TOS Review: Considering God's Creation

Science is truly one of our favorite topics around here. It is the "school subject" that the kids engage with the most easily. It is also an activity that they voluntarily engage in during their free time. From the weather to rocks to snails to dogs to trees and plants, they are highly interested, actively involved and always ready for more.

So we were all pleased to hear that we would be reviewing Considering God's Creation from Eagle's Wings Educational Materials. This is a  science curriculum created by homeschooling (and homeschooled) moms from a Creationist perspective that is hands-on, multi-level and incredibly easy to implement. It consists of a Teacher's Manual, a student activity book, and a CD with 23 original songs.

Considering God's Creation has 36 lessons divided into 9 categories that, not surprisingly, follow the order of creation. Creation; The Universe, The Earth; Rocks and Minerals; Weather; the Plant Kingdom; The Animal Kingdom; Animal Anatomy; and Man. Each lesson is laid out simply and concisely, starting with Preparation, ending with a Digging Deeper section, and including Bible Reading, Vocabulary words, activities, a Notebook assignment, and the lyrics of the song that goes with that lesson. Review questions are built into the lesson plans.
This is intended to be a complete curriculum, but can also be an amazing supplement to any science curriculum you are already using. It covers an astonishing amount of topics and does so at several different levels. My kids are all very close together in age and ability, but I can see where this curriculum could easily challenge all kids on all levels.
The student book is packed full of notebooking activities: games to play, books to make, charts to complete, worksheets, cut-and-paste, puzzles... It is consumable, but clearly states that it is ok to make copies within your family. At $13.95, an additional workbook is not very costly, however, and might even be cheaper if your printer's ink is expensive.
Now, we already have a curriculum that we love, but I have already worked Considering God's Creation activities into our lesson plans. I plan to use it next year, as well, and expect that it will come in handy for many years as a reference, quick activity supplier, and supplement to our science studies. This book will be within arm's reach for many, many years.
Check out their sample pages here.
Eagle's Wings also offers history, Bible, math, geography and phonics materials, which you can see here.
And go here to read other Crew Member's reviews.

I received a free copy of this product in return for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own!

A Kid's Guide to Drawing the U.S. Presidents

Last week, Timberdoodle sent us this drawing book, How to Draw the Life and Times of Richard M. Nixon to review. This is a small part of the series, A Kid's Guide to Drawing the Presidents of the United States of America, which is a 42 volume set that Timberdoodle has on sale for the deeply discounted price of $195. These books are out of print, and Timberdoodle only has a limited supply. You can also buy some of them individually for $9.95.
The fun thing about these books are that they combine history with art. It begins with an overview of the president's life, and a "supply list" as well as a demonstration of the shapes and terms the children need to know to complete the drawings. Then, for the drawing lessons, one page has a bit of biography about the president, and the other page has a "how to draw" lesson featuring an item taken from the history lesson. Each lesson has between 4 and 8 steps, depending on the complexity of the drawing.

We sat down and I read through the book aloud, and then talked the kids through the drawing of a pumpkin. The pumpkin was taken from the story of Whitaker Chambers, who hid microfilm of U.S. government documents in a hollowed-out pumpkin on his farm.

They used their pencils to follow the drawing instructions, then they broke out the crayons and added a little color.

Kaytie's

 

Nate's

Daniel's

Abbie's

Kaytie then chose to follow the instructions on how to draw an elephant. The elephant being a symbol of the Republican party, it is an obvious choice for this book.

My kids enjoyed looking at and reading this book, as well as the artwork, but, as you can see, we are possibly a little young for the complexity of the drawings.

These are very cool books, and there is a limited supply, so hurry and check them out! And while you are at it, go investigate Timberdoodle's other History and Art curriculum!


As a member of Timberdoodle's Blogger Review Team I received this book for free in exchange for a fair and honest review.

TOS Review: Wordy Qwerty

Last fall, we reviewed a fun computer game called Talking Fingers, which we greatly enjoyed. So we were happy to hear that we would also be reviewing the "next step" program called Wordy Qwerty, a reading and spelling software program for 2nd and 3rd grade.

Kaytie and Nate both LOVED Wordy Qwerty. They begged daily to play it and I would have to literally order them away from the computer when it was time for them to stop. I liked this program because it teaches spelling/phonics rules. I love spelling rules. I am a visual speller. I can look at a word and tell if it is spelled correctly or not. But I don't know how to teach that to my kids. I like that rules give them tools and they don't have to memorize lists of words.
Wordy Qwerty has 20 levels, with five different games and a song about the rule for each level. (The games are the same, but each level teaches a different rule.)  Completing a level gives them a piece of a music machine, every four levels gives them a complete machine, which they can then listen to. The goal is to build the music machine completely. There are two "helpers" who explain the games to the kids. One is a computer, the other is a keyboard. The games in each level have to be played in order, but once a game or level has been played, it can be replayed whenever the student (or teacher) chooses.

         

As a teacher, I can check on their progress at any time, seeing what levels they have completed, what date they completed it, and what their score on each level was. And this report can be printed off. Also, I have the option to set the "pass level" from 0% to 100% and can change it at any time. I set their username and password, and can pick which days and what times they are allowed to login, if I want/need to limit them.

As I said, the kids absolutely adored playing Wordy Qwerty. They were able to manage it on their own, and while I was in the same room, I mostly just left them to enjoying and learning. Nate finished the entire program a few days ago, and I went to look over his progress report. I was shocked to see that even though his pass level was set at the default of 70% his scores were one 30%, one 50% and eighteen 0%!!! I then looked at Kaytie's, and she also was allowed to move on in the game even though many times she failed to achieve the 70%.
Another crew member, also noticed this problem with her son, and she contacted Wordy Qwerty, who replied that to keep kids from being discouraged a failing grade only actually fails them once. Then they are allowed to move forward. So, basically, the teacher needs to pay more attention than I did, and have the kids replay the levels they don't pass. My kids will definitely be going back through a lot of levels!
This issue was the only con I have for Wordy Qwerty. We loved it and I wholeheartedly recommend it! But don't just take my word for it, you can try an online demo for free (that page also tells you a little bit about each game). Click here to see the 20 spelling rules taught, as well as a video clip of the program. Also, you can read other Crew Member's reviews here.

Kaytie's opinion was: I liked it, it was really fun, and I liked the song part best. One thing I didn't like was when Nate was mostly all zero's. They should have the guys there say, "No, that is not right. Please try again until you get a better score!" I liked that we build the music machine with the spheres that we earned and once you get enough then it puts all that you worked on together and it makes the whole song! One thing is that I think that you shouldn't be allowed to go through the last game without typing anything, you just have to keep hitting "enter" and it lets you through.  (another thing I was unaware of until she said it, I will be paying a little more attention as they work their way through this game again!)

Nate's opinion was: I LOVED IT! My favorite part about it was the music machines, especially the last part because of all the music machines playing together. There was nothing I didn't like except for the writing game.

You can buy Wordy Qwerty online or on CD. We used the online version.

We were given a free temporary subscription to this program in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are our own.

TOS Review: Mad Dog Math

For the past few weeks, the kids have been using Mad Dog Math to work on their addition and subtraction math facts.

Mad Dog Math is a computer program that drills math facts for all four operations. It's strength is that the facts are all broken down into bite-sized pieces. Each drill consists of 20 problems that are selected by answer, instead of by problem. For example, you start with 0-3 addition, and all of the answers will be 0, 1, 2, or 3. This made it much easier for my kids not only to master the level (since they weren't losing time hunting for the right key to push), but also to retain the facts more easily.
After the initial download, (which was a little tricky for me, since the instructions given did not exactly match my computer, but I was able to figure it out without asking my husband for help, so it wasn't that bad.) the login is easy. Just click the green paw print and type in your name. I loved that there was not a username and password to remember!
And after that, it was easy for the kids to use. Kaytie and Nate could run through several drills all on their own. The hardest thing was for them to remember they didn't have to hit enter after each answer. As you can see, it is pretty self-explanatory. I could even switch the language to Spanish and give them a little foreign language practice while they played! :)

The only negatives to this program was the initial download being a little dicey, and that it takes so long to get a sticker. My kids would have liked to have been rewarded for their hard work a little more frequently.

Kaytie: I liked it because it helps me with my math facts and it starts with easy ones and helps me work my way up. It mixes subtraction and addition so I learn both. And it is really fun! One thing I didn't like about it is that it times you. I need time to think about the answer but it mostly won't let me. The dog barks at the end and I liked that. 

Nate: I liked Mad Dog Math because I like to go fast doing math! And it times me so I have to go fast. I didn't like that in order to earn a club sticker you have to do ALL those math problems! I liked the dog because we have a dog. 

There are a lot of different ordering options, which you can check out here. We were given this. For other TOS Crew Member reviews go here.

We were given a free temporary download of this product for the purpose of this review. All opinions are mine and my kids.

TOS Review: WonderMaps

When I was a little kid I used to pull out our atlas and pore over it, just for fun. I loved to plan trips to places, and look up locations mentioned in the books I read. Now, I am bequeathing this love of maps to my kids. We have a US map taking up part of our limited and therefor precious wall space, we have an atlas, and we have a globe, I have tons of websites for free, printable maps bookmarked, but such is our love for maps that we were delighted to receive Wondermaps from Bright Ideas Press to review.
Wondermaps is a "customizable collection of over 350 maps" and is truly amazing and lots of fun to play with! :)  The download was simple and easy. Then I was able to choose from four categories: World Continents, Regions, Nations; United States of America; Historical maps; and Thematic maps.

Rather than trying to explain to you what all you can do with these maps, I will direct you to a moderately short (6 minute) video that you can find here because it does a much better job than I can! (scroll down a little). Instead, I'll tell you how I liked this program and how I plan to use it in our school.
I love that I can turn all of the features off and on before I print out a map. Since I can take out names and locations of cities, capitols, and geographic landmarks, I can use a completely labeled map to illustrate a read-aloud. I can use a partially labeled map for the kids to circle, trace, color or find newly-introduced locations on the map. I can use a blank map to quiz them when we have finished our topic. I love that I can add color to my maps for my more visual kids or leave off the color when I need to save on ink. I love that I now have access to Biblical maps and maps from specific time periods in history. Those types of maps are very very hard to find free on the Internet! I can also just sit a kid at the computer and let them "play" with the maps themselves. They have highly enjoyed doing this!
If you use Mystery of History Vol 1-3 or All American History Vol 1-2, each and every map you need is on Wondermaps. I'm happy about that because we will be using MOH Vol 2 next year. It is going to be so handy to have all those maps at my fingertips.
One thing I do not like about Wondermaps is that not every country has it's own map. It is very US-centric. For example, while every state and geographic region of the US has a map, the only country in Africa that has its own map is Egypt. Another crew member suggested enlarging the map so the nation fills the page, then selecting "print current view", but when I tried this it was awkward and I wasn't happy with the results. This squashes my hopes of using Wondermaps for World Geography, but it is still an excellent resource for US Geography and History.
Wondermaps also has a Teacher's Guide that gives lots of interesting ideas for geography, including 50 Bright Ideas for Using Outline Maps.

For other TOS Crew Member reviews, go here.

I received a free download of Wondermaps in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

TOS Review: GoTrybe

For the past few weeks, we have been trying out the website GoTrybe. The point of GoTrybe is to get kids motivated to stay healthy and fit. To accomplish this there are workouts, nutrition, wellness and motivation quizzes, badges to earn, and a customizable avatar.
This FAQ page pretty much tells you all there is to know about how GoTrybe works, and it really is easy to set up an account and navigate the site, so I'll let you read that page and then tell you how it worked for us... (whistling quietly) Oh, are you back? Ok then...
First, I am not comfortable with my kids making and having online friends, it's a safety thing. So we did not look into the forum, nor the friends feature. Some of the Crew have older kids, so as a part of their review, they let their kids friend each other but we did not participate at all. I played around some with the avatars, and it was kinda neat, but I did  not show that feature to the kids. Here is a screen shot of the avatar editor.

What we did were the workouts, the motivation videos and the quizzes. The workouts were nice in that we could create our own from the videos provided in the catagories of warm up, cardio, strength and flexibility. Not only can you choose which  workout video for each catagory, you can also choose to opt out of any catagory. The workout that you create is instantly play-able, and you can save it and reuse it. Or you can just choose a pre-made workout! Here is a screen shot of how you can choose your workouts.

The quizzes amused the kids, and, in my opinion, were the most valuable part of the program for us. It made the kids think about living a healthy lifestyle. Unfortunately, we could only answer one question a day.
The kids were not as entertained with the motivation videos. They rolled their eyes and ran off to play. The videos are just short clips of various people (athletes, kids, etc.) that talk about the importance of exercise, eating properly, and all around healthy living.
Our opinion of this program was pretty unanimous. It's great for adults, and even teens, but it's not really for kids. Our account was set up in the program for Kindergarten through 3rd grade, because those are the grades we cover, but it was way over my kids' heads.  There was no demonstration at the beginning, so that the kids knew what they were supposed to be doing. And there was no instruction about why we were doing certain moves or if it was important to copy the instructors exactly. I don't feel as though the kids were getting information about exercise, the "proper" way to work out so as not to injure yourself, or even why it is important to exercise. . Also, Kaytie and Nate (8 and 7 respectively) could not keep up with the pace of the workout instructors and the younger kids didn't even try. They did have fun, though! As you can see...

Another drawback (for the boys) is that there are no male instructors and the kid helpers were at least 98% girls. Nate noticed and commented on this. He also noticed when one of the instructors mentioned "burning calories". That was irritating to me, because I want my kids to focus on keeping their bodies strong with good eating and exercise and habits, NOT on staying "skinny".
All in all, I think GoTrybe would be a good fit for a family with older kids who need motivation to exercise (the friends, the forum, the avatar to create could be useful for such kids) or a family with smaller kids who can't get outside much. We have an enormous yard and the kids spend a lot of time outside running, jumping, and climbing trees, and I think, for this age group of kids, that is preferable to a computer program. I asked Kaytie what she thought and after a short pause to consider, she said, "I think it's better to go outside, so that we can also have fresh air and sunshine."

For other Crew Member's experiences, opinions, and reviews click HERE.

We were given a temporary subscription to this website for the purposes of this review. Our opinion is our own.

Term Three, Week One, 2011

I still want to do weekly review posts, but I just can't seem to make myself type out all that we do every week. So I'm thinking about just doing some highlighting kind of posts... This week, I'm going to talk about the changes we made when we started back to school this week.
Mostly, our changes were schedule related. See our schedule in the sidebar? It is out-of-date and obsolete. It has worked well for us, but I have decided a few changes will serve us better now that we are in a new stage of life. The splitting up of work into morning and afternoon is a holdover from when Daniel and Abbie were still "the babies" and napped in the afternoons. Kaytie and Nate would get up earlier than they did (everybody always has and still does "rest" in the afternoons), and we would do the "hard work" while we weren't being interrupted. I've kept that schedule all this time because I felt they needed a break in their school day. Only now, I don't think they do.
So we are starting school right after breakfast and, on good days, ending about an hour before lunch. (On bad days, we have leftover work to do in the afternoons, but never more than 45 minutes worth.)
I have several reasons for shifting our schedule. First, I hate having school drag on all day long. Second, by starting right away, the kids have 15 minutes to do their chores, which means they have to do them promptly instead of dragging them out for hours. Third, Kaytie and Nate had fallen into the bad habit of dawdling over their morning school. I realized they had no real motivation to be quick about it. So I pointed out that if they get all their work finished in the morning, they will have the entire afternoon to themselves! That was motivation. Only one day this week did we run over into the afternoon, and that was finished up quickly.
To be quite honest, we do still do a little bit of afternoon school, but as that is only reading our science book, and practicing our handwriting, it hardly counts as school for any of us.
The next change is that Daniel and Abbie no longer have the same boxes. The older they get the more their skill levels diverge. I'm weary of pushing her/holding him back/putting different things in the same box and trying not to confuse anybody. So they each have three boxes and then a math box and a box with their Bible sheet in it (on the days that we do a Bible sheet). They use the same math book so it made sense to only have one box for it. Kevin also has three boxes, two with "work with me" items and one that he can do alone. At least, that was the plan, but I only had room on the shelf for two boxes, so his "work with me" items are in one box and his alone item is in the other. It works. Gracie's shelf remained the same.
And finally, since we are starting earlier, and the big kids are motivated to do their "independent" work alone, I'm planning a section of time to work solely with the Kinder and PreKinders on science/art. Daniel and Abbie helped me chose themes (space, insects, pets and weather) and I quickly compiled a list of together projects (painting, cooking, science experiments, crafting) as well as some games and stuff that I can drop in their boxes. That went really super well this week. I worked hard to ONLY plan the stuff that I would actually do. Nothing elaborate or incredibly messy. Just a simple project every day. And it worked. :)

Kaytie and Nate worked on the numbers they write backwards. They made them with playdough, do-a-dot markers, glass pebbles, and their fingers. I moved this box to right before their math box, since math is when they write the most numbers.

The science/art theme this week (and for the next few weeks) was space. We read books:

The Moon by Daisy Allyn

Hedgie Blasts Off by Jan Brett

The Sun by Melanie Chrismer

Moongame by Frank Asch

They water painted a picture of outer space.

They dot painted an astronaut. 

Daniel and Abbie did this puzzle that I made for Kaytie and Nate years ago. They put the little planets by the correct labels, then they check using the cards. Kaytie and Nate could read when I first gave them this puzzle, so it was entirely self-check-able. However, Daniel and Abbie need me to make sure the cards are in the correct order before they can check. We are working on reading the labels, but they aren't quite confident, yet.

We made rocket snacks with cheese slices and crackers. They loved this, despite it's lack of nutritional value.

I used glow-in-the-dark stars left over from a birthday party for them to practice counting. Daniel counted backwards. (He did it easily, so I'm checking that off his math goals list!) Abbie drew a number card from the stack and then counted out the correct number of stars to match. For Kevin, I put out the number cards 1, 2, and 3, and then showed him one, two, or three stars. He would count the stars and then chose the correct number card. He did really well with the first three numbers, so I added 4 and 5 to the mix. But that seemed to blow his mind. 

They also sorted rockets by size, drew a picture of outer space, wrote their names on small squares of paper to make rockets, and played a build-the-rocket game.

Gracie's shelf held a three piece puzzle, a bucket of "stuff" to explore, and this: two cups, six heart boxes, and six bears (three green and three blue) inside the boxes. This was her favorite item of the week.

Daniel's favorite of the week.

This is another old work that we still use... two tiny trucks and a bowl of popcorn.

The highlight of the week happened on Friday...

They were so excited to get to watch these guys work on the road. I loved how they lined up by size. :)

I am linking this post to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and Forever, For Always, No Matter What

TOS Review: Circle C Beginnings from Kregel Publications

My eight year old is a fourth generation bookworm. A goodly portion of her free time is spent curled up somewhere with a book. So she was very excited when she learned that our next review item for the TOS Crew was not curriculum, but a BOOK!

We received Andi's Scary School Days, from Kregel Publications. This book is the fourth in the Circle C Beginnings series, written by Susan K. Marlow. These books are intended for six to eight year olds, and are stories about a little girl named Andi who lives on a ranch in 1874.
The basic storyline of Andi's Scary School Days is that Andi is scared to go to school because it is a new and unfamiliar experience. Because of that fear, she acts up in school and winds up in trouble.

It took Kaytie less than an hour to read this book. It is below her reading level, but she seemed to enjoy it. She said she liked the "Peek into the Past" section at the end of the book the best. She also said the story was funny. She pointed out that Andi does break the rules a lot, but when I asked what she thought about that, she changed the subject.
For my part, I thought it was a cute little book, and I loved the illustrations. I also appreciated the spiritual aspect when Andi was directed to God as the answer to her fears. However, unless we find them for free at the library, we won't be reading any others in this series or the series when Andi is a little older. I was a little dismayed that Andi almost runs wild in this book, and it isn't until the last chapter when an "adult" (in the form of her older brother, we never see her mother in the entire book) shows up to make her toe the line. Also, after reading fictionalized biographies from this time period, I was a little disappointed in the modernization of the culture. I am super-picky about historical fiction. I kept trying to envision Laura Ingalls or Ralph Moody acting like Andi, and suffering no reprisals, and I failed. When my kids read, I want them to read living books that inform and inspire, not think that it's ok to pout and disobey. I don't think this is a harmful book, but I don't think it is great enough to spend money on.
On the other hand, I know that many of the other TOS Crew members and their children loved these books, so read their reviews and see what they thought.
Also, if you do decide that these books are a good fit for your family, you can find some fun, free, extras, like coloring pages, puzzles and activities at andiandtaffy.com. The coloring pages are beautiful, just like the illustrations in the book.

CircleC books are available in bookstores or online at Kregel Publications

I received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

A Real Reader!

Daniel read his first library book all by himself today!
Sam and the Bag
Maybe not great literature, but he had to sound out two entirely new words: "down" and "jump" and he did it with ease! Kaytie was happy to tell him that he is a real reader now. We were all delighted with his accomplishment.
Way to go, Daniel!!!

TOS Review: Yesterday's Classics

You can't be a homeschooler for very long without developing a deep love and appreciation for books. I have been a bookworm since before I could remember, and having kids and homeschooling has only increased my love for books. However, after moving over ten times in the last ten years and finally landing in a tiny house that, quite simply, has no more room for our ever growing need for books, I have developed a new appreciation for e-books. E-books don't take up a lot of shelf space and they are super easy to move! So I was thrilled when the TOS Crew was asked to review Yesterday's Classics bundle of books. 225 books!  These are books that were published between 1880 and 1920: history books, literature books, nature books; books that are used in Ambleside Online, Heart of Dakota, and Tapestry of Grace.
You can download all 225 in either Kindle or EPUB format, (and they will even help you figure out what that means, if you don't know) and you also receive lists of the books arranged by level, genre, author and title (because 225 books are A LOT of books!) and descriptions of the books.
I have a Kindle, so I chose that format. It is a brand-new "toy" for me, but Yesterday's Classics provided an easy-to-use guide for downloading and transferring, so I never even once had to ask my husband for help!
Now, some of these books can be had for free in various places all over the Internet, but I found several reasons why it would be worthwhile to purchase these books from Yesterday's Classics.
First, they have illustrations. If there are illustrations in the original book, they are in your Yesterday's Classics version. This might not seem like a big deal, but I have some free books on my Kindle and when a character quotes poetry, or reads a letter, the text is in a different format, and was apparently considered an illustration and is not visible on my Kindle. Trust me, it loses something...
Next, Yesterday's Classic has clickable table of contents. This means that you can go to any chapter in the book from the table of contents. Very nice to have!
Also, buying these books means you get 225 books all at one blow. It can be time-consuming to hunt down 225 books individually and then download them.
Finally, this bundle of books is currently on sale until the end of May, which you can read about here. The sale price means you are paying less than .50 a piece for each book. This page also tells you in detail which books make up this bundle (with descriptions) and offers you a free book to download so you can check it out for yourself.
To be honest, we have not read all 225 books in the weeks alloted to us for the review period. We have thoroughly enjoyed the books we have read, though! And, the download was simple and easy, with their instructions, although it did take awhile. That's a lot of books, after all! Organizing them once they were on the Kindle was a little more difficult, so I would have liked if I could have downloaded them by category instead of by author. But that's a minor detail. :)

If you would like to read other Crew members' reviews of this product, click here.

I was given a free download of these ebooks in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.