Home School Product Reviews

My children ages 5, 7, and 9 are really enjoying this product, Number Drill! We have only been using it for a couple of weeks-but it is a real hit. They look forward to doing their math drills. The graphics are very cute, and not at all distracting (also no sound, which can also cause a distraction). They like earning the different awards, and checking the award wall to see how they’ve done. The program itself is very easy to navigate through because of the simplicity of the layout. Much better for our family than other math drill software we have used. In short…We Love It!

Right out of the box, my children loved these balls! The Oball Jelly was perfect for my 9 month old to play with, while my 3 year old quickly latched onto the Big Oball. That left the Really Big Oball for my 6, 5 and 4 year olds to share, but they liked it so much, I ordered two more today! These are toys that kids will never tire of playing with, and they are very durable, so they are a great value. Thanks for a great find, Timberdoodle!

September (mother of 7)

I love these colored pencils!! My kids love them! The colors are more vibrant and there are more colors than a normal set of colored pencils. They are easier to use. Because they are a little softer, you can do a lot more with shading and blending. At first I thought that these were way too expensive for and art supply for kids but, they are well worth the money and I will buy them again. Good supplies really do encourage kids to be creative. My children love to use these and use them all the time.

This course (All American History) is very easy to use and works well with middle school to early high school students. I like the lay out, the illustrations and the activities in the student activity book. I would like to see more details included in the text, especially for high school students. However, the extra activities suggested do fill in some of those details. I definitely would recommend All American History for a good overview of U. S. history. If you have a history loving student, just require more extra credit!

This series (Daily 6-Trait Writing) has offered me a solution for boys that hate writing. It covers fundamental writing skills in a manner that has been manageable for my boys. Four days a week, there is a practice worksheet that requires relatively small amounts of writing. For the fifth day’s assignment, the child is asked to bring together the work done earlier in the week. Much of the writing will have already accomplished, and will simply need to be added to and polished a bit. This series is a good way to develop strong writing skills in the elementary/early middle school years. I expect to be able to smoothly transition into a more advanced writing program when the time comes.

Geopuzzles Set

I highly recommend these Geopuzzles. My son has been doing them for 2 years now and still has not lost interest. He challenges himself to dump 1-5 puzzles out and put each continent together. He has learned geography in a fun way and has integrated the shapes of countries so well that he will be eating a graham cracker and tell me, ‘Mom, look; Ghana!’ I nod and smile and think, I need to do those puzzles with him more often! The only down side that I can see is that the very big countries like China are in several pieces instead of one like all the others, thwarting the ability to feel the shape which is the geopuzzles’ greatest accomplishment. It is an excellent tool for learning the geography of the world.

The following is a review originally posted on http://homeschoolfrolic.blogspot.com.

My friend, BB, is probably going to show up on this blog at one time or another. She’s making the decision to homeschool (Luke, her oldest, is five) and is exploring this possible future for her and her family with a great deal of anticipation and trepidation. Sound familiar?

She is very curious about materials that I use, so I promised her a few reviews. Here’s the first one.

I love this product. I am not necessarily a Charlotte Mason home educator, but I have to say I am very impressed with this language arts book for numerous reasons.

1) The artwork. I know, I know, I am just one of the crowd. Most of the reviewers at Timberdoodle (where I purchased it) said the same thing because it is true! My children love looking at the pictures, talking about the pictures, creating their own narratives about the pictures. Even three year old Emeline participates in this part of our studies. I am exceedingly impressed that the author picked artwork by the masters. Thank you for not dumbing down our children.

2) I love the questions after the artwork and the poetry. Allow me to step onto my English teacher soapbox for a moment. Picture, if you will, a grade 11 classroom where all the students have been divided into very small groups (four max) to discuss the book their group has been reading. These books are not erudite, alienating, or over-their-heads. They were handpicked by me in a variety of genres to actually appeal to the high school crowd of non-readers (including things like Louis L’Amour and Orson Scott Card and Andromeda Strain). The students liked the books. The students also liked me–and this is important for this example. We’d been together through the evil research paper and perfect essays and Bohemian poetry. Trust me, we had a very tight bond and it was the end of the year and the students were more than willing to do what I asked.

So I asked these students, whom I loved and had worked with all year, to get into their book groups and discuss what they had read so far. After all the noise of moving around desks and shuffling papers, the room was silent. They had no idea how to discuss literature. They weren’t trying to be disrespectful, they just didn’t know what to do. After the first wasted fifteen minutes, I started producing helpful prompt questions. That would generate a sentence or two, and then, nada. Nothing. Zilch. They were quiet or off-topic within three minutes.

This might not seem like a huge problem to some people but think about this: most of the world’s most profound questions and ideas are found in literature. If you can’t discuss literature, how can you discuss ideas? If you can’t discuss ideas, how can you learn to think for yourself?

I propose that you cannot. And we all know that if you can’t think for yourself, other people will do your thinking for you.

The ability to discuss literature is critical in so many ways. Suffice it to say, I started having mini book discussions at the beginning of each class where I modeled what happened around my family’s dinner table all through my growing up years. I learned that knowing how to discuss what you read is a learned skill. Teach it to your children!

3) After each poem, there is an opportunity for the children to draw what they pictured. When I first introduced the book to my 1st grader and pre-k boy, I gave them new scribblers and pencils. (Then I had to run downstairs and find a scribbler for my three year old who felt left out.) They carefully and lovingly wrote their names on the inside cover and then waited anxiously for what came next. We looked at the first bit of artwork, talked about it, took turns telling our own version of the story of what happened leading up to the moment in the picture.

Then we moved on to the poem, “Stopping by the Woods” by Robert Frost. After I read the third line my children, quite of their own accord, started drawing what they were hearing. It was so natural for them. Creating a tangible reminder of what they pictured in their head was important to them and certainly cemented the ideas into their young brains. Creating art is naturally and gracefully included in this manual.

4) The grammar is basic, quick, and painless. I don’t believe in rushing young children into learning “concepts.” When a child turns eight, you can start to formalize your instruction a little bit. Before that, you are better off (IMHO) to keep their interest in learning high and keep close tabs on when they are ready for something new. Nothing turns brains off faster than grammar. Unless you’re like me–extremely sick. My children love everything about the poetry and artwork and they don’t hate the grammar. That’s awesome. Queen (the author) keeps things very simple and age appropriate. I think it is a practically perfect language arts primer.

In some reviews, people mentioned that they didn’t like the quantity of copywork. I also think the amount of copywork is overkill and I’ve already mentioned that my daughter hates writing. That is an easy problem to fix though–don’t make your child do all the copywork. Miriam writes two sentences a week. She acts like I’m killing her, but then she has fun reading through the poem to pick her favorite lines to copy.

Also, the book can be used as a workbook, but since I’m all about reduce, reuse, and save money, I just do all the assignments in a scribbler.

This line of language arts books are available for numerous age groups. It isn’t as easy as you’d expect to pick the right book for your child’s age. I purchased Language Lessons for the Very Young 1, recommended for ages 6-8. Miriam, my first grader, is doing all of it, including the grammar. My pre-K (5 yr) son is doing all the art/poetry narration stuff, but he loses interest in the grammar sections. That’s fine with me. I’m happy with that arrangement. However, for Luke, and other kindergarteners, there is Language Lessons for Little Ones 2 (for ages 4-6) and Language Lessons for Little Ones 3 (for ages 5-7). Based on my experience, I would get Cowen the Little Ones 2.

Here’s the link to Timberdoodle. All the Sandi Queen language arts materials can be found under the language arts link.

Hope this was helpful and not just long-winded!

A big thank you to the Frolic and Farce blog for allowing us repost her review.

This (Uncle Josh’s Outline Maps) has been a fantastic resource for our whole family. We use it together with an atlas. I assign one area of the world (Europe, the Middle East, etc..) for about a month to my high schoolers. Their assignment is to fill all the countries on the map every day, with the help of the atlas as needed. By the end of the month, they are supposed to know those countries without looking. It is virtually painless and while I got a few complaints at first, now just knowing where all those countries are that are mentioned in the news or in a prayer letter makes them feel quite knowledgeable. They love it when I am wondering where a certain country is and they get to tell me. We have also used this in history and Bible as needed. It is great to be able to just print the appropriate map and be ready to fill it in with whatever it is we are studying. A fantastic resource!

I Love Teaching Textbooks! I have only been doing it for a few weeks now and its great! I like to do school on my own with SOS and the one thing I was having real trouble with was math. It didn’t help me too much because they weren’t explaining it to me by someone actually speaking and showing you how to do it. This does. You can chose whether you want to watch the lesson or read it, or do both. In the video which is on CD you get to watch a screen that looks like a textbook. The guy teaching talks in a way that makes you think its just a friend talking to you. He shows how you would do a problem and explains it. Then after the lesson you do the problems in the actual Textbook (you can even doodle a little because they have some funny drawings in it). After you do the problems you grade your answers. I have never had so much fun with math, it makes me think math is even fun!

Horizons Math 3 Grade Curriculum

My son has ADD making school very difficult. The Horizon program has short exercises that spiral so he is able to do a variety of exercises quickly. The program (Horizons Math 3) doesn’t dwell on the same material over and over again. His math is his best subject as a result. The other advantage of this program is that it is so gradual that it practically teaches itself.