Now I know what you are probably thinking. “My biggest hurdle is TIME. If I had time to take a course, I would have time to play a game with my kids! And if I did somehow make time to take a course, wouldn’t it be better to just use that time to play some games instead?”

What this makes me think of is how some of most productive people in the world take time each day to meditate. Sometimes by surrendering some time up front to get your mind in order, the pieces of the goals you are trying to achieve fall into place. (Full disclosure, even though it sounds like a lovely idea, I personally don’t meditate. I haven’t found the time, LOL.)

Also, a lot of what Cait teaches in this course is how to find the time by helping you reframe your outlook on homeschooling in a way that relieves pressure. She uses scientific studies and expert advice to help you justify making gameplay a priority so you can let go of some of the guilt. Lastly, the course makes it so easy to listen to these lessons while you are doing the dishes or folding laundry. As an added bonus, listening to Cait explain why playing games with your kids is such a valuable use of time makes those tasks more enjoyable too.

Before I get into what I learned from having taken this course, first, some background. I am a big fan of the podcast Cait and Kara put together, The Homeschool Sisters. I started homeschooling in 2015 and stumbling across their podcast about a year in was a breath of fresh air for this tired homeschool sister. At the time, I didn’t know many other homeschooling families and cherished their support. I am a huge proponent of their hygge-filled, low stress outlook on homeschooling and life in general.

In particular, I identified with Cait as I am a nature and book loving mama who grew up enjoying tabletop games. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to make these values cornerstones of our family life, but sometimes reality does not always live up to the vision.

Listening along with The Homeschool Sisters podcast and taking Cait’s courses have helped me to be more intentional about making our homeschool and family life match my vision. In a world filled with hustle and bustle, it is so refreshing to find a community, even if it is a virtual one, of like-minded people who prioritize relationships and developing kind, well-rounded individuals over academics.

Before I begin describing the course, I should state that while I am an affiliate of My Little Poppies and will make a commission if you decide to purchase this course using my link, I paid for this course with my own money and do not know the course creator personally. These opinions are unbiased and entirely my own.

What’s Included?

This course is overflowing with valuable information. It took my several hours (divided up over about a week) to go through all the information in this course. Cait kindly provides the material in video format (which is how I consumed it) along with a written transcript and audio files. All of these versions are downloadable allowing you to access them even when you are away from an internet connection.

Additionally, each module contains helpful downloads, including printables for taking notes, resource guides including game lists, summaries of information covered, bingo and other games for playing with your kids, and more. I particularly appreciated the game suggestions based on the 8 play personalities and the questions to ask and decision tree for helping to decide which games to purge.

Many of the sections also include links to outside resources such as Ted talks, book recommendations, and online articles. As a lifelong learner, I happily followed these rabbit trails and learned a lot of bonus information in the process.

What Do You Learn?

If you have a question about gameschooling with children, I can pretty much guarantee Cait covers it. She answered questions I didn’t even know I had. Here are some of the main points and topics that she covers

• What is Play – First, she answers all of your questions about play. How do you identify an activity as play? What are the different types of play? And most importantly, why is play good for children? She backs up the answers to these questions with quotes from experts and scientific studies. If you were feeling unsure about whether or not it was even worth making time to gameschool, this section leaves no doubt.
• How to Prioritize Play – After convincing you why you should prioritize play, she offers some helpful advice on how to make space in your day for play to occur.
• Understanding Gameschooling – What is it? Why should you gameschool? What do you need to start gameschooling? All of your questions are answered. My big takeaway from this section is that gameschooling gives your kids the chance to practice new skills without the fear of failure. Also, all you really need to gameschool is a deck of cards and an internet connection.
• How to Work with What you Got – Some families, mine included, have a lot of games already. How do you figure out what you have, purge what you don’t need to reduce overwhelm, and store your games in a way that makes them more likely to be played. I found her list of questions to consider when deciding whether or not to keep a game particularly helpful.
• How to Gameschool on a Budget – I can attest to the fact that acquiring a large collection of games can be expensive. This section makes it clear that even if you only used a deck of cards or a set of dice, your kids can get all the benefits of gameschooling. Also, if you do decide to purchase games, Cait helps you to choose wisely.
• Gameschool Recommendations – The section in which Cait makes recommendations for games based on the child’s interests, age, type of game, and subject is one of the most valuable parts of this course. Many of these same recommendations could also be found on her blog or through the My Little Poppies Amazon store, but she narrows down her favorites in these lists.
• How to Personalize Gameschooling for Your Unique Situation – Cait helps you choose games based on your family situation and offers suggestions for modifying rules to make them work for your unique kids. She also offers tips to make the experience more enjoyable.
• How to Document Gameschooling – Ours does not, but if your charter homeschool requires documentation, she has several tips to keep track of which skills kids are learning and turn a game play experience into an educational sample. She also recommends apps for logging your playtime.
• FAQs – Cait has a section that covers common stumbling blocks, such as how to gameschool with a baby or toddler or how to choose games for kids that have a wide age range. She also offers tips for kids with learning challenges, parents who don’t enjoy playing games, or what to do when you can’t figure out the instructions.
• Bonuses – Cait has also included a number of bonuses such as bingo games that will encourage your family to play more games.

What Could Be Improved?

Just to be clear, I do not know the author of this course personally. Therefore, I have no qualms about laying out my unbiased opinion on what could be improved.

• One of my biggest complaints is that Cait provides SO MUCH information that it is kind of a pain to download it all. She has a page that links to all the lesson handouts, but even on that page alone there are over 25 individual files to download. I realized later that this page does NOT include all the bonus material in each lesson like resource guides, check lists, and bingo board games. It would be great if there was a way to download all the material at once.
• Many of the files are not ideal for printing. Given that there are so many files and many of them include a cover page, if you were to print these files, you would want to specify which pages to print to avoid printing duplicate pages and an excess of color, which might get annoying. Also, the same helpful resources are listed in many of these files, which would be redundant if you were to print it all. Maybe it is just because I am an eco-friendly minimalist, but especially with the lesson handouts, it would be great if there was a way to print all the note-taking material at once without all the repetition and color images.
• Speaking of the lesson handouts, there are a lot of blank spaces for people to fill in their answers as they listen. This is a great option for people to write their own personal takeaways, but as I did most of the course while folding laundry or washing dishes, I opted not to take notes. It sounds like cheating, but I would have loved if there was an “answer key” so that when I look back through my material in a year, I can quickly remember what I learned without having to re-watch the videos.
• Maybe she is already planning on creating this, but I think ultimately what needs to happen is Cait needs to write a book to accompany this course. I’m not sure if it should be included with the course or available to purchase separately, but there is SO MUCH information included in this course that it deserves to be presented in a coherent, unified piece of writing.

Bottomline

If you keep meaning to incorporate more games into your homeschool, but it isn’t happening to the degree you would like, then this course is worth the price of admission. It is an investment, but it will give you the knowledge and confidence to make playing games a priority while teaching you how to do it inexpensively. This empowerment will help you achieve your vision of kids playing and learning together in a fun, relaxed environment. Not only will kids benefit academically, but they will grow socially and emotionally as well, all while fostering strong family bonds.

If you decide that you would like to invest in Gameschool 101, note that there is a special discount price through Dec. 31, 2020. This is my affiliate link.

Happy gaming!

Related Links

Best Tabletop Games for Kids
Favorite Homeschool Resources
A Guide to Homeschooling

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Before I begin, please note that while I am an affiliate of this program and will make a small commission if you decide to purchase using my link, I have never accepted any free products or merchandise from Raddish Kids. I made this decision primarily because I wanted my review to be completely unbiased.

First, some backstory. My daughter (who is nearly 9) started using this service when she was 6. We paid for a year subscription using charter school funds. While she greatly enjoyed doing the boxes, I fell behind in doing them with her and they started to pile up. When the year ran out, I cancelled my subscription to give us time to catch up.

In each box are 3 recipe cards, which feature child friendly, mostly healthy recipes with natural ingredients each printed on a laminated, kitchen-proof trifold. The recipe cards are heavy on the illustrations which makes them perfect for the pre or early reader (and fun for older kids as well). Personally, I love the recipes and many of them, such as the pot pie, chili, baked macaroni and cheese, turkey noodle soup, and several desserts have made it into our family’s regular rotation. Some of them have been hit and miss, but even in those cases, I am glad they are expanding my children’s palette and getting them to try new things. The recipe guides are the gold in my mind with this service.

Now you might say, “But, Michelle, the boxes are $20-$24 per kit (depending on the length of subscription). I would NEVER pay $7-8 per recipe when there are so many great free recipes on the internet!” I hear you. That was my thinking at the time too. I thought, “This is fun, buy my charter school is paying for it. I would never pay out of pocket for this.”

Before I finish the story, let’s quickly go over what else the box includes. With your first box, you get an apron. Each month, you also get a kitchen tool. I can affirm that these tools are high quality and will last, but this is not a selling point for me, as I’m a minimalist and already own the tools I need. I will say that when I do our yearly purge, I almost always end up keeping the Raddish Kids version of the tool and donating the version I already had.

Each box also comes with conversation cards, which my daughter likes using with her siblings now that she can read. There is also some sort of creative project, which my creative kiddo enjoys, such as a game or a craft suggestion. Each month you also get a grocery list and a guide for learning a new culinary skill.

As you can see, the box is packed with bonuses. The recipe guides are still the dominant high value item in the box in my opinion (unless you are in need of kitchen tools), but all the extra add-ons are a nice touch.

One last item included that I didn’t mention before is an iron-on patch to celebrate your completion of the box. I have very mixed feeling about this little patch. My daughter loves having patches ironed onto her apron. However, I feel that this patch is the primary reason we fell behind in our boxes during our first year of subscriptions. I felt pressured to complete every item in the box before we “earned” the patch. I felt like the box needed to become an event where we made all three meals in the same day or at least in the same week. I didn’t want to move onto a different box until we completed the box we were on.

Now, to be fair, my child didn’t feel any of this pressure. Whether she gets the patch right away or waits until later to have the patch ironed on, it’s all the same to her. All my sweet little kiddo wanted was to cook with me. Speaking of which, that was another source of pressure I was attaching to this box. I felt like to really deserve the patch, she should be involved in all the steps of the cooking process. It took me awhile to let go of that limiting point of view.

At some point, after our subscription had run out, but before we had completed all the boxes, my daughter started asking if she could make Raddish Kid recipes for dinner. She would pull out recipes we had already done or ones that she found in the stack of boxes gathering dust. I would say sure and she would start gathering ingredients from the pictures. She would look at the steps and do what she could on her own while she waited for me. When I came to help with dinner I would choose which steps seemed the most natural for me to assist with, like chopping onions or cutting meat, and we would work side by side.

I started to realize that these recipes were helping my daughter to identify herself as a cook. It didn’t need to be a once a month event in which she felt she had complete ownership of the meal. It could be a two or three times a week habit that we did together as a team.

After several months and as her reading skills have grown, she now finds recipes she thinks she will like off the internet, prints them, and makes them almost entirely on her own. We still frequently make dinner together just due to efficiency, speed, and the bonding we get from the experience, but at 8, going on 9, she is a fully capable cook. There is no area of the kitchen in which she does not have as much confidence as I do.

A few months back, having realized what a blessing Raddish Kids has been to our family, I asked my charter school to get her another year long subscription. It turns out they are not currently on the list of approved vendors we can use to spend our funds.

At that point I really had to decide, is this something we want to pay out of pocket for? I consulted with my extremely frugal husband and was surprised to find him 100% supportive of the purchase. He has seen the change and in our daughter as well, and recognizes what a large role Raddish Kids has played in that growth.

We are once again happily receiving Raddish kits, this time spending our own money. My daughter is keeping up with the boxes as much as she wants each month and I am not worrying about checking off every item in each box.

Bottomline

If you have a child who is interested in cooking, or you can see this is a fun family bonding experience, Raddish Kids is an invaluable service which will help your child gain confidence in the kitchen. What started off as seeming like extra work for me has led to having a completely independent mini-chef in my house who has now relieved a lot of the burden and stress associated with daily cooking for our large family. Personally, I am extremely grateful to Raddish Kids for the skills and self sufficiency in the kitchen it has given my daughter.

Just to summarize, here are some of the pros and cons if you are considering a membership

Pros

• Laminated recipe guides are golden. They are indestructible, feature yummy recipes with a nice balance of natural ingredients, and are extremely child-friendly. Several of them have made it into our weekly rotation.
• Promotes family bonding. Making the time and space in your life to cook with your kids promotes connection.
• Teaches valuable life skills. Cooking and following a recipe are skills that will serve children throughout life. Each box contains a guide for learning a culinary skill. Additionally, all the practice kids get from making these recipes helps them master valuable kitchen techniques.
• Promotes confidence in the kitchen. The more your child practices, the more confident they become. What starts off difficult such as peeling potatoes or dicing tomatoes, eventually becomes effortless.
• Develops a self-sufficient cook. While my child still loves Raddish Kids, she has transferred these skills over to recipes she finds on the internet.
• Kitchen tools. Each kit comes with a quality kitchen tool.
• Bonus add-ons. From creative craft ideas and games to conversation starters and grocery lists, each box contains a wealth of supplemental information.
• Sibling kits available. I am frugal and don’t want the extra tools, but just know that if you would like an extra tool and patch for additional children, that can be added on for the reasonable price of $5. Additional aprons can also be purchased separately.
• Recipe Binder. For $20, you can purchase a Create-a-Cookbook binder to store your favorite Raddish Kids recipes. Even though I am extremely frugal, I purchased one and it gets used all the time. I may end up purchasing another one in a few months as we love certain recipes so much that they are part of our weekly rotation.

Cons

• Price. Let’s be honest. If you look at this box as simply a box of 3 recipes, it will seem expensive. However, I choose to look at it as a developmental experience that promotes independence as well as bonding. I feel it to be $20 each month well spent.
• Patches. See my discussion above, but the patches are not my favorite. I feel that it adds extra pressure to “completing” the box and makes it less straightforward to do the box with multiple children. My recommendation: Set them aside and don’t make a big deal about them. If you have multiple children, you can iron them on the apron or aprons if you choose, but don’t make them feel like they are “earned,” that way there will be less fighting over which child gets which patch and you won’t feel pressured to check off every recipe and activity in the box.
• Kitchen Tools. While the kitchen tools are high quality, I personally don’t like to buy more than I need and I already have many of these tools. If there was a way to opt out of the tools and save a few dollars each month, I probably would. However, even if you give away the tools away as gifts, I still feel the box is well worth the price.
• Overwhelm. If you’re anything like me, then you want to maximize the experience that is associated with kits such as these. You want to grocery shop and get all the ingredients beforehand. You want to set aside time to have the culinary lesson and supervise the child doing most of the work prepping and cooking the meal. You feel the need to do every suggested activity that comes in the box, whether it is a geography lesson, a craft, a game, or the conversation starters. It can be overwhelming. In fact, it can be so overwhelming that you let the box sit, waiting for the perfect time that never comes in our busy lives. My advice? Accept imperfection. There is a lot of value in each box. Take it in bits and pieces as it fits into your life and understand that while it may not be picture perfect, your child is learning and enjoying the experience. Finally letting go of perfection is what made these kits become the joyful, valuable part of our lives that they are today.

I hope this overview of my family’s experience with Raddish Kids was helpful to you! If you decide this subscription kit might be a good fit for your family, and you would like to try it out, this is my affiliate link. Note that for a limited time, as of December 15, 2020 (the day I am posting this), you can get $20 off a 12 month subscription using the code Chef20 and $15 off a 6 month subscription with the code ATHOME.

Have fun cooking!

Related Links

Favorite Homeschool Resources
A Guide to Homeschooling
Subscription Service Reviews

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Title: The Call of the Wild and Free: Reclaiming Wonder in Your Child’s Education
Author: Ainsley Arment
Publication Year: 2019
Website: https://www.bewildandfree.org/
Amazon Product Page (Affiliate Link)

Review

I thoroughly enjoyed this book cover to cover (figuratively speaking). I actually listened to the audiobook, but I enjoyed it so much that I am tempted to buy the hardcover. It looks like it is gorgeous. If I weren’t so frugal, I would have ordered it already, but I will probably wait and keep this one on my birthday wish list.

I resonated so completely with everything the author said. We even had similar experiences of sending our firstborns to preschool and loving the child-centered, gentle environments. We both have spent a lot of time researching the many different homeschooling styles. Ultimately, we both opted to bring our kids home, not because we had a problem with public school, but because we wanted our kids to have time to enjoy their childhoods.

Before reading this book, if someone would have asked me how we structured our day, I probably would have said something like, “Well, we read A LOT of books, and I make sure we spend at least an hour or two outside every day. We play games and enjoy life as a family learning about subjects like art, music, literature, science, and history together. It’s important to me that my kids have a lot of unstructured free time to pursue their own interests. On top of that, I try to squeeze in a little school work once in awhile.”

Even hearing myself say it, I know it sounds pretty weak. Even though I have given a lot of thought to how I homeschool and my approach is much more intentional than I’m sure it appears to an outsider, I feel completely validated after reading this book. Not only does it explain my philosophy so perfectly, but it has the science to back up these choices. It debunks many of the myths that surround homeschooling with solid evidence.

At some point, I will definitely own this book. I highly recommend it to anyone who is thinking about homeschooling and even those that are deep in the trenches.

Related Links

Homeschooling Books
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Title: A Gracious Space: Fall Edition
Author: Julie Bogart
Publication Year: 2015
Website: bravewriter.com
Amazon Product Page (Affiliate Link)

Review

We all want to enjoy our children and our homeschool. Julie Bogart gives us permission to do that. She takes the pressure off when we feel like we are not doing enough. She reminds us to slow down and appreciate our children as they are, not as we want them to be. Most of all, she let’s us know that everything is going to be okay.

I seriously need to read these books on a loop schedule just to keep my sanity sometimes. Time slips by and our kids grow, but above all, the relationship between parent and child is what is most important. This book provides ideas for fostering that connection while reassuring us that time is not being wasted.

The daily readings are short. They never take more than 10 minutes to read, frequently much less. This book is not a time commitment. It is not another checklist of things to do to provide your kids with the ultimate homeschool experience. It is the sort of book that you read in your pajamas with a cup of tea before your kids wake up. Then afterwards, you hang on to that unhurried, present, calm state of mind for as long as possible.

I highly recommend these books to any homeschool mom, regardless of the state of homeschooling she is in.

Related Links

Homeschooling Books
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Title: Storyteller’s Word a Day
Author: Mrs. Wordsmith
Publication Year: 1963
Website: http://www.mrswordsmith.com
Age Group: Elementary (recommended for ages 7-11)
Amazon Product Page (Affiliate Link)

Comments: This book was so well thought out. It is a spiral-bound book that can stand on it’s own. On one side is a full-page picture illustrating the word with a very easy to understand written definition.

On the back side is a bunch of information for the parent. Not only can the parent see the word, picture and definition, but they have a sentence to read to go along with the picture, sample phrases, synonyms, and usually either the etymology of the word or a sentence pulled from popular or famous literature.

Every week day morning, I sit on our hearth facing my four kids on the couch. I read the information on the back to them while they look at the picture on the front and typically crack up because they think something about it is hysterical.

There are 20 days per month for the 9 months of the school year (September through May). We are currently halfway through May, so we are almost done with the book. I’m a little disappointed, because for some reason I thought they already came out with a second volume, but it seems like that will not be ready until the next calendar year. My kids and I will miss it when we finish.

Typically when we do our morning routine, I try to keep my kids around the breakfast table and on the couch for as long as possible. Once people start wandering away, it’s over. I realized exactly how popular this Storyteller’s Word a Day is this morning when our morning time fell apart for some reason and all the kids left the living room. I told them I still wanted to do vocabulary and they all ran back to the couch immediately. That just shows me how much they truly enjoy this method of learning new words.

We can’t wait for Volume 2!

Related Links

A Guide to Homeschooling
Learning Activities for Kids
Favorite Homeschool Resources

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Product: Professor Noggin Games
Company: Professor Noggin
Website: www.professornoggin.com
Recommended Age Range: 7+ 
Price Range: ~$15
Amazon Product Page (Affiliate Link)

Comments: So far my family has played the following editions of these Professor Noggin card games: Life in the Ocean, Rainforests of the World, The American Revolution, Outer Space, Earth Science, Ancient Civilizations, and Wildlife Safari. The games can be played more than once. We’ve played a few of these games twice and the odds are small that the same questions come up. However, even when they do, it gives the kids a chance to show what they have learned. 

The way these games work is that the players take turns rolling a dice that will tell them which question they should answer (1, 2, or 3). In our family, I am the official reader-of-the-cards (unless it is my turn to answer, in which case either my 8 year old or hubby will read it). There are 6 questions on each card: 3 easy ones and 3 hard ones. In our family, the kids answer from the easy section and the grown-ups answer from the hard section. 

If you answer the question correctly, you get to keep the card. If you answer incorrectly, it goes back to the bottom of the deck. We play until all the cards have been distributed and then count to see who has the most cards. This usually takes about 20 to 30 minutes depending on the difficulty of the deck. We’ve found the animal decks to be easier than the history decks, at least for us. 

There a couple modifications we do to make the game go faster. For one, if the question seems like it will be impossible for the child, I will make it into a multiple choice question. For example, one question asked where a kangaroo carries its baby. My 4 year old didn’t know, so I said, “On its back, in a pouch, or on its head.” Another modification we do is that if someone answers the question incorrectly and there are more than two possible choices (so not a True/False question), I will give other people the chance to “steal” the card. The first opportunity goes to the person with the fewest cards. If there is more than one person with that number of cards, the younger player goes first. 

One funny thing that I’ve noticed is that my 2 year old always just repeats the last choice. So if it’s a multiple choice he’ll give the last answer. If I say, “true or false?” he’ll say false, so sometimes, I say, “false or true?” to get him to say true. I’m sure this won’t last forever, but at the moment, my older kids are all amazed by his brilliance. Our baby knows everything!

Another thing I love about this game is that it gives my kids almost daily practice at not being sore losers. Sportsmanship is very important to me. It’s a process, but I can tell at least with this game, my kids are getting better at not throwing a fit when they lose.

Lastly, probably the best thing about these games is that they are educational and my kids don’t even notice!

Click here for more Board Games Reviews for kids of all ages.

Related Links:

Best Gifts for Kids
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Best Books for Early Elementary

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Not only do my 4 kids (ages 2 to 8) love these stories, my husband and I love them as well. There was one time that my husband and kids listened to a story in the car while I ran into Target during a family vacation. I listened to it on my own with headphones later that day, so that I wouldn’t miss any of the stories. They are educational, wholesome, and delightful.

Product: Around the World Stories (Affiliate Link)
Recommended Age Range: Kindergarten, Elementary
Time Required: about 30 minutes per story
Cost: $135 for all 52 stories or $15 per month

Bottomline

If you have a child between the ages of 4 and 10, these audio stories are the perfect way to spend time in the car. They teach your child about other countries and cultures in a way that is fun, memorable, and wholesome. There are 52 stories total each about 30 minutes long. Each story features a child from a different European country (Germany, the Netherlands, France, Denmark/Sweden, Austria, Czech Republic, Spain, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Poland, England, and Greece). The same child is followed for 4 stories in a row, and the gender of the child alternates from one country to the next.

There is a website that goes along with the stories that provides supplemental material for each country. We did not end up using the website that often, but the stories themselves are pure gold for igniting a child’s imagination. My kids would get excited about something they learned about in the story and we would follow the rabbit trail on our own, watching Youtube videos about the ice hotel in Sweden, doing our own Picasso inspired art projects, or reading (sometimes abridged) stories by famous authors like the Brother’s Grimm, Dickens, and Shakespeare.

My Favorite Thing About These Stories

The main advantage of these stories is the connections children are able to make. I can not even begin to describe how learning about all these places and the lives of these fictional kids has tied everything together for my own family. My kids will frequently hear something and relate it back to one of these stories. For example, we saw a book about The Little Mermaid in a store and my 6 and 8 year olds remembered that it was written by Hans Christian Anderson who was from Denmark, because that was the statue Anders saw when he was trying to understand his culture’s practice of hygge.

What if I Have Kids of Different Ages?

This is my 6 and 8 year olds’ favorite thing to listen to in the car. My 4 year old, who frequently complains during longer audiobooks, never complains during Around the World stories. (My baby doesn’t complain for that matter either. I think because the narrator’s voice is very soothing.) As I’ve mentioned, my husband and I enjoy these stories as well. I could imagine that maybe there would be some pre-teens and teenagers who would feel too grown up for these stories since they usually feature kids around the age of 9, but generally speaking, I think they are perfect for whole family listening.

How Do These Stories Fit into Homeschooling?

In my opinion, these stories are exactly what Charlotte Mason meant by a living book (except for the fact that they aren’t actually books). If Charlotte Mason knew what an audiobook was, I think she would be a huge fan of this series. They make learning about other cultures engaging by following the lives of “living” (though fictional) people that have real relationships, emotions, and dilemmas. My kids can imagine themselves being in these foreign lands, because they can relate to the main characters. They remember what they “learn,” because they don’t think of it as learning. They think of it as enjoying a fun, entertaining story.

That being said, while I love the Charlotte Mason philosophy, I don’t consider myself a Charlotte Mason homeschooler. These stories would fall into the category of Social Studies, but personally I use a separate history curriculum. However, I think these stories are a worthy supplement to any educational path. I think going down the rabbit holes that originate from these stories would be the perfect starting place for unschoolers.

Are they worth the money?

I definitely think so. At the time of this writing, you can either get all 52 stories for $135 or pay $14.95 per month for a story each week. That comes out to no more than $3.50 per story. ($2.60 per story if you buy all 52 at once.) I will happily pay $3.50 for that much education and entertainment for our entire family. I cannot think of $3.50 better spent.

Even though we hadn’t finished the European stories when the first Asia story was released, I immediately subscribed to those stories as well. That’s how much my family loves them.

Summary

In the name of fairness, I am going to do my best to come up with as many negatives and be as critical as possible be in this section. However, it will be hard. I love these series so much, the biggest con in my opinion is that we want to listen to them faster than they are coming out.

Pros

• Perfect for the entire family.
• Educational. They seamlessly interweave a lot of historical and cultural information about each country into each story.
• Engaging. My kids and I think they are so much fun.
• Great length. 30 minutes is a wonderful length, because we can usually complete one in a day of errands. If we don’t quite finish, my kids always want to sit in the car after we get home to hear how it ends.
• Wholesome. These stories are just so delightful and sweet. They teach great values like helping others, taking responsibility for our actions, working hard, and not being materialistic (just to name a few).
• Spark curiosity. They make my kids curious to learn more about other countries. I love all the extended learning that comes out of listening to these stories.
• Memorable. My kids form long-lasting connections between places and important people and events, because they tie them back to the main characters that they love.
• Portable. I love that you can either stream the stories from your phone or download them in mp3 format.

Cons

• In a family with older kids, these stories might feel a little young as the main character is usually between the ages of 8 and 10. I plan to re-listen to them in a couple years so that my baby and toddler can enjoy them. Personally, I think even my older kids will continue to enjoy them.
• I think the supplemental material on the website could be better curated. It is great that they give you ways to continue learning, like conversation starters or more educational facts. They usually give you a way to extend your learning like with a YouTube video. I would love to see links to more resources like recipes, music, photo galleries of these countries, and more related YouTube videos that are appropriate for kids. I usually end up doing this part of my own, but it can be time-consuming.
• This is not necessarily a con, but just be aware that the stories are a mix of realism and fantasy. The earlier stories are completely realistic, if somewhat far-fetched at times. However, later in the series, some of them move into the completely fantastical with leprechauns, fairies, and time machines. Personally, I prefer the realistic ones while I think my kids prefer the more magical ones, so maybe it’s good that there is a mix.
• 2 of the stories focus on personified animals, not people. The featured child is still part of the story by the end of the 30 minutes, but the first part of the story is a little odd in that it doesn’t follow the pattern of the previous groups of 4 stories. This is not necessarily a con. Again, I preferred the stories with real people, but my kids didn’t comment on the change.
• One of the stories features additional voices. As this was their first series of stories, it seems like they did a lot of experimentation. The main narrator is a man with a very soothing, mellow voice. He is great at altering his voice for different characters, including women. However, in one of the stories about Spain, they added female voices in for some of the main characters. Personally, although I was surprised at first, I didn’t mind the switch. My 8 year old son, on the other hand, was pretty upset about it. Thankfully for him, they switched back to their traditional style quickly.
• A couple errors. My kids picked up on one of the princess’s name from the Netherlands changing very slightly between part 1 and part 2 of the story. Since this story featured actual people, I assume the makers were informed they were pronouncing the name wrong. Similarly, the pronunciation of hygge changed from one story to the next, I assume for a similar reason.

All in all, my complaints are pretty minor relative to the benefits my family has seen. If you decide to try these stories, I hope your family enjoys them as much as my family has! If you would like to use my affiliate link to purchase these stories, I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. No pressure. ;)

Related Links

Geography Activities for Kids
Learning Activities for Kids
Play Activities for Kids

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Product: Sassafras Science Adventures living book series
Company: Elemental Science
Recommended Age Range: Kindergarten, Elementary
Time Required: about 60 to 90 minutes per week
Difficulty: Program is easy to follow and story is fairly easy to understand even for early elementary. The science described can be fairly advanced, but full understanding is not necessary in order to use the curriculum.
Cost: $25 to $100 per volume depending on how much supplemental material you want. (Each volume lasts one semester and there are 4 volumes so far.)

Bottomline

In my opinion, all you really need to get nearly everything out of this program is the living book (the Kindle version is $10) and the lapbook for $15. I also highly recommend the audiobook if you spend a good amount of time in the car. This material lasts for 18 weeks or about a semester. Given that my son loves listening to the story, is being exposed to really complex science, and has produced quality interactive notebooks using the lapbook material over the course of the year, I feel like this science curriculum is hard to beat.

How We Use It

Over the past year, my son (a first grader) and I have worked our way through the first two volumes of Sassafras Science: Zoology and Anatomy. He has simultaneously used the lapbook materials to make a book for each of the two volumes. Usually, he colors the pictures for the lapbook material while I read-aloud from my Kindle or we listen to the audiobook. After he finishes listening to a section, we go back to the relevant parts of the book and I re-read the scientific parts, so he can pick what he found the most interesting. He tells me what he wants to write in his lapbook, I write the sentence on a piece of scratch paper, and he copies it into the appropriate part of his lapbook.

Instead of making actual lapbooks out of these pieces using file folders as suggested, I’ve chosen to use these lapbooking pieces in interactive notebooks. For each volume, I simply bind together 9 pieces of cardstock, then glue the pieces into the homemade notebook instead. (Have I mentioned that I love my binding machine? A detailed review and description of the many things I use it for can be found here.)

I’ll admit, very few of the curricula choices I made last summer have completely panned out. However, Sassafras is one of the few that we’ve really stuck with throughout the whole school year. If I pull him away from playing, he’s not always super excited to start his science, but he really does enjoy the story. Once he’s been drawn into the story, he’ll yell at his younger siblings to be quiet so he can hear. He doesn’t want to miss any parts.

How Long Does it Take?

If you do one chapter a week, the program lasts 18 weeks, which allows you to finish two volumes a year. Each chapter takes about 30 to 45 minutes to read (or listen to the audiobook). All the chapters are divided into two parts, so ideally we read half a chapter twice a week. I am glad that I bought the audiobook, because if we start falling behind, we’ll listen to that week’s chapter in the car on the way to and from activities. On a good week, we spend about 45 minutes on supplemental science activities in addition to just listening to the living book. (On a bad week, we’ll only spend about 15 to make sure my son’s lapbook is complete for the week.)

After we listen to a chapter, sometimes we’ll read about the same subjects in other books. The lapbooking guide provides booklists for each chapter, which I’m sure are great, but I’ve rarely used them. I’ve REALLY liked Picturepedia for providing great visuals of both zoology and anatomy. I’m sure it will come in handy with future volumes as well. For anatomy, we’ve also been using See Inside Your Body which my kids really like.

In addition to the lapbook material, the lapbook guide also includes ideas for a number of hands-on experiments or demonstrations. I don’t always make time for these, but they’re usually pretty easy to put together and my kids LOVE them. They were big fans of the gooeyness of the giraffe saliva experiment. Recently we did the kidney demonstration and I will never forget the way my 5-year-old daughter’s eyes lit up with glee when she realized the yellow liquid we collected at the end was supposed to represent urine.

What about Kids of Multiple Ages?

One of the things that I adore most about this program is the way it serves such a wide audience. I’ll be honest…I don’t think my preschooler fully follows the story, even when we’re in the car and she has no other distractions. However, she definitely has a vague idea what’s going on and doesn’t complain listening to it. (My 2 year old, I am certain, has no clue what is going on.) My 7 year old loves these books. There is not a lot of character development or intricate plot twists, but there IS a lot of action-packed adventure which holds his interest. As an adult, they might not be my first choice of reading material, but I enjoy them too and have learned some science as well.

I feel like the science in the zoology book was right at my first grader’s level. It taught about different kinds of habitats, defense mechanisms, diets, and other aspects of zoology. I think he really was able to fully grasp maybe 90% of the science. The science in the anatomy book is at a much higher level. The story itself is just as entertaining, but whenever the “local expert” starts spouting off facts related to anatomy, even I get lost sometimes. However, that doesn’t really bother me. Maybe my son’s only retaining 20% of the science content, but since he’s not starting a pre-med program anytime soon, I don’t mind what goes over his head.

So far, we’ve only used the lapbook material, which I think is perfect for my 1st grader who is a new writer. However, they also have coloring pages, which would be appropriate for an even younger student (my preschooler colors them sometimes) and notebooking pages which would be appropriate for an older student. I could see myself repeating this curriculum in 5 years or so when my baby and toddler are older and having my oldest filling out the notebooking pages as an upper elementary student.

I should point out that while I don’t use the “Scidat Logbook” (the notebooking pages) or the teacher’s guides, I did buy them and I’m glad I own them. If my son and I are really lost about filling out a certain portion of the lapbook, the teachers guide has more info than the lapbooking guide that I can use for reference (though most of it is way too advanced for my 1st grader). As I said, I do plan to cycle through using these again someday, and I like the variety of options they have for documenting your learning experience with learners of different ages.

Do I Need to Do These In Order?

While we’re doing them in order, I don’t really think you need to. Like I said, there’s not really a lot of character development. The main premise is that two 12 year old twins are bad at science, so their crazy scientist uncle sends them off around the world on magical ziplines to learn about science from various local experts.

Not only do you not need to read the books in order, but even the topics within each book are fairly self-contained. They spend two chapters at each location learning about something specific (like the rainforest or circulatory system). At each location they have a different adventure that is usually completely unrelated to their adventures in previous locations. (There is an overarching, not-that-scary, man-with-no-eyebrows, “bad guy” that’s following them, but he only intermittently shows up and I have a feeling he’s not going to be resolved until the very last book in the series anyway, which hasn’t been written yet.)

Why Are They Called Living Books?

If you talk to a follower of the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling, living books are really the only types of books kids should be using to learn. Personally, while I don’t follow it completely, I really like the Charlotte Mason philosophy and it was my search for living books that led me to this curriculum. What is a living book? Unlike a text book, which is a dry chronicle of facts, a living book is a book written by someone with a passion for a subject that makes the subject matter “come alive.” They frequently chronicle the lives of real people or characters and involve the reader’s emotions. They are both memorable and enjoyable.

To summarize, here are some pros and cons I’ve found over the past year of using Sassafras Science Adventures:

Pros

• Easy-to-use
• Enjoyable for student (and parent)
• Provides lots of scientific information
• Great for families with kids of multiple ages
• Inexpensive
• Lots of hands-on suggestions
• Audiobook is great for learning on-the-go
• Results in attractive documentation of the child’s learning

Cons

• Science described can be a little complicated.
• If you fall behind (which we have a couple times), it can seem overwhelming to a young child to catch up.
• Most of the scientific information is not integral to the story, so theoretically a child reading the stories independently could skip over it.
• A lot of the time spent on this curriculum is spent listening to a fun, adventure story which does not completely pertain to science. (I don’t mind this.)
• There are aspects of the story that are not at all scientific, like the invisible ziplines. This doesn’t bother me as it makes the stories more entertaining, but be aware.
• The adventures are pretty far-fetched, especially the dangerous situations that the kids are allowed to be in, but my kids love it.

Overall, I don’t have a lot of complaints…The Sassafras twins have made science easy this past year and we’ll definitely continue to use them next year.

Here are all the volumes they have so far!

Volume 1: Zoology
Volume 2: Anatomy
Volume 3: Botany
Volume 4: Earth Science

Related Links

Biology for Kids
Learning Activities for Kids
Play Activities for Kids

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Product: Brothers Desktop Scanner (ADS1000W)
Company: Brothers
Price Range: ~$200
Amazon Product Page (Affiliate Link)

Comments: The desire to scan an out-of-print workbook prompted my desire for this Brothers desktop scanner. Since at the time, all I had was a flatbed scanner, I ripped out all the pages of the book and scanned each page (front and back) individually. It took FOR-EV-ER. I decided that with 4 kids and theoretically a decade or more of homeschooling in front of me, a better scanner might be worth the investment.

These were my requirements:

1. Able to handle a stack of many pages
2. Able to scan front AND back simultaneously
3. Reasonably fast
4. Easy to use

$200 was a hefty price tag for this Brothers desktop scanner, but it met all my requirements. It can quickly scan 20 double-sided pieces of paper. It also doesn’t even need to connect to a computer. For the first several months of using it, I just plugged a USB key in the back, loaded my pages, and hit the big green button to make it start scanning.

I am AMAZED by how easy it is to use. I can scan a whole workbook in under 5 minutes. Even just using it like this, I feel like it is worth the cost. However, there are a few minor annoyances that are fixed by installing the CD that came in the box. The first is that the software has a “deskew” feature which straightens out the scans. Before I started using the software, I had to make EXTRA sure I got the pages loaded into the scanner straight and watch them during the scan so I could nudge them straight if they started to tilt. Otherwise, the scan could be slightly crooked. Not a big deal, but a little annoying. Using the installed software, as long as you get everything loaded reasonably straight, this problem is almost entirely fixed. Now I just start it and walk away. Sometimes there is still a very slight tilt in the scanned pages, but it’s hardly noticeable.

The second minor issue is that if you just save directly to a USB key, you can only save a stack of papers at a time and the scanner only handles a stack of about 20 double-sided pages (so 40 pages scanned). I tried loading more than this at a time, and the scanner didn’t care, so 20 is not a hard limit, but you can’t save a whole book at once. I labeled my scans with things like “part 1”, “part 2”, etc. With the software, you CAN save a whole book in one file. You just tell it you want to do “continuous scanning” and it asks if you have more pages after you finish each stack. Nice!

While I haven’t used these features, with the installed software, you can also change the size of the scanned pages from the default and tell the scanner whether the pages should be bound on the long or short edge. This would ensure that scans would not be cut off for odd-sized pages and that they would all be facing the same direction for books bound on the short-edge. I appreciate having the ability to change these setting as well as another of others, such as brightness and contrast.

There are a couple other potential issues to be aware of that don’t happen very often. One is that every once in a while, a speck of paper sticks to the scanner and causes a thin white streak in your saved file. This is especially noticeable if there is a lot of color in your file. Annoying, but not a big deal, and it’s easy to rescan as long as you check your files right away. Just open the front cover and blow off any dust you see on the glass.

Lastly, every once in a while pages stick together, particularly if they didn’t rip well from the book. That’s actually one positive aspect to point out is that edges can be REALLY jagged and normally everything works just fine. However once in a while, 2 pages will go through the scanner together, so make sure your final file is the number of pages you expect, otherwise you might be missing a page in your final document.

Overall, this little device has more than made up its cost to me in a year. Knowing that I’ll be able to reuse our paper resources on future kids means our family will have more money to spend on fun stuff, like art classes and sports. I’m sure this scanner is not for everybody, but I’m so glad I didn’t wait to get one.

Included on Lists:

1. Best Homeschool Supplies

Related Links

Why I Homeschool
Parenting Books on Education
Learning Activities for Kids

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Comments: On my own, I probably never would have thought to buy a binding machine. One day I was complaining about how expensive blank drawing books were for my kindergartner and my husband suggested getting our own binding machine. I thought he was crazy. I assumed it would cost at least a hundred dollars. Shortly after, a blogger which I greatly admire recommended one. At that point, I decided it was worth looking into and bought one. (My husband was only mildly offended that I valued someone else’s opinion above his.) At about $90 total for the machine itself, the combs, and the clear covers it still felt like a bit of an investment. However, looking back, now I can’t believe how little I paid given how much use and savings I’ve gotten out of it.

My binding machine has become an indispensible part of our homeschool. Not only can I make blank books for drawing, but I can use it to bind the ebook (pdf) curricula I buy. I like to have something to hold and the ebooks are usually significantly discounted compared to the hard copies. Personally, I buy a lot of curricula that has ebook options. Some of the ones I recommend are Bravewriter for their Quiver of Arrows language arts program, Elemental Science for their Sassafras Living Science and Adventures in America programs, and Pandia Press for their Real Science Odysseys.

Another great homeschooling application is to make interactive notebooks. Instead of binding paper, I bind cardstock and then we glue lapbook materials to it. We’ve done this with both Real Science Odyssey material and Sassafras Zoology supplies that I’ve purchased. We also bought some interactive notebook material off of Teacher Pay Teachers that we haven’t used yet. At the end of the year, I’m also planning to bind some of my child’s work to keep as a sample of what he did this year.

Probably my kids’ most favorite binding machine application however is that I let them periodically author and illustrate their own books. They narrate to me what they want each page to say and I type it up and print it. Then they draw pictures to go with their text and we make free covers in PicMonkey. They LOVE when we read their own stories back to them. My oldest can now read his books on his own and he cracks himself up. (They also make great last minute gifts for grandparents!)

I’m sure that the number of ways we use our binding machine will only continue to grow over the years. I love Mama Smiles idea for making books for composing music. In less than a year, I feel like our binding machine has already been well worth the cost. The machine is so sturdy, I really think it will last forever. At some point I’ll need to buy more combs and covers, but as long as you’re willing to take apart old projects, they can be re-used. Overall, I couldn’t be happier with my purchase.

Included on Lists:

1. Best Homeschool Supplies

Related Links

Why I Homeschool
Parenting Books on Education
Learning Activities for Kids

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