Over the last 2 years, I have had the privilege to review several products from the fine people of All About Spelling. In year one of the crew, I reviewed All About Spelling and All About Homophones. Earlier this year I reviewed Beehive Reader. And now, they have given be another opportunity to look at one of their items. This is their brand new reader 'What Am I?'.
The Beehive Reader is Level 1, and 'What Am I?' is a level 2 reader. As I mentioned in my original review of their readers, while they go hand in hand with their spelling program, however, they also can stand alone.
The quality that I loved in the first reader, has carried through to this reader. The illustrations are beautiful, the book is heavy and feels good to hold in your hands.
In the first reader your student is reading very beginning sentences. In the second reader, the skill level expands. What is really nice is the little stories are actually interesting. Whether you are teaching a little boy or a little girl, they will find the stories in 'What Am I?' engaging! My daughter has really enjoyed reading both books!
As of posting of this review, this reader is not yet available, but should be within the next week or so. Beehive Reader is available for $19.99, I believe the cost will be the same for this one.
Please visit the All About Spelling website for information on all of their fine products.
And as usual, please visit the crew blog to see what my crew mates have to say.
Our next stop on our Homeschool Crew Voyage is to the Middle Ages, with The Tales from Terrestria , by Ed Dunlop. As part of the crew, I was given 2 free books, in exchange for my honest review. I was sent, 2 books from the series Tales from Terrestria; The Quest for Thunder Mountain and The Isle of Dragons.
The Tales from Terrestria is an allegory that allows you to travel back to the days of noble knights and powerful warlords... daring quests and deadly dragons.. the days of honor and valor and chivalry.
The books are geared for ages 10 and up. In our family, we decided to use them as read alouds, that way I could hear the story, as well as the children, for purpose of the review. The books would be great for quiet reading or for read alouds.
My children do not read allegories on a regular basis. They have read one other notable allegory, so they are familiar with them. As we read the story through, we decided to read The Isle of Dragon's first, each day when we concluded we would discuss what they thought the story was talking about.
They each were able to find the parallels to their Christianity.
The story was engaging and kept their interest. This definitely would fall into extra curricular reading. However, you could feel confident that what you are handing your children was a quality story, with Christian undertones throughout.
On the last page, there is an 'Author's Note', which drives the point of the story home, in very clear terms.
If you are looking for quality extra reading for your child/ren, then take a look at Tales from Terrestria and the Terrestria Chronicles. I am sure you will not be disappointed.
You can purchase both by visiting here. You can purchase each tale for $7.99 each, or all three for $19.99.
When you visit the website you will find a wealth of information. Including coloring sheets and study guides for the Chronicles.
Please visit the crew blog to see what my crew mates are saying!
The next stop on our Homeschool Crew Voyage is out of this world! No really, it is not of this world, it is in a virtual world! We will be visiting Wigglington and Wenks. As members of the crew, we were given one month free membership upgrade to Wigglington and Wenks.
I must admit, we are not a gaming, or virtual world type of family. So we do not have a lot of experience with other games. So I cannot look at this through any other lens, than that of a mom trying something out for the very first time.
I set up an account for my 10 year old daughter. And we worked through the 'world' together. The premise is simple, your child is a virtual explorer, traveling the world finding historical characters who have forgotten who they are. The child then needs to find a list of items ( think scavenger hunt) to help them remember who they are. Along the way, they will play fun games, travel to other countries and learn a little bit about those countries while they are at it.
While traveling the world your child will collect many different objects. Some are historical, some are just for fun! This is a virtual world, so your child is not in this world all alone. There are other players that are logged in at the same time. Which enables the children to interact with each other.
While playing games your child earns Rollars that they can use to buy costumes and islands, etc..
Now, I don't allow a ton of time for my children to spend on computer gaming, etc... So, in all honesty, my daughter did not spend hours and hours playing this. But over the month that we played it, she did spend several hours on it over many days.
She did enjoy it. And asked to have a turn to get on the computer to play it. So that should tell you that it is engaging.
However, there are a few cons, that I would want to know up front, if I were reading a review.
The chat feature makes me nervous. Now, my daughter was not exposed to anything questionable, and in fact only one time did someone want to 'chat' with her. I just wish there was a little bit more control in the chat arena. Perhaps options, in a parent section, whether you will allow your child to participate or not. That way there is the option to use that feature if it is something you are comfortable with. Or you can turn it off, if you are not.
The only other item that I would want to mention, is that this is indeed a secular company. So if you are trying to shelter your child from certain worldviews, you need to know that they would be exposed to them here. You could use this as a time to start conversation. But that would be up to you.
Now, as I mentioned at the top of this review, we received a one month free membership upgrade.
You can experience the basics of Wigglington and Wenks for free. Which would be my suggestion, try it out for free and if it seems to fit for your family, then you may want to purchase the upgrade. You can read all about the differences in memberships by clicking here. The price of the membership per player is $5.99 per month. However they do offer discounts for 3, 6 and 12 month memberships. You can read about that here.
And you can learn all about this virtual world by clicking here.
For us, this is a luxury that we could not afford to maintain, even if my children LOVED it! She did enjoy her time visiting this virtual world. And anytime we spend on it in the future, would be using the free account, with parent supervision.
Please take a moment to see what my crew mates have to say about this interesting world, by visiting our crew blog.
My daughter has very curly hair. However, she loves to wear her hair straight. So being the good mother that I am, I purchased a flat iron for her. Little did I know that the kind found in the drugstore was not going to be strong enough for her hair! Not until I took her to my friend, who is a hair dresser, did I learn that she needs one of those fancy expensive flat irons that cost way more money than I could ever afford!
Today, I learned that my dear friend from the TOS Homeschool Crew, Mrs. White, is hosting a giveaway for a Professional Pink Flat Iron. I must tell you, my daughter is praying that we win! Otherwise she has no hope of getting this any time soon!
Would you like to enter to try to win this for your family? All you need to do is visit The Legacy of the Home and enter for yourself!
Critical Thinking Co. has long been a company that I have loved. They have such wonderful resources available, not only for homeschoolers, but to anyone who wants to help their children excel.
As part of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I was sent Balance Benders Beginning, for grades 2-6.
Balance Benders is filled with Logic and Algebraic Reasoning Puzzles. I used this book with one of my children, who fell right into the age range listed on the book.
During our review period, they were able to finish the entire book. The book was fun and interesting and even challenging! And at the end, they had a better understanding of the concepts presented.
Balance Benders is available for $9.99. Please visit Critical Thinking Co. to see this and many other products available.
And us usual.. please visit the crew blog and see what my crew mates are saying about The Critical Thinking Co.
Our next port of call on this year's TOS Homeschool Crew Voyage is Family Mint. Family Mint is a money management website for families. It is a free service, which definitely helps with the bottom line, and fits right into my price point!!
So what exactly is Family Mint? It is a website designed to teach kids hands on money management skills.
With Family Mint your children will learn;
~Kids manage their own money, by setting goals and entering transactions.
~Kids Track how they have made their money.
~Designate how much will go towards something they are saving for.
Parents motivate their children by;
~Setting Interest Rates
~Automating Allowance
~Matching Deposits (like a 401K)
So how do you achieve all of this? Your family will start a 'virtual' bank. You will name the bank and you the parent will become the banker.
Your children will then each open up savings accounts with the family bank.
Now each dollar that is represented in this virtual bank, represents a real dollar that your child has earned. He will make the deposit to you the banker. And it will be notated in their personal account.
The benefit of this is that the money isn't actually online, so it is not
susceptible to hackers. Family Mint is simply an accouting service. However, by using this program, it helps the parent and the child.
I don't know about you, but with 5 kids, I sometimes lose track of who made what amount of money, doing the various extra jobs around the house. This will help with that. I can go in and enter the transaction, or the children can enter the transaction, for me to approve. Also, when your children have saved money for quite a long time, and would like to withdraw it. That will be approved by the banker as well. So, if your child has been saving for a new bicycle, and decides he would like to go buy lunch for him and some buddies, you would have the ability to talk to them about that choice, before the hasty decision is made! I like that!
It also allows the child to really 'see' how much they have earned, and how much they have saved toward their goals. In this day and age of instant gratification, I think this is a very useful tool.
This is a free service, however, I think your children will learn some skills that will be priceless in their adult life. So many times, money management skills are simply not addressed. Family Mint helps you teach these valuable skills.
Please visit the crew blog to see what my crew mates have to say about Family Mint!
Our next stop on our TOS Homeschool Crew Voyage is with the fine people at Galaxy of Education. As Crew Mates we were given free access to their Math Galaxy Programs and E-books in exchange for our honest opinions.
If you have followed my voyage for any amount of time, you know that math is not my favorite subject. So anytime I stumble across a program or tool that will help me teach my children math skills, this intrigues me. Will it indeed be a program that will help us?
First, let's look at what they have available. There are several Java-based programs covering the topics of;
~Math Galaxy Whole Numbers Fun
~Math Galaxy Word Problems Fun
~Math Galaxy Fractions Fun
~Math Galaxy Decimals, Proportions and Percents Fun
~Math Galaxy Pre-Algebra Fun
~Math Galaxy Algebra Fun
There is also something available called The Riddler Worksheet Generator. It is available in the following titles;~Whole Numbers
~Fractions
~Decimal Proportions Percents
~Algebra
Math Galaxy also offers several E-books they call Riddles Books. The are av
~Fraction Riddles E-book
~Algebra Riddles E-book
~Whole Numbers Riddles E-book
~Decimal Riddles E-book
I have seen pros and cons with these programs. The PROS: my son enjoyed using them! That is half the battle right there, isn't it? He would sit down and work about 45 minutes on his math. Secondly, it really was helping him The way the program works is when you click into a subject, say... 'Area' off of the screen below...
Now, what are the con's? First, your child needs to be a reader! If you have a struggling reader, then this program is not going to be a good fit. They have to read through the tutorials and problems. We have several dyslexics in my home, so this was an issue for some of my children. The second would be that, when the child does his work he earns robots, that allow him to play some games that are included with the program. Which is a great incentive. However, you must be aware that the robots do not carry over for future use. So you need to work that reward time, into the time you have allowed them to use Math Galaxy. And the final con, is that it is not a tool that you can use, and see really how your children are doing. There are no reports offered to show they have mastered a skill, or even what kinds of problems they have been doing. Having this feature would really enhance this product.
However, even with the cons that I listed, I really did like this program. We learned how to work the program to best serve our family and it really has been a blessing.
You can order any of the Java Based Programs and the Riddlers Worksheet Generators for $24.95 each. The E-books are available for $12.95. You can order all of these products by visiting Math Galaxy.
Please take a moment to cruise on over to the crew blog to see what my crew mates have to say about these products.
