Does your family need to get away this summer? Then come, “Travel the World,” as project manager Laura Clark and The Old Schoolhouse Magazine take you on a journey to the seven continents.

Take several days to several weeks and learn about latitude and longitude, other map features and individual studies of each of the seven continents. There are also several pages dedicated to copywork, both manuscript and cursive.

Young children will enjoy the word scramble, crossword puzzle and rebus puzzle, before they begin their lapbooks. There are coloring pages of several continents that can also be added to the lapbook.

This unit also has a high school expansion section with geography - how it relates to literature, history and your own business. At the end is a fun word search.

The Internet is an integral part of this unit study with links to many different information sites and game sites. If you want speed, you may want to use high speed Internet, not dial-up.

What I Liked: My favorite section of this unit study was the song, God has the Whole World in His hands- Continents, which was sung to the tune of He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands. This was an excellent way for B (age 6) and C (age 4) to review the names of the seven continents.

I also liked the fill-in-the-blanks, word scramble and other activities at the end of the information about the continents.

The kids and I decided to do the lapbook together this time and we had a fun time picking the information we would include in our small travel book about Scotland and our matchbooks of the continents.

What I Disliked: I am in an area of the country where the only easy Internet access is with dial-up and a 13-year-old computer. This unit had a lot of links to different websites and it took a long time to get to each site. Some sites also did not lead to areas I thought could be useful.

What B Liked and Disliked: I liked everything except where it said South America was both the third and fourth largest continent.

What C Liked and Disliked: C liked the latitude and longitude game.

Age Appeal: Grades K-12th

Vendor Information: The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC, 2010, e-book, $7.95

Vendor Contact Information: http://www.thehomeschoolmagazine.com/

More Products: Wannabe Series products, Download N Go Series products, and more.

Disclosure Statement: I have received this product free of charge for review purposes.

When I Grow Up, I Want to Be... A Firefighter

If you and your children are looking to learn more about what it is like to be a firefighter then, look no further than e-book, When I Grow Up, I Want to Be… A Firefighter done by The Old Schoolhouse Magazine from the Wannabe Series.

This 80 page e-book covers every subject you need for a day of school. You will learn the history of firefighting, what it takes to become a firefighter, and how much a firefighter gets paid in different parts of the United States.

This comprehensive e-book has:
Building a robotic arm and why firefighters use them.
Learning important firefighting vocabulary through a fill-in-the-story, word search, crossword and copywork.
Fun coloring pages.
End of the unit activities and games.
Answers to all of the activities in the back.

What I Like: I thought this e-book was well written and a lot of fun for the whole family! B (age six) and C (age 4) were really excited to learn about being a firefighter. They always enjoy going by our local fire station, so this book was for them. I enjoyed learning the history of firefighting and the different wages around the country. Our weather has been chilly, so when it is nice we are going to do the fun games with their cousins. There were just a couple of websites to visit and the best one was of a steam-powered fire engine. The suggested memory verses were thought provoking and dealt with fire as well. This book might be difficult for the younger grades, but as the parent you can look at it and decide what will work for your child now and then do it again in a couple years when your child can do more of the work.

What I Dislike: B does kindergarten/1st grade work and the math and word search were very difficult for him. We had to work on these items together and it was frustrating for him when he was unable to get the answers correct or find the words. For the word search, I ended up having to find the words for him and marking the first letter and it even took me a long time to find the words. He enjoyed the word search after I made it easier for him.

What B likes and dislikes: I love it. I loved the math. The word search and math were very hard. I loved coloring the pictures of the fire truck and Dalmatian.

Age Appeal: ages 4-10, but I think the whole family will enjoy it

Vendor Information: The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC, 2009; e-book, $8.95

Vendor Contact Information: www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com

More Wannabe Series Products: When I Grow Up I Want to Be a… Farmer, Missionary, Police Officer and more

Disclaimer: I received this product for free for review purposes.

Expedition Australia

Start up your computer and get ready to visit Australia in Download N Go Expedition Australia, by Amanda Bennett and The Old Schoolhouse!

Each day you will visit a different aspect of Australia:
Day 1: Where on Earth is Australia?
Day 2: Some of the Special Places in Australia.
Day 3: A Bit of Australian History.
Day 4: Cool Things to Know About Australia.
Day 5: Fun and Games in Australia.

Your day will consist of geography, word-of-the-day, Australian animal-of-the-day and weather here and there to help your child learn and build their lapbooks.

The Internet is an integral part of this unit study with links to YouTube and other sites, so you may need high speed internet for the videos, but dial-up will be fine for the other sites.

What I Liked: I was excited when I received this unit study. I did not know very much about Australia and I knew my excitement would excite the kids as well.

B (age 6) and C (age 4) were excited each day to learn more about Australia. Since we just do school in the morning took several days to do each “day, so we were able to spend a relaxing time learning and exploring the different links and suggested books we checked out of the library. One thing I learned after a couple of days was to have all the links ready, so that we could easily look through them. Also some of the links were very similar, so I chose the important information that would help us answer the questions.

The word-of-the-day was fun to learn and now we use words like fair dinkum and lolly in our lives.

What I Disliked: The only thing that I did not like with this unit was there was no math. I also wish that I had looked at the entire unit before I printed it out for the kids. I had to print out the pages for the lapbook again, because I originally printed double-sided. Sometimes not all of the links worked, but since the activities repeated themselves I was able to go to the different days to find links that worked.

What B Liked and Disliked: I liked the whole thing. I liked making the lapbook, because we got to use some glue. The YouTube videos were delicious. I liked learning about the poisonous sea snake and saltwater crocodile in the Magic School Bus book, Expedition Down Under. There was nothing I disliked.

What C liked and Disliked: I liked everything we did for Australia. I liked the koala the best.

Age Appeal: Grades K-4th, but I think the whole family will enjoy it

Vendor Information: The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC and Amanda Bennett, 2010; e-book, $7.95

Vendor Contact Information: www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com and www.UnitStudy.com (Amanda Bennett)

More Download N Go Series Products: Simply Soccer, Ireland, Amelia Earhart and more

Disclaimer: I received this product for free for review purposes.

We are making a firefighting robot

We are making a robot and it's called a firefighting robot. And it will have lots of odd things on it like cars and Legos and Slinkies.

What We do at the Firehouse!

What We do at the Fire House!

We have to slide down the fire pole if we’re upstairs. We have to put on our firefighter clothes; a jacket, some boots, a helmet, pants and an oxygen tank. We have to jump in the big fire truck.
And then we sound the sirens and go out of the fire station and down the road to the fire. We will see cars pull over to the side of the road to let the big fire truck go through.
We will go in the building as we fight the fire to see if anybody is in it. And we will get them out of the building as quickly as possible so they don’t die in the smoke.

Another story from working on our "When I grow up, I want to be... A Firefighter."

This is my plan to become as strong as a firefighter

In our homeschool we are working on a unit about firefighting. This is how B wants to become as strong as a firefighter.

I am going to run every day. I am going to drink milk and water, to help my bones. I am going to eat meat. I am going to eat salads. I am going to run in place if I can’t go outside and play. I am going to eat fruit. I am going to eat vegetables. I am going to hug and kiss, because I know it’s nice and God likes it. I am going to go outside and walk up and down a steep hill to become strong.

Western Hamburger

Western Hamburger

1 pound hamburger
1 teaspoon sage
½ teaspoon mixed herbs
½ teaspoon accent
½ teaspoon sugar
salt and pepper

Mix meat and spice well
Add:
1 chopped onion
1 tablespoon pickle relish
2 tablespoons
2 tablespoons capers
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 beaten egg

Let set for 1 hour in refrigerator before forming into patties. Cook well and enjoy.