Review of The Elements of Style Workbook (Strunk)

 Here it is: https://www.brookdalehouse.com/product/elements-style-workbook/

I don't think I've ever been happier with a writing workbook.  I wish I would've used this book with my older kids.  I didn't know it existed - no one seems to use this book.  I just happen to stumble across it on Amazon last year, so I bought it for the 16 year-old.

She scored at college level on the TSI English and Writing after using about half this workbook.  Granted, we did do other things to prepare her for the essay portion of the test, but I can tell that this workbook has really helped improve her writing.

This workbook is based on the original The Elements of Style book by Strunk & White.  The workbook includes the topics from the book followed by writing exercises that follow each topic.  

The workbook begins with exercises in punctuation, which are common writing errors.  It follows with sentence structure, paragraph structure, topic sentences...  Exercises continue with active voice/passive voice, positive/negative statements, trimming needless words, definite language and summaries.  The last section of the workbook has the student imitating the "Masters of Literature."  Appendix A contains a great writing checklist, so the student can use that as a checklist for revision or the teacher could even use it as a grading rubric.

This workbook is only about $15 on Amazon or Rainbow Resource and it's 200 pages of excellent writing exercises.

My high schooler did half the workbook this school year (for 11th grade) and she'll finish it for 12th grade.  And she likes the workbook.  So, it just doesn't get any better than that!

The Elements of Style Workbook = gigantic thumbs up

Review of Sonlight C with Hands-on History Box

 We are finishing up Sonlight C World History 2 with the Hands-on History Box (five day version).  I can't find a publishing date in the Instructor's Guide, but I purchased the guide in 2023 from Sonlight's website.  This level is meant for ages 8-10 or grades 3-5.  

Things We Liked

• A Child's History of the World - he really enjoyed listening to this book last year and this year
• Eric the Red and Leif the Lucky
• Time Traveler
• Red Sails to Capri
• Sticks Across the Chimney
• Tales of Robin Hood
• Watching the old Kevin Costner/Morgan Freeman movie Robin Hood after reading the book - he loved that movie
• Adventures of Sir Lancelot the Great - this was his favorite book of the year
• Captain Nobody - another favorite - even I liked this book
• With Two Hands
• The Hands-on History Box - he loved the projects in here.  He would get excited every week when there was a project scheduled
• Reading outside - we read a lot of the read-alouds in the driveway when the weather was nice and that was very enjoyable

Things We Had a Hard Time With

• The reading pace - we are never able to keep up with the Instructor's Guide.  It's just too fast.
• Sonlight 2nd Grade Readers - Because I used Sonlight's Language Arts the year before, I tried to use it again this year and was unsuccessful.  My 3rd grader has severe dyslexia and he needs to use a dyslexia-specific reading curriculum.  We switched halfway through the year to Barton Reading, which is a program written specifically for dyslexia.
• The Timeline Book and figures - I like the Timeline, but I can't get him interested in it
• AudioMemory's Geography Songs - This might have something to do with dyslexia, but the songs in this book stressed him out and we had to stop about halfway through

Thoughts on Getting Through World History 2

• It took longer than a school year for us to get through the level.  We spent almost a calendar year on it and that's ok.  They're great books and I don't want to be stressed out while reading them, worrying that we won't catch up to the pace in the Instructor's Guide.
• We skipped a couple of the books after I looked at samples of them and that's ok, too.  He's dealing with dyslexia and after looking at a sample of Strawberry Girl, I knew he would struggle with the language and how it was written (even just listening to it).  I don't think anyone is able to follow the Instructor's Guide exactly and do every single thing written in the schedule.  
• Some of the Hands-on History Box projects were very difficult, like the Wright brothers' glider.  I basically put that entire project together while he watched.  However, it wasn't a waste, because he was at Cub Scouts and the leader asked a question about the Wright brothers and my son was the only scout able to answer, because he remembered the glider.
• Supplements - I used this website a LOT: https://roadstoeverywhere.com/homeschooling/supplementing-sonlight/supplementing-sonlight-core-c/  She lists supplemental activities for each of the Level C books.  For example, when we read Red Sails to Capri, we looked at actual pictures/videos of the Blue Grotto and it makes the book come alive.  My son became interested in the grotto after seeing the pictures and we ended up watching YouTube videos about it and reading about the Roman archeological finds in the grotto.

Overall, this is a very enjoyable curriculum.  I would've loved to do "school" like this when I was a kid.  I have already bought Sonlight D American History 1 for the fall.

Review of Wild Math 3rd Grade

https://discoverwildlearning.com/wild-math/

We've used Wild Math 1, 2 and now 3.  

Grade 3 covers place value, addition/subtraction, multiplication/division, geometry, money and time, fractions, measurements, graphing and charts.  The curriculum guide has a weekly schedule, a booklist, a list of board games and a checklist of hands-on activities that you can do outdoors or indoors with your student.  You can use natural materials from outside (like acorns, flowers, etc) or you can use things inside like popsicle sticks, cuisinaire rods or counters.  The teacher's guide tells you how to make an outdoor math kit that you can use outside to take measurements, compare items, work math problems, etc.  

This is such an enjoyable curriculum.  This is our favorite math curriculum for younger grades.  He especially enjoyed the board game suggestions.  He really liked the measurement unit and the multiplication unit.  For any older homeschoolers familiar with Konos, this curriculum reminds me of that, but for math.

Every one of the board games we bought this year were a hit.  He loved Sleeping Queens and Prime Climb.  Even my high schooler liked Prime Climb.  Clumsy Thief was difficult for him, but it was also good.  This curriculum definitely encouraged me to use more math board games in our school year.

The worst thing about this curriculum is that it ends at fifth grade.  I really wish the curriculum would extend to the pre-algebra/algebra years.

I feel like my son has a really strong conceptual grasp of math after following this curriculum for three years.  

Also, the price is another strong point.  $27 for a year of math plans is a good deal.  If you buy the board games, you end up spending quite a bit more on math, but we enjoyed them so much that it was worth it to buy the games.  We checked out most of the readers from our city library for free. 

3rd Grader's Favorites 2023-2024

These are his favorites from 3rd grade, according to him.

 Math

• Sleeping Queens (card game)
• Times Tales - multiplication

Reading/Language Arts

• Explode the Code

Sonlight C World History 2

• Hands-on History Box
• Captain Nobody
• Tales of Robin Hood
• Adventures of Sir Lancelot the Great
• The Cricket in Times Square
• Eric the Red and Leif the Lucky

Books 

• Take Me Out to the Ballgame: The Sensational Baseball Song

Science

• Planet Earth 2 (documentary series)
• National Geographic Stunning Science Kit

Art

• Usborne Famous Paintings Art Cards
• Art for Kids Hub (Youtube channel and website)

Field Trips

• Mayborn Museum, Waco, Texas

Finishing Up Post + College Updates

3rd Grader and 11th Grader 

We are almost finished with everything, so I probably won't have any more Homeschool Day posts for awhile.  I'm planning to post reviews of curriculum we used this year.

Third grader is finishing Explode the Code, his Botany Experiments and Discovery Kit and a couple of read-alouds from Sonlight C (With Two Hands and The Little Riders).  

The twelfth grader is finishing The Fallacy Detective, Revelation, Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper, Crash Course US History, Trail Guide to US Geography and she's working on Khan Academy SAT Math Prep.  She has about two weeks of work left at the most.

College Update

Kid #2 just received an acceptance letter to the BSN program at a local university.  He received the Dean's Scholarship (the second largest scholarship awarded at that university), a large grant and we are trying to apply to more scholarships, so he will have minimal student debt.  He also joined Phi Theta Kappa, the honors fraternity, so there is a scholarship from that.  He has most of the last two years of his BSN covered by scholarships.  That particular BSN program has a 10% acceptance rate and not only did he get accepted, he has a scholarship.  So, he was very excited and thankful.

Kid #3 was accepted to a local university to finish her last two years, also with a transfer scholarship and she's applied to a Phi Theta Kappa scholarship.  She starts in August and we already have most of our tasks completed so she can register for classes in April.  

Kid #1 is almost finished with her Bachelor of Science in Plant and Soil Sciences from a state university here (I don't want to post its name for privacy reasons).

Kid #4 starts dual enrollment in August at the community college.  We're registering for classes in a couple of weeks when the registration window opens.