Fractiles- Product Review Post- We LOVE these things!!!!

I want to do a quick post on one of my favorite products!! Fractiles, I purchased ours months ago from our favorite, local toy store... Imagination Forest.  My middle little is obsessed with magnets and my littlest little loves all small, interactive toys.  Fractiles fit both of those requirements.  Now months later we still use almost daily.  I have them use them during hands-on math and they use them on their own constantly just for fun. 

Fractiles is an assortment of magnetic shapes that you use to create different designs.  It is great for all ages.  It keeps the 5 year olds entertained, and it also keeps my 28 year old Sister entertained for hours.  The storage container it comes with gives you several ideas and instructions for designs and you can create tons all on your own.

This product encourages independent play and critical thinking skills!! I highly recommend adding this to your toy/school collection.  You won't regret it!! If you are local and decide to stop by Imagination Forest and get them personally be sure you check out all the rest of their super neat products.  If you aren't local or like me prefer to online shop then you can buy them from the store's website also and still check out some of their neat products;-)

CursiveLogic Review

CursiveLogic gave me a chance to review their CursiveLogic Workbook recently and I was pretty excited.  We have just started learning cursive writing this year in homeschool plus I have an older public school student who never really learned cursive correctly.  I decided to use this opportunity to help my oldest learn how to use cursive the correct way and I am so glad I did.

Their easy to follow process made teaching my oldest cursive a breeze.  I am going to sum up the process using a lot of great information directly from the CursiveLogic website.  They have and now I have a great deal of pride and faith in their simple process.  I couldn't believe the results that this workbook gave my son.  There are a few things that make CursiveLogic stand out during the teaching of cursive writing,  The process works by group letters by shape, using letter strings, color coding, verbal task analysis, and giving students the ability to write real words by the end of the first lesson.  Four basic shapes make up all the letters in the alphabet (I had no idea this was true until seeing this product), CursiveLogic teaches the letters that have similar shapes together which helps students "get" the letters.  They teach these letters using the letter strings which means right from the get go students are connecting letters and in result successfully writing cursive as soon as they get started.  Each letter has a set color that helps the students remember each group of letter shapes.  Saying an action verbally as it is done helps a student to remember the action and CursiveLogic uses this trick and it works!! My favorite part is that by the end of the first lesson the student is writing real words.  This helps motivate the student much more then learning letters individually and having to wait until the end of a curriculum to put them all together.

My oldest use the $29.00 CursiveLogic Workbook daily and had great success.  He is so happy to finally be able to write cursive correctly and we were both impressed with how easy the process is.  I would absolutely suggest this product for teaching cursive and plan on using it to teach my younger ones.

Circle C Adventures Review #2

I did a review for this vendor earlier in the year and loved her book.  I was excited to be given the opportunity to review another one.  My 7 year old is an avid horse lover so these stories are right up his alley.  Circle C Adventures gives us the chance to jump right into a world of excitement, horses, farm life and more.  The best part is that they give you two other series called Circle C Beginnings and Circle C Milestones so that you can experience this world earlier and later then adventures.  Tales from the Circle C Ranch is a great collection of short stories that allow you a peek into Andi Carter's life.  I feel in love with the character as soon as read the first book and this book just continues to deepen that relationship.  I was also given access to Andrea Carter's Tales from the Circle C Ranch Learning Lapbook.  The lapbooks available for some of the books are great learning tools.

Tales for the Circle C Ranch was a great books to use for bedtime story read alouds.  That is how we used it in our house.  Since it was comprised of short stories I could read one each night and it only took a few minutes.  The kids loved them and the stories are so fun that I had no problem holding their attention while I read.  One of my favorite things about Susan K. Marlow's writing style is that is reads very easy.  The words flow from one to the other and in my opinion that is exactly how a good book should be.  She does such a good job of putting the stories together and describing the scenes in the books that you can let your imagination put you right into the story.  I love reading something that makes me feel like I am there and this book once again doesn't disappoint in that department.


The lapbook that goes along with the book is Andrea Carter's Tales from the Circle C Ranch Learning Lapbook.  We didn't use the lapbook this time around but we do plan on using it later on this Summer. I have used another one of her lapbooks and looked over this one.  They are great!!!  I really didn't expect much from the lapbooks originally, just assumed it would be a very simple add on to the book.  But these lapbooks are very extensive with many great activities to tie in with the book.  You could easily turn each book into a complete unit study using the accompanying lapbooks by just throwing in a few more simple resources.

The book can be yours for a very reasonable prices of $7.99 and the lapbook can be yours for $7.00-$12.00 depending on whether you choose the printed version or the ebook version.  You can follow this series and the author via social media Facebook and Twitter https://www.facebook.com/CircleCAdventures
http://twitter.com/SuzyScribbles.  I can't wait to read more of her books and I'm sure once you read the first one you will be the same way.  The best part is that these books are great, clean fun so you don't have to worry about letting your children read the or about reading them to them.  Be sure and check out all the books in the series about Andrea (Andi) Carter and enjoy all the great excitement!!!!

SmartKidz Media Review

SmartKidz Media is a really neat website.  I was super excited to get to review their SmartKidz Media Library for Homeschoolers.  The program is a huge digital resource library for homeschoolers that includes songs, videos, and study guides.  You can choose from sections such as; Family Media- which includes World of Discovery and Music and Fine Arts or Reading and Learning Center- which includes ebooks, baby sign language lessons, animal families, study guides, special needs learning, life skills, songs and a fun zone.  I have never seen anything like this website and I have spent many years exploring homeschool options.  I was and still am very impressed with the content available on their website.  I have enjoyed it just as much as my kids have.

Most of their activities are given in video format but you also have access to some great study guides.  The favorite part for my kiddos was of course all the great animal videos and information.  We are animal obsessed here and this website gives you an unbelievable amount of animal lessons that you can choose from.  I think we watched all the animal videos, and read the animal ebooks in the first few days of exploring the program.  That is all they wanted to do.  I loved the baby sign language section and plan on using it with our new little bundle of joy arriving in Fall.  We used this program several times a week and plan on continuing to use it.

As a homeschooling Mom with a large family I was super relieved to find out that you do not have to have membership for each child.  You pay one fee and get access to a family membership and the best part is that the fee is affordable!! You have the option to pay monthly for only $10 or save some money by purchasing a yearly membership for $99.  The material they provide is well worth the prices and on top of learning my kids were entertained.  There was only one con in my opinion and this isn't a con for most people but we live in a rural area was the amount of Internet you use.  Where we live we do not have access to unlimited data so watching the video definitely impacted our date plan but it is worth it.  As long as I use in conservatively I don't anticipate it being a problem.  But due to this I do wish more of their information was available in printable study guide format.

 Above is a view of one of the awesome study guides......

 This screen shot shows just a a few of the many video lessons available....

 This is one of the bright, fun ebooks offered.....



You can view their catalog and sign up for a membership on their website.  And make sure you check out SmartKidz Media on FACEBOOK and TWITTER. 

CTC Math Review

We are always on the lookout for new Math programs.  And even though we do a lot of pencil and paper work nothing beats the convenience of a computer based program that can help us learn.  CTC Math was a program that I was unfamiliar with before this review, for this review I was given access to their 12 Month Family Plan for Homeschoolers .  This program has a lot of pros and cons and for our family the cons out weighed the pros even though there are less cons then pros but I do not think that would be the case in a different situation.  We used this program 3 days a week to start with as an online math tutor.  Right off the bat I was impressed with how well it explained stuff and so I tried to work it into our schedule a little more often but my kiddos just weren't interested.  I was using this program with Kindergarten, 1st grade and 2nd grade students and a rising high school freshman. I am going to start by listing what we thought were pros and how they could help your family and then I will discuss the cons and why they had such a huge impact on our decision to only use the program occasionally.

PROS

• You can purchase individual or family plans
• It is very well laid out and the lessons explain the skills they are teaching very well
• The student can work at their own speed
• The student can jump around and work on only the skills they struggle with
• It is very easy for parents to keep track of their student's progress and see where they need to improve 
• It is easy to use...just log in and you are ready to go
• It is NOT common core based
• It covers a great amount of grade appropriate material and helps fill in gaps really well

CONS

• It is a little pricier then I would prefer but the homeschool discount is great
• My kids found it very dull and it just did not keep the interest of the younger kids, the older one did not have this problem and I think higher grades would be fine

Like I said there are way more pros then cons for CTC Math and we only had two cons but they were big ones for us.  The expense...the 12 Month Family Plan for Homeschoolers is $297 per year for non homeschoolers and $118.80 per year for homeschoolers.  It is very straight forward without a lot of bells and whistles which is fine but in order to get my younger kiddos to use a computer program I need it to keep their attention.  CTC Math did not.

 The entry screen is very easy to navigate.  It has everything broken down into grades until the higher levels and then it is broken down into classes.

 After you click on the grade and then subject that you want to study it will take you to the work screen.

 The "work" consists of a lesson, then questions then you can go take the test to rate your skills.

 This is my favorite part of the program...for each lesson you have the option to print out a lesson summary.  These make great study guides for being able to go over the skills away from the computer.

Follow CTC Math on Facebook  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ctcmath

Primary Arts of Language Reading and Writing Reviews.....IEW

I was so excited to be given the chance to review the Primary Arts of Language: Reading Complete Package (PAL Complete Reading Package) and the Primary Arts of Language: Writing Complete Package (PAL Complete Writing Package) by Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW).  I had researched their programs before for my oldest homeschooler (he is in 2nd grade but struggles in reading).  All of their programs look wonderful but they just weren't in our budget since we had already purchased other curriculum.  When the opportunity to review it came up I jumped at the chance and anxiously awaited our package in the mail.  These programs are work well for a special needs/struggling reader who is reading at or below a 2nd grade reading level and non struggling readers at or below a 2nd grade level.  When I first got the product I was overwhelmed.  First let me say the quality of the material I received was great but there seemed to be a lot of it!!! I spent a couple of days just looking through all the material then I got down to business.  I watched the instructional video that was included with my two trusty teacher manuals by my side.  The video was very helpful and even though the two teacher's manuals sort of scared me.  (I still think it would of been easier to combine it into one)  But the Reading and Writing can be used as two separate programs or by using them together as one like I am doing so I guess I understand.

As the day approached to begin Lesson One I was still a little nervous about how it was going to go.  I shouldn't have been worried at all, my struggling ready loved it and so did I!!! It took us about an hour and a half that first day (I already had all the games assembled), if you assemble the games during class it will take longer.  Before we knew it we were five lessons in and we were loving it still.  The best part is that is was sticking!! He was retaining the information, I couldn't believe that after only 5 lessons I noticed a difference and my child who has always detested reading didn't dread it with this curriculum.  Thanks to Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) we were finally making progress .

Now we are 30 lessons in and still making wonderful strides.  We have incorporated All About Spelling which is included with the Primary Arts of Language: Writing Complete Package.  I am so impressed with this program that the price seems small.  I would glad pay twice as much as what it sales for simply because of the results we have experienced.  We use the curriculum daily and although you could probably use it two to three days a week  I don't think you would get the same results.  Daily use is definitely best in my opinion.

You get a large amount of materials with these packages.  The reading program costs $69.00 and comes with; teacher's manual, CD ROM that includes program instructions, printable readers, reading folder games, phonetics farm, and printable student book. The writing program costs $89.00 and comes with; teacher's manual, CD ROM that includes program instructions, student book, and All About Spelling Level 1. The PAL Complete Reading Package use beautiful poetry, kid friendly readers, and the phonetics farm to help develop a child's reading skills.  The PAL Complete Writing Program uses familiar stories that have stood the test of time, printing, copywork, composition and spelling to improve a child's writing skills.  This program really is made to go right along with the reading program but if your child is already reading you can use it independently.

We love this program and will continue to use it until we complete and I can't wait to try out many of the other available IEW programs.  This company has earned a fan for life.  Please check out the review from the other members of the review crew to see what they had to say.  Some reviewed the same products I did and others reviewed several different programs by IEW.


You can follow this company and keep up with their great products on pretty much every social media site.
https://www.facebook.com/excellenceinwriting
https://www.pinterest.com/iewriting
http://vimeo.com/iewtv
https://twitter.com/iew
https://www.youtube.com/user/iewtv
http://iew.com/help-support/blog
https://plus.google.com/+Iewriting/
 

Field Trip Journal Review.....Apologia

One of the perks of homeschooling is the fact that you can take field trips whenever you want.  And we fully take advantage of this by taking a lot of field trips.  We take so many during the Spring and Fall that we do the majority of our official schoolwork during the cold of Winter and the heat of Summer.  The wonderful thing about field trips is that the can be as simple or as complicated as you want them to be and you can incorporate an incredible amount of learning and life skills into each one.  We have visited local museums, zoos, state parks and local water spots.  We have also traveled for our field trips; to Chattanooga for the Aquarium and Children’s Museum, Nashville for ICE and the Opryland Hotel, Alabama for the Kennedy Space Center.  We were very excited when Apologia Educational Ministries offered us the opportunity to review their Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal.

I’m not sure what I expected I guess just a blank scrapbook like journal especially for the very affordable price of only $22 but what I got was something completely different.  The Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal is full of useful tips and information that make planning any field trip much easier.  Plus since we decided to use it as a family book we had a blast filling in the pages talking about all of our trips.  I can see us filling up about one book per year if we record our adventures (we repeat several adventures each year) so the price and easy use makes it a great way to keep track of your year.   

The first section; Preparing for a Field Trip is a great intro for someone new to homeschooling that might be a little intimidated about scheduling adventures.  It gives you tips on what to do before, during and after a field trip to make it a success whether it is a small family trip or a large group trip. The next couple of sections go over field trip idea (there are several that I had never thought of), and then a place to list all the destinations you decided to visit.  The remaining sections let you records your specific trips, special spots, and your own personal memories from all your trips.  You can use these sections however you want but at the beginning of each section Apologia Educational Ministries has gave you some great suggestions. 

The inside of the book is made up of sturdy pages and a durable cover, with bright colors and easy to read writing.  I can definitely see us purchasing some more of these in the future to continue recording all of our adventures.

There are a couple of bonuses that come with this book.  On the bottom of one of the field trip idea pages is a link and password to access additional useful activities that go along with the journal.  Apologia Educational Ministries includes this link in each book which gives you more field trip ideas and state maps. 

Please follow this great vendor on social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/apologiaworld/timeline
Twitter: https://twitter.com/apologiaworld
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/apologia/
Google+: https://plus.google.com/105053356034237782125
And remember to check out the other reviews for the rest of the Review Crew!!!

Memoria Press- Latina Christiana I Complete Set Review

One of our favorite curriculum styles is classical.  So for that reason we love the products offered by Memoria Press.  But not only do they offer classical products, those products are classical Christian products and we typically do not use Christian curriculum during our homeschool.  For that reason I was a little unsure about reviewing Latina Christiana 1 Complete Set even though I am a huge believer in teaching Latin.  The Latin language is a beautiful language.  And although in today's World it is often called a "dead language"  I have to disagree.  Latin is used in the base of many words from different languages including English, you will also see Latin pop up often in Science and Law courses.  I believe that Latin is a wonderful language to introduce children to.  They don't have to be fluent to be able to grasp the wonderful history surrounding this beautiful language.  For those reasons alone I shouldn't of been worried, even though we don't use Christian curriculum Memoria Press did such a good job with this particular set that it was very easy for me to present it from a historical viewpoint.

The Latina Christiana 1 Complete Set is a quality curriculum with an affordable price.  The whole set is under $100 and includes; student book, teacher's manual, pronunciation CD, instructional DVDs, and my personal favorite flashcards.  We love flashcards around here and since we were skirting in on the younger recommended age end for this program (my kiddo is a rising 3rd grader) I knew the flashcards would be a key part of our studying.  In my opinion the best part about this program was how detailed the instructions were.  For someone who doesn't exactly excel in teaching Latin (like me) this was a must have.  The teacher's manual did a great job of telling me exactly what I needed to know in order to teach each lesson.  The pronunciation CD was just as helpful for me as it was the kiddo.  I consider myself educated but anytime someone with a Southern accent attempts to teach a foreign language pronunciation becomes well interesting;-)

We would watch the DVD portion on Mondays followed by the workbook assignments, spend Wednesdays reviewing and studying with our flashcards, then when Friday rolled around we would do another quick review before our quiz.  To me the instructional DVD was very easy to follow along with but I did find it a little bland for 3rd graders (and probably 4th and 5th graders).  This is why the flashcards were so key for us, my kiddo thrives with flashcards and they really helped us fill in when he sort of drifted off from paying attention.

Even though I was able to teach it from a historical view point Latina Christiana 1 Complete Set is religious themed.  There are prayers and religious songs the kids memorize so this is something to keep in mind. The CD brought back memories of going to a Catholic Church with a friend when I was a child.  I took four years of French in high school and I've always thought that would be my go to for our foreign language lessons during our homeschooling experience.  But as long as my kiddo is interested I will continue with the Latin lessons as I believe that Latin will greatly strengthen his academic skills as we progress.

Be sure and check out Memoria Press on Social Media...
FACEBOOK     
TWITTER

 

Flight and Metamorphosis DVD Review

We are huge animal lovers at our house.  It doesn't matter what animal we love to study them, draw them, read about them.  I find myself planning our homeschool day around animals at least 80% of the time.  The kids stay interested if that is the topic which makes things much easier on me.  FishFlix.com  is a Christian and Family Movie Store that offer a lot of great selection of educational DVDs. They have movies that focus on positive, inspiring material.  Their children and family sections are both full of great, safe family entertainment.  I was recently given the chance to review two of their movies; Flight and Metamorphosis.  Both of these are wildlife documentaries and they were simply beautiful.

While both DVDs are beautiful my kiddos and I really loved Metamorphosis.  We have spent time in school studying the life cycle of a butterfly and this movie showed them what I had had been teaching.  It is over an hour of gorgeous work.  It slowly takes you through each stage of the life-cycle and shows just exactly how it works.  I fully expected my kids to get bored but all of them from the youngest (age four) to the oldest (age thirteen) sat through the whole thing mesmerized.  I even watched the entire thing with them.  Flight was another beautiful DVD.  We are not bird fans in our house but myself and my oldest still enjoyed watching the beauty of their wonder on this video.  Both of these DVDs are filmed in a variety of great locations that you have to appreciate.  The videos by FishFlix.com are all very reasonably priced and these two are no different.  Regular price for each DVD is $13.97 but right now they are each on sale for $11.18.  You can also get a blue ray copy for a little over a dollar more.

In the end we will definitely use these movies again during our homeschooling experience.  I was so impressed by the prices and the website that I will probably be making some purchases from them in the future also.

Be sure and check out FishFlix via their numerous social media accounts;
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fishflix
Twitter: https://twitter.com/christiandvd
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fishflix/
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+Fishflix/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/familychristianmovie

Since everyone has varying views on things you don't have to take my word for it.  Be sure and check out what the rest of the Schoolhouse Review Crew thought about these two movies and also a few more of the movies offered on FishFlix.com. 

WordsBright...S is for Smiling Sunrise Review

    WordsBright is a small publisher that offers beautiful and wonderful children's books dedicated to learning.  Their book S is for Smiling Sunrise is an education picture book that I was recently able to review.  It is beautiful.  The illustrations are so colorful and vibrant that you can't help but fall in love with the book.  It teaches your children their ABC's with a great rhyming story and even comes with a sign along cd that contains an ABC song.

I read this book to my four year old son and niece as part of our daily routine.  My 1st and 2nd grader know their ABC's by heart but they also still loved the book.  Even my Husband peeked over my shoulder while we were reading to comment on how much he loved the pictures.  This book is perfect for preschoolers and all children in early learning...there is no way the beauty of the book will fail to draw them in and hold their attention.  Since each page comes with a cute rhyme for the letter it is covering it makes it super easy for the kiddos to memorize the letters they are learning.  Since they remember them so well it also means they start recognizing them sooner rather then later.

WordsBright also gives you access to a free printable teacher's guide.  This guide consists of seven great pages on ideas for learning activities and other teaching tips.  The book itself is great alone but with this guide you can go above and beyond to help your children learn and remember their ABC's.  Everything about this book is positive and you can tell that is what they wanted their focus to be.  The rhymes, teaches guide and sign-along song all help teach good values, morals and how to be positive.  Kids are never to young to start learning these important life traits.  Being kind is something that is overlooked way too often in our World today.  It is books like this one that help bring that back to our front and center while still keeping it fun for the kids.  These kids who will soon grow into the adults of our World. The book focuses on beauty, goodness and wonder and the teacher's guide tells you they types of questions you need to ask your kiddos to make that theme sink in.

Be sure you click on the banner below and check out the other crew members who also reviewed this book:-) Also check out WordsBright and the S is for Smiling Sunrise book on their FACEBOOK page.

Successful Homeschooling Made Easy Review

Successful Homeschooling Made Easy is a website that is offering a Successful Homeschooling Made Easy Course written by Stephanie Wamsley that I was given a chance to review.
 

I think this program would be great for newbie homeschoolers that have just taken the plunge and also for future homeschoolers that may be hesitant to take the plunge.  I have been homeschooling for several years now but I was impressed to find several tips along the course of this program that helped me out in some of my trouble areas.  The Successful Homeschooling Made Easy Course is a 26 week online course that is emailed to you in PDF every week.  You can SIGN UP HERE for a reasonable price of $10 per week or a one time payment of $48 that covers that whole course.  

The first few lessons cover something that I personally thing is crucial to a successful homeschool day and that is your schedule.  Now for us we have a schedule and it is very, very lax.  The schedule covered in this course is much more detailed and restrictive then the one I use.  The key here is to find/make a schedule that works for your family and stick to it.  Without a schedule whether it is specific daily assignment schedule or one like we use which is a general weekly accomplishment schedule then you are probably going to start feeling overwhelmed.  It helps me keep track of what we need to accomplish per week because we tend to homeschool at odd times.  One of my favorite things about the first lesson in the Successful Homeschooling Made Easy Course was her idea for Literacy Hour.  This is an hour that she suggests you sit aside for reading and writing enrichment.  She gives you different options on activities you can do during this hour and they are all great.  Reading to and with your children and having them read to you can never been done enough in my opinion.  Making a successful reader and writer is a key part of successful homeschooling.  She shows you how to do a wonderful writing journal with your children and gives you examples that are age appropriate.   We started keeping a daily writing journal as soon as I read Lesson One and we LOVE it!!!  At the end of this lesson and all the others she gives you a brief assignment to complete before the following week.  Her assignment/s for Lesson One consists of telling you how to put this course together in a binder, where to put your schedule that you have started (the schedule is an eight week process that you will continue over the next several weeks) and asks you to pencil out some time to complete this course. 

The next lesson that I want to talk about is one that covers one of the most common weak spots in homeschooling.  How do you combine homeschool and housework successfully?  Most of the time my house looks like a bomb went off.  It doesn't matter how hard I try, how hard my Husband tries, or how hard the kiddos try it seems like we are still drowning in chores.  Lesson Nine she talks about several ways to improve in this area.  One of my favorite ways to do this is one she emphasizes.  Housework can count as homeschool.  How you wonder??? Well it is simple housework is an important life skill.  And without life skills your children will suffer in their future years so this is a great opportunity to start implementing these skills early.  This lesson includes an age appropriate household chore/task list.  Your assignment for the end of this week is to fine something new you can teach your child and read up on some of the resources Stephanie lists with in the lesson.  

Be sure and take the time to check out this interesting program and see if it is something you may benefit from whether you are a newbie homeschooler or a veteran homeschooler.  There is also a FACEBOOK page :-)