Hake Publishing Review

Vendor: 

Hake Publishing

Product:

Hake/Saxon Grammar and Writing 3

Price:

$125 for 3 books

Age: Third grade level

About: Hake Publishing gave me the chance to review their Hake/Saxon Grammar and Writing 3 curricula. This is a 3 book set containing the teachers guide, grammar text book, and writing workbook. The teachers guide has a schedule, script for Grammar Meetings, answer key and the masters for tests along with extra practice pages. It is approximately 300 some pages. The student text is a consumable book that has 111 lessons of grammar. Finally you have the writing workbook which contains 21 lessons of writing  exercises. It is important to follow along in the book in order each thing builds on each other. The program schedule has been made to help you best learn the lessons. 

We really enjoyed this book. I love having a premodern schedule because then my kids know this is how it works and I’m not just being a slave driver with work. We love being able to open up and know what is going to be expected of me each day. We do launguage daily during the week. Every 5th day there is a test. These are good for those in state where you have to show testing and progress within your record keeping. My daughter is dyslexic but we didn’t find to to be to hard for her follow along. We loved Saxon math and this was set up the same way. I think this is a great full curriculum for anyone that needs something for grammar and writing. The extra pages in the teachers guide were nice for those lessons that we needed some more practice with. The perforated pages are also great because for a dyslexic student holding a whole book can be overwhelming and this helps separate it up for them. Then the review sections really help tie it all together to make sure your child is getting and retaining all of the information taught. 

Be sure to check into what my fellow homeschool crew members had to say about the program with their children. 

Rough Days

So I know as large family moms we're not allowed to complain about anything. It was kind of an unspoken rule for a while until another blogger called it out, I can't remember who, but she hit the nail on the head. But how do we ask for help? We can't complain because "we chose this life" and "if we couldn't handle it we shouldn't have had so many kids" etc, but honestly, what if we need help? Because of this inability to complain, people around me think I have it all together and I don't. 

I think that many of you mom’s, or stay at home dad’s, can relate to this. Ya most of us did choose to stay home and take care of the house and children. That however doesn’t mean that it doesn’t include stress or heartache. Just like any other job in the world there are going to be bad days. There will be good ones too, but it seems in the stay at home world you can only speak of the good ones. When you stay at home you do not get time off, or an uninterrupted lunch hour. Doesn’t mean we are not glad we get be the ones to take care of our family if we have a bad day. It means we are human and we need to open our hearts and mind up to stay at home parents just as we do to working parents that need help or to vent. 

Let’s be there for each other and lift each other up daily! If you have it in you reach out to another mama that looks tired and worn out. Then hopefully it will come back around to you on a day you are just done. 

The Critical Thinking Co. Review

Vendor: 

The Critical Thinking Co.

Product:

Understanding Pre-Algebra

Age: Grades 6-8
Price: $42.99

About:  The Critical Thinking Co. has always been a favorite of mine.  I am always excited to be able to review their selections.  So when I was given the chance to review Understanding Pre-Algebra I jumped on it.  I decided to use this with my emerging 8th grader.  We were planning on getting ready to start Algebra for the new year so getting ready with Pre-Algebra was great. This book is to teach math concepts and critical thinking skills that are needed for Algebra 1.  The following are some of the things included in the book:
-Family of Numbers
-Working With Integers
- Working With Rational Numbers
                                   - Ratio, Proportion, and Percent
                                   - Understanding Functions
                                  - Two Dimensional Geometry
The book is 448 pages long with colored pages. This is a full curriculum that could last you all year.  We have decided we would continue on with this for 8th grade then move on to Algebra 1 in 9th grade.  I think this is a great book with lots of skill building to keep the child engaged and learning. We used this daily for about an hour a day.  It probably wouldn't take that long to do a lesson but we like to really go over and make sure we know everything each day.  Plus we have required amount of hours in our state we have to reach daily. Each chapter is split up into different sections. Each one of those sections has the instruction and then practice problems.  There is color in the pages, like each of the math rules are in colored blocks to help them stand out.  They also use mnemonics to help remember rules.  At the end of the chapter there is a review to go over everything you should have learned. I do believe the book explains the lessons very well. Usually better than I have been able to do with my daughter.  I do think this could also be used to supplement certain sections and areas your child may just need extra work or a different way of teaching something.

The Critical Thinking Co. has many other great curriculum books.  Be sure  to follow the link below and see what my crew mates thought about Understanding Pre-Algebra as well as some of the other wonderful books that they have to offer. Also at the bottom of my post there is a code for a wonderful discount that The Critical Thinking Co. has offered to my readers.

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