Home Schooling Adventures
• Sep. 27, 2009 - Download N Go Autumn Treasures
Download N Go is a Unit Study that you simple pick the topic, download it and BINGO your plan is laid out step by step for the week! It's everything you need along with lap book components to make your job easier. Just add some books from the library and a few things that most home schoolers have on hand like glue sticks, paper brands and file folders. It's one click and your ready for a great weeks study!
We just completed our first look at the Download N Go Autumn Treasures. This is a unit study that is all about Autumn. It has daily activities and daily lap book components. It's very thorough and easily adaptive for any age. This simple to follow unit study provides many things throughout the week. It lays out the groundwork with flexibility including topics to discuss, questions to get your child thinking, interesting links with videos, vocabulary words, scripture you can use, easy to follow daily lesson plans and much more. It takes you through learning the seasons and focussing on fall. Centered around this one topic you cover all the subjects for the week. With Autumn Treasures your child will learn about leaves changing, what makes popcorn pop, things that happen during the fall season, what foods are ready in the fall, what animals and insects do during the fall, what happens on farms in the fall and many other things. Our kids love lap booking and that is a very attractive part of this unit study because it comes with all the lap book components at your finger tips that you can work on each day as you cover the assignments for the day. This leaves your children with a beautiful put together keep sake at the end of the study that they can display and share with others what they have learned and achieved throughout the week.
I look forward to seeing the upcoming Download N Go topics in the future. They are a great easy to use unit study that makes it so simple to cover a topic with out having to put in all the foot work yourself to plan it. |
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• Apr. 26, 2009 - Lampstand Press - Tapestry of Grace
Tapestry of Grace offers a rich educational curriculum that is full of meat and fits very nicely with the hands on Charlotte Mason Method of teaching. With Tapestry of Grace you will only need to add for the younger ages a math curriculum and a phonics program, it covers everything else that you need. It covers History, Literature, Arts & Activities, Writing, Geography, Church History, Government & Field Trips. We were able to choose what we wanted to review. I was so excited about this because I have looked into Tapestry of Grace previously but was not sure if I wanted to commit to the price yet.
We chose Year 1 Unit 1 The Books of Moses (Creation/Egypt/Exodus). In the digital edition. Wow what a journey. This is such a in depth program that offers lots of visual and hands on activities. I find when my kids can use all of their senses, (hear it, touch it, see it) that they truly learn it. It embeds in their hearts and minds. Tapestry of Grace takes a biblical teaching of living books. We chose not to purchase the books that you use along with Tapestry of Grace but to use our local library as a resource. Tapestry of Grace (TOG) just recently added the digital form of their curriculum. It was a seriously smooth download.
I have to take a pause in talking about the actual curriculum right now and talk about customer service. I originally downloaded our unit from TOG and then I purchased a new computer. Wanting to keep all of my homeschool curriculum in one place I found that I could not re-down load it onto my computer. That my license only worked once. I called TOG and within minutes they had emailed me another key to unlock my lap book and unit.  I then became a beta tester for Windows 7 and when I upgraded my OS I was unable to open my unit and had to call TOG once again and they quickly emailed me a new key to get into my unit. If you can imagine my brand new computers hard drive went out a few weeks later.  And you guessed it! I was going to pick up the phone and call them again however as TOG perfects their digital format there is now an online live chat service.  I spoke with them once again via live chat and they informed me of new way you can request a new key to unlock your curriculum. You just hop on the website and fill out for how many computers you want to put your curriculum on (up to 4) and they email you with in 24 to 48 hours with your keys.  It's that simple! I had my keys within a few minutes. My entire point here is how great their customer service is. Having the option to do an online chat was great for me and saved time! They are very understanding and quick to help you with whatever problem you have. Customer service to me plays a large roll in the homeschooling products that I purchase and TOG has awesome support!
We also chose the lapbook with our unit study. TOG gives you everything you need to use this rich curriculum that gives your children such a wonderful education. What I liked about this is that using a Charlotte Mason Method and using classical books - living books. I have found that coming up with the lesson plans themselves can sometimes be difficult and take up a lot of my time. With TOG it has freed up a lot of my lesson planning time. It's all right there all I needed to do was gather materials for projects and locate the books to use it with. We learned so much on this journey. How you can only find truth in God's word and God himself. My children learned the culture of that time period in Egypt, the agriculture and so much more. It was truly one of the richest learning experiences we have had. TOG will be something that we will definitely continue to use in our schooling.
So let's talk price. I'm a very hands on person. I like to touch my lesson plans.
Even when I purchase digital I have to print it out. I did just print out one section at a time. I wanted the entire thing in a binder so that I could flip pages, look through, point, touch etc. I also love having it on my computer so I can print out the sections I need. If they get messed up... I can pring them again! You can't lose it. It save a lot in storage space. You can purchase one 9 week unit at at time for just $45 a piece or you can purchase the entire year for just $170. You can also purchase the year bundle that is $250 and comes with extras like the very detailed lap book that my children are cherishing that they made. It's non- consumable. You can update it any time you want to! There are tons of benefits to the digital editions of TOG. Even for those people like me who have to print every single cherished sheet and put it in a binder!  TOG is worth the investment!
This is a program I would recommend for any one from the beginning home schooling family to the seasoned home schooling family. For families with just one child or for families with a quiverfull! It can fit into any home. I give it TWO  Check out the Tapestry of Grace website where they offer free samples of their curriculum to any unit you choose.
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• Apr. 26, 2009 - WriteShop Primary Book A
 WriteShop Primary Book A is a writing curriculum for your K-2 child(ren). This is a really well put together book. It provides you with a simple schedule that you can pick according to what level you are beginning at. If you are beginning with a K child then you use the schedule that completes the curriculum in 3 years. If you are beginning at a 1st grade level then you finish the curriculum in 2 years and at a 2nd grade level you would finish it in 1 year.
This book has every thing planned out and laid out for you. It also leaves you a lot of room for flexibility. It is full of organization tips to prepare for the lessons. I was a little hesitant to do a writing curriculum with my younger children however this was so simple and really gives them a foundation for writing in the years to come. I found and so did they that it was just what we needed. The lessons are fun and hands on for this age group. Even if your child is just in the pre-writing stage it will work for them. As the Mom you can write down what the child dictates and use it as copy work for them. WriteShop uses rhythms, animals. colors, favorite things, friends and other things as themes for the lessons. My kids really looked forward to this. The lessons were short and efficient and left them with a love for writing. I found with my 4 children that I used this with that it was very easy to do the lessons with different ages and levels at once.
We reviewed the digital Ebook of WriteShop Primary Book A. Book B and C are coming out soon. Also offered is a hard copy of the book. What I love about the digital copy is you get it instantly, it's non-consumable and you only have to print what you need when you need it. You can build your book in small chunks. It also is a space saver! There is an activity set workbook pack that is a life saver. Everything is already right there for you and it helps them practice what they have learned. The hard copy of the WriteShop Primary Book A is $26.95 and the digital copy is $24.25 plus you save $7 shipping. The accompanying Activity Set Workbook pack is $4.95 hard copy or $4.50 digital copy. If you are looking for a quality writing program that plans it all for you then WriteShop is the curriculum for you! WriteShop also offers many other products on their website!
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• Apr. 26, 2009 - Apologia
Are you looking for a top notch biblical based science curriculum for your children? You will need to look no further than Apologia. Apologia provides fun and challenging K-12 creation-based science curriculum specifically designed for the home school. Apologia Science is full of hands on experiments that are easy to do at home and challenges your children to stretch and learn. Apologia was written by a former university professor and homeschool parent. I have found it to be one of the most thorough Science programs out there. I have used them in the past but was blessed to review Zoology 1 Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day and Exploring Creation with General Science Edition 2.
Zoology 1 Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day introduces your children to classification of flying creatures. It gives you an in depth study of birds, their anatomy, their habitat, identifying birds, even how to attract them to your yard, making the connection to how God created them and how glorious and wonderful they were created. There is also a study of bats and their habits as well. The book does cover many animals that can fly. What I love about this book is that it's all you need. You do not need anything else to teach it. The children get to make a notebook with lots of things to put in it. There are several hands on activities all surrounding God's creation of the 5th day.
Exploring Creation with General Science Edition 2 is a two book set that includes both the student textbook and the Solutions and Test Manual. This is a book that gives your child an introduction to science. It such a rich book that covers a lot of ground. It has a very wide range of topics that it covers. The history of science, scientific method, designing experiments, simple machines, archaeology, geology, paleontology, biology, and human anatomy and physiology. With such a large range of topics in this book there is something for every child that would interest them. I loved watching my children coming to life with curiosity while using this book. It's full of experiments that can be done at home with household items.
Apologia offers a free help line for all customers. They also offer a money back guarantee. On their website they offer notebook pages to go along with Zoology 1 Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day and many of their other books that they offer. Apologia offers a wide range of curriculum for all ages and all your science needs. They are great in supporting the homeschool parent and helping them if they have any question. Apologia wants you to succeed in teaching your child science based on creation. You can see samples of thier books on the Apolgia website. The books are non-consumable and can be used with all your children througout the years.
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• Apr. 26, 2009 - Schleich Toys
Schleich toys are some of the most durable and realistic toys that I have seen in along time. We were sent 5 farm animals from Schleich toys. A cow, calf, horse, pig and a rooster.
My children immediately started deciding what animal belonged to whom. It was a huge decision as they couldn't believe how realistic they looked. The animals have such details it's just really amazing. My children have drug these animals everywhere. They seemed to have been incorporated into so much play which is wonderful. Schleich toys are very affordable. They are made of a hard rubbery plastic and hand painted. Schleich offers more than just the farm animals. They offer the farmers and farm equipment to truly create a mini realisitc farm. In addition to Farm Life Schleich offers items in other catagories like Wild Life, Forest Animals, Trees & Plants, Dogs, Replica Saurus, Juman Figurines, The Smurfs, The World of Knights and The World of Elves. They have sets you can purchase as well. This is something that my children will definitely be collecting from here on out.
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• Apr. 20, 2009 - Barchowsky Fluent Handwriting
Barchowsky Fluent Handwriting has been such a blessing to our family. I have a three children who excitingly helped me open this box and pull out the wonderful things that were inside. My 5,4 and 3 year old knew that this was just for them! We have really enjoyed this simple, fun, easy and very effective curriculum for writing.
Nan Jay Barchowsky based the BFH method principally on the early 20th century revival of italic handwriting in the United Kingdom, and on her own classroom experience. I have tried other hand writing programs and I have always felt either it was overwhelming or lacked enough instruction to be effective. This would either become frustrating for me or for my children. Often ending in my children crying and not wanting to do it.
My 5 year old has not had an interest in writing very much. She loves to draw but has not quite been ready to tackle writing those letters outside of her own name. Which really needed some improvement. With BFH my daughter happily ask me if she can write now. I wish you could see the big smile on my face now because she LOVES writing.
I have found with Nan Barchowsky's wonderful program that she uses a lot of fun things that children love. Like writing in the air. Writing in sand or whip cream on the table. Children love that. Our favorite game was writing letters on each others backs and guessing what they were! Moving easily from this fun learning to practice writing on re-useable sheets on an easel. We used the Beginners Handwriting that was accompanied by large sheets that were reusable. You attached them to the easel. All 3 of my younger children loved using these sheets. I loved the fact that I could reuse the sheet for each child! This makes the program so very affordable and easy to use!
BFH letters are taught in a font that really save time in the long run. The letters used move easily flowing into teaching cursive as they connect smoothly without extra effort. It's not the typical block style that most writing programs teach.
Beginners' Handwriting come with Twenty-eight, reusable, large sheets (11 x 17 inches, or 28 x 43 centimeters) come with a Teacher's Guide. It cost $29.95
We were also sent the BFH Fluent Handwriting Manual with CD-ROM. This great manual is full of information that is easy to understand and comes with two CD-ROMS. One for windows and one for MAC. So it covers your needs up front. You can print out sheets for practice like the ones below for any level that your children are at. This is such a wonderful way to practice what they are learning. The technique of this fluent flow of handwriting is amazing to me. It makes perfect sense. This manual and CDROMS cover 4 levels of handwriting. The CD-ROM also contains videos, instructions on how to teach the handwriting, activities as well as the printables for practice. I very affordable investment into your home schooling curriculum. What I love about this is that Ms. Barchowsky does not expect every child to write as beautifully as her, but to cultivate thier very own style that is just as beautiful!
BFH gives you a complete instructional package for all ages. The manual is for reference. It has all the essential information to learn and teach the BFH method. The CD-ROM has additional help, and exemplars for lessons. For just $65.95
Samples of the print outs on the CD-ROM
Breaking the boundaries of my 5 year old to reach her and give her not only a love for writing but pride in her work has been phenomenal in our home! My 4 and 3 year old have made leaps and bounds in their pre-writing as well. I would highly recommend this product to anyone. Its very affordable, easy to use for both child and parent and it's non-consumable which means you can use it with many children. Barchowsky has other products as well on their site HERE. You can purchase the fonts to download on your computer and you can also purchase Fix it...Write which I plan to try out with my soon to be 4th grader next year. It corrects writing skills and habits! I'll let you know how it goes! I had planned to include photos of my daughters progress in this blog but we are still up to our ears in boxes with our move so keep checking back for the pictures I plan to attach! |
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• Mar. 23, 2009 - Critical Thinking
Critical Thinking Co's Building Thinking Skills Primary K-1 has been a great blessing to our family. My six year old daughter has some speech issues that has made it difficult for her to put information together with words. This inspiring book has truly helped us in helping her figure things out. We reviewed Building Thinking Skills Primary K-1 for three of our children ages 3, 4 and 6 years old. Building Thinking Skills Primary K-1 offers in one book descriptive questions and answer strategies by using similarities & differences, writing skills, vocabulary, classifying, describing, analogies, occupations/vehicles/buildings, plants & animals, family members, number sense, geometry and much more! This book teaches children how to analyze relationships between objects, between words and between objects & words. Our speech pathologist and I had been working on finding something that would assist my 6 year old in this. We were both blown away at how much Building Thinking Skill Pirmary K-1 has helped her. She is putting more words correctly with objects than ever before! Her progress has truly had a break through and been amazing using the Building Thinking Skills Primary K-1 book.
I have to say all three of my children looked forward to this lesson every day. It did not take but about 15 minutes per lesson. Children are able to read, trace and write about things while using math, science and social studies! It gives children the opportunity to hone their thinking skills that are so critical to the learning process. The Critical Thinking Co is winner of over 90 national awards! This learning helps your child even at a very young age develop skills that will assure higher grades and better test scores. The Critical Thinking Co stands by not using drills or memorization but to empower minds! That in itself is such a powerful statement and one I have found to be true in using their products.
Critical Thinking teaches identifying and evaluating evidence to identify and communicate the correct answer. Our workbook, Building Thinking Skills Primary K-1, was a lot of fun for us. My children loved that we had hands on manipulatives to work with and a colorful workbook to go along with it. It kept their attention and was the perfect length lesson! After each lesson they would proudly display their work to their siblings and Father. It gave them such a feeling of accomplishment! It has taught them to reason things out and think first before blurting out answers! Very important life long skills and habits can be learned through using The Critical Thinking Co.'s products. The Critical Thinking Co offers many products on their website at very affordable prices. The Building Thinking Skills K-1 book was just $29.99. It's so well worth the money! |
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• Mar. 23, 2009 - Contest Give Away!
A fellow TOS crew mate, Candace, is giving away several of the products that we have reviewed this previous year. All you have to do to enter is select the product you would like to be in the drawing for and leave her a comment! How simple is that! This would be a great chance to start getting some new curriculum for next year. She has some exciting products on her site HERE to choose from that she is giving away! Check it out but hurry the contest will end soon! Look at the products featured in the give away!
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• Mar. 23, 2009 - As Easter Approaches
| Just a quick reminder to all as we consider Easter around the corner! Alphabet Alley offers a great deal of unique children's items that would be perfect for the Easter Basket. Alphabet Alley was started in 2004 by a mother who wanted a positive message to come along with fundamental toys for her toddler. Alphabet Alley offers a variety of durable toys all with positive messages. I think that the more we can bring the positive faith message into our children's every day play the better. It reminds them on a casual level what is important even in play! If you want a high quality product that can be passed down from child to child with a positive message to go with it then Alphabet Alley is the place look at. Check out my review on some of their products here! |
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• Mar. 22, 2009 - Auralog Tell Me More!
Ever wanted to learn a foreign language? Or have you thought about teaching your children one but was not sure where to begin or what program to go with? Auralog Tell Me More has a program that is customized for homeschoolers. It uses the immersion technique. It's like being dropped off in Paris and finding your way while learning the native tongue. Listening and interacting with the native culture. We recently reviewed Tell Me More Homeschool French 5 Levels. We were excitingly waiting to get this program. We were so eager that every single time our faithful dog would bark we were scouting for the delivery of it. When it arrived we were very impressed that it even came with a headset with a microphone so that you did not have to wait to get started. You had everything you need.
The excitement wore off as we struggled to get it installed and figure out what in the world we were suppose to be doing exactly? The start here now CD when inserted and installed on the computer. It didn't really tell me anything except that it was indeed on my computer. It was not allowing me to log in with my created account! So I moved on to the second DVD disc. We got that installed and were still a bit challenged as to where to begin because we felt like we were missing something with the first disc not allowing us access to it. After a bit of struggling we put it away for a while. All the disappointed faces that were sure they could do a better job than Mom and Dad were not happy that they had to wait a little longer!
We are very computer literate and could not figure out what we were doing wrong with that first CD install. Finally I gave in and contacted their 24/7 customer service. Wow, how great was it that within minutes I was up and running! It was a simple mistake on our part. Not only great customer service but it's available to you 24/7 which is comforting! My only complaint about this program is that it does not come with clear installation instructions or set up instructions. They are a bit vague on how to create a new account to log in. It also was a bit of a miff to try and figure out what you did once you got inside the program for the first time. The instructions merely say log into your account or create a new one which seemed to prove very difficult for our household! It also was very vague on actually setting things up for the first time. However, once we got set up the smiles were back and so was the excitement! We joyfully loved working this program every single day!
There are three lesson modes with this program. You choose which one fits each child or adult best! One lesson mode is Free-To-Rome where you can the entire pedagogical and linguistic context is available in six workshops and you can navigate freely through the lessons and activities. The next lesson mode is Guided Mode which is a learning path with a group of lessons and activities presented in order of increasing difficulty. The last mode you can choose is the Dynamic Mode which takes you through activities that are automatically selected according to your original objectives and the results you obtain in each activity.
We worked through the Guided Mode. It seemed the best choice for us. The introductory CD was a great beginning to the actual 5 levels. My older daughter worked quickly and accurately through the introductory CD. She then moved onto level 1. It was a total immersion into the language. She really loved this approach. I also started in level 1 and found it very challenging! Challenging in a good way though! I was taught my first year of Spanish through immersion by my high school Spanish teacher who taught me more in that class than I learned the next three years in other Spanish classes that did not use immersion techniques.
Tell Me More's one little box gives you 4 years of language learning! You can create multiple accounts. One for each child or adult in your house that is interested in learning a language. They have lesson study guides for every lesson, showing the solution for every exercise and activity. There are literally thousands of exercises. They include a speech recognition system that you say the words into the headset microphone and it will correct your pronunciation of the words. They have native French speaking persons who provide the speech on the program to help you develop correct pronunciation. Tell Me More provides a waveform and pitch curve graph that helps you see where you need to improve. We loved having the interactive conversations during the lessons. It is a fun way to truly learn the language. As time has passed we are getting better at our pronunciation of the language and our interactive lesson conversations are going much better.
In addition to what you get in the box and the original installation of the your disc, Tell Me More provides you with some online services as well. The EuroNews Lesson in partnership with the television station is available every week. This is about a 30 minute lesson based off a current news event in the country of your language that you are studying. Tell Me More not only offers testing and progress charts through the software you install but their are also online tests that allow you to assess your level at anytime during your training. The Language Achievement Test helps you assess your level and compare it to the levels defined by the Council of Europe. You can take this test as many times as you like. My Online Advisor offers you language-related and pedagoglical assistance in English. Tell Me More even provides an End of Training Certificate.
One feature that I feel I just have to mention is the Mobile Learning feature. Outside of Tell Me More you can load audio lessons onto your MP3 player, Pocket PC or burn it to a CD and take it on the road. This is a great feature for continual learning. To immerse yourself in the language as much as possible! All of my children have MP3 players so this worked wonderfully for our family!
This really is a total package and if the immersion technique fits for you then this is the program that you should try. Where else in one program can you learn reading and writing, listening and speaking, grammar, culture, and vocabulary. You can even create your own workbooks for your child! The Tell Me More Homeschool French 5 Levels is on sale right now for $309. I am sure you are going WOW $309 that's a lot. If you break it down thinking about how many children you have and the fact that it's FOUR years of lessons then the cost becomes very reasonable. This is a top quality program for learning language. This would be my first choice in a complete language program to recommend to any homeschooling family or family whose children were learning a foreign language in school. If you have never tried the immersion technique of learning a language then check out their free trial and rolling demos here. Who can resist a try before you buy!
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• Mar. 22, 2009 - Bonnie Terry Learning
Bonny Terry is internationally recognized as an expert in the field of learning disabilities. She has served as a special education teacher since 1973. Mrs. Terry is a Professional Educational Therapist, is state certified in elementary education (K-9), learning disabilities (K-12), and physically handicapped (K-12).
Bonnie Terry has created some wonderful curriculum to assist in helping children learn in a way that can reach them. We reviewed Five Minutes to Better Reading Skills and Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills.
The Five Minutes to Better Reading Skills is a unique way to help your child learn to read better and faster. Sometimes children can get so bogged down in reading the words that they do not even 'hear' the information they are reading. Which makes for a low retention in comprehension. Through a series of phonics drills your child will learn to read more efficiently. This program helps build skills for better reading. You chart your child's progress by recording words read per minute along with how many errors they made. My daughter started out reading 36 words per minute with 4 errors. She is now reading 51 words per minute with no errors! My daughter is ADHD and this is a great accomplishment for her! It's been a serious blessing to find something that works for our child who has such a difficult time paying attention. I would of never dreamed that in only five minutes a day that my child would of seen this kind of improvement and progress.
The curriculum comes with a students book and a teachers book. The Teacher's Book Contains Step-by-Step directions for use, Time Involved, organization of the drills, Research on reading fluency, Ways to improve fluency, Tips for success, Mastery Guide, Word counts, Reproducible student daily progress charts, Reproducible student mastery charts and 45 Non-reproducible drills. You can purchase both the Teacher's Manual and the Student Book for $60 here.
Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills is a fast, fun approach to improve writing and study skills. This is an all inclusive book that really helps teach your child an easy, innovative way to study and retain the information that they are learning. It's been proven through studies time and again that most children do not learn by hearing alone. Quite a majority of children need more than just auditory learning to master and retain information. I just can not say enough good things about Bonnie Terry Learning tools that she offers. The Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills has a lot of visual aids that help organize information with easy to use pages that appeals to visual learners. It teaches organization, time management and techniques to improve your child's study skills greatly! Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills is available for just $37. Both of these products are well worth the money. Bonnie Terry Learning offers many more products on their site. Check them out! |
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• Mar. 22, 2009 - Home School In The Woods
One of our favorite ways to teach hands on is with lap books. My children have learned so much through using their hands to construct something that goes along with what we are learning. Home School In The Woods has a wonderful line of Lap books that brings to life the lessons you are studying. We were so blessed to review "The New Testament" Activity Pack. This is Activity Pack follows the birth of Christ all the way through to the Resurrection. This activity pack has more than just a simple lap book.. Included is a great lap book that is very detailed, a poster project and a very cute project that we had so much fun with. The New Testament News project! My children loved this project where they got to become news reporters for the New Testament! This New Testament Activity Pack prompts the study of Jesus, His Disciples, Miracles performed and much more. You can use this pack with any other curriculum that you may be studying. You could even design your own study based around this great Activity Pack! Hands on work can be so memorable for your children. Lap books are a great tool that help give children a constant reminder of the things they are learning. This truly is a keepsake that your children can hang onto for a long time. "The New Testament" Activity Pack is just $18.95 for the downloaded version or available now on CD for just $19.95. |
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• Mar. 11, 2009 - One2Believe Noah's Ark
One 2 Believe has a great desire to support parents in their battle for their children's hearts and minds! They believe in the principle of giving children positive role models to play with. They have a wonderful line of products including Tales of Glory Figurine Sets, Messengers of Faith, Spirit Warriors and P31 Dolls.
We just reviewed Tales of Glory Noah's Ark. My kids are in love with Noah's Ark. From the moment the box came to the door they have not stopped playing with it. This set is very durable too! It even comes with a bridge for the 1 by 1 animals to walk up to the Ark. The Ark doubles as a storage center for Noah and all the two by two animals. My kids have re-enacted the story of Noah and the flood many times.
Then one evening my darling daughter decided that we must test the Ark to make sure it's flood proof in the tub! I had to pry her out of the bath because she did not want to stop playing! She was thrilled to see that the Ark floats and is 'flood proof'. She proudly announced that because Noah listened to God that the Ark truly must of been able to float in all that water. Especially since her toy floated in the bathtub. It's her most beloved bath toy now. However this toy gets it's use throughout our whole house. I never know where I will find the Ark parked in our house with Noah proudly standing on the deck with his staff! I truly believe that planting these small seeds in our children's minds and hearts leave life long impressions that can not be easily erased!
Tales of Glory Noah's Ark Set is sold for $29.99. It comes with Noah and his staff, the Ark and 14 animals. These are of of high quality and if my kids can't break them... yours probably can't either! Bring the bible to life for your children with this fun filled Ark! |
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• Mar. 7, 2009 - SpellQuizzer
Spelling words can some times be a challenge for both parents and children. SpellQuizzer is a unique spelling program that you download for your child to practice and master their spelling words. I have to admit I was not sure how I felt about an online program for spelling. I was very curious how this was going to help my children with their spelling. I like the old way of doing spelling. Calling out the words at the beginning of the week and having the children write them down and then testing them at the end of the week as they have studied throughout the week. Now I am a mother of 9 children so you can imagine how busy our home is. Often our children pair up to study their words together or quiz each other. Many times on spelling test day we have to revisit certain words again the next week before they are mastered. With SpellQuizzer it really did make a difference and revisiting words are now a thing of the past! I was quite surprised at the progress my children made in retaining the spelling words from week to week.
SpellQuizzer allows you to choose your own spelling words from any curriculum or just words that you choose to use. You can import your list or you can type each word in. You can label your list in any way you want to. We labeled our list by child and week number. You can save that list or delete it. We saved our list so that we could go back and try them again just to make sure we had not forgotten those words. Here is where it gets fun! You can then do one of two things. You can either type in a clue for your children to know what word to spell or you can record the word along with a sentence for your children to hear. By using your microphone on your computer you have a built in customized spelling program for your children! I made this fun for my kids by often using funny or silly sentences and unique voices. I found this also helped them remember the spelling words. I always encourage my children to use their spelling words throughout the week in conversation. They no longer have a hard time remembering a word to use. I loved hearing them ask "Can I practice my spelling now?". The versatility and possibilities are endless with this spelling word software.
Here is a screen shot of what the program looks like to your child when they are using it to practice their spelling words
There is no distractibility while using this program. It's so simple even my 4 year old was able to click the shortcut, select Quiz me on a list, find her name, listen to her simple list of words and type them in. Your children are able to revisit each word after they complete their quiz that they did not spell correctly as many times as needed. Once all of their words are correctly spelled they hear a loud applause come across the speakers! At that point my kids typically jump up and do what we call the happy dance at our house. It's so simple and such a time saver for Mom! I incorporated SpellQuizzer into our schedule in a casual way. I still call out those spelling words every Monday for my children to write down and still give them a spelling test on Friday. Now they are able to practice their spelling words independently throughout the week without any help from their siblings or parents. After all what kid does not like computer time!
Dan Hite offers this wonderful spelling word helper for only $29.95. He even provides list of grade appropriate spelling words that are free for you to download! I would highly recommend SpellQuizzer to anyone. This would be a help not only to home schooling families but as a spelling word helper to children attending a brick and motar school. It's a great software product and offered at a great price with no monthly fees nor renewals! When you purchase it, you own it, no strings attached. You even get free updates when available. You can download the software for a free 30 day test run here to see how well it can fit into your family. I have to say SpellQuizzer is probably not something that I would of thought of purchasing myself but after owning it I am very impressed! I hope that you will be too. |
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• Mar. 6, 2009 - Artistic Pursuits
ARTistic Pursuits is a knock out, fantastic art curriculum written by homeschoolers for homeschoolers. Brenda Ellis and her husband Dan has taught their children at home since 1991. Their wisdom comes shining through in this well put together educational art curriculum.
We reviewed the ARTistic Pursuits Grades K-3 Book One, An Introduction to the Visual Arts.
This is such a wonderful curriculum. It is something that both myself and my children enjoyed so much as we learned. It's short lessons that your present to your children and then they have time to work on things independently. What I love about it the most is that it teaches the heart of art. It teaches from step one and slowly progresses. It starts with an example of what you are studying. Showing the child a picture that was painted or drawn. Talks about the painting, talks about the artist and then goes on to lead the child into the activity at hand. A true process that goes hand in hand with our Charlotte Mason philosophy around here! It's an even greater value for your money because it covers so many grades at once. It was so interesting for me to watch my children at different ages do the same lesson. Watching my 9 year old who is a 3rd grader be very technical about the lesson we were working on, my 6 year old be somewhat whimsical about it, my 4 year old very detailed in her work and my bouncing 3 year old very abstract in her own way. It was fascinating to me to watch them progress and develop skills with each lesson that "I" taught them from this curriculum. An artist, I am most definitely not, but with this curriculum any one can be!
Book One, An Introduction to the Visual Arts has three sections. The first being 'What Artist Do' that contains 10 lessons, the second section is 'What Artist See' and contains 7 lessons and the last section is 'Where We Find Art' containing the remainder of the 32 lessons. As each lesson progresses to the next one there is a fresh new challenge awaiting your children! They so looked forward to this. This is a curriculum that also grows with your child and family. Artistic Pursuits have curriculum for all of your children's needs all the way through Senior High School! I know that our family will be using this curriculum for many years to come. My children so marveled at using the different tools that artist get to use. They used ebony pencils, watercolor crayons, watercolor paper, oil pastels and all sorts of things that fascinated them! ARTistic Pursuits offers these books for $42.95. They also offer quick convenient art packs that bundle the supplies you need on their website for low affordable prices! You can find them on the web at www.artisticpursuits.com or by calling 303-467-0504. Here is some of my budding artist projects for you to look at! |
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• Mar. 2, 2009 - Five In A Row
If you want a wonderful curriculum all rolled into one then Five In A Row is perfect! I have used Before Five In A Row with my little ones for several years now. I just got to review Five in a Row which is designed for ages 4 to 8 years old. This is a very unique approach to learning and can be your entire curriculum or used in addition to other curriculum that you may be using. Five In A Row takes wonderful wholesome, rich literature and bases 5 subjects around it. Social Studies, Language, Art, Applied Math, and Science. You read one book a week. Each day you start out with reading that one book. From that one book then each day you do a lesson based on the subject you are covering from the book. When you take that book and break it down to your children one day at a time by subject they begin to look at their own surroundings and see how all things that they learn fit together! What a great concept! You do not have to do the lessons in order. Nor the books in order. You can do it any way you choose! It's very flexible.
My children have loved the books that Five In A Row and Before Five In A Row has brought into our home and life! They are very rich literature with great lessons in every single book. The library is an ideal place to find a lot of these books. It has been nice watching my children get excited and be so attentive when I would announce it's Five In A Row time! Some of my children's favorite books from the lessons they have requested as gifts! Now talk about making a homeschooling Mom smile when her child ask for a book as a gift. It has given books meaning in a whole new way and it's fun to them! One of my main goals in teaching my children at home is to give them a love for learning and Five In A Row is a spectacular program that offers the foundations for them to love to learn!
What is better than the fun is that they are learning! They are learning from one source to fit all the pieces together! One part of Five In A Row that my children and myself love is the story disc. They have story disc in the appendix in the back of your book along with some sample lessons, extra materials, sample lesson planner and blank lesson planner for you to make copies. The Story Disc your children can color and write the name of the book on the back of the disc. You can laminate them and then stick them to a world map to show all the places you have visited in your books! With each volume of Before Five In A Row, Five In A Row and Beyond Five In A Row you will visit many countries throughout the world. The kids love adding the new story disc each week to the new place that we have learned about! We had a few places that were in "Make Believe Land" and we had a special map just for those story disc!
Five In A Row offers many products and they also have a digital library with lots of extras. They even have a cook book to go along with the lessons available! We love to do hands on stuff and they are now offering special Fold and Learns. They are a comprehensive lap book to go along with your Five In A Row lessons! They are available in their digital library! We reviewed the Five In A Row Volume 3 by Jane Claire Lambert. You can purchase it for $24.95. If you are looking for an addition to your homeschooling or a great literature based program you will not have to go any further than Five In A Row! |
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• Feb. 25, 2009 - Heads Up!
This is one review that I am very excited to share with you! Heads Up! is a company that has many products for special needs kids! This was right up our alley! Heads Up! has proven products that work with any learning style and with highly distracted children! Considering we have an ADHD daughter and a daughter who is ADD, has speech delays and some hearing concerns it was such a blessing.
We reviewed these miraculous Heads Up! Frames, Top of the Line, Double Time and Readers!
 Heads Up! Top of the Line
Heads Up! Double Time
Heads Up! Frames in 4x9 and 4x4 1/2
Heads Up! Reader
The Heads Up! Top of the Line and Double Times comes in blue and yellow and the Heads Up! Frames and Reader comes in yellow, pink, blue, red, green, and orange with the Reader also having a clear available. The tinted film puts a very light tint to the area you place it over drawing the eyes to focus on that area. I would of never guessed this little tool making such a difference for us in our home school and for my husband as well!
Our children really loved the Readers. They were able to easily keep their place when reading out loud or when reading to themselves. They have been using the Reader to double as a book mark. So it's keeping their place twice over! Everyone seemed to be drawn to a certain color. My very active ADHD child loved the red. I was surprised she not go for the pink! My ADD child went for the yellow. And wanted to use everyone that was yellow! We used these in so many ways. We used them to read, to focus on a paragraph that we were studying and the 4x4 1/2 was great to us during math to focus on a certain area that we were studying! The Top of the Line and Double Time helped me keep my place and cover distractible things that my children may want to jump ahead to without focusing on the here and now! My husband fell in love with the readers. He is ADD and dyslexic and was drawn to the calm blue color. He has been using them since we received them and has said we should order more just incase some get lost! These little miracles are only $1 per item. Such a blessing for a such a small cost. Anything that helps my children and dear husband focus better is well worth it. I myself love the Reader because as a busy Mom who often has to look up and away from my book It's easy to lose your place!
Heads Up! Offers so much more than just the above. They offer many products that are practical and work with any curriculum that you are using. They are practical products that meet our special children's unique needs. They have large selection of products to serve various needs that really help out the parents of special needs kids! I highly recommend checking out their products and picking up some of the Heads Up! Frames and a Reader while you are browsing their site!
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• Feb. 24, 2009 - Math Tutor DVD
Math! A word that makes my kids scream! Numbers come easy to this Momma! However for some of my children it's really tough for them. Sometimes I do not quite get through to them in a way that they can understand. Let me share with you a great tutor for a great cost!
We have been greatly blessed in reviewing two of the Math Tutor DVDs. The Basic Math Word Problem Tutor and The Algebra 2 Tutor. Now I have to admit I was thinking to myself how in the world is a DVD going to help my crew learn math? I was very skeptical going into this review. However from the moment that we popped the first DVD in I became a fan of Jason Gibson! Jason Gibson is the creator of MathTutorDVD.Com and he is the gentleman you see during the DVD. Mr. Gibson gives straight forward teachings of the math subject he is covering. He miraculously breaks it down into a basic understanding of the task at hand. He not only shows you how to do the math problem step by step but he explains in the process why it's done that way. I don't think it could be explained in a better way. There is no frills or bells, puppets, animation or anything like that in the DVD. Just Mr. Gibson and his white board. He gives the problems then walks you through solving the. He spends adequate time on each category at hand. Giving your student plenty of time to learn what they need to master the skill. Who would of thought so much could be packed into a DVD! So as you can see going in skeptical I left coming out a huge fan and advocate of MathTutorDVD!
Math Tutor offers many DVDs to choose from. On The Basic Math Word Problem Tutor here is what is covered in 8 hours of teachings.
Disc 1
Section 1: Adding Whole Numbers
Section 2: Subtracting Whole Numbers
Section 3: Multiplying Whole Numbers
Section 4: Dividing Whole Numbers
Section 5: Adding Decimals
Section 6: Subtracting Decimals
Section 7: Multiplying Decimals
Section 8: Dividing Decimals
Disc 2
Section 9: Adding Fractions
Section 10: Subtracting Fractions
Section 11: Multiplying Fractions
Section 12: Dividing Fractions
Section 13: Percents, Part 1
Section 14: Percents, Part 2
Section 15: Ratio and Proportion
On the Algebra 2 Tutor here is what is covered in 6 hours of teaching.
Disk 1
Section 1: Graphing Equations
Section 2: The Slope Of A Line
Section 3: Writing Equations Of Lines
Section 4: Graphing Inequalities
Section 5: Solving Systems Of Equations By Graphing
Section 6: Solving Systems Of Equations By Substitution
Section 7: Solving Systems Of Equations By Addition
Disk 2
Section 8: Solving Systems Of Equations In Three Variables
Section 9: Simplifying Radical Expressions.
Section 10: Add/Subtract Radical Expressions.
Section 11: Multiply/Divide Radical Expressions.
Section 12: Solving Equations With Radicals.
Section 13: Fractional Exponents.
Section 14: Solving Polynomial Equations.
Section 15: The Quadratic Formula.
I bet you are thinking Wow! I know that I was. Each of these DVDs are $26.99. Now where can you find math help to this magnitude and quality for such a small cost.
Here is the full line of DVDs that are offered on their site.
1) The 1st - 7th Grade Math Tutor - 2 DVD Set - 7 Hour Course
2) The Basic Math Word Problem Tutor - 2 DVD Set - 8 Hour Course
3) The Math Video Tutor - Fractions Thru Algebra - 2 DVD Set - 10 Hour Course
4) Fractions Thru Algebra Companion Worksheet CD - 600 Pages
5) The Algebra 2 Tutor - 2 DVD Set - 6 Hour Course
6) Algebra 2 Tutor Companion Worksheet CD
7) The Algebra Word Problem Tutor - 2 DVD Set - 6 Hour Course
8) The Advanced Algebra Tutor - 2 DVD Set - 7 Hour Course
9) The Matrix Algebra Tutor - 2 DVD Set - 7 Hour Course
10) The Geometry Tutor - 2 DVD Set - 9 Hour Course
11) The Trigonometry and Pre-Calculus Tutor - 2 DVD Set - 5 Hour Course
12) The Ultimate Physics Tutor - 2 DVD Set - 11 Hour Course
13) The Ultimate Physics 2 Tutor, Volume 1 - 3 DVD Set - 11 Hour Course
14) The Calculus 1 & 2 Tutor - 2 DVD Set - 8 Hour Course
15) The Advanced Calculus 2 Tutor - 4 DVD Set - 14 Hour Course
16) The Calculus 3 Tutor: Volume 1 - 3 DVD Set - 10 Hour Course
17) The Calculus 3 Tutor: Volume 2 - 4 DVD Set - 11 Hour Course
18) The Probability and Statistics Tutor - 3 DVD Set - 10 Hour Course
19) The Unit Converstion Tutor - 4 Hour Course
I have to admit I really liked being able to pull this out for my children and let them use it. I could sit and watch the "ahh haaa" looks come across their faces as they were able to finally grasp a new skill in a way they had not been able to before! If you are struggling in your home school teaching math or if your child attends school and needs a little extra help this would be the first place I would go for help with any kind of math! |
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• Feb. 21, 2009 - Bible Story Songs - The Bible Let's Sing About The Book We Love
Do your kids like to sing? Do they love to listen to songs and music? Why not let them listen to songs that give them a good foundation and teach God's word? We were so blessed to review Bible Story Songs CD "The Bible - Lets Sing About The Book We Love!".
I don't know how mornings are at your house, however at my house mornings can sometimes be rocky. Sometimes we are all not quite awake and can be less than nice to each other with grumpy hearts not yet awake. I used this beautiful CD to put us all in a great mood early in the morning. Before I woke up my children each morning for the past 6 weeks I popped in the Lets Sing About The Book We Love CD and then went on to wake my children up. With the beautiful songs playing my children could hardly find a way to be the grumps that sometimes even the best of us can be in the mornings. My children woke up to the love of God pouring into their small ears, minds and hearts.
The CD is an hour long and has 32 songs on the disc. By the time my children would dress and have their breakfast the CD would be coming to an end as we cleared our table and finished up our morning chores. What a great way to begin our days and have things smoothly and kindly happening as we went through our routines. The CD quotes on the front "Your words were found and I did eat them!" Jeremiah 15:16a. What better words to feed our children first thing in the morning for their ears to hear than a positive motivating CD about God and his great wisdom from the bible. Such a positive influence in such a simple act.
It's something that we will continue to do for years to come. Setting the tone of our household in the mornings with this beautifully put together CD was wonderful. Not only did it help our morning attitudes it also was music to my ears hearing my children sing the words to God's word. After a few weeks my younger ones 3, 4 and 5 years old have been 'caught' many times singing the tunes long after the CD had stopped playing. If you are looking for a good way to bring a little more positive biblical influence into your children's lives you should check out Bible Story Songs. They offer many CDs on their website. "The Bible - Let's Sing About The Book We Love" is only $9.99. They also offer several other CDs, sheet music to go along with the CDs, Bible e-Transparencies and bundled sets.
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• Feb. 20, 2009 - The BRIDGE to the Latin Road
Latin! Who needs to learn Latin? That has been my extended friends and families reactions over the past few years when I expressed I would LOVE to teach my children Latin in our home school studies. Latin is the root of the English language. If you do not build roots then how can have a solid foundation? After all Latin is all around us. Of course I was thrilled when given the opportunity to review a Latin curriculum!
My daughter was eager and fascinated to learn Latin. We were blessed to be able to review The BRIDGE to Latin Road by Barbara Beers offered by Schola Publications. This is a one year introductory program to Latin. It comes with a Teachers manual that includes a three ring binder containing 6 DVDs, Framing Codes, Sentences to Analyze, Designing Codes, Designing Cards and a Verb Memory Game. It also comes with a Complete Student Package that includes a 3 ring binder containing Framing Codes, Sentences to Analyze, Designing Codes, a regular, blue and red pencil and a scaffolding ruler.
We were so excited to dig in we could hardly wait. Each lesson you and your child(ren) watch the DVD together and then perform the task at hand. It's so simple and easy. The lessons are about 15 to 30 minutes each. Each day builds on the next, one small step at a time. It's so wonderful how it takes small bites to digest the entire elephant or elephanten! The BRIDGE to Latin Road is geared towards students in the 3rd to 6th grades and prepares them to learn Latin. By the end of this study your child will have built their own English reference handbook to use! How awesome is that!
In all honesty I never understood why knowing all the parts of a sentence and building that framework mattered so much until this program. I have not only taught my daughter but I have learned many things that flew right past me in school. This program is a BRIDGE to all your child needs to know before learning the meat of Latin. While Latin prefixes, suffixes and base words are introduced it give plenty of time for each skill to be completely mastered before moving onto the next skill. There is a lot of writing and dictation which gives a lot of practice for your student to perfect those skills that will be essential as they move forward in all areas of studies. Grammar tunes is a wonderful addition to this curriculum that is a fun catchy way to learn the parts of a sentence. You will see your child's confidence build and a feeling of accomplishment felt as they master skills and build a life long lasting notebook to refer back to.
Schola Publications offers The BRIDGE to Latin Road for only $139.00. Normally I would find this high for a single subject curriculum, however this is one of the most thorough programs you will find. It is truly of the highest quality. You can also use this curriculum over and over again just ordering the extra student packages for only $39.99. So if you have more children who will be coming up behind and learning it's even more of a bargain. We look forward to moving along next year to The Latin Road to English Grammar. |
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