Reviews

This is a wonderful story to listen to! I am spiritually uplifted and instructed from the story of this godly young lady. I recommend this for any young lady, especially one interested in the 1800s!...

Our family loves Jonathan Park! We love to use these CDs on car trips and at night to listen to as the kids fall asleep. Each episode has an exciting plot and ties in biblical truths and Bible verses as well as refutations of evolutionary beliefs. Highly recommended!

-Lina K....

I am so happy to see that hearts at home carries this efficient planner! I teach the girls in my Future Christian Homemakers course to be organized. This particular brand is on the supplies list! With Well Planned Day, it is indeed well. All pertinent information right at your fingertips and a lovely cover, great for teens, moms, childcare providers, anyone!...

This is a great set for beginning readers. My son enjoyed the books, as well as the silly black and write line drawings. After working through the first 3 or 4 books, my son had a newfound confidence in his reading ability. There's nothing like being able to read a whole book "all by yourself" to get you fired up about reading....

We used Horizons for the first time this year. It was a transition from ABeka and went very well! We love how the curriculum is a spiral and the concepts keep getting reviewed, rather than focusing on one thing with drill and kill. The manipulatives are very helpful, though you can make many on your own. The teacher's guide is not super necessary for the younger grades, unless you want the lesson plans or extra worksheets. We were happy we had the teacher's manuals. It is a very colorful program and easy for the kids to follow and do on their own - for the most part. We were very happy and we are using Horizons math again for 2nd grade....

Rachael writes:
I absolutely love this book, and so do my girls, despite their different grade levels. It is hard to find curriculum that is fascinating, entertaining, and easy to understand and yet challenging, but that is exactly what this book is.
And I am enjoying it as well! Excellent history book!...

Science was a torture for me to think about teaching to my kids as a homeschool mom. I was fortunate enough to have good advice from other homeschool moms to try Apologia. This is the first Apologia book we used, and I am now teaching it to daughter #2. It is clear and interesting, and I often read aloud to my girls because I enjoyed it so much. It took the science anxiety away! The experiments are easy to follow and use mostly items from around the house.
This is a great homeschool science textbook!...

I have used SOS curriculum for a few years and am very impressed with almost everything about it. I like that you can skip lessons as needed, grading is very easy for the parent and the subjects are presented in an interesting way. What I didn't like was when you want to print out a test, it only puts about two questions on each sheet of paper. Also, I felt that Math was too difficult to complete on the computer. Sometimes you need good ol' paper and pencil. I still feel this is an exceptional curriculum overall and complete as it is. You should not need to supplement these lessons. I might also add that AOP's customer service is wonderfully helpful if you should need them. If you are looking for a Christian based, complete curriculum, AOP's SOS is the answer.~T.Hudgins, Modesto, CA...

I am using math 5 this year with my daughter who is struggling in math. I love the Teacher's Edition and how clear the instructions are. She loves how the program covers one topic per chapter. This helps her to focus on one skill at a time. BJU math teaches to both visual and hands-on students with a great conceptual understanding of the math skills they are learning. This program has made great improvements in her skill levels as well as her confidence level....

We had a good time doing these when my daughter was 4. She raced through them quickly and started Explode the Code 1 within 2 months. If your child needs the extra repetition or doesn't QUITE have the coordination to write well yet, these books are fabulous! If your child has a pretty good grasp on the letters and their sounds and can write fairly well, you may want to consider just beginning with book 1 of Explode the Code....

My son used this when he was just learning to write. It helped him with his handwriting. He detested handwriting, but it wasn't quite so bad when he had something interesting to write about like Columbus. The drawing part was a nice addition because it made it easy for him to draw something relevant, and it gave him some practice drawing something that would really look good when he got done with it. Almost like "drawing copywork". I liked the pages that he finished and considered them keepsakes.

Penney Douglas...

I was disappointed in the Beyond the Code series after falling in love with the Explode the Code series. We went all the way through book 8 in ETC before starting BTC. I think it would've been better to start BTC at the same time as book 5 in ETC. There just didn't seem to be as much content as I expected, and although my son is a very advanced reader, it just didn't seem as if the exercises were always grade appropriate. They seemed way below his level. It has the same cute illustrations and fun style as ETC, so if your child enjoys ETC, it may be worth it to try BTC. If I were you, I'd use Early Reading Comprehension from Varied Subject Matter instead....

I just finished Song School Latin with my son, and we both LOVED IT!! In fact, my two year old picked up quite a bit of Latin simply by listening to the CD with us in the car. He sings the songs all the time and even says "Daniel est optime!" (which means, "Daniel is great!" when asked how he's doing).

This is meant to be done once a week, for a total of 31 weeks. It also says it's for K-3 grades. HOWEVER, we went through the book in only 6 weeks doing a lesson per day rather than a lesson per week. Also, I wouldn't recommend this for a kindergartener who isn't reading yet. The book assumes you know how to read, so I'd do it with a 1st or 2nd grader. It's a wonderful introduction to the next step, the Latin for Children series (designed for grades 3-6).

The teacher's edition for this book is helpful, but certainly NOT necessary if you're on a budget. It is an exact copy of the student book. The only difference is that the answers are filled in for you (and I've found a couple of mistakes, actually), and there are a few "bubbles" of extra information in the margins. The teacher's edition is necessary if you're teaching a class, but not for an individual.

Most importantly, you do NOT need to have a background in Latin to use the products from Classical Academic Press! They are wonderful tools that teach both the parent and child at the same time! If you're like us, you'll find that your child learns much more quickly than you do. Be sure to go to the Classical Academic Press website to find downloads and reinforcement games (free) that accompany all of their products....

I am so over the drill and kill type workbooks. They work for some families, but we like to "get it done and move on." Easy Grammar fits this description. Your student learns a list of prepositions (a list that is added to in each subsequent book). By using the propositions to rid the sentence of prepositional phrases, other parts of speech become very clear. The first time I did a sentence and discovered that the subject was different than I originally thought I was delighted. For the kids, they can look at the lesson and actually see a light at the end of the tunnel before they start the lesson....

This math curriculum is the very best beginning "first" product that I have seen or used.
I am currently using it this summer with my almost 5 year old girl to teach her the foundations of math and calculations. What an excellent program this is to set a solid foundation in several areas of math functions that we use on a daily basis.
It includes simple calculations of addition and subtraction, but even before that it teaches the numbers 0 - 10 and what they mean and their value which is the very basis of all number systems that children need to grasp to be successful at math. It continues on with teaching skip counting, patterns, counting money, the beginning of teaching time, and finally introduces word problems. This is absolutely great for a kinder or early learner child. If they can grasp these concepts this early, future math will be more easily absorbed, and more readily understandable with the building blocks in place from this curriculum.
There is a teachers book and student book and is very reasonably priced. Absolutely no reason not to use this for beginners of 5 or 6 or 7 years old to lay the foundation with solid blocks that offer them the tools to become successful at math.
Why spend a fortune for a beginning math curriculum when you can have the best for way, wayyyyyyyyyyyy, less.....
You will find this easy to use, the TM walks you through teaching them the beginning of math and numbers and makes it easy to do!!!!!

I recommend it highly and you won't be disappointed.

Cheryl Patrick...