Blue Ribbon Awards

We have reached the end of the 2015 Review Crew year. Sad but true. We are about to take a holiday break from reviews but we have been accepted to continue to participate with the Crew for 2016. We’ll start back up in January and February with reviews for The Old Schoolhouse. As the finally “hurrah” for the year, we always enjoy thinking back over our year and all we have done. The Review Crew votes for our favorites out of all of the slots we have reviewed through the year. Want to know what the top vendors were for 2015 for the whole Review Crew? Head over to the Crew blog and find out.

But before you go, check out what our family decided on for our own Blue Ribbon awards. There were a few categories that we did not vote in, either because we did not review any of the products for that area or we did not particularly love what we did use so we opted not to vote. (The below links all go to our reviews of the chosen vendors. Those reviews all have links to the specific vendor’s site if you would like to learn even more about the vendors.)

Favorite Reading Curriculum: Alpha Omega Publishers (Horizon 1st Grade Phonics)

Favorite Spelling Program: IEW Phonetic Zoo

Favorite Grammar Program: Editor In Chief from The Critical Thinking Co.

Favorite Penmanship Program: New American Cursive from Memoria Press

Favorite Literature Program: Progeny Press: Sarah, Plain and Tall, though YWAM Publishing (CS Lewis) was an extremely close second

History/Social Studies Curriculum: Project Passport: Egypt from Homeschool In The Woods

History/Social Studies Supplement: Heirloom Audio Productions was the clear favorite for us here but whether to choose In Freedom’s Cause or With Lee In Virginia was terribly difficult

Favorite Science Curriculum: Surfing the Net: Science from The Critical Thinking Co.

Favorite Science Supplement: SmartKidz Media

Favorite Math Curriculum: Alpha Omega Publications (Horizons 1st Grade Math) – we did not actually review this one but we have bought it and are loving it due to recommendations from Crew members. This link goes to our review of the phonics program but has links to the vendor’s site so you can learn more about their math.

Favorite Math Supplement: Simply Fun: Shape Whiz

Favorite Foreign Language: Middlebury Interactive Languages (Spanish)

Favorite FineArts Curriculum/Product: Maestro Classics: the Nutcracker

Favorite Christian Education Curriculum: Egglo Eggs

Favorite Elementary Product: Susan K Marlow: Tales from Circle C Ranch (All of Susan’s books are fantastic, though!)

Favorite Middle School Product: Susan K Marlow: Thick as Thieves (See? Susan’s books were chosen by all three girls as a favorite.)

Favorite Parent Product: Classical Conversations

Best Resource I Didn’t Know I Needed: IEW: Phonetic Zoo

Best Online Resource: SmartKidz Media

Best e-product: Homeschool In The Woods

Favorite Book, Novel, Audio Book, or Audio Drama: Star Toaster: Orphs of the Woodlands

Favorite Video: Living Waters

Just For Fun: Shape Whiz from Simply Fun

And, last but not least, the girls’ choices:
E – Thick As Thieves
L – Surfing the Net: Science and Progeny Press: Sarah, Plain and Tall
J – (sorry – this post had to be removed)

 

That is a lot of learning the girls did! The voting was hard because they really enjoyed several of the products that were in categories against each other. But, in the end, we were able to include all of our favorite vendors and products. We had a great Crew year and we can’t wait to see what 2016 brings!

At Home.

 

Tagged: curriculum, education, homeschool, TOS