The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

Whistlefritz was created by a mom who couldn’t find a program that she liked to teach her own children Spanish, so she started creating one herself! Developed with experienced educators, it utilizes playful videos with entertaining characters and real actors, musical CDs to sing and dance with, a card deck to play games with, and a thorough teacher’s manual. There is plenty of repetition, full sentences and individual words to ensure understanding, and real people to view and hear as your child learns proper word use and pronunciation.

The lesson plans are laid out so a parent with no or little knowledge of the foreign language can teach their own children, and learn right along with them. Games and activities make learning more fun, and bring the lessons and new language into a child’s daily life. Lesson plans can be used without the videos, and videos can be used without the lesson plans. Together they offer a variety of ways to immerse your children in a new language.

Whistlefritz sent Crew members either their Educator’s Spanish Collection or their Educator’s French Collection. These include lesson plan books, DVDs, music CDs, and card games!

Visit the links below to read what crew members thought of Whistlefritz and how they used the Spanish and French collections in their homes.

—Read the Crew reviews!

Nature’s Beautiful Order - An Introduction to the Study of Animals Taught by the Classical Naturalists

Christopher O. Blum & John A.
Cuddeback
Memoria Press
1-877-862-1097
www.MemoriaPress.com

My kids are all animal lovers. My oldest son determined recently that he will become a veterinarian when he is older. As he gets older, I strive to encourage him to learn those things that matter most to him. So, this course was a wonderful addition to his studies!

Nature’s Beautiful Order - An Introduction to the Study of Animals Taught by the Classical Naturalists is a wonderful way to introduce students to the study of animals, or even just further encourage your animal lover! We received the textbook as well as a student and teacher guide. This is recommended for students in grades 6-8 but can also be used to supplement a higher-level biology course. There are eighteen lessons in all that teach what an animal is and then lead students in study on the various classes of animals in the animal kingdom. (. . .)

As we worked through this course, there were also comprehension questions to complete. Some of these seemed quite simple; “What is the lifes-pan of a domestic cat?” Others required more thought to respond; “In what way are lower animals less intelligible in themselves?” Within the Teacher’s Guide are the answers to the questions posed to students.

My son is a very visual learner, so he really appreciated the diagrams throughout the reader. He also found the writings to be so very interesting; it is obvious the study and observation with which the information in these pages was obtained. Certainly, he is eager to learn more from these classical naturalists!

In the final chapter, we are reminded that “One of the great reasons that the natural world is given to us is so that we might wonder at its beauty, and then turn our thoughts with gratitude and love toward the One who has made it.” What a wonderful way to remember and teach about the value of being responsible and kind.

—Product review by Jennifer King

Homeschool Planet (Online

Homeschool Planner)
Homeschool Buyers Co-op
www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/
homeschool-planet-free-trial/

Your homeschool planning just got easier! Homeschool Buyers Co-Op has a planner that makes it easy to put all of your daily schedules and lesson planning in one place. Even use it on the go. The TOS Review Crew has been reviewing a one-year subscription to Homeschool Planet from Homeschool Buyers Co-op. Some of the reviewers have chosen a lesson plan from the Lesson Plan Marketplace to link to their Homeschool Planet planning schedule.

Some of the lesson plans available are from popular curriculum providers. Homeschool Planet is an online all-in-one planner that allows you to not only create schedules of classes and extracurricular activities or appointments for your family, but it also has a bunch of extras to discover as well as several new lesson plans designed specially to link up with your schedule planning on Homeschool Planet.

The planner allows you to choose various formats, day, week, or month. It also has the ability to view in planner mode, calendar mode, each individual child’s schedule, and so much more! See how the Crew used this resource in their homeschools!