Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Drive Thru History Adventures Online Subscription Review




I love history!  We recently had the opportunity to review the homeschool history videos from Drive Thru History Adventures with Dave Stotts along with their online curriculum guides.  I could watch these for hours!!


We all know that I am a history buff.  My family, not so much.  A couple of them can read textbooks for their assignments, and that is what they prefer.  The majority of our kids hate textbooks and prefer videos.  So I end up pre-viewing a lot of videos for appropriate material that doesn't contain way out there theories.  I have finally found a series that keeps everyone's attention span and is historically and Biblically accurate!

In the Drive Thru History Adventures, Dave Stotts doesn't just introduce history, but he literally takes you on a road-trip through the time period you are learning about!!  This really opens up ancient history, biblical history and also early American history, as you see the locations on screen where the events took place.

We received the one-year subscription to Drive Thru History Adventures ($124.99 for 1 year, or $12.99 per month).  It was super easy to set up our account.  Once our account was created, we had access to their three different series, Bible History (18 weeks on the Gospels), American History (12 Weeks on early American History) , and Ancient History (12 weeks on early Greece, Rome, and Asia Minor). 

Our welcome email included a brief introduction to all the different areas that we could now access.  There are more than just videos available on Drive Thru History Adventures.


Available with each episode of Drive Thru History Adventures, is a printable comprehension question sheet. 


You can easily download the PDF and extra resource information for your student's use or you can simply bring up the PDF on your computer and verbally discuss the questions together. 

For younger students, they can simply watch the videos and you can have discussions using the many extra pictures and information.

But if you have an older student, Drive Thru History Adventures also includes extra study materials for research reports that you can assign out on the topics they are learning about in each episode they watch. 


The Expert Papers and Suggested Readings are great to assign out to older students.  These screenshots give you a short list of some of the extra research information available for your use. 




Available also are the Dig Deeper sections that expands the research topics out even further for your knowledge.

Drive Thru History Adventures is really a great addition for our entire family.  We have been using the Ancient History Adventures and also the Bible History Adventures.

This year all the children have finished the first half of their Ancient History studies (all on a deeper level as they cycle around in this history studies through the years).  Using Drive Thru History has been a great because we can see the various locations that we have been reading about in our history textbooks.  I tried printing out the PDFs for the children for each episode, but we ended up just using the PDFs as discussion questions instead.  (It saved on paper that way, and we print enough as it is.)  The questions on the comprehension guides have been a great resource we have been using to draw out the kids even more to make sure they are making all the connections.

The main focus of the Bible History Adventures is Jesus' life on the earth.  Using accurate scriptural references, Dave Stotts travels throughout the areas of Jesus life on earth teaching us about Jesus' lineage, his activities, miracle, baptism and even his death.  We have been watching 2 - 3 episodes each week during the review period, leading up to the Memorial of Jesus death at the end of March.  We were already reading the book of Matthew in our Bible study, so the kids have been able to see the places where he lived and preached, and it allows them to make the connections of Jesus being a real life person and not just a made up story.


Each video has included not only seeing actual locations, but also maps of Jesus travels throughout his ministry and life on Earth.  This has been a great addition to our family Bible study each week.  We have been watching them while we eat dinner also, so that we make sure to have all the episodes finished in time for our Memorial Remembrance of his life on Earth.

We have used the videos from Drive Thru History in the past, the early American History series, and really liked them.  I love that with the Drive Thru History Adventures subscription, I have access to all of the series with one login.  I also do not need to worry about wasting my time by pre-watching each episode and spending time creating comprehension questions before I let the kids watch.  Extra information and teaching suggestions are all included.  Drive Thru History Adventures is a full-family friendly history series.  Younger children in preschool may struggle a bit watching, but with allowances for attention span, even children this young would enjoy seeing the connection of what is in their Bible story book to what they are seeing on the television.

We have been able to watch it from any web browser, as well as on our tablets.  So you are not limited to just using a library DVD if you have a Drive Thru History Adventures subscription.  We cannot wait to finish the Biblical History series.  Be sure to check out Drive Thru History Adventures, they offer a 30 Day Money-back guarantee!

Right now Drive Thru History Adventures is offering you the opportunity to receive The Gospels DVD free with a paid subscription.  

Several members of the Homeschool Review Crew were given the opportunity to review Drive Thru History Adventures.  Be sure to check out the link below to see if this program is one that will work for your family!!  It has worked well for ours!

Drive Thru History Adventures - Subscription {Drive Thru History Adventures Reviews}

Crew Disclaimer

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Shopping for Math Curriculum



We have used a lot of different curriculums through the years.  It's that time of year to start shopping for next year's curriculum.  Here are some top curriculum that we have used through the years.  

Textbooks

Beast Academy

Teaching Textbooks

Math U See

A Beka Math

Bob Jones Math

No Nonsense Math books

Saxon math

Math Mammoth

Life of Fred

Math Lessons for a Living Education


Online Math

A+ Interactive

Unlock Math

Khan Academy videos

CTC Math


You can read reviews both at the 

Cathy Duffy Reviews

and also

Homeschool Review Crew


Sunday, February 25, 2018

What's On the Menu This Week?



I've been working really hard at planning our meals, and make sure we stick to our meal plan.  There's been a couple of slip-ups, but usually it had to do with a forgotten supply or too many leftovers.

Sunday February 25
Breakfast - Cinnamon Rolls
Lunch - Mexican Noodle Cassrole
Dinner - Baked roast with gravy and mashed potatoes   

Monday February 26
Breakfast - Soup cups (our kids like soup cups of chicken soup or tomato soup)
Lunch - Hopefully leftovers - but if not Grilled Cheese
Dinner - Sloppy Joe Biscuits

Tuesday February 27
Breakfast - Pizza rolls
Lunch - Pancakes with sausage
Dinner - Scalloped Potatoes w/ shredded chicken

Wednesday February 28
Breakfast - Bacon/Cheese Biscuits
Lunch - Packed lunch
Dinner - Tacos and rice

Thursday March 1
Breakfast - Cinnamon Biscuits
Lunch - Gravy and toast
Dinner - Crock pot lasagna

Friday March 2
Breakfast - Hashbrowns & cheese sauce
Lunch - Packed lunch
Dinner - Bubble pizzas (1 cheese and 1 BBQ Chicken)

Saturday March 3
Breakfast - Cheese rollups
Lunch - PB & J quesadillas
Dinner - Turkey, stuffing and the fixings

I still use the table I created in Word.  I keep our schedule listed on it, so that I can make sure I am planning meals that are not time appropriate.  You can read more about how I plan in this meal planning post.


This hangs on the fridge.  The kids can see if they have a cooking assignment.  This also helps when I'm making the grocery list.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!!  See you at our Weekly Recap!



Saturday, February 24, 2018

Winter Olympics, Ancient Math, Monet, Spelling Bee, Too Much to List!



Things picked up a bit this week....Sunday we had our annual World Thinking Day with our GS Troop.  The girls had worked hard preparing, studying about Peru and their water quality there.

Making the Peruvian chocolate treats for our table.  They are just dark chocolate chips melted and poured over dried fruit...chocotejas.

Lydia labeling the areas of the body where certain chemicals attack.





This week was our Homeschool Spelling Bee.  Lydia taught herself to spell...lol.  I tried spelling curriculums, but they never worked with her.  These were some very hard words, two grade levels above her and words I as an adult do not even use...lol.  She didn't make it to the end, but she tried and that's all that matters.

Our homeschool group that competed.  They were preschool through 8th grade.  3 of them get to go to the next level!


We started the Naturego Ancient Math program.   Watch for our review in the next few weeks.  This week we learned about Ancient Babylon (Plimpton 322), Ancient Greece (Platonic Solids), and Pythagoras and Music Spheres.  This wraps up our Ancient History studies that we are working on reviewing (since I don't want to start the next level this school year).


Finding Platonic Solids in our shape bins.


We also worked on following the Winter Olympics.  This week, we continued to learn a little about all the sports of the games.  This week we watched a lot of science of the Olympics videos.  We learned more about curling, how skis are made, snowboarding, bobsledding, and the science of alpine, even skeleton racing.  It was a pretty informative week.  I loosely used the Amanda Bennett Winter Olympics Unit study and videos that I found on my own.


I have really been using our Firestick projecting app a lot this week.  I used it for Olympic studies, Ancient math and also our Ohio History.

Brayden, Chewie, and Finn watching Science of the Winter Olympics videos.  (It was Brayden's idea to learn more about the sports.)


They are tracking a few countries and the medals they earn. (This was obviously early in the week.  The totals changed dramatically for most of the countries all week.)


In Ohio History we studied about civic responsibilities and also a basic map reading refresher course.

In Art Coop we studied about Claude Monet.  All of our kids watched this video:


Then using the Behold the Beauty Christian Art Curriculum, we did an impressionist art painting.  We are getting the opportunity to review this program right now.  I really like the ideas and plan on implementing several of them!  It's broken down by suggested grade level, and the projects are very easy to implement.  Their project was in the style of pointillism, using cotton swabs and acrylic paints.  The cotton swabs helps to give the objects they are painting softer lines.




In Science Club we talked about heat energy.  We did a few experiments.  First was to test to see which material conducted the heat best.

We put butter on the edges of 3 different materials.  Wood, metal and plastic.  Poured hot water in the mug to see which melted the butter quickest.


The metal knife obviously won..You can see the oil from the butter floating in the water.  The plastic was 2nd and the wood did not conduct the heat as well.

We used copper wire and chocolate chips to also show conduction.... This was cool to watch them fall off as the heat advanced.


To show convection, we used food coloring in hot water vs cold water.  The hot water was left, cold on right.  The particles from the hot water forced the food coloring toward the top.  The cold water kept the food coloring from spreading quickly.


We didn't have an experiment for radiation...we just talked about getting sunburn at the beach.  😂😂

Then a bunch of us went to see Peter Rabbit...and yes...Peter Rabbit had to come with us.


Brayden collects souvenir cups...He was excited to see the new Black Panther cup.


This week we experimented separating the girls in gymnastics.  Lydia started the beginners handspring class, since she's dying to learn handsprings for cheerleading. 


 I'm so glad we found this class....it's really going to help Caty and her endurance!


We got some new Math games this week.


This is Monkey Fractions...I also bought Froggy Fractions for them to advance to.


 Playing one of our new Math Games -  This is a division/multiplication game called Pet Me from Logic Roots..


Hanging out at the dealership waiting for the oil to be changed in Daddy's truck.


We had our first official meeting of the 4H season.  Our advisor planned Olympic style games to play.  The kids had a blast curling, snowboarding, and figure skating.








We are reviewing the Maria - Smart Gurlz programming doll right now.  Lydia sat down and had it figured out in a matter of minutes.  She ran the battery down in no time!!  



She also worked on another review item, these moccasin slippers from Tandy Leather.  One slipper down, one more to go!


It's been a HUGE review week in our house.  Caty and I had the opportunity to work with some water fusion beads from Zirrly.com.  This kit made tops.  It was so easy!!  Watch for our upcoming review next month.  Hint though... I've already ordered more kits!





Linking up with other Moms at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers


Homeschool Coffee Break


The Homeschool Review Crew