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Our Top Pick Review Products

December 19, 2012Tracy

As we approach the half-way point of the school-year, and as I have wrapped up my stint with the Schoolhouse Review Crew, I thought I’d go back and let you know which products made the daily cut, the ones we are still using on a daily basis.

I must say that I loved many of the products we reviewed, but we all know that there is just so much time during a school day and not all of our ambitions and intentions get checked off the lesson plan. So, in utmost honesty, I’m disclosing which ones we continue to use.

Institute for Excellence in Writing’s Primary Art of Language

This program is a lot of fun, but it’s also a lot of work. It involves a lot from the teacher, and as well as a lot from the student. With that said, I’m no longer using the reading portion of the program. We are back to A Beka, slowly taking our time through the last of K4 and long vowels.

I’ve also stopped using the writing portion with Middlest, though I will continue with it in the future. I felt that there really wasn’t enough practice for her, especially with capital letters, that she could do independently (as in, without me dictating each letter). I’m using some leftover pages from the A Beka K5 manuscript writing book that I used with Oldest.

However, I am still using the writing program with my Oldest, and loving it! We are also keeping up with our Class Journal; it’s been a great tool for teaching writing as well as reinforcing spelling and grammar principles.

ZooWhiz

This is a surprise for me actually, even though it is a fun program. Middlest can work through the reading portion of this program on her own; occasionally I’ll sit with her and go through the math. But this, really, is my opportunity to keep her engaged and learning while I work with her brother. And she loves purchasing the animals or playing the arcade games with the tokens she has earned.

I also have to put a plug in for their customer service. Middlest had worked very hard to earn 5000 tokens to purchase a dragon, but then she had mistakenly selected the Sasquatch instead. Oh my goodness! The tears we had that day, and understandably so—5,000 tokens is a lot for a four year old. I emailed the CS just to see if perhaps there was something that could be done on their end, an exchange or a refund of tokens, etc. Within a day of my emailing them, they had removed the Sasquatch and replaced it with her dragon. Needless to say, she was overjoyed when she noticed! And I was very thankful that they took the time for such an insignificant issue.

Music Together

I must say, this is probably the greatest surprise of all to me. Honestly, when I first received this product, I didn’t know how much we’d use it or even if we’d like it. Once I started using it with the kids, we fell in love and to this day it is an absolute favorite with all three of the kids, even Littlest brightens up when he hears his favorite tunes. It’s a fun rainy day, grumpy day, “let’s wiggle and dance together” activity.

Family Time Fitness

We haven’t been able to use this product as consistently as I would have liked. (Some of my great ambitions this school year have not come to fruition, but that’s another post for another day.) However, this particular product is the single most-asked-for activity. My kids still love it, and I still love to have them exercising. And I have every intention of making this a more regular part of our routine (though most of my intentions lately haven’t gotten much further than just that).

Dayspring’s Pilgrim Story

My son loved this, even though a lot of it was meant for a much older student. He loved the interactive elements of the power point, the maps, and the “draw-and-caption” assignments that I gave to him. We finished it up right before Thanksgiving, skipping a few of the less relevant lessons to be able to pull that off. It was a fun introduction to the history of our celebration and was perfect for notebooking.

And that’s it folks! Our list of top 5 review products, the ones that made the cut for what actually fits into our day.

Kinderbach Online Review

October 12, 2012Tracy1 Comment

My children love music, and my son especially has been wanting to learn an instrument for over a year now. Kinderbach has been a perfect fit for my kids. Kinderbach is an online music program for young children, ages 3-7. The creater and teacher, Karri Gregor is excellent with young children and has a real passion for communicating music to them. Using fun interactive video lessons, colorful characters, entertaining stories, and corresponding printable activity sheets, children learn note reading, rhythm, singing, and composition.

Both my kids (ages 4 and 5) absolutely loved this program and literally squealed with delight when it was time. Each week of lessons includes four sessions that are about 5 min. long. We worked through all of the sessions at one time, once a week. Watching the videos and completing the activity pages for an entire week took us about 20-30 min. And the kids were never ready to quit!

I do not own a keyboard or piano at my house, but we are often at church early or late because my husband is an associate pastor. This extra time was our time to practice what we had learned through the videos. The kids would take turns sitting down at the piano and practicing their lessons; it worked out really well for us. The fun stories and memorable characters made the abstract music concepts very concrete and enjoyable for them.

Kinderbach has a couple of opportunities for you to try the lessons yourself. Try them for free or take advantage of the 30 day money-back guarantee. The online lessons, which is what I used for the review, are $19.99/month or $95.88/year. Kinderbach is also available as DVDs and as an iPhone/iPad app (which includes a keyboard on the app screen). And multiple children can use the program at the same time or at different times!

When you consider the cost and time of music lessons, Kinderbach really is a no-brainer! Quality music instruction on your own schedule and in the convenience of your own home—I am definitely a fan. And my kids are learning so much while having a blast.

Visit Kinderbach to watch the videos and read more about the program, or read what others on the Schoolhouse Review Crew thought about Kinderbach online and the Kinderbach iPad app.

Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Crew, I received a free 6 month subscription to this product, at no cost to me, in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are mine.

ZooWhiz review

October 5, 2012Tracy

I love getting the opportunity to review online programs with my children. Not only does it provide a fun, yet productive break from our “heavy” learning, but it also frees me up to devote some one-on-one time with the other child while they are still relatively dependent on me for learning. Not to mention the great computer skills they learn in the process!

One of the programs I recently was able to review is ZooWhiz, an Australian-based online learning tool for children 5 to 15. ZooWhiz covers math, reading, language and word skills, grammar, punctuation, spelling, and some phonics with over 17,000 different activities. The learning activities are grouped into three different subjects: math, words, and reading. Once the child selects the subject, he then selects the age range for the activities. Parents can set the “age floor” to ensure that children do not select activities below their age ability, and in the future, ZooWhiz is hoping to add more parental controls for choosing your child activities.

Children are given a series of questions/activities; a progress chart appears after 10 questions are answered correctly, charting the accuracy for that series of questions. The child is then asked if they would like to continue. To complete a set of questions took my children roughly 10 to 15 minutes. For 4-6 year olds, reading is the only activity provided, and at this level the questions are narrated for the child. These activities consisted largely of pre-reading skills: patterns, matching, identifying sounds, etc.

The math and words subjects began at an age range of 5-7 years; and these questions were not narrated. Because of this, Middlest was not able to work on these subjects unless I was with her to read the questions. Oldest worked through the beginning levels of all three subjects independently, at least most of the time. Occasionally, he wouldn’t understand the directions to an activity, or the Australian pronunciation of a word would give him trouble. And there was one instance where the activity was actually programmed with the incorrect answer. (He was asked to spell the word “tilt” but the correct letters were not given to spell the word and “tilp” was recognized as the correct answer, particularly frustrating for my perfectionist son.)

In addition to the learning activities, children earn tokens for correct answers (plus 100 bonus tokens for logging in at home). These tokens can be used to purchase playing time at the virtual arcade or to purchase animals for their own zoo. The animals range from your typical zoo animals to mythical and extinct creatures like the unicorn or dinosaurs. Though it would have been nice to see these “purchased” animals in a zoo setting, the animals were really more like stamps that the children added to their collection on a page. But my kids didn’t mind; they are still at the age where stickers are all the rage, so a unicorn, dinosaur, or bison sticker was just as thrilling a reward as an actual virtual zoo.

The arcade had three different games that were considered age-appropriate for my kids. Each of these games worked on enhancing reasoning and computer skills versus learning skills. Both of my kids had an immediate favorite among these games—Paint n’ Play. For 50 tokens, the child can play for 3 minutes: selecting a black and white picture to paint, selecting elements and people to add to the picture, and selecting the colors to paint with. At the end of 3 minutes, the picture is saved for the next session of play or replaced with a new picture. Middlest found that she would rather spend her tokens on this game than collecting animals; my creative child, she spent hundreds of hard-earned tokens playing round after round of painting pictures.

I found each subject to have appropriately challenging questions. While it is not a curriculum-replacement, it is definitely a fun and challenging supplement to any learning approach. And my kids loved it as much as I thought they would! You can sign up for a free account that allows the child 15 questions a day up to 45 questions a week. An upgraded PREMIUM account (currently 75% off at $14.95/year!) allows for unlimited play and unrestricted animals to choose from for the zoo, with more features coming.

The program is still considered in the early-release stage and plans for added features are in the works. Check out the website, play for free, or read what others thought at the Schoolhouse Review Crew.

Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Crew, I received this product, at no cost to me, in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are mine.

Music Together Review

September 28, 2012Tracy4 Comments

Music Together is an early childhood music and movement program that teaches children birth through 7 years about music. Through the program, children learn to sing in tune, move to a beat, and enjoy the music of different cultures.

My kids immediately reacted to this music. It’s music you just can’t help but move to. And I loved that this was a product that I could use with my infant as well.

The package I received came with the Music Together Family Favorites CD and Songbook combo. The music is very multi-cultural, and the activities are not your typical music theory lessons. In addition to the catchy tunes, I loved the ideas in the teacher manual and really appreciated the focus not only on different ages but on particular special needs as well. Within the teacher manual, sheet music is provided for each song as well as the activity ideas. Strengthening language skills, teaching harmony, recognizing different rhythms and several other skills are taught through each activity.

We opened every day with “The Hello Song,” greeting each other by singing out our names. I also used these songs as fun activities as we transitioned from one subject to another. Great for getting wiggles out, some of the songs went from very active at the start of the song to slow and soft toward the end of the song (“Riding in the Car” has several active verses and ends with “sleeping in the car” in a very slow lullaby cadence), while other songs had the kids absolutely worn out by the end.

Whatever songs we played with during our school day, the kids were humming and dancing to them all day long. Several of the songs allowed for the kids to create their own verses, which Oldest especially enjoyed. All day long he’d tell me new verses he’d thought up. The tunes are very catchy, and so much fun to move too. Sometimes we’d bang the rhythm out with wooden spoons or unsharpened pencils, use kitchen spices for shakers, or use whatever else was handy; other times we’d twist and spin, move and groove.

Littlest enjoyed this time, too. I think he probably enjoyed being able to take part in the fun with the big kids. The activities for infants also helped me to adapt it for him. He wiggled and smiled and giggled with each tune.

Music Together Review — He was beating the spoon on the floor and kicking his feet to the beat. So cute!

For infants, some of the suggested activities were bouncing them on your knee, patting their tummy, tapping their feet, and more. Littlest did love this, especially to the tune of “Biddy Biddy.”

And just so you know, this is a SUPER rainy day activity. Just play the CD (I loaded them on to my ipod) and let them wriggle and jump and dance all that energy away!

This product has been such a hit at our house, I can’t imagine our day without them. I would also recommend this product to anyone homeschooling a child with a special need. Though the teacher guide is written for a daycare/classroom setting, it is easily adaptable for home use.

The combo package, like I received, sells for $39.95 on the Music Together website. (Use the coupon code “Schoolhouse” to get $2 off the set.) There are also a number of other products (noise makers and rhythm instruments) and sets available for different price points. You can even download individual song titles for $.99 or the entire album for $9.99.

You can listen to samples of all 19 tunes and hear my kids’ favorites. (Littlest’s favorite was “Biddy Biddy”; Middlest loved “Riding in the Car” and “Playing in the Kitchen”; Oldest liked “Stick Tune” and “Obwisana.”)

Then, read what other reviewers thought at the Schoolhouse Review Crew.

Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Crew, I received this product, at no cost to me, in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are mine.

Family Time Fitness Review

September 17, 2012Tracy2 Comments

Fitness has been one of those homeschool topics that I’ve gone back and forth on. My kids are young, so I honestly debated whether they needed a formal P.E. program. I mean, isn’t playing outside enough?

On the other hand, my kids from a very early age have loved to exercise with their Daddy, which is not always ideal. When Daddy heads to the gym to work out on the tread mill, the kids head to the garage or outside and adapt their own “exercise” routine, which is often the stuff of “America’s Funniest Home Videos.”

Needless to say, when Family Time Fitness came up for review, I was all over it. I definitely wanted to take a look at this product, and I was not disappointed. This program is awesome!

I reviewed their Family Time Fitness-Core 1 package which includes 260 lessons for ages 4-13. It also included the following items:

Startup/Training Guide

Lesson Plans

1-Page Summaries

Video Demonstrations

Assessment Tools

Encouragement Emails

Online Webinars

There were also a few items I had to have on hand: hula hoops, jump ropes, bean bags, playground balls, measuring tape and stop watch (I used my iPod for this). The curriculum also calls for cones and an exercise mat, but we were able to make due without these items.

When I first began looking over this program, I had read this on their website:

Physical Education (PE) is structured physical activity that develops an organized mind and body for students. Many homeschool parents commonly mistake any physical activity for a PE class. Unfortunately, unstructured physical activity does not give a student the building blocks for proper fitness development. Activities like one day co-op play, Wii Fit or Wii sports and individual sports are not considered physical education because they do not comprehensively teach and manage physical fitness in students.

Honestly, I was still a little skeptical, wondering if it was perhaps their sales pitch. But after going through these lessons with my kids, I absolutely understand. This program is much more than playtime, and it is a fantastic introduction to a regular fitness routine. At the beginning of each lesson there is a summary of skills taught within that lesson: mobility, balance, coordination, jumping, flexibility, strength, etc. In addition to these skills, however, I could tell that particular workouts were concentrating on particular areas of the body, just like an adult workout program. Certain activities strengthened arms, while others strengthened the core and still others focused on endurance.

But the best part of this program is that this intense exercise is creatively packaged in fun games and activities. Crab walk and monster walk strengthened arms and legs, popcorn (child stays curled for a certain length of time and then “pops” out) and superman worked abdominal muscles, skipping/hopping/shuffling routines provided endurance. One of our favorite activities was the Agility Course. I used four different sand buckets (instead of cones) to mark off our course, then the kids ran, shuffled, skipped, and bear-crawled to each cone, timing each other to see how long it took to get to the end of the course.

Family Time Fitness review — Middlest keeping our stopwatch for Oldest and patiently waiting her turn

Within each lesson are links to video demonstrations that show children performing these exercises. These were extremely helpful since it was hard to always understand from the verbal description. The videos would also make it possible for you to teach/coach these lessons without actually participating if you were physically limited. My kids loved seeing other kids performing the exercises, and it motivated them to try even the more difficult exercises.

I decided that working out with the kids was my best shot at getting an exercise time for myself; and let me tell you, this is quite the workout. I was indeed sore from these workouts and could tell exactly which muscle groups had gotten the workout the day before.

What I loved most about this program is that it is creating healthy fitness habits for my kids—a real, regular workout—and teaching them at an early age that exercising can be fun. As we begin our study this year on nutrition and anatomy, I want healthy habits to be a focus in our home—not just for the sake of being healthy, but so that we are all prepared to serve God to the best of our physical abilities. This program has definitely helped us to begin reaching toward that goal.

Can a child just play outside and be healthy? Perhaps, but I have to agree with FTF. While you could call this unstructured backyard time “physical activity,” you can’t call it “education.” This program is worth every penny, and I will absolutely be continuing with this program.

The Family Time Fitness Core 1 download is available on their website for $57. You can check out their other products, view their video introduction to the program, or read what others on the Schoolhouse Review Crew had to say.

Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Crew, I received this product, at no cost to me, in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are mine.

Creation Illustrated Magazine review

June 13, 2012Tracy

I was so excited to get to review this magazine. I remember receiving this magazine as a kid and deciding I wanted to be a photojournalist because of the amazing photography and writing in the magazine. My favorite issue was one featuring the Grand Canyon.

Now, all these years later, I was able to share the treasure with my children! I loved how each article focused on inspiring an awe for our Creator, and my children loved the pictures.

The photography in these magazines is absolutely stunning.

Though the magazine includes science, the articles are more devotional than scientific, praising our Creator and appreciating what He has created.

Creation Illustrated has been published for 19 years, sent out quarterly. It includes three sections: in Nature, in Scripture, and in Living. It also includes garden features, activities, a youth nature photo contest, and Genesis Cuisine recipes.

Creation Illustrated is produced by a homeschool family and is a publication your whole family will enjoy. The magazines are beautiful and are perfect as a supplement to your curriculum or simply as a coffee-table center-piece.

Visit the Creation Illustrated website to read more about the family and their mission or get your free copy as a part of a subscription offer. As a family, you’ll love opening each issue and marveling at God’s goodness in creation.

Read more reviews over at the Schoolhouse Review Crew.

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Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Crew, I received this product, at no cost to me, in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are mine.