Download N Go Sunny Seashells Review

Wow!  can I just say that for the last Download N Go review of the school year, Sunny Seashells is amazing? We were absolutely enthralled with the beautiful seashells and the lovely animals that make them.  There was so much of this that I didn’t even know, it was simply fascinating!

Sunny Seashells is full of neat features, like a country of the day, seashell of the day, and more.  Here is a list of the chapters:

 

 

Day 1: Seashells--What Are They?

Day 2: Seashells and History

Day 3: Types of Seashells

Day 4: The Science of Seashells

Day 5: Seashell Party!

 

Each day has a variety of activities, including lovely drawing sheets, interesting worksheets about the animals and countries, lots of lapbook pieces, and beautiful videos embedded on Download N Go’s own website pages.  We just love the videos and the kids remember them exceptionally well.  This study was especially enhanced by the videos, since we are all used to seeing empty seashells.  It is so neat to be able to watch the live animals in action!

 

I highly recommend having some real seashells of your own for this study.  We had a dishful from mommy’s childhood trips to Florida, and they enhanced the study in many ways!  We sketched them, sorted them, compared them, and tried to figure out how a real live critter would live in them.  You can frequently get real seashells at Walmart or craft stores, and they are not expensive.  What a neat way to enhance this study for those of us who are landlocked!

One of the neat features of these studies is the poetry pages.  After each day’s readings, there is a gorgeous page with poetry or Bible verses on a photograph.  These are just beautiful, and I think they are perfect to go along with the study as copywork.  There are normally copywork pages included with the study with themed borders or photographs, so you can pick one of two of those, and use them with the lovely verse pages.  An older child might want to do one verse a day, while a younger child might need to work on the same page all week. 

    

Since this is my last review of the year, I wanted to add another things about Download N Go unit studies, that you might not notice fi you only did one or two.  A lot of these studies are somewhat interconnected, so not only are you learning through connections each week, but every so often your children will notice something that refers them back to an earlier study that they did.  For example, In Sunny Seashells, three of the five places visited are Australia, Africa and Ireland, and each will be re-visited in it’s own Download N Go- Expedition Australia, Expedition Africa, and Expedition Ireland!  In fact, when we got to Ireland, my kids said, “Oh, we remember that place, mom!” 

Another neat connection that I noticed was learning about using shells for money.  Bop was excited when she remembered learning about people using cocoa beans for money in Chocolate Challenge.  You will find more and more of these connection between the studies as you go along, I have just mentioned two that I noticed in the last few studies that we used.  It really cements the learning, because you are calling back into their memories those other places and things.

Be sure to visit Amanda Bennett’s Unit Studies to take a look at the free sample pages for Sunny Seashells, and visit the Download N Go blog for more reviews.
 

I received this product free of charge for review purposes. I promise to be honest and fair in my reviews, and I received no other compensation in exchange for my review. You can visit the Download-N-Go blog to read more reviews on this product.

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Read for the Heart Review

Like most homeschool moms, I am a book fanatic.  At garage sales, the first place I always go is to the table with the books.  I love library sales, and normally come out with several boxes.   My new favorite store is the used bookstore.  (We have a very small town, and this is the first time we have had a used bookstore.)   I ask for bookshelves for Christmas.  Ok, maybe not that last one.  Yet.

 

But there is one thing I have had trouble with.  How do you know which books are the best?  When you pick up a book at a garage sale, how do you know if it is worth buying?  most of us eventual get a ‘feel’ for good books, just by looking at the cover and flipping through it.  But while I am good at not picking ‘twaddly’ books, I always feel like I may still be missing out on some real treasures because I wasn’t sure of the best ones.

 

So I was delighted to get the chance to review Read for the Heart.  This beautiful thick paperback “book-about-books” was wrote by a homeschool graduate, Sarah Clarkson.  Sarah is the oldest daughter of one of my favorite authors of homeschool encouragement books, Sally Clarkson.  This book is published by Apologia, the well-known publisher of the science curriculum by the same name, and a variety of books, including Good Morning, God, which I reviewed earlier.

 

I was pretty sure that I would enjoy reading about good books, but I was surprised by all of the other information here.  Sarah has several chapters in the front of the books that do not contain book suggestions.  These chapters are about reading in general.  First, teh author includes a lot of her experiences with good books, which is very inspiring and motivating.  She also has a chapter on the loss of literacy in the United States, and ideas for how to begin incorporating more reading time in your family life, especially reading aloud together. 

 

The book suggestions are organized by type, and include chapters on picture books, classics, fairy tales, history, spiritual reading, and more.  I loved reading every chapter of this book, they were very helpful to me.  I heard of several books and series that I had not read before, including the Landmark series and several in the Fantasy and Fairy Tale chapter.  I also enjoyed reading the Picture Book chapter, because I quite simply love a good picture book.  I am one of those moms who not only enjoys reading to her children, but also can occasionally be found sitting on the floor beside the picture book shelves, reading.  To myself. 

 

Even if you think that you are such a bibliophile that there’s nothing new to learn, you should take a look through Read for the Heart.  Sure, there are old classics such as Madeline and Charlotte’s web, but there is a lot of hidden treasure, too.  For example, the discussion of the beginnings of Children's literature and the those first great classics, testimony of the power of learning history through good literature, and a very interesting discussion on why fantasy is important for Christian children. 

 

I highly recommend this book to all parents, homeschooling or not, who care about a quality education and magical childhood.  You can read more reviews for this book at The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew blog, and visit Apologia to learn more about all of there products. 

I received this product free of charge

as a member of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew,

for review purposes. I promise to be honest

and fair in my reviews, and I received no

other compensation in exchange for my review.

You can visit The Old Schoolhouse Crew blog

to read more reviews on this product.

Considering God's Creation Review

 

Considering God’s Creation is a one-year science program designed especially for homeschoolers.  This is not a public or private-school textbook, modified for home use.  Why is that important?  Well, there are several problems with these books.  First, they have to conform to state and federal standards, which may or may not be very unbiblical in either their teaching or their worldview.  Also, even Christian private school texts are designed for one grade to use at a time, complicating life for mothers of many children.  Finally, a lot of text books-type programs are simply very boring.  Since science is one of the most interesting and vibrant subjects we can learn about, this is truly a shame!  If we want our children to love God’s creation, we need to give them a delight for science. 

 

How is Considering God’s Creation special?  To start with, this program is very inexpensive.  It can be used by all your children in grades 2-7, and costs only $29.95 and includes the Teacher’s Manual, the Student Book, and a CD.  The Student book is reproducible, but you can also buy addition workbooks for only $13.95.  I think that is cheaper then copying, and that way the materials can stay in a nice book.  My children love to keep their books nice and not have the pages cut out, so that is what we chose to do.  They are sharing the book and when we use this program again later I will just purchase more.  Most of the workbook pages can be used in the book, except for the pages which have cut-outs on them. 

 

Considering God’s Creation covers a lot of science.  It begins with learning about the days of creation, and then moves through the subjects pretty closely to the order of creation.  The sequence begins with space, then basic earth science, rocks, weather, plants, animals, animal A&P, and the human body.  This is a lot to cover in a teachers manual that only contains 130 pages!  How do they do this?  Well, Considering God’ Creation has a broad scope, but much less depth then some programs.  There is still enough in here to be a very complete curriculum, however.  There is not a lot of fluff here, it is pretty bare-bones.  This is good news for busy homeschooling moms who don’t want to sift through the babble just to get to the good stuff!   A lot of the learning is done in the notebook, too, which is good for retention.

 

Experiments.  These are very easy for mom to set up and use basic materials.  Some of us prefer to stick to reading about science instead of doing it, so the easier and quicker the better!  Easy elementary experiments such as watching celery draw up colored water, filling a bottle with air to show how a fish’s swim bladder works, and using a flashlight to demonstrate why we can’t see starts in the daytime. 

 

Activities:  One of the simple but helpful activities we did was using people holding hands to explain the pull of gravity.  This was simple and fun, but made the abstract ideas concrete for my young kids.  One of the other activities that stuck out was the idea of using cookie dough to show how fossil imprints form.  There are lots of these activates to really imprint eh basics of science in an easy to understand way. 

 

Reading:  Each lesson includes a section to be read to the child.  These are always short, typically less then a page, but explain everything so perfectly for the little children.  Examples such as comparing the layers of the earth to the parts of eggs help children comprehend difficult ideas.   Each lesson also has a Bible reading, which encourages deep thinking.  The child is supposed to look up and read the passages for themselves if they are able. 

 

The notebook/workbook is a delight of it’s own, especially for lapbooking and notebooking families!  It is about twice as think as the Teacher’s book, and is chock full of stuff to do!  There are pop ups, mini books, notebook pages, charts, and more.  There are also games included, and these cut-out pieces should probably be glued onto cardstock to work well.  My favorite part of the program is the “detective” pages.  These are work-sheet type pages that are designed for nature study.  For example, the “Flower Detective” pages have illustrations for different leaf placement, veins, shape, and edges, and flower placement, color, shapes and number of petals.  This could really encourage attention to detail and thoroughness, and is an excellent introduction to the various skills needed for identification.  There are varying numbers of these detective pages included for each subject.  There are 5 “plant detective” pages, and each one has a notebook page with a decorative border for sketching on the facing side.  If you need more you can always copy them. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The CD is probably my least favorite part of the program, but auditory learners like Bop love it.  The songs include The Water Cycle, The Planets, Bear Fruit, The Nervous System, and Try, Try again.  Some of the melodies are frankly irritating to me but the children seem to really listen to them and enjoy them.   Of course, this curriculum is very complete without the CD if you don’t have a little listener like I do!

 

There are many ways to use Considering God’s Creation.  You can use it as a one-year curriculum, going through one lesson a week.  You could use the parts as you need them, going into more depth with other books or curriculum.  You could even use the Student book for the foundation of a nature study journal, copying the sheets as you need them.  But my favorite idea for this is to use the program as a spine for a longer study.  The notebook is perfect for extended use, as each child could have their own and go through it as needed.  With the addition of lots of books for each topic, this one science program could last a family many years, maybe even through all of the elementary grades.  That makes the initial investment very cost –effective, when coupled with library books!  This is what I am seriously thinking about doing ourselves.

 

So what do I like about Considering God’s Creation?  I really appreciate how the ‘cut-out’ pages (flaps, cards for games, minibook pieces, etc) are on their own pages, so there are not cut-up sheets left in the book.  I am still surprised by the amount of info contained in here, everytime I look I see something new.  I just love the detective pages and how much nature study is encouraged.  Nature study is very important to me, but I know a lot of people struggle with how to implement it, and this program could be very helpful to them.  The explanations in the text are perfect for the suggested ages, and they aren’t too long or to short. 

 

Visit Eagle’s Wings to see sample pages from Considering God’s Creation, and go to The Old Schoolhouse Crew Blog to read more reviews.

 

 

 

I received this product free of charge

as a member of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew,

for review purposes. I promise to be honest

and fair in my reviews, and I received no

other compensation in exchange for my review.

You can visit The Old Schoolhouse Crew blog

to read more reviews on this product.

Pearson Review

Pearson is a popular supplier of materials to public schools, and have recently been branching out into other educational markets as well.  Members of the review crew were given one of three products:  Social Studies, Math, or Reading, in first and second grade levels.  We received the second grade level of Scott Foresman’s Reading Street, in two large hardback books.  These books are available from Pearson School for $43.47 each. 

My first impression of these books?  They are beautiful hardback books that look like they were made to withstand a classroom and would certainly stand up to a typical homeschooling family!  Each book is divided up into units, 6 in all.  The units are each made up of five selections, in both fiction and nonfiction, and accompanying ideas and activities. 

The stories are a good mix of genres, including fairy tales, folk tales, realistic fiction, and fantasy.  There are a few biographies and plays also.  Each story also includes a ‘paired selection’ and this is a short piece that enhances the story, such a poetry, a nonfiction article, or a demonstration of online research techniques.  The story Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night is accompanied by an expository nonfiction article, Star Pictures in the Sky.  The folk tale Turtle’s Race with Beaver is paired with a diagram, The Secret Life of Ponds.

Before the child begins reading there are some introductory materials to help him out, including a new word/ vocabulary section and then a short paragraph with the new words in it to practice.  The stories in the first book are followed by a few different sections.  They include comprehension questions, information about the author along with other books they wrote, the ‘paired selection’, and a section with writing ideas and helps.  There is also a slightly confusing ‘oral vocabulary’ spread, which contains some bright illustrations and photographs but no text. 

Book two, containing units 4, 5 and 6, employs a slightly different approach.  Each story now begins with a section on comprehension skills, preparing the child with specific techniques,  the vocabulary/new word section now includes a vocabulary strategy for each story, emphasizing how to figure out difficult words.  The ‘paired selections’ in this book are varied, with interesting mediums such as newspaper and magazine articles, interviews,  and e-mails. 

We have really enjoyed these books.  I like the varied subject matter, and the fact that these are real books, not contrived “readers” made up of pre-selected word lists.  I also appreciate the inclusion of so much non-fiction, because a lot of children's early readers are just silly stories and that is all they get used to reading.

Bop has just finished up first grade, and is reading at a first grade or second grade level, depending on what test you use.  She loves looking through these books, because frankly, they are beautiful.  She has struggled a little with the readings, not because they are too hard, but because they are pretty long.  After hearing a little more about how these types of reading books are used in school, I think I understand why.  (Remember, I never set foot in a public school classroom so I don’t know this stuff. )  One of our fellow crew members explained to us that most of the time the children take turns reading the selections, so one child is not responsible for reading the entire story straight through.  I was trading reading with Bop, and I felt a little guilty about it, but now I know that this is how the book was designed.  I am sure that her tolerance for long readings will build up as she gains fluency.  When we read them together without me forcing more on her then she can do in one sitting, she does beautifully.  And she really enjoys reading out of these books, because there is so much variety and interest.

You can read more about the Scott Foresman reading program on the Pearson School website, and don’t forget to read the other reviews at The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew blog!

I received this product free of charge

as a member of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew,

for review purposes. I promise to be honest

and fair in my reviews, and I received no

other compensation in exchange for my review.

You can visit The Old Schoolhouse Crew blog

to read more reviews on this product.

Wordy Qwerty

 

Last fall our family reviewed a wonderful little program called Read, Write and Type.  This program teaches children to read and type, and now the company behind Read, Write and Type has also created another program, Wordy Qwerty.  Designed for children who have finished Read Write and type, or children ages 7-9, this program attempts to teach spelling through a series of games and songs. 

 

It is really unlike Read, Write and Type in almost every way, except for the format of the stories.  While Read, Write and Type has the children working to rescue all of the letter sounds, in Wordy Qwerty they are working towards the building of a “music machine”.  They go through a series of games for each spelling rule, and earn ‘spheres’ for the robots to use on the machine.  After learning a rule the children get to watch part of the music machine being built.  Each spelling rule, or pattern, includes the following games:

 

1. The introduction to the pattern, where the children type the word and then sort them.  There is no grading here as far as spelling, so if the child misspells one of these words they are just corrected and then they move on.  The idea is for the child to start recognizing the patterns.

 

2. The music.  The child hears a jingle about the pattern being learned, and then they get the chance to sing a karaoke version themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

3. The Recycler:  This is a machine that recycles words… there is two different spellings for word families, such as '”-ail” and “-ale”, and the machine adds different letters in the beginning to make words.  The child then decided which is the correct spelling, or if they both are, as in “sale” and “sail”.  There are no ‘rules’ to be learned in this section, so the idea is to learn to recognize the correct spelling through repetition. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Pop a word game.  This game is full of balloons!  A short 4-word sentence is typed across the bottom of the screen and read to the child, and then it disappears.  The words from the sentence then begin appearing in balloons and the child has to pop the words in the correct order.  the correct words are mixed up with similarly spelled words, to challenge the child to really learn the hard words fluently.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.  Writing Stories.  This is where the resemblance to Read, Write and Type comes out.  A short story will appear and the child will hear it being read.  Then, the bottom of the two lines will disappear and the child is to type it out.  When a wrong letter is typed, the word becomes black and the child has to try again.  After the line is typed correctly a picture will pop up, and then you can continue on to the next page of the story. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. Read Stories.  This is the last activity for each spelling rule.  There is a story several pages long, with missing words.  The child clicks on a drop-down menu beside each blank in the story to select the correct word.  This requires fluent reading, comprehension, and spelling skills. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These same games are repeated for each now spelling rule, or pattern.  There are 20 spelling rules all together, from the simple silent ‘e’ to more difficult plural rules and the different spellings for the ‘er’ sound.  As your child progresses through these lessons, they collect more and more spheres and build more of the music machine. 

 

So how did it work for us?  Well, to be honest, we didn’t get very far through the program.  Bop just turned 6, but she has successfully completed Read Write and Type twice (she wanted to go through it again because she enjoyed it so much) and she is reading at a 1st or 2nd grade level, depending on who you ask.  I thought that she was ready to go ahead with Wordy Qwerty, but we have had some trouble with it.  I think that if we give her a few months she would be flying through it, but right now it’s not that easy.  The spelling rules are easily within her comprehension, but the games themselves are harder.  This is definitely designed for older children then Read Write and Type, as stated.  She enjoys some of the activities, but some of them are tougher.  We have worked together on them, and she is moving steadily on.

 

As for me, I like this program almost as much as Read, Write and Type.  I think the games are very well-designed and thought out, and they are effective.  There are some parts that are a little frustrating for the children, but for the most part this is a fun and thoughtful way to learn basic spelling rules.  Several of us reviewers did find that the online version that we are reviewing tends to freeze sometimes, but this is a very new program, and for us it did not effect the usability overall.

 

I think this program could be useful for independent children, who like to work alone, children who are struggling with spelling being ‘boring’, and anyone who wants a fun, easy way to teach spelling without teaching at all!  Wordy Qwerty is available as either a installable program or a online subscription.  A home license can be purchased for $35.00, or you can go with the online subscription which starts at $25.00 for one user, for 5 years.  You can archive your user and then add another one when they are finished, so this is a great option for homeschooling families who will have several users throughout the 5 years. 

 

Visit Talking Fingers to find out how you can get a free trial of Wordy Qwerty before you buy, and check out all of the other reviews at The Old Schoolhouse review crew’s blog. 

 

 

I received this product free of charge

as a member of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew,

for review purposes. I promise to be honest

and fair in my reviews, and I received no

other compensation in exchange for my review.

You can visit The Old Schoolhouse Crew blog

to read more reviews on this product.

Mad Dog Math review

I have to admit, I was a little skeptical about reviewing another math drill program.  We have had several this year, and I was afraid that Bop was simply burnt out on computerized drills, period.  I determined to give Mad Dog Math a fair try, however, and I urged her to do the same.  Mad Dog Math is a completely original math drill program (I know, I didn’t know you could be original about math drills, either, until I saw this.)  that started as a classroom program using worksheets and a timer. 

 

We received a download of the Mad Dog Math computer version, modeled after the original pencil-and-paper version.  You can get several different licenses for this program, but most home school families will probably want the “perpetual” license for $39.99.  There are also one year ($19.99) and two year ($29.99) licenses available.  This program covers all four operations- addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  Addition/subtraction and multiplication/division are drilled together.  This is appropriate for children just learning their addition facts, up through high school age students who jest need to up their speed.   We used this program in Level One, addition and subtraction, so that is what my review will cover.

 

First, a little background.  We have struggled with Bop learning her facts, and there are so many things that we have tried without success.  She KNOWS all of her addition facts, but she is sometimes painfully slow remembering them.  Since Math U See stresses mastery, I have struggled with this.  They are supposed to know the facts as quickly as they know their own name, so I have been conflicted about whether to go on, or drill endlessly until her speed is up. 

 

I assumed that this program would be exactly like any other computer drill program, but I was so surprised by it.  The first thing that I noticed is the way the facts are drilled.  Instead of covering a ‘fact family’ at a time, this program just works on a very tiny bite at a time.  For example, the first section to be learned in Level One is the “0-3” section.  I assumed that this would include all of the facts in these families, all the way up to 10+2 and 10+3.   I was wrong!  This “0-3” fact family includes only those problems whose addends AND sums fall between 0-3.  They will start out drilling problems such as 1+1, 3+0, 2+1, etc.  Nothing higher.  Talk about baby steps! 

 

After that first fact family, the progression is similarly easy.  The next fact families are 1-4, 2-5, 3-6, and then it jumps to 0-6.  Nothing new in this family, just more variety.   This is paced so that the child will pass their drills almost every time.  What a confidence booster!  By introducing only those problems that have sums and addends in that ‘fact family’, the child progresses baby-step by baby-step, but steadily, into mastery.  At the same time, they are also working on the subtraction facts in eh same fact family.

 

You can see here how the 0-6 fact family only includes those numbers with sums up to 6, and this is level two, which includes inverse operations. 

 

But that’s not all!  The student’s first goal is to master the two-minute club.  There are 20 question in each fact family to be answered in under two minutes.  After going through all the families up to 12-18, (which includes problems such as 11+6 and 7+7) the child will officially be in the two minute club for all of those fact families.  But they are not done yet… they will start back over at the beginning trying for the one-minute club!  And when they have mastered that, they will start back over going for the 30 second club.  As a mother who never learned the math facts well, this is an amazing thought… to be able to answer 20 problems in 30 seconds.  Wow.  I want to give that gift of speed to my children. 

 

Really quickly I want to give an overview of the different levels.  I already told you about level one.  Level two is still addition and subtraction, but it progresses quickly for those older children who know the facts but need speed.  The fact families are introduced more quickly- 0-6, 7-9, etc.  Level 3 is multiplication and division, and the challenge level covers all of the operations in different ways… along with some puzzle-type problems.  Of course, we didn’t do much with this part, so you will have to read some of the other reviews to find out more about the upper levels.

 

To be completely honest (and I always am)  I love this program.  And Bop loves it.  So is there anything I don’t like?  Well we had an incident with the timer… you can see the numbers counting, and we were fine until Bop noticed them.  She completely froze up like she does whenever she is being timed.  She knew that it was timing her so that she could be in the ‘club’, but it was seeing it that did her in.  I just stuck a little sticker on the screen so she can’t see it and she does fine.  Silly girl.  It would be great if Mad Dog Math would add a “hide timer” option for those with equally timer-phobic children.  However, since that will probably require a lot of revisions, until then I will just use the sticker.  ;)  I would also recommend not starting this with children who don’t know their facts, at least the lower ones, already.  If they do know at least some of them they will move through them pretty quickly, only spending a day or two on most of the families.  That is incredibly encouraging for children!

 

There are several other ways to buy this program, including the paper version.  It covers addition/subtraction and multiplication/division in two separate levels, so you have to buy them both to get everything that is available in the computer version.  Visit The Old Schoolhouse blog for more reviews of Mad Dog Math and go to the Mad Dog Math website for a free demo version.

 

 

I received this product free of charge

as a member of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew,

for review purposes. I promise to be honest

and fair in my reviews, and I received no

other compensation in exchange for my review.

You can visit The Old Schoolhouse Crew blog

to read more reviews on this product.

Chocolate Challenge Download N Go Review

Creamy. Rich.  Dark, light or white.  Exotic, tasty and a favorite everywhere.  Ice cream, milk, cookies, cake… who can resist the taste of chocolate? 

 

I knew that we would love this Download N Go, simply because it is yummy if nothing else!  But I was delighted to find all that it had to offer, once we started digging deeper.  This one download contains everything you need for a week or two of tasty learning, including history, science, geography, and even some math and language arts. 

 

All of the Download N Go studies contain everything that you will need, including links, worksheets, drawing pages, and the day-to-day guides that you follow.  When you do a Download N Go there are no lesson plans or ‘curriculum guides’, just the unit study itself, which you read through and then click on the links that are right there in the text, to go to the websites and videos to learn more.  You will find that using these unit studies is simple for mom, with no prep time needed, and easy to follow for the children, who can just read through each day’s assignment.  The units are each designed for one week, and they are written day-by-day.  You can easily extend them to 2 weeks, however, and there is easily enough material if you want to do that.  Each Download N Go includes lapbook pieces, extensive book lists, links, activities, video clips, and more.

 

Chocolate Challenge was such a fun study for the kids, and me too!  We got to learn about the history of chocolate, including a great “Chocolatier of the day”, the science of growing and making chocolate, the Brazilian rainforest, and so much more.  We especially enjoyed learning about how chocolate is made, and we got to watch several video clips of the process.  We had taste tests, and I found out that dark-chocolate lovers, like me, are in the minority.  We learned about graphing by taking a poll from our family and friends of their favorite chocolate as well. 

 

Our favorite parts of Chocolate Challenge was learning about the Amazon rainforest.  We studies the layers of the forest, the importance of the fragile ecosystem, and why diversity is important.  Did you know that only one insect can fertilize cacao trees?  Did you know that one tree only produces enough cacao beans to make 2 lbs of chocolate?  Do you know who were the first peoples to eat chocolate, and that it was far different from our chocolate today?  You will be amazed at everything there is to learn about this yummy treat!

 

 

The pages in Chocolate Challenge are beautiful.  There are drawing pages, with great backgrounds and borders, colorful worksheets, and copywork pages.  And the videos are a treat of their own… creamy melted chocolate running out of giant mixing tubs…. mmmm mmmmm!  We really had a great time with this whole unit, and it didn’t even seem like school.  The kids were asking every morning if we could do Chocolate Challenge- I had to make them wait ‘til after breakfast!

 

I do have one complaint about this unit, and it is something you will definitely want to take into consideration.  You absolutely cannot do Chocolate Challenge without having chocolate on hand!  Preferable a little dark, milk, and white, and you will need some for each day because, let’s face it, after all of that learning, we all need a pick-me-up.  Especially when the learning smells this good!

 

You can read more reviews for Chocolate Challenge at Amanda Bennett’s Download N Go blog, and don’t forget about the free samples!

I received this product free of charge for review purposes. I promise to be honest and fair in my reviews, and I received no other compensation in exchange for my review. You can visit the Download-N-Go blog to read more reviews on this product.

See the Light Art Class Review

See The Light is an art program for children in grades 1-6th,   emphasizing drawing skills.  I have always enjoyed drawing, so I was very interested to see what this DVD series had to offer.  We received the first DVD in the Art Class series, which is a 9 DVD set, perfect for one year’s worth of lessons.  The whole set can be purchased for $99..99, or there is an online option which is $10 a month.  You can get a free sample DVD for yourself on the See The Light website.  These drawing lessons are taught by master artist Pat Knepley. 

Bop was very excited to start the lessons, so I settled her in with a pencil and some paper.  Pat started the first lesson with some introductory information about materials, and then they moved right in to practicing basic pencil holds and strokes.  Bop listened intently, and today she told me that “a #2 pencil is just your regular, everyday pencil”.  She practiced drawing lines and stroked with Pat, and she wanted to go right on to the next lesson.  She really enjoyed the lessons and I think that she would get a lot out of using the whole series.  CJ and Baby Girl listened in while they played, and while they didn’t really follow along, they seemed interested.  Bop has done all of the lessons twice, and she wants more.

So what did the resident artist think?  I enjoyed listening to these DVDs.  Pat has a wonderful voice, and she is an excellent teacher.  She explains things very simply, but she never talks down to the children.  As an artist I initially thought that the first lesson was painfully elementary, and that the concepts were easily understood and didn’t need explanation.  However, as we moved on past the basics and then watched more lessons I could see how well she was building on the foundation of the first lesson.  I also came to appreciate the way Pat introduced the basic concepts (how to hold your pencil, etc.) in such a matter-of-fact way, and then moved on. 

I was afraid that I would not find anything in this set that I couldn’t do myself, but I was wrong.  This is a well-thought out curriculum that teaches drawing in a very complete way.  I only wish that I could have previewed the whole set to get the whole picture of this program.  However, from what I have seem I would not hesitate to buy this series for my children, even though I thought that I could do it all myself.  There are just so many things taught that I would not have thought of, and they build upon each other very well. 

Throughout the lessons Pat gives meaning to the work of artists and depth to the practice the children are doing, by adding in Bible stories and Christian concepts.  This is not done in a contrived manner, but as a beautiful expression of her own faith.  It really feels like she is sitting in the room with you, sharing about her life.  She obviously loves what she does, loves her Lord, and shares that love with the children she is teaching.  I absolutely consider her natural talent for teaching and sharing her love for God and art to be the shining points of this curriculum.  You can get art instruction from a number of places, but this is the only one I have seen that also feels like you have a sister and friend in your living room. 

See the Light also produces a Christmas video called The Gift of Love, and an Easter video, The Cross Maker.  These videos combine stories from the Bible with art lessons and beautiful chalk drawings. 

 

 

 Visit The Old Schoolhouse Blog for more reviews of this product.  

      I received this product free of charge

as a member of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew,

for review purposes. I promise to be honest

and fair in my reviews, and I received no

other compensation in exchange for my review.

You can visit The Old Schoolhouse Crew blog

to read more reviews on this product.

Growing Healthy Homes Review

It seems strange, when you stop to consider it, that health and anatomy are typically taught as separate subjects.  Why is this?  Our health consciousness is directly influenced by our knowledge of anatomy and the human body.  It would make sense to learn about human anatomy and the nutrition that supports it at the same time, but until now there was not a program developed for this. 

 

Enter Nutrition 101: Choose Life!  A versatile science curriculum developed by four women and it is designed to bring together the how and the why of good nutrition.  Nutrition 101:Choose Life! can be purchased either as a hardcover book, for $99.95, or a CD copy for $79.95.  I received a digital copy, and after seeing the attractive book, I decided that I wanted it printed.  Several Crew members put this on their eReaders.

 

Nutrition 101 is a huge book organized around units.  There are 6 units, and each unit has four chapters.  This program is designed to be used for 6 months, one chapter a week, but it is open to the homeschool tweaking that is so typical. You could really use this material in any way that you wanted, but after looking through it I thought that the chapter-a-week method looked the easiest.

 

Each chapter has a text, to be read to or by the student, a lot of activities and experiments suggested, additional resources, and a ‘power food’ recipe.  The text is pretty deep, with a lot of information and a lot to think about.  However, the chapters are not that pretty short, and the basic concepts are simple.  I re-worded a few of the more complicated thoughts, and the kids did fine.  I was a little worried that the text would be much to difficult for my kindergartener and first grader to understand, but there were only a few small parts that were just over their heads.  The chapters are wrote in a conversational tone, without any talking down to the children.  You can certainly feel the authors’ passion for the subjects.

 

 

 

The various activities are really creative and interesting, and we found that we had to pick and choose or we would have spent way too much time on them.  The discussion questions were nice, but the activities really brought the ideas home.  The activities are divided into sections for elementary and secondary children, and they are what you would consider an idea buffet- there is too much there for anyone to try all of it; rather you can pick and choose.  I thought that the ideas to try and the experiments suggested were very nice.  There is a variety for everyone- from people who love to get their hands dirty to those who normally get all of their science from a book. 

 

Each chapter has a recipe specifically focused on the body part being studied.  We got to make guacamole in the first chapter, and I was upset to discover, after we were finished, that we had forgotten to take any pictures of the process.  We had been enjoying ourselves so much it never crossed my mind, so you will just have to imagine our fun!  The guacamole was delicious, and we were all happy to know that it was a ‘brain power’ food.  After you make your recipe, there are even more accompanying activities to do in your kitchen, such as reading food labels, learning how to cook safely, and experimenting with fruits and veggies.  We are even trying our hand at growing an avocado, one of the suggested activities in the first chapter. 

 

At the end of the book there are extensive appendixes, and this part of the book alone would make it a great resource.  They have nutrition charts, health statistics, shopping guides, vitamin and mineral charts, and information about whole grains, healthy fats, household toxins, cancer, spices, and so much more.  Because I don’t want this blog post to turn into a book itself, I am not going to go into that anymore.

 

I love this curriculum.  It has more information contained in it then any household reference guide I have seen, even though that is not what it is designed to be.  It is thorough, interesting, and accurate.  I love the versatility of the lessons, and it could easily take one year or several, be done one day a week or every day, used in your home or in your co-op.  The children were a little swamped with information the first day I read it to them, but after that I took it slower and they liked it.  They loved shopping with me and cooking together, and they were engaged and interested in the anatomy lessons.  What more could you ask for from a nutrition program? 

 

You can visit Growing Healthy Homes to learn more about the program and the founders.  You can also go to The Old Schoolhouse Crew blog to read other reviews. 

 

 

           I received this product free of charge

as a member of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew,

for review purposes. I promise to be honest

and fair in my reviews, and I received no

other compensation in exchange for my review.

You can visit The Old Schoolhouse Crew blog

to read more reviews on this product.