Review: Homeschool Legacy–Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims(TOS Review) #hsreviews #unitstudies #historyunitstudies

We used Homeschool Legacy, Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims Once-a-week unit study for this review. 

We have used Homeschool Legacy before and LOVED it!  See our previous review of Lewis and Clark unit study!

This particular unit study is labeled a ‘micro-study’ because it is only 6 lessons (6 weeks) and they lessons are pretty short.

One of the great things about Homeschool Legacy units, including Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims, is that it consists of one lesson a week.  We typically take off Friday for swimming, but could easily fit in these lessons afterwards.

Each unit consists of 6 lessons, one less a week, for 6 weeks.  There are recommended read aloud books for the course of the units.  Each daily lesson consists of History lessons.  The lessons are laid out, and read directly from the text.  There are sometimes hyperlinks within the text to more information on the topic, for example in this unit, there was a link to read about the First Amendment.  Other links lead to recipes, video clips and virtual tours.

I was able to easily give the lessons from my iPad, and show the video clips as well, sometimes we would use the laptop and cast the videos to the TV to more easily see them. (But that also required going downstairs, and we do most of our schooling upstairs).

There was some map work involved and vocabulary (looking up definitions) also.

I found the unit quite interesting, as we have a distant ancestor that came across on the Mayflower!  I feel like most of it was more geared towards older kids, at least in my families case.  It is recommended for grades 1-8, but might be more suited for 3rd grade and up.  There are opportunities for research and report writing, as well as oral presentations, so it could be easily adapted for older students.  For younger kids, in most cases they could just really listen, which didn’t always interest them.

This unit leads up to Christmas, so would be best used starting Mid October to Early November, as activities toward the end include Christmas Caroling and making garland decorations.

There is a yummy wassail recipe that we drank after Trick-or-Treating, that is recommended for after Caroling!  (But since we were using it early….that would not have worked).

This unit was not as hands on as the previous one we reviewed.  It did have some game activities and crafting, but nothing that really grasped my children’s interest (ages 3-10). 

The lessons were fairly short, which was nice.  They were also very informative.  I feel like a lot was learned in those short lessons.  This unit would probably go well with Christmas Comes to America, a 4 week unit study for the month of December! You can find reviews on this one and other Unit Studies by clicking on the image at the bottom of this post!

There are a lot of great unit studies available from Homeschool Legacy, it’s a great way to mix things up a bit in your schooling, without changing up the routine too much! 

Although this one was not one of our favorites, I still recommend them to others often!

Social Media Links
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/homeschoollegacy/

Review: Accountable2You (TOS Review) #hsreviews #internetaccountability #internetsafety

For this review we tried out the Family Plan of Accountable2You.  Pornography is a growing problem today, mostly because access to it has never been easier.  It has most recently be labeled the “new drug” and families everywhere are taking precautions against it.  Unfortunately the temptation is there for many, and many are striving to overcome this serious addiction.  Whether you or someone you love is struggling with pornography addiction, or you want to take precautions to safeguard yourself, or loved ones from the grasp of it’s ravenous claws, this program would be a great tool for you!  

We have filters on our computer, we are very careful about what our children have access too, as well as safeguarding ourselves (my husband and I).  We have strict rules about internet use and location of use. However, you never know!  Router filters don’t work if you aren’t at home, and pornography makers are often sneaking and find the means to infiltrate our homes. 

Accountable2you is NOT a filter.  It’s a accountability program that allows an individual to be responsible for their own internet use.  Whether you are fighting a current addiction, or avoiding the pit of pornography, this program keeps you accountable!

It works by making an account, appointing an accountability partner and then installing onto your device.  Your accountability partner is then notified if you should access any questionable or highly questionable information on the web. 

If you use windows and have multiple accounts, it must be added to each individual account browser… ie, it’s on my account for chrome browser and also on my son’s account on his chrome browser.  For newer Kindles you must install the app. 

This program doesn’t need to be used JUST for pornography.  You can set up key words for which to be notified, as well as set time limits.  For example, my son has been known to window shop instead of do his school work!  I set key words such as Amazon, Target, Lego, Angry Birds and Minecraft.  You can opt for emails or text message, you can request instantaneous, or daily or weekly reports.  So, when my son accesses any of those keyword items, I receive a text message!  We played around with it a bit, to see how it would work!

If he triggers any of the words listed, I receive a test message that tells me exactly what website he was on and when. (it comes within 5 minutes of him accessing it).

I also set a time limit on his account, if he gets on the computer outside of the time parameters, I receive an email, stating when he was on and what websites he went to.  You can see below the email I received when he was on the computer before the 8am time limit.  Lucky for him, he was doing his math  

I also received some emails when I searched questionable words that are preprogrammed.  For example, I was purchasing a book from Amazon to help teach kids about the dangers of pornography, and received a red flag email.

Otherwise I receive daily emails, with a link to the history of that device.  Emails are only sent more often if there are red flagged items! You can opt for emails weekly instead of daily, with instant notifications via email or text message for questionable or highly questionable material.  Accountability partners are notified if the main account user makes any changes to their account, particularly to the list of questionable and highly questionable words.

This is a really great way to help someone overcome their addiction, or better yet to avoid the possibility of one at all!  It could be used to help maintain the amount of time someone spends online, to stop them from gaming or gambling online as well as other things.  The possibilities seem to be endless! 

Social Media Links
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/accountable2you
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/accountable2youllc

Review: CrossTimber (TOS Review) #hsreviews #name #namemeaning #CrossTimber #gift #personalizedgift

What’s in a name?

If you are looking for a personalized gift for someone this holiday season (or any occasion) CrossTimber has some great name related gifts!

For these review I received a 5x7 personalized framed print.  I was able to choose from a wide variety of backgrounds, I gave them the name and frame choice and they delivered!

This ladybug print will go great in her ladybug and butterfly bedroom!  Not sure why ladybugs became her décor, but it has been since birth!  She’s only 3 now, so she probably won’t be as excited about this item, as I am…but, I know as she gets older she will truly appreciate it!

The frame is metal and appears sturdy (NOT a cheap, chintzy frame), the frame is 7 x 9, the print is 5x7. I received the 4^th (and least expensive frame choice), described as thin, metallic brown. It does have a glass front.  The cost of this item, as pictured above is $23 plus S&H. You can add on items such as bookmarks, card or personalized messages on the back for only a few dollars more!

CrossTimber will contact you to iron out any details before delivering your print.  It was delivered in a timely manner, and packaged securely. 

There are a lot of options:  mugs, bookmarks, and music boxes and more; with lots of prints to choose from as well!

Each name comes with a origin, definition and a Bible verse.

I’m so excited to hang this beautiful print in my daughters room!  I also learned about her name more in the process!  We chose her name because it was a family name, with a Hawaiian spin!  It was neat to learn more about it’s original origin and meaning, as opposed to just “Hawaiian for Colleen”. 

CrossTimber is hosting a Giveaway currently, hope on over to enter! 

They also give discounts for bulk orders! 

You know the old adage of “It’s the thought that counts”, so much thought is put into this gift, not just by the buyer, but by the seller as well!  It’s a gift sure to be treasured and to last a lifetime! 

Other crew members received prints too, as well as other items!  Be sure to click on the button before to check out what they thought and to learn about other items that are available for purchase!

Social Media Links:
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/meaning.name/
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/crosstimber

Review: Middlebury Interactive Languages–Elementary Chinese (K-2) (TOS Review) #hsreviews #foreignlanguage #bilingualism #languagestudy

My 2nd grader (age 7) has really enjoyed taking Elementary Chinese 1 (Grades K-2) from Middlebury Interactive Languages.

My oldest (5th grade/10 years old) has been taking Chinese for a couple of years now, and has used Middlebury Interactive Languages in the past for reviews also (Elementary Chinese 1 (Grades 3-5)) twice! (Review 1 & Review 2).

This course is at a much more simple level than the one we reviewed in the past.  It took a few courses with me helping, and now he can basically navigate the course by himself.  I also noticed several improvements to the format (that were issues I had in past reviews).  The first is is is MUCH easier to get to the next course.  Straight from the homes screen they have a next lesson choice.  They also show which lesson you should be on according to the calendar, the classes are assigned one a day, 5 days a week.  Previously it was difficult to find which lesson you were on, if you were not following their calendar schedule.  This has been SOLVED!  Yeah! 

Another improvement is that if you use the Table of Contents to navigate lessons, you can easily see which lessons you have completed with check marks by them!  If I remember correctly, this was NOT the case before!  Great improvement!

This more of an introduction class to Chinese, they will be no means be fluent afterwards, BUT they do use games, videos, songs, and immersion to teach the concepts.  There are printable vocabulary sheets, words to songs, translations to the videos (all helpful things for the parent who does not speak the language and is trying to assist in these lessons!). 

There are speaking lessons, however, it is an extra cost to have these checked by a teacher, we did not have this option.  It did help my son to listen, record and listen to compare, however.

I should probably point out that this was used by my difficult child (if you have read my reviews before, you know what I’m talking about).  He has been very excited about this course from day 1 and continues to be so. 

There is a time limit when you subscribe to the course, they are only good for one year from purchase date.  If used regularly they can be completed in much less time (ie this course has 70 days of lessons, 35 each semester) You also have the option to pay more for a teacher or to pay less for independent study. 

Having used several Chinese language programs, I feel this is one of the best for  YOUNGER kids, based on this course for this review.  It doesn’t require the parent to know the language, the child can navigate it on their own (after some guidance), it builds a pretty good base and familiarity with the language…greetings, numbers, characters, etc…  I am happy with it, and so is my husband (who speaks Mandarin).

Middlebury Interactive Languages also offers Spanish, French and German courses.  Course are available in all languages Early Elementary through High School (with the exception of German for K-2). 

It’s definitely worth looking at for your homeschool foreign language needs!

Social Media Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Middlebury-Interactive-Languages-141015515949753/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MiddInteractive   @middinteractive
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/middinteractive/

Review: The Familyman–Christmas Treasury (TOS Review) #hsreviews #Christmas #Audio #audiobook #digital #familymanministries

It’s hard to believe that Christmas is just around the corner!  We got a chance to have Christmas a little early here, by taking a look at The Familyman’s Christmas Treasury – Audio Collection, Digital Downloads (I also received one CD from the collection.) from The Familyman. 

The Digital Downloads collection has 8 stories (6 of which are included in the CD collection). 

My children really enjoyed these stories!  They are great way to bring the true meaning of Christmas into your home!  Christ is often forgotten during this time of year, during the hustle and bustle of the commercialization of this sacred holiday.  This would be a great gift for any Christian family.

All the stories included in the set are great, but my kids picked out their 3 favorite for me to talk about in this review (maybe because these are the first ones we listened too, not sure, because I had trouble picking!).

The first is titled Cootie McKay’s Nativity.  This story is about a mentally handicapped man who was asked to rebuild the town’s nativity set.  They were really nervous about asking him, he is a tinkerer and collector of junk, and they weren’t quite sure how it would turn out.  Cootie was not even familiar with the story of Jesus’ birth.  Therefore, they educated him about it, and he was so excited to learn about this story and about Jesus and what He means in our lives.  He made a great nativity set, much to the surprise of the whole town!  It was a very heartfelt, feel good story…the kind that brings some tears to your eyes when you hear it. 

The second story they voted on was Captain Chaos and the Manger Blaster.  In Captain Chaos the main character gets a taste of what Christmas would be like, if Jesus had never been born.  He gets in a spat with his sister, over playing with the nativity, and wishes that there wasn’t such a thing.  When he wakes the next morning, no one in his family knows who Jesus is, what a Christmas tree is or anything that relates to Christmas.  What a sad day that would be!

Gladys Remembers Christmas was the third favorite.  Gladys doesn’t like Christmas.  Her mother died when she was young, and she doesn’t have very pleasant memories of growing up with just her father.  But, after her father’s passing, she remembers the good memories associated with Christmas as she clears through her his belongings.  She has flashbacks of good memories she had at Christmas time in her home, when she was younger, and her mother was still alive. 

These may be our favorites, but every story is just as good as the first!  All gentle reminders that Jesus is the reason for the Season!  Keeping Christ in Christmas is so important.  This wonderful Christmas Treasury helps to do just that!

Two of the digital downloads, are actually Easer stories, but another great holiday that is a result of Jesus in our lives, and a great reminder to the true meaning of the season!

The digital downloads are available for $3.99 each (with the exception of It’s Called Christmas, which is $4.99).  The CD collection of the Audio Treasury (6 stories) is available for $25.  An 8 pack of books is also available for $58, or books can be purchased separately for $10 each.

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ToddWilsonFamilyman/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/youdadad
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Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/u/0/107435990705080484154
Blog: http://familymanweb.com/blog/

Review: Educeri ...Educeri a division of DataWORKS (TOS Review)

For this review we used Educeri Lesson Subscription Service from Educeri ... Educeri a division of DataWORKS .

Educeri has over 1000 lessons for grades K through high school in a wide variety of subjects (though mostly math and language arts, there are some history and science lessons also).

I have to admit at first glance I thought these were VIDEO lessons, let me say now, they are NOT!  These are more like power point/slide show lessons.  Because of this, they aren’t really do by yourself lessons when it comes to little kids, which was a disappointment.  Older kids could work through the lessons themselves, however. Audio would be a GREAT added feature to this program!

We used these mostly as a means to further examine a topic (particularly in math) where more instruction or understanding was needed.  Unfortunately, there were not any lessons in Roman Numerals, because we could have really used that subject with my 5th grader.

It did help a lot with my 2nd grader in rounding, however.

Many of the lessons also have printable worksheets, so they can work the problems out and then check their answers in the lesson. 

It’s pretty straight forward, you read the text, as you hit the enter key (or the next button) the answers fill in, one answer at a time.

I envision this being used on a big screen, in a class setting…though it is adaptable to homeschool.  It can be used on any device that has internet.  As mentioned, however, for younger kids the lesson would need to be read to them, this is a bit of a disadvantage for me.  Having several young children, who always seem to need my help at the same time, it is nice to have something they can do on their own, without me. 

I only used the younger classes K-5th grade, though I did briefly look at some of the older grades as well.  It seems to be the same set up for older grades, as it is for younger grades, just more age appropriate topics.

You also have the ability to use marker tools on the slides, to mark (by writing or highlighting) things as you work through the lessons. 

a lot of the lessons and material are based on the Common Core Standards, and are marked when aligned.

You have the ability to sort by grade and by subject, there is also a search bar, so you can search by topic. 

I feel this would be best suited for older kids that can read the lessons themselves, if they can be trusted to not jump ahead and write their answers from those given (honestly, this would NOT work for my son, too big of a temptation!). 

They do offer a 30 day FREE trial subscription (no credit card information required), and then it is $7 a month or $75 a year, subscriptions are set up to auto renewal unless cancelled.

Quizzes will be coming soon also!

I honestly don’t for see us using this very often.  I can see how it could be a good fit for some families, so I highly recommend you taking the 30 day trial to check it out and see if it is something that would work well for your family!  There is no obligation to buy, no credit card information required, so it’s completely risk free!

Social Media Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/educeri/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/teacheduceri   @educeri
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/Educeri/

Review: My FreezEasy (TOS Review) #hsreviews #freezeasy #freezermeals #5dollardinners #freezercooking

I got to use the MyFreezEasy.com Freezer Meal Plan Membership by MyFreezEasy for this review!  It has been such a great addition to my home!

The program is designed to make double of a meal, and freeze one.  You print 5 meals at a time, menus change each month, but you can also swap out recipes if there is something that doesn’t really suit you.  The idea is to make 10 meals a week, freezing half each week.

I have to be honest, I rarely eat the same meal twice…I always am trying new recipes and such, and only repeat a few tried and true recipes.  So, making two meals of something I had not even tried yet, was not appealing to me.  BUT, I still used the recipes and just made 1 of everything to freeze for later. 

I am Paleo, and was easily able to find meals that fit paleo or had easily substitutable ingredients (ie coconut aminos for soy sauce, honey for sugar, ghee for butter, etc…). I also make paleo sides for each dish, (ie cauli rice, instead of rice and typically additional vegetables of some sort).

I first made 10 different dishes (which at this point I have eaten 8 of, and all were good!) Then I made 10 more!

I LOVED having something already made in the freezer for an easy go to dinner!  I cooked almost every meal in my instant pot (regardless of cooking directions), so it was also ready very quickly! 

I did find a few typos in the directions, so just be aware and look over things.  I also wish that there was an option for making just ONE of each dish, because the shopping list is automatically created for making TWO dishes, so I had to cut it in half myself…would be easier not to have to do so.

It says it takes an hour, I found with all the vegetable chopping and such, it took me more than an hour.   If everything was chopped and laid out, ready to go already… it would take about an hour from that point.  But it still saves A LOT of time in the long run, so it’s totally worth it!  You just have to find a few hours to set aside and DO IT!

I loved that I don’t have to worry about fresh vegetables going bad, b/c I’m chopping them right after I buy them and freezing them!  It makes eating healthy SO easy too!  Everything I used was FRESH veggies/fruit…zero processed food! 

It also cut down how much money I was spending at the grocery store because I don’t have to go as often!  I can go about once every 2 weeks now, with a small stop at the local farm for veggies every week (I do need side dishes). 

You are also able to adjust the serving sizes for your recipes!  This was great!  I could change it to 6 for every meal and the recipe adjusted accordingly!

Here is the list of recipes I made:

Dutch Oven Italian Chicken & Potatoes

Grilled Asian Chicken Foil Packs (made without packs)


Peach & Balsamic Chicken Skillet


Slow Cooker Mango Chicken
Slow Cooker Rosemary Artichoke Chicken
Beef Stew Foil Packs (made without packs)

Firecracker Pork Chops


New Mexican Chicken Lettuce Wraps (Filling) (Pictured NOT Paleo)


Paleo Minestrone Soup (I added meatballs to this)


Sweet Potato & Chicken Sausage Hash

Second round:

Easy Beef & Broccoli Stirfy
Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore
Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken
Grilled Pork Chops with Zucchini & Tomatoes
Slow Cooker Sweet Potato & Chicken Curry
Bolognese Sauce
Mediterranean Chicken Thighs
Paleo Chicken Taco Salad
Sesame Beef Lettuce Wraps
Slow Cooker Beef and Vegetable Soup (omitted the beans)

Everything I have eaten thus far has been DELICIOUS!  The only complaint my hubby had was that I made too many chicken breast meals, so for my second round you can see I tried to mix it up a bit more! 

It really is SUPER easy, and there is a good selection of recipes to choose from, they change every month, however! 

It is inexpensive too, especially considering all the money and time it saves you! I will be continuing to use these menu plans!  It has really saved me so much time, as a homeschool mom!  Dinner now requires no thought really, and just a handful of minutes in the instant pot, most nights!

Social Media Links:
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/freezeasy
Instagram:  http://www.instagram.com/freezeasy
Pinterest:  http://www.pinterest.com/5dollardinners/freezeasy