****IN ORDER TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY, YOU MUST GO TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL! You can find it here. Giveaway goes until 6/19 *****************
Last year I stumbled upon the Thinking Tree Fun Schooling Books. I was really intrigued and liked what I saw. I purchased two for my eldest two and decided it would be great for those days when we just need a break. They were a fun edition, until we ended up using them more and more, and then it just built into what I now consider and essential to our classroom.
The one my daughter uses it meant to be used on a 10 page rotation. So the first step is to pick out 8 subjects you want to learn about. She chose sharks as one. Then you go to the bookstore or library and pick out at least 8 books about these subjects. Throughout the pages you have your date that you fill in, some copywork, nature study, spelling words from some of the books you were reading, art and logic, “picture study”, so you look at the picture and write a short story about it, reading time where you set your timer for an hour and read for 15 minutes from each of the four books that you chose. You have a page for creative writing, screen time where you watch a documentary, educational video, or youtube tutorial and tell back what you learned from it along with your rating. You have a page for math practice. And there is even a page for meal planning.
My son’s book was much more simple; it is geared towards children ages 6-9. In the beginning, he was much more slow to get inspired with his book. I am not sure all of it was the “fault” of Thinking Tree as much as it was he is a very active boy and sit down time just does not sound appealing. However, I would say about 2-3 months ago I saw a change where he was asking me if he could do a page or two. So that was a great encouragement.
So, then, as I was thinking about this coming school year and what I wanted to do. I decided that I wanted to get a couple for the younger two. But I was noticing that a lot more people were becoming aware and interested and I really wanted the word to spread about these excellent homeschool resources, especially as we start looking for our next year’s curriculum. I chose three books to add to our homeschool bookshelf this year: this one, this one, and this one. But, I ended up reaching out to the creators of these awesome books, and asked if they would be willing to donate a book for a giveaway. I got a quick response and ended up receiving FOUR books! I was given one to keep and three that I can giveaway!!!!
I know there are many new homeschoolers coming into the picture and it can be daunting trying to decide which is the best and what to do. I am encouraging all the mama’s with younger children to consider starting simple. And I think these would be a great help for you in that.
Another book I ended up picking up was more the journey of Sarah Janisse Brown and it was so beautiful to see how her childhood influenced her creativity and then when her child was diagnosed with dyslexia, how all these little puzzle pieces of a larger picture, inspired the birth of Thinking Tree. I LOVED reading this biography and seeing snippets of her art. Her faith in Jesus is a huge part of her main theme. I rate this book so high, but the biggest review I can give it is the fact that I read this in a few days (busy mom here!!! A. Few. Days!). Also, I am more of a doubting Thomas in my faith of spiritual experiences; I don’t have the blind faith of Abraham. And so, when authors tell us about their conversations on where God was leading them, or when her daughter encountered a man that has been gone for a long time, tell her to go out of the room and thereby missing a huge accident, I really, really struggle with these moments. I don’t want to say that they are made up, I know that God works in miraculous and wondrous ways, but I have a really hard time connecting through that. And so, even with all that sprinkled throughout the book, I still loved it and enjoyed it. Some of the mommy moments just really spoke to me. Her struggles with wanting a homestead just really pulled me in. I can’t give this book an adequate review on how much I enjoyed it. So me.
You can find MANY of the Thinking Tree Books here, at the Amazon page. Be sure to click that picture that will take you to the YouTube video where you can find out more and enter that giveaway. Pssst… they have a minecraft one too.
I hope this inspires and encourages you to enjoy teaching and learning again. A huge thank you to The Thinking Tree for their generosity. If you want to see more of how we will be using these in our daily homeschool life, you can click the SUBSCRIBE button on my youtube channel and see more from me.
I watched the whole thing, but my daughter interrupted me towards the end. You are keeping the one about Picturing the Past, right? (That would be my first choice, actually.)
My three choices of the other ones in order are:
1) Charlotte Mason Homeschool Journal and Delight-Directed Learning Handbook
2) Nature Study and Outdoor Science Journal
3) Creative Copywork Journal
I am. Yay! Thanks for entering. Can you comment this in my YouTube video, so that it counts towards the entry? THank you so much! And those kids are always interrupting at critical moments, aren’t they? Bless their hearts.
By the way, the photo does not go to the YouTube video. I had to go to it from a link that your mom posted on Facebook.
Thank you for telling me! I will try to fix that