Drawing Around the World: Europe {Review}

Over the last few years I have grown an interest in the Charlotte Mason pedagogy of education. The longer I am on this journey the more I want to remove the mundane and twaddle from our Homeschool.

Recently I learned about the curriculum publisher called Brookdale House.  Their passion is "to design curricula that teaches more with less."  I discovered that Ms Mason wrote a couple of Geography books. This new found knowledge has inspired me to search for something to help Nathaniel with his map skills / knowledge.

Brookdale House have a Geography Drawing Series which covers the continent of Europe (Drawing Around the World: Europe) and the USA. The purpose of the curriculum is to help students draw maps from memory.

What we received

• Drawing Around the World: Europe
• 256 page full colour eBook 
• 9,286 kb

Contents

• How to use the program
• Learning objectives
• Suggested weekly schedule
• Memorization Techniques
• Maps
• Drawing Directions 
• Online Resource links
• 50 Countries to learn (spread over a 24 week cycle):

Albania	Germany	Norway
Andorra	Greece	Poland
Armenia	Hungry	Portugal
Austria	Iceland	Romania
Azerbaijan	Ireland	Russia
Belarus	Italy	San Marino
Belgium	Kosovo	Serbia
Bosnia	Latvia	Slovakia
Bulgaria	Liechtenstein	Slovenia
Croatia	Lithuania	Spain
Cyprus	Luxembourg	Sweden
Czech Republic	Macedonia	Switzerland
Denmark	Malta	Turkey
Estonia	Moldavia	Ukraine
Finland	Monaco	United Kingdom
France	Montenegro	Vatican City
Georgia	Netherlands

 How we used it

I printed off the first 14 pages which contained the introduction, instructions and a few sample and reference maps in order to familiarize myself with how the program works.  From here I chose the country we are learning about and printed off the pages for the week.

Learning to draw the country for the week

 Each week follows the same rhythm

• Day 1 - Learn about the country by completing a fact table of the country, locate and label the country on a map, trace the country and draw the country.
• Day 2 - Locate and label the country on a dashed, black and white dashed map. Draw and label the country on a blank map.
• Day 3 - a repeat of day 2
• Day 4 - List from memory all the countries studied so far. Draw the countries on a blank map.

Locating, colouring and labeling the country on a dotted map

Drawing the country on a blank map

If the student would like to practice tracing the country before free hand drawing you can add the maps to a sheet protector and use a dry erase marker. Some students struggle with the slippery writing surface. For these students I recommend using backing paper and a pencil for practice.

Using coloured pencils helps the countries stand out from the rest during practice and review.

**Cost of Drawing Around the World: Europe

• eBook - $22.95
• Printed Book - $25.95

** All prices are current as at October 2015. Price is subject to increase at the discretion of the vendor. Please check the website for current pricing structures.

Recommended Age Range

• There is no recommended minimum age.  As soon as your student is capable of tracing, free hand drawing from memory and writing the country names you can start using Drawing Around the World: Europe.

Connect with Brookdale House



Over All I thought ...
I like the simplicity of this system and the flexibility I have as a home educator to choose which country to learn next. This enables me to line up the country we are studying with our history or our current read aloud.

The system is the same each week which means that for me I don't need to do any new prep work and for Nathaniel it allows him to know what to do without me having to explain it from scratch each time.

Beautifully presented and excellent quality make for a great geography product.

Blessings
Chareen

Sarah, Plain and Tall {Progeny Press Review}

One of the things I really enjoy about homeschooling is discovering books that impact my life and the lives of my children in a positive way.  Charlotte Mason encourages us to find books that are twaddle free so when I find a book that impacts me I look forward to reading it to my children.  When Timothy and Jane were younger I discovered an incredibly though provoking trilogy by Patricia MacLachlan called: Sarah, Plain and Tall.  Last year we worked our way through the Little House on the Prairie books and my aim was to read Sarah Plain and Tall to Nathaniel but I really wanted him to see deeper into the story.  Due to him having ASD this can at times be rather challenging.

Last year Progeny Press blessed our family with a wonderful study guide to use along side Frog and Toad Together and we enjoyed it so much I was thrilled to find that they had an E-Study Guide for Sarah, Plain and Tall.

Their company mission is "To teach our children to think clearly, to understand literature, and to rely on the scripture for truth and values, and enjoy themselves while they do it!"

What we received

• Sarah, Plain and Tall - E-Study Guide
• Author: Rebecca Gilleland
• For the book: Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan.
• Pages: 43
• Format: Interactive PDF
• Sarah, Plain and Tall Answer Key

This Guide contains:

•  Table of Contents
• Note to instructor
• Synopsis
• About the Author
• Background information
• Before you read activities
• As you read assignments
• Chapter 1-3, 4-6 and 7-9 questions
• Word-search
• Summary Questions
• Crossword
• After you read Activities
• Additional Resource List
• Answer Key

How we used it
I downloaded the guide which arrived in an interactive PDF format (575 KB).  It had a total of 43 pages with a full colour cover. I printed our copy at home on our printer. I also printed off the answer key (61.5 KB).

Sample of questions and interactive fill in spaces.

This study guide is an interactive study guide.  You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.0+. I wondered what they meant by interactive and discovered that students have the ability to fill in the answers electronically on the computer and save their work as they progress through the guide. You do still have the option of printing the guide as before and using it as a paper guide. We stored ours in a file. To make use of the interactive part of the guide is an easy process.  You open the guide on your pc, click on the blue highlight and start typing.  The blue disappears and your writing appears in a different font. Once you have filled in your response and move to the next question the blue reappears.

Starting off our study we used the background information section to help us understand the time period the book is covering as well as to get a better perspective of life on the Prairie during the pioneer days in America.

Sarah, Plain and Tall is a 1986 Newberry Honor book. Sir N and I took turns reading the chapters together. This is a beautiful book and thought provoking. After Sir N read a chapter to me I would re-read the chapter to him so he could sit back and enjoy the beautiful illustrations and hear the story.

The guide has three sections covering the nine sections.  Each of these sections in the guide cover different aspects:

• Language Arts (each section uses a different exercise eg similes and metaphors, dictionary work)
• Setting
• Questions
• Thinking about the story
• Dig Deeper

We then moved to the table and looked through that chapter's study guide questions.  Digging Deeper is one of my favourite sections of the guide.  I wanted Sir N to have the opportunity to think and share with me his thoughts so I was the scribe and reader of the guide to him. From the guide I learned to turn to God's word and dig deeper and draw parallel's to what we were reading and learning. Together we learned to think more clearly about the story we were reading together. This had a benefit as Sir N got to look in his own bible to discover more about what God said on the subject. Each scripture reference was followed with thought provoking questions to help the student dig a little deeper and apply the knowledge of what they had just learned both from the Word of God and the book they had just read.


Recommended Age Range

• Upper Elementary/3rd grade-6th grade

Formats Available of this guide

• Sarah, Plain and Tall - E-Study Guide
• Sarah, Plain and Tall - Study Guide  CD or Printed Workbook

Categories available from Progeny Press

• Lower Elementary 
• Upper Elementary 
• Middle School
• High School

 Connect with Progeny Press

• Pinterest
• Facebook
• Twitter
• YouTube 
• Blog - Ask Rebecca

Over All I thought ...
Nathaniel and I both enjoyed this study guide together.  I enjoyed the digging deeper questions the most especially watching Nathaniel grasp the impact upon himself. He also enjoyed some of the further reading and listening suggestions at the end of the book. I hope that we can find the movie to watch too.

This guide was easy to use and there was very little preparation work for me the teacher.  I liked how the layout was easy to follow and simple to use.  

If you are looking for a study guide to use with your children that digs deeper and goes beyond asking mundane questions like who is the main character and what did they do? A guide that relies on scripture as the plum line. Progeny Press study guides are your answer.

I look forward to using more guides in the future with Nathaniel.
Blessings
Chareen

Sudoku Training Kit for Children {FREE Download}

Sudoku is one of those critical thinking games that I just assumed was far too difficult for me to learn.  It looked complicated to me. A year ago while on holiday my friend encouraged me to give it a go.  She explained the rules and lets just say that was the beginning of a very enjoyable holiday past time for me.

I was at a friends house and she had this really neat wooden Sudoku board on her coffee table and we got chatting about it.  She had designed a really neat children's set and was in the process of teaching her five and seven year old how to work through the thinking stages of Sudoku.  She graciously printed off her training pack and gave me permission to share it with you my readers!

Download your FREE  Sudoku Training Kit for Children here.

Teaching children to play Sudoku is a matter of patient practice and coaching.  In the printable you will find a number of boards to use.

Begin by printing page 9 and 10.  Once you have printed these two pages cut out the Sudoku training boards and laminate them for durability.

Begin with the two by two square board.
From your kit of tactile number blocks gather together four blocks numbered 1 to 4.
Explain to your student that you can only use each number once.
Set up the board with the three suggested numbers and ask your child to add in the final number.

Follow this exercise with using Rows to practice.  Use the same deduction technique.
Now use the column list and redo the same exercise.

From this your student can see that the process is the same in a square, a column and a row.

One your student grasps this concept it is time to practice using six tiles and the six tile 'square' which is found on page 6.

As your student gains confidence follow up with the graded practice working your way up through the different levels adding in more numbers.

Making your own Training Sudoku tiles.

• One Sheet of half inch square tiles. You will need a total of 91 squares.
• A permanent marker.
• Optional—glaze to seal the tiles

Write a single number on each tile. Be sure to draw a line beneath the number six to prevent confusion between nine and six.

You will need nine tiles with the same digit for each numbers one through nine.
Set the tiles aside to allow the ink to set over night. I painted a glaze over mine to give them added protection. You now have enough tiles for a nine by nine square.

Download your FREE  Sudoku Training Kit for Children here.

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Today the homeschool Blogging Crew are sharing some new FREE printables for you to download.

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Homeschool Blogging is hosting a weekly FREE Printable Friday each week.

 Do YOU have a FREEBIE to share ?  Join in the fun by linking up below!

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