ten things we love about paths of settlement

This year our family has been beyond blessed to review Geography Matter's Trail Guide to Learning Paths of Settlement. And when I say beyond blessed I truly mean beyond blessed. This year has proven to be one of the most enjoyable and fruitful homeschooling years that I have had in my ten plus years of home educating. So today, for Top Ten Tuesday, I thought I'd share with you ten things we love about Paths of Settlement.

1. It's produced by Geography Matters. I love geography. You are talking to the gal who entered geography bees when she was younger. This company produces excellent geography curriculums, but goes way beyond that with their Trail Guide programs - it is all-inclusive and amazing - literature based, thorough, and highly engaging. All I needed to add was math.

2. Ruth Beechick. When I first started homeshooling one of the first books that I read were the simple readers by Ruth Beechick. Her philosophy of learning includes a great deal of hands on learning and reading real books. Not just textbooks, but real, living books. Geography Matters includes quotes, examples, and encouragement from her throughout their books.

3. Mapping. Think back to point one -- about my love of geography -- and you'll get why I love this. Mapwork is an integral part of this history program. Grace, my fifth grader, is working on map work for each of the fifty states. She's also done various overlay map work showing different boundaries -- The Line of Proclamation, the Treaty of Paris boundary and so forth. Doing this mapwork furthers her understanding of the history that she's learning.

4. It includes science. Here's what I love -- the science is incorporated with the history studies. When we read about George Washington we learned about hurricanes, and blizzards, and weather. This year it's been earth science studies and how they've impacted each phase in settlement. We've studied water, and the water cycle, and even brought that to molecules, atoms and the Periodic Table. Every topic we've studied in science has an example of why we need to learn it in our history lesson. Brilliant, really - this allows the science to have examples and relatability.

5. Hands on. See the picture below? That's an early picture of one of our science lessons where we made a salt dough {yes, I made gluten free salt dough} map of the eastern coast of the United States and then {eventually} the continental shelf and ocean floor. I love that in addition to the books, reading, and paper work that there are active and engaging hands on activities.

6. Lapbooks. Yes, I wrote an entire post about Geography Matter's lapbooks {called Lapbooks Saved the Day} and how much I love them. Well, once again, I want to impress upon you how brilliant lapbooking can be for a student. It provides a portfolio, breaks up the day, and reinforces learning. We love looking through Gracie's lapbooks. This is one we did earlier in the year -- it's Unit 2 -- and you can see how history, science, and mapping are integrated.

7. Copywork. Copywork is amazing. Everyday Grace has a time of copywork. She's copied passages from her readers, from the Declaration of Independence, from the Constitution, from the Star Spangled Banner and more. Copywork teaches grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, and sentence flow without tediousness. The more you copy, the more you learn. We can also do these exercises as narration which furthers the learning.

8. Quality of the Readers. Every unit there are several readers and then one read aloud. Our entire family listens as I read aloud. These books are amazing {I highly recommend reading them} -- I have learned a great deal about our country, about our Founding Fathers, and about integrity and courage as I've read them. The George Washington one is now on my must read list for all homeschoolers.

9. Planned out. It's all there. From copywork, to reading, to read-alouds, to grammar, to editing, to writing, to science, to history, to mapping, to cooking, and more. It's all there in Geography Matter's Trail Guide program. The main books are beautiful hardcover books that will last for years {and many students} to come. I love the convenience and the ease to my day -- I simply can open the book, print off the lessons, and off I go. Plus they include numerous charts which helps me keep track of where we've been and where we're going.

10. Great company, great friendships. I've been very blessed working along with those at Geography Matters. They have only been gracious to me {after my shoulder surgery and during some sick months} and have truly let me explore their curriculum so that my review is organic, authentic and not rushed. My words are written after using their curriculum for six months. To all of you at Geography Matters, those of you who have become friends, thank you. And thank you also for blessing our family with an incredibly dynamic and engaging year of learning.

So that's it. Ten things I love about Paths to Settlement. And just so you know, Paths of Settlement is the second in the Trail Guide to Learning Series. Paths of Settlement traces exactly that - the settlement paths that our country went through and the struggles for freedom and nation building throughout our history. Please take a moment and like the Paths of Settlements facebook page so that you stay up to date on products, reviews, and giveaways. And, if you have any questions regarding this curriculum, or how I use it across different levels of learning, about their Bible supplement {that's my next post}, or more, please don't hesitate to ask.

linking with Angie's Top Ten Tuesday

disclosure: I was given the Paths of Settlement program to review in exchange for my honest opinion. All thoughts and photographs are my own. No other compensation was given.

lapbooks saved the day.

I've homeschooled for eleven years.

In those eleven years there's been this ebb and flow, this learning curve of discovery trying to determine what works for our family. You see, that's the beauty of homeschooling -- this embracing of the learning that fits your family and your children.  So often we try to fit a mold, an idea, of what homeschooling should be, or could be, or looks like. Yet, it's not about a mold, it's rather about freedom, and discovery and learning to do life.

So today, I am going to share with you something that has worked well for our family. Right now, in this season. That thing? Lapbooks. I've heard about them before (and honestly for a while didn't really get them), but never have really dove into the realm of lapbook driven learning. Geography Matters blessed our family with the lapbook kits made by the awesome lapbook company  A Journey Through Learning that correspond to the Trail Guide to Learning Series that our family is reviewing (We're reviewing the Paths of Settlement series.) These lapbooks and mapping are two of the  favorite parts of Grace's day.

Why?

Lapbooks are hands-on, visual ways to reinforce learning. They create this beautiful written record -- a journal -- of knowledge for the child to share and enjoy. Our lapbooks for the Trail Guide to Learning are gorgeous, high-quality printed, and interesting. They provide all you need -- file folders, directions -- and you supply the enthusiasm, the creativity, the love of learning.

These lapbooks are worth every penny.

The pictures that you've seen are some pics of the lapbook that Gracie and I worked on for the Paths of Settlement text (part of the Trail Guide Series) Unit 1 -- we're working through Unit 2 (yes, we are, and I'm okay that that's the spot we're at -- we've had an eventful fall) right now, and every day she browses the text eagerly looking for the lapbook activity. The series makes it easy to do the lapbook -- they tell you where it's located, when you can do that activity versus the worksheet -- easy for me, the busy homeschooling mom.

Off to go do some more mapping, and reading, and enjoying today. Take a moment to peek at Geography Matter's Trail Guide to Learning Series and those awesome lapbooks from A Journey Through Learning that supplement their already amazing and awesome curriculum. :)

Would you please take a moment and pop over and like the Trail Guide to Learning's facebook page? Click Here. Thanks! And to read more of my thoughts on our year using Geography Matter's fabulous Trail Guide to Learning simply click the button below or on my sidebar.

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One last thing. Today I wrote a post for 5 Minutes for Faith called When Christmas doesn't Match the Picture. It's a heartfelt letter of encouragement to those struggling with life during the Christmas season. Here's the  intro:

I am writing this today for those of you whose Christmas season isn’t looking so festive. You’re struggling perhaps. Or your finances are a mess. Or a loved one is sick. Or a child is rebelling. Or, or, or, you know. Life isn’t always that perfect picture . And Christmas time? Well, sometimes Christmas time hurts and looks nothing like we think it should look.

if you'd like to read more {and I hope you do} simply click here

trail guide to learning -- part 1

This year my family was given an unbelievable opportunity -- we were able to review the entire Trail Guide to Learning Paths of Settlement Curriculum produced by Geography Matters. I had been praying for a curriculum that fit our family -- we love to read, are creative, love the Ruth Beechick approach to learning, and have {obviously} many different ages of students.  I am using this with Gracie {5th grade} and Chloe {8th grade}. My boys, Brennan and Caleb, love to listen in as we read and help us out with projects.

Paths of Settlement is a complete curriculum {studying American History from the pre Revolutionary War though the turn of the century} that is the middle part of the three part Trail Guide to Learning curriculum written by Debbie Strayer and Linda Fowler.  Language, History, Writing, Spelling, Science, Art, Cooking {yes, that is very important}, Nature Studies, and more are all integrated. The only thing I needed to add additionally for Grace was Math. {For those of you wondering we use Saxon -- I always start them with Saxon in Grade 5.} I also received the Middle School Supplement for Chloe. All of the portions of the day are integrated -- like a unit study -- so there is a common thread in our learning.

Here's a day.

Dictation/Narration/Copywork. Passages from the books that we read serve as the foundation for the Copywork section. I think that copywork is an important skill -- it teaches grammar rules, writing, and editing naturally.

Readers/Read-Aloud. Right now Grace has read several books - The Story of Sarah Noble and Ambush in the Trail. Chloe read the latter and also the story Calico Captive {which is an excellent book -- she read it in one day and simply "couldn't wait" till the next day}. After this I'll read aloud to them, and the rest of the family currently we've been reading the biography of Abigail Adams.

Mechanics/Grammar/Spelling/Journal Writing. This is sprinkled throughout the week. One of my favorite parts of the interactive journal is that they ask me to answer one journal question - it's about a page - and then Grace and Chloe have a page with a question they fill out. For example, one for Grace was what was your earliest memory and mine was write about your child's birth.  I can tell that our family will be blessed by this written record that we're compiling. I've written about our family history, my views on events in history and more.

Science/History. These alternate days. I'll get more indepth in further posts about how they work, and the excellence of both. It's fascinating to me how the lessons in science are linked to what we've been learning in history - it makes understanding and learning retention higher. I've included some pics of some of the pages we've completed as well as the "weather vane" Gracie and I made on Friday. Which worked. :)

Mapping/State work. Love. Totally. I'm such a geography fan - I read maps for fun - and I've hoped that my love of geography would rub off on some of my children. I've tried to engage them before, but nothing really stuck. Until now. Paths of Settlement includes mapping for each of the states. We have excellent atlases that we use to map state capitals, major rivers and landmarks, and surrounding states. Then, each state is given a state fact page to fill out. This is hands-down Gracie's favorite part of the week. In fact, as I was driving her home from ballet she asked if I could just print her off one more state fact sheet to do for fun.

Cooking. We're using the Eat Your Way through the USA book. The book lists recipes for each state and then what we'll do is cook a recipe {or two. or three} from the states we cover during the week. And let me tell you - the food is amazing - remember that New England Pot Roast? I know you'll be seeing recipes throughout the year.

Friday Review/Crafts/Games. Or for me - catch up day. The curriculum is set so that it has four days of heavier learning and then the fifth day is for review, catch-up, fun puzzles and crafts, reading from the most beautiful Profiles from History book by Ashley Wiggers, and more. I love the wisdom in scheduling a day like this as it fills the week with freedom and solidifies the love of learning.

So for now, I'm leaving you with a bit of an overview of how the curriculum works. Below you'll see Gracie's binder. I've split it into categories for each of the subjects and we'll just add our pages as we complete work. By the end of the year it will be an excellent and beautiful portfolio of her work.

I've got a button on my sidebar called  Follow our Journey that will link to the label Trail Guide. If you're interested in reading about our journey throughout the year simply click the button and it will direct you to all posts with the above label. Throughout the year I'll be writing about our journey and many times simply integrating moments into my posts. When they're a part of my posts {like those food pics} I'll add the Trail Guide label -- so that way you can simply click the button on the side to read about our journey.

 
To view more products from Geography Matters including Paths of Settlement click here. To enter a giveaway {not my own} for the year one Trail Guide Curriculum Paths of Exploration click here. I was given the Paths of Settlement Curriculum to review, was not compensated, and all opinions expressed are my own.