Storyvalues Interactive - Folk Tales for Your Children Giveaway!

There is a  WONDERFUL GIVEAWAY for one lucky winner today!    I have been looking forward to this day for several weeks, because I get to tell you about a program my children have been using - Storyvalues Interactive.      You know that we love all things technology in our home, so when I was approached to review this program I was very interested.  


Storyvalues is, quite simply, online telling of folktales.  

"Storyvalues is a modern expression of the ancient tradition of storytelling."

"Storyvalues allows children to interact with stories, see and hear examples of art and music from around the world and participate in creative activities that promote personal expression and problem solving."

Currently the program offers 15 folktales from all over the world, which your child can watch on the computer.  (Each year Storyvalues will be adding 10 additional stories, with 100 interactive stories in 5 years.)   Once the story is over, the child can click on the interactive story page to learn more about the story, including music, art, language, dance and culture.  The home screen looks like this... 

we went immediately to Europe, because we are studying Greece right now.   A wonderful folktale, "The Barber's Secret" popped up and my children were on their way!

The storyteller was interesting, and what I especially liked is that the stories weren't cartoon-ish!    My children had to LISTEN to the story - they were not entertained by a huge graphic display, which I appreciated, as we are developing our "twaddle-free" environment!    Storyvalues allowed my children to have some time (without me) to continue learning important things about our current history unit.  Computer time was meaningful and productive, and they looked forward to it each day.  

On Storyvalues, you can 1) play the recorded story, 2) explore the interactive web page and 3) use follow up materials (which included art slides, musical instrument sounds and much more!)  Being a music teacher, I was interested in the musical instruments, which were all authentic sounds, and can be heard during the story telling.   Very nice!  

You can best see what Storyvalues is about by watching their video.  

Storyvalues can be purchased by an indiviual homeschool family, or by several families together.    It might even be a good idea for a homeschool co-op to purchase.   Detailed pricing options can be found here.  

I see Storyvalues as being a wonderful supplement to our history program ~ for the price you get many quality stories, and with more to come it's even better.   And, did I mention that Storyvalues is fully functional on the iPad?  That is a major selling point for our house!  

One lucky Homegrown Learners' reader will win a Storyvalues License  - valued at $65.00!!

This giveaway lasts until tomorrow at 8 p.m.!    To enter: 

•  leave me a comment and tell me how you would use this in your homeschool.   
• visit Storyvalues on Facebook and like their page and leave me a comment
• watch the video I linked to above and tell me what you think is the best part about Storyvalues
• Tweet this giveaway, and leave me a comment telling me you did so.  

Good luck!!

This post is linked with the Giveaway Day at Hip Homeschool Moms.

*I have been given a license to this product by Storyvalues  Interactive.  I am not compensated to provide opinions on products, services, websites and various other topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog owner's. If I claim or appear to be an expert on a certain topic or product or service area, I will only endorse products or services that I believe, based on my  expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider.

Our Own Lewis & Clark Expedition

What fun we've had learning about The Lewis and Clark Expedition!

  One of my daughter's books for this study is from Sonlight's Core 3: The Lewis and Clark Expedition by Richard Neuberger. I love the straight-forward style of the book, and the way it just speaks to both of my children. After the first couple of chapters my daughter remarked how it would be fun to have been on an expedition like Lewis & Clarke's.... which is when a light bulb went off for me.

I had ordered a book over the summer which which was highly recommended - Little Hands Celebrate America. I can see now why it got such rave reviews! It is full of fun, easy crafts which help teach about American history. One of them is a field journal made out of a brown paper grocery bag and yarn. How easy is that? The book also gives a short and sweet explanation of that time period in history - in this case, The Lewis & Clark Expedition. So, after a couple days of reading about Lewis & Clark we decided to put ourselves in their shoes and set off on our own expedition at a local lake.

Both my nine and five year olds made field logs, and I told them we were to name things like we were seeing them for the first time EVER..... just like Lewis & Clark had named the Rocky Mountains, numerous rivers, the grizzly bear, etc, etc.... I had no idea how much this little project would speak to my children. When we first arrived at the lake and sat down to eat lunch, this glorious bug was sitting on the picnic table.... my daughter dubbed it the "green leaf bug" and drew it in her journal.

Over the next couple of hours the children stopped at many different places and sketched or wrote about what they saw. I loved how this served as a creative writing activity!

We saw many "brown devils" hopping from tree to tree and running on the path in front of us.

Here's my Kindergartner hard at work on his field journal:

As we walked we talked about what it must have been like to lug our supplies over so many miles, through hostile and unknown terrain. We thought how utterly amazing it must have been to discover the Rocky Mountains.

My son shared what he knew about Sacajawea (we've been reading a little book at his level to go along with our study). We also just enjoyed a gorgeous day, as fall is finally starting to make itself known in our neck of the woods.

All in all -- a great day, and hopefully a memorable activity for all of us!

*You might enjoy reading A Prairie Dog For The President to supplement this expedition!