign language.

It’s visual.
It’s based on immersion.
It engages my kids’ senses.
It allows us to patiently keep our own pace.

Though we have used the online membership,Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids® also has DVD sets available, including a special set for young learners and a super set with workbooks. Single level sets are also available.

For more information or to see samples of the program, visit Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids® And now through April 30, 2018, you can get 20% off any order by using the code 20OFFFORYOU. Plus, enter the giveaway for a free Spanish level on DVD! (Prize shipped only to USA addresses.)

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Homeschooling foreign language with your dyslexic child does not have to be impossible. Our children are smart and capable. They can learn the things they want to learn. Our role is not to tell them that they can’t, but to provide them with the tools so that they can. And perhaps this is my top reason for loving Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids®: it has allowed me to teach my daughter that she can learn the things she wants to learn.

Can your dyslexic child learn a foreign language? Yes! Absolutely, yes! We just can’t expect that process to look anything like the Spanish class we took in high school.

Mama’s Moodlifters Cards: review

April 22, 2014Tracy

Disclaimer: I was given a set of cards in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Do you ever have one of “those” days when everything explodes into chaos? No, me neither. But if you ever were in need of something to lift your mood, these cards are the cutest.

Mama’s Moodlifters Cards are a set of cards with fun play ideas to shift the mood of your day. Each card has a super cute play idea—wrap your baby like a burrito and gobble him up, make funny faces, create funny “toasts” to each other, dance the “blues” away, and more—plus an inspirational quotation. Let me just say, I was sold with the idea of a baby-burrito. What could be more fun than throwing pillows and stuffed animals on a blanket and rolling your toddler (or 7 year old) up into a blanket burrito and pretending to eat him!

Mama's MoodLifter Cards review

Or for those days when I’m really scrambling for a moment, just one minute to regather my scattered thoughts, I’ll send them off with one of the ideas. It does lift my mood to hear them hysterically giggling in the bathroom as they make funny faces in the mirror. Then, of course, I get to see the “prize” faces, the funniest faces they could come up with, and we all get a good giggle.

It’s such a cute idea, and a real help. I’m not always good about thinking of creative things to play with my kids, but another reason I love them is that they help me to embrace my kids in those hard moments rather than push them away. They also make great “rainy day” ideas!

A set comes with 32 cards—32 fun ideas and inspirations—in a cotton drawstring pouch for $17. They are a fun gift idea for moms, too, especially with Mother’s Day approaching (*wink*). Visit the website to read more about the cards or to purchase your own set.

Disclaimer: I was given a set of cards in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own. You can read my disclosure policy here.

Art in the Mail: Kelly Kits review

January 18, 2014Tracy

During my online holiday shopping this season, I stumbled upon a product that was an absolute God-send. Art kits that come in the mail with all the supplies included! Can anyone else say “hallelujah”?

And I’m not referring to craft kits. This is real art—sculpting, painting, drawing, collage, and printmaking—complete with a mini-lesson on a famous artist and a cross-curriculum lesson incorporating another subject. Kelly Kits are sold as a monthly subscription service (purchased monthly or annually) or in packaged kits of 5 projects. The subscription packages come with enough supplies for two projects, $9.99 a month including shipping.

But when I received our art in the mail, I’ll be honest, I was a little disappointed. It was soap-sculpting. Sculpting soap was an art project I must have skipped at least three different times last year. I had no desire to see my children make a mess with a bar of soap and butter knife. I didn’t want the tears when their tools slipped and carved into their masterpiece. And I didn’t want to end up carving for them.

So when our mail-project included a bar of soap, I was bummed. (Why not watercolor, pastels, or print-making?) And yet, it couldn’t have been more perfect to illustrate the awesome-ness of Kelly Kits. Here I was at the kitchen table with everything my kids would need for this project: two bars of soap, different sized carving tools, and templates. I had no excuse.

Of course, the kids thought it was fantastic. I showed them the instructions and helped to get them started (I traced the template onto their soap for them). Then I let them get to work. They needed a little help from me but did most on their own. And they loved every moment of it. When they were done, they even carved embellishments, a face and scarf on the snowman and ornaments for the tree. Because I had everything I needed, my kids got to enjoy a project that I definitely would have continued to skip over.

Our mini artist lesson was on Michelangelo. It gave an example project to google, a brief bio, and a couple of age-appropriate discussion questions.

The bonus was a science lesson and experiment with the left-over soap shavings. We learned about molecules and surface tension.

I did the whole kit in one morning. The kids had so much fun that they couldn’t believe they had done school. Because, of course, learning about sculpting, Michelangelo, molecules, and surface tension doesn’t count as school, right?

If art is something you have trouble fitting in, or if you’d just like the convenience of having all you need right at your fingertips, Kelly Kits are awesome! You just can’t beat getting art in the mail, with project supplies, instructions, and everything included.I have been super-impressed with Kelly and with her Kelly Kits. Her YouTube videos are also fantastic and really give you a good picture of what the projects include.

Check out the new Kelly Kit website and art videos, or visit her Facebook page.

Singalong Stories for “big” kids: a Music Together review

December 20, 2013Tracy

Disclaimer: I received these products for free in exchange for an honest review. I have not been compensated for a positive review and all opinions are entirely my own.

I’m finishing up a review I started in my previous post about Music Together Singalong Stories. Last post, I wrote about how much my toddler loves these. Now, I want to highlight how these same books engage my older kids, too. Older as in 5 and nearly 7 years old.

Their favorites:

five year old Middlest—Sandpiper, Ridin’ in the Car, and She Sells Seashells (see previous review here)

six year old Oldest—All Around the Kitchen and One Little Owl (see previous review here)

The storyline of these books is set to music, so the books are intended to be sung rather than merely read. Why is that important?

I’m no expert, but I’ve seen music hold my children’s attention riveted, while they’ll fidget through a typical read-aloud. Also, it helps my pre-reader really stay engaged on her own. She has the book memorized, every note of it. I hear her in her bedroom, singing through her books all on her own. (If you have a four or five year old, you know how important those four words are.) It’s a book that she can be independent with, a book with words no less, before she’s quite ready to read it by herself.

Then, there’s the pictures that carry multiple little story lines of their own. Every picture is a story in itself. The illustrations keep us talking about the book, stopping mid-song to point something out, practicing counting, or simply laughing at the characters.

Last, there are the suggested activities at the end of a book. And what a perfect place for those suggestions. We finish a great reading time, and then—oh, wait! It says to make up our own song verses, or act out the actions in the song, or something similar. So what happens? We start the book again, reading it through with the suggested variation. And these activities are what seals it for my oldest. He’s big enough to read on his own, but now he gets to create, to act, to become part of the story and the action. He’s learning rhyme and rhythm. He’s learning creativity, and he’s learning to explore a book rather than simply read it and close the cover.

These are valuable lessons, lessons that, even though I’m a book-lover, I don’t think I would have thought of on my own! If someone asked me what books to include in a home library for their children, these would definitely be among my recommendations. I have never encountered a set of books before that so totally engaged my children, all of them.

The Music Together Singalong Stories are available as hardbacks ($13.95) or board books ($9.95) on the website or on Amazon. Visit the website to watch a video of one of the storybooks, listen to samples of the music, and read reviews from teachers, librarians, and language experts that rave about these books.

(Note: My five year old helped with the taking of some of these pictures so that you could see us reading together. I’ve got such great little helpers!)

Disclaimer: I received these products for free in exchange for an honest review. I have not been compensated for a positive review and all opinions are entirely my own. For more, see my disclosure policy.

Music Together Lullabies Review

August 16, 2013Tracy

Disclaimer: I received this product for free in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our Music Together CDs (read my reviews of Family Favorites and Family Favorites 2), and I totally anticipated loving Music Together’s Lullabies as well.

Then, Littlest got a nasty case of roseola about the same time he was cutting his top molars. It was a miserable week and a half for the little guy, and Lullabies sounded like just the ticket to soothe my suffering babe.

Lullabies includes 18 songs that have won 11 different awards. These are quality bed-time tunes, providing a diverse selection of music from various ethnic origins, including a Spanish and a Yiddish lullaby. I love this, and I’ve seen it to be especially appealing to the kids.

One of the things I love about Music Together products are the activity guides that come with the music. Each song has 2-3 activity suggestions that bring learning and parent-interaction into every musical encounter. Lullabies was no exception. From suggestions on how to personalize the songs by adding the child’s name or singing your own lyrics, to soothing “bed-time” routine ideas, this guide was the perfect compliment to the songs.

Littlest continues to enjoy his lullabies. And I found they were a great morning activity to prepare him for his nap time. He loves this music and asks for it nearly every morning, toddling over to the CD player and bouncing up and down. Who could resist that?

Other places the Lullabies have come in handy: the airport and airplane (especially after weather delays got us home one whole day late); hotel rooms; and the doctor’s office (Littlest has had quite a summer fighting germies). We’ve taken our Lullabies everywhere this summer!

I don’t have as many adorable photos, because I usually had my hands full of Littlest each time we played the music. But I do encourage you to grab your littlest and check out the samples on the website.

Music Together’s Lullabies is available for $14.95 for the CD or $9.99 for the download.

Disclaimer: I received this product for free in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Apologetics for kids: a review (How do we know God is really There?)

August 9, 2013Tracy

Disclaimer: I received this product for free in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Kids ask some tough questions, challenging our knowledge of physics, biology, and especially our faith. Why is the sky blue? Why doesn’t a ball keep rolling? Why does my tummy growl when it’s hungry? How do we know God is really there? I don’t know about you, but I like to be equipped to give them good answers, answers that will equip them for sharing and defending their faith—apologetics for kids!

Melissa Cain Travis’s book How do we know God is really there? does an excellent job of defending the faith in a way that is easily understandable on a child’s level. It’s simple apologetics for kids that follows an engaging story line. The story takes place as a conversation between father and son as they look through a telescope in a treehouse. The dialogue throughout the story is relatable and makes the content easy to follow. The book is recommended for children ages 6 and up. However, it would be helpful for your child to understand the basic ideas of galaxies, time, and space.

The book takes a “first cause” approach to answering the question. In other words, it takes us back to “how did all this get here in the first place.” The book addresses discoveries from Edwin Hubble (that objects in space are moving further apart) and presents a case that the opposite also has to be true (in reverse, all those objects would come closer and closer until they collided into nothingness). Something outside of time and space with a desire to create (a person) had to have initiated the “something from nothing.”

Our children are 6 and nearly 5, at the lower end of the recommended age, but they thoroughly enjoyed the book and illustrations. My husband used this book during our family Bible time in the evening, taking the time to explain some things as we went along. My children did not understand everything, but it was a great starting place for us. And the kids enjoyed it enough to ask for us to read the book on the following night as well.

Apologetics is really important to our family, important enough that my husband is pursuing a master’s degree (his second) on apologetics. So not only is this kid-approved, it’s Hubby-approved too. (wink!)

Because our children are young, this will be a book we read to them a few different times as their understanding grows. I love being able to not only lay a foundation of apologetics in their life at a young age, but also to lay the groundwork for our astronomy study this next year in school. I will be bringing this book out a lot as we study more about galaxies and outer space!

I was very impressed with this book and would highly recommend it. Answering our children’s questions is one of our most important jobs as we disciple them. Having help to answer those tough questions—priceless!

You can preview samples of How do we know God is really there? at Apologia Press. The book is available for purchase for $16 both through Apologia Press, Melissa Cain Travis’s website, and Amazon.com.

How do we know God is really there? is the first in the Young Defenders series to be written and published, and I’m thrilled to begin collecting this series for my kids.

Disclaimer: I received this product for free in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.