Monday, November 21, 2016

Blue Ribbon Award Winners 2016

Blue Ribbon Award Winners, homeschool products, homeschooling favorites, Homeschool Review Crew


It is that time of year again to tell you about our favorite products that we reviewed for the Homeschool Review Crew this calendar year. The Crew families have voted, and while we are waiting for the overall results, I thought that we would share Arlene and my favorites for this year.

There were a lot of categories to vote in, so let's just begin at the beginning shall we? I've linked our reviews for each of our choices, just click on their names.

2016 Favorites: (by category)



Literature Curriculum: Literature Guides by Memoria Press

(This one was a hard choice as Arlene loved all three Heirloom Audio Titles we reviewed this year. Beric the Britain was her most favorite favorite, so it went here)

History/ Social Studies Curriculum: Ronald Reagan from YWAM

Science Curriculum: Science Shepherd Biology

Science Supplement: Chemistry 101

Christian Education Product: The Christmas Treasury from Familyman Ministries. (This was also a tough choice, as we also really liked FishFlix.com, CrossTimber, and Chara Games)

Overall favorite High School Product: Science Shepherd Biology (2nd place overall was The Power in Your Hands by Sharon Watson)

College Prep: Handbook for Writers from Janice Campbell's Everyday Education

Favorite Parent Product: Tap My Trees 

Best Resource we didn't know we needed: Forbrain

Best Online Resource: Demme Learning - streaming videos for Math-U-See Geometry

Best E-product: Handbook for Writers 

Favorite book, novel, audio book or audio drama: The Dragon and The Raven from Heirloom Audio

Just for Fun: Woodlawn from FishFlix.com

Teens' choice: Arlene: The Christmas Treasury from Familyman Ministries, Emily: HomeschoolDiploma.com

Overall Favorite Product Reviewed: Tap My Trees Starter Kit

Just a few more comments:

Tap My Trees' Starter Kit won our overall favorite product of the year for several reasons, but here are our top two: Making Maple Syrup was such a wonderful learning experience for our whole family, and it was SO DELICIOUS that we are going to do it again next year!

We actually voted for Science Shepherd Biology three times. The third was in a special category entitled Christian Education Curriculum. This is your favorite curriculum that comes from a strong Christian worldview. This set is excellent! Arlene is continuing to use it all school year and doing better with it than any other Biology curriculum we've tried for her in the past.

I didn't ask Emily about HomeschoolDiploma.com before we voted for them for her (she was at work, so we picked for her-LOL!) I know we were all impressed by her Diploma...which she will receive in two short weeks! We also recently ordered her graduation announcements from HomeschoolDiploma.com and they did a fabulous job!

Heirloom Audio would get three or four votes if we could put it in more often. These are wonderful Audio Dramas that we still listen to often...especially for road trips!

The Familyman's Christmas Treasury is a gem that Arlene and I continue to listen to over and over again. She has then on her iPad and we listen to them in the car at least once each week. The characters are intriguing   and they continually point back to Christ's birth being the focus of Christmas! We love them.

While we have wrapped up our reviews for The Homeschool Review Crew for 2016, there are still more great reviews coming soon! We will be posting an expanded review of 3 Seeds from Chara Games later this week, and we have another audio book drama to tell you about soon. Just in case you're wondering, YES! We will be on the Homeschool Review Crew for 2017 and hope to share with you more in-depth reviews of homeschool products.

Have a wonderful week!

Happy Thanksgiving!













5 comments:

  1. making maple syrup is indeed a whole lot of fun isn't it? :) We use our tree almost every year.

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  2. We loved Writing with Sharon Watson too, and Beric the Briton was our favorite of the Heirloom Audio. But that was a tough choice!

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  3. I found the Familyman Treasury to be a surprise winner for our family. I had no idea how much the girls enjoyed it until they begged for it to win a category and have continued asking to listen to the stories again. - Lori

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  4. I am very intrigued by this tapping trees thing. Sounds like a wonderful bunch of resources!

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  5. I really liked the stories from the Familyman Treasury. I wasn't sure how the kids would like the stories but they really did. My all time favorite though is Heirloom Audio. Hard for me to pick a favorite as they are all so very good. Did you get a chance to make syrup? How did it turn out?

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