Review: Moving Beyond the Page Units

Last month I was sent a set of units to review from Moving Beyond the Page.  

I met Kim Howe, the co-founder of Moving Beyond the Page, at a curriculum fair this spring.  She was very engaging and had obvious passion for her company and so I was excited to see her company's name on a vendor list with The Old Schoolhouse!  The vision behind the company developed when Kim, who home schools her three children, was frustrated with the resources available for her gifted right and left brain learners.  She wanted something that was more "outside of the box", and something that would better engage them.  

And so Moving Beyond the Page was born and has quickly grown into a flourishing business.  Moving Beyond the Page offers complete curriculum packages (just add math) for students in the 4-12 year age range.  This summer packages for the 11-13 and 12-14 crowd are going to become available.  The curriculum is literature based and composed of 3 areas - language arts, social studies, and science.  Each one of these areas, for a particular age group, has 12 unit books.  The areas are designed to be completed concurrently and they complement each other.  For example - we were sent a literature unit, called Communities and Cultures.  We were also sent the complementing social studies unit, which is called Communities Change Over Time.  Each of these unit books come with a set of awesome books. This complete integration of all subjects tied together around literature is awesome.  For a great article on why an approach like this can work so well, go here.

If completed at a typical pace you would complete the whole curriculum package in a school year.  The packages have an age range on them, and you can use guidelines on the webpage to determine if the 5-7, 6-8, or 7-9 is a better fit for your 7 year old (for example!).

Within each unit book you will find a set of lessons (9 in the ones I received) and a final project.  Most lessons can be done in 1 day, but there are a few that have a suggest pace of 2 days.  The units all have books that go along with them, and during the course of the unit there is assigned reading from the associated books.  The activities and worksheets also revolve around the books being used to study particular concepts.

What does a day look like?  We like to start with the language arts material.  There is normally some reading from the books being covered, which your child can do alone.  There are some activities and worksheets and discussions to do together!  Then you move on to the social studies area, where there is more reading (most days!) and activities/discussions.  In all it took us 1-2 hours to complete the lessons. If you were doing the science unit too it would take a bit longer!  Note: this curriculum has LOTS of projects/activities.  If your child really gets into them they could spend a lot longer than 1-2 hours on them, not that this is a bad thing!  

There is a lot to like about these units:

• The work pages aren't your typical "fill in the blank", mindlessly, and be done type.  They introduce children to everything from plot development to venn diagrams in a natural way.
• The books used by the units are great!  There is a nice selection and all were carefully selected.  There is no fluff here, it's quality material but also books that are fun for kids to read.  All 3 of mine have devoured the Time Travel Agency books that came with our units.  And, importantly, they can tell me facts they've learned about Egypt and the Middle Ages from reading them.
• You can choose to purchase this curriculum in many different ways.  You can buy hard copy, or you can buy access (three month) to an online version of the unit books.  You can get a discount (substantial) and purchase all of the units and their books bundled together for the year, or you can pick and choose just the ones you want to try.
• The parent instructions are clear and easy to follow.  There isn't a lot of prep work, and it's easy to open the book and go.  You may have noticed, from other posts, that I favor these kinds of curriculums.  :)
• Spelling, vocabulary, craft projects, literary analysis... it's all here!  But not in an overwhelming way.  The flow of the program is easy to pick up despite the completeness of the offering.
• The program is designed with the gifted student in mind.  I like that there are questions that make your kid go "hmmmm...", and "I don't know!!!".  After further thinking and reflection Bentley could normally come up with an answer.  But it was more of a challenge than some of the worksheets/programs we've used in the past.  Critical thinking = good!
• I like the type of discussion questions raised by the lessons.  We covered everything from poverty to how to weave linen and why change happens to what culture means.
• Awesome topics, like economic cycles, how people change the world, and more.  These are concepts beyond the basic "core" standards (which Moving Beyond the Page is aligned with) - the core is covered, but in ways that are really meaningful and applicable to *real* life.
• I like that there are intros, conclusions with wrap up questions, and summaries to review what is being learned.  Things aren't just mentioned once - you see them a few times.  This helps if you're a fan of the mastery approach to education.
• The final projects are fun!  One of ours, for example, is a time capsule.  The fact that there are only 9 lessons in a unit means you will get to do lots of final projects.  These shorter units are more gratifying than one long unit because you see progress and completion on a regular basis.

The units we used cost $46.89 (hard copy) or $42.83 (online, access for 3 months) for the language arts component and $41.97 (hard copy) or $37.91 (online) for the social studies unit.  The units vary in price because the books needed for the units vary in price.  You can buy the accompanying books from Moving Beyond the Page, or find them on your own if you'd prefer.  I prefer the hard copy to the online version - it's nice to have it all printed and in front of you to use on your own schedule.  In addition, if you need additional student workbooks you can get them at a very discounted price after you've purchased the first one.

As mentioned I think a lot of the exercises/questions raised by this program do a great job of promoting critical thinking skills in kids.  There are also a fair amount of "crafty" type of projects, like doll decorating and mask creation.  If your child has a low tolerance for crafts (that would be Jake, around here!) then you will want to consider that or modify the projects to suit your child!  All in all?  I find this curriculum package to be quite wonderful.

Unfortunately, it is hard to do this complex product the justice of a thorough review without making this post far too long.  :)  If you are looking for a complete curriculum package, or if you are looking for some fun supplemental units to use for particular topics, I'd suggest giving Moving Beyond the Page a good look.  Their products are well thought out, thorough, and a pleasure to use.

For more thoughts (and there are a LOT of them!) on this great company, please check out some other reviews from The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew.  We were all sent different units for different ages, so there is tons of great information available.