Go for the Gold with Olympic Games!

 Age, Bible, Elementary, Geography, Handwriting, History, History & Geography, Language Arts, Middle School, Reading, Vocabulary, Writing  No Responses »
May 072012
 

Is your family looking forward to the Olympic Games this summer? My children are already talking about which events they hope to catch on TV. (My secret hope is that the stations show more sports coverage and less chit-chat, but that’s just me.) Even if Olympics fever hasn’t yet hit your house, now is a great time for Olympic Games: A Study of the Olympic Games from Ancient Times to the Present, by Charlene Notgrass and Mary Evelyn McCurdy.

Available from home education publisher the Notgrass Company, this study provides 40 lessons on Olympic history, sports education, and notable athletes. Each lesson contains some sort of written or artistic response, including creative writing, sports vocabulary, mapwork, and puzzles. The puzzles are particularly intriguing and comprise missing letter, crossword, word search, acrostic, and word scramble varieties.

Moreover, the lessons encompass a wide variety of subjects, such as Bible study, world history, geography, and language arts. I was especially impressed with the scriptural tie-ins. For example, in the section on archery, the directions read: “The Bible often speaks of bows and arrows. One passage is Psalm 127:4. Copy it on these lines. . . . Read about King David, his friend Jonathan, and what they did with arrows in 1 Samuel 20.”

The artwork is another highlight. More than mere afterthoughts, the photographs are fascinating and pertinent to the text. Vivid color photographs of events and places of interest, as well as historical black and white photos of people and places, such as Wilma Rudolph crossing the finish line in first place, are integral to the study.

Olympic Games is officially for ages 7-14, and the activities are designed for this age group. But the subject matter, related in a well-written style, is engrossing enough for older students and even adults. I myself enjoyed reading the lessons, especially those covering an Olympic timeline.

This fun and engaging study is available as both an Ebook and a spiral-bound consumable workbook; I reviewed the latter. The high quality and reasonable price makes Olympic Games an excellent value. What’s more, it would be a fantastic accompaniment to your 2012 London Games viewing!

Written by Ellen of The Blue Stocking Belle

Reading Success Mini Books – Word Families

 Age, Elementary, Language Arts, Phonics, Preschool, Reading, Vocabulary  1 Response »
Apr 062012
 

One day, while doing phonics with my first grader, I realized that we needed a break from our regular curriculum – for both of us. My daughter understood the concepts in her phonics book but was just becoming tired of it. I wanted reading to be enjoyable and hands on! I searched our local teacher’s bookstore. I found a book that worked for us: Scholastic’s Reading Success Mini Books – Word Families.

This book turned reading into fun by helping my daughter make her own Word Family Mini Books. Now, I could have developed this activity myself but I liked the way this book made the whole thing easier for me and fun for my daughter! All that is needed to make the Mini Books is a pair of scissors, some crayons and felt pens, if desired. There are 20 Word family Mini Books to make in all.

Benefits:

  • Builds your child’s reading vocabulary through learning word families.
  • Includes all the pages that you need to make 20 Interactive Mini-Books to read aloud, color and collect.
  • Each book features the same sounding word ending, such as ack, ag, am, ape, ing, ink, ug ump, etc, thereby teaching the concepts of word families.
  • This offers practice in writing and reading word families, with lines to write in.
  • Includes illustrations of each rhyming word, ideal for students who like to color.
  • Builds self-confidence through hands-on learning.

My daughter not only enjoyed making her mini books, but also loved sharing them. She prided herself on her writing, and enjoyed reading it out loud all to her family – especially to her dad at dinner!  This gave her a feeling of confidence in the sometimes difficult process of learning to read. And being the author of the book herself didn’t hurt! My favorite experience with this book was when my daughter would read her word family mini books to her dolls! (I think they must have learned a lot too!)

When we returned to our regular phonics curriculum, my daughter had not only gained new vocabulary words but also brought with her new confidence to the whole process of reading!

For more information, please go to www.scholastic.com.

If you are looking for a nice, hands on break from the usual, I recommend Word Families – Reading Success Mini-Books for any of your early readers.

Look for more reviews of other Scholastic books for young learners by this author.

~Betsy lives with her husband, daughter and two cats near Puget Sound in the northwest.  A waldorf-inspired and unit study-loving homeschooler, she offers Homeschool Consulting to new families at Jane Sproger.

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On the Quest for Quality Children’s Literature

 Age, Charlotte Mason, Classical, Elementary, Language Arts, Literature, Living books, Middle School, Reading  No Responses »
Apr 022012
 

Let’s be honest. In the ocean of children’s books, there’s a whole lot of flotsam and jetsam. Just because a book is popular doesn’t mean it’s worthwhile. On the flip side, just because a book is decades old doesn’t mean it’s a classic. Parents, particularly homeschooling parents, need someone whom they can trust to help them guide their children toward high-quality literature.

A superb resource that has directed me for years is Honey for a Child’s Heart: The Imaginative Use of Books in Family Life, by Gladys Hunt. Familiar to many homeschooling families, this excellent book makes a strong case for a life of literature. Hunt writes:

“Children and books go together in a special way. I can’t imagine any pleasure greater than bringing to the uncluttered, supple mind of a child the delight of knowing the many rich things God has given us to enjoy. Parents have this wonderful privilege, and books are their keenest tools.”

Honey for a Child’s Heart is divided into two parts. The first part, “Using Books to Help Children Grow,” offers many good discussions and much food for thought. Hunt underscores the extreme importance of reading and offers suggestions on how to foster a literary atmosphere in our homes. She challenges us to consider who or what we allow to influence our children. Moreover, Hunt discusses aspects of good literature and how to discern the quality of books our children read.

Part two, “Best-Loved Books for Children,” is an annotated book list for children up to age 14. Hunt divides the lists into groups such as classic picture books, books for beginning readers, classic children’s novels, historical novels, and animal lovers’ books, among others. She also offers a chapter on poetry.

Hunt’s writing style is rich and vivid, and her love for literature is reflected in every chapter. Moreover, I appreciate her Christian perspective, her awe of God as Creator of all things lovely, her expansive tastes, and her cautious stance on wholesale censorship. Every time I pick up this book to read, I find myself nodding in agreement with her. Yellow highlighter glows on so many pages of my copy!

Books are a powerful medium, engaging our imaginations, emotions, spirits, and understanding. As informed parents, we want to guide our children through the murky waters of children’s literature and help them select worthwhile books instead of twaddle. With Honey for a Child’s Heart in hand, you’ll be better equipped to help your children make the best literary decisions.

Ellen stays busy home educating two middle-grade daughters, chasing two corgis, managing the family’s busy household, reading as much as she can, and writing about life at Bluestocking Belle.

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Stepping Stones Together

 Elementary, Preschool, Reading, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Mar 212012
 

I am so happy to introduce you to a wonderful curriculum to teach your child how to read, Stepping Stones Together. This is a beginning, online, reading program which claims to teach your child to read in 90 days.

Stepping Stones Together can be used by any child who knows the alphabet, (out of order, both upper and lower case) most of the sounds, and who also shows general interest in reading.

 

This reading program utilizes themed stories, using 220 high-frequency words and text illustrations – to teach your child how to read. There are three levels of reading and while your child can pick which book they prefer to read, (which is fabulous for a finicky child!) they may only choose from the level they are currently in or lower. Higher levels become available as your child finishes the previous one. There are three levels in all.

While each lesson only takes 15-20 minutes each day, the lessons are designed to make all of those minutes count. Each story is read twice before completion is awarded, to ensure mastery.

The videos and information for the parent are quite impressive. I have never seen so much support offered to make you feel comfortable with how to present a curriculum before.

This program is so different from others that I have tried, even though we have not completed all of the lessons, our almost 4 year old has enjoyed using the program and I am sure you and your child will enjoy it as well. If you would like to see just how Stepping Stones Together looks in use please see this extremely helpful page. You will find a very detailed breakdown of how the program works there.

Cost: There are two options available, 90 Day Membership for $19.99, or Super Saver One Year Membership for $39.99. You can also take advantage of the free trial, which will give you a great taste of the program works.

Erika, the founder of Stepping Stones Together, would like to offer all of our readers 50% all full year memberships, just use code- “I want the deal” (omitting quotations), giving you a full year of instruction for the 90 day price! Thanks Erika!

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Sing, Spell, Read and Write

 Age, Grammar, Handwriting, Preschool, Reading, Spelling, Vocabulary  2 Responses »
Mar 072012
 

Sing, Spell, Read and Write is a curriculum that I had the joy of being introduced to in the very beginning of our homeschooling adventure. Now, I am in the trenches of this program with my second child. This child learns 100% differently than my first and I am beaming at his success with reading and writing.

What type of program is this and how is it set apart from the others? Let me explain. Sing, Spell, Read and Write (SSRW) is a multi-sensory, song-singing, game-playing, colorful and very creative program. The curriculum focuses on the language as a whole while making learning exiting and fun. SSRW covers:

  • Grammar
  • Spelling
  • Reading
  • Vocabulary
  • Handwriting

The teacher’s manual details how each lesson should go and gives an estimate of how much time should be dedicated to that lesson. The author, Sue Dickson, has systematically laid out the various objectives for each lesson. Some of the lessons may take two days, others may take up to nine days.
The kindergarten curriculum is based on a train track. Each lesson is a section of the track and at the end the child will have completed the curriculum and is on his/her way to reading and writing!

I love the colorful books that are included in this set and the fun ways that the author teaches the child how to form the letters. There are two books in the kindergarten curriculum along with fun songs that teach short vowels, sounding out words and many other phonetic rules.

The first grade curriculum is a racetrack. As the introduction song goes,

“I’m going 36 miles so I can learn how to read, 36 lessons are just what I need, 36 spots to read, write and spell. So everyone rejoice I’ll soon be reading so well!”

My children run madly around in a circle pretending to be race cars each time this song comes on. Thankfully, the next song that goes through each letter sound a-z calms them back down! There are two books in the first grade curriculum as well.

I truly believe this is one of the most thorough and enriching ways to learn to read, write and spell. The first book has each letter broken up into four pages. For example, learning letter “c”, the child would color a cat, next page practice both lower and uppercase c, then there is a cut and paste page where they need to decipher whether or not that picture begins with the “c” sound and finally, a dot to dot.

The first book takes around a month to complete, while the second book, will take much longer. I am thankful that this is not a quick program. When my first child completed step 36, I was a few days away from having our fourth child and I could have cried. We had been diligently working for the past 10 months and had covered everything from the short vowel sounds, long vowels, silent k, l, g, g, h to reading comprehension and everything in between.

My son finished the racetrack a very confident reader, speller, and writer. He took his confidence to the library checking out more books than I can count and reading them to himself any opportunity he had.

My second son, is on step 12 as I write this. He is a very kinesthetic learner. He is a very independent child and loves going ahead on his own (which is very possible with mom close by, of course!). The songs grab his attention while the workbook pages change up the rhythm of the lessons so that your child will not become bored. Each lesson is followed up by a game that has a Bingo or a Go Fish theme to it.

My son who cannot sit still long is reading! Oh yes and not only is he reading but enjoys reading. He is comprehending what is read!

The program contains:

  • 17 story books
  • CD and 6 sing along tapes (do people still use cassettes?)
  • a raceway track
  • cars for the track
  • five games
  • a treasure chest of prizes and four books
  • an assessment book

In summary: Honestly, I cannot say enough good things about this curriculum. The curriculum is an investment at around $254.00- $306.00. This, however, includes both the kindergarten and first grade programs. You may reuse the resources for each subsequent child after and are able to purchase just the workbooks online for around $9-$14. After seeing how successful my children are learning and have learned to read and write I would pay this amount over and over again. I know others who have followed this program would state the same!

Finally, you can view the materials at Christian Book. Happy reading!

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Ooka Island Adventure

 Elementary, Hands On, Online, Phonics, Preschool, Reading  No Responses »
Feb 242012
 

Since I have a struggling reader, I am always looking for tools to assist her achieve  Ooka Island is not intended for struggling readers solely.  It is a computer game designed to teach early literacy skills.  The visual and fun way Ooka Island uses can appeal to preschool through Kindergarteners.  It even appeals to my struggling reader.  Her confidence grows in the area due to her achievements on Ooka Island.

Here is the breakdown:

Product: Ooka Island Adventure

Format: Downloadable Computer Game

Ages: 3 to 7

Focus: Literacy, Phonics

Use: Supplement to any reading program, extra practice, fun and learning game

Rating: 5 out of 5 golden pencils

What is Ooka Island?

Learning early literacy skills was never so much fun!  The game teaches phonics and letter/sound recognition. A friendly robot named Zobot guides your child in a mission on Ooka Island.  Your child will visit the Cave of Sounds, Alphabet Mountain, Bubbly Troubly and more!  Once your child visits Popcorn Mountain she will get the chance to read books.

What did I love?

  • An approach to teaching literacy that breaks the code of reading.
  • It may be fun but it does teach foundations that a child will use in reading development.
  • Each game centers on a skill that builds upon another skill until your child begins to read.
  • Build confidence in young readers.
  • The staff is quick to respond to customers and easy to work with.
  • My 6 year old asks to play daily alongside her 3 year old sister and both are learning at respective rates.
  • Improvement in my daughter’s literacy skills.

 

Richele is an eclectic homeschooling mom to four reflections of God’s love whose greatest accomplishment thus far was teaching physics, folding laundry, and playing Candyland simultaneously.  Find her blogging at Under the Golden Apple Tree.

Book Review ~ A Necklace for Jiggsy by Kit Grady

 Elementary, Reading  No Responses »
Jan 272012
 

A Necklace for Jiggsy
Author: Kit Grady
Softback; 18 pages
Suggested Age: 4 – 12
ISBN: 978161630910
Retail: $10.95

I really like this book as it teaches children about honesty and a little about life. It is a quick story with really neat, bright pictures. The story is about a junk yard dog named Jiggsy and a beautiful necklace he finds. He hears that the owner would like it back but he has gained the respect of many others because of his beautiful necklace – therefore he doesn’t want to return it to her. That is, until he looses his very special pillow. He then realizes how much the original owner of the necklace must feel. He promptly returns it to her – and she returns the favor to him. But you’ll have to read the story to find out how. :)

This book is very well written and beautifully illustrated!

About Kit Grady:

Kit Grady is a full time children’s illustrator and author living in the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina with her husband, son and border collie, Panda. Her love for drawing animals, nature and children began very early. She continued her passion studying art at Virginia Commonwealth University and later studied under Caldecott winners Uri Shulevitz and Gale Haley. Kit has produced greeting cards and created a weekly children’s page for the local newspaper. Her clients include The United Methodist Publishing House/Cokesbury, Kaeden Books, Guardian Angel Publishing and Meegenius. She is a member of theSociety of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. When not writing and illustrating, she visits schools and libraries to celebrate the joy of reading. Kit, best known for her bright colors and expressive animals, has several new projects due out this year.

For more information, or to purchase your own copy:
Guardian Angel Publishing
St Louis, Missouri 63128

Click HERE to learn more about Guardian Angel Publishing.

Have a wonderfully blessed day!

Come visit Dawn over at her blog, Guiding Light Homeschool, on Facebook and on Twitter…friends are ALWAYS welcome!

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K5 Learning

 Elementary, Language Arts, Logic, Mathematics, Online, Phonics, Reading, Spelling, Uncategorized  2 Responses »
Jan 182012
 

To be honest, when I was approached about writing a review for K5 Learning, I was going to pass. We just haven’t liked any online sites that we have tried. I decided it was only fair to give it a quick look before saying no, and my five-year-old was immediately drawn into the site. I responded to the request with a yes.

We started with the recommended learning assessment, to see where my son scored on grade level, so the program could correctly place him to start the program. The assessment has a variety of levels given within it. Some answers will be too easy, others too hard. This is the only way the program can know where your child is in his learning.  However, I wish there was a button for parents to choose “does not apply”, as my son correctly answered some questions he had no clue about, just by chance.  Once the assessment is over, the parent can log in to see where your child was placed. Evan scored 1st grade, and he is in Kindergarten. (I thought he was reading above K!) After the program knows where your child’s skill level is, you are ready to learn.

The layout is attractive and inviting. Evan has really enjoyed learning his lessons with this program. I wanted to share with you a few examples of the curriculum in action, to give a better idea of what a lesson looks like.

The pros:

These lessons aren’t full of games and a little education, your child will really learn:

  • phonetic awareness, phonics, sight words, vocabulary and reading comprehension.
  • numbers and operations, geometry, measurement (including time and money), algebraic thinking and data analysis.
  • basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts. (with monitored progress for mastery)
  • spelling-you can even assign your own word lists.

Other positives:

  • works for special needs learners.
  • parents have access to learning reports to track progress.
  • the lessons adjust to your child’s individual learning automatically.

 

 

{my favorite part of the lesson}

  • Each lesson also has a preview of sorts that explains what you are about to learn and how to answer. I really like that about the program.

{this math lesson was challenging, but enjoyable}

{we apparently needed this, as Evan asked if dragons were real!}

The con:

This online curriculum has some great positives and I am glad we were invited to try it. I do have one negative to give, however:

When we went to work on the math facts for mastery, we found they are timed drills. Drills makes sense for older children – but Evan is five, with little keyboard skills. He never could get fast enough to pass, even though he answered all of the questions correctly.

 

As you can see, 0 were answered quickly enough, but all were correct. It had nothing to do with knowing the facts. I do wish the curriculum had thought of smaller children with little hands and no knowledge of why the numbers don’t go in order on mommy’s computer pad. Evan couldn’t understand why he didn’t pass when he knew all of the answers.

The rest of this site is great, so we will likely just be skipping this section unless that aspect is changed. Overall, it is a great program with true learning as the star. It is just fun enough to keep Evan from feeling overwhelmed, but this isn’t busy work. I would definitely recommend this if you have any interest in computer learning.

Purchase info:

  • After the trial ends, the monthly subscription for one child is $25 or you can purchase one year for one child for $199.  K5 Learning has a free 14 day trial that doesn’t require your credit card to begin. (I love that.)
  • I would recommend giving the free 14 day trial a try. Evan has really enjoyed this in the few weeks he has been using it. If we had the extra $25 in our budget, I would continue on when our subscription expires. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy K5 Learning this much. It has been a great addition to our day.

Sam's Noggin

**I was given a 3 month subscription in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.**

 

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The Reading Game

 Elementary, Language Arts, Reading  No Responses »
Dec 192011
 

I don’t know about your family but anytime our family can include game playing in our school lessons – we do – and love it! In my opinion, playing games is an awesome way to learn anything. The Reading Game is a fast action memory card game designed to help supplement young children on their path to learning to read. The Reading Game was created by the same author of the “Wordly Wise” series.

Included in The Reading Game is a series of six beautifully illustrated storybooks. The memory game cards are common site words that meet the criteria of the Common Core State Standards for Language Arts, Foundational skills, and Reading skills needed for both kindergarten and first graders. To see a full listing of reading standards and how the game correlates with them, click HERE. Enjoy this game with any struggling readers older than first grade.

Each game is played in six stages, each teaching five words. The idea behind the game is that once your child has completed his or her first round with the memory matching game they will have those words embedded into their brains. The different sets of memory cards are color and picture coordinated to connect with the storybooks included with the game. So after finishing the first set of memory cards your child has been introduced to the sight words used in the first storybook. In fact, the storybook uses only those thirty words. This sets your child up for success in reading. It is the frequent exposure through play that hard-wires these words into long-term memory. To play The Reading Game, two players are required, the student and the teacher.

So many first readers are just plain boring and in my opinion do not engage children in a way that they should. The Reading Game is different. These books are interesting and involve animals in their storyline which my own children have really enjoyed. A skunk, snake, bear, penguins, unicorn, and zebra appear in the books.

After completing the entire series, your child should have a reading vocabulary of 180 words. You can learn more details about how the game works and watch a video of it by clicking, HERE.

The author offers sight word assessment worksheets, as well as test sentence assessment worksheets, HERE, to help monitor the progress of your child as you play The Reading Game.

The cost of The Reading Game is 24.95$ and that includes six beautifully illustrated story books, six decks of matching playing cards, and a Teacher and Parent’s Guide. You can find The Reading Game on Facebook. To purchase click, HERE.

Disclaimer: I was sent this game for FREE in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was received.

Jacob’s Ladder Reading Comprehension

 Elementary, Junior High Language Arts, Language Arts, Middle School, Reading  No Responses »
Nov 162011
 

Have you ever wished for a reading comprehension program that encourages higher order thinking skills?  Questions that require deep thinking, inference and opinion?  Questions based on “living” literature selections rather than dry paragraphs?  All of this in assignments that can be completed in a lesson or two?  Not to mention, reading comprehension available for children as old as 9th grade?

I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing levels 4 and 5 of the Jacob’s Ladder Reading Comprehension Program, which covers all the bases above!

Each of the books consists of 20 lessons divided into three chapters.

  • Chapter 1 focuses on Short Stories – like The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, The Gift of the Magi and The Tell-Tale Heart.
  • Chapter 2 focuses on Poetry – like Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Ulysses, and Not They Who Soar.
  • Chapter 3 focuses on Biographies – like Emily Dickinson, Marie Curie and Harriet Tubman.

For each lesson, your child must read the 1-7 page literature selection then work “up the ladder” to complete questions or activities. The reason the program is titled “Jacob’s Ladder” is because nine different activities are suggested as follow-up to the reading.  The activities are written on a pictoral ladder.  The lower the question or activity is on the ladder, the lower the thinking skill; the higher the question or activity is on the ladder, the higher the thinking skill.  You may choose to assign as few or as many of the activities as you like.

The thinking skills are divided into six types of skill content.

  • Ladder A focuses on prediction skills.  These activities will include sequencing, cause and effect, and consequences and implications.
  • Ladder B focuses on deductive reasoning skills.  Activities include recalling details, classification and generalization.
  • Ladder C focuses on literary analysis skills.  Activities include identifying literary elements, making inferences and determining themes or central ideas.
  • Ladder D focuses on the skill of creating new materials based on information in the reading.  Activities include paraphrasing, summarizing and creating own materials.
  • Ladder E focuses on the skill of emotional development.  Activities include understanding emotion, expressing emotion and using emotion.
  • Ladder F focuses on the skill of metacognition.  Activities include planning and goal setting, monitoring and assessing, and reflecting.

The nine activities offered for each reading lesson include a mixture of the various skills.  As I mentioned before, you can choose to assign as few or as many of the activities as you like.  You may also decide to allow your child to choose one or more of the activities herself.  Depending on how many activities you require, the lessons can last as long as 30-45 minutes one day or 30-45 minutes/day for a week or more. Several of the lesson ideas lend themselves to co-operative learning, too, if you’d like to allow your children to work together occasionally.

The books are published by Prufrock Press, a publisher of materials for gifted children.  While these books are certainly appropriate for gifted children, they will serve homeschoolers well, too!  Anyone who has a good reader that needs to take comprehension to the next level will love Jacob’s Ladder.  While the books are on the expensive side at $39.95 each, they provide wonderfully in-depth reading lessons that are sure grow to your child’s higher order thinking skills.

-Written by Cindy, an eclectically Charlotte Mason mom of 3 living in Central KY.  You can find her blogging at Our Journey Westward and find her NaturExplorers studies and other creative homeschooling helps at Shining Dawn Books.

-Cindy received the Jacob’s Ladder books as compensation for her honest review. 

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