Two things I hate more than anything are math and exercise. No, I am not 500 lbs. I just don’t like exercise that is boring. I prefer to backpack and rock climb. Yes, I am a teacher, and I teach math and do a very good job at it. I have always struggled with math because I am dyslexic and learning disabled. I taught myself how to do math, and now God uses me to help children who need it. I don’t have to like math or exercise to know it is good for me. Being honest with my students helps them to learn that, too. I am also honest when I say that I groaned when I found out that the product I received free to review for the TOS Crew was an exercise DVD that incorporated math. And no, the vendor doesn’t control what I say about their product. However, I am fair, as well as, honest. This isn’t about me, but about helping my parents find products suitable for their students. If you read my blog regularly, you will know that once again I was pleasantly surprised at what I found.

The DVD, Gymathtics, created by Carrie Scheiner and her family through Suncheine World, LLC. Is well-produced and developed. Ms. Scheiner uses the premise that learning is enhanced by making as many connections in the brain as possible. Information from even seemingly different topics can be joined together and taught through activities to increase the connections leading to even stronger learning connections. In this case, math concepts are connected with physical exercise movements. Many students will find this odd, but this odd difference lends to its interest and fun. The program provides a warm-up section that has your body making lines, circles, and polygons that stretch your muscles preparing them for the more strenuous exercises to come. Your student will practice various ways to count as they do aerobic exercises, and then the intensity increases with pattern power as your student will do various pattern movement activities that strengthen the muscles and heart. On the screen there are diagrams with math information about polygons, circles, different kinds of visual patterns, and skip counting methods. Most are self-explanatory. During her exercise instruction, Ms. Scheiner also gives more math information verbally. The DVD finishes with the “Well-being Wind Down” section where she leads in relaxing stretches cooling down the body from the aerobic activity while explaining healthy lifestyle choices. These choices are placed on the screen as text at the end of the exercise program. The multisensory concept of math and exercise together is unique, but many students will find it delightful.

Being multisensory, many special needs students will be able to access it and benefit from its information such as those with autism, learning disabilities, dyslexia, attention deficit and attention deficit with hyperactivity, especially. Deaf students will be able to get a lot of detail from the math concepts as well as being able to follow the exercise steps pretty well visually. Ms. Scheiner often demonstrates the moves before the exercise begins. She could do this every time to be more beneficial. A Deaf student might benefit more from the math concepts if more of what Ms. Scheiner relates verbally is added to the diagrams on the screen or more diagrams were used during the exercise segments. Blind students will be able to access the music and dialogue of the DVD. Ms. Scheiner, trying not to overdo the verbal content for probably time purposes and interest of the student, may at times not give enough instruction of the movement of the exercise for a totally blind or mostly blind student to easily do the exercise. A little more specific instruction could probably be done to allow for more accessibility by a blind student. Math concepts could really use more verbal information added to allow for more benefit of the blind student, as well. Ms. Scheiner does a good job without probably even trying to provide accessibility. I am pretty certain that she could do an excellent job when aware that her DVD’s could be used by an even wider audience with just a little more thought and planning of verbal script and diagramming. You may think that there is no hope for the DeafBlind student. Well, I participated right along with my student helpers for this review. I, of course, could not get any information directly being DeafBlind. My students tactually explained to me the moves and the math concepts. I didn’t always do them perfectly, but it allowed us to giggle a lot. My readers know that I like lots of giggling during my lessons. Giggling equals fun, and fun equals better learning and longer remembering.

Gymathtics is a unique, but great way to get your students moving and possibly learning some math. They may not even realize they are” doing math”. This is their first DVD, $24.99, but more are available and others being developed. Their website at http://www.exploramania.com has these DVD’s and other products like exercise mats and balls using math.  Check them out, and you may soon be giggling over doing polygons and parallelograms.

We recently talked about World History, so now let’s jump right into American History with the American Heritage: An Adventure in Liberty CD. As publishing companies and secular historians try to rewrite our country’s history to fit their own agenda, it is a breath of fresh air to see this curriculum hit the field.

The American Heritage Education Foundation, Inc. makes the social studies/civic K-12 lesson plan resource CD available to free to educators. The foundation’s mission is dedicated to the understanding and teaching of our nation’s factual and philosophical heritage to promote constructive citizenship and freedom, unity, progress, and responsibility among our students and citizens. This resource planner implements that mission in a wonderful and beneficial way. The lessons are well written and hold a child’s attention. The activities provided stimulate continued interest and encourage interesting discussions. The program has three levels on elementary, middle school, and high school level. The elementary level is also provided in Spanish. The file format is Adobe Reader .pdf, and they provide a version of Acrobat Reader for installation if you do not have it on your computer. The Acrobat Reader is free and current versions can be downloaded from the Adobe Acrobat Reader web site for future use as updates become available. The material, itself, is written clearly and simple enough that the same basic lesson information is the same across the levels with the activities being a little more involved and covering more in-depth analysis in the higher levels. This makes it ideal for a classroom setting with students having various ability levels and learning needs and for a homeschool setting where there may be several students, but in different grade levels. Instruction can be simultaneous in either setting with modifications made when necessary and activities tailored for ability and grade levels. More importantly, the information is historically accurate and places the emphasis on the key facts that this country was founded by Christian men who planned the government to allow for freedom of religion, but acknowledging that there is a sovereign God who must be our guide in government matters. All of these factors make this a great choice for your lesson plan resource.

As far as accessibility which is very important to most of my readers, the .pdf format is as discussed here before not very accessible for some of my readers who are DeafBlind as I am. Adobe has removed their features that allowed braille access and locked their program down to use only their built-in text-to-speech program which doesn’t allow for braille access. The authors do have all security measures allowed including copying for accessibility which allows you to copy the text to Word which allows for some braille text access. The majority of the document is text in this case, so that is a great help for DeafBlind users. You will be able to get use of the product with a little bit of manipulation of the text. I appreciate the authors allowing that copy ability. The lack of alternate text tags for the images will present a small problem for all blind and deafblind users. The authors didn’t set up the file for accessibility at all within the Adobe format, so this can present problems even for the built-in reader. It is a simple problem to correct by labeling alternate text tags for the images and specifying language for all the text along with a few other simple corrections. I certainly hope they will do so to make it easier for text-to-speech reading to be correct and ease the transition to Word for braille use. Overall, the authors are commended for making the effort toward some accessibility.

The American Heritage Education Foundation also provides additional resources to further enhance their An Adventure in Liberty program on their website at http://www.americanheritage.org . Check them out for information on how to order the CD resource, as well. Wynfield Christian Academy will definitely be adding it to their curriculum resources for American History and Civics instruction. I don’t think anyone can go wrong with trying this program for instilling a God-based and historically accurate foundation for our American Heritage into our children. Our next generation really needs this kind of background to help keep America on a straight path as a God-fearing nation.

I love the smell of soaps and scented candles. Recently, I received a sample from Virginia Soaps & Scents to review for the TOS Crew. I fell in love just opening the package. The smells of coconut lemongrass and orange and chocolate filled my nose and lifted my spirits. Being DeafBlind, smells can stimulate my brain in ways unknown to most. To learn that these scents were all natural sweetened the deal. With asthma, I have to be careful of what enters my nose. Here, though, I found a touch of heaven.

Although not a homeschool product like I usually review, the owners of this company are a homeschool family that found a happy niche from a homeschool lesson. The enterprising family turned it into a full-thriving business with their own special recipes. The products they sell include soap bars of different sizes and fragrances, shampoo bars also in different sizes and shapes that are made from olive oil and other natural ingredients. Coconut oil is used for a rich and fluffy lather. Castor oil is used for a moisturizer. Their laundry kit goes along way providing lots of loads of clean, fresh clothes without the lather to get them cleaner without the residue to which many are allergic. My husband appreciates that very much and their line of unscented soaps of shampoos and soaps. With shaving soaps, total body bars, beeswax lip balm, and Christmas fragrances, everyone in your family is bound to find a favorite. With bars averaging 4.75 ounces and the smaller bed and breakfast samplers to 5.5 oz for shampoo bars giving about as many shampoos as a 32 ounce bottle, these products are wonderfully priced at $4.75 per single bar, 3 for $12.00, buy four and get one free, and 10 bars for $35.00. They even have a handmade white poplar tray to keep your soap dry and not on the sink as goo for only $2.50.

I found the website to be fairly accessible for most users. Low vision users will appreciate the high contrast. Screen readers and braille users should be able to access most of the site with only a little difficulty. The shopping cart is PayPal, so most users should do fine with purchases, as well. Totally DeafBlind braille users might have a little difficulty, but I managed fairly well. The pictures could use some alternate text tags. I appreciate that they attempted to be straightforward with their site. I am sure they aren’t too familiar with accessibility needs.

Go to http//:www.virginiasoapsandscents.com to see their beautiful selections. Christmas is coming. I know what everyone on my list is getting now! Oops, I guess I gave up the secret. I am just so excited over these soaps and scents.

For $40.00 a year or $70.00 for two years, you can have access to over 35,000 printable worksheets on various subjects and grade levels. You have access to clip art for any type of classroom project or decoration. You also can find activities and templates for projects like book report forms, research note card forms, etc. You won’t find any annoying advertising either. There is also customer service available to answer your questions and give tips. Whether you need a learning center, or research project, or just a practice worksheet, you can find it on this site, and it is growing every day with more and more resources being added.

As part of the TOS Crew, I received free access to the site for about a month. For myself, I was unable to access most of the site, since I am almost totally DeafBlind. I was disappointed because I was looking forward to browsing the site. I had to get sighted help to get any help at all from the site. Accessibility is great for sighted users, but those who need screen readers will be unable to make sense of the page for the most part. I know the main page has 104 links that are recognizable to the screen reader, but I can’t seem to get to them or know what they are. It reads “Your online resource for children’s Education and thousands of free printable worksheets and activities plus over 35,000 pages of worksheets… Then it skips to a series of links in the highlighted Directories under “Sandy’s Picks.” Many of the links are icon links made of graphics, and there is a table with a graphic that contains the links. A screen reader just can’t access that at all. I hope the owners will work on the accessibility of their site. I have many parents of hearing/sighted children who are blind and deafblind themselves. They like to work with their children just like other parents do. These parents need resources, too. If you can access the resources with sighted help, you will find the .pdf format files are open to the accessibility options allowed by Adobe. Of course, that is only suitable for hearing blind because Adobe forces you to use their text to speech program. This program doesn’t allow access to a screen reader that allows braille access. Therefore, I can’t recommend this site for my blind and deafblind parents. Sighted parents will find it quite user-friendly, though.

If you need worksheets or activity ideas, this site will certainly give you a lot of help. Check out the ABCTeach site at http://www.abcteach.com for more information.

History, by the definition of http://www.dictionary.com, is the branch of knowledge dealing with past events. An old history text I had in school and can’t remember defined history as the story of man. There should only be one story, but that isn’t the way it is. As a Christian, I know that man’s story is only possible because of God, so really history should be defined as His story. Secular historians as guided by the great deceiver, Satan, have sought to remove the creator of history from the story. Church history took God’s story and corrupted it over and over again for the power derived for one group or another. There are as many church histories as there are denominations and religions.  How do we know what is truth and what is not? The answer is simple. The truth is the Bible. God has filled His word with His spirit and keeps it from corruption through His spirit stirring in Man’s heart. How can we teach our children the Truth and guard their hearts from the corruption of the world? We can try to teach them only the Word of God and keep them away from all dissenting forces while they are with us. When they leave, we can only pray that their hearts and faith are strong enough to withstand any attempt to sway. Often, we know that plan fails. To me, a better way is to teach our children the Truth, but expose them gently and carefully along the way to what the world teaches as we lay it beside the Bible for comparison. When viewed by the light and truth of the Bible, all other things will either confirm or deny God, the creator and Jesus, the son and Savior, and the Spirit who acts upon the hearts of man throughout time.

The Amazing Bible Timeline that I was given free to review here is a tool that seeks to give parents the ability to instill not only the Truth in their children, but also that strength of heart and faith to withstand the attempts to sway and corrupt. The originators of this timeline researched all the many histories of our time and past and placed all those together side by side in the chronological order of time along with the history as present by God through the Bible. They have made it as thorough and accurate as humanly possible. The company continues to update it as more is learned about history and as God and man continue to write history. The material is presented simply as an expanded time line incorporating the many time lines of the Bible and other world histories without emphasis to one religion, denomination, or secular historian. This gives the parent the full control to use the tool to teach their child how the Bible teaches and what man has sought to confirm or deny of that truth. Using the method of presentation given for the use of the chart, it is easy to see how God has influenced the world as His creation despite men and Satan’s efforts to purge the evidence of Divine influence.

The 37” X 45” chart is multicolor-coded and lay out is circular and wide to be as useful as possible despite the overwhelming amount of information provided. The print is small and difficult to read at times, but a magnifier helps. In addition, the company provides Adobe Reader .pdf format files on their web site free after purchase for download. With those files, it is easy to zoom into one particular area to study the contents more closely. Use the chart on the wall or a table along with the computer files either on the computer or printed out for particulars areas you wish to highlight at a particular time to see the specific events within the bigger picture of history as a whole. In this way, it is easy to see how the control of the Romans and culture of Roman society affected the Jews as they rejected the Messiah because they were hoping at the moment for an earthly king to rid them of their captors. Or, you can see how God influenced man as He worked to purge our country from the sin of slavery, and directed the forces that prevented Hitler from ruling the world.

As far as accessibility goes, the company providing .pdf files is a great help for the Learning Disabled and low vision students who might want to use the time line. The blind and deafblind will not get any true use of the product due to lack of braille access. The company must use graphic files, and there is no way to present graphic information in braille except as a verbal or written description which may or may not facilitate comprehension. Parents and teachers will have to find other ways to present the material to them.  One suggestion would be to take the information and provide it in small chunks of time with a tactile and braille-labeled timeline. If you provide all the material across the circular bands for a time period of a 1000 years or smaller increments, the students could gain the knowledge the same way by seeing the variations of history for just that period for comparison and study. Even though accessibility is an issue for some here, this product should not be discounted. The knowledge gained by students or parents in preparation to teach students can be invaluable.

In addition, the company, Bible Charts and Maps, LLC provides a document presenting tips for using the timeline for Bible Study and history teaching. They also have interactive maps for the Holy Land and a genealogy of Jesus Christ in various file formats to use, as well. The Amazing Bible Timeline chart is $29.97 plus shipping and handling including the digital version and the interactive Holy Land maps for free. Go to http://www.BibleTimeline.net for more information and to purchase. Use this tool wisely and as intended, and you have a resource to help build your child’s faith on the truth of Jesus Christ.

The characters are so alive that you are literally transported to another time and place. History is kept genuine without blemishing the tender hearts of your students with inappropriate material. The story is adventurous and intriguing to most any child keeping them hanging on to the very end regardless of reading ability. The knowledge gained from these stories is accurate and abundant which makes them perfect for any family especially a homeschooling family.  The main character, Sarah, is orphaned in the first book, Sarah’s wish, plunging her into an unknown future. Her mother’s faith was instilled in her from an early age, and Sarah finds her courage to face the unknown by relying on God. Everything about these books is what parents are looking for to encourage their children and help them grow. Don’t worry about the character being a girl. This isn’t a “girls only” type book. The adventures are bold and varied making them perfect for the boy in your family, too.

I love the way the author said on his web site and in correspondence to the TOS Crew that he struggled with the historical accuracies of cursing and the “n word” during his writing. He looked at the prospect of keeping the story historically accurate, but also, considering whether the cursing added anything to the story. He, caring for children as a kindly father or grandfather, chose not to include cursing. More importantly, he found a terrific way of teaching history in another of the series, by teaching the use of the “n word”, but not by using it in dialogue as was often done during the time, but by developing a moment when Sarah could learn from a slave what the word meant to her and how it made her feel. This allows you, the parent, to continue that very conversation with your student teaching them a very important life lesson. I applaud the author’s efforts in teaching these values.

In addition, Mr. Baumgardner’s periodic newsletters add spice to the series with interesting and educational tidbits offered through the humor of himself and Granny, an elderly caretaker of Sarah’s, who is a bit eccentric, but a strong pillar of faith. The author uses the newsletters to teach more about history as he keeps interest in the series alive with contests and trivia questions. I thoroughly enjoy reading them and look forward to each funny installment. I know my students do, too.

As far as my special needs recommendations go, the author has beautiful print editions available, which he graciously will autograph to add even more of a special touch, with a decent size font in crisp contrast to the white pages. He also has audio book versions, as well, suitable for use by the blind, print disabled, and learning disabled student. The print versions seem to also come with a code that allows you to get a free audio download of that specific book, too, making it a very useful tool for the learning disabled student to read and listen to improve comprehension. Prices for the books and/or audio books are very affordable beginning at $9.99 for one print version and $16.99 for the separate audio book only. The author’s attention to special needs is appreciated. There isn’t anything available for the deafblind student, but it could easily be done by making the book available to http://www.bookshare.org . This organization is non-profit and provides various formats of shared books to disabled persons, schools, and organizations for disabled populations including deafblind and learning disabled through a subscription program which verifies the participants as certified disabled and protects the copyrights of authors and publishing companies. I recommend that Mr. Baumgardner and owners of Tate Publishing and Enterprising contact Bookshare.org to allow the access of their books to the deafblind. I thoroughly enjoyed the book I received and look forward to reading another, but it is not nearly as enjoyable to have to have a sighted person read the book and sign it to me. I would prefer to read it in braille for myself. I am sure the author would be gracious enough to consider this based on his voluntary attention to the disabled populations of whom he is familiar.

Children will love the series and parents will love being able to trust them. In fact, as this middle- aged woman can attest, adults will love them, too.

These magazines just lying on the coffee table or school desk beckons you to pick it up with each gorgeous full-color cover page and back cover. My students love to grab it at break time and pour through the pages of full color pictures of animals and insects and scenery. Each basic magazine has a crossword puzzle or word search and an art activity including a drawing activity. Drawing skills are wonderful to have to allow your students to document their outdoor studies with sketches as well as journaling. There is also a wonderful nature photo with a fitting scripture for students to learn for the month. In addition, the entire issue is written from a biblical perspective and appropriate scriptures throughout reinforce the concept that God is the creator, and the whole earth is his handiwork depicting His nature to us. You also have a fun scavenger hunt to let your students improve their observational skills hunting for the drawings of a plant, or an insect, or animal track hidden in the pictures throughout that issue. Some are easy, but others really make their eyes work.

The optional, but inexpensive study guide extends these activities for fun and learning even more adding several more pages of pictures and stories, and fun. There are research activities, photography tips, word searches, crossword puzzles, etc. All of these activities help to reinforce the information found in the stories and articles on different animals and insects. Learning different ways to get good photos of nature is so informative and fun. Students will love getting outdoors to try getting the best angles. There are also writing activities for students to try. Journaling about nature observations can be fun, and is a learning tool used by naturalists.

Your students can also mail in submissions of the activities they have done to Nature Friend that just might be included in a future issue. They can send mail asking questions or telling how they love the magazine. They can also write their own articles or stories about nature and send it to them. Each issue has lots of art work, articles, photos, etc. done by the young readers of the magazine. That will certainly motivate your young naturalists.

Nature Friend will be useful for many special needs students, as well. The font is a comfortable size for learning disabled students and many low vision students. The reading level is easy to comprehend while challenging the student with its content. My students love to read the articles and sign or fingerspell their favorite things to me. Your students don’t have to sign, but let them tell you what they like, too.

Nature Friend is available by subscription for $36 for 12 issues in the U. S. while Canada and Mexico subscriptions are $49 and International is $62 for 12 issues. The study guide can be added for just $2.00 per issue for 12 issues and is highly recommended by this author. Nature Friend is well worth this price with all the fun packed into each issue. To find out how to subscribe to Nature Friend magazine, go to http://www.naturefriendmagazine.com. This just might be the magazine that gets your students off the video games and into God’s creation.

College Prep Genius makes bold claims for their college entrance test preparation program. “Cut your reading time in half.” “Answer math problems without ever touching your calculator.” “Write a high scoring essay in fifteen minutes.” It probably sounds impossible, but the program complete with a four DVD presentation, guide book, and workbook is right on target. The author, Jean Burke, explains that the PSAT/SAT/ACT tests are not knowledge checking tests. They are actually logic tests. Using logic, you can find the answer to those tough questions. This isn’t about learning little tricks to guess at the answers. It is about understanding the true nature of these tests and the purpose behind them. Once a student has a basic understanding of math and grammar, they should be learning the methods, patterns, and logic of these college entrance tests including the PSAT.  The premise taught with College Prep Genius is that the tests are Standardized, and therefore, the question and answer patterns stay the same.

The program is divided into four main parts: overview of the tests, critical reading, math, and essay with additional sections on scholarship search and comparison of the SAT and ACT. The DVD’s follow the same basic organization with a DVD devoted to the four main parts above. The guide book is thorough and very clear. It provides numerous examples that walk you through each of the kinds of problem types depicting the ways to work them through correctly and how to work them through using the logic and hidden patterns and strategies of the test. These methods help you to answer the questions faster and being more accurate than falling for irrelevant information, not understanding important vocabulary, working math problems completely or using a calculator. The DVD’s highlight and further emphasize the key points of the guide book using the workbook to give sample questions to practice the guide book materials. The DVD’s go over each of the questions in the workbook detailing the method used to quickly answer the questions.

Using the methods in College Prep Genius: Master the SAT Class, your students can really improve their thinking skills as well as their achievement test scores. The cost is $79.00 for the entire package, and my readers can get free shipping and handling from now until November 15, 2009 just use the special code, HSBlog09. If you need help improving your child’s chances for college, check out http://www.collegeprepgenius.com.

Almost every parent in my school for homeschoolers had heard of lapbooking and loved it. The parents find it so useful for their children in learning and more importantly, retaining the information they learn. These parents felt that the process of building presentation booklets on specific topics increased their students’ interest level in the subjects, too. The ability to make lapbooks almost 3D with the use of various paper folds adds additional interest and skill to the unit studies. This method is very similar to scrapbooking and just as versatile, it seems. A Journey through Learning unit studies take a great method and make it easy to learn with the detailed instructions and tip guides. The well-designed templates and colorful photos and clip art helps make it easy to create advanced and spectacular booklets. The study guide provided with each one gives your student a great start at learning. Lapbooking and A Journey through Learning cover all the modalities needed to make learning a success with the ability to teach the skills of following instructions and working together (when a family tackles each project). You can then tie it all together with the ability to express themselves creatively.

Accessibility for these projects is there for the .pdf since Adobe has the text-to-speech ability. Of course, there is no braille output for this, but the authors do have the ability to copy text for accessibility turned on which will allow it to be pulled into other screenreading programs for large print, better voices for the blind, and braille for the deafblind. The great colors available in the templates are good for low vision, and the templates can be printed out at larger scales for those with low vision. These can definitely be modified for many special needs students.

These great lapbook units on all kinds of subjects from amphibians to reptiles, to the Civil War to the Bible can be found at the web site, http://www.ajourneythroughlearning.com. The prices are very affordable and are available in three formats: downloadable .pdf at $13.00, CD_ROM at $14.00, and print at $21.00. Created by two homeschooling moms for homeschoolers who understand what you do and what you need to teach your students, these lapbook sets are just the ticket to success.

Nutrition 101: Choose Life! written cooperatively by Debra Raybern, N. D. and Sera Johnson and Laura Hopkins and Karen Hopkins as part of Growing Healthy Homes, LLC. brings the study of the body and how it works into the homeschooling way by integrating the program into the lifestyle of the family. The resource itself is full of interesting reading about each of the body’s systems complete with colorful pictures and diagrams loaded with details. Biology study alone, it isn’t either, though. The delightful twist is nutrition and how food affects the workings of the body systems. The ultimate goal of this project is to help the family “develop lifelong habits and desires to eat wholesome foods that support great health”. The authors’ goal is definitely well-supported by the wealth of researched information, exciting family activities, and delicious healthy recipes. Scripture is referenced throughout the program modeling for your family what God has intended for our bodies, His temple. The activities are designed to get your students thinking and finding out for themselves what amazing bodies God made for us and how it is our responsibility to care for them properly. The delicious recipes are specifically chosen for each lesson to emphasize the many points taught in each area. They are designed with the family in mind including the picky eaters. The design is visually attractive to the eye as well as conducive to learning using the added visual cues of boldly colored and attractive fonts for vocabulary, pronunciation key facts, and fun fact side boxes.  The appendix is also packed with good resources for almost anything you might wish to learn more about such as selecting fresh produce, kitchen safety, calcium, asthma helps, mold, and more. This program really takes health to more than just “a check off the box” course .

The visual organization, though designed for the sighted, is still suitable for many low vision students. The colors and boxes help to separate the main lesson from the added information and to highlight the vocabulary and other features. The e-book version of the curriculum is in Adobe .pdf, and thankfully, the authors turned on the accessibility features that are present in Adobe. Unfortunately, this will not help braille readers at all, since Adobe has locked the .pdf to use only its speech-to-text reader which has no braille output features, and the Adobe .pdf format is not accessible to JAWS or other screenreaders for speech or braille output. I am not faulting the authors for this at all, and I hope they will educate themselves to the needs of the blind and deafblind market. There are homeschooling families who need these accessibility features including braille.

Nutrition 101: Choose Life! is an amazing curriculum for homeschool use. It is so versatile being in the digital e-book format and a print format. The program can be purchased on their website for $79.95 for the CD-ROM, $99.95 for the print book, or a combo pack of the CD-ROM and book for $ 129.95. This curriculum really can deliver on its promise to help “develop lifelong habits that support great health”. Find out more about this great curriculum at http://www.GrowingHealthyHomes.com.

StudyPod is actually shaped like a book that is big enough to hold most books of varying sizes, but small enough to fit in your pack. The best thing is that it is designed to carry items like pens, paper, , calculator, magnifiers, contrast film guides, etc. With the StudyPod being made of sturdy plastic, your electronic and glass items will be much safer inside than just thrown in your pack. Even if you don’t carry a pack, and prefer to hold your books in your arms, the StudyPod being the approximate size and shape of a book will fit nicely in your stack of books making it comfortable to carry along with you.

Carrying it is easy, but what do sighted people need to know about the benefits of a StudyPod. Reading a book is much easier on the body if the book is held more upright. You keep your neck and back at a comfortable angle as you read closer to eye level. Studying is much easier, too, with the desk area less cluttered without the open book and notebook scattered across the area. The book held in a StudyPod is kept in a smaller place on the table within comfortable reading distance allowing the student to write notes or answers on a notebook or paper directly in front of them. A well-organized study area leads to a well-organized mind best suited for learning as an old adage used to proclaim. The StudyPod helps give you the perfect study area that can lead to good grades.

StudyPod comes in three colors: black, blue, and pink. The company also has the same product branded as BookPod to market to a more general audience than just students. The BookPod comes in black, gray, and beige. That definitely gives you some variety, although I hope they will eventually add red which is the last color that many people with certain eye diseases can see. I am sure some teens would like purple and lime-green as they like to express themselves.

The book holder is pretty simple to use, and the website has a video to show how you set it up to hold a book. Of course, this is only helpful for the sighted folks. I had to get help learning how to do it the first time which is a bit more difficult, since I am DeafBlind. Within just a few minutes though, I was sliding the stand bar out, and opening it, and placing the book on the pod and turning pages like a pro.

You can find out more about the StudyPod and the BookPod at www.studypodbookholder.com . One unit is $19.95, and you can purchase two or more at the discounted price of $16.95. A great price that helps me to declare that finally I can get a book holder that is actually useful in more ways than one.

Web Design for Kids and Curious Grown-ups created by Brian Richardson of Click Drag Solutions is a great tool for teaching kids of all ages how to make web pages in HTML. Umm, you don’t think it is easy to program in HTML, do you? Well, with Brian’s help, you will be well on your way to web designer pro status in a flash.

Brian does an excellent job explaining clearly the concepts of basic HTML programming from the simplest to the more complex. He smartly included a section on basic file management in the Windows system, but also smartly chose not to place in his main tutorial chapters. It is placed where those who need it can easily find it, but those who don’t aren’t bored having to listen to the information. His file cabinet analogy was superbly done by taking the time to demonstrate each step with an actual file cabinet placing paper files into a folder in the drawer. He took the time to demonstrate how one might accidentally place a file in the wrong place and how to find it and place it properly. His coverage was not overdone and boring, but it was right on target for full understanding. His topics covered Basic HTML from basic code to backgrounds to fonts to pictures. Everything you need for a good foundation in proper web design is here. Brian’s “sandwiches and stop signs” techniques to handle complicated terminology are a great idea. Additionally, a good thing from my point of view is that he describes his steps so clearly that my blind students didn't need to see what he was doing to follow his steps. They learned just as well as my sighted students. My Deaf students also saw and understood everything he did clearly despite no captioning. That is very unusual. Don't worry about my DeafBlind students. The blind students learned so well that they were excited to braille all of the steps and explain it just like Brian. Now last but not least, Brian’s humor is lame enough to interest the elementary student, but not so lame as to turn off the teenager and adult. (Sorry, Brian, I couldn’t resist.) Everyone smiles as you and your kids will learn the basic knowledge you need to conquer web design and web design programs like Frontpage and Dreamweaver even when their “wysiwyg” formats and wizards won’t do what you want.

To make it even better, the price is fantastic at $19.99 plus $3.99 shipping and handling. Part of your purchase price also goes to one of several charities like American Foundation of the Blind, The Smile Train, Ronald McDonald House, Children’s Miracle Network, and The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. Brian even has some sample clips on his site for you to view before you buy at http://www.webdesignforkids.net. Do your family and others good by giving this DVD a try.

Math is a subject that needs a lot of practice, and motivating students to practice is difficult. This software helps to make that practice fun. Students can compete against their own progress record because the software saves the top five performances and uses those to create virtual competitors.  Or, they can race against other students, siblings, or even Mom and Dad which is way more fun, of course. Either way your students are improving their math skills at any grade level from Kindergarten to ninth grade. The concepts are covered from numbers to fractions to percents, to equations covering almost every topic within each concept you can find.

Enjoyable practice is what they will get with this program. The graphics are simple and in a lower resolution making them large and bold for even my low vision students. The problems pop up below the racers which can be chosen as race cars or horses. The problems are bold and large making them easily legible for many low vision users.  Parents have two options to purchase this grade program. If you have internet access, the Deluxe version comes with student progress tracking and includes all levels from K-9^th. They have three payment options for this subscription based program of $2.95 per family per month, $19.95 per family for one year, and $34.95 per family for two years. There is also a Standard CD version that is $39.95 per level. The internet is not necessary here, but it does not track progress automatically for your student. You can track progress by saving each race manually. However, it can be loaded on multiple computers, so that your students can play at different times. They can’t race together, but they can compare their progress to fuel the enthusiasm. For tips and helps, they have a website with a special homeschoolers section with Getting Started information, printable progress chart, and a user’s forum. They also send out an email newsletter loaded with additional tips and information.

Check out their website for more information or try out a demo: http://www.thequartermile.com.

Have you ever wished there were some instructions to homeschooling your child? Now Terri Johnson of Knowledge Quest, Inc. has done just that with her Homeschooling ABC’s. In approximately 26 lessons (I wonder why?), she helps you find a curriculum, set up your classroom, write lesson plans, do labs, find resources, give assessments, evaluate your student’s progress, and your school year with other special topics along the way. You can’t find a better set of suggestions anywhere much less in one place.

The lessons are all in .pdf format easily read by Adobe Reader which is a free download. Ms. Johnson writes clearly and dynamically to give any new homeschooler the confidence they need to begin their first year, but she has so much good information and helpful hints that even an experienced homeschooler will learn a thing or two! Following the guidelines is easy. She has also provided many resources and given many helpful hints on how to find your own as the years go by.

We at Wynfield Christian Academy were so impressed that we have added it to our required Parent/Mentor Development classes for beginning homeschoolers enrolling in our umbrella program. We are also making it available for credit for our other more experienced homeschoolers simply because it is full of such good, useful information.

If you want to reduce the stress of your homeschooling life, check out http://www.HomeschoolingABCs.com.

Dr. Jay Wile who says he was an atheist for many years actually set out to prove there could not be a God, but proved to himself the opposite. God has now used him well as a Christian professor and as a textbook writer of science texts for grades 7^th- 12^th. His company also publishes other science texts suitable for K-6^th students as well as a geography course and a writing course. He understands homeschoolers as he and his family has homeschooled his children. Dr. Wile began helping teach science at the local co-op. His classes were so popular for their quality and fun that it was often suggested that he publish his lessons. The many Apologia users are so thankful he did.

In his courses, Dr. Wile uses chapters set up as modules. The modules are separated into sections with questions at the end of each section and chapter review questions at the end of each module like many curriculums. The questions check not only knowledge, but higher order thinking, too. Dr. Wile really makes sure the student gets the concepts and can analyze and apply them. Experiments are built in and designed to be done as you come to them when it is most appropriately matched with the reading. The lesson is fresh and the observations from the experiments can help the students thoroughly explore each concept. Each course also has a multimedia cd, or it is built in to the full course that can be purchased as a computer text. These multimedia experiences enhance the curriculum in ways that most students would not be able to do at home or even in a regular classroom giving further exploration and adding interest to the curriculum. Every course has a set of application problems for each module carrying the student into further study and analysis of the concepts. After that, the student completes a study guide with definitions and exercises and essay questions. If your student follows and uses all of these activities making sure they can answer any of the questions, they can be assured of success on the test. The use of these activities in the way it is presented goes a long way to model and teach your student the proper methods of study that can be transferred to all subjects. The high quality of these courses can also help your student if they wish to study one science area through each successive level. In so doing, your student can be prepared to take the Advanced Placement or entry level CLEP tests for a particular area such as Biology or Physics.

As beneficial as the method is, the best part of these courses is the way Dr. Wile writes. He writes in a conversational tone with simple, clear explanations. You actually get the feeling that he is sitting across the table enthusiastically sharing his passion for science with you. The writing appeals to almost all students even those who don’t like science. I have seen many a student including special needs students who hated science become engrossed in his style of teaching falling in love with science. That in itself is the main reason I love this curriculum. You can feel the passion for science coming through the lessons.

Dr. Wile’s curriculums can be found on the Apologia website, www.highschoolscience.com. You can also contact Dr. Wile via email from the site. He is very personable and will help you if you have any questions. I greatly appreciate the help he has given me and my students who can’t see a textbook or hear the audio files. Christian curriculums can’t be found in braille. Dr. Wile has graciously helped us provide a format that our students can use regardless of the equipment that must use to access the text. It is truly a blessing. His courses come in well-made print texts that have wonderfully coated pages that make them great when near the materials used for experimenting. The texts including teacher’s guide and test booklets are $85.00 and well worth every penny. The Full Text on CD-Rom including the multimedia files is $65.00, and multimedia and mp3 cds are $15.00 each. Courses for elementary grades are $35.00. Wonderful prices for such great and thorough curriculums that will surely make an impression on your students. Turn your student into a scientist with the Apologia curriculums.

I recently was sent a box of delightful, little animal figures. Schleich, a German company, makes figures of many different kinds. They are great for toys or teaching materials to enhance a child’s mind about just about any subject from medieval castles to farm life to Indians on the Western Frontier to the boundaries of your imaginary world of unicorns and Smurfs.

These figures are a very realistic and durable. I love the textures and fine details of the artwork that was put into each animal. The animals are all natural colors as found in true life. Ripples of muscles, strands of mane, and scales of armor are all intricately molded into the hard, but rubbery material. These figures are not the cheap plastic that you see so often in toys. The designers even took the time and effort to disguise the seam made when the two halves of the models were put together. Details are so intricate that you can easily see them in motion like the croc snapping his jaws down on his prey or the elephant swishing those huge, smooth ears to throw off the biting flies. The colors are so vibrant that the cat’s green and yellow eyes almost seem to glow that eerie glow when the light hits them. The catalog or web site you can find pictures of the over 500 products they sale. The medieval and fantasy figures are among my favorites. The elves are painted so beautifully that they seem more like an artist’s rendering from a magazine that a toy figure. I only found it strange that they all had wings. I know of no fantasy game, magazine, or book that has winged elves. They were beautiful, but I wish they had a few without wings. In addition to the figures, there are also background elements for more interactive play for many of the sets. The company also states that more will be coming out soon in their effort to make their products have even more educational value.

I commend the company for taking the extra effort to create such fine products. No matter if your children are sighted or blind they will enjoy seeing, touching, and creating their own worlds with these figures. You can see more of their beautifully crafted products athttp://www.schleich-s.com. The products are also sold at stores like Toys-R-Us and Target with prices ranging from about $2.50-$5.99.

Homeschool in the Woods is a wonderful company operated by husband and wife team, Ed and Amy Pak. They create and publish hands-on activity packs. I received the newest one in their history series, The New Testament.  This packet is definitely a product of their belief that hands-on activities are the best way to cement a child’s learning in the mind.

This packet over the New Testament provides fifteen hands-on activities to create a book that a child can hold and follow the course of history from the birth of Christ to His ascension. A child will reveal for himself the Old Testament prophesies fulfilled in the New Testament. This child will then explore the beginnings of the Church that helps us to know how the Church was intended to be and how it needs to be again. There are also two additional activities that take the student beyond the lessons of this packet to teach research and application of scripture verses. You and your child will have no problem creating this wonderful book because the step-by-step instructions are provided along with all the masters to print out and cut out and color photos of the finished products to guide your experience. By putting these activities together and creating this book, the child will have a resource to return to again and again to learn about the wonders of the New Testament.

We enjoyed all of the activities.  The children were of different ages and abilities. Many of my students have physical disabilities or learning disabilities. I was able to find an activity for every child and of every age regardless of their issues. For me, this allowed us to work together to put together this book for them to use in the classroom. A homeschool family with multiple children can use the same method, or purchase as set for each student to complete with the parent or alone depending on ability. Sticky fingers are a fun part of it, of course. One child with autism and cerebral palsy wound up with much of the book glued to her, but she was proud of the part she played as she continuously pointed out to everyone exactly which section she did. She adamantly repeated her simplified version of who the twelve disciples were and what they did. I think the newspaper was a big hit with everyone, but the older children were able to fully engage themselves here as they completed the sections and even added some of their own creation. Finally there was lots of glee when we added their face pictures to the soldier in the Armor of God activity. One eight year old child discovered the enlarging capabilities of the school copier and created a paper suit of armor for his small body using his sister’s thin hair bands to tie the parts to his arms and legs after gluing them to poster board. He remembers easily the name of each piece and the verse that goes with it. I was thrilled with it, but I do need to buy more copier paper now. Fortunately, my motto has always been, “Go with the flow.”

If you would like to try this activity pack, New Testament, by Homeschool in the Woods or find other products by this couple, go to http://homeschoolinthewoods.com.

Splish! Splash! Let the flood waters rise because we are on the ark with Noah. On One 2 Believe’s playset, Noah’s Ark, we are having fun learning about God’s promises.

After loving the Nativity playset from this company, I couldn’t wait to show my 8 year old DeafBlind student the new set that arrived at my door. This set was made with the same durable materials and had the same delightful, l textured features and colors. The ark comes apart to store the animals and Noah neatly inside when not in play. The little, colorful storybook provided helps to tie the love of reading the story to the imagination of acting out the story with the palm-sized characters. The best part of this set is one unbeatable additive to the mix: Just add water!

Floating on the sea of bath or the blue lagoon of a water play table, you have the makings of some fun adventures in Bible Land. My little boy flapped his arms in excitement as we signed, “toy, new” and then “boat”.  He carefully took each piece out of the “cargo hold” of the ark and felt each piece. He signed the name of each piece as he recognized the ones he knew with a big smile across his lips and a twinkle in his beautiful blue eyes. With an unknown figure, wrinkles would appear across his furrowed brow, the facial marker of the ASL sign “what” as his right index finger moved down his left palm signaling that sign. He often gets so excited that he forgets that I can’t see either and signs with a flash before I can place my hands on his to understand his side of the conversation. I can’t help, but smile at his desire for learning like a sponge soaking up water. I taught him each sign for each animal letting him touch my hands to read them. He carefully copied each sign sometimes holding a wayward finger in place. Then with help from my aid, we reenacted the story of the Great Flood in the play table designed for sand and water. We signed every part of the story while placing the ark and each character and animal in place. We signed how Noah is told by God to build that big boat. We signed how others laughed and made fun as Noah told them the flood was coming. We marched those animals and Noah up that gangplank signing that God was going to save them from the rising water. His eyes grew big as we poured water from a large pitcher over his hands while signing “water, rising”. We placed one hand gently on the ark as it began to rise and float with saying, pouring “rain”. Those shining eyes popped wide and the mouth opened and gasped. We signed, “, people, animals, God, save, finish which in ASL means God saved the people and the animals. Now he has a toy he can play with in the water at bath time or wherever, but he also has a vivid memory to remind him of the meaning for the signs “promises, God, keep and “me, God, save”.

My student needs the play to help him understand the world around him and the stories that will help him grow into a man with God’s integrity. All children can use this kind of play. That is why I love the interactive playsets from One 2 Believe. The Tales of Glory playsets like the Nativity written about at Christmas and Noah’s Ark are at great prices between $24.99 and $29.99. You can find these and more great toys fromhttp://www.one2believe.com.

SpellQuizzer uses little sound byte recordings to help your student practice the spelling words from any subject. The teacher can also set it up to do the tests at the end of the week with the typical say the word, use it in a sentence, and repeat the word. Now spelling can be done almost independently by any age student if needed. The sound recording is actually a really good length. You can pack a lot of words in that little byte. Downloading the program and installing it was quick and easy. There is also a great update button to get free updates when they are available. The most recent one even lengthened the length of your recordings’ maximum. You can edit your spelling lists and randomize how they are given to the student, too.

I set up different activity files for my different students. There was a testing file and a regular quiz file for each set of words. I was able to name these files in a way the student could identify his file for practice or test time. I also set up a couple of different quizzing features, too. Each one quizzed the spelling, but I also recorded using the definition of the word in the recording or a sentence to help the student review both spelling and vocabulary during his practice time. No, the quizzer doesn’t grade the sentence or vocabulary in quiz mode, but for practice the repetition helps them remember any kind of fact or definition you might want to use. You could have the student write the sentence or definition on paper for later grading if you like to incorporate that in your weekly tests, though. I also let my older students create their own spelling lists including recording the words, sentences, and/or definitions, too, to give further practice while creating the lists for later drill. For some students, this could be a regular way to help them learn their spelling and vocabulary for all of their subjects. They practice and get graded on spelling while recording their own definitions after looking them up in the dictionary or practice using them in sentences correctly.

This is a neat little program and can be purchased and downloaded for a small price of $29.98. You will also find free spelling lists you can download and import into your SpellQuizzer. One I downloaded was U. S. States and Mottos. The spelling of the state’s name was graded, but the recording also pronounced the name, gave a state fact, and stated the motto. The text that can be written for the student to see as a reminder phrase was a fact or the motto. You can create lists using similar features including a statement for the student to see on the screen. These features give you flexibility in what your lists can teach.

SpellQuizzer is a great tool to use to help your students learn to spell words and learn in all their subjects.  The software is a small package, but it can pack a lot of teaching for your student. Their web site ishttp://www.spellquizzer.com.