Now we have to convince Hank they don't have baby chickens in them so we can eat them.
Hank is 3 ft, 9.75 in and weighs 48 pounds. He likes football.
Ella is 3 ft, 3.5 in and weighs 36 pounds. She likes to play with her friends and go to co-op to see her friends. My social butterfly; we joke that we could drop her off at the moon and she would find someone to play with.
Shane is 3ft, 1 in tall and weighs 34 pounds. He likes Daddy (another shocker). :)
There is so much I can say about this product so I'll just start at the beginning and walk you through it.
Jake and I each had our own log-in information. Once I was logged in, I was able to add my student and select his class. Once Jake was logged in he was directed to an assessment to, well, assess what he did and didn't know about about the subject. In our case, I signed him up for Consumer Math. Once he completed the assessment, he was able to begin working his way through the course.
What I loved about this product is so simple - a Pie Chart. I mean really, how easy peasy can you get? But it was so effective. His pie chart was divided like chapters in a text book- Mathmatic Foundations, Business Foundations, Personal Finance, Interest, and Percents and Their Applications.
So he clicked on Mathmatic Foundations and began working his way through that 'chapter.' And this is not just a multiple guess program. He had to type in the actual calculations and answers for the problems. As he has mastered the topics, the pie slices fill in, and he can move on to the next topic. If he isn't ready for a particular topic, the program will not let him select it so he won't waste time trying to learn something he doesn't have the foundational information to learn.
The program also would have him do periodic reassessments. Now we actually did a 1 Month Free Trial earlier this year before I knew we were going to review this product, and his initial assessment was pitiful - like 17%. As of today (8/21), which is approximately 6 weeks later, his assessment was 62%, and I was very pleased with that rate of progress.
From my account I was able to see his pie chart and the topics he had mastered. His attendance was also listed by day showing the number of minutes or hours he spent in the program, the number of topics he attempted, and the number of topics he mastered.
I could request additional assessments so I could see how he was progressing through the course as a whole. And I could create quizzes by selecting from topics he had mastered, or I could have ALEKS to create the quiz for me. I was also able to print these reports for his portfolio.
Last year we used a very popular CD math course. Jake said he preferred ALEKS because, unlike the CD course where he had to sit and watch the entire explanation for the problem set, with ALEKS he could just do the problem if he knew how to do it. But if he needed an explanation, he could ask for it. He also said the explanations were clear and easy to understand.
ALEKS offers a wide range of math and science courses from 3rd grade math to chemistry. And ALEKS can be purchased month-to-month for $19.95 per month, or $99.95 for 6 months, or $179.95 for 12 months. Family discounts are available for 6 and 12-month subscriptions when purchasing for multiple students.
You can purchase it here and you can read what other TOS Crew Members have to say about it here. This is another 2 thumbs up product!
You can't see them but the bear has sparkly flip flops (I'm looking for a pair in my size)
Happy, happy
With his shorts on backwards
The latest product to come our way is The Quarter Mile Math program. Fun, fun, and more fun. Your kids race either a horse or a drag race car against themselves while doing math drills which range from basic keyboarding to fractional coefficients. They race against their previous five best scores so you can see how they're progressing with each race. 
Web Design for Kids (...and curious grown-ups!) is a DVD class written for kids to teach them HTML and basic web-design. I was doubtful at first that the boys would be able to learn anything useful; I figured Hank would be too young and Jake too old. I was very, very wrong.
The author, Brian Richardson, used to be a middle school computer teacher, and he uses two middle school-aged kids in the video to demonstrate the steps. The video is in a classroom setting, and the 'students' ask questions throughout the video. Mr Richardson then walks you through the answer, demonstrating each step. He also had them make mistakes to see what would (or would not) happen and then walked them through fixing the mistake.
So now you're thinking "HTML?? Who uses that?" Well, anyone who creates websites. Of course almost everyone uses programs like DreamWeaver to do the bulk of their design. If you run into a problem though, you'll need to know how HTML works to fix your webpage. I actually needed to use HTML to make some changes to my blog this summer. To prove web design can be done using only HTML, the author created his website using 95% HTML hand coding. Impressive.
We sat down and watched it one time through. We brought the laptop into the living room and the boys watched it again following each step. Of course Jake had no trouble following the clear, step by step instructions, but I wondered if Hank would get it. He totally did. For the sake of time, I had Jake do the typing, but I had Hank tell him what to type.
They created a handful of fun and creative web pages following the instructions. They were thrilled to pieces at what they were able to do.
Some of the subjects covered in the DVD are:
There is also a Bonus Chapter on File and Folder Management.
A second DVD is scheduled to be released later this year and will cover the following topics:
There will be 3 BONUS sections as well:
