Big Fat Notebooks: A Quick Review

We were lucky and recently got sent two of the five Big Fat Notebooks that have recently been published by Workman Publishing to review and share here on our blog. We got the one for English and American History sent our way. We will definitely be using the one for English this year but since we're concentrating more on World History for 7th grade we may get more use out of the American History one next year.

They are so big! Truly reflect their name of BIG FAT Notebooks! Zoey and I both love how bright and colorful they are, not only on the outside but the pages inside are eye-catching and fun to read over as well. It doesn't feel like a traditional textbook or reference book. The binding is durable and the books feel substantial but not too heavy while being held.

Here is a peek at the inside of the English book...it truly looks like the inside of someone's notebook. Complete with some doodles here and there.

I have a feeling that these books will serve as a wonderful reference for Zoey for these middle school years. They are geared for the 11-14 year old. I know that I will appreciate having them as well! Here is the website's blurb for the books...I loved Brain Quest as a kid so am tickled that these are put out by the same editors.

For every middle school kid who has ever whispered, “Hey—can I borrow your notes?” there is the Big Fat Notebook series, a revolutionary study guide series created by the editors of America’s #1 educational bestseller Brain Quest. Each indispensable study guide is like getting to borrow the notebook of the best student in class, with highlighted key concepts, doodles that illuminate tricky ideas, mnemonics, and more.

Here is a peek at the inside of the American History book.

We loved the books so much that I went ahead and purchased the one for science (can't wait to look that one over!) and for World History. They were on sale HERE for just $11.99. I'm not sure how long that price will last. Working at our local public library, I also put in a request for purchasing all of the books for our tween/teen collection as well.

Thank you Workman Publishing for sending these our way to look over and use this year!

We Found our Homeschool Planner!

I've been looking at planners for us to use for documenting hours, attendance (something we have to do in the state of Wisconsin), and for general planning purposes for our homeschooling. After asking other homeschooling families I was guided to the Academic Year Weekly/Monthly Planner. Kind of funny because it's simple, has a spot for everything that I wanted to record and was the cheapest of all the planners that I was looking at! Bonus, a friend (the same one that share it with me) offered to order one for me along with hers so we could save on shipping)...yay!

She ordered it off of Amazon and it shipped super quick. They have it (when we ordered it) in black and white stripe and this floral pattern. You didn't get to choose which pattern but when it shipped to my friend, she got one of each. She has twins, a boy and a girl so she kept the stripes and I got the floral pattern. 

It has a spread of the months through 2016 - 2019.

I love that it has this spread for 2016 - 2017 for me to document attendance/hours right at the beginning of the book. My plan is to put a P (present) or A (absent) in each rectangle along with the hours that we do school that day. We will be shooting for at least 5 hours per school day.

I also like that the planner has little tabs alongside to get to the desired months with ease.

And that there is a spread of each month with room to record things at a glance as needed with a margin for notes.

There are even pages that give you more space to do a write-up of what it is that you plan or accomplish for each individual day.

At the end of the planner there is even a spot for future planning which I could see being useful as the year goes along for recording ideas, as I discover what is working or what isn't.

I hope this little review helps you figure out an idea of what it is you are looking for when it comes to your planner!

Class Dismissed Documentary

When we were initially talking about the idea of homeschooling Z next year I was reading everything I could on homeschooling, education, etc. on blogs, websites, online forums and asking people that I knew were homeschooling questions every chance I got. On one of the online forums that I had joined someone mentioned that if we were in the thinking stages of homeschooling we should watch the documentary, Class Dismissed. 

Working at a library, I right away went on to our library catalog to request it...it wasn't in our immediate library consortium so I branched out and looked for it to request from all the lending libraries in the state of Wisconsin...it still wasn't available for requesting! Discouraged, I went and requested it for purchase through our library and am happy to report that our library now owns it and it can be requested from anyone in the state now. Whew!  :)

On to what we thought about the documentary...

Watching it initially we (all three of us) were nodding in agreement to so many things. It is heartbreaking to think about the large hand that is hanging over the state of education all across our country. What the reality is for some students who learn in different ways, are eager to learn and don't have the opportunities they are looking for is pretty grim. Throw in the reality of standardized testing and what that means for teaching staff, administrators and most importantly, the students and things aren't looking pretty or fair for all involved. With that said...there were some wishy-washy points for me when viewing the film...perhaps wishy-washy isn't the right term and please note that I am the kind of person that when I make a decision (grant it, it's taken years for us to get to this one!), I go full force ahead. It was hard (for me) to see the one main family in the film go back and forth regarding public schooling, de-schooling, homeschooling, working with a public school charter, unschooling, etc. I say this however not having homeschooled yet myself so I am fully prepared to eat some crow if needed!  :) I think I felt discouraged only because we are so obviously hell bent on homeschooling now...even more so after viewing the documentary. 

Our daughter's review should count for something too here, she wanted to watch it over again immediately after our first viewing of it! She also kept interrupting throughout sharing exclamations of similar experiences in regards to the kids in the film and things that she has encountered. I know it was really good for her to watch it right along with us. I could see that it validated her thoughts (that she has conveyed to us) when it came to her reasons for wanting to try homeschooling.

The documentary also has great suggestions as far as how to navigate the homeschooling waters when deciding to pull out your child(ren) from the (sometimes intimidating) public school system. It also provides the viewer with feelings of empowerment near the end which is something that we all appreciated, this being such a HUGE decision to make. 

We all highly recommend this documentary to anyone that may be thinking of homeschooling their children or that may want to learn more about this way of education. Here is the official trailer for Class Dismissed.