TOS Review

Greene Bark Press {Crew Review}

September 6, 2013 by Dana

Greene Bark Press, Inc. specializes in original books that expand the imaginations of young readers. They believe that in this digital age, it’s still important to provide children with solid, colorful books that allow children to grow and learn. They believe books should capture a child’s attention.

Look Left, Look Right, Look Left Again features the adorable Wally Waddlewater. Wally wants to find a mailbox to send a birthday card to his Grandmother. Through this book, Wally learns how to safely cross the road with rules.

This 26 page board book is full of color and detail. Designed for ages 3-8, the words found in the book are challenging for the age group and easy to follow along. The story itself teaches children the rules of street safety, showing them how to safely cross the road. It also teaches safety in crossing train tracks and other important outdoor areas.

This was a wonderful book. I wanted it specifically to share with Laycie since, out here in the boondocks, we don’t have many roads for her to cross. Street safety is something she really needed to learn since she can be very impulsive and what better way to learn than with this adorable book about one of her favorite animals: a duck! She absolutely loved Wally Waddlewater and now she knows how to safely cross both the road, the parking lot and the train track.

We were able to practice the lesson we learned in this book by crossing our driveway. We made sure to Look Left, Look Right, Look Left Again as we did it, just like Wally Waddlewater did in the pages of the book! She loved being able to reenact the story in this way and verified she had learned the lesson provided in the book.

Look Left, Look Right, Look Left Again is available from Greene Bark Press, Inc for $8.50 plus shipping. It is a boardbook written by Ginger Pate.

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Reading Kingdom {Crew Review}

August 16, 2013 by Dana

Reading Kingdom is an amazing online reading program designed to help children that are ages 4-10 learn to read and build reading skills they may struggle with. This program is designed to be easy to use for both Parent and child. It can also be used in a classroom setting for schools.

Reading Kingdom is designed to work with the child’s skill level. Any young child can use this program at any skill level. How quickly your child completes this program will depend upon your child’s skill level. The complete Reading Kingdom program takes around 12-15 months to work through. Children with advanced reading skills can complete the program within 3-6 months.

Reading Kingdom is designed to be used at least 4 times a week with your child. Children should be at least 4 years old and able to sit quietly, paying attention for at least 15 minutes at a time. Children should know basic computer skills like using a mouse.

Reading Kingdom uses a balanced approach of reading skills to teach children to read. The program uses the 6 important skills of sequencing, sounds, motor, meaning, Grammar and comprehension combined together to master both reading and writing. This allows a child to fully comprehend reading and these skills last a lifetime.

The greatest thing about Reading Kingdom though is that it customizes to your child. Every child’s experience with this program will be completely different. When your child begins this program, they will complete a reading skills survey that allows the program to adapt to your child. Based on the results of this survey, the program designs itself to fit your child’s learning needs. It also adapts as your child progresses through the program, developing your child skills as they learn.

We have used this program with my struggling reader and he really loves it. Since it goes at his pace and adapts to his skills, he is able to really enjoy himself while using it. Winston is a whole word learner and struggles with phonics type programs. Reading Kingdom’s combined approach has allowed him to grasp concepts of reading that he usually struggles with when learning single reading programs like phonics or whole words.

Winston uses the program a few times a week and works as long as he wishes on his reading. There is no rush for him or pressure in learning. It’s complete fun and games in reading and this has helped him relax tremendously. We will be adding his little sister to the program in the future.

Reading Kingdom has a free trial available to view this curriculum before taking the jump into joining with a membership. Memberships are $19.99 a month or $199.99 a year for the first child. Additional children added into the program are $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year. There are also additional materials available for purchase to use with the program as well. Free online resources are also available for use.

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Preschoolers and Peace: Circle Time {Crew Review}

July 31, 2013 by Dana

Growing up in Public School, one of my favorite daily activities was Circle Time. When I decided to Homeschool, Circle Time was one of the first things I implemented into our homeschooling. My kids have loved it as much as I did, even though we do this in a completely different type of environment than the one I grew up in.

Circle Time for us has always been a bonding experience and has worked great to provide together time for me and my children. We do most things together and we enjoy doing them. There isn’t a lot of arguing during this time but there is a whole lot of fun. Sometimes, it gets hard for me to come up with new ideas for our Circle Time activities though, especially as my children age. That’s where Kendra Fletcher’s book, Circle Time from Preschoolers and Peace comes in!

Circle Time teaches the homeschool parent how to plan for Circle Time in their daily routine and how to make Circle Time flow smoothly. Throughout this book, Kendra explains how she uses her Circle Time period to teach all of her children important Bible Scriptures, stories, memorization skills, copywork and so much more. Kendra discusses how to keep younger children occupied while older children learn, all while maintaining life.

As Kendra explains throughout Circle Time, this wonderful addition to your homeschooling day can be arranged in any way that best fits you. You can do Circle Time in the mornings, midday or night. You can teach all kids at once or groups of children as needed, though the goal is to have as many children as possible join in at the same time. You can teach as many subjects as possible together through Circle Time and the book provides plenty of suggestions for making this happen.

Since we already use Circle Time in our homeschooling days, I wasn’t looking for a how-to in this book but instead inspirational ideas to spruce up our daily routine of Circle Time. In Circle Time the book, I found so much more!

Kendra provides great printables to organize your Circle Time planning like a Wish List of activities to include in your own Circle Time. She also includes a work sheet for listing Independent and Group work for your student’s daily activities. There are more great things to help with Circle Time on her website Preschoolers and Peace too!

Circle Time can be arranged to fit your family and is a great tool to bring you and your children closer together. The time they spend with one another brings positive attributes out within them, as well as stronger bonds between them. It also allows them to spend extra time with you that may be missed in other learning settings.

Circle Time is an important part of our homeschooling days. Kendra Fletcher’s book, Circle Time will teach you how to make it an important part of your homeschooling day too! You can purchase Circle Time today as a PDF file for $4.99 through Kendra’s website Preschoolers and Peace. I promise you it’s worth every cent!

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Dig-It Games: Mayan Mysteries {Crew Review}

July 15, 2013 by Dana

Dig-It Games brings to life the world of the Maya through it’s interactive game, Mayan Mysteries.

Mayan Mysteries allows children to become archaeologists in this fun game. Children learn about history through play.

Dig-It Games was founded by Suzi Wilczynski, professional archaeologist and former school teacher. She created Mayan Mysteries and Roman Town to bring to users a fun, interactive way to teach ancient civilizations with archaeology. Through 10 years of experience with digs in Greece and Israel, Ms. Wilczynski created a way to bring her experiences to students everywhere.

In Mayan Mysteries, players learn about the history of the Maya civilization and culture. Created for children in grades 5th through 9th, ages 11 and up, this game walks students through a world that would otherwise be forgotten if not for historical digs and documents. Throughout the game, users discover artifacts, decode ancient glyphs, explore the Maya calendar, visit ancient cities and much much more.

The game itself works as a puzzle with pieces leading to fit into each other in order to open up each level of play. Included activities test reading comprehension, geographical skills, spatial reasoning, math, science and history skills. Scientific and analytical thinking skills are practiced throughout gameplay too.

Users begin playing Mayan Mysteries by joining up with Team Q to find the mysterious thief, Landrone. This leads the user on a chase that spans over the great ancient Maya cities through over 300 expansive challenges and 12 hours of gameplay. On the journey, the user learns key facts, geographical data, finds countless artifacts, solves glyphs and more.

Users gain achievements for every quest completed, such as the Golden Trowel for collecting 8 artifacts or the Genius Decoder for solving all spirit companion Glyph riddles without using hints. These achievements are rewards for completion of the mysteries and lessons throughout the game.

There are tons of artifacts for the player to find throughout the game too. Through gameplay and digs, the player will find things like a ball player figurine, a ceramic flute, a flint knife, obsidian arrowheads, stingray spines and many more. The player will learn about each of these items through play as well, leading to an unforgettable online history lesson.

Landrone clues are also provided throughout the expedition to find Landrone. These clues are kept in Charlie’s journal and can be accessed at any time during gameplay.

Team Q is who you are helping to find Landrone and solve the Mayan Mysteries. Team Q consists of Dr. Alex Quinn, the extraordinary archaeologist, and leader of the expeditions. The twins, Fiona Quinn, future archaeologist extraordinaire and Charlie Quinn, future detective are also a viable part of Team Q. Along with your help they are sure to solve the mystery and find Landrone.

This fun, fun archaeology game is sure to bring hours of interactive lessons to life for users. I know we have enjoyed playing and learning more about each artifact and place visited via the game. My children, ages 10 and 12 have worked together to play through this game and enjoyed learning more.

You can purchase Mayan Mysteries from Dig-It games online for $21.99 for a one year single-user license. This gives you access to the full game for a year to play. Mayan Mysteries is also available as an App in the Apple Store or iTunes for $9.99.

Math Mammoth {Crew Review}

June 7, 2013 by Dana

Math Mammoth was created by Maria Miller to help homeschooling Momma’s who were completely lost at teaching math be able to provide a better learning experience for their students. Being an ex-math teacher, Maria was able to create an exceptional math program that is easy to use and understand by both teacher and student. Math Mammoth provides a complete math education that makes math easy.

Last year, we used Math Mammoth’s Light Blue series for second grade. You can read our review for that curriculum here: https://www.luvnlambertlife.com/2011/11/tos-review-math-mammoth.html. This year, I chose to review Math Mammoth’s Light Blue series for first grade.

I chose this curriculum for two reasons: to review math fact basics with my daughter who struggles with them and to begin my youngest daughter’s education in addition and subtraction. The first grade level of the Light Blue series worked great for both of their needs. And since it’s easy to use, my older daughter needed little help from me to work through it. She is able to read on her own and follow through with her work. She was also able to help my younger daughter out along the way, when I was unable to.

I chose the Light Blue series because it’s a complete curriculum. This allowed my daughter to completely relearn the concepts she struggles with instead of just working on reviewing facts that she didn’t completely understand the first time. We basically started all over with Math, only this time the lessons were much easier for her to comprehend. And though we’ve only been using the program a short time, she is definitely catching on fast.

Math Mammoth’s Light Blue Series for Grade 1 covers addition and subtraction concepts and strategies, whole number and place value relationships to 100, measurement of length, geometric basics, time and money. Even though we are using this curriculum for a math review purpose, we have started from the beginning and worked through. The program is not boring or overwhelming to my students, and as I’ve mentioned more than once, it’s extremely easy to use and comprehend.

Math Mammoth Light Blue series is available online for $34 for the full set of Grade 1 as a download or on CD for $39 plus shipping. It is also purchasable as individual sectional downloads through the website.

See The Light Paper Jungle {Crew Review}

June 5, 2013 by Dana

See The Light: Drawing Children to Him is a video art curriculum like no other. See The Light makes Art easy, even for the most challenged artist. See The Light, truly brings Art to life.

See The Light is a Christian Art curriculum. It focuses on teaching the student art principles while also teaching them the to see the beauty of God’s creations. We chose to review See The Light Paper Jungle for this review. I chose this because I know my budding artist thoroughly enjoys working with paper in her artwork. Paper Jungle allowed her to do this, while learning new techniques to use on her own.

When this video program disk arrived in our mail box, I wasted no time handing it over to Emmalee. I knew she would get started right away and she wasted no time in rushing to the bedroom to watch this DVD on her PlayStation 2. It wasn’t long before she came running back to gather the necessary supplies to work on her project.

Paper Jungle requires the student to have various materials for completion: construction paper of a particular size in various colors, scrapbooking or similar paper, white glue or a heavy duty glue stick, scissors, a Sharpie marker, a pencil, a white eraser, leaves to study and a photo of a wild animal of the artists choosing. Through watching the video the project comes to life, along with learning about the specialties of God’s creation. Paper Jungle focuses upon the artistic styling of Henry Rousseau.

The video is broken down into four lessons, which a student would normally follow along with once a week or so for Art Class. My artist is not so patient and had viewed the entire video in one day! She also completed over 75% of her project on this first day. It took a few hours the next day for her to fine tune it to what she wanted her finished product to be.

Before the week was up, my artist had created several masterpieces. Over the review period, she watched our Paper Jungle lesson video as many times as possible until she basically has it memorized. It wasn’t long before she began pushing her brother and sister to watch it, too. She led lessons with them on how to do the things she had learned through See The Light Paper Jungle and before long we had a ton of Paper Jungle projects being posted around the house.

See The Light has quickly become a favorite around our house and we look forward to purchasing more of these wonderful videos to use at home. My artist already has her eye on See The Light’s Horsing Around, as horses are also a favorite of hers. At $14.99 a video, See The Light won’t break the budget and will bring Art fun home for any artist.