| |

Homeschooling and Classical Education Online Resources {Schoolhouse Teachers Review}

Share Wildflower Ramblings!

I am so excited to share with you my beginning experiences with SchoolhouseTeachers.com and their Yearly Membership Option. The wealth of information and learning ideas on this Christian homeschooling resource site is amazing.

SchoolhouseTeachers.com features dynamic lessons in all subjects. My eyes immediately gravitated to the Preschool / Kindergarten sections of Hebrew, Music, and Science, as well as the Middle / High School areas of Literature and Classical Education learning.  Each category of learning is taught by a well-educated instructor, so the lessons are fluid, concise, and understandable.

 photo ST-Logo-v21_zpscd8f2982.jpg

Hebrew

I studied both Biblical and Modern Hebrew in college extensively and I had the opportunity to travel to Israel for three months when I graduated {you can read about my trip here}.

But you needn’t have a background in the Hebrew language to learn from these wonderful video lessons or sit alongside your child as he/she learns. The lessons start with the alphabet (aleph-bet) and family-word lessons, as well as a review of Genesis 1.  I am looking forward to using this resource!  There are also helpful links to further resources in teaching the Hebrew language to little ones — both spoken and written.

{Screenshots below are from SchoolhouseTeachers.com.}

Screen shot 2013-12-14 at 3.21.18 PM

Science

There are many hands-on science experiments for little ones.  Each lesson comes with a guide list of materials and instructions and the videos are explanatory enough that you could easily do the experiments at home.  They are categorized by month, so the experiments are seasonal too.  I can’t wait to do some of these with my son — and it’s great that they are all in one place so I don’t have to go searching and wasting tons of time looking for elementary science ideas elsewhere.  

{There is also an incredible Nature section which encourages outdoor exploration!}

Screen shot 2013-12-14 at 2.40.55 PM

Music

There is an abundance of lessons for recorder, voice, and violin for early and intermediate learners.  I let my son watch some recorder lessons, since we have a recorder., and he was immediately enthralled!  What an amazing time and money saver if your child can learn without interacting with the teacher.  I know my family will benefit from these.

Screen shot 2013-12-14 at 2.31.13 PM

Literature

There is more on this site than I could possibly express here, and my focus right now is on early development because my precious ones are three and one.  There is an fun Children’s Story Corner which helps books come alive in a new and exciting way.

Screen shot 2013-12-14 at 6.28.17 PM

I am also looking forward to utilizing the Art and Literature lessons from this site.  There are Literature Kits for books such as The Chronicles of Narnia, Treasure Island, and Julius Caesar (in fact there is an entire curricula devoted to Shakespeare), just to name a few titles.  And these lessons are not just for your middle and highschoolers. This is for the mamas who want to learn with (or without if they’ve flown the nest) their teenagers.

Moms Reading the Classics

Wildflower Ramblings
In November, I began a monthly link up: Moms Reading the Classics. For me and other moms who want to edify their minds. We are better teachers and mamas if we can shape our minds towards dignity, truth, wisdom and beauty. And literature directs us to these.  Milton, Lewis, Dante, and right now I am (trying to) tackle Chaucer and Augustine.

I haven’t kept up with it in December, but it will be my resolution, to read literature. Every day. For me.  {I will pick my Link-Up back up on January 1.}  And SchoolhouseTeachers.com has amazing resources for me to continue with this goal!  Of course I will use these resources when my child(ren) is older, but for now, I am excited to have background, supplemental information, and lessons for some of the Classics that I hope to read.

Lapbooking

Is there anything more wonderful than children’s literature? (The answer is no.)  Stories make our imaginations grow and learn and become capable of creating an entire world with.  And lapbooking helps us understand it.  I will be honest, I have never “lapbooked” in my life.  But now I can explore this wonderful genre of learning!  There are so many lapbooking materials here.  I can’t (can) wait until my little ones are old enough to begin this type of learning — however — this does require a lot of printing and organization on the teacher’s part, so it may not be everyone’s style of teaching.

Classical Education

I wrote an extensive post on Classical education if you are interested in learning more:

Desktop5

Archaeology

I mentioned above that I spent time in Israel after graduating from college.  During my time there, I had the privilege of participating in an archaeological dig, so this area of learning interests me greatly.  For upper grade levels, each month focuses on an archeological site.  For example, December is focused on The Riot in Ephesus (Acts 19:23-41).  Here is a small example of the information and lesson provided:

 Screen shot 2013-12-14 at 6.17.46 PM

History

The instructor takes her students (members of SchoolhouseTeachers.com!) through a 29 week course spanning three thousand years!  I could not be more thrilled with having these resources and lessons at my fingertips.  This teacher has impressed me with her organization according to a Christian worldview — I can’t wait to read more.

Why study ancient civilizations?  {To have} an understanding of ancient civilizations can illuminate your child’s understanding of the people groups mentioned in the Bible. In the Old Testament, the Israelites conquer and are conquered by their nearest neighbors including the Hittites, Canaanites, Assyrians, and Babylonians. Their worship of the one, true God continually produces conflicts with these polytheistic people groups.

Logic

Another subject in Classical education that I know little about, but intrigues me, is Logic.  Classical education promotes the stimulation and development of the mind towards truth, beauty, and wisdom.  The definition of this class is as follows:

{This Logic course covers} informal fallacies encountered in everyday life. Recognizing and responding to this deceptive and faulty reasoning helps prepare students to communicate effectively and persuasively, while equipping them to avoid falling prey to deception.

 

The Social Justice and Worldview sections are also great resources for any family seeking to learn Truth in this day and age where Secular Humanism is the mainstream and accepted way of living.  This site will equip any homeschooling family with tools to build a solid foundation in Christ through knowledge and wisdom.

 

You could teach your child solely utilizing SchoolhouseTeachers.com and they would have an excellent education in all subjects.  There are hundreds of archived lessons well as new lessons added each day by highly educated instructors.  You could also supplement your current curriculum with the abundance of information and videos provided — this is how I plan to benefit from this site.  There is much, much more on the site than I’ve described here, so I hope you head over to SchoolhouseTeachers.com to see more.

You can try SchoolhouseTeachers.com for an entire month for just $3. After that, it is $12.95 per month for unlimited access to all materials, videos, classes, and lesson plans for ages Preschool through High School.  You get 10% off the monthly price if you buy an entire year of access for $139.

 

Click to read Crew Reviews
 

wildflowerramblingstake1

 

 

 

 

If you are interested in receiving new posts, please follow me on Facebook:

Crew Disclaimer


Share Wildflower Ramblings!

Similar Posts

4 Comments

  1. Amy, I love how you were able to tie this review into your real life adventures and learning style. While it was not a good fit for our family, I am loving seeing how everyone else used the site for their review!

    1. Thanks, Michelle — you are an inspiration — I am just starting out and I love looking at the resources you use:)

  2. Thank you for sharing about the schoolhouseteachers.com, Yes, one can really get surprised looking at the resources they offer. Through reading the blog i have come to know the site really explains all the subjects which one student would like to know. Great blog

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *