TOS Crew Review: Schleich Action Figures Toys

"Lions, and tigers and bears-Oh my!
Lions, and tigers and bears-Oh my!"
And that isn't all you will find meandering through the emerald forests, dusty African plains, oceans deep and wide, down on McDonald's farm, over the western prairies, through the lands of the behemoths, around and about the castles of yester-year, under the mushrooms of mythical legends, and all around the family homestead. With over 500 animals, fairies, Smurfs, humans, vehicles, buildings, foliage, dinosaurs and Knights, you will find many, many choices to choose from to build your collection of action figures for your family.



I have been eyeing several of the Schleich critters for years. On many occassions, I spotted them while at our local Tractor Supply store. I am always one to stop to pick them up to admire the high quality, attention to details, and adorable figures they have available. Sadly, since our objective was not critters, but quick missions to buy or esteem manly-man items, I never purchased any. What a shame...as all along my kids could have been playing with these beauties to expand and encourage their imagination. Luckily, we received a nice sampling to review for the Schleich company, and are now convinced we need to start building up our collection.



Not only are these well made, they are accurate (so here is your opportunity to discuss the differences in the male and female kinds the Lord created) and they afford themselves to several "teaching" moments that homeschooling folks just seem to think of. What is even more exciting is that Schleich is expanding their educational components (they currently do offer booklets that describe and offer some information regarding some of their animals already) to accompany the products they make. A homeschooler's dream!



My children (and myself) have been playing with our new friends ever since they arrived. I am also very excited to see that I can tie in our new tigers into the Tiger Lapbook we will be making (available for free at Homeschool Share-just scroll down to the tiger one) this coming week! I can think of a lot of different applications for these babies-not just for play time, but for using as visuals for our science, art, history and geography lessons. Those adorable tigers (we received 2) just spoke to us, as we are major fans of this big cat. Our first purchase is going to be the White Tigers they offer, and again-tying those into our lapbook lesson will just weave this together seamlessly.



You have to know too, that I am already thinking ahead to next year's history course, as we will be moving into studying Early America. I was like a kid with a $5 bill at a candy story, when I saw the pioneers, covered wagon and other figurines from the American Frontier Collection. Some of these will be in our home by next fall, to offer up extra visual, and tactile experiences to bring that time period alive. Well, and of course we'll use them to just play with, as that is the most fun of all!


"Lions, and tigers and bears-Oh my!"

"We're off to see the Schleich display case, the most wonderful display case of all..."








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Schleich Homepage
Prices vary depending on size of the animal, check your local retail store for details
Sold at Tractor Supply, Target, Toys "R" Us and other fine retailers

Shop On-Line
Not all available on-line, but I did see the Hippo for $6.49, Tiger $5.49, Gazelle Fawn $2.49, Arabian Foal-grazing $3.99

See what my crew mates have to say about this and several other homeschool products at out TOS Crew Homepage.

**Schleich Action Figures provided me with free samples of their animal product line, The tiger, hippo, foul, gazelle, and fawn, in order to test and use it with my family, so I could write this review.

TOS Crew Review: Tapestry of Grace- Year 1, Unit 1

**PLEASE BE AWARE-THIS IS A LONG REVIEW, AND IN ORDER TO PREVENT EYE FATIGUE, I HAVE BROKEN IT INTO 2 POSTS-ONE FOR THE BASIC CURRICULUM AND ONE FOR THE LAPBOOK/MAPS**

There are many methods to be found in the homeschool realm; and often many of us will hop the fence to dip our toes into the pool of ideas, most often used in the neighboring styles. I admit to this shameless activity throughout the years I have been teaching my own. Some I have truly found beneficial to our lessons, so we have kept them-while others were quickly pitched due to them just not meshing with us. We have decided that we learn best using the Charlotte Mason philosophy for teaching and learning, so we tend to pick curriculum and materials that naturally lend themselves to it. A counterpart to the CM method, is the Classical Education approach. Usually they can co-exist nicely together, up to a point. So, when I heard we'd be receiving a Tapestry of Grace product to review, I was quite intrigued. I had heard about this TOG thing for some time, in different circles of homeschoolers, and always wondered what it was all about. I had heard it was unit study (which it is) designed to teach the subjects covered in it, to several children (or just one) who are on different learning/skills levels. That sounded very interesting, but I wondered how I would like unit studies thing, due to being painfully (I have tried a few and wasn't exactly impressed) aware of the downside of them (a lot of collecting of things, organizing and such for mom to do ahead of time)- so I tend to steer clear of them. So I knew this review would be a true test to our prejudice against such things.



Tapestry of Grace was designed by a homeschooling mother with several children who was looking for something that would streamline her teaching and time. Not finding anything, she came up with her own unit study program (I love it when folks do that) and the rest they say-is history. Out of the choices, we decided to pick the unit concentrating on Creation, Egypt, Moses and the Hebrew nation (Year 1, Unit 1). I actually zeroed in on that era because I had several of the suggested books for the study already on my shelf. Now normally, a body would choose their section (or you can purchase the whole year with all 4 units in it), spend time during the "off season" (I highly recommend doing this as this is a huge study that you need to have a good grasp on) reading through all the information packed in the pages, and have the said books bought (at least the core ones) or pre-searched at the library; so that when it came time to unleashing the study on the students-one had a good grasp of it. Under the circumstances though, I had to jump in head first and get moving on it. That led to much confusion on my part, because it was rather overwhelming at times. TOG has admitted that many first-time users encounter a mighty TOG FOG which should dissipate within the first four weeks of use. I couldn't afford that amount of time-so I really pushed myself to get it figured out sooner. After I broke through that wall, I had a pretty good idea of where they were going with the study.

Each Unit is broken down into 9 weeks, subdivided into the four areas of Classical Education: Lower Grammar, Upper Grammar, Dialect, and Rhetoric. The theory with the C.E. method is that you cycle the learning every four years. Therefore, your first grader will come back to that time period again, a few years down the road. This continues until they have graduated from high school. Certainly it is an interesting idea, but I have yet to really grab a hold of this part of the C.E. thinking. I prefer to mix things up a bit; and being that I love history-I like to see more of a potpourri mixture. I find that some areas are not necessarily covered as thoroughly as I prefer, and others are covered a bit more heavily (Roman and Greek) than I want to spend time on. So that causes some friction with me and the program, being that it is styled after the C.E. approach.

I actually have 2 students still in my care, who are at different levels. Due to not wanting to switch my Dialect-aged daughter mid-year on her history studies (and because we have covered this era with her just 10 months ago) I decided to forgo having her partake. Instead, I focused on my youngest child who worked through the lower grammar studies. I have made a point of going through the upper level material, to be able to understand what they are striving to teach the older grades-in addition to focusing on the younger levels.


The Salt Dough Map of Egypt my son and I made

The Tapestry of Grace unit study is laid out in a fairly logical timeline, divided into the four groups-so that you can see which level has what to do. Using good literature, reading books (this is very Charlotte Masonish), worksheets, Q & A time, activities (such as art projects, map work, reports, plays and more), Bible reading (always top priority) and discussion, the students are enveloped by all their activities to learn the subject in an in depth manner. This can be a fantastic way to infuse the knowledge if you have many children and want to keep everyone on the same page, if you will. You still have different levels for the reading material, so that will cause a bit of a switch up; but by having the older students do their work mostly on their own-you free yourself up to work with the littles. For the average homeschooling family (as well as for us) buying every book listed simply isn't economically feasible, so using the local library and its inter loan program is a must. Fortunately, we have a great system here, so I found almost every book listed for the Lower Grammar (and most of the others too) level. Each week had a variety of books to go through, and for the most part, I found them to be sufficient in covering the subjects. I actually added a few (some from the suggested additional books list) others to tie in, and so we had a pretty good introduction to the subject. For the older children, the reading list suggests books which go into more detail, and I thought the suggestions were quite sufficient.

Here is where this mammoth program and I leave each other to head down different, dusty, history trails. Perhaps if I had this way back when I started homeschooling, I would be a bit more partial to it, but alas-that is not so. I also have 2 children with skill levels which are at complete polar opposites of eachother-so it really isn't much help. And as I stated before, I like a switch up between the children-keeps my brain from becoming numb. I also like my teens to have some say in what they are learning in history-so it may not always be what the younger one is studying. And I have shelves (yes shelves) loaded with a couple programs and the books required for them; which have already woven themselves into my heart, are easier to use, and are written in an easy format with which to follow-without and confusion. I just didn't catch the "love" for TOG...I simply didn't. I "get" the overall goal of TOG, the basic idea behind it; and I also understand the basics of a Classical Education. Truly, it is an interesting method, and great for some; but it is simply not our "cup of tea". Additionally, I wondered if not being able to locate some of the books (for the discussions in the upper levels) would almost null and void a major part of the learning. Or if swapping out the majority of the books suggested, due to simply not finding them, would water it down, or leave the instructor spending even more time trying to make it work. I also was not that impressed with the lower levels-some weeks were pelted with a lot to read, others almost nothing. I prefer to have a steady flow of books to avoid the "roller coaster" effect in our studies. And furthermore, I was disappointed with the lack of notes, or information in regard to the Lower Grammar and some Upper Grammar reading selections. At times, we simply read the book...and that was it. I felt like it left me a little flat. To add to mix, my kids are just not into a lot of the suggested activities (dress up and plays for example), so we ran dry on ideas rather quickly.





We were given the new Digital Edition download to review-and because it is on the computer screen, not in my hand, that very well may have contributed to the lack luster response. Being that this is a whole new area for Tapestry, it is still in the "gotta to fix that" stage. I actually had no problem downloading the Lock Lizard program, or getting into it. The problem arrived when I couldn't find the download, as at the time-there was no desktop icon added when uploading it. I simply couldn't find it-I had to search it out every time. The updated version now adds the icon automatically, eliminating that frustration. Thankfully, they have set up an entire page to help explain the newest edition to their line-up to ease your concerns. TOG also realizes some customers simply prefer the printed version-so you can purchase that instead of the DE, if you like. I actually would suggest it, especially if you struggle with 'puter screen fatigue. Perhaps when my youngest ages a bit, I will dive back into this whirlpool to see if I change my mind about it-but for now, our TOG unit will simply remain as a back burner program for us.




or depending on the level of each child

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Now please do not misunderstand me here-this can be an awesome program but you have to know what you are getting into. There is a lot, and I mean a lot of teacher prep, book searching, and expense due to the suggested activities, needed literature, and additional components (which you have to buy, like the writing program, the quizzes and so forth) required to complete the program to cover all the areas (doesn't include math or science or electives) in depth. If you have a large family, then you can justify it by splitting the cost out per child, then figure in the rotation theory (so it gets used again)-in order to come up with a figure that won't make you cringe. If you have one or two children, and will not revisit it again-then perhaps you want to look for something else.

Adding to the above knowledge, consider that you really have to love teaching the Unit Study way. There is no getting around this-as it is a colossal program, which will take a lot of time to figure out, collect items and carry through with. Fortunately, TOG offers many avenues to assist the user. They have what is called the Loom, and there one can find more activities, recipes, helpful ideas, and so forth. There are several TOG Yahoo Groups expressly for sharing ideas, and helping fellow TOGers as they navigate this program. Tapestry stands by their products, and are willing to offer up help as needed. Plus, they graciously offer a 3 week trial of either Year 1 or Year 2, to sample. This is highly recommended, so that you can see just how well it will flow with your family.



PRINTER ALERT

Lastly, they are trying to phase out their print versions of the guides. I personally am in favor of printed material for such large programs, so please take this under advisement. You will need to print everything (they suggest a company where you can get it printed for approx. $30-but that is over and above the price to purchase the eVersion they are now selling) if you want to fully utilize all components and there is A LOT to print.





Please visit their site and spend time going through it-as it is the only way for you to see all that it encompasses.

Tapestry of Grace Digital Edition Homepage
DE version-$45 each unit (4 per year) for the first 3 year's worth of units-Year 4 is still in the works
For those who like the printed version they sell a kit which includes both the print and DE version-prices vary
Lampstand Press Store where you can find many of the products they use-including the Units, lapbook,maps, writing aids, quizzes and more- to enhance the studies

Please do not forget to check out the other reviews by my fellow mates, as they may have a different Yr/Unit and a different opinion...head to The TOS Crew Homepage for more details.

**Tapestry of Grace provided me with the free copy of The Year 1, Unit 1 eVersion Guide, in order to test and use it with my family, so I could write this review.

TOS Crew Review: Tapestry of Grace Year 1, Unit 1 Lapbook and The Map of the Humanities download

**THIS IS THE SECOND PART OF THE TAPESTRY OF GRACE REVIEW, BE SURE TO VISIT THE MAIN POST AS WELL**



As mentioned in the main post, Tapestry of Grace is designed to follow the Classical Education method, but in a Unit Study style. As a part of the basic curriculum, they offer many additional choices to complement the program. Out of the choices offered (Literature Anthology, Map Aids, Evaluations, Lapbooks, Pop Quiz, and Government), we decided to review one of our favorite activities (Lapbooking) by selecting that program.

TOG offers lapbooks for the Lower to Upper Grammar (but I suppose a lapbook-loving kid in the Dialect stage would enjoy it too) level students, to complete alongside the core program studies. Each year has 4 lapbooks available (you choose with one you are currently studying) or you can just buy the whole year. If you are not aware of what a lapbook is; basically it is a homemade book designed to take key components from a book or study, and condense the information into categories (which are placed into some type of mini-booklet, such as a matchbook fold, or flip-book) to refer to whenever the desire strikes. Because Lapbooks are naturally very hands-on projects, the necessary work it takes to build it, and research the subjects in order to fill in the various booklets-cementing the learned information into the child's memory-in a non-stressful, and fun manner.

We chose the Year 1, Unit 1 lapbook, which covers Creation to the Egyptians and on to the end of the Moses era. Most of the booklets highlight many familiar aspects of the Egyptian culture and Moses' life. I have our lapbook posted on my Scrap and Lapbooks Blog, so please visit to see what it looks like. I am impressed with the overall content, and appearance of it. I was relieved that it followed along the topics of study in which the actual mini-books were varied, and so were the various folds. The directions were easy to follow, and the booklets quick to assemble. The information you put inside of them is rather easy to figure out, but usually there was no additional pictures (for non, or reluctant writers) or material to place inside the mini-books. I ended up drawing many of the subjects (like the landforms) or found free pictures from the Internet to place inside (like for the 7 days of creation), or used stickers (Noah's Ark) but am still looking for some to use with the Flora/Fauna section. I am not really sure what is suppose to go in the tiny triangle for the Pyramids. Maybe I will find some clip are of the famous Giza 3. Overall it is a nice lapbook and worth the money-especially if you have several children who want to do it.




As an added bonus, TOG now offers these intriguing maps designed to follow the flow of the Tapestry of Grace program. They are charming and fun. One could download them for free to post as a computer desk icon, or print to make a map. They now have a company who prints them in poster sizes for your convenience. I find them to be nicely done, but frankly would not spend money to buy them. I prefer to spend our limited funds on actual atlases or maps that have a wide range of use. But that is my preference, so if you are a major TOGer-then these babies may be rather appealing to you.






for copying and making the initial lapbook (and poss. helping the littles)

for most of the required work

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Map of the Humanities Free Download

Map of the Humanities Posters prices vary $14.95-$24.95

Lapbooks
$20 per Unit or $75 for the entire Year
comes on CD which you then print from (Printer Alert here-but not overly crazy)
or buy pre-printed lapbook kits (makes one) for $15 each


Be sure to visit the TOS Crew Homepage because my crew mates chose different levels and supplemental material to review.

**tapestry of Grace provided me with the free copy of the Year 1, Unit 1 Lapbook Guide eBook , in order to test and use it with my family, so I could write this review.

TOS Crew Review: Apologia: Exploring Creation with Zoology: Flying Creatures on the Fifth Day & Exploring Creation with Biology, 2nd edition

I have expounded the beauty of the Apologia Science courses for years. In fact, it is the only company we use for the backbone of our science courses in Junior and Senior High. Way back when my first student was to be entering the middle school era of her life; I scoured the curriculum catalogs and any other sources I could find-to come up with some sort of product that would not bore the child to death, nor make it so complicated that I used the book for a doorstop, and/or forego the subject completely. In fact, I have already penned a whole post in regard to my science tastes, which you can read if you are curious.



Because I purchased these puppies when they were new to the market-I own the first editions of most. They are still very useful, and we will continue to use them; but boy, was I doing a whoop-it-up dance when I found out I was to be receiving the newest edition of the Exploring Creation with Biology course. The timing could not have been better, as my daughter will slide into this class this fall. If we choose to go the route of group participation, this is the edition they want the student to have. And it is packed with new graphics, better illustrations, new photography, and bonus material. I loved the fact that they now offer the tests in consumable packets, which translates to no more photocopying! I had to rip my Teacher's Guide apart (before this fine feature) to be able to copy them-talk about a time saver! This earns a thumbs up for this fantastic addition to the set. Lastly, I was impressed with the final section of the student text-they have the Study Guides already printed out with lines to fill in...yes, it requires using the copy machine, but for those of us who have been blessed with children who loathe writing out anything too lengthy-this is a welcomed component to the program.

I need to point out, that I have walked two students through this splendid course already. Therefore, I feel I have a decent grasp of how this particular product works in the homeschool environment-and that would be exceptionally well. One of the concerns regarding high school science is the homeschool educator's possible lack of expertise (whatever that means)in teaching the higher sciences. That is quickly dissappaited because of the way the very course is written.


Actually, I have survived dissecting animals I would rather not see sprawled out on my counter, and have watched my children absorb information I never retained, much less learned.

The curriculum was written by Dr. Jay Wile, expressly for homeschoolers-not your standard public/private school classrooms. What is really nice about the Apologia series, is that he wrote it to the student. So for the most part, the responsibility lies on the shoulder of the child-which is a very important aspect to encouraging self-led studies, and responsibility during the transition from elementary to college level while in Jr/Sr high. Apologia also offers a On-Line Help Center for the student to access as needed. Add the fact that it is written from an Apologetic perspective, and you have a well-balanced curriculum that is sure to give an excellent foundation of science knowledge. I appreciate the fact that Evolution and other warped views of our very existence are debunked, as materials which cover this important concept are of high priority to us.

One of the requirements one should strive for is to offer their high school student at least 2 sciences, and at least one lab. Any of the texts Apologia offers has an abundance of lab experiments which you can easily translate into a full semester's worth of credit. These studies are also of high caliber, so your student should have an excellent introduction to the subject to be able to enter college level courses with little or no problem (for example: my daughter took their Chemistry course in high school, and then took Chemistry in college the next fall [unknowingly to us at the time-she actually took the harder, mid-level course, when most start with the basic Chemistry class] and even though she had to work to earn her grade, she was able to push through and survive [unlike many of her classmates who dropped it]. I give the credit to the material covered in the Apologia course, as without that background-she most likely would have been completely lost.

To keep this review from becoming a novel, I will let you investigate the areas covered in each text at their site, so please link over for more details...
Listing of all courses
General
Physical
Biology
Chemistry
Physics

They also have advanced courses as well. Now please, please-follow the suggest math knowledge for each course. I can not count how many times I have had fellow homeschooling pals forgo that wisdom; to take on a course that had higher math requirements, only to have the student struggle when it didn't have to be so. I also can attest that you do not have to follow the grade levels-after all, each student has their own strengths and weaknesses-so let that dictate which level you assign. I have always reserved Physical for 9th grade, Biology for 10th and if they want to take Chemistry or any other one-those were reserved for the latter part of high school.



Before you think Apologia forgot about the elementary sciences, think again. They offer the "Exploring Creation" series written by Jeanne Fulbright. These are excellent courses presented in such a way to perfectly reflect the Charlotte Mason style of learning. Each lesson contains the background information, projects and notebooking suggestions to expand and further the studies. I was very excited to receive the Exploring Creation with Zoology I-Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day to review. My son and I dove head first into the study, and are very pleased with what we have uncovered so far. This particular course examines the creatures capable of flight, which were made during the Fifth Day of Creation. There are two more books which expand on the various other animals created the same day: Zoology 2 (Swimming Creatures) and Zoology 3 (Land Animals). We are going to move along to the chapter about birds, since Spring is fast approaching and that is an excellent time to study these wonderful creatures. Now, with all of the texts in this series-you can choose to go through each unit out of sequence from how they are presented. That way, you can cover what may be "in season" to really get the most out of each unit. This is a great option which allows you to focus on what interests the student, and not be tied down to someone else's plan like so many other texts out there.

At this point, I have decided to mostly go over this as oral lessons, since my son is a beginning reader. We will come back to it again, once he has a better handle on the basic reading/writing skills. The age range given is for the "Exploring Creation" series is K-6, but to be honest-I think upper Elementary is a better place to start. There is no reason a younger child cannot glean information from these; just that if you want them to complete many of the wonderful suggested projects and assignments-you might want to hold off until they have a good foundation in those above mentioned skills. Lapbooking is another fabulous option to enhance the study, and thankfully you can purchase a pre-designed lapbook study that was written for this series at CurrClick or at the author, Cyndi Kinney's site, Knowledge Box Central . She has lapbooks for many of the elementary and Jr/Sr high books-be sure to check them out. Some of the lapbooking kits by Knowledge Box Central are also available at the TOS Store. In addtion, I have also posted my "Lapinder" for the Flying Creatures study on my Scrap and Lapbooks Blog for you to see.


We have yet to be dismayed with the products Apologia provides, and I doubt we will ever be. They set the standard, as far as I am concerned, for high quality curriculum for the homeschool family. Be sure to also check out their Jump In writing series (this is awesome), as well as their other resources available on their site.



for mostly the Elementary series, but you will need to oversee and assist at times in the higher levels and

for Jr/Sr High students, and some assignments in the Elementary series

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Apologia Homepage, describes all of their science programs

Expoloring Creation with Zoology: Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day
all in this series are $35


Exploring Creation with Biology, 2nd edition
$85.00 for the Student Text, Solutions/Test Key Manual
Please note: you can purchase the entire text on CD if your child prefers to use the computer over a text $65



Multi-Media CD Rom
Highly recommend resource-$15

Complete Microscope Set
$270-includes microscope, and slide set (or you can purchase separately)

Specimens and Dissection kit also available




Check out what my crew mates had to say about this and many other great products on our TOS Review Crew Homepage.

**Apologia provided me with the free copy each of Exploring Creation with Zoology: Flying Creatures book and the Exploring Creation with Biology (second edition) student text/TE, in order to test and use it with my family, so I could write this review.