Educeri Lesson Subscription Service - Homeschool Review Crew

I often find myself trawling the Internet for ideas and lesson plans, so when the chance came to review the Educeri Lesson Subscription Service from Educeri ....... Educeri a division of DataWORKS I was keen to give it a go. I was given a 12 month subscription to review.

Educeri is an online site full of ready to teach lesson plans. They currently have over a thousand lessons available across grades K-12 covering topics in;

• Math
• Science
• English Language Arts
• History
• Art
• P.E.
• Music
• Spanish
• English Language Development

The site is fairly easy to navigate. Once logged in you can choose to view all lessons, browse by topic, browse by grade or search for a specific lesson. You simply click 'Teach Lesson' to view.

The lesson is presented like a slide show and you have to click to move to the next slide. Each page usually has a few sentences of information, some helpful tips (in boxes) and some problems shown underneath. After you have read the information and worked out the answers, you click and the next few slides walk you step by step systematically through the problem. There are marker and eraser functions you can use through the mouse control but we found it easier to just say the answer and click to see it solved.

At the end of each lesson there is a detailed overview giving you the learning objectives, vocabulary, common core correlations and most of the lessons have printable handouts available so your students can practise what was covered in the lesson.

We used Educeri as a supplement to our existing lessons, for example Rose has been looking at quadrilaterals in geometry and I found a lesson that tied in perfectly.

The lessons aren't really interactive but I sat with her and helped her read the info and she took great pleasure in 'seeing' if her answer was correct as she clicked to the next slide.

Whereas Sunflower was quiet capable of using this on her own, she just browsed the list and picked out lessons that she wanted (I did set her a few to supplement areas we were currently studying) - she particularly loved the lesson on Australian Indigenous Rock Art.

I really liked the level of detail in the lessons and it was nice to have  prepped lessons to hand on days when I wasn't on top form. I was impressed by the breadth of topics covered in math, science and english arts, we used a number of them and I have plans to use many more : )

I would like to see some audio included in the lessons, especially for the younger ages. I am excited to see what new lessons will be added to other areas (especially Art).

You can purchase an annual subscription for $75 or opt for monthly subscriptions at $7. Educeri offer a 30 day free trial so you can see how it works for your family.

You can see what my crew mates thought over at the Homeschool Review Crew.

Asia group activity day

Our activity day last month - sorry for posting it late but was hit with health problems.

I will be honest and say this topic (one the kids voted for) filled us parents with dread - that said, we all managed to create some amazing activities.

We looked at the Mongolian Empire, lifestyle and how they made felt.

Studied the Terracotta Army and had a go at making our own.

Looked at the countries in Asia and drew their flags for the giant map.

Read all about moon lanterns and had a go at lantern making.

Explored Rangoli and drew our own.

Made edible maps of the rivers and mountains in Asia.

I was very impressed by one childs' take on Mt.Everest - the tallest mountain of marshmallows :)

Entrepreneurship and Practical Life for upper elementary

One of my favourite aspects of Montessori is the emphasis on practical life. Seeing children gain the confidence to do for themselves really makes me happy.

I've been wondering how to include more practical life into lessons for the older girls (they've kind of outgrown pouring, lacing and pegging) when I realised I just needed to get them doing practical things they loved (I'm sure chores count but they don't love those).

I stuck on the idea of making frames for their honey bees,

they plan to sell extra queens and honey so will need as many hives and brood boxes as possible and the carpentry skills they develop will work nicely alongside having to design labels and a web page to sell their honey and spare bees from.

So I get entrepreneurship, art and design, carpentry, web design and math lessons all in one hobby : )

Clay Fruit

A big hole we were digging for foundations revealed clay in our garden.

clay = happy kids

needless to say they got very muddy digging up loads of clay, then spent a few hours washing it and making clay fruit and bowls.

TOS Review - Home School in the Woods Project Passport History Studies

I've always enjoyed projects from Home School in the Woods, so was keen to be able to review their History Through the Ages: Project Passport World History Studies (and they don't disappoint)

We opted for Project Passport World History Study: Renaissance & Reformation which is a great way to explore history in a hands-on and fun way.

The idea is you can 'travel' through the era filling in your passport, Scrapbook of Sights and lapbook along the way. There are 25 stops (lessons) to your journey and each stop has up to eight activities (totalling over 50 projects and activities along with almost an hour of MP3 recordings) where you get to meet interesting people, experience great events, discover their way of life, explore their art, learn their science, taste their food, study their wars and view their drama all in a activity based format making history alive and interesting rather than dry or dull.

We received the digital download version but there is also an option to choose the files on CD. The download included several PDFs, MP3 files and images.

Inside the PDF folder is an introduction folder for parents which talks through how to use this (this is a must read - it also has pictures of finished lapbook pieces), a 'Travel Planner' which gives you an overview of what you will be covering in the unit and gives a number of tips.

The other folders include printable covers, the 'Travel Itinernary' which is the guide to what you will be doing on that stop - it outlines the pages and supplies you will need, how to put the pages together and instructions for any crafts. The 'Masters' are the lapbooking  elements that will need printing for each child. The 'Teacher Keys' contain the time line and maps you will need. The 'Text' contains the historical information needed to complete the 'stop'.

I started by printing off everything I needed for the first stop and collected it all together. I ended up printing an average of one to two stops a week - you could spend less time each stop but the girls were enjoying it so I let them take as much time as they wanted.

Although this is designed for grades 3 and above, both Tulip and Rose wanted to join in with their older sisters (as they can't let them have all the fun).

I loved that it has so many activities to choose from writing a newspaper, putting together a menu, 

art activities, 

designing postcards, crafts, time lines etc. I also liked the 'quiz' cards which provided us a great opportunity for narration. (I'm really looking forward to making the Globe Theatre and making a ruff but they are in stops we haven't got to yet)

I was impressed by how much of the everyday Jo's life of the Renaissance you actually explored - not just the royalty and key players. My favourite aspect was how flexible you could be with the activities, choosing some or all (they even have a list of suggested books if you want to take your studies further) means this can take as much or as little time as you want.

There is a lot of printing required for each 'stop' which can be time consuming and, as with most lapbooks, you will need lots of paper and card stock (luckily I already had lots).

The girls have thoroughly enjoyed learning about history with this method and didn't even consider it 'school', often working on it in their free time. Sunflower is already planning a Renaissance tea party ("cause it will be educational mummy") and is busy putting together invites, the menu and making ruff's for her guests to wear. Lilly has enjoyed the art work the most. Both Rose and Tulip have liked the crafts and the stamps in their passport best.

Project Passport World History Studies are designed for grades 3rd - 8th and can be completed in 8 to 12 weeks, however the beauty of these is you can pick and choose the activities so they can take as long as you wish. It is available as a download for $33.95 and $34.95 for the CD.

You can see what my crew mates thought of this as well as the Ancient Egypt and Middle Ages Project Passport World History Studies over at the TOS Blog.

More secret truths about homeschooling - Socialisation

I previously posted some truths that no one tells you about homeschool and I thought it was time I addressed the most important one.

Socialisation is a major problem - the girls have had chicken pox this week and we've been forced to stay at home much to their despair - this means we've missed 6 home ed activities that we were supposed to attend (a charcoal art workshop, youth group, a fundraising high tea party, ninjas, free running and a sewing class) combine that with the home ed camp we attended last week (woodland survival walk, 

mosaic making,

felting, 

making nettle cordage, 

lap booking, games workshop, paper making, big science (Rose is being an oxygen atom), 

stomp rockets, camp fire cooking, baby games etc) 

so I'm really glad my girls are ill otherwise we wouldn't have had any time over the last two weeks to actually learn ; )

So yes - socialisation is a real problem, if you are not careful you'll have too much socialisation and not enough education 

Charcoal Camping

We've just returned from a great but exhausting Home Ed camp with our local craft group. Not only did the kids spend an afternoon making rag rugs, they also made some charcoal for our next arty craft meet.

It was a fairly simple process - first collect some wood just a bit thicker than your thumb, they decided that we would try different types of wood like green ash and dried ash, green and dry hazel, holly etc. Once collected they needed to strip the bark off (apparently this makes better drawing charcoal - they also noticed the green twigs were easier to peal) cut into lengths and place into a tin.

Meanwhile the lids of the tins had holes hammered in.

These were then placed on the fire until steam stopped coming out of the holes. 

Some of the first efforts were underdone so the tins went back on the fire.

The finished article was tested, then safely bagged up for next months lesson :)

Just a note - some of the tins appeared to catch fire but still produced great charcoal.