We have really struggled with math in our homeschool. I think that it is partly because math just isn’t our strongest subject. For a few of my children it is also from not learning certain concepts thoroughly in public school.

Because of these things we have also struggled to find the right math curriculum.

We have recently gone back to the math we started with – Horizons Math. I think leaving it the first time was because of the number of children needing one-on-one help. I wish we had stuck with it!

We have been using Horizons for a few months now and the children are doing really well with the spiral approach in math.

Horizons Math covers much in each level. It also covers some concepts like beginning algebra sooner than in other programs we have tried. The good news is that these concepts won’t be scary later on, as they are introduced very gently.

Horizons is a bit advanced, so we are not using per the grade level our students are in necessarily. They would have been further if we hadn’t tried other curricula but we live and learn I suppose.

Sam's Noggin

I rarely have to use the teacher’s manual because Horizons does a great job at self-teaching with examples and brief explanations. The lessons themselves are in-depth and cover new concepts as well as reviewing things previously learned. I know my children forget concepts without the spiral approach, so this is a great fit for us.

Sam's Noggin

Pros:

• Spiral approach works for our family.
• The workbooks aren’t overly busy, with enough color to make them friendly.
• Teacher involvement is low – I have only needed to reinforce a few concepts on the board.
• Thorough – you won’t wonder if your child is getting enough.
• Covers time and measurement.

Cons:

• I would love to see the price drop a little. {I feel the full kit with teacher manual is needed for most levels but can run up to $80 without a sale.}
• Some lessons are a little long, I mark out sections my children can skip.

Horizons Math is the strongest math curriculum we have used. See the scope and sequence, starting on page 5. Timberdoodle has a sample of each level.

I suggest using the placement test before jumping in to buy a level.

~Written by Sam of Sam’s Noggin.

Big Brainz is giving away a deluxe version of Timez Attack multiplication and division, valued at  $59.99, to one Curriculum Choice reader – don’t miss it at the end!

We’ve enjoyed Timez Attack by the Big Brainz company in our homeschool for several years now. These fun, multiplication games were recommended to us by my friends and fellow homeschool moms. It’s one of those resources we turn to when we know we need a little boost in multiplication practice. And, wow, how Timez Attack has improved since we first learned about it. See, we’d tucked it away because there was some space there between our older children and our middle girl. But now, she’s the one that needs that encouragement in times table memorization and division practice.

Enjoy this video for a quick start overview in a minute and a half:

“The most powerful multiplication games ever created.”

Three of my children practice with the Big Brainz game – three different ages/grades. And what better way to practice than with a fun computer game?

But guess what else? Timez Attack now offers addition and subtraction practice, so rising 1st grader got in on the mix as well. At the start, your child practices finding the numbers on the keyboard, chooses a boy or girl player and takes a pre-test to determine skill level. What impressed me most about this offering is that the game slows down when a child misses a certain problems. I watched as Timez Addition drilled my daughter in 2 + 1 = 3 then 3 – 2 = 1.

Plus, Big Brainz just recently added division! Hmm. I sure can appreciate a program that my age range of children can use! Here’s what my rising 8th grader had to say about the newly improved version, “They made it harder to play (you have to give your answer in less time) but easier to remember the multiplication facts.”

Some things I bet you didn’t know:

• available for both Windows and Mac platforms
• built in pre-test and post-test
• a retention component to regularly review the facts

How to find out even more:

• Big Brainz product page
• Home Use downloads page
• Research page showing test score improvement
• You can find Big Brainz on Facebook

Cost:

• There is a free version! You and your child can try it out and use the free version which is what we did to start with
• The paid version gives your child access to more ‘worlds’ and entertainment.
• Standard version: $39.99
• Deluxe version: $59.99
• 100% money back guarantee
• Comparison of the different versions and cost, plus what is included HERE.

Why would I want to pay for Timez Attack?

• As your child is successful in learning the times tables, he/she will advance. The free version only has one world (the dungeon world). However, your child can practice all the times tables with the free version.
• Paid version has more worlds. Some examples are rock tower, ruins with a jungle, volcano, and the machine world.
• Basically, by paying for Timez Attack, you give your child more opportunity to practice and challenge what they have learned.

In summary: Timez Attack meets the needs of several different ages – in our house from age six to 14! It is nice to have a math drill resource that is fun as well as challenging. We use Timez Attack throughout the school year to boost confidence or help a struggling child get back up to speed. But we’ve also found that summer time is a perfect time to use Timez Attack for some fun review.

Special Discount Code just for Curriculum Choice Readers! Enjoy a 25% discount when you purchase from Big Brainz. Just enter code ireadcc  at checkout

Now for the giveaway! Big Brainz is giving away a Deluxe version of Timez Attack Multiplication and Division – a $59.99 value!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Homeschooling for over a decade now, Tricia faces a daily dose of chaos with five children. She shares a mixture of free art lessons, recipes and helpful homeschool habits at Hodgepodge. Her husband, Steve, also writes reviews here at Curriculum Choice.

One of the things I love to use for our living math lessons is games. I don’t know about your children, but mine can pick up skills they never knew they had simply by playing a game. When I taught my eldest how to multiply one of the things I started with was this very simple game called Ka-Ching! Instead of using the word “multiply” though I used the words “groups of”. My son had so much fun playing this game he had absolutely no idea he was learning a valuable math skill!

How We Use It:

When we’re having a living math day, I pull this game out and challenge my son to a round or two. It’s a very fast paced game all about buying and selling stocks. It’s really addictive to play as well!

Basically you set a game board up with the cards by laying them out in a 7×5 grid. Each person is given a certain amount of money {provided in the game} to buy stocks with. I give out money a little differently than the game indicates. I hand out one $10, one $5, one $2, & three $1’s to get the game rolling. Each player also gets one bonus card which can be paired, at any time, with any stock card from the grid. {We generally save it until the end!}

From there, on each turn a person can collect a card from the grid or they can sell stocks, the choice is theirs. The idea is to buy low and sell high. For instance, if you purchase a $3 card and a $6 card you’ve spent a mere $9, but when you sell them you get $3 x $6 for a grand total of $18!

You can see where this is going right? I didn’t explain this strategy to my child when we started playing the game. We simply played. I prefer to let them find their own strategies as they go along, it’s more likely to stick with them. That’s exactly what happened with this game! It took a few rounds of plays but he very quickly realized he needed the higher value cards in order to beat Mom at the end.

What I love:

• I love the simplicity of this game. It didn’t take us an hour or a week to figure out the instructions. It was pretty open and go!
• I love that this is made by Gamewright. Seriously! They sell some amazing, but quick, fun games!
• I love that the cards are reasonably durable considering I play this with my kids.
• I love the color! For anyone who’s visual it’s really eye popping to play, not to mention the pictures of the presidents on the money crack us all up.
• The price. If purchased in the US, this game is fairly reasonably priced at a meager $9.89 + shipping from Amazon.

What I don’t like:

When sold overseas I find the price of this game a bit much. I bought it at a local shop in Tasmania for $20. At the same time, the game is fun, educational, and thus makes it worth what I paid.

Other than that I really can’t complain about this game!

Bottom Line:

We love this highly fun, extremely addictive, amazingly educational game. You really have got to try it for yourself!

I am so excited to share with you a curriculum that has allowed my children to move past the traditional black and white numbers and into a world where numbers create characters and characters stories. Allow me to introduce you to Addition the Fun Way! by Judy Liautaud with City Creek Press. 

The curriculum is a fun, picture method of learning and the addition facts, per the author. I whole heartedly agree. Let me explain how the method of learning the addition facts work. First, the author goes into great detail to explain how to use and teach this book. I found this area very helpful simply because this was an entirely new way for me to think about numbers and for my children as well. Any question that you may encounter will more than likely be answered in this section and if not, Judy Liautuad is incredibly prompt at answering any email request AND phone calls that you may have have! This is based on personal experience!

The book then goes on to explain who each of the number characters are. Each number becomes a constant character throughout the entire book. For example, there is ” 3 bee” and ” sick 6″. The stories are constructed around these characters and a new addition fact is learned after each story.

The curriculum covers EVERYTHING from adding zero through ten. Learning the one’s and two’s addition facts are covered in the beginning and not used as character in stories. Rather the numbers are given the staircase picture of going up one step if you add one and two steps up the stairs if you add two to a number.

Silly and memorable number characters are a great way to describe how the author draws the children into learning in a very visual and interesting manner. For example, one of our favorite stories is 3+3=6. The story, in summary, talks about how sick 6 was picking flowers on a beautiful spring day but there were 2 bees in the flower who stung him. The author then recaps each story with,

” Remember: When its 3+3, the 3-bees sting the 6 and make him sick.”

Now, for the best part, our experience with the curriculum! I received this curriculum in February and was not sure how long it would take for me to accurately write this review, based on my children’s results. However, the method and results with the picture methodology presented in Addition the Fun Way! is incredible!

We began with two stories a day. That is all. Then after my boys became familiar with each character they would go through the book and pick out stories that appeared interesting to them. We did not go through any specific order. Rather we simply enjoyed reading the stories and learning the characters.

After a couple of weeks, I began pulling out some manipulatives that I had in our home. I did this for the purpose of observing if they were understanding the concepts behind the stories ( they were!!). I began to incorporate the flashcards that can be purchased along with the curriculum. The fun part about these flashcards is that they show the characters on them thus further helping to press the pictures as well as the addition facts into a child’s long-term memory.

I cannot, honestly, say enough great things about this incredibly fun and EASY way to learn the addition facts. After a few short weeks my boys were rattling off EVERY single addition fact while smiling about them. We all know those “flash card” moments where we sit with a black and white fact and continually repeat, ” you know this, what is this, what is this??”. Now, I hold up a flashcard and it is still black and white (the book is all in color) yet the difference is with the picture association built into the addition fact there is an immediate recognition and recall from the stories. I find this so encouraging and incredibly helpful in building the math foundation!

• The author has addition and subtraction as well as multiplication and division programs for you to choose from on her website: City Creek Press.
• The addition book that we have will cost $19.95 and the flash cards at $8.95.
• There are also great options to buy for one student on her site that include basic and deluxe kits.

I encourage anyone who is looking for an addition program that is engaging and fun to try out Addition the Fun Way! We have not been disappointed!

Why Time Engineers?

Time Engineers is a CD Rom designed to teach math skills to middle school through high school students.  Not only does it teach math skills such as algebra it also concentrates on engineering skills. By taking students through history, this interactive computer game, takes math to a new level and one many young people will appreciate. Please visit the site for system requirements.

The Breakdown:

Product:  Time Engineers
Cost:  $19.95 Individual, $49.95
Use:  Homeschool, Classroom, Home
Grades:  Middle School-High School (5th-9th)
Lessons Taught:  Math, Science, History, Physics
Skills:  Problem Solving, Reasoning, Critical Thinking

Game Play

The CD-Rom quickly loads and gives you the option of playing it from the disc or installing it on your computer.  The first screen  gives you options to learn about the game, how to play the game, etc. I love a screen that introduces you to the game rather than going directly to the game.  The game is first person and easy to navigate.

When you hit play you are in a library searching through books.  As the story goes you are at a university library doing research on career interests. You become overwhelmed studying about engineering and know there must be an easier way.  This is when you find a document called Time Engineers. Reading it you realize you have stumbled upon confidential information on a time travel machine.  It contains three chapters concerning three different time periods and the location of the time machine.  So you do the only logical thing:  find the time machine, go on the adventures and solve common engineering problems of each time period.

To enter the factory where the time machine is being kept you must enter a binary code which you have to determine.  That marks lesson #1.  The next lesson involves using the power switch.  Once you solve both lessons you are on your way to the different time periods.

The different time periods and lessons are:

Ancient Egypt

• Pyramid Building
• Crop Irrigation

Middle Ages

• Drawbridge Design
• Catapult Operation

World War II

• Submarine Simulation
• Radar Detection

Why I Recommend Time Engineers

• If you go the Time Engineers website and click on Teachers and you will find not only a laid out curriculum of what each time period teaches but PDF files for Lessons associated with each activity.
• Ability to play in  interactive mode. The interactive mode is the adventure fun one where the student walks through the game.
• Ability to play in activity mode. The activity mode takes you directly to the individual activities in each time period.

As a history lover, math hater, and a mom who seeks to make her children love and excel in both this game is a perfect fit.  In fact, I learned a bit about math myself and began to see math as fun!  To connect the concept of math and physics to both visually and hands on use is powerful and reveals the mystery behind it.  Your student will learn engineering principles while developing problem solving, reasoning and critical thinking skills.  Yeah, it’s that good.

We LOVE Discovery Toys! Ever heard of them? They’ve been around for many, many years and they have a bunch of fun, educational toys for infants to adults. One of our most favorite is Busy Bugs! They make learning so much fun!

The set consists of 35 bugs and 23 cards. There are several ways you can use it. You can have your little one match colors:

Match color and type of bug:

There is also sequencing and practice in addition.

The bugs are made of soft rubber so they are fun to hold and manipulate while the cards are made of durable stock that is laminated – both perfect for little hands and little people!

Since I have a boy (not to say girls can’t or won’t like it!) bugs are right up his alley! So, not only is he learning but he is having a ton of fun doing so! Another thing I personally like about Busy Bugs is that it is quick and easy – not a lot of mess. My son’s attention span for any particular item is about three minutes (if I’m lucky) so when I spend a lot of time preparing something and he’s done with it in about one minute, it can get frustrating for me. However with this I simply open the box, dump out the stuff and he has fun! Then we just pick it up and put it away. LOVE IT!

The set sells for $22.50 plus shipping and handling and is recommended for age 3 to primary school.

If these look good but you don’t think your little one would like the bugs, they also offer “Busy Farm” which basically the same thing but with farm animals instead of bugs (although the set is a small step more advanced than this set ~ it has children do things like: pick which animal would go on the pond, or in the stable along with picking which animal is different).

Here’s praying you have fun learning!

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

Geometry

Algebra

Measurement

Statistics

What is GAMSology?  A board game developed by a math teacher to help practice math facts for elementary, middle and high school students.

Quite simply, players draw a card and show it to the person on their left.  The player on the left solves the math equation on the card.  If correct (as determined by the person who drew the card and can see the answer), the player moves a given number of spaces on the game board.

2-4 people can play and each game takes about 10-20 minutes to play.

What I like best is that various skill cards can be purchased to go along with the game board.  In other words, you can purchase the addition/subtraction card set when your children are in elementary school, add the multiplication/division set as they get older, then buy the proportion set in middle school, and add the algebra set for high school.

In fact, if you have children working on different levels, you could actually play the game with more than one set in the same game.  Simply make sure each child gets equation cards appropriate to his or her level and the playing field is more evenly  matched!

It’s highly unusual to find games that practice higher level math skills like algebra, making this a huge positive of the game!  My 9th grader and I had a blast trying to beat each other to the end with the algebra set.  She won every time.  Hmmm.

Negatives?  Well, just a couple.  There are a few misspellings on the cards  – for example, “quoien” instead of “quotient”.  Also, our game board did not lay flat.  Neither of these issues made a difference in our game play, but they are worth mentioning.

There are other ways to use the game cards, too.

What a treat for the eyes and a delight to the heart! I LOVE this book and any mom who is looking for ways to build on play-based learning, this book is a gem. The book, Playful Learning by Mariah Bruehl, will help you create an atmosphere of learning by building spaces and providing activities that spark creativity and fun. Looking back over my years as a homeschooling mom, I realize the best learning takes place when I could build on my child’s interest in a relaxed and enjoyable way. The trick was to be prepared for those moments.

Sometimes it is as easy as creating a learning environment, introducing your child to the space, and then letting them explore.

Playful Learning is the kind of book that can be referred to again and again and you will always find some new idea to spark a creative activity. It is a visually appealing book that outlines areas of your home where you can set the stage for playing and natural learning.  The author stresses the importance of free and unstructured time for children to explore their interests and Playful Learning gives specific ideas for building on your child’s natural inclinations to play and learn by organizing play spaces and materials to nurture the interest alongside your child.

“Playful Learning gives us as parents an opportunity to play again! It is wonderful to teach the way we wish we had been taught. I have rediscovered my own awe and wonder of the world.”

 

• Do you want to nurture your child’s love of writing? Young writers will be encouraged to keep lists and notebooks, write stories and letters, and have a try at bookmaking.
• Do you want to build an art area, a child’s science “lab”, or a cozy reading library? Images and resource lists are included in this book.
• Has your child shown an interest in learning geography?  Create maps together and learn more about the world we live in using suggestions in this section of the book.
• Is your child a nature lover? Activities illustrated will help your child better connect the the natural world in your own backyard.

Mariah Bruehl will give ideas in pictures and words, making it easier to provide a richer learning experience at home by showing you activities to plan on and offer as you play through your day.

She explains that the key for parents is to stay “one step ahead”.  I appreciate that this book assumes you want to identify an interest and then build on it, preparing yourself to offer up the space and ingredients for playful learning at home. She outlines in each main section the stages of learning, how to stay “one step ahead”, the process of building on interests, and then more ways to explore with your child. She suggests skimming the book with your child and then refer back to it when they become interested in a particular subject.

The book includes lots of printables in the back of the book as well as from the Playful Learning website. What a great way to get started with your Playful Learning experiences! You may also want to follow Playful Learning on Pinterest where there are many, many wonderful additional ideas for you to implement in your home.

Excellent resource for families with children from ages 4-8 (even older if you extend the ideas). This book will be a perfect supplement to any homeschooling curriculum and can be used with any style of learning. Big thumbs up for this sparkling gem of a book!

Written by Barb-Harmony Art Mom.  I blog at Harmony Art Mom and am the creator of  Harmony Fine Arts. I would love for you to join us for the Outdoor Hour Challenges at the Handbook of Nature Study.

I’m not going to lie.  We’ve struggled with algebra.  It’s the first real struggle we’ve had since this journey of homeschooling began, but a struggle it’s been.  Not so much because my daughter nor I can do it, but because it’s one of those things that’s harder to backtrack with and find the method to the madness when you get stuck.

This year, I’ve made sure we have an arsenal of help awaiting us when necessary.  My daughter CAN tackle algebra successfully, and I CAN be her teacher!  We’re still using Saxon Math as the main curriculum because I’ve grown to dearly love the thoroughness and incremental approach.  But, three new products sit on my shelves: Saxon Teacher, Math Dictionary for Kids, and A+TutorSoft’s Algebra 1 CD Curriculum.

I’ve gotten to know Vinod, the author of the A+TutorSoft curriculum, through various conventions I’ve attended and upon hearing of my struggles with algebra, he was quick to offer me his Algebra 1 Full Curriculum CD in exchange for a review.  So, in this post about algebra, I’d like to highlight the A+TutorSoft weapon in my arsenal.

Consider the joy of having your very own tutor at the ready whenever you or your child gets stumped on an algebra concept.  That’s what you have with A+TutorSoft!  Every algebra topic you can think of is taught clearly by a teacher’s voice while examples are “written” on a computerized chalkboard.  Additionally:

• Text of the teacher’s lesson is available for re-reading yourself.
• You can rewind or fast forward the teacher’s lesson.
• All concepts are introduced in a clear step-by-step fashion.
• You get to work sample problems within the lesson to make sure you get it.
• Immediate feedback is given whether answers are right or wrong.
• You can print off practice pages for extra understanding on the topic.

The CD is very organized, too.  You can easily locate a particular topic and go directly to the specific tutorial(s) you need.  With A+TutorSoft, there’s been no need to pay a pricey real-life tutor!  My daughter is tackling algebra with success this year – and I couldn’t be more relieved!

Because of the multiple choice nature of the computer-based practice problems, I would not feel comfortable using A+TutorSoft as a full curriculum.  It certainly covers all necessary algebra 1 topics, but there wasn’t quite enough written accountability for me to consider using it as our sole text.  Honestly, some people may disagree with me – and that’s okay.  I encourage anyone who has used it to leave their thoughts about whether or not it should be used as a stand-alone.

When I spoke to Vinod about this stand-alone question, he responded:

Our curriculum is designed to be a full curriculum and hopefully the only resource homeschoolers will need. And that is the reason we provide printable worksheets and exams where student is required to show their work. And of course, because they are printable, a parent teacher would need to check student’s work using our “Worksheet Solution Guide” and “Exams Solutions Guide” (the parental manuals) which are also included with this MATH curriculum software.

You have automatically graded interactive quizzes for each lesson which provides instant feedback with step-by-step explanation for each problem if the student answers it incorrectly. And at the same time, if you need additional practice with problem solving, we provide printable worksheets and exams, which can be used in more traditional way. And as I mentioned, there is help (the solutions guide) for every problem on the worksheets and exams.

We explain step-by-step solutions to each worksheet and exam problem. And that’s what makes this such a great MATH curriculum product. Because of this reason and thoroughness of all the material that is covered, I would highly recommend that A+ TutorSoft MATH curriculum be used as a full curriculum. However, if parents want to supplement it, sure you can to that but we don’t believe that is really necessary.

Either way you decide, it’s truly a great resource – professionally done, full of meat and worthwhile!

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 are FOR the fire!”

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 the sticks for the fire. 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?

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