TOS Review: Moving Beyond The Page

I was asked to review the Language Arts Package - American Heroes and the Science Package - Sound from Moving Beyond the Page. What I discovered is that the curriculum truly does move you beyond the boring page of endless reading and memorizing. Instead, it puts the child's hands and thinking skills to good use while exploring learning.

The company also offers several Individual Units that include several Language Arts Titles, Science Titles, and Social Studies Titles.

Language Arts Package - American Heroes - [$31.94 ($16.99 for the study and $14.95 for the 50 American Heroes book) or all for $27.88 with online study, for ages 7-9]

Science Package - Sound - [$37.99 ($16.99 for the study and $21 for human ear manipulative) or $33.93 with online study, for ages 7-9] 

The Language Arts Package - American Heroes came with an online guide that included some printable student pages that asked questions about the hero of the specific lesson which they are studying, and it also has a pack of printable student activity sheets, such as a hero timeline, adjectives and adverbs related to the hero, types of sentences activities, contractions, hero cards your child can cut out and fill in for each hero, venn diagram comparing heroes, and other projects and activities leading up to the pre-writing organizer and final project of the child's own personal story.

The lessons covered in the included:
Lesson 1: Heroes
Lesson 2: Early American Heroes
Lesson 3: Heroes of Freedom
Lesson 4: Hard Times
Lesson 5: Recent and Current Heroes
Lesson 6: African-American Heroes
Lesson 7: Female Heroes
Lesson 8: Heroes of Science and Invention
Lesson 9: Book of Heroes
Final Project: My Life Story

Also included in the package was a physical, glossy paperback book, entitled 50 American Heroes by Dennis Denenberg and Lorraine Roscoe. This book includes biographical shorts, which are each about two pages or so in length to read, about America's forefathers. It covers information about what made these people heroes and how they attempted to better the world around us.

You can use the unit by itself, like I did, but the Moving Beyond the Page site recommends that it be used along side the science and social studies unit - People Change the World.

For the Science Package - Sound, I received a physical study guide from among the Science Titles that my child could write in, and the physical component of a 4D Human Anatomy Ear Model kit.

The Sound unit explores how the sense of sound helps us to better understand the environment around us. Students examine parts of the ear and note how each part works together to help create the ability to hear. Children also create sounds using instruments, some of which they make.

The unit can be used individually, but the site recommends it be paired with Who Was Helen Keller?

Each of the Language Arts and Science units I received was intended to take three weeks to complete.

HOW I USED IT:

My 7-year-old was thrilled to get to help me review this curriculum.  I was also ecstatic!

She listened with enthusiasm as I read from the book about 50 famous people. She especially was curious to learn more about Hershey and Walt Disney. As I began to read, she said, "Chocolate? I'm interested!" The little biographies out of the book were short enough to hold her interest, and included references to books to check out to learn more. I even learned some things - Imagine that!

She was especially really thrilled about putting together the 4D ear model. She started with gusto, and then discovered it was a bit tricky. So, I ended up stepping in to help with the intricate fine motor skills needed to line up the tabs and figure out where each piece went as we heard terms she'd never heard before. She was fascinated to learn that there are bones inside the ear, and she realized that there are more parts inside the ear than she ever thought possible. We concluded that we are happy to leave the building of the ears to our Creator, as it's quite intricate. Nevertheless, we succeeded in completing our human ear model.

Moving Beyond the Page also offers units in Social Studies Titles as well as additional Language Arts and Science units for a variety of ages, suitable for students age 6-15, though the website offers additional selections to include children from Age 4-12.

Find Moving Beyond the Page on Facebook.

See what other Schoolhouse Review Crew members had to say about the specific unit package they got to review: