Clever Dragons is a really neat online learning tool geared toward BOYS ages 7 – 12 (but my son is 15 and there were still several places he found that were helpful and fun)! Boys. Dragons. Need I say more? *grin* This online program covers all the main areas of teaching: Language Arts, Math, Geography, History and Science. If your boys are anything like mine, sitting and “doing school” is super boring for them, this program allows them to learn while having fun! Please note: online learning is definitely not my favorite but I do enjoy finding things they like to do that also offers them the opportunity to learn – this program meets that need.

Taken directly from their site:

Clever Dragons is an educational and entertaining website exclusively for boys between the ages of 7 and 12. On Clever Dragons boys can access interactive learning materials, play age-appropriate games, view specifically selected videos and communicate with their friends. By completing the learning materials and videos users can earn Gold Coins – the virtual currency on Clever Dragons. This currency can then be used to play games or access other fun content. Together with www.always-icecream.com, its “sister site” for girls, Clever Dragons is the first website that combines all these aspects of online usage in an educational and safe format.

Here is a general breakdown of what is taught at each level:

• Beginner (7-8): Basic mulitple choice questions, Basic spelling quizzes, Typing 1 (letters), Instrument Quiz, MiniMe Customization
• Intermediate (9-10): Advanced Quizzes & Basic Drills, Language Quizzes (Synonyms), Typing II (words), Classical Music, Anatomy & Health Quizzes
• Advanced (11-12): Advanced Drills & Equation Solver, Lanuages Arts Quizzes, Typing III (passages; coming 2012), Clothing Design (coming 2012) and Science Quiz
• Applied (7-12): CastleWorld Shop & Money Budgeting, Messaging & Commenting, CastleWorld Desing Studio

They also offer parent reports which look like this:

We have watched some of the videos since I took the above snapshot and let me tell you, there are some amazing videos! The site has learning videos along with just fun videos. I think our favorite right now is the Amazing Insects video. It was really cool!

One part of the program we did not participate in was anything to do with friends or online chatting and messaging. We just don’t allow that in our home for our boys at this time.

Overall, we LOVE this program! Clever Dragons has so many learning games for the boys to play. There are around 75 games!

So, if you love what you are reading, but have a girl? Don’t fret! As mentioned above, they have something similar for girls called Always Ice Cream!

Now…the cost:

Monthly: $5.95
Two Months at one time: $11.90
Annual: $47.40
Lifetime: $119.00 but ON SALE for $69.00 if purchased before February 15th!!! 

Have a wonderfully blessed day!

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

Until the 2011 school year started both of my boys had been doing five days worth of living math lessons. I loved our time with it. This year, however, I decided to put them into Teaching Textbooks.

One of the things I used during our lovely Living Math Lessons was a programme called Times Alive! I found it rather by mistake while doing my daily blog hopping. Before I knew it I’d stumbled upon the City Creek Press website and was in total awe of their multiplication programme.

I confess, that despite my child being officially in third grade at the time and having an amazing grasp on a variety of math subjects from simple to complex I hadn’t branched out with multiplication yet. No, rather I’d been teaching him “groups of” with a fun game we’d been playing. After a quick chat with my husband about what funds were left in our homeschool budget I purchased Times Alive! and never looked back.

Times Alive! is not entirely unique as I know there’s another song and story programme out there for children to learn their multiplication facts.

How I use it:

• We chose the download instead of the cd version of this progamme {remember we live overseas so downloads often win out for us!}. Each day I’d load up the programme. My son would happily listen to the story and song and then do a quick and simple application test proving he understood and fully grasped what he’d learned.

• The programme starts with 2’s and skips 1’s and 0’s. Not a huge deal for us because I’d all ready taught him his 0’s, 1’s, 2’s, 10’s, 11’s, and we were working on our 5’s.
• There aren’t stories for the 2 family. Rather there’s a teddy bear who comes on and shows that by counting by 2’s you can easily find the answer to any problem you need. Simple.
• There are stories for all your 3 facts, 4 facts, 6 facts, and 8 facts. For the 9 facts there are clues on how to get the answer quickly. These clues are as great as the stories. I can always hear my kids working out 9 facts if they’d forgotten the answer! Again, none for the 5’s, 10’s, or 11’s. Wasn’t an issue for us, and I really believe that it shouldn’t be an issue for anyone.
• We loved some of the stories and were constantly amazed at the ability of the author to come up with some great little rhymes that permitted the children to remember exactly what the stories were. If my son now says, “Mom, I forgot what 8×8 is..” I’ll shout out, “STICKS FOR free!”

The story for this particular math problem is that two snowman {shaped like 8’s} go walking on a cold winter night. They get really cold when they stumble upon a sign that tells them they can have all the sticks in the pile for free. Super simple.

After my son learned all the fact families I discovered City Creek Press also sells a learning pack to compliment Times Alive! Included are flash cards with picture clues, posters to color in and a few other simple goodies. It was offered inexpensively as a download. We all worked together coloring in the posters for my son’s math notebook. I laminated all the flash cards and we go through them {little brother too} each morning before we get going with any of our other school stuff.

What I love:

• My son asked to do this programme! If a day passed and he didn’t get a turn with it he’d complain! Yep, and if his little brother was set up with another task at the time and missed out on the video or song there were tears and I’d have to replay it!
• The stories were, for the most part, catchy.
• For my visual learner, the color programme and the add-ons {mentioned below} allowed him to add more color and hands on learning.
• I could play it on my Mac!

• There are posters and flashcards with the picture clues on them that can be downloaded from the website!  This allows us to practice what we learned in an easy to remember way! Not only that, there were some heated discussions over who was going to color which posters. I’m only slightly ashamed to admit I was part of those chats with my boys.

What I don’t like:

• I confess there were a couple of stories that left me scratching my head. My son disagrees with me on this and since the programme was for him that’s what matters most, right?
• You have a limited time to download your programme. That always scares me when companies do that but I think if you go in knowing that you’ll have no issues!

Bottom Line:

My kids love this programme and have learned their multiplication facts with ease. I feel eternally grateful to the people over at City Creek Press for that! I wish their addition programme was also in video/song format.

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

For the past few years we haven’t used a math curriculum of any sort. Yes, you read that right. For several years we’d been “free flying” as I call it, learning math through games, hands on applications, & stories.

We had a grand time of it, and both of my children had a firm foundation in basic mathematics. However, we made a few changes to our little homeschool & one of the changes I decided to make was to use a math curriculum again.

It wasn’t that what we were doing wasn’t working, but rather that I wanted to be sure all the gaps I might have were filled. I opted to go with Teaching Textbooks after trying out the free samples online & administering their placement tests.

My 2nd grader easily fit into the Third Grade math with Teaching Textbooks & my Fourth Grader knew too much to use the Grade Four cds thus bumping him up to the Fifth Grade choice.

How We Use it:

This is an extremely easy programme to use, and after chatting with fellow TT users I decided not to purchase the books that came with it, but rather just the cds.

On any given Teaching Textbook day my child will load his cd into the computer and work studiously. If they need help and Mum is busy they merely skip the problem until I can come to their aid.

Because I chose to only purchase the cds I also went online to the Teaching Textbooks website and printed out the Table Of Contents for each grade level we’re working on. I file that in my teacher notebook and highlight bonus rounds with what facts the children will cover; see below for more information on Bonus Rounds. I also highlight lessons I don’t want a child to miss, but might mark lessons we won’t need because we all ready know the information.

The Break Down:

Each of the various grades that we own comes with four cds, and there are roughly 30 lessons on each disc. Every 7th lesson or so is something dubbed as a Bonus Round.

My kids live for Bonus Rounds! Okay, so a Bonus Round is just a three minute chance to show how many math facts you know by heart. It’s set up similar to a game show complete with a robot host & robot crowd.

In each Bonus Round you have the opportunity to gain up to 4 additional points towards your grade for the day. If you can answer a quarter of the problems correctly you get 1 point, half the questions you get 2 points, three quarters earns you 3 points, & obviously answering them all correctly gets you 4.

This can be a challenging time for children who don’t work well under pressure. In our home, the kids don’t mind the ticking time and the encouraging little robots, but they do get flustered making sure they are hitting the right keys on the number pad in a quick fashion. So, in our house when we hit a Bonus Round I go ahead and type for them while they spout off answers.

Note that each bonus round concentrates on a specific operation each time. These are noted in the table of contents so you can remind your student to brush up on their addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division facts.

Each lesson starts with a lecture that the child listens to. In it a male voice explains how to do the days lessons or new topic. This is generally well done, all though I wasn’t as impressed with the way they taught facts. By this, I mean when it came to multiplication facts the fellow would tell them the answer to each of their 12 times table facts, then he’d tell them they needed to memorize them. The flashed on the screen for a mere matter of seconds disappeared and the child was to set about the lesson for the day. We chose to supplement for learning our times tables due to this.

After your lecture for the day you are given 5 practice problems, not alway based on your lecture. Then you have an additional 23 problems to answer for the day. Sometimes we chose to do them all, sometimes I permit the kids to skip problems.

For instance, if my child knows how to do the problem, I see no point in having him do 6 of the same problems so long as he got the answer correct the first two or three times. There are some downsides to this, but we’ll discuss those later.

Every 13 lessons or so there is also a quiz. There is no lecture for Quiz days, you merely load up your lesson and answer 23 different math problems.

The programme automatically keeps track of the grades & scores for quizzes, bonuses, & lessons. As my children finish with a cd I print out the final scores for each of those lessons and I file it so I have proof of the math they’ve done for the year and the scores they achieved.

What I don’t like:

As mentioned before I’m not keen on the way some lectures are given. I respect that teaching a student math facts can be a challenging process & I know that by adding in the Bonus Rounds they are encouraging memorization, however I was still unimpressed with the way some facts were taught.

I don’t like trick problems. My student was dutifully working away one day when I heard a problem come up that I felt was a bit too tricky and sneaky and would merely frustrate my student. The problem was down the lines of, “If it’s 2:00 and it’s dark outside is that am or pm.” For an 8 year old I’m pretty sure he’d associate dark with pm, thus I felt the problem was a tad too sneaky/tricky.

I dislike the fact that there are 23 problems for each lesson & if I have my student skip those problems it’s reflected in his grade. For instance if my child only does 19 our of 23 problems his grade will be an 85% or there abouts.

I don’t love what they wanted to charge me for international shipping when I know it can be done for half the price. I really struggle with this, but also understand that people who don’t ship internationally regularly might not know that.

What I love:

I love that this little programme can do the grades for me. Until this programme my children have never really had a grade before and they actually enjoy seeing what their score is.

I love that if my children make a typo and get a problem wrong I can log in to their grade book and reflect the change OR I can even delete answers and have them rework problems. This is a huge deal if your child has the habit of being a tad heavy on the keyboard.

I love that I can also delete out a Bonus Round and have my child redo that too. This is funtastic if you want your child to have a creative way to practice their math facts. Or, if your keyboard gets unplugged during the middle of a round and your Mum doesn’t know it until there’s 10 seconds left.

I love that these cds are both Windows & Mac compatible! This excites me in ways I just can’t explain. As a Mac family it was a huge deal for us to be able to use these on our Macs!

I love that if you have a US or Canadian postal address you can get free shipping from this company!

I’m also really impressed with the resale value that this programme has. The programme is $110 brand new from the published/creator, but it has an average resale value of $70.

I love that there are not 180 days worth of lessons! This means my children can use this programme only 2-3x a week and we use those extra days for our Living Math lessons. They can still accomplish more then enough, if not all of, the programme.

Bottom Line:

We really enjoy using this programme. It’s a really fun way for kids to get both computer skills and math skills in. Not to mention, if you’re not a math fan and feel you lack the skills to teach your children this programme would be a wonderful fit for you!

Kendra lives in Tasmania Australia with her husband, the Man From Down Under, two curious boys, a dog, & a bird that constantly talks back. Creator, and avid user, of the Homeschool Book Of Days & The Nature Game she can be found retelling tales from The Land Down Under over at the Aussie Pumpkin Patch.

We’ve tried many computer and online math drill programs.  We’ve even used flashcards.
But we often return to the first formal drill program we bought years ago: Calculadder by
Dr. Myers.  It’s quick, simple, very effective, and can be used for all the children in a family.

Each drill page has a number of problems, a recommended time limit, and a Bible text that’s
sometimes relevant.   The student is expected to fill out the page as quickly and accurately as
possible.

Because some of our children need to repeat pages over and over before they are accurate and
quick enough, I print each page only once and slip it into a clear plastic page protector so
that it’s reusable.  The children use erasable markers to do the problems.

The unique answer key pages have answers written on three sides of the page, making it very
easy to mark the problems rapidly as long as you have a large desk or table to work at. It takes
a lot of space to rotate that answer sheet, especially if it’s in a binder as mine is, and I
would prefer an ordinary answer key.

So how do you keep track of how a child has done and when he or she has completed a level?
Dr. Myers has provided super-handy sheets for that, too. They are clear and forgiving, even
when, as you can see, I make mistakes when I enter the scores. This is Miss 9′s recent work.
I let her move ahead when she has had several 10’s in a row for a particular level.
Occasionally she gets a score of 11!

And to top it all off, there are certificates.  Miss 9 is just thrilled with them and is
working hard to finish hers so she can hang it up in her bedroom.

I pulled Calculadder out again this fall (after forgetting about it for a long time) when I
realized that Miss 9 was still using her fingers to add. This was making a long, painful ordeal
out of each math page of her regular curriculum.  By now I’ve seen a huge improvement in her
addition and subtraction skills as she learns to rely on memory rather than counting.

And this is exactly what Calculadder is designed to do:

The emphasis on accuracy and rapidity “encourages a shift from laboriously calculating answers
to instantly recalling them.”  Dr. Myers, scientist and father of 12 homeschooled children,
wrote, “Without this sort of repeated, timed, brief drill, the student may still solve simple
problems by subtly counting fingers even after years of exposure to textbook and workbook materials.”

Calculadder is part of the Learning Vitamins series that also includes drill sheets for
alphabetizing and penmanship.  We’ve enjoyed those too. The entire series, as well as
detailed explanations and free samples, is available from School Made Simple.

As authors here on The Curriculum Choice, we review what we love.  Interestingly enough, Laurie recently wrote about her thoughts of Calculadder.  Two positive reviews must mean a doubly great curriculum!

-Written by Annie Kate, a Christian homeschooling mom of five, who reviews and blogs at Tea Time with Annie Kate.  You can read her other Curriculum Choice reviews here.

Grocery Cart Math by Jaye Hansen has been a fun addition to my son’s math schedule.  Many of you know that our family typically spends only three days per week in the math textbook.  The other two days of math are spent doing “other things” like games, logic, problem solving, math projects and more.  (You can read more about how to incorporate the “other things” in my book, Loving Living Math.)

Grocery Cart Math is one of my new tools for “other things” to add to math time.  The best part is…we don’t even have to be at home to complete math on these days because the math is completed at the grocery! How many people can say they tackled real math and grocery shopping at the same time?  I can – and you can, too!

Written for the 3rd-6th grader, the 32 lessons in Grocery Cart Math are reproducible worksheets that your child takes into the store (along with a clipboard, pencil and sometimes a calculator) to complete.  Basic math and real-life skills like nutritional analysis, counting money, comparing prices, figuring sales tax, measurement and more are covered. Sometimes, additional activities will be completed at home, like creating a comparison graph, for instance.  Discussion questions for mom or dad continue to bring home the practical side of the lessons with questions like, “Why do stores have sales?”

Real-life math application is of utmost importance and this book does an excellent job tying the two together!  As side notes:  I always take some time before entering the store to make sure my son understands his task.  I also make sure he stays within my sight at all times.  Additionally, our trip to the grocery can sometimes be extended a bit from the normal get-in-and-go mode, so I make sure to plan extra shopping time.  I also try to leave the 4 year old at home if at all possible!  (wink)

-Cindy West is an eclectically Charlotte Mason mom of 3 from Central KY.  You can find her blogging at Our Journey Westward and find her NaturExplorers curriculum at Shining Dawn Books.

(Cindy received a review copy of Grocery Cart Math for free upon her request.  As always, the review reflects only her honest opinions.)

Math On The Level is a pre-K through pre-Algebra math program designed to accommodate families teaching multiple children of various ages.  It is a relatively new curriculum on the home-schooling scene.  The authors, Carlita and John Boyles, developed this wonderful math curriculum as they home-taught their own children.  With advanced degrees in several Education fields for Carlita and Electrical Engineering for John, they are well-qualified to teach mathematics!

The philosophy behind MOTL includes:

• Teaching math through real life
• Teaching concepts when a child is mature enough to learn them
• Continually reviewing previously learned material
• Staying flexible to meet the needs of your family.

The curriculum is composed of 7 main volumes.  Four of the volumes cover the bulk of the actual material, with the remaining three volumes containing supporting and record-keeping resources.  The four main books cover Operations, Money & Decimals, Geometry & Measurements, and Fractions.  In the supporting materials, Carlita and John have developed various charts and tracking tools to help you keep track of what each child has learned, what they’re still reviewing, and what topic to introduce next.  The back-bone of MOTL is the 5-a-day review.  Rather than learning a concept only to forget it a few weeks later, the 5-a-day review and tracking system provides a way to keep concepts alive.

I’ve used MOTL for one full year now, so here is what a day in the life looks like for me:

I collect the notebooks of my two children who are using MOTL (I have other older and younger children).  Looking at the tracking chart I can easily see which concepts my child needs to review.  The charts are all color-coded with four main books, making it easy to select the right book.  Each book has lessons in the front half that explain how to present a concept.  The back half provides a page of practice problems (with solutions!) for each concept.  I select the problems I wish my child to do, copy 5 into their notebook (usually from several books – covering several review concepts), and let them start working.

While they work, I take note of the new concepts to be taught that day, and briefly familiarize myself with the way Carlita explains topics.  I trade off teaching one child, then the other.  Carlita has a handy “suggested teaching sequence” that I love – but you are free to veer from that.

What I Love -

I love that it takes virtually no prep work.  Hey!  I’m a busy mom!  I love that the children are given manageable portions of review problems – and that they get review problems.  I think the teaching instructions given by Carlita are phenomenal.  If I find my child struggling with a topic I’ve been teaching, a quick review of Carlita’s instructions helps me see what I’m doing wrong (the fault is usually in my presentation) and clears everything up!  The Yahoo Group is active and a wonderful resource – Carlita and John are active moderators and participants.  I love knowing that I can ask a question and receive a timely reply.

What I Don’t Love -

Honestly, there isn’t a lot to say here, but I will mention some things that might be turn-offs to others.

First, the cost.  If you consider the cost of the curriculum spread out over multiple children for many years, it’s very reasonable; however, the upfront cost may seem prohibitive.  To help with taking the plunge, Carlita and John offer a great 60-day refund if you try the curriculum and are not satisfied.  It’s nice to be able to take things for a test-drive before committing!  Also, you can order the curriculum in chunks without affecting the overall quality (though you would eventually want all of it).

Second, the record-keeping, while thorough and very well done, takes some getting used to and can seem onerous.  I honestly don’t do all of it and I’m fine with that.

Third, some might feel that 5 problems a day is not enough review.  Obviously, you can do more.  You can write more problems yourself, use more of the ones in the book, or print off free worksheets from the internet (or buy workbooks).  I find the amount of work to be satisfactory for my children.

A Final Note –

If you favor a living books or unit studies approach, you will find that this curriculum would dovetail nicely as you can easily select books by concept and have your children doing problems of varying difficulty in that concept.

After I spent nine months wishing (and saving), I was able to purchase Math On The Level.  A year later, my family still loves it.  Both my children are at or ahead of grade level, and most importantly, math is a subject we all enjoy doing together.  For more information, or to see samples of the program, please visit www.mathonthelevel.com

-Written by Kelly Richardson is the 9-year, accidental home-schooling mother of five amazing children (13, 11, 8, 3, 2).    She is a voracious reader, regular break-baker, sometimes runner, and rare artist .  Her passions are learning about education, home-making, and playing her piano, but her all time favorite thing is spending time with her husband and family, especially in the redwoods or at the beach near her home.  She chronicles her family’s adventures at www.coastcrew.blogspot.com.

We are visiting an old favorite in new form. Having used CalcuLadder with my older girls (now 28, 27, 25), I knew that I liked this program, but I was not sure of the download format. As it turns out, I love it!

Remember my love for logic? Well, here I am again talking about incorporating more logic into your homeschool – this time through games!

I’m teaching a logic and critical thinking class at co-op this year and needed some activities that were both fun and challenging.  I hit the jackpot with Foxmind Games!

• Each of the games below can be played by one person or a group of kids – it doesn’t matter.
• They can be used with younger/beginning logic kids all the way up to adults.  Seriously.  Each game includes cards of varying skills.  The earlier cards are easier and require less critical thinking ability.  Each card as you go through the deck builds in logical intensity.
• All the games use manipulatives, making them very hands-on and good for tactile learners.  But, they don’t have too many pieces to try to keep up with.
• They are colorful and inviting.
• All directions are concise and easy-to-implement.

ZooLogic requires you to arrange animals on a grid so that all the animals are peaceful.  In other words, no animal can be placed next to its rival or beside its favorite food.  A simple, illustrated chart supplies you with a quick-reference about who and what can/can’t be placed next to each animal.

My four-year-old is able to complete the earlier puzzles and loves the colorful animal pieces.  He had no trouble at all catching on to the rules.  Conversely, my middle school logic class gets a kick out of the game, too.  Obviously, they work more towards the middle and end of the spiral bound deck of 60 cards, but they can’t get enough.

Meta-Forms includes a simple 3×3 grid as the playing board, with nine attribute blocks as the playing pieces.  At first, the directions make the game seem as if the puzzles are nothing more than merely looking at a clue and placing an attribute block on the appropriate square.  Very quickly, though, the clues get harder and there is nothing extremely easy about placing nine shapes on the board.

My middle and high school logic classes have already spent many moments pondering the clues and working (then reworking) the pieces to try to find the correct configurations.  Each of the 80 puzzles (also in a spiral bound deck) in supposed to take only 5 minutes.  Tell that to my high school students.

Equilibro offers a spiral-bound deck of 50 cards on which 2-dimensional figures are pictured.  At the bottom of each card, you are given specific 3-diensional shapes you must pull out from the supplied set of blocks.  Using the photograph, you are to build a 3-dimentional structure with the blocks.

Again, the directions sound easy enough, right?  Again, the puzzles are only supposed to take 5 minutes each, right?  Again, tell that to my high school students!  The earlier puzzles are easy enough for 1st graders, but they quickly become more complicated and require much more critical thinking.  (Don’t worry, answer keys are provided for each of the games! )

What’s super-cool about Equilibro?  You can purchase other guides in their Brain Builder series which will utilize the same blocks from Equilibro, but focus on different structural concepts!

• Architechto
• Clicko
• Tangramino

I’m new to Foxmind Games, but I’m in love!

-Written by Cindy, eclectically Charlotte Mason mom of three – 9th grade, 6th grade and K4 – living in Central KY.  You can find Cindy blogging at Our Journey Westward and find her NaturExplorers studies and other creative curricula at Shining Dawn Books.

Cindy was provided review copies of these games upon her request.  Her opinions are always her own.

Consumer Math Success Kit by David Newton is a gem for high school students!  This one semester course (53 lessons – some of which can be used more than one day or extended into real-life practice) includes practical math your child will need in the future.

Bank accounts, loans, credit cards, taxes, home costs, budgeting, insurance and planning for the future are some of the 27 topics covered.  What I like best is that every single lesson is very real.  There isn’t a lot of wordiness to the teaching, but very concise explanations are given with practical problems following.  Some people may feel like there isn’t enough teaching and may find the book to be more appropriate as a “workbook” to go along with a consumer math textbook.

The lessons assume your child has a fair background in mathematics. He needs to understand and be able to complete such things as multiplication, division, ratios, percents, fractions, decimals and conversions.  The average high school student should already have a well-rounded math background to successfully use this curriculum.

The book also assumes that the teacher has a fair background in mathematics and consumer experiences since there is no teacher’s guide for you.  For each section, there are teacher’s notes that supply you with pertinent vocabulary, related math topics, mathematical skills required and a few teaching suggestions, but no “how to teach notes”.  And, although there is an answer key, there are no step-by-step solutions provided.  For me, neither of these factors have proven to be a problem.

There aren’t an abundance of practice problems (only 5-12 per lesson), but they are sufficient for understanding the concept in most instances.  I’ve found it easy to assign a real problem related to our own family to extend the lesson and “bring it home” when necessary.

In conclusion, I have really enjoyed this book as 1/2 credit for high school math.  Both my husband and I feel comfortable with consumer math, so we haven’t felt slighted with the lack of teacher’s helps.  We also haven’t felt it necessary for our daughter to read additional information on the subject.  When needed, we’ve simply talked through some of the topics on a personal level.

-Cindy West is an eclectically Charlotte Mason mom of three from Kentucky.  You can find her blogging at Our Journey Westward and find her NaturExplorers studies at Shining Dawn Books.

{Cindy received Consumer Math Success Kit free for review.  As always, her review reflects her honest opinions about the product.}

It is very difficult to find living math books that present complex topics in an accessible way.  One math author whose books we have learned to love is Mitsumasa Anno.  Anno believes “that mathematics is more than merely manipulating numbers, it is a way of thinking, and that it has bearing on all scholastic subjects, indeed on all forms of creative thought.”  Children throughout the world have enjoyed his award-winning picture books.

We regularly borrow Anno’s books from the library and indulge ourselves. When very young, my children enjoyed the whimsical illustrations while the older children are intrigued by the puzzles and concepts.  As a math-loving mom, I’m delighted at the way advanced concepts such functions or factorials are presented.   Children comprehend much more than they are given credit for; having enjoyed a concept with Anno, they will be able to understand it so much better when it is introduced in math lessons.

Anno’s many math books include:

Anno’s Math Games

In four pictorial chapters of games and puzzles, Anno presents the ideas of

• same and different
• combining and assembling
• numbers, ordering and coordinate systems
• more and less.

In an afterword, Anno discusses the concepts presented in each chapter.  Our children have always loved tall Kriss and tubby Kross as they work, ponder, and experiment.

Anno’s Math Games 2

Full of mathematical ideas, this is a fascinating book of games for children.  Anno’s whimsical drawings illustrate ideas such as

• cause and effect (functions)
• differences and similarities
• dots and pixels
• counting and tabulation
• volume and units.

Anno’s Math Games 3

This book was every bit as good as the others, but I cannot tell you the details since it is no longer available in our library.

Anno’s Magic Seeds

 An old man gave Jack 2 large golden seeds.  “These are magic,” he said.  “Bake one seed in the oven until it is red and then eat it.  You will not be hungry again for a whole year.”  The other seed was to be planted and would produce two more seeds.  How Jack fared with his seeds, the big decision he made, and what happened next is a fascinating story driven by math, but representing much of history as well.  While children can understand it, adults can continue to ponder it for a long time.

Anno’s Counting Book

With a growing column of cubes on the left side of the page, and a large number on the right, Anno shows the development of a small village.  On each successive page, spread throughout the year, the village increases by one child, one building, and one tree.  Each picture is full of small stories such as building a railroad, photographing a wedding, or fishing, as well as many examples of the number.  There are opportunities for adding, such as when three of the geese on the number 4 page lag far behind the other one, and for thinking about sets, and other concepts.  Though it is a counting book, it is also much more.

Anno’s Mysterious Multiplying Jar

Inside the jar there was water, and there seemed to be just enough wind to set the water rippling…and suddenly we are inside the jar, on a sea, sailing toward 1 island.  On it there are 2 countries.  Fascinating pictures tell the story of factorials in the first half of the book, and Anno explains them explicitly in the second half.

Besides math books, Anno has also created many other amazing volumes, and we’ve enjoyed each one we’ve seen.

Disclosure: As always, I am not compensated for my reviews and I give my own honest opinions.

-Written by Annie Kate, a Christian homeschooling mom of five, who reviews and blogs at Tea Time with Annie Kate. You can read her other Curriculum Choice reviews here.

“From the time my children were in kindergarten, I have followed the same basic weekly schedule for math. We typically complete three textbook lessons per week and two living math lessons per week.” ~ Cindy West

Cindy West’s Loving Living Math has given my family permission. Permission to learn and enjoy the real life stuff of math. See, I admit I am not a math type mom. But I do thrive on the practical. That’s why Loving Living Math speaks to me. I can see math all around us now.

This ebook also opened my eyes to the fact that we were already enjoying many living math opportunities in board games, Snap Circuits, Saturday morning trips to the store and simply setting the table! Our favorite game, Blokus? Check!

Dear Parent – Loving Living Math is for you! Most often curriculum is for the student. This is for you. To teach you. To encourage you.

Coaches the parent in how to:

• teach outside the textbook. You don’t have to complete each and every textbook lesson!
• add living math to your homeschool. Practical ways for working your schedule.

Offers lengthy lists of resources for:

• Logic
• Problem solving
• Favorite skills and drills
• Making the most of website links
• Using manipulatives

Includes worksheets with math puzzles (e.g., popcorn puzzler, Valentine math, coordinate candy graphing) to mix in. (Complete with the answer key at the end of the book.)

But there’s more! Did you know you can teach math through literature?? Through hands on projects?? Yes! In the photo above, my son is enjoying both a Tapestry of Grace assignment and living math.

Loving Living Math even shows the parent ways to incorporate writing into math and infuse math into other subjects. The latest, greatest technology? How about Excel spreadsheets, balancing the family online bank account, designing a graph for the science fair project? All math.

Baking. Oh I can see this area expanding even more. All that Cooking Fun we do during our week? It can all count as math. And Loving Living Math gives examples for doubling, tripling recipes, sorting candies…

For my family, Loving Living Math cued up the fun. Added in the logic that was lacking. My children are traditional math textbook learners. But this approach throws a bit of delight into math learning. I can see Loving Living Math being a successful tool for families that might have difficulty learning the traditional textbook way.

Loving Living Math taught me, the teacher, how to see the everyday math learning opportunities. It helps answer the practical question, “How will I use this in the real world?”

Loving Living Math is a 48 page ebook. Excerpt from the book description: “Loving Living Math will answer all your questions, ease all your fears, and bring skeptics at least closer to the idea. This is a book for parents who would like to learn more about living math – a “how-to” book of sorts. In 46 straightforward pages, you’ll understand what living math is, learn why it can be so effective in your homeschool, and consider various ways to incorporate it into your homeschool schedule.  Don’t get the impression that Cindy wants you to get rid of math textbooks!  Although some parents use living math exclusively, this book encourages you to supplement textbook lessons with living math lessons and shows you how to effectively do that.”

What age/grade is Living Math designed for? All ages. What you, the parent and teacher will learn will help students of all ages.

View a sample on the NaturExplorers site: Loving Living Math

Loving Living Math! So many children (and parents) struggle with math during the school day. Whether you’re hoping to learn how to ease the whining, add some new lessons to the regular textbook schedule or overhaul your math curriculum, this workshop will inspire you. Learn how to add “real” math lessons that make sense to your child. Questions will be answered very practically! What is living math? How will it help my child enjoy math again? How can I add it to my textbook curriculum without overwhelming my child? Why would I want to add living math to our schedule? What are some super ideas and resources for living math? ~ Heart of the Matter session description

But don’t take it just from me. I had the privilege of hostessing Cindy’s Heart of the Matter Online winter 2011 conference session. I heard directly from the author how simple it is to incorporate living math ideas in our homeschool. And you can too. The mp3 of her session is available for purchase HERE.

I’m off to oversee children tripling some recipes…

Before you leave, here’s a special note from Cindy West…Please enjoy $3.00 off Loving Living Math through the month of September!  Use the code “livingmath” (without quotes) at checkout.

~Tricia faces a daily dose of chaos homeschooling five children. She contributes a blend of writing at parenting, frugal living and homeschool sites as well as her own daily Hodgepodge.

This year my fourth grader and I are having some fun living math lessons a few days a week using the Life Of Fred Fractions book. The Life Of Fred books are quite catchy and well written for children, and they cover so much more then math!

Fred happens to be a 5.5 year old little boy who’s all ready in university.  Throughout the     books you learn various math concepts by reading Fred’s stories.

In the fraction book it starts out slow and simple and you cover greater then and less then, most likely a familiar topic to someone in fourth grade. You quickly move on to billion, diameter & radius, and so on until you reach fractions.

Once you reach the information about fractions you learn how to do all sorts of fun things with them. Write checks, reducing fractions, adding fractions, subtracting fractions and more.

The fun thing about Fred is you aren’t given a dry boring lesson and then asked to complete countless worksheets. No, you’re given a humors story often full of other useful information. At the end of each short chapter there are 6-10 questions to answer to show if you remember what you learned.

The book even works in review or quizzes, but they call them bridges. I mean, who doesn’t love to cross a bridge? It sounds far less intimidating then “Quiz” doesn’t it?

What we like about the Fred Books:

• We love the short simple chapters & fun engaging story.

• We like that there are only a few questions at the end of each chapter, but those questions can cover a mixed bag of topics.

• I love that my son loves the book and is learning at the very same time.

• I also love that these are non-consumable hardback books. That means I can reuse them with both of my children without having to repurchase them.

What we didn’t like about the Fred Books:

• Honestly, so far we’ve yet to meet any part we didn’t like, but I do think that there will be some drawbacks for some people.

• The questions happen to be on the same page the answers at the end of each chapter. Bridge answers are on the back of the book. This isn’t a problem for us as I often read out the problems to my son and he copies them onto notebooking paper. You could easily cover up the answers with a sheet of paper or a large post-it note if you were unhappy with this.

• Because the author is American and American’s use the imperial system you’ll find that most of the terms will swing in that direction. {ie pound not kilo, inches not centimeters, etc.} I never hold that against a book, but I always feel it’s fair to let people know.

Common Questions About Fred:

Can I use this on it’s own or is it just an extra?

Honestly, I’ve seen families use it both ways. For us we’re using it as an extra. I like to teach my kids a lot of math topics in a year, but I like to really focus in on one topic to give them a great foundation and build their confidence. I think the Fred books really help in that area.

I want to use this on it’s own but there’s only about 36 – 40 days worth of lessons, what should I do?

You could expand on the lessons by incorporating other fun living math things into the lessons. For instance in lesson two you learn about a billion. You see what it looks like in both numbers and words. You also learn the importance of writing numbers with letters and not just numbers. You could focus in on number words throughout the week and also offer your child worksheets on skills they all ready have in math in order to drag it out. Another option would be to use several Fred books in one year.

The Fred stories seem a little bit cheesy, are you sure we’ll learn from it?

Absolutely! If you have a sense of humor you’re going to love these books. If you enjoy something, chances are you’re going to learn from it. My 4th grader has been the intended student for these books, but I’ve caught my 2nd grader listening in several times and then attempting to quiz both of us later on in the day. So needless to say, I believe no matter how cheesy you find the stories you’ll learn from them. It doesn’t have to be hard to be educational.

Kendra lives in Tasmania Australia with her husband, the Man From Down Under, two curious boys, a dog, & a bird that constantly talks back. Creator, and avid user, of the Homeschool Book Of Days & The Nature Game she can be found retelling tales from The Land Down Under over at the Aussie Pumpkin Patch.

Technology continues to advance, and with it, comes many opportunities to learn.  Today, cell phones have become much more than just a way to call someone.  But, did you know that beyond Facebook and Angry Birds (a game), there are some really great learning gems available for smart phones?

5 Great Apps For Education

Super WHY!

Originally just a TV show, Super Why! has transitioned to a kid-friendly App!  This app features the four main characters from the TV show as they teach the alphabet, rhyming, spelling, writing, and reading.  Our family uses this app often as its graphics are great and the games make learning fun!  $2.99*  See More.

TEACH ME

TEACH ME currently has three apps out – toddler, kindergarten, and first grade.  The kindergarten version teaches Math (addition and subtraction), Spelling, and Sight Words.  However, my FAVORITE part is that it allows for multiple users and tracks their progress.  That, and it’s really affordable!  $.99*  See More.

Project Noah

For kids of all ages, Project Noah is a great app for citizen scientists everywhere!  With this cool app, you can add a photograph of an interesting creature you’ve found, or you can access the database to learn of and about different organisms in a specific area. You can even help track migrating species or document endangered wildlife!  This great app takes learning to a whole new level and gets kids excited about exploring nature and teaches on the go!  FREE*  See More.

PBS

PBS.org now has apps for ipad, iphone, and ipod.  You can now preview or view full episodes, as well as check out your local station’s schedule!  While not quite as an impressive app as the previous ones, this app could still be invaluable to your planning time if you’re constantly on the go (or someone is using the computer)!  FREE*  See More.

Storyrobe

Use photos and videos from your library to create and share stories!  This interactive app lets you record your voice through the microphone or you can use the 3rd party mic to get the story going.  From telling the story of an event in history to tracking the growth and development of a butterfly to teaching Kindergarteners parts of a story…this app has unlimited potential!  $.99*  See More.

So, tell me… What are some of your favorite learning and education apps?

*Prices at time post was written.

Written by Ashley.  Find more of Ashley’s writings and reflections on motherhood, marriage and life on her blog.

Stop, drop and roll; numbers, matching, science, music, math, cutting and pasting, coloring, calendar and pattern practice, weather and seasons, holidays, physical education, Bible verse memory work and Biblical world view. Definitely a “Complete multi-subject curriculum for preschoolers” ~ Answers in Genesis

And, look! Right at the top of each page – plenty of practice in name writing.

Here’s an example of a quick Answers for Preschoolers science lesson my preschooler enjoyed when she was four:

She was to take the magnifying glass and find some dust. To go to the spot where the most dust collected in the house.

Well, I directed her to the corner of the foyer where there was plenty of dust at the time. But she remembered that her favorite stuffed animals harbor dust mites. So she wanted to take a peek up close. Of course, she couldn’t actually see the dust mites but she had fun finding plenty of dusty specimens around the house. Then drawing the dust samples afterwards.

Features:

• Biblically-based: Starting at the beginning, in Genesis, children learn Biblical truths with God at the beginning of all things.
• Soft bound: (easy to tote around the house. Easy for a preschooler to run and fetch from the shelf!)
• 180 lessons: 90 lessons per volume
• Colorful: full color pages and illustrations throughout.

• What is preschool without music and singing? Accompanying CD – 17 fun songs. Perfect for morning room time or to pop on in the car. See the list of songs and hear samples by clicking over to the Answers in Genesis site.

• For the teacher: For an additional cost, teacher Guides are available for both volumes. Minimal preparation. Any supplies needed can be gathered from household items. However, an accompanying resource packet is also available: “It contains 284 pages of full-color teaching aids to help teach letters, colors, shapes, numbers, seasons, time, Bible memory verses, and more!” ~ AiG site
  

• In our family: we bought one volume of Answers for Preschoolers and used it a few days a week. Two volumes are available. We mix things up. Some days we enjoy an activity from Answers for Preschoolers, another day maybe an idea from Slow and Steady Get Me Ready (skills, large and small motor) or a Five in a Row selection (wonderful list of books!) and an accompanying activity. Some days our preschoolers join in a Tapestry of Grace (classical history unit study) family activity. It just depends. But being purposeful in my preschool planning and having these resources on hand sure helps with the age range.
• It is fun! Which is, of course, the main criteria for your preschooler. We’ve really had fun with Answers for Preschoolers.

• It was easily adaptable for the youngest children: Little brother, age 2 at the time of this photo. He liked to be included in the cutting and pasting.

Available as a kit or as individual purchases: To view both volumes, the teacher guide, the resource packet and the accompanying CD, see the curriculum section of the Answers in Genesis (AiG) site.

We love all the AiG curriculum in our house. We use Answers for Kids for morning quiet time. And, after lunch, we push back the dishes and enjoy a science lesson with God’s Design for Science. Preschoolers are always part of the action!

~Tricia faces a daily dose of chaos homeschooling five children. She contributes a blend of writing at parenting and homeschool sites as well as her own daily Hodgepodge.

Congratulations to commenter #12, Dawn!

Our winner was chosen using the online Random Number Generator.

Dawn, please email me at songofmyheartblog at yahoo dot com within three days for info. on how to claim your set of Arithmetic Village books. I know that and your children are going to enjoy them!

Thank you to all who participated in our giveaway!

written by Shannon from Song of My Heart

Many of you know that I’m a huge fan of teaching logic in the homeschool. For most people, the word ‘logic’ brings to mind older children in middle school and beyond. Believe it or not, I’ve successfully used logic materials with my children as early as the preschool years!

Today I’d like to introduce you to one set of fantastic books which I’ve used with K-2nd graders – Lollipop Logic and Lollipop Logic 2 by Bonnie Risby and Robert Risby.

The logical/critical thinking skills of relationships, analogies, sequences, deduction, inference, patterning, decoding and analysis are covered in simple and attractive worksheets. Each page has only five or six problems, but it’s the perfect amount for a little ones.

Although teacher’s notes aren’t really necessary, there are some for each new section that help you know how to introduce various things to your child. Answer keys for each page are included, too.

It’s helpful if a child can read since there are directions at the top of each page, but reading skills aren’t necessary for completing the pages. I simply read the directions orally and my non-readers have no problems with the activities.

Like all logic materials we use, my kids eat these up! If you’re interested in other logic products from Prufrock Press, you can find them here. I’ve used a bunch of them and have loved every one.  In fact, I wrote a review back in 2009 about some of my favorites that you might like to reread.

-Written by Cindy West, eclectically Charlotte Mason mom of three from Kentucky. You can find her blogging at Our Journey Westward and find her NaturExplorers studies at Shining Dawn Books.

(These books were provided to Cindy for free.  However, as always, her reviews contain only her honest opinions.)

I am always on the lookout for living math books, and when I stumbled upon Arithmetic Village, I knew I had to read this new series of books with my children. The five books arrived, and after one reading we were hooked. Ever since then my children, ages 5, 7, and 9, have chosen to read these delightful stories again and again. (Yes, even the nine-year old boy enjoys them!)

The Arithmetic Village series, written by Kimberly Moore, is set in a lovely, magical village nestled in a fairytale countryside where glittering jewels fall from the sky. The reader is gently introduced to place value, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, as the children in the village collect, lose, and share the jewels with others.

The series includes:

Arithmetic Village – This first book of the series introduces the five main characters: Polly Plus, Linus Minus, Tina Times, and King David Divide. The concept of place value is introduced through the use of jewels, velvet sacks (ten jewels go in a sack), and treasure chests (ten sacks go in a chest). You can read the story in its entirety here.

Polly Plus – This story demonstrates the concept of addition as Polly goes about the village collecting jewels and adding them in her neat and precise manner.

Linus Minus – Described as “an adorable mess”, Linus shows us how to subtract by losing and scattering jewels everywhere he goes.

Tina Times – Speedy Tina demonstrates multiplication by quickly and efficiently counting groups of jewels as she gathers them.

King David Divide – The wise and fair king of Arithmetic Village, David Divide shares jewels with everyone. He distributes them equally, but if some are left over they go to his pet dog, Rover. (I love the idea of Rover receiving the remainder.)

My favorite things about this series:

• Rhyming text
• Engaging and whimsical story line
• The characters’ demonstrations of sharing, kindness, and other noble qualities
• The use of fun props – jewels, sacks, and treasure chests – that bring the math concepts to life
• The Arithmetic Village website. The author offers free hands-on activity ideas and downloads to accompany the books. She has posted several videos showing how to easily make (or buy) your own set of jewels, sacks, and treasure chest and how to use them with your children to reinforce through play the concepts taught in the stories. This website is a valuable resource and is not to be missed.

To purchase any or all of the books in the series, visit Arithmetic Village’s shop page where you can receive an online discount.

I am excited to announce that Kimberly is graciously giving away a set of Arithmetic Village books to one Curriculum Choice reader.

Two Ways to enter the giveaway – you can do both:

1. Browse the activities at the Arithmetic Village website. Leave a comment here at CC telling us your favorite activity!
2. Follow Arithmetic Village on Twitter, and leave a comment here at CC to let us know that you did.

Please make sure to leave a separate comment for each of your entries, as well as an email address or blog url where you can be contacted should you win. Entrants must live in the continental U.S.

**Deadline for entries is Monday, June 14th, 10:00 pm (EST).

Good luck, and enjoy your time in the Village!

(Disclosure: The Arithmetic Village series was provided to me for free for review purposes. The views and opinions expressed in this review are purely my own.)

Written by Shannon, who blogs about living books and other homeschool-ish things at Song of My Heart.

At a Glance:

Product:  Daily Word Problems Grade 1 and Daily Word Problems Grade 5

Publisher:  Evan Moor

Grade Level:  1 and 5

Teacher Prep:  Minimal

Uses:  Math Supplement

Rating: 4 out of 4 golden apples

Workbooks are something I never have a shortage of in my home. However, I do not use them nearly as much as the space on my bookshelf warrants. However, one company always comes to mind when I think of the workbooks which get time in little hands and that company is Evan Moor. I am never disappointed when I purchase an Evan Moor product. So when given the opportunity to review Evan Moor’s Daily Word Problems from Timberdoodle I happily accepted.

Many kids dislike word problems. They think of math as simple black and white numbers on a page they must solve to get more black and white numbers on a page. This is a serious flaw in the teaching of math. Math is life. We use math everyday and that isn’t some math geek slogan. Word problems are essential to relating the equation to life to make it relevant to the child. If you can make math relevant you will have greater success with understanding. Evan Moor provides a few minutes a day of connecting the black and white numbers on a page with real life with Daily Word Problems.

What I liked:

I liked the set up of having daily word problems.  My daughter loves this book and wanted to do a full week in one day.  She asks daily to use this workbook.  I was quite surprised how well she began to learn concepts beyond her and put together how math is used in real life.  I attribute that to having a brilliant daughter.  Now, my unbiased nature also attributes that to how nicely Even Moor sets up word problems and keeps to a weekly theme.  This truly helps the child visualize and conceptualize math in a real scenario.  The weekly build up of skills finally ending in a more advanced problem is a nice way to reinforce the lessons while showing what the student knows and building on what the student knows.

My son would rather play Xbox than solve equations but he claimed to have “liked” this workbook.  He did not complain about doing the problems and it did help him understand math better in the real word.

What I disliked:

For the fifth grade, I would have liked to seen more daily problems. I think three a day would have been better.  With only one problem and a host of other school work this book was easily pushed aside for a day.  However, that is hardly a complaint.

For the first grade, there was nothing to dislike.  I thought one problem a day was perfect for this age.

Overall, it is a nice supplement to your daily math routine.  It reinforces what the child learns and draws a concrete line from math on paper to math in real life.

If you want see more just go to the Timberdoodle site and you will have the option of seeing pages from each book.

Written by Richele, mother of four, homeschooler for 9 years and has over 100 loads of laundry under her belt.  Find her blogging at Under the Golden Apple Tree.

Disclosure: As a member of Timberdoodle’s Blogger Review Team I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a frank and unbiased review.



Here is a great new addition to homeschooling or struggling students!  It’s called The Factor Tree and it’s basic premise is to offer additional support and practice to elementary school kids from grade K-6 in basic math.

The Factor Tree allows for parent and child log-ins so you can setup worksheets, review their progress and target their weak spots; they even have a worksheet they generate based on what your child got wrong!  My son especially loves their games, one of which is a timed speed drill.  He loves seeing how fast he can go and how many he can get right!

Their description from their website says it perfectly:

What makes the Factor Tree so effective?

• Provides the practice and repetition needed for a child to truly master key math skills
• Use a skill-adaptive progression algorithm to pinpoint each child’s true skill level
• Provides parents with helpful reports, metrics and notifications to track their child’s progress
• Combines a state testing-compliant curriculum, world class educational theories and innovative technology to create a better learning tool

I truly like this program as anytime you can make math mastery FUN is a winner for me.  The only thing I did not love about the site is the navigation. If you have a browser that has a couple add-on search bars, a lot of the navigation cannot be found. (I had to hit F11 to make it workable).   The site is a bit confusing to start and is not intuitively created; there are no arrows or back markers or navigation trees.  It was initially very irritating.  However, it’s does get easier once you get past the navigation learning curve.

Regular price for the Factor Tree runs at $20.00 per month for each student, which could get quite pricy if you have a family of homeschoolers using their service.  However, it is a price worth paying if it truly helps foster a love of math in your children.  It is also a much more affordable alternate to onsite match tutors such as Kaplan and the like. The great thing is you can sign up right now with a 14 day FREE trial that does NOT require a credit card to begin!  Visit them direct at The FactorTree.com

Open disclosure: I received a free 30 day trial as a BuzzAgent to review and share.  The review and opinions are fully mine which are provided honestly and without bias.

I have been searching for an economics course that would be suitable for middle school students.  Much to my pleasure, I found exactly what I was looking for in Business, Economics and Entrepreneurship for Middle School Students by Bluestocking Press!

Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? was recommended to me over and over, which was what originally led me to the Bluestocking Press site.  I was overjoyed to find an entire curriculum set for middle school students that included not only the book I was looking for, but three others!

Whatever Happened to Penny Candy is a simply written book of 15 chapters that helps students (and adults like me) understand the basics of the economics system in the United States.  Not only that, but it incorporates history and current events in as well.

In real terms that aren’t weighty and hard-to-grasp, your children will finish this book with more information than I was ever taught (even in college) about such things as wages, inflation, recessions, federal debt, and so much more.  Even better, there’s a common-sense sort of humor to the book that kept me chuckling all the way through.

A Bluestocking Guide: Economics is a sort of workbook/test book/extra study guide to go along with Whatever Happened to Penny Candy. It includes extra articles to further study and understanding of each chapter in the “primer” (which is Whatever Happened to Penny Candy), as well as discussion questions and tests.  The tests include everything from short answers and definitions to multiple choice and essay questions.  Further reading lists, charts and diagrams are included, too.

You could read the primer without using this book, but it really helps round out the course.

Common Sense Business for Kids is 17 chapters, but only 62 pages of just what it says – common sense.  Students learn the ins and outs of what it takes to successfully run a business – things like operating costs, markets, needs vs. wants, changing with the times, keeping inventory, employees and salesmanship.

Since each chapter is only a few pages, the info is not in depth, but instead very to-the-point.  I find that extremely refreshing, and I have a feeling your kids will, too!

Capitalism for Kids is subtitled Growing Up to Be Your Own Boss. With a little more depth and a different range of topics, this book continues on the same theme as Common Sense Business for Kids.

Chapters focus on such topics as evaluating what sort of business best suits the child’s interests and talents, capitalism vs. communism and socialism, family businesses, investing time and money, gaining education and experience, and even such things and laws and licenses.

Again, I really like the common sense writing that isn’t too wordy or philosophical.  Quite simply it’s written to kids for them to read themselves.

Even though this curriculum is suggested for middle school, I found it to be meaty enough for many high school students. However, if you’re hoping to find a set put together specifically for high school, Bluestocking Press offers two.

1. Economics Course for High School Students
2. Economics and Nature of Government for High School Students

Both contain some of the same books that are in the middle school kit, so you will want to decide which age level you’d most like to purchase and then purchase only that set.  On the other hand, all of the books contained in the sets are available individually for those who would prefer to simply go through one or two books.

Loving this!

-Written by Cindy, eclectically Charlotte Mason mom of three from Central KY.  You can find her blogging at Our Journey Westward or find her nature study curricula at Shining Dawn Books.  Cindy specifically requested this set for her honest review.

While browsing the Christian Home Educators of Kentucky Convention last year, I came across a booth with several games that looked exciting.  The company, HL Games Limited, allowed me the opportunity to review three of those games.

All of them are appropriate for middle elementary children and older.

Amuse Amaze happens to be our favorite of the three, although all of them are fun.  Your job is to meander your way through the game board collecting three of four target cards and reach the finish line before your opponents.  In order to make a move, you have to go from space to space spelling words.

Even my slightly spelling challenged child enjoyed the game because being able to spell long words doesn’t necessarily get you any farther than steadily spelling smaller words.

The game is different every time you play since the board comes in squares that are put together in different orders each time you set up.  Couple that with the removable white tiles (in the picture) changing each new game and you’ll never experience the same words twice.  We love this game!

My 13 year old daughter and I have really enjoyed Beadecked.  My son, although entirely capable of playing, feels like it’s too “girly” since beads are the topic.  I disagree and don’t find it to be “girly” at all, but I can’t convince him otherwise.

There are six different ways to use the deck of cards, all of which enhance logical/mathematical thinking.  Essentially, each of the game options require you to make bead matches of some type from card to card.  That sounds easy, but the beads each have varying characteristics of shape, color and pattern – and you usually have to match two or more of the characteristics in order to complete the play.

For those of you who have played SET, this game is similar in that you have to really think through corresponding characteristics.  Critical thinking can be very fun!

And finally, Go Mental SacraMental is a trivia game for learning and reviewing Bible knowledge.

Players take turns reading game cards to one another.  On each game card there are four phrases having to do with something from the Bible.  One of the phrases doesn’t belong.  The player whose turn it is gets to move one space on the board if they can tell which phrase doesn’t belong.  They get to move three more spaces if they can tell how the other three phrases are connected.

There is a Bible reference on the answer card if you wish to give your child an opportunity to answer the question with help from the Bible.  Players can also give and take questions to move their playing piece ahead or send opponents backward on the board.

With 1,ooo questions, we won’t be repeating cards for quite some time!

What games are you playing?

-Written by Cindy, eclectically Charlotte Mason mom of 3.  You can find her blogging at Our Journey Westward and learn about her nature study curriculum at Shining Dawn Books.

If you have not seen Inchimals than you are in for a treat.  I had my eye on Inchimals but hated to take the leap and purchase the set.  Why?  I have enough math manipulatives to fill a truck.  However, I suspected these were a bit different so you can imagine how thrilled I was when I had the opportunity to review this item.

What are Inchimals?

Inchimals are 12 wooden blocks, each with a different animal and number painted on the block.  The blocks are made into one inch increments.  The ladybug is one inch and so on until you arrive at the 12 inch giraffe.  Included in the set are a dry erase marker and a spiral bound dry erasable  book with puzzles.

What does Inchimals Teach:

• Basic measurement skills.
• Addition and subtraction skills.
• Equivalent value skills.
• Sequencing skills.
• Math Vocabulary

How does Inchimals Work?

The puzzle book begins with simple addition.  The child is asked to determine the sum of one mouse and one bear.  The child then finds the animal which is equal in length to the mouse and bear put together.  The child will see that one mouse and one bear is equal to one ostrich.  Then the child is instructed to write the number associated with each animal.  Basically the child just determined the sum of 3 and 7.  As the book continues with puzzles on subtraction, 3 digit addition, equivalent sums, addition and subtraction, and finding multiple sums of a given number.

What I liked:

This Charlotte Mason minded homeschool mom liked was how the blocks gave you the answer.  Meaning, the child is not writing down the wrong answer but the correct answer is always being reinforced.  The equations are also consistently reinforced in the correct manner.  This provides a young child with the proper habits of learning math.  Basically, your child is not memorizing mistakes that will take you and your child extra work to breakdown.  Yet that the same time your child is not being spoon fed the answers but using critical thinking skills to determine answers.

Since the book is dry erase this gives the child the ability to go over the puzzles multiple times and to be passed down to a younger sibling.  Homeschooling supplies that you can pass down are great for the budget.

I also liked that both my 5 year old and 2 year old could play and learn together with no tears or fussing.  Each had a wonderful using Inchimals.  My five year old learned the basics of addition and measurement quickly while my 2 year old learned about sequencing and short and tall.  She even enjoyed stacking them as you would with other blocks.

Inchimals can fit into any curriculum or learning style.  Not only would I recommend this to a friend I would buy it as a gift.  It is a rare thing to combine creative learning in a way that is fun yet not spoon feeding or entertaining your child.  I do not like educational supplies or toys which do the thinking for the child or entertain them into learning.  I believe both develops bad habits and issues.  Inchimals are cute, fun, and educationally sound.  This item provokes imagination and learning and does not insert it in the child’s head.

Disclosure:  I am a member of the Timberdoodle Review Team and as such this product was provided to me in exchange for a review.  My review reflects my personal experience with this product and was not approved by Timberdoodle.

As a physicist, I understand, somewhat, the nature of mathematics.  It’s actually a language, and children can benefit from being taught it as a language.  Among other things, this means using many different resources rather than just one curriculum.  One wonderful resource, the Key to… Math Series, has been a part of our math program for eight years now.

Many people think of the Key To… Math curriculum as a remedial aid.  We use it in a completely different way:  to increase the children’s ability to understand mathematical concepts on their own. Naturally this also increases their confidence and reduces my workload.

Summary

Key to… Math is a series of teaching workbooks covering Fractions, Decimals, Percents, Measurement, Metric Measurement, Geometry, and Algebra. It spans several years of math instruction and provides a wonderful introduction to each of these topics.

Description

Each Key To… topic is made up of a series of workbooks and a teacher’s book containing student pages with all the answers written in.  The booklets teach the concepts so simply that my children rarely have to ask me for help.  Instead, they learn independent study skills and gain confidence in their ability to teach themselves.  There is a lot of practice for each concept, so that by the time a child has finished a series of booklets, he has mastered the concept.

This series is, thus, not a spiral approach to mathematics, but a mastery approach.  Obviously, math concepts build on each other so some review is inevitable, but it is not a focus in these books.  The lack of review could be a challenge for some children, but mine like learning a topic well, being able to use it, and then moving on.

Each booklet is about 30-40 pages, except for some of the geometry booklets which are combined volumes.  Each page is simple, black and white, with space for the answers to be written in.  There is no clutter and no distracting color or silliness. (View sample pages by clicking on each workbook here.)  Math history is illustrated on the covers of the booklets and explained in detail so that children learn the background of mathematics as well as its substance.

How We Fit Key To…Math into our Homeschool

After our children have finished Miquon Math, we let them begin the Key To Fractions series.  Since we have the children write the answers out in a scribbler rather than in the workbooks, it is a difficult transition at first, but by fourth grade our children have been able to manage this.  When they begin the series, they occasionally need me to explain the workbook’s explanations.  The explanations themselves are clear, but at that age the children have a hard time slowing down enough to read them, and often they don’t really believe that they can figure the problem out by themselves.  So I generally just read the workbook’s explanation out loud, slowly.  Occasionally I’ll also work out the problem on paper.  Rarely, I make up a few extra practice problems just to verify that the children understand the concept.

I mark the work as soon as possible, and the children redo each incorrect answer.

Because our children use overlapping curricula as well as various drill programs, they occasionally want to challenge a booklet.  I allow them to study it, and then take the end of booklet practice tests just as usual.  Although we do not use the available test booklet, we do use the practice tests at the end of each booklet.  If our children score over 90% they have completed the booklet, are rewarded, and move on.  If their mark is between 80% and 90%, they have to restudy problem concepts, and if they score below 80% they have to buckle down and actually do (or redo) the booklet.  In mathematics it’s no use moving on to more difficult concepts if earlier concepts are not mastered.

Each year the children study several workbooks, and we aim to finish Fractions, Decimals, Percents, and Metric Measurement by the middle of grade 6.  Metric Measurement is a treat that gets divided up over the three years, because it is hands-on and full of simple projects.

After that, the children take a break from the Key To… Series and review it all by whizzing through Singapore Math 3a to 6b almost entirely on their own.   Then I have them struggle through the Singapore PSLE book.  By that time they are well into grade 7 and ready to work through Key to Geometry and start Key to Algebra.  After the fifth algebra booklet, they do Singapore’s NEM 1, and then return to Key to Algebra before finishing the NEM series. Singapore math is known to be advanced and teacher-intensive, but after using the Key To… Series my children are able to learn Singapore math almost entirely on their own.

What We Think

If your child does not do well with the spiral approach to learning mathematics, try the mastery approach.  In these booklets, each concept is taught thoroughly until a child knows it.

Our children needed more drill and more practice with large number multiplication and division than was provided in this series.  Other than that, the elementary Key To… Series is a wonderful curriculum.  Our children do well at math, understand it, and are not afraid of it.

Key to Geometry is an amazing hands-on course, but it does not meet the geometry needs of a high school student.  It gives an intuitive understanding that helps with a later logic-based geometry course, though.

Key to Algebra is a great introduction and confidence booster, but it is not a final algebra course.  It really helps students understand the concepts as opposed to just telling them what to do.

I love the Key To…Series booklets.  They give my children confidence, teach them math rather than techniques, and reduce my teaching load.

Disclosure: We have been using the Key To…Series for many years.  I received nothing from Key Curriculum Press in order to write this review.

-Written by Annie Kate, a Christian homeschooling mom of five great children, who blogs at Tea Time With Annie Kate.

When I began homeschooling, I chose to use Saxon Math curriculum. We’ve gone through Saxon K, 1, and halfway through 2.   It has proven to be a great fit for my family.

At first, I thought Saxon Math K started out a little slow.  It feels like there’s more playing with the manipulatives than actual work.  But I came to realize that for a kindergartener, that is the work.  As they’re doing this, they’re becoming familiar with numbers, shapes, and patterns and how they work.  This provides a really critical foundation of understanding a lot of basic concepts the students will need for more advanced skills.

There’s a lot of thought put into the scope and sequence of the lessons. Playing with pennies and dimes leads to counting by tens, which leads to understanding place value, which leads to addition with regrouping.  (That’s carrying if you’re old school.)  Even the order in which addition facts are learned have been thought out carefully.  Students don’t just blindly memorize the addition facts.  They are taught to learn them by the relationships between the numbers.  First you learn doubles, such as 3+3.  Later it’s doubles plus 1, such as 3+4.  It’s easier to learn 3+4=7 once you know 3+3=6.  I didn’t see it when we first started, but now after a few years, I can see that there is a very well thought out plan behind all these lessons.

I love the use of manipulatives. This was what drew me to Saxon in the first place.  Math is one of those subjects that students usually either love or hate.  It’s a lot harder to hate a subject when it feels like you’re playing with toys during the lessons.  Manipulatives can give students a deeper and truer understanding of a concept since they can see it and touch it.  The manipulatives make the lessons much more accessible to visual and kinesthetic learners.  It has also been a diversion for my preschoolers more than once when I’m trying to work with my older daughter!

There’s a lot to Saxon Math.  Maybe too much. If you did everything  provided for each lesson, it would probably take a good hour.  But we don’t have to do everything, and we’re still doing just fine. Saxon uses the spiral review method, so students can keep their skills fresh.  Even though we skip some of this, I’d much rather have a curriculum that gives too much to do than one that leaves me feeling like we’re missing something.

One thing I would change about Saxon is that the skill taught in the lesson is not always immediately reinforced in that day’s worksheet.  I don’t think 25 or 30 questions is appropriate, but three to five questions or problems on that lessons skill would be a very good tool to check for the student’s understanding.  Most lessons do contain this built-in check, but there are definitely some inconsistencies in this area.

Saxon Math is a bit on the pricey side, but I think it is worth it. The Saxon Math Homeschool kits cost $96.50 ($63.50 for K).  Additional workbooks can be purchased for additional students for $27.50 without having to buy the whole kit again.  The manipulatives set costs $77.50 which is used for the K-3 curriculum (and occassionally preschool).