Monthly Archives: February 2013

February 26, 2013 · 12:42 pm

My Review of A+Tutorsoft Interactive MATH

We recently had the opportunity to test drive the A+ Interactive MATH from A+ Tutorsoft.

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We decided to use our son “The Artist” as our Guinea Pig test subject. In addition to being the highest functioning of our 4 special needs kids, he was recently assessed and found to be lacking in math skills. We wanted to see if we could help him catch up, so we chose to review grade 3. Given the options of a CD or online curriculum, we decided on the CD due to various internet challenges we’ve had recently. The Premium Edition that we are using is available at A+ Interactive MATH, and the price is $124.99.

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The CD was easy to install and setup in Windows. The CD is not Mac-compatible, but the company reports good results using Parallels to let your Mac run in a Windows environment. The company’s FAQ’s does mention this use is not supported. You do need an internet connection to activate the software, and we recommend you set up a Parent Profile . . . while you can use the program without this profile, you’ll lose some neat security and student tracking features we’ll go over later.

The program comes with a recommended lesson plan, which you can fill in on the computer and print a copy. I found it easier for me to do both . . . use a blank copy of the lesson plan for the day to day, then enter it into the computer later.

The Lesson Plan recommends taking 2 weeks to go through most chapters. We started out at the recommended pace, but our son wasn’t really being challenged at this point. We decided to step up the pace a little. Starting with Chapter 2, we upped the pace to one chapter per week. We just started Chapter 4 (Multiplication) this week, and he seems to be showing signs of reaching his level . . . we’ll be slowing things down to the recommended two-weeks-per-chapter pace fairly soon.

Please be assured, you do not have to do this fine tuning for your child/children. There is a free placement test available at the web site, so you can evaluate your kids and determine where to start. A+ Interactive MATH is available in Grades 1-6, Pre-Algebra and Algebra.

Each Chapter is separated into sub units. Each sub unit has a Curriculum, an Interactive Lesson and Q&A (which lets you print a Certificate of Achievement) and a Worksheet, and there is a Chapter Exam once your student completes each Chapter. Coming soon in the 3rd and 4th Grade curriculum (and already available in the 1st and 2nd Grade CD’s) are Cumulative Reviews which not only include the most recently worked chapter, but one or two of the previous chapters.

The process we’ve worked out is starting the day with a quick review of the Curriculum. Depending on your child, you may just let them read it on-screen and see if they have any questions before starting on the Q&A. Once he’s printed the Q&A Certificate, he starts the Worksheet, a 10-question reinforcement of the lesson. We then grade the Worksheet before moving to the next sub unit.

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The Premium Version we’re using also allows you to track these results by entering the Q&A, Worksheet and Exam results in a Student Tracking area (if you’ve set up a Parent Profile). This not only helps you determine what your child needs, but I imagine would be incredibly useful if you home school in a state that has mandatory reporting.

For this type of math, and taking into account the student involved, we set a pass/fail level of 80%. On the one Worksheet he scored 60%, we pumped the brakes to see what happened. We reviewed the worksheet with “The Artist”, and determined the problem was not the lack of understanding of the subject matter. It was back in Chapter 1, and he was basically blowing through the problems and not checking his work because he wasn’t feeling challenged.

We did allow him to re-do the worksheet, just to make sure he understood the subject matter (he got 100% on the 2nd try). But, in order to help him in his future focus challenges, he was told the original 60% is what was entered into the Student Tracking. This might seem harsh to some, but he hasn’t failed a single Worksheet since we instituted this policy! This is also what made us decide to quicken the pace of the Lesson Plan.

More on the Parent Profile . . . when you’re signed in as the parent, you have access to the Solutions Guides for the Worksheets and Chapter Exams. Plus, you have the option of setting up some security so the student does not have access to these Solution Guides and Tracking. We do not allow our son access to the Solutions Guides or Tracking. However, if your child works better with minimal assistance and can be trusted not to peek, you do have the option to give them access so they can self-manage their progress.

A+ TutorSoft Interactive MATH is available in either CD or online curriculum. While A+ TutorSoft does provide ability for parents to very easily check and track student work, the CD version does not automatically track the student assignment grades. However, the online edition DOES track all assignments completed online in addition to providing option for the parents to print the assignments and have them grade/track using the tools we provide.

The CD version is designed that way so that parents can be more involved in their student’s homeschool MATH journey and can check/track their work using the tools, which include the parent’s solutions manuals and electronic grade book among others. Parents are NOT expected to have the mastery of MATH in order to grade student’s work. A+ TutorSoft provides all of the tools that make it really easy for any parent to check the student’s work and enter them into our program to track and view various reports.

Overall, this program gives “The Artist” the structure he needs for learning math, and allows the Parent/Teacher to set the pace of the course. We intend to continue on with A+ Interactive MATH in the future.

A+ Tutorsoft is currently offering an AWESOME special promotion to you, my wonderful readers . . . through the end of March, you will receive 50% off your order with the coupon code SPOFFER50!

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Sail on over and read what other crew members thought of this and other grades, as well as the online version of the curriculum!

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February 22, 2013 · 10:01 pm

Celebrating a Birthday . . .

So my stepson “The Artist” will be turning 16 this coming Monday. Because his dad will be returning to work that day after about two and a half months off recovering from TWO seperate back surgeries that were done within five weeks of each other, and will very likely be exhausted when he gets home that day, we chose to celebrate this evening.

“The Artist” asked to go a restaurant where he could have tacos, and my husband and I wanted a sit down, order and have the food brought to your table restaurant, so we settled on Chili’s, since none of us have ever been to one before moving here to Albuquerque.

We had a pretty good time, and the food was excellent! “The Artist” got his tacos, the younger boys got pizza from the childrens menu, “The Batman” (the artist’s older brother) and their dad both ordered these HUGE bacon cheeseburgers with huge fries, and I got chili pepper queso steak, which was awesome, though as usual, I finished about half and had the rest boxed up. And then, of course, I left the box sitting on the table when we left, lol!

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At the end of the meal, they brought “The Artist” a hot fudge brownie sundae and sang a birthday song, totally embarrassing him, which was, of course, the whole idea. He was very full from dinner, so pretty much all of us had a few bites of the one dessert, which was more than enough for all.

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“The Artist” said he really liked it, and I’m very glad we were able to manage it for him. He really missed being able to have a birthday party with our best friends back in Michigan, so it was good to be able to give him something special. 🙂

Now we’re back home, and all the boys are getting into their pj’s, and having their settle down for family TV time before they go to bed. Their dad and I have just tonight and tomorrow night to stay up late watching the shows WE like, and regularly DVR, because we have church on Sunday and he goes back to work Monday, so no more being up very late!

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February 22, 2013 · 6:42 pm

Handwriting Without Tears!

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Many, many years ago, we tried using the curriculum Handwriting Without Tears with our oldest son (The Batman!). Can I just say that it was an absolute disaster at that time? In fact, we had Handwriting with FLOODS of tears, from both our son and myself, lol! This was NOT in any way a problem with the curriculum, in my opinion. He was simply not ready yet, he didn’t (and still does not) have the fine motor control needed for printing, plus, one of the problems he has as a result of his special needs is very bad shakiness in his hands when attempting to print.

When given the opportunity to review both the 3rd grade student workbook

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And the 3rd grade Teacher’s Guide,
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I jumped all over it!

The Handwriting Without Tears 3rd Grade Teacher’s Guide can be purchased for $9.25, and the Handwriting Without Tears 3rd Grade Workbook can be purchased for $8.25, and I believe these are very fair prices for what you are getting.

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Let me say right here that it is working so much better for him now. As you can see in the picture above, his printing is still (and very likely always will be) just terrible. “The Batman” loves to write notes and stories based on books he’s reading, or about his Nintendo DS games, and you can see what they look like in the picture above . . .

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However, THIS is what he is doing in the workbook! This is page 16. We are going quite slowly through the curriculum, because he does need to go at a slow pace.

While the student workbook is not overwhelming at all (maybe 15 or 20 minutes per day), I did find the Teacher’s Guide to be a little bit overwhelming at first, until I realized that a lot of it really is geared to a much younger child, and was not necessary for “The Batman”

There are a good 45 pages of material for the teacher to read before you even get to the actual lesson plans for the student workbook, most of which will be very helpful to the parent of a young child, but were upsetting to my 20 year old developmentally delayed child.

For example, there are activities like the one on page 29, “Stomp Your Feet”, in which you show the child how to stomp his/her feet and wave his/her arms, shout “Na, na, naaaah, na, na, naaah” with you while waving and stomping. You would then have them push and pull their hands, and hug themselves. At the end of the exercise, the child raises the shoulders up, pulls the shoulders back, and lets them down. At this point, the child should be sitting in a more upright position, ready to write.

Throughout the Teacher’s Guide, you’ll find a smiley face icon to visit “A Click Away”, which is a password protected site that is a wonderful resource exclusively for teacher’s guide users. On this site, you’ll see plenty of downloads which are great supplements to handwriting instruction and practice.

On page 23 of the teacher’s guide is a chart giving the scope and sequence of cursive which covers 2nd grade through 5th grade. There are a number of pages giving information from Pre-Instuctional Stages to Instructional Stages, to Posture, Paper & Pencil Grip, the afore-mentioned Stomp Your Feet, to my favorite, The importance of Cursive, which talks about why we should teach cursive in the age of technology.

My son is a lefty, which has always been an issue in writing for him. From page 7 of the Teacher’s Guide, “Our workbooks are lefty friendly. Teaching pages provide models on the left and right so that left-handed children can easily see the model they are copying. Lefties never have to lift their hands or place them in an awkward position to see a model. Children always make their best letter directly beside a model. This design encourages excellent letter practice for both left- and right-handed children.”

My son did, however, copy the models on both provided lines, out of habit, and I can see that his copy on the left is usually better because he can see the example given, whereas when he copies it on the blanks at the far right, he cannot see the model.

I do like the way the curriculum builds in letter groups, giving cursive warm ups for each different concept, such as under and over, up and straight down, up and loop down, and descending loop. These are all movements needed for specific letter groups. The workbook pages goes in the following lower case teaching order:
c, a, d, g
h, t, p
e, l, f,
u, y, i, j
k, r, s
o, w, b, v
m, n
x, z, q

Within each of these groups the letters phase easily from one to the next, allowing the child to see how easily they can form each letter by beginning with the previous one. There are little phrases to help them remember the formation of each letter and/or connection, such as “zip the tent” to remember the bottom of the lower case t should be closed, not spread apart. These things are really helpful to my son.

I especially like that the letters are all very similar to printed letters, but adjusted to cursive.

The student workbook is simple, black and white, and uncluttered, another helpful thing when you have (as I do) a highly distractable child. The lessons are fairly short, meaning “The Batman” is willing to do them, and he can see immediately the difference in how his writing can look.

My son and I really like this curriculum, because it is finally something that he can work within. We will continue to go through the 3rd grade book, and he has expressed a willingness to continue on through the subsequent grades as well, which we believe will help him make a major improvement in his handwriting, and if he can remember to go SLOWLY whenever he is writing something, will help him to have legible writing. He is looking forward to writing letters to close friends we haven’t seen since moving here to New Mexico from Michigan this past summer.

I recommend this curriculum for anyone with a child who needs an easier way to learn cursive, whether they be the normal 3rd grade age, or an adult developmentally delayed child like mine.

disclaimer

I reviewed the third grade Teacher’s Guide and the third grade workbook. Check out other crew reviews on K – 3 teacher’s guides and workbooks, along with both Apple apps and Android apps.

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February 18, 2013 · 6:36 pm

Let’s Learn Some Spanish!

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My boys and I are learning some basic Spanish with a nice little curriculum from Classical Academic Press.

This curriculum is called Song School Spanish, and teaches through the use of (you guessed it!) lots of cute songs and chants, which are included on a CD that is bound into the student book.

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The student book can be purchased at the cost of $24.95.

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The Teacher’s Edition has the complete student workbook with the answers, along with forty pages of extra activities, keyed to each chapter, and can be purchased for $24.95.

Also available is a very nice set of cards called Spanish Amigo Match available for $26.95

All three products can also be purchased in one bundle for $66.95, which I think is a pretty good deal!

This curriculum is written for the kindergarten through third grade level, making it perfect for us, as we are getting our first real exposure to hearing people speak Spanish on a regular basis. Having only this past summer moved across the country to New Mexico, we are now hearing Spanish just about everywhere we go, and had really wanted to incorporate it into out homeschooling, so it was definitely a blessing to receive this opportunity from the Schoolhouse Review Crew!

While this is a very basic introduction to Spanish, I am getting plenty from it as an adult, and I can see my children enjoying the songs, and learning the new words and phrases.

The various chapters are themed, some examples being Greeting Words, Making Friends, Family, Manners, Animals, Numbers, Food, and so on. I like the use of themes tying the words together in each individual chapter.

With four special needs children, I often need to find creative ways to help them learn. This curriculum easily lends itself to doing a lot of the lessons orally, and then helping where needed during the worksheet portions. Another plus when I have highly distractable children, is that the student pages are all printed in black and white. I like that they are not cluttered with a lot of colorful images, making it a bit easier for my boys to focus on what they are actually supposed to be reading. The pictures can be colored by the child at the end of a lesson, if they like. So far, mine have not asked to color, but they are coloring the free Song School Spanish coloring pages that are available in the free Resources section of the Classical Academic Press website. There are coloring pages to go with the many vocabulary words and phrases learned in Song School Spanish, 127 pages worth! There is also a game for practice called Headventureland available on the website.

We very much enjoy the songs, and I have had fun making my children laugh by pretending to “chair dance” to the music. I’m finding that it is absolutely true that music and repetition aids in memorizing new things. When we sing the songs that go along with each different vocabulary word or phrase, we are definitely remembering them. When we go back a few days later and review, we all have an easier time remembering what we’ve learned than if we had just read it on the page. This curriculum gives us multiple opportunities for cementing the new words and phrases into our memories . . .listening to the songs, singing the songs, writing the words, and coloring the free pages from http:www.ClassicalAcademicPress.com.

I have been thinking about adding the CD from the student book to our rotation in the minivan. I think it will help us to memorize the songs even better, hearing them that way, without having the book in front of us to refer too.

All in all, my boys and I have found this to be a fun addition to our education, and I would recommend it to anyone with young children, developmentally delayed older children, or even adults who need to begin at the very beginning . . .like ME!

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February 12, 2013 · 3:41 pm

Justice Needed For a Loving Family . . .

When someone has already been cleared of child abuse charges by their state’s child protection agency (here in NM, that would be CYFD, or Children, Youth & Family Department), and all of the criminal charges dropped, I believe it is an abuse of power to do what the Prosecuting attorney in a specific case here is doing.

A journalist for the ABQ Journal has now written and published two columns about this family and this case . . . the links to both columns are below.

http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2013/01/07/opinion/difficult-questions-over-child-discipline.html

http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2013/01/21/upfront/rio-rancho-family-run-through-wringer-again.html

Here is the Kuckartz family . . .

Do these children look unhappy or abused?

It is my opinion that when given the facts that CYFD has closed the case, returned the children, and from what I understand, some of the CYFD workers involved in the case have even apologized to the family for what they have put them through, the judge ruled the children should return to the family, and both the judge and CYFD have ruled that the child’s injury was accidental, that this should be over and done with. Further, as Ms. Krueger points out in her second column, all criminal charges were dropped.

I believe that it is absolutely prosecutorial vindictiveness for District Attorney Lemuel Martinez to take the cases before a Sandoval County grand jury within the next month to seek indictments on these parents — again, as Ms. Krueger has stated in her second column.

These parents have done every single thing required of them by CYFD. Their children have been returned to them, quite some time ago.

I believe, as has been stated on the following website:

http://www.seekingjusticenow.org/

that what this prosecutor is doing is not seeking justice for children. No, I believe what he is doing is trying to make a name for himself on the backs of this family.

It’s time to stop. It’s time to stop holding this family hostage. It’s time to stop terrorizing these children with the threat of taking their parents away and destroying their family. They have been financially and emotionally devastated by all of this, and now are being stalked and threatened by complete strangers to the point that it is difficult to even go out grocery shopping with the children, as they then are recognized, followed and threatened. It’s time to stop.

Whatever your beliefs are regarding corporal punishment, or (as in the case of some people I know) any form of punishment at all, the facts are that these parents have been legally cleared of child abuse. It is wrong for the prosecutor to do what he is doing. It is time to stop, and leave this family alone. I would even go so far as to say it is time for the prosecutor to apologize to this entire family, especially the children, for what has been done to them even after they’ve fully complied with everything required of them by CYFD, and after the children have been returned and all the criminal charges have been dropped. It is time for this to end.

I ask you to pray for all who are involved in this case, this family, in which the children are so loved and cared for, the grand jury, that they will see this for what it is, and the prosecutor, to just stop, and leave them alone. This is a good, loving family.
It’s time for this to stop.
Now.

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February 11, 2013 · 7:00 pm

A Day in the Life…

Today, we had brunch instead of breakfast, which thrilled my family to no end. I’m not big on cooking breakfast, LOL! however, my cousin, Kathy Kollar, owns a WONDERFUL B & B in Ashland Ohio called College House B&B, which you can learn more about by going to

http://www.collegehousebb.com

During her last visit here, she gave me a copy of her little B&B Cookbook, which she sells at the B&B. I used one of the recipes from it called Make Ahead Scrambled Eggs, which was a huge hit with my family. I also heated tortillas for those who wanted to make it into breakfast burritos, and toasted bagels and English muffins. I very much recommend College House B&B! It is family friendly, Kathy and her twin sons live there, and are homeschoolers. The rooms are luxurious and reasonable, and the food is awesome, Kathy is a WONDERFUL cook.

After brunch, my stepson did his math, using a product we are reviewing for the Schoolhouse Review Crew, then the twins and my eldest son did some worksheets in the writing program that we are reviewing. After that, all four kids and myself finished a chapter in e Spanish program we are evaluating, and then the twins did the pages in THEIR math program. Now, we’ve just finished reading a book as a read aloud that we are reviewing. Everyone has had a snack, and in a little while we will be playing a card game that teaches about money.

In between these activities, I’ve been doing laundry, and thawing out meat to cook for supper. We have leftovers of homemade au gratin potatoes, and leftovers of slowcooker rosemary/garlic potatoes and carrots to go with it, plus a salad.

All and all, I think it’s been a productive day!

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February 8, 2013 · 9:51 pm

Latest happenings…

I am LOVING New Mexico weather! I have friends from back in Michigan telling me how they got dumped on with snow today, like 8 – 10 inches worth, in the case of one family we are close to . . . While *I* was out running errand with no coat, rather, I was wearing an open sweatshirt hoodie, lol!

Other happenings . . . It is becoming so apparent that being a member of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew is a tremendous blessing. So far, each and every product I’ve been given to review has been perfect for at least one of our kids, and some work well with more than one of them. Be watching for a BUNCH of upcoming reviews, starting about two weeks from now.

My husband is now recovering from his second back surgery over a six week period, and is hoping to be back to work in the next few weeks. At least this time around, the incision appears to be closed up, and he got his stitches out yesterday, so he feels like it may have worked better this time. I hope so . . .

We have been enjoying getting to know the taste of foods that we’ve never had before, I have now had pizza with green chili peppers on it! And I liked it! 🙂

We’ve finally managed to connect up with the family who adopted the biological siblings of our two youngest children, so we will be trying to maintain contact via email, phone, snail mail, and hopefully Skype if they can get that going on their end. Our boys are excited at the prospect! 🙂

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