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I’ve actually wanted to get my hands on Evan-Moor How To Teach Art To Children for a while now. First, because it’s for Grades 1-6. I have children within those grades this year. And the second reason is that it covers a wide range of art elements teaching it progressively.
Although we’ve done other art programs with my daughter who is now in grade 3, my son who’s in grade 1 is at the beginning stages of learning about art. And this year, I’m catering art to my son while the older one will review what she’s learned and I’m sure she’ll learn more along the way!
I had the privilege of receiving a copy of Evan-Moor How To Teach Art To Children Enhanced E-book free with my honest review.
What This Curriculum Contains:
FREE downloadable e-book about art and artists
Material list (most, if not all these things are in our homes already!)
Words to know (vocabulary is important!)
2 parts: Learning About The Elements Of Art and Using The Elements Of Art.
Step-by-step instructions
96 projects
159 pages
What I did notice about the curriculum is that there’s no schedule or lesson plan to follow. This wasn’t a deterent for me as I like to go with the flow as far as art is concerned. With 96 projects, you can do an art lesson once a week for 2-3 years while never repeating yourself.
This curriculum is the perfect open-and-go format where a lesson is short and simple, (one page typically) and to the point.
Part One: Learning About The Elements Of Art
This portion helps your children learn all about the seven basic elements of art:
line
shape
color
value
texture
form
space
Part Two: Using The Elements Of Art
This portions focuses on 23 famous artists, cultures, and types of art. It’s accompanied by an activity for kids to experience the style of each artist.
What Is Included In Each Lesson?
I love a good illustration to help me understand what the project is about, and this e-book is not short on diagrams!
Each lesson contains:
an overview of what your children will be learning
materials list
step-by-step instructions for completing the project
This curriculum really couldn’t be any more simple!
How We’ll Be Using How To Teach Art To Children
In terms of our homeschool schedule, art is part of our afternoon loop. We incorporate it as part of our Brave Writer lifestyle and it’s been placed on Day 5 – our most relaxed day!
Now I’m not opposed to doing art more. It certainly is a subject we enjoy easily, so if we need to change things up in our atmosphere, whether it’s been a big emotion kind of day or an intensive type of learning day, art is a great place to bring us all together (and some snacks help too).
Printing This Curriculum
I love the idea of receiving digital e-books, especially in cases where I don’t want to print them. Instead, I keep them stored on my tablet or laptop for ease.
Now in this case, I printed it for you so that you could have a glimpse at the curriculum. That said, I would not recommend printing this e-book to save on ink and paper. The color is great for visual appeal and general helpfulness to show projects, but not necessary for printing as a whole.
Who Is This Curriculum For?
Not all curriculums are for every child or family. Perhaps if you’re looking for who this curriculum is for, I’ll put it this way. It’s a curriculum designed for:
homeschool families who have multiple children in multiple grades
open-and-go style of format
an inexpensive purchase (including the e-book itself and materials needed)
art fundamentals building on each concept.
To get your copy or have a look at Evan-Moor How To Teach Art To Children curriculum, visit their site here.
Have you used the Evan-Moor How To Teach Art To Children before? If so, how did you like it? Did this review help you? Let me know!
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I’m so excited to be using Evan-Moor Daily Science Grade 3 this upcoming year with both my grade 3 daughter and grade 1 son. We had such a wonderful experience last year when I purchased the Daily Science grade 2!
I had the privilege of receiving a copy of Evan-Moor Daily Science Grade 3 Enhanced E-book free with my honest review.
About Evan-Moor Daily Science Grade 3
Here’s what you need to know about the curriculum:
6 Big Ideas (or Units)
There are 6 topics being covered over 5 weeks. The topics included in each unit are living things, plants, fossils, air, light and electricity.
The first 4 weeks explore each topic, while the fifth week is a unit review that includes comprehension, visual literacy, hands-on activity and vocabulary.
Unit Introduction
Teacher Background – gives you information on a topic before you cover it with your children. This can help bring confidence to what you’ll be studying.
Unit Overview – before beginning the big idea (unit), this overview helps you see what will be covered each week along with the vocabulary.
Weekly Lessons
At the beginning of each weekly lesson is a more in-depth look for you at what will be covered each day, including vocabulary, materials, and the presentation of ideas and concepts.
Days 1-4 – daily Lessons ask a question and provide an in-depth look at the answer. As part of the daily lessons over a 4-day period, the lessons include written work, comprehension, vocabulary, critical thinking, visual literacy and oral language practice.
Day 5 – reviews the week’s lessons.
Answer Key
If you’re feeling stumped on the answers, there is a handy answer key at the back of the book.
Short lessons. Each lesson is full of information, and it’s not wordy. Kids don’t have to sit still for a long duration and feel overwhelmed by what they just learned.
Vocabulary. This is perfect for copywork and memorization.
Hands-on activities. My children like to experience what they learn wherever possible, so these activities help enrich and enlighten what they’ve digested over the 4 weeks.
Printable e-book. I get to choose if we print it out or not.
How We’ll Use Evan-Moor Daily Science
My children and I love information and it’s important to me that we practically apply, explore or dig in further discovering each unit.
I really like that the lessons are short. It allows us the ability to expand, dig in and explore more as we feel we’d like to. This includes drawing, talking, writing, watching and experiencing what we learned first-hand. So, I’ll have my kids each create a science notebook/nature journal where they can draw, color and write.
Additionally, we’ll pull out more books and videos from the library that go alongside each unit. I want my children to be given every opportunity to investigate their learning. So if we need to take longer on a particular unit, we will!
I’ll also have my kids work on vocabulary in oral and written format for the purpose of copywork and spelling. I’ll also have them narrate to me what they just learned.
To get your copy or have a look at Evan-Moor Daily Science Grade 3 curriculum, visit their site here.
Have you used Evan-Moor Daily Science curriculum before? I’d love to hear about your experience. Was this review helpful?
*This post contains affiliate links. Please read disclosure policy.*
I did not receive this product in exchange for my review.
After seeing success in my daughter’s beginning stages of reading using Teach Your Child to Read 100 Easy Lessons, I wondered what curriculum to do next and hoped that I would see the same success rate. After some research and prayer, we went with All About Reading Level 2, and it ended up being a great fit!
I honestly had no clue how to help my children to read, so I needed all the help I could get. And the curriculum that would make it easiest for me AND help my daughter to read would be just right. Ultimately, the choice to transition to All About Reading was the best fit for my children, my style of teaching and to see reading success!
What We/I LIKED About All About Reading Level 2
Brief Review – Reviewing is important to me so that my daughter doesn’t forget what she’s learned, so we could appreciate the brief review time before learning the new concept.
Scripted Format – I appreciate a scripted format! I don’t have a hot clue how to teach reading to my children.
Multisensory approach:
Magnet Tiles – The magnet tiles are so amazing. I love that it changes things up so we’re not stuck at a desk.
Activities – These take no time at all to prep and they are such a great way to reinforce what was learned. Although some of the activities seemed a bit quirky to my daughter, she still thought they were nice to have and we’d always finish them because of the benefit of reinforcement.
Phoenic Rules – Seriously, who knew that there were so many phonics rules when it came to reading. My daughter had all the questions when it came to the a making a short sound or long sound and I had NO idea how to answer that. (I can’t remember if I learned it in public school). This curriculum answers ALL those questions and more! I was so glad I had a resource to help explain the rules. Who knew syllables made all the difference?!
Progress Chart, Stickers & Certificate of Achievement – My daughter LOVED the sense of accomplishment with each lesson when she got to put on the sticker. And then to cap it all off with the certificate was a proud moment for both of us! Seriously mom, try not to cry remembering all that you went through together with your child to help them to read!
Readers – My daughter (and I) really enjoyed the quality of the stories in the books. She laughed, couldn’t wait to find out what happened and enjoyed the pictures (even though they were black & white).
What We/I DIDN’T REALLY LIKE About All About Reading Level 2
Price – I wasn’t prepared for the price of the curriculum. But in seeing what it all offered in the journey of learning to read, the investment made it more worth it.
What We/I CHANGED About All About Reading Level 2
Warm-Up & Practice Sheets – Since my daughter is working at enjoying reading, her body language would change when I’d give her these sheets. All About Reading has ideas to help through these sheets (see Appendix I in the Teacher’s Manual). I also wasn’t interested in cutting up the practice sheets and feeding the monster. So here’s what I did instead… I did not make my daughter read every warm-up or practice sheet, nor did she need to read all of it. The reason for this is because she would feel defeated really quickly. What I did instead was chose a warm-up sheet, give her a ruler so that she wouldn’t feel overwhelmed by all the reading that she needed to do and instead showed her where she needed to go until or suggested that we would go line-by-line and see how far she could get. I only had my daughter read a warm-up sheet once every 5 lessons or so. Repetition is key for reading, so how did I help grow my daughter’s ability and fluency to read? I used All About Reading Level 2 word flashcards and created a challenge. (Find out below what I did)
Reading the Books – Again, because reading is a challenge for my daughter, I chose to use the books as read-alouds pointing to some of the words that she could read or learned in the lesson.
So What’s All About Reading All About?
All About Reading is a scripted, open-and-go program for parents who want to teach reading in the most effective way possible.
It’s a multisensory approach learning reading through sight, sound and touch.
There are no gaps in this program. Each new concept builds upon the previous one so no steps are skipped and everything is taught.
There are five key components to reading and this program teaches all of them thoroughly:
Phonological Awareness
Phonics and Decoding
Fluency
Vocabulary
Comprehension
The All About Reading program has a focused mission, which is to enable you to teach your child to read while guaranteeing retention and enjoyment. This is also why their lifetime support is amazing!
What Your Child Will Learn in All About Reading Level 2
Three-letter blends
The jobs of Silent E
New phonograms
Methods for decoding multi-syllable words
Every component of reading is taught in Level 2, including:
Using phonics (decoding), they will learn phonograms WH, EE, ER, AR, OR, ED, OY, OI, AW, AU, OW, and OU
Reading words containing the new phonograms, such as whale, sheep, herd, farm, horn, toy, boil, saw, haul, flower, and found
Reading words with long I or O before two consonants, as in find and gold
Reading words with soft C, as in race
Reading words with soft G, as in gem
Learning the first four jobs of Silent E
Decoding (Structural Analysis)
Identifying base words
Reading contractions, such as they’ll
Learning syllable division rules for reading multisyllable words
Reading words with past tense ending ed, including all three sounds, as in wanted, snowed, and chipped
Vocabulary
Discussing new words in the context of the story and one’s own life
Understanding homophones
Understanding synonyms and antonyms
Fluencying
Reading with accuracy
Reading with meaningful expression
Reading with natural phrasing
Comprehension
Connecting text to one’s own experiences
Making predictions
Comparing and contrasting main characters
Skiming for specific information
Making inferences from the text
Discussing character motivation, main conflict
Identifying the main character
What I Did BEFORE We Purchased All About Reading Level 2
For example, the first lesson in Level 2 had review about closed and open syllables. I thought to myself, “oh no!” we don’t know this.
BUT here’s the thing, START in Lesson 1 at the New Teaching section and then go back to the Review section of Lesson 1 and you’ll all be fine!
All About Reading Level 2 Materials I Purchased
If it’s your FIRST time considering the purchase of All About Reading and you’re starting at Level 2, this is what I purchased:
All About Reading Level 2 Materials – this includes the Teacher’s Manual, one Student Packet (which contains the activity book, flashcards, and stickers), and two readers.
Reading Interactive Kit – This is a one-time purchase, and this same kit is used in all four levels of All About Reading. It comes in two versions:
Basic – One-time purchase, used in all four levels. Includes Letter Tiles, Magnets, Phonogram Sounds App, and Divider Cards. (I purchased this Basic Reading Interactive Kit)
Deluxe – Includes everything in the Basic Kit, plus Reading Review Box and Reading Tote Bag.
Letter Tiles App or Magnetic White Board – I purchased a whiteboard like this one. It was important to me that my children could touch and feel the letters and see them move on a physical board. The letter tiles app comes with the purchase of your curriculum, so for fun or a change-up, I would have my daughter use the app.
What To Do When You FIRST Get Your All About Reading Materials
If you’ve never purchased All About Reading before, preparation and organization is the FIRST thing to do. The prep work is simple, but takes time, so in the long run you’re creating ease for yourself if you do it now!
STEP 1: Listen to a favorite podcast or watch a movie you enjoy to help pass the time of prep!
Activity Book – Tear out all the pages. Then begin cutting out where applicable. (I asked for my daughter’s help so that she could be involved in the process). You could use one page protector for each lesson if you find that a better way to organize, however, I felt that storing 5 lessons in one page protector was also doable (and resourceful)
Flashcards – Tear apart the phonogram and word cards and put them in an index box. This takes time, but is a simple to do. If you purchase the Reading Interactive Kit, you can add the Divider Cards here, too.
Syllable Tags – Use the magnets in the Reading Interactive Kit placing them on the back of each tag.
Stickers – To show lesson completion on the progress chart.
Letter Tiles and Magnets – Tear apart the letter tiles and add one magnet to the center of each tile. Any extra pieces I put in a resealable bag storing in a plastic page protector.
We didn’t put the magnetic white board up on the wall (because we didn’t have space). Instead I had it on the floor leaned up against a suitable area and when it was time to use it, I was sitting together with my daughter on the floor (carpet thankfully), helping her to learn the material.
STEP 3: Read the Teacher’s Manual, including Part 1 – Preparing for Level 2 and Part 3 – Appendices to gain confidence in teaching the material and how to use it.
What I WISHED I Did
Proper Magnet Tiles Set-up – at first, I wondered if it was really necessary to set-up the magnet tiles as suggested. I didn’t have the letters in order on the magnetic white board. (I’m usually trying to take short-cuts where I can). But, I quickly found out that it was easier to set-up the magnet tiles properly and use them. So I changed it to what was recommended and I’m so glad I did. Student Activity Book Storage System – with keeping student activity book pages, I kept them all in one page protector – imagine, it all fit! This wasn’t as organized as it could be and I have one more child that needs to use this curriculum, so organizing it into a more useable format was necessary. I used this binder and these page protectors. Read all the appendix pages – somehow I missed this portion in my initial preparation. I read the preparation pages at the beginning of the book, but in missing the appendices, I missed out on the practical suggestions and applications!
My Child’s Learning Style
I think it’s helpful in the curriculum you decide to purchase whether it’s a good fit based on your child’s personality and learning style. So here’s a little bit about my daughter:
She likes rules and boundaries and will follow them (why can’t all things be black and white!)
Struggles with perfectionism and over-achievement. If she doesn’t get a concept immediately, she’s hard on herself.
If You’re Child Is Struggling In Learning How To Read
When working with a child who doesn’t enjoy reading and finds it challenging, repetition and celebrating wins is key.
I involved A LOT of repetition to support the working memory. (All About Reading’s blog post on working memory was a light-bulb moment for me. They also have other AMAZING articles to help you in journey to support your child’s reading journey).
So I created a game (or challenge) for my daughter to find out her ability and fluency in reading. This also helped break things up.
The Reading Repetition Game & Challenge
I took 20 of the All About Reading Level 2 word cards (starting with the easiest) and put this stack in front of my daughter. I let her know that we were going to practice reading this words regularly and that I would time her to see how long it took her.
It’s important to let your child know know that the goal of timing is for them (and you) to see that their ability to read is going faster with time, practice and repetition.
My daughter agreed to this and thought it would be fun as well!
As my daughter started reading the word cards, I would start my timer and record the time it took her to read the 20 word cards. I gave her these same cards to read 2-3 times a week for a month. When a month was up we would review how much faster she got at reading those words and celebrate!
This was encouraging for both my daughter and I. We saw that, yes, she is indeed getting more comfortable and fluent at reading!
We then moved onto another 20 words and did the same thing.
How Long Did It Take To Complete All About Reading Level 2?
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Having a strong bond with my children while raising them to love God is important. But that alone isn’t enough; it takes work and effort.
There’s no rule book telling us what to do in every situation as parents; we’re often learning right alongside our children as they grow. But, one thing that can help us wade through the waters of parenting potentially avoiding some of the parenting mistakes, is to lean into those who have had already gone through the trenches.
Parenting Mistakes That Push Your Child Away
In the book, Parenting Mistakes That Push Your Child Away, Kathie shares her wisdom in what she’s learned are the common parenting mistakes we make that can lead our kids to rebellion and what we can do to build heart-ties that create a strong relationship with them.
We need to regularly examine whether we are teaching kids to simply appear and act right or are we teaching them to love God and know Him personally?
I eagerly devoured every page.
Kathie leaves you feeling that you’re never too late at the age and stage your kids are at and that you can begin to carry out her actionable strategies right away.
Always keep in mind that you don’t want to just manage behavior but monitor the heart.
Parenting Mistakes That Push Your Child Away is a quick read. I sat down one morning hungry to digest it and was left ready for more only because it was so impactful. I couldn’t help but write down the golden nuggets within these pages that struck a chord in me.
Perhaps it’s Kathie’s amazing ability to communicate or just knowing that she’s had 8 children and homeschooled for 31 years that there is so much wisdom to draw from.
About the Author
Kathie is the owner of The Character Corner, wife of Alan for 40 years, and mother to eight children. She is also a veteran homeschooling mom of 31 years. Not only is she passionate about her family, but she also has a passion to encourage and inspire women in their daily lives as moms, wives, and homeschoolers.
Her goal is to be transparent and honest about the struggles and challenges of parenting and homeschooling, as well as the blessings that come from being faithful to that calling. She loves to share insights from her personal experiences over the years of raising and teaching her children. You will find that she gives many practical, encouraging tips you can use in your own home. Find out more about Kathie here.
*This post contains affiliate links. Please read disclosure policy.*
As parents, we can so easily think that our kids should just listen to us; we’re the parent’s after all. But, that’s not the case to winning your child’s heart as I’ve so quickly come to learn.
The Importance of Winning Your Child’s Heart
In the book The Importance of Winning Your Child’s Heart, Kathie writes and shares in such a way that it creates a safe and honest place where you’re not judged. I’m impacted by her ability to communicate what we all feel and experience. And then I feel such a sense of empowerment when she shares a statement like this:
Authority and rules aren’t the answer to successful parenting. Influence is the key, and that influence comes when we have their hearts.
As a parent, who hasn’t heard or used the phrase, “Just do what I say!” and expect our children to be obedient and follow thru because “I said so!”
I’m so guilty of this.
I want my children to know that they can come to me with anything, but do they really feel like they can when phrases like this are used?
As parents, we tend to use our authority to motivate and include threatened consequences, when instead, we could warn of the natural consequences such as pride, immorality and disobedience.
The goal of gaining their hearts is not so we can control them, but rather gain the opportunity to pour into their lives, shape their values, and teach them to love God and His Word.
I love good tips that are easy to implement and create lasting change. Kathie shares loving affirmations and tips that you can start to do practically this moment with your children to begin winning their hearts.
I read The Importance of Winning Your Child’s Heart in no time at all. Because you feel like you’re connecting with someone who has so much wisdom to offer and the impact it makes as you dive into these words, you can’t help but keep reading.
Kathie is the owner of The Character Corner, wife of Alan for 40 years, and mother to eight children. She is also a veteran homeschooling mom of 31 years. Not only is she passionate about her family, but she also has a passion to encourage and inspire women in their daily lives as moms, wives, and homeschoolers.Her goal is to be transparent and honest about the struggles and challenges of parenting and homeschooling, as well as the blessings that come from being faithful to that calling. She loves to share insights from her personal experiences over the years of raising and teaching her children. You will find that she gives many practical, encouraging tips you can use in your own home. Find out more about Kathie here.
I received this free product in exchange for my honest review. I only recommend products to you that we use and enjoy!
Why Learning About Biblical Feasts Is Important
We only know a small amount about God. Being that we live in the new covenant now, Holy Spirit gives us revelation, insight and understanding about the nature and character of God. Holy Spirit also reveals the heart of God as we seek Him.
A natural way to gain spiritual understanding is through symbolism. There are lots of symbolic events in the Bible. So to gain more understanding of God, we need to dig deeper.
Although I was raised in a Christian home and became a Christian at an early age, I never really dug into the Jewish feasts. Yet, I’ve always had an interest to learn.
Introduction – Importance of Learning About Jewish Feasts As Christians
The Jewish feasts in one year include:
Purim (Feast of Lots)
Passover (Pesah or Pesach)
Shavuot or Pentecost (Feast of Weeks)
Rosh Hashanah (Feast of the Trumpet)
Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)
Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles)
Hanukkah (Feast of Dedication or Feast of Lights)
What Does It All Mean?
A Prayer
Answers
How The Study Guide Works (And What We Did)
This study guide is for great for children and families; it’s truly and open-and-go.
The Biblical Feasts Calendar is a great tool to keep handy to remember the feasts throughout the year. (We have the calendar stored on the inside of our kitchen cabinet as our reminder!)
The Introduction is a great way to prepare your heart for why you and your family should take in the history of the Biblical feasts and how you can apply them today.
Each feast is divided up into sections:
The History of the Biblical feast – This includes the happenings in the Bible leading up to the feast and the feast itself. It’s really a great summary making it easy to listen to and understand for children. We also incorporated a kids movie (Veggie Tales like this one is good for the littles) so they could watch the story leading up to the feast. You’ll find out fairly quickly that most movies don’t talk about the feasts themselves, which is too bad. This is where you want to make sure you’re picking up the study guide to reinforce the feast and why it was held.
How You Can Celebrate Today – I like how it takes the history and applies it to today as we live in the new covenant. This is what my children (and I) were particularly excited about. It also invites you to read the story out of the Bible as a family, which we love!
Questions – These are great for recall of history. My kiddos verbally answered, while I wrote their answers on the sheet provided.
Notebooking Pages – My children are smaller and are at the stage of drawing and beginning to write, so we just found an appropriate coloring sheet for the feast (such as Purim) and wrote the type of feast on it.
What Does It All Mean? – This ties the Old and New Testament together, which is really well done.
A Prayer – The prayer of salvation is so important, especially as we discover God’s goodness and His love for us, so this was a pleasant find.
Answers – Having answers is great for a quick reference, or if your older children are correcting their work by themselves.
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