For only $7.95 (less than two beverages at my favorite, local, gourmet coffee shop), you get a 48-page ebook with a huge variety of engaging math activities to use with your students. Here is a sampling of what is included: For the students:
Math magic: Use numbers to tell someone what they are thinking, tell them their telephone number, tell them their birthday!
Tangrams: Learn to use tangrams, and follow links to sites that will give you tangram shapes to figure out how to create them yourself using the standard set of tangrams, which you create by printing out the pattern.
Print and color a set of pattern blocks to use create pictures and designs. Go to link provided for more ideas.
Learn how to do Sudoku; learn how to make your own
Focus on multiplication. Learn trick for multiplying by "9"s. Practice tables through 12's.
Learn money systems for other countries
Cut out a clock pattern, and practice telling time;
Math jokes and riddles ("Why was 6 afraid of 7?")
coloring pages; word search;
helpful poems to memorize to help you remember math facts.
For the teacher:
Practice Math Minutes for your student, one of addition, one of multiplication;
Vocabulary worksheets to review shapes and vocabulary the student covers in this unit;
Internet links to further study;
Copywork pages.
For the mom:
New recipes, to help things run smoothly in the home.
Any negative comments?
The one thing I noticed that could be improved upon is the copywork. It was all in print. My son is currently learning beginning cursive, and I would have really appreciated it if up to half of the copywork had been in cursive, especially as many of these copywork poems gave helps for memorizing math facts, like how many pints in a quart, how many days in a month.
Final Analysis:
Get it while you can! It's a great resource focusing on Math, and the material in it can be stretched out and utilized throughout the year!
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Hope you enjoyed this product review! Head on over to The Schoolhouse Store and get your copy today!
Okay, y'all! I'm chomping at the bit to use this blog to have regular give-aways. Some will be used materials; some will be new/almost new, but I think all will be things that someone/many someones will appreciate receiving for free.
The giveaway I have decided on for today is the following:
________________________________________________________________________
From huge hairy spiders to spindly stick insects, there are about 100 bugs just waiting to be found on every spread.
Full of fascinating facts about the incredible lives of the world's creepy crawlies.
From rainforest to dusty desert and swamp to shady woodland glade, each beautifully illustrated picture puzzle details a different habitat, and is packed with the tiny creatures that live there.
Answers to every puzzle are provided for anyone whose bug hunt proves too tricky.
"What a fun way to learn about creepy crawlies and their habitat! Excellent." Wildside
The giveaway drawing will be held on 11/23/08 at 12 noon.
1) To enter, post a comment below that you want to be in the drawing. Be sure to include your email address, so I can get back to you if you win. If I can't email you, you are disqualified.
2) To receive a 2nd entry, post to your blog about my give-away, and link back to my blog with the blog entry's permanent link, and comment again below with the link to your blog to let me know that you linked back to me.
3) To receive a 3rd entry, read one of my product reviews elsewhere in my blog, comment on the review, and then comment again below to let me know what review you read and commented to.
Thanks for your consideration. I intend to use a random entry-selection tool to select the winner. Just so you know, I haven't yet gotten up and running with this yet, so if I need to I may just write down everyone's entries on slips of paper, put them in a bowl, and pull out the winner... But I'll try to get the other method up and running before I make my selection.
Today I am going to tell you about an internet service that I have been trying for the past month, called HELPME2TEACH.COM
This resource was created by a woman (Elaine Taylor) with over 40 years teaching experience, whose oal was to create a place where curriculum materials were available by a quick search, affordable, and safe. She has spent thousands of hours scouring the internet, reviewing sites, categorizing them by subject and user-type, and putting them into her database with very helpful, brief comments for each entry.
When I first logged into this program, I was skeptical. Sometimes I feel like a queen of search engines. My favorite has usually been Google, but I often do searches on Goodsearch so that I can raise money for my favorite charity.
But let me tell you, the first time I got a really fine hit on HelpMe2Teach, I was hooked! I don't remember exactly what that first good hit was, but I know it was something I had searched previously on Google, only to get a gazillion hits that I had to sort though. I think it was something like "French" + "free course" or something. I plugged that little baby into the HelpMe2Teach search engine, and boom! Perfect, short, completely free selection(s) to go to that had already been checked out.
As I continued to use HelpMe2Teach, I came to see how helpful the individual user comments are as well. I was searching for something that had come up with ten hits, and without having to go to each one I was able to sort through them based on the comments, and then settle on a few to check out, thus finding one that was perfect for what I was looking for.
HelpMe2Teach is so comprehensive that I fear I have only begun to scratch the surface of all it has to offer me. So, at sometime in the future I may have to report an update on how good it is! I have not yet had the opportunity to find out how good the Customer Service is, but I am about to. Today, when I tried to log in, I was locked out. A message said that I was locked out because I had tried to access the site from multiple IP addresses. Now, I am sadly not familiar with IP addresses enough to know exactly what that means, but I suspect it means different computers within my house. I am sure this is true, as we have, between us, three laptops (four, if you count the one with the spider-cracks in the screen), and two desktop computers. So, I will soon find out how quickly customer issues are taken care of. Others I have spoken to, though, say they are handled quickly.
Okay, customer service addendum: Elaine Taylor got back to me within two hours, took care of the problem, and we actually emailed back and forth several times. Very quick customer service, and welcoming of comments. That's good!
The HelpMe2Teach site team also welcomes comments and suggestions, so I figure I will probably send them additional site possibilities to check out, because I learn of new free sites all the time. They update their database daily, so it is always growing.
Here are the normal subscription prices:
1 year@ $29.95 3 mos. for $15.95 1 mo. for $9.95 3 days for $4.95
Price includes Quarterly Newsletters and FREE research for anyone with a paid one year subscription or longer.
If you have time to go look at it now, this is a really good time, because they are running a special offer. You can look at it, decide you love it, and then subscribe. Here is the offer:
Well, it is 8:00 p.m., EST, and as I write this I know not what the outcome of today election is/will be. Praying, praying...
Wanted to post, since it's been awhile, to let you know I'm here. Getting new materials to review every day, and need to post an update on some of that soon. In the meantime, I need to get one little kidlet off to bed. On my own tonight; daddy's been an election poll judge all day and is not home yet...
How would you like to get a copy of the below book for free?
I know I'd love to get a copy!
Did you ever dream of getting a horse for Christmas? You can get a sneak peek of our Fall issue and see Nancy Carter's first horse! Oh, and she's not the only one sharing her childhood pictures. You'll see photos from the 50's through the 80's.
But, you'll need the Fall issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine to go on this walk down memory lane.
Plus, do you like to create holiday memories? The brand new TOS holiday E-Book can be yours, too. It's all about the fall and winter holidays - mainly Thanksgiving and Christmas. But it's not even for sale yet. This is your chance to get it first- for FREE ($12.45 value)!
Normally when a person subscribes, their subscription starts with the upcoming issue which can take a while. But, TOS thought about that when they planned theirFall Special.
If you subscribe now with their Fall Special, you'll get
Almost 50% off the cover price for 2 years The current Fall issue as soon as it is ready
6 Bonus gifts
12 months of Teacher's Toolbox, which contains a FREE E-Book every month PLUS, the new E-Book, Homespun Holidays for FREE!
Checked email first thing. That in itself can get me sucked in.
Need to shower. So, why, oh why, is my son using my bathroom? Three bathrooms in the house, and he goes into my bathroom... I need to work on this.
I am so excited about all the goodies I have been receiving as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew! I can't wait to begin writing my reviews for you to read. So far I have, in my possession to review for you,
I also received a mystery novel from a homeschooling mom and daughter... but I'll have to edit this later, cause I don't have their info in front of me.
So, you can see I'm going to be busy. But, I'm just lovin' it! These materials are, for the most part, wonderful. I'll post the good and the bad, right here. Stay posted.
Sorry my blog disappeared yesterday.. I am part of the TOS Homeschool Crew, and I've been trying to use Floogle.com to put a "Blog Roll" bar for the TOS crew. When I put it in Wednesday, it looked fine when I saved it, but when I came back yesterday my blog wasn't there (visibly)!
I wasn't up to messing with it yesterday, but took a look at it just now. I've been able to bring this blog back without the Floogle Blog Roll bar, but on an identical copy of the template, when I deleted exactly the same HTML script, the blog is still messed up! I can't figure it out. I can't figure out what is making the blog disappear when I have the Blog Roll on it, and I can't figure out why the other temporary blog with a copy of my template is messing up entirely differently.
It might just be over my head, or I might be able to figure it out when my head cold clears up, but for now I'm done trying to mess with it. I need a few days to recouperate. Then I might get help from someone if I can't figure it out on my own.
In the meantime, I'm limping along here trying to homeschool while sick. I took a decongestant last night that, in my recollection, did fine for me in the past, but last night it made my eyes hurt from being so dry, and it kept me awake for hours. ::sigh::
Well, I'm off to shower and get on with my day. Blessings everyone. Have a good homeschool day!
