TOS Crew Review — American Heritage Education Foundation

Last year we took a family trip to Washington DC and I found myself once again stunned at the richness of the heritage of our nation. The intentional faith of our founding fathers, the careful crafting of a new nation, the vision of hope and freedom.

American Heritage Education Foundation (AHEF) seeks to capture, build on, and pass along these virtues. AHEF is a “non-profit, non-partisan educational foundation dedicated to the understanding and teaching of America’s factual and philosophical heritage to promote constructive citizenship and Freedom, Unity, Progress, and Responsibility among our students and citizens.” They accomplish this through, “writing, producing, and distributing FREE K-12 lesson plans to teachers, students, and families in all 50 states and through additional initiatives, programs, and partnerships.”

Product: American Heritage Education Foundation’s lesson plan CD (national edition)
Details: This CD offers lesson plans for Kindergarten through high school. The lesson plans come complete with background information, goals, activities, estimated time, and other helpful resources.
Price: FREE! (You can order the complementing binder and materials for $19.50 per level)

What we loved . . .

  • The richness of our history undiminished.
  • Taking a vast topic and boiling it down to memorable themes — freedom, unity, responsibility, and progress.
  • Builds national pride. I feel this is important. Not that I am proud of where America is today, but recognizing what we could be, and what we have lost, renews my hope and my desire to pray for our nation as a whole, the individuals that compose it, and its leaders.
  • Focus on original documents.
  • Largely self contained. Lots of information and direction is contained right in the CD itself.
  • Not too time consuming, so that can fit in with whatever else you might already be doing. About an hour every other week will carry you from September to May.

Challenges we faced . . .

  • It is easy to get overwhelmed at first with the amount of information contained in the CD.
  • Working with wide range of ages is sometimes difficult, and we faced that a bit as well here. The younger kids may not have grasped as much, and the oldest one may have been a bit under challenged, but I think the principles taught were still beneficial to all.

Of course, there is no better price than free, and this CD has something for just about everyone. I would encourage you to take a look at the AHEF website, order yourself one of these free CDs (or download the material straight from their website if you prefer) and take some time to go through the material with your kids. They have some great quotes, inspirational writings, needed reminders and teaching tools, and lessons that will build character and patriotism.

For more TOS Crew reviews on this product, check out the TOS Crew blog.

Disclaimer: This CD was provided to me free of charge from The American Heritage Education Foundation as part of my participation in The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. I received no additional compensation and the opinions expressed here come from my personal experiences and sincere thoughts.

The Homeschool Blog Awards

As important as voting in our regular elections may be, this post has nothing to do with those. Rather, I am referring to the annual Homeschool Blog Awards. Each year this group run website comes together to recognize homeschooling bloggers who make a difference in the bloggy community.

Whether you are a blogger or not, this contest can introduce you to some great bloggers, and can be a great source of encouragement, inspiration and ideas.

The blogs have already been nominated, and now the voting begins.  I would encourage you to take some time to check out the blogs and vote for some of your favorites!

K’Nex contest for classrooms

Check out this great opportunity for creative, hand-on learning and a fun contest!

Please follow links for more detailed information and to register.

2010 K’NEXpert Classroom Challenge

Register for the 2010 K’NEXpert Classroom Challenge!

K’NEX in the ClassroomK'NEX Education Classroom Challenge
K’NEX is a dynamic, open-ended spatial building system. We offer exceptional educational value through building and bringing models to life. K’NEX sets work so well in the classroom that we’ve designed an entire contest around them: the K’NEXpert Classroom Challenge.

The K’NEXpert Classroom Challenge…

  • Helps young children build manipulative skills.
  • Challenges students to use science, math and technology knowledge and skills.
  • Encourages students to apply an organized, logical strategy as they design, build and problem-solve.
  • Don’t Miss Out! Registration Deadline is December 18th, 2009
    Register to for the 2010 K’NEXpert Classroom Challenge!

    Fun Educational Prizes…K'NEX Education Classroom Challenge
    Each 2010 K’NEXpert Classroom Challenge Award Winner will receive:

  • $350 K’NEX Education gift certificate
  • 1 FREE K’NEX building set for each child.
  • K’NEXpert Classroom Challenge Sign.
  • Classroom Photo Gallery page at www.knexeducation.com.
  • 5 Easy Steps to Enter…
    Step 1: Teachers must register by 12/18/09 to be eligible to enter the Challenge. If you will be entering more than 1 class in the challenge, please register each class separately. Register now.

    Step 2: Students build an original K’NEX model that qualifies in the appropriate Building Challenge Category listed below and write the corresponding 1-page description:

  • Grades 1-2: Transportation Nation
  • Grades 3-4: Bridge Building 101
  • Grades 5-6: Amusement Park Thrill Rides
  • Step 3: Take pictures of your classroom’s K’NEX model

    Step 4: Print out and complete the entry form and have it signed by an authorized school official.

    Step 5: Send pictures of the model, the required 1-page written description and the completed, signed entry form to: 2010 K’NEXpert Classroom Challenge, K’NEX Industries, P.O. Box 700, Hatfield, PA 19440.

    Deadline for entries is February 12th, 2010 (entries must be postmarked by this date).
    Read the Official Rules and Entry Form for full details. All entries and submitted materials become the property of K’NEX.
    NO PURCHASE NECESSARY!

    abcteach review

    Sometimes a child needs a little extra help in an area. Or, sometimes you need a fun activity to keep a few kids engaged while you work with an individual child. Or, maybe you just want something fresh that you haven’t already been through a few times.

    abcteach can help with any one of those needs. You can choose from their ginormous file base, or you can make something that is uniquely you with their worksheet generator.

    Aside from ordinary worksheets they also have file folder type games, reading comprehension exercises, craft projects, simple lesson plans and ideas, flash cards, units, and seasonal activities.

    Product: abc teach membership (You can see their description of the benefits of membership including a video on the abcteach site)
    Details:This website offers 5,000 printables free even to non-members, but another 30,000 sheets that are available only to members.
    Price: $40/year or $70 for two years. Group pricing available also.

    What we loved . . .

    • Lots of choices. Every subject, topic, writing style, etc. seems represented. And, they encourage you to let them know if you could use something they don’t already offer.
    • Always something new. This is not a “been there, done that” site. Every week you can find new material, and with the thousands they have available, it would take you quite a bit of time to work through it all.
    • A diversity of ages covered. We found something for everyone on this site. While those with preschool and early primary would probably find the most use for it, they have lots available for upper elementary and middle school as well.
    • Great search tool. If you can’t easily find what you are looking for in the myriad categories available, you can search and come up with lots of hits most of the time.
    • Making my own handwriting sheets. We use Handwriting Without Tears in the early years, and I LOVE the member’s only feature that enables you to print your own worksheets with whatever you want your child to practice, in the very format that they are learning in.

    Challenges faced . . .

    • Finding uses for the site. We aren’t a big worksheet family, preferring lots of oral and group work, so I did not find an overwhelming amount of materials that grabbed my attention.
    • Some of the graphics are not the highest quality (after all, they are worksheets). Part of the reason I prefer real books is because I prefer real pictures. Just a little idiosyncrasy of mine, I suppose. Drawn graphics just kind of turn me off to a product. They were good, just not real.

    Despite the many things we loved and the very few challenges we encountered, this is not something I would continue to subscribe to because it doesn’t fit easily within our homeschool.

    However, if you constantly find yourself searching for extra activities or worksheets to teach or reteach a topic, abcteach probably has exactly what you are looking for. They have an excellent, easy to navigate site with unbelievable amounts of worksheets and activities.

    For more TOS Crew reviews on this product, check out the TOS Crew blog.

    Disclaimer: This website membership was provided to me free of charge from abcteach as part of my participation in The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. I received no additional compensation and the opinions expressed here come from my personal experiences and sincere thoughts.

    Writing contest!

    The following is from the HSLDA website:

    This year, Patrick Henry College invites aspiring writers to answer the call – more specifically, A Call to Pens. PHC’s first short story competition for students ages 12-18 was set in motion last year by PHC student, Peter Forbes (now an alumnus of PHC) who wanted to support the college and give young writers an opportunity to create original works of fiction that thoughtfully reflected a Christian worldview. Over 250 students nationwide responded to the “call” with mature, well-written stories, and we eagerly await the response of participants this year.

    A Call to Pens is a contest with a broader mission than winning prizes. If we wish to shape the culture, we must first engage it – in all aspects of life. Quality Christian literature engages the culture in a less direct manner than other vocations, but it is no less important.

    For those interested in entering the contest, please visit www.phc.edu/acalltopens.php. There will be two separate divisions, each with a separate theme, based on age. Several cash prizes will be awarded to the top writers in each division. All proceeds of the competition will be given to PHC’s Annual Scholarship Fund. The entry deadline is December 30th, 2009; winners will be announced in March, 2010.