Leann is a homeschooling mama of an over-active 6 year old, proud wife of a cop, and pet lover of their two dogs, frogs, turtles – and cricket. Her blog, The Hands-On Homeschooler, chronicles their homeschooling journey, while throwing in tidbits about life, reviews, and recipes. Prior to being a stay-at-home mom, Leann taught math at a public high school for high achieving students. She and her family currently reside in the middle Tennessee area.

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BraveWriter Language Arts Program

We use living literature to teach the mechanics of writing!

Copywork, dictation, and a few other strategies thrown in for good measure—we teach the mechanics of writing through living literature. Brave Writer adds an element to the teaching of mechanics: appreciating an author’s craft in writing (literary elements).

These open-and-go programs are digital downloads, featuring one novel (not included) per month, with weekly passages for copywork and dictation.

Programs are based around grade levels

  • The Wand (Grades K-1)
  • A Quiver of Arrows (grades 1-2)
  • The Arrow (grades 3-6)
  • A Pouch of Boomerangs (grades 7-8)
  • The Boomerang (grades 9-12)
A Place to Call Home: Toby’s Tale

A Place to Call Home: Toby’s Tale

A Place to Call Home is the heartwarming and inspiring story of an abandoned white German shepherd puppy named Toby and his cross-country search for a forever home. Narrated in part by the animal characters in the book, the reader experiences Toby’s world through his eyes and those of the animals he meets on his journey. Inspired by a true story, this middle grade/young adult novel can be enjoyed by dog lovers of all ages. “An inspiring and compelling story. Highly recommended.” The Wishing Shelf Awards.

Teaching Textbooks Geometry

Teaching Textbooks Geometry Version 2.0 includes 16 chapters and 110 lessons that teach students the fundamental basics of geometry up through more difficult topics such as coordinate geometry, theorems, properties, and postulates. Chapters cover lines and angles, parallel lines, triangles, quadrilaterals, circles, area, solid geometry, non-Euclidean geometries, and more. Problems modeled on questions found in the SAT/ACT are also included to help prepare students for standardized testing.

This applauded geometry curriculum was written specifically for homeschoolers; because Teaching Textbooks doesn’t presuppose a teacher constantly at the student’s side, the student chapters feature clear instructions and employ an easy conversational style of writing before transitioning to more proper terminology. Illustrations, examples and graphs have a hand drawn look to them, and problems often use engaging real life illustrations. Not only is the textbook easy to implement, but there are audiovisual lecture, practice, and solution CDs for every chapter, homework and test problem. Definitions, theories and more have their own reference portion in the back of the text.

North Star Geography

North Star Geography gives students a deep understanding of how geography impacts all of us every day-with real-life applications for college, career, citizenship, and ministry.

Written from a distinctly Christian perspective by a homeschool grad (now a homeschool dad), North Star Geography is a full high school credit. It covers:

Geography Skills (such as reading maps and navigation)
Physical Geography (the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere)
Human Geography (social structures, culture and heritage, interacting with the environment)
The Companion Guide (included on CD) contains:
Hands-on activities and projects
Map work, memorization, and geographic research questions (with answers!)
Quizzes, a final exam, answer keys, and a grading rubric
Reproducible outline and reference maps, note-taking pages, and graphic organizers

From Adam to Us

From Adam to Us by Ray and Charlene Notgrass is a one-year world history and literature course designed for students in grades 5-8. The daily lessons are written in a narrative style and richly illustrated with color photographs and maps. Primary sources, literature, and hands-on activities help the student connect with the history in a personal way.

The curriculum has thirty chronological units of five lessons each. Each weekly unit has one lesson from each of five categories:  major events in world history, how natural wonders of God’s creation influence history and culture, historic landmarks, biographies of influential people, and daily life and how it impacted technology and social change.

Currently (Fall 2015), only the pdf version of this curriculum is available.  The print version will be available Spring 2016.