Homeschool Review Crew - Heirloom Audio St. Bartholomew's Eve

I was thrilled to get a chance to review their newest production, St. Bartholomew's Eve, from Heirloom Audio.

What is the Heirloom Audio Productions' St. Bartholomew's Eve?

If you are not familiar with the excellent work of Heirloom Audio Productions, you are in for a treat. Though this audio drama is based on the works of G. A. Henty, this is far more than someone sitting down and reading a book, recording it and calling it a drama. I received an audio drama 2-disc set that plays for a little more than 2 hours. When they call it a drama, they are not kidding in that they secured some of the most talented voices:

Brian Blessed - Star Wars, Tarzan, King Lear
Elizabeth Counsell - The Chronicles of Narnia
David Shaw-Parker - The Muppet Christmas Carol
Brian Deacon - Bonhoeffer, The Jesus Film
Andy Harrison - The Secret Garden
Hugo Docking - Oliver Twist

St. Bartholomew's Eve is the story of one of the deadliest assaults on Christians in France and follows the history of the Huguenots.

Before receiving this 2-CD set, I had never heard of St. Bartholomew, and had no idea whether the Huguenots were the good guys or the bad guys. The only thing I knew about the Huguenots was from my own personal ancestry where the story is told of one of my relatives from that time who managed to escape as a child when his parents hid him in a sack filled with grain. The way my personal account was told that I remember is that this little boy's parents put him into the sack, and when they went to leave, a soldier stuck a sword through the bag to see if they were smuggling anything out. I just can't imagine how that must've felt for a parent to watch a sword go through the bag where their son was hiding. Good news! The boy survived, didn't make a sound, and became an ancestor of my family on my mother's side. My grandfather was 100% French and Protestant, Methodist I believe.

So, with my own personal backstory of family drama, the story suddenly became of interest to me even though I still had no idea who St. Bartholomew was, other than an apostle of Christ.

The story is set during the Eve before the 1572 St. Bartholomew Day massacre - A true-to-life historic occurrence.

The audio drama is set in the days of the French wars of religion and is the account of the Huguenot's desperate fight to attempt to gain freedom of worship in France. It is based on G. A. Henty's book which uses fictitious characters to express a real historic event. As the struggle intensifies, it culminates in the dreadful Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve, this is the part of the story that stems from a real histoic occurrence. G. A. Henty weaves the life and adventures of characters Philip Fletcher and his cousin, throughout this history complete with on-the-edge-of-your-seat battles, sieges, a fairytale-like damsel in distress, and ultimately, escapes and a reunion.

One of the outstanding themes throughout the story is about fighting for the freedom to worship and about loyalty and to whom you will pledge your allegiance. Of course, the inclusion of a love story is also an integral part of the entire story.

How Did We Use It?

I know some homeschoolers use audio dramas as the central focus of a specific lesson or to use while driving in long car trips. I have found with my audio-resistant crew (husband excluded on this one) that it works best for us to just put the disc in and allow it to play in the background as my children go about their day. It may be more of a subtle approach, but it is amazing how much truly sinks in when they are allowed to listen in this casual sense.

What Did We Think?

Of course, as always, this audio drama is done with the utmost in excellence in production and quality. It's not simply a book read aloud but it really is a complete drama with sounds and voice actors that will make you forget you are only listening, as it conjures up the scenes in your head to make it feel as though you have traveled back in time and are right there on the scene in a historic moment.

FIND HEIRLOOM AUDIO ON SOCIAL MEDIA @:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeirloomAudio
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HeirloomStories 
Google+: https://goo.gl/d8btpX
Instagram: @HeirloomAudioOfficial

Read what other members of the Homeschool Review Crew thought by clicking on the picture below:

Homeschool Review Crew - Writing With Sharon Watson Illuminating Literature: Characters in Crisis Christian Worldview

I somehow have birthed three very reluctant writers and 2 very reluctant readers, even though one of them was reading fluently at age 3, so needless to say - I was thrilled to get a chance to review Illuminating Literature: Characters in Crisis from Writing with Sharon Watson. Before I got started, I was able to download free sample chapters, grading grids, and quizzes on the course page, and you can too. Please take a look at the samples provided on the site.

 

What is the Illuminating Literature Characters in Crisis by Writing with Sharon Watson?

Sharon Watson has written for Apologia with their Jump In middle school writing curriculum. She loves to teach writing and does so in a relaxed, non-threatening manner that is perfect for middle to high schoolers. 

Illuminating Literature: Characters in Crisis by Writing with Sharon Watson is intended to be used with students in 9th - 12th grade, but can be used during any high school year. This is intended to be used as a one-year high school course, which is a pace of four weeks per book. One of the best parts, in my opinion, that piqued my interest the most is that it is written from a Christian worldview. 

I received a nice physical set of glossy paperback books. The books included:

• Teacher
• Student
• Quiz/Test
• There is also a Novel Notebook available as a pdf download, and online quizzes.

The books that the study is based on usually need to purchased or obtained through the library separately. The first reading assignment is the short story entitled, A Jury of Her Peers. This is included in the text, no purchase necessary.

The program has several components:

Physical Books and Downloads:

Teacher's Guide

The Teacher Guide includes everything you need to guide your student through the literature. It includes a monthly lesson plan, grading grids and answers to the lessons, discussions, and quizzes found in the textbook. If you are using it with a co-op or classroom, it even has a grading grids to make it easy for grading multiple papers. The Teacher Guide also includes a schedule for setting up a book-of-the-month club for teens which include Facebook posts to interest teens.

Student Text

38 easy-to-follow lessons, students read the actual novel or literature work and not passages pulled out of context. Written from a perspective intended to be used with Grades 9-12 Christian high schools, homeschools, or co-ops, this course is great for teens whether they are reluctant readers/writers or advanced at a college-prep level. Sharon Watson has set up the course to make teens feel comfortable with literature. She includes fun facts, author bios and background information that piques the interest of the students. The course is student-directed, but she provides weekly reading schedules and clearly numbered lessons. By the end of the course, your student will have studied nearly 100 literary terms and author tools and will have gained an appreciation for literature. Upon completion of the two semesters, you may assign your student one high school credit.

List of stories and books (Most suggested to be used by Dover Publications version) If you use the recommended version of the literature, the textbook includes a key that takes you to specific page numbers of the novel or play:

• A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell, (included in the textbook)
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
• Silas Marner by George Eliot
• Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
• An Assortment of Short Stories (included in the textbook or link provided):

1. A White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett
2. The Garden of Forking Paths by Jorge Luis Borges
3. Haircut by Ring Lardner
4. The Lady, or the Tiger? by Frank Stockton
5. Of the Passing of the First-Born by W. E. B. Du Bois
6. A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas

• Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
• Biography or autobiography of student’s choice
• The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien (Mariner Books version)

Quiz and Answer Manual OR Online Quizzes - Your choice. Do you prefer online quizzing or pencil to paper ones? Whichever you prefer, this program has you covered. The online quizzes are graded for you. If you access them online, you will need the code found in the Teacher Book. The quizzes each start with a "Yes, I read it" Quiz followed by a Literary Terms Quiz and sometimes an Opinion/Survey.

Novel Notebook (Optional to use)

This is a free 86-page pdf download. You can print it to put inside a 3-ring binder and fill out the pages with a pencil or pen, or you can save it to your laptop and use the pdf tools to add text and fill out the pages onscreen. The notebook is a nice little extra where the student answers questions, draws conclusions about passages, and collects favorite passages.

The pages are designed in a modern, fun style that looks a bit like notebooking/scrapbooking on  lined notebook background.

How Did We Use It?

We were familiar with Sharon Watson because we had previously used Illuminating Literature: When Worlds Collide which we really enjoyed. So, I immediately turned to my high school daughter who absolutely loves literature and reading and loves to express herself through writing.

What Did We Think?

Writing with Sharon Watson did not disappoint. I love her friendly style and especially appreciate that she writes from a Christian Worldview. I really like how relatable and easy to follow the who program is and how the teacher book provides enough guidance but doesn't lay out every single word verbatim that you must follow to instruct the course. I loved that! I also like how it allows plenty of options for however you learn best, either online quizzes or pen/paper ones, pdf downloadable notebook you could use on or off screen, etc.

FIND ON SOCIAL MEDIA @:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WritingWithSharonWatson
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/writingwithshar

Read what other members of the Homeschool Review Crew thought by clicking on the picture below:

Homeschool Review Crew - Thinking Like an Engineer from Innovators Tribe

I was thrilled - SO THRILLED! to get a chance to review the Thinking Like an Engineer  from Innovators Tribe with my extremely engineered-minded children.




Other members of the Review Crew got to review:

Thinking Like an Architect

I will be honest and admit that this one looked amazing as well and was a tough choice to decide which one my student would like most.

What is Innovators Tribe's Thinking Like an Engineer?

It is an online program intended for students in Grades 6-12 that presents the material in units. Each course includes about 30 hours of work and can be used for 1/4 credit towards high school. Within the units are short video lessons and challenge activities that the student completes offline and hands-on, mostly with materials you probably already have around the house. But, it also included the necessary design software to complete the projects involving that.

Within each unit, there are also unit notes that you download in pdf format, print and fill out as you learn. There were also research projects - One involved looking into different types of engineers and what they do, including the anticipated salaries. I received a 2-year subscription to the course and was told that a single subscription can be used for an entire household. 

How Did We Use It?

I was so excited to explore what it was about that I logged on first before sharing it with my daughter, who is recently involved in Lego League Robotics. This child is cut out of the same mold as her older brother who is a senior in high school currently. After viewing the first section, I knew immediately my high school son would also love the style of teaching in that it isn't just a man in front of a classroom lecturing, but rather it is clever graphics and illustrations drawn while the voiceover speaks and then the instructor with various green screen style backgrounds. FAR FROM BORING! Though, admittedly, my son is not a "hardware man". He's more of a software engineer. The videos are the exact style of videos that my son seeks out when learning. Tha hands-on aspect was what hooked my daughter.

My daughter sat down with me, and we quickly became hooked to watching the lessons. However, our favorite part by far was the hands-on challenge activities.

The first challenge that got us hooked was to build a skyscraper that would stand on its own using only a few sheets of paper and a small amount of masking tape.

  

  

  

  

Another really fun activity was one involving the design software that came with the program to download. It was more challenging than we had anticipated, but we managed to accomplish most of what was asked in the assignment.

Challenge Activity was to use one sheet of paper to build a foundation that would hold a stack of books above the ground suspended.

We are currently working on making gears out of paper:

What Did We Think?

I was so excited to be chosen as a reviewer for this, and it did not disappoint in the least. If anything, it was even more impressive than the description. The online instruction was engaging and far from a boring video. I was happy that it included the software download we needed, and also provided plenty of links to further learning in the lessons. By far, our favorite component, though, was the hands-on challenge activities.

Read what other members of the Homeschool Review Crew thought by clicking on the picture below: