Four Violet Reviews: CHSH Download Club ~ REVIEW

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2010 by Lynda Ackert, a Christian wife, mother and veteran educator of 20+ years. She began her career as a public school teacher and taught both in the states and overseas for the Department of Defense before becoming a mother at the age of 33. It was at that time she began homeschooling. As part of her passion for teaching, she discovered her love for creating educational materials for teachers and homeschoolers and has chosen to give back to the educational community through her efforts to create and maintain this community. - See more at: http://www.christianhomeschoolhub.com/pt/About-CHSH/wiki.htm#sthash.ksmBJlDX.dpuf

So, this Summer we were preparing for our cross country trip and school kind of took a back burner. We planned to school through the trip and keep up on our journals. Looking at all the books we were planning to take was a tad overwhelming and I was worried about keeping up with it all. Along came a golden opportunity....we were given an Annual Subscription to the CHSH Download Club to REVIEW from CHSH-Teach.com
Lynda Ackert created CHSH after more then 20 years of educating Kids in the States and Overseas. Once she became a Mom she decided to Homeschool and found a Passion for creating Educational Materials for Teachers and Homeschoolers. And I know I am Thankful she took a leap of Faith and started this Amazing Community that offers over 50,000 Educational Downloads for grades K-12.

Kaden has always been all over the board as far as his ability. One thing I have noticed consistently is that most of the time a lesson in a traditional textbook is longer then his mind can concentrate on. He can watch a short video, do a bullet outline on the subject or even read a book about the subject and retain what he's learned easier then if he sat down and finished a textbook lesson. So, what do you do with that? Well, we do a ton of Unit Studies....but, this sometimes requires a lot of prep on my part unless I'm lucky and find what he wants to learn about already put together. And sometimes we are lucky and find what we are looking for or find enough to where I just need to look around a little more to make it a more meatier lesson. This was kind of what I was dreading on this trip. I was worried I wouldn't have the time to go searching. When this Review came up though I jumped right in searching for gems. Luckily, it didn't require a lot of searching! :)

So, what I did during this Review period was search topics regarding places I knew we were going. And I figured along the way I would be able to look up random additional goodies. Let me back up though and first tell you about the set up of the CHSH Download Club. When you log in you will see links for FREEBIES, Download Club, Resources, Forum, Giveaways just to name a few. You can browse for what you need by Subject, Grade, Months, even a place to find help Organizing and a Miscellaneous spot. Or you can search for a specific Category, Topic or as a Member even Key Words.

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The first things we looked at obviously was the 50 states. I downloaded it, but only printed the materials for the states we were visiting. I also downloaded the American Government Teachers Guide and Student Text. It was over 300 pages, so we saved it to the computer and didn't print out the pages, instead Mahala wrote out the answers and drew diagrams in a History Notebook. We decided to do that as much as possible because we didn't have a printer in the RV, we had to wait till we were in an area that we could find a printer and that didn't always work best for us. I tended to mainly print out lapbook activities for Kaden, Mahala's was mostly written out. When we get home that may change since we will have our printer, paper and plenty of room! :) We used the Herpetology Resources and Materials while we were in South Carolina because we found a ton of frogs and lizards out where we were camping. I know this may sound funny, but after our Day at Epcot Kaden was mighty interested in Vikings. There was a ride there where we were on a Viking ship. So, I did a search and ta-da a 17 page Viking Reference Guide that was fully in color. We didn't print...just read and viewed it online. I also found a 150+ page Viking Unit Study. All the materials are available for you to preview so you can see what you get before you download. You can usually download the sections you would use. There was even a fun Long Ship craft that we flagged to do once we get the supplies at our next Wal-Mart run.

If you ask me I think this is a great arsenal of tools to have to build your own unit studies or just as a supplement to go along with what you are using now. I love the Separation by Months. Sometimes I forget all the smaller Holidays or additional Month learning Opportunities. This serves as a great reminder and provides plenty of memorable teaching moments throughout the month that might have been missed before. One in-particular was National Train Day, have you heard of that before? Also as a Member you receive helpful emails....just the other day in my email was a list of things that happened in September. Like the Apache Indian Chief Geronimo surrendered on Sept. 4th,1866. The United States Treasury Department was established on Sept. 2nd, 1789. And a hurricane, reaching winds up to 120 mph, struck Galveston, Texas, killing 6000 persons, and causing property damage estimated at $20 million on Sept. 8th, 1900. These all stir up amazing conversations and themed learning opportunities to enjoy with your children. I look forward to continuously using CHSH Download Club throughout our Homeschool and I can't wait to see all the goodies they add in the future.