TOS Archives - Page 3 of 3 - Growing In Grace

TimeMaps by Knowledge Quest Review

July 20, 2012Tracy

TimeMaps, produced by Knowledge Quest, is both timeline and map in one product.

There are several components to this product. First, TimeMaps are grouped by topic.

Ancient China

The Rise of the Roman Empire

The Fall of the Roman Empire

The Rise of Islam

European Exploration and Discovery

The Black Death

The Atlantic Slave Trade

In flash format, a series of maps highlights the different changes within a topic. Watch the Roman Empire swell in its might (and see the rise and fall of the Persian and Greek empires in the process.) Interactive links and icons provide more information on what is happening on the map. Questions are also provided to guide your discussion with your student.

Another element is the map timeline, accessed through the “TimeMaps of World History” link.

By clicking on different dates on a timeline, changes around the world are indicated on the map. Again, this map includes links that provide more information when you hover over them. “What’s happening in the world” provides a brief summary to read to the student.

Lesson plans and activities are also provided, but I found that these were aimed largely at older children, probably dialectic level. Assignments included creating a timeline or researching a topic and writing an essay.

My kids loved to see the places that we’ve been studying in our geography. And they loved to “uncover” the facts on the maps through the interactive links. Though we’ve already enjoyed this product, I can’t wait to put it into context with our Tapestry of Grace studies. From ancient history to the Enlightenment, these maps and eventually the activities will be something we’ll use for years! I was also thrilled to find maps and information on the Maya and ancient Mexico as well as Mesopotamia within these products, especially since these places and time periods are often difficult to find information and activities for.

My husband was also impressed. He’ll be taking a class on Islam in the fall for his ThM in apologetics, and the Rise of Islam has a lot of information to provide him with a background for that class.

I love this product; it is just as cool as it looked like it would be and is definitely worth the price. Topics can be purchased individually for $9.95 or as a set for $44.95. Visit the site for more information and to watch a brief video touring the product.

You can also read more reviews about TimeMaps or Knowledge Quests MapTrek series 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.

Christian Keyboarding Review

July 18, 2012Tracy1 Comment

My kids love to be on the computer, and my oldest especially loved typing his spelling words while we were using Reading Eggs for a short time right after our baby was born. So, in the back of my mind, I’ve been wanting to try out a few typing programs for him, and I was really excited to be assigned Christian Keyboarding’s ebook for review.

Keyboarding for the Christian School is a simple, traditional typing program. The lessons, especially at the beginning, are similar to what I used when I first learned. That said, my son has enjoyed the lessons. I think the program would be especially helpful for a child who might get easily distracted by a lot of color and details since most of the lessons are pretty straight-forward.

The ebook is designed to be printed and completed off-screen, giving the child practice in looking away from the screen to type. To save on printing expenses though, you could easily download the file to a reader and have the student type from the reader onto the computer screen.

We did his practice in a Word document at first, but then I had him email a few of his lessons to Daddy and to Grandma as well. He loved this and was very motivated to complete his lessons. The drill part was much harder, practicing until he had the lessons down. Because there are so few details and graphics and the lessons are straight drill, he easily got bogged down if I didn’t allow him to move on to the next lesson.

Christian Keyboarding is unique in that, once the child has reached more advanced skill levels, the lessons are from passages of Scripture.

If your child is a very visual learner that requires colorful lessons and exercises, or very hands-on and motivated by games, this might not be the best program. But if you are looking for a simple to-the-point program that is affordable and non-consummable, than Keyboarding for the Christian School, available for older and younger students, might be just for you.

Check out sample lessons here, or pick up your own copy. Ebooks start at $12.95; use the promo code SUMMER2012 for a 20% discount (expires 8-29-12).

Read more reviews at the Schoolhouse Review Crew website.

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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.

Professor B Math review

July 11, 2012Tracy

Professor B math sets out to “structure the content of arithmetic so it becomes as connected and flowing as a story.” And I must say, I really liked the way concepts were interwoven and presented in this curriculum.

“The program thoroughly structures the content of arithmetic as a developmental, contextual flow (like a story), allowing children’s minds to assimilate its content more quickly (in the same natural way they assimilate stories rapidly) without any gaps in their knowledge.”

Professor B math is a power point curriculum that allows you, the “instant master teacher,” to sit down with your child and work through a presentation together. “Together” is the key, and the slides do not have any sound to ensure that the work is done together. The slides present the new math concept through directions for hands-on illustrations, similar to finger-play, and speech-bubble instruction, “spoken” by the professor bee and read by either the teacher or student.

My preschooler especially loved the finger-play, and as a part of the math story, addition was presented at the same time as number recognition. She would play by making different combinations of two or three (or whatever number the lesson was presenting) with her fingers; by the end of the lesson, the bee was introducing “one and one make two” as the different finger combinations were shown in the slides. It made perfect sense to her, and my three (almost four) year old quickly grasped the addition.

The same was true for my almost-first grader, who was introduced to adding and subtracting by twos in the same series of lessons where skip counting was introduced. He could immediately see the connection between this skip counting and the addition/subtraction being taught.

Once the slide presentation is complete, the student is then given an assignment. Sometimes, the assignment was to continue drilling the material until mastery was achieved. Other times, certain worksheets were assigned at the end of the slide; just open the pdf and print off the correct pages. An answer key for the worksheets is also provided, though there are no testing materials besides the placement tests for each level.

This curriculum is definitely intended to aid the teacher not replace her, and at first, the lack of sound and lack of achievement reports was rather unsettling. It felt like something was missing. But I did appreciate the approach to mathematics, and in the end, as I read the script to my children, it gave the feeling of all of us experiencing math together. I was still the teacher, narrating the lesson and answering questions, correcting when incorrect answers were given, etc. But there was a “togetherness” about the lessons that I enjoyed. I even had my oldest sit in on his sister’s lessons and read some of the script for her; it gave him reading practice and allowed him to review earlier concepts.

Also, the power point was not just text to be read; the lessons are interactive. The professor bee often asks questions for the child to answer or gives directions for the child to do something. My kids loved this interaction, and my oldest even asked me during one lesson how the bee could hear him.

Also, there is a ton of information packed into this program! Each of the three levels covers three grades: Level I (k-2nd); Level II (3rd-5th); Level III (6th-8th). Consequently, I felt that both of my children were adequately challenged even while using the same level of material. I will definitely continue using this as my primary math instruction for Middlest and let Oldest sit in on the lessons as much as he wants.

The program can now be purchased for $40 for each level, plus $13.95 for an accompanying workbook (updated as of 2/2017).

Though the program took a little getting used to, I’d definitely say that the little bee won me over in just a few short lessons. The logical presentation and the “togetherness” were both elements that I really appreciated. Visit the Professor B website and click on “Sample Lessons” to check it out for yourself.

Read more reviews at the Schoolhouse Review Crew website.

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.

IXL Math review

June 20, 2012Tracy

When the opportunity came up to review IXL Math, my interest was piqued. I’d explored the website several times before and taken advantage of the daily allowance of 20 math questions that you can answer without a subscription, and I knew it was something my kids enjoyed doing.

IXL Math is an online math program with over 2,000 skills for preschool through algebra, available in over 150 countries and meeting all state standards. It is “math for the left and right brain.” The program provides a list of topics per grade; and though I experimented with just picking and choosing topics for my oldest to cover, I really found that it worked best when I let the kids go through the lessons in order, beginning with the topics that I knew they had down well. I was also pleasantly surprised to find how challenging the topics were.

Each topic provides a number of questions for the students to answer and has optional audio clips for each question so that both the question and the answers can be either read or listened to, which means my preschooler was able to work through the lessons pretty independently. Each correctly answered question earns points; incorrect questions deduct points. By the time the child has earned the 100 point total, they have mastered the topic. The lessons took anywhere from 2 to 3 minutes for the topics my kids knew well to around 20 minutes on new topics. Once a lesson is mastered, the child is awarded a gold medal and different icon toys on their Awards page.

The program does not provide initial instruction on the topics, instead the child is provided with explanations on the questions answered incorrectly. Consequently, for a number of the topics it would probably be helpful to introduce the concept to your child first and then reinforce the concept with IXL Math. I also enjoyed the weekly reports that were emailed to me and kept me informed of total practice time for each child and their accomplishments.

IXL Math is available for a monthly subscription of $9.95 or $79 for the year. And another terrific feature is that a subscription give you access to all of the topics and grade levels, which works especially well if your child is in between grades. IXL Math also allows you to play around on their site and answer a number of the questions without a subscription, giving you a great feel for the site before you subscribe.

My kids ask to do math! For them, it’s not “school”; it’s an opportunity to play on the computer. How can a mom resist that!

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.

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.

Storybuilder App Review

June 6, 2012Tracy1 Comment

I was recently given the Storybuilder app to review for Schoolhouse Review Crew and was really blown away. My kids are addicted, and I am trying to reclaim my ipod.

Story Builder is designed to help children accomplish the following educational goals: 1) Improve paragraph formation ; 2) Improve integration of ideas; and 3) Improve higher level abstractions by inference. Extensive use of audio clips promotes improved auditory processing for special needs children with autism spectrum disorders or sensory processing disorders. It won the “best reading app of 2011” by Huffington Post.

The app was designed by a father to help his autistic daughter with her language skills and is one of several apps he designed for this purpose.

Here’s how it works. There are three levels of play and few other custom controls. In the first two levels of play, a picture is shown along with a question that is both shown and spoken; a prompt is also provided with the first few words of the answer.

The child taps on “Record” and begins telling the story, then hits stop and goes to the next question. Level 1 provides 4 questions, and Level 2 provides 7 questions. Level 3 provides only the picture and the record button. Once all of the questions have been answered and recorded, the child can hit play and hear all of his answers woven together into a story. You even have the option to email the completed story to yourself, to grandparents, etc. (Note: You do need to have Apple Quicktime to play back the story on your computer; available for PC or Mac.) The app has 50 different story lines and over 500 audio clips of questions.

My three year old asks for this all the time, and it’s been a great tool for teaching her to answer questions in complete sentences. Her recorded stories are more like conversations with me, but she loves to hear herself in the recording. My oldest is really honing his story-telling skills. I could also definitely see the benefit of this app if you have a reluctant writer. Recording the story with this app takes the fear out of story-telling; then your child could replay the story and write down what has been recorded.

Storybuilder app is available for iPhone, iPod, or iPad for $5.99. I’ve been really impressed with this app and how much it has taught my kids without them even realizing that they are learning. For them, it’s just plain fun.

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.

5 Days of Fighting Your Fears

May 11, 2012Tracy

I’m so excited to be joining the blog cruise at the Homeschool Crew. All next week I’ll be blogging about the fears we face as homeschoolers, providing encouragement and answering some of those dreaded questions like “What if I fail?” and “What if I ruin my kid’s life?” From my own fears as a homeschool mom and my experience as a homeschool graduate, I’ll be sharing insights and reflections on these tough questions. It’s going to be a great week of getting vulnerable and gaining victory.

Be sure to join me for a week of inspiration and motivation. Then, check out all of the other awesome bloggers posting on over 60 topics!