I love art. I enjoy all sorts of art. I enjoy doing the art myself, and when I plan it in advance, I don't even mind that "doing art" with kids often means I'll have a mess to clean up.
I've had the opportunity to do all sorts of art with my older two kids, and to let them experience certain types of art in classes when I couldn't do it with them myself: watercolor; tempera paint; acrylic paint; metal etching; silk screening; clay; soap stone carving; weaving; papier mache; print block; mozaics, collages, rubbings.... you get the idea. Like I said, I love art.
So, now, I am really perplexed by my up and coming #3 child because, for the most part, he doesn't seem to like doing art. I admit that I have found it very easy to neglect art so far in his childhood. Very early in life he made it clear to us that he didn't like to color, but he does like to draw. Add to that he also likes play doh, clay, and things involving chenille wire and pony beads. Believe it or not, he even likes knitting on looms. He also enjoys looking at art. I have lots of art books in our homeschool supplies, and he willingly looks at pieces of classic art and discusses them with me (which is part of our Ambleside Online curriculum plan). But, even at age 9, it is clear that he has ulterior motives... ever is he trying to flip the page to find the paintings of those Rennaisance women, scantily clad, or clad not at all...
But when it comes to doing art, he is very rigid.
I was very pleased this year to have the opportunity to receive, to review, a copy of Artistic Pursuits for grades K-3.
I got real excited to try this new art program. It is bright, on a plastic binder, with "jelly-proof" (or paint-proof) plastic cover over it. I glanced through the introduction and the beginning, and got real excited to start.
So, like any good homeschooling mommy (har! har!), on Friday morning I opened the book to see what we needed for materials for art lesson 1 that afternoon. ::sigh:: I keep a fairly well-stocked art supply bin, but it was calling for things I did not have. So, that afternoon found us, instead of doing art, driving to our local art supply store to buy art supplies. Now, mind you, I was very single-mindedly buying what I needed for Lesson 1. [Foreshadowing here...] Ebony pencils. Store 1 didn't have them. (Had to actually go out again on Saturday to a different store to finally find them. Since I was there, I went along and purchased a pad of art paper and a new pink eraser, as recommended in the curriculum for the lesson, even though I already have some art paper and a old pink eraser at home somewhere, but don't know where it is...)
Got home, now time to make dinner, and Art Lesson 1 did not get done. Weekend, and art-hating child says he isn't going to do "school work", it's the week-end. (My girls would NEVER have called art "school work"!) Monday comes, and the schedule's so tight during the week that I can't turn my attention to art until Friday again, when I have it scheduled.
So, Friday comes around again, and we finally do lesson 1. DS (Dear Son) does well as I work my way through the lesson, sits with me and studies the nice painting, listens while I talk about aspects of the art. The I turn the page and get to the hands-on stuff, and he balks. "I'm not going to do that. Can I just draw what I want?" ::sigh:: Okay, I do a drawing like the assignment, and he draws a cartoon. I figure, okay, at least he's doing art.
Lesson 2. As per Lesson 1, Friday morning I open the book to preview the lesson. As per the above-mentioned foreshadowing, I read it only to find that it calls for another art supply that I do not own. Too busy to go to the store Friday. No art lesson. Shop on Saturday, this time to purchase water-color pencils. While I'm at it, I purchase some other stuff too. (Are you seeing a pattern here? Every lesson is taking me two weeks to get done. Plus, I'm going to the art store once for each lesson, buying stuff I would not have purchased had I not gone, all because I thought I'd be better off not buying the supplies for the art curriculum all at once. For me that was a big mistake!)
So week 4 now finds me doing art Lesson 2. Same deal -- we really do well as we work our way through the first page(s), studying the artwork and such. Then, flip the page to the hands-on section. "I'm not doing that. Can't I just draw what I want?" ::sigh:: Back to this again. So, DS draws a comic strip while I try to draw a nice picture worthy of water color. Now that I think of it, this lesson must seem to my son a lot like colorig, which I already stated, he doesn't like to do...
*****************************************************************************************************
Anyway, overview: The good, the bad, the ugly...
Good things about this curriculum:
It is very Charlotte Mason-ish, which fits with the curriculum I am using right now (Ambleside Online).
It has you study classical paintings and talk about them, then implement some aspect of the art topic into a project or a new skill.
It's instructions are very good. It walks the teacher through what to say, and there is a way or the homeschooling mom to interact with the child, introducepaintings, discuss aspects about it.
The lesson applies something related to the painting the child examined.
Disadvantages:
Now, don't chop my head off, but it called for uniquely different art supplies, which was a pain, but okay I guess. I still want to get to projects further along in the book.
Really, that's about it. All the other disadvantages have nothing to do with the curriculum, sugh as "Needs some preparation (such as to the local Art/Craft sign on...) which is to be expected.
The other issues are all "user error", like not reading the lessons in advance, and not buying the supplies in advance, or like not purchasing the necessary supplies in advance. The curriculum certainly can't be blamed for that...
So, from this mom and this son, this product gets two thumbs up, and two thumbs down (from my son, who just wants to draw cartoons right now, and nothing else...)
I'd hint that maybe he has a future as a cartoonist, but frankly, he's really not all that great. Not entirely out of the question, since he has time to work on it, but for now it's not going to make it into the Sunday Funnies.
So, summer stretches out before me, and I want to do more art with this guy, and create a box full of art projects he can enter in the county fair in August. And he will probably balk all summer, declaring that he doesn't want to "do school" during summer break. ::sigh:: So, maybe I'll work with him on this in the fall, too, even though it says it is for K-3, and he'll be in 4th then. I do really love the art pages and art-study that guides the parent through it. So, that's it for now. Thanks for reading.
When I first received a box in the mail containing Schleich figurines, I thought, "How cool!" These figurines are amazing -- they have accuracy in shape and color to the finest detail.
When my kids began pulling the figurines out of the box, we "Oooooo"ed and "Ahhhhhh"ed over each individual piece. Then my daughter found the goldmine, the Schleich catelog, and began flipping through its pages as well.
These animals are just adorable! They are so lifelike. They really shouldn't be called "toys" -- they are pieces of art; miniatures.
We first experienced Schleich figurines in 2006. At that time, we didn't know them by brand name. What we knew was that my 16 year old daughter found them in Europe when her home school co-op went on a field trip culminate their four-years of studying Tapestry of Grace. While in Europe my daughter bought a beautiful, life-like dragon as a souvineer for her 6-year-old brother.
Not knowing it as Schleich, it reminded us of the story in the Chronicles of Narnia where Eustace turns into a dragon (with a gold band on his arm), and Edmund (I think) is prepared to fight in full armor when he realizes it is no ordinary dragon. The following Christmas big sister was surprised and delighted to find a similar figurine that seemed to go with the dragon, and she bought the mounted knight set for her brother for Christmas.
Then, when the Schleich figurines came in the mail, we finally discovered that it was Schleich that we'd been loving all these years and we just didn't know it! My daughter found the well-loved figurines in their catelog. And, we figured out that the cute figurines that our local novelty toy store carries are all Schleich as well! And we've loved those figurines from long before we owned any!
Schleich carries a wide variety of types of figurines, from farm animals to wild animals, from smurfs to people, from Medieval figurines to prehistoric figurines. Follow the links and consider buying some from your local specialty store. You can't go wrong.
I have been homeschooling since 1992. During those years of homeschooling, there has been no one homeschooling curriculum I have, so far, used Tapestry of Grace for eight consecutive years.
That being said, at present I have not been using Tapestry for going-on four years.
It was with trepidation and delight that I received my Year 2 Unit 3 Digital Edition of the Revised Tapestry curriculum. After struggling through some difficult download instructions (which has since been streamlined), I had my Unit 3 on my computer ready and waiting for my perusal.
Opening the pages of this new version of Year 2, I felt like a piano student who learned to play Chop Sticks without looking at music. Now the student has been handed the printed version of the music to Handel’s Messiah, and requested to play it and review it in two weeks. An impossible task to do adequately! Not even in six weeks! (Especially not when you are also reviewing ten other curriculums simultaneously, and also, by the way, have surgery and are unable to type for six weeks…)
Anyway, that being said, I here begins my review of this amazing product .
WEEK 1
First, I had struggles with opening the documents I had saved to my computer. I don’t understand exactly how the TOG digital software works. I know that we received an email that the download process has been streamlined. I don’t know if this means I need to reload it to my computer, or if it doesn’t make any difference for me since I already have it on my computer. All things told, it took me a full 20 minutes to get the introduction opened up on my computer this first time. Don’t know how much of this is because of user unfamiliarity vs. product issues or even issues with my computer being slow. Anyway, it shouldn’t have to take this long. I’ll keep track of that and comment on it again later. Day after day I struggled with locating the files to open. I thought I saved them to my desktop, but I didn’t. I need to move them.
The first feeling of being overwhelmed comes when the Unit Introduction has been opened and one sees that it is 14 pages long. Now, as one who is familiar with this product, I have to tell you not to panic. Hang with it. This is a rich curriculum. You really don’t need to read every page of every section word for word, unless you want to. There are sections that apply to me and sections that don’t. The best approach advice I could give to a new purchaser of Tapestry would be: 1) Try to buy the curriculum in the Spring so that you have the entire summer to look it over; learn from it. 2) Savor it. 3) Collect the supplemental books you will need (or find out what books your public library has), 4) Take plenty of time to prepare to use it in the fall.
So many wonderful advantages to having this in digital form. The disadvantage? Sadly, I believe we all want it in printed form. Print it ourselves? Well, not likely. First, my ink runs if it gets wet (my printouts would get ruined if splashed with water). Second, it would cost me way more to print at home, at my cost per ink cartridge, than it would cost to print for $25/unit by the arrangement Tapestry has to offer us. So, I am destined to take them up on this offer. For what I own digitally so far, that means another $125 to spend. At least I can space those payments out.
In reading the Unit Introduction, I am reminded that Tapestry is a very cerebral curriculum. Using Tapestry we will be teaching our children at a level higher than what we ourselves were taught. We will have to think deep thoughts as we lead our maturing children to think deep thoughts. We parents, the teachers, will ourselves be challenged to learn and grow as we teach. I myself personally like that. But it also means that we need to plan to take the time to prepare to teach, something not all home school teachers do. Part of the reason I have not used Tapestry for the past four years has been an inability on my part to take that kind of time to prepare for my home schooling.
So, that leads me to another point I should mention about using Tapestry. BENEFIT: One of the reasons I used it previously was that I was teaching more than one child. I am currently using a curriculum that has a different reading plan and subject list for each different grade level. One of the beauties of Tapestry is its goal to enable families to study the same subject matter, the same historical era, at the same time. So I recommend Tapestry every time I get into a conversation with another mom home schooling more than one grade level using the curriculum I am currently using. I like this other curriculum, but I would never survive teaching it at more than one grade level concurrently. With Tapestry everyone is on the “same page” in History, and the other subjects flow from that (literature, composition, geography, art, music, and to a certain extent even science).
WEEK 2
I am preparing to use the curriculum. Each Unit begins with an Introduction which is separate unto itself. I familiarized myself with the introduction, during Week 1 (above), and looked over the “Threads” section for each week. Ideally, I would have liked to have gotten further in my first week, but life is real, and I got busy and bogged down.
I am now perusing each week’s Reading Assignments. I am homeschooling a 3rd grader who, in my opinion, falls right between the levels Lower Grammar and Upper Grammar. I will be using my library extensively, rather than purchasing books. I do this 1) to save money, and 2) because I won’t need the books again, because I don’t have any more children coming along after him, and 3) because I don’t currently have space in my home for more books.
Before printing out any other pages in each unit, I printed out the Reading Assignment pages, one page per sheet (not double sided). I hole punched the pages and put them in a 3-ring binder, page 4 facing page 5 for each week’s pages.
With my notebook in hand, I went downstairs to my own home school library to see what books I have (or can substitute) on the lists. I like highlighting my pages, and I like color-coding my highlighting. With my light-blue highlighter, I highlighted all the titles listed that I already own. (I also keep these books filed a certain way: Year 1 books on the top shelf, Year 2 on the 2nd shelf, etc. I put a different color sticky dot on the spine of each book, different color for each year, and mark on the dot what week the book is for, such as 2-21 for Year 2, Week 21. Then I tape over the dot, with packaging tape, to hold it on the book better.) If I have a book that I want to use as a substitute title, I highlight my Reading Assignment page in pink, and write the substitute title in where it will fit, with an arrow to the replaced assignment, which I circle.
When I was done looking over my personal library, I got onto the Internet and went to my favorite online sources for public domain titles. I searched Books.Google.com and Bartleby.com for titles.
Next I went to my library’s database online. I searched for the titles that are assigned. I highlighted titles I needed that the library has in light green. I immediately put a “Hold” on the library titles for weeks 1, 2, and 3. My library system will ship the book to my local library, where I can walk in and pick it up off the “Hold” shelves.
Now, I let my library work for the rest of the week getting my titles to me, while I read up on Week 1 Teacher’s Notes and all other pertinent material. If it is summer break when you do this, it is wonderful to be able to go to the local swimming pool and have your swimming age kids play in the pool while you sit in the shade reading your PRINTED copy of the Year Plan. (::sigh::) So, I guess now is when you print out week 1 (using the back-sides of pages 4 and 5 of the Reading Assignment pages), hole punch your copy and put into your notebook so you can read at the pool.
Week 3
Well, actually I am going to start this on Saturday, if I can. First, I went on line to my library’s database and ordered the titles needed for Week 4. I always order books three weeks in advance to allow for lag-time. Sometimes I need a book that has a waiting list. Sometimes I get the book right away. It can take 7-10 days for the book to arrive, and then it can be held at the library for 7 days before they reshelve it. That “buys” me two weeks of time where I haven’t checked the book out yet, if I want to check it out closer to the time I will be using it.
I like to keep a certain shelf on the bookshelf, or a milk crate, or a basket where I keep Tapestry-related books that are checked out from the library. That makes it easier to find them when it’s time to do the assignment.
Next I ask hubby to watch my boy while I take a trip to the library to pick up my library books. Now, whether you go with kids or without is entirely up to you, but I am in a season where I go alone. Son is a reader, but when we get to the library he goes directly to the video/dvd shelves trying to find movies to beg me to let him watch. I don’t like to offer him that opportunity too frequently.
Now is the time to make sure you are finished reading through all the notes for the week. On Saturday I also like to finalize any plans for hands-on activities. I might need to make copies of maps, purchase art material, or get materials all to a central spot so that when it comes time to hand-dip candles, for instance, I am not hopping in the car to buy parafin and wick, for example.
I am actually planning to begin implementing the curriculum in Week 4. I spend the rest of Week 3 becoming very familiar with the Week Plan that I will be covering next week. I also quickly glance over as much of the rest of the unit as I can.
I like to keep a Daily Lesson Plan book. For me, it is my home school’s accountability partner. It helps me to comply with State Law, which in my state requires that I teach regularly and diligently in eight subject areas (Math, Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, Art, Music, P.E., and Health, and my “Umbrella” requires Bible). So, Week 3 is when I plot out my Daily Lesson Planner, and make sure that I am covering all my required subject areas, instead of doing ONLY Tapestry assignments, which I could very easily slide into.
Week 4
The “Big Day” is finally here! We started our day with prayer, a Bible Reading, working on a memory verse, and singing a hymn. Then we snuggled down on the couch and began reading about Jamestown (Social Studies). Being right on the hinge between Lower Grammar and Upper Grammar, I selected books from both sections. If I find an UG title too difficult for my son, I don’t just “forge on ahead”, but rather I close the book and pick up a LG book for him instead.
Each day of the week we read an installment from William Bradford, Pilgrim Boy. JD was slow to warm up to this book, but by the time it ended he wanted more chapters, or to start over and read it again. Now, I won’t keep him from reading it again himself if he wishes, but I won’t be reading it out loud to him again. I just can’t manage that.
The Core titles for this week were difficult for me. The New Americans seemed slightly below JD’s level. From the UG titles, The Awakening of Europe was not available at the library or free on the Internet, and I didn’t wish to purchase a copy. Making Thirteen Colonies doesn’t do real well as a read-aloud, and my son’s reading level is just not quite there yet for him to read it by himself. So I worked for substituting. The Title for this week (Week 20, Year 2) is “Early New World Colonies and Eastern Europe.” I found in my personal library a book called The Thirteen Colonies, and that was a good fit for us!
For In Depth, we read The Jamestown Colony (LG), and did some readings from Colonial Living.
I picked up, from the library, suggested titles on Gallileo, but we did not get to them.
Wanting to do something “Hands-On” next, I looked at the week’s suggestions for activites. Well, Week 20’s ideas didn’t look too appealing for a little boy: work on a long-term project (not sure yet where the ideas for this are…), make a doll, or draw a picture of Pocahontas… So, I pulled out Colonial Living to get ideas. For a long-term project, I’d love for us (him) to make a miniature model or diorama of either a Colonial settlement or house, or of an Indian Long House or something, but not ready to start that yet. I decided to give him the opportunity to make butter from cream, by shaking it in a small jelly jar (baby food jar, if you have one). It was a big hit. We also made home-made cornbread for him to spread the butter on. It wasn’t very appealing, and I like to think it gave him a new perspective on how tasteless and bland some of the colonial food must have been. (They didn’t have the luxurious quantites we have of things like salt and brown sugar, which is in the corn bread we are accustomed to buying at a favorite fast food store…)
We made a salt map of North America, and began memorizing the original 13 colonies. We are not finished; we will work on it some more in Week 2.
I really need to get started with working on my son in the area of Writing Assignments, but I opted not to start that this week. With everything so new for him, and my introducing so many new things, I decided that one subject could be ramped into on a different week.
SUMMARY:
In case you haven’t picked this up, or I haven’t said it before, I am biased and totally love Tapestry of Grace.
That point aside, here are my summary points about Tapestry of Grace DE:
It is definitely overwhelming to open up material this massive, and try to find your way around.
You absolutely have to allow yourself time for a “Learning Curve”, if you are decided that this is the curriculum you want to use. Don’t beat yourself up for the things you don’t get to. Don’t feel like you’re not using the curriculum to its fullest when you decide not to do something within the materials.
Curriculum is a tool, not a slave-master. Begin with the material provided as a spring-board, but allow yourself freedom to make changes. Remember, I had my 9-year-old boy make butter instead of making a doll. I may have robbed myself of a future-suggested-activity by doing that. If so, later I will make another substitution, like I might have my son carve (whittle) a pine boat or a soap duck when the curriculum says to have him make butter…
Count the cost. The material is highly cost-effective over the long run, especially for a large family. Decide on your personal approach. Some families have a school room larger than my living room, and plenty of space and funds to purchase every book suggested, and store them where they will be able to get to them when they want them. I find it easiest when my library owns the titles I want to use. I can’t tell you how frustrating it has been on weeks when there was an assigned title I knew I had purchased, but I could not find it when it was needed. (Like a little pamphlet by Jonathan Edwards called “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, which was so small that I just couldn’t find it. We had to scurry to get our hands on some other copy of something I knew I owned but could not find. What a waste of time and effort. But now my bias toward library use is showing again, and I know not everyone feels that way…
Allow time to plan. This is not a curriculum that you can decide on Sunday, “Oh, I think I’ll start using my Tapestry tomorrow!” At least, I’ve never met a person who could pull that off! If you are going to use this material, it is best to allow yourself about a month to get up and running, if you can. If not, at least a week, at a minimum!
Try to find support. I didn’t mention this in my review, because I didn’t get support myself. I’ve used this curriculum before, for eight consecutive years, so I am my own support, so to speak. But for most users, it will be really helpful to get outside support. There are many Yahoo groups available. There is also a forum, accessible through the Tapestry of Grace website. There is the Tapestry Loom. You can form a co-op with other families. This can help you stay on track. I found it helpful, because my kids were required to have their assignments completed or they were not allowed to attend class. This is reverse to most situations, because home-schooled kids WANT to go to class, because they yearn for the social setting. It was true motivation for my kids to scramble to finish their assignments.
The negative that I see to the Digital Edition is that we still want out copy in print. I DO like the DE, and how easy it is to get around in. I like knowing I can search quickly to find things. But I still want a print copy.
Another thing you will always come back to is the cost of curriculum plus the cost of books, if you decide to buy all the books. However, if you are starting with a young child, the cost is very incremental. The first four years you would buy Lower Grammar for Years 1-4 (K-3). The second four years you might have three children using the program, buying UG books for the oldest, and reusing the LG books with the younger ones. Depending upon ages and abilities, you might have a point where you are buying Dialectic books and Upper Grammar books one or two years. Then finally, the four years of High School you are only buying Rhetoric books, and your library is complete, and you own the books for all of your kids at all levels.
So, I am a lover of Tapestry of Grace. I am still not sure, yet, if I am plunging into it with both feet in the Fall or not. I do know that I will eventually be back with it, though. I know from my other two children, both graduated out of home school, that the high school level of Tapestry provides an excellent college-preparatory education. Both of my graduates got into the colleges of their choice, and had no difficulty transferring when they decided to. There has also been an amazement at the number of college students encountered who knew so little of history and had read so little classic literature. So, I love Tapestry and will be back with it soon, whether this year or next. It’s coming.
******************************************************************************************* Tapestry of Grace has some really sweet offerings for people considering their curriculum. They offer a free 3-week on-line sample of Years 1 and 2. Years 3 and 4 do not currently have free samples.
Their curriculum is broken down into four separate year plans that cover creation to present day. Year 1 - covers the history of the world from the Creation to the Fall of Rome in 450 A.D.; Year 2 - covers the history of the world from the Fall of Rome in A.D. 450 to the signing of the American Constitution; Year 3 - covers the history of the world during the 1800's; Year 4 - covers the history of the world during the Twentieth Century and into the present.
Each year plan has assignment material for all grades, K-12. You cycle through the material three times per student. If my son, does Tapestry Year 1 next year as a 4th grader, he will do it again in 7th grade at the Dialectic level and again in 11th grade at the Rhetoric level. (So, a child starting K would actually do one year 4 times.)
You can sample Year 1 or Year 2. Or to purchase, Digital Editions are just $45 per Unit (approximately 9 weeks), or $180 per Year Plan.
I'm left trying to decide whether to purchase Year 2, Unit 4, or to skip it and move on to Year 3, which I own. I truly hope you will give this program a try. It offers an amazing education to students, and to mom as well!
Today I want to tell you about a company whose products are changing my homeschool in a positive way!
Heads Up! is a company designed to provide expert information and products for special needs children. I have a son who is, we believe, ADHD (haven’t done testing yet), so I thought these products would be a wonderful line for us to review. The company extended to us the opportunity to review their products called "Frames"
Does my son just love these products? Have they transformed his schooling? Focused him in is squiggles and wiggles? Helped him to stay focused in his reading and moved up levels above where we were?
Well, no actually! Actually he has been using them more often as bookmarks than use them in the way they were intended. I'm not sure if he has used them in the intended way at all.
Then how and why have these products transormed our homeschooling? Why am I here to rave about them?
Well, surprise, surprise, it turns out that I MYSELF am the one who is benefitting from these products. I have long known I had trouble following a line when I was reading. When I was younger and worked as a secretary, I could skip entire paragraphs in my typing and not even realize it. My boss was amazed that I didn't notice the context didn't flow, but I didn't notice. I had my eyes checked and got glasses for reading. Ithought that had solved the problem, but while it helped, I still had the problem.
This problem is particularly pronounced when this 50 year old homeschool mom tries to do read-alouds in the afternoon, when all the blood leaves my head and rushes to assist in digesting my lunch. If I'm not falling asleep and loosing my place, I'm just loosing my place, and read-alouds take forever, and who knows how difficult it is for my son to follow the context when I'm not even sure if I read all the words, or if I re-read sections three times, or skipped other sections entirely...
Now I use theseHeads Up! tools interchangeably, whichever product is the first one I find. The one that really works best for my reading issues is their Top of the Line product, but I can use the other two can work as if they are Top of the Line. I personally don't need the color strip, to the best that I can tell, as long as I have some sort of strip to use. But I like the color strips, and I like the grey that contrasts the color. Everyone who uses these products tends to settle on one color that they prefer or that works best for them, and for me it is the blue, but I will use whichever color is at hand when I start reading because I absolutely prefer to do my reading with these strips, now,to keep me tracking well.
I would like Heads Up! to consider making one addition to their product line that would help my son do math with his ADHD issues, and would have helped his ADHD sister before him. I would like to see them create a line of "Frame"s specifically for math, that would have the frame around the outside, but that would have a cut-out section in the center so that the child could do math through the frame and not be distracted by the rest of the page. These frames would be good in the same sizes that are currently offered, small and large, so that you could use the larger frames for page-size word problems that read right-to left, and the smaller size frames for focusing on one, or several individual math problems. My ADHD kids easily become overwhelmed when they have to look at an entire page, front and back, of math problems. They can't focus on one problem at a time. All they can see is, "I have to do ALL THESE PROBLEMS!? I can't!!! I can't!!!!" By framing one problem at a time, they would be better able to cope and focus.
Heads Up! has other products that I would like the opportunity to try out, if my finances can manage it sometime. I would love to try their weighted turtle:
The hyperactive child holds the turtle in the lap. "When placed on the lap, the deep pressure provides a relaxing sensation while maintaining a constant tactile reminder when it's time to sit still. If a child begins to stand up, the turtle begins to slide and the child has an instant nonverbal reminder to remain seated." (From theit website.)
I also think he would benefit from one of the Cushion Disks
:
This might help him in his schoolwork, but it might also help him learn to sit still at the dinner table, and maybe I'd use it in combination with the weighted turtle, in the hopes that one day we can actually go eat at restaurants again as a family... Description from their website: "These sturdy, portable air cushion disks fit on top of a chair and allow for comfort and in-seat movements. Great for the child who needs to wiggle around yet remain seated in a designated spot. The degree of inflation can be adjusted for personal preference to allow for greater disk firmness or flexibility. Can also be used to improve balance or for a short exercise break. "
Heads Up Helping!! is the story of a mother's journey as she observes her son's special learning challenges and responds with love and dedication. Drawing on her years of experience as a speech pathologist, Melinda begins her pursuit of educational methods and materials that will help her son achieve the potential she is convinced exists. With fierce determination, Melinda sought information to help her son Joshua both accept himself and find areas in which he could excel despite his attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), social difficulties, and sensory issues.
Over time, and with much experimentation, Melinda recognized which strategies, materials, and instructional approaches were most effective for her son and daughters. By becoming an astute observer and student herself, she gradually distinguished those techniques that worked most frequently out of the multitude of ideas she tried and those successes are shared in depth throughout her book.
In addition to all the wonderful products Head's Up has to offer, and some wonderful titles it makes available, it is also chocked-full of informational articles and ideas for coping with and helping your special learner.
I am so happy to have found this company and their website. I know I will be visiting Head's Up and using their products for years to come. I also found the Head's Up blog, and plan to be a reguIar reader there as well. I think there are many other parents who are educating children who would benefit from these products. If you are one of them, trust me, having specially developed tools really helps special learners thrive and grow in their ability to break through and acquire their education. If you are where I once was, banging your head against the wall alternated with pulling your hair out, then look over this website and try to purchase some of their specialty products that seem suited to your child's particular bent. You won't regret it.
Today I want to tell you about a product I had the privilege to review called The Bridge to the Latin Road. I had been wanting an opportunity to try this product, and was so grateful the company permitted me to review it for them!
The Bridge to the Latin Road is book two in a series of books created by a company called Schola Publications. The product they provide for the youngest students is called The Phonics Road, which gives the students a grounding in phonics, to provide the foundation for their further learning. The second book, The Bridge to the Latin Road, provides the framework for the "Journeyman, framing the structure. The student, who has laid the foundation in The Bridge to Phonics, is ready to learn to build the English language the way a builder builds a house.
This study begins with the rough framing, an introduction to various parts of speech and parts of a sentence with Grammar Rule Tunes. These simple tunes help the students remember various sentence components. Some of the students may have already been introduced to the various parts of grammar, so there may be some review in the early weeks. Students who have had very little Grammar will be very quickly be brought up to speed, with plenty of opportunity to practice.
The creater, Barbara Beers, communicates in the program that a word is not a part of speech unless it is used in a sentence, so the students will look at words in the context of sentences, and how the various words within the sentence relate to one another.
The program emphasizes dictation, which provides a great opportunity for the student to coordinate his spelling, writing, and thinking skills with each phrase or sentence he writes. For the student new to dictation, writing from dictation may take some practice. His ears will need to have time to take in the information, his mind to think about what to write, his hand to form the letters. Then his eyes will interpret the formations as he speaks the words back to himself. This excercise creates a tremendous coordination within the mind. With practice, the student's mind begins to see the word phrases as units which are used together to express a thought.
DVDs provided walk the parent through the steps required to use The Bridge to the Latin Road. Specific instructions are given to assist the parent who is new to dictating. Lessons are described for the parent/teacher on six DVDs that are included in the Teacher's Guide. The lessons are spelled out week by week, day by day.
The first ten weeks lay a gramatical framework, after which Latin roots begin to be introduced. The building analogy continues, as this year the student is called the "Journeyman", and the skills they acquire are referred to as their building on their foundation as you challenge him to "add roofing support and framing design to his building. This year we begin to add the beams, girders, and struts that support our structure through the building structure with scaffolding", which is referring to sentence diagramming.
In addition to continuing practice work in grammar with Grammar Tunes and Framing Keys, they will learn designing keys this year through what is being called "Designing Codes", which refers to learning the meanings and functions of the common prefixes and suffixes which are added to base words. And the first finishing instruction begins as we learn the Latin meanings of many base words and add our prefixes and suffixes to them.
These key components expand the students ability to spell more complicated English words. Students are introduced to the importance of a good English dictionary, which includes the Latin roots to words they will be using in their sentences. This is the year for your student to become comfortable using his dictionary. The parent is walked through the process, to be equipped to explain the various parts of the dicitonary entries.
The CD series has a substantial introduction section, followed by weekly instructions on the day by day activity for the teacher to walk the student through. Do not be deceived; this is a teacher-intensive program. That being said, I believe that, while being extemely cerebral, this is a program that a willing parent can tackle, and walk their student through, thus giving them an excellent foundation to prepare them for higher education. [An added benefit is that an education in Latin is an excellent background to equip a student to score well on SAT testing for college!]
I believe that any parent who wants to can utilize this excellent program. While it will be a little challenging, because the parent will need to prepare each week by watching the dvd for the week, it does not require an excessive amount of daily work. It is, in that respect, Charlotte Mason friendly, because it is little by little, step by step, incrementally building a foundation towards an education in Latin, which Charlotte Mason recommends, as do many classical programs.
Because of family life issues right now, I haven't introduced this program to my son's schedule yet, but I am looking foward to implementing it when things settle down a bit. What things, you may ask?... Well, that will have to be a completely different entry sometime in the future...
This month I had the opportunity to review a Complete 3rd Grade curriculum by Math Mammoth.
Math Mammoth is an extensive program developed by Maria Miller, who was a Math tutor when she noticed that homeschooling parents were finding it difficult to explain Math concepts to their children. She developed this comprehensive program, not only helps the parents explain the concepts, but also gives the students more time to practice concepts before they move on to new material.
Not only does Math Mammoth provide curriculum plans for Grades 1 through Algebra, but it also has games to reinforce the math concepts. In addition to the curriculum itself, there are hundreds of pages of supporting, reinforcing practice pages for the parent/teacher to choose from to give appropriate, additional practice to struggling learners.
The purchase of the Math Mammoth Grade 3 complete curriculum comes Worktexts 3A and 3B, Answer Kety books for 3A and 3B, extra worksheets, cutouts for fractions and 3-D shapes, Grade 3 Tests and Test Answer Key, and software called "Soft-Pak" that is chock full of learning materials for not only Math, but also Language Arts, plus Test Maker and Test Master software.
I liked what I saw in the Math Mammoth program. The material is presented in a way that the student does not always need the parent to do presentation, such that the explanation often is sufficient for the student to understand what the assignment is calling for. I like this in the material, but my son did not, because the explanation caused each lesson to be three pages instead of two. My son has, for three years now, done math that took only one page, front and back, and he doesn't receive "change" well. We also suspect he may be ADHD, because he frequently becomes overwhelmed and shuts down when he sees what seems to be more than he thinks he can handle. I know this curriculum can be used with ADHD kids but will be more teacher intensive than it would be by a student who doesn't have this struggle. (Every curriculum requires more teacher involvement with an AHD child. ::sigh::)
I continue to hold out hope, though, that my son will receive something from this program that will benefit him. I intend to be subtle, gentle, and carefully interject things into our day to see how they go over. Today I tried opening some of the soft pack activities with him, but I hadn't read them myself so I didn't know what I was doing. By the time I knew what I needed to do, he was already reading a novel. He's nine. Reading a novel is an incredible thing for him to be doing, so I closed the Math for today and will try again another day.
Math Mammoth is colorful. It is sequential, and it is affordable. As with any program, I remind you that not every program fits every child. That is why it is wonderful that the Math Mammoth website has so many freebies to offer. If you want to "test drive" this curriculum, go there and try some of the material with your child, and see how it works for you!
Go check out their website, and then let me know what you think. I, personally, look forward to utilizing her HomeschoolMath.net website soon, and in years to come! Please leave comments below.
Story Builders is a unique program developed by Write Shop. This month I had the opportunity to try out People StoryBuilders. In People StoryBuilders, there are two sets of word cards. The first set is printed in black letters, in case you want to print it out on specific colored papers; the second set is words printed in color letters, if you want to print them out on white paper. All I had was white paper, so I used the second set of word cards.
The word cards are broken up into four types of words (or groups of words). Each type of words is correlated with a different color. For example, Character Cards (or subject cards) are on blue cards or paper, or printed in blue letters; Character Trait Cards (or adjective cards) are on salmon cards/paper or printed in salmon (amber/yellow) letters; Setting Cards are on green cards/paper or in green letters; and Plot Cards are on lavendar cards/paper or in lavendar/purple letters.
Write Shop then gives easy-to-follow guidelines for helping your student begin learning to write. For instance, you might start by selecting, yourself, the subject and plot cards, and then ask your child to write a sentence using the words you are providing. It might end up being a sentence like, "The fireman climbed a tall mountain." There are many ways suggested for determining cards to use. Keeping the four card types separated, you can random draw from each stack, or toss the dice and select 1 to 6 from each stack and pick which one you want, or mom can just pick. I thought of another possibility... You could play a game where you and all the kids sit around the table, like when you play a card game, and as each person's turn comes up, select one to four cards (decide in advance or let the child decide how many they want to select), and make a sentence from the card(s) you drew.
More ideas for how to use the cards included a "Round Robin" game where you set the timer for 2-3 minutes, and each person writes something using the cards they drew or were given, and then each person passes their writing to the person to their right or left to read out loud. Or, you can assign the student to write poetry using the Story Builders cards.
The parent/teacher is reminded that, while the writing assignments can be graded, if grades are required for portfolio review or something, it is also good to give the student times when he/she can write just for the pure fun, love, and joy of writing.
Products like this are good, in my opinion, for getting the creative juices flowing. Also, products like this, with the instructions and ideas they are giving, are good for helping the parent/teacher to keep things fresh, to think outside the box, to work to make learning fun for the student.
Story Builders gets two thumbs up in my review. From my son it gets a one up and two down. (Okay, he just doesn't like any schoolwork at all. He'd rather have a shovel and a hole to dig...)
Just for fun, I recorded a real-life in-homeschool event of using Story Builders. Here is how it went.
We finally cut up the word cards and started making stories. My student was a little reluctant to work today, so I asked him to pick one story card per card-type for me, and I would create the first little story. So, here's my first effort:
The rudemountain climber left the ski lodge in a huff. He was angry. He decided to climb the tallest mountain he could find. He started hiking up a very tall mountain, many miles from the lodge. When he finally got to the top, he found that his mountain was actually a volcano. Coming over the top ridge quite suddenly, he falls into a deep hole. As you can imagine, this was actually the center of the volcano. Fortunately, the volcano was not active, and he was able to climb his way out.
I recently received a new e-book called All About Homophones. It is a really enjoyable book that can be used as part of your language arts program for grades 1 through 8.
Do you remember what a homophone is? Well, "homo" means "the same", and "phonos" means "sound", so homophones are words that sound the same.
Here are some examples:
to, two, too
you, ewe
their, there, and possibly they're (depending upon pronunciation)
Did you know that some homophones vary geographically? For instance, I remember when I was in 2nd grade the teacher telling me that these were homophones:
aunt, ant
I was thinking, "No, those are not homophones! The first one is pronounced "aw", "aunt", and the ant is not pronounced that way." I am decended from Brittish, and have some specific pronunciations that differ from the general population such as either and neither (they are pronounced with an "i", not with an "e", in the first syllable). Aunt is another word that my pronunciation comes from my Dad and Gram.
I also remember her saying these were homophones:
are, hour, our
In my head I was thinking, "are" isn't pronounced the same as "our" and "hour" -- they have the "ow" sound, and are has the "ar" sound!
Other examples would be wear, ware and where. I pronounce and teach my children to pronounce "where" with the "hw" sound at the beginning, which differenciates its spelling from "wear".
That sentence reminded me of this one:
its and it's
It took me years to know when to use which. I still have to regularly remind myself that "it's" is an abbreviation for "it is", and "its" is the other one. It's confusing because you've got certain possessives that have apostrophies and certain ones that don't. Like the words brother's, sister's, John's, Janes, and then his, hers, its... Are all pronoun possessives without apostrophies? I don't know.. but I digress...
ALL ABOUT HOMOPHONES
This book begins with some pages that explain homophones, the content of the book, and how to use it. The book contains work pages for each grade level, with grade-appropriate homophones. Then there are card games provided to reinforce the learning, and there are crossword puzzles. The student creates their own pages of homophones. There's a resource list of great, enjoyable books that key in on homophones, such as books by Fred Gwynne (The King Who Reigned, for instance) and Amelia Bedelia books... Those books are so fun! There are pages of jokes, riddles and puns! Just what I need for my nine year old... (Question: What does a clock do when it is still hungry? Answer: Go back four seconds!) Then there is this amazing, almost exhaustive list of homophones.
This book is a wonderful resource and a lot of fun. I am really looking forward to getting my son hooked on these, and I can see this as a resource that we will come back to year after year. In my family this book gets two thumbs up!
Now originally I was thinking I would prefer to have the hard copy over the digital copy, which is what I actually have. But, after printing out a bunch of stuff, I decided I am glad I have the digital copy. After all, it is snowing and icing, and I would have had to go to my local copy shop to get my copies made if it hadn't been digital.
The maker of All About Homophones currently has a special offer available to those who might be interested in purchasing the digital copy. Here is their message to you:
1. We lowered the price of the printed book to $29.95. The e-book is at $27.95.
We think homeschoolers will appreciate this lower pricing!
2. And this is the big news: to celebrate the launch of All About Homophones, your
readers can get $10 off any order at www.all-about-homophones.com! To receive
the discount, visitors to the site need to enter "FUN" in the customer code box during
checkout. The coupon code is good for one week, through February 2, 2009.
So, remember the code "FUN", and go to their website to get your own copy of All About Homophones for $17.95 (e-book version) or $19.95 (print version) through next Monday, February 2nd.
Do this: go to The Homophone Machine and type something in, then come back to my "Comments" spot and leave me a comment to let me see what it turns out as. I'll go first:
Their was snow and ice today, and eye halve cabin fever. I'm going crazy, and eye can't wok outside because its too slick!
I began my homeschool journey in January, 1992. Way back then, there were not many resources available, and what was out there was expensive. But here I was, homeschooling without a budget! No money.
My daughter was born the day after the cut-off in the state I was living in, so we hadn't started the year she turned 5 in September. By January, she was making me crazy: she was so smart, and so bored! In November I did minimal things with her, in December we did Christmas crafts and present making, but by January, I knew I should just start teaching her. So, I did.
At that time, my understanding of Kindergarten was that it's purpose was:
to teach children socialization;
to teach children their letters, numbers, colors and shapes.
While this may have been an over-simplification, it is what I shot for.
In April I went to a used curriculum fair, and was able to pick up an all-in-one curriculum that needed to be supplemented with Math and Language Arts. The 1st Grade Curriculum book recommended, for phonics, a book for phonics based on a method created by a man named Orton. My library owned the book, so I borrowed it and began to teach my daughter how to read.
So, night after night I pored over this huge book, reading, rereading, memorizing, taking notes, creating phonogram cards on 3x5 cards. Finally I began to work with my daughter, and she took off! This program was amazing! The only problem was, you kinda had to read and memorize the book, and do your best to implement everything it said. I knew I wasn't doing that well, but at least my daughter learned well how to read and spell.
Daughter #2 came along and didn't fare so well. A learning disability was involved, and more time had passed since I had studied how to implement the program. In otherwords, the combination of the LD and the user error, and my daughter didn't do well learning to read and spell.
Child #3 came along, and was doing well, like child #1. But, by this time, almost 15 years had gone by since I had read the book...
And then along came ALL ABOUT SPELLING!
And then, one day in October or November, in my 3rd year of teaching my 3rd, I had the amazing blessing of receiving All About Spelling! This multi-sensory, integrated system is based on the same method of phonics as my old program was, but goes way, way beyond in making implementation not only possible, but successful and complete.
I am never going back!
This wonderful program walks me through each and every day, making sure I do not fail to introduce the spelling rules, making sure my student is learning things that I was never quite managing to teach... Things that we know but don't think about, like which letters are the vowels, and which are the consonants, and which letters make the letter "c" soft and not hard ("ssss").
What the program comes with varies depending upon which level you are buying and what you are needing (like if you are starting at the 3rd level, but have never purchased before), but the initial program purchase comes with the following:
Four sets of flashcards that help your student learn and review phonograms, words, and spelling rules.
Phonogram Cards for learning to read the phonograms
Sound Cards for learning to write the phonograms
Key Cards for learning the spelling rules
Word Cards for mastering the spelling words
Flashcards are printed on sturdy cardstock, ready to be cut apart.
Twelve labeled index card dividers that organize the flashcards in the Spelling Review Box so you can customize your student’s review.
A set of five colorful tokens that provide your student with a fun, tactile way to segment words and identify individual sounds.
A progress chart and completion certificate that allow you to track and celebrate your student’s success.
There is also a phonogram-audio cd/rom. The entire package together creates for you a program that covers/can cover:
phonics;
handwriting; and
spelling
Here is a screenshot of the program:
Would you like to try out a demo of the program? Click the button below.
I know this was a long review, and if you are still reading, thank you! My final analysis of this program is that it is an absolute winner! I will be recommending it to all my friends. It is amazing. I will be ordering the next year's program each year. It will be worth every penny. I think you will agree!
Now, my Caboose, a boy with attitude, saw this book and wanted nothing to do with it. So, I smiled, nodded, and proceeded to read it myself so that I could review it.
The Little Man in the Map is a fantastically, magically illustrated book with a really ingenious method of helping children remember states and their locations. The book opens by introducing the reader to MIMS, the Man in the Map. Now, MIMs is an abbreviation of an abbreviation of ...well, let me just get into the explanation.
If you look at your map of the United States, can you see anything that might vaguely resemble a man? Well, I could not. So, I read on. The author thought of this really cute way to help students see this map in whole new ways.
First, starting way up in Minnesota, you have what might appear to be a hat. Below Minnesota, you have Iowa, which constitutes his head and face. Below that you have Missouri, the shirt, which resets on Arkansas, the pants, and Louisiana, the Boot.
If you take the first three letters of each state, this man in the map could be called Miniowmisarklou! That would be quite a mouthful! But if you just take first letters, it would be Mimal. Let's just call him Mims, for short!
From there the author takes the reader on a very original tour of the rest of the country, from the two Dakotas holding up his hat, to Mim's drinking cup, Ohio! It is all very engaging.
********************************************************************************************
Through extreme patience, I managed to restrain myself and not pressure my son into reading this magical book, that I so wanted to share with him. Days went by. Weeks. I let the book sit in a very prominent place. After all, I needed to review it, and I hadn't gotten it done yet...
So, one very satisfying day, I watched out of the corner of my eye as my son serreptitiously slipped the book away from its spot and slipped into another room with it. Some time later, he came back into the class room, looking here and there, and then said, "Mom, do you have a map of the United States somewhere?" I found our children's atlas and handed it to him. The corners of his mouth turned up, and he said, "I want to show you something..." It was great! Since then he's enjoyed showing several additional people!
**********************************************************************************************
And, as an adorable little teaser, at the end of the book there is a brief suggestion page of the author's next book, which will be about state capitals. It was of particular interest to me, because the example used was MY state.
"Mary Land has apple trees...
May I have an apple, please?"
So, whileThe Little Man in the Map is not a curriculum for learning geography, it IS a wonderful, whimsical book to introduce and help children learn the 50 states that make up MY United States of America, and in my house this cute, beautifully illustrated book gets TWO THUMBS UP!
From the ALEKS website:
"ALEKS is a Web-based, artificially intelligent assessment and learning system. ALEKS uses adaptive questioning to quickly and accurately determine exactly what a student knows and doesn't know in a course. ALEKS then instructs the student on the topics she is most ready to learn. As a student works through a course, ALEKS periodically reassesses the student to ensure that topics learned are also retained. ALEKS courses are very complete in their topic coverage and ALEKS avoids multiple choice questions. A student who shows a high level of mastery of an ALEKS course will be successful in the actual course she is taking."
*******************************
I wanted to get my 3rd grader to use ALEKS to help me get an opinion on the program. I wanted to be able to get his opinion to help me in my review. However, simultaneously, he had more than one computer math program available to him. After a couple of times of using ALEKS, whenever I would ask him to spend some time using ALEKS, he would inevitably ask to use one of the other math choices, whether a different program, or a workbook page, whatever. Hmmmm. That's interesting...
So, it became necessary for me to sit down under his ID and work my way through some of the ALEKS program, which I had intended to do. So I did.
I really wanted to like ALEKS. I really wanted it to be an answer for me. I wanted to have a great math program that I could, each day, say to my son, "Time to do your math!" And he would respond, cheerfully (or at least willingly), "Okay, mom!"
But that was not to be. I found ALEKS to be tedious, slow, boring... unpleasant. So... on with my review.
PROS:
ALEKS has things going for it that you can take into consideration:
It is a complete program, from beginning grammar level through college;
It begins with a comprehension evaluation, so the program knows where to start the student.
It gives instruction, and it gives review. If you don't understand something, you can click on the "EXPLAIN" button, and it will explain the concept it is teaching you! If you aren't "getting it", it will provide review and review and review, and help your student plug away at it until he/she really, really "gets" it.
On the flip side, the program evaluates the student, gives a certain amount of repetitive evaluation to be certain student really grasps the concept, then moves on, not requiring the student to continue doing busy-work in a cocept-area the student already understands.
It provides a weekly report. The parent/administrator has a regular report and can see/document the student's progress.
It has a visual pie that is really nice, that shows the concepts the student must acquire by the end of the grade level/course, and the color changes to green, incrementally, on each section of the pie, as the student acquires the different levels of understanding for the different levels of tasks (example: clock understanding starting with time on the hour, moving to time on the half hour, quarter, by the fives, then finally by the single minutes...).
The program is/can be self-administered, freeing the parent/teacher while the student does the studies.
This program is ideal for remedial work, and I'd guess (but can't be certain) is much better suited to an older student who is flitting in to cement or grasp a concept from his normal school work that he/she just can't get a handle on. I know that if a program has spent 2 lessons on understanding number of degrees in angles on a triangle, and then just moves on to other subjects, a student can get left behind. This program would be ideal in a situation like that where a motivated student is well aware that he/she has an weakness in geometry, wants to really understand circle circumference, or adding degrees in a geometric figure, and can go right to that topic and work on it and work on it until he/she really, really has it cemented in the mind.
Now, the negatives:
As I mentioned earlier, this program actually comes over as tedious, dry, boring. It might be an issue with my home technology, but for me the program was slow. It is really annoying when you push a button to submit and answer, and then have to wait and wait and wait while the little round clock-dial indicator spins and the computer doesn't quickly respond...
The program approaches new concept sections without instruction, but relies upon the student to click on the "EXPLAIN" button if they cannot already see how to get the answer to the problem presented. Now, we're all lazy by nature. The tendency is to skip the "EXPLAIN" section, attempt to figure out the answer on our own, try a couple of times and fail, get frustrated, and quit. And that's my perspective as an adult. I'm sure a child could not articulate that well, but they have the same innate inclination. My recommendation here, to the creators of the program, is that when a new concept is introduced, it is on the first page, making it more likely that the student will read the instruction before attempting the problem for the first time.
The program is self-directed, which in one respect is a negative. As the student approaches his/her pie, showing the entire pie and all the material not yet mastered, it can be overwhelming. Not only that, but ...where to start? I think ALEKS thinks of this as a "PRO", that the student can decide where to start. But, for an 8 or 9 year old, it is a "CON". They usually do much better if they are just told, "This is what you are doing today." "This is what you are working on this week"
Some things are not "intuitive", and this is compounded when using a lap-top, because there is stuff that gets cut off the bottom of the page, leaving the student wondering what the computer is asking for. Specifically, when a new concept is introduced, there is a page that shows a problem. If you understand the problem, you are supposed to click on a button that says "PRACTICE", but if you don't understand the problem, you are supposed to click on "EXPLAIN". However, the page is presented as a normal worksheet page, so my tendency was to try to get the cursor to work on the spaces where I was "supposed" to type the answer in (on a worksheet page), and it wouldn't click. Very confusing. My recommendation would be that this page should have a "CONTINUE" button instead of a "PRACTICE" button. Just would make more sense here.
One thing, in particular, really bothered me on the section on measuring. ALEKS has a really cool "ruler" concept (that takes a little fiddling with to figure out). My complaint is that the ruler is not to scale. Using a "not-to-scale" ruler is fine for older students, but I don't believe a normal 8-year-old is ready for that concept. And why use it? The ruler was being used to measure a 3" toothpick, and instead of using a 3-inch ruler, there was a 2-inch ruler that said it was 3" long... Why? You're not measuring something larger than the computer screen... The thing that I'm guessing is that the ruler cannot be changed, and is "not-to-scale" throughout all grade-levels, so they're just stuck with this. But, if they're not, I'd recommend they evaluate what level normal math programs introduce "not-to-scale" measuring, and introduce it there, not at the younger grade levels. (I think it is at least 4th, 5th or 6th grade, not 3rd grade...) And, when introducing the concept, INTRODUCE IT! Don't just use it! Otherwise the student begins to think that 3" is really only 2" long...
Okay, if I think of any other disadvantages that I'm forgetting, I'll come back and add them. The main thing to remember is that I REALLY wanted to like this program, and I just can't. I find it hard to imagine this being a great program to use instead of a book curriculum (great in addition to, but not instead of), because it is just so dry, tedious, and boring. So, while there are a lot of favorable aspects to this program, for my family it was not a winner.
However, every family is different. That is why I presented both sides. With different family/student dynamics, maybe this program would be a good one for YOU?...
- Zone Cleaning which focuses on Living Room/Entry, Kitchen, and Bathroom
- Bedroom Cleaning which, obviously, focuses on the bedroom, and
- Laundry which teaches children, step-by-step, how to do the laundry on their own.
Be sure to come back and read the Crew's reviews of these wonderful and helpful products. In the meantime, for more information, see the Trigger Memory Systems website.
