Nov. 20, 2009 - Gymathtics Review

Gymathtics is an educational DVD that helps you exercise your brain while you exercise your body. It is approximately 30 minutes long and is good for all ages; however the math facts are geared towards 2nd - 5th graders.

We all exercised with it and I have to admit, I am out of shape. It was a good workout for me. Making my legs go down into a rectangle was pretty humorous. The kids enjoyed the workout. I will say that the instructor's words are a bit cheesy, but I didn't expect anything different with a children's DVD. The instructor shows what exercises to do and there are 4 children on the video that do the exercises with her.

During warm up, you learn about different types of lines, rays and shapes. Counting Calisthenics includes counting whole numbers, odd & even numbers, skip counting, place value, and prime numbers. Pattern Power is all about patterns. Lots of physical exercises go along with the brain exercises. The Well-Being Wind Down is a cool down session. 

 You can get your copy for $24.99 and free shipping is currently be offered.

To see what my crewmates have to say about this product, click here.

I received this free in exchange for my honest review. 

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Nov. 18, 2009 - AVKO Review

I had never heard of AVKO before but with being on the TOS Crew, I have now been exposed to it. AVKO is "a non-profit organization devoted to helping teachers, parents and researchers since 1974." AVKO provides free and low-cost resources "in order to achieve literacy for all, even despite learning challenges or dyslexia." With comments like that, it has my attention.

AVKO is multi-sensory. Their name stands for: Audio, Visual, Kinesthetic, & Oral. If you need help with teaching a struggling reader or speller, I encourage you to check out this website.

Their membership costs $25 / year for Basic Membership or $100 / year for their Deluxe Membership. With both memberships, you save 25% on their printed AVKO materials. The Basic Membership also offers hundreds of dollars worth of free e-books, Don McCabe's workshop recordings, pretests and placement tests, and more. The Deluxe Membership includes all of the above plus some.

The website is pretty busy, but I encourage you to look around and, if nothing else, check out the freebies section. There is a lot of info to glean from. To see what my crewmates had to say, click here.

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Nov. 17, 2009 - Thirsty & Touched by a Vampire Reviews & Giveaway

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Nov. 9, 2009 - Farraday Road Review

Farraday Road is a book by Ace Collins and is a Lije Evans Mystery. I have tried to read this book on numerous occasions and I continuously either get interrupted or just cannot stay focused for some reason. Because of this, I asked my 15 year old to read it and give us her opinion on it, which she gladly did. These are her words: "Farraday Road is a wonderful book with twists and turns every chapter that leave you wanting more. It was a mixture of modern day and history and would be a good book for anyone who likes mysteries." She goes on to tell me that the books is VERY interesting when dealing with a cave. She has sparked my interest and I will continue on until I have read it, but in the meantime, you get only her opinion. However, I do know that the end is not really the end but can't tell you more because I don't want to spoil it for you.

*I received this free from Zondervan in exchange for my honest review.

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Nov. 9, 2009 - The Screwtape Letters - Audio Review

I have always wanted to read The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, but I never could keep the storyline straight and often confused Wormwood with his uncle, Screwtape. Focus on the Family produced a very nice audio version and so now, I've "read" it.

If you're not familiar with The Screwtape Letters, let me give you a little info. There are three main characters: Screwtape, Wormwood & "The Patient". Screwtape is portayed as a demon who is fairly high up on the chain of command, yet not high enough to escape punishment himself. Wormwood is his nephew who is working on his "patient" by putting stumbling blocks in his pathway so that he does not please the "enemy" (Christ) but pleases "Our Father below" (Satan). His goal is to prevent his patient from accepting Christ. Apparently it is a bad thing for the demons if they don't fulfill their goal.

This audio version is very good. There are 4 CD's and lasts about 4 hours long. I will say that I would not allow small children to listen to this as the voices can be pretty intense and frightening.

*I received this free from Tyndale in exchange for my honest review.

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Nov. 9, 2009 - White Picket Fences Review

What comes to mind when you read the words: white picket fences? Suburbia? Middle class? Perfection? Family? Home? Well, what about secrets?

Susan Meissner wrote White Picket Fences and she causes you to consider what goes on behind the scenes of a "white picket fence" type of family.

Neil & Amanda Janvier have two children, 17 year old Chase and his younger sister, 13 year old Delcey. They live a busy, normal, typical life albeit not as close to each other as they have been in the past. However, there's a family secret that no one talks about. Thrown into the mix is 16 year old Tally, Amanda's niece. Tally has her own secrets.

This book keeps you interested from start to finish. Courtney and I give it 2 thumbs up!

If you'd like to win a copy of this book, please leave a comment below with a way to contact you. Feel free to spread the word and let me know how you did so. For each person you send to my blog and they leave a comment referencing you, I'll give them one entry and give you an extra entry. (I will pay shipping to U.S. addresses only). Drawing will be held Monday, November 23rd.

*I received this book for free from WaterBrook Press in exchange for my honest review.

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Nov. 8, 2009 - American Heritage Review

America’s Heritage: An Adventure in Liberty is in CD format and the best part, it’s FREE. This is not just free for me to review - it’s free for other educators too. The American Heritage Education Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit organization “dedicated to the understanding and teaching of our nation’s factual and philosophical heritage to promote constructive citizenship and freedom, unity, progress, and responsibility among our students and citizens.”

The levels to choose from include: Elementary (184 pages), Elementary in Spanish (294 pages includes English & Spanish), Middle School (182 pages), and High School (187 pages). WOW! All of these levels, K-12, are in one place on one CD! I like it!

The curriculum begins with 1622 -The Mayflower Compact for high school and for both middle and elementary levels, the curriculum begins with 1776 - Colonial America: American Revolution and they all conclude with the year 2000 - What is an American? The units, which are broken down into certain months of the year, have themes such as Freedom & Progress, Responsibility, and Unity.

Worksheets and various activities are included in the lesson plans. Although this is geared for larger groups, it is something even a single child could learn from.

To learn more, click here to go to America’s Heritage website or click here to see what my crewmates think of this curriculum.

*I received this for free in exchange for my honest review.

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Nov. 8, 2009 - ACT Discover Review

I received ACT’s online career planning program called DISCOVER. This program helps you learn more about yourself and what interests and abilities you have. With this knowledge, you can choose a line of work that best suits you.

The website is pretty self explanatory. It’s also nicely color coded. J Anyway, the idea is for you to answer various questions to get a good idea of what career choice would be best for you.  I sat down and went through the questions and ended up looking at a “map” that was broken down into color coded pie sections with a bunch of letters in each of them.  This map is a visual way “to help you organize information about occupations and to find out about educational requirements for occupations you are considering.” Would it be best for you to work in the Arts, Science & Technology, or Social Services? How about Administration & Sales, Business Operations or Technical? These “career clusters” are all compared to points of a compass as some are geared towards people, data, things or ideas.

I really liked looking at the colleges and found out how much our local college charges annually and per credit hour and what majors they have.  This is awesome and something my older daughters would benefit from if they choose to go to college.

This is a very good resource if you’re not sure what field you would like to have a career in. I believe it is always best to pray about what God would have you to do as a career and then go for it. My husband was in engineering school when God called him into the ministry. This is not an occupation he would have chosen on his own.

The cost is $19.95 for 3 months & $24.95 for 6.

For more info, click here to go to ACT’s website or here to read what my crewmates think of this program.

*I received a free 3 month membership in exchange for my honest review.

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Nov. 3, 2009 - ABC Teach Review

ABC Teach is an online site that has some free worksheets along with a membership program where you have access to over 35,000 pages of "printable worksheets and activities, to abctools, our exclusive custom document generators, and more!"

Some of my kids like to have busywork and enjoy worksheets. Because of this, after my free trial was over, I chose to purchase an annual membership. New worksheets are added weekly. There is no advertising on the member site, which is great. The worksheets are for grades Pre-K through 8th and, besides the basics of Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, & History, some of the subjects are: Writing, Reading Comprehension, Graphic Organizers, Puzzles / Games, Arts & Crafts, and more. This is a good fit for our family.

This is a really nice site and has tons of worksheets. With the membership, you can create your own worksheets as well. I have had fun playing around the site and hope you'll look into it as well.

Membership costs $40 per year with discounts for groups. (You can get a 50% discount through Homeschool Buyers Co-op and it expires 11/30/09.) To learn more, visit ABC Teach by clicking here or to see what my crewmates think, click here.

*I received a free trial membership in exchange for my review.

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Oct. 29, 2009 - Vantage Learning Review

Vantage Learning produces MY Access! Home Edition, College Edition, Professional Edition and Add-On Packs. I was given a subscription to their Home Edition in order to review and will focus only on this edition.

The Home Edition is an online, subscription based tool to help your child "enhance their writing skills and become more confident thinkers." The student's writing skills are graded based on: focus, organization, content & development, language use, and mechanics & conventions. There are many topics to choose from per age group or you can create your own topics depending on what you are studying. The age groups are 8-10, 11-14, or 15-18.

I chose to have weekly reports delivered to my email but you could choose to have them delivered monthly. You can also enter up to seven email addresses. You can manage the writing assignments for each child so that only the age group you want your child to work through has assignments. For positive reinforcement, you can set goals and awards for each student and give them an incentive for so many points earned. For instance, I awarded free ice cream for 250 points if done by a certain date. Once the student reaches their goal, they know what their award is.

The Student Portfolio shows progress reports for each of your students. At any time, you can access your order history and see how many days you have left before your account expires so there's no trying to remember when you paid for your subscription and how many days you have left.

I had four out of six of my children participate in this review as they were in the correct age range and wanted to participate. Natalie is 16, Nathanael is 13, Wesley is 11 and Marcee is 9. All of them submitted reports and they all scored "below proficient". I am not surprised by this with my younger ones because I don't focus on writing, but I am concerned with Natalie's score. However, I am sure this program will help her as well as her siblings write better paragraphs and they will eventually become proficient in their writing.

All of my children are different. Marcee likes earning points. She does not like it when it tells her she's below proficient. However, Marcee chose to just write random letters and submit it for grading so she would get points. This is something you will need to be aware of since it could  happen to you. Wesley likes to type rather than write by hand so he enjoyed using the program. He likes some of the topics but not all of them. Unlike Marcee, he likes that the program tells him that he is below proficient so he can challenge himself to work harder to do better. Natalie hasn't had time to work on her reports so she doesn't have anything to add to this review. As for Nathanael, well, he has already gone to bed so I can't get his opinion.

I do recommend this product as long as you are willing to either supervise your children's writings or review their submitted essays in a timely manner or else you could end up with essays like some of my kids have submitted that contain phrases like this: "I liked my lunch though it was Incredibly stale bread with jelly suprise, I'm trying to get points for my account so Peace be with you my Sister in Christ." or "BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB       THE END!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TAAADAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Yes, those are actual excerpts from my kids' writings. Lovely, huh?!

The yearly subscription costs $99.95 for up to 3 students or $129.95 for 6. Click here to go to the Demo Center. Click here to order. Click here to see what my crewmates think.

* I received a subscription in exchange for my honest review.

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