You can now get SS1 on DVD.  This month the DVD is on sale and you can view samples of the first few lessons online at the AVKO website:

Sequential Spelling DVD

You can read my thoughts about Sequential Spelling here.

If you visit the Microsoft website, not only can you get a free version of their Visual Studios Express software but you can also download a complete set of programming courses for children including teaching materials and printables! 

You know this means I'm going to have to learn more about my computer than I ever wanted to, all for the sake of education.

May 4-7

http://www.learninga-z.com/special/openhouse/index.html

I came up with an idea to help my kids learn the location of the keys on a keyboard and needed a printable "keyboard" to complete the idea.  So I went looking and found these links:

I plan to make multiple copies of the black and white copy and then created various 'key hunts" for the kids to do.  For instance, one day I may tell them to find all the vowels and color them blue, another day I may ask them to spell a word by connecting the appropriate keys in order, etc. 

I'd rather them learn to type the "old fashioned" way, but I don't think even my oldest is quite ready for that yet and some of his school work requires finding keys on a keyboard.  So I'm hoping this will be a fun way for him to learn and ease that frustration.  

Hope it helps someone else. 

 The telescope kit costs $15 and you put it together yourself.  Shipping for my order was $8.95.

https://www.galileoscope.org/gs/ 

At the website you can download a free study guide:

https://www.galileoscope.org/gs/sites/galileoscope.org.gs/files/Galileoscope-Optics-Guide-1.1.pdf

 and there's free viewing guide as well. 

Gotta' love that hands-on learning! 

In celebration of the 400th aniiversary of Galileo's original telescopic exploration of the sky, there is a 100 Hours of Astronomy event taking place between now and April 5th.  You can check here to see if astronomers in your area are participating.

I use Five in a Row, along with various other resources, in teaching the children and this week we "rowed" a book called Owl Moon.   The FIAR manual suggested that the art lesson this week discuss the various perspectives an artist can choose and point out the differences between drawing something to appear realistic as opposed to less so. 

To involve my children in these lessons I gave each two pieces of paper that had been folded in half to created a dviding line. On the first piece of paper I'd written "Cartoon Tree" on one side and "Real Tree" on the other.  We looked at several examples of each type of drawing in other books (I actually used coloring books for the cartoon trees as that's what I had handy) and then the children each drew their own versions on their paper.

For the lesson in  perspective, I labeled on side of the paper "Like an Owl" and the other "Like a Bug."  To help the kids' get a better idea of what I was looking for we looked at illustrations from Owl Moon and a wordless book called In the Woods that shows realistic images from a bug's point of view.  Each child then drew a picture intended to demonstrate these two perspectives.  I don't know that my 5 y.o. quite got the concept.  She drew a flower on one side and a very large bug on the other- but I guess if one bug were looking at another, it would look that large. LOL!  My older child did a great job drawing grass and a tree trunk from the bug's point of view and the top down view of the tree, grass and the bug from the owl's. 

This was a very simple lesson and only required materials that I had sitting in the room with me already- that's just the kind of lesson I like.

I have used various resources to help DS learn to read and he's doing his part as best he can, but I sometimes lack in the consistency department.  So I'm trying yet another resource in hopes that it is simple enough that I will follow through and we can get this thing done. 

I thought I'd share a little about what we are doing and why it has or hasn't worked for us:

Reading Rescue 1-2-3    (Amazon affiliate link to book)

This book made a huge difference in how I taught and really benefited my son in the process.  The book offers practical daily steps to take to teach reading and improve fluency as well as offering a summary of some of the common problems kids have and mistakes teachers make in teaching reading.  The negative to this program is that I don't have the willpower to follow through with the teaching exercises.  They involve a series of steps to be taken daily that are intended to engage the student while teaching reading and I am just not an "engaging" type teacher.    But, I have taken the "don't" advice to heart and do use many of the techniques in my own way.   For anyone who is struggle with teaching reading to their child, I would consider this book to be a very worthwhile acquisition.

Click N' Read   This online program uses a cartoon character and interactive lessons to teach your child many of the fundamentals of phonics. The program also introduces various sight words to the new reader.  I really appreciate that the program offers many of the lessons and uses the techniques recommended by other sources, including Reading Rescue 1-2-3.  I feel comfortable that all the "bases" are being covered.  It is also a program that I can start and then allow my child to work through independently so that he can learn to work through some of these issues by himself without my having to be right by his side.  Sometimes he seems to do better if I just leave him alone to concentrate. 

The negatives of this program are that the character's "jokes" never change and he repeats the instructions for each lesson.  After 30 times, we pretty much know what we are supposed to do and my son would really like to fast-forward through the introduction.  The instructions and jokes don't take a lot of time but they are still boring after you've heard them over and over again.  Also, since it's a computer program there are limits to how much adjustment in speed you can make. For instance, my son had already learned most of the sight words (once) but still struggled with them on the program.  I can only imagine how much trouble he would have had if he'd never seen any of the sight words before.  Meanwhile, having to identify the consonant sounds can get a little boring for him. 

But, as we progress things are levelling out and this program is a very useful resource for me as it allows me to provide him with some extra phonics practice time in a different format.  If you are interested in this program, but sure to use my e-mail address: mom@hwtk.net in the promotion code line to receive a $10 discount.  If you are a member of homeschool buyers' co-op be sure to check there first to see if they are still offering this program at a discount. 

Finally, the newest addition to our program, Sequential Spelling! This appeals to my "just the facts" type personality and it has a certain order to it that I like.  But besides that, it does seem to be actually working- a little bit.  This program builds on what has been learned on day to the next (if your little one remembers what he has learned) so consistency is necessary.  But it's fast and easy and takes very little prep time, so consistency is easier to achieve.  I have had to modify the program a little bit as the goal is to eventually build up to spelling 25 words each day and my son tends to wear out after about 8 words.  I am splitting the lessons in half for him right now.  The lessons do move quickly so I can anticipate that we may need to do some review work rather than forging straight ahead.  But I can also see that the theory of putting pieces of sound together to make words is one that works for DS.  So while I can't say that this program standing alone would solve all our problems, I can say that as one component of our plan it is a great addition.   

We have tried many other great resources and I'm not going to mention them simply because they are good resources- they just didn't work for this particular student and teacher.  Something as simple as a font that was difficult for DS to read or words that were too unfamilar have bogged him down.  Other books were simply too boring to keep his interest or mine and didn't lead to anything rewarding.  DS does not do well learning words that form boring stories- "The cat sat.")  He's much happier working out the language in simple book that he already enjoys such as the "Thingy Thing" or "Little Critter" series.  So I choose books from our collection that I think he can read for our practice time and keep an eye out to avoid fonts or word placements that might be confusing.  He has success and neither of us gets bored.

A new site has started up offering daily free downloads M-F.  To get the freebie you do usually have to enter your name and e-mail address to subscribe to the participating vendors' newsletter AND the download if available for just one day.  To take full advantage you have to check the site daily. 

Here's the website:

http://homeschoolfreebie.wholesomechildhood.com/

Seriously- I just read about this company in the Wall Street Journal.  The company is called ChaCha and it provides answers to cell phone users via text message.  According to the WSJ article, guides are paid $.20 per answer.  Here's the company's link if you want to investigate this opportunity further:

http://info.chacha.com/Careers/BecomeaGuide/tabid/74/Default.aspx

I was going to mention how much fun we were having with Click N Read phonics, but hesitated because I bought it for a really low price and didn't think that price was still available.  There's a big difference (to me anyway) between recommending a $30 learning game and suggesting one that costs closer to $70.

The previous offer that I took advantage of through Homeschool Buyers Co-op had closed out on April 1st and that's when my online access activated so I couldn't review the product before the deadline.  But, (here's the purchase tip) the offer has been reopened and now you have until May 31st to place your order. 

Here's a sample lesson from the Click N Read website, if you'd like to take a look.  The first 10 lessons, which I'll say more about in a moment cover the letter sounds.  The information on the website recommends that you skip these if your child already knows the letter sounds.  Thus, the sample lesson number 15 thus is actually not very far into the program.  So it should give you a pretty good idea of how the lessons progress. 

I initially purchased this program for my 7 year old who knows his letter sounds and phonics rules, but just has no zest for reading yet.  I was able to acquire Study Dog when it was free a few years ago so we had been using that program, but I thought the rocket ships of Click N Read might appeal more to my son.  Also, the introductions to each lesson in Study Dog (where the "story" is set up) tend to get a bit tedious after awhile.  Click N Read tends to get to the lesson quickly, whereas Study Dog lesson needed to be set up with a story explaining why you were performing a certain task (i.e. sort the pillows to clean the room, match the words to unlock the code...).  

Anyway, it was my 4 year old who first took an interest in trying the program, so I reset my starting point to Lesson 1 and began.  Lessons 1-10 introduce the letter sounds and also do some ear training exercises.  In addition, these lessons also teach your child to locate the letter for each sound on the keyboard.  We have only completed 3 lessons so keep in mind that my observations are limited.  The lessons start with an introduction to the primary sound the letter makes.  The dog character hosting the lesson "says" the sound for each letter and then the child is taken through a series of review steps where she is asked to click on the correct letter after hearing the sound. 

Next an image of a keyboard is displayed and the location of the letter is pointed out to the child.  The child is asked to locate the letter on the keyboard (either by clicking on the vitual keyboard displayed or typing on the real keyboard), identifying the letter by it's sound. 

For ear training, the "dog" says a word slowly, separating each sound, and then speeds up the word to blend the sounds.  Once a few letter sounds have been learned, the child is asked to listen to each word the dog says and identify the starting letter.  For instance, the dog may say "am" and the child must then select between an "a," "m," or "s" as the starting sound. 

Within the first three lessons the program was already taking the next step and teaching the child to put those letter sounds together to locate a word or read a word.  The first words taught were "am" and "Sam."  In Lesson 3 the student is taken to a virtual reading room where these words and others using additional letter sounnds are put together into a short sentence that the child is encouraged to read aloud. 

I think even these initial lessons will be great for my 7 year old (if I can get him to read the words aloud) but it was over my 4 year old's ability to do comfortably.  She knows many of her letter sounds and the program is a good introduction for her to demonstrate what to do with those letter sounds, but she was not always able to accurately select the correct words by initial letter sound or read the sentence.  Study Dog in comparison teaches all the letter sounds and names first, then moves to identify initial sounds, then rhymes before moving to distinguishing between two non-rhyming words.

Fortunately, my 4 year old doesn't realize that the program actually keeps track of how many answers she gets "wrong" and I am choosing to work with her and provide "hints" rather than use the program as a stand alone lesson for her.  She really enjoys the program though and asks to do the lessons.  So for whatever reasons, she seems to like the program.  I'm not sure how she will fare on the more advanced lessons but hopefully I can convince her to just watch while her big brother works on those. 

The purchase I made through the co-op provides me with a "lifetime" subscription for one student.  That means that one student's progress may be tracked at any given time.  But once that student has completed the program, their records can be deleted and a new name added.  You will also have the option to add extra students for an additional fee.  One negative for the program is that it is internet-based, I don't have a CD of the software.  So if the company goes out of business or offline or I lose my internet connection- no Click N Read.  Also, I have a fast internet connection so I'm not sure how a dial-up connection would handle the interactivity.  But, in comparison to what our household spends in any given year on non-educational (or marginally educational) computer games, I consider this to be a pretty good deal.  I'll consider it to be a great deal if I can get my 7 year old to take an interest in it.  But even if he passes on it, I've still got a 2 year old that can make use of that lifetime subscription.  Besides, if it really does last a lifetime, there's always the grandkids. 

Hmmm.... I wonder what the internet and computers will be like for our grandkids. 

If you've not made a decision yet on a phonics program, the Homeschool Buyers Co-op newsletter announed that a deal may be forthcoming for access to Explode the Code online.  So, keep your eyes open if you are still in search of that "perfect" phonics curriculum. 

First, April 28th through May 3rd is the 2008 Ultimate Homeschool Expo. You can visit the site now to participate in free preview chats.

Second, Hobby Lobby has their T-shirts on sale this week.  You can get adult and children's sizes for less than a few dollars each.  I usually pick up a set in matching colors for the whole family. I also like to use these shirts for craft projects. To make my daughter's shirts more "girly" I sometimes ask my mom (she knows how to sew) to add lace or other details to the plain T's. 

Edit: Arghhh!  Reporting back early- I just go the download finished.  Not only do you have to go ahead and set up an account but the free trial is only 5 days after which your credit card will be charged if you don't "unsubscribe."  Bummer!  Not a way to win subscribers.  Since I was thinking about making a purchase anyway, I will probably go ahead and do the trial but I don't know... I hate to have a 5 day clock ticking down on me.

So, I'm just a little slow on the uptake...

I was looking at my list of vendors today and realized that I might like this software for my children.  But I couldn't decide if I wanted K or 1st grade (DD is 4 but has learned a lot from her older brother).  So I start looking for more details and discover that you can download a free trial of the game!  I'm downloading my free trial of Jumpstart World K right now and will report back in a few days. 

If you can't wait, you can download a trial copy for any of the grades from the Knowledge Adventure website or call the 1-800 number and receive a trial CD in the mail- FREE! 

 To get this freebie click the link above and underneath the red "Add to Cart" button their is a link that says to "Click here" to purchase, subscribe or make changes.  Click there.  Then, on the next page, near the bottom of the log in screen it will offer you the chance to go "here" to get a free trial copy. The links that you are looking for are blue.   

1-800 Flowers is hiring teleservice personnel (copied from the 1800Flowers' site):

but my DH is just so clever, I can't help it!
 

We have an old standard microscope from my younger years.  It's a good microscope- manification is find, but it's really hard to look at thing through the tiny viewing lens.  I wear glasses, so that complicates matters as well.

Well, my DH was messing with his new telescope and trying to work out a way to take digital pictures with it.  I can't even begin to give you the details of that. He says "It's so easy!"  But when he tries to explain it to me, my eyes glaze over.  Anyway, as he thought about these things he suddenly realized that converting our microscope into a digital one would be even easier! 

So here's the trick.  We have a little webcam and cable and we have a computer (of course) and a microscope.  He takes the cover off the webcam so it can be placed flat on top of the microscope viewer.  He then takes the top lens off the microscope.  He attaches the webcam to the top of the microscope, connects the webcam to the PC, and whatever the webcam "sees" shows up on our computer screen.  He so rocks! 

Slides that were so boring an difficult to see before now pop up right before our eyes.  No more kids jostling for position, no more seeing nothing but my own eyelashes blocking the view! 

I know what you are thinking- "Why not just buy a new microscope?"  Yeah, that would work too.  But it wouldn't be nearly as cool.