TOS Review - Dayspring Christian Academy- The Pilgrim Story

   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).

• 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.

This Is Your Chance ... TOS Review Crew Appllication

I made the decision in May of this year to fill out an application to join the TOS Review Crew. When I heard I made it in the final cut I was so excited. I had been a subscriber of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine for years and read every issue cover to cover. Seeing other blogs of families that were on the review crew always made me a little envious and wish in the back of my mind that I could do the same. Joining the review crew was on of the best decisions I ever made. It pushed me a little out of my comfort zone in the beginning but I love it. The TOS family is incredible. I have received so many blessings from being a part of this group, not to mention the great products you get for free to review and post on your blog.

Now you can have a chance to join up also. Follow the link below and fill out the application. Good luck!!!  Go to TOS Review Crew Application to fill it out.

Hero Tales From Great Waters Press

Raising Real Men is a company dedicated to offering materials to raise children with character. Hal and Melanie Young are the homeschooling parents of six boys and two girls as well as the founders of Raising Real Men and Great Waters Press. I had the opportunity to review one of their products through the TOS Review Crew and just loved the product. They recently gave me the blessing of offering another product to review, Hero Tales from American History.

Hero Tales comes as three cds of stories from American History in an audio book format retailing for $15.00. You really cannot beat this price for what you get. I decided to use the cds in the car for traveling between errands and classes. I thought a lot of the information in the stories would be old hat, things I already knew, but real quick like I found out that was not the case. Immediately I realized how much of American History I didn't know a thing about, especially battle stories. I am not a big war/battle enthusiast which is why my favorite stories were about George Washington, Daniel Boone and John Quincy Adams. I can see this being a big winner with boys and girls for that matter who love all things about wars/weapons in battle/battles. Downloads can also be purchased for $4.00 each or individual cds can be purchased for $7.00. What makes the audio books even more interesting is the material is from a children's book written by Theodore Roosevelt. Now how many folks out there know that he wrote a children's book. I sure didn't. Not only have Hal and Melanie turned the book into an audio story but they have also added sound effects that really bring the story to life. Reading the books aloud is Hal Young himself. My husband loves all things about the wars of America so he is next on the list to get to listen to the stories. Please make sure to visit Raising Real Men and check out this awesome product as well as everything else they have to offer.

Disclaimer: Raising Real Men offered Hero Tales to me free of charge for my honest opinion. All opinions are mine.

Second Annual Acts of Faith Retreat

As I have posted before Grace is in a drama ministry group named Acts of Faith. We travel around and perform skits and music for churches and organizations. This weekend was our second annual team building retreat.
All day was spent at Camp Mikell doing team building exercises, Bible study, and practicing skits. This is the type of outdoor team building activities that you have to work together to achieve a goal. After leaving Camp Mikell the group arrived at my house for dinner and a camp fire with more worship time.

Making a wooden bowl at the camp fire.

After dinner and the camp fire the group headed back to the stables for barn tag then bed. The next morning we had a youth led worship service outside in the fields with music, skits and a message by my husband. 

Grace playing the bongos for music during worship service on Sunday morning.

Grace and myself came home as very tired campers. Sunday afternoon we both took naps. A lot of the group stayed at the stables that afternoon for zip lines but we were exhausted and came back home.

Current Science Project

Hubby created for us a home made incubator. We knew we wanted more baby chicks but none of our chickens are laying or sitting at the moment. Also didn't want to go through the trouble of ordering as well as paying for them. A friend gave us 24 eggs to hatch. This is the first 24 hours of incubation and I am having a little trouble. Humidity needs to be between 55 and 70 percent and temperature needs to be around 100. Well I cannot keep both to stay up at the same time. Either temp is too high or humidity is too low. I think we need a smaller bulb. Will change that out tonight. Hoping at least 12 of these will hatch. Twenty more days and we will see.

Second Field Trip of the Year - Wonderquest

Each Fall we look forward to watching the next Wonderquest production. Wonderquest performs one performance a year for kids. Our homeschool group goes every year. This was our 6th year to attend. Some past performances included: Robin Hood, The Ice Dragon, Briar Rabbit, The Emperor's New Clothes, and James and the Giant Peach. Today we went and say the performance of The Frog Prince. Out of an auditorium of about 300 kids Grace and her friend Josiah were the only tweens/teens present. I guess because we are drama geeks and any chance we get to see a play.....we take it.

Their sets are always very impressive.

After the play all the characters come out and take pictures.

TOS - Zoowhiz

These days what kid doesn't enjoy playing on the computer. What if you could learn math, reading, grammar, word skills, and punctuation while playing.....If so, then Zoowhiz would be a good fit for your family. We were offered a premium subscription to Zoowhiz to review through the TOS Review Crew. Zoowhiz is recommended for students 5 - 15 years of age.

Let us look at what you get with the premium subscription:

• Play Zoowhiz with all the free features
• More cool animals
• More awesome arcade games
• Detailed animal info
• Targeted learning
• Unlimited Access 24/7
• Achievement Certificates (coming soon)

Normally a premium subscription will run you $59.95, but currently Zoowhiz will allow you to upgrade from your free account for only $14.95.

Now let us look at all the components that make up Zoowhiz. All components are found on the map.

Learn and Earn
Learn and Earn has three activities/subjects to choose from: math, words, and reading.

When setting an account up you will choose the age range appropriate for your child, therefore when choosing a subject to learn it will already be in the correct age range. Each problem gives you two chances to answer correctly. If an incorrect answer is given it will then give the correct answer. As questions are answered correctly the student will earn coins to spend. Also the questions that are answered incorrectly will be brought back again and again until answered correctly.

Arcade

The arcade has games such as bubble plunge, pattycake panic, etc. to play. Each game the student plays cost money. First go to learn and earn, gain money, then go play games. Currently there are seven different games to play. Our favorite game was bubble plunge.

Biodome

In the biodome shop a student can purchase animals with the money they collect from learn and earn. Animals include everything from a bulldog to mythical creatures. Once the animals are purchased they are placed in the student's personal zoo. Each animal comes with a description and interesting facts.




Milestones

In milestones a student or parent can view how they are progressing in each subject. Once clicking on a subject a chart will display with all the categories for said subject. Instead of grades the students receive smiley faces with different facial expressions. After the chart displays you can then click on each category to see which problems/questions were missed.



How we used the product and what we thought

We used this product three times a week and included it with our language arts studies. Overall we think this is a good product, especially for visual learners. Immediate feedback is also a plus. We felt that the website was very easy to navigate. Grace liked the different choice of avatars and purchasing exotic animals.




The questions and problems were definitely on her level and some were even hard for her to answer. The education content for older students is good. Graces only negative about the program was even though the learning aspect was on her level, the graphics, games and concepts seemed to young for a 12-15 year old. Also it would be nice to do something with the zoo animals once you purchase them. So to reiterate, this is a good product overall. I would give it 4 out of 5 stars. Grace would give it 3 out of 5 stars. As a side note we did enjoy the Australian accents and slang terms that were used throughout the program. The price is right for this subscription too.

Go visit Zoowhiz and check out all the possibilities of online learning they offer.

See what other crew members thought at 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.