This was such an informative and helpful video! It’s hard to picture the breakdown and how a typical day would be based on just the website. Thank you!
You're welcome! I know the program has recently been updated, so I'm not of all the new changes, but I think the overall structure should still be pretty close.
This is the best review I have seen! Thank you so much for this video! I’m very excited to get started. I think after watching your review we are going to jump into level 1 preschool.
Aw, thanks so much! I'm so glad it was helpful! I always get nervous that I'm not explaining things well enough, so that's very confidence building 😁. We'll be doing Early Years Vol. 1 for my son soon. Can't wait to get into it!
Courtney A It sounds like our littles are close to the same age. She is almost 2 as well! I love that you shared pictures of the work she was doing. So much room for interpretation and creativity!
Thank you so much for this helpful video! I’m combining Blossom & Root K with Torchlight Pre-K and a math program. I’m feeling overwhelmed with all the activities, but I think your idea to focus on just 1-2 subjects per day is much better. 🙂
Living Book Press has reprinted the Burgess books with more pictures that are in color. I have purchased from them, but I'm not affiliated with them, and I had a great experience.
I wish I would of found this for the summer time to keep us on track before school started. My daughter is about to start virtual school with the county and am thinking of implementing some homeschool curriculum on the side if virtual is a bust. Blossom seems like a awesome curriculum. I also have a 2 year old and will look into the early years volume one! Thank you!
Great review! Thank you for putting this together. A lot of my questions were already answered in the comments, but I didn't see mention of the planner you are using. What kind of planner is that and where can I get one? I am a first time homeschool mom trying to teach kindergarten and 3rd grade so I can use all of the organization tools I can get. lol
This is the one I used last year in that video! Not sure if it's still easy to find, but here's the Amazon link. After we finished the year, I switched to a Purple Trail teacher's planner. It has full days for Saturday and Sunday, too, which I like for scheduling our extracurriculars. www.amazon.com/High-Teacher-Planner-Plan-Book/dp/1483842797/ref=mp_s_a_1_17?dchild=1&keywords=teacher+planner+undated&qid=1596187739&sprefix=Teacher+planner+un&sr=8-17#
Hi There, your reviews are amazing and have really helped us cut through the noise and solidify our curriculum. We have landed on two of your suggestions (RightStart Math and LOE Foundations) independently for our 1st grader, and are looking for something to supplement for Science and Nature type stuff, as well as possibly art. Curious what you would suggest for B&L in terms of picking and choosing versus buying their 1st year whole packet (which has things like Language Arts which we won't need). BTW, we are out of the country so the degree to which we need to buy physical books to supplement the PDFs will be an issue/consideration for us.
Thanks! I think BR1 would be really good if you're looking for one program that encompasses all of those things. We're actually doing BR1 right now, and we are doing the Literature part even with continuing with LOE. We skip all of the phonics/reading work in it, but we read the stories, make the crafts, and do the journal pages. The actual phonics part isn't too much, so I do think it's still worthwhile even if you're doing LOE. I'm not sure if you've checked yet, but there is actually a new book list for Year 1, and it's a lot more books than the first edition. This might be something to consider if you're overseas. So, I would check the book list first and see how doable it is. Definitely check your library's Overdrive/Libby, too. We get most of our books through there. The science and nature study for year 1 is all about geology. What I like about it is that she's given a bunch of different ideas depending on how your child learns best, so there are book suggestions, video suggestions, indoor activities, and outdoor activities. We don't have a yard, so the outdoor ones are usually not doable for us, so I like having things planned that can be done at the kitchen table. There are a few books listed as spines and supplemental readers. I personally only ever buy spines, and for the geology, you could probably get away with just the DK Super Earth book. I will say that I find that book a little advanced for my first grader, so I've actually been using Lonely Planet Kids' The Big Earth Book for most lessons. It doesn't line up exactly, but it's been working a bit better for us. The art is pretty similar to the other years - look at a picture and do something in a similar style. It looks like you could do the science and art for about $80ish (about $95 with nature study), and then the full curriculum for $130ish. If you think you can get the books for the Literature easily, I would say it's probably worth it to get the whole package. But if you'd have to pay for each book in the LA yourself, then the cost is going to get really high and might not be as worth it. Just FYI in case you hadn't seen, it's actually the fall sale right now, so make sure you use the code on the website to get the 30% off!
Thank u soo much for this!! You gave me such a great idea with doing one subject per day..and not even on a designated day! That's very refreshing and such a relief! Me trying to figure out what day to do what subjects and fitting everything in for each thing more than once a week started to overwhelm me a little bit. I'm definitely going to try it that way:) Also, where do u obtain the actual art pieces for the picture study? I know there's UA-cam and Google play music for the composer part. But, I don't quite understand how to get the pieces of art themselves.
So glad I could help! I really love having a loose schedule. I get really overwhelmed if I put too much pressure on myself to get things done at a certain time. I always feel like I'm behind! For the art, I usually just do a search on Google and pick the picture with the highest resolution. When you get to Picasso, pablopicasso.org has good ones.
Thank you so much for this helpful video! I have a question- when you estimate the 30-45 minutes a day spent on lessons, does that include the other curriculums you mention (right start and torch light)? Or is your school day longer than the 45 minutes each day to include other curriculums? I am a beginner trying to get a picture of what a day might look like for my kindergartener next year. :) thanks again, this video is so helpful to so many parents!
It was about 30-45 minutes for Blossom and Root. Are you doing Rightstart A? I would say that was about 15 to 20 minutes a lesson. They were shorter for us in the beginning and took a bit longer as we got near the end of the level. Torchlight varies a bit depending on which activity, but probably another 20 to 30 minutes for that. I always tried my best to get most of our schooling done before lunch each day, so usually between 9 am and noon, with breaks between different things we were doing. Sometimes if we had other things going on and we couldn't get schoolwork done before lunch, I would try to save the art projects for the afternoon. We work a lot better doing the more difficult stuff earlier in the day.
Do you print on regular paper? Thank you for this review, I've been debating whether I should buy this curriculum or not, and this video made me purchase it😁
Yay! I'm so glad it was helpful! We really had so much fun doing this last year. 😄 For the printing, I did the parents' guide double sided on regular paper, and then just a piece of card stock on the front and back with spiral binding. I did the student pages all single sided, and I put them in a 3-ring binder so I could just take out the sheets I needed. For the paper weight, I did one size up from basic. I'm not sure about American paper weights, but it's 80 gsm in Taiwan.
Hi. My daughter will be in Kindergarten and is already reading a bit. Do you think the Lang Arts/Reading sections will be too easy for her? Do they actually teach reading at some point?
There is a bit of phonics and reading work in Blossom and Root, but it's a bit light. I think it's more for fun than super serious learning. In Kindergarten, it's mostly reading CVC words. We actually supplemented with Logic of English to have a bit more direction and practice. If your daughter is reading some already, I know some people start in Foundations B, which goes straight into double letter phonograms, so that may be a better option.
Where did you get the physical copies of the art, Monet and the future artists? Did you print it all off or did you buy them from somewhere? I'd like to use physical copies like you have, if possible. Thanks for any advice!
I would just do a Google search each week, and print the nicest copy I could find. A lot are just from Wikipedia pages. If you're going to homeschool long-term, I definitely recommend getting an Epson Ecotank printer. It prints so nicely, and it's really affordable for printing in color.
You need to get them separately, but the great thing about this curriculum is that they're all classic books, so they're super easy to find. I got all but two from my library's Libby app!
Could I do Blossom n Root plus Rightstart plus Logic of English or does this sound like too much. It would be for grade K at 5yo. I only want to do curriculums 3 days/week.
We did Blossom and Root Kindergarten, Torchlight Pre K, Rightstart A, and Logic of Engish Foundations A this past year. I think they all worked well together, but you might feel a little rushed doing them over just three days a week. We generally did Rightstart 3 days a week, Logic of English 2 days a week, and then a Blossom and Root activity each day (and one Torchlight PreK activity each day). I guess it would depend on how much your child can focus on a day. I found that doing Rightstart and Logic of English on the same day was too much for my daughter, so I always alternated them. We generally did a phonics or math lesson in the morning and one Torchlight or Blossom and Root activity, and in the afternoon we just did a Torchlight or Blossom and Root activity.
hello. where did you get the artwork of the famous artists from please? your example in the video does not look like a google printout... I'm a bit disappointed that the artwork examples are not part of the C, given the price ...
I actually did get them from Google! Mostly from their Wikipedia pages. I have an Epson Ecotank, and it prints really well. Have you checked the Facebook group yet? I believe someone put all the pictures together in one file there.
Oh, goodness, so sorry. I accidentally deleted your reply 🤦♀️. I'm glad I could help, though! The Facebook group is really great, and I think you'll find a lot of great resources there!
For phonics, we've tried Good and the Beautiful, All about Reading, and Logic of English. Logic of English has definitely been the best for my daughter. Very hands on. For math, we've only done Rightstart, and it's totally fantastic. I love everything about it! We completed Torchlight's PreK and Blossom and Root's Kindergarten last year, and now we're doing Torchlight's Kindergarten for my daughter, and Blossom and Root's Early Years Volume 1 for my son. I've also added in Guest Hollow's Little Otter's Anatomy for science because the science in Torchlight's Kindergarten didn't seem cohesive enough for us.
I am thinking about doing the Otter’s Anatomy with my four year old and wondered your opinion on the program. I love the emphasis on the human body but just need another opinion on the program.
@@katievehorn7594 I really love it. There are so many different options each week, and it's really hands on. I would recommend picking up "Human Body Activity Book for Kids" by Katie Stokes to go with it. The pictures are great. My daughter also prefers the drawing activities in it over the coloring in 'My First Human Body Book'.
This was such an informative and helpful video! It’s hard to picture the breakdown and how a typical day would be based on just the website. Thank you!
You're welcome! I know the program has recently been updated, so I'm not of all the new changes, but I think the overall structure should still be pretty close.
I can listen to you all day long btw. Great review. Your voice is so calming.
Aw, thanks!
What a WONDERFUL review! You made me grab this for my child. Love love love.
That's great! So glad I could help. Hope you guys enjoy it as much as we are!
This is the best review I have seen! Thank you so much for this video! I’m very excited to get started. I think after watching your review we are going to jump into level 1 preschool.
Aw, thanks so much! I'm so glad it was helpful! I always get nervous that I'm not explaining things well enough, so that's very confidence building 😁. We'll be doing Early Years Vol. 1 for my son soon. Can't wait to get into it!
Courtney A It sounds like our littles are close to the same age. She is almost 2 as well! I love that you shared pictures of the work she was doing. So much room for interpretation and creativity!
@@Knitterbug Yeah, that's what I really love about this program. It's great for cultivating creativity while learning.
Thanks for taking the time to share this information. I'm considering getting this curriculum for my son next year.
No problem! Hope it was helpful!
Thank you so much for this helpful video! I’m combining Blossom & Root K with Torchlight Pre-K and a math program. I’m feeling overwhelmed with all the activities, but I think your idea to focus on just 1-2 subjects per day is much better. 🙂
So glad it was helpful!
Very helpful; thank you! We're starting to homeschool after Thanksgiving and I think I will go with this!
That's great! Hope it works well for you!
Thank you for this thorough and personable review. It was incredibly helpful!
Thanks! I'm so glad it was helpful!
Living Book Press has reprinted the Burgess books with more pictures that are in color. I have purchased from them, but I'm not affiliated with them, and I had a great experience.
I wish I would of found this for the summer time to keep us on track before school started. My daughter is about to start virtual school with the county and am thinking of implementing some homeschool curriculum on the side if virtual is a bust. Blossom seems like a awesome curriculum. I also have a 2 year old and will look into the early years volume one! Thank you!
You're welcome! Glad it was helpful!
Thank you so much!! I am getting this for my 1st grader to add to the public school curriculum.
Yay! Hope you love it, too!
Love the cash-shoes haha so adorable 😍
Great review! Thank you for putting this together. A lot of my questions were already answered in the comments, but I didn't see mention of the planner you are using. What kind of planner is that and where can I get one? I am a first time homeschool mom trying to teach kindergarten and 3rd grade so I can use all of the organization tools I can get. lol
Are u getting separate curriculums for both kids?
This is the one I used last year in that video! Not sure if it's still easy to find, but here's the Amazon link. After we finished the year, I switched to a Purple Trail teacher's planner. It has full days for Saturday and Sunday, too, which I like for scheduling our extracurriculars.
www.amazon.com/High-Teacher-Planner-Plan-Book/dp/1483842797/ref=mp_s_a_1_17?dchild=1&keywords=teacher+planner+undated&qid=1596187739&sprefix=Teacher+planner+un&sr=8-17#
Hi There, your reviews are amazing and have really helped us cut through the noise and solidify our curriculum. We have landed on two of your suggestions (RightStart Math and LOE Foundations) independently for our 1st grader, and are looking for something to supplement for Science and Nature type stuff, as well as possibly art. Curious what you would suggest for B&L in terms of picking and choosing versus buying their 1st year whole packet (which has things like Language Arts which we won't need). BTW, we are out of the country so the degree to which we need to buy physical books to supplement the PDFs will be an issue/consideration for us.
Thanks! I think BR1 would be really good if you're looking for one program that encompasses all of those things. We're actually doing BR1 right now, and we are doing the Literature part even with continuing with LOE. We skip all of the phonics/reading work in it, but we read the stories, make the crafts, and do the journal pages. The actual phonics part isn't too much, so I do think it's still worthwhile even if you're doing LOE. I'm not sure if you've checked yet, but there is actually a new book list for Year 1, and it's a lot more books than the first edition. This might be something to consider if you're overseas. So, I would check the book list first and see how doable it is. Definitely check your library's Overdrive/Libby, too. We get most of our books through there. The science and nature study for year 1 is all about geology. What I like about it is that she's given a bunch of different ideas depending on how your child learns best, so there are book suggestions, video suggestions, indoor activities, and outdoor activities. We don't have a yard, so the outdoor ones are usually not doable for us, so I like having things planned that can be done at the kitchen table. There are a few books listed as spines and supplemental readers. I personally only ever buy spines, and for the geology, you could probably get away with just the DK Super Earth book. I will say that I find that book a little advanced for my first grader, so I've actually been using Lonely Planet Kids' The Big Earth Book for most lessons. It doesn't line up exactly, but it's been working a bit better for us. The art is pretty similar to the other years - look at a picture and do something in a similar style. It looks like you could do the science and art for about $80ish (about $95 with nature study), and then the full curriculum for $130ish. If you think you can get the books for the Literature easily, I would say it's probably worth it to get the whole package. But if you'd have to pay for each book in the LA yourself, then the cost is going to get really high and might not be as worth it. Just FYI in case you hadn't seen, it's actually the fall sale right now, so make sure you use the code on the website to get the 30% off!
Thank u soo much for this!! You gave me such a great idea with doing one subject per day..and not even on a designated day! That's very refreshing and such a relief! Me trying to figure out what day to do what subjects and fitting everything in for each thing more than once a week started to overwhelm me a little bit. I'm definitely going to try it that way:) Also, where do u obtain the actual art pieces for the picture study? I know there's UA-cam and Google play music for the composer part. But, I don't quite understand how to get the pieces of art themselves.
So glad I could help! I really love having a loose schedule. I get really overwhelmed if I put too much pressure on myself to get things done at a certain time. I always feel like I'm behind!
For the art, I usually just do a search on Google and pick the picture with the highest resolution. When you get to Picasso, pablopicasso.org has good ones.
Thank you so much for this helpful video! I have a question- when you estimate the 30-45 minutes a day spent on lessons, does that include the other curriculums you mention (right start and torch light)? Or is your school day longer than the 45 minutes each day to include other curriculums? I am a beginner trying to get a picture of what a day might look like for my kindergartener next year. :) thanks again, this video is so helpful to so many parents!
It was about 30-45 minutes for Blossom and Root. Are you doing Rightstart A? I would say that was about 15 to 20 minutes a lesson. They were shorter for us in the beginning and took a bit longer as we got near the end of the level. Torchlight varies a bit depending on which activity, but probably another 20 to 30 minutes for that.
I always tried my best to get most of our schooling done before lunch each day, so usually between 9 am and noon, with breaks between different things we were doing. Sometimes if we had other things going on and we couldn't get schoolwork done before lunch, I would try to save the art projects for the afternoon. We work a lot better doing the more difficult stuff earlier in the day.
Does the curriculum come with Pdf of the artist paintings or do you have to search for them on the web?
I had to search for them myself, but I think someone actually put them all together in a file in the Facebook group now.
@@courtneya9437 ok thanks Courtney 😊!
This was SO so helpful! Thank you!!
So glad it helped you!
Do you print on regular paper? Thank you for this review, I've been debating whether I should buy this curriculum or not, and this video made me purchase it😁
Yay! I'm so glad it was helpful! We really had so much fun doing this last year. 😄
For the printing, I did the parents' guide double sided on regular paper, and then just a piece of card stock on the front and back with spiral binding. I did the student pages all single sided, and I put them in a 3-ring binder so I could just take out the sheets I needed. For the paper weight, I did one size up from basic. I'm not sure about American paper weights, but it's 80 gsm in Taiwan.
Thank you
Hi. My daughter will be in Kindergarten and is already reading a bit. Do you think the Lang Arts/Reading sections will be too easy for her? Do they actually teach reading at some point?
There is a bit of phonics and reading work in Blossom and Root, but it's a bit light. I think it's more for fun than super serious learning. In Kindergarten, it's mostly reading CVC words. We actually supplemented with Logic of English to have a bit more direction and practice. If your daughter is reading some already, I know some people start in Foundations B, which goes straight into double letter phonograms, so that may be a better option.
Where did you get the physical copies of the art, Monet and the future artists? Did you print it all off or did you buy them from somewhere? I'd like to use physical copies like you have, if possible. Thanks for any advice!
I would just do a Google search each week, and print the nicest copy I could find. A lot are just from Wikipedia pages. If you're going to homeschool long-term, I definitely recommend getting an Epson Ecotank printer. It prints so nicely, and it's really affordable for printing in color.
I second the EcoTank purchase! Defintiely the most affordable way to print a lot of stuff, especially in color.
Does this come with copies of all the books you need or do you have to buy them separate?
You need to get them separately, but the great thing about this curriculum is that they're all classic books, so they're super easy to find. I got all but two from my library's Libby app!
Could I do Blossom n Root plus Rightstart plus Logic of English or does this sound like too much. It would be for grade K at 5yo. I only want to do curriculums 3 days/week.
We did Blossom and Root Kindergarten, Torchlight Pre K, Rightstart A, and Logic of Engish Foundations A this past year. I think they all worked well together, but you might feel a little rushed doing them over just three days a week. We generally did Rightstart 3 days a week, Logic of English 2 days a week, and then a Blossom and Root activity each day (and one Torchlight PreK activity each day). I guess it would depend on how much your child can focus on a day. I found that doing Rightstart and Logic of English on the same day was too much for my daughter, so I always alternated them. We generally did a phonics or math lesson in the morning and one Torchlight or Blossom and Root activity, and in the afternoon we just did a Torchlight or Blossom and Root activity.
hello. where did you get the artwork of the famous artists from please? your example in the video does not look like a google printout... I'm a bit disappointed that the artwork examples are not part of the C, given the price ...
I actually did get them from Google! Mostly from their Wikipedia pages. I have an Epson Ecotank, and it prints really well. Have you checked the Facebook group yet? I believe someone put all the pictures together in one file there.
Oh, goodness, so sorry. I accidentally deleted your reply 🤦♀️. I'm glad I could help, though! The Facebook group is really great, and I think you'll find a lot of great resources there!
What else have you tried?
For phonics, we've tried Good and the Beautiful, All about Reading, and Logic of English. Logic of English has definitely been the best for my daughter. Very hands on.
For math, we've only done Rightstart, and it's totally fantastic. I love everything about it!
We completed Torchlight's PreK and Blossom and Root's Kindergarten last year, and now we're doing Torchlight's Kindergarten for my daughter, and Blossom and Root's Early Years Volume 1 for my son. I've also added in Guest Hollow's Little Otter's Anatomy for science because the science in Torchlight's Kindergarten didn't seem cohesive enough for us.
I am thinking about doing the Otter’s Anatomy with my four year old and wondered your opinion on the program. I love the emphasis on the human body but just need another opinion on the program.
@@katievehorn7594 I really love it. There are so many different options each week, and it's really hands on. I would recommend picking up "Human Body Activity Book for Kids" by Katie Stokes to go with it. The pictures are great. My daughter also prefers the drawing activities in it over the coloring in 'My First Human Body Book'.
Is this level 1 or 2?
This is the Kindergarten Level.