Copyright 2008-2009 Sweetpetunia.

Checking in here from my in-laws' computer. They graciously let us hang out at their house for 10 days while they dog-sit at my sister-in-law's. They literally saved us in more ways than they know. I'm sooo grateful to be here where there's air-conditioning and the only bickering is from my stubborn little Dude and equally stubborn little Princess. :)

Our summer school schedule has been progressing nicely. I asked Tink if she would mind doubling up scheduled days so we can attempt to get the year finished in 7 weeks instead of 14. So far it's going really well. We're now half-way through India.  I don't think we're taking any more time to finish than we normally do but that's probably because we've been skipping the art portions and the experiments. We'd already been doing that anyway because of our lack of funds so Tink doesn't seem to feel too slighted. I'd really like to add the art back in now because I know how much she likes it but we're still trying to save up for a rental deposit and the "new" van is a serious gas guzzler so that makes it hard to get out.

I don't think I mentioned earlier that Ninja is no longer doing the majority of her schoolwork with us. She does not work well with us we'd all come to dread school time so I finally decided she should work on her own. She's only been doing math, science, language, remedial spelling and the extra reading for MFW ECC 7th & 8th graders. She's zipping through it pretty quickly.

It seems once these girls decided to put it in gear, they stopped messing around! Ninja has finished one Apologia Science book and is ready for the next. She's finished 1 1/2 math books, the first year's worth of language workbooks and one remedial spelling book. We purchased new language and spelling books for her and she immediately dug right in. Tink finished one year's worth of Singapore math and is ready for the next one. She has also finished her first language book and is about to wrap up her spelling book too.

I've decided to stick with Queen Homeschool for Tink's Language but I'm still undecided about which spelling program to use. Tink loves Rod & Staff spelling but I already have 4 entire levels of All About Spelling (AAS) that I reviewed last year with the Crew. It would make the most sense financially to switch to AAS but Tink didn't like it. Maybe we could give it another try and if she hates it, we'll return to Rod & Staff. Thankfully R&S is very affordable.

Since DH has a new job, I'm hoping to save up enough for Ninja's curriculum. I had to spend some of it while he was away in order to keep from being overdrawn on our bank account. It's going to be a tough choice we'll have to make: either stick it out at my mom's and save up for school and rent, or take a blind leap now and hope we make it. Of course, we have no money for a security deposit, so I guess that means we have no choice but to stay.

I really hate to do that. The girls and I have noticed that the Dude has relaxed and is using longer sentences again since we've been staying at the In-laws. It's painful to think that he'll probably regress again once we go back to grandma's.

If anyone's reading this, I'd really appreciate some prayers. I've been getting migraines which is completely out of the ordinary for me. I don't normally get headaches at all much less migraines. We'll need lots of prayer to get us through this stressfull season at grandma's.

TOS Homeschool Crew Review~ Apologia

What Christian homeschooling mom wouldn’t like the chance to review materials from Apologia? I don’t think I know of anyone who would turn them down.

Apologia sent my family not one, but two science programs: The first was  Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day by Jeannie Fulbright and Exploring Creation with General Science (2nd Edition) by Dr. Jay Wile.

Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day- $35

This is one of Apologia’s elementary science courses. Tink loves it. She’s bundled it up right along with her daily math and spelling books she does with me every day so she’s sure to have regular lessons. The book is extremely easy to use. I simply read a few sections to Tink every day (or she could read them to herself) and we’re done. There are several sections along the way that dictate experiments, but not so many that mom gets tired of them and all the experiments are done with common household items. Not only that, but there is a list at the front of the book that names each item you’ll need to perform the experiments, just so you can be sure to have them on hand at the time they’re needed.

There’s also lots of help offered. At the front of the book, are listed several ways to contact the company in case you need help, plus there are website helps you can use throughout the book if you want. They’re not required to do the course, but they add a bit of extra information.

Exploring Creation With General Science- $85 (Two-book set, text and solutions & test manual)

I already knew we liked this one when it arrived. Ninja’s been using it since the beginning of the school year. She regularly spouts off information she learned from her science text book and I love that she’s learning so much from a Christian perspective. This text is designed to be used by the student in a more independent way. The instructions are written to the student as is the rest of the book. Like the Flying Creatures text, this volume’s experiments are also done with common household items that you most likely already have in your home, so there’s not much extra expense where experiments are concerned. Also like the elementary book, the Genera Science book gives lots of ways to contact not only Apologia, but the author of the textbook himself, so if the student runs into anything s/he doesn’t understand, they’ll be sure to get the answers straight from the source. We received the two-book set which comes with a solution book and test booklet. The student is tested on the material after each module which lasts approximately two weeks.

These are lovely texts; nice, hardback books that certainly rival any public school textbook but of course written from a Christian perspective. In my opinion, they would work for nearly any homeschool family.

Please be sure to see the rest of the Crew’s reviews on the TOS Homeschool Crew Blog.

TOS Homeschool Crew Review~ Memoria Press

I can’t believe we’re learning Latin. Lol.

I’d heard for a long time that the study of Latin is fantastic for a person’s vocabulary, and as I’m sure Ninja would very willingly tell you, I’m constantly reminding her that she needs to work on her vocabulary skills, but I don’t know that I saw my children and myself actually studying Latin. I mean, I knew that we’d eventually use some curriculum covering Greek and Latin, but I don’t know… it seemed a little too formal for us. So when I was contacted by Memoria Press and they told me they were sending Latina Christiana I and Famous Men of Rome, I was a bit worried about whether or not we could handle it.

Latina Christiana I is a Latin program for students in grades 3 and up. It’s designed for the parent or teacher with no background in Latin.

When the box arrived on our doorstep I looked over the products and was amazed that Memoria Press sent us so many products. Not only did we receive  Latina Christiana I, along with the teacher’s manual, but there was also Famous Men of Rome, (FMOR), with it’s accompanying Student Guide, Teacher Guide, an audio CD for practicing our Latin Grammar and conjugations, plus instructional DVDs for Latina Christiana 1!! Cool, huh?

Latina Christiana I is very affordable. The set of Teacher Manual, Student Book & Pronunciation CD is $39.95. You can always buy them individually if you need to, say, if you have an extra student, the individual price for the student book is only $15.00.

The teacher’s guide for Latina Christiana I is easy to use and it also contains a study guide for lessons 1-13 of Famous Men of Rome. There are reproducible pages for your student and/or yourself to practice writing your conjugations, Latin sayings and vocabulary. And the index has many useful lists. I was amazed when I saw how many English words derived from Latin we’ll be learning. In the FMOR books, besides the exciting stories, there are maps and charts with hints to help remember characters and their traits.

Famous Men of Rome is a nice compliment to your Latin studies. I gives a history of Rome and therefore a way for your children to relate to the study of Latin much more easily. Tink really likes this book. Lately she’s been making sure that we read more or even work on the study guide every day. Now I do have to insert a little warning here: The stories don’t exactly make clear that the mythical gods were not real people. Honestly, never having studied the history of Rome myself, I’m not exactly sure where the mythology leaves off and real historical characters come into play in this book. Also, please keep in mind that there is discussion about battles and characters are slain so if you have a sensitive child who could handle maybe the Latin for example, but might be bothered by characters in the stories being killed in battle, use caution. There certainly hasn’t been anything gory but I know what it’s like to have a child that’s sensitive, so I wanted to be sure to give fair warning.

Now for my very favorite item that arrived in the box: the Latina Christiana Instructional DVDs. These are lovely! Instead of having to be sure I understand how to teach the lesson before presenting it to my students, I simply pop in the DVD and the lovely Ms. Leigh Lowe presents the lesson for me. Now, these are not an absolute necessity when teaching Latina Christiana, but they sure to make life very nice for the teacher. I love simply being a student with Tink. The price for this five DVD set is $55, but I for one would certainly scrape up the extra money to purchase them, without a doubt.

Tink and I are thoroughly enjoying our study of Latin and the Famous Men of Rome. I had no clue learning a dead language such as Latin could be so fun and I’m very pleased that Tink is so motivated to learn about historical Romans. This will be a nice foundation for her when she studies more about Rome later.

Be sure to read  what the rest of the Crew had to say about their choices from Memoria Press. Not all of us received the same products, so if there’s something you’ve been eyeing from Memoria Press, someone else on the Crew may have reviewed it.

TOS Homeschool Crew Review~ Lampstand Press:  Writing Aids

When Lampstand Press sent out Tapestry of Grace (TOG) to the Crew for review, each of the Crew Members was given not only a full TOG unit to review but a supplemental product to try along with it. When I asked the girls what their choice was, they both chose Writing Aids. They’d both been struggling with their writing program so they wanted a change. Only a limited number of Writing Aids handbooks were being given out to the Crew and we were among the lucky ones.

Writing Aids is a handbook written specifically for use with TOG curriculum but it can also be used alone. Used with Tapestry, it meshes beautifully with the weekly writing assignments as topics are drawn from what the student is studying in the main curriculum. Like everything else TOG produces, it builds on the topics already being studied in the curriculum. Used alone, the teacher would need to provide the topic the student will be writing on, or perhaps the student could be allowed to choose it themselves.

As usual, TOG tries to make life easier on mom (or the teacher) by presenting specific skills to more than one age group at a time. For example, Ninja and Tink both “oohed” when they spied the newspaper writing choice listed among the writing assignment pages. Since the newspaper project was available for levels 2, 4 and 7, it was very easy to offer both girls assignments at or at least near their grade levels. Ninja refused, however, to work with Tink and even though it would have been easier if they had worked collaboratively on their newspaper, I didn’t make them, yet I was still able to save time and stress since I only had to read up on and find one section on the Writing Aids CD to print worksheets from.

Writing Aids is not just a book, it also comes with a CD-ROM which contains Talking Points- a teaching guide which becomes a reference for the student after the initial instruction on the genre has been presented, Grading Strategies, and Supplements- worksheets or graphic organizers to aide in instruction.

Even though Writing Aids is an optional,  supplemental product, I think it would really be worthwhile for families using Tapestry as their main curriculum.

Well, don’t forget to read my review of TOG and as always,  the rest of the Crew’s thoughts on TOG as well.

TOS Homeschool Crew Review~ Lampstand Press/Tapestry of Grace (Print Edition)

Lampstand Press is the name of the company that has produced Tapestry of Grace (TOG) Classical Christian curriculum. Let me quote them on exactly what TOG is:

“Tapestry of Grace is a homeschool curriculum: a plan of study that helps parents provide a Christian, classical education using a guided unit study approach, with the history of the world as the core organizational theme. From Grades K–12, all students cycle through world history every four years, with all ages studying the same slice of history each week, each at their own learning level. Detailed lesson plans and discussion outlines enable parents to be their children’s primary teachers and mentors and shape their students’ biblical worldviews.

Tapestry covers the humanities: history, church history, literature, geography, fine arts, government, philosophy, and writing & composition. Tapestry does not include a phonics program, science, math, grammar, spelling, or foreign language. Lampstand Press does, however, recommend complementary logic, spelling, and grammar programs.

Week to week, Tapestry integrates all subjects: people, events, and movements are studied in the time period in which they were most influential. Lessons are presented from all modalities: visual, auditory, and tactile. For younger children, a variety of hands-on ideas are provided each week. A range of educational options are presented, from which students and parents choose the best content and quantity for their unique families. Although the teacher is in control of the students’ assignments, rich weekly studies are always provided for each individual family.”

Does that sound like a lot? Well it should. It is. I had actually looked at TOG’s website a few times over the last year or two, but because there was so much information on the site, I abandoned the effort. I’m going to try to keep you from doing the same by asking you to stick with me while I review this great curriculum because after getting the chance to try it out with my own family and personally making it through that notorious TOG “four week fog”, I really like it and I think it would be a shame for a large family with a Classical Christian orientation to pass this one up. Fair warning though, if you haven’t figured it out yet, I can be quite the rambler. ;) I’ll have to split this review up into two blog posts, one for the TOG unit itself and one for Writing Aids, the supplemental product we reviewed.

The lovely people at Lampstand Press offered each member of the entire Crew  our choice of one unit of their new Digital Edition (DE) plus our choice of one of their supplemental products that help to enhance the Tapestry experience. Lampstand Press offers several optional choices in the “extras” department: Writing Aids- TOG’s own writing guide, Map Aids- outline maps custom designed for TOG by Terri Johnson of  KnowledgeQuest!, Evaluations- that’s just what it sounds like, an optional product designed to test your child(ren)’s knowledge of what s/he learned. Pop Quiz- a neat way to bring Dad into the mix after work and enhance the children’s learning, Lap Book Templates- a way to incorporate more hands-on learning for the littles. There are a couple more supplemental products available on the site as well. Some of them are a one-time purchase for the entire four-year cycle but most correspond to each year and sometimes each unit. All these and much more can be found at the Lampstand Press online Store.

By some grand miracle of God, my girls agreed on not just the unit, but also the supplement. Halleluiah!! They chose to study Year 1, Unit 3- “Preparing the World for It’s Savior” and the supplement they chose was Writing Aids. 

When I attempted to download the Digital Edition there were a few glitches because the DE had very recently been launched at the time of our review, so that meant we were able to test Lampstand Press’ wonderful customer service and tech support. After a few emails, phone calls and technical support sessions, it was pretty clear that the Digital Edition was not going to work on my computer so those sweet, sweet people sent me a dinged copy of the unit in print! I was floored at their generosity as the print unit is a $60 value and they’d already agreed to send me the Writing Aids book and CD, a $50 value. Oh, and if you’re worried about downloading the DE onto your own computer, don’t. Once all the major kinks were worked out on their end, they sent the whole Crew a link to download one of their free 3-week curriculum samples and downloading it is now as easy as falling down. I very much encourage you to try one of their Free Tutorial Samples for yourself and get a feel for the curriculum. 

So let me try to explain pricing:

One year of TOG costs $225 in print or $170 for the Digital Edition which you’ll only ever buy once. TOG Digital Edition will automatically be upgraded when revisions are made. All you have to do is regularly check the website for updates. And if you’re one who likes to resell your curriculum, you’re out of luck. Reselling DE is not allowed and with TOG’s Lock Lizzard software, you’re only granted one license per family. You can arrange to put it on multiple computers within your household by calling the company, but that’s it.  You’ll have to factor in the cost of printing to the DE, whether you want to take it to an office supply store to have them print (Which may be a problem when having to deal with Lock Lizzard, and it really is best in color which can get pricey.) or you want to print it off yourself on your own printer, but beware, even one single unit (1/ 4 of a year) is about 400+ pages, so keep that in mind when making your decisions.  You also have a few more options if you’d like to get both the DE and the print version or if you want to pick up a couple of their supplemental materials. Here’s the link to the store page. Also, you need to know that the prices I listed above do not include any books. As stated above in Lampstand Press’ description, it is just the “plan of study” plus the Loom CD (a guide for the whole year) and this price does not include any of the books needed. But,  Bookshelf Central.com, an online store once operated by Lampstand Press carries just about all of the titles needed to complete your study of TOG, or you could find as many of the resources as you possibly can at your library, or a combination of both. What’s great about Bookshelf Central is the search feature. You can select the specific year plan, level, unit and subject you’re working on and it will list the title, price subject, and length of time the title is used in your TOG studies.

I found most of my book titles at the library, utilizing both what I could find on the shelves and inter-library loan, which costs 50 cents per book at my new library. Yes, I’m whining and grumbling. I apologize. I was horribly spoiled by the amazing library I had in Minden, but I'll be quiet about it now… Anyway, my mom very sweetly offered to purchase one title for us while she was out shopping, which was nice because the girls really liked God King.

I believe many families choose to us a combination approach when finding books to accompany TOG, electing to first buy titles for the oldest student in the house as funds are available, especially those in the rhetoric or dialectic stages who would be able to benefit from the worksheets and discussions provided in the teacher’s notes and the Loom CDs that are designed for use with the history, literature, church history or read-aloud selections listed in the TOG curriculum.

Another nice option when purchasing TOG is the choice to buy TOG by the unit. DE units are $45 apiece and print units are $60.

I have to be very honest here and say that I would spend the extra money to have the printed editions, particularly if it was my first time around using TOG because while TOG is much simpler to use than you might think at first glance, using a curriculum as thoroughly laid out as TOG on a computer screen would be too much for me. My eyes would go crossed. Like I stated before each unit is over 400 pages long, and while I’m sure a TOG veteran could probably figure it out on a computer screen, I experienced major confusion trying to figure out the printed version. I can’t imagine what I would have done if I’d had to figure it out on the lap top.

I also have to mention that sometimes the book selections TOG chose made me feel a bit uncomfortable. When talking to the other Crew moms, there was mention of nudes being presented in the study of art and our own reading selections had some wrong attitudes displayed by the characters in the stories, but most of the time, these issues, at least in my own personal experience with the unit we chose, were confronted head-on in the teacher’s notes and the students were asked to tell why those attitudes were wrong. So again, I encourage you to try out the free samples of the curriculum to see if TOG would be right for your family.

Now, let me tell you what I liked about TOG for my family. My children are 15, 10, 5 and 18 months. With 15 year old Ninja who hates to work with slow pokes like 10 year old Tink and myself, it would solve the problem of Ninja having to wait for Tink and me to figure everything out every week. I simply meet with them both, hand out their printed copies of their assignments, have them highlight the ones I choose for them to do and Ninja’s off working on her own. Tink, on the other hand gets to learn at her own level, which sometimes gets bumped down to lower grammar, yet she never has to feel bad or that she’s behind because she’s still learning the same subjects her older sister is but it’s never too challenging for her. And the Dude (5 years old) and Baby Princess (18 months) enjoyed being dressed up by Tink after she made them crowns during our study of King Solomon’s time.

Even the writing assignments were fun. Once again a miracle occurred and both girls chose to write a mock newspaper, chronicling the time period they chose to study but Tink got to work at level 4 (approximately 4^th grade) and Ninja worked at level 7. Walah! No fighting, no arguing, I just printed off their own level-specific instruction sheets and graphic organizers, read them out loud, and they both went happily off to do their own assignments.

Reviewing TOG was a real eye opener. While I love learning history and very much want to fill in the gaps in my own education, I never saw myself as a mom who could teach classical curriculum to my children, especially since they’re either high maintenance or special needs, or both. I finally felt that just maybe I could pull off giving my children an excellent education and have fun at the same time. I didn’t have to worry about teaching three or more different areas of study in order to teach to all my children at their own level effectively.

Please be sure to read what my fellow  TOS Crew members have to say about their experience with Tapestry of Grace and don’t forget to read my next blog post about TOG’s Writing Aids writing curriculum.

TOS Homeschool Crew Review~  Write Shop Primary Book A

We loved  Write Shop’s Story Builders so when there was talk of  the Crew getting a chance to review another product from Write Shop, I was pretty excited.

Write Shop Primary is one of the latest products from 

Write Shop   but this time it’s designed for the very youngest of writers in grades K-3. It starts off with the very basics, allowing kids to dictate to the parent with very simple Guided Writing Practice. I realize this is product is for young children, but Tink really needed something that started with the very basics. This writing curriculum fit the bill and I wanted to give it a try.

Since I’d always liked the Charlotte Mason philosophy of homeschooling, I never thought my kiddos would need a beginning writing program such as this, but as it turns out, my kiddos certainly seem to. Wish I’d found it sooner.

We were able to easily customize the lessons to beef it up for Tink. At first, I was writing everything down, just like the instructions say, but soon she was asking to write the “stories” herself. Yay! It wasn’t long ago that this would not be something she would ask to do. We also did the “Flying Higher” options to add more story writing practice for Tink. What’s neat is there is also a “Smaller Steps” option for a child who needs a bit more help.

The beginning of the book offers plenty of instruction on how to use it and how to schedule the lessons for a child who is at the younger end of the recommended grade levels or one who is older, and even how to use it with more than one child.

Write Shop also sent us the  Activity Set Worksheet Pack to use along with the lessons. I thought Tink would be bored but she liked them quite a bit.

There are suggested picture books to read with the lesson themes listed at the back of the book. I think picture books really make learning come alive for very young students. We didn’t use them with Tink, but if I were going to use this product with a younger student, I would definitely be using the book selections.

The teacher’s manual also suggests “publishing” your child’s work with cute little projects like putting them on a kite for example. That’s definitely something I never would have thought of! Lol.

Okay, now before I finish, let me be sure to make something straight here: I don’t think I would normally recommend this product for a child Tink’s age but she really needed to start from the very beginning and have fun with the idea of writing. We’d had a couple of flops in the area of writing curriculum and she really got upset at the idea of having to practice writing. She really needed something easy and fun. We were both so blessed with the opportunity to try out this very basic writing curriculum. It felt more like a game than “school work”.

I’m excited that this curriculum was something that Tink really liked and I’m putting the next two Write Shop Primary books at the top of the list for writing curriculum for Tink. Book A really made the idea of writing accessible to her. She was no longer afraid of doing it “wrong”. I’m looking forward to trying out books B and C once they’re released.

Please be sure to read what my fellow Crew members thought of this curriculum here.

TOS Homeschool Crew Review~  Schleich  toys!

I was delighted and surprised when I heard the Crew was going to review Schleich toys. I love reviewing educational toys and I never imagined we’d be reviewing toys I already know and love. Not only are they beautiful, high quality toys, they hold a special place in my heart.

Schleich makes a range of figures that would capture the attention of any child and many adults as well. There were many comments from my Crew Mates about how much we parents wanted some for ourselves. Schleich has several figurine categories. The selections range from Farm or Wild Life to Dinosaurs, Knights and even Fairies! There are even more categories on their  website with over 500 items available.

We got 5 beautiful animal figures and each of them was immediately snatched up by someone in the family:

The cat was claimed by Ninja

No one had any doubt who the Lippizaner Mare would go to- Tink of course.

The Dude received the Africal Elephant Calf because of his new found favorite animal. These particular elephants at the zoo are Indian, but I don't think Dude minds. 

Baby Princess got the donkey foal... well, because her older siblings had already claimed the rest of the cute animals, lol, so we figured the last sweet little baby animal would go to her.

And Dad staked his claim on the crocodile. He says it's very cool and he sets it on his computer to watch him as he works. Of course the kiddos steal it sometimes, but when DH finds it, he sets it back on it's perch.

This was just a small sampling of what Schleich has to offer

When I looked through Schleich's catalog, I could plainly see that the horses are just lovely. There are several on the website. I wonder why Tink didn’t ask for any of them. Very strange. Maybe she was surprised and content with the Lipizzaner mare she claimed as her own when the box from Schleich arrived. I think we should absolutely budget for more horses from the Schleich Horses line. Tink and I may be studying horses again in the future and I’d love to encourage the love for horses that she got while learning and playing with toy horse figurines. It was actually the first time Tink ever showed much interest in joining in our homeschool. Figurines that are related to the subject we’re studying or reading about seem to be a wonderful learning tool for my children. I let them sit and play with toys such as horses while I read to them about the subject (Maybe a captivating story like Black Beauty or Justin Morgan Had a Horse or Misty of Chincoteague.) and they take it all in so much more easily than if I’d made them sit quietly and listen.

The African elephant calf was a hit with the little ones. They keep stealing it away from each other. Lol. I love the fact that Schleich made both Indian and African varieties. Wonderful attention to detail. Awww! The  meerkat pups are so cute! Oops! Sorry, I let myself get carried away looking at more figures on the website. I’m going to get myself into trouble looking at their online catalog. It makes me want everything they’ve got. I heard rumors of an extremely cute  hedgehog and now I want one too. Hey, Tink and my birthdays are coming up next month; maybe we can request some of these.

The dinosaurs   look fantastic. I know we didn’t get any, but I have to mention them. I’m sure the Dude would have simply flipped if we’d gotten some of these to review. Hmm, maybe he’ll be getting some next school year when we study D, D, Dinosaur with MFW K.

I also see lots of potential for learning with Schleich’s  American Frontier line. Tink and I will pick back up studying American history once we’re done with ECC and I know using these toys would cement some of the ideas that will be presented to her next year.

Last of all, I’ll share a pic of the knight figures Tink and I got a couple of years ago for our Peter. DH, being a very smart man, took the kiddos out to buy toys for their baby brother, Pete, when he died. I have no idea how he thought to do this at a time like that, but he had each of the kiddos pick out a toy for Peter, then DH bought two of the exact same toy- one for Peter, those were buried with him, and one for the kids to keep. Ninja and the Dude picked racecars and Tink picked out this red knight.

When Peter’s first birthday came around, I wanted to get something special to keep out at my Peter’s grave. A dear sweet woman I’d “met” online had previously called my Peter a precious warrior for the Lord, and I wanted something to represent what she’d said. So I bought this blue Prince on a horse to keep out at his grave.

It has withstood being out in the high desert sun and hard water of Northern NV and it still stands out there, representing my sweet little warrior. I chose that particular knight because I’d always liked the quality of those toys. I plan on keeping a little knight out there always.

Well, as you can see, Schleich offers a wonderful variety of durable toys that will delight you and your children and that have the potential for opening up avenues for learning, whether you have a struggling learner like my Tink or you just want to encourage your child to explore the subjects you’re studying in your homeschool. I love Schleich toys, my whole family does. Be sure to check out their selection.

TOS Crew Review~  http:/The Critical Thinking Co. -  Beginning Mathematical Reasoning

The Dude and I got a chance to review The Critical Thinking Co.’s  Beginning Mathematical Reasoning  (pre-K) workbook.

This workbook is large and covers many subjects:

Counting

Identifying

Matching

Ordering

Position

Comparing & Estimating

Addition

Subtraction

Locating

Writing

Grouping

Patterns

Geometric Shapes

Measurement

Data/Probability and

Fractions

There are directions on how to use the book and teaching suggestions at the front of the paperback volume.

We just had an I.E.P. meeting for the Dude last week and we were told he has problems with certain positional phrases among other language delays. I was happy to see that we’ll be touching on that a bit later on in the workbook.

I got a bit of a chuckle out of the self-description on the back of this thick workbook: they actually called it a booklet. Lol. This “booklet” is 230 pages of brightly colored, fun worksheets to sit down and enjoy with your preschool aged child. And the Dude and I have been enjoying it.

He always says “yes” when I ask him if he’d like to do some math work. At first, he had a tiny bit of trouble following directions until I realized I need to say them to him slowly, perhaps repeat them and use my hands to give him some visual cues to what I’m saying. Since then he hasn’t had much trouble understanding me. He likes to bring out his little box of crayons to work on his workbook. In fact, once I left the book out after we’d finished working together and he snatched up the opportunity to color in some of the next few worksheets without me! Lol.

Needless to say we’re getting good use out of this workbook. I’m pleased we were chosen to review it and I’ve discovered another excellent resource.

TOS Crew Reminder~ Alphabet Alley

Perhaps you recall my  first review about Alphabet Alley and their Noah’s Ark Go Fish and Two By Two Matching Game.  I loved these adorable little games and was happy to hear we’d be promoting them again.  Check them out I’m sure they’d make great gifts for Easter or Passover.

Baby Princess will be two years old in no time at all. I’d love to get her a  stacking block set or maybe one of their  wooden toys (I really like wooden toys) like the Noah and the Ark puzzle . It’s nice to have some Christian toys to choose from. I’m so glad Alphabet Alley has made these products available for Christian families.

TOS Homeschool crew review~ Auralog Tell Me More Homeschool German

What fun! The Crew got to actually preview a product due to be released in April. Auralog’s Tell Me More Homeschool edition is an immersion foreign language program with some really neat features.

The program will help you determine which level you’re going to start with if you have studied the language before, and then you will be able to progress through 5 learning levels from your starting point. Of course, if you have never studied that particular language before, you simply begin at the beginning.

Here are some more features:

* Create multiple user accounts

* More than 4 years of language learning included

* Lesson study guides for every lesson

* Thousands of exercises covering all the skills to learn a language

* Speech recognition technology

* Up to 10 hours of video

* A 24/7 online chat advisor

* 1 new lesson available online every week

* Test your progress

* Progress guaranteed (terms and conditions apply)

* Headset included

And if all this wasn’t enough, you have lots of choices. You can choose from three Lesson Modes:

Free-to-Roam Mode- This choice lets you try any of the lessons or activities. This mode is recommended for those who have already have a pretty good grasp of the language.

Guided Mode- These lessons are presented in order of increasing difficulty. I chose this one since it’s recommended for the beginner. I’m the sort that likes someone to just tell me what to do so I can get busy doing it. This mode has the added bonus of a “day planner” where you can set up a schedule and goals for yourself in regard to Auralog lessons. You can tell it which days you’d like to study and how long you’d like your lessons to be. A reminder near the top of the screen lets you know if you’re coming close to those goals.

Dynamic Mode- This mode supervises your progress and offers you the activities that most fit your needs and goals. It looks like this option is best for those who have either been using the program for a time or have used another program and already know which areas they need to work on to perfect their language skills. Since you can change which mode you want to work in any time you log in, I may decide to use Dynamic Mode later.

I let Ninja (15) decide which language she wanted to study since she was in the targeted age range. She chose German. I was a bit hesitant because I didn’t see this language as being a useful one, especially since we’re on the West Coast, but I think it was a good choice since she’s pretty into it. Besides, that is my hubby’s heritage, so why not let the kids learn more about it, right? The first time Ninja used it, she popped the headset on her head and sat using it for a few hours. Apparently she really liked it. Soon we could hear her practicing her German and speaking out loud for the voice recognition software to evaluate her pronunciation. She picked it up pretty fast and has progressed further than I have. That’s not surprising. She’s a smart one.

I have to warn my readers that this program can be a little confusing if you don’t read the directions. I still haven’t found all the features mentioned, (lol) but I figure that’s all part of the immersion experience anyway and we’re just going with the flow and enjoying the ride. I think this program is well worth a bit of time spent searching to find all the really cool features included in the software. From what I understand, I’ll get a lot more out of it by actually reading the manual and printing off the guides available in the introduction. I also looked around a bit and found a “tools” button that explained a lot more than what is on the surface. When all else fails…

While nosing around I found the 3D animation and graph feature that aids in teaching the student how to improve pronunciation. It’s so cool! You also have the option of lessons on the go: You can download lessons onto your computer to be converted into files useable on your MP3 player. Again, so cool. Unfortunately, Ninja was unable to upload it onto her Zune, but DH was able to use it on his MP3 player.

Oh! And since this program is useable as 4+ years of high school credit, Ninja is all set. I just hope Tink won’t decide she wants to study Italian because I want them to learn Spanish. Lol.

Auralog has produced some amazing software here in this product. I’m just flabbergasted that they were so generous as to send my family and several other Crew Member’s families these five levels. It’s an unbelievable blessing.

TOS Homeschool Crew Review~  Home School in the Woods- New Testament Activity Pak

If this doesn’t spark a person’s interest in lap books and history, I don’t know what will.  Home School in the Woods sent our family their New Testament Activity Pak (download version). It consists of a beautifully illustrated lap book project containing 15 activities, a “New Testament News” mock newspaper scroll (lol! Cute idea, where does she come up with these things?), and The Armor of God Activity Poster to print, color and assemble.

The Lap Book activities include:

* The Lineage from David to Jesus
* The Birth of Jesus Christ
* Miracles of Jesus
* The Beatitudes
* Fruit of the Spirit
* The Parables of Jesus
* The Last Supper
* The Crucifixion

* The Resurrection
* The Ascension
* Pentecost
* Prophesies Fulfilled
* The Twelve Disciples
* Paul's Missionary Journeys
* Postcards from Paul

There were opportunities to do a bit of writing, research and Bible study. The Illustrations are simply gorgeous; the project designs are a bit mind boggling. I kept giggling every time we finished an activity because they were all just so clever and I kept sending the girls over to show Daddy the cute little project we’d just finished. There are times when he’s too busy to do more than glance at projects, but these really caught his attention as well as ours.  Tink and Ninja both helped cut out, color and assemble the projects. Everything was well laid out. The only little snag we hit was the Beatitudes “pie book”. Of course, maybe if I’d read the directions correctly in the first place, I wouldn’t have needed DH to come over and figure it out for me. lol. But it is nice to have to ask my hubby for help. He’s so handy.

I’d never been that “into” lap books before but this project has really sparked an interest for me. I realize Home School in the Woods’ lap books are likely the top of the line, but I can now see how lap books would be a very useful learning tool for children. In fact, MFW uses Home School in the Woods' Creation to Christ time line figures in their High School curriculum. Very cool.

Home School in the Woods has done an excellent job with this Activity Pak and I’m going to keep them in mind for future hands-on enrichment in my homeschool.

It’s so nice to know there are companies out there that give time and attention to kids that need that bit of extra encouragement. Bonnie Terry Learning is one of these much needed businesses.

Bonnie Terry Learning is a company started by  Bonnie Burke Terry, a Board Certified Educational Therapist. She was asked repeatedly for materials to help students learn with her methods so she finally began to produce them herself.

We received The Sentence Zone and the Writer’s Easy Reference Guide.

I recall being a kid in school and hating the idea of diagramming a sentence. I dreaded watching my teacher as he inscribed a long sentence on to the blackboard only to add those strange little branch-like lines indicating which part of speech each word belonged to. I don’t think I ever truly understood it and I have a confession to make: I could generally fake my way through an English test, but to this day, I still am not sure which words belong to what part of speech.  Maybe The Sentence Zone game can help both my children and me.

Now, I have to say the game is a bit pricey, but if your child is struggling in this area, it would be much cheaper than hiring a tutor to coach them.

The Writer’s Easy Reference Guide is a great resource that can be used for multiple ages. It’s a 12 page fold out reference that you can pop into a binder to have available as a handy reminder when composing just about any writing assignment. It’s lay out is very well executed. Everything is visually appealing and arranged in a very accessible way. The Guide covers paragraph, essay and sentence writing tips, steps in the writing process, words to make writing more interesting, common prefixes, suffixes and root words, capitalization and punctuation rules, vocabulary and parts of speech terms and definitions, letter formats and other writing tips. I’m looking at this guide sitting right in front of me and I still don’t understand how she fit all that stuff in such a thin guide. Lol!

These two products would probably have been last on my list to purchase from BTL, but they are still so useful. They will absolutely not go to waste here at our house. Other things I would have liked from BTL- b&d reversal poster and/or b&d reversal stickers, and the BT Easy Math Reference Guide…Hmm, maybe we could use just about everything BTL has to offer. lol! I could see myself using these materials not only for Tink but for Ninja as well and probably even the Dude and baby Princess when they are old enough to require formal schooling.

Once again, because of the privilege of being a TOS Crew Member, I got to catch a glimpse of another great company created to help struggling learners move ahead in their schooling and for that, I am most grateful.

One2Believe Noah’s Ark Set

I love reviewing products for  one2believe. They make it so easy because my kiddos, the Dude especially, love their Bible-based toys. I was pleasantly surprised when I heard one2believe was sending out a second  shipment for the Crew to review.

The minute the box arrived, I opened it up and the Dude and Tink jumped right in to play. Tink, being the little momma in the house picked up the mini story book and read the story to the Dude as he played with Noah and all the animals. The Dude actually added some dinosaurs of his own to the set and even now as I type this review, there they are on his bed: his little foam dinosaurs preparing to board the big boat. Lol.

The Noah’s ark set comes with Noah, 14 animals and the ark. Honestly, I’m not sure I counted them all since the set was pounced upon the second it was unveiled. I do recall seeing some elephants, monkeys, donkeys, camels (or “canimals” as the Dude says) and lions lying around the room mixed in with all Dude’s dinosaurs.

The Ark set is one of Dudes new favorite toys. He’s always playing with it. It’s so nice to have toys that are from the Bible. There are too few of those kinds of toys available for kids these days. I’m so happy one2believe does its much needed part to fill a gap for Christian kids.

Thank you one2believe!

SpellQuizzer software is a spelling program that is used to essentially drill your child’s spelling words with them daily. The idea of it is a great one. I mean, what kid doesn’t like doing their school work on the computer instead of pencil and paper, right?

Tink and I tested out the software and luckily, we didn’t even have to buy a cheap microphone since we’d gotten one with another review product. I simply downloaded the program, typed Tink’s spelling words in the appropriate box, hit the start button on the recording feature and recorded sentences that went along with her spelling words just like I usually do when giving her a spelling test. This part was nothing new, but when Tink was able to put the headset on and hear the sentences as I read them to her, she giggled and delighted in the whole task.

Tink’s not generally one for writing, and although her writing skills have gotten much better over this year, she still enjoys typing quite a bit. It was really nice for her to have a new way to work on spelling. I think children appreciate it when we mix things up a bit in their school day.

Besides the recorded reading of spelling words, SpellQuizzer has a type-in reminder just in case you can’t get your hands on even a cheap microphone to record your spelling lists. You type in a reminder phrase (not including the spelling word) so your student can type in the correct word.

At first, I was very puzzled at this feature since from what I could tell, the child has to guess at the correct word. But then I realized it would be an excellent vocabulary tool. I got excited and pulled out another review curriculum that has a spelling/vocabulary list. SpellQuizzer was perfect. I entered the entire list, recording the word definitions as I went along and even though it sounded a little funny, Tink liked it a lot. Lol. The quirky recordings added a bit of fun, so it was all good.

DH helped me download some of the spelling lists and when he tested it out, he thought the program was pretty neat.

There was one little down side. I had a bit of a struggle downloading and importing some of the files on the SpellQuizzer site to add to the word list on the database. I’m going to email the owner to get some help with that but it’s not a huge deal because I can always record my own hints or definitions. Oh, and importing the spelling lists from the SpellQuizzer site got fairly tedious since I could only import one list at a time and there were a lot of lists. Update: (Already! I’m impressed! Extra Brownie points for seriously fast customer service.) Apparently I hadn’t properly installed one of the latest updates, so the two lists that didn’t want to import are now downloaded and working just fine. I’m still in the process of communicating with the owner and I’m sure we’ll have all the kinks worked out in no time.

SpellQuizzer is $29.99 for a one-time purchase. I could see our family getting our money’s worth out of it for that price. There are new software updates so it seems that they’re constantly improving it. That’s a nice little bonus. Head on over to the SpellQuizzer website where you can download a  free 30 day trial and see if your kids like it. There are also demo videos to show you how to use some of the software’s functions.

Overall, this looks like a helpful program that anyone can use to get their kiddos to practice their spelling words.

Artistic Pursuits

“This book gives students their first in-depth look at the elements of art in a simply written text with lots of illustrations in pencil, marker, and scratch art, the media they will be using. The elements of art and composition are explored through American art.”

Tink and I got the chance to check out Grades 4-6 Book 1, The Elements of Art and Composition.

This book is very well laid out. The contents page tells you what’s in each lesson and gives you a complete list of supplies, including pictures of the supplies so you can see what you’re looking for in case you want to pick them up at your local art store. There are a few other options to buying your art supplies as well. You can order art supply packs directly from the Artistic Pursuits web site in which case you get a tote bag to carry your supplies in, or you can follow the links from their site to other suppliers.

The manual gives parents a brief introduction and lets us know what to expect, outlining what’s covered in each unit: vocabulary, American art appreciation and history, Techniques, and Application. Then another brief introduction for the student. From this point, the student can take over, learning the basics for themselves.

I really like this idea. Tink is finally starting to learn independently so I’ll take any help in this area I can get. ;) She did need a small amount of hand-holding through the first lesson, but pretty soon, she was working completely on her own through the rest of the lessons.

We both enjoyed this curriculum. Plenty of encouragement was given to the student to try new things. I think that helped Tink a lot. She seemed proud of herself as she showed me her finished drawings and said she liked that each lesson had an exercise for her to sketch. The lessons were very easy for her to follow, and written very clearly.

You can see sample pages from both books 1 and 2 here.

Artistic Pursuits offers fabulous curricula to homeschoolers. It was a blessing to have been chosen to review it. I’m going to have to put more of these books on my wish list for the rest of the kiddos.