Home School Product Reviews

Do you think that you’ve tried every math program on the market for homeschoolers? Well, if this isn’t one that your student has tried and you need a tried and true, easy to use Algebra program. Bit the bullet and invest in this easy-to-use, very thorough, and academically challenging algebra program. You won’t be sorry! Our daughter had given up on Algebra, ‘Will I really use it anyway?’, until we ordered this from Timberdoodle last fall. Math is now her favorite subject and we’ve been homeschooling 10 years and she’s NEVER said that before!

Complete Collection of Maps

A wonderful collection of blackline maps, teacher answer maps, Knowledge Quest’s MapTrek is the perfect resource for World History Maps. I found the lesson plans an added bonus.  We are using Map Trek maps in our timeline notebook as well as our Geography and History units, I love being able to print just the maps I need and have copied the maps to my e-reader for lesson planning without printing. A great resource for all ages.

My almost-three-year-old boy has loved this book!  We limit ourselves to three activities a day, as recommended, but I allow my boy to glue scrap pieces of paper at random after we finish the defined activities.  Over the past month, his gluing skills have grown tremendously, including being able to accurately judge how much glue he will need for each piece.  I like this book better than the Kumon pasting book, which is smaller and seems designed more for younger toddlers (nearer age 2) than for older toddlers.  At any rate, there are a wide variety of activities – shape matching, following instructions, solving puzzles – and attractive artwork in the Big Skills line, and I will definitely purchase more of these books for my kids!

Perfect! I wouldn’t change a thing with this book. My 6yo finished it today, and we enjoyed every lesson. The print size gradually changes as the book progresses; the black & white pictures helped my son to understand the story, but not distract him; each lesson can be done as slowly or quickly as you and your child need it to be. In order to use this for the next kids, I used tracing paper on the few writing exercises in each lesson.

Homeschooler

Pacific Grove, CA

This pencil sharpener works well with regular pencils or artist- quality colored pencils. My sons prefers this particular sharpener because it sharpens quickly without chewing up pencils. The holder can hold a fair bit of pencil gratings until one has time to dispose of them. This item is compact and sturdy, well worth its price.

Horizons Math 4

Wow! Even my son said we had to review this to say how great it is. This from a kid who says he hates math and has found it too frustrating in years past. We tried Singapore in 1st and 2nd (not enough hands-on, too frustrating, not enough review), Seton Homeschool in 3rd (good but not enough review, too boring), and Shiller (no workbook, too much hands-on, too much prep for the teacher–never ended up using the expensive package). Horizons is the greatest! It has good explanations, doesn’t stay on one topic too long….but reviews constantly. So when say long division is introduced, there are a few problems, then there are addition, multiplication, and word problems…often with fun activities like spelling out a secret word or answering a funny riddle. We both appreciate the Bible/religious references, and we are not evangelical people. There are a lot of colors, but not distracting…they enhance. One problem will be in a yellow box, the next in blue. This helps the eye settle on the problem at hand. There are also regular tests, usually 2 pages long, which help him and me see that he certainly does understand the concepts and knows those facts. And he gets good test practice–something he doesn’t get in other subjects much. The one problem is there is SO MUCH to get through! But that is good, as it covers everything, and with great repetition. When my son demonstrates he knows the concept and math facts of a particular set of problems, I let him skip the rest. When he needs more work, he does them all. And we’ll have some pages to do this summer, to keep the facts that often disappear after summer break. This year, my son really enjoys math for the first time and is proud of his accomplishments in it. I can’t say enough good about Horizons Math, grade 4. I only wish we had started with Horizons long, long ago!

Keepers At Home Handbook

I love this little gem of a book. It has great ideas for teaching your daughter all of life’s most basic homemaking skills! Each new skill has book recommendations, projects, and scripture verses to memorize. My daughter and I really enjoy picking a skill and working on it together. It has given her an added incentive to memorize scripture and read the Bible all the way through as well. I have the older version, and can’t wait to see how they improved on the new one! I highly recommend this product! I also have the Contenders book, and like it as well.

Cuisenaire Rods Introductory Set

We used these (Cuisenaire Rods Introductory Set) my son was in first grade.  Later, I got rid of them in a frantic effort to clean out clutter in my house.  A few days later my son was looking for them and became quite disturbed that his math rods had been given away!  Apparently they made a great impression on him, and he really dislikes the plastic rods I replaced them with.   Maybe your kids will like cuisenaire rods as much as my son does.  Timberdoodle’s are wooden and that makes a big difference.

Note from Timberdoodle: Our rod sets are actually a very high-quality plastic, just so you know!

I loved this book! I read it aloud to my 7 year old daughter and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Don’t be put off by the mention of ‘Latin’ in the description, as there is only knowledge of the English language required to read and enjoy this novel. This is really a fascinating look at a slice of Roman/Celtic/Christian history.

Our family loves the Young Explorer Series,the books are wonderfully made.The pictures are great; the information is not dry or stuffy like a lot of text books. It is great for all ages. My kids love the projects. The younger kids and I work on the books together and the older kids do them on their own. The books are very easy to read and understand. We have never been bored with this series. Most importantly they honor God all throughout the books. I never feel like I need to correct anything that has been said. Thank you for having these beautiful books!!