Songs For Saplings

About a year or so ago a dear friend shared a CD with me.  She said that a friend of hers put these CDs together and thought that we would enjoy them.  The children LOVED it so we decided to purchase the rest of the catechism cds and have been enjoying them ever since.

The other day a very well known blogger posted about these very cds.  Challies posted about Songs for Saplings along with other music for children.  Challies wrote:

Songs for Saplings is James and Dana Dirksen from Porland, Oregon. They have recorded four albums, one of which follows an A,B,C format while the other three are questions and answers, much like a catechism. I suppose these albums will largely appeal to younger children. They are quiet and acoustic.

He is correct in his assessment of the cds. They are geared toward younger children. But they are beneficial for the entire family.  The catechism cds do appeal to older children more and more in the second and third cds.  There is a great variety in the style of music on each cd. You can even listen to excerpts on their website.

What I love about them is that the children (and us parents) learn the great truths presented in the Westminster Catechism which is derived directly from scripture. Each question and answer also contains the scripture that teaches the truth. This way your children are not only learning the doctrinal truth but the scriptures that proclaim that truth.

Songs for Saplings is a ministry of the Dirksen family and this is what they state on their website.

We create lively, fun songs that attempt to deliver the deepest of Biblical truth in a format that your children will love to listen to. We want them to understand who God is and what He has done, as well as what He wants your children to do and to be. We hope that you will benefit from these CDs and use them to help teach your children about our God and his great love for us.

With Christmas time approaching, what better gift could you give than the gift of music which teaches and proclaims the greatness of our Lord Jesus Christ?!

I am pleased to announce that I can offer you a 20% discount off of your order when you buy CDs from their website. This includes the “12-pack bulk pack” which a lot of people order for gift-giving. This does however exclude the 24 and 48 CD bulk packs, which are already heavily discounted.

All you need to do is enter the following code as you go through the checkout: mamaarcher
It’s really simple.

Hopefully you will find this really helpful as you order CDs this Christmas!

As you seek to grow your little saplings……

into strong oaks of righteousness…

Songs for Saplings can be a musical and fun tool for you and your family to use and enjoy!

that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.
(Isaiah 61:3b)

Visit SONGS FOR SAPLINGS and order your CDs today! Order some for your friends and family too! Don’t forget to enter the discount code for your 20% off!

Please leave a comment and let me know if you plan on making a purchase and what you think of their music and ministry!

Regardless of whether you order, please tweet, email, and share on Facebook so that others can take advantage of the discount offer!

S.P.I.R.E. for Learning Disabilities

Homeschooling can be a challenge and a lot of work but it is filled with rewards for the children, the parents, and society.  It becomes even more challenging when learning disabilities are thrown into the mix.  I have two children (so far) who have been diagnosed with learning disabilities.  We are dealing with a whole array of learning disabilities.  A few of them have a lot of support and suggestions on how to deal with them.  Some do not.

It seems there is always trial and error involved in trying to find out what works best to help these children with extra challenges.  There are also differing schools of thought on how to approach things.  What one school of thought says works another will say is worthless.  The real test, however, is really what works, what brings results.  I am one who believes that the Orton-Gillingham approach seems to have the best results.  S.P.I.R.E. is based on that approach.

One thing that one must take into consideration when dealing with learning disabilities is that there will be what seem like set backs.  One day your child will seem to finally get it and then another day seem as if they haven’t picked up a thing.  Perseverance is the key.  Keep plugging away and do not let yourself grow weary.

Whenever I begin to find myself getting frustrated with my children I put myself in their place and realize how much they are struggling.  Being aware of how difficult the task is for them helps me to keep my frustration in check.

I have recently found a curriculum that seems to be helping my daughter.  It is rather pricey.  But I think it is well worth the price.  It does tend to get on my nerves a little bit only because of the amount of time and repetition involved but that is exactly what my daughter needs.  It takes more time than I would like but then again my daughter takes more time to “get it” than I would like.  It does take about 45 to an hour per lesson.  The lessons may seem redundant but again the repetition is what she needs.  It isn’t simply repetition though.  The program tackles reading from several different angles.  This helps to attack all different areas of possible mis-connects and cement the concepts for the child. Even though there is more involved with the program it is amazingly easy to implement. The teachers guides are very easy to understand and give step by step instruction which is easy to follow.

What program am I referring to?  It is called S.P.I.R.E. and can be purchased from EPS.  S.P.I.R.E. takes a ten step approach to teaching.  Each lesson contains ten steps.

S.P.I.R.E. is a comprehensive and multisensory reading intervention program. It is designed to prevent reading failure and to build reading success through an intensive, structured, and spiraling curriculum. It integrates phonological awareness, phonics, handwriting, fluency, vocabulary, spelling, and comprehension in a 10-Step lesson plan that is specifically designed for the way struggling readers learn. via website

S.P.I.R.E. has eight levels and each level follows the ten step lesson plan. With each concept taught there is an introductory lesson with one or more reinforcement lesson. With my daughter I have found that she needs each and every reinforcement lesson but that may not be so for your child. The ten step lesson plan is as follows. I share this to give you an idea of how they attack each new concept from several angles.

1. Phonograms Cards
2. Phonological Awareness
3. Word Building
4. Decoding & Sentence Reading
5. Prereading
6. Reading
7. Sound Dictation
8. Prespelling (orally)
9. Spelling
10. Sentence Dictation

There is also independent work and additional readers to reinforce what has been taught.  For more on the ten step program, GO HERE.

If you have a struggling reader I would highly recommend the S.P.I.R.E. program.  It is a bit time consuming (about an hour a day) and it is a bit pricey. I think I spent about $2200 for all eight levels and the preschool program for one child.  If you purchase it one level at a time though it isn’t so hard on the budget.

The thing that I love the most is the fact that it tackles the same concepts from all different angles and helps you see where your child is struggling the most enabling the parent to better address the issue.

You can learn more on their website.  They even have a sample video lesson demonstrating the ten step program.  You can also look at the scope and sequence for each level.

Do you have children who struggle with learning disabilities?  Have you found something that seems to work?  Have you ever tried or even heard of S.P.I.R.E.?  After looking it over, is this a program that you think you might try? Please leave me a comment and share your thoughts with me.

Draw, Write, Now

This school year we are trying something new.  I saw this at the curriculum fair this year and I just couldn’t resist.  For my younger children we will be using this three days a week.  It is a basic handwriting (manuscript) program combined with a drawing (art) program.  It is colorful and fun.  There are also book lists and thematic study suggestions if you want to expand you study.

I bought the entire boxed set but you can purchase each book individually.  I also purchased the workbooks to go along with it.  It is just easier for me to keep everything organized that way.

We have not begun yet but I have all three of my little girls asking when, when, when we can start on it.  I think it may be a highlight this year!

If you are interested take a moment to visit their website, HERE.  They also have sample lessons so you have a first hand look at the curriculum.  You could even try it out with your children before purchasing.

Have any of you used this curriculum before?  If so, what do you think?  Did your children enjoy it?  Did it improve their drawing skills?  I would love your input!

Catechism Resources

I am interrupting the series which I am blogging to share this with you.  Jennifer @ Quiverfull Family left me a comment the other day about catechism resources.

I’ve been feeling led towards catechizing lately (I don’t come from a Christian background, so this is really totally foreign to our family.)

Do you use the Westminster Shorter? Any specific resources that you can recommend?

I decided it would be good to share the information with all of you.  Thank you Jennifer for asking!!  These are resources that I love and am so excited to be able to share them!

First, yes, we do use the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

Second, here are a few resources that we use with our family! I am also listing a few others that are out there that we have not tried just in case you want to check them out!  I hope that these resources are helpful to you in training your children.

Big Truths for Little Kids

Training Hearts Teaching Minds

Vic Lockman’s Catechism in Cartoon form.

Songs for Saplings by Dana Dirksen

I know that Veritas Press also has a catechism songs collection and a song book but I have not heard them yet…they are on the order form for us to try out this school year.

We also have some of  THESE children’s catechism books…they were used along with their Sunday School curriculum a few years ago.

Covenant Home also has a catechism course which my hubby has used for youth group sessions.  It is designed for 5th grade and up.

What a Steal!

I am not one for yard sales but I do love a great deal!  This past week the Lord provided overly abundantly for us!    I went into Anchorage to go to the homeschool bookstore.  This is a great little bookstore and it is run by a wonderful lady.  I make several trips there.  I usually go to see if there is anything I need that they have on the shelves USED.  I have turned in several things that we no longer need for her to resell.  She is pretty picky about what to resell so you can always be sure that even if it is used it is a current item and in good condition.  For any item that she can resell she will give us a small percentage of the original price as credit to put toward the purchase of other USED items.  So I had a substantial amount of credit piling up and I occasionally go in and see it there is an item I am in need of in used condition.

The other day when before I ventured in I began praying in the car for a particular item to be there in used condition.  I had checked several trips before and there has never been any used.  Still, I prayed for that item to be there.  I walked into the store and went straight to the science shelves.  Guess what I found???  Exactly what I was looking for and praying for and it was a used copy!!

Apologia’s Marine Biology SET!  This sells for $85 new!  With a little bit of a lower price and  my in-store credit I paid a whopping $1.50 out of pocket!  I told the lady that I ALMOST felt too guilty to leave having only paid $1.50!  Almost being the key word!  So, there you have it, the Lord’s great and abundant provision!  Thank you Lord!

Copywork & Handwriting

Image via Wikipedia

When teaching penmanship, basic grammar, spelling, literature, accuracy, punctuation, vocabulary, sentence structure, attention to detail, and memory skills copywork and handwriting books are a great resource.  There are many different curricula available for such things but you want to make sure they are books of substance?  We do not want to just have busy work. When trying to instill godly character in our children it is important to use a curriculum that addresses those needs as well.  I have several listed here that you may want to look into.  We have used several ourselves!

A Reason for Writing has been around for a long time.   They offer curriculum for grades K-6th.  All of the lessons are based on scripture verses.  Along with learning good penmanship children are memorizing and sharing the Word of God.

Memoria Press has a little bit of a different approach.  Their books not only contain scripture but also classic poetry, literature selections, Latin sayings, and hymns.  They also have a great explanation on their website of the benefits of copywork.  They offer a primary set consisting of three books, a cursive book, as well as a composition and sketch book.

Veritas Press has a handwriting series entitled Classically Cursive.  There are four books in this series.  These reproducible books originated by the folks at Logos School are all you need to teach cursive handwriting.  These books use scripture and the catechism.  The four books are entitled, “Bible Primer, Ten Commandments, Shorter Catechism, and The Attributes of God.”

Last but not least are the Journibles.  These are actually designed for older teens and adults.  Yes, we adults can benefit too!  I am very excited about these and am looking forward to investing in some for myself.  Here is a description from the website on these books.

Each book is organized so that you can write out your very own copy of Scripture. You will be writing the Bible text only on the right hand page of the book. This should make for easier writing and also allows ample space on the left page to write your own notes and comments. From time to time a question or word will be lightly printed on the left page; these questions are to aid in further study, but should not interfere with your own notes and comments.

So there you go!  Several great resources for meeting the needs of handwriting and copywork but also attending to our spiritual needs.  Do you have any other great resources for this?  Have you used any of these?  Which are your favorite?  I would love for you to share!