God's Great Covenant, New Testament 1! TOS Review

I recently received a new product from Classical Academic Press called God's Great Covenant, New Testament 1 the Gospels! This product is the third in a series of Bible curriculums intended for 4th grade and up. God's Great Covenant is a full 36 week Bible Curriculum that covers the entire life of Jesus through all four gospels. It also focuses on 4 names of Jesus(Son of Man, God's Servant, the Messiah, and the Son of God). One name is featured for each of the 4 units. There is also a large emphasis on Old Testament prophecies fulfilled by Jesus. The student book starts out with an introduction section that gives a brief overview of the old testament, and sets up the historical, political, and religious period.
 

Each chapter consists of Memory pages( Time lines,Prophecy, Definitions, and Verses.), Story Time(Lessons written in a very conversational tone for students to read on their own. There is also stories included.), Worksheets(there are review pages at the end of each chapter.), and Quizzes(there is one quiz for each chapter located in the back of the student book. You will also find many maps included within the lessons.

   

The Teacher's Edition contains everything that is found within the student book along with the answers. There is also specific notes directed to the teacher to further explain the story time sections. As far as I can tell Students can either read and do the work independently or parents could read along with them if desired.

You can see an example of the Teacher's Edition Pages below! 

   

This Bible Curriculum is very thorough and would make a very in depth study of the gospel for upper elementary or Junior High students.We were unable to actually use God's Great Covenant because I do not have any students within this age range currently, but from what I have seen it looks very good.

If you are interested in learning more about it you can go to the Classical Academic Press website! They have samples available for viewing there as well. 

As far as pricing goes you can get the Student Book for $26.95+SH, and the Teachers Edition for $29.95+SH. They also have a MP3 audio download available of the Story time sections that cost $9.95, or you can buy all 3 as a bundle for $56.95+SH.

Disclaimer:

God's Great Covenant, New Testament 1, student and teachers editions were given to me free of charge in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

To see what other crew members thought visit the Homeschool Crew blog!

Christian Kids Explore, Earth and Space! TOS Review.

We were given the chance to review one of the science books in the Christian Kids Explore series from Bright Ideas Press, and I chose Earth and Space. Buster has been asking to learn about this topic for awhile and other than a few lessons here and there we have not had a chance to dive into it.

Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space is a 30 week long curriculum written by a homeschool mom. The book is broken down into 6 units, 24 lessons, and 6 reviews. The topics include:
 Getting Started, which covers Earth's creation, facts about the earth and its structure.
The Lithosphere, Plates, Caves, Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and Rock Types.
The Hydrosphere, Water Cycle, Oceans, Groundwater, and Glaciers/Icebergs.
The Atmosphere, Introduction, Atmospheric Pressure, Humidity, and Air Composition.
Earth's Weather, Weather, Seasons, Clouds, Precipitation, Thunderstorms, Tornadoes, and Hurricanes.
Beyond Earth, Makeup of the Universe, The Sun, Earth's Moon, and The Eight Planets.

Each of these 6 units contains several lessons as well as a review lesson. The lessons contain in varying amounts, reading, vocabulary, review, activity's, hands on/experiments, notebooking, timeline, daily reading logs, write about it prompts, show what you know/quiz, coloring pages, memory verses, a list of all needed materials for each unit, and some reproducible worksheets found in the appendix.
In the back of the book you will also find a glossary, memorization lists for each unit, scripture memory cards, some supplemental activities, a list of supplemental books for each unit(non fiction and fiction), and an answer key.

Now I will admit when I first saw this textbook it looked pretty dull to me. It is completely black and white and other than the worksheets and coloring pages there are no pictures at all. In the introduction they suggest that you seek out extra books and pictures to add to the study. Due to several weeks of sickness we were only able to complete the first unit but I will share with you now what we thought of it.

Once I started reading the first unit to Buster and Sweetpea I very much enjoyed the lesson. Sweetpea was a bit squirmy with it at first, but I did all of the activities etc. that were suggested and she started to warm up to it. The activities began with using a map to learn the continents and oceans.

This activity you see above was a way for the kids to understand how the earth rotates and revolves around the sun. Sweetpea was in love once we did this. It is one thing to see it visually with a globe, and it is another to be the sun and the earth.

I was also prompted to use a ball of playdoh and a tooth pick to demonstrate the axis of the earth.

The hands on element for the first unit was to make a model of the inside of the earth. So after going over what each layer was called the kids colored each section a different color. Once the coloring was done the circles were stacked and glued to form this model of the earth. On the reverse side they were told to color it like the outside of the earth.

When we finished the unit I gave the kids the review quiz orally and they each did quite well with it.

I asked each of them what they thought of Christian Kids Explore earth and Space and if they would like to continue using it.

Buster said he gave it 4.5 stars and Yes he would like to finish it!

Sweetpea gave it a full 5 stars and said she would love to do it every day!

For me I enjoyed how it was written, the activity suggestions, and that it is creation based. We also decided that we will indeed finish the whole book before we jump into studying anatomy.

According to the Bright Ideas Website this series is intended for grades 3-6, but my K/1st grader very much enjoyed it also. She would not be able to do most of the written work, but it can be easily adapted. You can view samples of Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space here. As far as pricing goes this textbook will cost you $34.95+SH.

Disclaimer;

Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space was given to me free of charge in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

To read more about this and other science books from this series visit the Homeschool Crew blog!

TruthQuest History, TOS Review!

"TruthQuest History is a deep and rich literature-based history study…but with a difference. You will not learn the story of mankind; you will learn the lovestory of mankind. You will not focus on the rise and fall of human civilizations; you will focus on the arrow-straight line of God's unchanging existence, power, love, truth, and plan for civilization. You will not simply 'meet the culture' or 'get the facts;' you will probe the truths of history so deeply that your students will be equipped to change their world!"

I recently received a PDF download from TruthQuest History called, "American History 1(Exploration-1800's)". This particular guide is meant to be used with children from grades 1-5 and is the first part of a 3 part series. TruthQuest also sells a complete set of chronological guides for grades 5-12.

TruthQuest guides are strictly for the study of history and have a small amount of writing thrown in. In this guide you and your student will go on a complete tour of early American history and learn about all of the big events and people. Tougher topics are covered lightly for this age level. There is also an extensive study of Native Americans within this guide. TruthQuest history is unashamedly Christian and has references to God throughout, although not all book suggestions are Christian.

Basically how this guides works is that it serves as a guide, but it is not exactly open and go per say. The PDF begins with an introduction to parents that explains how TruthQuest works, gives suggestions for some helpful books for parents to read in order to brush up on the topic, and also suggests some books that can be used throughout as spines. I noticed that many of these have a decidedly providential view. Within the guide are 52 topics with many subtopics. Basically parents choose any books they want in order to study each topic as they come to it. American History 1 contains a large list of possible books(nonfiction and historical fiction) many of which I own or have heard of before. Each topic begins with a 1-2 page introduction that is written in a very conversational tone, and then there are shorter paragraph long commentaries about some subtopics. Parents are to read the commentaries to the children before delving into the living books they have chosen for the topic. Also included are small boxes called ThinkWrite that offer ideas for writing prompts. At the end of each topic along with the book list there are activity suggestions that basically consist of coloring book suggestions, activity guide suggestions, some toy ideas, and cooking ideas. Each topic also has a short list of audio and film ideas. 

Overall I felt like American History 1 gives a good overview of American history for the intended ages. These guides would be perfect for someone looking for: just History, a basic guideline(especially for the tweekers at heart), something very Christian, living books, and for combining large age groups. I don't think TruthQuest guides would appeal to someone looking for: open and go, hands on, secular, completely non providential, a completely pre-read book list(the author states very clearly that she has not pre-read all suggestions and that parents need to take care when choosing books), something that encompasses multiple subjects, or a more narrow age group focus.

If you are interested in any of TruthQuest's history guides be sure to visit their website to learn more and view samples. You can purchase American History 1 as a PDF for $19.95, or in print for $24.95. They also sell PDF for notebooking and timelines.

Disclaimer:

American History 1 was given to me free of charge from TruthQuest in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

Be sure to check out the Homeschool Crew blog to read more about this and other guides from TruthQuest.

Amazing Animals By Design, TOS Review!

Amazing Animals by Design is a brand new ebook written by one of my fellow crew mates, and I was given the chance to review it recently! This 24 page ebook is full of fun whimsical illustrations of animals as well as many interesting animal facts. The information is presented in a story format from the point of view of a family of 4 visiting a zoo.

As the family travels through the zoo they learn many new and fun facts about the animals they see. The whole story is told from an Intelligent Design perspective. I know from experience it is hard to find books for young children that are creation based. Amazing Animals By Design is intended for a PreK-3rd grade audience, but I feel it would be most interesting for the younger end of that range.

You can purchase Amazing Animals as a PDF download for $7.99, or in paperback form for $8.99.

This book makes a fun informational story about animals for children and I was even able to use the PDF on my NOOK which made it even more handy.

Disclaimer:

A PDF download of Amazing Animals By Design was given to me free of charge in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

To read what other crew members are saying visit the Homeschool Crew Blog!

Action Alert! TOS Review.

As parents we are always hearing how important it is to protect our children online. Action Alert is a downloadable Internet filtering system for kids that provides 8 safety tools for parents.

Action Alert offers two versions, a free version, and a version for $29.99 that comes with the added benefit of multi user protection, fully customizable, and full social network monitoring.

They way Action Alert works is it allows parents to add specific sites to be blocked to Action Alerts  already continuously updated list of unsafe site, or parents can create a list of specific sites that can only be viewed. Action Alert also notifies parents by email or text of any suspicious activity on the protected computer. Other features include time setting abilities, and the ability to be able to go back and view up to 60 hrs of internet browsing.

 

Action Alert has received several awards and even an appearance on the Today Show!

For us this product is been a bit difficult to review because we do not allow any of the kids to really surf the web. I did a bit of surfing myself to see how it worked and I was personally not overly impressed. I searched a few fairly innocent words that I knew had the potential to bring up inappropriate content. One such word was Victoria. I was very disappointed in the images that were brought up by Action Alert's Safe search. I also didn't have very good luck with the two websites I put into to be blocked. One of them appeared to be blocked because the page wouldn't load, and the other went right to it even though I had added it to the blocked list. I tried this multiple times. I also tried to use the feature that only allows specific sites and that was super annoying because a password box would pop up constantly even when I was just trying to load my browser. Now some of these problems could be due to my browser or computer but I really felt like Action Alert was very glitchy over all. If you are interested in this product for your family I wouldn't hesitate to give the free version a try and see how it works for you. I would definitely try it out extensively before allowing the kids to use it. Personally I don't feel like any filtering system takes the place of parental supervision online.

Access to Action Alert was given to me free of charge in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

To read what other families thought of Action Alert visit the Homeschool Crew Blog!

K5 Learning! TOS Review!

 

K5 Learning is an online program that helps kids in grades K-5th practice and re-enforce their math and language arts skills. The topics they cover are Math, Math facts, Reading, Phonics, Spelling, and Vocabulary. All learning is done through interactive games with full color and audio. When you first sign your child up they are given a basic placement test for Math and Reading and then the games are customized to their abilities. I was able to sign up both Buster and Sweetpea for this product. I assigned Buster to 3rd grade but he assessed in at 4th grade overall, and for Sweetpea I signed her up as 1st grade but she tested in at 2nd grade level. The test is a bit long and Sweetpea was getting a little frustrated with it. I was able to encourage her to stick it out though and she got it done.

 

At any time parents can log in a view reports of their children's progress, lessons completed, percentages earned, and time spent. Buster enjoyed the Math and Reading sections and even learned a few new things. Sweetpea did fine with the program but she always wanted to stop before the lessons were complete. They felt a bit long for younger learners.

 

In the math facts section kids get to make their own personalized character before they begin, which Sweetpea thought was the best part. Math facts are taught in a story format and then drilled. The drill seems to be pretty fast and the lessons were very long for Sweetpea. They were just fine for Buster though. I have been told by the makers of K5 that you can adjust the drill speeds if needed.

I found the spelling to be very basic but parents can change the spelling words to line up with their children's spelling curriculum.

If K5 Learning interests you, be sure to visit their website! You can take a video tour, try sample lessons, take a free assessment, and sign up for a free 14 day trial. You can also find them on Facebook and Twitter.

 Subscriptions are $25 a month for the first child and $15 for each additional, or $199 for a year for the first child and $129 for each additional.

Access to K5 Learning was given to me free of charge in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

Be sure to check the Homeschool Crew Blog to find out what everyone else thought!

Reading Eggs! TOS Review!

 

Reading Eggs is a fun online interactive phonics/reading program. The program is designed for 4-7 year olds, and now they have Reading Eggspress for 7-13 year olds. The Reading Eggs program contains 100 fun lessons that teach reading through phonics and by sight. Your child will be introduced to fun characters, games, stories, and built in rewards! The game is easy for children to navigate and if they can control a mouse they are good to go!

"The Stepping Stones Reading lessons are the core of the Reading Eggs learn-to-read program. Each lesson builds on the previous one to build skills in the five key areas needed to become a good reader: phonemic awareness and phonics, sight words, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. The lessons are presented in three broad levels with 40 lessons in each level.

Level 1 Starting Out for absolute beginners, lesson 1-40.

Level 2 Beginning to Read for emerging readers, lessons 41-80.

Level 3 Building confidence for early readers, lessons 81-120."

 

Each lesson within the 4 levels is an appropriate length for the target age. The lessons start out very gently and easily and build slowly from there. The website says that you can have your child take a placement test, so they will start at the appropriate level, but the only test I could locate was in the Reading Eggspress area. This placement test seemed too hard for Sweetpea but the beginning lessons of Reading Eggs were very easy for her. She absolutely loved the games though so I just had her start at the beginning and she was able to make it to lesson 20. We have yet to get to a level that was a challenge to her, but it was a good review. 

 

As your child moves through the Reading Eggs map they earn golden eggs which can be spent in the shop on things for their house and characters. They can also have fun in the playroom, arcade, house, etc. located on the side of the screen. The side screen extras are slowly unlocked as children complete lessons. 

I really appreciate how reading eggs used actual phonics in their lessons along with common sight words!

I signed Sweetpea up for this review so she played only in the Reading Eggs area but I did take a peak around the Reading Eggspress area as well. 

 

Reading Eggspress is for kids already reading that want or need extra practice in comprehension and fluency. The floating island is made up of 4 areas; Gym, Mall, Stadium, and Library. In the Gym a a quick placement test is given. The Mall is a place to spend rewards. In the stadium kids can play games to learn about grammar, vocabulary, usage, and spelling. In the Library kids can choose from a large variety of ebooks in either fiction or nonfiction topics.

Parents can log into their account at any time and check on the progress of their children.

You can purchase a subscription to Reading Eggs, and Reading Eggspress for either; $9.95 a month, $49.95 for 6 months, or $75.00 for 1 year. If you subscribe two students at a time the second is half off. Reading Eggs also offers a free trial, so if the program interests you go and check it out today!

A 3 month subscription to Reading Eggs was given to me free of charge in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

To read what other crew members though go to the Homeschool Crew blog!

All About Reading Level 1! TOS Review!

 

We had the opportunity to check out the latest Phonics program from All About Learning Press called All About Reading Level 1! All About Learning sent me the Deluxe Reading Interactive Kit, and the All About Reading Level 1 Kit for me to use in order to write this review. I was excited to see this product because we have used and love All About Spelling!

 

The Level 1 Kit consists of:

 Teachers Manual, that is fully scripted and easy to follow.

Student Workbook, which contains worksheets games, and Fluency Practice.

Phonogram and word cards.

Three Readers:

Run, Bug, Run

The Runt Pig

and

 Cobweb the Cat.

 

With the Deluxe Kit you receive a, a tote bag, letter tiles/magnets, reward stickers, the phonogram CD, and the reading card box. You only need to purchase the Deluxe kit once and it can be used for all levels of All About Reading.

 

Now that you know what is included I will tell you how it works! All About Reading is a multi sensory phonics curriculum that pulls from the Orton-Gillingham method for teaching reading. If you are looking for a complete phonics curriculum that is completely open and go this is it. There is basically no teacher prep needed simply pull out your Dry Erase board assemble the letter tiles, fill you card box, and your ready to go. Each lesson is fully scripted and teachers need only to follow the manual. Level 1 contains 49 lessons and you just simply go through them at the pace appropriate for your student. Each lesson starts out by introducing new phonograms, then moves on to review, building words with the letter tiles(with letters already learned), word card practice, and accompanying worksheets and/or Fluency Practice sheets from the student book. At the end of each lesson they suggest that you read aloud to your student for 20 minutes. Once you get past lesson 4 every few lessons instructs you to have students read from one of the readers. The readers contain story that use words and phonograms already learned. The stories are fun and engaging and the illustrations are cute without giving too much away. There tons of helpful teachers tips throughout. There is also a section in the back of the book that gives you tips for preventing B and D reversals. I found this section very helpful as Sweetpea really struggles with that.

 Level 1 will take your child through 3 letter words, short vowel words, Digraphs like SH, TH, CK, CH, ending/beginning consonant blends, compound words using short vowels, plural words, an intro to long vowels, and many common site words/rule breakers. There are also comprehension questions for the readers. Each level of All About Reading covers these 5 essential reading skills:

Phonological Awareness

Phonics and Decoding

Fluency

Vocabulary

and

Comprehension

I really love the use of the letter tiles, fluency practice sheets, and the readers.

For us Level 1 is too advanced for buttercup and a bit too easy for Sweetpea. I went ahead and did it with Sweetpea so I could see how it worked. Since it is review for her we would do 1-2 lessons at a time. It really was great review for her and she loved it. I wish I had it last year.

You can find out more info about All About Reading at their website, as well as view samples and pricing. The Level 1 Kit will cost you $107.70(currently $99.95) +SH, and the Deluxe Reading Interactive kit will cost you $48.95 +SH. While your there be sure to check out the other levels of All About Reading available and also their amazing spelling program All About Spelling!


All About Reading Level 1 Kit and the Deluxe Reading Interactive Kit were given to me free of charge in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

To see what other crew members thought visit the Homeschool Crew blog!

Who Am I? Apologia, TOS Review

 

We have personally enjoyed using Apologia elementary Science for the last few years so I was excited to get the chance to check out some of their other products. We received the full Who Am I? And what am I doing here curriculum for the purpose of this review. "Who Am I?" is the second book in Apologia's Biblical Worldview curriculum series. There are 4 books in all. In this volume the topic is Biblical Self image. The textbook itself is a high quality hard back that is full of colorful images. We also received the complete audio of the book, the Who Am I? coloring book, and the student Notebooking Journal.

 

The Who Am I textbook contains 8 lessons that are broken down into 15-19 segments. Parents can choose to go through the book at whatever speed works best for them and their students. There is definitely enough in this book to get you through a full year of school, or for older students you could work through it faster if desired. In the introduction of the book a sample schedule is shown that has you spending 3 weeks on each lesson. 

Basically each lesson is broken down into these components:

The Big Idea, which introduces the main theme of the lesson.

What Will You Do, a short segment that explains what exactly students will learn in the lesson.

Short Story, each lesson contains an interesting short story about children/young people that helps illustrate what is being taught. Some of the stories carry through to future lessons.

Think About It, a list of comprehension questions pertaining to the story.

Words You Need To Know, important words to learn that could be turned into vocab words.

Hide It In Your Heart, a list of memory verses.

Integrated Learning, a special section that introduces famous Art, History, Science, and Math topics that pertain to the topics at hand.

What Should I Do, a section to highlight the biblical character traits that children should learn and demonstrate.

Prayer, a prayerful response to what has been learned.

Worldview in Focus, in this section children are introduced to world religions through fictional children around the world.

What's the difference, At the end of each child's story there is a set of questions about how our Christian worldview differs from theirs.

House of Truth, this section continues the illustration introduced in Who Is God, and is continued throughout the entire Worldview series. In Who Am I? the second wall of the structure is introduced.

 

The Notebooking journal contains worksheets and extra activities to be done in addition to the textbook. Whenever you come to a section titled make a note of it in the textbook you will find a corresponding assignment in the notebook. The notebook is a thick spiral bound notebook containing a variety of worksheets, puzzles, notebooking forms, mini books, copywork, and more. The notebook is printed in color as well.

They also have a coloring book for those students who love to color. The coloring book contains several pictures that pertain to each lesson.

 

Finally you can also purchase the entire textbook on an audio CD. This comes in handy when you want to have students listen and you don't feel like reading aloud. The audio recording is clear and easy to understand. I found the ladies voice a bit monotone though, but it is done well.

For the purpose of this review I assigned Buster to the notebook, and Sweetpea to the coloring book. We all enjoyed listening to the first lesson. Even my husband enjoyed listening with us, and was quite impressed with the curriculum over all. The kids especially liked the stories and the section in the first lesson about Superman. I particularly like how much scripture is used throughout the book, and the Worldview in focus sections. This textbook is so jam packed with info that I could never do it justice by explaining it to you.

Who Am I? And What Am I Doing Here. Is designed for 6-14 year olds, but I think it would be most useful for the mid to upper range of those ages. My 6 and 8 year old did enjoy it but some segments were a bit tough for Sweetpea to stay attentive to.

You can purchase and view samples of Who Am I? here at Apologia's website!

As far as cost this is the breakdown:

Textbook $39

Audio CD $19

Notebooking Journal $24

Coloring Book $8

+SH

Who Am I? And What Am I Doing Here, was given to me free of charge from Apologia in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

Be sure to check out the Homeschool Crew blog to see what everyone else thought.

Aleks Math! TOS Review

 

Our latest product up for review has been ALEKS Math! ALEKS is an online program that helps teach and reinforce your kids math learning.

"Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces is a Web-based, artificially intelligent assessment and learning system. ALEKS uses adaptive questioning to quickly and accurately determine exactly what a student knows and doesn't know in a course. ALEKS then instructs the student on the topics she is most ready to learn. As a student works through a course, ALEKS periodically reassesses the student to ensure that topics learned are also retained. ALEKS courses are very complete in their topic coverage and ALEKS avoids multiple-choice questions. A student who shows a high level of mastery of an ALEKS course will be successful in the actual course she is taking."

The first thing that your student will do after signing up and choosing their grade level is take a quick assessment test, so the program can adapt to their exact skill level. Since ALEKS is for grades 3rd-12th I signed Buster up to try it. He took the placement test and scored near the end of 3rd grade level. After the assessment students and parents can see a visual Pie chart of what they know and what they still need to learn or practice.

Every time they log in to use the program students can hover over which piece of the pie they want to work on and choose from a list of topics. Each topic is introduced very basically with simple explanations like this. Students are taken through a series of questions. If they understand it already they can answer if they do not they can click on explain and see an example done for them. After they answer several correctly they are taken back to the main screen to choose another topic. Extra practice worksheets can also be generated for some topics.

 

They also have a section called Quicktables where students can practice their math facts. The first thing they do is take the student through a long series of number typing practice to get them typing fast enough, then you can choose an operation to work on. The fact practice starts out with an assessment that begins easy and then slowly ramps up to harder questions until they can determine the students level. When they say quicktables they mean quick. The answers need to be typed very quickly.

 

Progress on math facts can be tracked on a grid like this! There are also some fun math facts games that can be played!

ALEKS is meant to be used several times a week as, and covers new teaching and periodic review and assessments.

Parents can track all progress and attendance by logging into their parent account.

Buster enjoyed using ALEKS and did not have any complaints about the program. I found the teaching to be pretty basic and was expecting more in that aspect. There is no audio, and very basic black and white diagrams. All explanations need to be read by the student, and it seemed a very small number of questions were asked per topic. Also it was a bit confusing to figure out how to type in the answers sometimes. If you are interested in trying the program for yourself you can sign up for a free 2 month trial of ALEKS here!

This is a special offer just for my readers! Normally the free trial is only for 48 hrs.
You can purchase a subscription to ALEKS for $19.95 a month, $99.95 for 6 months, or $179.95 for 1 year. These prices are for one student and can be used on as many of your computers as needed. The do offer family discounts for multiple students.


A free 2 month trial of ALEKS math was given to me free of charge in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

To read what other crew members thought visit the Homeschool Crew blog!