TOS Review Exploramania Gymathtics

Exploramania was founded by Carrie Scheiner because kids need opportunities for educational and physical activities both during and after school that are fun and benefit their bodies and brains.

This 30 minute DVD includes Shape Stretches Warm Up, Counting Calisthenics, Pattern Power and Well-Being Wind Down.

The math facts are geared towards students 2nd-5th grade, but kids of any age can benefit from and enjoy the workout.

I love the concept, and there's evidence that kids better remember information they learn if they are accessing multiple parts of their brains while learning. I already try to incorporate as much kinesthetic learning into our day as possible, particularly with Hank. I also have the kids do jumping jacks and 8-count body builders between 'classes.' So I was really excited to see this in my mailbox.

The reality is that my 2nd grader Hank pretty much refused to do it. Ella tried really hard to follow along, but she kept getting confused trying to keep up with the moves and the math facts.

I also tried it on our Friday afternoon K/1 class, and they too struggled to keep up with the moves while counting, etc.

So while I was excited about this product and what it has to offer, it doesn't work for my family right now. I think Ella will enjoy the full benefit of it in a couple of years, but we aren't there yet.

You can buy the Exploracise Gymathtics DVD for $24.99 and free shipping and handling right now (11/20/09) . They offer other products such as an Exploracise Math Mat, Thumbballs, and Exploracise Gymathtics 2.0 geared towards 4th-7th graders.

You can read reviews by other TOS Crew members here.



~ I received this product for free so that I may give my opinion of it. No other compensation was received.

Field Trip to the National Zoo

We scheduled a guided tour of the Amazonia Exhibit at the National Zoo. The week prior to our adventure was *gorgeous* The days leading up to and including our field trip were not so gorgeous. Thankfully Amazonia is an indoor exhibit so we were able to march onward.

As usual I spent a lot of time keeping track of Shane

It was feeding time while we were there so we stayed at this tank for quite a while and watched the fish eat.

This beetle is actually a mosaic of other beetles. Gross and intriguing at the same time.

The big kids went into a conference room for a class so Shane and I hung out in the hallway and munched chips

They have a hands on science observation area attached to the exhibit so we spent quite a bit of time in there.

After we munched some lunch, we sprinted through a couple of exhibits. The pandas were out. Sadly the elephant house is still under construction

Ella is just a bit smaller than a Silverback Gorilla

Another fun and exciting field trip!

FIAR Lapbook for Ferdinand

So this is the lapbook I put together for our Wednesday morning preK-1st graders. They meet just once each week for 2 hours so I need to keep it fairly simple.

I also want the folder to fit in the kids' binders in such a way that they can open the folder and all its elements while it's in the 3-ring binder.

I found most everything for the lapbook at ABC Teach, Enchanted Learning, and Homeschool Share.

The front cover because Ferdinand loves to sit and smell the flowers
It lifts up and the kids drew a picture of Ferdinand sitting under the tree. Ella added a swing because all trees need swings.

Clockwise starting at the flag of Spain, we have the flag of Spain. Next is a mini book to count to five in Spanish, a pocket to hold flashcards of animals with their names in both Spanish and English, and then some colors in Spanish. Next to that is art illustrating distance and perspective. The kids drew a road from the Spanish market, to Ferdinand's tree and then to the castle on the hill. The drawings got progressively smaller to show that they were farther away.

Close up of the animal flashcards

On the back is a color by number in Spanish to reinforce what they learned

Simple and fun!

TOS Review AVKO

We received a 1 year membership to AVKO to review. AVKO is a non-profit organization that focuses on the development and production of materials and especially techniques to teach reading and spelling, handwriting (manuscript and cursive), and keyboarding. AVKO is dedicated to the teaching everyone how to read and spell, regardless of their mild to moderate learning disabilities, dyslexia, poverty, or opportunity. You can visit The History of AVKO for more information.

AVKO's Research Director Don McCabe taught high school and junior high for nearly 20 years before founding AVKO in 1974; he has written more than 20 books and articles about teaching reading and spelling.

A basic membership costs $25 per year and includes:
* Discounts on AVKO printed materials
* Hundreds of dollars worth of FREE e-books (PDF)
* The Patterns of English Spelling (All 10 Volumes) with Word Families in Sentence Context
* To Teach a Dyslexic
* Starting at Square One
* The Teaching of Reading & Spelling: a Continuum from Kindergarten through College.
* The Reading Teacher's List of Over 5,500 Basic Spelling Words
* Access to the Member Only section
* AVKO Newsletter with freebies, discounts, resources, and promotions
*Access to Don McCabe's most popular workshop recordings in MP3 format.
* Supplemental Curriculum Materials including word games, worksheets, activities, and more! * Access to Pretests and Placement Tests
* Access to the Answer Keys for the Unscramblers and Family Reunion exercises of the Engaging Language Kits

Or you can purchase a Deluxe membership for $100 per year.
Institutional Membership is open to individuals as well as tutoring centers, schools, learning centers, homeschool resource centers, etc. and includes
* Access to all of the benefits of AVKO's Basic Membership (see below)
* 25% discount off all materials ordered
* Read-only access to ALL AVKO curriculum materials (except for Sequential Spelling and Engaging Language Kits)
*Access to AVKO's newest e-books:
* Word Family Supplements 1-7 for Sequential Spelling
* Spelling Remediation Test Kit

If you have a dsylexic child or a child who is a struggling reader or speller, the cost of membership is well worth its value in the free materials you will be able to access.

You can purchase your membership by clicking here.
Read more reviews by TOS Crew members here.

FIAR Lapbook for Lentil

Try not to gasp too loudly, but I had never heard of Five In A Row until this year. It's crazy, I know! But in my defense, I didn't start homeschooling Jake until he was in 6th grade, and Hank is only in 2nd grade so the elementary years are still a bit new to me.

Our Wednesday morning co-op is broken down as preK-1st, 2nd-3rd, and then 4th-5th. The big kids meet at a different house, and they are ~6th-8th and ~9th-12th graders.

Ok, back to FIAR. For the preK/1's, we decided to use FIAR because the literature is more their speed than TOG. Four families are represented in the class so each mom will plan one unit or 9 weeks. Easy peasy lemon squeezy - for you anyway. :)

I was so very grateful to find Homeschool Share. I would have been lost without this website. They were so kind to make a special section devoted to FIAR lapbooks. I know they did it just for me because they're just that nice. :)

So below is my lapbook, or folder book for you purists, for Lentil. We only two hours, one day a week so it can't be too involved. Plus 2 of the kids (my darling Shane being one of them) are only 3 and can't read at all or write very well. I got most everything from either Homeschool Share, ABC Teach or Enchanted Learning.

Here's the front cover, a lemon fact sheet
Next we have an American flag for the kids to color. We talked about the symbolism of the stars and stripes (50 stars/50 states, 13 stripes/13 original colonies).

For the patriotism matchbook we talked about what it means to be patriotic, and the kids wrote why they love America.

Next we talked about gifts and talents remembering that Lentil didn't think he had any special talents until they needed him to play his harmonica. We had the kids each write a special gift or talent they have.

In the tastebuds book we had them draw a picture of a food for each taste - sweet, salty, bitter and sour.

And they sang "She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes"
Very simple and very fun.

Tapestry of Grace Year 4 Unit Celebration

We are in a co-op of families using Tapestry of Grace curriculum, and we try to do two big Unit Celebrations each year. Year 4 is modern history from 1900 to Present so we just finished learning about the 1920's.

The families that have done this in the past have had small groups of kids write their own radio shows and then present them at the Unit Celebration. We were a little short on time so we opted to perform a program that was already written. The group chose the infamous "The War of the Worlds" by Orson Welles.

I have to brag on these kids. They had just 3 weeks to practice, and they nailed it. Nailed firmly, decisively to the wall. They rocked. Jake was Farmer Wilmuth, the first Martian space ship to hit hurt landed on his farm.

The scene reminded me of Jeff Foxworthy..."you might be a redneck if, on more than one occasion, you've described how the tornado carried your trailer house away ."


The little kids wore 1920's type costumes. Ella came as herself, a little girl. ;p

Hank dressed as a member of Charles Lindburgh's flight crew.

Jake dressed as his character, Farmer Wilmuth

The cast minus the sound crew - who also did beyond fabulous

Jake made it

We went with some friends to a Chick-Fil-A opening in Delaware. They do a lottery drawing of 100 people, and the winners have to camp out overnight. If they stay on the property and follow the rules of the contest, they get a cool t-shirt (you know I'm all about the t-shirt!) and 52 coupons for free #1's (sandwich, fries, drink).

Of the 6 of us, 5 won the lottery (I didn't, sniff, sniff). We braved the freezing cold and tolerated the guitar playing and mediocre singing of our neighbors to persevere and get our coupons (we split them 6 ways).

Here's Jake in line just before the grand opening

TOS Review American Heritage Education Foundation

The latest product to come our way is from the American Heritage Education Foundation, Inc. (AHEF). They are a non-profit, non-partisan educational foundation dedicated to the ideal that understanding and teaching of America's factual and philosophical heritage to promote constructive citizenship. Freedom, Unity, Progress, and Responsibility are the pillars of this education.

AHEF provides - for free - a downloadable comprehensive history supplement for elementary, middle and high school levels. The elementary level is also available in Spanish. You can also request a free CD which is what we received.

I asked my 12th grader history buff to take a look at the high school level material. He said it did include a lot of information and activities but wasn't very interesting to read. In defense of the material, we use living books for our history and literature studies, and this is written for use in public schools so it's a bit textbook-y for our taste.

I read through the elementary school material and came to the same conclusion. For example, the section on Freedom discusses the Statue of Liberty and includes an article from the Wall Street Journal pondering the real meaning of Liberty Enlightening the World (the statue's full name). I found it interesting only because I enjoy reading about such things. The kids, however, did not.

It goes on to talk briefly about the history and building of the statue, but they don't really get into any of the tidbits of history... like the fact that the pedestal wasn't built when she arrived from France, or what an amazing engineering feat she was for the time. Interestingly the size and dimension of Liberty are barely mentioned. She's huge; one eye is 2.5 ft across. The activities they suggest are ok for a group setting, but I don't know that they would keep the attention of a smaller group of younger students. When we learned about Liberty last year, we cut out two eyes and an index finger (8ft) just to get an idea of how big she is.

In a nutshell, I think this is a great springboard. If you're stuck on a topic and need facts or ideas for group activities, this is a great place to start. They use reputable sources for their information, and they cover a wide range of topics the American Revolution to What It Means to Be an American.

I also like that their sidebars are full of great historical quotes. It's a small detail, but again, I enjoy reading such things. :)

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same." ~Ronald Reagan

Head over to AHEF, and check them out!

And don't forget that this product is FREE! You can request a free CD or download it here. If you prefer a hardcopy, you can purchase a printed version with a binder for $19.95 per level.

Be sure to read what other TOS Crew members are saying about this product by clicking here.


*I received this product free of charge so that I may provide my opinion of it. No other compensation was received.

Scarecrows

We're a little behind schedule here. Last weekend Ella and I finally made our scarecrows while the boys played football in the yard. She colored their heads while I put them on the hay bale.

The heads have since blown off so we have 3 headless scare crows on our front porch. Is that strange?

Fall Fest

TOS Review A Young Scholar's Guide to Composers

I received an electronic copy of A Young Scholar's Guide to Composers from Bright Ideas Press. This 300+ page book contains all the information and resources you'll need for a more than adequate study of Composers from six different eras of music.

This curriculum includes:
• 32 Weekly Lessons
• 26 Bios of Famous Composers
• 6 Eras of Music Explained
• Easy-to-Use Comparative Timeline
• Easy-to-Use Maps
• Composer Info-Cards & Game Directions• Note-taking Pages
• Quizzes or Student Review Pages
• Answer Keys
• Listening Suggestions
• Intricate Coloring Pages
• Resource Lists of Books and Music for further reading

Click here to view the table of contents and sample pages from the book.

A Young Scholar's Guide to Composers is nicely laid out in bite size chunks so it's easy to make it a regular part of your school day without being overwhelming or requiring a lot of prep from mom.

I printed the section titled 'The Contemporary Period' to match our history studies. We began by reading a short but informative explanation of the people and ideas that shaped the music of this period. My kids are a little young to take notes while I'm reading so we went over the Note-taking Pages after I read the section to them, and we answered the questions together as a review.

What I appreciated most about this section is that the authors pointed the reader back to God; noting that while men may have new ideas that influence those around them, God and His word are unchanging. They also clearly presented the Gospel reminding us 'that we are responsible for our actions and that although we have a sinful nature, God can save us from our sin through Jesus' work on the cross.'

The first contemporary composer discussed is Scott Joplin who, though influenced by Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven, played ragtime music. In three and a half pages we read not only about Joplin but also an explanation of ragtime music. Hank and Ella enjoy looking at pictures while reading so I got a couple of books from the library and read those as well.

Ella really enjoyed the coloring sheets. I have to say they are very well done and interesting to look at. They're not just headshots but directly related to the musician - for example, the coloring sheet for John Williams, who composed many movie scores, shows movie reels with scenes from some of his more famous movies like Indiana Jones.

There are also timeline activities, templates to make composer flash cards, and templates to make Jeopardy and Bingo games. The suggested grade levels are 4th - 8th, and I agree. My kids are younger, and they did enjoy it. But I can see older kids benefitting most from this. I think even high school-aged kids would enjoy it as an introductory course.

If you're looking for a composer study, look no further. I think you'll be quite pleased with this one. While you're at it, be sure to check out the other products offered by Bright Ideas Press; several were reviewed by other TOS Crew members.

You can purchase this as a paperback book for $34.95 or as a CD-ROM book for $29.95.

You can also read reviews of this product written by other TOS Crew members by clicking here.

**I received this product for free so that I may offer my honest opinion of it. No other compensation was made.