I love it when I come across a product that will make learning more fun – even allow my girls to forget that they’re learning.  If it covers multiple skills or subjects all at once, that’s even better!  This is exactly the case with Treasured Passages from Uncommon Goods.

Let me backtrack for a moment and tell you about Uncommon Goods.  This is a unique retailer which sells, as the name suggests, “uncommon goods.” They carry a variety of novel or unusual products that make for unique birthday gift ideas (see  them here) or Christmas gift ideas.  There are gifts for men (Check them out!), gifts for Mom (Check them out!), and – my topic of discussion here – really cool stuff for kids that often makes great homeschooling material.

There are several versions of Treasured Passages (including one for couples which could be a thoughtful gift for a soldier who is deployed, and his spouse); the one I selected is for mothers and daughters.  I think that ultimately it’s designed for mothers and their grown daughters, but I’m using it with Ariel.

This product consists of cards with envelopes and a keepsake book/box to store them in.  The book and cards include writing prompts.  The idea is that Mom fills out one card (with a letter spilling over onto other paper if necessary) and mails it to her daughter along with the blank, corresponding card.  Then the daughter reads Mom’s card, fills out her own, and sends them both back to be placed in the box.

We don’t need to mail ours, since we live together, but I did mail the first and will probably mail a few more on occasion, just because Ariel loves getting mail and it makes her feel special.  As a rule, I will probably deliver them to her by some other, postage-free means. 🙂  This provides me with a great way to connect with my daughter, though – something I can always use help with because it doesn’t come naturally to me.

It’s perfect for our schooling for this year, too.  We will be studying family history later this year.  This is a good way for her to begin writing down her own history.  More significantly (for our schoolwork), though, is its usefulness for writing practice this year.  We are working on letter-writing skills and on handwriting.  This provides a wonderful opportunity to work on both, without doing “school” at all!

We also received, from Uncommon Goods, a cheesemaking kit, which you will be hearing more about when we study Early America, and a “Facebox.”  The Facebox isn’t a homeschool-related item.  It’s a small tin box filled with stencils for creating a variety of faces.  (I figured my children would like this because it’s kind of like making police sketches.  They’re really into “detective” stuff.)  Because it is small and self-contained, it would be a great travel activity.  And maybe a good “when we’re sitting waiting for sister to finish with choir class” activity.  So maybe it’s homeschool-related after all!

Disclosure: I received product from Uncommon Goods to facilitate this review.  As always, all opinions are 100% my own.