City Creek Press Times Alive

Times Alive is a downloadable computer ‘game’. The program helps students learn the times tables by creating stories you see played out on the screen, while listening to a song about the math facts. You can watch videos; you can color pages on the computer, and you can listen to songs and take tests.


I have a dyslexic student I’m trying to teach the times tables to right now so this was very timely. She enjoyed playing on the computer and learning her math facts at the same time. I even noticed her using the little ditty’s she learned from Times Alive when she was doing her math. I think, like any skill, the more they practice the better they do. We are continuing to use the tried and true flash cards, but I believe adding Times Alive to our arsenal will help out. It’s fun for the student, it works, and she can do it by herself on the days I’m busy. What more can a homeschooling mom ask?



Times Alive has several ‘Kits’ to choose from, as well as the Times Alive CD Rom, which retails for $48.95.

To demo the product you can go here.

To find out what others had to say about Times Alive go here.

Happy Homeschooling!

Ten Marks

I was sent TenMarks to review for you.

Overall it’s a good program and would make a good addition to your math line up.

It works like this…

You tell them what grade your student is and what state they live in. It generates a personalized math program for your student. It sends you your ‘worksheet’ homework via email so your student knows exactly what they are expected to accomplish. Your student starts by watching the lesson. Then they do ten problems per ‘worksheet’. If they get stuck, they can also get 3 hints per problem. There is only one problem on a page at a time, which was good for my dyslexic. Less to confuse her.

There are ways for you as the parent to go in and reorganize the topics you want your student to do and even delete some altogether. You can add in from other grades, which is a nice feature. Say your student just does not get fractions, but is on grade level for everything else. You could add the fractions section from the previous grades into your line up.

You can also use TenMarks simply as a supplement and not worry about the ‘worksheets’ they send you but simply go into the Practice area and have your student do the lessons they are week in or need help on.

Or...you can watch this video that tells you (probably better than me!) how the program works.I will admit that it took me a while to figure some things out on the site. It was not as intuitive as I would have liked and I had trouble finding the directions to some things. Also, I recommend starting your student a year behind where you think they are, unless they are advanced at math. I found with both of my girls that the grade they were in was a bit too hard for them so we had to go back a grade.

I think TenMarks would make a good stand alone math program or simply a good supplement to your current curriculum.

Their pricing structure is as follows (from their site)…

TenMarks is affordable for everyone and offers a money back guarantee.

Options (per student)

$10 a month

$49 for 6 months

$89 for 12 months

You can go here to find out more about TenMarks and you can go here to find out what others on The Crew had to say.

Happy Homeschooling!

Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary for Kids

I was sent the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary for Kids to review for you. I absolutely love this book. It is a good size book, 11.00 X 8.50, and is made of sturdy hardback construction. The pages are very colorful and full of maps and charts and wonderful facts from the Bible.







I think this book could be used in many ways. It would be very helpful as a reference, to have nearby when doing family Bible study or when children are doing independent Bible study. This would also be a great book to simply have around for the children to flip through at their leisure or to assign pages for the children to read during their daily schooling.



When we received this book, my daughter grabbed it and sat on the couch for the better part of an hour just reading. She would pipe up now and then, telling me a fact she’d learned or call me over to show me a neet photo. This book is one that we will be happy, for years to come, to have added to our library.

You can find this book at most bookstores, including Lifeway Christian Bookstore for $14.99

You can go here to see what others on The Crew had to say about this book.

Happy Homeschooling!

Virtual Nerd

Virtual Nerd is a website with a plethora of video segments. In these video segments, a person teaches a lesson on a very specific topic of your choosing.
The video’s are simple and non distracting with a person (sometimes it’s a girl and sometimes it’s a guy) and a blackboard.

These videos are organized very clearly into categories. The main categories are Pre Algebra, Algebra 1, Algebra 2 and Physics. You can then click on various sub topics within these larger topics. To be honest, we’ve spent all of our time in Pre Algebra and Algebra 1.

I also noticed that you can look up specific chapters in the 4 main texts most public schools use, to watch videos on these topics. This is very clever and I can imagine this would be extremely helpful if you are using one of those books.

Overall, I like Virtual Nerd. It is well laid out and the lessons are clear and concise. They cover only one topic at a time and it is not confusing to the listener.
I can see how this could be helpful to the homeschooler to have these video’s in their math arsenal. My only issue is that, unlike a real tutor, you can’t tell the lady in the video that you don’t understand what she is saying and have her try again. You can only replay the video. But then, we all know nothing replaces a real person.

In their ‘FAQ’ section Virtual Nerd themselves answers the question of Virtual Nerd taking the place of a private tutor.

No. If you can find a good tutor, if you can afford private tutoring, and if you can fit it into your schedule, it can be an extremely powerful way to learn. In that case, Virtual Nerd can be an excellent supplement. On the other hand, if private tutoring is not an option for you, or if you want to explore other alternatives first, you've come to the right place.

Overall I think Virtual Nerd is a good program. It is a little pricy, but if it helps your child understand Algebra, it’s worth it!

The Cost is as follows, and when they say 'educator' they do not mean homeschoolers.

Well, that depends. If you're an educator, it's free. If not, the standard subscription rate for the Premium Plan is $49 per month. We also offer 3-month, 6-month and 12-month packages, which result in substantial savings. Also, check with your teacher and principal, because we may have given your school a discount code.

You can go here to find out more about Virtual Nerd and you can go here to see what others on The Crew had to think about it!

Wits and Wagers Family Game

I received the Wits and Wagers Family game to review for you, right before one of our family camping trips. Seems it was a very good thing because the first day we were camping the weather was very nice…the second day? Not so much. We had a cold front come through and it was COLD and rainy!

I am so very glad I had a new game to pull out! We sat around the table in the RV and played several rounds of this game. My hubby drove into town to pick something up, I can’t remember what at this point; I think it may have simply been a ploy to get away from all the giggling!

Honestly, I am not a huge fan of learning a new game. Sometimes the instructions are so convoluted that you can’t exactly understand what you are supposed to do, but I did not find this to be the case at all with Wits and Wagers. It was fairly straight forward. We read over the instructions once and were able to start playing right away.

From the Website…

Wits & Wagers Family simplifies the rules and scoring system of the popular Wits & Wagers. Now families and kids can get into the Wits & Wagers action! First, every player writes down a guess to a fun question. Then players try to score points by choosing which guess is closest to the right answer without going over. That is it!
The game features 300 new family-friendly questions. And even better than that, Wits & Wagers Family includes Meeples-- fun, cute, human shaped wooden pieces that the players use to select which answers they think are correct. Meeples have been a hallmark in European style strategy games for years, but this is the first time they have made an appearance in a party game.

So check out Wits & Wagers Family, the game that combines laughter and learning in a way that all ages can enjoy together!

I was playing with girls who range in ages from 11 to 13. We laughed and laughed and laughed. But here is the real test. Yes, we played this game the first time when they were really a captive audience. We were in an RV and it was dark, cold, and rainy outside. There were really no other options. But here’s the real kicker. The next day when the weather was nicer, and their cousins had arrived, they could have chosen to do any number of things, but they wanted to play this game with their cousins. They got the game out and played it several times over the course of our camping trip, completely unprompted by me.

Now that’s the sign of a good game!

You can go here to learn more about Wits and Wagers specifically, (how to order and the price etc.) and here for North Star Games in general. And you can go here to see what others had to say about it!

Happy Homeschooling!

KB Teacher

KBTeacher is a website full of wonderful activities and worksheets that many homeschoolers and teachers in general would find very helpful.

The website is rather intuitive; you look under various categories to find what is available. The categories are: For The Season, English Language, Math Activities, Science Workbooks, Biology Worksheets, Social Studies, More Activities.

I was pleasantly surprised at all I was able to find on this site. I found the customizable writing worksheets to be most helpful and I also enjoyed looking through their clip art. They also have various experiments and craft ideas.

In our homeschool, we are not a huge fan of worksheets, and we don’t use them often. I think a family who uses more of a workbook approach would find this site very helpful. However, there was still quite a bit for me to use on this site as enrichment to our various literature based studies.

You can go here to find out more about KBTeacher Website, here to find out about their pricing structure, and you can go here to find out what others had to say about it.

Happy Homeschooling!

Essay Writing Instructions

I was sent Essay Writing Instructions lessons 1-15 from The Write Foundation to review for you.

At first glance, this curriculum is a little daunting. It’s basic black and white with no bells and whistles. It comes with a teacher guide containing step by step lesson plans and a stack of loose papers that you put into a binder and organize per the instructions in the book.

I read over the introductory information in the teacher book and was a little confused as to how to implement this curriculum. It took a bit of intense study and focus for me to figure out what I was to do with this curriculum. I say that, because while my overall impression of this curriculum is positive, it is going to take some work on the teacher’s part. It is not an open-and-go kind of curriculum.

This curriculum was designed to be used in a co op classroom setting or at home. This is something to keep in mind when you are trying to figure out how to implements it. I currently teach a creative writing class in a co op setting and I can see how this curriculum would work very, very well within the co op setting.

It is set up like so…
There are 30 lessons in this book. You teach one lesson to your class (or student) then they have homework that will fill up at least 4 days. This homework consists of mostly worksheet s that come with the curriculum. Some lessons will take more than one week, but you should count on one week minimum for each lesson.

I like this idea because it means as a homeschool mom, I’ll be teaching this once a week then just be available to help the rest of the week. This obviously works very well for a co op setting.

Essay Writing Instructions is a very thorough course. In fact maybe it’s too through. I have helped several students, including my own; get prepped for the essay portion of the accuplacer, (the local community college entrance test) or the ACT or SAT. Essay writing is not rocket science; really it’s very simple. Sometimes I think we complicate it too much and make it scary and overwhelming for students. That is my only caution, and it is one that you as the teacher can be aware of and work to avoid.

Overall, I feel this is a good choice for teaching Essay writing to the 14 to 17 year old student.

You can learn more about The Write Foundation and the prices and various levels they offerhere, and you can see what others on the Crew had to think of it, here.