Back-To-School FREEBIES from Homeschool Giveaways and Freebies

Disclaimer: This post contains my referral links. Thank you for your support!

Homeschool Friend,

Do NOT miss this bundle of FREEBIES, just in time for back-to-school! 

$130 in FREE Homeschool Curriculum

Check out all the goodies that are included:

The Egypt Book from Warfare by Duct Tape 

(retail value - $9.95)

Horsing Around - Once A Week Unit Study from Homeschool Legacy 

(retail value - $14.00)

A Presidential Scrapbook from Knowledge Quest 

(retail value - $14.95)

Bible Road Trip Year 3: The Books of the Gospels from Thinking Kids 

(retail value - $26.00)

Write Through The Bible - Philippians 2:1-18 ESV (Cursive) from Intoxicated on Life 

(retail value - $10.00)

Creative Freewriting Adventure from Homeschool Adventure Co. 

(retail value - $18.95)

Count Your Blessings: A Thanksgiving Hymn Study from Not Consumed 

(retail value - $10.00)

Raising Godly Children in an Ungodly World from Master Books 

(retail value - $9.99)

Cultivating Responsibility: Parenting Wisdom for Ages 9-12 from National Center for Biblical Parenting 

(retail value - $9.99)

Travel the World in 30 Days from Home Educating Family Association (HEDUA) 

(retail value - $9.95)

Click here to access your FREEBIES now!

Blessings and love. xo

Sneak Peek: Build Your Bundle - Homeschool Edition

The BIGGEST digital homeschooling curriculum sale EVER is coming! Mark your calendars! Save up to 92% on popular homeschooling curriculum! ONE WEEK ONLY - July 21-28, 2014! Click here to be reminded | Enter to win $100 towards your bundle purchase What is the "Build Your Bundle" - Homeschool Edition Sale?
The "Build Your Bundle" - Homeschool Edition is designed to contain the best educational digital products on the internet! Sprinkled throughout the bundles are well known publishers, including products on Cathy Duffy's Top 100 list! Unlike overwhelming bundle sales with nearly a hundred ebooks, the "Build Your Bundle" - Homeschool Edition is a brand new concept that will allow homeschoolers to pick and choose what they want to purchase ~ all at a MASSIVE discount of up to 90% off!
Take a Sneak Peek at Our Bundles:
	Tots & Preschoolers Bundle Teach your littlest ones about God's amazing creation and the value of virtue using our Tot & Preschool Bundle! This bundle gives you a complete Christ-centered preschool program, including age-appropriate character-building tools, a stick-figure Bible study, a creation-based coloring book, a handwriting curriculum, an independent activity guide (for those times when you need a moment to focus), and much more!
Kindergarten - 3rd Grade Bundle Teach your K-3 children basic skills and core truths through easily understandable lessons and hands-on activities. Our K-3 Bundle includes reading, math, science, handwriting, character training and Bible resources. Your children will experience life in 17th century America as they learn about the settlers and our 13 original colonies. You will have everything you need to savor these first days of discovery!
	Elementary: 4-6th Bundle Your 4th-6th graders will develop foundational skills and gain insight into the ancient world using the comprehensive collection of resources found in our 4th-6th Grade Bundle. This bundle features both a science curriculum and a creative writing course from Cathy Duffy’s Top 100 picks. You will get a popular curriculum that has a blend of history, geography, and art. Also included: Math, Bible, handwriting and copywork resources, writing guides, timeline cards, ancient history notebooking pages, creative writing for both boys and girls, and an editable weekly homeschool planner for Mom!
Middle School Bundle Your middle school students will tour the classical world and develop academic excellence using our Middle School Bundle. This bundle features a full language arts curriculum and two science curricula, one from Cathy Duffy’s Top 100 picks, as well as a complete geography and history curriculum, a popular history timeline/book of centuries, Renaissance and Reformation notebooking pages, a classical music curriculum and famous composers notebooking pages, and a creative writing collection that even “non-writers” will love!
	Bundle for High Schoolers Your high school students will develop academic mastery and intellectual maturity using our High School Bundle. This bundle features a New Testament Bible curriculum, an introduction to psychology, a full year of math curriculum, resources for world history and geography, philosophy, home economics, college prep, grammar, a creative writing collection that even "non-writers" will love, an anatomy science unit study from Cathy Duffy’s Top 100 picks, and more! You will receive enough materials for a full year of high school!
Charlotte Mason Bundle Amazing things await you in our Charlotte Mason Bundle! This bundle features a complete curriculum using the Charlotte Mason Methods for language arts, handwriting, and reading, a full geography curriculum, a plethora of resources for studying nature, artists, poetry, and a variety of "extras" just for mom! Learn all about Charlotte Mason and enjoy a special bonus (a $90 value all by itself) of great, classic audio books! This bundle is jam packed full of amazing resources your family will love!
	Bundle Just for Moms! Save money, strengthen your marriage, and streamline your schedule using our Mom Bundle. Find the encouragement you need and the insight to speak to your child’s heart (even that difficult child!). Whip your home into shape and train your children to do their chores effectively using a popular book "chores program". This bundle brims with useful tools to help you bring calm to the chaos. Get them all for just $10!
"Build Your Own" Bundles Our "Build Your Own" bundles offer you the opportunity to select a certain number of products with a retail price of $19.99 or less for up to 80% off! We have MANY items to choose from, including Cathy Duffy Top 100 Picks! When you purchase a combination of any 2 "Build Your Own" bundles, you will get the 3rd one at 50% off!
*Lots of ways to save! When you purchase ANY 2 pre-assembled bundles you will get the 3rd pre-assembled bundle of equal or lesser value for 50% off! When you purchase ANY 2 "build your own" bundles you will get the 3rd "build your own" bundle of equal or lesser value for 50% off! When the sale goes live on July 21st, tell your friends about it using our referral system that will be found on the top of the website! When 10 of your referrals visit our site using your unique link, we will give you a code to save 10% off your total purchase! The image will look like this: Now, if you are like me, you might forget about the sale when it gets here! We are prepared to send you a reminder email. Click here and enter your email in the "Remind Me" box and you will get an email the day the sale goes live! Pre-Sale Promotional Giveaway - Enter to win $100 towards the purchase of ANY of our individual or "build your own" bundles! Winner announced the day the sale starts! CLICK HERE TO ENTER! Blessings and love. xo

The Star-Spangled Banner Copywork - FREE

It's a Free Fourth of July Special at Homeschool Copywork! Don't miss it! It's a perfect way to teach our children the lyrics to our national anthem, which is such an important part of our American heritage. I am printing mine out now.

And check out all the other wonderful products on Homeschool Copywork - artists, authors, poetry, Scripture, the alphabet, and holidays, - plus more to come! A yearly membership is only $7.95, with full access to the member area for one full year. A lifelong membership is only $24.95, with full access to all products for life. 

Check out these great products here!

Blessings and love. xo

Disclaimer: This post contains my affiliate links. If you use these links, I make a commission. Thank you so much for your support and kindness.

Classical Conversations {Review}

Classical Conversations is a company based in North Carolina which offers a plethora of materials for multiple ages. I have had several friends use their curriculum with raving reviews. I recently had the opportunity to review one of their products and am very pleased with it. I received one copy of PreScripts Cursive Words and Drawing ($12.99). It is a spiral-bound workbook which teaches the building blocks of cursive. It also includes verses of Scripture, as well as activities for learning the basics of drawing. It is designed for children ages 5-10.

I had Maya (age 6) use this workbook to begin learning cursive skills. She thought it would be too hard, as she has tried reading cursive and was not successful. This workbook moves through the alphabet first, then adds words and then sentences. The words and sentences come from the different Bible verses that are used. The drawing lessons start with very basic skills such as circles and lines and then moves to flowers, wiggly worms, and then combinations of curves and lines to make other pictures, such as dragonflies, jellyfish, etc. 

Honestly, I have gone back and forth on whether or not to include cursive writing in my homeschool studies. Over the years, I have read some who believe it is no longer relevant or necessary, while others believe just the opposite. Some say regular schools are no longer teaching it, due to everything being done on computers or electronic devices these days. However, I still write in a form of cursive (my handwriting is more of a combination of printing and cursive) and I believe it's important to learn to write it and read it. I found it interesting that in the midst of reviewing this product, I saw an interesting "conversation" take place on Twitter all about cursive. The woman I follow on Twitter is Elizabeth Scalia and she tweeted sadness over watching a court session of a recent high-profile alleged murder. The lady testifying admits to not being able to read cursive (you can watch here, if interested). Ms. Scalia then tweeted: 'There is beauty and individuality and history in cursive writing. Why do we not teach it anymore? Makes me ache.' And then she wrote an endearing blog piece on the loss of cursive writing. Find it here.

My conclusion is similar. Handwriting is important. It should not be swept under the rug or thrown out the back door just because most of us rely more on a keyboard to communicate these days. I want to continue to encourage my children to write letters, thank you notes and to journal, with an actual pen and on actual paper! This curriculum has been just the avenue for starting Maya on her cursive handwriting journey. It's a stretch for her and a discipline to sit down and practice it on a daily basis, but I believe she will benefit immensely from this practice. I recommend PreScripts Cursive Words and Drawing.

The TOS Review Crew bloggers were given the opportunity to review other Classical Conversations cursive books, which you can read by clicking on the banner below.

VocabularySpellingCity {Review}

I was given the opportunity to review VocabularySpellingCity with my younger two girls. I will just start off by saying, this is an incredible website. I have been thrilled with all the content and choices the girls have had. It teaches spelling and vocabulary, but with the premium membership there is a wealth of additional activities and subjects to explore. 

Here you can see the differences in the free vs. premium activity choices . . . 

Here is just one example of the geography offered on VocabularySpellingCity . . .

And another example of games offered . . .

Here is Maya enjoying her Word Search . . .

It is very easy to customize the program for each child according to their learning level. For this game alone (above), there is choice between easy/hard, short/long, and timer on/off. As well, you as the teacher/parent get to choose which words your child/student works on in his/her lessons.

This is a fantastic website that I highly recommend for any child, whether homeschooled or not. Teachers in a regular school setting should also know about this great resource for their students. We look forward to continue our learning with VocabularySpellingCity! 

VocabularySpellingCity offers a variety of Premium Membership options, depending on whether you are a parent, teacher, school, or district. 

Options include:

Family - A family membership includes five student licenses for $29.99

Classroom - A classroom membership includes 25 student licenses for $49.99.

Additional student licenses may be purchased for $1.95 each (with a minimum purchase of 5 student licenses). For orders of 300 students or more, contact us at 954-357-1150 for discounted rates.

They also offer Apps for iPhone/iPad/iPod and Android.

Find them on Facebook or Twitter.

Disclaimer: I was given a Premium Membership to VocabularySpellingCity.com for a candid, personal, online review. VocabularySpellingCity helps students study word lists using 25 different learning activities such as Unscramble, Hangman, WordFind, andCrossword Puzzle. Parents can create their own spelling lists, find published lists already available on the site, or use any of dozens of free teaching resources on topics such as Multiple Meaning Words and Possessive Nouns .

There might be more free memberships available for bloggers. If you're interested, find out how you can review VocabularySpellingCity.com.