Crayola Art Studio

Core Learning sent me Crayola Art Studio to review. It is a CD Rom program that does not need the internet to work. You can let your kids run free on the computer and not have to stand over them worried where they might end up.

Honestly, I have hardly been able to check out this program because every time I put it on my computer my girls start begging for their turn!

They have made some wonderful things using this program and have had a blast doing. It’s just good clean fun!

Here are the features highlighted on the website.

• 12 realistic art tools including tempera paint, acrylic paint, watercolor, chalk, crayon, oil pastel, colored pencil, marker and more

• Select from hundreds of pre-set colors or mix unique colors on digital palettes

• Easy-to-use complete range of drawing tools

• Progressive undo and redo features support experimentation

• Several Hundred editable art images to supplement artwork and learn digital editing techniques

• Customize the interface with selections of backgrounds, icon sizes and tool configurations

• A special Begin to Draw level helps beginners learn basic computer drawing skills

• The software is pressure-sensitive when used with a mouse pen or stylus that is enabled for pressure-sensitivity

If you go here, you can download a demo and try it for yourself. Just don’t let your kids see you do it or they’ll start begging for their turn!

Happy Homeschooling!

Heads Up!

Heads up! is a company that was new to me until they sent me their stuff. IT is not curriculum, but it will help your homeschool run smoother.

Heads Up! Is a company that focus on products that help children differences, no matter what they are. We were sent...

Large Heads Up! Frames in 6 colors and


Small Heads Up! frames in 6 colors



Heads UP! readers in 6 colors and a clear one



Heads Up! double Time in two colors



Heads UP! top of the line in two colors


These are really wonderful little items. They make great bookmarks and are quite useful. I have left them sitting out and have been surprised at which ones the kids have chosen to use. One of my students prefers the one line exposed at a time and another child prefers the frames, specifically the green one.

These items are very very well priced. You can go here and peruse to see what they have. This company goes WAY beyond these line highlighters and color frames. They have an enormous selection of items to help students learn.

I really liked their catalogue. I think the catalogue is a little better laid out than the website.

You can go here to see if they have something that might help you and your students learn better.

Happy Homeschooling

Prairie Primer

Cadron creek sent me the Prairie Primer to review for you. I was very excited to receive it. I’ve looked at it several times but never actually bought it. Honestly? I wish I’d purchased it years ago, when I read through the Little House series with the girls.

Prairie Primer covers literature and history of course but also covers social studies, geography, writing, science, health, nutrition, Bible, character building, and life application, so says their website, for children in grades 3 through 6. As with any unit study this study could easily be beefed up for older students or simplified for younger ones. Personally I love unit studies for this reason. You could easily, with a little tweaking, make this study work for almost all ages.

The girls and I worked our way through week one and had a great week. I am quite pleased with how this enormous unit study is laid out. For every week you have a planning guide for you to use to gather the necessary items and books you would like to use in addition to the Little House books. Obviously you would not do every activity or read every book or you’d be at it for years!

It is further broken down into daily assignments. You have a certain amount of reading every day, and then there are comprehension questions to ask your students. These are great springboards for discussion. Then, for each of the subjects listed above, there is an assignment or activity suggestion using the items you have already collected.

Personally, I love the units from Cadron creek. They are well thought out, well organized and extremely well researched.

My only concern is that the kids might get a little tired of the frontier era after a year of studying it, but the study does span most of the 1800’s, and you could always stop it between books and do something totally different for a few weeks then come back.

You can go here to find out more about Prairie Primer. This site has wonderful sample pages so you can really get a good idea of what you are getting when you buy it.

Happy Homeschooling!

Bible Story Songs

I am terrible at memorizing. The only way I can remember things is if they are put to a tune. If someone sings it, it’s stuck in my brain forever. This is evidenced by the fact that I can recite to you most ‘80s pop music from memory.

I realized several years ago that my children have the same tendency I do, to remember things set to a tune. It is for that reason we’ve begun collecting Bible Song CD’s. Mostly we use them to help the kids memorize their AWANA verses. But here’s the cool thing, I am remembering them too. I just have to make sure when I recite a verse to a friend or in an adult situation that I actually say it and not sing it!



We on the TOS Crew were sent this CD of Bible Story Songs to review. It was a good CD and we enjoyed it.

This is the list of songs and if you go here, you can actually click on the songs and listen to a sample of each one of them.

Songs

1. The BIBLE - BSS Theme Song
2. By Faith We Understand
3. By the Word of Jehovah
4. God Said to Moses
5. These Words Which I Command
6. The Spirit of Jehovah
7. Like the Wind That Blows
8. Books of Bible, Old Testament
9. Oh, The Grass Will Wither
10. I Believe the Promises
11. In All the World
12. Psalm119 Declares
13. Books of the Bible, Old Testament, Rhythm
14. These Have Been Written
15. Christ Would Be the One
16. In Patterns and Parables
17. No Man Ever
18. Books of the Bible, New Testament
19. The Words I Speak
20. It Is Living, Word of God
21. I've Got the Living Word
22. Oh, What a Seed
23. How Sweet, Thy Words
24. Like Newborn Babes
25. Books of the Bible, New Testament, Rhythm
26. Let the Word of Christ Dwell
27. Yes, In My Bible
28. These Are Those
29. Holy Bible, Oh, The Very Thought
30. Books of the Bible, Old and New
31. Receive With Meekness
32. Your Word Is Truth

The music is a bit young sounding for my now older kids, but overall we found this to be a well made CD filled with Truth. The price is good at $9.99 and you get a discount if you buy more than one CD. They have several wonderful CD’s to choose from like Moses, Matthew, and David.

They also sale transparencies and sheet music to accompany the CD's if you so desire. Being that my skill with music ends at appreciating it, I will stick with the CD's myself.

Math Mammoth

Math Mammoth is a series of math workbooks with a varied approach. Math Mammoth is defiantly not a one size fits all program. There are 4 different types of curriculum offered through Math Mammoth and I was able to review one of each of the 4 different types.

Blue- is a topical approach. It is not a complete curriculum but a supplement. If you are stuck on Fractions for instance, in your current curriculum, you can download the Fraction workbook from Math Mammoth for a fresh and specific approach to Fractions, and then go back to your normal program when the concept is grasped. There are 28 different topics available ranging from Fractions to decimals to geometry.

Light Blue- Is a complete yearlong curriculum for grades 1-5. Each level comes with two worktexts, their answer keys, tests, cumulative reviews, and an additional worksheet maker. Here are some of the features of Math Mammoth’s yearlong curriculum…
• focuses on understanding of mathematical concepts
• uses clear explanations, lots of visual exercises and pattern exercises
• mastery oriented: concentrates fairly long on a topic, with fairly few topics per grade
• emphasizes mental math and developing number sense
• practically self-teaching for kids who can read; thus very little teacher preparation needed: perfect for busy homeschool moms or teachers

Golden- this is a series of topical worksheets for grades 3-Algebra 1 with one topic per sheet, but the problems are varied throughout the topic. Here is what Maria Miller, the creator of Math Mammoth had to say about the Golden series… I didn't want the student to just practice one kind of computation or thing... but to see different ways and problems about the topic at hand, and problems that required understanding of concepts.

Green- this is a series of worksheet collections (workbook) that is also topical with varied problems per page; however they are not broken down into grade level, only topically. There is however, some duplicates to other programs. Here is what Maria had to say about the Green Series… Each book in the Green series spans several grade levels on the same general topic, typically for grades 3-7. This makes it optimal for teachers who need worksheets on varying difficulty levels, and for parents/teachers who need comprehensive review material on a specific topic.
The Green series books have been compiled from the grade-level collections (the Golden Series), so they contain duplicate content with them.

Personally, I found Math Mammoth to be a very solid program. It is a bit confusing to try and figure out what is necessary to purchase, but Maria goes into great detail on her site to help you figure out where to put your child and how these programs work together.

You can find out more about Math Mammoth here and read what others had to say about it here.

Math Tutor DVD's

I was sent two Math Tutor DVD’s to review; Algebra 2 and Basic Word Problems.

I admit to having a bit of a math phobia. I don’t like math and it does not like me. I’ll also admit that math was a big homeschool stumbling block for me. How in the world was I going to teach my kids math? Well, I don’t. I have either a tutor or the computer, or co op classes do all the math teaching for me. It is better for everyone that way.

This, however, was a nice little extra addition to our mom-does-not-teach-math arsenal.

I really like the way these DVD’s are set up. You buy the DVD of your general interest, say Algebra 2, then as your child is working his way through his Algebra 2 curriculum and hits a snag, let’s say, with Multiplying or Dividing Radical Expressions (I totally have no idea what that even means by the way) you can simply look on the back of the CD case, look up Multiplying or Dividing Radical Expressions, click on over to it and watch away. One more way of explaining a problem for your child to consider. There is a companion CD you can buy that contains worksheets for your child to practice what they have watch on the DVD

I appreciated the way the tutor keeps it simple and goes step by step and I think this is one more excellent item for the math phobic mom to have in her teaching arsenal.

Math Tutor has several other DVD’s available for you to choose from. You can go check out their site to find out more, and you can read more reviews here.

Homeschooling ABC's

I have been homeschooling a really long time. Really, a long time. I think dinosaurs were still roaming the earth when I started homeschooling. But I do remember a few things from those early days. Mainly I remember thinking ‘What the heck am I doing?!?’ I didn’t know where to start, I didn’t know if I was messing my kids up completely, I didn’t know if they needed to be tested yearly, I didn’t know about learning styles and disabilities. I didn’t know a lot.

I did have a friend who was also wading through the minefield with me and I had some friends who’d gone before. Having friends to walk along side me and those to call to me from further down the path, urging me on, made all the difference to me and my homeschool. I think I’d have given up long ago if it had not been for those encouraging me.

Not everyone has that friend to walk with, not everyone has the friend who has gone before. But we do have Terri and Todd Johnson from Knowledge Quest. They have 11 years of homeschooling experience and they are sharing it with you via the Homeschooling ABC’s.

Here is what their website had to say…

In our class, you will...

• Determine YOUR philosophy of education - By understanding what you believe about education, you will be able to impart that education more strategically to your children. And stay more focused and on-track!

• Understand your children's learning styles - We all learn differently, there is no doubt about that. When we understand how our child learns best, we can cater his education specifically to him.

• Learn the ins and outs of buying & selling curriculum - Let's face it, if we need to buy curriculum to successful teach our children, we might as well learn to buy it right!

• Find out how to get and stay organized - You and your children will function better when your school day, school area and school work are well organized.

• Learn how to teach multiple ages at the same time - Most of us do not just have 1 child and so it helps to learn how to teach more than one child at more than one grade level. You CAN excel at this!

• Make the most of field trips - Field trips can take school from good to great. Find out how to optimize learning while still having fun.

• How to handle the "S" question - Socialization - People will constantly ask you how you are socializing your children. Have an answer and a plan.

• How to start each day WELL and keep it going that way - Keep your children motivated, stay cheerful in their attitudes and quick to finish their schoolwork.

• Get hundreds of dollars of free curriculum - Many wonderful companies are partnering with us to bring you the best possible first year experience. They will be giving you substantial portions of their curriculum to get you started right!

I too have been homeschooing for 11 years and I found myself nodding along with what Terri and Todd had to say. I wish I’d had something like this when I first started out. I have read A-R of these weekly ‘classes’ and this is what I would tell you if you came and sat at my table and had tea with me and asked me about homeschooling. It is not overwhelming, it is clear, it is doable.

Not only that but often there are little ‘treats’ at the end of the class. Free downloads and the like for you to try.

In my opinion, if you are thinking about homeschooling or are in your first year or two, this class is worth every single penny of the $10 a month (for 6 months) for these weekly classes.

Go here to check it out.

You can also see what others had to say about it here.

Write Shop Story Builders

There is nothing that makes me happier than a reinforcement tool for my homeschool that are good, inexpensive, and not age specific. Love that!

When I was sent Write Shop Story Builders I was thrilled. Honestly, I am having so much fun doing creative writing with my girls. They are interested, and really enjoy writing. The things they come up with crack me up!

Here is how it works. Go here. Choose from three Story Starters including World of People, World of Animals, World of Sports, and a Mini Christmas Book, and download it. Then read the instructions on how to print. It’s not complicated; you just need to print them on colored paper so it is easier to organize.

Then you cut out the little cards and organize them into sections. The sections are character cards, character traits, setting cards, and plot cards. Have your child choose one card from each pile and start writing. The combinations are virtually endless. For instance you could end up with a story about a cunning bully on a submarine who hears strange music, or a humble gardener in a swamp who finds a lost animal.

Really, these are such fun items to add to your homeschool. We do a lot of journal writing in our homeschool and these were a really, really good addition to that. And, they’re $7.95. You can’t beat that!

The One Year Adventure Novel

For most of us teaching writing is a daunting task. I personally love to write. I write for my homeschooling association’s monthly newsletter, I have written for my local suburban newspaper, I have two blogs and I am working on a book. And I hate teaching writing to my kids.

I think the reason I (and many others) hate teaching writing so much is that it is so subjective. It’s not like math where 2+2=4, every time. When I write an article, I think about my subject, let the idea run around in my head for a few days, then I sit down and start typing. I am often surprised where I end up.

Working on something bigger, a book for instance, is a little more complicated. Yhere are character sketches and outlines and whatnot, but the way I do it will look vastly different than how someone else does it. See? Subjective.

When I was sent the One Year Adventure Novel to review I did the happy dance. Truly. I was happy. There was dancing. I could not wait to start this with my 11th grader. Will is an avid reader and a decent writer, but with practice I know he can become a much better writer. This is just the type of program I was looking for.

The curriculum comes with DVD’s, a textbook, a workbook, a teacher’s guide, a copy of the book The Prisoner of Zenda, a resources disk with computerized quizzes, FAQ’s and frequently make mistakes and copies of a few classic adventure novels. You also have access to the website where there are forums your student can connect with other users of this curriculum. We did not actually get this far though; you’ll see why in a minute.

The lessons are scheduled to be done 3 times a week for 26 weeks. You start by watching the lesson on the DVD’s which are about 15 to 30 minutes in length. You then take out the textbook and read the lesson that goes along with it. At the end of the lesson there is an excerpt from an adventure novel and some questions about it. You might then be required to read a chapter in the book that comes along with the curriculum, The Prisoner of Zenda, to help cement the concept you are learning about. You can then do the lesson in the workbook. This is meant to help you write your story. The creator of the curriculum says in the Getting Started section of the DVD that ‘By the time you’ve finished the workbook (this is done in the first semester), you’ll have outlined your entire novel, written parts of several chapters, and learned the basic elements of story.’

My son and I got out all of the stuff, looked it over and watched the getting started DVD. I went on and previewed a few of the lessons and looked over the teacher guide. I could not wait to get started!

Sadly it was not to be for this child. He went and broke his right hand before he ever got one word written. This curriculum is sitting on the shelf, mocking us. I so want to use it, it looks so very fun and cool and we were all ready to go! So there it sits waiting for Will’s hand to heal or Bob to hit high school next year. At the rate the healing is going, I think Bob might actually get to use it before Will.

If you are interested in checking out this very cool High School curriculum (which btw, counts for an English and Literature credit) go here. There are samples there for you to check out.

You can also go here to see what others are saying about.

Happy Homeschooling!