"Second star to the right and straight on till morning": February 2011

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Health update!

Just wanted to update you all about my current health condition. It turns out I have a healthy gallbladder/liver/kidneys. Instead of gallstones I have shingles. It has been a pretty rough week for me, and I have spent a bunch of time on the couch. We did manage to get some school in, but much less than usual. I'm very happy to finally know what is going on, and praying the pain will not last too long. In light of that I will not be posting a wrap up.Be sure to check out my review of MathRider instead :)! By the way this is my 400th blog post!

Friday, February 25, 2011

MathRider! TOS Review!

Are you looking for a fun, and engaging way for your kids to practice their math facts? If you answered yes you may want to check out MathRider. When your child plays they enter the adventure world of The Mathlands, and ride their horse on noble quests all while learning and practicing the four operations of math. You as the parent can select the operation you want your child to work on, and then they can embark on a new quest. Each quest starts out with a short intro story and then as you progress you hear more.

Each ride is basically the same except for the background image changing. The horse runs across the bottom of the screen and as you type, then enter the answers to the coming facts(located below the gates) your horse jumps the gates. If you get the answer wrong the horse stops for a second and the correct answer is told to the child. The first time Buster tried it he could not figure out why it was saying he was getting the answers wrong, but he did not realize he had to push enter after he typed the answer. The game tracks what problems are missed, and it repeats facts as necessary. It also starts at easy and slowly gets harder based on your child's answers.

As your child works through a quest they are shown this map at the end of each ride. It shows them their progress, and how much farther until they reach their destination. Parents are also able to track their child's complete progress including frequently missed facts, and mastery level achieved.

MathRider sells as a download for $49.95, and is currently on sale for $37.00. You can find out more on their website, or by watching the video below:

Overall I felt like MathRider was a decent program, and Buster enjoyed it. My only complaint would be that the quests did not have much variety. Other than that we found it easy to use, and helpful for math fact practice.

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

Pros:

Fun

Easy to use

Educational

Cons:

A bit on the pricey side

A bit repetitive

For more info or reviews visit the Homeschool Crew blog!

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Weekly Wrap Up!

Week 28:

As far as school goes we had a great week, and no sick kids to report. Unfortunately I am not feeling so well myself. I will be going in Monday for an ultrasound of my gallbladder. My Dr. thinks it is highly likely that I have gallstones, and if so I will need to have my gallbladder removed. Son right now I'm sitting here feeling uncomfortable, and a little bit sorry for myself. Ok well of my pity party, and back to our school week. We finished our school early on Monday, and my sister came over with her brood. We had a fun Valentines party playing and frosting(and eating) red velvet cupcakes.

We started Artistic Pursuit this week and so far it seems like a really neat program. Here are some of the kids paintings of our house.

Sweetpea's

Buster's

We also started Song School Latin, and all the kids all loving the songs. Buster finished reading Animal Adventures, and started The Bears on Hemlock Mountain. Only two more books and he will be starting Drawn Into The Heart of Reading. I'm really excited to get started with this program it looks great. Right now I'm sitting next to a bucket full of excellent books that we will be using next year for school. I have actually finished purchasing all the kids school books for next year except for their consumable workbooks. Yes I know I'm crazy, but I found almost everything used or discounted.

Here the kids are pretending they are riding horses!

We learned a bit about horses after reading about General Washington!

One of Buster's experiments this week!

As usual Buddy was just plain cute all week, so I thought I would end with this picture of him enjoying some chocolate pudding. No he will not be doing any curriculum just yet.

For more weekly wrap ups go to Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Friday, February 18, 2011

KidScoop! TOS Review!

Do you have a reluctant reader? If you answered yes than "The Reluctant Reader Solution" by KidScoop might interest you. When you purchase "The Reluctant Reader Solution" you get 365 fun, and engaging worksheets for your child to use independently as well as a 12 month subscription to their
Kid Scoop News Online. The Idea is to get them reading by using high interest worksheets, games, and colorful online newspapers. The worksheets can be used chronologically or topically, and cover seasons, holidays, science, legends, characters, and many other topics.

The worksheets come as a PDF file, and can be downloaded right to your computer. You can then print them off in any order that you choose. From viewing and using some of them I would say they are appropriate for about 3rd-5th grade. Each topic has 5-7 worksheets that contain, mazes, puzzles, games, stories, and much more. I printed out the Valentine worksheets when my sister and her kids came over for a Valentines party. Here is my niece enjoying them!

There are 12 issues of Kid Scoop News Online that you can view right on your computer. They remind me very much of those fun colorful magazine I used to enjoy reading at Dr.'s Offices except geared to a slightly higher age level.. Their viewer seems fairly easy to use, and you can zoom in and out on each page.

I personally could see this as a very useful tool for a school teacher. I suppose if your child was one of those kids who loves worksheets than you would find this program useful in the home school setting as well. The worksheets were slightly above even my oldest child's level, and therefore could not really be done fully independently as intended. Mainly because of the writing, and spelling involved. "The Reluctant Reader Solution" will cost you $97 dollars, and you can learn much more about it at the Kid Scoop website. Kid Scoop also promises a full money back guarantee. This is a quote taken directly from their website: "Try out the Reluctant Reader Solution in your home or classroom. Put it to use with the reluctant reader in your life. If you don't get measurable results — meaning if your child doesn't start enjoying reading more, and actually start reading on his own — I'll refund every cent of your investment with no questions whatsoever. I'm only happy if you get outstanding results, so I'd gladly offer you a refund if that doesn't happen. That means you truly have nothing to risk when you purchase the Reluctant Reader Solution today. You get 365 days of exciting activity sheets plus 12 months of Kid Scoop online, all for the risk-free investment of only $97."

You have nothing to loose, so check at "The Reluctant Reader Solution" today.
For more info or to see more review visit the Homeschool Crew blog.

The Reluctant Reader Solution was given to me free of charge from Kid Scoop in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

Pros:
Fun!
Engaging!
Colorful!
Money Back guarantee!

Cons:
A bit pricey.
Seems a bit like busy work to me.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

An update of sorts!

We just finished week 27 of our school year! Buster had a nasty earache last week, so most of the pictures I have are of Sweetpea. She is really getting into school the last few weeks, and it is fun to see her loving school again. Here are some pictures of a few things we have done the last couple of weeks:

Sweetpea loves this workbook! Finding the Answers

Her fine motor skills are really improving lately!