Blog Walk is Back! Week 12 (Jan 17-21)

Here are the blogs we'll be visiting this week. Join us, you might make a new friend :)

1.Learning Legacy
2. The Blessings Pour Out
3. Taylor's Mark Orthodox Academy
4. A Day in the Life
5. Pecan Prairie
6. Musing Grace
7. Milk and Honey Mommy
8. Adventures in Unsell Land!
9. Modest Mama
10. Orange Marmalade Mama

TOS Review: The Curiosity Files: MRSA

My eight year old son and I are getting ready to embark on a new scientific adventure with the help of The Old Schoolhouse's new product entitled The Curiosity Files.  I allowed him to make a choice between the following topics:

• Blue Diamond
• Dung Beetle
• MRSA
• Puffer Fish
• Red Tide
• Zombie Fire Ants 
• Blue-Footed Booby
• Cicada-Killing Wasp
• Quicksand

I was secretly hoping he would choose MRSA and he did!
The Curiosity Files are e-books, so once you decide what you would like to study you download the e-book and you can start right away. I don't typically print mine off, but some choose to print the entire book. I only print pages that I want him to keep as reference pages or pages that require him to write. Our MRSA book is 92 pages of informative, fun, learning.
The Curiosity Files are suited for a wide age range and would work well for any one ages 6-14 years and possibly even older or younger depending on the child.  You can work these into your family with very little effort. Although I am doing this alone with my 8 year old, this would make an excellent Unit Study to do with the entire family.  The cost of these e-books are $9.95 each or choose any 3 for $23.
So what exactly is included in The Curiosity Files: MRSA? There is something for everyone and it all begins with a question and answer session with your top notch Scientist extraordinaire, Ana Lyze (get it? Ana Lyze...analyze). She answer questions about MRSA, where it came from, what it means, what causes it, how to prevent it, and how to treat it. At the end of the Q&A there is a glossary to help you remember what you've learned, and a quick review 'quiz.'
After gaining some background information and obtaining a general understanding of MRSA, you begin to apply your knowledge using the different topics, subjects, and activities listed below:

• Bible There is a short Bible study that deals with sicknesses in Bible days, specifically leprosy.
• Math The metric system is explored using hands-on activities, equations are implored to teach the rate of growth in bacteria, and word problems are included as well.
• Writing Prompts and diagrams are given to help you along as you write you're very own paper on MRSA
• Spelling and Vocabulary There are lists for Elementary and Junior-High school and activities that go with each
• Copywork There are five scripture verses in manuscript and the same five are also offered in cursive for the older students
• Experiments
• History/Timeline "Major Events in the Fight Against Infections" You can create a new timeline or simply add to an already existing timeline.
• Geography "Superbug" game
• Art Create a Warning poster to let others know about MRSA (could be hung in a public area such as a nursing home or hospital) or fix get well cards.
• Music Fun clapping rhythms are used for remembering difficult terms and important facts
• Get Moving A game of tag is adapted to teach the spread of germs and how to avoid being infected
• Mini books, lap books, etc Information and supplies are provided to get you started

Also included are a book and website list for kids who want to learn more and additional research projects for older students

If you would like to see what other homeschoolers thought of this product, click here.

**Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received this product free of charge, in exchange for my honest opinion/review. For more honest reviews from real homeschoolers, visit the TOS Crew website

TOS Review: Easy Classical

I’ve been looking over an Early Modern History schedule that was created by Easy Classical. I must admit when I’ve tried to understand a Classical education in the past I always felt it was a bit to, eh, classical, for us. But I have thoroughly enjoyed looking over this schedule. I love doing my history and science as a family but this year we split up and I allowed my older two boys to do something different for Science, and as for History this year, we haven’t gotten very far. Not really enjoying what we’re using.

Easy Classical is a company that was created by and is ran by a homeschool family in NC, the Williams family. Their website offers information to help get you started in your Classical homeschool. One of the neatest things about their website is the link tab. They have links for Science and History, and they’re there for anyone to use, even if you don’t purchase a product.
They offer several different schedules to choose from and also a few choices in curriculums, such as Modern History with Geography and complete curriculum’s for grades K-6 (each requires you to purchase suggested books separately).
The product that I reviewed was the schedule for the Early Modern History curriculum. Although I had a little difficulty figuring out how to understand some parts of the website, such as the schedules and curriculums and how the fit together, the actual schedule itself was very easy to understand.
Early Modern History takes the kids from Explorers thru 1820 in 36 weeks. As with any homeschool item you can tweak it or use it as is. Each week there’s a person, battle, or some other important event studied in depth using individual reading, read aloud’s, writing exercises and/or copy work, a variety of geography exercises, including Geography Songs, and History Pocket projects. The books needed are listed in the front of the schedule and if you visit their website there are links for each book that will allow you to purchase it from a couple different sources or check it out of the public library.
Also at the bottom of the weekly schedule there is a list of discussion questions to help summarize and hopefully concrete the information in their minds. And at the end of the week there is a quiz that includes all of the questions you’ve discussed during the week.  Also for the artsy student there are several step by step drawing projects to supplement their studies.
The Early Modern History Schedule is 106 pages with everything you need to guide your study of early history, using geography, writing, and reading. You can purchase the Notebook version which includes a 3-ring binder, for $35.95 or the digital version for $29.95.
If you’d like to hear more about this product, click here.
**Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received this product free of charge, in exchange for my honest opinion/review. For more honest reviews from real homeschoolers, visit the TOS Crew website.

WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing review: Love & War

Love and War is a book written by married couple, John and Stasi Eldredge. The Eldredges openly admit that they are two imperfect human beings living in an imperfect world, trying to have a perfect marriage. Is it ever perfect? No, of course not. But they have learned to understand one another's differences and have been willing to make adjustments in their own lives in order to build up their spouse. They have learned what it means to “spend and be spent” (2Corinthians 12:15) for another’s soul. And they have learned that “you can have the marriage you’ve always dreamed of.”
Love and War is a couples devotional in which they share what they have learned by the Holy Spirit’s growing them in their 26 years of marriage. Neither John nor Stasi came from a perfect background but they have discovered that God can take what is freely offered and make it beautiful. They have offered their lives up for us to see and learn from thru their books, Wild at Heart (for men) and Captivating (for women). This devotional is an offspring of those two books. It worked out very well in my family because my husband discovered Wild at Heart over the summer and in the fall I began Captivating, then as a couple this winter, we sit down to read Love & War.
The book itself is 134 pages, broken into eight week long devotions. There are five devotionals for each week and each day there is a scripture verse, a short devotional to read together and then a prayer prompt to offer together to the Lord. At the end of day 5 there is an exercise to complete. The exercises are simple yet hard. They require something from you that you may not want to give.
The Eldredges address many hard subjects including your prayer life as a couple, the enemy who wants your marriage, and intimacy in marriage. If you desire more for your marriage, Love and War is a great place to start. Believe that you can have the marriage you desire, then trust the Lord to bring it to pass thru your obedience to Him and His Word. To pick up your copy today, visit WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing.
Disclaimer: I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review

TOS: See-N-Read

I recently received three items from a family owned company named See-N-Read. This is a fairly new company that is run by Dr. Sylvia R. Smith who has her Doctorate in Instructional Technology, her Masters in Curriculum and Supervision,and her Bachelor of Science in Special Education. She is highly qualified and has been endorsed by a leading Neuropsychologist and ELL Specialist.
The goal of See-N-Read is to help students and adults focus on what they are reading so they can use their energy to understand what they’re reading instead of wasting energy trying to keep their eyes focused. If you or your child are prone to line skipping, or if your eyes jump ahead when reading, this would be beneficial to you. It is also recommended for people with dyslexia.  The way it works is there is a piece of plastic that has a grey/blue tint to it, all except one long piece that is clear. You place the clear part over the sentence you’re reading and then just move down as you read.
The items we received were called the See-N-Read Tool (the Book size and the Document size) and the Memory Marker. They also offer an electronic version of See-N-Read and it’s called eSee-N-Read (cost is $29.99 for the e-version).
The See-N-Read Tool comes in two sizes, the Book size (5 1/2” x 3”) and the Document size (8 1/2” x 3”). The Document size is ideal for younger students because it works well with picture books.
The Memory Marker is made like the See-N-Read Tool only the clear part is actually empty, no plastic. This is so you can highlight, underline, or mark any way you like. It would be ideal for Bible study or school. It also comes in the Book size and the Document size.
The cost for these items are:
See-N-Read (click here to order):
Book Size $2.99  Document size $3.49
Memory Marker (click here to order):
Book size $2.99  Document size $3.49
There are discounts when you purchase more than one.
I tried this product with both of my boys and it didn’t seem to work too well for them. My oldest son is a very good reader and just didn’t like having to deal with moving the See-N-Read down the page. My younger son struggles to read and it just isn’t something he needs right now. I think it’ll be beneficial to him when his reading has progressed to chapter books. I used it for myself because a lot of times as I read I get carried away when the book gets good and I’ll have to force myself not to look ahead. This helped but the grey/blue wasn’t dark enough and I could still see the words thru the tint. As I stated before I think the product will work, when there is a need for it. As of right now, we just don’t have a lot of trouble with eye tracking, or focusing.
If you’re interested in seeing what other homeschoolers thought of this product, click here.

**Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received this product free of charge, in exchange for my honest opinion/review. For more honest reviews from real homeschoolers, visit the TOS Crew website.

TOS Review: Math Facts Now

 

 

My eight year old and I have been working thru the multiplication facts and he is doing so well. I was very pleased because I thought it would be more difficult for him since he doesn’t really do well with rote memory type learning.

We used several different methods to learn his multiplication tables and one of those methods was Math Facts Now. It was very simple to use. I downloaded their product then I created an account for my son with different lessons for him to practice. A lesson isn’t something that is taught, but rather a way to practice what you already know. It works just like flash cards, only with a computer.

I created him a lesson on subtraction because that’s still a little challenging for him and I also set up a lesson on the multiplication facts that he’s learned so far. When you set up a lesson you can determine how many facts they must get right before they’re finished and how long they have to answer each problem. If they get it wrong they must retype the problem and solution. You determine how many times they are required to retype them. I chose two times for my son. You can set up lessons in Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, or Division. If you’d like to see for yourself exactly how this works, they do offer a free trial.

You can set up multiple students and have them do multiple lessons, but for us I only used it with one student. There is also a progress report to help you see at a glance how he’s doing. It gives you the percentages for correct and incorrect answers as well as how long it took to answer.

.The cost of this program is $15.95 for the download or $15.95 + $3.95 shipping  and handling for a CD ROM. We used the download version and it worked perfectly.

If you’d like to see what other homeschoolers thought of this program, click here.

**Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received this product free of charge, in exchange for my honest opinion/review. For more honest reviews from real homeschoolers, visit the TOS Crew website.

TOS Review: Positive Action for Christ

Our family was blessed to be chosen to review Positive Action for Christ Bible study.  I’ve been searching for a Bible study for my 5th grade son but nothing seemed to really fit. Everything we tried was either too simple, required too much handwriting, or was too in depth. Positive Action for Christ was none of the above. This study was very age appropriate for my 5th grader. It has nice colorful pictures (something we both LoVe), and it required only a moderate amount of handwriting.
I received the Teacher’s manual ($33.95), student’s manual($12.95), and packet with teaching suggestions and some back ground information to help get me started. The program was designed for a school setting but can easily be adapted for a homeschool setting.
The Teacher’s manual is in a sturdy 3-ring binder and it includes 282 pages of instruction, strategies for teaching, quizzes, tests and the complete student text with answers.
Also included in the teachers manual:

• A Scripture memory program complete with a chart to help you keep up with the memory verses.
  
• A music curriculum that allows you to learn a hymn and/or 3 choruses per month.
  
• A schedule to show you how to use the program with a 3-day, 4-day, or 5-day week.

This program can be as simple or as in depth as you desire. For us, we only utilized the Bible portion because my son is using AWANA for scripture memorization, and music is not something we usually do as a study.
The Student book is a full color, 189 page work book. The student book has 35 lessons and each lesson includes Vocabulary, Life Principles, Character Trait Activities, and Life Application sections, as well as plenty of Bible study work. The lessons are broken down into bite sized sections and my son works 1-2 sections per day, finishing a lesson per week. 
The program we used was entitled Possessing the Land. It began with a timeline from Creation to the end of the Old Testament. The first lesson teaches students about the importance of the Bible being God’s inspired Word and it’s ability to change a heart. The second lesson lays a foundation on sin and redemption. After these two very important precepts are studied the old testament progression begins. Lesson three begins with Abraham and Isaac and lesson 34 finishes with the minor prophets (lesson 35 is a review lesson, there are two review lessons).
The lessons each week offer lots of variety.  Sometimes there will be crossword puzzle's, charts, maps and other fun ways to learn. There’s always several questions that must be researched (simply by looking up scripture references) and answered, but my son has never complained and that’s kind of unusual because he never likes to write. It’s really not an overwhelming amount to do, and it’s very doable. 
This program calls for a teacher but for us I used the teachers manual and done the sections during my morning devotions, that way I would know exactly what he was learning and I would be ready if I needed to answer questions or have discussion time. I never really ‘taught’ a lesson.
Other Programs by Positive Action for Christ: (click any link below to go to the products page)
School Curriculum (grades k-12)
Church Curriculum There are 7 different studies to choose from
Pro Teen Clubs
Books
The Positive Action for Christ website has lots of nice downloads if you’d like to get a closer look at Possessing the Land, or any of their other products.
If you’d like to know what other homeschoolers thought of this program, click here.
**Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received this product free of charge, in exchange for my honest opinion/review. For more honest reviews from real homeschoolers, visit the TOS Crew website.