Weekly wrap up 12/16/16 Book Review and wrapping up

Coop ended this week so we had lots of things to wrap up for our classes.  Kids and I will still be working and finishing up our work at home so we can take about 10 days off school beginning the 24th:)

I was asked to do a book review back in September and we have just finished.  Took a bit longer to complete due to life getting busy.  I just finished it and it was an excellent book and the book came with an additional website to add more information to the book.

IF you are going to do a unit study on Oceana and love to include books in your home schooling, this book is an excellent addition.   This story tells the story of two young princes and the mythology of their island.  The book includes sibling rivalry, some magic and lots of adventure.  There are lots of Polynesian words interspersed throughout the book that are fun to learn.  The author also has a website that you can go to for further information.  Included are 2 study guides  that include additional information about the islands, geography, animals and history of the islands.  The author includes activities and discussion questions that require additional thinking and research.  I would put these study guides at a upper middle school level (although the author does not specify this)  There is even a mini quiz that you can use if you like!

MarioFan and I enjoyed this book and did many of the discussion questions and activities to round out our mini unit.  **I received this book free for a review--all thoughts and opinion are freely given and are based on how my family incorporated the book into our homeschool**


MarioFan and I have been working on learning about Inclines and working on making a few knee models and doing several experiments.

We compared a small incline to a larger inclined  as well as looked around the house for additional things that we use as inclines and why and how they make a difference to our lives and help make some jobs easier

We went to six Flags for their holiday park gathering on what it seemed to me as the coldest day of the year so far.   BURRRRRRR

We are beginning to work on our Christmas baking but still have lots more to do 

The kids performed their Christmas piano recitals and I will be posting them next week:)
Right now I am in the thick of Christmas preparations, wrapping presents and the kids want to do more cookie baking:).  Hope you are having a great week and not stressing out over the holiday madness!

Our America...The Civil War Adventure Book review

The sixth book in the Our America series has been released!!  Once again I was asked to do a book review for the author Susan Kilbride.  I love using these books as an introduction to a history topic and it just so happens we are beginning to enter into our Civil War unit right now!  The kids love the additional fun activities that Mrs. Kilbride has on her website and we have done many of them with her other books in this series.

 One neat fact of these books are some of the characters are actual ancestors of the author that lived during this time period.  I always have the kids read the historical notes at the end of the book as additional details and facts of the story are given or explained.  For example, the story of Jim the slave, who escaped North and then returned to his master in the south and pretended he was grateful to be a slave again so that he could help his family escape, was a real documented story in history and it brought lots of discussion with my children.  Another fact that the historical notes brought to our attention was the idea that not all slave owners were farmers or plantation owners, instead they were slave owners who hired out their slaves to work for others in return for money.  Sort of like buying an investment property and living off the returns.  That was another great discussion I had with my children.

This books continues with Finn and Ginny looking for their parents who were lost in time and they end up witnessing many of the important battles of Gettysburg during the Civil War! This book is full of fun, exciting nail biting action that will hold your child's attention to the very end.  These books are geared for ages 8-13, but younger kids would be able to manage these books if strong readers.  I won't give away the ending but we were left wondering if there will be any more in this series...we certainly hope so!!

Some activities on Mrs Kilbride's website that you can do with your children to help bring the era to life include:

Taffy making ( my kids are dying to do this one!)
making snow candy
Learning how to making emergency splints and using cloth bandages
making spy balloons as well as many more hands on activities

Right now Mrs Kilbride is having a give away on her site with 5 lucky people winning a digital copy of her first book Our America series...The Pilgrim adventure.  The contest ends July 12, please go here to enter for your chance to win!

The Civil War adventure is on Amazon and can be found at this link!  You can purchase the paperback version for just $7.95 or read it free on Kindle unlimited if you have a subscription.

My kids and I have really enjoyed this historical novel series and love the many activities that go with them!

Disclosure:  I was given this book for the sole purpose of an honest review.  All thoughts and opinions were given freely and are my own opinion.

Escape from Sudan--Book Review

I was Contacted by Amanda Dicianni via email and asked if I would review a new book that she had written.  Once she told me it was about Africa I was very interested.  My family and I had the great privilege a few years ago to visit a country in Africa and we hope to be able to go back one day.    My husband has visited many areas in Africa for his job so he was very familiar with this particular country and crisis.

Escape from Sudan is about a teenage boy named Elijah Bwoko and his family who are torn apart during the war in Sudan.  It is about his struggle to survive, reconnect with his sister, and immigrate to America.  There are many adversaries he and others must overcome to achieve their goal!  While the story must touch on some violence,which is so prevalent in this part of the world, it is done so that is easy for a younger reader to manage.  There are several nail biting moments when you wonder if Elijah is ever going to overcome all his obstacles!

While on vacation I read the book and I admit to not fully understanding the conflict in Sudan.  While reading this book, I saw so many opportunities that I can have with my children to discuss the violence, as well as some philosophical  questions that the book brings up. For example, is it really the best thing for Westerners to buy slaves in order to free them or does this only encourage the slave traders?  I don't want to give too much away but after I read that, my husband and I had quite a discussion about it!  This book was a great introduction for children to understand the Sudanese War!

My children have not read this book yet, but it is on my list for our school year.  I foresee us doing a complete country study and including this book as one of the resources.  While it is a fictitious story it is is very relative to the crisis of many people of that area.  I personally think this book is geared for the elementary and middle school age group!  I would love to see a follow up story about Elijah and his family and how they adapted to their move to the United States.

About the Author Amanda Dicianni found from the back of the book:

"Amanda first encounter the Sudanese in 1999 when she taught English to the Sudanese refugees at a school in Egypt.  She earned  her degree in Literary Writing from Oral Roberts University and enjoys traveling the world helping those in need and telling them about Jesus."

Disclaimer:
I was given this book free for the sole purpose of providing an honest review.  All thoughts are given freely and are my own opinion.

Escape from Sudan can be found on Amazon for $6.99 paperback or $2.99 Kindle

Homeschool Planner review

I received an opportunity to review a Homeschool Planner called the "Unplanner" by Tavia who blogs over at the Unplanned Homeschooler  .  I have tried several planners in my seven years of homeschooling and have never found one I like, mainly because most have endless topics and pages of things that need to be filled out and it just frightens me looking at them!  I usually start them but after a month give up because I am spending so much time planning every aspect of my daily life that I become overwhelmed!  I need a planner that focuses solely on homeschooling and nothing else!  Dare I say it, I don't need inspirational/biblical quotes, and meal planning pages etc... in my homeschooling planner!  The Unplanner is right up my alley, simple and to the point with no additional pages of fluff! YEAH!!!

The unplanner cost $6.49 and you can customize for up to six students and covers 13 months starting in July and ending in July perfect for those of us who homeschool year round, like me!   I received the PDF version for this review but the purchase unplanner according to Tavia blog is professionally bound in a convenient 6x9 inch paperback, perfectly sized to toss in your bag and carry with you wherever you go.

The planner consists of 4 major sections that have introduction pages to each section to explain how to use the sections.  The sections include Attendance,  calendar (to record your appt or the crazy schedule that your kids keep LOL), curriculum planning/review, and learning adventures (otherwise known as Field trips)! 

The only thing that I need to add is a Book reading log, since I do like to keep track of what my kiddo are reading!

If you are looking for a simple, easy to record Homeschool planner that is focused just on your homeschooling needs this may be the planner for you!  Go to The Homeschool Unplanner to purchase your copy

Disclaimer:
I received a PDF version of this planner for free and all opinions and thoughts are mine and are freely given based on what I thought of the planner:) under my review!

Geography Review--Crameye

Right before Christmas I contacted this company and asked if they would consider letting me review their new geography story books.  We love traveling and learning about new countries, customs, and cultures that I thought this might be a good additional resource to use.  This program is in two parts: the first part is the actual story.  The story tell an entertaining tale about a young homeschooled boy, named Crameye, his family and his friends learning about a country including many unique customs relating to a country.  The books are very entertaining to children and not written dryly with a bunch of dates, instead they are filled with jokes and wry humor that kids will LOVE.  The book on Finland included a mystery that the kids in the story solved.   My kids and I were nearly 3/4 of the way through the book when we realized we missed a very important clue and that made the kids laugh. The second book was about living in Taiwan and the adventures that Crameye took around town.  The second part of the program is in the teachers lounge and computer lounge here the kids can discover more information about the country in a fun and entertaining way.  I included many of the activities we did below!

 It has taken me a little bit to write up this review as I was waiting on the Teacher lounge to open up so I could use their teacher books that went with the story books.  The program is still being built and the teacher workbooks are still being written and added to the site at this time.  I have had the pleasure of dealing with one of the founders, Andrew,  of this program via email and customer service has been quick, helpful and always friendly.

The program is call Adventurous Mailbox and contains eight books, they arrived in a neat sturdy box!

along with some top secret forms

Each child receive a letter along with a card to access their computer lounge where additional resources can be found while using the books

The kids were so excited after reading their letter that we drove in to read the first book on Finland  together!

Currently the countries in the series include  Finland, Taiwan, Brazil, Thailand, Greece, Tanzania,  two books on Peru.
I am told more books will be added over time!

The books are written in a very fun way and the kids have enjoyed the many adventures taken in each country.  Since the teacher lounge was not open when we read the Finland book we used other resources to help make our country study complete! However once the teacher lounge opened up, I did not need to do that which helps a busy homeschool Mom.

The computer site is full of interesting blogs, written by Crameye and his friends,  facts, forums, food, games and resources that relate to the countries

My kids explored the site and loved it, kids can communicate with other children, attach their own work the site to share with others and even ask questions!  In the teachers lounge educators can even add their own unique lesson plans to help make countries studies come alive.  I contacted Andrew and informed him of our Finland and Taiwan country crafts that the children completed and he said he will be adding them to the site:)

Once the teacher lounge opened up I downloaded 4 packets of activities to complete for the second book on the country Taiwan.  The teacher lounge is continually being updated and according to Andrew  "The vision is to continually enhance and refine each country's lessons, covering all possible types of lessons. Eventually, each country's lesson page will host not just the company's lessons and links to what we find online, but also user-tested lessons submitted by members of the Teacher's Lounge."

In one packet included information on how to understand the tonal Chinese language and kids got to practice writing 'I Love You" in Chinese using step by step instructions 

  

MarioFan's attempt at writing Chinese

Firedrake's version

Even I had to give it a try!

After reading the book there are comprehensive questions the kids answered, according to the website this section is aimed at 4th to 5th grade level.

Vocabulary lessons -- which I loved since I am lacking that in my homeschooling this year!
The website explains this section as follows "The 30 words per adventure book are split into two lists of 15. Each list has four exercises. The two lists are then combined in the end for an additional three exercises. Counting the exercise of finding each vocabulary word in the text on each list, we offer a total of 13 vocabulary exercises per adventure book (104 in all, 240 vocabulary words per eight-book series)."

these were great fun worksheets to learn vocabulary!

The information was given in so many ways to help solidify the vocabulary words!

There was a writing packet to encourage kids to write factual or fictional writing about the country.  I had my kids write a short report on Dragon races since that was one of the main story lines in the book.  We had fun learning together about this custom.

there is a writing checklist for kids to refer too that is common core aligned if  you are interested in that as well

As well as other idea to get children's brain thinking regarding their writing assignments!

Another activity that the kids and I enjoyed was researching on the web to find answers regarding the country.  I really like that the information was not spoon fed to the children, they needed to look for the information and that helps with retention!

I really like these books and loved the teacher lounge books for the first time I didn't need to run to the library to gather up countless books on a country! It was all right there.  Every geography program I have tried in the past has not measured up.  The only thing I added on my own was flag and map work,  a country craft and a country meal.  My kids enjoyed the books and all the assignments! The books are geared for elementary and lower middle school.  My fifth and and seventh grader had no problems completing the many assignments and it was easy for me to adjust the assignments to meet the kids individual skills and needs!


Right now the company is running a special discount just for homeschoolers.  Use the coupon code HSadventure at checkout and you will receive access to the Teacher's lounge for free!  This is usually a $20 fee.  You will also receive a $10 off the Adventurer Package.  The total cost of the program is just $69 and you will receive series one (which includes 8 books), lifetime access to Crameye's World and gain access to 100's of lessons in their Teacher's Lounge!  This code is good until the end of June!

Disclaimer:
I receive these books for free in exchange for an honest review.  All thoughts and comments are honestly given and are based on how my children and I felt and managed the program during the trial period.

Our America Series ... The Pioneer Adventure

And my first GIVE AWAY!!!!

I was once again given the opportunity to review Susan Kilbride new historical fiction book.  My children have read the entire 5-book series so far and really enjoy them!  These books are written with fictional characters Finn and Ginny, who travel back in time to experience real historical events while searching for their missing parents.  What is great about these books are that many of the events Finn and Ginny experience are directly related to what the author's ancestors experienced during these times.  I just love that personal connection!  In this book Finn and Ginny are on a wagon ride heading west to Oregon.  Susan Kilbride writes that all of the events in this book are true but did not occur in the same wagon ride!

The recommended ages for these books are 7 to 12 year old.  They average about 100 pages and have short chapters, but are fill of historical events.   Another plus about these books is that the author, Susan Kilbride, has put together for free, additional activities on her website that you can use for each book.  I have done several posts on the activities the children have done for each book and we love the extra activities!   You can check out her website here!

You can look back at some of the posts I have done on her other books here (just click on the links)

Pilgrim Adventures
King Phillips War Adventures
Salem Adventures activities

Revolutionary War Adventure review

As you can see from these past post we have enjoyed reading the books and doing many of the activities that Susan Kilbride includes on her website.

I am excited that Susan Kilbride has allowed me to offer a give away of a 3 her books to one lucky winner!  King Phillips War, Salem Witch trials and Revolutionary War.  The lucky winner can choose to receive the books electronically or receive a hard copy in the mail.  Just leave a comment below and the kids and I will draw a name out of a hat August 25th.  

If you can't wait and must try one of her books right away, (which I really recommend) Mrs. Kilbride is having a Amazon sale on the first book for $2.99 beginning today August 4th!

K5 online math and reading Review

I was contacted by K5 to do a review on their reading and math computer program.   I agree to give their program a trial with my two children, as I was considering changing math programs to a computer based program for my youngest anyway.   Firedrake is actually in 6th grade but I had her try the assessment portion of the program to see where she fit in.  I was very pleased with her results and  she scored very well over all, showing the most deficit in the area of geometry, which makes sense since that is not heavily emphasized in our current math program.  MarioFan also did well placing exactly where he should be 4th grade, except for 2 areas, geometry and phonics.  We spent the next 6 weeks giving this program a thorough workout.

Over all the program is easily laid out and very simple to use.  The fact that I didn't need to call tech support the entire time I used the program speaks volumes for the ease of use.  Once I set the program up on the kid's computer they were able to log on and complete the day's assignments easily.  The time spent on each assignment varied from 10 mins to 20 mins and that depended on the kids energy level on the day and how they understood the lesson.

I was able to easily access the kids daily progress on the reports.  I could easily see how they scored and what they were learning. 

The graphics of this program are excellent and the speaking voice is very clear.  

If there children needed addition assistance on the days lesson there were help buttons the re explained the lesson.

I sat down several times with the kids to look at the lessons they were doing for the day.  The only concern my oldest had was at times there was too much talking in the program,  and she wanted to skipped over it and go straight into the lesson and there was no way for her to do that.  However, I thought that was a plus because she likes to jump into her assignments and doesn't always thoroughly understand what the directions are.  This forced her to slow down, although it also frustrated her.  Not sure what the middle ground would be.  My son on the other hand did well with the directions and had no issues with the length of the explanations.  Personally I did not think the length of the lesson explanations were long at all.

I thought the reports were very concise and easy to read so I knew exactly where the kids stood.    While Firedrake tested in the 6th grade, she did place low for geometry.   In less than 3-4 weeks she tested out of the geometry/measurement part of the program and went further into the operations.  This program used a slightly different way to reached the answers for fractions and this was a slight source of frustration.  IF you start with this program this should not be a problem.  My daughter found it confusing and since she understand the currant way we are teaching fractions she did not want to learn a different way.  Also my daughters learning style is to do most of her math in her head, this program required each step to be done on the computer, so while she already may know the answer she still had to insert the numbers in the correct locations for each problem before she could type the answer.  This frustrated her a bit.   I sat down with her several times and thought the programs explanation were very clear and in someways easier than our current math program.  My son did much better with this type of program.  It is all about knowing your kids learning styles!

Firedrake tested out of 3 of the reading components but we placed her in the high 5th grade for reading and vocabulary simply to see how she would do.

Daily reports told me exactly how she was doing and what assignment were completed and the grade she received.

This daily log can be kept for your school records.

Progress reports also let me know how much time was spent on each lesson plan

and let me know when she had completed and passed the program levels.

MarioFan loved this program and for the first time in history of "school" would run upstairs to get started on the K5 program first thing in the morning! I often caught him doing an extra lessons, which sometimes put us a bit behind on our other lessons:)  not a bad problem to have!  MarioFan did much better with the math component of this program and the visual aids of this computer program.  It really appealed to him.  It also allowed him to use the computer to complete every step of the math problem which was a great help as I believe he has dysgraphia, which is a huge problem when it comes to math and lining up math numbers.  In the short time we worked on this program I noticed he was beginning to understand multiplication facts so much better and this is something we have been struggling with all year!!!

IN just a few short weeks we saw documented progress for both MarioFan.

In addition to the computer program the site has free worksheets for K through 5 for grammar, reading, cursive and math.  They offered a free 14 day trial and several sample lessons for each grade so you can get a better feel for their services.  There is an free assessment on their page.  They do warn you that the assessment component of this program takes a little longer than the normal lessons do.  My kids had no problems completing the assessment in one sitting.

Overall I really like this program! I am seriously thinking of continuing with this program thru the summer with my son and taking a break from our current math program.   This program motivated my son and he was able to work thru problems that normally cause us great grief in our other math program.

If you would like to check out the program for your children please go to this website:  K5 online 

Disclaimer:
I was given a 6 week trial of this program in exchange for an honest review.  All thoughts and comments are honestly given and are based on how my children felt and managed the program during the trial period.

Homeschool Minecraft

A new Minecraft computer program for Homeschoolers written by a Renita who is a wonderful homeschooler and blogs over at Krazy Kuehner Days.  My kids tried it out this month and LOVED it.  I loved that it is going along with what we are studying right now in our history lessons and I am seeing my kids carrying over some of what they learned with me into their creative builds.  I have been able to use this class as a reward for the children after completing our regular work.

Each class is a month long and is broken down into 1 week periods.

First the kids are given readings and videos to watch on the weekly topic

Next the kids are given one or two weekly builds related to their reading assignments

Extra assignments are offered for kids and parents to do at home if they chose.  Lastly there is a weekly quiz that the kids complete.

For this class the kids made explorer cards for 2 of the explorers they learned about

We also completed a map of North America and what areas different countries were claiming as theirs.   there were plenty of other activities to chose from but these are just the two I chose:)

Firedrake while building her James town fort added the names of the original settlers to her fort wall on her own accord along with their known skill or title:)

She even remember that there was one grave buried outside the fort based on our field trip to the fort way back in Oct:)

MarioFan built a viking ship...and I was please to actually see him building things instead of continually blowing things up which is he usual habit when on his private mine craft system.  In just a few short weeks he is becoming  more creative with his builds.  At first he could only build in squares and rectangles but now he is getting the hang of building in different shapes and visualizing his builds and taking much more time and thought into his builds.  Considering this child is not really a artsy kid this is a huge improvement:)

Firedrake's viking ship and fountain of youth which is distinctly shaped like a water breathing dragon:)  Since no one knows what the fountain of youth looks like, the kids are encourage to be creative builders.

Still not convinced that mine craft can be educational-- here is another resource completely different than this site that gives even more information why mine craft could be used successfully as an educational tool:)  I needed to convince my husband of this point myself when I wanted to give these classes a try:)

Pros of the classes:

1. inexpensive

2. educational lesson plans that can be incorporated into your lessons
safe environment with other children to build and play (this is something my kids have wanted to do but I have always been resistive out of concerns of who is online).  This class is carefully monitored by an adult I trust and after observing a few classes, I now allow my children to log on during their free time:)

3. great consumer service--I signed up for these classes the week my husband was out of town and I am not a computer whiz so I had to call several times to get the computer working-- this was completely in my error not the system and the admin politely walked me thru every step so I could get it working:)  Thanks Renita:)

4.  the program is built so there can be no destructive behaviors which was very important to me and to my children.  No one can tear down their buildings!

Cons:
I can only think of two and it isn't the fault of the class.

1. If you have two children and both wish to be online at the same time you need 2 licenses for mine craft.  Prior to this we only had one license and the kids shared their online time.  Once that was sorted out the class was smooth sailing for us:)

2.  If you have a child who tends to be screen addicted or obsessed about mine craft you will need to carefully monitor their online time.  My husband and I have had to put time limits on the kids computers as they were beginning to sneak into the computer room to play.  Since I have one child who would rather play on the computer than anything else I have to be vigilant in that area:)!

I thought these classes were so good I volunteered to do this review!  These thoughts are all mine and I wasn't asked to do this review.  I wanted to pass along a great 'new to me' resource using my kids favorite online game.  New classes are being added all the time and there is also classes that may appeal to girls such as the American girl series:).  why don't you head over and take a peek:)
Homeschool with Mine craft