The Basics of Critical Thinking - A Review

We've been privileged with the task to review a few quality products from The Critical Thinking Co. over the couple of years we've been doing reviews for The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew, and The Basics of Critical Thinking is no exception.  I volunteered for this product because critical thinking skills are something that really need sharpening for the resident 10 year old.  To be honest, working side by side with her through this engaging workbook I've learned that my skills aren't exactly as sharp as I thought they were either.  

Despite the target age group of fourth through ninth grade I think this is a great resource for young adults and adults as well.  The exercises are short allowing time for discussion and contemplation without a great deal of direct teaching required.  I like that you don't have to work through the book from beginning to end.  As you well know by now, I just love resources that are modifiable and easily adapted to our unique makeup here at The Zoo Crew.  

With the stage of growth that we're at The Basics of Critical Thinking is a perfect tool to aid in the stretching of our thinking processes.  The exercises and processes presented in this book provide a foundation that can only help to serve the reader for the rest of their life.  Topics like evaluating evidence, facts and probability, advertising, and fallacies, just to name a few, are covered creatively and effectively.  All answers to the exercises are thoroughly explained in the back of the book allowing for review and discussion of any areas that pose a particular challenge.

Working with products from The Critical Thinking Co. makes it very clear why they have won so many national awards for their books and software.  I may be just a little partial since the author, Michael Baker, is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a major in philosophy.  The products that he produces are nothing short of excellent.  In The Basics of Critical Thinking his experience and dedication to the sharpening of young minds shines brightly.

This timeless workbook is flexible enough to be a perfect fit with any educational style.  It is an easy accompaniment to about any subject and can be used as a stand alone resource or to build upon a different lesson within a separate course of study.  The possibilities for application are only limited by your creativity and inspiration.  In this mad world of deception we can all benefit from a little discernment.  The Basics of Critical Thinking provides just the road map we need to guide our young people through the trains of thought that protect us and help us to make quality decisions throughout life.  

I am happy to have such a valuable resource at my fingertips.  We will surely be implementing the exercises within our homeschool throughout the year as well as applying the principles throughout life.  If you'd like to learn more you can get social with The Critical Thinking Co. on Facebook, Google+, Twitter and Pinterest.  There's nothing to lose and everything to gain!

Ann McCallum Books - A Review

Homework has never tasted SO GOOD!

I have a confession to make.  We haven't been using a set math curriculum.  *GASP*  I know!  I have to admit that with all of my planning for this school year I just couldn't settle on a plan for math in our homeschool.  Curriculum?  No curriculum?  Online?  Real life?  How on earth will these children learn their fractions and how to make change?  It will come.  This I do know.  In the meantime we are enjoying our extremely eclectic approach to math this year.  So, what better resource than Eat Your Math Homework by Ann McCallum Books?  We're really getting into this whole literature based approach to learning, and it's just the perfect resource for us right now.  What better way to learn math than to eat it?

Eat Your Math Homework takes learning math in the kitchen to a whole new level.  We're not just baking cookies and casually learning fractions and adding.  Not that there is a lick wrong with that.  We still do it.  We always will.  However, within the pages of this fun book with its cute illustrations you will find complete lessons.  How far you take them is fully up to you, but the foundation is well laid, and with the downloadable Teacher's Guide you can really pull off an awesome lesson that the kids will be talking about long after their delicious snack has disappeared.

One fun lesson that we really enjoyed was Fibonnaci Snack Sticks: Research.  The longer I homeschool along with my children the more I love history.  It is still sad for me to think about how much I missed out on over the years due to the fact that  I hated history so much in high school.  It's fascinating!  That may be at least part of the reason I liked this lesson so much.  There was history involved.   I think it's important for children to make the connection between subjects, and this lesson is a wonderful blend of history, math, and art.  We got to explore, aka research, and learn just who this Fibonnaci guy was anyway.  We enjoyed learning about his discovery and exploring the pattern ourselves.  We continue to look for Fibonnaci patterns in nature as well as exploring online resources to build on the lesson.

Annabella skewering bananas to form her pattern.

I think Avery is a tad pleased with his pattern.

Included in the book are lessons solving sequences, looking at nature, vocabulary, and more.  Each lesson provides you with a list of needed supplies so you can easily plan ahead.  We have found that for the most part we already have everything we need on hand.  The activities are simple and very easy for the kids to be hands-on.  I have to say using this book has been one of the easiest things we've done this year.  What I love about it is that there is such a huge payout for my little effort.  What homeschooling mom wouldn't love that?  We love Eat Your Math Homework so much that we also plan to eat our science homework and our U.S. history homework thanks to the other two publications by Ann McCullum Books in this series.  

We may not have a solid plan in place for math this year, but we certainly are having a lot of fun with the subject thanks in great part to this fabulously fun and imaginative book!

Successful Homeschooling Made Easy - A Review

I was a little apprehensive about taking an online course on how to succeed in homeschooling.  After all, I have been a homeschool mom for 18 years.  Really?  18 years?  It sounds impossible when I say it out loud, but it is the truth nonetheless.  I pondered the idea of taking the Successful Homeschooling Made Easy Course and ultimately decided I had nothing to lose and everything to gain.  Despite our status as a homeschooling family for almost two decades our family makeup, and therefor our school makeup, is ever changing and not remotely ordinary.

When we graduated our last homeschooler into independence nearly four years ago we were adjusting to life with a newborn.  I was actually considering church school for the little guy.  Homeschooling high school can be a little intense, especially three at a time, and this mama needed to know she had options.  Well, the baby turned into a toddler, my life as a high school home educator ended, and I became a new mom all over again.  It just seemed natural to continue with homeschooling.  At that point we realized that we ARE a homeschooling family.

Enter the next big change.  Two of our granddaughters came to live with us full-time, and life was a little shall we say hectic for a time.  The oldest one was school age, and big decisions had to be made.  She came home at Christmas break, and we never looked back.  I share this with you in relation to this review simply to illustrate that all of our journeys are a little different.  Our realities may have similarities, but the subtle (and not so subtle) nuances of each of our families are what make us unique.  We have different needs at different times.  That's what's wonderful about the Successful Homeschooling Made Easy Course.  It meets all of us right where we are at the moment.

My first thought in reviewing this course is how much I would have LOVED to have had something like this at the beginning of my journey all those years ago.  What a tremendous blessing it would have been.  I tend to shoot in the dark and jump in the deep end without looking.  That just seems to be the way my life flows.  BUT - what if - what if I had this at the beginning?  This course is SO SIMPLE and SO EASY to follow.  I look forward to receiving the email each week with the new lesson.  It arrives as a downloadable PDF which I can read on my laptop or print and put in a binder.  It really doesn't take much time to work through.  Some weeks may require a little more effort, like when you're ironing out your schedule, but for the most part we're talking 20 minutes or so.  I love the way Stephanie suggests making a special time just for you to relax and focus on the lesson with a beverage of your choice.  Unfortunately, I have not been able to make this aspect of it work for me at the moment, but I have not given up hope.

Having worked through the first nine lessons (of the 26 total) as well as two bonus lessons, a nice little perk Stephanie throws in here and there, I know this is going to help me greatly as we transition into this next phase of homeschooling.  Currently we are moving from a full-time, year-round approach to a more relaxed spring/summer and more intense fall/winter approach.  Our family is getting deeper into homesteading.  This year we plan to grow more of our own food as well as add livestock to the picture.  This means we need more time in the spring and summer months to work our land and prepare for the fall and winter months.  I guess in this sense we are taking a more traditional approach beginning now as far as scheduling goes.  It has been MANY A YEAR since we took a break from academics in the summer, and the transition feels a tad awkward at times; just as much as it seems a natural fit.  Utilizing the guidance throughout the lessons helps me take a step back, evaluate our needs as well as our desires, and refresh my memory on the goals of just why it is we live like we live.  I think we all need to remind ourselves of that from time to time.

Successful Homeschooling Made Simple in my opinion would be most beneficial for those stepping into homeschooling for the first time and those, like me, that are looking to make a big transition in how they "do school."  It's also a wonderful resource for taking a little me time to walk through the lessons as a sort of self-evaluation as to how things are going within your own homeschool, or with a specific area that you'd like to improve.  The determining factor for me deciding to take the course was looking forward to the lesson on housekeeping!  Are there any of us out there that don't fret over the limited amount of time we have to pull off everything?  As a homeschooling mom it can often feel like we work a few full-time jobs.  Working through this course forces us to step back, gather our thoughts, and move forward with a more purposeful and simple approach.

Each lesson is presented in a simple, inviting, and easy to follow format.  There is always a preface to let you know what to expect within the lesson followed by the lesson itself.  Stephanie has sprinkled inspiring quotes throughout the course which I really enjoy.  There is also suggested reading in relation to the lesson.  The books are not required as part of the course, rather they are suggested as a way for you to get even more out of your experience with the course and within your homeschooling journey.  The lessons end with a summary, and assignment, and a little glimpse into the following week.  Yes, it really is simple!

Check out Stephanie from Successful Homeschooling Made Simple on Facebook!

More Learning Lies Ahead

My office where all of our planning takes place.  It is also
sacrificed space.  This used to be my living room.  I have
hopes of reclaiming it within the next year.  We'll see!

It's that time of year when most of us are preparing for the up and coming school year.  We all do it, but we have our own style about it.  It doesn't matter the form of your approach to education, everything requires some forethought and effort.  Over the years what our family's approach to education looks like has changed several times.  I think we've finally arrived.  (Maybe.  Ask me again in five years.)  We are Eclectic Homeschoolers.  Isn't that a fun label?  I'm cool with it.  It's actually quite freeing to actually know WHO we are and WHAT we stand for as a family.

Aside from knowing God and gaining a more thorough understanding of the Bible our greatest goal as parents of the three youngsters we are currently raising, remember seven have gone before them, it is our greatest charge to instill them with the ability to do for themselves.  I've always believed it my job to raise my children up to live their own lives.  Never before have I viewed that calling in the exact light of which I do now.  We are not young parents.  When our young children are our age they will find themselves with very aged, quite possibly deceased, parents and not a grandparent to be seen.  They will be the elders much younger than we.  Sure they'll have their older siblings and cousins around, but they will definitely NEED to be independent, self-driven individuals.  In addition, it is my prayer that they will be community minded with a heart for their fellow man and that they will carry the wisdom to know when helping IS helping and when the best way to help someone is to step back.

The above goals are always in the forefront of my mind when I am planning their education.  This year is exciting for me in that I have found my way back to my roots.  I am back in communication with my eclectic self, and it feels nice.  With our sudden plunge back into homeschooling I enlisted the help of a "canned" curriculum.  It was great, and I planned to use it for years to come.  It felt good to not have to think so much.  It was fun to just open the book and follow the preset plan for the day.  I could prepare way in advance if I desired, or I could wing it for a day, or week or two, as needed.  The curriculum we used was simple to follow, in line with our morals, and easily alterable to suit our needs.  This I loved!

Now that all of us are getting used to living together and settling in as a cohesive family (It's been nearly TWO years!  Can you believe it?) I am feeling a bit more capable of doing my own thing.  What does this mean for me?  A lot more work is required on my part, but the outcome is so much more fun and totally worth it.  It means late nights and a lot of planning.  It means we get a customized curriculum, and I am SO into that!

I don't know about you, but I love learning about how other people do things, what resources they use, and how they put everything together to meet the individual needs of their families.  So, I thought you might enjoy a little peek into what I've been working on for my family.  I have some favorite resources to share with you and some organizational pointers.  It is my hope that you are inspired to stay the course, or take your first step, with your mission in mind.  Homeschooling is not for the faint of heart, but when we are supportive of each other the load can be lightened, and we can even have fun (a lot of fun) on the journey!

My favorite planner is by far The Well Planned Day by Home Educating Family Publishing.  Rebecca Scarlata Keliher has thought of nearly everything we need as home educating parents to plan and manage our year, and she bound it all neatly up into a convenient planner.  I've tried others in an attempt to save a dollar, but this is one area I have decided not to cut corners.  This planner functions VERY WELL as my external brain, and with perimenopause rearing it's ugly head this is a very beautiful thing!  If you're not there yet, trust me on this one.

A glimpse inside my planner clockwise from left: front cover,
month at a glance, week at a glance, and student planning page.

*There are TONS of useful bits inside this planner.  I just shared my most used pages. 

In reclaiming my status as an eclectic homeschooler I have pulled back out and put back into service my trusty three-ring binder.  Here is where I keep the materials that I am putting together for lessons and prepare the individual subjects for my individual children.  It is such a handy system and really works well for me.  I love the resources found inside the FREE Printable Planner by Britni at The Life in Bloom.  I used her planner before, and this year I pulled out some helpful pages to use in my planning binder.  I love her style, and her experience as a homeschool mom is evident with the content of her FREE planner.  It is fun to poke around her site.  There are lots of useful and fun, FREE printables to be found.

A glimpse inside my Homeschool Notebook clockwise from left:
inside front cover holds information requiring immediate attention,
I use the calendar page for a typical month-at-a-glance for each of us,
and   I use it for a typical week-at-a-glance, I use the yearly sheet to
 plan out the material covered for the year, and I use it for planning
out food preservation for the year, dividers allow me to store free
printables to be used with our subjects studied throughout the year,
and for organizing literary resources (also free) to complement books
 we read throughout the year, and the back pocket holds additional
useful resources for future planning.

The last thing in my planning arsenal is a planner for Harmony, the resident nine-year-old.  As members of the TOS Homeschool Review Crew we are being given the opportunity to review a homeschool planner for kids.  What a perfect fit!  This will be her first year using a planner and taking a little more charge of her responsibilities, both on the domestic and the educational front.  Check back in late September to see how it goes.  We will start using this planner on Monday even though we don't start our new schedule until September 8th.  I figure it will be good for her to have some practice down before we pick things up a bit.

A new method has been shared with me in regard to the approach of educating my children that seems a perfect fit.  Up until a couple of years ago The Heart of Wisdom has not registered on my radar.  In this time I have been exposed to it repeatedly.  Finally, I took a look, and I love the concept.  It seems a great fit for us as we were already naturally functioning in a similar way.  However, with The Heart of Wisdom in hand we have a blueprint of sorts.  Just like my Well Planned Day planner it serves to lighten my load.  Robin Sampson has done all the leg work for me, and I get to benefit from the fruits of her labor as do my children.  We've joined in the rotation at year four in order to align with my good friend and her place in the rotation in a hope that we may join together on occasion and share in the learning with our families.  We've not decided as to what we will do at this point, but we could do an experiment, cook a meal, do a craft or art project; the possibilities are endless.  Joining together as like minded families just serves to enhance the learning experience of our children, and creates a sense of community unlike that which I have found in any other circumstance.  We love learning together with other families!

Since it has been so many years since we were active homeschoolers before this new journey began, I find my arsenal a tad lacking at the elementary level.  No, we are not one of those homeschool families learning high school level chemistry in third grade.  This has meant that I need to evaluate my current resources purging what we can't use, pulling together what we can use, and supplementing with new items to enhance our learning library.  I am making a conscious effort to add good quality, living books to our library.  We read seemingly constantly, and I want what is available to be enriching and educational and thought provoking, and fun.  We are making good progress in this area, but it is a lot of work.  Thanks to some good friends I have some new resources and the process is very enjoyable.  Books, books, books, and more books!

The three main bookshelves on our first floor have been "sacrificed" to our homeschool.
The first one is in my office.  It holds all the materials we are currently using; well, most of them.
The second shelf is in our family room.  It holds all the books that complement what we are learning.
They are available for reference, family reading time, or just diving into whenever we feel like it.
The third shelf is in our dining room.  It holds all of our creative play items; games, puzzles,
kitchen toys, musical instruments, building blocks, and things of the like.

*In the beginning NONE of these things resided in these places.  My cookbooks have been moved to the book closet, my fiction books are in a box somewhere up there as well, and all of my health and nutrition books are looking for a new corner as well.  It's what we do, right?  BTW - Sharing these pictures is a stretch for me.  They are not perfectly displayed.  Rather they are in their current state of use.  So, you can see that we actually do live and learn here, and it does get messy!  It only stays perfectly organized IF I get around to doing so while my children sleep.

As you can see I have been hard at work, and it's only just begun.  We all have a lot to learn this year.  Harmony will be studying the Bible, piano, character and virtues, homemaking, math, spelling, cursive, history, photography, science, Spanish, and art.  Avery has asked to learn to read, and he is well on his way.  In addition he will be learning about the Bible, piano, character and virtues, math, Spanish, and art.  Bella's path is similar to Avery's.  It's just a little pared back.  She's SO competitive that I wouldn't be a bit surprised if she learns to read right by his side.  The kids aren't the only ones with educational goals this year.  I will be taking a photography and a natural medicine course I purchased through Great Courses.  (Love them!)  I also plan to learn more about using social media with my blog and to promote our business, and I will be trying my hand at gluten free baking.  Not to mention my grand ambitions in homesteading; canning, freezing, gardening, raising chickens and sheep, and on and on.  Plus we have 4-H, and all that entails.  When you write it all out like that it sure sounds like a lot.  No wonder I need to write it all down and get it all organized!

I'm excited about this coming school year, and I'm glad to be figuring out our path.  I've learned to be flexible and go with the flow a lot more.  That being said, I also know myself well enough to know that I need to at least have goals and plans if I want to accomplish anything.  Planning is important in general, and it can be a tall order to put together an entire curriculum for your family, but it is SO worth it!

Here are some more of my favorite resources:

ABC Teach

Scripture Adventures

Simple Homeschool

Exploring Nature

Little Learning Lovies

123 Homeschool 4 Me

CurrClick

Homeschool Share

Our Little Friend

Teacher's Notebook

Khan Academy

Math 4 Children +

Christian Homeschool Hub

Free Homeschool Deals

Teachers Pay Teachers

Happy Planning!