Today was our first day of homeschooling for the 2020-2021 school year. In no particular oder, here are the kiddos who make up our homeschooling group:
One of my biggest frustrations as a homeschooling Mama is the abundance of questions I receive. Because my kiddos don't go to school for seven hours a day and give all of their questions to another adult, I get their questions. I get all the questions. All day long. Day after day. And because I am a glutton for punishment, I've added my cousin's kids too. So there are nine kids to ask questions instead of four. (Okay, to be fair, this arrangement brings Aunt Hannah with them which means we are dividing up the questions. But she's mostly with the little kids who ask more annoying but easier questions. I'm with the older kids who ask questions that I sometimes genuinely don't know the answer to or have to look up somewhere.) Now questions are one thing. But questions at inopportune times is another thing altogether. For example, I can be out with my kiddos in the living room for an hour with no questions. Then I go into use the bathroom, and I hear a knock at the door. Then a voice will say, "Can you explain to me why there was no money in the banks during The Great Depression?" And I say: "Can I discuss this with you as soon as I am done in the bathroom?" And sometimes that makes them go away. But sometimes they will try to just stand there and wait for me. Or sometimes they will say just a smattering of seconds later, "Hey Mom. Are you done yet?" Or even better. Sometimes when they leave, another kid comes in to take their place. It's like they are taking turns keeping me occupied or something. So .... back on track here. I've been working with the kiddos on not asking questions that are poorly timed. Today, and I kid you not, I was moving a safe. Not a huge safe but a safe that required me to put my back into it. In the middle of trying to relocate the safe, I hear a voice behind me saying: "What does B-o-h-e-m-i-a-n spell Mama?" I didn't answer because I was occupied. Said child waited three seconds and started spelling it again. I stopped my safe moving and stood up and said, "Do you think this is a good time for a spelling question?" And I kid you not, the child looked at me with an expression that said, "It seems pretty good to me." (Child didn't say that outloud thank goodness.) Oh and Bohemian was important because we were studying birds. Check out the bird at the top to find the culprit behind the question. And for a good laugh, check out one of my very favorite video clips ever by comedian Jim Gaffigan. (It's clean and so fun!)
Arabelle showing off the cool case that this program arrives in!
My love for Drive Thru History® is no secret. It is truly one of my very items in my homeschooling arsenal. This time I had the opportunity to review Drive Thru History® "Acts to Revelation".
The program arrived at my house in a really neat little "case" complete with 3 DVD's and a full-color Study Guide. Here are a few snapshots of what came in the mail to my house:
My niece, Ana (who is in 6th grade) working on her Study Guide questions. (I simply copied them from the book for the kids to do them.)
This package includes 18 episodes and over nine hours of content for right around $90. This may seem like a lot until you realize it is actually $5 an episode with the questions built right in. Not bad for a full day's history lesson.
Host Dave Stotts is incredibly engaging and super funny too. In fact, my kids will often be found repeating some line he used in an episode. (Their favorite is when he talked about wishing his high school PE teacher had used a Roman mile instead of a "normal" mile because it was shorter. If the mile wouldn't have been so long, Dave may not have had to listen to all kinds of name-calling. He then went through a bunch of names he was called, the funniest one being "Cheesecake McJiggle Shorts.")
I truly couldn't come up with a bad thing to say about this program if I tried, and we have watched many other sections of the curriculum since I reviewed for them last year. (As I mentioned in my opening paragraph, I have reviewed for Drive Thru History®before. You can read my review from last year by clicking here.)There are four main sections of curriculum available for purchase. Here are the four. (I'll get to how to buy them later in the review.)
Bible History: 18-week trip through Israel, exploring the life of Jesus as covered in the Gospels.
American History: 12-week trip through early American history, from Columbus to the Consitution
Ancient History: 12-week trip through the empires of Greece, Rome, and Asia Minor
A few notes:
The course curriculum is designed for ages 12 and above. This means that the information in the Study Guide is for kids in middle and high school. I think this is accurate. I tried it with my ten-year-olds, and it was a little too difficult. However, if I went through the questions with them, they could totally follow and answer.
The videos themselves have an age of 5 and up on them. I have let Hannah (age 5) watch them. She can focus for a little bit, but usually doesn't make it through a whole episode. Abigail (age 7) always joins in however.
One important note is that this program is most definitelytaught with a Christian perspective. There are some curriculums that are overlapping, however, this is not one of them. If you are not a Christian and not raising your child with a Christian-world-view, then this is just not the program for you as you can see from Dave's note on the website:
Drive Thru History® "Acts to Revelation"focuses on the events that sparked the dramatic spread of the Gospel in the first century. Stotts is exploring the lives of the very first Christians. He begins in Jerusalem and then sees the Book of Acts as his roadmap, traveling the Mediterranean region to share the people, places, and events that launched the Christian faith.
Episodes include:
Now, here is why this program was especially exciting for us. We lived in Turkey for two years. Numerous times, Dave was in a location that we have been. Check it out:
See Isaac here at the Mosiac museum? This museum is a grouping over 300 mosaic floors created around the 3rd century AD and discovered around 1932. Most are housed in Antioch/Antakya.
Now check out Dave Stotts in the same spot that Isaac is in in the museum! (I stole this screen shot from the video.)
I stole this one from the video as well. This is the Church of Saint Peter. Check out the shapes above the door!
John took this picture. Check it out. That's from the inside of the Church! We visited there as well.
Here is the video that I took of us watching this section. It was seriously SO exciting to see somewhere I've been like this in a video:
Check out my friend Becky by St. Paul's Well in Tarsus (one of my very favorite cities to go to!) And then, watch the video below of Dave standing in the same spot!
I could go on and on with my love of this program. Please take them up on the 7-day free trial. (And this is a REAL free trial. No credit cards! Honest!)
Want to watch an episode for yourself? You can do that totally for free by clicking on the following link: Drive Thru History® "Acts to Revelation". and entering your email address.
So how do you purchase this? Well, you actually have four choices:
FREE: Free 7-day trial of the 3 Curriculum Courses (Bible, American, and Ancient History). NO CREDIT CARD REQUIRED TO TRY!
MONTHLY:
for $12.99 a month you get access to the three courses (Bible,
American, and Ancient History) as well as free month-to-month
subscription rites to "Adventures TV" which provides access to full
epsidoes and new weekly content, special, and behind the scenes.
I'll be very honest with you. (And you can email or message me directly and discuss with me if you'd like.) If I hadn't received free copies for reviewing, there is no question that I would buy the YEARLY curriculum and just get everything. It will be your entire curriculum for at least a year. It's fantastic. You will not regret this purchase. Ever. It's amazing.
Don't believe me? Click the link below and read some reviews from others who will definitely concur with me!
I want to remind us all that the most important part of our children is their SOUL. That is the part we should be nurturing more than ever. Below I share a video of our last homeschooling day before the Christmas break. (Yes! We take breaks too!) Our eldest six kiddos are doing some drawing while going through and doing their "Letter of the week" memory verses.
Our youngest kiddos use the verses I linked to above. For our older kiddos, we do the full verse, making it more challenging. Check it out:
I love the A-B-C nature of these verses because they can be brought to mind easily. I, myself, have laid in bed on particularly troubling days and simply begun reciting verses from A to Z! It's easy to do. (We do one each week and then each week, we try to recite up to the point we are at which is what we are doing in the video below.)
Don't forget their souls folks! Don't forget their SOUL!
"Teachers have three loves: love of learning, love of learners, and the love of bringing the first two loves together." Scott Hayden
This quote above makes me think of some key people in the lives of my children. While I am a homeschool mom, I must be honest ... there is no way I could homeschool these for people all by myself.
I am reliant upon many people who come into my children's lives to help me in the journey to educate my little people.
People like my cousin's wife, Hannah, who is sharing the load with me this year.
People like the fellow moms who teach my children in our homeschool co-op. My friend Kristin who cried with me as my Abigail came out of her shell. My friend Kim who has taught my boys health and now math. My friend Kymberly who has shared her love of geography. And many, many more.
Ballet teachers. Gymnastics teachers. Piano teachers. Karate instructors. Tennis.
People like my mother-in-law, Mary, who comes over to our house or invites the kiddos to her -- with different art projects and cooking assignments ready-to-go.
My father-in-law, Ray, who takes any opportunity to illustrate how to change oil in a lawn-mower or put a nail into a wall or discuss the stars we see so clearly at night here on the farm.
And of course people like my husband who is continually educating our quad of children down to the one hour of reading he does with them every evening.
My friend, Anni, is another gift. She is a math teacher to deaf students, but you can tell that she loves all children no matter their ability and that it isn't just math that brings her joy. She took it upon herself to get fabric for my kiddos so that they could make their siblings a present for Christmas. Check out Hannah sewing a pillowcase for her sister below. (FYI: This is something I could never teach my kiddos.)
Here is the finished project which is hidden deep underneath my bed. (It's ballerinas if you can't tell from the photo):
And here is Sidge creating a Star Wars pillowcase for his brother. (Anni may have said: "Where is the Starship Enterprise?" when discussing Star Wars with Sidge, but we won't hold this against her.)
Isaac also made a pillow case for Sidge, and Abigail is working on a big blanket that requires tying pieces of fabric to give Hannah for her Christmas present. God is so cool to bring these people into our lives. Community truly makes lives so rich. Thank you special people.
