Wednesday, October 10, 2012

TOS Review - Dayspring Christian Academy- The Pilgrim Story

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   Dayspring Christian Academy is a private Christian school located in Lancaster County. What makes this school unique comes from teaching their students with the Principal Approach. Most of us don't live in Lancaster County and are unable to attend classes. Dayspring has taken that in to consideration and offers online classes (live and self paced). For the purposes of this review we were offered a self paced online class with a 6 month subscription - The Pilgrim Story.This class is recommended for grades 3 - 6. Below I will list the objectives for this class stated in the introduction of the class. (This is quoted directly from the class and website).


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  • Students will be able to retell the major events of the Pilgrim Story.
  • Define Providence and give several examples of how God cared for the Pilgrims.
  • List four Biblical principles of government and give examples and applications of these principles.
  • Define four Christian character traits that the Pilgrims exhibited and give an example of each.
  • Write a short paragraph explaining why Christians should rejoice in our trails and hardships. The student will be able to list at least three trails that were faced by the Pilgrims.
What will take place in each lesson:
  • Printing of resources needed for lessons (maps, documents, note sheets, vocabulary lists, and enrichment activities).
  • Review of previous lesson.
  • Students will take notes (note sheets) while listening and watching the lesson.
  • Enrichment activities.
  • Review for current lesson (questions to answer).
  • Suggestions for further reading.
At the end of each unit is a test. The student/parent has a choice between essay questions or multiple choice. The course does ask you to keep a binder with all the student's work and instructions on organizing the work into categories. There are 5 units in this course and each unit has 3-4 lessons plus a test. At the end of the class is a virtual field trip to Plymouth, Massachusetts. Each lesson will take approximately 30 and longer for enrichment activities.

How we used it and what we thought:

To review The Pilgrim Story we set aside our normal history curriculum. I really wanted us to devote all our attention to completing this program. Each week we watch 3 lessons and do the corresponding activities and note taking.  I will admit with us being homeschoolers and tweaking curriculum like we all do - we didn't do all the enrichment activities that are available. We just finished the Unit 3 test and will finish the remainder of the class. I asked Grace tonight what she thought of the class and she said, "Of all the products we have reviewed this is my favorite". Let me tell you, that is saying a lot coming from a kid who likes nothing academic. I am sure you would like more specifics of what we liked, so here goes.....in no particular order.

  1. She can use this independently.
  2. Website and course page is easy to navigate as well as the class itself.
  3. Teaches her how to take notes with the note sheets.
  4. Christ centered information about history.
  5. Grades tests for me and posts the information on a user report.
  6. Visuals, graphics, interactivity, and information are all great.
  7. A virtual field trip (looking forward to this).
My only two negatives are they don't have any more self paced classes available at this time and really that has nothing to do with The Pilgrim Story. I would really love for Dayspring to offer more self paced online classes. Also the introduction states the program is for 2nd - 8th grade while the website information is 3rd - 6th grade. I felt like the material was on my 8th graders level. But some clarification for age range would be welcomed.  Regardless of these two negatives, we love this class. The price is right too. 

The course retails for $99.00 and you will get six months to finish the course.

Please visit The Pilgrim Story for more information.

To see what other reviewers think about this product visit TOS Review Crew.

Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Review Crew, I received this product at no cost to me in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are mine.



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