E-Reader Books

My favorite kind of e-books are the ones I can enjoy reading on my Kindle (any e-reading device). Mostly, these are fictional books and it is so much like reading a book I am happy to have saved the shelf space. Recently, I was introduced to a vendor who puts all kinds of public domain books into Kindle format and these include non-fiction history texts. My whole family has been enjoying those books as well.

Workbooks/Printables

When a book is a copiable work text, or contains a large number of pages that need to be copied for homeschool, having a pdf ebook just makes sense. It is so much easier for me to sit at my lapbook, call up the pages I need and print them from my sofa, before sending a younger child upstairs to retrieve the copies. If I have to actually copy pages out of a book, it requires assigning an older child to babysit the twins, walking up the stairs, fiddling with the copier, and it takes at least three times as long as printing directly from a pdf e-book would take. So yeah, I prefer for printable books to come in pdf format. Before purchasing a book like this, make sure you have the rights to print copies for all of the children in your immediate family. The best homeschool publishers always give this permission.

Curriculum Texts

Curriculum books – I just prefer to have in printed form. I find it very difficult to scan through a Science curriculum or History curriculum and get a feel for how it works when it is e-book format. I need to touch and feel that kind of book and read it out of order. My favorite recent review of a curriculum book was a book that came as a printed book and had a cd inside with all the printables. That is just about perfect!

The Benefits

Space Saving. One benefit of e-books my husband is always quick to point out is the saved bookshelf space and moving weight.  We move with the military every three or four years and we have a weight limit which we have maxed out.  So anything that can save us pounds is a big plus.  We have buying books for our kids on the Kindle and they love using it!

Printability. I’ve already mentioned the ease of printing worksheets from an ebook.

Portability.  I carry my Kindle with me everywhere, and even use it as my Bible on Sunday at church.  Unlike my physical books, it is super lightweight and has a protective case.  When we travel and homeschool at the same time, I take my computer along and we can use any pdf ebook we have while we are on the road.  It is much harder to take physical books along on vacation or necessary travel.

Cost Savings.  Publishers and authors spend less money producing ebooks and can afford to pass some of that savings on to you.

A friend recently told me that e-books are the trend of the future.  I’ll be hanging on to my printed books for a long time, but it is also time to embrace the future and focus on the benefits of this new trend.

Related Posts

Artistic Nature Magazine Giveaway

A-Z Homesteading Cursive Giveaway

Beethoven Who? Family Fun with Music Giveaway

Hands of A Child Project Pack Giveaway

NaturExplorers Bundle Giveaway

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Beethoven Who? Family Fun with Music reminds me of that old book I had growing up.  Beethoven Who? is not exactly a song book, but you will find the lyrics to many old hymns and American patriotic songs inside.  Besides basic music terminology and theory, song lyrics and the history of composers and music, you will find all kinds of suggestions for enjoying music together with your family.  I love singing and I especially love singing with my children.  Since they were tiny babies, I have wooed each of them to sleep using the old hymns in the hopes that they will someday grow up to love the hymns as I do.  I have taught them rhythm patterns by tapping on their tiny fingers, toes, and noses to the rhythm of Old MacDonald had a Farm.  Beethoven’s Who?  fits with my philosophy of music.

Music is made to be enjoyed.  Together is even better.  Whether you use Beethoven Who?  Family Fun with Music as a step-by-step curriculum and work your way through the 22 chapters systematically or you pick and choose songs and activities as the mood strikes or to complement something else you are learning, Beethoven Who? is a useful and thorough ebook for music education.  The 332 page ebook is $19.99 (currently on sale for $12.99 until May 31st).  Topics include Listening to Music, Reading Music, and Making Music.  Within each topic you will find sections like Classical Music Your Children Will Love, Basic Musical Notation, Activities to Teach Pitch, Action Songs, Patriotic Songs, Work Songs and these are just examples!  I thought the book was a very thorough Music education course for elementary or junior high students.

The Giveaway:  One lucky winner will receive a copy of Beethoven Who? Family Fun With Music by Marcia Washburn.  Leave a comment telling me what music you enjoy together as a family.  Then feel free to click “Enter” under “Leave a Blog Comment” and “Done”.  Once you have finished your first entry, you will open up more options for extra chances to win.

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“All our articles are from a Christian perspective, honoring God as the Creator of all things in nature.  Our focus is on the incredible genius of our Creator and the artistic beauty of the things He created, as well.”

If you have read my blog in the past, you know how important Christian materials for science are in our homeschool.  It is wonderful to have materials written from a Creation perspective to counter the overwhelming media and social influence coming from an evolutionary perspective.  I was excited to find that the Artistic Nature magazines will fill this need.

Each magazine issue contains roughly 100 pages of delightful material.  The cost for a subscription to four issues of the magazines is just $16, and back issues are sold as unit studies and cost $8.50.

The Giveaway!  One lucky winner will get a copy of Life in the Arctic Circle in pdf format! Please visit LightHome Publications at Currclick and tell me which other edition of the magazine (back issues are called unit studies) most interests you.

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Disclaimer:  A Copy of Life In the Arctic Artistic Nature Magazine was provided to me for free by Light Home publications in exchange for an honest review on my blog. Here you have it.

 Thankfully, these e-books are packaged nicely in a single pdf format, so that I can quickly and easily print extra copies of the notebooking pages as I want them.  Easy access to printable pages is another important feature of an e-book.  {I have opened an e-book before and found it divided into sections with just two or three pages in each section.  This makes it so difficult to find what you need quickly! }

Next, I noticed the ideas for younger students.  This is so important in my home, because I have little ones who demand to do everything their older brothers and sisters are doing.  This is wonderful – because they are learning so much at a very young age, but also difficult – because it is frustrating to always have to come up with ideas at their level on my own.  Here are just a few of the ideas for younger students included in the Beautiful Birds e-book I received.

The hands-on activities included in the NaturExplorer books attracted both myself and my children almost immediately. Hands-On is so important for elementary-aged children and what child wouldn’t want to make bird-food crusted bagel? Here are some examples of hands-on activities I found in Incredible Creeks.

Curiously, I was scanning through the books and was drawn to different parts of the book completely out of order. During the main part of the book you will also find lots of informational material like this:

And also book suggestions, ideas for including older students, fun activities for outside study, writing activities, references for Bible study, artist and composer studies, poetry tie-ins, internet links, and extra book lists.  That’s a whole lot of material!

The NaturExplorer e-books range in price from $4 – $8.95. The Beautiful Birds book is 61 pages in length and costs $8.95 individually. However, I highly recommend the three and five pack bundles which reduce the cost of the books. They also have a monthly $6 special, so right now you can purchase Captivating Clouds for just $6.

My Bottom Line:  Frankly, I was delightfully impressed with NaturExplorers books I received.  It is not very often I am exposed to a new publisher in the homeschool market these days, but somehow these beautiful nature studies have completely missed my radar in the past.   These are definitely books we will turn to again and again for nature study.

The Giveaway: One very lucky reader is going get to pick a bundle.  That’s right – the winner gets to pick any bundled set they want. The required comment entry is:  Visit the Shining Dawn Books website and tell me  which NatureExplorers bundle you would like to win.  If you do not answer this question in a comment on this blog post, you will not officially be entered and no further entries will count.   To post your comment, scroll all the way down to the bottom of this post and find the comment box.  Type your answer to the above question and follow the steps to post your comment.  You will then need to scroll back up to the Rafflecopter form and click enter for the first entry.  This will open up further entry opportunities for you.  Good Luck!

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Disclaimer: I received four NaturExplorer books from Shining Dawn Books at no cost to me in exchange for an honest review on my blog. Here you have it.

I’ve seen the A-Z Handwriting series a few times, and I might have even downloaded a sample or two in the past.  I never really paid attention to the products available.  When the Light Home Publications team offered to send me a review copy of A-Z handwriting: Homesteading for grades 7-12 I was intrigued.  I didn’t even know you could find handwriting practice sheets for a high schooler.  I can tell you this, my seventh grader definitely still needs practice!

Both of my older children (fifth and seventh grades) still struggle to write fluidly in cursive and prefer to write in print whenever possible.  Since this topic was a bit on the masculine side, I chose to have my son complete the exercise.  He is in fifth grade and was a little upset about the amount of copying expected, so I had him do 1/3 of the page each day until he was finished.  As you can see, he did a very good job.

When I asked my son what he thought about the Homesteading copywork book, he said that it was more fun to do handwriting because what he was writing was actually interesting, but his hand hurt afterwards and he definitely did not want to do a whole page in one day.  I checked the themes available, and these include Family Life, Family Walks, Quotes of Presidents, Animals, Crawly Critters, Character, Kindness, Prayers, Trains, Flags, Bible books, Nature, Flowers, Sea Creatures, Bible Verses, Birds, and even more.  My goodness, you can find a handwriting book for almost anything your child is excited about.

I have already decided we will be using A-Z Handwriting books in our homeschool next year.  This is the best kind of ebook as it is not intended to be read from your computer, but actually printed and used.  Having the book in PDF will make it so easy to print exactly what I need for each child.  I am going to let each child pick their topic from the list.  At just $8.50 per book, I can print out the books and place one in a file folder for each child.

The Giveaway:  One lucky winner will get a copy of A-Z Handwriting: Homesteading for their very own.  Please visit the website and come back here to comment on which A-Z handwriting book your children are most likely to want.  After you have commented, feel free to click Leave a Comment and Done for the very first entry.  After that you will open up additional options to enter.

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This particular product fits into the category of Homeschool Technology in two ways. Not only is it delivered in Digital Format as a pdf file, it also happens to be about Technology! If you have read my post about using E-Books in your homeschool, you know that products in the digital format open up so many wonderful possibilities. When you purchase a Project Pack from In The Hands of a Child, you can upload it directly to your computer and save it for later use. When you are ready to complete the project pack, you print it out in it’s entirety or print out one mini-book at a time as you need them. If you find a link in the project pack that you want to check out, it’s just a click away. If you find the name of a book you want to study, you can copy and paste the title directly into your library’s search engine.

I like to go ahead and print my project packs, and place them in a notebook. Once printed, my older children can read through the material on their own and work independently to complete the project pack (lapbook). If I choose to complete a lapbook with my younger children, I just work with them step-by-step, and having everything ready to go in the notebook makes it much more likely to get done. Some people prefer the print-as-you-go method.

Each project pack includes an informational section with all of the topical information needed to complete the project with illustrations, mini-books complete with full directions for assembling the mini-books, book and website suggestions for extra reading if you want it, layout suggestions for putting it all together, and pictures. Our Technology project pack came with 19 mini-books plus a bonus activity.

You can purchase Project Packs for $8 – $14 in digital format, or if you want the Type-It-In format where you can type in your answers directly on the computer you will pay $2 more. You can also purchase your lapbook on cd, or purchase a kit with all of the necessary supplies. It is also possible to purchase a Super Membership, which includes one free lapbook every single month plus extra freebies. We did this for about two years, and the number of project packs we received during that time was well worth the cost. Another option to get your feet wet with these project packs is to purchase the monthly $5 item.

The Giveaway: One lucky winner will get a copy of the Technology lapbook for their very own! Please visit the In the Hands of a Child website, come back to this post and leave a comment telling me what other topic you see that would fascinate your children. (Scroll down to the comment box to leave a comment.) Then you can click enter on the first entry of the Rafflecopter form.

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Disclaimer: The Technology Lapbook was provided to me for free from In the Hands of a Child in exchange for an honest review on my blog. Here you have it.

What makes a great educational video?

Accurate.  If I choose a video to teach world history in the early 1900′s and they spend 15-20 minutes of the 45 talking about women’s rights… I am probably not going to use a video in that series again.  Videos should teach what they claim to teach.  Videos should not say that water expands as it freezes unless water does actually expand.  If I find a video science course presenting evolution as fact, you can be sure that video course is not getting shown in my home.  Children remember information viewed in videos extremely well, especially if they are watched repeatedly.  Educational videos need to be accurate.

Timely.  We don’t watch many videos in our homeschool, so when we do it needs to cover information related to what we are currently studying in our books.  If I have a great video on World War II, (and I do!) it is going to be much more effective as an educational tool if I save it and watch it with the children when we are actually studying World War II.

Engaging.  Videos can be full of great accurate information and yet be dry, boring and difficult to watch.  A great video is going to be engaging.  If your child would rather be doing something else, this video is probably not going to teach them anything.  One way to make all videos more engaging is to not watch videos or television very often.

Effective.  You might think that a video which is accurate, timely and engaging will automatically be effective.  However, videos might present too little or too much information and be completely ineffective at teaching any of the material.  Other videos might feature really engaging people and information with a poorly written script that does not communicate.  An ineffective educational video is a pointless waste of time.  Knowing whether or not a video is effective before you have seen it is a bit tricky isn’t it?

How to find great educational videos.

Ask the librarian.  She will be able to tell you which series are most popular, which series have a good reputation with educators or homeschoolers, and may even have specific information about the videos that will help guide your decision.

Read blog reviews.  Find a blogger who reviews educational dvds and has a similar POV as you (point-of-view).  If your favorite blogger hasn’t reviewed a series on her blog yet, you can always ask through twitter, facebook or private messages.  Bloggers love to blog about what readers want to read.  Here are a few dvd reviews I have done recently.

Go Science

Awesome Science

Amazing Science

Talk to like-minded people.  Ask your friends, neighbors, Sunday School teachers and homeschool coop members which educational videos they are watching with their kids.

Check websites you trust.  Whenever I am looking for new material, I have a few website stores I trust.  I visit these websites and find out what material they have featured.  So if I am looking for videos, I might check Vision Forum, Timberdoodle, or Library and Educational Services.

Great reasons to use videos.

You may not be qualified to teach a subject that your child is interested in.  For instance, I am not qualified to teach Homeschool Programming.  I don’t have the time to study the subject and learn it.  I am very likely to “hire” a video course to teach this subject. (Check out the giveaway for a one semester video course!)  Sometimes that video course is a physical product and sometimes the video course is viewed on-line.  Either way, someone else is teaching your child the material.

You do not have time to cover extra material effectively.  Homeschool moms have a great deal on their plate.  It’s a fact.  Sometimes using a video to teach a certain subject is an effective way to deal with the issue of time.

Your child enjoys video supplements.  Many homeschool children would rather read a good book then watch an educational video.  Some children cannot read but have a very high retention of audio.  My daughter cannot read well enough to study history on her own, but will remember almost anything she hears and even more so if she sees and hears it on television.  Videos are a great way for her to learn material.

Educational videos and video courses can be a great addition to your homeschool.  As with any technology, videos do have their drawbacks.  In our home we do try to limit our screen time.  This makes it doubly important to choose well.

Related Posts:

Homeschool Programming Giveaway

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Each short segment (chapter) of a Go Science DVD is a new Science experiment with a reference to a story or lesson from the Bible. Each segment ends with the statement “When you learn something new about Science, you learn something new about God, our Creator.”

In a homeschool, these video segments would work really well at the beginning of your Science lesson each day, or at the beginning of your Bible lesson each day either one. You can also just sit and watch segment after segment like my kids do. The video segments would be awesome as an introduction to a Sunday school lesson or junior church program or as a part of VBS each night. Each segment is from 3-6 minutes, and each dvd is about 45 minutes in length. None of the segments go into explanations of the science – you watch the experiment and Mr. Roy talks about what happened and briefly relates it to a bible story.

You can purchase six volumes, and each volume covers three topics. I reviewed Volume 3 (Magnetism, Engineering, Electricity, and Design) and Volume 4 (Chemistry, States of Matter, Life Sciences). You can also purchase Volume 1 (Motion, Laws of Gravity) Volume 2 (Simple Machines, Sound, Weather), Volume 5 (Air, Flight) and Volume 6 (Water, Space, Solar System). Each DVD by itself is $8.97 and the set of six can be purchased for $47.95.

Go Science DVDs were originally published for a Christian television show. The presenter, Ben Roy is very high energy and very engaging with his live audience. Some of my older children thought he was a little over the top, but he kept the attention of each of my children in the recommended age group (age 6-11) and also kept the attention of both 3 year olds. My 11-year-old son says that he will definitely watch the dvds again.

My Bottom Line: I love the fact that these dvds honor God as Creator and present Science in a fun and engaging manner. The Go Science DVDs are very high energy and get kids excited about science.

FYI: Library and Educational Services is a wonderful website for purchasing books and dvds at wholesale prices. They have a wonderful selection of materials from a Creation science perspective. I like to support companies like that. (Just My Opinion).

Disclaimer: I received the Go Science DVDs from libraryanded.com at no cost to me in exchange for an honest review on my blog. Here you have it. This review is part of the Homeschool Crew reviews. You can read what my other crew members have to say about Go Science at the Homeschool Crew website.

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Today, computers are everywhere. Computer software enables most of your daily life, running not only your trusty personal computer but also cell phones, social media websites, car engines, television DVRs, online classrooms, ATM machines…the list is endless! Computers are controlled by their software, and software is written by programmers who have the necessary Computer Science training. Our society needs software engineers more than ever, so don’t be afraid to encourage your child’s interest in computer programming.

It’s a common misconception that most computer programming jobs have been outsourced overseas. The reality today is that US-based companies are desperate to hire qualified software engineers, but have a difficult time finding local candidates. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that in the next decade, computer programming jobs will grow by 30%! A graduate with a Computer Science degree will earn nearly $20,000 more per year to start than the average bachelor’s degree recipient. Unemployment among computer programmers is a phenomenally low 4% even during the current economic downturn.

Early Computer Science education can pay off during college also! Students who study for and score well on the AP Computer Science Exam can earn college credit while in high school. This means your student would save time and money by skipping over some introductory college classes. Early training will also help your student understand if software engineering is a career interest. Students who go to college without any prior experience in a subject may discover it’s just not a good fit, and changing majors one or more times can delay graduation.

Homeschool, private, and public school students all deserve the opportunity to learn the skills necessary to master our digital age. If you have technically inclined students, what’s keeping you from offering a Computer Science course? If you’re like many parents, you may have dabbled with an old FORTRAN or Pascal course in the distant past, but don’t feel qualified to teach this subject yourself.

That’s why my wife and I have spent the last four years developing a fun, hands-on, self-study computer science curriculum for kids and teens. We teach students how to write their own computer programs, games, and even Android applications using the latest Visual Basic, C#, and Java languages. As professional software engineers, we believe that raising the next generation of computer scientists is critical in an increasingly computer-driven society. If your student is interested in learning more about computer programming, we invite you to visit us at http://www.HomeschoolProgramming.com.

Chris Yust is a 14-year veteran of the software industry and a father of two homeschooled boys.  Chris and his wife Andrea are co-authors of six computer programming textbooks for kids and teens.  You are welcome to learn more about homeschool computer programming courses or contact Chris at www.HomeschoolProgramming.com.

The Giveaway:  One very lucky winner will receive their choice of any first semester course and video set from http://www.HomeschoolProgramming.com.  Please visit the website and leave a comment at the very end of this post telling me which course you would choose!  Then come back up to the Rafflecopter contest form and click Enter for the very first entry.  Please note that some of the courses require Windows and some do work on Mac computers.  You can watch demonstration videos here.

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Rules for Handheld Devices in our Home

• Handheld Gaming is limited to one hour per day, and should be confined to car rides and before bedtime.  Occasionally extra gaming is allowed if they are with friends.
• Music and Audiobooks are unlimited as long as volume controls are set and it isn’t interfering with relationships. In other words, these things will be unlimited until someone forgets to show good judgement.
• Internet surfing and YouTube videos are never allowed.

Here I am starting with the rules again! Now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk about how to use apps in your homeschool. We have actually been using an iPod for my daughter’s occupational therapy. She has this very common habit of pointing with her middle finger. When I say common, I’m saying it is common in occupational therapy students who are much younger then she. This is not a good habit. We are using an iPod Touch to teach her to use her first finger to point. Whenever she plays a game or uses an app she has to use her first finger to perform every operation whenever possible. This is the first thing we have found that is actually making a difference.  I even have another rule for the younger children. If I catch them using anything besides their first finger, they lose iPod time after the second warning. It works!

I have a wonderful app called Brushes with which oldest my daughter has created some pretty neat artwork!  We also have the free Photoshop Express app and the same daughter is getting quite skilled at manipulating photos for effect.  Using the camera app on her iPod, she is also learning to be quite the photogapher!  Check out the squirrel picture she took on a recent field trip!   She is learning to be a graphic artist without even knowing it is part of her homeschool.  Did you know that art created with Brushes has been sold for good money?  Yes, Virginia, handheld technology can be a good thing.

Guidelines for Apps

Here are the guidelines I use for choosing apps to put on my iPod Touch or iPhone.

• Does it do a good job of teaching?
• Does it contradict my values? (pictures, authority of parents, creation, etc.)
• Does it hold their attention?

At first, I attempted to only put educational apps on my iPod. However as time went on I learned that the other games available are great as incentives. If my child will play for so many minutes on Look Again or Look Again Jr., he or she can play for the same number of minutes on Angry Birds or one of the other games which are mostly for entertainment.

Finding Apps

So how can you find great apps? I like to check out the top 25 apps in iTunes under the education category frequently, but I also like to keep my eyes and ears open. I ask my friends what their kids are playing. I follow internet websites that review apps such as Apps-School. I read about apps in magazines and on mommy blogs. I found out about one amazing app last week when a friend emailed me because she knew I was doing this series! It is called Heavens Above and it is based on Creation science. Sadly for me, it only works on iPads (which we do not have yet) but so far but it looks just beautiful.

The Giveaways! I have eight apps to giveaway today and one winner for each! Isn’t that exciting? Click the links below to find the Giveaway posts.

Wonders of Old: Ancient Timeline (iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad)- Giveaway

Wonders of Old: Medieval Timeline (iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad) -Giveaway

Wonders of Old: New World Timeline (iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad) – Giveaway

Medieval Life -( iPad only) – Giveaway

KQ Time Traveler (iPad) Giveaway

I Live Math: Animals of Africa (iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad) – Giveaway

I Plan Lessons (iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad) – Giveaway

MapTrek (iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad) – Giveaway

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine (works on most platforms!) – Free – Read my Review

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