It’s hard to believe 2013 is winding down already! The 2013 Schoolhouse Review Crew year has come to an end. This was my first year as part of the Crew, and our family has been so blessed by the experience! It has been a blessing sharing our experiences with you as well!
At the end of each Schoolhouse Review Crew year member are asked to vote on their favorite curricula for the year. Well, the votes are in, and this year’s 2013 Blue Ribbon Awards have been posted! Are you ready to see if a few of your favorites are on the list? Head over to the Schoolhouse Review Crew Blog to check them out!
We had the chance to review so many wonderful resources it was hard to vote on our favorites! Many of our favorites made the list like Apologia, which not only won the “All Around Crew Favorite,” but it also won in 5 other categories as well! We were blessed to review both Apologia Exploring Creation with Zoology 2 and Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics. Both are very hands-on
Another of our favorites that made the list is Bible Study Guide for All Ages, which won for “Favorite Christian Education Curriculum.” Once we started using Bible Study Guide for All Ages, we have continued using it! It has been a great addition to our homeschool curriculum, and I love the versatility of being able to use it with a variety of ages because we love to have our Bible time together as a family!
Another favorite that we continue to use (and plan to continue to use) is IXL. IXL offers Math for PreK – 12th grade and Language Arts for 2nd – 4th grade. It can be accessed both online and on the iPad. We use IXL for both Math and Language Arts! IXL won the Blue Ribbon for “Best Resource I Didn’t Know I Needed.”
We also love Brainfood Learning, which is a great Science Resource! In fact, it received the Blue Ribbon Award for “Favorite Science Resource.” We reviewed the Fascinating World of Mammals and hope to add the other two to our lineup soon!
In addition, I wanted to share a couple of our favorites that may not have made the list, but they are definitely winners with us!
TouchMath. TouchMath is another curriculum we have continued to use right through to the end! We’ll actually be wrapping up our homeschool year next week and starting our “new year” in January. TouchMath has been with us ever since! They recently released an app as well, which is great because we love apps, too! They have both a Lite version, which is free and offers in app purchases or a Pro Version which includes it all for $5.99. TouchMath has really helped our tactile learners make a connection with learning math!
The Homegrown Preschooler from Gryphon House. Although Gryphon House did win a Blue Ribbon Award for “Favorite Fine Arts Resource” for Global Art, I definitely have to mention how much we enjoy The Homegrown Preschooler. It is just so well-rounded and full of great information!
Classical Conversations Prescripts. This was our first experience with cursive, and we were able to use it for all three children. It was so much more than just cursive letters, though, with drawing and coloring (with historical pictures) as well. Classical Conversations Prescripts is another resource we continued to use and enjoy – and will probably do more of it next year, too!
Of course, I could go on and mention more because really there have just been some wonderful curriculum and resources we got to review that we may have never experienced without The Schoolhouse Review Crew. All offer something different and of value. I definitely wanted to highlight our personal favorites as well, though, that we continued to use and made a “home” in our curriculum.
Did some of your favorites make the list? I’d love to hear what yours are as well!