Review: The Write From History Series

I was so excited to be a part of the Write From History series launch group & to get started on this! As most of you know, we are studying the Middle Ages this year. So when I found out that there was a Medieval History book in this series I was even MORE excited &, of course, chose that for my review!

In this series, there are 4 books: Write From Ancient History, Write From Medieval History, Write From Early Modern History, & Write From Modern History.  Each one has 2 levels to choose from, except Write From Modern History. This one only has Level 2 for now and Level 1 is to come summer of 2014. You also have the choice of manuscript or cursive & sells for $22.95 in your choice of printed or eBook.

Level 1 is for grades 1-3 & is a writing curriculum that combines writing, history, and handwriting practice all in one workbook. 
Level 2 is for students in grades 3 to 5 & includes manuscript writing models from interesting historical narratives, excerpts from primary source documents, poetry from or about ancient times, and fun cultural tales from around the world. (Taken from the Brookdale House site.)

Table of Contents

Write From Medieval History covers 600AD to 1600 AD & is divided into 4 Chapters: Historical Narratives, English Tales, Poetry From/or About Medieval History, & Cultural Tales. All 4 chapters include the reading selection, a page for a written narration, & also 2 passages to use as the writing modules.

 What I love so much is that you don't have to go in order in the book or even in the whole series! Whatever you are working on, or want to work on, you just look through the Table of Contents, which also serves as a timeline, & choose what/when you need!

Included are suggested schedules for using the book. It also suggests including a grammar study which I thought was really neat! With 3 kids it's always great to be able to include as many subjects into 1 lesson! J12 was even a part of this so, as you can see by the above pic, I had her write her modules in cursive since she needs more practice. It was a great grammar review for her as well! I hadn't even attempted to start grammar lessons with L8 & even M6 but this was a great introduction to nouns for them! (M6 didn't do that part but sat in on that convo.) For the grammar study, it suggests introducing each part of speech 1 month at a time to make sure they have it down before moving on. 

The only problem I had with this book was that it doesn't have an answer key for the grammar part. It does have a quick reference guide in the Appendix though which was a big help.

We will definitely continue with this book during our studies this year! It's a great addition & doesn't take long to do either!

For more reviews, head on over to Multi Taskin' Mom!

Weekly Wrap-Up/Homeschool Mother's Journal

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  We made it through another week! We did a few fun things together. I met a few awesome new friends that have given me some great advice. There will be a few more changes to J12's lessons to try to challenge her more in the upcoming weeks. This girl exhausts me but its fun!

   They had free drawing time. J12 is always, always, always drawing. She uses www.dragoart.com. It has free drawing lessons. L8 decided to use his time to write a letter but he did color the whole paper afterwards...which is strange because he HATES coloring! M6 drew 3 pics....a huge rainbow eyeball is one of them..lol.

   I thought we were done withe Ancient Rome studies but then decided to make a volcano project because of Pompeii. It was made with flour & water (equal parts, I used 2 C each) & brown paper bag. We will be painting it later this weekend & setting it off. Can't wait!

  Thursday, L8 surprised me by waking me up, made my coffee (!!) & toast w/ jelly, & even straightened the living room up for me! While I was eating, he looked at me & said, "Mom, I'm going to be really good today for you." My heart melted. He kept his word & even caught himself a few times before arguing with the girls! I kept hugging him & praising him all day when I would catch him doing something awesome. <3

  I have also noticed with L8 that the best way to get him to write is to write letters or notes to people. We have been working on his capitalizing & punctuation. Another thing all the kids love are mad libs. It's a great way to work on grammar skills! It has introduced nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc. to M6 & we've made some crazy mad libs! One site we like is www.madtakes.com.  I went through my stash of homeschooling goodies & found a file folder games book. I made a few of them Friday for M6 & L8 (fractions, nouns, & a phonics one.) but forgot to take pics! oops

  Oh & almost forgot! I was complaining in my Facebook homeschool group, Schoolin' Swag, about my calendar. I hated having to pin & unpin it each month. So Friday I came up with a solution. All of my pocket charts are used so I couldn't use them for it. I hole punched each day card & they fit perfectly over the push pins! (fellow Whovians: take note of Nov. 23rd!)  ;)

Hope everyone has an awesome week!

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