Today we did a workout with Gymathics by Exploramania.  It’s the next product up for review with the Old Schoohouse Crew.  The creator of  Gymathics states, “I wanted to create products that synthesize education and a healthy lifestyle, beginning with my passion for math education.”  I would describe it as a cross between a kids workout class and a math concept introduction.

The DVD is about 30 minutes of exercise set to some background music with graphics put up on screen showing various math concepts.  They concepts are things like skip counting, prime number, types of triangles and patterns.  It’s recommended for grades 2-5 for the math concepts and the exercise for kids of all ages.  There is a clip on their site so you can get an idea of the format.   For my own kids I could only get my 4^th grader to try it out.  My older kids gave me looks like, “You’ve got to be kidding.”    

One of the teaching concepts Gymathics is taking advantage of  is multi-sensory learning.  I know from my own research in teaching language arts to younger children that motion is simply more then keeping the kids busy, it’s actually been proven to help make brain connections.  Their web site has a page devoted to the research behind this philosophy.  The basic idea is that kids will retain the knowledge better the more senses they involve to learn it.

Lexie liked it okay but I don’t know if it’s something she’d do more then a few times.  I think younger kids may want to do it over and over more readily.  It sells for $24.99 so I know for our family I would want it to be something we’re going to watch more then once or twice.  My daughter already participates in a fit kids class so the exercise part may not be as novel to her.  The math concepts she didn’t already know she wouldn’t fully get from doing this once or twice but if you had a child who watched it repetitively I think they could gain familiarity if not mastery of some of the concepts.

It’s a great idea especially to get kids active and moving! 

One thing I do just have to note is that in one scene the main instructors t-shirt appears a bit too tight (or the room was too cold) which would be bothersome if my teenage boys had been watching.  They have been trained to look away if something like that appears.  I’m sure it was not intentional and my daughter did not notice but it was obvious to me and just want to mention it as it might be offensive to some families.

*The DVD Gymathics was provided to me free from Exploramania for the sole purpose of my honest opionions in the review.

We were given a free membership to the Avko site as part of the Old Schoolhouse crew in exchange for our review on the information there.  I have to say I was initially overwhemelmed by the amount of information that I found and quite unsure where to start!

For starters there are five e-books on various spelling and reading issues, along with one on teaching a dyslexic student.  These are not small e-books, but rather lengthy and in depth pieces of work.  For instance the one I downloaded on word families is almost 1500 pages!  It lists words by their patterns (like CVC, homophones or prefix) as well as Greek and Latin roots and so much more.  I don’t even think I can explain everything that’s in it!  It would be useful if you were devising your own spelling lists and wanting to take them from  those groupings.  The first pages of this large e-book goes through their method and philosophy of learning spelling to give you some ideas.

The book on teaching dyslexic students would also be helpful if you are thinking you may have a child who is struggling and either is or may be dyslexic.  I might mention also that there is  an audio file on, “I Think My Child Might be dyslexic, Does it Matter?”

Besides the e-books and audio’s of various convention workshops there are a variety of other stories and articles.  Some seem to be humorous, inspirational, information and some even a little goofy (like one titled, “TOP 8 MORONS.”) 

Some of the information on the site could be useful for any homeschool family but I think it would be especially useful for those using their Sequential Spelling program.  I have never used it and much of the site refers to it or is extra evaluations or worksheets to go with it.

If you’re looking for lots of information on spelling and somewhat on reading this might be for you.  For myself personally having not used their program much of the information was not particularly useful to me.  If my children were younger and I was still trying to figure out the spelling/reading thing the reading might have pertained to me more, or if I had a child struggling in that area.

The membership is $25 per year and their site lists ALL the many resources available there.

This just in from Catherine Fortin:

My colleague Diane Farrug & I are starting up an exciting resource for homeschooling parents: a free e-newsletter full of free ideas, activities, and printables supported by clear "how to teach" tips for parents.

We realize that what we do, teaching a foreign language takes so much training and experience, and we want to give this to homeschool parents.

We also include free videos on how to teach and how to do specific lessons and activities. The days of giving children a Spanish or French handout and not really knowing what to do with it to maximize it are over.  We're here to help.

Here is the link to the sign up for the free homeschool e-newsletter:

http://foreignlanguagefun.com/2009/11/free-nativity-mini-book-in-french-and-spanish-for-homeschoolers/

Catherine F Fortin

http://foreignlanguagehouse.com

This looks wonderful - Go sign up! Merit K

Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong is one of those books in the Total Language Plus program that we just have never gotten to; there are so many good choices!  We had a little gap in our read aloud schedule so we decided to squeeze it in!

What a delightful and unusual book!  Barbara Blakey, author of our Total Language Plus study guides, has always said it was well written and I must agree.  I was especially impressed with the way the author ties in individual events into one larger event.

Shora is the town that has no Storks on their roofs which is the catalyst for all the action in The Wheel on the School.  At the school, the children and teacher begin discussing this problem and why it exists.  From there thy take action and decide to find a wheel for their school.

In their search they encounter people and experiences they normally would not have.  It’s quite humorous at times and also makes you pause and think of similar people that you have maybe misjudged or need to get to know.  We laughed and I even caught myself with a tear in my eye when Janus tells his story about the boat but I won’t spoil it for you, you’ll just have to read it!

The Total Language Plus study guide has suggestions for projects on writing assignments on things like Storks, reports on being handicapped (Janus one of the main characters is in a wheelchair), mapping of Holland, Africa, fishing and so much more!  My daughter Lexie has decided she definitely wants to do this one!  She’s not quite ready yet, she’s on Whipping Boy right now, maybe next year. (It's suggested for 5th or 6th grade.)

Here’s a map we found online of the Netherlands (Holland) with cities and seas filled in, http://geography.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.m%2Dw.com/cgi%2Dbin/nytmaps.pl%3Fnetherlands and here’s an outline one http://geography.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.m%2Dw.com/cgi%2Dbin/nytmaps.pl%3Fnetherlands .  We could not locate Shora but you can locate Amsterdam where Janus talks about the man writing the newspaper column and you can of course locate the North Sea.

In the book they talk about sleeping in “cupboard” or “closet” beds.  I found articles from people who had toured and viewed them but no pictures.  We did find these replicas based off illustrations, http://www.remodelista.com/posts/childrens-rooms-bed-cupboard .  I thought they were really cute though they in reality I doubt were that “cute” in favor of more functional. 

We also thought there would be a lot of pictures and information on dikes.  I didn’t find a “really” good site though you can search and see vacation pictures of dikes.

Are you ready for Christmas?  This is about the time I start to take stock of all the gifts, foods, commitments and plans.  I’ve found if I don’t do it now I don’t have time to enjoy the season and fit in the important things. 

Here are some things I’m doing and I encourage you to do to take stock before busyness takes over:

• ·         Revise your gift giving list.  Hopefully you’ve saved last year’s list (I keep mine for years back just for reference) and take a look.  Do you need to add or subtract?  Don’t forget things like gift exchanges, gifts for charity (toys for tots, shoebox  etc…) or gifts for your husband’s employer or employees.  Did you want to have something prepared for neighbors, teachers (like Awana, Sunday School etc…) or family friends?

• ·         Set some spending limits.  How much you spend isn’t as important as the thought and giving itself.   I always like to give (and receive for that matter) homemade gifts which sometimes can save you a lot.  Be careful however not to stress yourself out making things if time is short (that wisdom is from experience, trust me!)  The other thing is to look for sales.  Sometimes at this point in the year it may be too late for this year but you can plan to start in January watching sales for next year.

• ·         Take a look at your schedule.  What do you definitely want to do and what might you want to consider trimming.  Sometimes you find you keep doing something just because you’ve always done it but maybe it’s lost the meaning and value for your family?  I try to keep things that help us focus on the real reason for the Season!

• ·         The last thing I like to do ahead is make some tentative plans for foods both for regular meals, holiday cooking and giving.  It’s great to have your regular meals all set and in the freezer at this busy time of year rather than end up ordering a lot of pizza’s!  Take some time make sure you’re on top of you menu.  Next, take a look at what you need to make for the holidays both in baking and special meals.  If you figure out now how many Turkeys, Hams etc… you’ll need for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years you can shop the sales between now and then and be prepared.  Also, you may want to decide how many cookies and other goodies and which ones you want to do so you can start stocking ingredients.  Keep in mind many cookies freeze well so you can actually start baking now instead of all in one long session.  We often give foods as gifts so I need to figure that as well.

From these suggestions here’re some of my ramblings:

• ·         Got my list made and most of my bought ahead items penciled in, need to check with Chris on things he has hidden away, especially for our kids.
  
  
• ·         Got the wish lists from kids, now Chris and I need to discuss and decide how much and what and split lists to give grandparents ideas or check if they want us to pick up (some do this since we’re long distance.)
  
  
• ·         We for sure want to do our Jesus stockings again so I need to remind the kids to be thinking of about their letters.  Also, need to check with the kids if they want to do a Jesus birthday party again?  Need to get the date for Caroling with our homeschool group to the nursing home.  Don’t think Chris has any parties for work or anything but he usually has a potluck I need to send something for so I need that information as well as how many work gifts he needs this year.  Don’t know if we’ll do a Christmas Eve service this year, we may want to do that night at home as a family?

• ·         Food wise I do still need a Turkey for Thanksgiving.  We’ll probably do something special for Christmas Eve just us.  Have to ask Chris what he’d like.  Had thought about making Blueberry Muffin mixes for our “teacher” type gifts, I dried extra blueberries this summer with that thought.  Also, need to do the usual Russian teacakes for Grandpa Flick and Turtles for my Dad.  I found Cardamom for the Christmas bread; we’ll probably make a few of those as gifts.  As far as cookies this year we need to revise some recipes to fit with Chris’s new restrictions so he’ll have something he can have at get togethers (better start experimenting, saw a vegan truffle recipe somewhere…)

Well those are just some thoughts.  Hope you already have your season all planned but if not maybe there were some good reminders here for you!

I was so impressed with the Holiday Digital Supplement from Old Schoolhouse that I had to share the link!  They are offering it FREE so check it out!

It is really FULL of Holiday ideas!  This isn't a skimmpy download, it's like 160 pages!  Enjoy!

http://thehomeschoolmagazine.com/Digital-Supplement/Thanksgiving&Christmas.html

This curriculum I received on a disk free from American Heritage Education to review for the Old Schoolhouse Crew.  It comes in three levels; elementary, middle school and high school and is subtitled , “An Adventure in Liberty”, which it truly is.  Each level is about 160-180 pages in length.

The content is organized both by theme and date.  Some of theme’s are things like freedom, unity, progress and responsibility.  The dates range from 1776 to 2000.  Topics include many of the things you think of when you study liberty and American; things like the Bill of rights, the flag, the star spangled banner, declaration of independence and more.

Each unit contains a variety of items.  First it contains text teaching the subject matter then it contains discussion questions, activity and game suggestions, definitions and more.  It varies depending on the lesson.  For instance one of the activities is to learn the preamble in sign language!

As a homeschoolers we are used to adapting things made for the classroom for home use, this one will be no exception.  Some of the activities would be difficult to adapt but most could be modified with a little creativity.  This would also be a great resource for anyone who does history co-ops as well. 

Looking through the guide I had planned on trying out a game called Monarchy at our last co-op meeting but we ended up rescheduling due to illness so we’ll have to try it out next week.  In the game each student gets assigned a role like King, Queen, Noblemen, Merchant, Peasant etc…  They get pretend cash based on who they are.  As the simulation progresses things like taxes, colonization and war take place.  Money changes hands based on the event and at the end there is a suggestion of discussion and a worksheet to fill out about the role you played and how it felt.  This is in the middle school set but I think it could easily be used in a multi-age setting.

When we were in the medieval period I found something similar on-line and the kids loved it so I’m pretty sure this one will go over well too!

In our history co-op we are “almost” to 1776 so I plan on using a lot of this as supplemental material as we get into that era.  I do think most will find this a welcome addition to whatever they are already using though it could be used alone.

I was so excited to get All American History II in the mail to review as part of the Old Schoolhouse Crew.   It’s a complete American history program that covers the Civil War through the 1990’s.  The curriculum contains 32 lessons that are easily adapted to a multi-age environment; I’d say K-12.  I probably would do something like this when your oldest is 5th or 6^th and adapt it for younger children.  The publisher states that it’s written at a Jr. High level but adaptable lower and higher.

One of the features that make this curriculum stand out in my opinion is the worksheets that go with each lesson.  They are really more like notebooking then workbooking.  By that I mean it’s not so much a fill in the blank guided answer as spaces to put down the important events, timelines, key figures etc… in your own words.  What I also like about these is that many have maps included right on them!  I get so tired of searching for maps or honestly we often leave them out and not so with this curriculum.  All American makes maps easy!

The sheets also tend to keep my kids busy as I read.  There are often photos of key figures and flags of countries to cut out and paste in.  Now I do have to say my daughters age 9 and 11 like this feature more than my boys ages 14 and 16.  The 16 year old tolerates it but I pretty much have to make the 14 year old do it.  I’m not sure if it’s an age or gender issue but I think its great reinforcement so we did/do it.

I’m not sure that a short review can really do this curriculum justice as it’s quite comprehensive!  You really do want to get the student activity book, reader and teachers guide.  The teachers guide has all your answer keys as well as suggested additional reading by age level and other recommend added activities by ages.  The student activity book has all the notepages, maps, key figure pictures and reproducibles.

There are special pages and suggestions if you want to do a Native American notebook, war battle pages (civil, WWI etc...), and president pages.

Please ask questions if there is anything I haven’t answered about this curriculum.  You may want to bookmark the blog as well as we’ll be using All American for much of our history after the 1^st of the year and I’ m sure I’ll have blogs to write as we go along!

Can I think of any negatives?  This is tough!  I really have a hard time coming up with any.  For some it may seem costly and though it is from a Christian perspective it’s not quite as apparent as for instance Mystery of History curriculum.  That’s not necessarily a negative but something some might want to know.

I highly encourage you to check this one out!  It’ available from Bright Ideas Press.   All three are $68 and they are also available priced individually.  On the website they also have sample pages so you can see for yourself.

Did you ever go Letter boxing or heard of Geocaching?  Well this Educaching is using your GPS for educational purposes.  I'd never heard of this product that was up for review by the Old Schoolhouse Crew. 

We were sent free materials from Educaching in exchange for our reviews.   It’s a 128 pages guide which gives you lessons and instructions to use your GPS for education.

There are five sections to this manual; teacher education, lesson plans, field sheets, acquiring GPS and beyond the basics.  I spent quite a bit of time on the teacher education as this was a pretty new concept for me!

This section defines a lot of the lingo like geocaching, waypoints, educache and more.  “Basically” it boils down to using Longitude and Latitute coordinates to have students find hidden things and plot certain points. 

Once you figure out how that’s done which requires a little knowledge of your GPS (more on that farther down) you’re on your way to the lessons.

The lessons range from math, science, thought process and more.  Ideas are also given for modifying to fit your own needs.

Honestly we don’t have time for a lot of extra things beyond what we are already studying and some of lessons the kids would all need to have studied the same things so if I were to use this I’d be modifying and making my own lessons a lot.  We did find one on chemical and physical changes which we studied together last year so we decided to test that one.

You could take many of the ideas but exchange your science or history concepts but it would take more teacher preparation.  Some of activities like types of triangle, finding perimeter etc… would obviously be more suited to a group of same age rather then multi-age kids.  It would work very well in a class or co-op setting, even a co-op class specifically on Educaching would be a neat idea.

We did use the field sheet section to print the worksheet that went with the Chemical/Physical change lesson we chose.  It basically was a fill in the blank sheet to write in the coordinates and locations as you found them along with whether they where chemical or physical changes.

For the activity you place things (or I used slips of paper naming the item) that demonstrate a chemical or physical change in container (or I used zip locks.)  The book gives you the suggestions.  Things like a burnt match (chemical), rusty nail (chemical) or popped balloon (physical).  Then you go out with your GPS and find your place and write down the coordinates. 

Though this could be a very fun activity it obviously takes a lot of teacher prep time (without kids in tow) to complete. 

Well on to our experience…

My 9 year old daughter tried it out with me.  I first got all the coordinates and then I gave them to her to find.  This is where we started having a lot of problems.

Our GPS did not handle this very well.  Apparently our GPS only does street directions and won’t go “through the woods” so to speak.  By coaching her (since I knew where they were) we were able to do the exercise but it obviously wasn’t ideal and not nearly as fun as it could have been.

My recommendation is to definitely check out your GPS and know how it works.  In the manual they go over what to look for in a GPS but having ours already we obviously didn’t follow these guidelines.  We had problems with charging our GPS and keeping it off the charger for very long.  Prior to this we only used it in the car constantly (pretty much) plugged in, so battery life is an issue. 

I truly don’t know much about GPS systems but my husband though more expensive models would do the off road that ours wouldn’t.

With the frustration of our GPS aside I think this could be very useful for a homeschool family especially if you take part in co-op’s or classroom situations that could make use of it.  You would also need to consider if you have the teacher prep time.  One option could be to have one of your older children “plan” the event and do all the prep.

The price is very reasonable at $32 so if you've been wanting to check out this technology with your kids this might be your ticket!