They Might Be Giants

In our household one of our favorite groups is They Might Be Giants. I thought I would share a few of our favorite videos.  We have had their DVD Here Come the ABC’s since Justin was little. 

The Alphabet of Nations is one of our favorites (there are many that we love on this DVD).

The other day we received Here Come the 123’s and right away  Never Go to Work became a favorite. We also like Nine Pirate Girls! (I think we’re going to have to buy this one)

 

And I know we are going to have to buy Meet the Elements for these science loving boys!

The Olympic unit that never happened…

I had every intention of doing a unit study of the Olympics this year. I did. Really. I did a bit of research, found a great unit study and a lapbook to go with it. We were going to learn about Canada and Vancouver  and bob sledding and luge and curling and snowboarding (love that Shaun White!) and the difference between figure skating and ice dancing. Oh what about ski jumping and speed skating. So many things to learn about. 

Well it didn’t happen and you know what? It’s ok. Really. My kids seem to be ok with no permanent damage to their psyche and wonder of wonders my kids seem to have learned something about the Olympics in spite of it. Imagine that?

Can you tell I had to convince myself that my children would not suffer or be scarred for life if we did not do an in-depth study. I felt guilt. It happens.

I think many times we as homeschool parents feel we have to make a unit study, lesson, lapbook  etc out of every single thing our children encounter.   We feel guilt when we don’t.  Yeah I know you have had that feeling. It’s normal.  It’s ok to just enjoy something without making a huge deal out of it.

We have been watching the Olympics and have been learning quite a bit.  We watched the opening ceremonies. As each country entered the arena, I happened to notice they would put up the countries who were  coming in next ahead of time. Justin ended up making a game out of it to see if he could guess which continent each country was from before the put the map up at the bottom of the screen. He got everyone right (he loves geography).  We noticed the different flags of each country, how unique and different each one was and we also noticed the different clothing that each country wore.  The boys had lots of questions as to why everyone wore such different clothing and we explained that each country has unique customs and how each country has their own culture and may look different from each other making us all unique.

We learned that the difference between figure skating and ice dancing. They are both very different forms of skating with different rules and requirements for each. One thing the boys have found very interesting was that many of the ice skaters both figure and ice dancing train right here in NJ.  They were very excited that people that live in other countries train right here in our state.  We learned that brothers can be best friends and brothers and sisters can be an ice dancing team.

We learned about teamwork.   You can be on the same team and be competing against your team mates and have deep friendships with your team mates. We learned that you have to work together when you are on a team and even when you are on opposing teams and the competition is fierce you can be great friends.

We learned that it takes lots of hard work, sacrifice and hours and hours of practice to make it to the Olympics.  We learned that winning a medal is wonderful and that even if you do not win a medal you are an Olympian.

We have also been reading some great books on Canada and The Olympics.  Two of our favorites:

Olympics by B.G. Hennessy

This book gives a good overview of both the winter and summer Olympics. It tells the meaning of the Olympic rings.  It also tells you about things you may not have thought about the preparation of the Olympics.  The people who do much of the behind the scenes work, preparing clothing for the athletes, flags, sports equipment, the Olympic village and the workers that make the Olympic medals. This book would be a great jumping off point for learning more about the actual preparation of the Olympics.

Wow Canada Exploring This land from Coast to Coast~by Vivien Bowers                                                          

This is a great book all about Canada from the pacific all the way across Canada. There are lots of pictures, stories and fun facts.  We are still reading this book!

The Three Snow Bears~by Jan Brett

We love Jan Brett books and this is one of our favorites. This is an adaptation of Goldilocks and the Three Bears set in the Nunavut Territory in northern Canada. You will meet an Inuit girl named Aloo-ki. This book is beautifully illustrated.

Will we do a winter  Olympic unit in the future? You bet. The 2012 winter Olympics are going to be in London and I definitely want to do a unit then. I would actually love to go there!We love all things British here so that will be on our schedule for sure. 

The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling~Review

As part of the TOS Homeschool Crew I was given The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling by Debra Bell to review.

This is the updated and revised version, with the orange cover.  This book is available from Apologia Press for $20.00. It is a little over 500 pages long. You can view both the table of contents and a sample chapter~Six Ingredients to a Successful Homeschool.

I had never heard of this book until I received it (yeah, yeah where have I been?)  It is a little over 500 pages long and written in an easy to read format. The book is broken down into 10 parts with many short chapters making an easy read.

My thoughts: This is a wonderful resource weather you are  new to homeschooling or a seasoned veteran, there is something here for everyone. One of my favorite parts of this book is the chapter on Subject by Subject Guidelines. This chapter goes through each subject giving you ideas and guidelines of what to teach when. I also really liked the chapter on utilizing the library.  There are wonderful books lists giving you a great resource to add some excellent books to your reading lists.

I truly think this book deserves a place on the homeschoolers bookshelf.  If you are a bit unsure, you can check to see if your library has it available to determine if it is a fit for your family.  I know I will be referring to it frequently and plan on reading it again to glean more ideas.

You can read more great reviews of The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling  at the TOS Crew blog

Disclosure: This product was provided to me free as a member of the The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew 2009-2010. All reviews and opinions expressed on this blog are my own

Science Kit

Back in November I found a post about homemade science kits at Roots and Wings. I tucked it away knowing that it would make a great gift one of these days. 

My nephew’s birthday was this month and I was thinking about what we could get him.  Then I remembered the science kit idea. I knew this would be a hit.  I set out in search of some cool science experiments.

My problem was choosing which experiments! There are so many, in books, on the internet ideas abound! I did research for a couple of days and finally came up with a list any 7 year old boys would love.

I used two websites.  Science Bob and Steve Spangler Science. This is a fantastic website where you can buy science kits, supplies and much more.  I went to the science experiments page and looked over the different experiments.                                                 

Here is a list of the experiments I used:

• Silly Putty (also called Glacier Gak) this experiment worked really well. The boys and I tested this one.
• Film Canister Rocket
• Make Your Own Lava Lamp
• Make Your Own Volcano
• Clean Pennies with Vinegar
• Color Mixing Tray Experiment
• Grow a Dinosaur
• Water Cubes Experiment
• Jelly Marble Experiments
• Baby Soda Bottle Test Tube Experiments

I typed them up and added a couple of science related graphics and put them in a three pronged folder. I wrote my nephew’s name on the front in the title laminated it, cut it out and attached it to the cover of the folder.

 

Inside the folder.

 

I picked up a container with a snap lid from the dollar store and filled it with the items necessary for the experiments.

   I recycled some containers (I keep a large plastic tote filled with used clean containers that can be recycled for other uses.)  Pictured above:

• salt
• Borax
• polymer clay (on sale for 99 cents at Michael’s craft store)
• Elmer’s glue (bought in quanity for 20 cents at the back to school sale)
• Magic snow (purchased at 5 Below)
• Mini color mixing tray (Steve Spangler Science~SSS)
• Film canisters (you can as at Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid any store that has a photo center and they may give them to you. I was unable to find any so I bought them from SSS)
• Baby soda bottle test tubes (SSS. I purchased 15 of them for $10 and they were divided up between three kids)
• Pop rocks experiment kit (Dollar Tree)
• Mentos Geyser Tube kit (You can order this from the SSS site, but I found it at 5 Below a bit cheaper. You actually don’t even need to buy this kit you can pick up a pack of mentos and use a test tube that will hold them in a row to drop them into a soda bottle for this experiment)
• Liquid Marbles (these are similar as the jelly marbles you can buy at SSS but I found them in Dollar Tree for a $1.  The difference is they are already hydrated and the ones at SSS are dehydrated.)

I also put some of the supplies for the experiments in snack bags. 

Above:

• Watch it grow dinosaur (5 Below for $1.50. You can also find these at Dollar Tree)
• Pennies and screws for a penny experiment
• Water Cubes (SSS)
• Mentos~extra pack to do the soda geyser experiment a second time. (Dollar Tree)
• Pipettes (Oriental Trading Company)
• Antacid Tablets (like Alka-Seltzer only I purchased the generic)
• Food Coloring

The science kit box all packed up and ready to go. I created a label for the top to match the experiment folder.

A few bigger items that would not fit in the box

• connector and two one liter bottles for creating a tornado effect (SSS)
• Vegetable Oil
• Baking Soda
• Vinegar
• Empty soda bottle

All ready to go into the gift bag.  This  kit did cost me a little over $25.  You could spend as little or as much as you wanted and really make kit for around $15 if you cut back on some of the more pricey items.  It was super fun putting it together and my boys and I are going to be trying many of these experiments though out the year.

 note: I do not work for Steve Spangler Science or get any compensation for the products mentioned.  I just love their products!

Ray's Arithmetic~Review

Not long ago I had was sent Ray’s Arithmetic by Dollar Homeschool to review. This is a complete math curriculum from counting to calculus, for grades K-12.

 

Ray’s Arithmetic comes in CD format. The series includes a total of 38 books. These include 12 core textbooks, answer keys, teachers editions and more.  You can see the complete list of what is included in this series here.  There are also sample pages you can view here.

Price: The CD is available for $59. 

From the Dollar Homeschool website:

The Ray's Arithmetic was originally created to be used by frontier Americans, Americans that often lived in areas where available teachers were few, often far away, or even completely unavailable. For this reason the books are designed to allow children, once they can read, to educate themselves to a very great extent.

This curriculum was used for 50 years. Over 100 million students were educated using Ray’s Arithmetic.  These books were used exclusively in US schools from 1865-1915.

This is a a very back to basics curriculum.  There are no bells and whistles like much of today’s math.   The pictures and text are all in black and white. Many of the lessons are set up to be taught orally.  If you follow  the Classical or Charlotte Mason method this series may be ideal for your family. 

This was not a good fit for our family.  I found the text a bit blurry and some of the pages dark and a bit difficult to read on the computer.  The vast amount of information was a bit overwhelming.   While I would not use this as our sole math curriculum, I would use this to supplement our lessons.

The benefits I do see is that it is a a great value for the money.  For $59 you do get a complete curriculum.  You can print as little as much a you like.  The CD is composed of PDF’s that can be viewed or printed from any computer.

Be sure to visit the TOS Homeschool blog to read other reviews of Ray’ Arithmetic.

Disclosure: This product was provided to me free as a member of the The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew 2009-2010. All reviews and opinions expressed on this blog are my own

MathTutor~Review

As part of the homeschool crew. I received two dvd’s from MathTutor.

The first DVD, Young Minds Numbers and Counting is for the preschool crowd. This DVD teaches counting from 1-10. There are beautiful pictures and videos set to classical music.

Included on this DVD there is also bonus material including picture puzzle, connect the dots and name the animal. This DVD can be purchased at the MathTutor website for $19.99.

What we thought: This is a wonderful DVD for preschoolers. The pictures and video are beautiful and we loved the classical music that accompanies it. Kaden is getting ready to turn 5 in a few weeks and he did like it. He is counting beyond 10 at this point. I think it would be great for 3-4 year olds.

Below is a sample video you can watch.

The second DVD we received was The Basic Math Word Problem 2 DVD. This DVD set has 8 hours of instruction.

There are 15 lessons in all. Here are the lessons on each DVD.

Disc 1
Section 1: Adding Whole Numbers
Section 2: Subtracting Whole Numbers
Section 3: Multiplying Whole Numbers
Section 4: Dividing Whole Numbers
Section 5: Adding Decimals
Section 6: Subtracting Decimals
Section 7: Multiplying Decimals
Section 8: Dividing Decimals
Disc 2
Section 9: Adding Fractions
Section 10: Subtracting Fractions
Section 11: Multiplying Fractions
Section 12: Dividing Fractions
Section 13: Percents, Part 1
Section 14: Percents, Part 2
Section 15: Ratio and Proportion

These are lessons that teach your student how to solove out word problems. Jason Gibson is the instructor in this video and he does a great job explaining math concepts. He is very through in his explanations. He uses a white board to write out and explain the concepts.

The Math Word Problems DVD set can be purchased for $26.99 at the MathTutor site.

LIMITED TIME FREE BONUS: Each new Math Tutor DVD customer receives 60 minutes of FREE live online tutoring available 24/7 through Tutor.com! A $35.00 Value!

What we thought: I think this is a great resource for helping students comprehend math concepts. Using these videos can help students not just learn math concepts but understand how to solve them. These videos are also a great way to reinforce those concepts.

For more reviews of MathTutor please be sure to visit my Crewmates at The TOS Crew blog.

Disclosure: This product was provided to me free as a member of the The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew 2009-2010. All reviews and opinions expressed on this blog are my own

A picky eater

 

Kaden is a super picky eater. This boy would live on candy and sweets every day of his life if I let him.  He turns his nose up to many foods.  Food he has never tried.  Food he refuses to even taste. I have tried coaxing, bribing, yelling (yeah that one worked really well) You get the idea, nothing worked. 

There are many foods I know he would like if he would just try them.  Lately  I have attempted to get him to eat fruit. He does like grapes and that is about it.  The other day I had an orange and he asked for one. I said sure and gave him a piece of mine.  He sucked the juice out of it and I thought well that is better than nothing maybe he will be tempted to eventually eat the whole piece.

This morning I made homemade waffles and decided to cut up an orange and set it on the table.  Well guess what? Kaden ate two entire slices of orange because I cut the orange instead of peeling it. Who knew?

There is hope for more new foods to be introduced and maybe even dare I say it eaten and enjoyed? I just have to figure out a fun way to serve it!

Icicles

The other day when we were at my parents we noticed that there were huge icicles hanging from their patio. Some of them were taller than Justin! They were just beautiful. I wish I had my SLR camera but it is still sick and these pictures really do not do the icicles justice. They were beautiful! I have never seen icicles so big! Some of them went almost to the ground! Just amazing!

Our Valentine’s Day

We had a nice but simple Valentine’s Day celebration. This year the Lunar New Year also fell on February 14th, so this year we combined both celebrations into one. Before I went to bed Saturday night, I decorated our kitchen table with a red table cloth. I put out placemats from the local Chinese restaurant, along with Valentine plates and napkins. I used a dish full of conversation hearts with a red votive candle holder on either side. I sprinkled some of those metallic hearts on the table. I taped some gold hearts between the placemats as well.

I also hung lanterns that I saved from Justin’s first birthday at the windows and from our ceiling fan.

At each place setting I put a felt fortune cookie that I made from red and purple felt along with a fortune I wrote for each of them. These were a big hit and so easy to make.

The boys each received a butterfly valentine. I found these on the internet last year and I cannot remember where I found them.

Happy boys!

Reading their fortunes

What did we have for breakfast? Well that was one area that mommy neglected. I was very low on groceries and so the boys had leftovers from yesterday and Larry and I had toast. It was made special by the decorated table!

We read several Valentine stories and went out for Chinese food. For dessert we had cherry jello in heart shaped dishes.

How was your Valentine’s Day?

Just kidding around....

We were invited to a homeschool friend's house a couple of weeks ago to visit some really cool kids! These particular kids were of the four legged variety. Baby (kid) goats. There were about 20 of them and they were just the cutest things ever!

some mama's and baby goats

checking out the goat's shelter

Justin got to feed one of the baby goats


this little one is so sweet!

Kaden was not to sure about this whole goat visit

he did come around and petted a couple of them

sweet!


Thank you Salvatore family for a fun visit!

Kinderbach~Review

Are your children interested in learning to play the piano? Is the expense of piano lessons holding you back? Then Kinderbach may be your solution. I was given a 3 month subscription to Kinderbach as part of the TOS Homeshool Crew.

Kinderbach teaches piano instruction online or on DVD. There are 10 levels of this program each level is 6 weeks long for a total of 60 weeks of lessons. Recommended for ages 2-7. Kinderback uses a real teacher in a cartoon setting. There are four days of activities such as puzzles, games, crafts and puppets. The lessons are easy to follow. It is perfect for non readers. The activities all in PDF form that you download for each lesson. The songs are fun and catchy.

Membership for the online lessons start as low as $7.99 per month which is a one time payment of $95. 88 (a 60% savings). You can also choose a monthly payment of $19.99. DVD levels start at $40.45

Be sure to watch the free demo. If you are still no sure if Kinderbach is a fit for your family you can sign up for two weeks of free lessons here.

What we thought: Both boys used Kinderbach. Overall they both enjoyed it. Justin my 8 year old thought it was a bit too young for him. Kaden my 5 year old loved it and I think got the most out of the program. I think it really appeals to kids in the 3-5 range. I really think it is a great introduction to music. The teacher is really fun and engaging and they had fun following along.

Some things to note: You need either a keyboard or a piano to use Kinderbach effectively. If you have a piano and your computer is not in the same room as your piano (if you have a desktop or laptop that does not have wireless internet) you will not be able to view the lessons and use the piano at the same time. If you have wireless internet and a laptop you are good to go. You could also bring a keyboard to the computer. The same applies if you decide on the DVD's you need to be sure you can use them near your piano so you are able to view the lessons as you learn. You will need a printer or have access to one to print the activity sheets.

Be sure to visit The TOS Homeschool Crew blog to read more Kinderbach reviews!



Disclosure: This product was provided to me free as a member of the The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew 2009-2010. All reviews and opinions expressed on this blog are my own

FactsFirst~Review

As part of the TOS Homeschool Crew I was given a 90 day subscription to FactsFirst online math practice program put out by Saxon Math.

With facts first children do math drills to reinforce addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

The lessons are broken down into 5 parts:
new facts

commutative properties

practice

a quiz

lesson scoring

There are also placement tests to see where your child should start with these drills.

To begin the math drills the child creates an avatar.

The math facts are printed on the screen as well as spoken. So the child can see and hear each fact. The math facts are timed. Speed and accuracy determine how well the child does.

There are also video games in the arcade that can be played once the child completes the math questions. Or your child can spend that time changing their avatar. You only earn 5 minutes of game time. So if your child wants to play more games they have to practice their math drills. They earn time to play the video games which also teach math facts.

After your child completes his math drill, a report is generated to see how well he has done or where he needs more work.

There is nothing to install or download with this program. It is very easy to navigate and user friendly.

What we thought: Both boys love this! Kaden is excited that he can participate and is doing very well with his addition. Justin loves it. He loves the challenge of the timed facts. He is trying to do better each time. They both love that they get to play games after they have completed their math drills.

You can find a free demo here. You can purchase a Facts First subscription for $49.99 for a year for up to four students.

Be sure to visit my TOS Crewmates to read more reviews of Facts First.

Disclosure: This product was provided to me free as a member of the The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew 2009-2010. All reviews and opinions expressed on this blog are my own