Home School Product Reviews

Still provides hours of enjoyment for my children!

My son asked for this book (Naked Eggs and Flying Potatoes by Steve Spangler) for his 12th birthday and says it was one of the best gifts he ever received. He does experiments out of it all the time. I have had many science experiment books around the house for years, but my children never took an interest in them like this one. My kids, 10, 12, and 14 are always trying something new out of this book and calling us in to see their amazing new find. They have the best fun with it! They are able to do most of the experiments on their own with things that I really do have around the house. I can’t say enough good about it! I am planning to buy another copy or two to give away as gifts.

Okay, I am not as impressed with the 3-D Skeleton puzzle as I thought I would be.  The detail is excellent, but the rib cage was difficult to put together and kept falling apart.  Also, it wouldn’t stay on the stand once we (yes, it took an 11 year old and an adult) got it together.  If I had known how it was, I am not sure I would have purchased this item.

This DVD (Evolution: The Grand Experiment DVD) is an excellent tool for providing children and adults with the biblical perspective on creation. In Evolution, the Grand Experiment, secular scientists acknowledge the obvious problems with evolution. The material accompanies any science curriculum well; we have used it with God’s Design for Life to discuss the amusing historic understandings of spontaneous generation and other flawed concepts of the natural world. Anyone wishing to be informed on the creation/evolution debate should watch this and read the book as well.

I won’t use anything else!

Last year was the first year we tried the (Apologia) notebooking journals, and it was with this one – Human Anatomy and Physiology. I won’t turn back! I used to have the kids take notes and verbally answer some random questions. How boring! This was EXACTLY what we needed to add to complete our science curriculum. My 5th grader remembered SO much more because of this journal and it is something we will keep for review. WELL DONE! I need these for all my subjects!

I used this book last year for my 6th and 2nd graders. It worked beautifully for both of them. I read the lessons aloud to them together, and we did the experiments and activities together. I chose supplemental library books for them at their own levels, and their notebook pages were done at their own levels. My only complaint is that the astronomy section is very light, so I ended up puttting together my own unit using library books. However, since I wanted the majority of the year to be spent on earth science, this was only an inconvenience. We will be using Christian Kids Explore Chemistry this year for my now 7th and 3rd graders.

I have first, second, third, fourth and fifth grade (core curriculum) from Timberdoodle and I love it. I like being able to customize . All my children look forward to school and the faster pace of the daily word problems and geography work great for my busy boys. I don’t like the Story of the world history but its no problem getting something else the Timberdoodle staff is great for your custom order. I’ve tried several other curriculum and this is what we will be staying with!

Loving this book!

I purchased this workbook (Apples Spelling) for my two sixth graders. They needed some extra help with spelling rules. We have been using it for two weeks and I am so impressed. The kids like it because the lessons are easy to read, short and to the point. I like it because they can work independently and there is a good amount of practice but not too much. I am already seeing an improvement in some areas of weakness.

Pretty good for spiral method

I am not a huge fan of the spiral method but we needed something to make sure we had some areas covered for testing. This workbook does a very thorough job of covering a lot of concepts including patterns, fractions and decimals. The directions were easy to follow. It was easy to get a bit lost in the amount of work on each page but overall we have been pleased. We are in our second week using these books and they are a great way to make sure we have covered a lot of topics. I still prefer the mastery method of teaching math but I think this is a great workbook using the spiral method.

Window on the World is a great tool when studying geography. It opens one’s eyes too the different cultures, religions, and (my personal favorite) ways to pray for them using beautiful graphics and helpful facts! I’ve loved how it ushers children to look at the world with compassion, and helps them better understand (and see) those they are encouraged to pray for! Although this has been geared for an older child, I had no problem with gearing it down for my kindergartner. The pictures alone bring out some awesome questions (that lead to awesome conversations). The only thing I would change is that it would cover every culture!

Teaching Textbook Math 5

Wonderful!! My son and I love it!

We bought this (Teaching Textbook Math 5) for our eight year old son who was spending 3 hours a day doing 3rd grade Horizons Math. We just bought it about two months ago and he is half way through with it already! He loves it and so do I! He sits down, listens to the lecture and does the problems in about 20 minutes everyday and I don’t have to do anything!! Teaching Textbooks has certainly made things a lot easier for both of us! We plan to use it from now on for our son and for our daughters also as soon as they are old enough.