Munchkin and Bean

Home School in the Woods Ancient Greece Review

2017-02-21T21:30:00.003-05:00

We received HISTORY Through the Ages Project Passport World History Study: Ancient Greece from Home School in the Woods to review. Ancient Greece is their newest title, but in the past we have used their Middle Ages history study. There is also Ancient Egypt, and Renaissance and Reformation. Ancient Rome will be out next year.

Each of the Project Passport History Studies are in-depth and provide lots of materials. They are available as a download, or on a CD. We received the download, which comes as separate files and you have to piece it together yourself. The download is inexpensive. It may look intimidating, but there is a helpful guide included. I generally print lessons as we need them, rather than all at once, since we have to pay for printing. But I highly suggest printing it all at once and getting it properly sorted before beginning to use it.

Each of these World History studies contains 25 "stops." Each stop is a lesson. Some families complete a stop per day or a stop per week. We average about 2-3 stops per week, about 30 minutes for each lesson. Older students may require more or less time, because they may be doing more research. We use these history lessons to introduce this time period, location, historical figures, and landmarks. We had the added bonus of fantastic pictures to go along with our study that their grandmother took last year of Greece and all the famous statues, locations, and landmarks. We also picked up books from the library to read on the days we did not complete stops on.

You start out by creating a luggage folder, which is kind of like a lap book. There is also a passport, travelogue, and timeline pages. My kids are just beginning to write independently, so I encourage them to write what they can, and I help with spelling. We also have a journal that they are using to write their own story in, based on the lessons and what they have learned about Ancient Greece. Most are about the myths we have read, but some involve historical people. We love how hands-on Project Passport is. There are so many different types of lessons, and it's easy enough to customize the lessons to fit the needs of children of different grades.

There are also maps, postcards, newspapers, family trees, and cook books (my daughter's favorite lessons are always the ones that involve cooking). There are so many different components to Project Passport. They go over clothing, jobs, government, people, fables, poetry, constellations, heroes, weapons, and so much more. If you are looking for a history unit study, look no future. There is so much packed into this unit study. You really get a fantastic idea of what it was like in Ancient Greece. We haven't finished our unit yet, but we are already planning on finishing with a play based on their favorite Greek hero, Cadmus, and a Greek feast.

We enjoy using Project Passport because there is so much to use and it's perfect for all types of learners. There are many hands-on activities, arts and crafts, writing prompts, and it's fun! I had one teacher in school who stood out because he made history fun to learn, so that's what I look for in a history curriculum. We do add some of our own stuff, which is used to research things that Project Passport teaches about. And the best part is when we are at the library and my children are excitedly teaching the other kids about Ancient Greece, or telling the librarians about all the fun stuff they learned.

I highly suggest checking out Home School in the Woods. They have much more to offer, including: Timeline Materials, Map Sets, Time Travelers Activity-based U.S. History Studies, Activity-Paks, Lap-Paks, and Activity Studies.

Be Social!

Facebook ~ Pinterest ~ Google+ ~ Twitter

@HSintheWoods

Click on the banner below to read more reviews from the TOS Crew.

The Beginner's Bible Review

2017-01-04T09:13:00.000-05:00

We received The Beginner's Bible from Zonderkidz. Our version is the new version, with updated 3D artwork. The classic edition was originally published in 1989 and has been a best seller with over 25 million copies sold.
The Beginner's Bible contains stories from the Old Testament and the New Testament, including: Noah's Ark, Ten Commandments, Jonah and the Big Fish, Baby Jesus is Born, Lazarus Lives Again, and The Last Supper, among many others. There is a total of ninety-six stories. The stories vary in length, usually from three to seven pages. There is 511 pages, with the final few pages used for a dictionary.
This Bible is ideal for beginner readers and younger elementary aged children. My own children are aged six, five, and 7 months. We read some of the stories, which they picked out based on the pictures in the book. They aren't as familiar with the stories, because we don't practice this faith, however we do learn about Christianity because most of our family are believers. This way my children know about the faith and teachings. They enjoyed the stories and we printed out coloring pages and activity pages from the website to work on after reading some of the stories. The reading suggestion list was helpful, since it had recommendations on stories to read during Christmas: An Angel Visits Mary, Baby Jesus Is Born, Shepherds Visit, Simeon and Anna Meet Baby Jesus, The Bright Stars & Three Visitors. The reading list also has suggestions on what to read on Easter, during spring, summer, and on Thanksgiving, and New Years.

My oldest reading to my youngest.

There's even a snack ideas printable, if you want to pair food with a story. Such as animal crackers while reading Noah's Ark, or goldfish while reading Jonah and the Big Fish (Stauffers actually has Whales Crackers, which would be more fitting).

I think children will be drawn to this book because the artwork is colorful and inviting. The stories are short, which is good for younger children with shorter attention spans. The font is large enough for a beginner reader to read easily. Each story also tells you where you can find the story in the Bible. Example: The Brave Queen: Esther 1-10. So as children get older, they can transition to the Bible and read the full story. This also helps families with children of different ages. Younger children can read the story in this book, while older children can use a regular Bible.

This book would also be perfect for children attending church, since they can look at the pictures and read the stories while their parents listen to the sermon. Church groups can also use the printables found on the website to keep younger children busy.

This children's Bible contains all the stories Christian children are familiar with, from Noah's Ark, to David and Goliath, to Jonah and the Whale. There were also a handful of stories I didn't recognize, such as "Chariot of Fire" and "Naaman is Healed."

We've read about two dozen of the stories in this book so far. My daughter has been more interested than my son, and I've been about to teach her more about the people and time periods in the book. We were able to add events to our "History of the World" timeline.

You can also find games and activities, a section for parents and teachers, and additional products on the website. There are lots of great coloring pages, mazes, and games for kids. There's also a free iPad app with stories and games. Homeschoolers can use these materials for lessons.

Overall, we enjoyed this product. The stories were kid-friendly and did a great job introducing the people and events that are important to Christian faith. We will continue to read the stories through the year and use the coloring pages to go along with them.

Be Social!

Facebook ~ Twitter ~ YouTube ~ Pinterest ~ Instagram

Scented Felt Hand Warmers

2016-12-23T22:17:00.000-05:00

We are from New England and are expecting snow next week. So I decided to make some hand warmers! I knew we'd be in and out of the house throughout the day shoveling, so I knew hand warmers would come in handy. They were really easy to make, and they smell great!

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links for your convenience.

To make Felt Hand Warmers, you will need:

Felt (I used 2 1/2 inch squares for children and 4 inch squares for adults)

Essential Oil (I used Spearmint Oil - the minty smell is amazing on a cold day)

Embroidery Thread (I used DMC Embroidery Floss)
Uncooked Rice

Embroidery Hand Needles
Sharp Scissors

For each hand warmer, you'll need to cut out two squares of equal size. Or any shape, really. I was planning on making lavender scented heart shaped hand warmers for next month, in time for Valentine's Day. Because I expect we will still have plenty of snow by then.

I used a blanket stitch, but you could use a whip stitch if you prefer. I'm sure there are many more creative stitches, but I just like the look of the blanket stitch on felt projects.

I used 1 tablespoon of rice per child sized hand warmer and 2 tablespoons of rice for each of the adult hand warmers. I mixed in a few drops of spearmint essential oil. We used brown rice, since it's a larger grain.

Once they are finished, all you'll need to do is pop them in the microwave for 25-50 seconds, let them sit for a few moments when they are finished (please be careful, they may be too hot) and then pocket them. They will keep your hands toasty warm!

We look forward to trying our new hand warmers out!

Note: One reader suggested adding ceramic pie weights to the hand warmers. It will keep them warmer for longer. Has anyone tried this?

Stay warm!

Ribbon Wrapped Embroidery Hoop Tutorial

2016-12-16T23:51:00.000-05:00

This simple cardinal cross stitch quickly became a fun project to make! I learned a lot about wrapping ribbon around the embroidery hoop through trial and error. Now I can't wait to make more finished cross stitch projects like this!

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links for your convenience.

To make this project, you'll need:

The Pattern

3" Wooden Embroidery Hoop

Aida 14 Count - Ivory

DMC Embroidery Floss (666, 352, 437, and 310)

Red Ribbon

Embroidery Needle

Embroidery Scissors

I started out by practicing a few wraps around the hoop with the ribbon. Once I liked the placement, I glued the beginning piece of the ribbon to the inside of the outer hoop, near the opening.

You'll want to space the ribbon apart, so it is not too thick, otherwise when you place the cloth between the two hoops, you won't be able to close it.

You'll also want to make sure the ribbon is not bunched up in places. It should be smooth and tight around the hoop.

Once you reach the other end of the hoop, glue the underside of the ribbon to the hoop. I closed the hoop with the screw and then debated how to create a bow and some way to hang it.

I then fitted the aida cloth into the hoop and trimmed the excess fabric. Go ahead and use fray check glue if you are worried about the cloth fraying. If it's tight in the hoop and you don't expect it to be taken out, I wouldn't worry about it. You could also use glue to secure it to the hoop, but that may damage or discolor the fabric. I did not use either.

I ended up wrapping the ribbon around the screw, looped the ribbon to about 3 inches, and then created a folded bow in the front, right above the screw. I did add a small dot of glue between the bow and the loop to keep it from slipping. I tucked the end of the ribbon underneath the middle of the bow and secured it with glue.

And there you have it! Super easy! This project took about 1 and a half hours to stitch, and another hour to finish.

Stuffed Felt Alphabet

2016-12-01T23:16:00.000-05:00

I recently made a custom Etsy order for a fellow blogger, Heather at Crayon Box Chronicles. She requested a set of felt letters for her adorable baby girl - so I created a set of rainbow letters! I used a simple, easy-to-read font in uppercase letters that are about 3".

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.

I used bright shades in red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple felt. I did alter the I from the original font, but I kept the J as is. You can either hold the paper letter to the felt and cut around it or use a disappearing ink pen to trace it and then cut it.

See the difference in the J? I'll probably change the J in the future.

I sewed along the edges using a blanket stitch and filled them with Poly-Fil stuffing. I'm thinking about using Poly-Pellets for a future project. They are weighed stuffing beads, which would be great for sensory-sensitive children and could be used for all kinds of activities.

Aren't they lovely? This was such a fun project for me! I love creating educational toys for kids!

Updated:I found this adorable patterned felt at Target! It was fun fun to make this new set!

My kids love the designs.

I usually use a thread color that matches the felt, but this time I went with white on all of them and I love how they turned out,

Message me at my Etsy store if you ever want a custom order created for you!

Chara Games Review

2016-11-15T11:13:00.000-05:00

We received the Commissioned board game from Chara Games to review. This was a game that originally started on Kickstarter and is now available at online retailers and possibly your LFGS (local friendly game store). Commissioned was designed by Patrick and Katherine Lysaght, who are also the founders of Chara Games. Commissioned is their first game that they designed and published together. They also have a second game coming out, that was recently on Kickstarter, called 3 Seeds. They did not design the game, but they published it. Chara Games is new to publishing games, but from the comments I have read on Kickstarter and from other board game reviewers, they produced a high quality game and even got it out to backers before the expected delivery date.

$34.86 (current Amazon price at the time of this post)
Commissioned is for 2-6 players, ages 14+ (recommended age, but younger players can certainly learn how to play if they are experienced gamers), and plays in about an hour. We played our first game in just over an hour, but the first "learning game" typically take extra time. With more players, it will likely be 60-90 minutes. There are multiple missions that you can play, so I expect play times will vary.

Commissioned is a game where you play the Apostles in the early days of Christianity. You and the other Apostles are traveling around trying to spread the word of God and build churches in cities across the map. In the first scenario we needed to have one follower in each city and all of the books completed. On each turn you also have to play a threat card, and in our first game we got the three worst cards back to back at the start of the game. It really set us back and made the rest of the game much harder. We did fail the first game, but came really close. With one more turn we might have won. We actually don't mind playing games where we lose, but I can imagine younger players would be upset by that. However, it's a neat part of the game because it's based on historical events.

Commissioned is really interesting because it teaches how Christianity started and spread. It also teaches about history and the geography of the world 2,000 years ago. The threat cards deal with real obstacles the early Apostles would have faced.

The Commissioned board game comes with a rule book and a theme appendix. This is especially helpful if you plan to use this game to teach about Christianity. I think it would be a really interesting game to have at church, on church group trips, Bible camp, etc. It could also be used in a theology classroom.

The board is double-sided and has a linen finish (which is a high quality finish and looks and feels lovely). It is double-sided because you can play with 2-6 players and to keep the game balanced there are larger areas and more locations to cover with the higher player count.

The footprints at the top is where you put the four draw piles. These are cards that you can buy throughout the game. They have different costs and the cards have weaker abilities for the cheaper cards and stronger abilities for the more expensive cards. The candles on the left is where you track when you lose locations or when bad things happen. Snuff out enough of them and you lose the game.

The cards on the left of the board are the threat cards which determine what kind of obstacle you're going to face that turn. Sometimes it's that an Apostle will be imprisoned, sometimes it prevents followers from moving, other times it cuts your flock in half. If you play through that entire deck you also lose.

The book locations at the bottom of the board is where you store the books when you complete them. You simply take the card with the matching book and slip it halfway under the board so that it shows sticking out. The first time we played we did this part wrong. We completed the books and marked it with a white cube, leaving the card in our hand. A few turns in we realized we had been doing it wrong and kept it in mind for the next game. It makes a lot of sense to "spend" the card, because it helps to keep your deck size down.

Here are the components: decks of cards, player cards, first player marker, white follower cubes, meeples, mission cards, cardboard tokens, and Apostle player pieces.

There are six player cards, which are based on the Apostles. The backside of the cards have historical art on them. We always love when publishers put art on the backside of player cards. Each of the Apostles have a special ability. For the first game we chose at random, but in future games we might want to choose more strategically, because then their special ability could help during the game. My character's special ability was almost no help in our first game.

The components are thick cardboard.

I played Barnabas in the first game. I chose him at random, and barely used his special special ability. Each round you draw six cards from your deck, then you choose two to play. You place these face down on your character sheet. Then when everyone is done choosing, you reveal the cards. The person with the first person marker gets to choose which of the actions they want to use. You can discuss which ones would be best to play, unless a card says otherwise. Then you move cubes, player pieces, or spend cards, and the first person marker is handed to the next player. We have only played with two players so far. After two rounds, you have two cards leftover in your hand. These cards have a value on them and that lets you "spend" them on the special cards. These cards can give you special abilities, like clearing obstacles, extra movement, books, get out of jail, etc.

The above picture shows how we played during the first game and explains why we played wrong. We played on the same side of the table, and I had the baby on my lap, so we put the cards at the base of the game so they were easier to reach. It took up the space where we should have been putting the spent book cards.

The goal of the first mission was to complete all of the books and have at least one follower in each of the locations. We managed to complete all of the books, but were four locations short. One more turn would have won us the game, but sometimes you run out of time. We ran through the threat deck, so we did as much as we could manage on the last few turns. We took mental notes and made sure we didn't make the same mistakes on the next play through.

We don't usually buy religious games, but Commissioned was really well received. We loved the quality of the board game and components for its price. We enjoyed the historical side of it and actually learned from the game. We haven't had a chance to play it with our friends yet, but we have a few Christian friends who are looking forward to trying it. They checked it out while they were over and agreed that it looks interesting and unique. We look forward to our next few games of Commissioned!

Look out for our review of 3 Seeds, the newest game from Chara Games, which was recently on Kickstarter.

Be Social

Facebook ~ Twitter

@Charagames

To read more reviews from the TOS Crew, click on the banner below.

The Critical Thinking Co. Vowel Sounds Song and Game Software Review

2016-11-07T18:07:00.003-05:00

We received the Vowel Sounds Song and Game™ Software - 2-PCs Win Download from The Critical Thinking Co.™ to review. This software is for children in Pre-K to 2nd grade. The app uses the Vowel Sounds Song to teach children long and short vowel sounds. There are five songs. The first teaches the words in the song. Children learn to identify the words with vowels in them.

The software download can be used on 2 PCs ($3.99) or 6 PCs ($7.99). There is also an iOS app, Android app, and Windows app available. The software will only work on Windows computers. We used one to download the software on the laptop we use for homeschooling. At first the software didn't work and said it required a certain program to be installed on our laptop, but after trying to set it up a few times it updated and we had no issues after that.

The long and short vowel song is easy to follow and both of my kids were able to pick it up right away. The software is designed for one student to use at a time, and the game picks up where you left off when you open it. However, there is a menu that lets you choose which game you want to work on, in case you need more review.

When you enter the menu screen, you can check on the progress of each game. It has a score to show you how much is completed, and which game you are currently on. We aimed to complete one game a week and review previous games when they needed.

The letters are a font that is easy to read and the pictures are large.

Some of the pictures have a red arrow, which points to the part of the picture that uses the vowel letter. So in this example, it was pointing to the egg, instead of the whole picture of the nest. Some of the pictures and word choices were confusing at first, but my kids got used to them after listening to the song a few times. For example, the word unity was used for U and that wasn't a word they have used before.

My daughter struggles with differentiating vowel sounds, so I thought this game would help her. She enjoyed singing the song and memorized it, but even after using it for a few weeks, she still has some issue telling vowel sounds apart. Not the ones in the song, but the ones in her workbooks. But now when we are going over a sound, we refer back to the song to help her remember which sound she is trying to work on.

We used the Vowel Sounds Song and Game software three times a week, usually every other day. We will continue using the long and short vowel sounds game as part of our literacy activities. It is definitely helping my daughter, so we hope to see more improvement in the next few weeks.

The Critical Thinking Co. also has other fun apps for kids, such as the Alphabet Song Game for toddlers to 1st graders, Letter Sounds Song and Game for Pre-K to 1st graders, and Fun-Time Phonics! for Pre-K to 2nd graders. We loved using the Fun-Time Phonics! workbook last year.

Be Social

Facebook ~ Google + ~ Pinterest

To read other reviews from the TOS Crew, click on the banner below.

Homeschool Legacy: Many Nations Review

2016-11-03T19:09:00.000-04:00

We received a Once-a-Week Grab-and-Go Micro-Study called Many Nations from Homeschool Legacy to review. Homeschool Legacy publishes Christian unit studies that last four weeks. They can be used by students in 1st grade through 8th grade, depending on the unit study. We love Homeschool Legacy's unit studies because they are easy to follow and can be used by multiple students of different ages. I taught the Many Nations unit study to my Kindergartner and 1st grader. $12.00 We received a digital copy of the unit study in PDF form that we were able to download and print. There are links in the unit study that have printable materials, which we also printed, although not all of the links worked. We were also unable to pick up a copy of Sign Down the Moon, which is the book the unit study suggests to read. Our local library had two copies, but they were both signed out, and our local bookstore didn't have a copy. So instead we used Native American books we already had at home. (I list them at the end of the post.)
The micro-study is 20 pages long (including cover page, message from the author, dedication page, etc.) and covers a handful of the numerous indigenous tribes of North America. We have studied Native American culture and tribes in the past and used this unit study to learn more about them this year.

The first week introduces the Iroquois tribe from the Northeast Woodlands. There is a map that you can use to color in the different regions as you work through the unit study. You can also use the map to label where the different tribes live. My kids have a map on the wall that they have used in the past to mark where tribes live, so we used that. We printed out and colored in a paper longhouse and Iroquois paper dolls (a boy and girl for each of them). The link to the Tomahawk activity didn't work, so instead we cut out Tomahawks using construction paper.

The second week of the unit study focused on the Southeast Nations: Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muskogee Creek, and Seminole. We focused mainly on Sequoyah, who was from the Cherokee tribe and invented the first written tribal language after becoming interested in "talking leaves" (the written word). We have two books on Sequoyah, so we read those and practiced writing the Cherokee alphabet. He was able to teach the written language to the rest of the tribe and 7 years later they were able to print a newspaper called the Cherokee Phoenix. We took a one week break from our Spanish language studies to learn about the Cherokee language. We also created a timeline and labeled historic events. The unit study says to use clipart or download images to cut and paste on the timeline. We downloaded a blank timeline and printed pictures from Google and Wikipedia. This was the first time we really talked about history and compared past and present events. We discussed the Trail of Tears and the Long Walk, treaties the US Government made, what reservations are, and what injustices the indigenous tribes of America face today.

The third week covered the Plains Nations. We have family living in Montana on the Crow and Cheyenne reservations and I have pictures from my childhood of staying there over the summer. I showed the pictures to the kids and was able to teach them about how they built and set up tepees, the Buffalo Nation, and what a sun dance and rain dance are, among other lessons. The activities in the unit study has directions to create a tepee and diorama. There is also a link to a program that helps you learn Native American Sign Language called "Talking Hands" that the Plains Nations and other tribes used to communicate. We watched videos of buffalo grazing and being herded by riders. We also looked at tools, clothing, and utensils made from buffalo parts online. We talked about how hunting the buffalo was a dangerous job, but the Plains tribes relied on the buffalo for food and revered them.

The fourth week was about the Southwest Nations. We made Hogans out of paper mache and bowls out of clay. We practiced weaving bowls using paper and then switched to a DIY cardboard loom and used yarn. My daughter absolutely loved weaving and has requested a real loom for Christmas. The second craft the unit study covers is sand art, but we did not get a chance to make any, so we watched YouTube videos. It's definitely a project for a later date. For the Art Appreciation section I had examples my kids could look at in person. I have Navajo jewelry and textiles (three blankets) they were able to look at and we watched videos of how the Navajo make pottery and baskets. We also added to our timeline the Navajo Talkers who were incredibly important during WWII.

I definitely feel like this unit study should have included a lesson on the Pacific Northwest tribes, even if it added a week to the unit. We did this and created our own lessons and crafts. We focused on how they built plank houses, went whale hunting, carved totem poles, and their art. While learning about their unique art, they learned how dyes were made back in the day. While we didn't make our own dyes the same way, they did find ingredients in nature to make their own. We used different colored leaves (green, yellow, orange, and red) and mashed them using rocks until it formed a thick, lumpy paste. We added a little water and they used paintbrushes to paint a picture.

Throughout all the lessons we read books. Some were non-fiction and others were based on stories and legends. We also watched an episode from Magic School Bus called Shows and Tells (season 3, episode 6). The kids go back in time to research an artifact. We got to learn about what a hypothesis is and how it helps scientists and historians learn about history. We visited our local library which has a collection of Native American artifacts that were found nearby. Our area is actually where some of the original Massachusetts settlements were made. We also learned about present day tribal life.

Homeschool Legacy's unit studies can also be used to earn Boy Scout badges. This is not something we would use now, but my son plans to join the Boy Scouts next year.

We love using Homeschool Legacy for unit studies. They have just enough stuff to get us started and suggestions on how we can learn more about the subject. I really like that the unit studies accommodate children of different ages and as a teacher you can decide how simple or complex you want the lessons to be. Older students can probably complete the lessons in about 30 minutes. We usually spent an hour or two on each lesson. We typically spread out the lessons during the week, so we didn't do the whole weeks lesson in one day, although some students may prefer to do that. We look forward to using more unit studies by Homeschool Legacy in the future!

Other great Once-a-Week Studies and Micro-Studies:

Christmas Comes to America

Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims

Cooking up History with the Founding Presidents

Victoria and Her World

Pirates or Privateers: You Decide

Be Social!

Facebook

List of books we read during the unit study, in no particular order: Coyote Places the Stars by Harriet Peck Taylor The First Strawberries: A Cherokee Story retold by Joseph Bruchac Ma'ii and Cousin Horned Toad: A Traditional Navajo Story by Shonto Begay A River Ran Wild by Lynne Cherry Between Earth and Sky: Legends of Native American Sacred Places by Joseph Bruchac Thirteen Moons on Turtle's Back: A Native American Year of Moons by Joseph Bruchac and Jonathan London The Mud Pony by Caron Lee Cohen The Legend of Scarface: A Blackfeet Indian Tale by Robert San Souci Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship and Freedom by Tim Tingle The Very First Americans by Cara Ashrose Raven: A Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest by Gerald McDermott Song of Sedna by Robert D. San Souci Children of the Earth and Sky: Five Stories About Native American Children by Stephen Krensky Children of the Wind and Water: Five Stories About Native American Children by Stephen Krensky Turquoise Boy: A Navajo Legend by Terri Cohlene Clamshell Boy: A Makah Legend by Terri Cohlene Sequoyah's Talking Leaves by Mary Dodson Wade Buffalo Woman by Paul Goble The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses by Paul Goble The Gift of the Sacred Dog by Paul Goble

CrossTimber Review

2016-10-26T09:17:00.001-04:00

We received a Personalized Framed Plaque with Name Meaning and Bible Verse from CrossTimber to review. CrossTimber is a family-run business with affordable products. Their best selling product is their custom name meaning and bible verse plaques.

CrossTimber has so many different designs to choose through and group their designs into four main categories: faith and inspiration, animals and creatures, people and relationships, and the great outdoors. So there is a design for everyone and you can truly customize the name plaque to the person you are gifting it to. You can also add on bookmarks, pocket cards, greeting cards, or a personalized message on the back of the frame, for a small additional charge. We chose the Fishing in the Stream design paired with the 5x7 Artist's Choice Frame. We decided to make this a gift for my grandfather Kevin and we spent several days researching Bible verses before we made a final decision. We went with 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NIV:

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

The image for the Fishing in the Stream design said: "This pro fisherman baits his hook in the beautiful mists on this country stream. Encourage a fisherman with the meaning of his name on this relaxing getaway to get close to God. The matching bookmark has the same red-shirted fisherman, while the Pocket Card has the profile of an older fisherman in the same peaceful creek."

I chose the fisherman design because my grandfather has two favorite hobbies: fishing and hunting. I've gone hunting with him once, and while I enjoyed spending time with him, I dreaded him actually shooting anything that day. Thankfully there were no deer in the woods that day. However, my favorite memories of my grandfather usually take place at my grandparents cottage on an island with no electricity. I spent many summers there growing up and now I love bringing my children there. I always loved going fishing with him and it was so relaxing being on the water and quietly talking with him or just sitting there waiting for the fish to bite. My kids can't wait to learn to fish next summer and go out on the boat with him. I hope they cherish the same memories I do when they are older.

I spoke with John at CrossTimber who was very patient and helpful in selecting a Bible verse. They did have some suggestions of their own, which they would normally have used with the name Kevin, but I was glad they allowed me to choose a verse that fit my grandfather.

Along with the Name Meaning Plaque, they also sent a newsletter about CrossTimber's history, two business cards, a Bible verse card, and a small name meaning card, which also features the name Kevin.

I'll be giving both the small card and the Name Meaning Plaque to my grandfather for Christmas, along with other gifts we plan to give him. (I usually cross stitch him something special.)

The frame can be hung on a wall or placed on a table.

The frame stands almost straight up.

I chose my grandfather because he's a very special member of our family and he was recently ill. We wanted to give him a gift that showed how much he means to our family. Kevin means comely, noble, kind: one who is beloved. And he certainly is!

One of the things I like about CrossTimber is that they research hundreds, or more likely thousands, of names to make sure they have the correct meaning. Sometimes names are used in different regions of the world and have different meanings. For example, I gave my daughter a name used mostly in Ireland, Russia, and Japan (besides America). Each country has a different meaning, although the meaning is similar in Russia and Japan, but almost the opposite in Ireland. And although we have Irish roots, we actually named her after a Japanese character that we loved. My oldest son is also named after a literary character, but his name is also a common Irish name, but with the English spelling. My second son, however, has a name with Greek roots, but French spelling, because we also share some French heritage. We tried to name our children names that reflect our heritage.

CrossTimber offers more than just name plaques, although that is their focus. They also have mugs, bookmarks, and music boxes. When you buy multiple items they offer discounted prices.

This holiday season CrossTimber is having a giveaway. Enter the giveaway below!

Grand Prize: The winner may choose between a: Personalized Mug OR a Name Plaque or 8x10 Plaque! --> Plus 9 more prizes: $10 Gift Certificates Ends December 4th.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be Social!

Facebook ~ Pinterest

Middlebury Interactive Languages Review

2016-10-25T15:49:00.003-04:00

We received access to a semester of Spanish Courses offered by Middlebury Interactive Languages. We chose Elementary Spanish 1: Grades K-2. Last year we used Middlebury Interactive Languages to introduce my daughter to Spanish (you can read our review here), and this year we used it as a refresher for her, but also to introduce Spanish to my son, who mainly just watched his sister use the program last year. This year she is in 1st grade and he is in Kindergarten. We chose Spanish because it's a very common language spoken in our area, and we also have family members who speak Spanish.

We use Middlebury Interactive Languages on our laptop. The kids are older now, so they can use it independently. They use the laptop one at a time, my son going first, since using the activities is a first for him, so he took more time completing the lessons. My daughter worked on the lesson after him. Each unit has about 6 lessons each. We aimed to complete one unit each week, although we usually finishing one or two lessons per day. We would go back at the end of the week and complete them again to make sure they remembered the lessons and were ready to move on to the next unit. Some units we went over for two weeks. We make flash cards for each vocabulary word so they can read and review them and at the end of the week they practice writing them.
There are 12 units in the K-2 Spanish study. They each focus on one subject. There are Greetings, Numbers, Family, Colors, School, Body, Animals, Calendar, Food, Descriptions, and two review units (6 and 12). When we begin a new unit, I start by printing out the story pages and vocabulary list. You'll find the story video and recap in the first lesson. We complete lesson one usually the same day, but we use the printables throughout the week to review the story, which has additional words to learn, and to use the vocabulary words as our spelling words. At the end of the week, when we go over lesson six with the test, we also read the story one last time and I'll ask them comprehension questions and review the words. Then I let them know what the theme will be next week and ask them if there are any other words in that theme they would like to learn. For example, in the family section, it only has the words for mother, father, sister, brother, grandmother, and grandfather. But they wanted to know what the words for aunt and uncle were, so we learned those too.
There are some printables available that you can find in lesson 6 of each unit. The printables cover the overview of the story on the first page, then it goes through the story line-by-line translating it, with English on the left and Spanish on the right. When we first began using Middlebury Interactive Languages (last year), I didn't know about the story pages until we got to them, so to watch the story completely in Spanish was confusing. It's much easier to watch them now that we have the translation ready to go over each part of the story. The only thing that I'd change about the printables is that they highlight the vocabulary words in light orange. We don't have a color printer, so those words just look really light. It would be much easier to read if they were black and in bold letters.
(Apologies for the poor lighting. We had a massive rain storm that caused the power to go out during the time I took these pictures.)

We put our printables in folders, one for each unit. The printables go on the left side, while our flash cards and writing pages are put in the right side. We plan to also make picture collages for the animals and food units.

Close up of how the words look pale using a black and white printer.

I would love more printables to be available, especially for young children who are using the K-2 version. There are lots of activities that involve matching a phrase to a picture. That could be turned into a printable cut and paste version for offline revision. There could also be printables where the student writes in their answer to a question. Currently I have a writing book that they use to copy Spanish phrases in for each unit. Each phrase uses one page, so they have to copy the phrase multiple times and also draw a picture depicting the phrase, such as "Hola" and the person is waving. That being said, Middlebury Interactive Languages is primarily an online foreign language study program and does a great job introducing the Spanish language to young children.

My children and I love using Middlebury Interactive Languages to learn Spanish. We would love to use the next level, which is for grades 3-5, but will probably wait until the kids are in 2nd and 3rd grade to use it. In the meantime, they do have French and Chinese (Mandarin) for grades K-2 available. So we may look into learning a new language next year!
I would recommend using Middlebury Interactive Languages to other homeschoolers or public school students who may not have a foreign language class available to them (in our area some schools don't offer foreign language studies until middle or high school). This program can also be used by children who move to a new country that speaks Spanish, French, German, or Chinese. They have different levels for learning each language K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12, and 11-12, so if your child already knows the basics, they can move to the next level or match their grade level.

Be Social!

Facebook

Twitter

Educeri Review

2016-10-17T13:18:00.000-04:00

We received Educeri Lesson Subscription Service from Educeri ....... Educeri a division of DataWORKS to review. The subscription gave us 12 months of access to Educeri's online and printable educational materials. Educeri covers Kindergarten to Grade 12. Educeri's subjects include: math, science, English language arts, history, art, PE, music, Spanish, English language development, and other resources. Some of these subjects do not currently have learning materials for every grade.

We used the Kindergarten and 1st grade materials for Munchkin and Bean. There are 60 worksheets available for Kindergarten students and 78 worksheets available for 1st grade students. They are mostly language arts and math worksheets, but there is one science and one history worksheet available. Hopefully there will be more beginner science worksheets available in the future!

Each lesson has an online portion, called "Teach Lesson." These are all ready to teach lessons, so this area goes over the teacher portion of the lesson and highlights the key parts to focus on. Then you can print out the materials and lead the lessons. I typically taught the lesson by having the materials printed out and the kids sat across from me while I read from the laptop. Occasionally I sit in the middle, but I usually try to sit across from them so they can see my face when we are talking. This helps with language arts lessons when they watch me enunciate words or sound out letters.

Most of the language arts materials only require a couple pages printed out, while some of the math materials require up to 32, that we've found so far, but you don't have to print and use them all at once. We aimed to do at least one lesson from each subject 3 times a week, in addition to the materials we already use.

We don't have a color printer, so unfortunately all the pictures are in black and white. My kids don't seem to mind, though. This week I printed out ten lessons, five for each child. They were a mixture of Kindergarten and 1st grade math and language arts worksheets.

For math we focused on addition, and measuring length and height. The worksheets we didn't get to were for skip counting, counting to 100, and adding three numbers.

Adding two single digit numbers.

Measuring shorter and longer. My daughter will use this same worksheet later to measure with a ruler.

Shorter and taller. She'll also use this worksheet later to measure with a ruler.

For language arts we focused on storytelling, and recognizing parts of the story, characters, and location.

We also printed out worksheets for writing sight words and recognizing beginning and ending sounds.

The lessons are easy to find. They are categorized by grade and subject and you can decide how many lessons you want to see on each page (20/40/60). I had no issues loading the teaching materials or downloading the student worksheets.

Educeri will soon have quizzes available for some of the lessons. I hope they will also expand their art, PE, music, and Spanish sections, as there are only a handful of lessons in each of these subjects. However, there are over 1,000 K-12 lessons available: 413 in math, 525 for English language arts, 22 lessons for science, and 26 lessons for history.

I really liked using Educeri. It had plenty of worksheets to choose from. So far we have been able to find one for every lesson we plan. I do hope they expand their other subject areas, but for math and language arts, they have a ton of materials. Most educational sites that offer worksheets don't have a teaching guide with it, so that was very helpful! We plan to continue using Educeri's educational materials for our homeschooling needs.

Be Social!

Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Pinterest

MyFreezEasy Review

2016-10-10T17:00:00.004-04:00

We received the MyFreezEasy.com Freezer Meal Plan Membership from MyFreezEasy to review. Specifically the Premium Annual Membership, which allows you to customize your own plan or create your own. The Premium Annual Membership also gives you access to all eight meal plans each month.

MyFreezEasy offers you an easier way to freeze meals in advance by providing you with meal plans, recipes, and shopping lists. We used our laptop and tablet to view the recipe plans, but you can also download and print them. Another nice option is that MyFreezEasy offers labels which have the name of the recipe, cooking instructions, and a space to write in the date.

There are eight meal plans available: Traditional Meal Plan, The 20 Meals Plan, Gluten Free Meal Plan, All Pork Chops Meal Plan, All Ground Beef Meals Plan, All Chicken Meal Plan, Slow Cooker Meal Plan, and Clean Eats Meal Plan. The Clean Eats Meal Plan contains some Paleo recipes. The printable meal plans are very organized and lists the ingredients, prep time and instructions, and how long you can store your meals in the freezer. The main feature I love is that you make two meals at once, one for now and the second for a later date. It really does save time and makes it so much easier. In the future we will try to prep multiple recipes at once.

The meal plans we used the most were the Traditional, 20 Meals, and All Chicken. Now that it's October and the temperature is starting to drop, we are getting into slow cooker season and will be using those recipes too. The 20 Meals plan has 10 recipes and plans to make one now and freeze the second batch. The other recipe plans typically had 5 recipes. I loved that the recipe plans came with a shopping list, separated by recipe, and there is also a second shopping list so you can shop by store section.

For the most part, we created the recipes as directed. I did substitute some ingredients though. For example, I don't like chicken thighs, so we used chicken breast instead. And if a recipe called for onions, I just omitted them, since I'm allergic to them. One thing I loved is that some of the recipes use ingredients I would not usually consider using, like lime juice in the Paleo Chicken Taco Salad. I also liked that many of these recipes are new to us. I tend to stick to my go-to favorite recipes, but my children love trying new recipes.

My daughter loves cooking and enjoyed prepping with me for our freezer meals. We were also able to use the meal plans to work on reading and math (cooking is our favorite math lesson). She was able to read the ingredient list (with help) and measure out the ingredients (the math part).

There were only two things I did not like about MyFreezEasy. The first is that they don't provide nutritional information, since some people might be on strict diets or count calories. This doesn't apply to us, but it's something to consider. The other is that I feel you should have access to the meal plans for past months in your subscription, not just the current month. This is mainly because I only had a chance to make a handful of the recipes from September and was using my laptop to read the recipes, but I did not download and save the recipes. So when I went back at the start of October, the old recipes were gone and only October's recipes were available.

Overall, I liked MyFreezEasy because it allowed me to prepare full meals in advance. Now on busy days I can just pull out a meal from the freezer and cook it, without having to spend time preparing the meal.

Be Social!

Facebook ~ Instagram ~ Pinterest

If You Were Me and Lived in... Book Review

2016-10-04T19:53:00.005-04:00

We received four books from the If You Were Me and Lived In... book series to review, brought to you by Carole P. Roman and Awaywegomedia.com. I chose If You Were Me and Lived in...Ancient China: The Han Dynasty and If You Were Me and Lived in...the Middle Ages (Volume 6), and they also generously sent us If You Were Me and Lived in...Renaissance Italy (An Introduction to Civilizations Throughout Time) (Volume 2) and If You Were Me and Lived in...Viking Europe. These are all exciting periods of time in World History and I knew my kids would find them fascinating!

What can you do with your If You Were Me and Lived in... books? You can use them for cultural or history studies and unit studies, which is what we did. Each book can be used for various activities, such as creating a timeline, using the glossary for vocabulary and spelling words, pretend play (playing roles depicted in the books, such as a Lord, peasant, or doctor from the Middle Ages book). You'll also learn about various occupations, food (which you can learn about further by cooking recipes in the kitchen), clothing, and recreation.

If You Were Me and Lived in...the Middle Ages follows the life of Aalis, the daughter of a standard bearer in William the Conqueror's army. Her family lives in a large, fortified stone house with a motte. She spends her days embroidering and sewing with her sisters. My grandfather hunts, so we had a venison dinner, and we baked homemade bread. We collected herbs from the garden. They did not want to test out the Middle Ages eating schedule, which was two meals a day, or pottage if you were a peasant. We used a Middle Ages sticker book to further explore the clothing of the time. The Middle Ages book addresses what life was like for peasants as well. They lived hard lives as farmers. The Church was also a major influence in the life of those living in the Middle Ages.

The book introduces historical figures, such as William the Conqueror, Clovis, and Charlemagne. We each chose a person from history who lived in the time period we were reading about and researched them further. I am teaching my children how to research and this was a perfect opportunity. They were able to look online and find books at the library with help. We chose the Middle Ages for our first unit study. We chose William the Conqueror (Munchkin), Joan of Arc (Bean), and Christine de Pizan (me - mom). After a week we each reported what we had learned about that person. We focused on key facts, such as their date of birth and death, what their name was and other names they were called, what they looked like (we each drew a portrait), where they lived, and what they were best known for. We tagged each one on our timeline for the year they "made history." When they are a little older, we will probably use activities like this to create lapbooks.

If You Were Me and Lived in...Viking Europe introduces you to Viking life in Northern Europe around the year 870 AD. You're given name ideas from that time period and what your family life would look like. In this book, you follow young Knut Ericson, son of a Jarl. Vikings were famous for their long voyages to foreign lands and raids. The Viking era depicted what life was like before the Middle Ages. Many things were similar. Medicine, for example, pretty much didn't change for a thousand years and they had limited options for those who were sick or injured. Food was plentiful for those who were part of the Jarl's family. They also drank a lot, with the adults drinking from horns so they had to drink it quickly or pass it around but never put it down, and children drank from cups. The Vikings written language was runic, which we learned.

The second book we focused on was Viking Europe. We use the first week of the study period to read the book, which usually takes 3-5 days, with 30-45 minute reading periods each day. After reading each page I stop and we discuss what was talked about, such as who a Jarl is or what mutton was. Sometimes this meant turning to the internet to look at more pictures. The second week we visit the library and find more reading materials, typically story books and at least one non-fiction book. Their favorite was the one on Norse myths. The third week, which we will start this week, will focus on what they want to research more about. Bean wants to learn to weave. Munchkin wanted to forage for food, but we're going into the wrong season for that, at least in our area, so instead he is going to learn to dye cloth using berries and plants. For the last week, we will focus on more hands-on lessons, cooking viking recipes, and our final project.

We used a laminated map to draw lines to the countries the Vikings visited and measured how long they would have traveled to get there. We added math into the lesson by estimating how long the journey would take and how much food and water they would have had to bring. We created a Viking ship using a large cardboard box and practiced rowing. It was a lot of fun!

If You Were Me and Lived in...Renaissance Italy The Renaissance took place over 500 hundred years ago, which really wasn't that long ago, although much has changed since then. It began in the Tuscany region of Italy and is most famous for the artists and inventors it produced. The Renaissance took place after the Middle Ages ended, and was a well-spring of creativity. Architecture, science and astronomy were making new changes. Life was making major changes, such as it becoming more common for children to be taught by tutors. Even girls were taught about art, music, and dancing, although they still focused on needlework. Children wore clothing like their parents and were expected to act appropriately. Clothing was important and represented your status in society. Forks were finally being used and important family members ate on porcelain dishes. Artists were in demand and are still remembered today as some of the best artists in the world.

If You Were Me and Lived in...Ancient China: The Han Dynasty is one of the most important periods of time in Ancient China. The Han Dynasty took place between 206 BC until 220 AD. During this period of time civil service and organized government was established. Paper and porcelain was also invented. The Silk Road was the most important trade route to the East. Merchants were created to transport Chinese silk and became very wealthy. Most houses were designed the same and men were the head of the family. All families set aside a special part of their house as an alter to their ancestors. Silk was very important to the Chinese and was used to make clothes. There were four major professions: doctors, warriors, scholars, and advisers. Below that were farmers, artisans, and merchants. School was free, but only available to boys. Girls were taught how to be wives and mothers. There were three major religions: Taoism, Buddhiam, and the teachings of Confucius. Boys studied poetry and practiced calligraphy.

These books are easy to read and the art is interesting. My kids thought they looked like watercolor pictures. Three of the books are illustrated by Mateya Arkova from Bulgaria. The Renaissance Italy book is illustrated by Silvia Brunetti from Rome. We really enjoyed reading these books and look forward to collecting the rest of the books in this series!

Carole P. Roman is a children's author who began writing on a dare. Since then, and many awards later, she has written over 30 books. You may be more familiar with her Captain No Beard series or her If You Were Me and Lived In... Country series. Her picture books, and cultural and historical books are perfect for children in elementary grades.

Be Social!

Facebook ~ Pinterest ~ Good Reads ~ Twitter ~ Carole's Website

The Cat of Bubastes Review

2016-09-29T11:59:00.001-04:00

I received The Cat of Bubastes from Heirloom Audio Productions to review. The Cat of Bubastes is a Christian tale from Ancient Egypt for children 6-16. Younger children can still enjoy it with their parents and siblings. The story is over two hours long and comes on two discs. It also comes with a study guide.

Families with younger children may want to break the audio adventure into story-time blocks. We opted to listen to 20 minutes a day during our usual reading time. After each part of the story, I asked my children comprehensive questions to see what they retained and asked them about the characters and story. The Cat of Bubastes is based on a story by G.A. (George Alfred) Henty. G.A. Henty was a popular English novelist and was best known for his historical adventure stories during the late 19th century. Heirloom Audio Productions turned some of his stories into exciting dramas teaching moral values like bravery, determination and duty.

The Cat of Bubastes is about a 15 year old boy who is the prince of a small nation invaded by Egyptians. Chebron is the son of the Egyptian High Priest Ameres and Amuba who a slave in Ameres' household. Chebron accidentally kills a cat which is a crime punishable by death. He flees with Amuba and they embark on an adventure that teaches strong moral character traits.

The story is full of interesting historical information on Egyptian architecture, family life, methods of warfare, government, geography, and religion. My daughter loved that she learned new vocabulary words that we were able to look up after each listening session. She even requested that we pick up the book on our next library trip (they tend to prefer physical copies over ebooks). I have heard that the book has a slow beginning, but is easy to read, even though it has some challenging vocabulary. The audio adventure on the other hand is very easy to get into. My son is fascinated with Ancient Egypt, so this was the perfect story for him. We were able to discuss how religion changed history, compared Egyptian and Christian religious figures, and symbology.

The downloadable study guide is 47 pages long and can be used for homeschooling or Bible lessons. It contains discussion starters to go over the different historical and Biblical moments in the story. We did not use it to write down the answers, because my children do not write independently yet, so we talked about them as a group. TOS Crew members also received an mp3 soundtrack, poster of the crew, a colorful illustrated version of the original story (Ebook), and coloring pages. We did not use the inspirational verse printable or the behind-the-scenes documentary. You're also given access to the Live the Adventure Letter online Newsletter.

Heirloom Audio Productions creates wholesome entertainment for Christians. They specialize in stories of heroics and coming-of-age stories, like The Cat of Bubastes, Beric The Briton, The Dragon & The Raven, In Freedom’s Cause, and Under Drake’s Flag. For families that attend church co-ops or have homeschool Bible lessons, the audio adventures can be used to teach Biblical history. Heirloom Audio wants to immerse the listener in history and engage them in the story.

Be Social!

Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Google + ~ Instagram

STEAM Kids Book is here!

2016-09-15T11:47:00.001-04:00

STEAM Kids: 50+ Science / Technology / Engineering / Art / Math Hands-On Projects for Kids

Are you interested in creating fun and educational activities for your kids? Well there's an awesome book for that, and it's a boredom buster to boot! It would have been perfect over the summer, but it's even better now that the school year has begun! Inside you'll find 10 weeks worth of activities, 5 activities per week, and an 11th week full of field trips. The book also provides material lists for each week, field trip ideas, building challenges, and free printables for the activities that require them. An added bonus is the STEAM Journal for kids to keep track of their ideas and notes.

STEAM Kids is a book that will inspire children to:

question like a scientist

design like a technologist

build like an engineer

create like an artist

deduce like a mathematician

– and, most importantly –

play like a kid.

Want to get started on STEAM activities at home? Here are some helpful posts to get you started!

How to Get Started Doing STEAM

How to Teach STEAM

40 Household Items for STEAM Projects at Home

STEM vs. STEAM, Does the A Matter?

52 STEAM Challenges Freebie Opt-in

40+ Projects that Combine STEM with Art

Tips for Acquiring Inexpensive STEAM Materials

Adapting STEM and STEAM Activities for Different Children

5 Surefire Ways to Raise a Kid Who Never Gives Up

3 Genius Tips for Raising out of the Box Thinkers

Most of the activities use materials you already have at home. Whatever you don't have can easily be found at local craft, grocery, and hardware stores.

Inside STEAM Kids you'll find activities that focus on five themes: Build, Color, Play, Sense, and Grow. These activities can be done at home or in a classroom. Teachers, parents, child-care givers, and homeschoolers can benefit from introducing STEAM activities to children. Not only are the activities fun, but they are engaging and encourage children to create and explore!

With your purchase, you'll also receive some extras! At the back of the book you will find pages for a STEAM Journal which can be used to Explore Ideas, Sketch Designs, Do Calculations, or Use the Scientific Method: Ask a question, document research, form a hypothesis, design an experiment, record and analyze data, draw a conclusion. The Steam Journal invites you to Invent! Create! Dream!

Meet the fabulous creators behind STEAM Kids and visit their blogs!

Anne Carey (Left Brain Craft Brain)

Ana Dziengel (Babble Dabble Do)

Amber Scardino (Wee Warhols)

Chelsey Marashian (Buggy and Buddy)

Dayna Abraham (Lemon Lime Adventures)

Erica Clark (What Do We Do All Day?)

Jamie Hand (Handmade Kids Art)

Karyn Tripp (Teach Beside Me)

Leslie Manlapig (Pink Stripey Socks)

Malia Hallowell (Playdough to Plato)

Shelley Brewer (STEAM Powered Family)

STEAM Kids is available for purchase now!

STEAM Kids pdf / STEAM Kids Physical Book / STEAM Kids Halloween

Get it now while there is a special launch price of 50% off!

When you purchase the STEAM Kids book during the first week (9/14-9/21), you will also receive a FREE Ebook copy of STEAM Kids Halloween projects for kids which includes over 10 exclusive activities. If you purchase the physical copy, send an email with a screen shot of your receipt to steamkids@leftbraincraftbrain.com.

Family Game Night: Krosmaster Junior

2016-09-08T15:00:00.001-04:00

We recently purchased Krosmaster Junior from Miniature Market's Back-to-School sale (and also picked up some Infinity miniatures for us parents). I have been eyeing Krosmaster Junior ever since I saw Krosmaster: Arena being played at PAX East. Krosmaster Junior is a simpler version of the game. I knew my kids would love it. Besides being incredibly cute, it's a great introductory game that has different levels of difficulty. There are seven different adventures, each one more difficult than the last. The game also includes two double-sided maps, lots of tokens, and four characters and their pets. Each character also has their own Adventure Guide, although the adventures are the same in each book. Since there are four of us (not including Baby O who won't be old enough to play this for at least 5 years), this game has the perfect number of characters. They have game names, but we each renamed ours.

Munchkin and Bean both helped to set up the game. They are able to construct the map, the totems, and the bushes. Meanwhile Daddy and I punched out all the pieces while he explained the rules to the kids. The first adventure does not use any of the tokens, but we wanted to be ready for adventure #2. Something to keep in mind is that you can do any of the adventures as often as you want. And once we are finished with all the adventures, I know the kids will have fun creating adventures of their own. Just like in Robot Turtle, I feel like this game can be more than advertised. We will of course play as intended first though!

The first adventure only took about 5-10 minutes to play. The first adventure is basically a game of tag and each player is trying to tag another player's pet. My older kids are 5 and 6 and while the game is advertised for 7 and older, I feel like they did extremely well keeping up with the rules. I love that this game will gradually introduce harder rules with each new adventure.

Miss Bean won the first game! We can't wait to play again!

Cross Stitch Family Portrait

2016-08-30T20:09:00.002-04:00

I have always loved cross stitching. In the past few years I have been able to work on some awesome projects. Such as the Avengers piece I made for my daughter and the Lavender Girl I made for my cousin's daughter (I need to remake that one for myself!). Some projects are quick, and some seem to take forever to finish. I have a Welcome to the Lake sign that I've literally been working on for 3 years. My goal is to have it finished by next summer. We'll see...

But in the weeks leading up to my 3rd child's birth, I had some free time and decided to make a cross stitched family portrait. I'm technically not even done it, as it's still missing the family name and date. In the weeks since baby O's birth, I just have had my hands full. But once it's finished, it will be framed and look adorable on our wall!

I really love how simple the portrait looks, and yet it captures us really well. I used patterns found in and inspired by the Stitch People book. I let the kids decide what they wanted their figures to wear. And we went to the craft store to pick out DMC embroidery floss.

I drew Bean's figure and then she wanted to try making one on her own. Her's is on the left. We ended up changing it again in the final stages of stitching.

Baby O wasn't born yet when I started my figure, so I saved some of the details for after he was born. Once he had arrived and I knew what color to make his hair, I stitched it in. Originally I had used everyone's eye color, but ultimately I decided I preferred the way simple black eyes look.

I could not find the pattern for Munchkin's figure. I am pretty sure he ran off with it... It had an Autobot stitched onto the shirt and since he hid the paper somewhere, I haven't been able to complete his figure. Someday... :)

Every year for Christmas I try to make everyone handmade gifts. One year I made felt play mats and gave them away with Safari Ltd. TOOBS, so our little cousins could create small worlds. Another year I made homemade watercolors and playdough. We also gift books for each of the kids. This year it will be cross stitch family portraits.

I bought a computation notebook, because the grids are perfect for making your own cross stitch patterns. I really wish the grids had been smaller, but this was the only size available. I just used a pencil and colored pencils to color in the patterns and give myself and idea of the colors I wanted to use. The Stitch People book gives you a lot of ideas of how to design people, from tons of hair options, to different styles of colors. There are even cat and dog designs. I also have the Farm Animals book, but I haven't created any of those patterns yet.

Here are a few examples of patterns I made. I love that you can stitch babies at various ages and in different positions.

I don't have the pattern finished yet, but I am also working on one for my father, which will feature himself, his four children, and six grandchildren.

Disclosure: This is not a review of Stitch People. I paid for my Stitch People and Farm Animals book and was not encouraged to write this post. I just loved the book so much I wanted to share what I made with others!

Cubetto Review

2016-08-18T11:32:00.002-04:00

I received Cubetto to review for Academics' Choice Awards. Cubetto is made by Primo Toys and was originally a Kickstarter project. Cubetto is a Montessori approved, hands-on coding toy for children ages 3 to 6. It comes with a Cubetto wooden robot, a board, 16 blocks (four of each: left, right, straight, and function), a map, and a storybook.

My 5 and 6 year old LOVE Cubetto! They even had to bring it to grandma's house to teach her how to use it. They have also enjoyed teaching their younger cousins how to use it too. It's simple to use and easy to set up, even for a 3 year old.

All you have to do is spread out the map, pour out the blocks from their fabric bag, turn on Cubetto and the board, and you're good to go! When we first began using Cubetto, I read the instructions out loud, and explained what each block did when it was placed in the board. We turned on Cubetto and I pointed out each of the little robots movements and how they mirrored the blocks on the board. After a few test runs, I opened up the storybook and showed them how you can take Cubetto on a fun trip around his map. The kids were thrilled with the storytelling aspect of it.

Now when the kids are playing together, they will take turns, one filling the queue and the other telling a story as Cubetto moves from square to square on his map. They call him "Cubie" and take him on lots of silly adventures. Whenever he wanders off the map, the kids laugh and say he can't help exploring the unknown.

One thing I would love to become available for Cubetto owners who weren't part of the Kickstarter or who did not order Cubetto with the Adventure Pack, is to sell the maps separately. In addition to the basic map, which is the one we have, there is also an aquatic/pirate, Ancient Egypt, space, and city map. They could line up the maps and take Cubetto on one huge, epic adventure, or they could use them on their own and use them for storytelling activities.

I love that in addition to teaching coding, Cubetto also encourages kids to be creative storytellers. And when played with more than one child, Cubetto can let kids practice patience and sharing. Children will love playing with Cubetto. It's a cute little wooden robot that rolls around on little wheels. My son, who is fascinated with electronics, and was 4 when he began playing with Cubetto, really took an interest in figuring out how Cubetto worked. We haven't used Cubetto for any homeschool STEM lessons, but he plays with it daily and that's a lesson in itself.

So how does Cubetto teach children beginner coding? It uses the blocks and interface board. There are four simple commands, which tells Cubetto where to go. There are three lines in the queue (main sequence) and a line for the function command. There can be a maximum of 12 commands in the queue and 4 commands in the function square (which is a subroutine). My son discovered on his own that he could create a loop of actions by adding a function block to the function queue, which would reset and start over again. The blue button at the top is the Go button, that tells Cubetto when to start his adventure. The blocks are color coded and shaped, so children can easily tell them apart. Green for forward, yellow is left at 90 degrees, red is right at 90 degrees, and blue is the function block.

The map is designed so each square is a single movement for Cubetto. Children can plan his adventure starting on any square on the map. They can let his destination be random or they can plan out a specific journey. If Cubetto can't make it there in one go, he'll stop at the end of his set and wait for new instructions. My daughter likes to tell stories as he moves around. I write it down for her in her journal and she draws pictures later, illustrating Cubetto's adventure.

I would highly recommend Cubetto for parents and teachers of preschoolers and kindergartners. It works well with one child, or a small group of children. Children in a classroom could take turns using Cubetto in small groups. At home, older children can help their younger siblings learn how to use Cubetto. It's a fun toy to learn coding skills at a young age. All children can benefit from STEM skills.

Dragonistics Data Cards Review

2016-08-17T16:27:00.002-04:00

We received a copy of Dragonistics Data Cards to review for Academics' Choice Awards. It is a card game made by Statistics Learning Centre of New Zealand that teachers and parents can use to teach statistics and play mathematical games. They can be used in a school setting or at home. We are homeschoolers and used it for categorical and numerical math lessons.

Dragonistics Data Cards comes with 240 cards and 56 Attribute cards, enough for a whole classroom. Students learn statistical concepts by sorting and organizing the cards. Each card has a unique dragon on it, with a name, age, gender, strength, height, type of breath, color, behavior, and number of horns. The cards are beautifully illustrated. Not all 240 cards have different dragon images, there are a couple different images for the dragons, but they all have different statistics. We added an extra group by saying the dragons who look the same come from the same family.

The cards come in a small box with a magnetic closure. The one main flaw I see with this box is that the cards are small and glossy and can very easily slide out of the box if it's held on its side or upside down. Providing small plastic card bags or a tuck box would have prevented this. Luckily we own many games and had bags to spare. Otherwise, the box is sturdy and easy for the kids to access on their own.

We were provided with a few printed copies of their educational materials. No set of rules were included in the game box, but their teaching resources are free on the website. You can simply download and print them as they are needed.

The set of Attribute cards can be used by students to sort their cards. There are 4 of each card, and they include: All Different, Gender, Gender and Color, Color, Breath, Breath and Behavior, Behavior, Height, Age, Age (Century), Strength, Horns, Name Order, Name Length.

You can use whichever Attribute card you want for lessons or games. We shuffled them up, chose one at random, and gave each child six Dragon cards. They had to sort the cards into appropriate piles. We did this for practice, before starting to use the cards for lessons. When we use them for lessons, I choose which Attribute and Dragon cards we use. My children occasionally work together, but more often they work separately. These cards work equally well in both cases. In a classroom setting, a group of children could play games to see who can sort their cards the fastest or make the most sets of pairs. Below are a few examples of how the cards can be grouped.

Grouped by Gender.

Grouped by type of Breath.

Grouped by Age.

Grouped by Height.

Two of the games that can be played with Dragonistics Data Cards are called Dragon Twins and Speed Sorting. The directions are in the free resources section. The rules are pretty straight forward and can be played with children as young as four.

In Dragon Twins you can play with 2 to 4 players and the object of the game is to find things that are the same. You use both the Attribute cards and the Dragon cards. Set up the Attribute cards and place them face up in front of the players. Then place the Dragon cards face down in a pile in the middle. Your aim is to collect the most Attribute cards. The first player draws two Dragon cards and finds an attribute that they have in common. When the Attribute is found, that player can pick up the matching Attribute card from the pile or from another player. If no match can be found, the player can choose the All Different Attribute card. The Dragon cards are then placed in the discard pile. The game ends when there are no Attribute cards left in the pool and the player with the most Attribute cards wins.

Speed Sorting can be played with 2 to 4 or more players. With up to 4 players, you can use the Attribute cards and 40 Dragon cards. With a larger group, you can use up to 240 Dragon cards. You'll use the Dragon cards for ordering or sorting. Choose which Attributes you want to use, shuffle and place them face-down in a pile. For sorting you can use: color, gender, behavior, or breath. And for ordering, you can use height, age, strength, name order (alphabetically), or number of horns. Shuffle the Dragon cards and each player will choose three cards, placed face-up in front of them. The object of the game is to be the first to collect 10 Dragon cards. The first player turns over the top Attribute card and reads it out loud, then the players try to sort or order their cards as quickly as possible. When the cards are checked, the player who completed their set the fastest is given a new Dragon card from the pile. If they are incorrect, they lose a Dragon card, to a minimum of three. The next player then takes their turn turning over the top Attribute card and reading it. When the pile of Attribute cards are used up, shuffle them and place them face-down and draw from the top. The winner is the first player to 10 Dragon cards. Younger players can play to a smaller number of cards.

We really enjoyed using the Dragonistics Data Cards. We mainly used them to play the games at the end of math lessons, but we also used them for fun. The cards are small enough that they store easily for take-and-go lessons at the park or on the road. My kids really like the dragon illustrations and have fun sorting the cards. The dragon theme really drew them in. As a parent and teacher, I love that the cards can be used for educational purposes while still being an enjoyable game.

I would recommend Dragonistics Data Cards to families that want to improve math skills at home and teachers who want to use them for math lessons. Even if you are using them just to play the games, children are learning math while they play. While there were only rules to use them for two games, I know we will find other ways to play and learn with them. We look forward to printing new material from the website to see what other activities we can use them with.

Baby #3

2016-04-29T20:27:00.001-04:00

You may have noticed that Munchkin and Bean hasn't been active over the past few months. That's because I'm pregnant with baby #3 (a boy!) and I wanted to take a break from blogging to focus on home life and homeschooling. Baby O will be arriving mid-May and shortly after I'll begin blogging again, provided life allows the time for it. :)

In the meantime, our Etsy store is still open and we have some new items available, such as frosted felt cookies! I'm currently running a deal on felt boards - buy one, get one felt board set free (such as the solar system, moon phases, or weather set). I'm also creating custom cross stitch family portraits! They are unique and make great gifts to celebrate special occasions, such as weddings, graduations, family gatherings, etc.

I look forward to returning to blogging after Baby O arrives!

Fun-Time Phonics! Review

2015-11-11T14:09:00.000-05:00

We received Fun-Time Phonics! from The Critical Thinking Co. to review. It's a 300+ page curriculum to help children ages 4 (Pre-K) to Grade 2 learn to read. It focuses on phonics and because it's targeted to younger children, it uses colorful images on every page to help children connect pictures to letters, sounds, and words.

$39.99 book / $19.99 download One of the great features of Fun-Time Phonics! is that classroom copying is allowed, which also applies to homeschool families. So you can use one book for multiple students. We actually didn't end up making copies, mainly due to the fact that we don't have a color printer, but we used clear dry-erase sheets to put over the page when it prompted the student to circle, color, or write on something. But most of the earlier activities simply ask you to point to the correct answer. For the most part I worked on Fun-Time Phonics! one-on-one with my kids. Bean whizzed through a quarter of the book in the first two weeks that we had it, but after that she reached the point where she was learning something new and began to pace herself to one lesson per day. Munchkin has stuck to one lesson per day, but this is the first reading curriculum we have used that he has shown positive interest in, so we are very happy with his progress!
There are many different types of lessons that can be found in Fun-Time Phonics! The first few activities focus on Phoenemic Awareness (beginning and ending sounds, rhyming, putting sounds together, short vowel sounds), then Alphabetics (short vowel letters, consonants and co-articulation), Beginning To Read, and at the end, Words I Can Read.

In all, there are 100 activities. However, 100 activities doesn't necessarily mean that this curriculum only covers 100 days of lessons, because in order to move on to the next lesson, each student should first master the current activity they are on, because each lesson builds on the previous activities. So while some activities may only require a day to master, others might take two or more days to work through. We have always preferred child-paced learning and loved that this curriculum allowed them to set their own pace.

We really liked that the beginning sounds activities used pictures and words to match the sound. The kids primarily focused on the pictures at first, but after choosing their answer, we would go through each word and point to the first letter, make its sound and then say the word.

The vowels seem to be the hardest part for Munchkin to master. He knows all the vowels, but he has difficulty with their sounds, like short and long A. So we have spent a lot of time going over these lessons with him.

We aren't this far into the book yet, but Bean has flipped through to look at future lessons. She tries to name what the pictures are, and sometimes finds it difficult to figure out what the word is meant to be, despite the red arrows pointing at the image. Generally I try to have her figure out the image first and if she can't, I'll tell her what it is.

We took the first words list and made a set of flash cards out of them. The front of the flash card, the blank side, shows the word in big letters, while the lined back side of the card has the word written at the top. Bean practices to write these words on the lines, but only after she has mastered reading the word.

Bean prefers the lessons where she can circle or write on the answers, while Munchkin prefers to point out his answer. This curriculum has worked out for both of them and they are always eager to work on their "fun phonics." I love that it appeals to both of them, and they can work independently or with help.

I would absolutely suggest using Fun-Time Phonics! for beginner readers, for both homeschoolers and public school students. We loved having the book form, because it was easier for the kids to use on their own, and it made it easier for me, not having to find a color printer to make copies. But for a classroom setting, I would suggest using the digital version to make your copies, since the pages in the physical copy do not come out, so it may be difficult to make perfect copies of them. But as the teacher, I'd always want a physical copy on hand to refer to and use to plan future lessons.

Social Media

Facebook

Google+

Twitter

If you would like to read more reviews by the TOS Crew, click on the banner below!

Eat Your Math Homework Review

2015-11-10T11:41:00.001-05:00

We received Eat Your Math Homework from Ann McCallum Books to review. It's a super fun book with a collection of math recipes and lots of interesting math facts. Ann McCallum also has two other homework eating books, one for science and the other for U.S. History, along with a few math themed books. We look forward to checking them out! Eat Your Math Homework is intended for children in Pre-K to 2nd grade. It covers fractions, Fibonacci, geometry, Tangrams, probability, tessellations, variability, patterns in nature, and more!

We have always enjoyed taking our math lessons to the kitchen, since cooking has so many mathematical properties. Whether you're measuring flour for cookies, cutting carrots into quarters for salad, reading a temperature, or setting a timer, you're learning math. There are numbers everywhere in the kitchen. From the time on the stove, to the temperatures on the dials and thermometers, to the measurements on the measuring spoons and cups, to the stick of butter. Numbers are everywhere. We have a handful of recipe books for children, but they don't go into the math side of cooking. We do however have a handful of board games that feature food and math. We use those when we don't have any recipes planned, but for the most part, everyone prefers math when it involves eating their problems. My 4 and 5 year old absolutely loved reading Eat Your Math Homework. It's the first book they owned that isn't a math workbook, but is still all about math. Each section has a little math story, then it goes on into the recipe, what type of food to use, and talks about the math facts. For the Fraction Chips, we turned to an old favorite recipe. Cinnamon Sugar on baked tortilla chips, dipped in strawberry salsa. We used the tortillas to learn about fractions, by using a pizza cutter to slice them into fractions. We started with a package of a dozen tortillas and used each one to represent a different fraction, with a few extras to munch on while they used the rest to learn math. We created all the fractions in the book, with help from flash cards that showed the number fractions and the written word for each to match them.

I actually remember a few times in school when a teacher brought in food for math lessons, to incorporate some hands on learning. Those kinds of lessons always stayed with me, and I love that my kids are learning so much in the kitchen about math, all from a handful of fairly simple recipes. The food used in Eat Your Math Homework are all types of food you would probably already have at home, so it was really easy to make most of the recipes, with the ingredients already on hand. You'll find recipes for snack sticks, pizza pi's, trail mix, and even Tangram cookies (Bean's favorite!). It's a really good mix of different types of food, so there's something to appeal to everyone. And if particular ingredients bother you, you can easily find substitutes.

Eat Your Math Homework is a great book, even if you don't actually use it for homework. It would make a great addition to any homeschool or school classroom, and would even be fun gift for children who either love math or cooking. We plan to pick up Eat Your Science Homework and Eat Your U.S. History Homework as part of Munchkin and Bean's Christmas presents. We usually do an equal mix of toys, clothes, and new learning supplies. Our advent calendar is always a collection of 24 new books, so these two will be among them.

Extra fun homework books: Eat Your Science Homework and Eat Your U.S. History Homework.

Children's math stories: Rabbits, Rabbits Everywhere: A Fibonacci Tale and Beanstalk: The Measure of a Giant.

If you would like to read more reviews from the TOS Crew, click on the banner below!

The Nutcracker Review

2015-10-28T16:05:00.000-04:00

We received The Nutcracker from Maestro Classics to review. It is a classical music CD with an activity booklet. The music is conducted by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the music is by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, adapted and conducted by Stephen Simon, and narrated by Jim Weiss.

CD $16.98 MP3 $9.98

The Nutcracker CD has 21 tracks. It covers the whole story, from the Christmas Party to the Land of Sweets and the Sugar Plum Fairy. It lasts 58 minutes and is sure to make it on the music list for a Christmas party!

The Nutcracker is a classic. It has always been one of my favorite holiday stories and the music is timeless. The Nutcracker Prince was always on our Christmas movie marathon list (it's available on Youtube). The Nutcracker story book is one of the books included in our 24 Days of Christmas book list. This year, in addition to reading the story, we'll be able to listen to the music. If your kids love to be creative and want to put on a play, you can let them use the booklet to follow the acts and act out the scenes of the story with the music in the background. Or you can watch The Nutcracker ballet performance. My kids opted to dig out their collection of Nutcrackers from our box of Christmas decorations, found a couple toys to replace the other characters, and tried to play out the story. The booklet also has other information and activities to offer, such as a history on ballet, music from the Overture to The Nutcracker, information on harps and Tchaikovsky, a word scramble activity, and a crossword puzzle. From the Maestro Classics website you can download the curriculum guide to The Nutcracker, which covers ballet, history, geography, science, language arts, art, music, and math. You can create a whole mini-unit on The Nutcracker using the curriculum guide. The website doesn't offer music sheets for The Nutcracker, but they may be able to get them if you email them. If not, there are plenty of sheet music available online.
Maestro Classics offers the following Stories in Music:
Peter and the Wolf
The Nutcracker
The Story of Swan Lake
Carnival of the Animals
My Name is Handel: The Story of Water Music
Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel
The Tortoise and the Hare
Merry Pranks of Master Till
Casey at the Bat
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
The Soldier's Tale
Juanita la langosta Española (Juanita the Spanish Lobster)

Maestro Classics offers a 12 CD collection at a discounted price. We would love to someday own the whole collection! There is music for everyone, whether you're a fan of ballet or the stories, and if you aren't sure which you want to start off with, each one has a sample of the music on the website.

We have always really enjoyed Maestro Classics CDs. They are a wonderful way to incorporate music into our homeschool lessons. We enjoyed listening to The Nutcracker and we look forward to bringing it back out during the month of December to help us celebrate Christmas.

Social Media

Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Pinterest ~ Youtube

If you would like to read other reviews from the TOS Crew, click on the banner below!

The Ultimate Homeschool Planner Review

2015-10-28T12:57:00.003-04:00

We received The Ultimate Homeschool Planner - Blue Cover from Apologia Educational Ministries to review. It covers 52 weeks of your homeschool year. It also features Biblical scriptures and inspiring quotes. It comes in blue, yellow, and orange. I liked the blue cover because the colors were vibrant and really popped.

$29.00
Both covers feature an inside pocket for notes, papers, and whatever you may need to store away in your planner. Following that is a calendar of the 2015-2023 years. I used a highlighter to dot the days that were especially important, like holidays, vacations, field trip days, and planned outings. I've only gone as far as 2017, but it's nice to have those calendars ahead of schedule. After that is basically the starting page, where you can list your homeschool, students, and their grades. The user's guide was really helpful to fully utilize the homeschool planner.
We used the one year planning grid to plan out our weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly unit studies. Generally we planned month-long units with each week being directed to a specific study within the theme. Like for instance, anatomy is coming up and we plan to focus one week on the outside body, one on bones, one on muscles, and one on organs. For life cycles, we choose a mammal, bird, insect, and plant and spent one week on each of them.
In the goal section we didn't focus as much on character development, so much as what the kids wanted to focus on and learn by the end of the year. They each made their own list and I plan to do my best to make sure we can check off each one during the year. I also wrote down a few of my own goals, as a teacher and as a mother. I hope to improve on certain traits. Organization is one of them, so I hope the planner helps with that!
The resource list was super helpful in keeping track of each child's curriculum and student materials. I was able to list the curriculum on one side and use the other side to list which materials were to be used with that curriculum. Like for math, I listed counters, rulers, coins, pattern blocks, etc. Then I set up a shelf for each subject and put these materials with them so they are always easy to locate. After that is the monthly planner. You'll have to add in your own month, year, and days. That means you can start whenever you want and you're not limited to a 2015-2016 year planner. At the bottom of each of these pages is a Biblical quote and a notes section.
And from there is the weekly planner, which also has a space for notes, supplies and appointments. Small post it notes also fit in these spaces, which I usually carry around with me, and I can easily add them to the planner when I get home. The weekly planner also has a prayer section, Bible plan, battle plan, hospitality/outreach (which can also be used for Church plans or volunteer work), memorable moments, achievements, and evidences of grace.
Near the back of the planner you'll find a section for records and grades for each student. You can mark subjects, grades throughout two semesters, and the end of year final grade. I am particularly fond of the reading lists as well. However, due to the fact that we read several books per day, we decided to limit the planner's reading list to the books that are used for their unit studies. Personal reading is usually done from our home library, and we save library lists (in the back pocket of the planner) in case we ever want to revisit a favorite book. There are also field trip and outside activities lists. We used these to note the name of the field trip, the address and phone number, tickets/pass (stored in the front pocket), and who we plan to go with.
There are also teaching tips, which offer encouragement and go over learning styles and thinking skills, to better understand our children. I really liked the Twenty Power Tools Student Toolkit list, which we liked so much, that we made a copy of it and put it up on the wall in our homeschool corner. It lists examples like "analyze it! connect it! investigate it! transform it!" Finally, the end of the planner features a year-end review section for notes, which we haven't gotten to yet.
I really liked The Ultimate Homeschool Planner. It had everything I was looking for in a planner, and a lot more that I didn't realize I needed, the the resource lists and monthly planner list. It made it so much easier to plan unit studies and keep track of all the books and materials we would need. And unlike some planners which only list Monday through Friday, this planner added in Saturday and Sunday on the monthly schedule, and adds in a sixth day on the weekly schedule, so you can use it for Saturday or Sunday, or both. I wish the whole week was available, but then there would be less space for the rest of the days. We have made due with combining the weekend days into one slot.
I would highly recommend The Ultimate Homeschool Planner for Christian homeschooling families. It was a wonderful way to keep track of our lesson plans for the year and it had a lot of extra features that some planners don't have. I also liked the size of the planner. It wasn't too small and had lots of space for notes. It is roughly the size of a regular textbook or curriculum book, so it fit nicely on our homeschool shelf.

Social Media

Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Pinterest ~ Google+

If you would like to read more reviews from the TOS Crew, click on the banner below!

Phonetic Zoo Spelling Level A Review

2015-10-27T13:06:00.003-04:00

We received the Phonetic Zoo Spelling Level A [Starter Set] from Institute for Excellence in Writing to review. It's a self-teaching spelling program. It combines auditory and phonics lessons to fully master each word. Children can work independently or with a parent's assistance. Level A is recommended for children in grades 3-5, or as remedial work for children in grades 6-8. It can also be used by children with special needs.

CD with Printed Materials $99.00

When purchasing any level from the Phonetic Zoo Spelling sets, you should always purchase the Starter Set with it, so you have all the additional materials you'll need for the lessons. If you already own the Starter Set, then you can simple buy the audio CDs. The Starter Set includes 5 audio CDs or an MP3 download (Level A, B, or C), Level A-C's Lesson Cards of spelling words, Personal Spelling Cards to keep track of misspellings, Zoo Cards for practice and rewards, an MP3 download of the Phonetic Zoo Teacher's Notes, and a Spelling and the Brain video. If you are unsure what level your child is at, you can have them take the placement test.

The Level A audio CD set contains five discs and each disc has 18-19 lessons. Bean and I worked on the lessons together. We only worked on one lesson per week, though sometimes it took us longer. We worked on the lesson three days a week, 15 minutes each, and mainly focused on introducing the subject matter, rather than fully mastering it. Bean is excited about spelling, but we don't pressure her to learn it all at once right now, since she is still young. This phonetic curriculum is great for laying down a strong spelling foundation that she can learn from.

On the front of the Lesson Cards you'll find pictures and the name of the animals and birds that focus on the word sound, along with three words for each level. For example, Lesson One features a caiman and a manta ray, along with the words brain, always, and pain for Level A, wailing, decay, and sailor for Level B, and ailment, portrayal, and tailored for Level C. The back of the card features the same rule, jingle, or hint from the Spelling Zoo Cards, along with a list of fifteen spelling words for each level.

The Spelling Zoo Cards are Bean's favorite part of this curriculum. She loves starting off each lesson listening to the jingle. It's not always a jingle, sometimes it's a rule or hint. But they have inspired us to come up with little songs for each lesson. As for the auditory lessons, we generally use it at the start of the lesson, and then use a dry-erase board and practice worksheets the rest of the week. I made the worksheets, and for each word, there is a traceable version and a write it yourself line. Since the spelling words are grouped into five groups of three on the Lesson Cards, we decided to focus on three words per day, hence why it generally took over a week to complete each lesson.

We look forward to continuing to use the Phonetic Zoo Spelling Lessons in the future. We plan to purchase Level B and C when we get to that point. I really think the audio CDs are worth it. It allowed Bean to work independently, which she prefers. We both really enjoyed using the Phonetic Zoo curriculum. I loved how easily it taught her spelling lessons, while she learned a better understanding of how words work. IEW is one of our favorite curriculum brands and I will always swear by their products. I highly recommend them for other homeschooling families. They continue to help ours and I know other families will find success with them.

Social Media

Facebook ~ Pinterest ~ Vimeo ~ Twitter ~ Youtube ~ IEW Blog ~ Google+ ~ Instagram

If you would like to read more reviews on IEW from the TOS Crew, click on the banner below!