Exploracise’s GyMathtics

GyMathtics is a 30 minute exerscize video that combines exercise and math. Yippee! The format of the video is like this…

Part 1 – Shape stretches warm up. This is exactly as it sounds. While you’re warming up for the exercises to follow, you’re doing movements that make you think of various shapes.

Part 2 – Counting Calisthenics. This was the favorite here. It’s basically counting, including skip counting, put to movements. This is great way to exercise and learn skip counting!

Part 3 – Pattern Power – basically this showed various patterns on the side of the screen combined with various exercises

Part 4 – Well-Being Wind Down. This is exactly as it sounds. This is the wind down portion of the video which incorporates stretches with healthy lifestyle instructions.

Personally, I could have down without the lifestyle instructions, but all in all I think it’s a worthwhile children’s exercise video. I can imagine it would be a wonderful thing to pull out in the dead middle of winter when everyone needs to burn off some energy. It’s a bit cheesy, but I do like that it combines movement and math. Whenever I can sneak in math I think it’s a good idea to do so!

You can go here to find out more about GyMathtics and you can click on the icon below to see what others had to say about it.

Happy Homeschooling!

Professor in a Box: Financial Accounting

I was sent Financial Accounting by Professor in a Box to review for you. Let me just start by saying…whoa!

This is not your average high school accounting course. This is much more like a college level course. In fact the guy teaching it sounds just like a prof! I can see him standing in front of a class in some college somewhere.

I very much like the way this course is set up. It is all there in the box (thus the name!). It is simple in its set up and format, but that’s where the simplicity ends. This is a thorough course. The creator of Financial Accounting claims that you can take the Accounting CLEP test after completing this course and pass for college credit. That’s quite a claim. He even gives you 2 different lesson plans depending on if your plan is to use this for college credit or to take the CLEP test.

This course is not full of fluff and nonsense. There are few bells and whistles; it gets right down to business. It expects the high schooler to be mature enough to follow the simple instructions and the format of this program and do the work.
Personally that pleases me. I get worn out by curriculum that wants to hold the hand of the teenager or expect me to do it. We’re raising young men and women, let’s expect more.

The following is a little information from the Professor in a Box website to show you how, exactly to use this course. I like how you can adjust this class to fit into your needs. This is usually tricky to accomplish in a CDRom style curriculum.

The course is comprised 12 chapters which are covered in 28 lessons (including exams). Students can work through the course in the following formats:

• A traditional college semester format (September through December or January
through May) working two lessons per week for 14 weeks.
• An entire academic year format (September through May) working one lesson
per week for 28 weeks.
• A summer school format (June through July) working three lesson per
week for 9 weeks.

Prerequisites

None. Any high school level student with basic math skills (algebra) can handle this course.

Course Materials

The course has 12 Chapters each divided into 2 or 3 parts.

Basic materials for each chapter:
• Flash lectures – 2 or 3 parts, each part 15 to 40 slides
• Lecture slides to print
• Key Terms and Concepts (1 – 3 pages)
• Chapter Problems (4 – 15 problems per chapter).
• Note: some of the Chapter Problems are worked in the Flash lectures as demonstration problems while some are assigned as homework problems to be completed by the student.
• Solutions to Chapter Problems

You can go here to see a sample chapter and check out the price. And as always you can click on the icon below to see what others had to say about Professor in a Box: Financial Accounting.

Happy Homeschooling!

TOS Schoolhouse Store SALE!

There is a lot of money-saving activity in the Schoolhouse Store this weekend! You can receive up to $1300 if FREE gifts during the TOS Black Friday Sale.

Plus, the one-year, print () subscriptions will be available for $7.95 during the sale which runs through Sunday. All those subscribing before December 7 will receive the Winter Issue. (Subscriptions received after that will begin with the Spring Issue.) As a bonus, you can select 10 gifts of your choice—there are 19 gifts from which to choose. There are only 1500 of these gift packs available.

This is a 68% savings! The $7.95 price is gone on December 31 at midnight. On January 1, 2010, the price goes back up to $25!

The 19 gifts can be viewed here: (Each subscriber picks 10 of the 19.)
http://www.thehomeschoolmagazine.com/TOSSummer19Gifts/libanded/index.html

Remember, the more you spend in the Schoolhouse Store through Sunday, the more free gifts you receive. One of the gifts is a FREE one-year membership to and a free will from Homeschool Legal Advantage. Plus, there are so many other FREE homeschooling resources. Check it out at the following link:
http://www.thehomeschoolmagazine.com/2009BlackFridaySale/BF_Level1.htm

It’s so easy to earn the FREE gifts! Select a few items from the literature sale in the Schoolhouse Store or purchase the new Download N Go lapbooking and unit studies series from Amanda Bennett and TOS.

Life on the Farm

Last weekend we went hunting/camping. I brought along a board game for us girls to play while the men were out being Hunter/Gatherers.

I had plans to take some wonderful snapshots of all of us sitting around the picnic table in the wonderful out of doors with the beautiful Fall colors as a backdrop to all of our fun. Um, well, you’ll have to use your imagination and my wonderful descriptive sentences because we were having so much fun playing I never did take those photos!

Instead of reinventing the wheel, I’m just going to direct you here, to the We R Fun site. They explain the way the game is played very well and the idea behind it.



I must say that I think it’s a great game. The 10 year old did just as well as the adult (um, that would be me), I like a game that can even the playing field like that. It makes it more fun for everyone. It’s a game with a purpose, you’re learning while you’re having fun, but don’t tell the kids that!

A few of the things I noticed about this game were…

1. The box itself is sturdy, hard cardboard.
2. The board is also attractive (not too terribly busy) and sturdy.
3. The instructions are easy to follow and not confusing. The kids had it pretty much figured out before I got there to join them.
4. I like how the game is about running your own business (farm) and not necessarily about getting the other guy out of the game.

Overall, I am quite pleased with this game. There are some serious perks to being on the TOS Crew, and receiving things like this to review is one of them!

You can go here to see Life on the Farm and look at We R Fun’s other games (there’s a preschool version) or you can go here, to K-Mart’s website where you can get the game for $19.99!

This would make an EXCELANT Christmas gift!

You can click on the icon below to see what others had to say about We R Fun’s Life on the Farm game.

Happy Homeschooling!

AVKO

As Part of the TOS Crew I received a 1 year membership to the AVKO Website. AVKO (which stands for audio, visual, kinesthetic, oral) might be familiar to some of you as the creator of the Sequential Spelling curriculum. If you already use Sequential Spelling, you will find this site quite helpful as there are many supplemental items that go along with SS. However, even if you don’t use SS, if you have a child who struggles with reading or spelling or who you suspect might have a learning disability, this site will be helpful to you as well. You can to here to read more about the AVKO philosophy.

The benefits to becoming a member of this site, which is only $25 for a year, are as follows…

• 25% discount on all printed materials, such as, Sequential Spelling Books
• Hundreds of dollars worth of free e-books
• Access to their member only section
• An AVKO newsletter with freebies, discounts, resources, and promotions
• Access to founder Don McCabe's most popular workshop recordings in MP3 format.
• Supplemental Materials including word games, worksheets, activities, and more
• Access to placement tests



A few of the E books you have access too after becoming a member of the AVKO site are…

*The Reading Teacher's List of Over 5,500 Basic Spelling Words
*The Patterns of English Spelling Volumes 1-10
*To Teach a Dyslexic
*The Teaching of Reading & Spelling: A Continuum from Kindergarten through College
*The Teaching of Reading & Spelling: Starting from Square One

There is so much on the member’s area of this site I feel like I only scratched the surface of what’s there. One of the scariest things about having a child receive a diagnosis of learning disabled is not knowing what that really means or what you should do about it. I believe the AVKO site will help those people to make a plan and gain some wisdom to be able to move on from fear to success.

To learn more about AVKO, you can go here, and as always you can click on the icon below to see what other Crew Members had to say about AVKO.

Happy Homeschooling!

American Heritage Education Foundation

Yesterday in honor of Veterans Day, I had this quote up on my personal blog…

We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would harm us. - George Orwell

Over the past 200years, men and women have given their lives for my freedom. It is a trite comment these days to say that, but think about it. Men fought in the Revolutionary War generations ago so that I have the right to go to the polls and decide who I want to represent me in my government. Men DIED so I could be free.

I don’t take that lightly. I and my family sleep safely in my bed, every night because there are men and women who’ve fought and died so I have that privilege.

I don’t mind telling you that it absolutely breaks my heart to see what is happening to this country that I love. We’ve somehow created a generation or two that are all about what can you do for me. What I deserve. They just want to do their own thing and let the government handle the rest. It makes me so sad. The forefathers would be heartbroken. Would those who fought and died for the freedoms I enjoy, regret it if they could see where we are today?

You may be wondering what this has to do with curriculum and homeschooling. Well, there is a foundation that feels the same way I do; The American Heritage Education Foundation. It is their theory that one of the reasons for the decline in our country is the fact that children are not being taught their history. They don’t know all that was sacrificed for their freedoms. This cannot stand!

They’ve created a curriculum that you can get for FREE from their site. It is a download that has units available from K – 12 and did I mention it’s FREE?

The following is a quote from the American Heritage Education Foundation’s website under their philosophy.

AHEF believes that the concepts and themes of our American heritage must be objectively studied and continually improved for today's students and citizens to understand, appreciate, and perpetuate the ongoing miracle of our unique republic of the people, by the people, and for the people.

I couldn’t agree more. I think this curriculum would make a wonderful stand alone curriculum, but would also dovetail nicely into almost any existing American History study.

You can read more about AHEF here, and as always, you can click on the icon below to see what others had to say about it.

Happy Homeschooling!

Bright Idea's Press

Bright Idea's Press sent those of us on the TOS Crew two items to review; A Young Scholar's Guide to Composers and All American History Volume 1.

A Young Scholar's Guide to Composers



This is a fantastic curriculum. It is genius in it's simplicity, and yet it's so FULL. There is just so much in this little book and yet it's not expensive nor does it have to much for the student to do. You can get a great understanding of Composers by just reading the small bio on the composer, listening to some of his work and then answering the provided questions. Or you can take it much deeper. There are composer info cards the students can fill out and keep for reference. There are coloring pages provided for the student to color as he listens, there are timelines and mapping exercises and games and on and on. I was surprised to peruse this seemingly ordinary workbook and see so very much provided!

The music itself is not included but in the back of the book there is a website for every composer listed where you can find examples of their music and on occasion a video of an orchestra playing the pieces.

One of the things I appreciate most about this curriculum is the Christian perspective. The character of the composer is touched on and some things about a composer that might be inappropriate are left out or discussed from a Christian perspective.

This is a gem, and is highly recommended!


All American History




All American History is a 2 volume, three part American History Curriculum spanning two years.

I was sent Volume 1 which takes us from the Explorers to the Jacksonian. This covers one year and is in three parts. The Text, the Student Activity Book and the Teacher's Guide.

I'm all for saving money, but you really can't properly do this curriculum without all three. The text is great, but without the two other parts, it's just a text book. The student activity guide is what brings it to life for the student. It is what cements what he has learned. It contains questions about what they read in the text and For Further Study projects for each of the thirty-two lessons.

The Teacher Guide contains MUCH information to help you student complete the For Further Study projects. It was fascinating to read some of the information that was contained in there! It also contains Activity Ideas, Dates needed for the timeline, information for the map work, review games, (and my favorite resource!) a book list for primary, middle and secondary grade levels, Answers for the For Further Study Projects, additional suggestions for Younger Student Adaptations, and suggestions for family activities.

This is a FULL history curriculum.

My ideas on what make up a good history curriculum have changed as my kids have gotten older. We used to use a literature based curriculum that was very book heavy. I felt like I was rushing my kids through wonderful books to keep up and I felt like the spine was missing.

I like All American History because it is all spine, but it is done in a way that still feels like the kids are being told a story instead of reading a dry text book. I like that I can add activity and books that fit my students and their age and reading level and let them read them at there pace, not the pace the curriculum suggests.

We were not able to use these wonderful resources for more than a few weeks because we are full up this school year. However, these two resources will be put back on the shelf for next year. They will be used in full as our main curriculum starting in the Fall, we liked them that much.

You can go to Bright Idea's Press to see the process for these items and see what other products they offer and as always, you can click on the icon below to see what others had to say about various Bright Ideas Press offerings.


Happy Homeschooling!