Category Archives: homeschool products

October 15, 2019 · 4:05 pm

Fun Family Chess from Brain Blox {Review}

I remember playing Chess with my dad when I was just a girl but I’ve forgotten a lot of how to play, so I was very pleased to be given the opportunity to review Fun Family Chess from Brain Blox because now I can re-fresh my own knowledge and help my special needs boys learn this game as well!

While uou certainly can play chess in the standard way with this set, it has been formatted in such a way that anyone, whether they are trying to re-learn the game for themselves or they want to help someone with absolutely no knowledge of how to play to learn.

Fun Family Chess comes with a very sturdy, well made wood box, which is both the chess board and storage for all of the components.

IMG_20191015_144020

One of the things I really like is that there are pictures of the different pieces right on the board, so that we know exactly what goes where.

Inside, the other parts of the game are packaged very nicely in the velvet lined inner halves.

You can see that the light and dark pieces each have their own soft (and now I notice, covered Shiloh’s hair) velvet bags, and nestled in with them you can also see a full color instruction book, reference cards, and the chess die. The wood box/game board closes with two metal clasps to keep everything neatly together.

IMG_20191015_122202

Each person will roll the chess die during their turn, and it will show them which piece to move. The player then checks the color coded reference card to find out how that piece is allowed to move. Here is a short video from the Brain Blox company which explains the moves each piece can make in chess:

Not only is the storage box/chess board good solid wood, the pieces are as well, plus they are coated on the bottom with felt to keep them from scratching the board.

IMG_20191015_121847

A couple of my boys have cognitive issues and have difficulty when it comes to strategy, so this is a very good way for them to learn this game. Here is just one of their games in progress:

They are enjoying learning the game of chess in a no pressure way. They do not have to already know how each piece moves in order to be able to play, because the whole idea is learning while playing. With the die and the reference cards, they can check how each piece moves each time it is their turn. Eventually, they will have the pieces and their moves memorized, and won’t need to refer to the cards anymore! It really is as the box itself says:

“Earth’s Most Dandy and Delightful, Refreshingly Refined, Easy-Peasy Way To Learn Chess!”  

Please click on the banner just below to read the fair and honest thoughts of 56 other Review Crew Members!

Fun Family Chess {Brain Blox Reviews}

Crew-Disclaimer

As always, I would just love it if you would join me in all of “My Journeys Through Life.” Just go to the subscription box at the top of the blog and enter your email information. After that, you will always know when there is something new happening. I hope to see you here very soon! -)

Leave a comment

Filed under Brain Blox, home education, homeschool products, homeschooling, Homeschooling Chess, Learn Chess the Easy way

Tagged as , , , , , ,

September 5, 2019 · 12:32 pm

Music Appreciation for the Middle Grades Book 2 From Zeezok Publishing {Review}

 

I grew up listening to music from classical to bluegrass and beyond, so I was very excited to receive this wonderful homeschool music program, Music Appreciation Book 2: for the Middle Grades from Zeezok Publishing for the purpose of this review!

IMG_20190904_113746

 

For a little while now,  “The Artist” has been learning all about Frederick Chopin, using the main Student Activity Book and biographies of the composer.

MVIMG_20190830_135913

It has been important to me that my children learn to appreciate music from diverse time periods, so this really fits the bill! By the time this course is finished, we will have learned about seven different composers:

  • Frederic Chopin
  • Robert Schumann
  • Richard Wagner
  • Stephen Foster
  • Johannes Brahms
  • Peter Tchaikovsky
  • Edward MacDowell

We will learn about them by using the big Student Activity Book and reading nine biographies. We received physical copies of eight, and we received one of them as an e-book. When you order this package, you will get them all as physical books. Of the books we received, seven are very nice soft cover in a couple of different sizes, and one is a nice, sturdy hard cover.

While this is not a problen for us, I know that there are people who like matching sets so I thought I ought to mention it.

If you follow the table in the workbook exactly this curriculum will take you twenty-nine weeks. Four weeks per composer, with the exception of Frederic Chopin which is a five week section. This could take as long or as short of a time as you wish, but following the schedule is worthwhile if you would like it to be completed within one school year.

This course is cross curricular, covering history, geography, music, social studies and more.

IMG_20190905_111019

At some point we will be coming back to this to try the delicious sounding recipe pictured here, but as my husband is on the hunt for a new job he wants to avoid poppy seeds for now. 😉

The components of this curriculum are listed below.

  • Student Activity Book:

This is designed for different kinds of learners (auditory, visual, kinesthetic, “active”) Activities will teach geography, history, instrument study, music vocabulary, timelines, character trait studies, musical facts, and more. This is a consumable book, so while multiple children within your family would be able to share the biographies you will need a separate Student Activity Book for each of them.

IMG_20190905_120820

IMG_20190905_113921

  • Optional Journal Notebook:

While working through the Student Activity Book, the student will find directions for creating their own journaling notebook using a 3-ring binder, a regular notebook, or even a sketchbook, helping him or her to connect with the musicians and their musical creations through writing.

  • The Great Musician Series (nine biographies by Opal Wheeler and Sybil Deucher.
  • Music Appreciation for the Middle Grades App:

This is a new feature as of this curriculum. There are QR codes sprinkled throughout the Student Activity Book which give your student easy access to all of the songs in the biographies, interactive quizzes and additional website links.

IMG_20190905_120236

I have covered the website link to the App page because it’s reserved for consumers of this curriculum only.

There are optional components available for purchase:

I feel that this is an excellent tool for introducing my children to the appreciation of music! With this set we are not simply listening to music, we are learning about the places from which the composers came, how they lived their lives, along with much more from each time period. I very much recommend this set to you!

To read what fifty-nine other families think about Music Appreciation Book 2: for the Middle Grades from Zeezok Publishing, please click on the banner just below.


Music Appreciation Book 2: for the Middle Grades {Zeezok Publishing Reviews}Crew-Disclaimer

As always, I would just love it if youwould join me in all of “My Journeys Through Life.” Just go to the subscription box at the top of the blog and enter your email information. After that, you will always know when there is something new happening. I hope to see you here very soon! -)

Leave a comment

Filed under home education, homeschool products, homeschooling, Music Appreciation, Zeezok publishing

Tagged as , ,

March 18, 2015 · 4:54 pm

GPA LEARN: A T.O.S. Review

We have been using the online math program called GPALOVEMATH from GPA LEARN.

Full disclosure time… as most people who know me well are aware, I am NOT a math person. In fact, as soon as I had enough math credit to graduate when in high school, I never took a math class again. I would really like this to be different for my kiddos, though, so I was pleased to see how great GPALOVEMATH turned out to be!

I have four kids, and so far, three of them have been using this program, and enjoying it! I mean, even asking to do more of it, though I expect that has a lot to do with the motivational feature, which I will talk about a little later.

GPALOVEMATH is, as I said above, a web based program which covers grades from Kindergarten through fifth. I currently have kids working in grade 1, grade 1, and grade 3, but one of our twins “Mr. Loquacious” is finding it too easy and asked to be bumped up a grade, as did “The Artist”, who is deficient in math, but is finding this time around that 3rd grade is too easy. “The Puzzler” needs help in the first grade level, so he’ll stay there for now. One of the nice things though, is that I CAN change the grade level they are in, by myself, as opposed to having to ask the company GPA LEARN to do it for me.

One of the things that my kids like for any homeschool program is having it be interactive. This one is! Each grade level has a learning coach who interacts with the student. In the levels we’ve been using, first grade has an Australian penguin who’s name is PI, and in the third grade level, the learning coach is a robot named Abacus.

GPALOVEMATH is set up so that I can log in as myself and have access to each of my kids’ information. I can test drive anything they have coming up, and I can set up surprise rewards for them, which they earn after a certain number of lessons and quizzes are completed, depending on how many rewards I’ve chosen. I didn’t tell them about it, so when it happened, they were thrilled, and as I said up above, started asking for more time on the program, lol! Not only can they earn my rewards, but there are awards set up by GPALOVEMATH which they may work toward when available, such as ecards for places like Toys R Us and Target.

Regardless of which grade my kids are using, they will have over 150 lessons and 10,000 problems. In each lesson, they begin with instruction, then they practice the concept, and finally, move on to the quiz. I think the practice session is especially beneficial to my twins. When they finish a lesson, the program tells them how they did, and they can see how many points they have built up to that point. If they are working toward a specific thing, such as one of the ecards, the program will tell them how many more points they need to reach it. I like that, it’s motivational, and MAY help them develop more patience. 🙂

I had occasion to phone tech support at GPA LEARN, and was extremely pleased! “Mr. Loquacious” was having a problem with the final problem on a quiz, and even I couldn’t do it. It called for typing a number into a space. Neither of us could do it, and when I tried to send through the feedback button at the bottom, I couldn’t type into that either. Finally, I gave up and called for support, where a very nice man named Darryn answered. He and a coder named Chad spent a bunch of time trying to help me figure it out, and we just couldn’t do it. He took down my phone number and promised to call me back. Well, in probably 15 minutes, they did, in fact call back. They had me log in as me, and test drive the quiz to see if we could recreate the problem. It still didn’t work. After all of that time, we finally figured out that I had not been using Chrome, which is the browser that works best for this program. *I* felt completely stupid, but Darryn and Chad assured me that this is what they are there for, and I was doing fine. 🙂

We really like GPALOVEMATH, and would very highly recommend it.

You can have access to all 6 levels for one child at the cost of $149 for the year or $12.99/month. For a limited time, it is available at $129 with code GPAINTRO15.

Please check out GPA Learn via their social media:

Social Media:
http://www.facebook.com/gpalearn
http://www.twitter.com/gpalearn
http://www.pinterest.com/gpalearn

GPA Learn Review
Crew Disclaimer

As always, I’d love to have you join me on all of “My Journeys”! Please just head up to the “sign me up” button at the top of the blog and enter your email, and you’ll always know when there is something new here! 🙂

Leave a comment

Filed under education, home education, Homeschool Math, homeschool products

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

March 10, 2015 · 7:40 pm

Digital Science Online: Visual Learning Systems (My Review)

My four boys and I have been having lots of fun using Visual Learning Systems as a group for a little over a month. We received a subscription to both the Digital Science Online: Elementary Edition (Grades K-5) and the Digital Science Online: Secondary Edition (Grades 6-12)

The Digital Science Online: Elementary Edition (Grades K-5), is divided into two sections. One is primary, which would be the grade K through 2 collection. This included well over 50 units of study, contained within the following subjects: physical, earth, life, and health. This is a great section if your children are in that age/grade range, there are tons of beautiful videos, animations, photos, and activity sheets, etc.

WE did not use this section, because my kids were beyond it, for the most part, but I really wanted you to know that it is there, and that it’s GOOD.

We HAVE been using the elementary a lot, because, frankly, I thought it was the best way for us to work as a group, something which many of my readers know that we enjoy doing. The elementary section of Digital Science Online has subjects like physical, earth, and life, with subtopics or units within them. As with the Primary section, there are lovely, well made videos, animations, photos, worksheets, and hands on activities in some areas. It’s meant for grades 3 through 5.

We have, for the most part, enjoyed this, except for having to crowd around one computer (something I will also address a little later). It was very impressive how, when we would choose a subject, there would then be a list of sub-topics within that subject, effectively giving us a unit study, already all organized for us! The reason I like this aspect so much is that all four of my boys really, really enjoy watching science and nature programs on television. The problem with that though, is it’s hard to put together a group of programs at the same time which would work together as a topical unit.

Eventually, though, with the exception of “The Puzzler”, the boys really wanted to have a go at the higher level, which I’ll talk about in a bit, because truthfully, I thought only “The Artist” would be able to handle the Digital Science Online: Secondary Edition (Grades 6-12).

How wrong I was!

As I mentioned back at the beginning of this review, we were also given access to the Digital Science Online: Secondary Edition (Grades 6-12).

The Secondary Edition has considerably more units of study, with a great number of sub-topics. My kids liked the longer videos, which, once again, I must complement. They are quite beautiful.

I have asked them to stay away from some sections of the biology units, after they pointed them out and said they didn’t think they should look at them. I was very proud of them for this actually, as it shows they have been listening to us and to their teachers at church when we discuss what is or is not appropriate for them.

There are also areas in which evolution is used as a given, where we believe, and teach, from a Creation world view. It was very interesting, however, to listen to everyone of our boys, at different times while watching different sections, saying things like “That’s not true, there’s no millions of years” or “Evolution isn’t real, we know that”. 🙂

The Secondary Edition also has worksheets and such, but these are really beyond any of my boys other than “The Artist”. I DO find that “The Batman” and “Mr. Loquacious” can do a lot of them orally, though.

AS I told you above, I really thought it would be better to use this program as a group, because as often as possible, I prefer it when we can do that. This DID work, for a while, but lo and behold, just today, they asked me two questions:

Will this work on our tablets?
Can we do it separately so we can choose our own topics?

Well, guess what, it works on the tablets! I hadn’t even tried, because I’m used to things like this being mostly for iPads, which we do not have. WE have Android Tablets. SO, I told them I would try it on mine first to check, and if so, we’d see if it would work on theirs. It did! 🙂 Since I had never actually set up separate student accounts because *I* wanted this to be a group learning thing I thought my kids would love to do this together, I chose to call customer support, given that I had forgotten how to set up separate log ins. Guess what found out? Well, while yes, I CAN do that, I don’t HAVE to! They can all log in using the information I used for the one log in, and they can all do it at the same time, on their own tablets or a computer. YAY! The customer service is wonderful. The first person I spoke with was named Louise, and the second was Emily, because they handle different aspects within the company.

One of the reasons I was so pleased to discover that this could be used on their tablets, all at the same time, and that they could be doing different subjects at the same time, as well, is that now, we don’t have to have a “discussion” about what we will learn about “today”. Being able to use the tablets in this way is a definite plus as well for the family who travels, because their children will be able to take this beautiful program along, and learn science their way. It would be great if you’re staying somewhere with provided wifi, and much better than spending all your in room time just watching television.

ALL in all, we really, really like this program. I even had one child come back inside from playing to ask if he could do some more science on his tablet! What better rating is there than that, right?

Want to see what my fellow Crew members think of Digital SCience Online? Just click on the banner right below!

Visual Learning Systems Review

Crew Disclaimer

As always, I would just love it if you joined me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”! Just go to the “sign me up” button at the top of the blog and enter your email information. You will then be notified whenever their is an update! 🙂 Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under education, family, home education, homeschool products, homeschooling, Homeschooling Science, Kids, Schoolhouse Review Crew Post

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

September 30, 2014 · 3:24 pm

Fix It! Grammar . . . A T.O.S. Review

In all of the years of working on the education of my kids here at home, we have never, ever actually used a formal grammar program. Or, for that matter, ANY written grammar program, to be honest! I have basically practiced an informal method of correcting their spoken grammar as a part of our daily life, something I will continue doing, as I believe it works quite well for SPOKEN grammar. However, “The Artist”, who was the student reviewing a fiction writing course last year, really wants to go back to it, and to learn to be better at writing stories, so I thought that the opportunity to review Fix It! Grammar: The Nose Tree [Teacher Manual] (Book 1), along with Fix It! Grammar: The Nose Tree [Student Book](Book 1), would perhaps be a good thing for him. I took a look at how it worked and decided to give it a chance.

This grammar program is from the very well known Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW).

IEW is a company I personally have never really taken the opportunity to really check out, because I was afraid it would be too difficult for my special needs guys. However, I am extremely glad we were blessed with the opportunity to review Fix It! Grammar, because it really works, in just minutes a day!

Here is the basic concept . . .
Method: modeling proper grammar within stories. Instead of being taught a grammar rule, and then being forced to practice it with a bunch of exercises, followed by the next grammar rule, over and over (Lather, rinse, repeat, so to speak) in Fix It! Grammar, the grammar rules are taught as they are needed, within the context of a story that builds upon itself until, at the end of the lesson book, the student has written correctly, the entire fairy tale used at that level.

The Process: 15 minutes per day. The level we received is giving us 33 weeks of grammar instruction and practice, in only 15 minutes per day, and 4 days per week.

This program is incredibly easy to set up and to work through! If you have the student book, then your student will need a note book divided into two sections, which are Rewrite and Vocabulary.

On day one of each week, your student will read and correct ONE sentence. Yes, one. He or she will read the sentence, look up the bolded word in a dictionary and write the best definition which fits within the context of the sentence, and write that into the vocabulary section of their note book. This will be built on each day until at the end, they have their own vocabulary dictionary to refer to. Then, he or she will copy the sentence for that day into the rewrite section of their note book, using double spacing.

On days two through four, the student will use the abbreviations at the top of the page, as well as the provided grammar flash cards to help them remember how to mark the section. As with day one, the student does their “rewrite” in the notebook, writing with double spacing. They are to use their best handwriting, so this is also a nice addition to the day in giving them that particular practice!

While we received both the Teacher book and the Student book (both are very nice, spiral bound books), If you prefer, you CAN just purchase the teacher book at the cost of $19.00. The teacher book comes with a license allowing you to download the student book and print as many copies as needed for use within your own homeschool family. The Student book, available for $15.00, is well worth it though, depending on how much it costs for you to print, and whether or not you have more than one child. I happen to have four boys, so knowing that I can print it as needed when each of them is ready for this, makes this a bargain for me.

A placement test is provided if you are unsure where to begin your student, however, like many people, I chose to begin with book one, so as to create a good foundation upon which we can build with the levels which follow. There is also a webinar available to introduce you to Fix It! Grammar, along with how this program differs from traditional methods of teaching grammar.

Fix It! Grammar is intended for 3rd grade and up, but as I said, I personally think that if you, like us, have not done a formal grammar program, it’s best to begin at the beginning.

What did we think of it? Well, I find it incredibly easy to use! “The Artist” really does not enjoy being MADE to write, although he enjoys writing on his own time, so this was the perfect choice for him. I mean, really? One sentence per day? Even my lazy writer who constantly complains about his hand cramping from too much writing, is fine with this! He really doesn’t mind giving up 15 minutes out of his day, and when he is finished, he will have completely written the entire fairy tale himself, with correct grammar! The only real problem we have is keeping him from reading ahead to see the rest of the story, lol!

You will find IEW on the following social media:

Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Google+
You Tube
Vimeo

Bottom Line? Not only do I very highly recommend Fix It! Grammar from IEW, I think we will be continuing with it level by level. It is a very painless way to learn written grammar, and frankly, I like that. There is no reason education HAS to be dreary, if there is a better way, and this is definitely a better way, in my opinion.

Other Review Crew members have been reviewing this and other levels of Fix It! Grammar, so please click on the banner below to find out what they thought!
Click to read Crew Reviews
Crew Disclaimer
As always, I would just love it if you joined me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”! Just go to the “sign me up” button at the top of the blog, and never miss another update! Also, if you DO enjoy “My Journeys”, please go to our Facebook page and give it a like. I’d sure appreciate it if you did! 🙂

Leave a comment

Filed under education, Fix It! Grammar, Grammar The Easy Way, home education, homeschool products, homeschooling, Institue For Excellence In Writing, Language Arts, Schoolhouse Review Crew Post, special needs education, TOS Review, writing fiction

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

August 26, 2014 · 3:55 pm

UberSmart Software . . . A T.O.S. Review

My boys and I have had the opportunity for the past few weeks to work with UberSmart Math Facts.

This little program, created by a homeschool dad whose wife wanted their children to have help with learning their math facts. It is available from UberSmart Software It is written primarily for students from K – 6, or anyone older (even adults) who need, or would like a refresher on the basic math facts, and can be purchased for $24.95.

I was intrigued enough at how simple this little program is for learning math facts, that I really wanted to give it a try with my kids. As it turns out, it really is a basic little program, which you download to your computer (which must have one of the following: Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8), and you ARE permitted to put it onto multiple computers, which can be of some help if you have several children, and more than one computer.

The UberSmart Math Facts program works just like your traditional set of flash cards, but electronically, on your computer. First, learn, in which your student tries to answer the problem and then hit the answer key to check your answer. Another section, practice, allows him/her to click on the answer they think is correct, and they may also choose test when they are ready, which causes the program to give them a timed session with a certain number of cards.

Depending on whether or not you allow online activity, your student may also choose compete, allowing them to compete against others around the world in a timed session. We haven’t done this one.

This program also has a “report” and a “maintain” tab for the parent. If you like to have printable reports to keep for your records, or if you need them in a portfolio to turn in to your state, UberSmart Math Facts gives you the ability to have them. You can also maintain things like how long you want a student to have on timed activities. The default (4.5 seconds) is too, too fast for all but one of my boys, but you can adjust it, as I said.

Here are some of the different ways you can have the program set up, depending upon the age or ability of your child.

Traditional flash card format:

Keyboarding (practice typing the digits in quickly):

Dot cards:

There are other possibilities as well, such as showing the dots and numbers together.

I wanted to try UberSmart Math Facts because I feel that my boys can use a LOT of help when it comes with the memorizing of math facts, in particular “The Batman”.

I, personally, like this program. My kids, not so much. They thought it was boring, because they have, in the past, used math fact programs that were more like a video game, and they love video games, of course! They love the flash, excitement, and “leveling up”. However, since I can SEE some improvement, I’ll continue using it. We most often use it in the “practice” mode, because it is very hard for some of my boys to actually memorize the facts and have them stick. As with many things, we need to sort of tweak educational materials for our special needs kids, and given that we CAN continue under “practice” until such time as they are ready

A number of other crew members also were given the opportunity to review UberSmart Math Facts, Please, do click the banner below to see what they thought of this program!
Click to read Crew Reviews
Crew Disclaimer
I would just love it if you would join me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”. Just go and enter your email into the “sign me up” button at the top of the blog, and you will be notified whenever there is a new post! If you do enjoy “My Journeys”, then please go to our Facebook page and give it a like. I’d sure appreciate it if you did! 🙂

Leave a comment

Filed under education, home education, Homeschool Math, homeschool products, Math Facts Drill, UberSmart Math Facts

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

July 4, 2014 · 2:18 pm

Experience History Through Music . . . My Review

I am so excited to bring you this review of Experience History Through Music, which is just now being released by noted homeschool author Diana Waring!
1907636_718746788187526_5285536751379246134_n

I grew up in a musical family, with a father who was very much an amateur historian. Everyone in my family except for me played an instrument. I sang. I have been taking piano lessons over the past few years along with my two oldest kids, which made the three books in this series even more fun for me, and for my kids.

Experience History Through Music contains 3 book/CD sets:

America 1750-1890:The Heart of a New Nation
10418224_718746634854208_7458322481846232310_n
From the French and Indian War to the first transcontinental railroad, America is a chronological tour of American history through its music.

Westward Ho!: The Heart of the Old West
10390267_718746668187538_3179666361321805327_n
America’s westward expansion is amazingly rich in stories and songs. In Westward Ho!, you will find the pioneer spirit that stirred the hearts of thousands of Americans to leave the safety and comfort of home expressed in folk songs of or about that time. Now you can experience the pioneers’ adventures, dangers, joys, sorrows and hopes as you join in and sing along.

Musical Memories of Laura Ingalls Wilder
10300957_718746858187519_4257315073409300744_n
The well-loved stories of Laura Ingalls Wilder will come to life all over again as you listen to the songs that were a part of life for the Ingalls and thousands of other pioneering families. Written by William Anderson, noted Laura Ingalls Wilder biographer, the book also includes beautiful photos by internationally known Little House photographer, Leslie A. Kelly.

It is really impossible for me to choose a favorite. This series of three books with accompanying CD’s is a must have for anyone who enjoys history and music, whether they are homeschoolers or not. I was not homeschooled, but I believe that if this series had been around when I was a child, my dad would have bought them for sure.

Author of Beyond Survival, Reaping the Harvest and Diana Waring’s History Revealed world history curriculum, Diana discovered years ago that “the key to education is relationship.”
10343534_718746224854249_1479717351299231146_n
Beginning in the early ’80s, Diana homeschooled her children through high-school—the real life opportunities to learn how kids learn. Mentored by educators whose focus was honoring Him who created all learners, and with an international background (born in Germany, university degree in French, lifelong student of world history), Diana cares about how people learn as well as what they learn. Audiences on four continents have enthusiastically received her energetic speaking style.

This is MY first experience with anything Diana Waring has written, and I’m very impressed. These books are easy to read and understand, and each song has a short, two page segment explaining the historical aspect of it. The CD is bound into the back of each book, and the books each contain sheet music for the songs, so that we can learn how to play them! In fact, here is a quick video of “The Artist” playing “Boll Weevil”, from the “Westward Ho” book:

There have been days when we did several more than one segment, because it really didn’t feel like school work! We love the music, and it’s so much fun to learn the history behind each song in the series. Our country has used music for all of it’s history, to tell the sad tales, the happy stories, and to tell history itself. I’m very glad we’ve gotten to be a part of it by reviewing the new series “Experience History Through Music”, and being part of the book launch for this set.

I encourage you to get these book/CD sets soon! Each one retails for $18.99, but through this July only, you can get the entire set for $50.00!
1044413_737475989647939_2732207351288327511_n

1511916_718836394845232_2215333969521104909_n
As always, I’d love it if you would join me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”! Just go and enter your email into the “sign me up” button at the top of the blog, and never miss an update! If you DO enjoy “My Journeys”, please go to our Facebook page and give it a “like”. I’d sure appreciate it if you did! 🙂

Leave a comment

Filed under Diana Waring, History, home education, homeschool products, homeschooling, Music

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

July 1, 2014 · 3:50 pm

Learning About the Old Testament and Ancient Egypt With an Online Course From Veritas Press . . . A T. O. S. Review

For a good number of years, my eldest, “The Batman” has repeatedly asked to learn about ancient Egypt. For all of those years, I’ve tried and tried to find unit studies, lapbooks, anything, that would be Biblically based, and would be at a level he could handle, but absolutely nothing I found would work for him. Enter, this review from Veritas Press!

We were fortunate enough to receive a full year access to the Veritas Press Self-Paced History: Old Testament and Ancient Egypt, which costs $199.00, as well as the physical Old Testament & Ancient Egypt Flashcards, which are available for $19.95.

Veritas Press Self-Paced History: Old Testament and Ancient Egypt covers the period from creation through the fall of Egypt to Rome.

The Veritas Self-Paced History is suggested for grades 2 – 6, but in our family, this is literally one of the first educational programs I have not had to make major tweaks to accommodate our special needs kids. 🙂 Now, “The Batman” is 21, but with his developmental delays, his educational level in many areas is much younger. He is REALLY enjoying this class! I am so glad I was able to get this review! I have many times over the years, received catalogs from Veritas Press, and just thrown them away, because first, I thought their material looked too difficult for my kids, and second, because we don’t follow the “Classical Curriculum” method of homeschooling. Veritas Press, according to their website, is a Classical Christian Education provider, following the “Trivium“, which approaches education in the order of three stages of learning; grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric.

We, on the other hand, are extremely relaxed, eclectic/unschoolers, so I wasn’t sure this would be a great fit around here, but so far, he is doing very well, and without very much help in navigating his way through the class site! 🙂

Once we received our access, all I had to do was go online and register myself as the teacher/parent, creating a user name and password. After that, I simply had to add “The Batman” as a student, creating a user ID and password for him, and then register him into the course chosen. I had a few false starts and problems, but a quick phone call to customer support took care of that! One definite issue was that we needed to use the Firefox browser instead of Internet Explorer. Once we did that, things started to go much more smoothly. 🙂 “The Batman” and I watched the tutorial on how to use this course. The tutorial was actually interesting to the both of us, and gave “The Batman” plenty of opportunities to practice the different things he was being taught how to do, so that once he began the course, he was able to do them by himself.

OK, so by now, you’re likely wondering how the Veritas Press Self-Paced History: Old Testament and Ancient Egypt works, and how we are using it, right? Well, this class is COMPLETELY done online, up to and including the quizzes and worksheets, which is great for “The Batman”, who has very poor fine motor control, and thus, very poor hand-writing. He is very much enjoying that part, for sure! The lessons are all done at the student’s own pace, hence the name “Self-Paced History“! This is good for us, because we are definitely a “go at your own pace” kind of family. 🙂 The only thing he is using that is not online are the very nice Old Testament & Ancient Egypt Flashcards, which you can see below:

This is the front of one of the very large, colorful cards.

The reverse side of the card nicely sums up what is being taught, along with giving ideas for additional resources.

Of course, he is also using his own Bible, because the course uses the New King James Version, whereas Our family uses only the King James Version, and we want to be certain that he doesn’t miss something by using a different version of the Bible.

There are suggested literature resources to add in if you choose, but since so far they have been books that we do not own, what I have had him do at the end of each lesson where there is extra reading, is to read the summation of that portion of the book referred to. This is working out OK for now, but I know that he would like very much to have the go-along books, as he is so very interested in this time period. If you do prefer to have the Literature on hand, there are three different literature kits available for the Veritas Press Self-Paced History: Old Testament and Ancient Egypt. They are:

Old Testament & Ancient Egypt Self-Paced Literature Kit Level 1, available for $110.30 (a savings of $17.44), and is recommended for children who would be generally in 2nd or 3rd grade, and comes with 13 books.

Old Testament & Ancient Egypt Self-Paced Literature Kit Level 2, available for $88.35 (a savings of $16.39), and includes 10 books.

Old Testament & Ancient Egypt Self-Paced Literature Kit Levels 1&2, in case you have children at multiple levels, available for $151.14 (a savings of $27.47), and containing all of the books in both levels.

I am seriously considering at least the purchase of the level two package for “The Batman”, so that he can read them along with the lessons and have them to keep.

One of the things I really enjoy is that at the beginning of each lesson, we review a memory song about the 32 events we (I say we, because I find I am learning along with “The Batman”, as are the other children) are going to be learning. Repetition is a great thing when it comes to something like this, and basically, we are learning a Biblical timeline through this song. Both “The Batman” and I like very much the fact that if he logs off before finishing a lesson, the course remembers where he was, and when he logs in again, he is asked if he wishes to pick up where he left off. He can also print off the quizzes and such when he finishes them, something he loves to do so that he can show them to his dad when he gets home from work. 🙂
2014-07-01 06.04.14

The lessons themselves are quite fun, using videos of characters who speak and move, fun games, fun songs, and tests/quizzes that are in different formats, helping “The Batman” to remember that there are different ways to answer the on-screen questions. Sometimes, he has to drag things to the correct order, sometimes he has to click the correct answer, and so on. This has been good for him, as he has always been one to not like things changing too much. Each “lesson” runs anywhere from 10 – 20 minutes, which is really just about perfect for “The Batman”, and there are 160 lessons in this course. Here he is, along with HIS Batman, going through a lesson. 🙂
2014-06-27 04.57.26

I am very pleased with this course, and would definitely consider more Self-Paced History courses from Veritas Press, though I’d need to plan ahead for my budget, as I would want to have the literature bundles as well. As I said before, because “The Batman” really loves this time period, and wants to learn as much as he can, I intend to ask his dad if we can manage to order the literature bundle. It is so rare that we’ve been able to find something this good, that he actually WANTS to learn about. I believe it’s more than worth it, and then the books will become part of our permanent educational library.

You can learn more about Veritas Press through their various social media links:

Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Google+

99 other crew members reviewed this and other products from Veritas Press. Please do go and check them out by clicking the graphic below:
Click to read Crew Reviews
Crew Disclaimer
As always, I would just love it if you joined me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”. Simply go and enter your email into the “Sign me up” button at the top of the blog, and never miss an update. It would also be great, if you are enjoying “My Journeys”, to have you go to our Facebook page and give it a “like”. I’d sure appreciate it if you did! 🙂

Leave a comment

Filed under education, home education, homeschool products, Online Homeschooling, Self-Paced History, Special Needs Children, special needs education, TOS Review, Veritas Pres

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

June 26, 2014 · 1:49 pm

Go Science DVD’s . . . A T. O. S. Review

We recently had the opportunity to check out part of the Go Science DVD Series 2, which were made available to us by Library and Educational Services. The Go Science DVD’s retail at $14.95 each, but are available from Library and Educational Services for $8.97 each. Having watched them with my family, I think is a pretty good deal. The Go Science DVD’s
 are recommended for ages 4 – 12, but honestly, our entire family really enjoyed them.

Library and Educational Services is a company I have been familiar with for a long time, and though I have never ordered anything from them, I have regularly received their catalogs. You can read about them on their site, but I’m going to give you some highlights here.

Library and Educational Services is a small family business which, much to my surprise, is actually in Michigan, the state my family lived in until two years ago! This company is a wholesale distributer, and they sell to libraries, schools, resellers, specialty stores, churches, missionaries, daycare centers, and ministry leaders. They also, unlike many wholesale education sellers, allow home school families to purchase from them, yay! They work hard to keep their products in line with Christian values and morals, and offer a great deal of evolution free science materials.

We were asked to choose two volumes of the Go Science (Series 2) DVD’s, and after much deliberation, decided to go with Volume 2, Life Science and Weather, along with Volume 4, Motion, Friction, Electricity and Light. Each DVD was about one hour in length, with a number of different science experiments demonstrated by Ben Roy. Mr. Roy teaches science methods at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He is also a former director of a television science program.

In Life Science and Weather, I think my boys were most excited by the demonstrations of weather experiments. Some of them were pretty cool, for example, in one, which had a definite WOW factor for my boys, Mr. Roy made a liquid nitrogen cloud. To do this, he poured liquid nitrogen into a large plastic tub, and then poured in hot water. The HUGE cloud which erupted was very exciting, to my boys, and to all the kids in the segment. Mr. Roy related this to The Lord coming back with a giant cloud and taking us to heaven.

In Motion, Friction, Electricity and Light, I liked the demonstration using food coloring and bubbles. In this demonstration, Mr. Roy filled a container about halfway with water and then added red food coloring to make all of the water red. Then, liquid dish soap was added, and mixed in by hand to make as many bubbles as possible. Surprisingly, the bubbles were not clear, like when you blow a bubble with a wand, they were white! He then had the kids who were helping take clear wrap and fold it several times, at which point it became white, not clear. He explained that this is because the light is refracted by all of the layers. He related this to God forgiving our sin and making our soul white as snow.

Each and every segment in these DVD’s has an experiment which Mr. Roy takes time to relate to something Biblical. He also ends each segment with the words “Every time we learn something about science, we learn something about our Creator…GOD!” I do like that. For example, here is a sample segment from Volume 1, Sound, Gravity and Space.

Make no mistake, these are definitely Christian DVD’s. We watched Life Science and Weather one evening with my husband along for the ride, and then we watched Motion, Friction, Electricity and Light during the day while he was at work. My kids really enjoyed them, and so did my husband and I. We even talked about perhaps ordering the other volumes for the kids to watch whenever they like. 🙂

There are a total of 100 Review Crew members who checked out a variety of Go Science DVD’s, so I do urge you to click the graphic below. It will take you to all of their reviews so that you can see what everyone thought of all of the different volumes that were chosen.
Click to read Crew Reviews
Crew Disclaimer
As always, I would love to have you join me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”. Simply go to the “sign me up” button at the top of the blog, enter your email, and never miss an update! Also, if you DO enjoy “My Journeys”, please go to our Facebook page and give it a “like”. I’d sure appreciate it if you did! 🙂

Leave a comment

Filed under homeschool products, Homeschool Science, TOS Review

Tagged as , , ,

June 10, 2014 · 3:54 pm

Learning Wrap-Ups: A T. O. S. Review

Let me just say right now, WOW, WOW, WOW! I had heard of, and seen in various catalogs, Learning Wrap-Ups many years ago, but never really checked them out. So, when I was given the chance to receive them as a review product for my kiddos, it was a no-brainer, I went for it!

I had no idea that Learning Wrap-Ups was a company which carries educational products other than the original Wrap-Ups.

We received so much in our package! Here is a list of all the wonderful, colorful, hands on products we were given:

Learning Wrap-Up Math Intro Kit W/O Cd’s – $44.99

This kit contains one set each of Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, and Fractions. As you can see in the picture, they are in a sturdy storage case. There is also a teacher guide with ideas for use.


Learning Wrap-Ups Vocabulary Intro Kit – $35.99

This kit comes with four sets of Wrap-Ups, covering the following concepts: Antonyms, Synonyms, Homonyms and Compound Words.

We also received two workbooks, 10 Steps To Addition Mastery and 10 Days To Multiplication Mastery, each of which comes with the appropriate Wrap-Up for the price of $12.99 each.

Next out of the box, more fun hands-on learning tools. This was something which before this review, I had never even heard of, so I am REALLY grateful to have gotten the chance to check them out! This additional product from Learning Wrap-Ups is called Learning Palettes, and they are very cool!

We received:

1st Grade Math Learning Palette 1 Base Center Kit – $71.99. This set covers Numbers 0 – 10: Intro to Addition & Subtraction, Numbers 0-100, Money, Simple Fractions, Addition & Subtractions with sums and differences through 18, Algebra Concepts, Geometry & Measurement, and Probability & Statistics. This kit comes with one Learning Palette base and 6 curriculum packs which each contain 12 cards, giving a total of 864 questions and answers covering the concepts I’ve listed here. The whole set comes in a very nice, sturdy, clear carrier, and the palette base has a sturdy, clear cover to keep the parts contained.

and

http://learningwrapups.com/learning-palette/reading-lp-titles/1st-grade-reading-1-base-center-kit.html – $61.99. This covers blends & digraphs, reading comprehension, nouns, verbs and adjectives, vocabulary and phonics. This kit is just like the math kit, except it comes with five curriculum packs, containing a total of 720 questions and answers that cover the concepts I’ve listed here.

We were also given a Full Online Family Subscription for all levels of Reading/Math Palettes instruction at LearningPalette.com up to 5 users for a full year – $59.99. I also have a coupon code for you that will give you a 20% discount for the online subscription. Just use the code HOMESCHOOL. How great is that? 🙂

So, now that you know what we received, would you like to know how they worked out for us? Well, let me tell you, I knew right away they would be great for our family when my most reluctant reader, “Mr. Loquacious”, was the first one to get ahold of them, LOL! He knows what they are called, but often asks “can I play with the Fun-Wraps, mom?”
2014-05-16 05.32.40

So far, I’ve only managed to get photos of him and “The Artist” playing with the Learning Wrap-Ups, but the others think they are pretty cool, too.
2014-05-16 05.32.45

Wondering how they work? Well, it’s fairly simple. For each concept, we have a set of key type shapes, which are fastened together at the top so they can be swiveled when we wish to change to the next one, and a sturdy string that is attached. For example, in addition, on the first key there is a large number 1 in the center. on the left, there are numbers going down, as well as numbers going down on the right. There are notches next to each number, on each side. The idea is that you wrap the string from the first number to the notch by the answer. When completed, you turn the key over, and if the string is going over each of the raised lines, you know you did it correctly!

The Learning Palettes work a little differently. In each kit there was one palette, with a clear cover, and the colored circles to match when doing the various cards. “Mr. Loquacious” would place the card of his choice onto the palette in the correct position (which is very easy, as there is a guide peg and a hole to put it on). Then, he would simply look at the card (math or reading), and figure out which color circle went with each answer. When done, again, this is self-correcting, as he simply now would flip the card over. If all of the circles match the circles on the flip side of the card, he got them all right.
2014-05-16 05.05.28
2014-05-16 05.06.51
2014-05-16 05.07.15

You can see, he’s very intently working on them, because they are FUN! I personally feel that whenever possible, learning SHOULD be fun, don’t you?

With both the Wrap-Ups and the Learning Palettes, one of the things we like best is the portability. “Mr. Loquacious” even brought the Learning Palette kit to church to play with during my choir practice time this past Sunday afternoon. 🙂 I think they will be nice to have in the car on trips, as well, but maybe I’ll need to purchase additional bases so that more than one child can use them at the same time, since there are TONS of cards!

So far, “Mr. Loquacious” has been the only one to go onto learningpalette.com, but he is really enjoying it. It works much the same as the physical Learning Palettes, but with a computer and mouse instead of the physical pieces. He enjoyed going back and forth between choices of card and topic, math and reading both.
2014-06-10 04.22.34
2014-06-10 04.25.16

What *I* love about the online version is that it allows you to have multiple children with log ins, and *all* of the levels, whereas the physical product is purchased one level at a time.

When it came to the workbooks though, my boys were not yet ready to apply the Wrap-Ups to them. They do work with the Wrap-Ups, so I am hoping that as they become more proficient with them, the workbooks will be something they can handle without a lot of the “oh, woe is me” stuff that generally comes with workbooks around here. 🙂

When it comes right down to it, this is a wonderful product! As I said before, I firmly believe that learning ought to be FUN. Remember, if you want the Full Online Family Subscription for all levels of Reading/Math Palettes instruction at LearningPalette.com up to 5 users for a full year – $59.99, just use the coupon code HOMESCHOOL and get it for 20% off! That coupon code is good at the time of this review, but I do not know how long it lasts, so if this is something you want, jump on it, you won’t be sorry! 🙂

Don’t just take MY word for it, definitely do go and check out what other Review Crew members thought of Learning Wrap-Ups! There are several different levels being reviewed! Just click on the banner below, and it will take you right to their reviews!

Learning Wrap-Ups Review
Crew Disclaimer

As always, I would just love it if you would join me on all of “My Journeys Through Life”! Just go and enter your email into the “sign me up” button at the top of the blog, and you’ll never miss another update! And, if you DO enjoy “My Journeys Through Life”, please, go to our Facebook page and give it a “like”. I’d sure appreciate it if you did! 🙂

6 Comments

Filed under education, educational games, home education, Homeschool Math, homeschool products, Language Arts, Schoolhouse Review Crew Post, TOS Review

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,