Four Little Penguins

Homeschool Version

2012-01-24T11:56:00.000-06:00

Mary had a little lamb,

Its fleece was white as snow,

And everywhere that Mary went

That lamb was sure to go.

It followed her to school one day

Which was not at all new

And all the teacher did was say

"Here is some math to do!"

TOS Review: We Choose Virtues

2012-01-22T21:45:00.000-06:00

One of the many and varied reasons that we homeschool our kids is that it gives us the time and opportunity to develop their virtues, build their moral sense, and strengthen their character. We want kids with self control, self discipline and integrity who act with honesty and courage and display mercy and grace to those around them. Heather McMillan feels the same way about kids, so she developed We Choose Virtues to "simply inspire character that lasts". This is a full curriculum for families, teachers, and homeschoolers to use to teach character to kids. This is not a "one time" curriculum, it is intended to become a lifestyle for you and your kids, taking advantage of every teachable moment that crops up. Here is a little more info on how it works.
We were sent these Virtue Clues cards, the coloring book, the family character assessment, and the Kids Memory Verses, Bible Heroes, and Truths chart as well as the Teacher's Handbook.
We incorporated the cards, coloring book, memory verses and the ideas from the handbook into our daily circle time. The cards are full color, on sturdy cardstock and contain the virtue (one virtue for each card), a quick saying for the kids to memorize, a short explanation of the opposite of the virtue, and a picture of the person who goes with that character on the front of the card. On the back of the card is a practical application of the virtue and a sentence of encouragement.

For example, the Obedience card has, on the front, a picture of Oboe Joe playing his oboe and it says, "I am Obedient." The phrase for the kids to remember is, "Ok, whatever you say, I will obey, right away." The opposite is "I am NOT... argumentative, slow or unwilling, and I don't refuse to do what I am told!' On the back it says, "Choose to go the whole day doing everything exactly as you are asked to do it... with a smile! Oboe Joe knows you can do it!"
The kids enjoyed learning the sayings on the card, using repetition, the coloring pages, and the games suggested in the handbook. We also worked on memorizing the Bible verses attached to each virtue, and reading about the Bible characters as well.
I would love the opportunity to try out the full curriculum on my kids. I loved the way it is put together. I love that each virtue is explained, demonstrated, and illustrated. I especially loved that each virtue was linked to a person from the Bible and to a memory verse. I firmly believe that the only lasting change in our lives (kids and/or adults) comes from God working in our lives and not our own strength, so I was delighted to see that this curriculum leans heavily on His strength and His truth to teach our children. I did wish that the memory verse was on the card. This would have helped us to memorize it, and I think the verse was more important than the opposite of the virtue.
I must say, however, that this curriculum is only going to go as far as you, the parent/teacher/adult are willing to take it. This is not something that you can spend five minutes (or even an hour) a day on, and expect to see results. This is a tool to changing your lifestyle. If you don't implement it, it will not work.
I also want to clarify that there is MUCH more to the curriculum than I received. Check out the full thing here. Currently, they are having a clearance sale!
Read what other Crew Members had to say here.

I received this product for free for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own.

TOS Review: Maestro Classics

2012-01-12T22:03:00.000-06:00

Last year on the TOS Crew, we reviewed Maestro Classics and enjoyed it very much! So when we were asked to review another, different CD from them, we were all excited!

This time, we were asked to review The Story of Swan Lake. Once again, I chose an evening, gathered them up, and passed around paper and crayons. This CD is not just the music... the first track is the music mixed with narration so the kids knew the story and understood what was going on. I like that. My favorite part of classical music was always the story behind the notes, so to speak, and I never could figure out, on my own, what was going on. The additional tracks contain a biography of Tchaikovsky, a "metal" version, and more... you can preview them here.

This story failed to engage the boys, but the girls loved it! Especially after I pointed out that it was a ballet. Then they got up and danced.

In addition to the CD, there was a little booklet enclosed with information about Tchaikovsky, the conductor, and some instruments. There were also a couple of puzzles, and an experiment to experience the difference between major and minor keys. Kaytie, especially, enjoyed this booklet.

I love the concentration! The kids and I were not the only ones who enjoyed listening to Swan Lake! Sofie, the music-lovin' Basset Hound, snuck in and listened also!

You can preview and/or buy Maestro Classics CDs here. They have many more than just the two that we have reviewed! You can check out their FREE curriculum guides for all the CDs here. And you can check out Maestro Classics on Facebook and Twitter. Finally, you can read other Crew Members opinions here.

This CD was sent to us free for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own!

TOS Review: REAL Spanish

2012-01-05T18:11:00.000-06:00

We were sent REAL Homeschool Spanish to review a few weeks ago. This has proven to be a difficult review for me to wrap my head around, so, instead of my usual informal style, I'm going to tell you about the program, first, then a quick pro and con of personal opinion. Otherwise, I'm afraid I'll leave something out. There is just a lot to this program!
First, we received a download of a book, a daily curriculum guide, an activity book, a book with answers to the activity book, and audio files. These were all PDFs. The book is your typical foreign language textbook, with vocabulary lists, conversation suggestions, phrases, and ideas on how to present the material. The activity guide is worksheets that go along with the curriculum to give older kids more experience with the language. The audio files are the vocabulary spoken aloud. The daily curriculum guide is all of the vocabulary, ideas (and more) laid out in a weekly plan that you can follow, or just use as a jumping off place.
I dislike printing unless I absolutely have to. The kids and I can read everything off of the computer, so I don't print unless it is something they need to write on. However, this curriculum was very difficult to figure out that way. I highly recommend figuring the cost of printing it off into the price when you buy it and just plan on printing it. The book comes in color and black and white for cheaper printing. (A very thoughtful touch, I thought.)

So here is what we did: I plan our schoolwork on a day by day basis, so I went through the curriculum guide, pulled out everything I wanted to do with the kids and plugged it into our spreadsheet. This took me maybe an hour. The curriculum guide was FULL of good ideas and suggestions most of which sparked other ideas I could use. This guide was my favorite part of the whole program. Again, it is already laid out in a weekly planner format, so you could easily just pick it up and run with it.
We listen to the audio files as we are learning the new vocabulary to ensure that we are saying the words correctly.
I print off the activity sheets and have my 7 and 9 year olds fill them out. They are way over the heads of my 5 and 6 year olds.
The main push of the program is to use the vocabulary often through out the day. So we have "Spanish class", yes, but I try to remember to speak Spanish to the kids as we are just living life. The program starts with greetings, numbers, and colors (that is as far as we have gotten) which is something I am already used to weaving into conversation after years of preschoolers running through the house.

What I like about this program is:
the tons of ideas in the Curriculum Guide
the push to use the language in "real life" and that the vocabulary chosen makes it easy for me to do that
the audio files so I know we are learning how to say it properly
that the kids ask when we are going to do Spanish today!

What I didn't like:
there was a "learning curve" to figuring out how to make this work for us, again, this curve would likely not be so steep if you are willing to print everything off
the audio files sound (occasionally) a little "tinny" and hard to understand

Some of our favorite ideas:
song ideas to learn vocabulary, the kids had a good time singing "Where is Thumbkin" in Spanish!
making a board game for reviewing the material
having a puppet show

What the kids thought:
Kaytie:
I like that we can listen to the Spanish and I like using finger puppets and I like the songs.
Nate:
I actually liked it! My favorite thing is playing with the puppets. There is nothing I did not like about it!
Daniel:
I like using my thumbs as puppets.I don't like just listening.
Abbie:
I can speak Spanish! I can listen to the words. I don't like that there is nothing to see when we are learning.

(Just to be clear, the puppets did not come with the program, just the ideas to use them did.)

In short, we all feel REAL Homeschool Spanish is teaching us how to speak the language in a simple to maintain and very fun way. For other Crew Members experiences and opinions, go to the Crew Blog . Check out the pricing options here. Look at free samples here. And browse through free culture samples here.

We were sent a free download of this curriculum for the purpose of this review. All opinions are our own.

TOS Review: World's Greatest Stories

2011-12-20T12:32:00.000-06:00

I was thrilled when we received a CD from World's Greatest Stories to review. I was excited because this a dramatic storytelling of the ACTUAL Bible. It's not stories, it is George W. Sarris reading the Bible aloud with flair. My children, however, raised an eyebrow at me and wandered off to play. So I simply popped the CD into the laptop and went on with what I was doing. Before the end of the first story, all four kids (and my husband) had returned to the living room and were quietly listening to the story. They just couldn't help themselves! Then they complained when I turned it off so we could start supper. It is truly that engaging.

One Wednesday evening I took it to church for the kids that I teach to listen to for class time. The roomful of kids ages 4 to 12 sat and listened quietly to the entire story of Elijah and prophets of Baal, only interrupting to ask questions or to respond to the story. If you have ever tried to teach kids in that age group, you will know how truly amazing that is!

We reviewed the NIV version of Volume One - The Prophets. You can listen to an audio clip here for free. Each CD costs $7.95. You can choose KJV or NIV and if you order six or more, you get free shipping!

I loved, loved, LOVED this product! And give it the highest recommendation I can give it: I WILL be buying the rest of the CDs that are offered and am hoping that there will be more made.

Kaytie: I liked it because it was... I don't really know why, but I liked it a LOT. I like to close my eyes when I am listening to the story and I can "see" what he was talking about. I want more of them!!!

Nate: It was sorta cool. I understood the stories better after listening. I would like to hear the other stories.

Daniel: I liked them. They are interesting.

Abbie: I loved the story of Jonah. I want to hear more stories.

We all give this our highest praise (we want to buy the rest of them), but you can read about other Crew Members' opinions and experiences here.

This product was sent to me free for the purpose of this review. All the glowing opinions are honest and my own.

TOS Review: Fractazmic

2011-12-09T22:31:00.000-06:00

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know two things about us: we love games and we are not that fond of math. In the past, we have used many and various types of games to teach, illustrate, and pound into our heads different math concepts.
Fractazmic, from I See Cards, is a game intended for just such a purpose. This game consists of a pack of 60 cards and an instruction sheet. The instructions seemed easy enough, and I gathered the children up to play. The idea is that each card is a fraction and you combine the fractions to make a whole. Each whole is a "hand" and the goal of the game is to get the most "hands".

I really, honestly, think that this game would be fun as a review of fractions. But for us, this was a difficult game to play. None of the kids have any real experience in fractions, and certainly not in adding them. We managed to play a few games, but I wound up doing ALL of the work as they took turns showing me their hands and I figured out if they could make a whole or not. I even made a cheat-sheet/poster and still did all of the work.
However, if your child is ready for fractions, is learning fractions, struggling with fractions, loves fractions, or even needs a review of fractions, I would heartily recommend Fractazmic. I know that I learned a lot from playing, even if the kids did not! I am holding on to this game for the future and I know that we will eventually get a lot of use out of it!
The cards are brightly colored and sturdy and appear able to stand up to plenty of play. The pictures are cute, and are helpful for figuring out if you have a whole or not. The only negative I have is that the instruction sheet was a little hard to follow. I am only 90% sure that we were playing strictly by the intended rules. However, the rules we came up with worked out just fine, so it's all good. :)

I See Cards has other math games available as well. I have my eye on a couple of them for our schoolroom.

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

I was given this game for free for the purpose of this review. All opinions expressed are honest and my own.

TOS Review: Artistic Pursuits

2011-12-06T12:51:00.000-06:00

I have two kids who are ardently artistic, one child who lives and breathes art and creating, and one child who enjoys art if everyone else is doing it, it is on his own terms, and he happens to be in the mood. I, however, know nothing about art or how to teach it. This is why I like Artistic Pursuits. It mixes art instruction with art history, shows the kids pictures of real art by "real" artists as well as pictures of art drawn by kids their own age; and it does all of this in a spiral bound book of 32 lessons. Each lesson comes with an art project that is clearly and simply explained using both text and graphics. I'm a visual learner, so the graphics are priceless!
We were sent a copy of K-3 Book Two to review, and in this book, the lessons cover such artists as Cimabue, Van Eyck, Leonardo da Vinci, Bruegel, Vermeer, Millet, and many more. The projects are various types of painting, drawing, printmaking, modeling, and mixed media.
There are three books in the K-3 series, there is also a book for Preschool, plus additional series for grades 4-6, Jr. high, and Sr. high.
For a family with a lot of interest and not much knowledge or experience in art, this is the perfect program! Let me tell what we like about it...

the book is easy to follow and implement: I don't have to do a lot of prep or planning, I don't have to read ahead or hunt up any additional information ( I did have to gather supplies, but this was simple enough, and a one-time project for me)
the information in the lesson is short and engaging but informative and worthwhile, we all felt like we had learned something when I finished reading each lesson, yet I didn't have to tie the kids to their chairs to get through the material
on page three of the book is a master list of ALL the art materials you need, divided by lesson, so you not only know what to buy, but when you need it. So if you want/need to spread out buying the materials, this is easily done
the projects are well explained so it is easy enough for the kids to know what to do
the projects are open-ended enough that the kids are relying on their own creativity and are able to do their own thing... this is good both for my loves-to-create child, who would be stifled by a cut and dried project as well as my not-to-interested child, who hates to be micromanaged, and also for the two in the middle who need the nudging to think outside the box
this book is non-consumable
I can easily and without tweaking use this book for all of my kids. I admit I don't have a wide age-spread, but all four kids benefited and enjoyed the lessons with no extra work on my part... they simply worked at their own ability level
pictures of real art for them to look at and be inspired by
it wasn't just art, but art history and art appreciation as well
the format of teaching and then implementing. It cemented in their minds the information presented.
the kids had fun!

Again, this was simple and easy to use. Once or twice a week, I gathered the children up, read them a lesson (3-5 minutes), explained the project, and let them have at it. We love this program and will continue to use it in our school. We now own books 1 and 2 and will purchase 3 when we need it.
If you are interested in the opinions of the children, here they are:
Kaytie:
I like it because I can do art projects and I really like art. The lesson was interesting.

Nate:
I liked the water painting. I am not much of an art person, but the lesson was ok. I like to paint.

Daniel:
I liked the projects. The story was good.

Abbie:
It was great! I liked it! I liked the painting the we did. I love love LOVE to paint.

You can also go to the Crew Blog to read other Crew Member's opinions and experiences.

As members of the TOS Crew, this product was sent to us free for the purpose of this review. The opinions are honest and totally our own.

TOS Review: Time Timer

2011-11-22T11:42:00.000-06:00

I have four children who are very close in age. Their interests are very similar, This means that we are always taking turns for everything. And since they seem to think that they each deserve an equal turn, we happen to use timers A LOT around here. So I jumped on the opportunity to review a timer from Time Timer. We received one of the 3" timers (they also come in 8" and 12", watches, software, apps, and even puzzles!), which is the perfect size to carry, if needed, in my purse, ~~or hide it from the kids when not in legitimate use~~. The timer requires, but does not come with, a AA battery which was very easy to install. The face of the timer has a clear cover for protection that flips open and doubles as a stand for when the timer is in use. The timer can be set for any amount of time from a few seconds (that's my kids for you!) to an hour.
The cool thing about the timer is that it is very easy to SEE how much time is remaining. This (almost, they are kids after all) eliminates the question, "How much longer till my turn?" I loved that the time is set and reset with the touch of a finger, lowering the possibility that the kids will break it when they set it.

The drawback to the timer is that when the time runs out there is only a very quiet "beep beep" that you almost have to be listening for to hear. You definitely have to be close to it. This means if a kid's turn is up, I have to be in the room to know about it. I prefer loud alarms so that everyone in the house is aware that it is the next kid's turn to work or play. Although, for out-in-public timing, this is actually kind of nice. I imagine that the people sitting next to us in the doctor's office appreciate it, at least!
All in all, we enjoy this little timer and are happy to have it.
To read what other Crew Members think check out the Homeschool Crew blog.

I received this product free of charge for the purpose of this review. My opinions are my own.

TOS Review: Math Mammoth

2011-11-17T12:04:00.001-06:00

I have to admit that I have used Math Mammoth before this review. I have purchased some, won some in freebies in various places, and I have used it to simply and easily supplement for the holes left in other curriculum. And we have all always loved it. So I was delighted to get the chance to try out a full grade level for this review! I chose the Grade 1 Light Blue Series series and tried it out on Abbie.
One of my favorite things about Math Mammoth is that they are all downloadable e-books. That means: instant access; no shelf space taken up; I'm not going to lose it in a box; and I only have to present my child with the actual pages she needs to use. This last one is especially nice because I am using a first grade course with a kindergarten child. I am able to easily pick and choose which lessons to give her when and how much practice she needs. If she needs more work, I can just re-print the sheets.
There are many different options when it comes to this curriculum. You can buy a full curriculum for each grade (1-6), or you can buy worktexts by topic, worksheets by either topic or grade, and some workbooks with problems or activities taken from real life. You can also choose ebooks, CDs or even a printed copy. And they are all very affordable! Even before you consider that it is all (except for the printed copy, I believe) non-consumable.
Previously, we have used the worktexts by topic and I love that this is an option. It is an easy way to fill up any gaps your child may have. I am also liking the full curriculum. In first grade, it starts with a quick kindergarten review, then introduces addition, place value and finally, subtraction. At the end of the ebook are sections on time, shapes, measuring, and money. These sections can be used at any time throughout the program. I love the freedom this gives me!

Abbie says: I like it because I can do it by myself and I don't need help. I don't like that ummm, I don't know.
But the real measure of her attitude toward this curriculum is the following story: I printed off a few pages for her to do and she did them. When I needed more, we were having computer issues and she had to skip math for a day or two. When I finally got more printed and showed her the sheets, she was so delighted that she hugged them and did a little dance! We are now using this for her math curriculum for the rest of the year.
But it wouldn't be an honest review if I didn't give my negatives. I don't think this curriculum is rigorous enough to switch to it completely. As delighted as I am that my kindergartener can successfully and happily use the first grade level, it doesn't give me the confidence that my older kids will be pushed enough. This is why we won't be switching across the board. I want to stress, though, that we will be using the topic worktexts to fill in gaps and I am eagerly waiting for the kids to be ready for the Make It Real Learning workbooks.

To read what other Crew Members have to say, click here.

I was sent a free download of this curriculum for the purpose of this review. All opinions are honest and my own.

Boo at the Zoo

2011-11-10T14:17:00.000-06:00

For a few years now, we have taken the kids to our local zoo for Halloween fun. They love dressing up, in fact, they discuss costumes all year long! They use and re-use those costumes to play dress up all year long as well, so we are more than willing to put in some time and money to fulfill their costume dream each year. Every year, we discuss various themes, but there always winds up being at least one hold-out, so they just do own thing.

This year, we had a cowgirl:

(make that an excited cowgirl)

The Green Lantern (he got to see the movie in a real theater!)

a pirate:

this was a re-do of a former costume (2 years ago?) and the cute vest didn't make the pictures because I forgot that we had used their suit vest turned inside out. He is also wearing boots instead of sandals because it was a bit chilly. He cared far more about comfort than about style. ;)

Here he is at the church party the next night... after I remembered the vest! Doesn't he look fierce? Or is he just too adorable. ;)

and a sheep:

the whole family was quite proud of this costume because we made it ourselves! Sheep are Abbie's favorite animals (she wants a real one for Christmas) so I had the idea that she could be one for Hallowe'en. So I thought up how it would work, hunted down the white sweats, the black gloves, the fiberfill, and the headband. Steve did all the work of gluing. Add dress shoes (so she could clip-clop) and face paint on the nose, and you have the most adorable sheep ever!

At the zoo we had to stand in line for awhile.

a long while

a very long while

but inside there was lots of animals to see:

monkeys

buffalo

bears

an incredibly large bunny

the Sheep got to see sheep

One of the things we like about the zoo is that instead of trying to go "scary" they stick to "scientific". The kids loved getting to see the skulls of real animals. There were turtle skulls, lion skulls, an enormous bison skull, and lots of others. Very cool.

They also got to see wallaby, lions, tigers, (and other big cats) monkeys, a peacock, and, everyone's favorite: the lemur. They collected candy, temporary tattoos and played a carnival game or two. It was lots of fun, despite the crowds.

Speechless

2011-11-08T22:38:00.000-06:00

I was shocked to see a comment from a reader that I was nominated in the Homeschool Blog Awards! I have never been nominated before, and I never really expected to be, either. I was even more surprised, when, after some searching, I discovered the category in which I had been nominated... Best Photos Blog.

See, I love taking pictures, but have never really felt like I was that great at it, and lately have been even more discouraged than usual. It was such an incredible encouragement to think that someone (other than my husband*) likes my pictures of my kids! I have no expectations of winning, and, frankly, don't even care. It was just so cool to be nominated in THIS particular category. So this post is mostly a big THANK YOU to whoever nominated me and partly a go vote for whoever you think is the best in each category.

*and the kids, naturally, but they think it's all about THEM, so they are more than a little biased. ;)

Oh, and if you are here from the awards: Welcome!!! (and I love comments!)

TOS Review: The Person I Marry

2011-11-08T19:00:00.000-06:00

We were asked to review this book, The Person I Marry

It is a beautifully illustrated book, written by Gary Bower and produced by Bower books, that details all the desirable traits of a future spouse. It is written from a child's point of view, and all the illustrations are adorable drawings of children. It explains that riches, hair color and other externals are not what to look for in a desirable spouse, but rather, such traits as faithfulness, kindness, perseverance, generosity, patience, and a sense of humor, just to name to a few...

We were not sent a copy of the book, but a link to view it online, so I gathered the children and the laptop onto the couch and we read it. After the reading, I attempted a few minutes of discussion. The boys were politely interested but disappeared as quickly as they could. The girls were a little more interested, but not really engaged. I only managed to chat for a few minutes before they were off as well.

I liked this book because I know how important it is to choose your marriage partner wisely. I want that concept to be a part of their worldview long before they are ever interested in the opposite gender. And I think this book helps open up that conversation in an easy and painless way. My kids are all young, but I think this book would read well across the ages even into the upper teenage years. Plus, there are all the beautiful drawings to enjoy!

For the experiences and reviews of other Crew members, click here.

We were sent an e-version of this book for free for the purpose of this review. All opinions are our own.

TOS Review: Marshall Publishing

2011-10-30T22:13:00.002-05:00

When we were sent Lots & Lots of Fire Songs & Safety Tips to review, I was excited and I knew the kids would be, too. The boys, especially Daniel, are fascinated by firemen, fire trucks, and anything fire. Kaytie loves safety information, and Abbie loves music. :) It seemed like such a win/win.
We received a DVD and a book, both put out by Marshall Publishing & Promotions Inc. The book, Lots and Lots of Fire Trucks and Firefighters, was cool all by itself. It is a thick book with glossy pages and is filled with engaging photos of firetrucks, firemen and all their equipment. It has facts about fire fighting: the people, the equipment, the history. It has poems, recipes, songs, website links, and lots and lots of tips on fire safety. Even my not-quite readers pored over this book!
The DVD is divided into two parts: a 12 minute "classroom section" to teach a quick lesson in fire safety; and a 30 minute segment of "learning fun", which means songs and safety tips and a lot of video of real firemen and real firetrucks fighting real fires. The video was definitely for the younger set. My seven year old boy did heave some dramatic sighs and make some smart-alecky comments. However, he did not leave the room. ;) Honestly, they all seemed to enjoy it. Even our Basset Hound climbed up on the couch and watched it with us! We have been over fire safety before, so I don't think they learned anything new. This video did reinforce the information, though, as well as stirring up some questions that we discussed. For young children, I believe this would be a great way to introduce fire safety in a fun and totally non-frightening way.

Kaytie's opinion of the video was: "I liked it because I have been hearing lots of fire tips and it helped me remember them. I liked the songs.
Nate's opinion of the video was: It was way too childish. I did like it a little bit though because I liked the opening theme song and the 911 song. I especially liked when they built a fire truck.
Daniel's opinion of the video was: I liked the music and the songs and the firetrucks! My favorite part was when the firetrucks put out the fires. I liked when they built the fire truck! Now I know how to make a fire truck.
Abbie's opinion of the video was: I loved it so much! My favorite part was the firemen climbing up the ladders and they rescued the children. I liked the singing.

For my homeschooling readers, Marshall Publishing has offered a huge discount. If you use the code TOSC1 at checkout, you can purchase this book/DVD combo for $19.95 instead of $49.90!

We were also sent a complimentary copy of a DVD about George Washington Carver. This is a 30 minute biography of his life and his work, a very informative and enjoyable video! Entering the code TOSC1 at checkout will get you a %15 discount when you purchase this DVD.

To read what other reviews had to say, check out the TOS blog.

We were given this product for free for the purpose of this review. All opinions are our own.

TOS Review: Say Anything Family

2011-10-27T21:28:00.001-05:00

A few days ago, I shared with you about a fun game sent to us from Northstar Games. They also sent us a game called Say Anything Family. I think this game was even more fun than than the other one!

In Say Anything, everyone gets a dry erase board, marker, and two tokens that color-coordinate with their boards. Each player takes a turn being the "judge". The judge reads aloud a question (for example: what is the best breakfast cereal? Or what is the best thing about living in the country?). Everyone writes an answer to the question. Then the judge uses the "selectomatic 6000" (a spinner with each color of board on it) to secretly choose her favorite answer. This choice is hidden from the other players because they must guess what it is. They guess by placing their tokens on the boards. After all the tokens are placed, the judge reveals their choice and scoring begins. The first player to 15 points wins.

This is a quick and easy game. The box says "for ages 8 and up", but really anyone who can write can play. My kids are between the ages of 4 and 8 and they all have a great time playing this game.We did alter it somewhat, in that, instead of letting the judge choose their favorite, every one voted for their favorite then the judge spun the "selectomatic 6000" leaving the answer to be chosen by chance. My kids have a difficult time not being biased sometimes and I just felt better taking the temptation out of their hands altogether.

I like that this game stimulates creative thinking, encourages writing in a low pressure situation and provides an opportunity to just sit around with the kids and have fun. Some of their answers were hilarious. As in "the hardest thing about being a kid is... parents"; "what am I most likely to be doing in 20 years... taking out the trash."; "what technology don't we have that I wish we did... a private helicopter". I was highly entertained, they were puzzled by my laughter, and a good time was had by all.

And as usual, I asked the kids to share their opinions.

Kaytie: I really like it because it is a fun game. I liked that we had our own tokens and could vote for what we thought was best. I mostly voted for myself and not the other persons.

Nate: I thought it was really cool because of all the things you could think about. I liked the questions, they were funny.

Daniel: I like it very well. I like playing it.I thought the questions were kinda awkward (Mom wanted a definition of awkward, so he explained) because it was hard to think of answers.

Abbie: Yes, I liked it. I liked spinning the spinner. And I liked getting points. I had fun writing the answers.

You can also read other reviews at the TOS Crew blog.

This game was sent to us for free for the purpose of this review. Our opinions are honestly our own.

School Update

2011-10-26T14:25:00.000-05:00

It appears as though my blog has become a review blog, and I hate that. I have tons of ideas for things to write about, but they never seem to get past the idea stage. So I'm just going to take a minute and give a quick report on how school is going for us. Nothing polished or thought out, (I'm not even going to link anything!) just a fast post to say, "Hey, there is more to our lives than reviews!"
We are "officially" in our ninth week of school for this term. And the good news is that we are just about caught up in every subject but Geography. We are two weeks behind in that. At the end of the term, I will make the decision to either catch it up during vacation or just not do those two countries.
Kaytie and Nate have started multi-digit multiplication and I am wondering if it is going to be the death of us. Nate loves it and makes up his own problems to solve in his spare time, but he is not terribly good at remembering the steps. Kaytie is somewhat good at it, but she hates it. The irony of life, no?
Daniel and Abbie are doing awesome at their reading. Daniel is charging through blends and reading whole sentences without sounding out any words. Abbie has stopped sighing over books and will often sound out in her head and then say the whole word. We are still using I See Sam books, but I wish I could find something similar that moved Daniel through phonics a little more quickly. I recently discovered that they both think I See Sam books are not the same as "real" books and neither believe they can read a "real" book, so I have checked out easy readers from the library and have been making them read them to me.
I've started Daniel in All About Spelling. He is pleasantly surprised that is is simple, easy, and almost fun. I think Abbie could handle it, as well, but I'm not going to have her do it because of the time factor. They both already spend more time "doing school" than Kaytie and Nate did at their ages and I think there is plenty of time to learn to spell. I see no need to impose such work on my not-quite-five year old. I only started Daniel because he is into "creative writing" on his own, and I don't want him developing bad spelling habits.
Everyone is loving science (Apologia's Human Anatomy) and learning so much about their bodies! I'm glad we skipped Zoology and Botany to do Anatomy this year. :)
Kaytie and Nate finished up their Rod and Staff Grammar (level 3) and rather than jumping straight into level 4, we are reading and working our way through Grammarland. They are having a blast. They were a little annoyed that I only read one chapter at a time and won't read the whole book in one sitting.
I am so very pleased with Handwriting Without Tears' Cursive curriculum! Kaytie is working her way through it, her handwriting is good, and she is doing it 99% on her own. Awesome! Actually, buying a handwriting curriculum for everyone was just a good decision. Everyone is benefiting and I don't have to do any work but correcting mistakes. That is worth the money spent!
Everyone's favorite subject this year is Geography. We are traveling around the world: reading, mapping, discussing culture, and, above all, cooking. They love cooking.
My favorite this year is Latin. Visual Latin was the perfect next step for us and I'm so happy to have found it!
I had Kaytie and Nate doing Dance Mat Typing and they both learned a lot, but now they are done and I don't know what to do next... maybe some "typing copywork"?
Daniel is amazing me with his mad math skills and his love for numbers. I wish I had used Math U See for Kaytie and Nate at this age and managed not to kill their love for math. Neither of them are bad at it, they just have never completely gotten over that year and half of Horizons. Daniel, on the other hand, is effortlessly memorizing addition facts and enjoying every minute!
Kevin is doing a good job learning to write his name. He is enjoying coloring and puzzles and gluing. He and Gracie and Daniel and Abbie are all thoroughly enjoying the Before Five in a Row books! So far, Caps for Sale has been their favorite. They rolled on the floor laughing every reading.
So, I think that is everything, and if not, it is good enough for now. We have four more weeks before we get a nice long vacation. Maybe I'll get a chance to blog a lot more then!

TOS Review: Wits and Wagers Family

2011-10-25T21:59:00.000-05:00

My kids love to play games, especially when they require a grown-up. So they were quite excited when I pulled out Wits and Wagers Family which Northstar Games sent us to review for the TOS Crew.

This is an easy game to play... one player reads a question (How many colors of Fruit Loops are there? How tall, in feet, is the tallest Pyramid?) and everyone writes the answer down on their color-coded dry erase board. Then, using cute little color-coded Meeples, everyone votes for which answer they think is most likely to win. The winning answer is the one closest to the correct answer without going over. Extra points are given for voting for the correct answer. The first player to 15 points wins.

This is a fun game to play. Since it requires no real skill or knowledge, even the youngest players can feel a part. The game is for "3 or more players, ages 8 and up", but my four and five year olds easily grasped the idea and gleefully wrote down wild, exotic answers that sometimes even won! The challenge was to keep the seven and eight year olds from over-thinking and agonizing over their answers, trying to get the "right" one.
Nate wanted to know how this was an "educational" game. He assumed it should be, since this was a TOS review, but felt he was having too much fun to be learning anything! Strictly speaking, it is not "educational" so I refrained from pointing out to him that they were exercising their reasoning skills, working on their number writing, practicing co-operation, and strengthening their ability to follow directions.

There was lots of giggling and happy faces as we played Wits and Wagers Family, so I believe this game is a hit in our house. But I asked their opinions anyway.

Kaytie said: It was really fun and I had fun playing it. It was a little hard because you have to write numbers instead of just words. My favorite part about this game was the Meeples.

Nate said: It was very interesting because some of the questions we knew and some of the questions we didn't. I liked it. My favorite part was the question about the color of Fruit Loops.

Daniel said: I liked the game. I liked beating Kaytie. My favorite part was when I beat Kaytie.

Abbie said: It was fun. My favorite part was drawing the numbers. I liked the Meeples, especially the pink ones. I liked it when I got an answer right!

To read what other TOS families thoughts and experiences were, check out the TOS blog.

This game was sent to us free for the purposes of this review. All opinions are our own!

TOS Review: Educating the WholeHearted Child

2011-10-23T21:41:00.000-05:00

One of the hardest jobs I have ever had is being a mom. The only job that is harder is being a homeschool teacher. Don't get me wrong, I love what I do, and it is very rewarding, but sometimes, no, most times it is so hard to know how to be a good parent... there are so many decisions, so many questions of how do I handle this behavior? How do we train, disciple, encourage? How do we raise loving, Godly, grace-filled men and women who are willing to follow where ever He leads?

So it was such a blessing to receive a copy of Educating the WholeHearted Child by Clay and Sally Clarkson from Apologia to review for the TOS Crew. I didn't know much about the Clarksons before receiving this book. I had heard them speak once, but that was about it. I can tell you now, though, that their heart is for homeschooling families. Their love for God and their commitment to strong families are very evident throughout this book.

Educating the WholeHearted Child is an enormous book, and I have to admit that I have not read all the way through it. It isn't an "easy read". It is more along the lines of a book that you read slowly, mulling over the information, highlighting as you go. Then you re-read it. It is full, full, full of a wealth of encouragement, inspiration, instruction, and just practical ideas taken straight from Scripture on how to disciple your children for the Lord.

I'm not good at book reviews. I am not the type to share with you an overview, hitting all the highlights and main topics in a book. I can only tell you that this book has the stated goal of "writing about homeschooling by the Book and the challenge to live by faith by the biblical design, principles, and vision of a wholehearted Christian home." and that going by what I have read, it does just that. It has given me practical, Biblical tools to use to not just be a "good mom", not just to raise and educate successful kids, but to disciple my kids into a true relationship with their Father. I can only tell you that I am thoroughly enjoying this book. That I would strongly recommend it not only to new homeschooling parents, but also to "middle-aged" parents like me, and "old" experienced parents as well! :)

Fortunately, you don't just have to take my word for it, you can read the table of contents, a sample chapter and other TOS reviews.

A copy of this product was sent to me free for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own. I am not obligated to give a positive review, just an honest one.

TOS Review: Always Ice Cream

2011-10-18T22:35:00.000-05:00

The thing about getting to be a part of the TOS crew is that we don't just get curriculum to educate us, sometimes we get curriculum/ educational items that make us salivate in anticipation and dance with glee when we finally get our sticky little fingers on them. These exciting items are not necessarily the same for each member of the family, but we have all gotten some. For Kaytie, this eagerly awaited, delightfully loved, thoroughly enjoyed product was Always Ice Cream.

This is a website for girls ages 7 to 12. Built by homeschooling families, it is educational, but fun. The games include geography, typing, science, language arts, math, music, and Bible quizzes... just to name a few. The "currency" on Always Ice Cream is, naturally, scoops. :) Kaytie earns scoops for certain games and then can spend those scoops on other games, or on decorating her "house" and buying eggs. The eggs hatch into animals for her to keep as pets. She takes care of them by buying food or toys which also costs scoops (this has the added benefit of teaching her to budget her "money") or by cuddling with them, giving them a bath, playing with them, taking them for a walk, or even hiring a friend to babysit. She can make or buy (with scoops) virtual items that she can then resell in her "store" for scoops. Winning the games also earns her "awards" which display on her profile for all her friends to see.

Always Ice Cream is a very carefully moderated online community. The girls can be friends with other members of the site, "visit" their "houses", and buy things (with scoops) from their stores, but, unless they are friends in real life, all of their communication is monitored. Reports are sent regularly to the parent by email. You can read all about their safety features here.
Kaytie loves playing the games, decorating her house, watching videos on how to make cupcakes, and taking quizzes. I love that she is learning while she plays, that I can monitor her both through the emails and by logging in on my parent account, and that I have control over her account. I can choose to turn off the community feature. I can choose the categories of games that she plays, see her public profile, and even gift her scoops for whatever I please!

Although Always Ice Cream is for girls, my other three kids, ~~including,~~ especially, the boys, are always hanging at her elbows whenever she plays there. In other words, it is an educational website that has been a HUGE hit in my house. Kaytie has even tried to convince friends and relatives (of all ages) that they need to be on Always Ice Cream themselves!

In her own words, Kaytie says: I like this game because it teaches me a lot of things while I am having fun, too. It can help me memorize some of my math facts and it will tell me if my answer is wrong and will make me start back over on the level. It will show me the correct answer so that I can learn it. It will also give me the question again so that I can learn from my mistakes. And sometimes it will scramble the answers so that it helps me exercise my brain.
I like it because I am a very artistic person and it has a place where I can buy things and color them. I LIKE that part!

Kaytie loves Always Ice Cream, but if you are still not convinced, you can read more reviews on the TOS Crew Blog.

We were given a free lifetime subscription to Always Ice Cream for the purposes of this review. We were not compensated in any other way. Kaytie's opinion is solely her own, as is mine.

TOS Review: Visual Latin

2011-10-14T20:00:00.000-05:00

We love learning Latin around here, so when we were asked to review Visual Latin, we were interested and excited. We have attempted and given up on several programs, so we consider ourselves a little bit of experts on what we like and don't like about Latin curriculum.
Visual Latin was created by a couple of homeschooling dads who think everyone should be able to read Latin, and that it should be fun to learn and not a chore. It is a video curriculum, so the parent does none of the teaching. It comes with worksheets that you print so it is reusable for however many kids you have. Their website tells you how it works and, really, everything you need to know about it, including sample lessons, so I'll just tell you about our experience with it.

You can buy DVDs, or go the cheaper option and buy the download. For the purposes of this review, I was given the download option. The downloading was lengthy and awkward, but I honestly believe that was because my Internet has gotten incredibly lazy lately. In the end, it wasn't too bad, it took a couple of hours. We were sent 10 lessons, covering topics such as: being verbs; predicate nominative and adjective; gender; declensions; numbers; accusative; and so forth. I know that sounds scary, but remember, you don't do ANY of the teaching! The two kids I had use this curriculum have had basic grammar (they know what nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are) and neither had any trouble understanding what he was saying or where he was going. Each lesson includes the video, and PDFs for worksheets, and answers to the worksheets. I really liked that the lessons were divided into three parts: A, B and C. This made it easy for me to do a lesson a week, and only do a little bit each day. It also made each day's work shorter and easier for the kids. Not to mention that they retained the information better! There is a worksheet for each section so the kids get hands-on practice for what they just learned, which just so happens to be perfect for the way my kids learn.
Now, one thing I have to mention is that everyone talks about how funny the teacher is. My kids have weird senses of humor, so they were not amused by his jokes. They really didn't get them. And honestly, they only knew he was joking whenever I laughed. But that is really more about their unique personality and less about how entertaining the guy actually was. Because he did hold their interest and keep them engaged the entire lesson. I really liked that he talked directly to them. It blew their minds a couple of times when he asked a question, they answered, and he told them they were right. They were not quite sure if he could hear them or not!

So, to sum up. I liked this curriculum a LOT. I am so happy we got the chance to review it and I will be buying the next ten lessons when we are finished with these ten.
I asked the kids to give you their opinions, and they said,

Kaytie: I like it because it is easy to understand what he is talking about. If it is like a name or something that we haven't studied, he will say the real word so that we don't have to learn it before we can do the worksheet. And we have translation boxes. (Translation: she understood him; he didn't expect them to know vocabulary they hadn't been taught; and there were vocabulary boxes on the worksheets so they could focus on the grammar without getting hung up on translation.)
Nate: I don't like it, there is too much writing. But I like watching the videos, he is funny. I would only recommend this to moms whose kids like to write. (The writing bit was my fault. It would be easy to do the worksheets orally, if your kid, like mine, hates to write. Doing it orally would also save on printing costs...)

For other TOS Crew members' opinions, click here.

I was given this download free for the purpose of this review. I received no other compensation and the opinions given are honestly and totally our own.

TOS Review: Before Five in a Row

2011-09-16T17:53:00.000-05:00

After having taught four kids preschool at home, I was facing a new situation: homeschooling a preschool child who is not with me 24 hours a day and who will be going to public school for kindergarten. I felt the need to have a little more structure to his schooling, and yet, I also have four other kids to teach. When I taught the older kids, I put a lot of work into themes: fun, creative ideas with a mix of skills and topics of discussion. I had to pull from a lot of different places to get such a curriculum, and that took up a lot of planning time. I enjoy planning, but with five kids (plus a toddler) and four different classes, time is at a premium this year!
So I was thrilled to find out that I was on the list to receive Before Five in a Row to review for the TOS Crew! Although I had heard a lot about this curriculum, I had never actually looked at it. It consists of a Teacher's Guide: a slim, blue, paperback book, with the list of 24 story books and ideas to explore them with your child.

Before Five in a Row is aimed at children ages 2 to 4 years old. Therefore, it is not a strict, rigid, formulaic curriculum. There are no hard and fast rules of what to do when. It is a gentle curriculum, full of ideas for fun crafts, simple projects, and, mostly, topics to discuss with your child that flow directly out of the book that you read. The premise is simple: choose a book from the list, read it every day five days in a row (hence, the name of the curriculum) and then each day do whatever activities/ discuss whatever topics are given in the Teacher's Guide. You can do as much or as little as you and your child desire.
This is how it worked for us:
I used BFIAR with four kids: a 2 year old, two 4 year olds (one fairly new and one nearly five), and a 5 year old.
I knew at once that we would be using this all year long, so I choose books in a particular order for reasons of my own. The first step was to see which books I already owned (a couple) or could get for free from the library. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the library could get me almost all of the books on the list! I then looked online for extras, again, for reasons of my own. BFIAR is totally and completely self contained, and there is no need for anything extra. I happened to want extra, and found a lot of ideas.
We started with Angus Lost and read it every morning. I only have the younger kids four days a week, so we tweeked this into a four day thing. (Good thing four and five both start with "f", huh? lol) I was quite surprised and pleased at how much they liked reading the same book over and over. By the end of the week, they loved Angus and were cheering for him and sympathizing him as they eagerly helped me read the book. It was fun. :)
Each day, I chose an idea from the Teacher's Guide to do. Angus ideas were mostly topics of discussion: for example, their favorite was when we talked about how Angus follows the milk man. We talked about where milk comes from (not just cows, but goats as well) and how these days, we buy it from the store instead of having it delivered.
Another day, we talked about what to do if they ever get lost... practical ideas of finding a safe adult to tell (don't just blurt out to perfect strangers that you are lost!) as well as a reminder that God is always with us and our first step should be a prayer to calm ourselves down and help us to think clearly.
We also talked about day and night: the differences; how they could tell which was which in the pictures; what made day and night, and so forth.
The topics are labeled: science, language arts, literature, art, emotions, music, etc. and vary depending on the topics that flow naturally from each book. However, each book has a short summary (providing a quick idea of what the book is about if you don't yet have the book! This helped me choose which books to do first.) a Bible section, and at least five other ideas so you can do something new every day. Most of the ideas are simple and easy enough that you could do more than one (IF you want to do them all) without overwhelming you or your child. A lot of them are topics that you can later point out as you go through the day.

"Remember when we talked about silhouettes? See your shadow on the wall? Does your shadow look like Angus' shadow? How is it different?"
"Here is your glass of milk. Do you remember where milk comes from?"

Before Five in a Row is an awesome curriculum for a young child because it is really just about gently, easily, training them in habits of attention and love of learning.
In addition to the book guides, there is a second section of the book called Parent's Treasure of Creative Ideas for Learning Readiness. This is a cool resource of ideas of fun things to do with your small child to develop large motor skills, small motor skills, reading readiness, and art.
After using BFIAR for a few weeks, I can confidently say that we love this curriculum and only wish I had "found" it sooner! If that is not enough for you, you can read other TOS Crew Member Reviews here.

I received this product free of charge in exchange for this review. All opinions are honest and are my own.

Our Curriculum Series: Math

2011-09-10T12:30:00.000-05:00

Something that I never get tired of talking about or hearing about is curriculum. I love to hear what other families use and how they make it work for them. So I thought I would do a series of posts about the curriculum that we use and how we tweak it. Because tweaking is our favorite thing!
So, to start with math:
We use Math U See. Kaytie and Nate work at the same level in math, which sometimes makes it easier for me, and sometimes harder. Currently, they are half way through Gamma. Math U See is a DVD/ Manipulative/ Worksheet curriculum that pushes concepts first, then memorization of facts. Neither of my kids like math, but they both pick Math U See hands down over any other math we have done. The idea is that Steve Demme, the creator of Math U See, teaches the concept on the DVD. The teacher is supposed to watch it, then teach the concept to the kids, using the manipulatives. Each lesson has six worksheets that go with it. Three focus on the new concept and three mix review in with the new concept. You are not expected to have the child do all six sheets. The first three are only to make sure the concept is understood. Once you know the child is at that point, move on to the review sheets. If the child is NOT getting the concept, repeat the material in different ways until it is understood, and then move on. The child is free to use the manipulatives until they feel comfortable without them.

The manipulatives are blocks (like Cuisinare Rods) that fit together (like Lego) and illustrate how numbers work together. There are blocks for every number (the two is twice as long as the one; the three is three times as long) from one to ten. Then there are 100 blocks (100 times as large as a one). My kids love the blocks and use them for free play as well as for math.

We do it a little bit differently. The kids watch the video themselves. They prefer it that way because they think Mr. Demme is funny. They also like to answer the questions before the kids on the video can. And they watch for "patterns" and tips and tricks. In addition, it helps with difficult concepts because they have his method of explaining it, and if they don't understand that, then I can try another way.
The workbooks are bulky, difficult, and expensive, so I hand write the problems into spiral notebooks for the kids and they work in the spirals. This is helpful when they need a problem broken down a little more. Also, since we only "do math" four days a week, I can switch some problems around to get in more review when they catch onto the concept quickly. I can also add in extra review for the concepts that were a little more difficult and that they need to go over more often than it comes up in the book. It does take up some time, but I do it once a week and it really isn't that big of a deal.

Daniel is also doing Math U See. He is doing Alpha. I won't bore you with the whole long story, but somehow I don't have a DVD for Alpha. Since it is basic addition, we are trying to wing it without it. So I just go over the lesson with him and then he works in his spiral, using the blocks as desired. So far, he is finding it boring, but he is my math fanatic, so I am picking up the pace a little in order to make it more challenging for him.
Abbie's math is Shiller. She is working through the ages 4-5 book. This book was given to us, just the book. So I have no idea how the program is supposed to work, or how many bits and pieces we are missing. Therefor, you can take it for granted that we do our own thing with this curriculum. The manipulatives that are called for in the lessons are easily substituted with one of the hordes of different manipulatives we already owned. Abbie does a lesson a day and it takes us about five minutes. She loves it and Daniel misses it. Sometimes we come across a lesson that tackles a subject that I know she isn't ready for, or one that she already knows, so we just skip it.
Kevin's math is all made up from ideas I find on the internet or games I used with my four kids. Right now he is learning the basics: shapes, colors, patterns, numbers, counting, etc. So he does the Montessori method "Penguin-Style" and has a lot of fun.

So that's our math! Next up: Grammar

Week One Term One Year 2011

2011-09-08T16:01:00.000-05:00

Our first week back at school was awesome. The kids had a blast and learned a lot. I am exhausted. Which is why this post is so incredibly late. I have so many things to do that I feel like I am getting nothing done!
The younger crowd, Daniel, Abbie, Kevin, and Gracie are doing Before Five in a Row this year. I will be posting a review of this soon... This week, we "rowed" Angus Lost. I think my BFIAR lessons deserve a post of their own, but really quickly, the highlights: Kevin loves dogs, so he enjoyed this "week of the dog". He worked on positional words, counting, 1 to 1 correspondence, the letter "L", colors and sizes. He got to color, use bingo markers, do puzzles, play games, and use scissors. They made dog headbands, and I fed them a special snack of "dog food" (coco puff cereal) and "chew bones" (fruit roll ups).

Daniel and Abbie worked with pattern blocks, puzzles, and graphs, and cutting out squares, circles, rectangles and triangles.
Abbie is doing Shiller math, and she worked on directions, opposites, and the values of pennies, dimes, and nickels. She knows the names of these coins and can ID them quite well. She is also pretty good at remembering how much they are worth. This is the fun part of having several kids. I remember how agonizing it was to teach Kaytie and Nate about money and how they actually still struggle a bit. I used to think it was my fault, but since Daniel and Abbie seemingly picked it up through osmosis (they didn't learn from Kaytie and Nate because THEY still don't "get" it!) I am beginning to see that it is just one of those things that are easier for some people than for others.
Daniel started Math U See Alpha and he is less than impressed. He wants to go back to doing "real", "fun" math aka: Shiller. I'm hoping he will be more interested as the lessons get a little bit harder for him.
They also started grammar using First Language Lessons. I find myself being just as annoyed and the kids being just as bored as when I did this with Kaytie and Nate. By the third day I was already forcing myself to pick up the book. I don't know how long it will last...
Kaytie and Nate are learning how to multiply two and three digit numbers. They did a little review in perimeter and area. They learned about all sorts of different adjectives, reviewed some spelling words, discussed homophones, synonyms and antonyms, added to their Latin vocabulary, and started memorizing Psalm One.
But the fun that we had was in Science, History, and Geography.
In Science, we started our study of Human Anatomy by a quick review of the history of science. We laughed, we gave narrations, and we tried to change hard to pronounce names... it was great! We also mummified an apple.

In History, we started the Middle Ages off with the Celts and the Fall of the Roman Empire. This necessitated a brief transformation into Celtic Warriors.

We made our own battle axes, then were ready to fight.

In Geography, we "traveled" to Egypt, and had a BLAST. The highlight of the "trip", of course, was cooking an Egyptian meal on Friday night. We had shish kabobs and biram ruz. Everybody liked it, even the pickiest eater in the house said it would be a good thing to have again sometime. :)
For extra-curricular activities, the girls started Keepers of the Faith, and the boys joined a Lego Club. Great big plus for Mom is that both groups are at the same time in the same place!

TOS Review: Flea Circus

2011-09-06T22:27:00.000-05:00

My kids LOVE playing games. So when we found out that we would be reviewing Reiner Knizia's Amazing FLEA CIRCUS game for the TOS Review Crew, they were excited.
Put out by R&R Games, this is a fun game involving cards and tiny rubber animals (blue dogs and white cats). The instructions say it is for 2 to 6 players aged 6 and up. The goal of the game to to collect the most "spectators" (the dogs and cats) To do this, the players take turns playing cards that earn various numbers of animals that they receive either from another player or from the pile in the middle.

What we thought:
The game played fast. Initially, the rules for the different cards seemed complicated and we kept the instructions handy. However, it only took us a game and a half to get the hang of it and honestly, even the learning curve was fun. We played with five players with the age range of 4 and up. The four and five year olds were able to play and enjoy themselves with only a teensy bit of strategy help from Mom. Everyone enjoyed the game. There were many pleas to play again and again.
Not only was it fun, this homeschool mama discovered educational value as well: the dogs are worth 2 points and the cats are worth 1. So when a player earns 4 points (for example) for a play, I would have them choose which they wanted, dogs or cats or both, so they had to do math to see which they could get and how many! I would even let them "make change" with the animals so that they were doing subtraction as well as addition. Also, at the end, when counting up points, we skip counted by twos when we counted the dogs.
After I was played out, the kids also had fun just playing with the animals, because they are stackable and made great towers! So they could work on those fine motor skills and hand/eye co-ordination!

Kaytie's opinion: I like it because it is a very fun game. It is easy and all four of us can play! Sometimes Mom lets us play around and I can make good things out of the dogs and cats, like pictures of fireworks, really good towers. It's a funny game because I like to see the pictures on the cards, like the one in the cannon and the one who eats a lot!
Nate's opinion: I like it very very very much! I like to figure out how to win. It is hard, but I love it because it is a challenge.
Daniel's opinion: It was fun. I liked the pictures on the cards. I really really liked the dogs. Yeah, the dogs.
Abbie's opinion: I like it. I built towers. The game was hard, but I liked it.

This game costs $15.95, but you awesome people who are reading this review can use the coupon code CREW20 and get 20% until the end of the year.

Read other Crew Member's opinions of this game here.

This game was sent to me free of charge for the purpose of this review. All opinions expressed are my own and my kids'.

TOS Review: How to Have a HEART for Your Kids

2011-08-29T12:00:00.000-05:00

Usually, when I write a review for the TOS Review Crew, the more I like the product the easier it is to write the review. However, writing this review for the book How to Have a HEART for Your Kids is going to be hard even though I LOVED it!. When I received this book a few weeks ago, it was exactly what I needed to read. I devoured it in a couple of days and the words were just what I needed to hear. It was so totally a God -thing that it will be hard for me to explain why I think this book is a must-read for everyone at any time and not just for me at that time. This is a book written to homeschooling moms, but it touched on so many more aspects of my life than just homeschooling and being a mom. It was a book that spoke to my worldview: my view of God, myself, my family, and my community.

How to Have a HEART for Your Kids was written by Rachel Carmen from a presentation she gave at a homeschool conference. It is based on the acronym HEART, which stands for

Have a heart for the things of God

Enrich your marriage

Accept your kids

Release them to God

Teach them the truth

and which also just happen to be the chapter titles of the book, with an introduction and an epilogue.
I don't know how to describe this book, except to say that it is her story... her heart, written directly to the hearts of her readers. She has an easy, conversational style, but the content is rich with inspiration to draw closer to the heart of God, and, by doing so, draw your kids closer to Him, as well.
It is hard for me to do an objective review, because, as I read it, I felt that she was talking directly to me. Mom to Mom. Basically, she tells the story of how she and her husband came to homeschooling... how God led them every step of the way, and how He continues to lead them. She also urges, inspires, and gives practical ideas for the reader to allow God to lead in your homeschool, your kids, and your daily life.
Is it enough for me to say that I loved this book? That I needed this book? That I think you will too?
You don't have to take my word for it, though, you can read what other Crew members had to say by clicking here. Even better, you can read a sample chapter here.
You can purchase a beautiful, hardback copy of How to Have a HEART for Your Kids at Apologia for $13.

This book was sent to me free for the purposes of this review. My opinions are honest and totally my own.

Next Year's Hopes and Plans

2011-08-01T10:14:00.000-05:00

We are getting close to wrapping up our school year. We have either finished or have come to a good stopping place for everything except geography. Kaytie and Nate still have a handful of states to finish up. But I love to look ahead and know what I want to do well in advance, so I already have our next year all planned out, purchased, and almost ready to go.

We will start the last Monday in August, and will be working in the following grades: Kaytie will be in 4th, Nate in 3rd, Daniel in 1st, Abbie in Kindergarten, and Kevin in Preschool. Kaytie and Nate, as always, will be doing the same "stuff" with few exceptions and slightly different expectations.
Kaytie and Nate will be finishing up Math U See Gamma and starting Delta. I just can't say enough good about Math U See. It just works for us. Although I do admit to tweaking it a bit for our personal style.
For Grammar, they will stay with Rod and Staff, finishing up Grade Three and moving into Grade Four. We have a love/hate relationship with Rod and Staff, but the kids are learning and I guess that's really all that matters. When it comes down to it, I can't really imagine Grammar ever being "fun", but it is something that needs learning. We can be "tough" for the approximately ten minutes a day that it takes us! All the writing they have to do has had the side effect of strengthening their handwriting. Which most definitely needed strengthening.

They will also be staying with All About Spelling. We really struggled with spelling this year until I finally figured out how to make the lessons work for us. In Level One, we just did a lesson in a sitting and flew through the lessons because it was all basically just review for them. In Level Two, they were actually learning some new rules/concepts, so I had to figure out that we could break up the lessons and make one last a week. I think I have finally found a schedule that will work for us. Kaytie is turning into a really strong speller and, while Nate isn't horrible, he is falling behind her. At least in interest level. Oh, and for fun and supplementary purposes, they will "play" at SpellingCity on Fridays. I have a free account there, and just input the words from the current lesson for them to use.

We will be continuing our way through Apologia's Who Is God? and I have Who Am I? already purchased and waiting for when we are done with the first book. We have loved this book. It explains difficult concepts to the kids in an easy to understand way. It's not shaping their world view so much as explaining it to them. I keep our notebooking very simple... basically I hand them a sheet of paper and say, "Draw a picture". This lets Kaytie be as expressive as she wants to be, lets Nate be as laconic as he likes, and doesn't expect a lot of handwriting out of either of them.

They will finish up Song School Latin... but I have no definite plans on what to do next. I have a couple of other programs... maybe we will do one of them? Maybe we will just keep working on vocabulary for another year...

And, of course, they will continue their blissful way through Bible Study Guide for All Ages.

Both will still read aloud to me, daily. Kaytie just needs stamina, (she wants to work on expression as well) and Nate needs the discipline of pronouncing words correctly. He still has the very interesting habit of re-arranging word order without losing any of the sense, and I keep stopping him and making him read it correctly. Kaytie is reading the Little House series and Nate is working his way through Christian Liberty Nature Reader 1, which was loaned to us. I am considering buying 2 when he is finished because he loves these so much more than the fiction I was having him read before.

We will be doing some new stuff this year...
I ordered Artistic Pursuits. This is going to be for everybody. I like to keep Fridays light and easy. Partly because it is Friday, and partly because we have piano lessons on Friday which requires going out of the house with four kids. So Art will be scheduled for Fridays because it is fun. And, if I decide to take them somewhere to do Art, we are already going to be leaving the house and I don't have to try to go somewhere on another day as well. I have heard a lot of raving about Artistic Pursuits, and, although I am dubious about anything that requires me to teach art, I'm hoping this program will be different from all the others I have tried.

After a lot of internal debate and discussion with both Kaytie and her daddy, I bought WriteShop Primary, level B for Kaytie. She loves to write and this looked like it would be a ton of fun for her while teaching her how to do it properly. Nate is not into writing. Creativity is not his thing. But the more I looked at this program, the more I felt it would be a good thing for him to join in. (When I told him this, his response was, "Please stop looking at it.")

Another new thing this year is handwriting books. Up till now, we have done a very relaxed method of handwriting with the result that Nate's writing is horrible. So I gave in and bought everybody a book. Kaytie wants to learn cursive so badly that she started writing in her own version of cursive. Her printing is not that bad, so I agreed to teach her cursive. I bought her the Handwriting Without Tears cursive book. Nate will be doing A Reason for Handwriting B.
For music, they are both taking piano lessons. And will be hanging out at Dance Mat Typing.

Everybody will learn history, science and geography together.
For history, I was going to smash, tweak, or entertwine Story Of The World Vol 2 and Mystery Of History Vol 2 together, but I finally had to admit that that wasn't going to work out. It was just too much. So we are sticking with SOTW for now. We are pleased to be out of Ancients and into the Middle Ages though.

Science will be Apologia's Human Anatomy. They have been wanting to study anatomy for months now, and they are excited to actually begin. Of course, when it comes to science, they are easily excited. I bought the notebook that goes along with it for Kaytie and Nate to do together. I have "clearance" from the "principal" to buy the jr notebook for Daniel and Abbie. And I have tons of printables, games, experiments, books, and "stuff" collected for hands on fun for everyone to do.

For geography... oh my, geography almost needs its own post. We are going around the world again, this time with everybody. Games, puzzles, paper dolls, flags, recipes, songs. I have tons of stuff collected. I haven't started planning this yet, so I will talk more about it when I have it all pulled together.
Oh, and everybody will be learning ASL and Spanish vocabulary words, as well as Bible verses.

Daniel, in first grade, will be starting MUS Alpha. I really think he is going to love this. He is great at math, and he enjoys it. As disconcerting as it may be for a math-phobic mommy, he frequently chortles gleefully over a paper full of math problems.
For reading, he will have lessons from Ordinary Parents' Guide each morning and will read aloud I See Sam and various library books each afternoon. He has A Reason for Handwriting K, and I'm thinking about All About Spelling Level One. He will be taking piano lessons for the very first time.

Abbie, kindergarten, will still be working through Shiller. I am still "practicing" reading with her while working our way slowly through Ordinary Parents' Guide. Her handwriting will be a combination of Get Ready for the Code and a cute little Pooh workbook I found at Dollar Tree (the Letters of the Alphabet).

Daniel and Abbie will join together for Bible Guide for All Ages and a very gentle journey through First Language Lessons. (I don't love FLL, but I have it already and it doesn't require writing. I think it will be an ok introduction to grammar for them and then we will plunge into Rod and Staff later on. We are, however, picking our own poems to learn. Also, we have the "old" edition.) I'm considering Song School Latin for them, also, but am meeting resistance because Daniel isn't interested and Abbie thinks she knows it all already.

For preschool, I have a list of goals for Kevin and we will meet those goals (hopefully) through a variety of hands on manipulatives, games, books, messy art, and so forth. Preschool is a very relaxed thing around here. Also, I just found out we will be getting Before Five in a Row to review, so all four of the youngest ones (Daniel, Abbie, Kevin, and Gracie) will be included in that fun.

Also, everyone will be working on various review items all year since we were chosen to be on the TOS Review Crew again.
So, that's our plan! Next, I will post about our schedule and our geography plans.

This post is linked up with the Not Back To School Bloghop

Look What Kaytie Got!!!

2011-07-12T15:02:00.000-05:00

After some concern about headaches and a trip to the pediatrician, Kaytie wound up at the eye doctor on Monday. She was nervous about seeing a new type of doctor, but the doctor quickly put her at ease and even had her laughing at his jokes. Then he gave her an awesome gift... a prescription for a new, utterly cool, fashion accessory! Glasses.

Her daddy helped her pick them out, and everyone agrees they make her look cute, smart, older, and even remarkably like her favorite cousin: Lizzie.

Thankfully, the doctor wants her to wear them all the time, because she ain't takin' 'em off!!!

After all, every bookworm needs glasses!

A Cool Resource I Waited Too Long To Use

2011-06-16T10:36:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I can be slow and a little bit dense. I have heard people (well, homeschool people) talk about Rainbow Resource for years. And I blew them off because really, if I'm going to buy manipulatives I can do it cheaper in my own town, right? I so regret not listening to those people. I mean really listening.
Last week, while chatting with a homeschool mom I know IRL, she said, "Guess what I discovered? Rainbow Resource sells All About Spelling!!!"
I totally missed the delight of her discovery because my first and overriding thought was, "Rainbow Resource sells curriculum????"
She went on to tell me that she orders all the curriculum she can from R.R. because after a certain amount the shipping is free.
Free shipping???
I went home at once and began to hunt for the items on my To-Buy list.

I found all but Math U See, Rod & Staff, and Bible Study Guide for All Ages.

I qualified for free shipping!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But that isn't even the best part.

The best part is that Several of my items were CHEAPER than anywhere else I had found them. Anywhere else. Even used on Amazon. So I saved about $20 even before I got free shipping.

Rainbow Resource. I was very impressed and will Always, Forevermore, look there first for all my homeschooling needs. Even if it isn't a manipulative!

Rainbow Resource did not send me anything for this blog post. To R.R. I am only "Order Number 343k6786jy787". I am sharing this information with you because I wish it had been spelled out to me so plainly many many years ago.

500 Writing Prompts Review CLOSED

2011-06-15T17:42:00.002-05:00

When I taught my niece and nephew a few years ago, I felt they needed a push into writing. So, I looked around for some fun writing prompts and came up with only cheesy, lame, "where did you GET these, Aunt Laura?" ones. Now my own kids are getting to age where they don't have teems of ideas at their fingertips and it is getting important for me to get them writing more. So I was pleased when Brian Cohen contacted me about his book, 500 Writing Prompts for Kids: First Grade through Fifth Grade.
He asked us to review this book, which turned out very easy to do! The book consists of a short introduction and 500 writing prompts divided into ten different categories. I had the kids pick a category and a number (1 to however many prompts were in that category) then I read them the prompt and turned them loose.
Nate is seven years old and not a kid who writes on his own. In fact, he ended up dictating most of his story to me. His prompt was: Your favorite gadget, the one you can't live without has slipped out of your hands and smashed into a million pieces on the sidewalk. What happens next?
His story was:
I tried to fix it, but it burned my hand. So I went and bought a new one.
Kaytie is eight years old and she loves to write. She makes up stories on her own often, but they usually follow the same theme each time. Her prompt was: What is the first thought you remember having this morning? Was it something good or bad? Write about waking up this morning and what you did when you first had that thought.
Her story was:
What I Thought This Morning
When I woke up this morning, I rubbed my eyes and thought, today is Wednesday! And we get to go to the dentist, and church.

I am pleased to have this book, and we will use it often in the future, to give the boys impetus to write and to give the girls some variety in their writing. I liked the number of the prompts, the variety of topics and that they are things that kids actually can write about. I also liked that there was not a lot of "fluff" in this book, but just 500 prompts that were quick and easy to use.

In addition to the review, author Bryan Cohen is doing a giveaway of his book, 500 Writing Prompts for Kids for the next week, along with a grand prize drawing for a $50 Amazon gift card! Simply comment on this post and you are entered in the drawing for one digital copy of the book on this site (there are over 10 sites involved in the giveaway, with one winner of a book per site). One lucky winner will be picked from all the sites to win a $50 Amazon gift card! If 500 Writing Prompts for Kids reaches the top 500 in sales this week, he will add another $50 Amazon gift card to the drawing. The drawing will occur on June 22nd.
Visit his website at Build Creative Writing Ideas.
Remember that when you comment, I need to have an email address to contact you in the event you win!

UPDATE: Bryan Cohen did the drawing and will be contacting the winner via email. Thank you all for participating!

Their Bible Time

2011-06-02T16:15:00.000-05:00

The most important thing I can give my kids is a relationship with Jesus. I really want them to understand that even though they are little kids, their relationship with Him is just as valid and authentic as an adult's is. I don't want them to view their dad and me as mediators in their relationship, but more as signposts. So, gradually, I've been giving Kaytie and Nate independence in their "quiet time" every day. It started with them reading their Bibles/Bible story books to themselves each morning. Then, when that routine was established, I gave them each a notebook with the instructions to write or draw about the story they read each day.

This term of school, we have taken it a step further. I set up a basket with their Bible, a devotional book for kids, their notebooks, a pencil, a baggie of crayons, and this sheet.

front page

back page

We went over it first, so that I was sure they understood, and now they take their basket every morning (right now they are taking turns because they are sharing a Bible story book) and trot off to the other room. If they want to, they show me their journals. But I don't grade, supervise, or even ask questions about this time alone with God. It's all between them.

TOS Review: Considering God's Creation

2011-05-25T14:29:00.000-05:00

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

2011-05-23T21:06:00.000-05:00

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

2011-05-20T00:15:00.000-05:00

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

2011-05-18T12:43:00.000-05:00

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

2011-05-16T13:08:00.000-05:00

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

2011-05-11T14:40:00.000-05:00

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

2011-05-07T12:32:00.000-05:00

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

2011-05-06T11:36:00.000-05:00

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!

2011-05-04T13:31:00.000-05:00

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

2011-05-04T11:48:00.000-05:00

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.

TOS Review: GreeknStuff

2011-04-29T10:25:00.002-05:00

Latin is one of those subjects you either want to teach or you don't. Some homeschooling parents think, "I never learned Latin and I turned out ok." Others have long lists of reasons why children should be taught Latin. I have always wanted to learn Latin myself so you might say the "real" reason I'm teaching my kids Latin is so that I can learn right along with them.

At any rate, when we were sent Latin's Not So Tough from GreeknStuff to review for the TOS Crew, I was happy because I'd been eying Latin programs for awhile and this one looked great.

We received a student worktext, an answers only key and a CD for Level Two. There is no teacher's manual for this level, nor is one needed, in my opinion. In the back of the worktext are flashcards you can cut out and use. We were given a nice, long review period for this product, so we have been able to work with it almost all year and get a good feel for the curriculum.

So how did we feel about it? In short, I liked it. The kids didn't.

Here is what I liked about it. Well, first, what I really liked about it: it didn't dump a whole lot of grammar on our heads. Level Two is for middle level elementary (or kids who have finished Level One) and it starts with the alphabet and then focuses on vocabulary. I love that. My kids are young, and they don't have a great grasp of English grammar yet, so asking them to comprehend the grammar of a foreign language will only bring despair to the heart of the teacher. But vocabulary? They can DO vocabulary!

Another thing I liked about Latin's Not So Tough is that it really isn't tough! It is an open-and-go kinda thing. I could just pull out the workbook, put on the CD and we were learning some Latin. It starts with the alphabet, which takes up the first four lessons and the first twenty pages. After that, each lesson is four pages long, and teaches two vocabulary words. At the end of every five lessons, there is a review lesson. There is a grand total of 36 lessons. For each lesson, all you need is a student and a pencil. Super simple and easy.

I also appreciated the variety of the lessons. The kids write the vocabulary words, write their meanings, circle the words that match the correct meanings given, fill in missing letters, draw lines from words to their meanings, unscramble words and match them to their meanings, answer true and false questions, and even draw pictures of their vocabulary words!

Now, as for why the kids didn't like it. I can sum it up in one word: writing. Neither of them enjoy the physical act of writing. Neither of them are good at it. Therefore neither of them looked forward to writing vocabulary words and their meanings over and over day after day.

Keep in mind that this is just their experience. Just so you can get an idea of how much writing there is, here are a few pictures of the worktext. Remember there are four pages to a lesson. We only did one or two pages a day.

If you are looking for simple and easy Latin for your middle elementary students, then this is a good program, in my opinion. There are a lot of different purchasing options (you can also buy answer keys and quizzes) here. GreeknStuff also offers a Greek program (no, really!) and a Bible study program, which you can check out on their website. Others on the crew reviewed those products, as well as the upper levels of Latin's Not So Tough, you can find those reviews here.

And as always, I was sent a free copy of this program in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Fun!

2011-04-26T13:38:00.000-05:00

You can vote once a day... for me or any other of the homeschool blogs you see!
:)

Eggs

2011-04-22T19:47:00.000-05:00

Four Penguins and a Cousin got together to dye some Easter Eggs... Be warned that the following post has no other purpose than to shamelessly show off my adorably cute children... :)

I did not get as many pictures as I wanted because they kept me pretty busy handing out eggs.

There is one missing because it got dropped and broken. It was a beautiful green one, too!

When I told the kids we would be coloring eggs, Kaytie pointed out that Easter eggs have nothing to do with the true meaning of Easter. (She's going to be a missionary when she grows up.) But did you know that eggs are a wonderful way to demonstrate the Trinity? And besides, dyed eggs are pretty. AND fun. Just because it's Easter doesn't mean we can't have fun. Fun is good. But does anybody know how to get egg dye off of skin???

TOS Review: See The Light Shine Art Class

2011-04-22T10:13:00.000-05:00

As a member of the TOS Crew, we were sent a sampling of See The Light Shine's Art Class. We received the first four lessons (the first DVD). Art Class is drawing program that brings the instructor into your home for 36 lessons on basic drawing techniques and a short spiritual reflection.
Kaytie, aged eight, loves to draw, color, paint, etc. If it's creative, she is all over it, so I thought this would be great for her to do on her own without sibling interruption. Well, Kaytie thoroughly enjoyed these art lessons! She was able to do all of it by herself... gathering the supplies, running the DVD, pausing when necessary, following instructions, and I just basically lurked in the background, applauding her efforts.
She was exposed to the ideas of line, contour, composition, shape, shading, "drawing only what you see", as well as how to build the basic toolkit she needs to draw.
Here are some of the drawings she completed while watching these lessons. These are the first "real" lessons Kaytie has ever received.

It was hard for me to get a good feel for this program with just the first four lessons, but we definitely enjoyed what we saw. I loved that she mixed spiritual principles in with her art. Pat Knepley was pleasant, informative, and didn't seem to go too fast for Kaytie.
This is a non-consumable product, which is something to keep in mind as you weigh the cost options. A couple of the lessons, Kaytie has watched more than once. I also have it available for any of the other kids who show an interest in art lessons.
You can purchase Art Class here, or opt for an online subscription here. You can even get a free sample.

Kaytie's opinion: I liked that I can learn how to do art, and I really needed help with art because it is kinda hard for me to get the things right. I feel like she gave me the help I needed. Every art lesson comes with a Bible verse and she made it easier for me to understand what she was talking about in art. I think I draw better now. I learned in the last lesson how to draw a shoe. And I also learned how to shade and the upper hand grip, which is easy.

You can see what other Crewmembers had to say here.

We received a portion of this product free in return for a fair and honest review. All opinions are our own.

TOS Review: Kinderbach

2011-04-06T10:30:00.000-05:00

My two older kids take piano lessons, which sometimes stirs up a little bit of jealousy in the hearts of the younger two, so when we were asked to review Kinderbach, I reserved it for Daniel and Abbie's use.
Kinderbach is a program designed to teach music to young children using a piano (or keyboard). Their stated goal is that kids have fun while learning music. You can watch their video to learn all about it. The 240 lessons are divided into 6 Levels (with a 7th Level scheduled to come out in August). There are four lessons per week, but my kids usually watched all four lessons in a sitting. I struggled against that in the beginning, but eventually gave up and let them go at their own pace.
Kinderbach is not your typical learn-to-play-the-piano type curriculum. Since it is targeted for young children (ages 3-7), it has a very slow pace and is interactive and hands-on with engaging videos, pictures to color while they watch, and games to play. The coloring pages and the cards for the games are downloads that you print off yourself as needed.

Daniel and Abbie enjoyed this thoroughly. Kaytie often joined them just for the fun of it, so it obviously attracts and engages kids at both ends of its targeted age range. We have finished the first level, and they have been introduced to rhythm, loud and soft, low and high, reading quarter notes, finger numbering and more. I don't have any music prodigies on my hands from this curriculum, but I believe they have had a wonderful introduction to music that I wish my older two had had. At this age, the best kind of learning is when they are having so much fun they don't even know they are learning! I also liked that I didn't have to put a lot of forethought into lesson prep. The only thing I had to do was pass out pencils (for rhythm sticks) and print out a coloring page or two.
The biggest con to this program was that the coloring sheets tended to be ink-heavy. The thick, black border around the above picture isn't exactly necessary, in my opinion, and I cringed as I printed out three copies.

The kids opinions:
Daniel: It's fun. Sometimes it has trains in it. I like it. I learned about music and it's fun. It makes me laugh. My favorite part is the rhythm sticks.

Abbie: It's nice and I love it. Because I love the girl that helps the kids. (I think she means the teacher) My favorite part is that I can draw!

Kaytie: It's my favorite thing we have gotten so far. I really enjoyed it. Nate and I can choose to watch if we want to, and I mostly want to. My favorite part is when we get pencils and tap them in time to the music and call them rhythm sticks.

Kinderbach can be purchased for a classroom or for home use and there are several options for buying it to use at home. Or you can try it out for free!
You can also see what other crew members thought by clicking here.

I received a trial subscription to Kinderbach online in return for a fair review. Our opinions are honest and completely my own.

Our School is Attended by Royalty

2011-04-01T17:40:00.000-05:00

This day a Princess came to school. She was, with difficulty, persuaded to remove her gloves while coloring.

I love homeschooling!

TOS Review: Song School Latin

2011-03-30T09:16:00.001-05:00

In the four years we have been homeschooling, we have attempted to learn Latin three times using two different curriculum. So when I pulled out a new review item and it was Latin, I was not surprised when the kids looked at me askance. However, we were all surprised by Song School Latin. It is put out by Classical Academic Press along with Latin for Children A, B, and C, and Latin Alive, both of which are for older kids, some Greek programs, and more. Song School Latin is for grades Kindergarten through 3rd, and is currently our favorite school subject.

We received a Teacher's Guide, a student book, a CD, Monkey Match Cards and a link to all sorts of extras that are free to everyone!
The Teacher's Guide is a repeat of the student book only with the answers in it. It also has some extra activity pages in the back to copy for the student's to use as review.
The student book is a consumable workbook with 31 lessons, and my kids have loved working in it. It is filled with all the sorts of things they love... crossword puzzles, matching words to pictures, coloring puppets that they can then cut out, fill-in-the-blank questions, pictures to draw, and even stories. It also has the lyrics for the songs, which is awesome for us visual learners!
The card game is basically flash cards with the vocabulary words on them, but come with instructions for three fun games as well.
The CD is my favorite part. We have always gotten a CD with the other Latin programs, but they contain chanted vocabulary words and prayers. This CD is different. It has songs... regular kid song melodies with their Latin vocabulary words mixed in with the English so they are learning and remembering them.
There are also the extras: videos, coloring pages, stories to read and games to play. You can check that out for yourself here.
Latin is now the highlight of our school day. If I don't pull the book out on my own, the kids will remind me, "What about Latin, Mom? When are we going to do Latin?" They love working their way through the lessons, and trying out their new language on unsuspecting family members. Because, while it doesn't teach grammar, it makes the Latin vocabulary easily accessible to young children who, let me tell you, will never sit still long enough to learn Latin the "traditional" way. But when they are old enough to learn the grammar and the rules, they won't be struggling with vocabulary as well, because they will already have over 100 words in their heads. If your kids are young, but you plan on teaching them Latin in the future, this curriculum is an excellent investment to give them (and you) a head start on the language.
It has been easy for us to use. I pull out the workbook, pop in the CD and we do a page a day, averaging a lesson a week. We only have one workbook, so we have to share, but no one seems to mind. I don't use the Teacher's Guide much, but the extra activity sheets in the back have all been fun. And sometimes one of the kids would put the CD in just for listening pleasure. Every so often we do a review sheet, watch a video, or play a game for a quick, fun review.
Two quick personal stories I want to share with you...
My four year old, Abbie, was not included in this review. The workbook requires reading and writing, in neither of which is she at all proficient. However, she loves to sing and when she heard the songs on the CD, she decided she was my youngest Latin student. She made it a point to hang around long enough to listen and sing with us. Now she will say, "Salve" (hello) when she enters a room and "Vale" (goodbye) when she leaves. She also likes to spring Latin words on her dad, who has no idea what she is talking about.

One evening my 19 year old niece was putting the kids to bed for me and asked Daniel (who is five, and also not included in the Latin lessons) what song he wanted to sing.
"The alphabet song," he said. "In Latin."
"But I don't know the alphabet song in Latin!"
Abbie sat up in bed and informed her, "It doesn't have a W!"
So they are learning, even though they might not be aware of it, and even though they can't do the workbook themselves.

We love, love LOVE Song School Latin.

Kaytie says: I like it because it is a lot more easier than the other ones. It teaches in songs and it helps us learn easier. My favorite part is the worksheets and the songs. My least favorite part is none of it!

Nate says: I think it is very, very good! And I would really recommend it. My favorite part is the songs.

Abbie says: I like it because I like the songs that are funny! Like the one that Luke comes and looks at the liber! (book) That's funny! and she ran away giggling to herself.

The only con to this program is that the Teacher's Guide doesn't really offer any useful purpose except for the extras in the back. I haven't ever needed to use it to correct their work, and I don't "plan" their lessons. We just open the workbook and do the next page.

You can buy it in pieces with the links I put in the beginning of the post, or you can buy it in a bundle, here.
You can see sample pages of the workbook here and listen to samples of the songs here.

You can see what other crew members had to say here. Some of them reviewed the other Latin programs, so if Song School doesn't interest you, or you have older kids, see what they have to say.

At the very least, you can check out all their fun freebies here. These aren't just for Song School, but there are some for all the other programs Classical Academic Press puts out, too... Latin for older kids, and Greek.

And as always, this product was sent to me free for the purpose of this review, and the delighted ravings are my own honest opinion. The kids' opinions are their own, as well. And this time, I just had to say, "Tell me what you think" and they just gushed their delight.

Rescued

2011-03-23T18:20:00.001-05:00

So today was not turning out to be a great school day. A dentist visit and some glorious weather ruined the morning and a mommy who was too deeply drawn into writing out new goals for the younger kids and doing some research for next year threatened to ruin the afternoon as well.
Technology to the rescue!!!
Some Kinderbach and a go-along color sheet covered music and art. MathRider covered math. And the Kindle provided some reading practice and history.
Since digging in the dirt for worms took care of science and climbing trees and racing bikes covered P.E., it turned out to be a not-so-shabby school day after all.

St Patrick's Day 2011

2011-03-18T09:39:00.000-05:00

We love holidays around here. So even somewhat obscure days like St. Patrick's Day is a big deal to the kids. March 17th is an important day on their calender and they talk up beforehand with just as much enthusiasm as Christmas and their birthdays. Well, maybe not Christmas, but certainly as much as their birthdays. I believe that having special days and annual traditions build important connections and memories, so I am more than willing to have plans to entertain, enlighten, and amuse for every special day.
We started off with green milk in our cereal. Then the kids donned their green shirts, fun hats, and jeans. They spent some time leprechaun-hunting, even trying to get the dog to sniff one out for them. They would really love to get their hands on that pot of gold... although they really have no idea what they would spend it on if they got it. Since they couldn't find one, Kaytie finally made one.

First on our list every year is a photo shoot for Mommy. I always plan to get my cute pictures in BEFORE they can do any damage to their holiday attire. We have individuals...

and group pictures. It's incredibly hard to get a great group picture.

We wanted to get some with Sofie, too.

Sofie had a different opinion.

After the posed pictures, the kids got out their bikes and had a parade.

Which, apparently, was too big for the yard, so we had to take it around the block.

Then we had some dancing to Irish music.

They colored-by-number,

played roll-a-leprechaun,

and hunted for gold coins. I didn't think they would ever find the three in this picture. Can you find them?

Then they counted their coins and I was fiendishly cunning. :) First, the one with the most got a piece of candy for a prize. Then, the one with the least got a piece. Whilst the girls were claiming these prizes, I cast my eye over the boys' cups of coins and announced the last two prizes... whoever had a coin with an 8 on it (some of the coins had numbers because they were from another game last year) which was Nate, and whoever had no numbers at all, which, surprise, surprise, was only Daniel! ;)

Lunch was macaroni and cheese (orange), pears and cottage cheese (white) on green plates with green forks. They chose lemonade to drink because it was yellow and made them think of gold!

Then the girls got out the green playdough and the shamrock cookie cutter,

while the boys set out a teeny tiny cup of milk to lure and trap a leprechaun. They set it by a collection of green stuff they were sure a leprechaun would like. Although the milk mysteriously disappeared, no leprechaun was caught, or even seen. Sneaky little guy!

We wound up the day with some books to read, a run through the sprinkler, and ice-cream sandwiches. Oh, and green pancakes for supper.

We hope your St. Patrick's Day was as fun as ours!!! Although we have serious doubts that that is even remotely possible.

Getting Ready for St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-16T18:05:00.000-05:00

We penguins love our holidays! We are gearing up for tomorrow, St. Patrick's Day, which we celebrate because we are of Irish decent (and PROUD of it!) and because who can resist a holiday where you get to make your own traditions?
I have green shirts and Irish hats for each kid. I printed off some fun printables from enchanted learning and from here. We will be listening to some Irish music, dancing, reading some St. Patrick's Day books, watching this, eating lots of green foods, and probably even setting out some milk for to catch a leprechaun.

TOS Review: Who Is God?

2011-03-15T10:24:00.000-05:00

When we found out we would be getting Who is God? And Can I Really Know Him? for review, I was extremely happy, excited and delighted. Thrilled, even. Because I love Apologia and had already been plotting to get this book for next year.
Who Is God? is the first in a series of books that teaches and explores Biblical Worldview of God and Truth, it is "designed to help children learn to discern the truth by using God's Word as a lens through which to view the world around them -- to see everything the way God sees it."(quote from back of book) It discusses questions such as: Where am I building my life? What is God like? If God created the world, why isn't it perfect? Why did God create me? Is Jesus the only way to God? with Scripture, of course, being the answer key.
This beautiful, hardcover book, is divided into 10 lessons. Each lesson contains a story featuring kids learning about God and ministering to one another so that the readers see a worldview in action. There are thought provoking questions, Scripture verses to memorize, highlighted Godly character traits, prayers, vocabulary words, and notebooking ideas in every lesson. A lesson plan at the beginning of the book outlines an easy way to do a lesson every two weeks. In addition, there is a password in the book that gives you access to teacher helps and printables to go along with the book. This book (or series, actually) is geared for kids ages 6-14.
I am using this book with my 7 and 8 year olds. All three of us are loving it. Daily, I read until the kids start getting restless, then we discuss, work on memory verses, and draw pictures to answer the notebooking questions. I love how it is easy for them to understand, yet challenges them at the same time. I love the way it backs everything with Scripture. Mostly I love that it is "deep", yet very, very practical. The kids remember what we read about and bring it up, later, when they see the application in real life. For example, the book talks about how colored lenses in your glasses can alter the way you see the world. You really do see everything as pink, even though, in truth, it is not. Later, we were talking about how someone was wrong about an issue, and Nate commented that the person in question was wearing colored glasses. :)
Since my kids are on the young end of the age-range, we are going more slowly and delving not quite as deeply as we could into this book. I am not following the lesson plan from the front of the book, so it is taking us longer than 20 weeks to get through it. Also, like I mentioned before, instead of writing out answers to the notebooking questions, I have them just draw a picture.

I love a curriculum I can tweak!
Kaytie says: I really like Who is God? because it teaches me about God. It has a story for the lesson that we learn about. And I think it will teach me more than I really know about God and things around the world that are somehow related with God. It will help me with being a missionary. My favorite part is the stories and when we write down the answers to the questions. Although I just draw pictures instead of writing them down.
Nate says: I like the brownies.* I think it is good because it has lots of facts and stuff about God. I have learned to put God first, and not money.
Note that he had no complaints, so he really likes it. :)

*an activity in the first lesson.

When we finish this book, I will be buying and using the next one, which is the highest recommendation I could give it. I also plan on re-using it in a few years when all four kids are older.

You can read what other TOS Crew members have to say here. You can check out pricing, see the table of contents, read a sample, and buy this product here.

I was sent a copy of Who Is God? And Can I Really Know Him? for free for the purpose of this review. My opinion is entirely my own. The kids opinions are their own, I did not tell them what to say, although I did have to ask lots of questions to get the opinion out of them.

Interested? Info for You

2011-03-14T11:15:00.001-05:00

Are you interested in joining the TOS Review Crew? They are currently taking applications for next year's crew. If you want all the information, click here to go to the TOS Homeschool Crew blog and read all about it.
The deadline to apply is March 31.

Random Thoughts

2011-03-08T21:04:00.003-06:00

1. I have been neglecting our weekly wrap-up posts, not because we haven't been doing anything, but because our Friday and Saturdays seem to be full of "after hours" schoolwork. All the kids are busy with waterpaints, colors, scissors, and glue. Any scrap of paper or cardboard that stands still long enough is pressed into service. They took an empty oatmeal box and found at least three different ways to incorporate it into their art projects. Kaytie has been busy riding her bike, sans training wheels and reading everything she can get her hands on, as usual. She discovered Aesop's Fables this week. Daniel is enjoying the springtime activity of digging in the dirt. He is looking for snails, worms, and rolypoly bugs. Nate spends as much time as he can wrangle playing MathRider. He is also building his math skills with our cash register. Abbie just colors and paints, sings and dances and plays Mommy to her growing collection of stuffed animals.
2. We have three and half weeks left until our month-long spring break. I just realized today that I need to come up with some exam questions. I'm trying to decide, also, when Daniel needs to start end-of-term-exams. Otherwise, I am looking forward to the end of term and "vacation". Only, of course, we still have to have some structure to our days or the kids go crazy. So I need to come up with a plan for that, too. It's starting to feel like vacation is more work than school!
3. I am making plans for St. Patrick's Day... I think it's going to be a full-fledged holiday this year with lots of fun stuff. Would you like to hear our plans in advance, or after-the-fact, or both? I've been trying, lately, to post more but it seems that when I have time to blog, I have nothing to say, and when I have things to post about I don't have the time!
4. Speaking of which, I will be doing another review post soon for CSN stores. Check out their lights store while you wait. And, I am going to be posting about a small giveaway to celebrate the fact I have over 100 followers. It's going to be a book. :)
5. I realized the other day that my kids are exactly the perfect ages. We no longer have to worry about diapers, feeding times, sippy cups, or even diaper bags, but they are still young enough that they are incredibly easy to excite and entertain. A trip to the park is instantly the highlight of their week! If only time could just freeze right. here.

Love and Gratitude

2011-03-08T12:37:00.001-06:00

Lent starts tomorrow. I was a teenager before I knew what Lent was. In college, I hung out with a crowd of kids where giving up something for Lent was fashionable. But it has been years since I have done that. Over the years, however, I have heard a lot of people who Do Something instead of giving something up. Starting a new habit rather than trying to break an old one.
This year, I have been reading One Thousand Gifts. Inspired by this and by Elizabeth and by a message on Romans1:21-32 (which basically outlines the consequences of ingratitude), I decided that our Lent this year would be simple and easy...
I bought four composition notebooks and brought them home for the kids to decorate a cover.

Every day of Lent they will write/draw/dictate for me to write at least one thing that they are thankful for. I am hoping to instill a habit of gratitude, but we are also talking about how the gifts we have are the ways God says "I love you." I am excited about this.
I even have a new notebook of my own to lead by example.

Ahhhh!

2011-03-01T13:04:00.000-06:00

I love when all the kids are pleasantly occupied with their schoolwork and I can just sit back and take pictures. It doesn't happen often nor does it last long.

Nate is coloring the state flag of Alabama. Daniel is getting ready to pattern some apple cards. Abbie is working with the "a" playdough mat. Kevin is investigating Gracie's "busy box". Kaytie is working on her math journal. Gracie (not pictured) is playing with the dollhouse in the playroom.

Daniel and Abbie are coloring, cutting and pasting. Nate is working on a Math Mammoth Measuring sheet. Kaytie is journaling the day's Bible reading.

TOS Review: I See Sam

2011-02-28T13:27:00.000-06:00

We received I See Sam Little Books at just the right time for us. Daniel and Abbie (5 and 4 respectively) knew their letter sounds and were ready to start putting those sounds into words. So we were all pleased to see the box show up on our porch. What we got was four levels of readers, a teacher's guide and flashcards.

This is the first level of books...

You can see a sample copy of one of the books here.
It is simple and easy to use. The instructor's guide was helpful in getting us started. (I didn't use the placement assessment, since I knew we needed to start right at the beginning.) Basically, the program is the books. First, the child is introduced/reviewed to the sounds he/she will be using in that book, then there is a short story, then there is a "coming attractions" page where the child gets a peek at the new sounds/words in the next book. Each book is approximately 17 pages long, with one or two sentences on each page. Each page has a black and white, simple but interesting, illustration that goes along with the story. The books have built-in review so you don't have to worry about them forgetting what they learned as they learn new sounds and words.
The kids love the funny stories and pictures. Especially the pictures. They get a lot of entertainment out of looking at the pictures and talking about what had happened and what would happen. I learned early on to cover the pictures first and let Daniel look at them after he had read the page... sort of like an award. Otherwise he enjoyed the pictures so much we just might not ever get to the words. :)
Initially, I was conflicted about this program, because it seemed, with their insistence on mastery and the flashcards, that it was pushing memorizing sight words, which is something I am against. As we got into the books, however, I could see that (however they intended it) I could easily use it with phonics, as the words can all be sounded out, and Daniel was merely learning to blend the sounds he knew into recognizable words. The manual said to read each book until "fluency" is achieved. We read each book twice, which is what it takes him to easily "sound out" each word or read them outright. In my opinion, if he can read it without my help, he can read it. I don't expect perfection out of a five year old, and I had no interest in him memorizing the words. In fact, one of the things I liked about these books is that they use words like "sat", "sit", "Nan", "Ann", "Mit", and "Mat" that are so similar that he had to sound them out to figure them out. I could tell right away if he was guessing or really reading. We never used the flashcards at all.
I do not know a lot about reading programs: the studies and methodologies and theories behind them all. I do know that every inch of this program, from the books with their cute pictures, to the information on the website spoke to me of the heart these people have for teaching kids to read. I could feel the love and commitment for kids and I think that is what made it work for my son.
At this point, Daniel is halfway through the first level of readers. He enjoys reading these books, and is very proud of his progress each day. It is empowering to him to finish a book and then get a new one. He is able to transfer the knowledge he has gained to other mediums... he can read words with the sounds he knows in other places, like books and sentences I write for him; and one day he brought me the dry erase board full of the words from his books that he had written out all on his own. For Daniel, that means he is internalizing his learning and that is all I need to like this product.
Daniel says: I like them. I like finishing a book! They are funny. They are teaching me how to read and they make me happy.
So, Daniel's experience was nothing but positive from his perspective. Abbie, however, did not like these books. I believe she simply was not ready to read 17 page-long books, she started out great, but a few pages in she was sighing dramatically and trying to distract me from the matter at hand. I am planning on giving her more practice decoding words and start her again later on with book one.
There were a few things that I personally disliked about the books. Sometimes the text is too stilted and awkward. In the beginning, it repeats a lot: "I see it! I see it!" which was weird for the kids because they don't talk that way. They were confused by the repetition and they thought they were reading it wrong. This, however, goes away as they add more words to their repertoire. Also, at the bottom of the pages are "comprehension questions" for the teacher to ask the student. However, these questions rarely tested the comprehension of what was read. The child can easily answer the questions by looking at the pictures, and often had to look at the picture to answer the question. I overcame this by asking my own questions. The last thing is that I would not start this program if my child did not already know basic letter sounds. I think it would be too much at once. Daniel did not know all of the blends ("th" for example) or the long vowel sounds, but he did know the basic 26 letter sounds and was able to take it from there. I think it would have been too frustrating for him to try to learn 5 new sounds and decoding skills in order to read his first book.
In short, I will definitely continue to use I See Sam with Daniel, and with Abbie in the future. Daniel and I really enjoy these readers, and are so happy that he can use them to learn to read. It arrived at the perfect time when he knew his sounds and could achieve instant success.

If you want to read what other TOS Crew members thought, click here.

You can purchase I See Sam books either in bundles or by the level, and you can download an instructors guide, scope and sequence, placement assessments, flashcards and tracking progress sets here for free.

This product was sent to me for free in exchange for this review. All opinions are honest and are mine and my son's.

Week Seven Term Two Year 10-11

2011-02-26T09:56:00.000-06:00

We had several highlights this week. I love it when the kids take a step forward, especially when it is in areas that I haven't even been working with them.

2nd and 3rd Grade:
Math: measuring and multiplication. They really enjoyed Mr. Demme's humor this week, and I have heard lots of copycat jokes about ice tea and golf tees. Nate just "gets" multiplication. I wish place value and borrowing had been this easy for him! There was, as usual, lots of MathRider playing, and some fun worksheets from the ebooks I bought from Scholastic.

Grammar: We finished up Unit One in R&S. They did well on the end-of-unit-review, and are happy to be finished with sentences, capitalization, and punctuation.

History: We are deep in the Greeks... we read about Athens and Sparta and the story of how Zeus started the Trojan War. Nate listened to the description of how Spartan boys were expected to behave: strong, brave, no complaining, and said, "That is just like me! Except for the complaining part."
Also, when we read the story of Zeus and the Trojan War, I had a speech prepared about false gods and the true God. I started off, "We know that God is loving, kind, and just. But the Greeks invented their gods to be angry, jealous, and cruel. Why?"
Nate said, without looking up from fiddling with his shirt, "Because that's the way they were."
Startled, I said, "That's the way who was?"
"The Greeks."
So now I'm no longer too worried about the neutral emphasis of Story of the World. Nate, at least, seems to be able to handle it. ;)

Geography: This was the week for Alabama. The kids liked the state bird, until they found out it wasn't a woodpecker but a common flicker.

Bible: We finished up with the Nativity, and are ready for the next unit. I am also loving their journaling progress. And I re-vamped our memory work to more closely reflect the actual method I was using.

Latin: They are loving this, and I am not even really having to teach. Who knew Latin could be so fun?

Spelling: is our current struggle. They flew through the first book, so I am not sure what to do about their sudden lack of understanding of anything the second book says. I'm trying to figure out if we need to back up, hunker down, or just push on through. Spelling City is keeping us occupied until I figure it out.

Worldview: another review we are doing and greatly enjoying. I love this book!

Everybody:

Science: This week we read about manta rays, and I found some awesome videos at Aussie Pumpkin Patch, that the kids loved. We also read about other kinds of rays, but mantas are obviously the kids' favorite.

Handwriting: lots of reviewing past letters and starting "k".

Kindergarten and PreK:
Math: Daniel's math was the first step forward that I mentioned above. He has been doing simple addition with his fingers for awhile now, but over the weekend, he started doing it in his head. So I figured it was time for something a little more formal. I pulled out some insect flash cards and the MUS blocks and showed him how it worked. The next day, he asked to do it again, and I had him do it all himself. He had so much fun. Silly guy. I've given up teaching him in a linear fashion and just enable him to learn the topics his brain is ready for. He can't count to 20 without forgetting 13, but he can tell you without thinking what 2+3=. Crazy, but I'll work with it.
Abbie worked on odd and even, same and different, and more numeral recognition. She now only really struggles with 6 and 9.
I introduced Kevin to the numbers 0-3, and he worked on shapes and colors some more.

Phonics: Daniel can read not only his readers, but can apply the sounds and rules he knows in other books, too. He is halfway through the first level of the reading program we are reviewing.
Abbie happily chooses a reading "game" each day to read to me. She does best when there is no pressure of any kind, so forward progress can be tricky with her. However, the other step forward that I mentioned was hers. She started writing her own name this week. It looks beautiful, and she does not even ask me how to spell it. She just writes it. It makes me happy.
Kevin knows "a" and "f" pretty well, this week we discussed that "r" does not growl, but just kinda rolls. :) He was disappointed.

All four of the little kids played with playdough, colored, did puzzles, used the lacing cards, and played outside a lot in the beautiful weather.

I am linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers and Forever For Always No Matter What

TOS Review: MathRider

2011-02-25T11:00:00.000-06:00

When I first tried out for the TOS Crew, I was kinda hoping we would get lots of awesome stuff to review, and that has happened, but I was not even expecting to discover brand new homeschooling products that would literally knock our socks off. That is what happened with the product I am going to tell you about today.
First, let me explain that my eight year old daughter hates math. Not because she doesn't understand it, nor even because she isn't any good at it, but mostly just because it bores her. I can totally relate, because I feel the same way: you add this number to that number and it ALWAYS equals the same number and you just do it over and over and over again until you finally get addition down and then they spring subtraction on you! Our search for a math curriculum was not so much to find something that excited or interested her, but merely to find something that didn't cause her to weep over every problem.
MathRider is not a full curriculum, but is a facts drilling computer program. Kaytie saw it when I got the first email about it and immediately was interested. By the time I got it downloaded and set up for her to play, she was drooling all over herself, excited and eager to play. None of this was too surprising, because it is a computer program after all, and playing on the computer is a treat to my kids. However, the next day, she asked me, first thing, "Can I play MathRider again today?" I was shocked, especially when she continued to ask me, daily, to play, and chose it whenever she had free computer time, and talked about it, with great excitement and enthusiasm whenever she wasn't playing it.
MathRider aims to teach kids fact mastery from addition to division. It does this by sending them on magical "Quests" which they achieve by answering math problems. Their horse gallops along and has to jump over hurdle. Each hurdle is a math problem, and if the answer is typed in time, the horse jumps the hurdle. If the answer is wrong, or not typed in time, then the horse stops and the problem and answer is both shown on the screen and read aloud. Getting the answers wrong guarantees that problem will show up again, often.

The program keeps track of correct and incorrect answers and shows them in a graph that both the teacher and the student can access. Kaytie loves looking at her graph and knowing which problems she knows and which she needs to work on. (Nate could care less about this feature.) At the end of each ride, a bar graph shows them which problems they did quickly and correctly, and which they need to "watch out" for and which they got wrong.

After a certain number of problems, you finish the "ride" and the score is calculated, based, best I can tell, on correct answers with extra credit given for speed. Your horse slows down if you are slow at answering, but you are rewarded for quick, correct answers. This moves you forward on the Quest Map. That part is exciting for my kids. They love watching their progress on the map and seeing what they are going to be riding through next, Desert Lands, or around Dragon Mountains.

The scenery in the background changes as you ride across the map, but I'm not sure the kids have noticed, because they are focused on their math problems. The program starts with very basic problems: the ones and zeros facts, and then moves on from there, with the goal being complete mastery of all facts. Completing a quest earns you a reward (a flower or a jewel for example) that appears on your main page. We haven't achieved mastery yet, but I think the rewards for mastery are bigger and better. :)

What makes this game fun for Kaytie is that: one, she loves horses; two, the stories behind the quests engage her and make her eager to get the answers right so she can find out what happens next; and three, there is little negative pressure, if she answers slowly, the game slows down for her, if she misses a question or two, she doesn't have to start completely over.
Nate loves the challenge of moving as quickly as he can around the map and succeeding at his Quest. He knows that getting too many wrong answers will keep him from making any forward progress, so there is motivation to think about it and do it right the first time.

Here is their opinion about it:

Kaytie said: I like it! Especially because of the horses, because I really like horses. And I like how I can save my quests so that I don’t have to start it over again. But what I really like is how you can earn things and get farther and farther on your quest, and that there are new places where you can go. I like that I can know what I really need to work on, so that Mom knows what to make me work on. I would recommend it to other kids who don’t like math but do like horses.

Nate said: I like MathRider because I do lots of different challenges. It is fun and very exciting. My favorite thing is doing all the different challenges. I would recommend it very much! It helps me learn math because it teaches me math by making it a challenge. There is nothing I don’t like about it.

What I like about it is that this game makes them beg to do math and I can see that they are truly learning while having fun. I like the statistics page, where it tells me exactly what problems they know, where they fall on the mastery scale and what their biggest challenge is at any given time. (It updates after each "ride") I like that the program adjusts to give them the problems they need to work on and doesn't waste their time with problems they have already mastered. I also like the fact that it goes all the way up to division and that I can easily add up to ten players to our account. There is also a Practice Run feature, where you chose which number and operation your child needs to work on. Whatever happens in the Practice Run does not effect the rest of the game. So there is no pressure, only practice.

For this review, we were allowed a limited time download of the product, but we WILL be buying the full version with no expiration date. Our whole family loves MathRider, but don't just take our word for it, you can check it out here, at their website, or you can see what other Crew Members thought here.

And as always, this product was sent to me free for the purposes of this review. Our glowing opinions are honest and our own.

Learning to Read

2011-02-21T17:15:00.001-06:00

Right about the time Daniel and Abbie FINALLY finished learning all their letter sounds, and were ready to start putting them together to form words and sentences, we received a reading curriculum in the mail to review. I will be telling you all about that later on... but for now, just let me say that while it was perfect for Daniel, it was too much for Abbie. She is a year younger and a lot more, ummm, giggly than he is, so I wasn't surprised that we had to take a step back. I already had some things ready for her that I had planned to use before we got the review item. It's just simple, easy stuff that gives her daily practice in reading words without overwhelming her by asking her to read an entire book in one go!
I keep these in the "reading" workbox, and she does one every day, with the goal of doing each one once a week.
First up are these little books that I made by cutting a sheet of paper into strips and writing letters on with a marker then stapling it together. Not beautiful, but functional, and fun for her to read "all by herself"!

Next are picture cards of CVC words. I have tons of these that I made to teach Kaytie and Nate spelling before we discovered All About Spelling. However, I only put out about five at a time. I match them with these wooden magnetic letters that I bought a while back at a homeschool sale. She looks at the picture, says the word, and finds the right letters to match the sounds in the word, sound by sound.

And finally, I have paint chips with holes and paint chips without, and she puts them together to make words. Again, I only use one "family" at a time, and just the letters that actually make words. Nonsense words irritate me and frustrate them. It loses the joy of stringing together a random selection of sounds and discovering the word.

She also reads on Starfall, and every now and again, I will write out sentences for her, using easy to read words. She likes that a lot. Eventually, she will make that leap to reading books, but for now, she is getting daily practice without the dramatic sighs and clutching of the forehead.

Scholastic Dollar Deals

2011-02-21T13:10:00.000-06:00

I wanted to share a great find with you! Scholastic is having a Dollar Sale on their ebooks. Over 500 books in all subjects and all grades, usually between $6 to $13 apiece are only $1. I spent about $35 there yesterday and have so much new fun stuff for the kids to do that when I tried to look through it all last night my head nearly exploded! The sale lasts until February 25, but there is a lot of books to look through, so hurry over and check it out!

Disclosure: I get nothing from sharing this with you, but the satisfaction of a good deed done!

Term Two, Week Six

2011-02-19T15:50:00.000-06:00

I haven't been posting weekly wrap-ups, but we have been working! I rearranged the schoolroom just a bit to accommodate three or four "boxes" for Gracie and the same for Kevin. The hardest part right now is juggling one-on-one time with Daniel, Abbie, and Kevin while keeping Nate and Kaytie on task with their "independent" work. The second hardest part is filling Daniel and Abbie's thirst for worksheets. Right now, they are working through the Get Ready for the Code series, and loving every minute of it. I don't want to give them a new page every day, though, because when that is done, I've got nothing.
Anyway, here is what we have been up to:

2nd and 3rd Grade:
Math: They are flying through multiplication! They know 0, 1, and 10 facts, and almost know the 2 facts. They are also really loving their current math review item. I'll be revealing it next week. This is a must-buy item for us, because we love it so much!

Grammar: The new has worn off Rod and Staff for the kids, but they are retaining the information and getting some good handwriting practice to boot. We have learned about the four types of sentences and punctuation marks, including quotation marks and apostrophes.

Geography:
This week was Florida. Swamps and alligators. We played some games here

Spelling: Level 2 is HARD. We are struggling to make forward progress. I am afraid that most of it is me, though. I can't remember the rules, so I have a hard time helping them with them. I need to write them all out for my own reference.
We did, however, discover Spelling City. It's a great place to play, and there is plenty of free stuff to keep you busy! I make my own lists using All About Spelling, and the kids play there on Thursdays and Fridays.

History: We have reached the period of the Greeks, the Medes and the Persians. They were somewhat surprised and I was quite pleased when they recognized Belshazzar in the story of Cyrus. They also enjoyed the story of King Midas, and we discussed it at lunchtime. I remember reading it when I was just their age. :)

Latin: We are currently doing two different programs, so Latin phrases are quite in vogue around here. Both of them are review items so I will be telling you all about them, soon!

Bible: They are finishing up the story of the Nativity, last week we read about Simeon and Anna. One more week, then we start a new book.

Everybody:
Science: We finished up fish and started on sharks and rays. They have been looking forward to sharks! We had a fun conversation about density and floating and swim bladders. I used a battery, a plastic matchbox car, and a bowl of water to demonstrate and they were full of questions and suggestions.

Handwriting: I am using a form of Peterson's Handwriting to go over basic letter formation with the little kids, the big kids are joining in because their handwriting needs a lot of help. So far, we have learned "l", "t", "h", and "b". It takes us about 5 minutes and they object if I try to skip it.

Kindergarten and Preschool:
Math: I finally tested Daniel, and he jumped to the middle of our math book. His favorite days are the days he gets to write in his math journal. This week, he worked on patterns, writing numbers, logic, and skip counting.
Abbie worked on one-to-one correspondence, the concept of subtraction, and counting on.
Kevin worked on shapes and colors and sorting one-to-one.

Phonics: Daniel is really loving his readers and flying right through them. I wanted to make sure he was able to transfer those skills to read anything, so I hand wrote him some sentences and one day, as a "special treat" he read a book from Starfall to me. He did awesome! The whole family is so excited that he is learning to read!!!
Abbie has several different mediums that she uses to practice her reading every day, she builds words with letters, reads little books that I made, and uses paint chip readers that I made. It is just enough practice to keep her moving forward without overwhelming her.
Kevin has learned the sounds for a, f, and r. He can play alphabet bingo with us if I show him the card so he can find it on his card. I am impressed by his visual discrimination skills!

Bible: Daniel and Abbie are still learning about Joseph. They love, love, love their Bible curriculum! They beg for it each day.

All three (plus Gracie) enjoyed puzzles, lacing, coloring, sorting, gluing and the wonderful spring-like weather we have been having! They spent all one morning outside digging for worms, riding bikes and having a glorious time getting filthy dirty.

In other news, Kaytie learned to ride a bike without training wheels, and it only took her two days to do it!

This post is linked up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

CSN Review: Cash register

2011-02-19T15:34:00.000-06:00

When I was offered the chance to do a review for CSN stores, I was at first excited and then overwhelmed! There were so many things to choose from!
But I finally settled on the cash register.

I chose it for it's potential educational value, but the kids haven't figured that out yet. They love to play with it, and Nate uses it as a giant calculator. There are so many things to love about it! First, it is sturdy and solid. It has large, easy-to-read (and to push) buttons that really work. It is solar powered, so no batteries are needed to work it. (Although batteries are needed for the sound effects) The sound effects are not loud or shrill, just little beeping noises. The solar powered panels are very good, it works even when it is in a dim room and there is a child's head between the panels and the only light source in the room.

It came with money, (both coins and bills) a little notepad, and a credit card. There is even a little place to swipe the card. :) The money is standard sized, so all of our stash of play money fits into the drawers. It is light enough that they can carry it, but heavy enough that they don't choose to do so very often.
The kids have had tons of fun with this "toy" and I have capitalized on that interest to teach them about making change and the realistic cost of stuff they like.

It was a pleasure to work with CSN stores. They are friendly, helpful, and we received our purchase in a timely manner.

This product was sent to us for free for the purpose of this review. My opinions are my own.

TOS Review: The Curiosity Files

2011-02-11T10:10:00.000-06:00

Unit studies are not regular fare around here, but we enjoy them now and again as a supplement to our regular curriculum diet. TOS Crew Members were asked to choose a topic from Professor Ana Lyze's Curiosity Files to use and review. The kids all voted and Puffer Fish got the most votes.
We really enjoyed this unit study. It has lots of interesting information about the puffer fish... "wild" ones are poisonous if not cooked correctly, but "tame" ones are not. This is because the toxins come from something they eat in the ocean and tame ones are not allowed to eat those toxic substances. However, the Emperor of Japan is not allowed to eat them, ever, for his own safety. Interesting, huh?
The pages of information are followed by a quiz, and ways to incorporate math, spelling, writing, copywork, science (of course), history and art into your study about this fascinating fish. It finishes up with a page full of book titles and another of links to "learn more" and then answers to all the questions asked.

The kids' favorite part was the coloring pages. When we first looked over the material, they started begging for me to print them off, and even my kid who thinks coloring is a chore to be endured, took his time and produced a beautiful final product.

As I said before, we don't do unit studies often, so I am not proficient at them. For that reason, I would have liked some sort of suggested schedule for mixing the reading and the activities and pulling in the additional resources. The other drawback to this product is that most of the pages are filled with a lot of color. It makes it look beautiful on the computer screen, but I was very reluctant to print it and use up all that ink.
What I did like is that it was easily adaptable to my younger crowd. It is listed as A FUN unit study for kids ages 8–13 but my kids, ages 4 to 8, were able to understand the info and had plenty of fun with the majority of the activities. There were also some "extension activities" just for older kids, even up into high school.
I also liked that the activities weren't just worksheets, but a mix of say, crossword puzzles and ideas for actual, hands-on things for the kids to make and do.
All in all, we enjoyed this Curiosity File, and look forward to exploring some more.

Curiosity Files can be purchased singly, or as a bundle, at The Old Schoolhouse store. Click HERE to check it out.

For the opinions and experiences of other Crew Members, click HERE.

And as always, this download was sent to me for free for the purpose this review. All opinions are honest and are my own.

TOS Review: Times Alive!

2011-01-31T14:57:00.000-06:00

When we started back to school in January, after our break, the kids started multiplication in math. So receiving City Creek Press Times Alive was very opportune.
This is a program that teaches mnemonics for the multiplication tables. It uses stories, songs, online coloring pages, quizzes, and games to teach the mnemonics. It covers all the fact families from zero to nine, using quick tricks for numbers like five, two, zero and one, and funny stories for other facts, all divided into18 lessons with each lesson having between three to five sections.

The program gives you the ability to set up as many "users" as you like (just remember what name you used to log-in with, because there is no drop-down menu when you go to log back in, you have to type it back in yourself) and they each have a lesson plan page where you can see at a glance just which lessons have been viewed or completed. There are also progress reports for each user where you can see just how well your kids did on each quiz.
Times Alive isn't a full curriculum, or even a drill program, but is a fun and engaging bag of tricks to remember the times tables. I allowed my kids to roam and play at will, and was pleasantly surprised at how many facts they have learned from these funny songs. Even my younger kids enjoyed the stories and songs just from watching with the big kids.

Kaytie says: "I really like it because it was fun. I like how there was all different characters and they have stories. It helped my learn my times tables because it gave me tips to remember what the answer is."

Nate says: "I enjoyed playing it. I learned a lot of multiplication facts! And I am not done! I would so recommend it!!!"

This was a fun program that my kids asked for over and over. We all enjoyed it. It was easy for me to set up and to use. Once I opened it, the kids could easily click around on it to watch their favorites or find new ones. You can check it out for free here by looking at free samples of the songs. You can see what others had to say about it here. And you can order the software here.

As a member of the TOS Review Crew, I received a free download of this program for the purposes of this review. All opinions expressed are my own and my kids.

Daniel

2011-01-25T09:32:00.001-06:00

marches to the beat of his own drum... I'm not even sure he uses a drum, I think it's a trombone, actually.

Term Two, Week Three

2011-01-22T10:42:00.000-06:00

This week was a tough week for us. It started out with a bad day on Monday... one of those days where if it can go wrong, it did. So we, ok, I was distracted for the rest of the week. We did manage to get most everything done, but we did not do it in our usual routine... which meant we were all just a little crazy all week long. And besides all that, our little friends were on vacation this week, so they were of no help whatsoever in bringing us back to our routine.

2nd and 3rd Grade:

Math: Multiplication is, so far, fairly easy for them. In MUS, they started learning x 0 and x 1. They were thrilled with how easy it was! They did a couple of Math Mammoth worksheets on measurement and geometry. They fight over who gets the Master Ruler and I might as well not even have any other kind! They also worked hard on Math Facts Now and a couple of other review items. I'm starting to hope we might, someday soon, be finished with addition fact drills. It was not so long ago that I strongly considered giving up in despair!

Grammar: We got behind in our Rod and Staff books this week, due to the craziness, but I'm not that worried... yet. The kids have yet to complain about the amount of writing required, and they are actually learning something! So I am happy so far. A word of warning though, if you HAVE to do everything assigned, these might not be for you. I am leaving out bits and pieces of review work here and there when I know they know the material. Or we do the review orally, very quickly, instead of taking the time to write it out. I also split up assignments between them... one child does the odd sentences the other does the even ones.

History: We read about Babylon, and they were amused by the story of King Nebuchadnezzar's pride and humbling. Kaytie also liked the story of the Hanging Gardens that he built for his wife. They drew a picture of the Gardens, and I really liked the result of drawing for narration. We will do that more often. We also read a book about the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World that Kaytie enjoyed. In fact, she currently has it in her room, so I can't tell you the exact title and author, sorry!

Geography: They worked on North Carolina. We stick pretty close to our formula of coloring pages and map work. They are slowly getting better at map work, except Kaytie always "draws her mountains upside down" and then complains about it. We have started indulging in Stack the States, an app I found for my iPhone. I am amazed at the educational value of an iPhone!

Spelling: In All About Spelling, they finished up Step Two and wrote sentences using spelling words. Fun, fun, fun! I thought at first "What a big step in challenge there is between Level One and Level Two!" But then I realized that Level One, was, essentially, review for them, and now we are in material they simply do not know. So they are having to work harder.

Bible: They read the first chapter of Luke and attempted to answer my questions without talking in order to experience what Zechariah went through for nine months.

Everybody:
Science: We finished up turtles and started on frogs. We are behind in our lapbooking, but they can usually do several in one sitting, so we can catch up next week. The favorite part of turtles was trying to crawl like a turtle, and watching a video of baby turtles running for the sea.

Handwriting: Using the Peterson method, they worked on the lowercase letter "l". Probably the easiest letter they will ever have!

Kindergarten and PreK:

Math: Daniel blew through another six or seven lessons. Pretty good since he only did math a couple of days this week. Even at our fast rate, I don't think I'm going quick enough for him. This week, in one lesson, he was supposed to be drawing a number card and then counting out cubes to match. He drew the number 5, pulled out three cubes and snapped them together. Then he pulled out two more cubes and snapped them together. Then he announced, "Three plus two equals five!" He did this with every number he drew! :)
Abbie is a few lessons behind him, but is moving right along. Her favorite lessons are when she gets to draw her answers in her math notebook.

Bible: They are still working their way through the story of Joseph. Like their siblings, they beg to do Bible every day. I'm considering getting the teacher's guide, since this curriculum is obviously here to stay!

Phonics: Daniel is loving and flying through his readers that we are reviewing. Abbie, however, is not doing so well. Every day she gets a little more grumpy and a little more reluctant. Even giving her a sparkly princess pointer wand to use did not motivate her, so I think she is going to go back to games and little homemade books for the rest of the term. We will try again later.

I am linking up this week's wrap up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers and Forever For Always No Matter What

TOS Review: Speekee

2011-01-21T16:52:00.000-06:00

When I was in college, taking courses in human development, one of the things that stuck out to me was how we learn language. As a baby, no one sits us down and says, "Memorize this list of vocabulary words. Decline these verbs. Write these sentences from dictation." No, we learn to speak by listening, watching, and speaking in real life situations. Therefore, I have always been a fan of the immersion method of learning a second language.
When the TOS Review Crew was first told we were getting a Spanish program, I was a little nervous, but then I discovered it was an immersion program and I got excited!
Speekee is basically a short (13 to 20 minutes) tv show for kids that is totally in Spanish. It reminded me, honestly, of Sesame Street, with real kids, real adults, and real puppets :) talking and singing their way through real life places like the zoo, the market, the beach, the park and so on. There are 10 episodes available, and each comes with downloadable, printable worksheets to reinforce, if you like, the lessons. These are totally optional. We did the worksheets on some of the lessons, and not on others, just to see if it helped them. Mostly, we just enjoyed watching the show. Review is built into the episodes, so it is best to watch them in order, although we also enjoyed going back and re-watching our favorites.
We gathered around my computer to watch Speekee, although some of the Crew were able to get it to stream through their Wii. We sang along, answered Speekee's questions, and then I sat back and watched to see what the kids would do next. After every viewing, Spanish words and phrases started spilling from their mouths. I can ask them, "Que tal?" and they know to respond, "Muy bien!" Kaytie and I have enjoyed several conversations entirely in Spanish!
I was also intrigued by Daniel, who doesn't read well. The older kids were able to read the subtitles to know what was being said, but Daniel didn't have that help. However, at least once every episode, he would exclaim something like, "Mom! Hola means hello!" He was able to pick up vocabulary just by context clues.

I was very happy to get to review Speekee, and the kids enjoyed it as well. The only drawbacks to this program were minor ones.
I wish there were more than 10 episodes. :)
This program is based and created in Spain, so the pronunciation is Spain Spanish, not Mexico Spanish. This is not a huge deal, but is something to be aware of. My best guess, based on the little Spanish I have picked up from people I know, is that the difference is not enough to be concerned about being misunderstood, but is enough to be concerned about being teased.
Because this is made in Spain, the DVDs are not automatically compatible with U.S. DVD players. There is a note on the website you should read before you order a DVD. However, a monthly subscription is available for you to watch online here. And there is a two week free trial available if you are unsure.
And finally, the songs are catchy and get stuck in your head! I find myself singing them all the time, which can be embarrassing if you are out grocery shopping by yourself. :)

We have thoroughly loved and enjoyed Speekee, and really, really, wish there were more episodes for us to watch, because this is a fun and painless way to learn a foreign language.

If you would like to read what other Crew Members thought about Speekee, click here.

This product was available to us free of charge for the purposes of this review. All opinions expressed here are honest, true, and totally mine and my kids'.

TOS Review: Maestro Classics

2011-01-19T11:49:00.002-06:00

I like classical music. As in, I enjoy listening to it. I don't love it and I have no "knack" for it and I know very little about it. This makes it hard for me to teach the kids to love it. I see it as a personal failing, but have few tools readily at hand to fix this problem.
The review item that we received in the mail a few weeks ago appeared to be such a tool. So I was pretty excited to open Peter and the Wolf from Maestro Classics and pop the CD into our player. I expected some resistance from my active, noisy crew, so I chose to play it in the evening, at a time when they are usually looking for entertainment. I gathered them around the table and gave them all a blank sheet of paper and the big box of crayons. It took us two sittings of listening and coloring, but they listened, if not raptly, then politely. They all colored while they listened, but Kaytie took it one step further. The first listening session, she drew how she thought about the music...

The second session, she drew a picture of the story...

After she did that, Daniel and Abbie did as well...

Abbie's

Daniel's

The CD came with a little booklet, full of information and games. We read the info and did the games together, in an oral format, to lessen the fighting over who got to do what. But it rounded out their listening experience a little. :)

I liked that we could listen to one track with narration, so the kids could get the idea that the music tells a story and the instruments are characters in that story, but then we could listen to another track with just the music so they could experience the full effect. Then there were other tracks that told the story behind the story. (I enjoyed those tracks, but the kids were not particularly interested) All in all, I think this would be a very worthy investment for homeschoolers, who, like me, are looking for ways to introduce classical music to busy, somewhat skeptical, kids.
Maestro Classics has several other selections to choose from, including some classic stories and books. At that link, you can check out what they have to offer, purchase, or even just listen to samples of all their products.

The kids opinions are as follows:

Kaytie: I liked it, although I thought the wolf's music kinda sounded proud at a few points. I liked the bird because it was high music and it sounded pretty. My favorite character, though, is Peter. I think other mommies should buy this for their kids because it is a good piece of music.

Nate: It was weird because it took a very long time to listen to it all. I would not recommend it because children will be irritated. Basically, it just took too long. (I feel the need to mention here that there was no complaints while listening, and he was grumpy when I asked his opinion.)

Daniel: I thought that the wolf ate the duck. I liked the story, it was exciting! It was fun to listen to.

Abbie: I didn't like the wolf part. I just liked the duck and the bird, but NOT the wolf. It was fun to listen to this story. Yes, I would recommend it to other mommies.

I also wanted to add that there are many free resources both online and at your library that you can use with this product to create an entire unit study on Peter and the Wolf. That is what we are doing, in spite of Nate. :)

To read what other crewmates think, go here.

This product was given to me free for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own and my kids'.

Term Two, Weeks One and Two

2011-01-14T16:25:00.000-06:00

We have yet to complete an entire week of school, as in, working every single day, but we are getting all our work done, so it is okay.
The big kids are taking off with MUS Gamma and really caught on to multiplication. We have been talking about "groups and sets" for awhile now, and Nate had already started doing multiplication in his head, on his own, for fun, without knowing the language. So now I am just basically giving him the language. We are also enjoying our Math Mammoth sheets. They do a measurement page and a geometry page a week.
The little kids are flying through Shiller math. Kevin is working on shapes and colors. It baffles me because one day he knows them perfectly and the next he acts totally clueless. I am using the Montessori Three Point Lesson method, and we keep moving between point one and point two depending on the day. Abbie hit her first snag on Lesson Nine, and is pausing there to work on recognizing the numbers 6, 7, and 8. Daniel has finished the first 15 lessons and is still going strong. I love that the lessons are so simple that I don't even mind that all three kids are doing something different! On his own, Daniel is doing simple addition. All day he comes to me and informs me that "3 + 2 is 5!" and other similar math facts. It's fun!
In preschool news: Kevin knows that a says a. He is an incredible colorer, and is keeping me busy giving him fun and educational work. He has enjoyed puzzles, lacing cards, matching colors, sorting letters and different sized "snowballs" (cotton balls and white puffballs) and did an awesome job playing Alphabet Bingo. He figured out quickly how to match the shape of the letter I showed him to the letter on his card.
Daniel and Abbie have learned all of their letters except for confusing b, p, q and d. There are a couple of others that Abbie has issues with, but they can play Alphabet Bingo now without being shown the cards. I'm going to move it up a level with them and call out letter sounds instead of letters for them to find.
They are also working hard on a reading program we are reviewing. Daniel is nearly a third way through the first level and Abbie is right behind him. They are enjoying it, which makes it easy for me. They are also still working through Talking Fingers. Daniel can do it independently now, hooray! And they play around on Starfall as well. Some of their boxes always contain fun things like puzzles, coloring sheets, and little games that are mostly review for them. In Bible, they are learning about Joseph.
Rod and Staff Grammar (which is new this term) is going well for Kaytie and Nate. I am a little surprised that they have not complained about the amount of writing they have to do. It gives me a good opportunity to work on handwriting as well. Kaytie says she likes the new grammar better than the old one. Nate says he dislikes both, but he dislikes the old one more. We are currently working on alphabetizing to the third letter, and finding the subject and the predicate in the sentence. They have even started diagramming sentences. We do not do every bit of the work assigned, but I try to just pull a bit to work on everyday from the lessons. I also choose to do some of the written work orally. But on the whole, it is working well for us!
In History, we learned about the Phoenicians, which was fun, and about the very first librarian, which delighted Kaytie, my little bookworm.
In Bible, we finished up Daniel and started the life of Christ... right after Christmas... great timing huh?
In Science, we read about manatees and started turtles. The kids watched some videos of both on the Internet. You haven't lived until you've seen manatees kiss. But their favorite was watching baby sea turtles crawl up out of the sand and run to the sea. We love babies around here... :)
Geography was Virginia and West Virginia. Handwriting was all about practicing writing our numbers correctly. And we do a little Latin twice a week. The kids are really struggling with the different sounds of the vowels, Kaytie more than Nate. They also worked on memorizing Psalm 23, and had some fun playing Math Facts Now, watching a Spanish program that we are reviewing and working on some other reviewing items as well.
So it was a great couple of weeks! And I am ready to start on next week. :)
I'm linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers and Forever For Always No Matter What.

How to Teach Five Little Kids without Losing Your Mind

2011-01-10T17:27:00.000-06:00

We are back in school after our four week break that really lasted nearly six weeks. In my our defence, we did do some schoolwork in the form of Christmas fun and some TOS reviews that we had to work on. So we didn't spend six weeks in total sloth. It does feel good to get back into the routine, even if that routine is different than it was before we took our break. I officially started Kevin (the boy I babysit) in preschool, so now I have five "full time" students and Gracie enjoying some Totschool fun. Juggling the three youngest students has not been as difficult as I thought.
I actually get asked A LOT by people just how I teach so many young kids all at the same time, so I am going to share my secrets...
The first one is... workboxes. They are truly wonderful. If you have read my post on workboxes, you know I don't "follow the book", but tweak our boxes to fit my needs. And, naturally, that changes from time to time.
The second secret is... taking turns. I am continually reminding small people that they need to wait until I am finished with the child at hand before I can help them. This is a hard lesson, but patience, is, after all, a virtue. I have also perfected the technique of thirty-second grading. I can look at a finished project, assess, and say, "Oh, good job! Now put it away and do your next box." in thirty seconds or less. :) Well, maybe not that fast, but quickly enough that the child I am helping doesn't mind the pause.
The third secret is... group work. If we can do it all together at the same time, we do. Kaytie and Nate have always worked together, and I'm now including Daniel and Abbie into the same science read-alouds and we all do handwriting as a group. Daniel and Abbie do Bible together, and I'm expecting to be able to do more and more together as they get older. We also have a Circle Time where we sing, "exercise" and do all of our "good citizenship" activities.
The final secret is... juggling. :) I have learned to load the workboxes in such a way that all of the independent work is at the front. That way I have more time to work with Kevin and Gracie while Daniel and Abbie are coloring and Kaytie and Nate are reading, working on maps, and/or their Bible memory verses. Then, hopefully, by the time Daniel and Abbie need me, Kevin is finished, or ready to color. And by the time Kaytie and Nate need me, the little kids are all ready to go play. On a good day, that is how it works.

TOS Review: Easy Classical

2011-01-10T14:45:00.000-06:00

I like schedules. I like plans and lists and goals. So I was very interested when we were asked to review Easy Classical Early Modern History Schedule. Basically, we were just given a free download of the schedule and asked to tell you what we thought.
This schedule is based on Well-Trained Mind principles and utilizes narration and notebooking and lots of "living books". It is a Classical Education made easy. Everything you need to teach your subject has already been researched and compiled for you into one easy to follow schedule. Lists of books to read aloud, projects, activities, writing assignments... much more than you would ever need or be able to do!
I liked the way it is laid out a week-at-a-glance. Your reading, narrating, history songs to sing, writing, projects, etc. are all on one page. At the bottom of the page are comprehension questions and the answers which you can use to gauge your child's understanding. Also, on the same page is a list of the supplies you need to gather for the next week. That was my favorite part!
Without actually implementing this schedule, or even being able to personally look over the resources required, I can not give you a thorough opinion on how it would work for me and my kids, but it looks simple and well-laid out and actually, a lot of fun. I know I will at the very least make good use of the lists of books at the beginning and the art projects at the end of the schedule when we go through this period of history later on.
A complete list of the resources used in this schedule can be found on Easy Classical's site here and you can find a small sample of the schedule here.

For what other Crew Members thought, click here.

And as always this product was given to me free for the purpose of telling you about it. All opinions are my own.

TOS Review: See-N-Read

2011-01-07T21:40:00.000-06:00

As a member of the TOS Review Crew, we were sent some See-N-Read reading tools to try. We got four different kinds...
A big one for large books

A small one for small books

One with the "window" cut out, and a little bit wider, for highlighting purposes

And one that I downloaded for using on the computer.

These are handy little tools that are helpful for distractable or early readers. My son has a hard time tracking to the new line and often gets stuck repeating a line or skips a line when he is reading chapter books. This product eliminated that problem. My daughter reads much faster silently than aloud, so when she is supposed to be reading to me, she will often fall silent while her eyes skipped ahead, reading on to herself. Not a big problem, but highly annoying to me. This product eliminated that problem as well.
It was nice to have the different sizes for different books. And I would have loved to have the highlighting one when I was in college and studying from books with tiny print. I had never used anything like this before, so I have nothing to compare it to, but it sure beat using my finger to keep the kids on track! It is a fun, but useful little tool.
The E-See-N-Read was honestly not something we really had a use for, but I could see how useful it would be if you worked with coding a lot (on your blog, for example) or are one that has a hard time reading off the computer screen, and it was fun to play around with!
The tools come in different sized packs for all different price options, you can check that out here.
To read what other Crew Members have to say about See-N-Read, click here.

I received this product for free in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

TOS Review: Math Facts Now

2011-01-05T11:48:00.000-06:00

We have really enjoyed being a part of the TOS Review Crew, and have been pleased with almost all of the products we have received. However, the one I am going to tell you about today is my number one favorite product that we have been allowed to review. I have absolutely no complaints about this program, and it has been totally perfect for our needs. There was a glitch with my computer last week, and while my husband was working it out, I told him that if I lost my Math Facts Now, I would be buying a replacement for it. Since I am a cheapskate who thinks long and hard about anything I buy, that is a strong statement. But I would. I would totally, unhesitatingly buy this program.
Let me tell you why...
Our math curriculum is a program that expects the kids to master the concept and memorize the facts before moving on. We are great at mastering concepts, but very bad at memorizing facts. I could not find a surefire way to drill math facts that was enjoyable, effective and not mind-numbingly time consuming for me. Thankfully, someone else had the same problem, and they created Math Facts Now.
This is a program that drills your kids with "virtual flashcards". A problem is shown and the kid types in the answer, clicks on "check my answer" and knows immediately if they were right or not.
It's downloadable, so I don't have to worry about the website disappearing or crashing on me, nor do I have to keep up with monthly membership fees. The download was quick and easy. You can also order a disk, which is what I will do if I ever have to replace it. It's the same price as the download, (15.95) you just have to pay shipping.
It's completely customizable by me. I can make and edit lessons that contain not only the operations I want to use, but also the numbers. So I can create, for example, a lesson that only works on +2 problems. Later, I can delete that lesson, or edit it to add -2 or +3 or whatever I want. Or I can just make a whole new lesson! I can put in all four of the operations, and all of the numbers, if I want, or pick and choose if I like. I can also choose how long they can take to answer the questions, how many questions are in each lesson, and how many times they have to type out the correct answer when they give an incorrect answer.
It is simple and easy for the kids to use, and when they are finished with a lesson, I can, with a click of a button, see an overview of their results, including

the exact problems they got wrong,
how many times they were given that problem in the lesson,
and if they answered it wrong more than once, the percentage of times they got it wrong or right.
It also tells me how long it took them to complete the lesson,
if it took them too long to answer any questions
and how many questions they "missed" because of time

So I know exactly what problems we need to work on, and if they just need more time to work out the correct answer. Because I can change the amount of time they get!
I love all of these things about this program, but my favorite thing is that it is not flashy or exciting. I have computer junkies for kids. They are only allowed to play "educational games" for the most part, so they have seen a lot of math games over the past couple years. I can't tell you how many times I have cringed to see my children give the wrong answer ON PURPOSE because it is much more fun to see the monkey get eaten by the crocodile than to see him swing across the river safely. When I first had my son try out Math Facts Now, I watched as he came to a problem he had to think about. He giggled softly to himself as he purposely hit "zero" knowing it was the wrong answer. "There!" He said, "Moving right along!" His amusement dissolved in shock and horror as he realized that giving the wrong answer was not an easy way out, but he now had to type the correct answer in THREE TIMES (also customizable by me) before he could move on. He now KNOWS what 7+4=!
One last thing... when we were first given this to review, the minimum number of problems per lesson was 50. Several of us reviewers had young children using the program and 50 problems per lesson caused a lot of tears and struggles. Based on our comments and suggestions, the minimum limit was lowered to 5. I was very impressed by this example of customer service!

I love, Love, LOVE this program!!! If you need to read what other Crew Members had to say, click here.

I was given a free download of this product for the purpose of this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

TOS Review: Postive Action for Christ: Finding God's Promises

2011-01-03T12:29:00.000-06:00

For a lot of reasons, (we have a Bible program we love, we needed to review this during our vacation, my six year old needed his own thing) I chose to use the Positive Action for Christ Bible Curriculum with just my 2nd grade son, Nate. We received the second grade level, which is called Finding God's Promises and covers the life of Moses. We were sent the Teacher's Manual and Student workbook. The workbook is totally consumable, so you need one for each student. It is also full color, so it is pretty, and fun to use. I was concerned, at first, that it would be a lot of writing for him, since he is a young second-grader, and writing is not his thing, but it actually turned out to be just right, since a lot of it is "circle" or "place an x" or "write the number" or just a fill-in-the-blank.
The Teacher's Manual was extensive and is definitely required for this course. It lists the goals and objectives. It gives tips and suggestions. It has a black and white version of the workbook with the answers, which makes grading super easy! It has a complete lesson plan for each lesson: a script to follow, vocabulary words with easy definitions and a scripture verse, hymn and chorus that go with the lesson. I have heard a lot of moms say they don't like scripts, but I love them, even though I rarely follow them. I like having a "jumping off place" to figure out what I want to say, and I like knowing what point they are trying to make. It makes it easier for me to decide how to get that point across to my kids.
I like having the lesson all laid out. I liked having the memory verses and music already chosen and correlated with the lesson. I knew most of the hymns and choruses, (the words are in the back of the manual, but the music is not) and the few I didn't know, I was able to find by Googling. But what I liked most was the Weekly Lesson Plans. They had them laid out in three different options: 5-day week, 4-day week, and 3-day week. At the beginning of each week, I can decide how many days we have available for that week, and plan accordingly. It made lesson planning super easy!
My son also really enjoyed this course. The workbook is colorful, engaging and fun. He likes puzzles and games so the crosswords, scrambled words, and map labeling was right up his alley! The memory verses were the perfect challenge for him. He is not a singing on command kind of kid, so the hymns and choruses did not thrill him, but even so he had little problem learning them. The actual material was really a review for him, as he has studied this story both in school and at church before, but it was a great way to review, since we both had a lot of fun!

Positive Action Bible Curriculum has a level for each grade from kindergarten to sixth grade, then levels to choose from in middle school and high school. You can find Second Grade here with a complete description, pricing for the Teacher's Manual, Student workbook, and music CD, samples for free downloading, and a place to order.
If you are looking for a fun, interesting, easy to teach, yet complete Bible Curriculum, you should definitely check this one out.
You can read what other Crew Members have to say about this product here.

As always, I received this product for free for the purposes of this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Getting Ready

2010-12-22T10:51:00.000-06:00

We are having a great time on our Christmas break, and some of us are getting very excited about the upcoming week full of celebration. I, however, am also busy with preparations for our next school term. We have pretty much reached the point in our educational lives where "just do the next thing" is preferred. We have all burned out a bit on fancy projects and lots of extra book gathering and heavy planning. Toward the end of last term we were pretty much just putting one foot in front of the other and were slightly surprised to find that it worked and we liked it. I am happy that, thanks to some TOS Crew review items, a freebie from a local homeschooler, and a few other things I can throw in, Daniel and Abbie have a complete curriculum that doesn't involve me scouring the Internet for ideas. Put that together with our workboxes and our daily routine and I foresee a lot of "getting stuff done" without extra stress and strain on the mom. Maybe the house will even stay clean this term???

This is what we are doing:

MATH:
Kaytie and Nate (3rd and 2nd grade, respectively) will be starting Math U See level Gamma. I am also supplementing with Math Mammoth Measuring 1 and Early Geometry. I really like the looks of these as a supplement, and the price is great!
Daniel and Abbie and Kevin will be starting on Shiller math. It's based on Montessori theory, and the lessons are quick and easy enough that I can/will let each kid go through the book at their own rate. I am expecting Daniel to fly though it, Abbie to jog through it, and Kevin (who is nearly six months younger than Abbie) to move at a regular pace. The books were free (to me) and we already owned, in some form or another, all of the manipulatives required. I'm hoping this will keep Daniel busy and engaged until he is ready for Alpha next fall.

GRAMMAR:
We are starting Rod and Staff Grammar with Kaytie and Nate, and I am hoping it will be more hands on and practical than First Language Lessons. I liked FLL a lot until we got to the end of the first book and I realized that we had just spent a year on nouns and the kids still struggled with what exactly one was. They can memorize definitions and spit them back out at you in the blink of an eye, but they need to actually use the information before they can understand it. I like the look of Rod and Staff, it remains to be seen what the kids think. We are starting with Grade Three: Beginning Wisely, since everything they don't know in the Second Grade scope and sequence is also addressed in the Third Grade.

HISTORY:
We are still trudging through Story of the World. The kids do not enjoy "living history" as much as I thought they would. Although, they did engage in the story of King Tut, and memorized every book I could find on the subject. I'm hoping that once we get out of the ancient ancients and into the Greeks and Romans they will find it a tad more interesting... I really really wish they would incorporate more Biblical history into their timeline, though. We had a flicker of interest when we were able to see where Abraham and Joseph fit into the timeline.

GEOGRAPHY:
We are off schedule on the number of states we have studied, but since I never could figure out how to fit 50 states into 39 weeks to begin with, I don't guess it signifies much. We are just going to pick up where we left off and study one state at a time. I have decided to drop all the "living books" and just have them read a couple of factual books about each state. The story books don't usually have anything to do with the state to which they are "assigned" and the kids are not making the connection. So I'm going to drop those books off of my library lists and use those slots for books of their own choosing.

SCIENCE:
We are going on with Apologia's Swimming Creatures. The kids are really enjoying this and getting a lot out of it. I do wish there was more experiments for their age level, but we are not exactly lacking in impromptu scientific experiments around here. Little boys and science just seem to go hand in hand. It has been easy to find library books to go along with each creature as we come to it. Some I read aloud to everybody, some Kaytie and Nate read to themselves, some sit idly by until I give up and take them back.

SPELLING:
We are finally starting All About Spelling Level Two. I am loving this program. The kids remember the rules, even though I can't, and when they are writing on their own, they apply the rules. It's great!

LATIN:
We are reviewing Latin Is Not So Tough, so I will talk about it when the review comes out...

BIBLE:
We are still happily working our way through Bible Study Guide for All Ages. Kaytie and Nate are working on the Intermediate Level, Daniel and Abbie will be starting the Beginner Level this term. I'm interested in seeing what it looks like and if it works as well as the upper level.

HANDWRITING:
I am tweaking Peterson Directed Handwriting a little. I made a salt-tray and I copied all the letters and numbers onto half of an index card for quick and easy instruction or review. Kaytie will be focusing mostly on numbers and Nate on the handful of letters and numbers that give him trouble.
Daniel, Abbie and Kevin will just be working their way through the alphabet, learning to write. I have some large foam letters for them to "finger-trace" as well.
And the manipulative ideas that I have collected for Kaytie's backwards writing will be used by everybody.

READING:
Kaytie and Nate are still reading aloud daily. More to help with their pronunciation of big words than for any other reason. It's sad to have a large vocabulary of big words and not be able to say them properly.
Daniel and Abbie will be solidifying their letter/sound knowledge with Get Ready for the Code workbooks. They will sit in on Kevin's introduction to the alphabet. Kevin will be working with all the different manipulative alphabets I have, listening to alphabet books, working on puzzles, playing on Starfall, and singing the alphabet songs I found on youtube.
Daniel and Abbie will also be using a reading curriculum that we are reviewing. So far, I am liking it a lot. The review will be out in February.

TYPING:
The kids are still using Talking Fingers for fun and typing instruction.

PRESCHOOL:
In addition to the handwriting, math, and phonics I mentioned before, Abbie and Kevin (and Daniel, too) will be busy with puzzles and coloring and shapes and colors and cutting and pasting and...
Gracie will just be playing/working Montessori-toddler style. She will be included as she chooses in the bigger kids lessons, and left alone if she so desires.

So there you have it. That is our line-up for the next 13 weeks. I can not express how happy I am that the only researching/planning/hunting for ideas I am going to have to do is for science. Everything else is just sitting there, ready to go... :)

TOS Review: Tiny Planets

2010-12-17T20:26:00.000-06:00

As a member of The Old Schoolhouse review crew, we were given a subscription to the website Tiny Planets to review. This site is for kids ages four to twelve and is based on the space adventures of two aliens... Bing and Bong. On this site you will find books to read, games to play, and "tv episodes" to watch. A lot of the site is free, but some of it can only be used after you purchase it with "keys". The keys are bought by the parent with real money and the cost is as follows:
10 keys $1.95
25 keys $3.95
85 keys $9.95
250 keys $25.95
600 keys $49.95
A parent account is necessary to buy keys. Whatever you buy with the keys is available permanently to that account. A premium account is also available for purchase, which gives you access to more of the site, although I couldn't find the place to purchase it.
Tiny Planets has a lot of different places to play and things to do. We explored it several times and I don't think we even scratched the surface. My kids mostly enjoyed the Labs, which is where the games are found. They were not interested at all in the "educational" part of the site. We had some difficulty finding our way around and the kids were very annoyed that they could not choose their own usernames. When asked, they said they enjoyed playing here, but it was not something they ever asked to play.
Sign up is free, however, so you can check it out yourself. Or you can see what fellow Crew members thought here.

This product was given to me free for the purpose of this review and all opinions are honest and my own.

Just a Thought

2010-12-15T14:20:00.000-06:00

Are you wondering what to give Jesus for His birthday this year? I bet He would love if you chipped in to help Olga go home.

(photo borrowed from babynumber10.blogspot.com)

TOS Review: Good Morning, God

2010-12-10T14:16:00.000-06:00

In our homeschool, we use Apologia Science, which we thoroughly enjoy. So we were pleased to discover that one of our TOS reviews would be a book from the same company.

Good Morning, God is a beautiful picture book written by Davis Carman with the goal of introducing kids to the idea of worshiping God with and in their daily activities. It is meant to be read every day for a week and there are questions and activities for each day at the end of the book.
This book was a hit with my children (who range in age from 4 to 8). We read it through and talked over the questions at the end each day. It was a gentle and fun way to discuss some important topics.

I liked the beautiful artwork and the fact that although the little boy was far from perfect, every naughtiness was paired with a parent gently reproving in the background, so my kids got the message that parents are there to teach us. Most books about children either portray them as perfect or they rampage unchecked. I also liked the subtle reference to homeschooling and the larger than average family, since the kids rarely see either in the books they read.

Kaytie's opinion:
I liked it because it is about a boy who does daily things every day of the week and prays every night of the week. It taught me that worshiping God isn't just songs, it is praying and helping others and being healthy. I liked the questions at the end, some were too hard... I had to look for the answer, but I found it! .

Nate's opinion:
I thought it was nice. It taught me that I can worship God by enjoying His nature. The questions were boring because I don't like answering questions. (And it's true, I had to drag these three sentences out of his mouth!)

Daniel's opinion:
It taught me about God. It taught me about obeying the rules and that God likes me. I can worship God at church, at home, and by obeying and praising God.

Abbie's opinion:
She smiled a big smile and said she liked it. She learned that worshiping God is obeying and having fun with Mommy and with her sister.

You can order this book from Apologia's website for $14.

You can read what other Crew Members thought here.

And as always, this book was sent to me free of charge for the purpose of this review. All opinions belong to us and are honest, (especially Nate's).

What We Are Doing On Our Christmas Holiday

2010-12-06T16:40:00.000-06:00

So far, our break from school has been fun and relaxing. The kids are playing on NORAD's Santa Tracking site. They are also playing as much as I will let them on my new iPhone. Free educational apps rock! I even bought a Geography game for $.99! They are playing outside, although the allure of that kind of dimmed a bit when I confiscated the shovel the neighbor girl gave them.

There has been a lot of reading going on.

We made a paper chain, which I then could not bring myself to rip apart. It now hangs over the window and I keep forgetting to even read the Scriptures off of it. Maybe next year.

By the way, don't the boys' expressions say "Joy to the world"? Such festive attitudes we have around here!

This Build a Christmas Tree was a big hit. I printed off two of them so we only had half the fighting over whose turn it was. Our selection of dry erase markers is not that great. Black Christmas tree anyone?

We have also been playing with the felt Nativity, the teeny little glass Nativity I found last year (or the year before?) at the Dollar Tree, and the set of Christmas boxes that nest inside each other.

Our local garden gnome created his own measuring kit. See the Master Ruler? :) The dollar bills are there because someone told him a bill is approximately six inches. I don't know why the penny is there...

And the kid in the background made me this "award". I'm not sure what I did to earn it, but I accepted graciously and took its picture.

We are trucking along through Advent, reading the Story, coloring and drawing, and eating a candy cane every night. Not even an upset tummy kept us from that candy cane!

One of our favorite Holiday Activities so far is Christmas shopping! The kids drew each other's names in what we call "Secret Sibling". They also are shopping for some cousins and friend or two. Secrets abound in our house!

I am planning for next term and counting down the days until I can order our new curriculum! :)

Holidays!

2010-12-04T16:56:00.000-06:00

We are officially done with our first term of this school year. Kaytie and Nate had their exams on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving Day and did admirably. Kaytie got all As and Nate got all As except for one B. They were not as excited with their report cards this time as they were last time. And both were highly offended that Daniel and Abbie did not have exams.
We did pretty well at keeping up with my lesson plans in everything except for science. The big kids finished All About Spelling Level One, and Math U See Beta, so they get to start the next levels in both of those in January. The little kids will be starting Shiller Math. I received a free copy of the books from a mom in my local homeschool group, and discovered that we already have all (in some form) of the manipulatives required. I think Daniel is going to zip through the first book, so I might mix in some Math U See Alpha for him. But I'll talk more about that in a "What we are going to do next term" post.
Meanwhile, we need to catch up in science. Also, they all are at a point in math (and the little kids in phonics, as well) that they need to practice the new concepts they just learned. I don't want to take a four week break before they do that. So the plan is to do "Holiday School". Basically, I will set up "centers" in the place of our workboxes. The difference is that they won't change daily, and will be geared for skill building instead of one time activities. We will work on our science book, review math, phonics and handwriting, and do fun Christmas crafts. We also have some review items to work on, but those are mostly on the computer and therefor "fun".

TOS Review: Master Innovations

2010-12-01T22:11:00.000-06:00

When I first started teaching Kaytie and Nate about measurement, we spent a ton of time wrestling over the ruler. I bought a couple of regular wooden rulers and started talking about measuring. But then, every lesson, we had to go over which side of the ruler to use: inches or centimeters. Then, we had to figure out which line to talk about. They were confused, I was frustrated. It was no fun for anyone.
I just introduced Daniel and Abbie to measurement and it was much much MUCH simpler. Let me tell you why! I was blessed to be able to use Master Innovations' Master Ruler. We received two rulers made of sturdy plastic just like a regular ruler, a poster, and a reproducible workbook. There were two rulers because one is for inches and the other for centimeters. We lost half the headache right there! But even better, each ruler is actually several rulers in one. Linked together with sturdy plastic rings, the rulers flip and have only ONE unit of measurement on them. For example, the bottom ruler, which is white, has only inches marked on it. The others are all clear and are only marked with 1/2 inches, 1/4 inches, 1/8 inches, and 1/16 inches. They layer on top of each other so that as each measurement is taught, it can be added on top of the earlier learned measurement. The centimeter ruler works the same way, with three rulers marked dm, cm, and mm. This made it all so easy! Kaytie and Nate even gained a better understanding of how it all worked after using these rulers.
The poster was sturdy, colorful, and fun, and compares each measurement to a real life object the kids can relate to. For instance: the ladybug is 1/4 inch, and an inch is the length between the first and second knuckle of the pointer finger. They really liked that.

And finally, the workbook. It consisted of a measurement chart, two pages of suggestions of activities to use to teach measurement, fractions, map skills, area, perimeter, volume and diameter, (not a ton of ideas, but a very good jumping off place) and worksheets for the kids to practice what they learn. We did not use all of the worksheets, because it covers everything and some of it is a little beyond where Kaytie and Nate are. I believe, though, that it has a worksheet for each measurement on the ruler. It has fractions and area/perimeter worksheets as well.
It's easy to tell that I liked this product a lot, but let me list some of the specific things I appreciated.
First, I like that it is sturdy enough that I can hand it to one of MY kids and expect to get it back in good condition.
Second, it is a brilliant idea and made teaching measurement so much easier! I really don't know why someone didn't do this long ago!
Third, I love that it goes beyond just a ruler and gives a visual way to present fractions, so we will use this for several years, in many different ways.
Fourth, I like the way the poster presents the information in an eye-catching, many-faceted way, so my kids liked to look at it and learned something from it.
And, finally, as an on-a-budget mom to more than one kid, I love that the workbook is reproducible and I don't have to buy several copies of it.
All in all, this review left with me a strong desire to check out there other products, the Master Clock, Master Fractions, and Master Angles.
To find out what other Crewmates thought about this product, go here.

And as always, I was sent this product free in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Advent with the Penguins

2010-11-30T18:03:00.000-06:00

We love Christmas at our house! The entire month of December we listen to old fashioned Christmas Carols. (I mean the ones like: The First Noel, Oh, Come All Ye Faithful, Hark! The Harold Angels Sing, and even The Little Drummer Boy) we make and eat lots of yummy goodies, and we await the coming of the Christ Child in our own unique way. Around here, we love, love, LOVE tradition. (Well, 5 out of 6 of us do, the other one patiently humors us.) So we do the same things each year, but, each year, as the kids get older, I add things because it just simply gets easier to do crafts and things as they grow out of things like "Oh! Let's squeeze the glue bottle until nothing else comes out!!!!" or "I think it's much more fun to finger paint on my sister's face than on my paper!!!" or "Let's whine about the color of crayons I have; the way my brother isn't looking at me; or just because no one is taking my other whining seriously enough."

So, here are the things that we have done formerly:
We play with our flannelgraph Nativity
We use our Advent Calendar
A calendar that we draw, I found the idea here, but instead of using small objects, I give them a "calendar" which is actually a blank grid and they draw a picture of the item each day. It leaves us with a very cool keepsake. :)
These candy canes are always a favorite.
I like to provide a basket of "props", blankets, animals, etc. for them to act out the Nativity story and put on plays.
We always decorate cookies, of course.
And we hang 24 candy canes and eat (share) one every evening. This is a fun way to count down to the Special Day!
We do lots of coloring pages, because I have kids that absolutely live to color.
We pick an evening as soon after Thanksgiving as possible and we watch The Peanuts Special, while sipping hot chocolate and eating popcorn.
We always drive around and look at Christmas lights. We usually take popcorn and hot chocolate with us.
We have Christmas books and Christmas movies that the kids only read/watch during this time.

And, some new things I plan to do this year are:
Actually work on memorizing the Christmas Story.
Make a verse a day chain
Make candy canes with pipe cleaners and pony beads
Color a "Happy Birthday Jesus" book
Make some presents for the kids to give away
Probably do some more stuff from Hubbards Cupboard Christmas Activities List

What do you do while you are preparing for the celebration of Jesus' Advent?

Something to look forward to

2010-11-26T17:39:00.001-06:00

I was excited to be approached by CSN stores to do a review of one of their products. I was startled at the selection they offered! Tons of items on many different websites. I am looking forward to reviewing their products, the trouble is going to be picking one!
You can check them out or go look at coffee tables while you wait for my review!

The Monkey and the Motorcycle

2010-11-18T16:33:00.000-06:00

For "m" week, we had a visitor in the schoolroom.

I Don't Even Know What to Call It

2010-11-17T14:42:00.000-06:00

Kaytie writes her numbers backwards. She always has. At first, I thought it was because she was young and she would outgrow it. Then, I thought that if I corrected her every single time she would start correcting herself. Now that she is nearly eight, I'm starting to get concerned.
I tried googling (well, swagbucking, actually, it pays better) dyslexia but came up with nothing but stuff for sale. I tried dysgraphia (although I don't really know what that means) and fared no better. She has no problems with letters. She reads fluently, well above her "grade level" and she is always reading. She writes her letters correctly. She does fairly well with math (we are almost finished with Math U See Beta), although she doesn't care for it. She does sometimes read double digit numbers backwards-- turning 12 into 21 for example, but single digit and triple digit numbers are fine.
If I stop her right before she writes the number, if she stops and thinks about it, if she copies a number she can see, or if she writes it with her eyes closed, she can/will write it correctly. Also, if I tell her, "Some of your numbers are backwards, you need to find them and fix them," she can do that. So she can tell by looking (if she does stop to look) that they are backwards.
A friend of mine suggested that we do a lot of hands-on, 3-D letter formation activities, so I devoted an entire workbox to this. I made some large number cards and every day I put something different in the box with the cards. She has made numbers with glass pebbles, nuts, beads, playdough, animal manipulatives, math cubes, Bendaroos, and string. I don't let her form the numbers on the card, she has to do it beside it. Today, I gave her felt, paper, and a large tack to pin-punch letters on paper. She really enjoyed that.
We have been doing this for a few weeks now, there was, initially, an improvement, but her numbers are still backward when she doesn't stop to think about it. So I am looking for suggestions or ideas on how to help her fix this.

TOS Review: Corps of Rediscovery

2010-11-15T23:18:00.001-06:00

Kaytie is my "crafty" kid. She loves to draw, paint, color, write, to create in any medium. So when we received a coin pouch kit to review, I knew she was the logical person to try it out.
I originally intended to hand it to her, instructions and all, and let her have at it. But the pictures in the instructions were a bit much for her, since she had never done anything like this before. So I read the directions and showed her what to do. She took it from there.

As you can see, she thoroughly enjoyed this! It took her about ten minutes to sew her purse, and then she and Abbie spent the next hour arguing over to whom it should belong.

This kit came from Corps of Rediscovery, a family company designed to help kids "rediscover" American history. This site is full of different kid-friendly crafts intended to enhance history studies. This is a great way to round out a unit study on the Pioneers, Pilgrims, or American Indians. I wish I had known about this last year, when we were studying the Colonial times. And I will definitely keep it in mind for the next time we travel through this period of history.

The product we received consisted of two pieces of leather, with the snap already in place, and the holes for stitching pre-punched. It also had the lacing, and instructions.

Kaytie's opinion of this product was: "It is wonderful. I enjoyed making this and I would love to do it again. I would definitely recommend this to other mommies for their kids."

Find out what other Crew members have to say here.

This product was sent to me, as a member of the TOS Review Crew, free of charge, for the purpose of this review. All opinions expressed are honest and are mine and Kaytie's own.